Junior News – 31 March 2023

Dates for your Diary

Swimming Watching Weeks and Galas:

Year 6 Gala: Friday 19 May (10.30am)
Year 2 Watching Week: Monday 22 May (1.00pm)
Year 3 Gala: Tuesday 23 May (8.55am)
Reception Watching Week: Tuesday 23 May (1.00pm)
Year 4 Gala: Friday 26 May (8.55am)
Year 5 Gala: Friday 26 May (10.30am)
Year 1 Watching Week: Friday 26 May (1.00pm)

Father’s Day Breakfast: Friday 16 June (more information to follow)

Dance Festival wows capacity audience with show for the ages!

On Wednesday 29 March, our school community came together to host one of the major showpiece events in the school calendar; our Dance Festival. In a collaborative event that involves our youngest school students in Reception, all the way up to our eldest Sixth Formers, the festival is a fantastic opportunity for students of all ages to work together to deliver a show to remember.

The theme for this year’s show was ‘Through the decades’, and the performance, expertly directed and choreographed by Mrs Blake and her team, certainly catered for all tastes. There really was something for everybody during the two-hour show, with dances from genres such as musical theatre, tap, Irish dance, Indian dance and ballet amongst more wowed a near sell out crowd.

Over 300 excited guests ascended on to the Senior Hall for an evening of entertainment, and they certainly did not leave disappointed. All of our dancers performed admirably, and we are all immensely proud of their bravery, creativity and elegance that they displayed throughout the evening. At Northampton High School we encourage expression, and it is always amazing to see our students express themselves on the stage, be that in a music concert, a theatre production, or like this evening, in a dance recital.

An event like this does not come together overnight, and we thank Mrs Blake, the Sports Department and all of the amazing staff members who worked tirelessly to bring this event to life. We thank you, our audience, for joining us for this memorable evening and for your continued support. And, most importantly, we thank our performers, who once again exceeded all expectations to deliver an exceptional show.

We now look ahead to our Arts Season in the summer term, which kicks off with our Spring Arts Collective on Wednesday 26 April. We do hope to see you there as we continue to commemorate and celebrate the world of Creative Arts at Northampton High School.

Mr Nash
Marketing & Communications Manager

Eco Team Tote Bag Workshop

On Tuesday 28 March, the Eco Team were delighted to welcome Mrs Hughes (mother of Sarah in Year 8) to lead a workshop in how to make tote bags from old unwanted shirts. A range of students from across the Senior and Junior Schools took part and learned how to make the tote bags using just a pair of scissors (no sewing required!).

The students had a lot of fun, learned a lot and came up with some great final products. The Eco Team would like to extend their thanks to Mrs Hughes for giving up her time and sharing her skills.

Mr Earp
Eco Team and Head of Humanities Faculty

High Sports - Spring term edition available now!

We are delighted to share with parents the latest edition of High Sports.

High Sports takes a retrospective look back at the world of sport here at Northampton High, and you can take a look at the spring term’s edition by clicking here.

Mr Nash
Marketing & Communications Manager

Winners of the Easter Raffle

Congratulations to Aurelia (Year 2) and Hester (Year 5), who are the winners of our Easter Hampers and to Georgina (Reception) who won 3 tickets to a children’s comedy show.

A huge congratulations again to our lucky winners, and thanks to all who entered for your continued support.

News from our classrooms: Nursery and Pre School

In Nursery the final week of term has been as busy as ever! The Easter craft workshop was hugely successful with some fantastic creations produced. The Easter theme continued throughout the week with ordering numbers using Easter icons, making chocolate nests in cooking and hunting for eggs at Forest School amongst the themed tasks.

In PE, we focused on jumping with two feet together by being bunnies. Some rainbow spaghetti has helped with developing scissor skills as the girls snipped the long strands into smaller pieces.

We have been observing the progress of the cress we planted last week, using words such as ‘tallest’ and ‘shortest’ to compare each girls’ cress. Some of the girls even had a taste! “I like it”, said Aaradya.

The last week of term in Preschool has been very busy. We had some unexpected things happening  including the fire drill practise, where the girls efficiently followed instructions to get out safe and sound.

We were lucky enough to join the rest of girls in the Senior Hall to watch their Dance Festival. This was amazing and really showcased to the girls what they could achieve in the future. Whilst watching the performance the girls sat beautifully, getting involved with the dancing and clapping. Swimming really showed their progression, and they have done amazingly whilst learning this life vital skill.

We have also talked about Easter. The girls have had lots of opportunities to get creative, including making chick cards using a range of techniques, making clay nests with sticks, chicks and clay, singing Easter songs and being bunnies in PE on the obstacle course.

Our story of this week was ‘Ramadan’ which gave the girls an insight and led to lots of insightful questions.

Reception Round Up of the Spring Term

It has been lovely to see how the class have grown in confidence over the course of the spring term. This being evident by performing a class dance in front of a huge audience, remembering the sequence and moves whilst smiling!

The term has flown by and at Parents’ Evening it was good to take the time to reflect on individual successes and how far learning has progressed. There have been many highlights for the girls this term, but when asked they thought of the farm trip, the ballet exam, the open Forest School and the Dance Festival as their favourites.

What a wonderfully busy and productive term it has been. Wishing you all a restful and enjoyable holiday.

Year 1 Round Up of the Spring Term

Experience has shown me that the spring term is a powerhouse for academic progress in Year 1!

The transition from the Early Years to Key Stage One has happened, girls are settled into new routines and expectations and learning takes off. This has been very true this year, and I am so proud of the progress achieved by each and every one of the class members. They are writing at greater length with fluency and attention to detail, have practised hard with reading and are reaping the rewards and have coped well as the maths has got more demanding. We have just finished our unit on place value to 50, which challenged many of us initially but we are now beginning to master it.

Hard work in the classroom has been punctuated with lots of fun such as our trip to Cadbury World, Science Week, movie night and lots more. We are all ready for a relaxing Easter break, and are hoping for some sunshine to enjoy time outdoors!

Year 2 Round Up of the Spring Term

Year 2 have had another busy and exciting term, where they have made great progress with their independence and resilience.

When asked what their favourite moments have been, pupils talked about Times Tables Rock Stars, Cadbury World, the care home visit, open Forest School, the collaborative Arts Day and this week’s Dance Festival. Also, our class assembly, where they all spoke very confidently about their reading experiences.

Most of all, they all agreed that they had great fun learning, which is wonderful to hear. I hope you all have a lovely Easter break, and we are excited to welcome students back full of energy ready for the last term in Year 2.

Year 3 Round Up of the Spring Term

Year 3 have had a very busy term indeed! Our learning journey, both inside and outside the classroom, has resulted in some wonderful memories being created and lots of fun together building our Year 3 team.

One of many highlights was our residential trip to Stibbington. We continued our adventures with a trip to Wembley to perform with over 5500 other children as part of ‘Voice in a Million’, and recently had a walk over the road to Dobbies Garden Centre to focus on our science topic of ‘Plants’. We are eagerly awaiting the results of the tallest sunflower competition!

Inside the classroom we have explored every area of India with writing work based around the book ‘Tamarind and the Star of Ishta’, artwork painting the Taj Mahal, designing 3D festival elephants, Indian cookery and an oil pastel drawing of a tiger.

In Humanities, we have looked in depth at the culture and geography of India, and begun to look at the British Empire. We even created the Himalayan mountain range using bath towels!

An ‘eggciting’ experience watching the chicks hatch led to some great report writing which fed into our computing lessons on how to create a Google Slides presentation.

In Maths, we have learned all about length and perimeter as well as fractions, which was useful during our Indian cookery lessons when we needed to share the dough to make naan bread.

PSHE and RE lessons brought us even closer together as a team, as we looked at what makes us individual and special. We celebrated our achievements by giving each other compliments and performing our class assembly on the theme ‘I Am’.

Year 4 Round Up of the Spring Term

The girls in Year 4 have grown so much this term, not only in height but also independence and resilience. A real highlight was the Stibbington residential. The girls had a wonderful time and it was so great to see the positive impact it has had on them since they have come back. Year 4 are a real team, and this was definitely demonstrated with the class dance where they were so in sync; I felt so proud of each and every one of them!

The class have really enjoyed their Art and DT lessons, where they have produced amazing Hundertwasser collages, fabulous pop-up scenes and brilliant clay African masks in Senior School with Mrs Beacroft.

The girls have worked hard this term and certainly deserve their Easter break; I hope you all have a lovely time.

Year 5 Round Up of the Spring Term

Gosh, what a busy term it has been! Year 5 have enjoyed a huge range of extracurricular activities, from Alice in Wonderland to Bletchley Park and the Royal Institution; but it is in the classroom that their talents and enthusiasm have been most apparent.

The girls have matured socially and academically, and their research skills have significantly improved. Our Anglo-Saxon and Viking units provided numerous opportunities for individual expression. Miss Taylor and Miss Brandon-Jones were almost tempted to join several Viking raiding parties based on some very persuasive recruitment posters!

Creatively, Year 5 have fully embraced the challenge of abstract art and working on a larger scale to recreate some famous pieces. They are justifiably proud of their ’10 Largest’ (see above photo) inspired by Hilma af Klint.

Year 6 Round Up of the Spring Term

Spring term certainly has been busy and exciting for Year 6! Who better to summarise the term than Year 6 themselves. Here are our highlights…

“The Warner Bros Studio tour was my highlight because I enjoyed seeing the different costumes and sets.” Emily

“I enjoyed discovering how the special effects were created at Warner Bros, particularly the invisibility cloak.” Preesha

“I liked the Alice in Wonderland play because we all worked together and it turned out amazingly!” Risara

“I enjoyed acting in the play because it was fun and it helped with our confidence.” Ishani

“The chicks were interesting to look at and fascinating to learn about – and also very fluffy!” Haiqa

“We really enjoyed playing netball against the other teams.” Maya

“It was fantastic exploring Condover and taking part in all the activities.” Harriet

“In PSHE it was interesting to learn about the negative effects of illegal substances.” Ellie

“It’s interesting asking different questions about complex and interesting topics in PSHE.” Tami 

“My highlight involved creating clay faces at Forest School and trying to start fires using the flint lighter.” Scarlett

“I enjoyed making the clay fish a lot, it was really messy!” Sri

“Performing in the Dance Festival was my favourite activity this term; it was fun dancing together and watching others.” Lara

“I am proud that I performed a solo in the Dance Festival.” Jessica

“I liked learning about electricity in science because we made circuits and explained how they worked.” Grace

“One of the highlights for me as a teacher was the performance of ‘Alice: The Musical’. It was an intense week of rehearsals and the girls worked incredibly hard. I felt incredibly proud watching the girls develop and refine their roles, with their confidence growing enormously as a result. I’m sure those of you in the audience will agree that the end result was very entertaining and a very enjoyable evening was had by all!” Mrs Cartlidge

News from outside of our classrooms: Review of the Spring Term Clubs

Walking Betty Club: It has been a delight to watch the girls grow in confidence as dog walkers during our weekly session. On our first walks there was a nervousness about holding the lead, but all the girls quickly understood the importance of showing Betty that they were in charge and would set the pace. I am looking forward to working with more girls next term as they develop their dog handling skills. Betty of course took it all in her stride, but was very tired on Monday evenings!

Lego Club: The girls have worked collaboratively to create various designs from Lego. A lot of searching for black and white pieces resulted in a wonderful creation of a dog.

Maths and Computing Club: The girls have enjoyed choosing which computer program to use during this club. Many have competed against each other on Times Tables Rock Star, while others have enjoyed creating artwork on Purple Mash. All have become more proficient at navigating around their Chromebooks and finding the programs available to them.

Year 3 and 4 Book Club: We like reading play scripts and we all have different parts. We really enjoy doing this because we each get a turn at being different characters and we try to use lots of expression. We have read about a lost tooth and found out what cats do when they go to school, but our favourite play so far was about a trail of biscuits!

Beebots Club: The girls in Years 2 to 4 have enjoyed their Beebot club. They have worked well collaboratively to design mazes out of cubes, used masking tape to create their initials and choreographed dances all for their Beebot to be programmed. Mrs Smith would like to thank Angelie, Zara and Annabelle in Year 5 for their time volunteering to help the younger girls, you have been an inspiration to them.

Idle Chit Chat Club: This term, a small group of girls have been learning how to develop their communication skills in ‘Idle Chit Chat Club’. The girls have learned about asking open questions, offering opinions and that it is ok to interrupt people in order to clarify points. Their favourite part of the club was playing word games and learning how (and when) to tell white lies!

Forest School Club: Forest School Club has been a lovely way to finish a Friday afternoon. We have taken part in some great activities including whittling, walking Betty, hide and seek, litter picking and treasure hunting. Our last session involved an Easter egg hunt with a delicious treat at the end!

News from outside of our classrooms: Cookery in the Junior School

Each week, girls in our Nursery and Reception classes enjoy a cooking session; which is very hands on for our school’s youngest students. Over the course of this term, we have followed various recipes including fruit kebabs, five bean salads and banana muffins.

Our older students, from Years 3 to 6, have the opportunity to join a Cookery Club once a week after school, as part of an extracurricular activity. Here, pupils enjoy shopping at the weekend for their ingredients with parents, which helps them to prepare to create that week’s dish. Members of this club have made a variety of dishes which include Singapore noodles and vegetable rice, to more sweet treats like rocky road and marshmallow snacks. During these sessions, girls learn a variety of skills such as how to use knives and cut food correctly and the importance of clean hands and surfaces; whilst not only taking in pride in their creations but also a pride in clearing away their work space and leaving it prepared for the next class.

Bringing children into the kitchen environment has many wider benefits. It teaches them to be aware of potential hazards and, by spotting these together as a group, they can learn how to avoid accidents and stay safe in the kitchen whilst still having fun.

There are many important lessons children learn from cooking that will set them ahead for the future. Creating a meal from scratch gives children a sense of accomplishment which builds their self-esteem, boosts confidence and self-reliance. Cooking will encourage children to be more responsible and prepared for when they’re adults.

Cooking with adults expands a child’s vocabulary and covers maths and scientific concepts such as measuring and changes in food. These are all important characteristics and areas which the skill of cookery promotes and enhances, and it is a joy to watch our school’s youngest people learn and develop, while enjoying this essential life skill.

Miss Page
Junior School Assistant

Awards for this week

Star Learners of the Week – Hanaa S, Zara B, Emily K, Kinara B, Lydia C, Avani A, Daisy S, Scarlett C

External Achievements: 

Birthdays for this week

This week, we wish a very Happy Birthday to the following members of our Junior School family: Rhoda J

Turning 'can we?' into 'we can!' - Open Morning, Friday 28 April

We look forward to welcoming so many lovely families to our upcoming Open Morning on Friday 28 April. The event promises to be a superb showcase of life at Northampton High School.

If you would like to come along, please do feel most welcome, and should you have family, friends, or neighbours keen to visit us, please encourage them to book their place here and join us!

Mr Nash
Marketing & Communications Manager

Community Sessions

Save the Date: Alumnae Reunion Lunch

External Sports opportunities

Term Dates

Northampton High School
Newport Pagnell Road, Hardingstone Northampton NN4 6UU
T: 01604 765765 nhsadmin@nhs.Gdst.Net