Junior News – 4 July 2025

Since returning from Welcome Day, where each pupil stepped up to their new class, met their future teachers, and welcomed new classmates from other schools, there has been a noticeable sense of growth. The girls are approaching their learning and relationships with maturity, confidence, kindness, and a real readiness for the next stage of their school journey.

This sense of progress and development was beautifully captured on Wednesday morning, when our Reception class took to the stage for their end-of-year assembly. Focusing on the theme of ‘memories’, the girls delighted their audience with thoughtful reflections, joyful songs celebrating friendship, and an impressive demonstration of their number knowledge. Their stunning artwork added a colourful backdrop to a truly heart-warming performance that highlighted just how far they have come this year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parents of Reception, for attending and making the event such a special occasion, along with Mrs Farrar and Mrs Perry for coordinating a wonderful performance from the girls.  

As I write, the school is alive with excitement for our upcoming Summer Fayre. Pupils in Years 3 to 6 have been working hard to design and prepare their own stalls, bringing wonderful creativity and enthusiasm to the event. A heartfelt thank you goes to the entire Northampton High School community, pupils, parents, and staff, for your generous donations and support. Proceeds from the fayre will go towards The Hope Centre, as well as the purchase of a new item for the Junior School playground. We are looking forward to a joyful celebration and a fantastic way to round off an incredible year.

Mrs Saunders-Wall
Interim Director of Junior School Liaison

Capturing the girls’ imagination through reading and providing props for the stories has been a huge focus this academic year and has led to a snowball effect in all areas of learning within the Early Years Foundation Stage, from Maths, understanding the world, personal, social and emotional development to communication and language. Many of the girls are confident in re-telling part or the whole of the story. 

This week our story has been ‘Whatever Next’ and the props have been important to tell the story but also for the girls to select independently and re-tell the narrative or create their own.

This week we have once again had some beautiful sunny weather and whilst down at forest school we used the water guns to cool ourselves down. We also set up targets on the trees and fences for the girls to aim at. This soon turned into a pouring and filling exercise with the girls being really engrossed in pouring the water into the little refill holes. All excellent for their fine motor skills.

We have been talking about moving on up and starting Reception in our PSHE sessions. We talked about how this might make us feel and how visits to our new schools and teachers visiting our houses can reassure us. As teachers will be sad to say goodbye over the next few weeks as we see the girls move onto their new adventures in Reception.

During PE we have played some of our favourite ring games and team building games which include the bear likes honey and hot potato. Ballet was also fun with lots of dancing and moving to various pieces of music.

In front of the Junior School and their families, the girls showed great courage and resilience to perform their words and songs so confidently.

Well done Reception!

Year 1 have been learning all about Places of Worship in RE lessons. The girls then thought about a place that is special to them and wrote about why it is special. They produced some lovely pictures too.

Our Great Fire of London topic reached a dramatic height as we created a reenactment. The girls created their own Tudor-style houses using card and these were set alight to demonstrate how the dry and hot weather, and close proximity of the buildings to each other, meant that the fire spread rapidly. The class were extremely sensible around the fire, and watched with fascination as it took hold. Whilst on the playground, we performed our Great Fire inspired song proudly on the playground.

This week, the girls have also been proudly sharing their Great Fire of London projects with each other and other members of Junior School. They have evidently worked very hard and thank you also to the parents for all your support with this!

This half-term, Year 3 have been learning about the history of Northampton, our school and the shoe industry in Northamptonshire.

The girls began by matching photographs of local landmarks to their name labels, before working in pairs to answer quiz questions about the history of Northampton High School.

The visit to Northampton Museum gave an insight into the changes which have taken place in the area since the earliest Stone Age people arrived and a hands-on workshop helped with understanding the complex process of making shoes from their raw materials.

The topic ended with finding out about Walter Tull and Edgar Mobbs, who both have roads in the Sixfields area named after them.

This week has been an exciting blend of learning in our Humanities and Science classes! Our students delved into the fascinating world of animal adaptations in Antarctica. Working in teams, they examined a variety of animal facts on posters and were challenged to remember and recreate their own fact posters. It was surprising to see how tricky they found it, especially when discovering the incredible adaptations these animals have developed to thrive in such extreme environments!

In our Religious Education lessons, the focus shifted to the Hindu Kumbh Mela, one of the largest spiritual gatherings in the world. After watching an engaging video filled with key facts, our clever students put their creativity and knowledge to the test by forming questions for a captivating board game. They enjoyed playing each other’s games, quizzing one another, and enhancing their understanding of these important cultural practices.

This half term, Year 5 have been learning about rivers. We have looked at rivers in this country and had great fun finding out about rivers of the world. We have talked about the environmental impacts of dams and discussed the pros and cons for humans and animals.

“Caoimhe and I did a fact file on the Mississippi. It was fun finding out lots of different facts about it, like the history and different animals that can be found.” Emily

“I loved finding out about dams. I chose the Claerwen Dam in Wales and found out these fascinating facts: Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to open the dam in 1952 marked one of her first official duties after her coronation. In 2015, the dam was featured in an episode of Top Gear, where a Land Rover was winched up and down it!” Alice

“I did all about the Warragamba Dam in Australia. It is huge… I found out that Warragamba Dam is Australia’s largest water supply dam. It holds back Lake Burragorang, which is four times the size of Sydney Harbour!” Orla

The girls began by evaluating the work they had completed in Year 6 in each subject. They then looked back on their hopes and dreams recorded at the start of the year to see if they had been achieved. This self-reflection led into them writing their highlights of the year to be added to their end of year report.

Next they produced a power point slide containing images of themselves at three stages of their lives so far: baby, first day of school and now. Added to this they created a word cloud with words to describe themselves, assisted by their classmates opinions. They have then reflected upon their school career to date and written speeches for their celebration event in the last week of term.

We look forward to sharing these memories with you at this event, as well as enjoying the afternoon tea together.

On Monday, Years 3 to 6 had the exciting opportunity to join the Senior School Sports Assembly, hosted by Mrs Blake and the Sports Faculty. We were honoured to welcome special guests Bianca Luttman, a player from Northampton Town Football Club, and team captain Zoe Boote. The girls enthusiastically asked questions centered around the assembly’s theme of leadership, and Bianca and Zoe responded with inspiring and insightful answers that captivated students from Years 3 to 12.

Our outstanding Year 6 sports captains confidently took the lectern to present an overview of the Junior School’s sporting achievements this term. Pupils received commendations in recognition of their dedication and commitment to a variety of sports throughout the year. 

It was truly wonderful to see so many Junior School pupils celebrated for their exceptional commitment and sporting spirit. Well done!

On 27 June the U9 team had a Cricket match against Quinton School.

We played a new format of the game with any wide or no balls the batters were allowed to play a ball off the T. This was to maximise the fielding jobs and also made for a higher scoring game.

It was a very close game and it could have been won or lost on the last three balls, but thankfully in stepped Zara and Millicent helping to seal the victory.

323 (2 Wickets) runs to Quinton and 335 (1 Wicket) to Northampton High School.

Batter of the Match went to Zara and Bowler of the Match went to Akira. 

A huge well done to our budding cricketers!

U11A played really well however they unfortunately lost their game. Kinara was the Bowler of the Match and Olivia was Batter of the Match with Thea making a brilliant catch. U11B also lost their game but the girls played really well overall. In the end, both teams played amazingly and had lots of fun.
Avani, Year 6

Results:
U11A
NHS 232/6
BGS 263/1
Bowler of the match – Kinara
Batter of the match – Olivia T

U11B
NHS 198/7
BGS 286/1

What a fantastic day!

It was probably the best we have had so far with all events running to schedule, the weather was perfect and the performances outstanding! (parent races included).

The 1500m and 600m races kick started the day followed by the fun races for Junior School and a packed programme of field events from the Senior School. Back by popular demand the SSLT organised a tug of war which proved to be extremely popular.

In the afternoon the Junior School showcased their jumps and throws and the Seniors then took over the track.

Well done to the following who won their races on the day.

600m
Year 6 Avani 
Year 5 Rhoda

Sprints
Year 3 Anne A
Year 4 Siena-Louise D B
Year 5 Flora B
Year 6 Evie H

Final results after the whole event
Senior School: Artemis
Junior School: Selene

The Combined Cup went to Artemis

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in our Sports Day and a huge thank you to all parents and families for joining us.

To see photos from our Sports Day, please go to our Flickr page.