Nothampton High School
Junior News

Junior News 5 April 2019

Our week

Dear parents and girls

My intention this week was to write a quick ‘thank you and best wishes for the holidays’ message but, as always, much has happened that requires a mention. In an effort to be brief, I will leave commentary on in-class activities and the Year 4 Class Assembly to Dr Stringer and the individual classes (see below) and instead concentrate on some of the creative and active pursuits of the week.

Music: Music has dominated the past few days, with the Junior Strings group entertaining us in Monday’s assembly, the latest of the highly-successful solo and small-group performances on Tuesday and whole-school singing to mark the end of term today. Thursday evening was a particular treat as the Year 3 recorder group and some of the Junior School ‘Singing Stars’ took the very special opportunity of performing in a Senior School concert, impressing everyone with their maturity and their abilities. With Year 3 opening the show with ‘Joe Joe’ by John Pitts, the Singing Stars closing it with ‘I remember’ by Sarah Quartel (performed with the Ladies Chamber Choir) and some stellar performances and compositions by the Senior School students in between, it was an evening that we will remember for a long time. My thanks go to Mr Nathan, Mrs Farrar and Mrs German for the evening and for all that they do for Junior School music generally.

Sport: The week started with the return of the ski trip participants who had clearly packed a blast of arctic air for their return flight. Each had a different story to tell in terms of their challenges and achievements, but it was clear that a great time had been had by all. My thanks again to Mrs Shaw, Miss Scott-Evans and Miss Hurst for facilitating the trip and for caring for the girls throughout. Do take a look at the photos and videos on flickr.

Many others joined in a celebration of sport on Tuesday evening at the annual Presentation Evening. There is more on this below, but I would like to take the opportunity to offer personal congratulations to all the girls whose participation and achievements were recognised at the event. Thanks, too – and well done – to our Sports Captains who gave a summary of the year and to Ella for her vote of thanks.

Art: One of my highlights of the week was joining Year 4 for the last of their owl-making sessions in the Senior School. Their creativity, dexterity and ingenuity were truly impressive and, as they rolled and modelled the clay in order to put the finishing touches to their creations, the individual characters of their feathered friends became very clear. Again, do look at the photos on flickr.

Several of these girls and many others will join external students for our Arts Activity Day on Saturday 27 April, the first big event of the Summer Term. There are still a few places available for girls aged 6-10, and these can be booked on the ‘Open Days’ section of the school website.

Did I say ‘brief’? A definite fail on this one! In fewer than 100 words, therefore, I would like to finish by saying that it has been a fantastic term and to thank students, parents and all the staff for their part in this. I wish you all a wonderful break and hope that spring will make a timely return over the coming weeks. We reconvene on Thursday 25 April, and I look forward to seeing you all then.

Caroline Petryszak
Interim Head of Junior School

Mrs Petryszak's availability

Mrs Petryszak’s days on site will vary over the coming weeks in order to align with school activities and events:

  • w/c 22 April: Wednesday/Friday/Saturday
  • w/c 29 April: Wednesday /Thursday/Friday
  • w/c 6 May: Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday
  • w/c 13 May: Monday/Tuesday/Friday
  • w/c 20 May: Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday

She is, however, contactable on c.petryszak@nhs.gdst.net or via the school office on any day of the working week.

Final Assembly News

Hot off the press from our final assembly, we have some winners to announce:

House Netball
1st Demeter
2nd Hestia
3rd Artemis
4th Selene

House Points
1st Artemis (11.9)
2nd Demeter (11.8)
3rd Hestia (11.5)
4th Selene (11.3)

The figures in brackets refer to the average number of points per person. What a close-run competition!

Easter Egg Raffle
With thanks to Cora and Arty from Y1 who helped to draw the raffle and award the prizes, here are the lucky winners:

Mrs Waters (Pre-school!)
Maya (Y1)
Isla (Y4)
Elouise (Y4)
Isla (Y5)
Tara (Y6)

Thanks, too, to Mr Nathan for the music and to Dr Stringer and all the girls who spoke about their highlights of the term.

Caroline Petryszak
Interim Head of Junior School

Achievements

Each week in Friday’s assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week:

Gymnastics
Fatima A – level 6 proficiency award
Avleen S
Zoe S

Music
Manha K – Guitar, grade 2 distinction
Felicity L – Piano, grade 1 distinction

Horse Riding
Felicity L – 2nd in vaulting competition

Stagecoach
Ayana F – Student of the Year

Assemblies

Class Assemblies are held in the Junior School Hall at 8.35am on Wednesdays and parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00am. Here are the dates for the Summer Term:

Year 1N – 15 May

Year Reception – 22 May

Year 2N – 5 June

Year 3N – 12 June

Year 4N – 19 June

Year 5H – 26 June

Year 5N – 3 July

Year 6N – Thursday 11 July afternoon Leavers Assembly

Dates for the Diary

Weds 24 April – INSET Day for staff

Thurs 25 April – Summer Term starts

Sports

SPORTS DAYS

Nursery
Wednesday 26 June – 2 pm to 3 pm

Reception to Year 2 
Monday 24 June – 2 pm to 3 pm

Year 3 to Year 6
Thursday 6 June – All day

SWIMMING GALAS

We would like to invite you to watch your daughter swim next term; the dates and times for each year group are shown in the tables below.

For Reception, Years 1 and 2 this will take the form of a ‘watching week’, where family are able to attend and observe a typical lesson. For years 3 upwards the girls compete in a swimming gala with a variety of different races from the competitive strokes to the traditional High School float races. Each girl will take part in a number of races, representing her house in the hope of winning the swimming competition for her year group and overall in the Junior School. The viewing gallery will be open for spectators and there will be refreshments after each event.

We look forward to welcoming you next term.

Sonia Fraser
Head of Swimming

SWIMMING GALA OVERVIEW 2019

Year Date Start Time Approximate Finish Time
Three Monday 17 June 10.45 am 11.45 am
Four Monday 17 June 11.25 am 12:25 pm
Five Tuesday 18 June 9.10 am 10.15 am
Six Thursday 4 July 2:30 pm 3:10 pm

WATCHING WEEK OVERVIEW 2019 

Year Date Start Time Approximate Finish Time
Rec Thursday 13 June 9.15 am 10.15 am
One Thursday 13 June 10.50 am 11.45 am
Two Thursday 13 June 11.30 am 12.25 pm

 

Clubs


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Teacher-led clubs start on the first full week of term (week commencing 29 April). There will be no teacher-led clubs on Wednesday 1 May.

 

Nursery

Kipper Room
This week in Kipper Room the girls have taken part in lots of Easter activities. They have enjoyed an Easter egg hunt around the garden, making chick Easter cards, making bunny ear hats and listening to Easter stories. We also had a walk to the Garden Centre where we looked at the fish, the flowers and looked out for Easter bunnies.

Elmer Room
This week in Elmer Room we have been celebrating Easter and the girls have had the opportunity to participate in a range of different activities. They have enjoyed painting chicks, finding the eggs in the garden, making beautiful Easter cards and going on a chick hunt at Forest School.  They also received a special treat and took part in other activities.

Pre-School
This week we have been busy consolidating our phonic sounds with various games and activities. We have also made and written Easter cards, thought about why we celebrate Easter and learnt Easter-related songs and rhymes. At Forest School we helped the hen find her missing chicks and she rewarded us with some sweets; the girls were very excited.

After the holidays your daughter will be thinking about different occupations.  During the first few days we will be astronauts. The topic letter for next half term is on Firefly. (Please complete the suncream form attached to it).

General information – Preschool and Elmer Room Forest School:
Although the weather should hopefully be getting warmer your daughter will still need to wear long sleeves and long trousers for safety reasons.

 

See all photos

Reception

This week we have read the story ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson and linked activities based around the book. We have been comparing lengths of superworms, making our own to find the longest, writing descriptions, measuring how many cubes long and singing the ‘Superworm’ song.

Next term we will be thinking about ‘contrasting localities’. If you are visiting different places in the UK or further afield, please can you bring back a postcard or photos for us to look at and discuss.

Have a wonderful break and lets hope for some better weather!

See all photos

Year 1

Leilana enjoyed the fun swimming session this week. Cora has enjoyed learning joined up handwriting. Yilin liked Computing and Maths, which included learning about algorithms and measurement respectively. Priscilla had fun creating a shark shape poem and Asmi enjoyed making Easter baskets in DT and then hunting for eggs.

See all photos

Year 2

We are getting extremely excited for the Easter break but we have still been very busy in school this week. In Maths we have recapped our knowledge of 2D and 3D shapes and have even learned some new ones including tetrahedrons and quadrilaterals. In English we have read the Christian Easter Story and we worked in small groups to act it out and perform to the rest of the class. In science we worked in small groups and had the opportunity to do some experiments and as part of our art and design lesson we made an Easter basket which came in very useful for the Easter egg hunt we had on Wednesday afternoon!

“We had a fun swim this week and it was awesome swimming through hoops!” Avleen and Sophie

“I liked making the Easter cards with sand.” Ishani

“I enjoyed finding the Easter eggs and solving the clues.” Harini

“I liked doing the Easter egg hunt too and reading all the clues and collecting the eggs.” Jessica

“I loved making slime in science. It was all gooey and sticky!”  Avleen

See all photos

Year 3

“I liked writing and drawing our shape poems.” Darcy 

“I enjoyed emailing my friends using Purple Mash.” Ellie 

“I liked writing about a Stone Age person’s day in Humanities.” Kristen

I have sent home the multiplication and division drills that the girls have been doing each week so you can see how they are getting on with their learning.

I hope you all have a good and restful Easter break.

 

See all photos
See all photos

Year 4

“I enjoyed making the pottery owls because you could get messy and it was fun.” Daisy

“I enjoyed performing our Class Assembly because it was fun to sing the water cycle song.” Alice

Please could the girls restock their pencil cases over the holiday. Thank you.

See all photos
See all photos

Year 5

“My favourite part of this week was learning how to do quilling because it was quite relaxing and you got to make cards for your family. Quilling is where you roll strips of paper and then you can make shapes out of them. We were making flowers and leaves.” Charlotte

“I enjoyed doing Roman numerals in Maths. I found it really interesting finding out why they used Roman numerals instead of a tally chart… they thought it would be simpler to count. I really liked the activity sheet we did. It was Roman numerals in the first column, then a space to translate into numbers (which was a date) and in the last column it had the event that happened in that year.” Indi

“I liked doing Roman Numerals in Maths and I also enjoyed making our own games in Computing. I liked trying other people’s games to get inspiration for my own game.” Shireen

“In ‘Fun Swim’ on Tuesday we were allowed to get out the floats and play games with our friends. Some of us made up our own games to play in the water.” Vheneka

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Year 6

“This term has been very successful and we have enjoyed leading our house. We have learnt so much and have had lots of opportunities to grow and develop.” Manha and Maisie

“The many opportunities we have experienced have included learning about the world of Shakespeare, how electricity can stop Mrs Fordham from stealing our chocolate bars and the world of business during enterprise week, where Hestia came out as this year’s winner of the Junior School Enterprise Cup. We have also been lucky enough to help in the community by supporting the allotment project run by the local charity, Re:store.

 

 

 

 

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Next term we look forward to performing our own version of ‘Mystery at Magpie Manor’ to you as well visiting Osmington Bay and saying farewell to Junior School in our valedictory celebration.” Ashana, Eryn, Isobel and Phoebe

GAP Club

This week in GAP Club we have been celebrating Easter. The girls have decorated Easter eggs and made paper chicks and rabbits. We have also been spending more time outside and enjoying the lighter evenings.

The Gap Club Summer Term forms are available on Firefly, by the pillar in the Junior School entrance and in each of the GAP Club Rooms. Please could you start to fill in the forms to enable us to sort the new register for the Summer Term.

See all photos

A day in the life of a Head

Pondering my parting message to you for the spring term, my mind travelled down the list of my appointments for just one day of this week (Wednesday, as it happens) and it struck me that my Day in the Life of a Head made a very suitable Life in a Day of the School.

And what a day it has been!  A Class Assembly from Year 4 on Water was a model of cross-curricular learning, featuring science, ecology, oracy, singing and (a first for me) tanka poetry.  A few steps across the Dining Hall, the Sixth Form Rock Band were centre-stage for a very different sort of Assembly, going through their paces with covers from, among others, Arctic Monkeys.  This was closely followed for me by a visit to Reception, finding out more about how the girls use the outdoors for their learning.  The flower beds in their garden are ready for planting and – more joined-up learning here – Mrs Shaw is hoping that the class can make soup from the carrots that they grow this season.  A spell with Year 2 practising number bonds through an Easter Egg Hunt in the grounds completed a deep dive into the many ways in which junior girls can learn through adventure and exploration.

Late morning brought a planning meeting for our visit from BBC’s Question Time team.  Interest in current affairs is at an all-time high among our students and so great excitement greeted the news that we had been selected as the venue for the 9 May Show.  We are keen to make the most of the opportunity for them to gain insights into the logistics of the programme as well as introducing them to the cut and thrust of contemporary political debate.  All the budding TV producers, journalists or politicians out there – this one is for you.

Read more here

Dr Stringer
Headmistress

School celebrates sporting excellence with Sports Presentation Evening

On Tuesday 2 April, we were delighted to host the premier event in our school sporting calendar, the Sports Presentation Evening. In an event that celebrates sporting excellence, students from both the Junior and the Senior Schools were honoured for their contributions to school sport, as well as their achievements in their chosen sports outside of the classroom.

Since the start of the academic year, our school sports teams have reached 3 National Finals, 5 Regional Finals and became County Champions in two age groups. This is without mentioning the exceptional achievements of their students externally in the world of sport, with students boasting titles in a wide variety of sports such as Equestrian, Karate and Skiing.

We were excited to be joined by 3 stars from the sporting world to help celebrate the festivities. Northampton Saints stars, Jamie Gibson and Luther Burrell, were joined by Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist Netballer Eboni Usoro-Brown, to speak passionately to an enthralled audience about their careers, their influences and what makes them strive to achieve greatness.

Congratulations are in order for all of the deserving young athletes who picked up awards during the evening, including Georgie Forde-Wells, who was named as the school’s Sports Personality of the Year, the U16 Netballers who were named as Team of the Year, and Paralympic and Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist Ellie Robinson, who was awarded the school’s Exceptional Achievement Award.

To view photos from the event, including a group photo of girls who received Commendations, please click here

To view a blog written by Eboni’s team, Mintridge, please click here

Mr Nash
Marketing and Communications Officer

Sports Presentation

GDST Junior Shakespeare Festival

Term Dates

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