Junior News 5 July 2019

Dear parents and girls

It has been another incredibly busy week. One which saw girls from Nursery to Year 6 join senior girls in the spectacular Gym and Dance Extravaganza and 5N perform an assembly on the Mayans, using creative and interesting methods of delivery. Year 3 and Year 6 had a morning at the allotments, 6N had a swimming gala and everyone got involved in Welcome Day. The latter was a great success, much fun was had by all and it was wonderful that so many of you could join us for Mr Bailey’s talk and afternoon tea in the garden.

Have a lovely weekend!

Caroline Petryszak
Interim Head of Junior School

Achievements

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

Rhythmic Gym
Poppy M – 2nd in her trio, 8th in free, 6th in hoop

Karate
Safiya C – green and black belt

Swimming
Artemisia U – certificate for working hard

Horse Riding
Ellie J-M – Pony Club Road Rider and Pony Behaviour badge

Taekwondo
Rebecca P – yellow/green stripe belt

Assemblies

Year 6 Valedictory Event

Year 6 – 11 July evening Valedictory Event

Dates for Diary

Weds 10 July – Reception trip to West Lodge Farm

Weds 10 July – KS1 trip to Castle Ashby Gardens

Thurs 11 July – Year 6 Valedictory Event 6.00pm-8.00pm

Fri 12 July – END OF TERM – 11:45am

Cancelled Clubs

w/c Monday 8 July – All teacher-led clubs and Sports Clubs in the last week of term

Digital Leaders

I am extremely proud of my group of Digital Leaders, from Years 4 to 6, who have now completed their training, and received their certificates and badges.

It has been hard for them to give up their lunchtimes with so many other things going on, but the majority of the group attended every single session. The girls have already delivered assemblies in Senior School and Junior School, created posters and helped me to promote Safer Internet Day in February.

I am hoping this group will support me as I start to train another cohort of Digital Leaders, and both groups will work together over the next year to teach their peers about online risks and how to create a kinder internet.

Sports

Athletics Club
Working on sprint strength this week using bungee ropes and parachutes.

Lost Property

Just a reminder that lost property is on a table in the Junior School reception area.

Please have a look, as on Friday 12 July anything left will be recycled.

Nursery

Kipper Room
This week in Kipper Room the girls have enjoyed a trip to the park. They have played in the home corner, role playing cooking and washing up. We have also been on a walk to the school playground with bouncers and balls, exploring the open space, the climbing frame and slide. Next Wednesday 10 July, we are hoping to have a teddy bears’ picnic at snack time in the school grounds; if your daughter attends on this day, she is welcome to bring a teddy.

Elmer Room
This week in Elmer Room we have been taking the girls’ lead through Reggio Emilia-inspired provocations. They have enjoyed washing the monkeys with shaving foam, pretending it was soap. They have used plastic cups and lollipop sticks for their ice creams or drinks with straws.

We have been making the most of the sunny weather, and developing their physical skills in the garden crawling through the tunnel, climbing on the apparatus and riding on the bikes and scooters.

Some girls had a visit to Pre-School. They loved exploring their new surroundings and making some new friends!.

Pre-School
This week in Pre-School we have had a provocation week. The girls have explored what happens when bottles have holes in them at different levels, and used pipettes and test tubes to move water. We have made postcards and ice creams using pompoms. For our letter sound ‘j’ we have jiggled, juggled and made jelly fish and jellies.

Next week:

• Our sound or the week is ‘r’
• Summer activities

General Information

Reception

Many thanks for supporting your daughter at the Gym and Dance evening. The girls were incredibly confident and super excited, but held it together and performed brilliantly!

We have had a week of fantastic presentations to the class for ‘Family History Week.’ Many thanks again for helping at home to organise this.

We are looking forward to our trip to West Lodge Farm next Wednesday, so please remember that if the weather is hot then please apply sun cream on your daughter before school and bring her school cap; if it is rainy, please provide a rain coat for her. School uniform should be worn and snack / picnic lunch will be provided.

Year 1

This week we have been enjoying learning outside as much as possible to make the most of our wonderful garden and this beautiful weather.

The sunflowers are growing taller and we have been taking turns to water them.

We are all becoming experts at spinning hoops on different parts of our bodies too, which is great for our gross motor control.

Some Garden Fairies arrived this week and we have been designing and building houses for them using natural materials. We also designed and made a garden salad which we enjoyed eating picnic style outside too.

In Maths, we have been learning to tell the time, and this has even been extended into the garden, with the drawing of some very fancy clocks using chalk on the ground. In English, we have focused on handwriting and created some lovely letters.

Year 2

This week in English we finished our instruction writing. We made some porridge (and ate it of course) and later in the week we wrote a set of instructions to explain how to make it.

In DT, we made the fruit salads that we had designed the week before. We practised our peeling and chopping skills and, again, we ate it all up!

In Maths, we looked at symmetry by folding and cutting some shapes, and we also revisited addition and multiplication.

In Science, we checked on the growth of our bean plants – we can’t see any growth yet but we are looking after them well.

“I enjoyed making fruit salad and porridge.” Harini

“I liked making the fruit salad too and eating it all up.” Avleen

“We loved making the porridge!”  Jessica and Dejonai

Year 3

“We went to the allotment and grew beans, picked fruit and dug up potatoes. It was great fun!” Ayana 

“We did the Gym and Dance Extravaganza and it was really fun and everything went to plan.” Ellie 

“I liked learning about volcanoes and earthquakes in Humanities.” Kristen 

“I enjoyed Family History Week because I got to hear people’s family history and it was really interesting. I also got to share information about my family.” Rianna 

Year 4

“In Maths this week, I really enjoyed learning to do short multiplication and rolling the dice to make up our own questions.” Verity

“In Maths this week, I enjoyed learning short division and making myself read the question properly.” Natalie

“I enjoyed doing the posters in English and making light-up signs in DT.” Fern

Year 5

“On Wednesday we had an Enrichment session for World Chocolate Day. We had to think who would get the most amount of money from the farmer, trader, producer, manufacturer and retailer. When Miss Brandon-Jones came out with a bar of chocolate to represent the money there were 24 squares of chocolate… the manufacturer got 10 squares and all of the farmers got 1 square to share between all of them! At the end of the lesson we made a poster saying why we should have Fairtrade chocolate.” Poppy

“My favourite thing this week was the Gym and Dance Extravaganza because I loved all the dances and I loved it when everyone found the beat and we all started clapping along. I liked watching all the dances I didn’t know because it inspired me, and when I was in the car going home I asked if I could do Jazz Dance.” Lydia

“On Tuesday we had fun swim. Me and my friends played Shark Island and we did synchronised swimming. I really enjoyed this lesson.” Isla

“On Wednesday we had our Class Assembly about the Mayans. I was in a group with Rose and Caitlin and we did about ball games and fun facts. In PE, we have been practicing for the Gym and Dance Extravaganza. It was really fun to perform.” Emily

Year 6

“We have really enjoyed this week. It has been packed full of interesting Maths investigations, preparing for our Valedictory Event, creating short animations, visiting the allotments and presenting Mrs Nugent with the funds raised from our Charity Fayre and our Swimming Gala.” Isla and Charlotte L, House Captain Artemis and Vice-Captain Artemis

We cannot wait for our parents to come to our Valedictory event where we will be giving speeches in front of our parents and teachers. We know that this will be a moment to cherish and a great time to celebrate the valuable times we have spent in the Junior School.

This week we have been making animations. We have created story boards, built sets, sculpted Plasticine characters and used i-stop motion to record our animations. They have all been really funny and we thoroughly enjoyed this task.

Our visit to the allotments on Wednesday was a fantastic event. The sun shone and we were able to harvest some of the crops, including potatoes, that we planted in March. The volunteers who help to run the allotments were extremely grateful to receive a cheque for £262.40, raised from our very successful Allotment Fayre. We are really pleased to have helped a very worthy cause in our local community.

The Swimming Gala was great fun and everybody was in high spirits, cheering everybody on. Everyone did incredibly well and we all had a great time. Well done to Hestia for winning!

This week, in Maths, we enjoyed exploring NRICH. A particular favourite was a card trick where we had to decide whether it was magic or logic that enabled us to achieve it.

GAP Club

The new GAP Club Autumn Term forms will be available next week from the Junior School entrance and on FireFly between 05/09/19 to 16/09/19.

Starting from September, girls in Reception to Year 6 will be in a new GAP Club room which is situated at the end of the main (Years 5 and 6) corridor.

Also, please remember there are no teacher led clubs next week, so please book your daughter into GAP Club if you require after school care.

Early May Bank Holiday 2020

Please kindly note that, in line with the change to the national Bank Holiday pattern in May 2020 in order to mark the 75^th anniversary of VE Day, we will observe the early May Bank Holiday on Friday 8 May rather than on Monday 4 May, as originally advertised.

Monday 4 May will be a normal school day and school will be closed on Friday 8 May.  Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries about the change.

Dr Stringer 
Headmistress

Term Dates

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