Junior News 6 December 2019

Dear Parents,

This week has been packed full of festive fun and it has been wonderful to see so many of you in and around the school. We have been treated to nativity performances from Nursery, Pre-School, Reception and Years 1 and 2, with singing, dancing and animal costumes galore! The professional photographs looked amazing. Year 1 also led a class assembly this week, where we learnt all about the Victorians, their impact on society and how they have influenced how we celebrate Christmas today.

Weekly singing has filled the school, with the community room now being used for year group choirs – listen out for new songs in the Spring Term.

Last night we had over 100 girls and all the staff in attendance at our festive disco, wonderfully DJ’d by Mr Loveday. It was such a great feeling of community, with everyone singing, dancing and smiling through the songs and hotdogs!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Chris Bailey
Head of Junior School

Car Park

This is a plea to all parents to respect the speed limits in our car park, and to drive safely on the school site and at the entrances/exits.

The afternoons and mornings are now very dark, and we have received a number of complaints from other parents about inconsiderate driving. Please also note that the disabled parking spaces are intended for use by people with a disability. Again, we have received reports of these spaces being used inappropriately.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Chris Bailey
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 Gymnastics – hand held apparatus
Zoe S – bronze
Harini S – bronze
Ellie H – silver

Karate
Safiya C – blue belt

Royal Academy of Dance
Phoebe S – workshop and performance

Gymnastics
Sakinah S – level 5 badge and certificate

Swimming
Matilda B – waterskills 1 and 2
Eliza A – worked hard for 10 weeks
Alexi F

Rhythmic Gymnastics
Alexi F

Assemblies

Class Assemblies are held in the Junior School Hall at 8.35 am on a Wednesday. Parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00 am in the Community Room. Here are the dates for the Spring Term.

6N – Wednesday 15 January

6H – Wednesday 22 January

4N – Wednesday 29 January

5N – Wednesday 5 February

5H – Wednesday 26 February

2N – Wednesday 4 March

3N – Wednesday 11 March

Reception – Wednesday 18 March

1N – Wednesday 25 March

Dates for Diary

 Week commencing Monday 9 December – No teacher led clubs

Tuesday 10 December – Nursery Stay and Play

Tuesday 10 December – 7pm – 9pm KS2 Christmas Celebration

No PE led clubs after Tuesday 10 December

Thursday 12 December – 7.30pm Carol Concert at All Saints Church

Friday 13 December – Christmas Jumper Day

Friday 13 December – Pre-School and Reception theatre trip

Week commencing Monday 16 December – No teacher led clubs

Tuesday 17 December – Christmas Parties – wear your party clothes!

Tuesday 17 December – 3.35pm TERM ENDS

Monday 6 January – INSET DAY

Tuesday 7 January – SPRING TERM STARTS

Tuesday 23 January – Sports Team Photographs

Looking ahead: Sports Day for KS2 and Senior School is Friday 5 June

Clubs

Please be aware that there are no teacher-led clubs from the last full week of term, week commencing Monday 9 December, until the Spring Term. The Spring Term clubs will start week commencing Monday 13 January. GAP club and late prep will continue as normal.

Charity

Raffle tickets available from the Junior School office.

Sports

Swimming:

On Monday evening the Under 9’s swam in a swimming gala against Kimbolton School. Considering this was our first gala we did really well even though we lost by 23 points overall. Well done Under 9 team for taking part and swimming really well. Thank you to the staff for helping us and for the lovely match tea. Keep up the good work team!

Mollie – Captain, Safiya – Vice-Captain

On Monday the Under 11’s, Under 10’s and Under 9’s competed in a swimming gala against Kimbolton School. They were tough competitors and they beat us 142-119.
Even though we lost, we worked extremely well together and came out with a great score. Thank you to all the PE staff, Kimbolton school and the kitchen staff for making an amazing gala for all of us; we loved it! Well done everyone for trying your best and giving it a go! Even if we didn’t win, we still had a great first gala for everyone.

Emily M, Under 11 Swimming Captain and Charlotte F, Under 11 Vice-Captain.

Year 5 and 6 District Cross Country, Abington Park, Northampton:

With the sun and frost providing a very scenic run with perfect conditions, the girls ran exceptionally well and all gave a fantastic final push with strong finishes. Isla H came 21st and was the first home for Year 6. Emily M was seconds behind and came 24th, Isla N came 32nd, Charlotte F came 45th, Rose N came 47 and Anna Crowley came 56.

Beatrice T.

Yesterday Year 5 and 6 took part in a cross country competition at Abington Park. There were lots of runners and it was extremely muddy, but at least it wasn’t raining! Everyone tried their best, even if it wasn’t their favourite sport. Emily and me just missed out on qualifying for the next round and the rest of the team beat at least half the runners. Well done to everyone for taking part and being great representatives of the school. Keep on running!

Isla H, Cross Country Captain

Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room

Kipper Room:

We started the week with our Christmas performance! We were so proud of our beautiful little stars. Thank you to everyone who came to watch, we hope you enjoyed it!  Away from the stage, the girls have really started to engage in various role play games preparing for next Christmas. They have been doctors, nurses but mostly hairdressers. Miss King has been treated to quite a few new hair styles. “It’s like spaghetti,” said Yazmin.

At Forest School, the girls practiced their balancing skills on a beam and a log. “Can you help me?” asked Anne. We are also still playing outdoors every day so can you please make sure that your daughter has a warm coat. Thank you.

Elmer Room:

This week in Elmer Room we have continued with our Christmas performance practice and of course finally performed this to our families. The girls worked very hard and did extremely well. They have really enjoyed Forest School this week where there were a lot of leaves to throw and walk through. Mrs Waters demonstrated going under a bridge made from logs and a plank; everyone thought this was funny and lots of giggles could be heard. The girls then joined in showing how they could ‘wriggle like a snake’ to get underneath the bridge. Another bridge was set up to walk across where we were able to practice our balancing skills, “I’m doing it,” said Maya.

We have started to think about Christmas with a few Christmas songs and activities and looking to next week we will continue with this. Our story of the week will be ‘The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat,’ ready for our theatre trip.

Nursery Pre-School

Highlights:

Mrs Waters and Miss Trevorrow were really proud this week as the girls took part in our Christmas Performance; they were amazing. It is a very daunting experience to perform in new surroundings and with such a large audience. The girls have been very excited as we have been busy creating penguins for our large penguin picture, making stars and using clay to make decorations.

What the girls have enjoyed:

“Playing with the dolls house.” Millie.
“Going to Forest School.” Ellah.
“I love Peppa Pig.” Amelia A.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

• Our sound is ‘g’ and our number is 10.
• We will be doing lots of ‘Christmassy’ activities.
• Our Christmas post box will be open from Monday for Christmas cards.

Reception

Highlights:

The highlight of the week for everyone was performing the Christmas Play. The girls did amazingly with their singing, dancing and acting. Their confidence on the stage and ability to remember positions was remarkable. A real credit to you all and a delight to see.

What the girls have said:

“My favourite song was the ‘Twinkling Star song’.” Grace.
“I liked doing the dance.” Elouise.
“I liked dressing up as a star.” Caoimhe.
“I loved singing the ‘Prickly Hay’ song.” Keziah.
“I loved all the songs and the parents watching.” Isabella.
“The ‘Clip Clop Little Donkey’ song was my favourite.” Emily.
“I liked singing ‘Hands in the Air’.” Rhoda.
“I enjoyed doing the dance and all of it.” Maya.
“My favourite was the ‘Hands in the Air’ song and all of the singing.” Shanaya.

Looking ahead to to next week:

• We are looking forward to wearing our Christmas Jumper and going to the Theatre on Friday.

Year 1

Highlights:

What a busy week this week has been for Year 1! The children have put all their practise into action by performing their ‘Victorian Christmas Assembly’ to the school and their families. They were amazing and really confident to stand up in front of such a big crowd to perform their lines for the first time. They have also performed in the KS1 production of ‘Prickly Hay’ and danced as cowgirls. They have been practising their dance and songs for a while and did a super job in each show. A huge ‘well done’ to all of 1N! In Maths we have finished our work on shape by looking at patterns in 2D and 3D shapes and have now moved on to looking at place value with numbers to 20. In Art we have been making decoupage pots and in RE we have looked at the Jewish festival of Hanukah.

What the girls have said:

“I liked doing our Assembly because we said words by ourself and it was fun!” Leah.
“I enjoyed doing the cowgirl dance.” Amber.
“I liked going to the library where I can read books quietly.” Kinara.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

• Maths – We will be looking at place value to 20.
• English – Looking at the story of Oliver Twist and Christmas Poetry.
• Art – Christmas decorations and cards.
• RE – The Christmas Story.

Year 2

Highlights:

What a busy week it has been but totally worth it! The girls have worked extremely hard putting together a fantastic performance of the Nativity story – we hope you all managed to come along and watch and that you enjoyed the show. As well as the three performances this week, we have continued to work hard in the classroom too. In Maths we have started to look at multiplication and the skills linked to it. In English we have started the story of ‘Oliver Twist’, which aims to bring our exciting Victorian topic to a nice close for the end of term.

What the girls have said:

“I have liked writing about Oliver Twist.”  Shanaya.
“I swam a whole length of the pool.” Yilin.
“At Forest School I liked making the wands and wrapping them in different colours.” Varnikha and Kyla.
“I enjoyed performing the play!” Leilana.
“I liked being one of the shepherds.” Eliza.
“We LOVED the disco!” Year 2.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

• English – The story of ‘Oliver Twist’.
• Maths – Multiplication.
• RE – The Christmas Story

Year 3

Highlights:

This week Year 3 have been learning about capacity and how to solve worded problems by reading the question carefully, working out the story and deciding which calculation to do. In Science we investigated magnets and were surprised to find that not all metals were magnetic.

What the girls have said:

“I liked learning about litres and millilitres in Maths.” Sophie.
“I liked doing coding in Computing and making our own games on Purple Mash.” Shreya.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

• In Maths – we will be investigating numbers in a few different ways.
• In Science – we will be finding out about the impact of friction.

Next week we are looking forward to our performance of ‘Silent Night’ within the Christmas Celebration evening on Tuesday. Please can the girls be back at school by 6.15pm so they have time to get ready.

Year 4

Highlights:

In Maths this week we have started to work with decimals and looked at the link with fractions. In English we have redrafted a paragraph from our stories and tried to include more descriptive language. We have also learnt about producers and consumers and their place within food chains.

What the girls have said:

“My highlight of the week was when we did Art and we made mosaic patterns.” Rithika.
“My highlight of the week was when we were making animations on the computers.” Diandra.
“I really enjoyed doing decimals in Maths.” Ayana.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

• English – We will be analysing short texts and writing imaginative descriptions inspired by pictures.
• Maths – We will continue to use decimals and find their fraction equivalents.
• Computing – We will be printing a painting in the style of a Roman mosaic.

Year 5

Highlights:

This week in English we wrote a description of the forest setting and began to look at character development. In Maths we learnt how to convert measures of length and how to calculate the perimeter. In Science the girls have enjoyed using gram and kilogram weights to test different paper strengths; they wanted to find out which paper would be most suitable for a food bag at a festival.

What the girls have said:

“I liked Maths this week because I got better at measuring in mm and cm.” Sima.
“I really enjoyed our Design & Technology PREP this week because it was very creative. We are making a picture frame in our lessons and we had to find a photo and then design the frame and think about what would go well with the picture.” Sienna.
“In English we had great fun doing some acting and freeze frames from the Firebird story. We got to think about what the characters might be thinking, feeling or saying in the situations.” Verity.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning: 

• English – Traditional stories using a digital text: The Firebird (exploring characters through action and dialogue).
• Science – Properties of materials: we will be concluding our unit by thinking about the different ways that materials can be absorbant.
• Maths – measures – drawing and measuring angles.
• History – Anglo Saxons.

Please remember:
1. To bring in suitable clothes for Forest School on Wednesday 11 December. Lots of warm layers and a waterproof outer layer. Footwear: boots or wellies, it is quite wet in our Forest School area.
2. KS2 celebration 7pm Tuesday 10 December – wear school uniform and a little bit of tinsel in your hair.

Year 6

Week 11 – It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas
What a fantastic week! We have been royally entertained by the younger year groups in the school with their fabulous plays. We have also decorated our form rooms, sang Christmas songs with Mr Bailey, rehearsed ‘It was the night before Christmas’ in preparation for our House Poetry Performance on the last day of term and all taken part in the House Hockey competition and yes, we have still maintained curriculum vigour throughout….
In Science we have enjoyed creating our own models of blood using golden syrup and a selection sweet treats, in Humanities we have looked in depth at the major religions of the world through group presentations using Power Point, in Maths we have discovered that finding the area of composite shapes can be trickier than you think and in English we have been preparing for auditions for our play-in-a-week, ‘Scheherazade’, that will be rehearsed and performed during the week commencing 10 February!
Next week we look forward to welcoming you to the Christmas Celebration. Girls will need to return to school at 6.30pm and come to their form rooms. For those girls unable to go home we will collect them from GAP at 6.00pm and put on a Christmas DVD. If these girls would like to bring in a packed tea we are happy to store them in the fridge. We also look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at All Saints Church at 6.30pm on Thursday. We will be there to greet you at 6.30pm so that we can organise the girls and the concert will begin at 7.00pm. Both events will really get us all into the spirit of the festive season!

Karen Fordham and James Loveday

Student voices:
‘This week, in Science, we had great fun learning about the main components in the blood by creating a model using gooey golden syrup as the plasma, sprinkles as the platelets, jellybeans as the red blood cells and mini-meringues as the white blood cells. Our bodies are amazing!’
‘The House Hockey was amazing – everybody tried their hardest and there was a really good atmosphere throughout. We were all smiling and even the sun made an appearance! Well done to everybody, especially Selene who were the overall winners!’
‘We are really excited about rehearsing for the auditions for our play-in-a-week project, Scheherazade, and have been working really hard to improve our story-telling skills through using expressive voices and clear and purposeful actions.’
‘We really enjoyed decorating our Christmas tree and eventually managed to untangle all of the golden beads before we put them round the tree!’
“In English we practiced for auditions for Scheherazade (our play) to show Mr Bailey and Mrs Fordham to get our parts. It is really fun and looking forward to our ‘Play in a Week’.”
“On Wednesday we played House Hockey. Selene won but besides that we really enjoyed it!”
“In Art we have been making our cushions. We have started to cut out our felt and assemble the front of our cushions.”
“In Science we have been looking at the four major components of blood. We tried making our own blood out of syrup, jelly beans, sprinkles and mini meringues.”

GAP Club

Highlights:

GAP Club has been very sparkly this week as we have been creating decorations for our tree using wooden sticks and sequins. The girls have also made hangers for their doors to remind Father Christmas to come to their house along with writing their own letters to Father Christmas.
On Thursday the girls enjoyed being together for dinner and dancing the afternoon away at the school Christmas Disco.

What the girls have enjoyed:

“I liked making the Christmas tree.” Isabella, Year 6.
“I loved doing the angel.” Keziah, Reception.
“We enjoyed tea.” Eloise, Year 5 and Lexie, Year 6.
“Playing with the Elsa and Arna Castle.” Year 4.

Looking ahead:

• The girls will be participating in lots more sparkly and festive activities next week.

A gentle reminder that there are no teacher led clubs next week so please remember to book your daughter into GAP Club if required. Please also remember to ring the bell on the outside GAP Club door if you need to gain our attention. The new GAP Club booking forms for Spring will be available on Firefly from 9 December to 10 January 2020.

Sixth form Enterprise Group

Year 5 and 6 will be able to purchase a ‘Happiness Bag’ at tuck shop on Friday morning during break time. These are being sold by the Senior School enterprise team.

Term Dates

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