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Junior News 6 November 2020 |
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We are delighted at the support the school community has already shown in the first week of our fundraising for Pancreatic Cancer UK. As you know, Mr Bailey is receiving treatment currently and we are encouraging staff, parents and pupils to get behind #challenge24 which is about challenging yourself to do something ‘24’ times or for ’24 minutes’ during the month. The Language faculty are aiming to have 24 people learn a sentence each in a different language by the end of the month; Mr Stubbs, our Operations Manager, is planning on running 24 miles per week in November; the Science faculty are running for 24 minutes per week |
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and there are many more challenges and activities going on. We have face masks and homemade jams and chutneys on sale, as well as pin badges from Pancreatic Cancer UK. We would love pupils to add their challenge pledge to our ‘Challenge Board’ in the foyer of both Junior and Senior School so we can see what you are all doing. I am so delighted to confirm that we have already smashed our initial £1000 target, but we want to continue to raise as much as we can and show Mr Bailey our full support. |
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Date for your diary: We are holding a ‘Purple’ day on Thursday 19 November. For a suggested donation of £1.00 each staff and pupils can wear something purple – either one item or a whole outfit (full mufti either way). Ideally we would prefer donations for the day through the Northampton High Team Page on the Pancreatic Cancer UK fundraising page (there are QR codes linking to this around school). Please do let us know if you are doing anything for Challenge 24 either by tagging us on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #challenge24 or writing in to us and we will add it to our Challenge Board. Mrs O’Doherty |
Lockdown 2.0 |
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As you are aware, this week saw the onset of a second lockdown for England, and with it more stringent rules relating to what we can and cannot do. As we had prepared well from the outset, I am pleased to say that we have had to make few adjustments in school. However, we will be expecting senior school students to wear face coverings at all times with the exception of those in U3-L5, who may remove them in forward-facing lessons only. Additionally, Sixth Form students have been given permission to work from home when they are not in lessons in order to reduce risk of transmission in common areas. Visits to the school are still limited to those which are absolutely essential so Parents’ Evenings and Information Events will continue to be held via Zoom or SchoolCloud, as appropriate, and external speakers will deliver virtual sessions. Entrance Assessments and Scholarship examinations for external candidates will be held either on a Saturday, strictly socially distanced and abiding by our rigorous risk assessment, or virtually, depending on the logistical feasibility. Tours of the school for prospective students and their families, although offered for 6pm on a weekday, have been postponed for the time being. Caroline Petryszak |
Introducing Mrs Chiano, Director of Finance and Operations |
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As announced in Mrs Petryszak’s parent letter on Monday this week, we have been delighted to welcome Mrs Agnes Chiano, Director of Finance and Operations, to Northampton High this week, following the early retirement of Mrs Anne Headley due to ill-health. We are pleased to provide a ‘face to the name’ here, and will provide a further introduction to Mrs Chiano in next week’s Junior News. Mrs Chiano joins us with a wealth of experience as a school Director of Finance and Business Operations, bringing a strong background in finance control, resource management and business operations. |
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Her skills and capabilities will complement those of her department teams and will be an asset to the Senior Leadership Team and the school community as a whole. Mrs Wilmot |
Former Northampton High School pupil releases book to help children understand Covid-19 |
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We always love to hear good news stories from our former students, and how our alumnae are excelling in their chosen studies and careers since leaving the High School. The past year has proven to be a difficult time for all of us, but one former Northampton High School pupil has made the most of her time in lockdown, and has penned a children’s book to help children understand the current Covid-19 crisis. Charlie Golding, who now resides in Australia, was inspired to write her book after receiving questions on the global pandemic from her three children over the past year. |
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‘When the world went inside’ follows the life of Theo, who isn’t happy when he isn’t allowed to enjoy his favourite hobbies such as camping, visiting his Granny and having sleepovers – all due to the pandemic. The book acts as a conversation starter between parents and children to talk about the virus, whilst also offering reassurance that there is an end, and we are on our way to getting there. A fantastic personal achievement by Charlie! We are all very proud to hear of her success and we hope to welcome Charlie virtually into school in their near future to talk to our younger students about the book and its message. If you would like to find out more about it yourself, please click here. Mrs Wilmot |
Faith Dress up day |
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On Friday 13 November, girls are invited to come to school in their traditional faith costumes. |
Dates for your diary |
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Tuesday 10 November – Flu vaccination |
Achievements |
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Each week in our virtual assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Tennis Gymnastics |
Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room |
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It has been wonderful to welcome back all our girls after half term; they have settled really well. In ballet this week, we have been listening to a beat, clapping and stopping in time, which we have practised through the week. As it is harvest time, the girls have been looking at various vegetables, especially pumpkins and how they grow. We have looked at some carved out pumpkins where the girls have scooped, squished and squeezed the flesh counting out the seeds. We have celebrated Bonfire Night by watching some amazing displays on our big screens, then we have created our own firework display by flicking paint onto black paper! “Wow! Look at all the colours,” said Yazmin. Next week we will be thinking about Remembrance Sunday. We love hearing from the girls, so please feel free to post pictures of things your daughter achieves and enjoys at home or when you are out and about. |
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Nursery Pre School |
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We started the week by looking at a variety of pumpkins. Although they were all pumpkins they were all very different; this then led to a conversation about diversity; we are all girls but we have different skin colour, different hair styles and many more different qualities, making each girl unique. We also focused on fireworks and our story this week was ‘Flash, Bang, Whee’ which inspired some creative art work. The girls have created some physical movements to go along with the story. Please ask your daughters about the story to see how much they remember. Next week we will be exploring Remembrance Day. |
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Reception |
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This week we have been investigating the hexagon shape, the colour purple and the number 6. The girls have been experimenting mixing their own purple paint. They have practised the number 6 formation and sorted hexagon and pentagon shapes according to how many sides they have. We have read the story ‘Whatever Next!’ by Jill Murphy and the girls have enjoyed making a huge rocket from boxes and collected different props to be able to role play the story for themselves. They have made moon dough, decided what they would take to the moon if they were going on a trip and re-told the story using a text map. Our phonics this week has focused on the letter sounds ‘u’, ‘h’, ‘f’ and ‘e’. On Thursday, we listened to firework music and watched a clip of fireworks. We then thought about the sounds they make and wrote a poem. The girls made rockets from a cylinder and a cone and painted firework pictures. They also did some firework dances! A very busy first week back.
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Year 1 |
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Highlights What a busy and exciting first week back! It has been lovely to see everyone’s fresh faces this week and hear about what the girls got up to over half term. In English, we have started looking at a new book, ‘Naughty Bus’. We have been finding out all about the adventures of the Naughty Bus and have been writing sentences about what we know about buses and our class rules. In maths, we have been practising adding in different ways by counting on, combining two parts and finding parts of a whole. We have been using different resources to help us with this and everyone has been enjoying the challenges. In gymnastics we have looked at jumping and landing correctly. In science we have finished our work on the properties of materials by sorting lots of different objects into the material they are made from and their properties. We also finished our geography work on London by planning a trip to London and thinking about what we would need to take and what we might do when we were there. What the girls have said: “I enjoyed jumping in gymnastics.” Elouise Looking ahead: Maths – subtraction |
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Year 2 |
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Highlights: This week in maths we have continued our work on addition and subtraction. We have been practising adding and subtracting 3 1-digit numbers and finding 10 more and 10 less. In English, we have started to explore a new text called ‘A Walk in London.’ It’s a story about a little girl’s trip around London and it is also full of interesting facts about London. We are using the book to help with our recount writing. In art this week we learned about the story of ‘Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night’; we created some London skyline firework scenes using crayon and paint. In RE we have started learning about the story of Rama and Sita and why Diwali is a special festival for Hindus. What the girls have said: “I love being back at school.” Evette Looking ahead: Maths – Adding and subtracting 10 |
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Year 3 |
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Highlights: This week in maths we have started to use column addition and subtraction. In English, we have continued work on ‘The Tear Thief’ text and have been learning about conjunctions and possessive apostrophes. In humanities we have read ‘The Diwali Story’ and drawn it out on a story board. We also had an exciting afternoon at Forest School where we completed an obstacle course while carrying a pumpkin and were set a challenge to get an apple into a tree, onto a branch we could not reach, without touching the apple. Many of us, after lots of thought, managed to make a pulley system to raise the apple into the tree. What the girls have said: “I liked computing doing touch typing. It is a challenge to use the right fingers on the keys.” Anna Looking ahead: Maths – continuing with addition and subtraction, looking at how we can check our working out |
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Year 4 |
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Highlights: In maths we had a week of embedding our understanding of subtraction methods; estimating and checking our answers and learning some clever ways to make the calculation easier to work with. In English we produced some fantastic writing for display and began to look at the features of explanation texts. In science we learnt about generating electricity. What the girls have said: “I enjoyed doing Gymnastics on Wednesday because we did some different stretches and for the warming up we played a really fun game called pirates. I learnt that quadricep is the scientific name for the thigh.” Ellie Looking ahead: English – writing our own explanation text Message to parents: Wednesday 11 November the girls have PE, school photos and Forest School. This means that they will need their PE kit first thing, then school uniform after break for their photos. It might be easier to bring PE kit into school on Tuesday and leave it here so that they are only carrying in their Forest school clothes on the Wednesday. Please provide lots of layers and a waterproof outer layer. |
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Year 5 |
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Highlights: This week in English our text ‘Robot Girl’ really came alive… there was a wonderful surprise which led to some brilliant discussions and an interesting ‘conscience alley’, where the girls had to put themselves into the mind of one of the characters and think about a big decision she had to make. In maths we started working on statistics and the girls enjoyed solving problems by analysing data presented in pictograms, bar charts and line graphs. We started a new geography unit this week as well; the girls did some fabulous online research and have created some lovely collaborative fact files on the different South American countries. In science we began our ‘Earth and Space’ topic by discussing the shape of our planet. We have been told we are living on a sphere, but how do we know that’s actually true? What the girls have said: “This week I liked doing ‘Robot Girl’ in English because it’s so fun to read because it tricks you and makes you think. The lesson I liked the most was when we noticed the trick and everyone was shocked and we were excited and we all started talking at the same time.” Alice Looking ahead: English – finishing our unit on ‘Robot Girl’ by writing our own Science Fiction stories Dates for your diary: Tuesday 10 November – swimming |
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Year 6 |
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Year 6 have made an energetic start to this half term and we have been really pleased with their focus and determination to do the best that they can in all areas of their learning. This week we have started our new book in English, ‘Can we Save the Tiger?’, improved our understanding of the long division process in maths, learnt about how to navigate the world and the history of maps in geography, and enjoyed classifying sweets in science and giving them Latin names! The girls have also enjoyed thinking about how they can develop their roles as Junior School Leaders and have already started creating displays along the blue corridor to share their ideas with the rest of the school – we are immensely proud of the enthusiasm and energy they have approached this with! Highlights of the week have included: “My highlight was creating the display boards for our leadership roles. I especially liked thinking about ideas for projects. I cannot wait to share our ideas with the rest of the school soon and get everyone really interested in learning science!” Ameyal “My highlight of the week was the PE Club on Tuesday because we practised matches focusing on using our wings and not just playing down the middle of the pitch.” Fern “I loved doing maths this week on long division because me and Fern got through it all until we got to the last question, which was difficult. We both had different opinions and in the end Mrs Fordham helped us out and we finally understood. I felt really proud that we got the right answer in the end!” Elizabeth “My highlight is swimming. We were practising swimming on our backs.” Sima “My highlight of the week is when we put the flowers and bulbs in the hanging baskets. It was cool to see which team did the most!” Emily “I enjoyed it when we planted flowers in our hanging baskets. I planted some beautiful pansies to make our school look colourful and pretty.” Amelie |
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Term Dates 20/21 |
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Term Dates 21/22 |
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Northampton High School |
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