|
|
Junior News – 8 July 2022 |
|
|
|
This time of year in school provides the challenge of balancing preparation for the next academic year whilst positively concluding the current year and supporting the girls with a successful transition. The Junior School has been a hive activity again this week. At every turn there has been smiling faces, talking excitedly about an activity they were completing. You will have received your daughter’s timetable for next academic year this week which we hope will assist you to plan for next term and support your daughter’s preparation and transition ahead of September. Next Wednesday, you will be sent the form to be able to book your daughter’s place on the Autumn term club offering. It is packed with opportunities across a wide range of activities which I know you will value and ensure your daughter is booked to take advantage of as many as she can. There are some new clubs on the list which we hope your daughter will be keen to take part in. The Summer Fayre today was a wonderful opportunity to bring the school community together to enjoy a shared experience. I am focused on providing more opportunities next year for the community to come together and for parents and carers to come into school more to observe their daughter’s experiences and share these together. We will ensure you receive as much notice as possible for these opportunities and I know you will be keen to join in when you can. The Reception and KS1 Sports Day this week was thoroughly enjoyable and we were proud of the girls’ efforts and support of each other. Thank you to all the parents and family members who joined us for this event – your support was suitably loud and incredibly encouraging for the girls! One of our Year 6 pupils had a wonderful opportunity to perform for Earl Spencer and his wife at an event they were hosting at Althorp House. Amelia N performed along with a group of Senior School pupils and two members of staff at the event in the wonderful setting. To do so was a unique and special experience and to be selected when so young is particularly impressive. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend ahead of our last week of the academic year. Miss Hair |
Messages for parents |
|
Swap Shop: Next week, we will be opening the Swap Shop for you on several days to allow you to purchase uniform if you require it. Finish time next Friday: School finishes at 11.45am for Junior School next Friday. Please collect your daughters from their classrooms at 11.45am. Children on the bus will leave at midday. |
Sports News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
What a jam-packed year of sport we have had here at Northampton High! It has been incredibly busy and the sports department would like to say a big thank you to all of the pupils who have participated in any of the events, teams, matches and practices we have organised. It has been great fun to spend time with the girls and watch them develop and grow in confidence.The highlight for me must be the Gym and Dance Extravaganza and as a department we are so proud of all of the performances. I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did. The new Sports Day format proved very successful for the Reception, Year 1 and 2 Sports Day on Thursday. The first part of the afternoon saw each House gain points in four tasks: aiming at the cricket wicket, throwing the vortex ball, bean bag aim and standing long jump. For the second part, year groups competed against one another in the sack race, egg and spoon, obstacle and sprints. All the points were totalled and the House winner was Artemis. We also have some exciting news for current Year 2 and 3 pupils, as Futureprint Netball Club are moving to Northampton High, for sessions on Wednesday evenings. For information on how to join, please contact Mrs Jennings at futureprintnetball@hotmail.com All that remains for me to do is to detail the final match reports from this week’s cricket fixtures, and finally, to welcome back Mrs Blake who returns as the Director of Sport next week. Have a wonderful summer! Mrs Littlewood
U10A: The cricket match was really good. We played one match and they put us into an A team and a B team. I was in the A team with Zoe, Risara, Harriet, Avleen, Harini, Gracea nd Jessica. We sadly lost but we tried our hardest and had fun. Zoe hit four 4’s and did amazing. Harriet and Avleen hit some fours and enjoyed excellent hitting. Grace had some good bowls but she hurt her ankle. She was brave and did amazing things! Risara and Harini hit the ball so brilliantly and Jessica did so well, stopping the ball from getting a 4. I delivered good balls and stumped someone out! The score was 239 to us and 291 to them but we had sooooooo much fun. Because the other teams were still playing, we had our match tea – one of the best bits! We loved going to our cricket match. Maya J |
News from our classrooms: Nursery and Pre School |
|
This week as a team we have been focusing on getting your daughter ready for the next step of progression and this included welcoming new girls, getting the current girls settled in their new room and transitioning settles to Pre School or school. Many wonderful opportunities have arisen for your child to get to know about the next chapter of their life including meeting new teachers or visiting new schools. It has been lovely to hear how they have gotten on! The staff are also working hard behind the scenes to relaunch the Nursery and Pre School making some exciting changes ready for September! In Nursery, we have been focusing on our mathematical skills incorporating our summer theme into our learning and we used shells for counting objects using number names for each one. Counting songs has been a popular choice with many of the girls wanting to partake in acting out the different characters and ‘5 little monkeys jumping on the bed’ has been chosen often. In Pre School, we have continued our topic of ‘Caring for the environment and the sea’ this week. Our book of the week has been ‘Wonderful Earth!’ and has prompted some serious thought during our library time; about how important our seas, rivers, plants and trees are and the consequences of continuing to not look after them as well as we should. Talk of holidays are creeping in, so we have suggested that maybe while we are enjoying the beaches this summer, we can do our bit to help and pick up any litter we find and dispose of it properly in a bin. In the classroom, we have had sea creatures in the water tray, we have been using our craft resources to create our own under the sea scenes and have sang some sea related songs. Reminders We are delighted to invite you to our Sports Activity afternoon on Monday 11 July 2 – 3pm and this is your opportunity to watch your daughter complete in different activities at their own pace, you can even join in too if you wish. We have Year 6 running a variety of sporting events for the girls to get involved in. If your daughter does not attend this session you are more than welcome to come along with your daughter. Please let us know if you will be attending. A reminder that Nursery and Pre School will be closed on the 1 and 2 September for staff training. Miss Hillery and the Nursery Team To view more photos please click here |
Reception - Music Focus |
|
Reception have enjoyed singing lots of new songs about our natural world. We have begun to listen to music from the ‘Carnival of the Animals’ by Saint-Saens and enjoyed guessing which animal was depicted by the music heard. We continue to use our percussion instruments to accompany music and songs and are able to control these to produce loud and quiet, fast and slow sounds. Mr Nathan and the Music Department To view more photos please click here |
Year 1 - Music Focus |
|
Year 1 continue to sing and perform lots of new songs – always with lots of enthusiasm! Our favourites are ‘Can an elephant live in a nest?’ And ‘We’re Detectives’ which introduces the singer to listen out for various musical elements – loud, soft, long, short, spiky and smooth sounds. To link with work in Humanities, we have learnt the song ‘In 1666’ which retells the story of the Great Fire of London. We are now learning to play the melody line of London’s Burning and perform this on glockenspiels. Mr Nathan and the Music Department To view more Year 1 photos please click here |
Year 2 - Music Focus |
|
In singing sessions, Year 2 have been developing their repertoire of new songs. We have particularly focused on the importance of warming up the voice before performing and learnt several new warm up songs including ‘Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry,’ ‘Cheeky Charlie Chick is Chirping Cheerfully’ and ‘We’re H.A.P.P.Y.’ We have also been focused on learning to recognise different pitches of high, medium and low and using these to create simple compositions. We have done a lot of rhythm work, building patterns and recognising note symbols. Mr Nathan and the Music Department To view more Year 2 photos please click here |
Year 3 - Music Focus |
|
Year 3 have been working very hard learning various scales on the keyboard. This followed an interesting and fun ensemble unit using African drums. The scales studied so far have been contrary motion, chromatic scales and C major similar motion. Each student performed these very well in front of their peers. Mr Nathan and the Music Department To view more photos please click here |
Year 4 - Music Focus |
|
Year 4 have had a very successful year, working on developing their musicality by using instruments and through singing. We have learned many new songs and ventured into the world of harmony by experimenting with rounds, simple chords and texture when performing and composing. All have been thoroughly involved and keen to show what they have achieved. Many are now fluent when reading rhythms from notation and are beginning to work on the placement of the notes on the stave. Mr Nathan and the Music Department To view more photos please click here |
Year 5 - Music Focus |
|
Year 5 are an exceptionally musical class. Several students have been awarded the coveted ‘exhibition’ award which entitles them to lessons on an instrument of their choice from September. During class lessons, we have completed a performance project, whereby each group selected a popular song, resourced the learning materials and performed after several weeks of rigorous preparation. Following these performances, we have been learning how to conduct various time signatures and demonstrating this at the end of each lesson. This has been very informative and allowed students to consider the underlying pulse prevalent in music of various genres. Mr Nathan and the Music Department To view more photos please click here |
Year 6 - Music Focus |
|
As students’ time in Junior School draws to a close, we are preparing for the forthcoming Valedictory evening, expertly captained by Mrs Fordham. This will feature Year 6 singing as an ensemble. We have spent several weeks breaking down various melodic phrases to ensure this final performance is up to standard. Many Year 6 students have been celebrating success with instrumental exams and we look forward to welcoming them into senior orchestra and choir next year. A particular mention goes to Amelia, who performed incredibly well with the senior orchestra during ‘Seussical’ and is now a valuable member of the recently reformed senior string quartet. Mr Nathan and the Music Department To view more photos please click here |
News from our extracurricular offer: GAP Club |
|
|
|
The girls have spent lots of time this week playing outside. They have enjoyed creating things using paper and pens, and had fun a lot of fun playing board games together. Have a nice weekend! Mrs Howell and the GAP Club Team To view more photos please click here |
News from outside of our classrooms: Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Woburn Safari Park Trip |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Wednesday, a very excited coach load of girls arrived at Woburn Safari for a special trip. Our day out began with a safari in the coach. We saw lions, monkeys, big brown bears, elephants and lots more. The weather was perfect with plenty of animals out and about. After a much awaited snack time and run around on the grass, Reception went off to explore. Year 1 learnt so many amazing facts about giraffes – did you know they have to eat leaves for 19 hours every day? Year 2 found out about skin, scales and fur in their outside classroom experience. Lunch was of course a highlight and followed by more time to explore. We saw penguins, monkeys, wallabies and sea lions. The girls all behaved beautifully and we felt so proud of them. There were some very tired faces on the way home at the end of a great day out. |
Awards for this week |
|
Ballet dancer of the week – Hanaa Musician of the week – Evette B Linguist of the week – Caoimhe Star Learners of the week – Hanaa, Aadya, Isabelle L, Eloise A, Caoimhe, Hester, Eva, Cordelia, Evelyn, Lottie Each week girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Shanaya – participated in waving the flag as part of the Guard of Honour at the Steelbacks vs India match at the County Cricket Ground. Shanaya valued the experience and enjoyed the atmosphere of the cricket match. Annie – graded yellow and black belt at karate and received praise from all the instructors on her effort. Annie was also awarded black belt at karate for the best student of the session. Annie was part of the Brownie parade that opened the Bugbrooke village fete and Annie also got her 10m swimming badge. Grace B – awarded a morse code badge and also swam 25m. Caoimhe – awarded Pony Club badges. Risara – awarded runner up in a Dance competition. Lucy T – graded purple and black belt at at karate and has moved to the black belt club and will start one-on-one combat training. Safiya – achieved the most improved netball player of the year. Rithika – achieved a Distinction for her Grade 5 Indian Singing exam. Playground Helpers – thank you to Zara and Cordelia for helping with the skipping games. To view photos please click here |
Upcoming events and key dates |
|
Uniform Swap Shop: open every Friday 3.15 – 3.45pm 14 July: 5:45 – 8:30pm – Year 6 Valedictory Event There will be no teacher-led clubs next week as it is the last week of term. |
Community Nursery Sessions |
|
It has been lovely to welcome several children and their grown-up to our Community Sessions. We spend the first part of the session with musical instruments, scarves, hand puppets and sing lots of different songs and nursery rhymes. We then have a time of play and creating before we finish with a story and a song. If you have an under 5, or know someone who would like to bring their child along please ask them to get in touch with the Junior School office – junioradmin@nhs.gdst.net. We would love to see you there!
|
Tennis4All Summer Camps |
|
Join Tom, Imogen, Steve and the Tennis4All team for 3 days of tennis fun in the summer holidays from Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 August, between 10am and 1pm. The tennis camp follows a clear daily structure, focusing on the technical, tactical, physical side of tennis taught in a fun and engaging way. Children will be put into groups depending on age ability. For details on how to book a space, please contact Tennis4All by clicking here. Mrs Rose |
The Pauline Quirke Academy Northampton - Drama Summer School |
|
|
Term Dates |
|
|
|
Northampton High School |
|
