While Year 13 students say their goodbyes and Year 11 begin their study leave ahead of GCSEs, the Junior School has been watching these moments with curiosity, admiration, and a real sense of connection.

Our Junior School pupils have loved seeing the Year 13s dressed up in creative costumes – from future ambitions to iconic figures and favourite childhood characters. These joyful celebrations have sparked conversations and laughter. It has also been a chance for our pupils to say goodbye to the older students who have supported them in fixtures, assisted in lessons, or simply been a friendly face around school. In some cases, Junior School pupils are cheering on their sister or cousin as they take the next step in their journey.

It is especially special to think that many of those Year 13s started their journey right here in the Junior School, and some even in our Nursery. To see them now, leaving as confident and compassionate young adults, is a reminder of just how meaningful these early years are in shaping the people they become.

As we look ahead to our own Year 6 Celebration later this term, we are reminded that this class too, are preparing for an exciting step forward, across the dining hall and into Senior School life. 

I have been so impressed by the enthusiasm, kindness, and resilience our pupils show every day. It is a joy to watch them grow, and while saying goodbye is always bittersweet, I know they will go on to do incredible things. For now, we continue to make the most of our time together in all parts of the school, learning, laughing, and creating memories that will last far beyond their time here.

Mrs Saunders-Wall
Interim Director of Junior School Liaison

In Nursery after reading ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ last week; we have grown our own cress in Ziplock bags.  The girls have been very keen to see their progress on a daily basis.  

‘The Gruffalo’ is our story this week, along with reading it with the girls, we have given the girls the learning opportunity to act it out with props in our tuff tray and also see if they can replicate the Gruffalo’s face at the craft table. 

Our trip to Forest School included looking for bugs and ticking them off on a sheet.

This week in Preschool we have been looking at our next life cycle ‘Caterpillar to Butterfly’. We watched a short informative PowerPoint which showed us each stage in more detail. First came an egg, which the girls correctly guessed might come first. We observed how the caterpillar comes out and starts to eat leaves and grows in size before building a chrysalis around itself. The next stage was the butterfly emerging by wriggling out backwards and we all learnt that they cannot fly until their wings have dried out.

The girls have been busy in the classroom this week choosing between various fine motor activities which have included threading beads, puzzles, drawing the butterfly life cycle, making butterfly’s on the interactive board or painting with butterfly stencils on the easel. Lots of lovely pieces of art work were created and many have made their way up onto our life cycle board display.

This week in PE the girls were tasked with completing a rather different obstacle course. They had to carry small objects up and down stairs and climb in and out of hoops which were placed over the back of chairs. We had to make sure we were taking our time and going slowly whilst completing these tasks.

We have also celebrated VE Day this week by making Union Jack flags and explored sensory play of blue water, red sparkles and white shaving foam.

This week in Reception we continue to focus on the theme of minibeasts, weaving this into all aspects of our curriculum.

We have finished making our Minibeast fact files and are now enjoying exploring the text ‘Doris the Loris.’

We continued to use ten frames to support our learning of subtraction in Maths and enjoyed working in pairs to play the minibeast race.

In Music we are learning several new songs about insects and bugs – ‘Out in the Garden,’ ‘Follow the silver trail’ and’ Please don’t squash me!’.

In Music this term, Year 1 are learning to identify and explore pitch created by a variety of different instruments and voices.

We have used chime bars to play a simple listening games to identify when a high or low pitch note is played. We have learnt the song ‘Happy Sun High, Happy Sun Low’ and enjoyed using ribbon sticks and scarves to show when we hear high notes and low ones in the music. We have used chime bars to follow and compose simple pitch patterns and begun to work in small groups to create our own compositions.

Alongside Year 2, we have enjoyed welcoming some of our peripatetic music teachers to our lessons to listen to live music and ask questions about the instruments they teach.

In Year 2, we start our lessons warming up by performing rhythm patterns, where we follow the crotchets, crotchet rests and quavers to clap or use body percussion to perform rhythms to fun music.

This term we are focussing on the theme of pitch and melody.

We have also introduced flats and sharps, how to recognise them in music and where to find them on the keyboard. This has been part of our exploration of the natural minor scale which we have done through singing, keyboard work and creating simple backing parts for a song using this scale.

We have continued to work on recognising different rhythm patterns and clapping these accurately in combination.

This has involved learning a keyboard piece called ‘Old Abram Brown’.

We have also managed to work outside in the sunshine using African Drums. Year 4 have also been exploring major and minor chords and adding 7ths as extensions. 

Year 5 have continued to work on improving their performance and aural skills.

While preparing for their Peter Pan performance, we looked at counting beats and bars to ensure entries were performed correctly, being aware of other performers and improving the quality of vocal production.

The girls have also continued to focus on music notation, learning to notate simple songs using both pitch and rhythm.

Year 1 to Year 6 enjoyed a special assembly about VE Day with some personal stories of people involved in the celebrations 80 years ago. We all enjoyed singing ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’ and finding out about how people celebrated in the streets at the time.

Year 2 were fascinated to listen to the Winston Chuchill’s speech announcing the end of the war, and reflected on how important this would have been for people. They watched a film on a VE Day parade and created their own Union Jack flags.

We were delighted to host our annual Sports Celebration Event on Tuesday evening. With many students in attendance from Year 3 to Year 13. Our Sports Captains did an amazing job of reading out their round ups of the sporting year and Holly and Sophia (Year 9) performed some superb dance routines. Angelie B (Year 7) inspired us with a snippet of her Scholars Celebration speech speaking about how sport builds character and the value of team work.

We were joined by Northampton Town Football Club Player – Bianca Luttman who gave an inspiring speech about her journey in football and also the importance of team work and collaboration. Mrs Blake introduced a new initiative aimed at our high achieving students called the Athlete Development Programme, which is an exciting opportunity for players to work collaboratively with teachers and parents to develop their understanding of elite sport and work together to advance their skills.

The evening ended with a selection of awards being presented including our highly prestigious Headmistress Award which hadn’t had a recipient since 2022, this year being awarded to Harriet F (Year 13). Our Junior School Team of the Year was won by the U11 Netball team. Our Senior School Team of the Year was won by the 1^st XI Hockey team. Our Junior School Sports Personality of the Year was won by Evie H (Year 6) and the Senior School Sports Personality of the Year was won by Issy H (Year 13).

Thank you to all of the players and parents who supported the event and congratulations to those who received an award.

Mrs Blake
Director of Sport

Amayah in Preschool completed a weeks Tennis Academy over in America and impressed the coaches with her work ethic and coordination.

Notably the youngest at the academy but this didn’t phase Amayah. She won multiple prizes (t shirts & hoodies) for her serving ability.

We are very excited to share the news of our brand new girls-only toddler group starting this month!

Girls aged 1-3 and their parents, grandparents and guardians are all welcome to come along and delve into a wide variety of toys, crafts and ‘surprise play stations’ created to spark imagination and fun times. Always remember ‘dress to get messy!’.

This toddler group will be held fortnightly on Tuesdays, 9.15am – 10am, a full list of dates and the online booking form can be found on the school website https://www.northamptonhigh.co.uk/admissions/open-events/

Please feel free to share this with any friends who may be interested, and come and join us with your little ones too. Our next session is, Tuesday 20 May.