Nothampton High School
Junior News
Junior News

Junior Newsletter 18 January 2019

Dear Parents and girls,

January feels like a very long month. We arrive and leave school or work in the dark and scan our gardens ceaselessly for hopeful signs that spring will arrive soon. It is not so for children. One of the great privileges of working with young children is their unstoppable ability to live in the moment and find opportunities for play and fun at every turn, whatever the time of year. It was heart-warming to watch our 2 year olds in their gym session balancing on the ‘wonky donkeys’ and finding the confidence to jump off blocks & land safely. Not to mention my Year 2 Art club spontaneously bursting into a tuneful rendition of ‘Kumbaya’ while vigorously painting their tropical fish.

Last Friday saw our Year 6 girls spending the day in Senior School for their transition activities. It was wonderful to hear how much they had enjoyed the whole day, particularly the afternoon’s team-building challenges. All the girls commented on how they had met lots of new people and made new friends.

Mrs Beacroft, Creative Faculty Head, further added to the girls’ anticipation of what lies ahead for them in Senior School in our Wednesday assembly. She shared examples of artwork from each of the Senior years, giving Junior School girls a flavour of the skills they will learn and techniques they will experience, from etching to mixed media collage.

Betty, our school dog, has had a landmark week after celebrating her first birthday on Monday. This was marked by a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ in Monday’s assembly and a birthday cake and candle in the Nursery garden. Nursery girls were more than happy to help Betty blow out her candle. It is so lovely on a daily basis to listen to girls talking to each other and their parents about how cuddly Betty is and telling each other where on her body is the softest place to stroke. Alongside this, watching the girls’ confidence grow and even the quietest, youngest girls developing their language by talking to Betty and asking questions about her.

Next week is our Open Week, when we will be welcoming visitors and giving tours of our wonderful Junior School for prospective families. Do let friends and family know about this and encourage them to book a visit.

Meanwhile, I wish you a restful weekend.

Jo Purvey Tyrer
Deputy Head of Junior School

Mrs Petryszak's availability

Mrs Petryszak’s days on site will vary this half-term in order to align with school activities and events:

  • w/c 21 January: Monday/Thursday/Friday
  • w/c 28 January: Monday/Thursday/Friday
  • w/c 4 February: Monday/Thursday
  • w/c 11 February: Monday/Thursday/Friday

She is, however, contactable on c.petryszak@nhs.gdst.net or via the school office on any day of the working week.

Achievements

Each week in Friday’s assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for the last two weeks:

Under 13 Cross Country County Championships
Ella D – came 1st

Swimming
Fern A – PB on freestyle and butterfly

Karate
Sienna P – blue belt
Leilana P – blue belt
Daisy S – purple belt

Cubs
Fern A – achieved various badges

Skiing
Gabriella M – 2 gold medals in races

General Messages

Assemblies

Class Assemblies are held in the Junior School hall at 8.35am on Wednesdays and parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00am. Here are the dates for this term:

Year 5H – 30 January

Year 5N – 6 February

Year 2N – 13 February

Year 6N – 27 February

Reception – 6 March

Year 1N – 13 March

Year 4N – 20 March

Year 3N – 27 March

Dates for the diary

Monday 21 January to Friday 25 January – Open Week

Tuesday 22 January – No teacher-led clubs

Thursday 24 January – Year 5 Bletchley Park

Monday 28 January – Reception-6N NSPCC talk

Friday 8 February – FoNHS Pamper Evening

Monday 11 February – 4N Hardingstone Walk

Monday 18 to Friday 22 – HALF TERM DATES

Wednesday 20 March – Nursery: 4pm – 6pm

Wednesday 20 March –  Reception to Year 6: 6pm – 8pm

Thursday 21 March – Nursery to Year 6: 4pm – 6pm

Clubs

There are no teacher-led clubs on Tuesday 22 January due to staff training. (Sports Clubs remain unaffected.)

Photos on Flickr

To view our latest School photos from our Flickr albums, please click here

Our week

Nursery

Pre-School

This week in the Pre-School room we have been looking at our sound of the week ‘d’. The girls have made ‘dotty dogs’ by sticking on dots and decorating pictures of dogs. They have found information books about the farm in the library and created their own farm scenes out of junk model boxes. We also went on a ‘sound walk’ inside school listening carefully to various sounds.

Next week our letter of the week will be ‘t’ and the girls may experience the following activities:

  • Making triangle toast
  • Ordering trains according to their length
  • Writing snack menus

Kipper Room

In Kipper Room this week, the girls have enjoyed learning about shapes, colours and counting through a variety of activities: drawing around the coloured plastic shapes; counting the penguins in the water tray and matching them to the right coloured hoops, and creating a circle shape picture recognising the colours and counting how many circles they have.

Elmer Room

In Elmer Room this week, the girls have enjoyed joining in our daily group times, where we have been learning the date, days of the week, months of the year and weather. They have also had fun creating wonderful farm pictures using the farm animal sponges and colourful paint. The girls have been developing their skills by cutting different coloured paper and also cutting out different farm animals.

Reception

This week we have been learning all about wood. The girls have made a wooden model, looked for wooden objects in the classroom and had a go at hammering in a nail safely. We have used the story ‘The Toys’ Party’ as a focus for re-telling and a writing activity. The girls also made the cake in the story using some very strange ingredients! (See if your daughter can remember what went in.)

Our number focus has been 12 and the 2p coin. Please look at some coins at home, as the girls are expecting to see the 3p coin next!

Year 1

“I loved using the computers to log in and play Maths games.” Artemisia

“I like playing in the sand tray. It is like the Outback.” Yilin

“I liked doing handwriting because we were challenged.” Kyla

Year 2

We have been reading more Dreamtime stories this week and studying them in detail looking at the similarities and differences between them. In Maths, we have been revising equal groups and refreshing our memories of how to use the multiplication sign. We ventured to the Computer Suite, too, and explored some coding challenges on Purple Mash. In Science we have been looking at life cycles of different animals and humans too. It has been a busy week of learning!

“We’ve loved computing this week and completing the challenges on Purple Mash.”  Sophie and Jessica

“I’ve liked exploring equal groups in Maths this week and answering lots of questions.” Avleen

“I’ve enjoyed working in groups reading more Australian Dreamtime stories and sharing them with the class.” Harriet

Year 3

“I enjoyed learning about Christianity and drawing what Jesus might look like”.  Rianna

“I liked talking about sandwiches in DT ready to start inventing our own varieties”.  Esme

“We watched ‘The Borrowers’ and thought about what it would be like to be tiny. I imagined my baby sister dribbling over me thinking I am a doll!”  Darcy

Year 4

“I enjoyed doing the dance in PE.” Frankie

“I liked making our imaginary models out of plasticine. It was really fun!” Elizabeth

Year 5

“In Science we did 4 separating experiments to see how many different ways we could find to separate mixtures. My favourite one was the flour and raisins because it was really interesting watching all the flour going into the beaker through a sieve and being left with all the powdery raisins.” Tanya

“My favourite experiment was using the salty water in a beaker. We put it into the microwave and turned it on full. Everyone was watching the microwave and then the water started bubbling and it evaporated and we were left with loads of salt in the beaker. We also tried putting some salty water into a petri dish and someone picked up their team’s dish and accidentally spilled the water on the cupboard top. The day after we went to look at the evaporation and where the water had spilled all that was there was lots of little crystals of salt!” Poppy

“My highlight of the week was Computing. I enjoyed making animations and designing our own characters.” Chanan

“This week I enjoyed Maths (adding and subtracting decimals) because I understood it and it was very fun. I also really enjoyed doing animations in Computing.” Tobi

Year 6

Following on from an excellent day in Senior School on Friday, making new friends, creating amazing structures out of paper and eating good food, we have had another busy week in Year 6. We were amazed and astounded in our Science lesson, led by Mrs Vizor, where we were given the opportunity to prove that light travels in straight lines, and have been looking more closely at what makes a good map in Humanities. In Maths, we have explored BIDMAS and have looked at the properties of some interesting 3D shapes, including a tetrahedron and the frustum of a cone! We have also enjoyed finishing reading the first book of ‘The Shadow of the Minotaur’ and cannot wait to find out what happens to our hero and heroine next!

Isla A and Charlotte L.S.

“I was amazed how a laser’s beam of light could be seen when chalk dust was poured over it – this started to prove to me that light travels in straight lines!”  Roja

“I cannot believe that Phoenix’s father, Phoenix himself and Laura have disappeared into the game in ‘The Shadow of the Minotaur’ – what will happen next?”  Sonya

“I have enjoyed looking at a variety of maps and I cannot believe how different maps of the same location can appear”.  Tess

GAP Club

This week in Gap Club the girls have enjoyed spending time outside and having fun dancing. Girls from both rooms have helped to make playdough and then used it to have a bake off. The older girls have made biscuit designs with paint and practised sugar craft and piping a design.

Two girls have shared their highlight of the week in Gap Club:

“Making the play dough.” Maisie, Year 6

“Playing with the princess dolls, playing playdough and going outside.” Harriet, Nursery

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