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Junior News
Junior Newsletter 21 September 2018
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Dear Parents and girls,
I am delighted to be writing my first newsletter on day one of my tenureship at Northampton High School, and it was a pleasure to meet some of you over coffee and juice this morning.
To date, my visits to Junior School have focused on orientation and meetings with colleagues. I have spent a significant amount of time with Mrs Purvey-Tyrer and Mrs Dadge, both of whom have given me a very warm welcome. It is clear that they have done a wonderful job over the past few weeks and I very much look forward to working with them. I’ve been busy getting to know other staff too, and it is already apparent that distinguishing between the Misses Hillery may prove to be one of my biggest challenges of the term!
Whilst I have been talking to colleagues, the girls have been as busy as ever. On Sunday, Indi Ransley and Felicity Lousada jumped clear rounds in their very first NSEA (National Schools Equestrian Association) show, which is a fantastic achievement. During the week, Year 1 took advantage of the early-autumn weather by constructing and testing kites in the playground, and Year 6 impressed with their Class Assembly on their academic and personal targets for the year, which will prepare them well for Senior School.
Next week we look forward to the arrival of new classroom furniture, which will allow for even greater flexibility and creativity in teaching and learning. On a personal level, I also look forward to getting to know the girls and meeting more parents. I would, therefore, like to remind you that there are ‘meet and greet’ sessions in the Junior School from 8.00 am until 8.30 am on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 September and a Macmillan Coffee morning in the Junior School Dining Hall from 7:30 am until 9:00 am on Friday 28 September, to which you are most welcome. If these are not convenient and you would like to make an appointment to meet with me at another time, then please do not hesitate to do so.
Have a lovely weekend.
Caroline Petryszak
Interim Head of Junior School
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Achievements
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Each week in Friday’s assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week:
Horse Riding
Felicity Lousada show jumping competition
Dog Show
Sophia Pang came in 1st place with Ada and in 2nd place with Toby
Beavers
Lydia Morris badges for hike and staying away
Karate
Gabriella Moffat blue belt
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General messages
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Class Assemblies are held in the Junior School hall at 8.35 am on Wednesdays, and parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00 am. Here are the dates for this term:
Year 4 – 3 October
Year 3 – 17 October
Year 2 – 14 November
Year 5 – 28 November
Year 5 – 5 December
Year 1 – 12 December
More useful dates:
A reminder for Reception Parents that the Curriculum Information Meeting takes place on Wednesday 26 September, 4.00 pm to 5.00 pm.
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There will be no Board Games Club for Year 2 and 3 on Wednesday 26 September as Mrs Shaw has a meeting.
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We politely request that all visitors to the school car park be aware of the 5 mph speed limit. The speed limit is for the safety of all children and adults using this site.
There have been a few incidents reported recently regarding safety, and, as you will understand, it is our priority is to make the school site as safe as possible for everyone.
May we please ask all drivers to give way to pedestrians using the designated crossing points. Children should be dropped off in the designated bays in the parking areas, and not on the crossings or in disabled parking spaces. Please be conscious of looking both ways when pulling out of the parking bays.
We thank you for taking care and keeping safety paramount.
Mrs Headley
Director of Finance and Operations
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Year 5 are getting ready to host…
Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 28 September
Girls have been asked to bring in £1 to wear mufti and will be able to buy cakes and biscuits from 7.30 am for 50p each. There will be tea and coffee available for adults from 7.30 am to 9.00 am (donations would be very welcome).
If you are able to help us by making cakes, cookies, biscuits, brownies, flapjacks or anything else delicious, that would be BRILLIANT! Please bring supplies in on Thursday and leave them on the table in the entrance hall (preferably in a named tin or box). It is really important that NO NUTS are used in recipes (including Nutella) so that all the girls can stay safe.
Please ask the Year 5 girls, Miss Brandon-Jones or Mrs Shaw if you have any questions. Have fun baking and we look forward to seeing you on Friday morning!
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Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?
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Hockey
A team match report
On Wednesday, we played our very first match of the year against Bilton Grange. Our team lost the match 3-0, but we all found this to be a valuable stepping stone rather than feeling defeated about our loss. I am very proud of my team. Player of the match was awarded to Ella Darby for her great skills as a forward. We will work towards improving our skills for next week’s match.
Roja L
Hockey Captain
B team match report
On Wednesday, the B team played against Bilton Grange. The team played very well together but sadly we lost 5-0. Tobi was particularly good at goal keeping, especially as it was her first go! The Player of the Match was awarded to Charlotte Evans-Hillman. I was very proud of my team because even though we lost, we all came off the pitch with big smiles on our faces.
Charlotte E-H
B Team Captain
C team match report
On Wednesday, we went to a hockey match at Bilton Grange. The team played excellently, despite the strong winds and the opposition being on top of them for most of the match. We lost by 5-0. The player of the match was Gemma Stowey.
Imogen C
C Team Captain
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Clothing recycling
A reminder about our clothing recycling facility at school. We have teamed up with Starlight Children’s Foundation, a charity that brightens the lives of seriously and terminally ill children. For every kilgramme of clothing and other items recycled, Starlight receives 10p and FoNHS receives 40p.
Through our recycling efforts over the last three or so years, we have raised over £2,200 for FoNHS, so a huge thank you to everyone who uses the facility – well over five tonnes of items going to good use (and possibly saved from landfill), and a huge boost to FoNHS funds at the same time; we are also supporting Starlight’s incredible work with every kilgramme of items we recycle.
So if you can, please do consider using the recycling facility whenever you have a clear out. The collection ‘bank’ is bright yellow and is situated on the pathway alongside the Junior School car park. The recycling company accepts all men’s, ladies’ and children’s clothing, paired shoes (tied together please), handbags, bags, ties, belts, towels and bedlinen. Any uniform carrying school or team logos is not accepted. Please put all items in a plastic bag before depositing them in case the bank is not watertight.
Thank you very much for your support.
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To view the Flickr photo albums please click here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/northamptonhigh/albums
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Our week
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Elmer Room
This week we have used oil pastels to make self portraits. The girls looked carefully at their features before deciding which colours they needed. They have been enjoying dressing and feeding the baby dolls. On Thursday we watched a baby being bathed and then the girls bathed the dolls.
As it was very windy we made ribbon streamers and flew them on the field instead of visiting forest school.
Outside, the girls enjoyed making shopping lists, playing the shopping list game and thinking about healthy eating.
Next week your daughter may experience the following activities:
Planting bulbs and flowers
Making obstacle courses
Kipper Room
In Kipper room this week we have enjoyed playing in the home corner making a variety of drinks and dinner. The girls have had lots of fun getting messy painting their hands to make handprints. We have liked practicing our climbing and jumping skills outside too.
Next week we will be looking at Autumn with some conker rolling, leaf sticking and sponge printing.
General Information
We have two new parent information boards –
One being outside of Nursery containing weekly information for parents.
And the other just inside Nursery where you can share your daughters achievements from home.
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This week all the girls have been trying their best to remember the many new routines and expectations that are part of settling in to a class group. We all very much enjoyed visiting Forest School and investigating the area. Swimming lessons have also been a huge success and some very impressive independent changing!
Some of our activities this week have involved name writing, number recognition and thinking about the properties of a rectangle shape. We have also been forming the number two and looking for anything yellow! The girls enjoyed finding out about our sense of sight, by playing Kim’s game, making a telescope and looking at the parts of our eye in a mirror.
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“I mixed yellow and red really fast and then it turned orange”. Arty
“I made green with a lot of yellow and a bit of blue. I learnt that green is a secondary colour”. Fatima
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As part of one of our Maths lessons this week, we carried out an investigation. We looked to answer the question: ‘Do taller children have bigger feet?’
Firstly, we discussed the information we would need to answer the question and how we would collate it. We decided that we would draw around our shoe and then measure it using a ruler, we then ordered ourselves, smallest to biggest, according to shoe size and took a photo.
Next, we ordered ourselves according to height and took a photo. We were then able to compare the two photos and draw up a conclusion. We had some interesting results and found that our shortest classmate had bigger feet than one of the taller girls!
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This week we have been learning about adjectives and reading character descriptions written by Roald Dahl. We have enjoyed creating our own evil characters, who you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night!
We have learnt about retro-reflective material in science and how it can keep us safe when we are out at night.
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“I liked when I saw the new swimming pool. I also liked when we did PE because it was really fun. And I liked when we learnt how to count money”. Elizabeth
“I liked Art because we mixed up colours and we drew a leaf and painted it”. Lily
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“I liked enrichment because we created posters about our coffee morning next Friday”. Holly
“I enjoyed Humanities, we were looking at maps”. Darmini
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This week has flown past and we have taken part in lots of exciting activities. On Wednesday, we performed our class assembly on ‘New Beginnings’ and really enjoyed telling our audience all about the importance of starting a new term in the right way.
In Maths we carried out an investigation exploring how many pages there were in a book:
”The maths challenge was difficult but once we had figured it out but once we had figured it out we felt very proud of ourselves!” Manha
”I really enjoyed learning to sketch leaves in Enrichment; I really feel that my skills are improving!” Maisie
”In All About Apps we put together a Power Point for our assembly; it really brought our assembly alive!” Phoebe
”In English we read a variety of poems about Autumn. I really loved ‘The day that summer died’ because it cleverly personifies trees as mourners.” Isobel
”We had a lively debate today on the motion, ‘Prep should be banned!’. The opposition narrowly won. Well done to all the debaters!” Ashana
”I am really enjoying reading the class reader, Shadow of the Minotaur’. My favourite part so far is when Phoenix finds himself lost in the gruesome labyrinth!” Eryn
More news next week.
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The girls have been busy creating in both rooms and have enjoyed spending time together.
Two girls have shared their highlight of the week in GAP Club:
“Making the pirate things.” Harriet in Nursery
“Making flowers out of newspaper.” Evie in Year 3
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Northampton High School
Newport Pagnell Road, Hardingstone Northampton NN4 6UU
T: 01604 765765 nhsadmin@nhs.Gdst.Net
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