Nothampton High School
Junior News
Junior News

Junior Newsletter 7 December 2018

Dear Parents and girls,

Not surprisingly, this week has been dominated by Christmas preparations and celebrations. With the decorations up and the Christmas tree dressed, these began with the FoNHS Christmas Disco on Friday evening, and it was good to see so many girls enjoying themselves at the end of a busy week – and a busy term. I would like to thank the committee for organising this and all the staff and parents who helped on the night.

Girls from Nursery (Kipper Room) invited parents to a ‘Stay and Sing’ session on Tuesday, whilst those from Elmer Room to Year 2 entertained us with four performances of ‘A Wriggly Nativity’: one for the school and three for parents and grandparents. The production suited to the ages of the children perfectly and all had the opportunity to act, sing, dance and wriggle, with the older girls also narrating. I was hugely impressed with the girls’ talents and their spirit and would like to thank parents and grandparents for their support, the Music department for accompanying them and the staff who dedicated so much time and energy in ensuring that these were memorable events for all.

With Years 3-6 busy rehearsing for next week’s performance of ‘Straw and Order’, and Christmas events set to continue into next week, the older girls have been respecting and celebrating the diversity of the student body through the study of other religions. Year 6 worked in groups to prepare excellent presentations on Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, which will form the basis of Monday’s assembly. And this week, 5H reminded us that Jews around the world are currently celebrating Hanukkah. Through their own excellent assembly, they told us the story behind The Festival of Lights, taking us back over 2000 years to the time of the Maccabees and into the present with an explanation and enactment of the festival and its traditions. They left us with some key messages:

“It’s important to stand up for what you believe in.”
“But it’s just as important to remember that other people have exactly the same right… to stand up for what they believe in.”
“We are thankful that we live in a peaceful and fair society, where we can all have different beliefs. We can enjoy our own traditions and share the fun with our friends.”

Hanukkah sameach!

Caroline Petryszak
Interim Head of Junior School

Achievements

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:

Tennis
Mollie M Player of the Month

Gymnastics
Ellie H came 1st on vault
Abigail W silver medal for floor and vault

Karate
Safiya C orange/black belt

Swimming
Harriet B Duckling 4

Music
Charlotte L.S. Grade 1 Piano Merit

LAMDA
Odelia S Distinction

Trampolining
Mary-Anne Level 6 and 7 and In the cast of The Greatest Showman with her trampolining group

Cross Country
Ella 1st in Year 7 race in District Cross Country
Abigail 25th in Year 7 race in District Cross Country

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 1N – 12 December

Dates for the diary

Tuesday 11 December: KS2 (Year 3 to 6) Christmas Celebration 7 pm

Friday 14 December: Christmas Jumper Day & Party Afternoon

Friday 14 December: End of term

KS2 Christmas Celebration

The Christmas Celebration for Years 3 – 6 will be at 7.00 pm in the Senior School Hall on Tuesday 11 December.

Please could girls in Years 3 – 6 return to school at 6.30 pm to prepare for the KS2 Christmas Celebration.

Christmas Jumper Day - Friday 14 December

Please wear your Christmas jumper for a donation of £1 for Save the Children, which is Nursery’s chosen charity. There will also be a ‘Design a Christmas Jumper’ competition coming soon with prizes for EYFS, KS1 and KS2 handed out on Friday 14 December.

Clubs

There are no teacher-led clubs including morning and afternoon sports clubs in the last week of term, week commencing Monday 10 December.

Christmas Dinner

Christmas Dinner Menu – Friday 14 December 2018

Chilled Orange Juice

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Roast Breast of Turkey served with Pigs in Blankets, Sage and Onion Stuffing Balls, Thyme Flavoured Roast Potatoes, Roasted Parsnips, Glazed Batons of Carrots, Button Brussel Sprouts, Minted Peas, Cranberry Sauce and Fresh Gravy.

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Vegetarian Option: Oven Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable, Feta Cheese Filo Pastry Parcel served with Roast Potatoes, Roasted Parsnips, Glazed Batons of Carrots, Button Brussel Sprouts, Minted Peas and Fresh Gravy.

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Chocolate Coated Christmas Tree Ice Cream or Rudolph the Reindeer Christmas Cookie

After Dinner Chocolates

Sport

Hockey v Quinton House

We played very well in our hockey match on Wednesday 5 December, with the final score being 6 – 0.  Our Player of the Match was Isabelle.
Chanan  – Captain

Hockey B team v Quinton House

We played very well in our hockey match on Wednesday 5 December.  We drew!  I am very proud of the B team.  The Player of the Match was Isla.
Isla – Captain

District Cross Country, Abington Park

On Thursday 6 December, Abigail and myself competed in a Year 7 District Cross Country. We had two very successful results, Abigail came sprinting into the finish line, coming an outstanding 25th and I came 1st out of 125 people. Overall we both really enjoyed the event and look forward to the same race next year.
by Ella D

Top placed girls compete in the County Round to be held at West Glebe Park, Wellingborough on Saturday 19 January. Congratulations to Ella Darby who won the U13 girls race and progresses on to the next round.

Year 5 & 6 Newcastle Sports Tour

The girls had a wonderful time.  A full report will follow next week.

Photos in Flickr

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

Our week

Nursery

Kipper Room

This week we have been busy decorating the Christmas tree and beginning our Christmas crafts.

We were delighted to see so many of the parents and children during Tuesday afternoon. We are looking forward to next week’s Christmas party and our Nursery Christmas lunch.

Elmer Room

We have had a very busy week getting ready for Christmas and performing our Christmas play. We were all very proud of the girls and the way that they behaved and joined in with all the performances.

Next week we will be continuing our Christmas activities.

General Information

Friday 14 December – Christmas Jumper Day.

Your daughter may wear a Christmas jumper for a donation of £1 to Save the Children.

In the afternoon we are having our Christmas party; all girls are welcome.

Please chat to the Nursery team if you need any more information.

Reception

This week we have focused on ‘lights, camera, action’, as we took to the stage to perform our Christmas play.   All the girls rose to the occasion and it was a delight to see how sensibly and confidently they performed. The many words to all of the songs had been learnt and dances were remembered; they were all stars (and angels)!  Performing in front of a large audience requires inner strength and courage, proof of this was evident.

The week ended with a trip to the theatre – perfect as a treat for all their hard work and effort.

Year 1

Year 1 have shown they are all great performers this week. Here are some of our highlights from the show…

Leilana said her favourite part of the Nativity was singing ‘Donkey Plodding’.

Kyla enjoyed singing ‘Knock on another door’ and watching the Angels dance.

Rebecca liked dressing up in a costume and watching the chicken dance!

Year 2

What a busy week we have had in Year 2 ensuring that the Nativity Play rehearsals and performances were absolutely perfect! We’ve had a lot of fun performing our play and showing off our talents to the different audiences. Some of us are relieved that it is all over whilst some of us feel a little sad about it but we have enjoyed it and have received lots of positive feedback from teachers and parents alike. Thank you everyone for your support!

“I enjoyed singing Away in a Manger to the audience.”  Sophie

“I liked singing my solo.”  Zoe

“I loved singing the duet.” Harriet

“I liked telling the jokes to the audience!” Jessica

Year 3

“I have loved the rehearsals for the play and I liked trying on my costume.” Ellie

“I enjoyed going to Think Tank and learning about rocks and minerals.” Mary-Anne

Year 4

“It was really good in Art. It was my favourite thing.” Evie

“My highlight of the week is PE when we had free play and I was playing with the basketball and bibs with my friends.” Fern

Year 5

“In Maths we have been drawing circles using a pair of compasses. There is a point and you have to line up your pencil with the point, and then you measure the distance between the pencil and the point to draw a circle with a set radius. It was tricky at the start but through the maths lesson I got better and had lots of fun.” Sherain

“In Design & Technology we have been making photo frames. We first cut our bits of wood and stuck them together then we had to cut a backing board for the frame. This week we are painting the frame and sticking the photo on the backing board and putting it into the frame. I am proud of how my has come out so far.” Amy

“We learned a little bit about Hanukkah and did it for our assembly. We had fun learning why the Maccabees were fighting against the king of Syria and learned how to play a dreidel game. After the assembly we got to eat all the chocolate coins!” Millie

“In Computing we were doing Databases and everyone in the class was on it. We had to make different fields that have things like hats, ear muffs, tops and colours of hair.” Dharmini

“This week our class had some great Maths lessons which included using a protractor and a compass. Some of us found using a protractor hard so we had to work our hardest to understand it. But in the end we all had the best time. The compass was great but again it was challenging for some. So we did our best and the results were a perfect circle. Also we used some fraction equipment that helped us understand them more.”  Emily

Year 6

Despite working really hard this week we have managed to decorate our classroom and are starting to get into the festive spirit! We particularly enjoyed our trip to Think Tank this week and have also enjoyed sending our persuasive letters to Dr Stringer, learning about the effect of exercise on the pulse rate and identifying special numbers in Maths.

“Our visit to Think Tank was great fun and we really enjoyed coding Lego and the Dino Discovery workshop.” Gemma 

“On Wednesday Year 6 had an amazing time, in Science, testing our pulse rate when doing different exercises.” Charlotte

“We learnt about the magic of numbers in our Maths lessons this week. I particularly enjoyed learning about square and cube numbers and was surprised how few there are between 1 and 100.” Arna 

“On Tuesday we showed our Powerpoints and delivered a speech on our chosen religion. We were amazed at the similarities between the faiths as wells as the diversity of different practices.  Our group researched Buddhism.” Imogen 

“We had great fun putting up the class Christmas tree and all had fun getting into the Christmas spirit.” Ella

“We really enjoyed watching the Nursery to Year 2 play – it was amazing and the costumes were so cute. I loved the songs and now I feel really festive!” Lola

GAP Club

This week in GAP Club we have continued our Christmas activities. The girls have made tissue paper decorations, written a letter to Santa, made sparkly stockings and constructed reindeer antlers.

Two Year 1 girls have shared their highlight of the week:

“Writing a letter to Santa.” Asmi

“Making a stocking.” Anna

Northampton High School
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