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Junior News
Junior Newsletter 8 February 2019
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Dear Parents and girls,
This week got off to an excellent start as we were treated to a performance by the Year 3/4 Recorder Club in Monday’s assembly. Having worked and practised hard for a number of weeks they have developed to the stage where they were able to entertain us with renditions of pieces such as ‘Hot Cross Buns’, ‘Joe Joe’, ‘Skateboard Ride’ and – particularly impressively – ‘Elephants’ in two parts. The fact that they were able to do this was testament to their dedication and commitment to the club and to the teaching of Mrs Farrar. Their recital also marked the start of regular performance opportunities for students at any stage of their musical journey and girls will receive more information about this in the coming days.
Tuesday was Safer Internet Day (SID) and, as promised, the girls were educated and informed via a special assembly and in-class and around-school activities and discussions. My thanks go to Mrs Shaw for everything that she did to facilitate this and to the wonderful Student Digital Leaders for their assistance, too. Additional information can be found via the link in last week’s newsletter and you are encouraged to discuss and complete the ‘Parents and Carers Internet Safety Plan’ which can be found via the link in the section below and of which your daughter has a hard copy.
Interesting as it was, SID could never quite compete with Chinese New Year, which fell on the same day – especially when it came to tantalising the taste buds. All were treated to a Chinese feast at lunchtime, with the fortune cookies proving to be very popular indeed. The younger girls also had the opportunity to taste Chinese snacks and experience themed activities as they welcomed in The Year of the Pig.
5N’s Class Assembly for parents and students on Wednesday was a heartfelt plea to save the rainforests, delivered via the story ‘The Kapok Tree’ by Lynne Cherry and backed up by interesting facts that they had researched themselves. Year 5 amazed us, too, with their creativity. Having been set an open prep task by Mrs Shaw and Miss Brandon-Jones, they were given free rein to create anything that they liked on the theme of Bletchley Park. As a result, we had various models of the Enigma machine – all in stunning detail and some edible – and lots of codes, too. There was a battle scene recreated in coloured biscuit crumbs and an action scene of fighter planes dropping bombs. We also had a meticulously-created model of Hut 8, a bomb machine and even a German plane suspended in gelatine over an anti-aircraft gun – both of which were hand-made, of course! Some girls chose to create PowerPoint presentations and give speeches, some wrote poems, drew pictures and painted posters but the result of each and every one was truly impressive. Do please take the time to look at some of the models in the Year 5 folder on Flickr.
As the week draws to a close the girls have been taking part in fundraising activities for the NSPCC. All learnt their facts for the ‘Buddy’s Meaningful Maths’ sponsored event and the cake sale is taking place as I type. Grand totals will have to wait until next week, but I would like to thank all who have supported these events, both financially and practically.
It is hard to believe that we only have one more week until the mid-term break, especially given that the first half of term is longer than usual and energy levels are still so high. The weeks since Christmas have flown by but so much has happened and teachers have been busy summarising their students’ achievements over these weeks and the previous term. These comments will appear in the form of an interim report which will be made available to you electronically next Friday, 15 February.
Have a lovely weekend.
Caroline Petryszak
Interim Head of Junior School
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Mrs Petryszak's availability
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Mrs Petryszak’s days on site will vary over the coming weeks in order to align with school activities and events:
- w/c 11 February: Monday/Thursday/Friday
- w/c 25 February: Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday
- w/c 4 March: Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday
- w/c 11 March: Monday/Thursday/Friday
- w/c 18 March: Monday/Wednesday/Thursday
- w/c 25 March: Monday/Thursday/Friday
- w/c 1 April: 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.
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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 last week:
Cheerleading
Charlotte E-H – came 1st in team competition
Skiing
Sophie H
Tae Kwondo
Rebecca P – yelllow belt
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General Messages
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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 2N – 13 February
Year 6N – 27 February
Reception – 6 March
Year 1N – 13 March
Year 3N – 27 March
Year 4N – 3 April
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Monday 11 February – 4N Hardingstone Walk
Monday 18 to Friday 22 February – HALF TERM
Thursday 28 February – Staff meeting. No teacher-led clubs
PARENTS’ EVENINGS:
Wednesday 20 March – Nursery: 4pm – 6pm
Wednesday 20 March – Reception to Year 6: 6pm – 8pm
Thursday 21 March – Nursery to Year 6: 4pm – 6pm
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Clubs that are cancelled:
- Year 3 Computing Club on Monday 4 March
- Year 5 and 6 Book Club on Monday 4 March
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Year 3 Cupcake and Cookies Sale for NSPCC
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Thank you for your support and donations to this worthy cause. Look out for further news and photographs in Junior News next week!
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Anglian Cross Country Championships
On Saturday 2 February, Ella D represented the school at the Anglian Cross Country Championships at Abington Park, Northampton. Ella ran In the Minor girls age category, which meant that she was running against other girls with a year’s more experience. This certainly did not put her off.
Out of 72 runners Ella came home in 5th place. This is an outstanding performance as she was competing against the best athletes in that age category from the Northamptonshire, Cambridge, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk regions.
Her results, totalled with all the other runners from Northamptonshire meant that as a team they came second in the competition.
Under 11 Netball A Team v Broughton Manor
This week the A team played against Broughton Manor. Unfortunately, we lost but we kept trying and we are looking forward to playing our next match against Winchester House.
Gemma S – Captain
Under 11 Netball B Team v Broughton Manor
On Wednesday the B team played a match against Broughton Manor. We won 4-2 and ended on an amazing shot at goal by Isobel S. I am very proud of the team and look forward to us continuing to try our best.
Roja L
Under 11 Netball C Team v Broughton Manor
On Wednesday the C team played against Broughton Manor and we won 8-1. Well done team.
Lola A
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To view our latest School photos from our Flickr albums, please click here
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Our week
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Kipper Room
This week in Kipper Room we celebrated Chinese New Year. The girls enjoyed playing, pouring, scooping and exploring the feeling of rice and noodles. They also had the opportunity to try some Chinese food at snack and lunchtime whilst listening to some Chinese music. The girls had fun decorating Chinese lanterns, too. We have been continuing practising our shapes and the girls have made their own sandwiches; they enjoyed naming the shapes they had made and eating them.
Elmer Room
This week in Elmer Room the girls enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year by participating in a range of different activities, including role-playing with Chinese food and utensils, playing with rice and practising their writing skills by copying Chinese writing in glitter. They have also been food tasting and making wonderful lanterns, which has helped to develop their cutting skills, and taking part in a range of activities through provocation and especially liked playing in the shaving foam with the dinosaurs and trying to get the farm animals out of the ice.
Pre-School
This week we have had a week of provocations. On Monday the girls were very excited to see some dinosaur eggs when they went through to preschool; we also explored marshmallow goo! They enjoyed using water and salt to dissolve the eggs to release the dinosaur babies and got very sticky in the goo. On Wednesday we built structures with different types of bricks and on Thursday we explored what happened when we put vinegar on to bicarbonate of soda and got very excited watching the fizzing. We finished the week by investigating which materials would be best to make a bed for an animal to help keep it warm.
On Tuesday we were excited to join with Reception to celebrate Chinese New Year, sharing lots of activities, making dragons, Chinese lanterns and pig models. We also watched a DVD about the Chinese culture.
Next week your daughter may experience the following activities.
- Name writing
- Consolidating our sounds from this half term with different activities
- Recognising numerals and counting animals
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This week the girls thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year. They joined together with the Pre-School children to undertake lots of different activities all linked to the festival.
The girls have also undertaken some ‘Maths Number Challenges’ to take part in the NSPCC event. There were 10 challenges to complete around the classroom and an answer sheet to record the tasks.
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This week we have finished our Class book about Australia and we are working on our own ABC animal books which reflect learning about different species in Science. We also celebrated two big events this week, in the form of Chinese New Year and Safer Internet Day. We learned how to say ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese and how to ask permission when going online. Our Class Pledge is ‘To always ask a grown up before using the internet’. I hope that the girls remember to honour this pledge at home!
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In Year 2 this week we have been very busy. We have been practising our Class Assembly, learning about and celebrating the Chinese New Year, thinking about internet safety as part of Internet Safety Day AND still working hard in all of our lessons!
“I have enjoyed learning about statistics and making tally charts and block charts in Maths.” Sophie
“I have liked doing dance in PE because it is really fun!” Ishani
“I have mostly enjoyed making things for our Class Assembly and learning my words.” Ellie
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“This week I have enjoyed playing money games, getting ready to sell cakes on Friday and writing out my story.” Emily
“I found it very interesting discussing how we can stay safe online. I found out that it is against the law to buy a game when you are under age but not to play it, but I would always ask my parents permission first”. Safiya
Next Tuesday afternoon Year 3 and 4 are going to be working together on team-building activities to get ready for our residential to Beaumanor. Please can the girls bring wellies or outdoor shoes to school, as we will be going outside, weather permitting.
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“I enjoyed DT where we made sliders and mouth folds.” Natalie
“I enjoyed Science because I love experiments and it was fun to see if the salty water ice cube would melt before the normal water ice cube.” Emily S
Next Tuesday afternoon Year 3 and 4 are going to be working together on team-building activities to get ready for our residential to Beaumanor. Please can the girls bring wellies or outdoor shoes to school, as we will be going outside, weather permitting.
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“I really enjoyed our Bletchley Open Prep last week. I made an Enigma machine out of a Pringles can with my dad – if something goes wrong he always has bright ideas about what to do next. I like the fact that it was simple to make and I can actually use it like a real Enigma machine to crack codes.” Sherain
“For my Open Prep I did a canvas all about Mavis Batey. I chose her because she was one of the most inspirational women from Bletchley Park; when she was 19 she started work on the Italian Naval Enigma machine and helped to break the code. I learned lots of facts like: after the war she became a historical gardener, an author, a wife and a mother.” Charlotte
“I liked practising for our Class Assembly about the Kapok Tree, and I also liked making a PowerPoint about Chinese New Year.” Shireen
“My favourite part of the week was learning a new stroke in swimming.” Vhenekha
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This week week we have thought a lot about how to use the internet in a safe way and the way in which permissions affects our use of the internet. We have also enjoyed the challenge of multiplying decimals in Maths, learning about primary, secondary and tertiary economies in humanities, separating white light in Science and auditioning for ‘Mystery at Magpie Manor.’
Felicity and Tara
“I really enjoyed continuing with my cushion design in D.T. Everybody’s cushions are looking really colourful!” Charlotte E S
“This week, in Maths we have been further exploring fractions and decimals and have all been surprised by some of our findings!” Deeya
“I really enjoyed all the fun activities we took part in on e-safety.” Tara
“This week has been really busy and I have enjoyed auditioning for the play and also thinking abut the economic consequences if a large group of people lose their jobs, on the wealth of the area.” Felicity
“We had a really relaxed, fun time auditioning for our play this week. It was great fun.” Abigail
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This week in Gap Club we have been celebrating Chinese New Year. The girls have created dancing concertina dragons, paper lanterns, dragon stick puppets and paper fans.
Three girls have shared their highlight of the week:
“All of the things for Chinese New Year.” Harriet – Nursery
“I like doing painting.” Holly – Reception
“I’ve enjoyed doing my watercolour painting.” Sophie – Year 2
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Other News
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Fashion Show in aid of Zanzibar 2019
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On Wednesday 13 February, the Global Action Zanzibar group will be holding an event in the Senior Hall from 7.00pm. There will be a fashion show with the girls modelling clothes from the company SOS. Brands sold on the night include ASOS, M&S, New Look, Miss Selfridge, Next, Topshop, Boden and many more. These will be sold at a discounted price of up to 75%. There will also be a tombola and refreshment stalls to make a fun and enjoyable evening.
Going to Zanzibar will be a life-changing experience. We will have the opportunity to take part in conservation projects, working closely with wildlife such as native turtles, butterflies and other endangered species. We will also be working with the local community, in schools to help teach English as well as spending time in an orphanage. This will be a rewarding and eye-opening experience.
Tickets are £5 sold before the event and £7 on the door on the night. Please buy tickets at the school reception or buy online at https://www.trybooking.co.uk/IKK
Mrs Carr
Science Teacher
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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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