Junior Newsletter 9 February 2018

Looking Ahead

Clubs

Year 3 girls are invited to join the Year 4 Netball club on Friday 2 March from 3.30pm to 4.30pm.

Running club will start-up again after half-term and Year 3 and 4 girls are invited to join in from 7.45am to 8.15am on Fridays. Please arrive in PE kit ready to run! We will not run on 2 March due to World Book day or 23 March due to the ski trip.

Cancelled Clubs:

• Crafty Creatures Club is cancelled on Wednesday 28 February.
• There will be no Tuesday Computing Club for Years 5 and 6 until further notice.

Change of Club day and year group:

• Year 6 Swimming Club previously on a Tuesday lunch will now be on a Monday lunch with the Year 5.

Junior School STEM Day

Everyone was excited to find out more about STEM this week. We had a visit from Atomic Science demonstrating how objects can fly and move through air. The older girls all had an opportunity to try out some activities in the lab and to watch some experiments. The Teabag Rocket worked really well. Everyone had a go at making different models – helicopters, gliders, kites and flying animals. In the afternoon the younger girls enjoyed a visit from two owls and they found out how the owls have special adaptations to help them fly.

World Book Day

We are celebrating World Book Day on Friday 2 March. Girls can come to school dressed up as their favourite character from a book.

Women's Day

Date for the diary!

In 1918, some women finally gained the right to vote. This year marks the 100th year of this movement and something we will be celebrating in the Junior School. After half term, girls will be discussing and researching the suffragette movement in school- through classwork and during assemblies. To celebrate this, International Women’s Day is on Thursday 8 March and Junior School girls are invited to create their own sash, rosette, badge, etc to wear to school for the day. This will be set as an open homework after half term and girls can parade their creations on that Thursday.

More details to follow after half term.

Music

It was lovely to see so many parents in school this week visiting individual music lessons. I hope the girls will now be inspired to do a little extra practice each week!

I am planning a Breakfast Concert for girls doing music exams this term. It will probably be at 8.00 am on Wednesday 7 March in the Junior Music room. Anyone who would like to perform will be included in the programme.

Nikki Atife and Ishika Shah in Year 6 both asked if they could enter the Senior School’s Young Musician competition last month. They played their pieces to Mr Nathan who commented on their performances, giving both girls a certificate and choosing Nikki as the winning performer out of the two girls. Well done to both girls.

The evening of Thursday 26 April is our annual concert when all the extra curricular groups will be performing. The girls are working very hard to make it a great evening of music for you. This year the pieces are all “Out of this World”.

Mrs Miller

RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch

Last week the girls enjoyed spending an hour counting birds. Every year the RSPB asks schools to send in data about the birds that they have in their school grounds. The girls are used to seeing the bigger birds such as the crows, pigeons, magpies and seagulls flying over the playgrounds. However, when they used binoculars to look carefully in the trees and on the grass, they were pleased to see smaller birds such as robins, long-tailed tits, chaffinches and wrens.

Puppy update

The hot topic of conversation in Junior School this week has been what to call our School Dog.  The girls have taken part in a democratic vote to choose her name.  The choices were Elsie, Betty or Vera, the names of Mrs Purvey-Tyrer’s Great Aunts. The winner was Betty with Elsie running a close second.  Betty is now 4 weeks old and growing fast!

Sports

Wimbledon Match Report

On the 2 – 4 February some girls from Year 6 went to Wimbledon for a GDST sports tour against Wimbledon High School and Newcastle High School.

In the Netball the A Team had a strong start, and only lost one match, against Wimbledon’s A Team. The B Team won 2, drew 1 and lost 2. From the A Team, Jane Sigabodhla was Player of the Tournament.

In Hockey the A Team lost against Wimbledon A Team 1-0, and won against Newcastle A Team, with a brilliant score of 6-0! In the B Team, after a great effort, they drew against Wimbledon B’s 1-1. However, in their next match, they made an amazing comeback, and won their next match 3-0! From the A Team, Grace Moulton was the Player of the Tournament.

In the Swimming Gala, the A Team came 3rd, the B Team came 2nd and Emily Horne was Player of the Gala.

The overall results were, in 3rd place was Newcastle High, in 2nd place was Northampton High, and in 1st place, was Wimbledon High.

After all the results had been announced, Jane Sigabodhla was runner up in the overall Player of the Tournament.

By Emma Neville and Harriet Fordham

Under 11 Netball v Thornton College

C team
On Wednesday the C team competed against Thornton College in an enthusiastic netball match. It was a cold day but everybody played their best and kept their spirits up. It was looking good for Northampton and we went into the last quarter drawing 4-4 thanks to Player of the Match Fleur Beale. Unfortunately, Thornton College scored 2 goals in the last quarter so the final score was 6-4 to Thornton College.
Annabel Lloyd

Nursery

Elmer Room

We have been very busy this week thinking about our teeth. We watched a DVD about going to the dentist and played a game matching the number of teeth to the number on the dice.

Outside the girls really enjoyed exploring the bubble wrap and the sensory bottles. At Forest School the girls made obstacle courses and seesaws.

We have also made owls as part of the whole school STEM day.

After half term we will be starting our new topic ‘New Life’

Reception

This week some of our activities involved designing, making and evaluating a way of getting Mr Wiggle across the river to meet Mr Waggle without getting wet. The range of ideas included, hot air balloons, boats, rockets and bridges. This was the highlight of the week for Artemisia ” I enjoyed sellotaping the wood together to make my surf board and I put a seat on it and some oars, it was fun to test it on the water and I knew it would work.”

The STEM flight day was also a very exciting day, ” I liked Atomic Tom, making paper aeroplanes and seeing the owls.” Kyla

Year 1

“On Tuesday afternoon we made a fruit salad. Some people were filming on the iPads and some people were narrating what the do-er should be doing reading the instructions that we wrote in our groups. I was filming and it was really fun!” Deborah

“STEM Day was amazing because we could play lots of games and build a big skeleton and make birds and make shakers for testing our sense of hearing. And in the afternoon we went out of our classroom and went to see 2 owls and we felt their feathers and they were very soft and smooth.” Dejonai

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

“My highlight of the week was doing collages in Art”. Tanya

“My highlight of the week is trying to make a circuit work in Science”. Sherain

Stibbington reminder
Please could girls practise packing for Stibbington over half-term. They will need lots of warm layers (tops and trousers) as well as hats, scarfs and gloves!
Thank you.

Year 5

“My highlight for this week was voting for a name for the new school puppy.  The name could be Betty, Vera or Elsie.  The puppy is a labradoodle miniature and it is a very cute puppy.  If the puppy completes its training it will become the new Junior School dog.  Lots of children are waiting to see what the puppy will be called”.  Manha Kamath

“My highlight this week was when we were given instructions and we had to make a Zappy Zoomer with a partner and we used teamwork”.  Charlotte E Smith

Year 6

This week Year six have had a really fun week, especially on Thursday when it was ‘STEM’ day. Caitlin said, “I loved researching about flight I never knew that the Wright Brothers had such a big impact on planes today!”
On Tuesday Year six had house netball and they really enjoyed it! Samiha ( the netball captain) said, “ I enjoyed house netball and everyone did really well!”
Everyone is looking forward to half term and the exciting trips planned throughout next term!

GAP Club

This week in GAP Club we spoke to two girls from Year 1 and one girl from Reception. They shared with us what they had enjoyed doing in GAP Club this week:

Harriet “I’ve liked playing with the little ones outside”

Avleen “When I went outside with Grace and played stuck in the mud”

Nonsi “ Helping the Nursery tiny girls on the slide”