Nothampton High School
High News

High News 11 January 2019

Imagination is not usually seen as the best foundation for policy-making.  For that, we look to facts and stats.  In education, though, things are – or should be – different.

Why?  Because we are preparing our youngest school pupils for adult life and the workscape as it will be in the mid-2030s.  For this, the facts and stats of the past 16 years will not suffice to inform our thinking, just as the facts and stats of the turn-of-the-millennium – pre-iPhone, pre-Facebook – did not help us greatly to shape the education of today’s 18 year olds.

For decades, education has been playing catch-up with technological change, with classroom practice and social conduct adapting ‘on the hoof’ to the new possibilities of communication, information gathering and disclosure presented by innovations and inventions emanating from commercial enterprises with a completely different agenda from that of schools.  For more than a generation, our education system has been enmeshed in a struggle to prove itself against national (and international) standards of individual employability competencies, in an exercise in which countless incommensurable variables are smoothed into invisibility in a bland background picture.

The result has been an exodus from the teaching profession on an unparalleled scale as the joy of the work has been squeezed out of existence.  Meanwhile, the dizzying possibilities for our own students of internationalism – a truly globalised higher education and employment market, for example – seem scarcely to register in a society in which the levers of social mobility seem to be  rusted in a locked-shut position and the prevailing public discourse is stuck in the well-worn groove of blaming the independent-state divide.

Sticking narrowly to the facts and stats of economic, social and technological change has brought us hither.  Continuing to do so offers a depressing outlook for the journey onwards.  What, then, can inspire teachers and young people to resume the challenges of education at the opening of a new year – 2019?

For that, we need imagination.

Read more here

Dr Stringer
Headmistress

Week Ahead

Monday 14 January
GCSE Mock Examinations
13+ Entrance Assessment Day
Senior School Assembly – Ski Trip

Tuesday 15 January
GCSE Mock Examinations
Pupil School Council Meeting
GCSE Options Evening (U4)

Wednesday 16 January
GCSE Mock Examinations

Thursday 17 January
GCSE Mock Examinations
L5 Charity Event: Movie Night
School Production Rehearsals

Friday 18 January
GCSE Mock Examinations
Senior School Assembly

Saturday 19 January
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Training Day

Wednesday 16 January
Badminton –
U14A vs Northants Badminton County Round (A)
Badminton –
U16A vs Northants Badminton County Round (A)

Saturday 19 January
Netball –
1st VII vs Wellingborough (A)
Netball – 2nd VII vs Wellingborough (A)
Netball – U15A vs Wellingborough (H)
Netball – U15B vs Wellingborough (H)
Netball – U14A vs Wellingborough (H)
Netball – U1BA vs Wellingborough (H)

 

Assessment Day at Northampton High School

It was a pleasure to welcome so many Year 6 girls into School today for the Upper Third Entrance Assessment Day.

The girls sat English and Mathematics assessments, met senior staff in small groups for the ‘Getting to Know You, sessions and were challenged to an architectural building competition in the afternoon.  Much excitement and lots of encouraging cheers were heard by parents as the girls were awarded prizes for most stable, highest and most attractive structure designs.

We were delighted to spend time with the girls, and we are excited for them to join us in September.

Mrs Wilmot
Director of Marketing and Admissions

Calling all Cool Cats!

Next Thursday 17 January, the Performing Arts Department are holding an audition workshop in the Theatre between 4pm and 6pm for this year’s musical, Cats. The workshop will consist of feline character work, basic choreography and learning a song.

All students are invited to attend. We need singers, actors, dancers, movers, groovers as well as a backstage crew of designers, technicians and artists. There is something for everyone!

Performance dates are June 11th to 13th, and rehearsals will be fortnightly on Thursdays between 4pm and 6pm, as well as weekly Wednesday and Friday during REC period.

Come along to be part of the meow-velous fun. It will be purrrrfect!

Mrs Care
Director of Theatre

New Year, New Products!

As it is a New Year we are launching an exciting range of healthy salad pots, on trend sandwich fillings and assorted wraps with healthy fillings; all of which will be available in the multi deck chiller in the dining hall at lunchtime.

The team and I hope you enjoy this addition to the varied services we provide.

Mrs McCue 
Catering and Hospitality Manager

School Sport

We are really looking forward to our first netball matches of the term tomorrow. We have nine teams playing matches home and away against King Henry.

Whilst I am sure the weather will be good tomorrow, I wanted to remind everyone of the cancellation procedure for matches. Matches will be cancelled on SOCS and will show instantly so please keep checking if the weather is bad. Remember, you can ‘favourite’ your team so it will update in your calendar. In addition to this we will post a notification on our Twitter account which is @NHS_Sport. If you are in any doubt you can call the Sports Faculty mobile number for fixtures, which is 07947 564565.

Good luck to all teams tomorrow and for the rest of the season.

Mrs Hackett
Director of Sport

Book Review

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood (recommended for U4 and above)

A gorgeously dreamy coming-of-age romance set against a stunning Gatsby-esque backdrop, this is perfect for fans of I Capture the Castle and Eva Ibbotson.

Growing up in her sleepy Cornish village dreaming of being a writer, sixteen-year-old Lou has always wondered about the grand Cardew house which has stood empty for years. And when the owners arrive for the summer – a handsome, dashing brother and sister – Lou is quite swept off her feet and into a world of moonlit cocktail parties and glamour beyond her wildest dreams.

But, as she grows closer to the Cardews, is she abandoning her own ambitions… and is there something darker lurking at the heart of the Cardew family?

Miss Buxton
School Librarian

Term Dates

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