Nothampton High School
High News

High News 28 September 2018

On Friday 21 September, we were delighted to host the latest of our events to celebrate 140th Birthday year, our 1878 Drinks Reception.

The venue for the event was none other than 44 Derngate. Now an outstanding private dental centre, the location was one of the buildings used by the school when we were based at Derngate, and it was a special feeling to be able to return home to host this fantastic occasion. Poppy, the Business Operations Manager for the centre, has always been very passionate about the building and its history, and she strives to make sure that the history of Northampton High School is always known to her clients and staff alike.

The evening’s guest list included previous Head Teachers, members of staff past and present, a host of former students and friends of the school. It was fascinating to see old school friends talking about their memories of the school and the building itself in general, and we were overjoyed to be able to welcome members of the class of ’68 to the event, who are celebrating their 50th year since leaving the school!

Read the full story here

Week Ahead

Monday 1 October

Tuesday 2 October
6.1 Welcome Evening

Wednesday 3 October

Thursday 4 October
School Production Rehearsals

Friday 5 October
Charity Bake Sale for World Smile Day

Monday 1 October
Hockey 1st XI vs Matt Taylor (A)
Hockey Sevens U12C vs Quinton House (H)
Hockey Sevens U13C vs Quinton House (H)

Tuesday 2 October
Netball U15A vs Sutton (H)
Hockey 1st XI – GDST Rally (H)
Netball U15A – GDST Rally (H)
Swimming U11 – GDST Rally (H)

Wednesday 3 October
Hockey Sevens U11A vs Milton Keynes (H)
Hockey Sevens U11A vs Milton Keynes (H)
Hockey Sevens U11A vs Milton Keynes (H)

Thursday 4 October
Hockey U14A vs Bedford Modern (H)
Hockey 1st XI vs Leicester Grammar (A)

Friday 5 October
Hockey Sevens U9A vs Quinton House (H)

U5 Geography trip to Somerset

On Monday 17 September, the U5 geographers travelled to Somerset to undertake an intensive programme of Fieldwork to prepare for their GCSE next year. The first piece of Fieldwork was an urban study based on investigating how the land use, value and environmental quality varied with distance from the centre. The students worked very efficiently and most found the time afterwards to explore the town centre and stimulate the local economy (although multinational chains probably profited the most!).

The second day involved a memorable trip to the beautiful Porlock Bay to investigate the impact of different coastal processes on the landscape. The students conducted a comparative study of the west and east ends of the large shingle ridge, concluding that long shore drift is shifting sediment from west to east, changing the shape of the rocks to become much smaller and more rounded.

Overall the U5 were a credit to the school and the trip was a great success. Thanks go to Mrs Langhorn and Miss Kneen for staffing the trip and to the Field Studies Council for organising such a great programme.

Mr Earp
Head of Humanities

Suzie Imber's talk on ‘Do you have what it takes to be an Astronaut?’

On Wednesday 26 September, Dr Suzie Imber, an associated Professor of Space Physics at Leicester University, came to school to talk to us about her experiences on BBC’s ‘Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?’ and her adventures throughout her life.

Her talk was very inspirational; it taught us to take every opportunity that comes our way and to never give up. She told us about her experiences; climbing thirty large mountains, some of which have never been even named nor climbed before, and the amount of determination it took her to complete each tough journey. We found her story about her time on ‘Astronauts: Do you have what it takes?’ to be very impressive, as she had to overcome many hard challenges in order to become the winner, beating eleven other competitors.

We are very thankful that we were able to listen to her inspiring lecture.

Lucy
L5

Language Learning Across Language, Cultures and Time

One of the many events that took place to mark this year’s European Day of Languages was a fascinating lecture, delivered yesterday in school by Dr Philomen Probert, of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford.

Dr Probert gave compelling insight into the world of linguistics and how languages have evolved, and, indeed, how tools and techniques for language teaching have been influenced across languages and cultures.

It was wonderful to see a broad audience of both students and parents at the event, keen to understand the complex background to developments in how we learn languages.

Mrs Wilmot
Director of Marketing and Admissions

Student Art Workshop

Starting this year, every Wednesday at lunchtime REC, four girls from U4, Saesha G, Angelica S, Motolani O and Feyi A will be running an Art Workshop.

These workshops are open to L4 and U3; we will have lessons about colour, famous artists, media and different genres of art. Over the course of the year, we hope to develop the girls’ understanding of art and their personal ability with mainly drawing painting and sketching.

So, if you are interested in improving your art work, come along and join our Art Club!

Angelica and Saesha 
U4

School Sport

It has been a week of fierce competition in the Sports Faculty this week. The 1st XI Hockey side played a closely fought game on Tuesday, in which they showed real character and determination.

The U13 Tennis team put in a brilliant display in their play-off match, which unfortunately finished as a draw. As you know, there has to be a winner, so in a tense championship tie break, West Bridgeford just edged us out.

The U12 and U13 select girls enjoyed a fun packed day at the Matt Taylor Conference on Thursday and learned lots of new skills that they can use in their fixtures.

We are very much looking forward to the first GDST Sports Rally of the year, and welcoming 23 of the 25 GDST schools to Northampton on Tuesday.

Just a reminder that due to this event, we will not be able to run any of our sports clubs on Tuesday.

Mrs Hackett
Director of Sport

Tennis

The U13 Tennis team played West Bridgeford School in some tense matches. Charlotte J was playing as No.1 and had a very tough match, but after a strong effort she unfortunately lost 6-0. Lilli T played as No.2 and won her match comfortably 6-0. Ella N played as No.3 and was knocking her partner from side to side, but unfortunately after some great rallies, she was edged out 6-4. Izzy T played No.4, but she was determined to get to the top, and smashed her way to beat the opposition 6-4.

After a tough round of singles that brought us to 2-2, drawing, the pressure was on for the doubles. Charlotte and Lilli were partnered together and ready to go. There were some shaky points played but they both pulled through to win their match 6-3. Then Ella and Izzy were next on to the court, and they had an awesome match with some amazing points, but unfortunately lost 6-4.

That made it 3-3, meaning we had to play a tiebreak. Charlotte and Ella stood up to the challenge, ready for a tough match against strong opposition. After all the hard work, we unfortunately lost to West Bridgeford 4-3, and the the tiebreak was 6-10. Despite this, the girls should all be very proud of their fantastic displays!

Lilli 
U13 Tennis Captain

Hockey

On Saturday 21 September, the U13 A team travelled to Loughborough High School to play in a tournament. The first match was against Nottingham High School and we picked up a win of 3-0 thanks to Ella N, Charlotte J and Izzy T.

We went into the second match strongly against Princethorpe College and came out with a 2-0 victory, with goals courtesy of Izzy T and Phoebe H.

The third match was against Loughborough High School, but sadly we lost this match 3-0.

We were all very happy going through to the semi-finals against Bablake. Phoebe H scored a terrific goal, but we ended up drawing 1-1. Because we drew, it turned out that we needed to do strokes which we had never done! Really well played to Charlotte J and Izzy T, who scored. But sadly Bablake took the win, making it 3-2 placing us third out of 9 teams.

Isabella 
U13 Hockey Captain

Book Review

Station Zero by Philip Reeve

The stunning conclusion to the acclaimed and prizewinning Railhead trilogy.

What happens after the adventure of a lifetime? For Zen, it’s a safe, comfortable life of luxury. But it’s not what Zen wants. He misses the thrill of riding the rails, of dodging danger, and of breathing the air of different planets. Most of all of course he misses Nova – lost to him forever in a distant world. But then one day a mysterious message arrives – and that’s all Zen needs to head right off, ready for anything. Except that no one could be ready for what he finds . . .Thrilling, thought-provoking, and breath taking, this finale to the Railhead trilogy weaves a web of wonder, full of characters and events you will never forget.

Miss Buxton
School Librarian

Drama department updates

Senior Drama Company – DNA

The play this year is DNA by Dennis Kelly, and will be performed on Monday 15 October 2018. Please save the date; more information to follow.

Summer Musical announced

This year’s summer musical was announced in the Performing Arts assembly earlier in the term. We will be producing CATS as part of our 2019 Arts Festival in June, and we look forward to starting work on the production.

Mrs Care
Director of Theatre

Sensible driving request

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

Open Day - Saturday 6 October

2019/2020 Term Dates

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