Junior News – 12 July 2024

It is difficult to believe that another year has passed. With the busy weeks and months, time inevitably flies by, and we arrive at the end of another term, at the end of the academic year.

It is a good time for reflection, considering what the pupils have achieved and enjoyed over the past year. Our pupils have had a full and enriching term, with time spent together learning new things and consolidating what they have learned throughout the year. We hope that the full school reports published this week indicate the breadth and depth of the girls’ learning, and how they have achieved over the past 12 months. 

Thank you to our families for their support at the Summer Fayre last Friday. It was wonderful to welcome so many families, and to see the girls sharing their time with friends and family together. We felt very lucky to see so many parents and friends of the school, and were grateful for the exceptional weather. Incredible to experience that on the stroke of 5pm the heavens opened! Thank you for the donations to Make A Wish UK, nominated by our School Council, as part of the mufti day too. So far the total raised for this deserving charity is £140. 

This week has been about celebration – of the achievements of all our pupils across our classes. For those in Year 3 to 6, we presented prizes to some of our deserving students, however, as I said in my welcome speech to them, we have witnessed all girls making progress, conquering things that were challenging or new, facing different and tricky situations, tackling problems and growing as individuals. I invited the pupils to think about what they feel they have accomplished this year; to feel proud of themselves, their efforts, their work, and the care and friendship they have offered to others.

We are sad to say farewell (not goodbye) to some pupils, relocating or moving to other schools, and wish them lots of luck and happiness in the future. We thank them for the contributions they have made to Northampton High. 

To our Year 6 girls, we wish you well as you embark on the next important phase of your educational journey. We know you will continue to be brilliant! 

We are sorry to say farewell to Mrs Latimer, our current Year 3 teacher. As you know, Mrs Latimer has been with us since January 2023, originally joining us to cover a maternity leave. Mrs Latimer has been a valued member of the school family, and as well as being a much-loved class teacher; we are grateful to have spent this time with her, wish her well for her next role and ask her to keep in touch! 

We wish all our pupils and their families a happy, fulfilling and restful summer holiday. We cannot wait to see what our talented pupils achieve next year!

Mrs Amanda Wilmot
Acting Head – Junior School

Year 9 Readers

Year 9 pupils have designed and developed readers for young children and they visited Reception class to read their creative stories to the girls!

It was wonderful to witness this collaboration between our Senior pupils and our Reception girls!

A rewarding way to bring academic work to life.

School Emails

Message to users of Yahoo mail

We are pleased to report that the issues we experienced last week with Yahoo email addresses not receiving all SchoolPost messages have now been resolved. The parent company Firefly have apologised for any inconvenience and we very much hope that everyone is now receiving messages as expected.

If you have any concerns or think you may have missed an important message, please contact the school in the usual way.

High and Junior News survey

We kindly ask for your feedback in regards to our weekly school newsletters, so that we can improve this service to best meet our parents’ needs. We look forward to reviewing your responses, which will steer the direction of this function from September. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts with us. Please find the survey here.

News from our classrooms: Nursery and Preschool

It has been a very busy year in Nursery and the girls have achieved so much. It has been a pleasure to be part of their journey and we have lots of fun memories to look back on.

We have seen the girls play develop from individual play to more social play and all of the girls’ confidence, and language development, has grown immensely.

Independence has flourished, with the girls now able to change into their own ballet shoes or welly boots and half the girls in our room have also mastered toilet training during their time in Nursery.

We look forward to watching their next stages of development and achievements and wish those moving on to new adventures the best of luck.

As the final week together in Preschool comes to an end we have been following the girls interests, which have included lots of singing and dancing, messy paintings, reading books, playing with animals, dressing up, playing with the dolls and just enjoying this time together before the summer break.

The girls have worked really hard to complete a document all about their time in Preschool with their favourite memories and things they have enjoyed doing.

In PE we went onto the back playground and climbed on the apparatus and in French we have looked at a song about zoo animals.

We have had a teddy bears picnic together on Thursday with a picnic lunch and the girls were all given a little teddy bear to take home.

It has been a pleasure to have been part of your daughter’s journey during her time in Preschool and we wish you a wonderful summer holiday.

Good luck to all the girls starting school in September.

News from our classrooms: Reception

This week we have been finishing off our topic work about houses and homes around the world. We had challenges to design a new house using the computer and making a home for a little bear. We talked about what our houses were like and drew some fantastic pictures to illustrate this.

We enjoyed watching our end of year video again and then talked about what we had loved in Reception class.

The final words of Junior News are over to the Reception Class.
‘I liked seeing the butterflies grow.’ Kianna
‘I liked doing writing and using the remote control cars.’ Betsy
‘I liked doing drawing because I am going to be an artist.’ Ela
‘I liked it when we did the Assembly and doing ballet.’ Sophia
‘I liked using the busy fingers hand gym.’ Naavya
‘I liked using the remote control cars and going to swimming.’ Anaisha
‘I liked it when we made colour monsters.’ Phoebe
‘I liked it when I get to stack the wooden blocks.’ Maia 
‘I liked reading books and swimming and ballet.’ Inayat
‘I liked it when the outside area was open.’ Emily
‘I liked playing with the zoo animals.’ Molly
‘I liked playing and doing models.’ Amber 

I am immensely impressed with how Reception class have taken learning in their stride and they have all made such wonderful progress this year.

Thank you for your continued support and we wish you all a restful holiday.

Year 1 End of Year Celebration

It is unbelievable that we are already at the end of the academic year! This amazing group of girls have made so much progress both academically and socially, working together as a team of friends. It has been wonderful to watch them grow and mature and to know just how ready they are for the new challenges and experiences that await in Year 2. Well done Year 1!

Year 2 End of Year Celebration

As teachers, we have the best job in the world as we are incredibly privileged to spend everyday with children, supporting them as they grow and develop.

Year 2 have made wonderful progress and they should all be incredibly proud of the perseverance they have shown with their learning. We have worked hard but also had great fun too.

I asked the girls to tell me their highlights and here is what they said:
‘I liked going to London because I liked walking on the glass floor in Tower Bridge.’ Emily
‘My favourite memory was going to Lego Discovery Centre because we got to go on fun rides.’ Anne
‘My highlight was doing the school play because I played the Landlord’s Cat.’ Aleya
‘I loved visiting Delapre Abbey because I dressed up as a nun!’ Sophia
‘I loved being a Narrator in the Nativity Play.’ Jasmine
‘I really enjoyed making scones because they tasted delicious.’ Grace
‘I enjoyed all of the school trips because I learnt a lot on them.’ Inara
‘I also loved Lego Discovery. I was scared of a ride but I was brave and it was actually great fun!’ Ella
‘I liked Delapre Abbey. I enjoyed drinking tea with Mr Bouverie.’ Robin
‘Visiting Lego Discovery was my favourite memory. I loved the Lego workshops we took part in.’ Isabelle

As you can tell, Year 2 really have had a jam-packed year. Hopefully, they have made some wonderful memories that will last a lifetime!

Year 3 End of Year Celebration

Wow, what a year! It has truly been an absolute pleasure to spend the year with such an amazing set of girls. The learning journeys we have taken have sparked their curiosity, inspired their creativity and blossomed their confidence.

We began the year in the Stone Age and have ended it in Space. We made Stonehenge with custard creams, created buildings from marshmallows and cocktail sticks and then investigated if they would survive a jelly earthquake. We folded towels to create mountains and had an army of woolly mammoths invade the classroom. These were closely followed by a parade of Indian elephants and then a garden of Mackintosh Roses.

The girls have forged friendships that will last a lifetime and created memories to cherish forever. I am so incredibly proud of each and every one of them and the achievements they have accomplished. They are finding their own way in this world and I am honoured to have been a small part of that.

I believe in my girls and they believe in themselves.

Please click here to see their End of Year celebration video (link will expire in a couple of days).

Year 4 End of Year Celebration

It has been an absolute joy to witness the growth and development of each and every student.

The dedication and perseverance they have shown in mastering their times tables is truly commendable. Their inquisitive minds and curiosity have shone through in their daily learning, with students constantly seeking to deepen their understanding by asking thought-provoking questions.

I have been particularly delighted to see the spirit of collaboration flourishing within our class. Shanaya and Elouise’s fab poem on Antarctica is a shining example of this teamwork.

As a class, their enthusiasm for Mathematics has blossomed, with students eagerly engaging in investigative tasks. Olivia, in particular, impressed me with her logical approach to solving the mystery of the suitcases.

The creative flair displayed by the students in their writing has been impressive. The use of figurative language to create vivid imagery has been a highlight of the year. Aggie’s Jabberwocky poem, where she skillfully combined nonsensical words, was a standout moment.

In the realm of Computing, Amariah and Isabella excelled in creating animations, while Grace B and Emily skillfully created melodies.

During PSHE sessions, Orla and Grace A demonstrated exceptional kindness and compassion, listening attentively and offering insightful contributions.

Our explorations in Humanities took us back in time to Ancient Egypt, where we wrote clear instructions on how to mummify a tomato and Caoimhe showed great initiative in her learning by independently researching female pharaohs. They also embarked on a journey to Antarctica, mastering the use of longitude and latitude to locate different places following Ernest Shacklton’s voyage. Mayura’s newspaper article was a testament to her budding journalistic skills.

The creativity displayed in their prep rojects, especially Rhoda’s engaging TV show presentation, was a delight to behold.

Special thanks to Annie for her kindness and generosity in gifting each classmate a sunflower, symbolising the warmth and positivity she brings to our class.

As we look forward to the adventures that the next academic year will bring, I am confident that this class are well-equipped to face new challenges of Year 5 with resilience, creativity, and a thirst for knowledge.

Year 5 End of Year Celebration

‘Music in Year 5 is excellent and we all enjoy it – Mrs Smith has been amazing. As a class we are very proud of Evette for being in Annie and of all our Music Scholars who have played in assembly.’ Leah, Evette and Avani

‘Our year of sport has been amazing, but one of our favourite sports have been netball, closely followed by athletics this term. The netball season was way better than we expected, with lots of successful matches.’ Thea, Annabel, Constance and Eloise C

‘The best bit of DT was making bread as a group; some didn’t turn out well, but they still tasted good! In Art, we did abstract art, we looked at Wassily Kandinsky’s art and made our own versions of it.’ Zoe, Holly & Kinara

‘Humanities has been amazing this year! We learnt about rivers, South America, Anglo Saxons, Vikings and the Mayan civilisation. Our favourite unit was rivers because we went to investigate one at Everdon. We also got to write a Mayan food fact file. Overall we have loved Humanities.’ Elizabeth & Olivia

‘English is our favourite subject and this term we have been reading lots of lovely books. So far, our favourite book has been ‘Origami Yoda’ – can a folded piece of paper shaped like Yoda really tell the future and make miracles happen?’ Evie & Eloise R

‘Year 5 are an extraordinary class because we are very fun, kind, unique and we always have each other’s backs. We’re a smart intelligent class, full of ideas waiting to pop out. Miss Brandon-Jones (our wonderful teacher) has taught us so much and helped us through our Year 5 journey; she is a warmhearted and lovely woman. I think we can all agree Year 5 has been the best year so far. We have had a very exciting summer term and, in our last week Carmen and Isabel arrived from Spain. They came here to learn English and we are happy to have them. Year 5 has been great!’ Cristina

Year 6 End of Year Celebration

On Tuesday afternoon Year 6 proved to us all, at their celebration event, that they are definitely ready for the next step in their educational journey. They all spoke confidently and clearly about their experiences of school thus far and referred to many highlights and happy memories.

Whilst writing their speeches, the girls themselves were amazed at how much they had changed and achieved during their primary school years.

This was also reflected by the teachers who had taught them when they were younger. They were delighted to see how some of the girls who had been quiet and lacking in confidence previously were able to stand up in front of an audience and speak so eloquently.

We have been very pleased with the progress the girls have made this year and we wish them all the very best as they move on to the new challenges on offer in Year 7.

Congratulations Year 6!

U8 and U9 V Broughton Manor - 5 July

The match was in question due the amount of rain in the morning but the sun came out and in the end it was a lovely afternoon and a great way to end the cricket season.

U8
It was a typical summers afternoon, windy, sunny and rainy, when the Year 3 cricket team played Broughton Manor. We won the toss and our girls decided to bowl first.

We played 12 overs with Priyana and Zara taking a wicket each during our bowling innings. A wonderful batting display by all the girls meant that we were off to a strong start with Rosie and Siena-Louise amongst the top batters.

In the end we were just too strong for Broughton Manor and ended our season on a high by winning the match.

Thank you to all the parents who have supported us over the course of the season. 

Final scores: Northampton 281/3 Broughton Manor 271/2

Bowler of the match: Zara
Batter of the match: Siena-Louise

U9
The U9 team went into the field first with Isabella taking 3 wickets followed by Shanaya, Caoimhe and Amariah also taking a wicket each.

Batting innings saw Grace take a 6 and a 4, Rhoda and Amariah 2 4’s and Olivia 3 4’s. The final result was Broughton Manor 260 for one wicket and NHS 298 for 6 wickets. 

Well done to the team!

Batter of the match: Rhoda
Bowler of the match: Grace
Fielder of the match: Eve

Junior Sports Awards

A huge congratulations to the following girls who achieved a Sports Award:

Year 3 
Gold – Rosie B, Zara B, Siena-Louise D B, Rayna N, Lily P, Iman S, Dulcie S, Isabel S-R, Millicent S, Priyana T
Silver – Evie I, Amelia K
Bronze – Mehiera J

Year 4 
Gold – Grace B, Isabella B, Eve C, Caoimhe H-T, Rhoda J, Emily K, Elouise S, Shanaya S, Olivia T, Annie T,
Silver – Orla D, Mayu G
Bronze – Grace A, Agnes R, Amariah S-A

Year 5
Gold – Avani A, Olivia H, Annabel P, Thea S, Cristina S-R
Silver – Kinara B, Eloise C, Constance H, Amber K
Bronze – Elizabeth F-W, Leah W

Year 6
Platinum – Maya A, Angelie B, Lily C, Zara J, Hester L, Amelie N, Imogen O, Poppy P, Luisa P, Annabelle R, Cora S, Aurelia T,
Gold – Diya B, Daisy S
Silver – Sakinah S
Bronze – Eliza A, Emma B, Avelyn C, Alishba F, Victoria F L, Hazel G,  Anna H, Daisy P, Jesleen R, Asmi S, Artemisia U

Weekly Awards

Star Learners of the Week:

Sophia F, Amber G, Kianna G, Betsy H, Molly J H, Anaisha M, Ela O, Naavya P, Emily P, Phoebe R, Inayat S, Maia S, Georgina P, All of Year 2, Rosie B, Rayna N, Millicent S, Grace B, Eve C, Elouise S, Shanaya S, Amariah S-A, Olivia T,  Avelyn C, Lily C, Hester L, Imogen O, Daisy P, Daisy S

Congratulations to the following girls who received a Timetable Rockstar Certificate:

Jasmine, Aurelia, Emily K, Cristina, Grace A, Agnes, Imaan, Amariah

External Achievements: 

Luna D – awarded 3 Rainbow badges
Pearl P – awarded Rainbow badges
Georgina P –  awarded level 7 in Gymnastics and achieved a Violin award
Anne A – achieved a 25m Swimming award
Jasmine I – completed a bike riding course
Siena- Louise D B – achieved first place in her age category in a Gymnastics School Recreational Competition
Grace B – picked to represent County Tennis
Isabella B – awarded Football trophies
Caoimhe H-T – awarded a Treble Wheel certificate in Irish Dancing and achieved Pony Club badges
Olivia T – awarded a Winner’s Trophy for an U11 Football tournament, a ‘Playmaker’ Award, a Team Member Award and a 2nd Place trophy for an U10 Football tournament
Evette B – awarded Swimming medals
Eloise C – competed in a Netball tournament
Annabel P – competed in a Netball tournament

Birthdays This Week

This week, we wish a very Happy Birthday to the following members of our Junior School family:

Orla D, Lily P and Kinara B

Northampton Hockey Club Camps for 5 to 13 Year Olds

Kings Camp

Northampton High School Swim Clubs

Brixworth Cricket Club

Girls@Saints

Saints Cricket Club

Pauline Quirke Academy

Term Dates

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