Nothampton High School
Junior News

Junior News 15 November 2019

Dear Parents,

It has been a fantastic week here at Northampton High Junior School, culminating in today’s spotty fundraiser for Children in Need. Thank you for your generous donations towards such a good cause.

Year 2 led a really informative Class Assembly on Wednesday, sharing with us learning highlights from their ‘Victorians’ topic. We learnt about jobs for children, tough times in schools and what life was like in Victorian homes.

We welcomed a number of parents into our Nursery on Monday for a ‘Stay and Play,’ where they could learn alongside their children, immersing themselves in play. A few parents were more messy than their daughters by the end!

There have been a range of sporting fixtures held this week, and as always our girls equipped themselves brilliantly, representing the school in an exemplary fashion.

On Saturday we have our Early Years Open Morning, and our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) day where we will be welcoming students from local schools alongside our own students to take part in a range of high-level challenges. Thank you to all the staff for giving up additional time to make this happen.

Have a lovely weekend,
Chris

Chris Bailey
Head of Junior School

Achievements

Each week in assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week:

Gymnastics
Safiya C – level 3
Eleanor H – level 3

Assemblies

Class Assemblies are held in the Junior School Hall at 8.35 am on a Wednesday. Parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00 am in the Community Room. Here are the dates for the Autumn Term:

5H – Wednesday 20 November
5N – Wednesday 27 November
1N – Wednesday 4 December

Dates for Diary

Friday 22 November – Reception to Year 6 flu immunisation

Tuesday 3 December – 2-3pm Nursery Nativity

Wednesday 4 December – 2-3pm Reception and KS1 play

Thursday 5 December – 9.15-10.15am Reception and KS1 play

Thursday 5 December – Christmas Celebration Disco for Reception to Year 6

Tuesday 10 December – Nursery Stay and Play

Tuesday 10 December – 7pm KS2 Christmas Celebration

Thursday 12 December – 7.30pm Christmas Carol Concert All Saints Church

Friday 13 December – Christmas Jumper Day

Friday 13 December – Pre-School and Reception theatre trip

Tuesday 17 December – Christmas Parties

Tuesday 17 December – 3.35pm TERM ENDS

Monday 6 January – INSET DAY

Tuesday 7 January – SPRING TERM STARTS

Looking ahead:  Sports Day for KS2 and Senior School is Friday 5 June – normally all day.

Clubs

Cancelled Clubs:

  • Tuesday 19 November – Digital Leaders Club

Christmas Celebration Disco

Thursday 5 December 4-5.30pm for Reception to Year 6.

Hot dogs and refreshments will be provided. Reception to Year 3 will eat first whilst Years 4 to 6 have a good dance, then they will swap, ending with everyone in the hall together.

No charge, just sign up on Firefly!

Book Fair

A Big Thank You

Thank you so much for supporting our school book fair this week. We sold over £670 worth of books which will generate commission of several hundred pounds to spend on books for the Junior School. A special thank you to the Year 6 librarians who so ably helped to staff the book fair and assist customers in making good choices.

 

Children in Need

 

A huge thank you for all your donations for Children in Need today, watch this space for details of the total amount raised for this charity.

A special thank you to Matilda B in Year 4 for saving and donating £22.07 in her savings jar.

 

 

 

Sports

Under 10 Hockey v Broughton Manor Prep School

We played against Broughton Manor on Wednesday and won 0-1.  Lily scored in the second half, which was great.  We started well and the team really thought about what we had been learning in class and at club.  I think our tackling and defending had improved.  The team played well overall and we were very proud to win.  Well done to  Beatrice who was awarded Player of the Match. After the match we enjoyed a match tea before coming home on the coach.  Great job everyone.

Elizabeth – Captain

Under 11 A Team v Broughton Manor Prep School
On Wednesday 13 November we played against Broughton Manor Prep School. We had a very interesting and fun match. Isla H scored 4 goals and the other team scored 3 goals. It was a great match, going from us dominating 0-3 but then going 3-3 when we lost our way. Thankfully it ended triumphantly 3-4 . Lexie was our goalkeeper and defending was Isla N, Anna and Bella. Mid-fielding was Poppy, Izzy, Emily and Charlotte, with Isla H upfront striking. I got ‘Player of the Match’ but everyone played really well! Well done and thank you to Miss James for teaching us.

Charlotte – Junior School Hockey Captain

Under 11 B Team v Broughton Manor Prep School
On Wednesday 13 November the A and B Team played in a Hockey Match against Broughton Manor. Everyone did their best and played well. The B team lost 1–0. Lilybella did a great job goalkeeping. I nearly came close to scoring but an opposition foot did a stunning save. We battled in the rain and enjoyed sandwiches at the end. Lucy got the ‘Player of the Match’. Well done Lucy but overall well done B Team and A Team. Next time we’ll get some more goals.

Millie Tailor – B Team Captain

 

Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room

Kipper Room:

It has been another busy week in Kipper Room although we did pause for a minute’s silence on Monday for Remembrance Day. The girls made us feel very proud, sitting quietly and watching a beautiful field of poppies on the whiteboard. “ A poppy” said Jasleen once it had finished.

We have continued to work on our self-care skills. It is wonderful to see the growing independence being shown as the girls select and put away their own plates and cups at snack times. We are also reinforcing the importance of washing our hands properly before meals and using the bathroom. “One squeeze of soap!” said Bonetta.

Despite the weather, we have ventured outside as much as we can, following strange footsteps down to Forest School where we discovered some dinosaurs lurking in the bushes!

Elmer Room:

This week in Elmer Room the girls started the week thinking about Remembrance Day. They had the opportunity to make poppies. During our group time we talked about why we are silent for a short time to remember people who helped us. The girls are really enjoying group time each day now that they are more familiar with this. During this time we start by singing “What day is it today?”.  We then talk about the day of the week, the month and any birthdays we have in this month, the weather outside and how we are feeling today. We have also enjoyed following a footprint trail through Forest School to find the hiding dinosaurs. The girls had some great ideas as to whose footprints they could be. “I think it’s a crocodile” said Lily. “I’ve found another one” said Yana. Looking to next week we will continue to learn our Christmas songs for our performance.

See all photos

Nursery Pre-School

Highlights:

Our sound this week has been ‘d’.  At Forest School we found some enormous footprints which led us to some dinosaurs, we have also decorated a dotty letter ‘d’ and made dinosaur headdresses. We made mobiles by joining squares together and have found six jewels to put on the number six. The girls have enjoyed bathing the babies and exploring the shaving foam. For Children in Need on Friday we hunted for Pudsey bears following instructions to help us find them. In French we learnt a song about the rain and a frog.

What the girls have enjoyed:

“I like playing.” Iman
“Looking for dinosaurs.” Aurelia.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • Activities linked to our letter sound ‘l’ and the number ‘7’.
  • Using the colours brown, black and white in our activities.
  • Making fish using triangles.
  • Listening to, and doing activities linked to ‘Percy the Park Keeper’ stories.
See all photos

 

Reception

Highlights:

This week we have been continuing to use the story ‘Whatever Next?’ as a basis for creating our own stories. The girls had to think of an alternative character, a place they could visit and what they would do there. We had some super ideas with characters visiting rainbow world, dinosaur land and Peppa Pig world! We have been thinking about the concept of ‘identifying 1 more than a number to ten.’ This has been done practically adding one more object to a set and counting them all to work out the answer. We would encourage you to continue playing this game at home using any real life objects. The girls loved using the bikes on the back playground where we drew a huge number 8 which they had to ride along. We followed this by practising writing number 8 on mini boards. Another busy week!

What the girls have said:

“My favourite thing was making 8 legs for my spider and making ice lollies for letter ‘l’.” Shanaya.
“I liked making my models.” Rhoda.
“I liked making ice lollies and doing ballet this week.” Emily.
“I liked making up our own stories.” Keziah.
“I liked making ice lolly pops and writing my Jessie story.” Caoimhe.
“I liked playing outside riding the bikes and scooters on the number 8.” Grace.
“I liked making models and playing outside.” Isabella.
“I really enjoyed making the lollies and also using the workshop.” Maya.

Looking ahead:

We hope to see some of you on Saturday morning for our Early Years Fun Open Morning.

See all photos

Year 1

Highlights:

We have carried on our learning about the Victorians this week. In our DT lessons, the girls have started to design and make their own peg dolls, using wool and felt. In English we have been thinking about Remembrance Day and the girls in Year 1 have written their own Remembrance acrostic poem. In our History lesson we have been comparing holidays for Victorian people compared to our modern day holiday, thinking about what they might have worn at the beach and how they would have travelled. In RE we have looked at many different religions and focused this week on the festival of Diwali and how this is celebrated. The girls have made their own Rangoli patterns and started to create their own Diya lamps.

What the girls have said:

“I liked learning our songs for the Christmas play.” Eloise.
“I liked doing our ballet exam.” Thea.
“We liked learning about Diwali and making Rangoli patterns.” Holly H and Amelia.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • Maths – finishing our work on subtraction and then consolidating addition and subtraction.
  • English – firework poetry and starting Oliver Twist.
  • DT – Victorian toys.
    RE – looking at religious symbols.
See all photos

Year 2

Highlights:

Our main focus of the week was performing our Class Assembly for the whole of Junior School and our parents. With just three days to practise, the girls did a super job of learning their lines and their roles for our ‘I’m a Victorian get me out of here’ show. Ant, Dec and Holly did a great job of hosting and all the Victorians worked hard in the bushtucker trials to earn their keep at the workhouse! The rest of the girls explained what we have learned about Victorian times to the school and gave us an insight into what life was like. The girls performed brilliantly and we had some excellent feedback from other members of staff.

What the girls have said:

“I liked making people laugh wearing the Dunce hat!” Artemisia.
“I enjoyed sharing the information we had learned with everyone.” Sakinah.
“It’s strange to think that Victorian children used to get hit with the cane at school if they did something wrong.” Maya.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • English – Onomatopoeia.
  • Maths – Money.
  • History – Victorian inventions.
See all photos

Year 3

Highlights:

This week in Maths we have been learning about fractions of shapes and working out fractions of amounts. In Humanities we have been learning about Hindu celebrations and trying hard to make notes when watching a video and then writing up the information. This week in English we have been reading and answering questions about Remembrance Day, learning how to organise writing into paragraphs and discovering the elements of a quest story.

What the girls have said:

“This week I have enjoyed learning about how to find fractions of amounts.” Sophie.
“I liked making the poppy wreath, it was quite challenging at first but I followed the instructions carefully and completed it successfully.” Harriet.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • Maths – measuring and drawing accurately using a ruler and work with money.
  • Science – looking at forces and how things move.
  • English – we will plan, write and edit our own quest stories.
See all photos
See all photos

Year 4

Highlights:

In Maths this week we have been reading and writing analogue and digital times. We have also used number lines to calculate the duration of events. In English we have described different settings and events in our class book. We have also recreated the process of digestion using water, crackers, orange juice and a plastic freezer bag.

What the girls have said:

“My highlight of the week was tasting the jelly. My group made strawberry and lime jelly and it was yummy.” Lydia.
“I liked doing rehearsals this week for our Christmas Celebration.” Darcy.
“I liked reading ‘The Thieves of Ostia’ and looking at a map of Flavia’s house.” Emily.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

  • English – we will be writing a description of an event in the class book and planning our own story set in Roman times.
  • Maths – work will focus on using practical equipment to help with recognising and comparing fractions.
  • History – we will be learning how the Romans built their roads.
See all photos
See all photos

Year 5

Highlights:

This week in English we wrote ‘Thank You’ letters to Grafham Water and began our unit on instructions. In Maths we looked at equivalent fractions and enjoyed Children in Need problem-solving. In Science we started our new topic ‘Properties of Materials’ by investigating the most suitable surface for food preparation at a festival.

What the girls have said:

“I really enjoyed doing Science because we were testing materials and seeing if they could be used as the food surface in a food van.” Fern.
“I enjoyed doing the Bebras challenge because I like solving word problems as a team. I especially liked the coding questions because you have to try lots of different possible solutions.” Natalie.
“On Monday I really enjoyed writing letters to say thank you to Paul (our instructor) for our time at Grafham Water. I told him that I particularly enjoyed the climbing wall because I didn’t think I would get half way up but I got to the top, and the canoeing because it was great fun saying thank you to the fishes!” Eloise.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning: 

  • English – writing instructions.
  • Science – properties of Materials: thermal insulation investigation.
  • Maths – fractions.
  • History – Anglo Saxons.

Please note: more photos were added to our Grafham Water Flickr folder (at the start of the Albums list) on Tuesday so do have a look.

 

See all photos
See all photos

Year 6

Week 8 – Remembrance Week
This week started with Remembrance Day and Mr Bailey gave a school assembly on the many ways to be respectful to the past and present. The students have been fantastic in the classroom this week with lots of stretch and challenge. The 11+ Academic Scholarship date has been announced (10 January 2020) and we are pleased many parents are supporting their child’s ambitions and we wish everyone good luck. Last Friday at the Senior School was the NHS Awards Evening, it was wonderful to see so many of our students in Years 7, 11 and 13 being recognised for their numerous academic and non-academic achievements. It was a lovely reminder that our students are on a long-term journey working towards their careers, vocations and overall character development.

Karen Fordham and James Loveday

Student voice:
“In Music, Mr Nathan and Mrs German taught us some songs and it was very funny because Mr Nathan was on a wheelie chair and crashed into a piano. The songs he taught us were Christmas songs. It was a very fun lesson.”
“In English we are doing persuasive writing to convince Mrs Petryszak to let us GO TO THE MOOOON! Writing to sway Mrs Petryszak was fun. We had to write three points to argue about which was a good challenge.”
“In Humanities we were learning about Greek Gods and wrote some sentences on which was the most important and least important god. We then looked at world religions today and are doing a research project on a religion.”
“Some of us did the Primary Maths Challenge. It was tough but not impossible. The last five questions were really hard.”
“In PE we did cross country running which was one mile long. Everyone tried their best. The first got into the team and are to Thornton to do a trail. We also did a session of hockey in that lesson where we played matches. I enjoyed that lesson very much!”
“In Science we did a mini self assessment covering all the topics we have looked at so far. The first part of our assessment was independent but the second part we had to work on together in our table groups.”

See all photos

GAP Club

Highlights:

We began the week thinking about Remembrance Sunday. The girls helped to collage a large poppy and used water colours to paint a picture. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the girls were very busy creating accessories to change our seasonal Winnie the Pooh display from Autumn to Winter. On Friday we celebrated Children in Need, by making Pudsey ears and spotty biscuits. The girls have also continued to be creative in ‘Snip Snip Snips Hairdressers’.

What the girls have enjoyed:

“I liked playing ponies and doggies.” Evette, Year 1.
“I liked playing Dobble with Miss Page.” Asmi, Year 2.
“I liked doing the hat.” Holly H, Year 1.
“I quite liked doing the display.” Sophie, Year 3.

Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:

Next week the girls will be participating in winter activities.

See all photos

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Term Dates

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