Junior News – 17 May 2024

This week has been a week of opportunity. We proudly waved off our Year 6 pupils on Monday as they boarded the coach to travel to Osmington Bay, for a full week of activities and unique experiences, making shared memories. It was striking how our pupils appeared ready for the challenge, prepared for new adventures and seemingly more mature, sporting emerald green trip hoodies and capably handling suitcases with palpable enthusiasm and excitement.

The excitement continued on Wednesday when we welcomed a team from Volkswagen Group UK’s INSPIRE programme, delivering a morning of guest lectures, workshops and car displays for girls from Reception to Year 5.

Showcasing the myriad career pathways in the automotive industry, the day started with an engaging and empowering assembly presented by Mrs Stride, who generously gave her time and shared her expertise and knowledge of the VW group. The girls were treated to information about vehicle manufacturing, brand positioning, model range, marketing, and logistics.

The presentation content evidently prompted pupils’ curiosity with questions querying topics from the fastest cars in the model range to how the supply chain works, from marine importation considerations to the environmental benefits of electric vehicles.

The desire to understand how cars are transported by sea in huge cargo ships ignited the pupils’ imagination and invited lively discussion around weight and scale of sea freight, with genuine concern expressed by Year 5 pupils for safety, having recently studied the ill-fated Titanic.

The workshops that followed included time to physically examine the range of vehicles on display – EVs Cupra Born and Audi RS e-tron GT, a VW Golf and a VW Tiguan Allspace, class discussions on out-of-home cinema advertising and brand marketing budgets, vehicle design, and features (such as candy floss dispensers) to include in future model development. The girls embraced the morning with aplomb and engaged wholeheartedly in every element.

Our pupils demonstrated the freedom to lose themselves in the automotive theme, enabled each other’s interest and achievement, and embraced the morning with unconstrained delight. I cannot wait to see whether our girls will go on to be the car designers, engineers and logistics experts of the future!

Our sincere thanks to Mrs Stride and Volkswagen Group UK for this inspiring experience.

Wishing you and your families a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Amanda Wilmot
Acting Head – Junior School

Parent Notices

Sun cream and Sun Hats: Now the weather is much improved, may we please ask that pupils wear sun cream to school and ensure they have sun hats with them in school every day.

Wraparound Care: In Wraparound Care, we have reintroduced fruit as a snack as well as the biscuits currently available.

Welcome Evening: Welcome Evening for current Year 6 pupils and parents is taking place on Tuesday 21 May from 6.00pm, to provide lots of information about the transition into Year 7 in September.

Swap Shop: The Swap Shop is open every Friday afternoon from 2.45 – 3.45pm in the Junior School hall if you need to top up uniform items.

Cooking Club: There will be no Cookery Club on Friday 24 May. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience this may cause.

Dates for the diary:

Monday 20 May U9, U10, U11 Mini Hockey Festival at Moulton College, 3.30-6.30pm
Tuesday 21 May Welcome Evening for current Year 6 pupils and parents is taking place on Tuesday 21 May from 6pm, to provide lots of information about the transition into Year 7 in September. Swap shop will be open from 5pm to 6pm should you wish to purchase uniform or check on sizing.
Wednesday 22 May Open Classrooms, 3.30-4.00pm
Friday 24 May Year 3 and 4 Partnerships Sports Festival, 1.30-3.30pm teas at 4.00pm

There will be no swimming for Year 2 on Friday 24 May due to the Year 3 and 4 Sports Festival. Apologies for this disruption.

Correction – the Open Forest School session on Wednesday 5 June is for Year 4, and not for all classes.

Father’s Day breakfast – more information to follow next week.

Sports Days

Sports Days are one of the highlights of the summer term. We are pleased to confirm the dates for Junior School are as follows:

Nursery and Preschool Tuesday 18 June, 1.30-2.30pm – Refreshments will be served.

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Wednesday 26 June, 9.30-10.30am – Refreshments will be served.

Year 3 to Year 13 Friday 7 June, all day – Please see SchoolPost letters. (Friday 14 June – Reserve date).

Swimming

Thank you to parents for coming along to our Swimming watching sessions.

We are looking forward to our Swimming Galas as follows:

Year 3: Monday 20 May, arrival from 9:20am finish by 10:20am

Year 6: Wednesday 22 May, arrival from 2:20pm finish by 3:20pm

Year 5: Thursday 23 May, arrival from 2:20pm finish by 3:20pm

At the end of the gala, points will be totalled and the winning House for each year group will be announced. Additionally, all the points earned by each House will be added together to see who will be crowned the Junior School Swimming Gala Champions!

News from our classrooms: Nursery and Preschool

In Nursery we started the week with a change of scenery for our Forest School session and went to a different part of the school grounds. The girls enjoyed picking buttercups and daisies as well as finding sticks.

Running up and down the hill was very popular as was rolling down it and the girls also had fun playing with the buggy.

Could we please ask you to dress your daughter in leggings and a long sleeve top on a Monday for Forest School. Please could you also provide trainers rather than wellington boots when the weather is dry and apply sun cream before leaving home.

Bubbles were a popular addition to our water tray and where we have continued to practise pouring and collecting water.

The interest in construction has continued with more castles being made with the wooden blocks and the girls worked together to achieve this.

In Maths we have had pattern cards with shapes to match and create and in Cooking we made fruit pizzas using our cutting skills to cut the different fruits.

For our mark making session we have been using pencils attached to toy cars to drive the car around the paper and see what marks we could make.

This week in Preschool we have been focusing on our writing and letter formation.

Our story of the week was ‘The day the crayons quit’ and we have been using alternative mark making materials such as paint, writing pencils, chalks and cotton buds. We have made ‘missing posters’ to encourage the return of crayons and attempted to write down the names of the missing colours.

Outside, the girls have shown an interest in the two wheel pedal bikes, gaining lots of confidence as they have been helped to cycle around the garden.

We have continued to watch and care for our sunflower seeds, seeing a few start to sprout shoots already.

The girls also initiated role play games based on the stories ‘Goldilocks’ and ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and they enjoyed acting out the actions, as they re-called the story in order, in small groups.

In the water tray we have had different coloured water each day and the girls have enjoyed exploring a wide range of resources. We have had a few sensory mark making trays out, encouraging the girls to make a range of marks without having to use a pencil.

We have also explored the primary colours and experimented with mixing them together and many of the girls made good predictions as to what the end colour would be.

News from our classrooms: Reception

This week our activities have been inspired by the story ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle.

We have made our own booklet about a tiny seed and we have planted some sunflower seeds and then written the instructions.

The class have looked carefully at a plant and named the main parts, remembering the roots which are under the soil.

In Maths we are continuing with addition and subtraction, turning our first, then and now stories into sums.

We are pleased to announce that all of the five cocoons have turned into beautiful butterflies and after observing them carefully, we released them into the wild to go and find their own home in the natural environment. It was lovely to see the life cycle evolve and has been a great learning experience.

The class very much enjoyed showing you their swimming skills and thank you for watching.

Year 1 PSHE Focus

Year 1 have been thinking about the word ‘relationship’ and what it means.

We have shared details with each other about our families and understand that families are made up in lots of different ways. We know that our families love and protect us.

We have thought about ways to make friends and had lots of fun role playing all the ways we can greet people we know and care about.

Year 2 PSHE Focus

In PSHE this week, Year 2 have been talking about ‘Trust’. We have considered what it means to be able to trust somebody and what we can do so that people trust us.

We carefully thought about who we have in our lives that we can trust to help us if we need it, including our families, friends and professional people.

Year 3 PSHE Focus

Year 3 have been thinking about what makes a good friend. The girls have role played different scenarios and discussed social skills. They then chose or wrote sentences to describe how they think they are a good friend.

Year 4 PSHE Focus

This week in Year 4 PSHE, our learning intention was all about understanding how we can hold onto memories of special people and events, even if they’re no longer with us.

The class were introduced to Sandy, a loyal dog who has crossed the rainbow bridge. They had a heartwarming task in small group to draw items that could be placed in a memory box for him.

The children came up with some truly touching ideas, such as Sandy’s favourite treats, collar, beloved toy, a poem and a beautiful picture.

Year 5 PSHE Focus

Year 5 had an amazing PSHE session this week, working with a lawyer called Rachael Kirkup – the Social Impact Manager for BPP Education Group.

We learned how a courtroom is set up, and about the different people who are involved in a trial, before putting ‘Goldilocks’ on trial for burglary and criminal damage.

The prosecution and defence counsels had a lot of questions and the jury heard evidence from the defendant and two witnesses.

At the end of the trial we learned about sentencing and thought about what a fair punishment might be in this situation.

It was a great afternoon and, even though not everyone was happy with the eventual outcome of our trial, we had some fabulously spirited arguments!

Year 6 PSHE Focus

In PSHE Year 6 have been exploring relationships, how we are all connected and how we can collaborate to help us to develop and grow.

U8A, U9A and U9B Cricket v Wellingborough - Friday 10 May

U8A
A beautiful, sunny day welcomed Y3 onto the Astro for their first cricket fixture of the season.

We won the toss and chose to field first and took 11 wickets. A special mention must go to Iman who took 5 wickets in her over, a fantastic performance Iman!

Next it was our turn to bat and the girls did brilliantly; two pairings performed especially well – Isabel and Rayna and Zara and Rosie.

The final score was Northampton High School – 262/2; Wellingborough School – 170/11. The Player of the Match was Rosie.

A great team effort all round, well done girls!

U9A
What a fantastic game of cricket against a well drilled Wellingborough team. The High School showed great grit and determination.

Grace was kept on her toes in the field and Orla bowled with great confidence with Wellingborough only scoring 6 runs from her innings. Emily took a wicket and kept the runs down and Eve had the most consistently accurate bowling. Rhoda and Shanaya had great communication in batting, Olivia and Emily were successful in scoring 4’s and gained the most runs as a pairing. Amariah was also able to find the boundary and exploit the gaps in the field.

The final score was Wellingborough 323 runs with 1 Wicket. Northampton 277 runs with 1 wicket.

Well done to the whole team!

U9B
The U9B had a close game and the team have been working on their communication skills and getting extra runs. This worked well with Isabella and Mayura in as our first batting pair and Isabella scored a 4. Caoimhe gave valuable instructions and the team worked well supporting one another.

The final score was 254 to 247 and Player of the Match was Caoimhe.

The team should be proud of their efforts.

News from outside of the classroom: Year 6 Osmington Bay Residential

We are excited to hear all about our Year 6 pupils’ experiences on their residential trip to Osmington Bay this week.

We have missed the girls in the classrooms and look forward to having them back in school, learning about their adventures, and hearing about how they took on the challenge to be 10% braver! We are sure the girls will have some magical memories to share!

Weekly Awards

Star Learners of the Week:

Anaisha M, Phoebe R, Pearl P, Grace R, Eloise A, Emily K, Rhoda J, Avani A, Elizabeth F-W, Annabel P

External Achievements:

Marine A – passed her UKA Latin & Ballroom ‘Red’ exam for Disco Cha Cha and Musical Theatre
Siéna-Louise D B – awarded a silver medal at the classical Greek Dance Festival and her group finished in second place
Grace B – got through to the next round at a Swimming gala
Orla D – made her Brownie promise
Annie T – awarded a Blue Stripe in Karate
Zoe Z – achieved a Merit in her Grade 4 Piano exam