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Junior News 21 June 2019 |
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Dear parents and girls Aside from simple pencil-and-paper activities, there have been two handbag-sized games that have entertained every generation of my family over the years: ‘rat-a-tat CAT’ and, more recently, ‘Dobble’. It is therefore to my delight, though not my instigation, that we appear to be living ‘Dobble Days’ in Breakfast Club at present, with multiple games often taking place as the girls develop their observational skills and reflexes whilst having fun. Mrs Eggleton is one of its biggest fans, Mrs Shah has bought her own version and we have even had a parent join us for a game (and a bargain cooked breakfast) this week. On the subject of entertainment, I had the pleasure of listening to each one of author Pippa Goodhart’s sessions on Wednesday as she spoke to, read and answered questions for Reception, Years 1 and 2 and Years 3 and 4. She told the girls that she didn’t like to read and write when she was young and that her spelling was poor, but that she was very good at playtime and ‘let’s pretend’ games and she loved to draw. Now, though, she reads for pleasure as well as work, has written over one-hundred books, still likes to ‘pretend’ but doesn’t illustrate any of the books herself.
She told of why she has written seventy-three books about Winnie the Witch under the pen name Laura Owen, and of the rejections she received when trying to get her ‘You Choose’ books published as she was told time and again that they wouldn’t work before they finally went on to sell over a million copies. She signed books for individuals (including teachers!), and a whole class and read from many of her books, including – for the first time ever in a school – the recently-published ‘Daddy Frog and the Moon’. At break-time our Year 6 visitors whooped with delight at the book display, fully appreciating that so many of the books that they had known and loved as small children had been written by her. She encouraged them to pursue their love of reading and writing and told them a little more about her life, too, including tales of her pet pooch Winnie (the ‘female dog’!). All-in-all a wonderful morning, and I fully expect that Years 5 and 6 will have a similar experience as they meet and listen to Ross Welford later today. We had a packed house for Year 4’s Class Assembly on Wednesday as they told us a little more about their fundraising for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and their recent focus on living things and habitats. They explained that their favourite habitats around school are the soil, woodland and hedgerows and that they rather like the Reception class garden and the Creepy Crawly Cottage bug hotel, too! At Brixworth they explored ponds, woodland and grass and in class they have studied habitats in forests, grasslands, freshwater, deserts, oceans and the poles, so their assembly was packed with information. It was highly entertaining, too, as they finished with a song about habitats. Well done to them and thanks to all the parents who joined us for the event. Year 5 were out and about this week, too, as they undertook their river study in Everdon. I have yet to catch up with them about this, but reports from Mrs Shaw and Miss Brandon-Jones and the photos on Flickr indicate that a great time was had by all, and I’m sure that we will hear more in due course. My thanks to colleagues for organising and accompanying the trip and to the girls for behaving impeccably as always and for engaging so well in the activities. Next week appears to be particularly busy with the Allotment Charity and Arts Invitational Events and an NMPAT Brass Recital. There are also year-group specific information sessions and sports enrichment and the Nursery, Reception and Year 1 Sports Days, so keep an eye on the calendar, the planners and the clubs information below, please. In the meantime, have a lovely weekend and a good rest. Caroline Petryszak
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Mrs Petryszak's availability |
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Mrs Petryszak’s days on site will vary over the coming weeks in order to align with school activities and events:
She is, however, contactable on c.petryszak@nhs.gdst.net or via the school office on any day of the working week. |
Achievements |
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Each week in assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Swimming Karate Tennis Scouts/Cubs Piano Choir |
Assemblies |
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Class Assemblies are held in the Junior School Hall at 8.35am on Wednesdays and parents are most welcome to enjoy refreshments from 8.00am. Here are the dates for the Summer Term: Year 5H – 26 June Year 5N – 3 July Year 6 – 11 July evening Valedictory Event |
Dates for Diary |
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Mon 24 June – Reception and Year 1 Sports Day Weds 26 June – Nursery Sports Day Weds 26 June – Year 6 Allotment Charity Event Thurs 27 June – Year 4 Sports Enrichment Day Thurs 27 June – Arts Invitational event Mon 1 July – LAMDA exams Mon 1 July – 3.30pm Maths Parents’ Workshop Tues 2 July – Gym and Dance Extravaganza Weds 3 July – Years 6 and 3 Allotments Fri 5 July – Welcome Day Weds 10 July – KS1 trip to Castle Ashby Gardens Thurs 11 July – Year 6 Valedictory Event 6.00pm-8.00pm Fri 12 July – END OF TERM (12 noon) |
Early May Bank Holiday 2020 |
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Please kindly note that, in line with the change to the national Bank Holiday pattern in May 2020 in order to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, we will observe the early May Bank Holiday on Friday 8 May rather than on Monday 4 May, as originally advertised. Monday 4 May will be a normal school day and school will be closed on Friday 8 May. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries about the change. Dr Stringer |
Cancelled Clubs |
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Thursday 27 June – 7.30am – 8.20am Gymnastics Club Monday 1 July – Year 3 to 6 Patchwork Club Monday 1 July – Year 2 to 4 Lego Club Monday 1 July – Year 5 and 6 Spanish Club Tuesday 2 July – all Sports Clubs Tuesday 2 July – Recorder Club and Board Games Club w/c Monday 8 July – All teacher-led clubs and Sports Clubs in the last week of term |
Charity |
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On Wednesday 26 June, Year 6 will be holding their Allotment Charity event for pupils. Dress as a scarecrow, farmer or in the colour of your favourite fruit or vegetable for a £1 donation. Please bring some extra money for a variety of stalls. |
Sport |
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Under 11 Cricket B Team v Quinton House On Wednesday we had an amazing, nail-biting match against Quinton House. We played well but still need to work on our bowling skills. The final score was extremely close with only 1 point in it. The score was 278 to 277 to us! Well done team! Captain – Ashana Under 11 Cricket Rally at Northampton High School On Thursday Year 6 A team competed in the GDST Cricket Rally hosted by Northampton. All the girls really enjoyed it and by the end I could tell that everyone’s cricket skills had improved. |
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We played Sheffield first and did well winning 232 to 222. We then played Northwood, in my opinion this was our best game and we won 254 to 232. Out of all the GDST schools we were placed 13th and had such a good time. Captain – Ella D Year 2 and 3 Cricket
The Year 2 and 3 had a session led by a coach from Northants Cricket Club during their games session on Friday. Fun was definitely had by all and they experienced new games. SPORTS DAYS Nursery Reception to Year 2 |
Nursery |
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Kipper Room Elmer Room Pre-School Next week your daughter may experience the following activities:
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Wednesday is our Sports afternoon. We look forward to seeing you all at 2pm to take part. Please can you daughter wear her PE kit (Elmer Room and Preschool ) or shorts and t-shirt (Kipper Room). As it is our Sports afternoon on Wednesday we will dress up as scarecrows and on Thursday we will dress in the colour of our favourite vegetable for Year 6’s Allotment Charity event. |
Reception |
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News Flash! We have one butterfly that has emerged from its cocoon, causing great excitement! At first the wings were closed so we couldn’t see the colour or pattern. Hopefully we will be able to identify it by its markings. We hope that you enjoyed watching our ballet lesson as much as we did performing for you all! This week we were pleased to welcome the author Pippa Goodhart to talk to us and share her stories. We especially liked the ‘You Choose’ books and inspired by meeting her we had a go at writing our own ideas for ‘You Choose In Space.’ We have also welcomed some Nursery girls into our classroom to play and the girls showed great pride in showing them around and telling them all the ‘do’s and don’ts’! |
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Year 1 |
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This week we moved into our new classroom and we are all delighted with it. Our favourite aspect is the KS1 shared garden. We can now keep an eye on our sunflowers that we recently planted and create fairy homes outside using natural materials. We even went into the garden today to investigate 3D shapes using playdough to make footprints. |
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Year 2 |
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This week in Maths we have been measuring capacity. We have learned the unit of measure for capacity and how to read different scales. We had a lot of fun making a summer fruit punch, carefully choosing the amounts for each flavour and then measuring them to make one whole litre of multi-coloured punch! In English we have continued our study of fantasy stories conjuring up characters and then bringing them to life through writing character profiles. We have also practised our drama skills this week acting out parts of ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ story. We thought carefully about emotions and how to show them through facial expressions and body language. “I liked trying all the different fruits.” Jessica “I liked measuring to make the fruit punch.” Ishani “I enjoyed measuring the water.” Harini |
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Year 3 |
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“I liked the Swimming Gala, when we did the funny races like the octopus and fish races.” Rithika “I enjoyed doing Art in which we finished our sketches from Modigliani’s paintings and we made some wire people.” Lydia |
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Year 4 |
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“I liked doing our Swimming Gala on Monday because we all did really well and tried our best. My favourite stroke was front crawl.” Verity “I liked tasting Starburst sweets for advertising a product because they were really tasty.” Odelia “I really enjoyed the Swimming Gala because in my first heat I won the freestyle race.” Georgia |
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Year 5 |
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“I liked sketching the horseshoe-shaped bit of the river that is called a meander because you got to draw and label the things that you had drawn. I liked doing a key for my picture because it made it more interesting and made it so you knew more about it. Next we stood in the river by a rope and measured from the rope to bottom of the river all the way across so we could find out the depth and make a graph in our maths lesson.” Lydia “This week I really enjoyed the Science lesson. I particularly liked this lesson because we had to design a crumple zone for the front of a car. We had to make the least amount of force when the car crashed at the bottom of the ramp. My group got the most force but still less than 18N which is the force that Mrs Vizor, our Senior School teacher, got on her test run.” Poppy |
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Year 6 |
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“This week we have enjoyed analysing the characteristics of a variety of animals through the study of poetry and we look forward to writing our own poems next week. We have also worked hard to solve some tricky problems involving negative numbers and measurement conversion and debated the best ways to combat coastal erosion in Humanities. Also, we have completed our Georgia O’Keeffe-inspired acrylic flowers and cannot wait for you to see them next week as part of the Arts Festival.” Charlotte E-H and Arna, House and Vice-Captain Hestia “In Maths we have learnt lots about converting metric measurements and I cannot wait to find out more fascinating facts. For example, did you know that 1 cm cubed is the same as 1 ml?” Arna “We have been working hard to prepare for our Allotment Fayre, next Wednesday, to raise money for Re:Store. In Houses, we have designed lots of exciting activities for all the girls to take part in and cannot wait to see everybody dressed up for the occasion!” Lola “I have enjoyed looking at the way in which poets portray animals in their work. I particularly liked the poem about the elephant because it surprised me by portraying the elephant as quite a violent creature – I have always thought of them as calm, kind and gentle, not vicious in any way.” Imi
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GAP Club |
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This week in GAP Club the girls have had fun with noodles and have experimented to see what happens when you leave them out overnight. We have also spent lots of time outside enjoying the change in weather, lets keep our fingers crossed that it is here to stay. This week three girls have shared their highlight of the week: “I’ve liked playing with the Nursery girls, but not the noodles because they were sticky.” Asmi Year 1. |
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Ross Welford visits as part of our Arts Festival |
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As part of the Arts Festival we were lucky to be joined by the children’s author Ross Welford on Friday morning. The excited audience comprising Year 5 and 6 girls from Junior School and Years 7 and 8 in Senior School were not disappointed. Ross began by talking about how stories are magical and something that we, as humans, have been doing for thousands of years. He then explained a little about his personal history, growing up in Cullercoats in the North East (where all his stories are set) and about his twin loves, reading and magic tricks. Enid Blyton featured strongly along with a guide on how to perform your own tricks, which the young Ross practised diligently. We were treated to a few of Ross’ tricks with the help of several pupils, one of which involving time travel! |
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Arts Festival: Invitational Event |
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As part of our upcoming Arts Festival (noted in the above flyer), we are delighted to be hosting our Arts Invitational Evening on Thursday 27 June. Starting at 5pm, the Invitational will showcase a vast array of work produced by students of all ages here at Northampton High, across all of the different areas of the Arts. Creative Arts, Fashion, Textiles, Food, Film, Drama, Music and Poetry are just some of the exhibitions and activities that will be on display during the Invitational, and we do hope that you will be able to join us in school as we proudly present the creations of our talented students. To get a flavour of what to expect at the event, please click here to view a gallery of photos from last years invitational. Mr Nash |
Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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