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Junior News 29 March |
Our week |
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Dear parents and girls All of our parents understand the importance of nurturing creativity and imagination in their children, but this week some in Nursery considered themselves over-zealous in this aspect of parenting as their daughters returned home with tales of exotic creatures. Doubts crept in as the apparent discrepancy between ‘I’ve stroked a snake’ and the published ‘Animal Encounters’ came to the fore. Fluffy bunnies they were not, and giant land snails, geckos, tree frogs and stick insects joined the python in the Community Room to entertain and challenge all of the Nursery girls. The positive influence of others meant that even the most timid partook in the touching and observation of the animals, and the look of euphoria on their faces as they overcame their nervousness was a sight to behold. Do take a look at the photos on flickr. It may be three weeks since the lower KS2 girls returned from Beamanor Hall, but Year 3 certainly brought the residential to life in Wednesday’s assembly as they amused us with tales of their antics. These included hide-and-seek in the cellars, torch-passing, ‘head’ football, hunting with spears and charging the enemy (the teachers….) with their swords and shields. They built dens with tarpaulin and rope, constructed and pulled land buggies and completed team challenges and obstacle courses. Most poignant were their stories of personal challenges overcome, from fear of the dark to being away from home for the first time. Some spoke of their improved teamwork and perseverance and Rithika, who joined us this half term and didn’t attend the trip, generously narrated and spoke of her integration with the year group and the friends that she has made over the past few weeks. It was very clear that they – and Year 4 – had had a wonderful and stimulating few days. With many of the Year 5 and 6 girls out on the pistes, those at school enjoyed a stimulating week of enrichment alongside their more regular lessons. For Year 5, this came in the form of a study of comparative religion through drama, music, art and mindfulness. They baked Jewish honey and apple cakes, worked collaboratively to create a Buddhist dharma wheel (dharmachakra) and used data analysis to consider religious affiliation in the UK. The week ended with the girls using their research, creative and literary skills by producing presentations on the lives of inspirational people of faith. Year 6, meanwhile, entered the world of business as they completed a market research task and used the associated data to develop a new product. They learnt about the importance of advertising and promotion and were assisted in this by Mrs Tansley and Mrs Hymers from the Senior School Business Studies department. This culminated in a final presentation to a panel of Senior School colleagues and more information about this, including the results, can be found below. It has been a busy week for others too: Year 1 have been warping and weaving card looms; Year 2 took to the outdoors, sketching the signs of spring in their handmade books; Year 4 went up to Senior School to make clay owls (for which thanks to Mrs Bearcroft, Head of Visual Arts) and Reception visited the opticians in Wootton on the latest stage of their ‘People Who Help Us’ journey. All are in need of a rest now, but particularly so this weekend the women who care for our girls. I wish them all the best for a happy and relaxing Sunday and hope that they get spoiled just a little bit! Caroline Petryszak |
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 Friday’s assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: Karate Gymnastics |
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 this term and the Summer Term: Year 4N – 3 April Year 1N – 15 May Year Reception – 22 May Year 2N – 5 June Year 3N – 12 June Year 4N – 19 June Year 5H – 26 June Year 5N – 3 July Year 6N – 11 July afternoon Leavers Assembly |
Dates for the Diary |
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Sports Days |
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Nursery Reception to Year 2 Year 3 to Year 6 |
Clubs |
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Charity |
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Don’t forget to buy your raffle tickets for the Easter Egg raffle! Please see below for more details.
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Nursery |
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Kipper Room We have enjoyed the story ‘Dear Zoo’ throughout the week. The girls especially liked playing with shredded paper and looking for the hidden animals in the tray. We have been dressing up in various outfits and have seen our seedlings start to grow. Elmer Room Pre-School On Wednesday we were very excited to have a visit from some animals. The girls loved looking at them, holding and stroking, a snake, stick insect, an African land snail, and a gecko. They also observed a tree frog and thought that it was very clever how it clung to Chris’s hand with the sticky pads on its feet. Next week your daughter may experience the following activities:
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Reception |
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This week we have been to Wootton Opticians to meet the Optometrist and find out all about her job. We were amazed to see all the pairs of glasses and some of us got to try them on. We saw the examination room and a big chair that could move up and down. She explained about her ‘retinoscope’ and ‘opthalmoscope’ along with how to carry out an eye test. Her advice on keeping your eyes healthy is to eat broccoli, cabbage and eggs!! On Thursday the school nurse, Mrs Hawkins, came to talk to us about her job. She had lots of things to show us, including bandages, plasters, a stethoscope, first aid kit and a huge foil blanket. Again, a very engaging and worthwhile experience for the class. We have been thinking about time and the days of the week. Please can you continue to practise this at home, saying the order of the days, using the words, ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’. In P.E. this week Mrs Littlewood was very impressed with the class and their football skills. She commented on good listening skills, a willingness for all to have a go and that everyone tried their best – fantastic!! |
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Year 1 |
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The Year 1 class have been working on maths investigations all week and have really impressed me with their problem-solving skills. They worked cooperatively in pairs to read the the problem, choose which operations to use and to work systematically to find solutions. What brilliant mathematicians they are turning into! In English we have begun to learn about adjectives and then how to use these to create some imaginative shape poems about creatures beneath the sea. We also undertook a seasonal scavenger hunt in Science and created some top secret products in DT. Mum’s the word! |
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Year 2 |
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What a busy week we have had. “I’ve been enjoying writing adjectives about sea creatures.” Avleen “We also wrote similes and alliteration for the sea creatures.” Zoe “I enjoyed writing shape poems in Literacy.” Ellie “I enjoyed working in a group this week doing maths investigation cards.” Harriet “We have made secret things in Art.” Sophie
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Year 3 |
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“In Science I enjoyed drawing the graph about Breathing Rates and colouring it.” Darcy “I liked drawing calligraphy in English.” Emily “I enjoyed Humanities when we wrote a timetable ‘A Day in the Life of Stone Age People’.” Lydia
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Year 4 |
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“I enjoyed going through our Class Assembly script for the first time. I also enjoyed working out how long periods of time lasted.” Sophia “I enjoyed doing our DT lesson because it was really fun to make cards for younger people that we would be proud to put in the shops.” Lois |
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Year 5 |
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“I really enjoyed learning about the creation stories because we wrote them down in different ways and it helped to lay things out differently… this will help me in the future. We compared the different stories and found out that in the Sikh religion there is no order to creation so it’s not a story, it’s a description.” Ammara “My favourite thing this week was doing the drama because it was funny when Tobi was angry in the play, but we forgave her in the end. The quote we were doing was ‘The weak can never forgive. You have to be strong to forgive.’ We learned that forgiveness is a very good thing to do because it releases all your stress.” Caitlin and Millie This week we made some delicious apple and honey cupcakes and most of us found it quite hard trying to peel the apples. We made them because we were learning about Yom Kippur which is when Jewish people fast so they can focus on their god and ask for forgiveness.” Tanya I really liked doing meditation because it was very calm and we got to focus our brains on our breathing. We first listened to a guided exercise about breathing and then we got iPads and headphones and listened to our own choice of music and calmed ourselves down.” Hania
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Year 6 |
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We have had a very exciting week researching, developing and marketing our biscuits as part of Business Enterprise week. The skills that we have learnt have been really valuable and helped us to understand more about the world around us and also the way in which our decisions can be heavily influenced by others. A big thank you to Mrs Tansley and Mrs Hymers, from the Business Faculty, for all their help this week. Artemis – Penny Panda Our biscuits are a delicious, new experience for your taste buds to enjoy. In addition to this, by buying our biscuits you are helping to save pandas suffering from the threat of poachers as we donate part of each sale to WWF. Our luxurious biscuits are topped with a generous topping of silky icing sugar, melt-in-the mouth chocolate buttons, as ears, and edible eyes. This biscuit can be eaten as an in-between-meal snack or a special treat. Charlotte L, Roja and Tess
Demeter – Spring Mellow This new, Mellow Moment biscuit will send you to a whole new world! Including soft, fluffy marshmallows and crisp, crunchy biscuit your taste buds will explode and all the stresses of the day will melt away just like our chocolate coating. Spring Mellows are selling for the unbelievable price of £1.75 a packet! Get in there quick before stocks run out! Remember, say hello to Mellow Moments by eating a Spring Mellow! Ashana, Eryn and Isobel
Hestia – Rocco Choco Rocco Choco is a mixture of smooth milk chocolate and soft marshmallows pressed between two crunchy oat biscuits. Her Majesty the Queen has sampled Rocco Choco and has described the product as, ‘Utterly exquisite!’. To find out more about Roco Choco visit: www.roccochocobestbiscuitever.co.uk Arna, Charlotte E-H, Ella and Imi
Selene – Sparkz This new Mrities biscuit, ‘Sparkz’, has hoit the world by storm! It’s rich flavours excite your taste buds, making it a joy to eat. Our product research has shown that many people enjoy eating adventurous and exciting biscuits and that is exactly what ‘Sparkz’ gives you, adventure and excitement! Abi, Deeya, Gege and Tara
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And the winner of the Junior Enterprise House Cup is…..Hestia! |
GAP Club |
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This week in GAP Club the girls have been busy making fairies and surprises ready for the weekend. “Colouring and playing.” Kaitlyn, Nursery. “Making a surprise for Mummy.” Harini, Year 2 |
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Question Time comes to Northampton High |
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We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting BBC1’s flagship political discussion programme, Question Time, hosted by Fiona Bruce on Thursday 9 May. This is a great prospect for our girls and for us as a school. We will set up a production office on Wednesday 8 May after school, ready for the production team to arrive from 9am on the Thursday morning. The programme is regularly broadcast from learning institutions, and therefore the production team understands very well the sensitivity of working from such venues. Disruption to the school day will be minimal and the school will operate as usual on Thursday 9 May.
Question Time selects local audiences which reflect a broad range of political views. People apply to be in the audience for Question Time via the website and by phone and producers get in touch to ask questions on their previous voting record and future voting intentions, whether they have party political membership and also how they voted in the EU Referendum. This is to ensure a range of views are represented in the audience. Occasionally, if production staff feel any group or view is under-represented in the applications, they will promote the programme through relevant local media channels to encourage people to apply. As with the make-up of the panels, Question Time is aiming to achieve due impartiality in the membership of the audience across the series as a whole, rather than being confined to an exact mathematical formula for each programme. However, particular guidelines will apply during election periods to both panels and audiences. Should you be interested in applying to be part of the audience, please click here or call 0330 123 9988. We will keep you updated on the preparations for this event. Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact me. Amanda Wilmot |
GCSE Music Evening, Thursday 4 April, 7pm |
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There is always a great relief for our students when exam coursework has been completed. To celebrate this year, the Music Department will be hosting an event for all, enjoying the written scores from our female composers. We have been fortunate that Dr Stringer has led many assemblies featuring female composers recently, culminating on International Women’s Day. To this end, we are proud to bring our own GCSE female composers to the fore. This will be a unique occasion, as we shall be showing and reading, on-screen, the scores that the girls have written. Thanks to computer software, we can present the written scores as a performance. Additionally, we shall be celebrating acoustic solo performances on a range of instruments. Our Junior ‘Singing Stars’ and Junior Recorder Ensemble will also perform, and we hope that our younger children will be inspired to consider adding Music to their GCSE choices when the time comes. Finally, the school’s choir for parents and friends in the local community, will also join us for combined performances, celebrating our growing High School musical family. The Northampton High School Community Chamber Choir and the Junior ‘Singing Stars’ will close the evening with a beautiful two-part song entitled, ‘I Remember.’ We hope that you, too, will remember, and that you will come and join the celebrations with us. If you wish to know any further information about the event please contact Mr Nathan, Director of Music. Mrs German
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Parent Survey |
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It is over two years since we last carried out a comprehensive survey of our parents (on that occasion via Mungo Dunnett Associates) to gauge your views about all aspects of school life. Since then, you have been asked to give your opinions about a number of specific issues, notably homework and mobile phones. We have been pleased by the level of response to these surveys and your answers have informed our thinking and planning in these key areas. I hope that you will now welcome the opportunity to provide more wide-ranging feedback to us by completing the Parent Survey 2019. The survey will take no more than 5 minutes to complete. In order to respond to the survey, please click here and answer the 12 questions provided. We will close the survey on Friday 5 April 2019 in order to provide ample time to analyse the results and act on any significant findings before the start of the new academic year. Thank you to those who have already given feedback, and thank you in anticipation for any further responses. Dr Stringer |
Save the Date: Open Day Friday 3 May |
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Term Dates |
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Northampton High School |
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