|
|
Junior News 4 October 2019 |
|
Dear Parents, We are really building up momentum here at Northampton High Junior School as we reach the middle of a busy first half term. Hopefully the splashes of colour appearing around the entrance to the building in the form of hanging baskets and pumpkins are providing a little bit of autumnal warmth as the darker nights draw in. This week around the school I have been building in the sand with Nursery students, learning 3D shape names and properties, and talking with Year 6 about their cushion designs. I have also had the privilege of talking to 18 applicants for House and Vice-House Captain positions. It was wonderful to hear how eloquent, thoughtful and forward-thinking the oldest students in our school are. One of the aims of the GDST is to send girls out into the wider world who can make a difference; this group certainly can! Do follow us on Twitter @NHSJuniorSchool to see some of the learning highlights. We were treated to a wonderful Year 4 Class Assembly this week, where we learnt all about hygiene, diseases and how to stay healthy. The choral poetry performance was of the highest quality and shows that a strategic focus on oracy development really does build language competency and fluency. It was lovely to see so many smiling family members in the audience. The positive feedback we received was really uplifting. Parent evenings will take place next week and staff are busy preparing their thoughts and feedback about how all our students have settled in. The evening will also provide opportunities for you to look through books, learn more about our new wellbeing program, ‘Girls on Board,’ and also for the first time to have optional drop-in conversations with Music, PE and French specialist teachers who will be on hand to talk generally about curriculum coverage and how you can help at home. Our staff professional learning this week has been focused on refining our long term strategic plans for everything from Assessment to Premises Development. Weekly staff development sessions such as these ensure that our educational offer is the best it can be. We are excited to have a really high turn-out for our whole school Open Day tomorrow. It is a real opportunity for us to show-case the educational offer here at Northampton High School. If you know of anyone who might be interested in joining our community, please do point them in our direction. Thank you for all your support so far this term and have a relaxing weekend. Chris Bailey |
Sickness |
|
We want to inform you that we are aware of a number of pupils who have suffered with vomiting and /or diarrhoea symptoms over the last week. As you will understand, in a school environment these types of illnesses can spread quickly and be distressing for all. Therefore, I would like to remind you that if your daughter should suffer from either vomiting or diarrhoea she should be kept at home. Pupils should not return to school until 48 hours has elapsed since the last instance of either symptom. If a pupil becomes unwell with these symptoms whilst at school we will ask for her to be collected and taken home. |
Car Park Safety |
|
We are concerned that the safety of our pupils, staff and parents on site is being compromised by speeding cars on site. There has also been some inconsiderate parking which causes obstructions and reduces visibility (on double yellow lines for example). Please can we remind all parents to respect the 5 mph site speed limit, park in designated parking bays only, and give way to pupils and others using the pedestrian crossing points. Thank you for your cooperation. |
House News |
|
Congratulations to our newly appointed House and Vice Captains!
|
Achievements |
|
Each week in assembly, girls are invited to share their achievements in activities outside of school. They are listed below for this week: LAMDA Hockey Tennis Karate Dance
|
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: 3N – Wednesday 16 October |
Dates for Diary |
|
AUTUMN TERM Wednesday 9 October – Year 3 India Day Wednesday 9 October – Nursery Stay and Play Wednesday 9 October – Reception Parents’ Evening, 4pm-7pm Wednesday 9 October – Junior School Parents’ Evening, 6pm – 8.30pm Thursday 10 October – Junior School Parents’ Evening and Swap Shop, 4pm – 6pm Thursday 10 October – Year 4 trip to Piddington Friday 11 October – 7.30am Swap Shop Wednesday 16 October – Year 5 Hobbies Morning 9am – 11am Friday 18 October – Year 3 to Year 6 Billionaire Boy trip Monday 21 October to Friday 1 November – HALF TERM Monday 4 November – Year 1 and 2 Milton Keynes museum trip Wednesday 6 November to Friday 8 November – Year 5 residential trip Monday 11 November to Thursday 14 November – Book Fair Saturday 16 November – EYFS Family Fun Morning Friday 22 November – Reception to Year 6 Flu immunisation (more details to follow) Tuesday 3 December – 2-3pm Nursery Nativity Wednesday 4 December – 2-3pm Reception and KS1 play Tuesday 10 December – Nursery Stay and Play Tuesday 10 December – 7pm KS2 Christmas Celebration Friday 13 December – Christmas Jumper Day Friday 13 December – Preschool 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 |
|
There are no teacher-led clubs on Wednesday 9 October due to parents’ evening.
|
Uniform Swap Shop |
|
Swap shop will take place in the Junior School Community Room on:
We sell second hand Junior and Senior school uniform at a fraction of the new price with a percentage going to school funds. TO SELL: We can sell items of current uniform, they must be clean and in good condition. Items we cannot sell will either be returned to you or placed in the yellow clothes recycling bin. Complete and attach a label to each item with a safety pin and deliver it to Junior or Senior school reception before 10 October. (You should have received labels via school comms – they are also available from school reception along with safety pins). If any of your items sell, you will receive payment at the end of the school year. TO BUY: We have a large selection of uniform available to buy at a fraction of the new price, but are short of new logo PE kit. We can accept cash/cheque/bank transfer but currently not card payments. For bank transfers the account details are:
|
Sports |
|
Swimming Congratulations to our newly elected Swimming Sports Captain Emily M who has moved to a higher training level at her swim club; City of Milton Keynes. This is a tremendous achievement and one she is ‘over the moon’ with. This will mean that Emily is training 5 times a week!! Lets congratulate Emily and wish her all the best for the season ahead. Becky Littlewood – Director of Sport |
Nursery Kipper Room and Elmer Room |
|
Kipper Room: It has been another busy week in the Kipper Room. We have enjoyed the outside areas as much as we could… we loved watching the rain pouring down on Tuesday! Thinking about Harvest Festival, we have learnt about different fruits and vegetables, listening to and reenacting “The Enormous Watermelon” during our library visit. We have also been learning about how and where pumpkins grow and using the pears that we picked on our walk out into the school grounds to make a delicious pear crumble. What the girls have said: “Look! It’s raining!” said Ella. Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
Elmer Room: Highlights this week in Elmer Room have included talking about and looking at harvest. We took a walk in the School grounds to harvest pears from the tree, “Do it like this” Lily said. The girls then cut the pears up and made pear crumble to taste “cut cut,” said Zehra. During our trip to the library we read the ‘The Enormous Watermelon’ story and looked and felt a real Watermelon. The girls re-enacted the story by pulling the watermelon along together like the story. We have also looked at the growth cycle of a pumpkin starting from seed, turning into a plant, flowering and the pumpkin then forming. The girls had the opportunity to feel and look at a real pumpkin. Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
Nursery Pre-School |
|
Highlights: We have enjoyed lots of activities linked with harvest this week. Painting and tasting vegetables was great fun. The girls enjoyed tasting peppers, cucumber,celery, and carrots. They were also very interested in the pumpkin, investigating the seeds. They decided we needed to make soup, as our focus sound was ‘s’ for soup. On Thursday we tasted the soup for snack, it was yummy! We have also made scarecrows. On Wednesday all of Nursery and Pre-school joined together for a harvest story and some singing. What the girls have enjoyed: “Playing with toys.” Ellah. Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reception |
|
Highlights: This week we have been investigating the square shape, the colour pink and the number ‘4’. The girls have been mixing different shades of pink to paint squares, looking at the number 4 formation and making sure that the sides on a square are all the same length. We have been finding out about one of our senses – our tongue for tasting. The girls experienced tasting something sour, salty and sweet. They then tasted four different flavours of crisps to really tantalise their taste buds! Our phonics this week has focused on the letter sounds ‘t’, ‘i’, ‘n’ and ‘p’. Activities included, writing in sand, using chalk, threading an ‘nnn’ necklace, making a ‘iii’ instrument and ‘ppp’ purple paintings. What the girls have said: Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
Year 1 |
|
Highlights: This week in English, we have read more of ‘Daisy Saves the Day’. We have been thinking about using adjectives to describe Daisy’s attic bedroom, written a letter as Daisy to her mum and thought about our favourite books. In Science we have been looking at the basic needs of humans and animals and thinking about how creatures underwater can survive. In DT, we have carried on designing and making our houses, specifically the furniture, and in computing we have become more familiar with Purple Mash and practised our typing skills. What the girls have said: Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
Year 2 |
|
Highlights: In Maths we have practised ordering numbers and by the end of the week we had moved on to counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We’ve sung songs and played games to help us learn too! In English we have continued the story ‘Daisy Saves the Day’ and have thought a lot about Daisy’s situation carefully, considering her feelings and surroundings. We have also completed some great writing to match it, including writing a letter to her mum. In Forest School this week we had a lot of fun building dens and making pottery and masks from clay too! What the girls have said: Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
Year 3 |
|
Highlights: All the girls had a very exciting time at Forest School on Wednesday afternoon where they worked together to build dens, make smelly potions and create animals out of clay. In Maths we learnt about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes and drew some educational posters to help others learn the facts. What the girls have said: “I liked doing the clay and building dens at Forest School.” – Shreya. Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Wednesday 9 October we are going to have an India Day as part of our Humanities topic. We are going to immerse ourselves in the culture, tastes and atmosphere of India. Firstly, the girls will dress in Saris, so please can they come dressed in a T-shirt and leggings, which they will wear under the sari. If your daughter has her own then she is welcome to wear it but we do have enough for everyone and we will be doing a few messy activities during the day. We will also be making and tasting some spiced food, dancing and acting out some Indian folk tales and finding out about Hinduism and worship. |
Year 4 |
|
Highlights: In Maths this week we have been working on multiplying numbers and using doubling and halving as inverse operations. In English we have made notes about aspects of life in Roman times and used these to create an information text. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Forest School, making potions, creating clay sculptures and building dens. What the girls have said: Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
Year 5 |
|
Highlights: This week in English we have worked on improving our writing for our Iron Man stories, looking at several techniques of figurative writing. In Maths we have been working on written methods for addition and subtraction. In Geography we completed our unit on Local and Global issues, with more discussion about climate change followed by creating posters showing what we have learnt. In Science we started another experiment, this time to determine the conditions needed for germination. What the girls have said: “I liked Science because we were setting up the seed experiment. We cut a circle out of tissue and put it in a petri dish, made it a bit damp and then put a few seeds in. We put the dishes all round school to see where they will germinate best.” Sienna Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
Date for your diary: Hobbies Morning Wednesday 16 October 9am – 11am |
|
|
|
|
Year 6 |
|
Year 6 Newsletter – Week 4 – Two weeks until half term but who’s counting. A selection of our student voices: Finally, the match reports Mr Loveday missed out on the last newsletter: |
|
|
|
|
GAP Club |
|
Highlights: On Monday the girls helped to sort out the pots outside GAP Club. We planted bulbs ready for spring and then added Violas on the top to add some colour. The girls have continued to add to the displays, creating Autumn leaves, bees and Tigger to our seasonal ‘Winnie the Pooh’ display. The girls have also created fairy doors using wooden lolly pop sticks and an assortment of media. We would like to say a big thank you to Sophia in Year 5 for kindly donating her Frozen Disney Castle to GAP Club. The girls have really enjoyed playing with it. What the girls have enjoyed: “Eating sandwiches, because I like ham.” Caoimhe, Reception. Looking ahead to some of next week’s learning:
|
|
|
|
|
STEM Day |
|
We can hardly believe a year has gone by since our very first STEM (Science, Technology Engineering & Mathematics) day. The girls who joined us for the event absolutely loved this Saturday experience and there was a real buzz about the school. We are delighted to announce our next STEM event is now open for bookings and will take place on Saturday 16 November 2019. If your daughter is aged 6-10 years, has a love of Science, a passion for Mathematics and an interest in Technology, this is the event for her. We will provide experiences to ignite all the girls’ excitement in learning, encourage them to follow their curiosity and delve into new ideas about the world around them. On this day will be welcoming both our current girls and those from local schools. Please do sign your daughter up for the day and invite one of her friends from another school along too, it is a lovely opportunity for girls to see the fantastic facilities and wonderful teaching we have on offer for our pupils. To book a place please email Mrs Berry, Assistant Registrar, on h.berry@nhs.gdst.net. This is a drop off event 10am – 2.30pm. Lunch and refreshments are all provided and girls should come in their ‘home clothes’. We look forward to seeing the girls there.
|
Term Dates |
|
|
|
|
Northampton High School |
|
