FROM THE HEAD MASTER
Scholarship Success
I am delighted to announce that Libby Doughty in Year 8 has been awarded a Stephan Academic Scholarship to Stowe. This is a wonderful achievement following many weeks of hard work in preparation for the assessment. Very well done and congratulations to Libby.
LAMDA Results
I was so pleased to hear how well so many of our children did in their LAMDA assessments. The certificates have now all arrived and will be presented to the children in assembly. Well done to all and, of course, to Mrs Calnan for doing such a splendid job of preparing the children.
SHSPA
SHSPA, our Parents’ Association, are planning a few exciting events over the next few months, so please do save the following dates for your diaries:
Friday 24th February – Pre-Prep Film Night
Friday 3rd March – Murder Mystery Evening, written by our very own Mr Wilson and following the success of the evening held in March 2020
Saturday 13th May – Spratton Hall Spring Party – an informal party for parents to be held in a marquee on Arthur’s Square
Details will follow in the next few weeks.
‘All Greek to Me’
Many congratulations to Year 4 for putting on such an excellent performance on Tuesday evening. There was such a high level of acting, singing and dance. Very well done to them and, of course, to all of the members of staff involved.
Cross-Country Relays
This was a great event held here on Monday afternoon, with 10 other schools taking part. All of our teams did extremely well with the runners giving their very best. Special mention must go to both our Girls A teams who won their events. Well done to the girls and, of course, to Mr Canty and Mrs Williams, their coaches.
Thank you
Simon Clarke
PRE-PREP
Year 1 Enjoy an Egyptian Adventure!
We are fortunate to have the most amazing collection of Egyptian artefacts on our doorstep at the New Walk Museum, Leicester, which Year 1 ventured off to explore on Monday. Following a talk on life in Ancient Egypt, the children handled artefacts, tried on ancient Egyptian style clothing and even got to see Canopic jars and mummified exhibits for themselves. A highly enjoyable day out, which enriched their understanding of this fascinating period of history.
Year 2 Explore Cadbury World and Mayan Culture
Year 2 also ventured out this week, this time to Cadbury World in Birmingham. Within a fun-packed schedule, our oldest Pre-Prep children deepened their understanding of the ancient Mayan civilisation of Mexico, discovering more about the way in which cocoa beans were central to their culture. Embarking on a taste tingling, mouth-watering tour of the manufacturing and packaging areas of the chocolate factory, the children tried their hand at writing their names in chocolate, before devouring the contents of delicious little taster pots.
Earlier in the week, Year 2 enjoyed a Mayan food festival! All three classes joined together and, amidst excited chatter and billows of flour, they made their own tortillas, which they then topped with a variety of traditional Mayan fillings. The mashed avocado, sweet potato and corn on the cobs were enjoyed far more than the raw cocoa, which made for a rather bitter hot chocolate!
Ready, Steady ….Write!
Even with an abundance of shared Early Years knowledge and experience between the staff, the learning journey that unfolds each year in Reception never fails to amaze and excite us. Consider the process of learning to write, for example. The children have moved on from those emergent mark making squiggles, to linking letter sounds to shapes, learning to control and co-ordinate a pencil and understanding the correct formation and orientation of different letters – even the most hesitant of children are now writing words and short sentences for themselves. If you step into RG and RY, it is never long before a child (or teacher!) is proudly waving a carefully thought-out sentence in the air for all to see.
Pre-Prep Book Viewing Afternoon – Thursday 2nd February
Finally, a reminder that our Book Viewing Afternoon takes place next week. The children will love poring through the pages of their books with you.
Fiona Sanchez
Head of Pre-Prep
MUSIC
Year 8 Informal Concert – Tuesday 31st January
The Year 8 Informal Concert is always a lovely evening when the musicians in the year group get to show us their musical talent. All are welcome to come and support. Please be reminded that this concert will not be livestreamed.
Uppingham Orchestral Day – Thursday 9th February
The Concert Band and all members of the String Orchestra who are Grade 2 standard and above, have been invited to take part in this excellent day of music-making. A letter was sent out by Clarion Call to all those invited containing further information. Please submit any outstanding e-replies as soon as possible.
Music Instrument Store
The instrument store rooms are often very full of instruments. This is mainly because instruments are being left in school all week and often also over the weekend. We are trying to encourage the children to only have their instrument in school on the days they actually need it. Having their instrument at home would also be a great idea so your child can practise between lessons. Please can you remind your child to bring their instrument home if it is not needed for a music lesson or music club. Your support with this is much appreciated.
Termination of Music Lessons
Please be aware that, if you wish to cancel music lessons from the start of the Summer term, notice must be received by February half term.
ART
Rugby Art Competition
29 pupils have been working very hard these last few weeks on paintings for the Rugby Art Competition to celebrate 200 years of the game of Rugby.
DRAMA
Well done Year 4 on a wonderful performance on Tuesday evening of ‘All Greek to Me’.
CROSS-COUNTRY
County Championships
A huge well done to the 21 children from Years 5 to 8, who represented the South Northants District on Saturday in the County Championships.
Conditions were very cold and the course was challenging. The children did exceptionally well to compete against a strong field of athletes.
Well done especially to Isabella, who came 2nd in the Year 5 girls’ race and Henry who came 4th in the boys’ race, followed by Oliver in 6th place and Byron in 14th.
In the Year 6, 7 and 8 races a special mention must go to those who have been selected to represent Northamptonshire County in the East Anglia Championships:
Isla, Elsa, Teddy, Eddie, Emily, Cecilie, Ellie and Bea.
Well done to every runner and good luck to those who will go onto compete for Northamptonshire in the coming weeks!
Spratton Relays Results
On Tuesday, we hosted a number of other schools for our annual Spratton Relays. Enthusiastically supported by parents and friends, the runners braved the chilly air and ‘Death Hill’s’ never-ending climb for an afternoon of sporting competition!
U11 Girls A – 1st U11 Girls B – 9th
U11 Boys A – 9th U11 Boys B – 10th
U13 Girls A – 1st U13 Girls B – 6th
U13 Boys A – 4th U13 Boys B – 8th
HOUSE COMPETITIONS
Year 5 House Gaming
Year 5 competed in the House Gaming – ‘Sonic Racing’ on Tuesday.
Toby (Drake) was pitted against Tom (Raleigh) in the first semi-final and, after a tense final lap, Toby held on for a narrow win.
The second semi-final saw Poppy (Frobisher) up against Blake (Grenville). After another tense battle, Blake was victorious.
This set up a final between Blake and Toby. After a competitive first two laps of the final, Toby took the lead for Drake and he held his nerve to avoid any mistakes and lead his house to victory.
Well done to all the competitors.
Mr McKenna
House Question of Sport
Results: 1st Grenville, 2nd Frobisher, 3rd Raleigh, 4th Drake
MANDARIN CLUB
你好 – nĭ hăo
Some members of Year 3 to Year 8 have been involved in the Mandarin Club on Tuesdays in the Spring term. The pupils have been learning some basic topical expressions and grammar but also some aspects of cultural life in China.
They have been studying Mandarin through the means of websites such as Busuu.com and BBC mandarin language course. In those activities, they listen and match words. They complete filling-gaps, word-search, language quiz, worksheets and learn songs. They have been able to engage in role-play situations as well as answering and asking questions in Mandarin. We are teaching them a variety of tones in the Mandarin language and teach pupils basic writing of Chinese characters.
This week in Mandarin Club, we have been looking at the cultural celebrations of Chinese New Year, which was on the 22nd of January.
The year of the rabbit: 兔年 – tù
There are still spaces available, if you child would like to join please contact the school office.
Monsieur Seguin
WATER BOTTLES
A reminder for all pupils to please bring and use their OWN water bottles at school.
Due to the increase of different viruses circulating at this time of year, please could you remind your children to only drink from their own bottles and not to share, borrow or drink from others.
Thank you.
Debs Hadfield
Matron
LAMDA RESULTS
It is tough to type when the wait for results means there are few fingernails left – but our usual (ridiculously long) wait for Lamda results was worth it. All the children got well-deserved Distinctions and I celebrate their hard work, especially those who took an exam having started Lamda only last term, and the extraordinary number of those who have climbed to Level 2 with Grade 4. The up-step in the work was quite a surprise to them but the reward all the sweeter. So – drumroll please!
Shakespeare
| Level 1 |
| Elliot Glason |
Verse & Prose
| Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 3 | Grade 4 |
| Bertie Glason | Toby Blake | Teddy Blake | Cecilie Jackson |
| Amelie Wilson | Elliot Glason | Archie Gowling | Jaypaul Sehmi |
| Clara Benn | Yusuf Sadiq | Nathaniel Benn | Ben Beaumont |
| Sofia Hopwell | Elliot Briggs | Maisie Gowling | |
| Leilana Patel | Zayn Shah | ||
| Shyla Pal | Clemmie Harrison | ||
| Florence Morgan | Jehan Jasinarachchi |
PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations to Jehan Jasinarachchi who auditioned for a part in NMPAT Concert School of Rock and was successful. Well done.
LOST PROPERTY
Found in dining room – receipt for a Range Rover registration WEL 1Y (collect from school office).
Reading glasses x 2 in a silver case (1 x verifocal – Ted Baker)
Small child’s blue ‘Bench’ coat
NON-SCHOOL EVENTS
Northampton Hockey Club Holiday Camps.
Please follow this link for further details.
NATIONAL ONLINE SAFETY GUIDES
We would like to make parents aware of the National Online Safety website which provides weekly guidance for parents on the platforms and websites used by children, together with hints and tips for internet safety. These guides give parents knowledge about a number of issues including age-appropriate content, sharing location, visible personal data, scammers and trolling etc. Parents can also follow them on social media which enables their weekly ‘Wake Up Wednesday’ campaign containing these guides, to pop up on their feed.
Here is the link to the school website where you will find more details and further helpful information.
This week’s guide – ‘Building Cyber Resilience at Home’
