Champions
On a warm and sunny Wednesday, the Year 6 cricketers (those that were not on summer holidays)descended upon familiar surroundings of Valley Road to compete against five other local junior schools in the Ten 10 Cricket Trophy organised by the Senior school and hosted by the irrepressible Ian Jones. Competing against sides that included Jesse Gray, St. Peter's, St. Edmund Campion, Seely and Abbey Road, we knew competition would be tough due to the high number of county players representing the other schools.
We were drawn to play St. Peter's in our first match and our captain Ajay Karwal won the toss and elected to bowl first. Tayyib Ali struck the first blow in the second over with a clean bowled wicket. St. Peter’s increased their score steadily with wickets falling very few overs. Their batsmen judged quick singles well and boundaries were more regular than we would have liked, due to the quick outfield and some wayward bowling at times. Byes were kept to a minimum by the excellent Ashok Shankar, who had to deal with a pitch of low bounce and although no catching opportunities presented themselves, NHJS fielded fairly well in this first match. At the end of the ten overs, St. Peter’s had managed a competitive 66-4 – more than a run a ball.
Ajay and Tayyib opened our reply and struck 13 off the first over – a fantastic start to our reply and our first innings of the tournament. Seven more runs came off the second, and our waiting batsmen were starting to become confident of the result in our favour already. Four fours in succession in the third over took the score to 38, and by the fourth over, skipper Ajay Karwal had to retire for reaching the score of 25. Ajay’s patient and decisive batting was to become a consistent feature of our batting performances throughout the day.
The innings was wrapped up in the 5th over. Of the 67 required to win, 48 runs came in boundaries – a testament to the superb batting of our top order and an indication of the pace of the outfield. With only 8 players on each team, we felt sure there would be more high scores to come.
The tournament was ‘seeded’ so that teams that won, played against other teams that also won. This made for an incredibly tough second match against a very impressive Jesse Gray side, which featured many players playing at district or county level.
Will Underwood opened the bowling again with another tight over before Ajay struck with a wicket in the second. The incoming batsmen was well known to the High School players and his talent was obvious and he and his partner increased the scoring rate dramatically over the next few overs. At the halfway stage, Jesse Gray had scored 43 off 5 overs and lost just one wicket. In the 5th over, Ajay had struggled to field a couple of balls hit very hard at him, but in tenacious stubbornness, he refused to leave the field and continued to lead by example. Fielding improved dramatically in this second match, with excellent stops from Bhaskar Biswas and Nicholas Ikunnah. Martin Ratchev kept wicket in this game and took an astonishing caught behind off Tayyib Ali, keeping the match very even. It was difficult to see which team had the upper hand at all, throughout this match. Will Underwood took another wicket in the final over which went for only four runs. The target Jesse Gray set was a superb 83. Slightly daunted by this total, the pressure to score at over 8 runs per over and knowing the talent of the opposition, a pep talk from Mr Caldwell helped the team to stay positive about the target.
Ajay and Tayyib opened the batting in the second innings and started off tentatively putting four on the board off the first over. A fantastic second over saw the pair put on 13 runs and things were looking more positive now. At the half way stage, we were ahead of Jesse Gray by only 2 runs on 45. This was going to be close. Ajay again reached 25 and retired and despite a mix-up between Will Underwood and Tayyib Ali, Matt Buchan and then Nicholas Ikunnah took the fight to Jesse Gray and with twelve balls remaining, NHJS still needed 23 runs to win. Unfortunately, Ashok got a tough first ball which had clean-bowled him in the eighth over. Having scored eight runs off the penultimate over, we had the unenviable task of trying to hit 15 off the final six balls. The first ball was a no-ball, so it was bowled again and we managed to get byes off effectively the first and second balls.
A quick two and two singles off the third, fourth and fifth balls meant that we were out of it – we needed 7 off the last ball to win, which was highly unlikely. Nicholas Ikunnah was on strike and knew the score. In true never-say-die fashion, he launched the final ball of the innings for a six which landed just over the cover boundary much to the disbelief of the opposition and to the astonished joy of Nicholas’ team-mates who ran onto the pitch in excitement having seen us tie the match from the most unlikely position. This was a fantastic boost to the boys and was probably the fairest result from a game that was played hard, with no inch given or taken throughout. It would be interesting to see the reaction of the two teams in their final games after such a close-run contest.
In between the second and third matches, an ‘extreme catching’ competition was held for all of the boys involved in the festival, and it gives me great pleasure to announce that Will Lowden was officially the best catcher of an incrediball at the tournament. Well done Will!
In the third game, we were due to play Seely again in a re-run of the Tanvic Trophy County Final, which we had narrowly won only weeks before in a pairs format of cricket. This game was much different, at the end of a long day of cricket in the heat. Seely exploited the gaps in the field to post a challenging total of 67-5 off 10 overs. There were wickets for Will Underwood and Tayyib Ali and a fantastic three run outs – a testament to the excellent work Ian Rose has done with the boys in fielding and decision-making this season. The bowlers were ably supported in the field, notably by Bhaskar Biswas, who was a magnet for the ball at square leg and prevented many boundaries from being scored by the Seely batsmen. Achintya Singh, debuting for the ‘A’side in this tournament bowled well and got his reward with a wicket, clean bowled too.
With a point to prove, Ajay chased away the demons from the previous encounter with Seely to ‘carry his bat’ throughout the entire tournament, remaining unbeaten again to post a further 25+ runs – a remarkable achievement. Excellent batting from Tayyib Ali (who also had to retire for reaching 25) and Will Underwood ensured the win in emphatic style. We chased down the target in the seventh over, with a scoring rate approaching 10 runs per over. This excellent batting helped us to win the Trophy outright from Jesse Gray who we tied with in terms of results. We had a superior run-rate of 9.8 compared with Jesse Gray’s 8.9.
A huge congratulations go to all the boys in the squad; Ajay Karwal, Will Underwood, Tayyib Ali, Nichoas Ikunnah, Matt Buchan, Will Lowden, Bhaskar Biswas, Achintya Singh and Ashok Shankar.
It was an incredible performance all round from all of the players and our thanks go to Ian Rose and his colleagues in the Senior School for organised such a fantastic day of cricket.
Premier League Fantasy Football
Following the success of the World Cup Fantasy League, Mr. Simpson has set up a new JuniorSchool league ready for the new Premier League season. Should you wish to participate you can do so by accessing the following website:
http://www.fantasykickers.com/
If you registered for the World Cup you can use your existing login details. For new entries you will have to register first.
Full instructions regarding scoring and team selection can be found on their website, and it is totally free. Once you have registered and picked your team, you then have the opportunity to join our league by clicking on the ‘join personal league’ link and typing in the following:
League number: 226
The next screen should display the league details.
The password is juniorschool (all lowercase-no spaces)
Religious Education-Guest Speakers
Pupils at the Junior School have had a treat this half term, listening to and learning from guest speakers of different faiths. Year 3 pupils had a talk on Hinduism by Mrs Huria and Year 4 boys had the opportunity to ask many searching questions of Dr Sperry about Christianity. Year 5 pupils were slightly frightened (by the swords brought in!) but also very interested by the talk on Sikhism and Sikh beliefs by Mr Boora, while Year 6 pupils were treated to a detailed session from Dr Ali on Islam, which included Tayyib reciting prayers in Arabic.
Thank you to all guest speakers for giving up their time to prepare for and deliver such interesting presentations and answers, the boys really enjoyed their experiences. We look forward to welcoming more guest speakers in to school as part of the Religious Education curriculum next year. In the meantime, if you have links with local places of worship which would be happy to welcome a year group of pupils to visit, please contact Mr Caldwell or email him at: caldwell.tm@nottinghamhigh.co.uk
Public Speaking-The final of the Public Speaking Competition on Friday, 25th June, was the culmination of hours of hard work and preparation by our Year 6 boys.
Thirty three pupils originally entered the competition; the topics of their speeches included such titles as “Inspirational Leaders”, “The Universe”, “The Wars of the Roses ” and “Fear of Public Speaking”!
We are extremely grateful to Mrs. Michaela Green, Head of Lower School English at the SeniorSchool for giving of her free time to adjudicate the semi-final stages. With so many boys keen to enter, logistics meant that the semi-finals had to be held over two days. Mrs. Green was faced with the unenviable task of narrowing down the thirty three entries to the final eight and, in doing so, she commented upon the excellent standard of research and presentation.
The finalists were:
Bhaskar Biswas Nightmares
Nyle Cockell I cannot understand adults
Harry Croasdale The last speech
Saaras Mehan The effects of war on children
Rahul Menon Is it a car or is it a plane?
Kedem Morgan My life on crutches
Tobias Schroder What a way to go!
Tom Walton Air travel
Having performed their own speeches to a highly appreciative audience of fellow pupils, the finalists then read their unprepared speeches. From a pre-set list, the range of topics included titles based on the nation’s obsession with football; grandparents; a description of an unusual place and questions that you would ask of a famous historical figure.
Enjoying his twenty- first year of adjudicating the Public Speaking Final, Mr. Les Wilkinson, Senior Master at Nottingham High School, presented certificates for ‘Highly Commended’ and for ‘Distinction’ to the twenty five semi- finalists, before giving individual feedback to the eight finalists.
Commenting upon the quality of all the prepared pieces, Mr. Wilkinson then praised the competitors for the content and delivery of their unprepared speeches. The eventual winner, Bhaskar Biswas, will deliver the vote of thanks to the Guest Speaker at our forthcoming Prize- Giving ceremony in the Player Hall on Thursday 8th July.Summer Term Clubs- A list of the summer term clubs available to the boys can be found by clicking this link.
Swimming Gala
On Wednesday, swimmers from Year 4, 5 and 6 went to Beechdale Baths to represent the school at the Nottingham City Schools swimming heats. This is an annual event with the heats taking place over a period of two days. The six fastest times are selected from both days of heats and those finalists will swim at the finals on Wednesday 7th July at 6:45pm at Beechdale Baths. The boys swam exceedingly well on Wednesday with some personal bests and many first and second places. The boys will be told if they are a finalist as soon as the results are published, and a letter will be sent out regarding arrangements. Many thanks to the parents who came to support us and to Mr P. Smith for accompanying the trip. It was a very successful and enjoyable morning of great swimming.
Mrs H.J. Whittamore
Tennis Star Q & A session
British tennis player Barry Cowan who is playing at the Nottingham Tennis Masters Tournament taking place last week (10 – 13 June) at Nottingham Tennis Centre, visited the Nottingham High School and Nottingham High Junior School. He did a question and answer session with the boys from the junior school. In addition, he gave four lucky pupils from the senior school some tips on the lawn in front of the school.
At the Nottingham Tennis Masters played against the likes of former British number one, Jeremy Bates and partnered Mansour Bahrami, the player who wows spectators with his trick shots.
As well as still playing tennis on the Masters circuit, Barry is a tennis commentator on Sky Sport.
World Cup
As part of our World Cup week your son has had the opportunity to create his own fantasy world cup team. We have set up our own JuniorSchool league table and should you wish to participate you can do so by accessing the following website:
http://www.fsports.co.uk/football/
Full instructions regarding scoring and team selection can be found on their website, and it’s totally free. Once you have registered and picked your team, you then have the opportunity to join our league by clicking on the ‘join personal league’ link and typing in the following:
League number: 95986
The next screen should display the league details.
The password is juniorschool (all lowercase-no spaces)
Enjoy!
Records Broken in Trease's Swimming Victory
Three records were broken during the inter house swimming gala. Tobias Schroder, Ivan Wills and Ralph Wills produced fantastic individual performances to break the three records, one of which had stood for over 30 years. Trease's retained the trophy despite Tonkin's constant chase throughout the morning. Detailed report to follow shortly.
Trease's Triumph in House Cricket-Trease's proved formidable opponents in the final, defeating Ball's House comfortably. Despite Ball's gaining some excellent early wickets, they could not stop Trease's House led by an excellent innings from Deep Desai gaining an impressive lead. Trease's proved just as deadly with the ball and won the match with 4 early wickets stopping Ball's House from gaining any momentum.
In the 3rd/4th place play-off, Tonkin's recovered from their narrow defeat against Trease's in the semi final to win a hard fought contest against Hardy's.
Chess-England Recognition-Michael Fletcher, a pupil in Year 5 will soon be representing England at chess following the recent qualification tournament he entered. Three more boys, in Year 6, are also hoping to join Michael, after they attend the next qualification tournament. The three boys missed out this time by only half a point, but hope to gain the points necessary to qualify.
Derby Arts Festival-The band and orchestra achieved 1st place in the Derby Arts Festival this morning. Report to follow shortly.
Year 6 Choir-The boys produced a stunning performance to claim 2nd place in the Derby Choir competition and were very unlucky to miss out on the top prize. Report to follow.
Cross Country-Tonkin's claimed an unlikely victory in the recent house cross country competition in stunning fashion, claiming top overall prize in three of the four year groups. It is Tonkin's first sporting success for many years and follows on from their success in the Ingram Cup.
Ingram Cup-Tonkin's led by Tobias Schroder won the much prized trophy after a stunning musical performance. Tobias, claimed the individual prize following his magnificent performance in the senior division.
Under 10 Football-The Under 10 footballers completed their extended season with two matches against Fernwood School. Despite playing well in the away fixture, and leading at half- time by a Daniel Taylor goal, we conceded three goals in quick succession in the second half. A number of Year Five cricket commitments meant that two Year Four boys were pressed into action. Luke Aungles and Ralph Wills made an immediate impact, competing tenaciously and contributing significantly to the team’s performance.
The return fixture, played at Victoria Embankment, resulted in a 2 – 2 draw and it was encouraging to see that we showed glimpses of our early season form. The team battled well against physically stronger opposition and showed greater tactical awareness, particularly in defence. With goals from Luke Risman and Ralph Wills to even the score, a third goal would have ensured not only victory in this match, but also runners-up spot in the League.
The large number of fixtures throughout the season has meant that many boys in Year 5 have had the opportunity to represent the school, not only in the League but also the City Schools’ Indoor Tournament. Well done to all those who have participated. Our final figures are as follows:-
Played 22 Won 9 Drew 9 Lost 4
National Junior Memory Championship
Year 6 pupils have recently competed in the National Junior Memory Championship, a competition open to all schools across the country. Throughout the Spring Term, memory techniques were developed and entries from all the boys were submitted shortly before the Easter holidays.
The organisers narrowed down the number of competitors to 400 and subsequently, the top twenty national finalists were chosen. We are delighted to have received the news that two pupils, Will Banks and Henry Murray, have been selected to compete in the Grand Final, which will be held in London on 23rd May. We wish them both the very best of luck and congratulate them on their achievements thus far.
Year 6 Ski Trip-Click here for the article and photos
Enigma Day
One of the most important discoveries during World War 2 was the breaking of the code of the Enigma machine. The Enigma machine was used by the Nazis to send coded messages by radio to guide their submarines. A group of British scientists worked out how to break the Enigma machine code and helped to change the course of the war. They were based in a stately home where they lived and worked during the war secretly called “Station X”.
On the 2nd February 2010 I arrived at school excited, knowing that I was going to see a real Enigma machine. The day started with an introduction by James - a science mathematician from Cambridge University. James first talked to us about different codes used to write secret messages during many centuries. One of the oldest codes that he showed us was used by the Spartans in ancient Greece when they used to shave the hair of the soldiers and tattoo messages on their heads and let the hair grow again to hide the message. But the most interesting part of the talk was how the Enigma machine was used to code messages during World War 2 when James showed us a model of the machine.
Later on in our maths class we had the opportunity to do some code breaking with James. He explained how the messages were coded using the machine and how the code breakers worked out the method to decode the messages. We all had the chance to break some simple codes and see the Enigma working, which was extremely interesting.
We found the story about the breaking of the code of the Enigma Machine very exciting and we all felt very proud of the achievements of the code breakers who used their mathematical skills to help win World War 2.
By Martin Ratchev 6G
Ingram Cup 2010
On Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 March, over 100 boys took part in the preliminary rounds of the Ingram Cup. Two junior boys and two senior boys have been selected from each house to go through to the finals. The standard was extremely high in many of the houses and congratulations must go to the following boys who will be performing in the finals. Click here for the finalists...
The finals will take place on Thursday 25 March at 1.45pm in Founder Hall. All boys will be performing their house song ‘Somewhere only we know’. We would warmly welcome parents to attend this event.
Report for Bromsgrove Invitational relay gala
On Monday 1st March, our U11 swimming team comprising of Tobias Schroder, Ivan Wills, Edward James and Bhaskar Biswas (our first reserve due to William Underwood being absent due to illness) accompanied the Senior school U13 relay team (3 members of which attended the Junior school-William Andersen, Daniel Jacklin and Simon Walton) to Bromsgrove school for the Bromsgrove School Invitational Relay gala. This event has been running for 26 years and traditionally has always comprised of some tough competition; twelve prep schools took part this year. Our boys swam in the Medley relay first and came third in their particular heat with a time of 1.21.47 which was an excellent time (seven seconds faster than last year’s team) but not quite fast enough for the finals (fastest 4 schools). They then swam exceedingly well in the Freestyle relay, coming second in their particular heat and achieved 1.10.06 (two seconds faster then last year’s team) but again just missed out on a place in the finals. Overall we were the 7th fastest Medley team and 8th fastest freestyle team. The Senior school u13 relay teams came 4th in both of their events. All the boys swam very well and were a credit to the school.
Mrs HJ Whittamore
25m pool
|
Name/Time
|
Medley (split times)
|
F/s (Relay )
|
|
Tobias Schroder
|
b.c: 18.36
|
16.34
|
|
Bhaskar Biswas
|
b.s. : 26.31
|
18.72
|
|
Ivan Wills
|
Fly : 19.25
|
17.43
|
|
Edward James
|
F.c. :17.68
|
17.60
|
|
Overall team time:
|
1.21.67
|
1.10.06
|
Report for IAPS swimming regional rounds.
On Wednesday 24th February, the u10 and u11 A teams set off to The Elms (Trent College) for their first fixture of the season to the regional rounds of the I.A.P.S. swimming competition. This is a national competition involving just Independent schools whereby schools participate at various venues throughout the country. The galas are officiated by ASA officials and times are taken for each stroke at each age group as well as for relay teams and compared with those from schools nationwide. The swimmers who have achieved the top 16 fastest times are then invited to a finals gala which takes on 15th May 2010 at K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley, West Sussex. Traditionally it has always been a very tough competition in which we have had some boys participating in the Finals gala in the past.
Our boys swam exceedingly well on the day in the 25 yard pool at The Elms against Birkdale School (from Sheffield) and The Elms boys. It was all against the stopwatch but there were some close finishes with many of our boys just beating The Elms and Birkdale to the finish! The times will be converted for a 25m pool and sent off to the central organiser.
Mrs H.J. Whittamore
Spring Term Clubs- A list of the spring term clubs available to the boys can be found by clicking this link.
Birkdale Rugby Matches OFF-The Year 6, 5 and 4 rugby matches away at Birkdale on Tuesday 23rd February are OFF.
House Cross Country-The House Cross Country competition has been put back to Monday, March 15th because we have lost so many rugby sessions.
Creative Writing-Tobias Schroder won the Junior category of the creative writing competition. Saaras Mehan was the runner-up, with Henry Murray in 3rd place. It was excellent to see the boys using the creative writing skills taught in their lessons this year; Mrs. Slater was very proud of all of the boys and commented on the quality of their work. Their entries will be published here very soon.
Rugby-Despite the boys having no rugby sessions due to the recent bad weather the school entered the Bradford Rugby Festival and produced some excellent performances. The Year 6 boys won 3, drew 1 and lost 2 of their 6 matches. The Year 5 team won 2 and lost 2, whereas the Year 3 boys produced a splendid performance winning 5 games and losing just the once, gaining the runners up spot. This was remarkable in the fact that for some of the Year 3 boys, this was their first ever taste of tag rugby.
Year 4 Pantomime by William Stewart-On 15th December 2009 we performed our real pantomime in the Founder Hall. We performed in front of brothers, sisters, mums, dads, aunties and uncles. The play began and I was really nervous. As we went on stage, every person in the audience started to clap.
I felt even more nervous than before. We got into position and started to sing our first song called “This is Where Your Dreams Can Come True”.
This was an important play because it is about the Great Plague in 1665 which stopped in 1666. Also people from outside London heard there was a street which was pure gold.
It was interesting to tell the story using narrators, as well as songs and action.
There were funny characters like the Good Fairy and Tiddles, the cat. There was an evil character, King Rat. Dick Whittington was the hero because he gave his cat to the Queen of Persia and received thousands of pieces of gold. He had so much money for it because there are no cats in Persia and the cat was able to help get rid of the rats. Dick was so wealthy he became Lord Mayor.
I really enjoyed it but you really have to raise your voice for people to hear at the back. The play went on to the middle in what seemed like a minute and in that time we did yet another three songs and lots more speech. Even if you forget your lines, everybody knows the play must go on. I didn’t forget my lines, which was a relief.
At the very end, when we had sung the last song and done all the bows, we went backstage to get changed. I felt really sad because the play had finished.
Year 4 Panto by Ziyaad Surtee 4S- On Tues 15th Dec 2009, Form 4S performed the Dick Whittington Pantomime at the Founder Hall. The show started at 7:30 pm. There was lots of rehearsing before the play, and with so much practice we could never fail!
The cast entered in very colourful and most appropriate costumes and climbed the stage as the music started playing. Mrs. Cooke played the piano. We sat down on benches on the stage, Mr. Earnshaw welcomed everybody and the play began.
The narrators were the first to inform the audience about the story. Dick Whittington, played by Harry Solomonides was the main character. He had the most lines and he was amazing. The play takes place in London first. It is about Dick Whittington and his cat Tiddles, who helps with the rat plague. The rats were led by King Rat played by Will Atiomo. He was quite serious and did a very good job. I was the Queen of Persia which was only a small role but I enjoyed it very much.
Everyone in the cast was excited and acted out their parts perfectly. Best of all, the cast and the audience enjoyed the singing. “I am Sailing” brought a tear to my mum’s eye.
Thank you to Mrs. Slater, the director, who made the play possible and such a huge success.
Chess-John Croasdale our Year 3 pupil recently participated in the London Chess Challenge and won the Under 8 catergory-a fantastic achievement.
Entrance Examinations - January is the month of Entrance Examinations. Our Year 6 boys sit the Exam for the Senior School on Saturday 23rd January and we wish them the very best of luck! I hope the boys will use the Christmas break to recharge their batteries but they should also focus on their reading and do some revision wherever it is needed. Our own Assessment Day is on Monday 25th January and I should remind everyone that the JuniorSchool will be closed on that day.
Catering Questionnaire - As promised in my previous correspondence dated 11th November 2009, please can I ask that you fill out the questionnaire with input from your son (CLICK HERE), in order to assess our lunch time arrangements at the JuniorSchool. Could all questionnaires be sent in to school by Friday 9th January 2010. The menu cycle can be found via the following link on our website:
http://www.nottinghamhigh.co.uk/junior-school/parents-information/newsletters/
Junior School Focus Group - Thank you to those parents who volunteered to meet on a termly basis to discuss issues relating to the development of the JuniorSchool. I would like to invite the following parents who put their name forward to be a part of the ‘Junior School Focus Group’ to meet with me on Thursday 28th January at 4.15pm to discuss the catering arrangements at the Junior School.
Year 3: Dr R Kothari
Year 4: Mrs H Solomon
Year 5: Mrs Risman
Year 6: Mrs E Chaloner
The Arches Project - On 8th December 2009 Aidan, Harry and I, Saaras Mehan, being the Year 6 Eco-Council members, went on a trip to the Arches main base with Mr. Earnshaw. The purpose of our trip was to deliver all the toys and the blankets that we have been collecting over last week for the people less fortunate than ourselves.
In the morning, with the help of some boys from 6S we loaded up the van with all the blankets and toys. We set off to the Arches listening to Trent FM and chatting with Mr. Earnshaw. As soon as we arrived at the Arches, we were welcomed by a lady called Sue. We unloaded the van to put all the toys and blankets in a store room.
As soon as we finished with the unloading, we were given a guided tour of the place. We learnt that The Arches Project supports the people of from all age groups, who may need any type of help e.g. providing them with clothing, food, medicines, housing, toys etc. The charity provides these people with hot meal, tea and coffee on daily basis. It also provides counselling to disturbed /distressed individuals.
The Arches keep a database on their computer system and keep on adding the needs of various people and try to collect goods and services requested from various organisations such as our school. Currently there are 8 schools in Nottingham who collect goods for them. They also keep a data base on the people they are helping to make sure they their services.
Apart from various organisations who help them, there are 200 individual volunteers also listed on their system who help this charity by providing their services. The Trent Vineyard church regularly supports this charity by raising funds for them.
The Arches also train people who are out of work in things such as painting brick laying or repairing furniture.
We met a man called Bill who used to sleep in a grave yard at night with nothing but his clothes. However since he has come to The Arches he has gotten his only meal every day blankets and lots of help in many aspects. In my view people at The Arches are good people that have had a bad time.
We got told that in months like March and April and June their stocks are almost completely empty because it is Christmas and harvest that gives them the most supply. Hopefully we will be able to give some more gifts to the Arches when they need it most. Saaras Mehan 6S
Cross Country Fixture at The Grammar School at Leeds - Our boys did extremely well and finished joint second out of nine teams. The competition was very strong, with some schools fielding many runners. Individual medal winners were Max Coppel in Year 3, Ralph Wills in Year 4, Alex Painter-Heywood Year 5 came first in his race with Sam Bowling coming in second. In Year 6 Will Underwood won his race and Matt Buchan came third. The boys were a credit to the school and were very supportive of each other. Well done boys.
Dick Whittington – Our Year 4 pupils are busily putting final preparations in place for their forthcoming production of Dick Whittington, to be held in the Founder Hall. In an action-packed end of term schedule, several performances are planned.
The rags-to-riches tale of Dick Whittington, a poor boy seeking his fortune in London, with a little help from his feline friend, has captivated audiences for years. Similarly, Year 4 hope to entertain and enthral their modern- day audiences with a mixture of memorable melodies and magical moments.
The residents of Forest Lodge have been invited to be the first audience to see the dress rehearsal on Monday 14th December, along with Years 3, 5 and 6. Parents, grandparents and friends are invited to the full performance at 7 p.m. on the same day.
Art Exhibition – Mr. Jones is exhibiting the boys’ art work in the Founder Hall from 4pm-5pm, Monday-Wednesday in the last week of term.
Carol Concert-This will take place in the Player Hall on Tuesday afternoon at 2.30pm.
Christmas Holidays - A reminder that School will close on Thursday 17th December at 12.35. School buses will be operating to transport the boys home. The School will re-open on Wednesday 6th for all of the boys.
Games – Next term the boys will need their rugby kit for the games sessions. Please also remember that the boys in Year 4, 5 and 6 will need to wear mouth guards. The Year 3 boys will be playing tag-rugby, so mouth guards are optional.
Poland - We have contacts with three European schools and during the next two years will be conducting joint projects with them. We will also be hosting, an exchange with the Polish school, next year, around the 17th May 2010 until 21st May 2010. If anyone would like to host a pupil, or wants further details, please contact Mr Jones directly. There appears to be a 50/50 split on girls and boys in their party too. Mr Jones will provide assistance in enabling families to host a pupil. In the year 2011 representatives of the JuniorSchool (pupils and teachers) will hopefully we will be travelling to Slovenia as part of the scheme.
Chess - Our A and B teams have played in the Autumn league this term with Bramcote, Fernwood, and Round Hills. The NHJS 'A' team were clear winners.
Final League placings….
|
BoysHigh School ‘A’
|
46.5
|
|
Round Hill
|
22
|
|
Fernwood
|
19
|
|
BoysHigh School ‘B’
|
17.5
|
|
Bramcote Hills
|
7
|
England Chess Trials - Michael Fletcher, Saaras Mehan and Harry Croasdale have qualified for an England trial. They will face some quality competition, but we wish them well and hope they enjoy the experience.
Quadrangular Chess 2009 -This year’s Quadrangular Chess tournament was held on the 12th and 13th of December at GreenbankPrimary School in Liverpool. The teams taking part in this annual event were: Scotland, Wales, Northern England and the Midlands. There were three sections – Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16.
I was in the Under 12 team representing the Midlands, along with some other boys from the JuniorSchool - Saaras Mehan, Tobias Schroder and Harry Croasdale; and from the SeniorSchool - Sohum Dhir and Graham Garside. We were all selected to play and there were ten players in each team.
We played two rounds on Saturday and one round on Sunday. In the first round we played Northern England, the strongest team in the tournament. In the second round we played Scotland. Then on Sunday we played Wales who are said to be the easiest team to play against. When all the points were added up Northern England came first (as they usually do!), and the Midlands came second! Mr Peter Purland, our team manager, said this was a very good result because we are a very young team!
Michael Fletcher 5C
School Shop Opening - Christmas Holidays 2009/10 - Monday 4 January 2010 (9am - 12noon)
Internet Safety - It was announced on Tuesday that the Government plans to make the education of internet safety a compulsory part of the PSHE National Curriculum. The new initiative is already part of the ICT syllabus and all of the boys cover this unit during the first block of lessons in the autumn term.
Homework – The homework page is to be adopted school wide from January. The online homework page allows parents and children to check the homework set, and download resources, if electronic versions of the pages are available.
Your son should still write the daily homework in the diary and take home the resources to complete the tasks, but in cases where the diary is mislaid or resources forgotten, homework can be checked using the homework page. Click on the link to have a look- Homework Planner. A link to the site can also be found on the JuniorSchool homepage.
India Day – To complement the Year 4 geography unit on India, Penny Forsyth, a representative from Action Aid, spent a day in school with class 4S. She brought with her a range of artefacts, spices and clothes for the boys to explore and learn about. Her visual presentations were very informative; however a highlight for the boys was the opportunity to dress up in Indian costume. Penny commented the boys were a credit to the school and she was impressed with their knowledge of India, their enthusiasm and the quality of their questions.
Carmina Burana by Carl Orff Wednesday 24 March 2010 at the Albert Hall, Nottingham7.30pm
The Combined Choirs of NHS and NGHS will be staging a large-scale performance of Orff’s ever popular and exciting choral work, 'Carmina Burana'. As well as students, we would like to invite any staff and parents who would like to participate to join the massed chorus. Details of rehearsals will be released after the Christmas Holidays. If you are interested in participating, please could you email the Music Department on music@nottinghamhigh.co.uk and they will send you further details as they become available.
Super Sonic Science - On Tuesday 6th October, our assembly was taken by two mad scientists - Jonny Neutron and Sophie Super Sonic! The boys were entertained for twenty minutes, interacting in science activities which were organised by the duo of highly- trained, animated professionals. For our Year 3 children, the assembly was a taster of the 'Mad Science' activity that will take place as an after school club after half term to celebrate the refurbishment of our Science lab.
Talking Teeth
On Wednesday 7th October, as part of our Science topic on Teeth and Eating, the Year 3s had a dental hygiene talk from Mrs Jacob, our school nurse.
This was also a wonderful opportunity for the boys to meet the school nurse prior to the hearing tests which are due to take place shortly in school.Book Day
For World Book Day the boys dressed as their favourite book character. All of the boys made a fantastic effort and many were unrecognisable. Prizes were handed out to the best dressed boys in each year and the top prize of a pair of tickets to watch Leicester Tigers play.
The Battle of Bosworth
On Wednesday 16th September 2009, Year 5 visited the Battle of Bosworth Fields. The trip had two parts- i) The Exhibition, ii) The Walk. Click here for more info...
Isubilo Assembly
by Will Banks
On Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th of September 6S performed an assembly in support of Isubilo, a charity in Zambia.
We informed the School about the terrible plight of many of the people and to help them we aim to collect unwanted black school shoes (for boys and girls) so that we can donate to the children that live there. Most of children are orphans due to HIV/Aids.
Here are some facts about Zambia:
One fifth of children in Zambia are orphans.
The children of Isubilo meet twice a week at school in classes of around seventy.
Isubilo means ‘hope’ in the local Bemba language.
We hope this has inspired you to donate shoes to these children.
6S have a collection box in their classroom for any unwanted shoes. Later in the year we will be looking at other ways to help these orphans.
Year 6 Football Match V Grosvenor
by Nicholas Ikunnah
On Monday 28th September, Nottingham High Junior School played a football match against Grosvenor school.
We took 14 boys and were split up into two teams. Both of our teams passed the ball superbly well and played some fantastic football and by half time we were winning both games convincingly. In the second half we swapped opponents and again scored many goals. Out of the 14 players that participated 13 managed to score at least a goal, a tremendous achievement!
Full credit must go to the Grosvenor boys for their spirit in playing to the final whistle.
