新年好 🐍
Happy Lunar New Year!
The Year of the Snake is here - and millions across Asia and the world are welcoming it, with family, friends, prayer and feasting. The Lunar New Year, which coincides with the first new moon of the lunar calendar, is a 15-day festival that falls between 29 January and 4 February in 2025. Chinese communities, in China and elsewhere, largely consider this to be the most important festivaI of the year.
We wish good health, prosperity and happiness to all of our families who celebrate 'Chinese New Year'.
Claire Bale
GSDT Head of Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of speaking with pupils from Years 5 and 6 in their assembly. We spoke about this year's Undivided Student Survey, and why diversity and inclusion is so important to us across the GDST.
This annual survey is shared with all girls across our family of 25 schools, from age 9 to 19. It asks them to share their thoughts about diversity and inclusion, and it provides us with vital insights into students' experiences in school.
We are proud of the mature and thoughtful ways in which 5C, 6C and 6B engaged with the topic during this week's assembly, and we look forward to working together across the school to continue our progress in this important area.
SPORTS REPORT
Miss Abbott
Our U11 hockey team recently played Hollygirt School in 2 x 6-a-side games and a full 11-a-side match. The girls showed great improvement from two weeks ago when they struggled to score, this time winning all three games 4-0, 1-0 and 4-0! Congratulations to Lacey who was named our player of the match.
Following on from this, the team were split into 7-a-side A and B squads for the GDST Northern Schools Regional Rally at our sister school in Northampton, competing against the hosts, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, Newcastle, Belvedere and Birkenhead. This was a fantastic tournament for developing skills and understanding of the game and its tactics, culminating with our A team winning 7 and drawing 1 game - going to 'goal difference', which made us overall champions! Our B team also worked super hard, keeping their heads up throughout and demonstrating positivity, resilience and improvement across the day.
We wish good luck to Magdalena, Elsie, Tilly and Maya M who will represent the City of Nottingham Schools in this coming weekend's county cross country championships at Worksop. Run like the wind, girls!
Finally, a reminder for Year 4: Keep practising those skills from your Sporting Superstars Challenge, ready for when the Sport Nottingham staff return to see you on 10 February. The aim is to beat YOUR score in the Me vs Me Challenge, in order to be awarded a coveted gold wristband! This is the same scenario that will happen in the second round of our own Summer Term inter-house pentathlon. Come on, 4B and 4M - you can do it!
Where possible, girls should refrain from having ears pierced during term time, as this has implications for participation in swimming, PE lessons and extra-curricular activities. We encourage families to restrict piercing to holiday periods - ideally the long summer break - which allows sufficient time for both healing and practising safe removal and replacement. Teachers are not permitted to remove girls' studs for them, and for safety reasons jewellery should not be worn during physical activities.
REMINDER: Years 3 and 4 are currently playing hockey during PE lessons. Girls should have mouth guards, hockey socks and shin pads in school, to minimise disruption to coaching and allow everyone to make the most of their lessons.
The hills are alive ... 🎶
Mr Rolfe
It’s been an exciting week in the Music Department which saw our first concert of 2025, with guitarists from Years 5 to 10 performing at The Running Horse live music venue, organised by Mr Costin. This was a wonderful two and a half hour demonstration of instrumental skill and passion, raising £150 for Maggie’s. Highlights of the show will feature in our end of term video, in March.
Coming up soon:
Monday 3 February
Voice Concert and masterclass with opera singer Louise Collett for Years 3-12, with Junior concert at 5pm
Tuesday 4 February
Year 6 Informal Concert in the Junior Hall, 2pm
Sharing traditions and religions
It's been wonderful to hear girls of all backgrounds speaking about the Lunar New Year in school this week, and seeing many of our pupils with Chinese heritage sharing their celebrations with their classmates.
If your family has a religious or cultural tradition that you would like to share with your daughter's class, please do speak with her form teacher explore how it might be incorporated into a Religious Education or PSHE lesson. We also welcome introductions to local places of worship for study visits - such as the Gurdwara Baba Budha Ji explored by Year 3 last term, and the Quaker Meeting House which Year 6 will visit in two weeks' time.
Poetry, please
The GDST Laurie Magnus Poetry Prize was established in memory of Laurie Magnus by his widow. Laurie Magnus was a GDST Council member from 1907, and Chairman from 1929 until his death in 1933. He also wrote The Jubilee Book of the Girls’ Day School Trust (1923).
Entries for NGHS Juniors Years 1-6 should be emailed to Mrs Sail l.sail@not.gdst.net no later than 9am on Friday 7 March.
Year 6 Assembly Team
Mr Elkington
Year 6 presents many opportunities for girls to take on roles and responsibilities that support our Junior School community. One such role is being a member of the Assembly Team, a group which is tasked with helping us to celebrate diversity together. Following our Undivided diversity and inclusion calendar, the girls plan and deliver assemblies that highlight beliefs and customs across the school year.
This is a dedicated and enthusiastic group of girls who have embraced our objective of nurturing a sense of belonging and understanding:
NO OUTSIDERS, EVERYONE DIFFERENT, EVERYONE WELCOME
It has been a privilege to see our current team grow in confidence, speaking articulately in assemblies and at December's carol service at St Mary’s Church. They plan each assembly in their own time, collaborating and taking their role seriously. Well done to Dina, Tilly, Betsy, Izzah, Maya M and Olivia D - we are immensely proud of you!
DID YOU KNOW? ...
The main difference between dragon dance and lion dance is that a dragon dance has more people (usually nine, each holding a pole supporting a snake-like puppet), whilst a lion dance has two people inside a lion costume.
Lunar New Year Assembly
Dina El-Sharkaway, 6C
On Wednesday, the Year 6 assembly team gave a presentation about Chinese New Year and how people celebrate it in their communities with dragon dancing, parades, gifting, colourful parties and feasts.
29 January 2025 marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake, and February 2026 will bring the Year of the Horse. Chinese New Year happens in a twelve-year lunar cycle, so this is the first ever Year of the Snake for every pupil at NGHS Juniors.
We also spoke about the Chinese meanings behind certain colours. Red meaning happiness, togetherness and good fortune. Green for growth and renewal. Gold for prosperity. At new year, many Chinese people will wear brand new clothes from head to toe, to wash away bad spirits. Likewise, dragon dancing is also seen as a way to banish evil spirits and usher in the good ones.
Painting by numbers 👩🎨
Miss Duce
Our youngest pupils always enjoy learning about different cultures and ways of life. This week, they've been studying the Chinese characters for their ages, and recreating them with paint strokes.
Social media reminder
We are in the process of closing down our school X (formerly Twitter) accounts. As a school that prides itself on providing a positive and supportive environment in which everyone is respected, we no longer feel that X fits with our ethos and values.
Please follow us on our established Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, and join us on Threads and BlueSky too!
Learning through play
Mrs Brown
Lunar New Year and a wealth of Chinese history and traditions have provided Reception pupils with lots of learning opportunities this week - mask making, creating paper dragons, identifying and sequencing mythical and real animals from the Chinese zodiac, and matching Chinese numerals with Arabic numbers.
Music and Drama Education Awards 🎵🎭
Mr Rolfe
We recently attended the Music and Drama Education Awards at the Royal National Hotel in London where NGHS was once again a finalist in the Outstanding Music Department of the Year category.
This is the third time we have been here - which speaks volumes - and whilst the trophy continues to elude us, it's still a brilliant achievement to be shortlisted. We all know how fantastic the Music Department is here at NGHS, and we're very proud that this is recognised in the wider field of music and drama education. This was a lovely evening, spent in the company of inspirational colleagues who are all in the business of providing excellence in teaching music and drama!
