Norwich High School: Pioneering happy learning for girls Junior school prospectus
GDST schools Where girls can When a girl joins a Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) school, like Norwich High School, she becomes part of an exclusive community dedicated to empowering young women with the four Cs of a GDST education – courage, confidence, composure and commitment – ready for whatever future she chooses. A community that encompasses not just our own school but also our 25 sister schools and academies across England and Wales. A community where girls can join nearly 70,000 women in the GDST Alumnae Network, who provide a range of resources and social and professional contacts to help every girl as she makes her way in the world. The Girls’ Day School Trust is the UK’s largest group of independent girls’ schools, a national leader in girls’ education. GDST schools and academies share an ethos and a proud heritage of girls-only education and are members of a unique network. Our students outperform their peers in public exams, but we strongly believe there’s so much more to a truly broad and balanced education than just stellar exam results. At our schools, girls can compete and collaborate with their peers in other GDST schools, taking part in Trust-wide events, rallies, performances and activities ranging from art, sport, music and creative writing through to foreign languages, debating, enterprise and digital technology, and even a nationwide bake-off. Choosing a GDST school offers the peace of mind that comes from knowing your daughter’s school is part of an organisation with an unparalleled track record of achievement and stability. A charitable organisation, based on enduring values and with over 140 years’ expertise in girls’ education, that always strives to put the needs and wellbeing of our girls first, and a place “where girls can”.
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Contents
“ Among the most articulate, courteous, thoughtful and quietly assured girls we have met anywhere.�
GDST Schools Page 2 Welcome Page 5 Polliwiggle Nursery (for girls aged 3 to 4 years) Pages 6 to 9
The Good Schools Guide 2016
Stafford House (for girls aged 4 to 11 years) Pages 10 to 19 Why girls only? Pages 20 and 21 Bishy Barney Bees Page 22 Joining Stafford House Page 22
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Welcome
Norwich High School: pioneering girls’ education since 1875 4
Welcome
Welcome I am delighted to welcome you to Stafford House, the Norwich High Junior School, and to Polliwiggle Nursery. We are committed to providing an unrivalled educational experience within a culture that values resilience, mastery and personal growth for all. We believe that education is about more than exams and that learning should be the ultimate adventure.
embracing their individuality. We believe that the formative years at Stafford House are crucial and that they should enable girls to become exceptional all-rounders. We believe that being an all-rounder means so much more than performing well in the classroom, on the sports field and in musical endeavours. Our all-rounders are vastly skilled learners, who have a growth mindset, a can-do attitude and a thirst for knowledge. We are fortunate that our girls have access to such a range of excellent facilities in the Junior School, including our IT suite, a well-stocked library, specialist teaching rooms for Science, Art and Design and Music, and our own Forest School site.
There is a sense of awe and wonder emanating from each classroom. We are a learning community and everywhere that you go there is a buzz of cheerful, motivated girls who are absorbed in their learning. We believe in providing a pioneering education tailored to the needs and interests of our girls. Each day brings new fun and adventure; you could meet a Viking, an engineer, an author or a zoo keeper. You can sculpt in the Art room, make exploding volcanoes in the Science Lab, bake brownies in the Cookery room or let your imagination run wild in the woods.
Our pupils also benefit from the excellent facilities available at the Senior School on the same site. These include a 25 metre swimming pool, a sports centre, playing fields, all weather courts and a dance and drama studio. We believe that learning should extend beyond the classroom, with an impressive range of over thirty clubs and activities for girls to enjoy. There is something for everyone!
You will read an incredible range of hand-picked literature and mathematics will shine. Our bespoke curriculum is carefully designed to provide a blend of core subject knowledge and exciting topic-based opportunities that focus on developing skills for learning. Our curriculum is complemented by the use of cutting edge technology and underpinned by a commitment to ensuring that the basics are mastered so that our girls progress onto the Senior School confident in their own ability.
We are passionate about high quality, all-encompassing education for girls. We believe that learning is personal, that every pupil is unique and our girls should dare to be different. We will cherish your daughter, nurture her ideas and help her to become the best possible version of herself. Mr Nick Tiley-Nunn Head of Junior School
We are proud of our reputation for putting girls first, successfully nurturing their talents and 5
Polliwiggle Nursery
Polliwiggle Nursery: For girls ages 3 to 4 6
Polliwiggle Nursery
Flexibility to suit your family needs
Polliwiggle Nursery: Your daughter’s first step to a brighter future
We appreciate that flexibility is key for families with young children. Between the Nursery and our after school club, we can look after your daughter between 8am and 6pm during school term-times. We are currently offering the following full or part-time places:
Polliwiggle (Norfolk for tadpoles) Nursery offers excellent pre-school care for girls aged 3 to 4 years. This is the ideal first step for your daughter to join the Norwich High School community. We care for and educate up to 20 girls in our bright, cheerful and spacious self-contained building with its own enclosed garden, undercover outdoor area and a wide selection of toys and play equipment. Our warm and safe family environment will make your daughter’s transition from home to Nursery a relaxed and happy one. All of our staff are highly qualified with an excellent knowledge of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework and are dedicated to preparing your daughter for the best possible start in her education. Our Nursery staff value each child as uniquely special and through regular assessment and observations, will ensure that your daughter’s next stages of learning and development are clearly identified. Key to each girl’s success is the partnership that we form with all of our parents. You are always welcome to pop in for a chat when you bring your daughter to the Nursery or at the end of the school day. During the course of the year, you will be invited to many events, each showing a different side of your daughter’s experience here at Polliwiggle Nursery. We look forward to you becoming a part of our school community.
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All day sessions run from 8.30am to 3.30pm, with the option of an 8am drop off which can be combined with after school care until 6pm. Morning sessions run from 8.30am to 12.30pm, with the option of an 8am drop off. Afternoon sessions run from 11.30am to 3.30pm, which can be combined with after school care up to 6pm. Your daughter should attend a minimum of six half-day sessions per week which should be confirmed at the beginning of each term or half termly. Any girls not collected by the end of the school day will be cared for at our after school club, Bishy Barney Bees. You can find out more about this on page 22.
Polliwiggle Nursery
Meal times All Nursery girls enjoy their lunch in the main dining hall in Eaton Grove. Lunch is freshly prepared daily by our onsite chefs and a selection of familiar and less familiar choices are available. Snacks are also available at set times during the day and consist of fruit, vegetables and salad. Each girl is encouraged to try different foods, but we fully understand and cater for any dietary requirements or preferences.
Our Nursery Curriculum Norwich High School for Girls prides itself on inspiring intellectual curiosity and a love for learning. The stimulating Nursery environment will aid your daughter’s personal and emotional development and is further enhanced by an extensive and fun curriculum. At our Nursery, your daughter will enjoy a wide range of activities including: • maths, reading stories and writing • music, singing, dance and performance • computing, cooking, painting, building and modelling • investigating, exploring and discovering. Every day there are new creative challenges and learning opportunities, all planned to interest and bring the best out of every girl. When you visit us you will notice that girls talk about their activities with great enthusiasm and clarity of expression.
Joining our Nursery Girls can join our nursery throughout the year, after their third birthday.
Specialist teaching staff deliver unique activities which are not available at most other nurseries in the area: • Swimming and water skills are taught in our 25 metre heated pool each week. • Our Forest School creates excellent opportunities for girls to learn about nature, using tools, independence, co-operation and co-ordination skills. • Music tuition by specialist visiting staff.
Before joining, we like to invite you and your daughter to come to the Nursery for a free taster session. Prior to the offer of a place, your daughter will also join us for an informal play session (lasting about one hour) in the Nursery. A tour of the Nursery and Junior School can be arranged which offers the opportunity to see the school at work and play.
Your daughter will also have multiple opportunities to spend time with older girls within the school. Our Nursery girls spend their lunchtimes with our reception classes and our Sixth Form girls volunteer to assist during some Nursery classes.
Please contact the Registrar for details by telephone on 01603 453 265 or by email at admissions@nor.gdst.net We currently accept Early Years Funding and Childcare vouchers.
And of course, playtime is essential – each girl is given the freedom to explore and enjoy the Nursery at her own pace.
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Polliwiggle Nursery
“ I would recommend this Nursery very strongly. The Nursery Manager is excellent and well assisted by support staff. All girls are able to learn to swim, helped by an older girl and staff. The day is well structured, with a good balance of learning and play. It is a very happy and caring environment.� One of our previous Nursery parents
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Stafford House
Stafford House: For girls ages 4 to 11 One of the top 10 best value prep schools in the UK The Telegraph – August 2016 10
Stafford House
Stafford House The Junior School is housed in its own dedicated space on the main site, called Stafford House. Classrooms are airy and spacious, many in purpose built extensions to the original house allowing for newer facilities such as a Science Lab and IT suite. Other classrooms form part of the original house and make use of authentic features which have been imaginatively re-invented for today’s students. Stafford House is a vibrant place where there is always something new and exciting for your daughter to discover. When you walk down the corridors, you will be amazed by the quality of girls work on display – and if you are lucky enough you may hear some music playing on your visit. The single site allows Junior School pupils to enjoy the use of many of the Senior School facilities including the swimming pool, sports fields music hall and performance spaces.
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Stafford House
Curriculum overview Our girls enjoy a tailor-made, bespoke curriculum that offers a combination of focussed teaching and enquiry-based learning designed to unlock every girl’s potential and to develop her curiosity. We offer every pupil inspirational learning opportunities which nurture, challenge and support their individual achievements both within and beyond the classroom. Our curriculum quite rightly places the core subjects of English and Mathematics at its centre. We believe in developing a lifelong love of literature through exposure to the highest quality texts. Mathematics is taught through energetic and exciting lessons that seek to develop conceptual understanding and mastery. We ensure that our girls develop a solid grounding in the basics and develop exceptional skills for learning. Our wider Bespoke Curriculum is enhanced through the effective use of technology, including iPads. Music, Dance, Sport and Modern Foreign Languages are an integral part of our rich and rewarding curriculum, with Mandarin and French taught from Upper 1 upwards. The curriculum is enhanced further with weekly swimming lessons and our Forest School sessions. We adopt a personalised approach to learning that enables girls to achieve and develop their unique potential. Girls are encouraged from the outset to think, write and act independently; to respect the opinions and actions of others; to work together and to play their part in a vibrant and caring community.
“ Standards in writing and mathematics are high, particularly in the former where pupils write with confidence and maturity. Pupils are articulate; they can speak with precision and at length. Skill and sensitivity are evident in the high standards of art work on display. Pupils can adapt their skills well, for example when using information and communication technology (ICT) to illustrate their project work.� Feedback from our last ISI inspection
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Stafford House
A Bespoke Curriculum Our Bespoke Curriculum is underpinned by three key principles which are: Independent learning The girls constantly question and have a thirst for knowledge. They have the ability to problem solve. They learn to try new things, work hard, concentrate, push themselves, use their imaginations, improve and develop intellectual resilience. Global citizenship Our girls have an understanding of the world around them. Cultural and spiritual differences are valued. Values for life Manners matter to us all. Respect is key and our pupils know how to work together, have high expectations of themselves and those around them. They form lasting bonds of friendship and see themselves as contributors to the world at large; their opinions are valued. Our Junior School girls have enquiring minds and a motivation to succeed within the context of care, courtesy and respect for others and the environment. Each focussed unit of work is designed to capture the imagination and to inspire, whilst ensuring that learning is rigorous and stimulating. No two days are the same – every day is filled with exploration, fun and discovery!
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Stafford House
“ Norwich High School for Girls: Go-getting, underrated gem in East Anglia, with world-beating music facilities.� Country Life magazine 14
Stafford House
Performance and music
Co-curricular Essential to the Norwich High School experience is a dynamic selection of activities, programmes, and learning experiences that complement what our girls are learning in school.
Performance and music are key parts of every girl’s education at Norwich High School. When you visit Stafford House, you are likely to hear some form of music playing through the corridors – whether it is a girl playing piano as part of an individual music lesson or our Junior School choir practising for a performance. We even have a dedicated Music School onsite to facilitate the wide range of music we have on offer.
A wide range of activities and specialist clubs held during lunchtimes or after school cater for all interests including the arts, music, ecology, drama, chess, Mandarin, fitness and sport. Days focussed on particular subjects such as our Lower 3 Business Day and our Year 5 Science Day, where we invite students from other schools to join us, form a very important part of the unique learning experience at Norwich High School for Girls.
Last academic year, our Junior School girls wowed audiences with stunning performances at the school including Alice in Wonderland and The Three Little Pigs, the latter performed as a part of our annual Winter Arts Festival. Our full Infant and Junior School choirs delighted onlookers at this year’s Royal Norfolk Show. Some Junior girls also performed as a part of the Chamber Choir at the Norfolk County Music Festival, impressing judges with pieces such as ‘Double Double’ (from Harry Potter) and ‘A New Commandment’, a piece written by a member of the choir.
“ Pupils develop very good skills, knowledge and understanding in all their subjects and in the wide range of their co-curricular activities.”
High standards are reached in various music examinations, as well as in speech and drama, writing and poetry competitions.
Feedback from our last ISI inspection 15
Stafford House
Trips Throughout the school year, girls will be able to take part in many school trips linked to their curriculum experiences. Examples of trips held for our Junior School girls from last academic year include a working farm at Easton College, the Sandringham Estate, Muckleburgh Military Museum, Whitlingham Broad Outdoor Activity Centre, West Stow Anglo-Saxon village, Blickling Hall and Norwich Cathedral. Our older girls will have a short residential trip to develop their confidence – our Upper 2 girls enjoyed three-days at How Hill last year.
Norwich High School for Girls: Awarded Norwich Sports School of the Year 2015
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Stafford House
Sports The school offers an ever expanding programme of sporting activities for the Junior School, with major games such as hockey, netball and rounders taking place during Games afternoons, and sports such as gymnastics, dance, trampolining, tennis, cross country and athletics performed in PE lessons. We have excellent onsite sporting facilities including: • a large sports field / grass athletics track • grass and carpet tennis courts • a 25m indoor heated swimming pool • an astro-turf pitch • a dedicated indoor sports hall Girls are encouraged to participate in a wide range of clubs and competitions during and out of school hours. In the last academic year, the Junior School participated in GDST Sports Rallies in netball, cross country, rounders, tennis and swimming, competing against the other GDST schools around the country. We are always delighted to welcome parents to all sporting fixtures, to support the girls and the school.
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Stafford House
“ Recently my granddaughter showed me her folder of work related to Ancient Greece. I was so impressed by the variety, the amount, the standard of work and the creativity of the tasks set by her teacher.� Feedback from a Year 5 Grandmother
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Stafford House
Norwich High School Staff Norwich High School for Girls staff are committed, motivated and friendly. We pride ourselves on encouraging the highest standards of teaching for the girls and ensuring our academic staff always have access to excellent professional development and training opportunities. Our staff also offer excellent pastoral support to all girls.
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Why Girls Only?
“ I’ve been here since reception and the school has just got better and better. You’re allowed to develop in your own way – there’s no limit to what you can do.” One of our current Senior School girls 20
Why Girls Only?
Why girls only? Norwich High School remains true to its founding principles – we offer girls excellence in education, experience and opportunity – and we have always been keen to embrace fun and allow girls to flourish.
Our aim for your daughter is to be happy, confident and ready to take on the world when she leaves school. We want her to have achieved excellence academically, to have developed resilience and to have enjoyed herself. School is about growing up, preparing for the future – those things we can’t measure or quantify in league tables and exam results. These are the intangibles which will shape both your daughter’s journey through school and her life beyond it. At Norwich High School for Girls we follow this Mission Statement:
Copious research has signposted that girls do better in a single-sex environment. Here are some of the reasons why: • Girls’ happiness, development and success are at the core of everything that happens in a girls-only school. • Pastoral programmes are tailor made for girls and anticipate their particular needs. • Girls are able and encouraged to excel in every subject area, every activity and every performance. • In a girls-only school, all the positions of leadership and responsibility are held by girls. • Girls will take more intellectual risks in an all girl environment. • Girls and boys mature academically and emotionally at different stages and teaching them separately allows effective differentiation. • Single-sex schools consistently achieve the best results. • Greater levels of confidence in both sexes are apparent when they are taught separately. • Girls and boys have fewer anxieties over peer pressure in single sex environments. • Girls from single sex schools have more positive attitudes to non-stereotypical careers. • A greater percentage of pupils from girls’ schools go on to higher education • Girls develop confidence in their own abilities as individuals and do not define themselves by gender.
We believe in putting girls first
Girls in girls-only schools benefit from the fact that everything is designed and developed to meet their educational and pastoral needs, so that they can be the very best they can be, whilst here at school and beyond.
We believe that education is about more than exams
Fostering intellectual curiosity within an academic education is at the heart of all we do but we believe that the best education also includes outstanding sport, music, art, drama, and a full range of extra-curricular activities.
We believe in pioneering education
Since its foundation over a century ago, Norwich High School has been committed to pioneering girls’ education. We look for innovation in all that we do.
We believe in our community
Norwich High School was created by the radical and enterprising people of Norwich. We remain committed to that community and to its values, and to the unique community that is the Norwich High School family.
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Stafford House
Bishy Barney Bees
Joining Stafford House
For those families who need additional after school care we hold an After School Club called Bishy Barney Bees. This offers after school care for all girls aged 3 to 11 years until 6pm during term time for a small fee.
While we hope this guide has given you a flavour of Junior School life, we strongly recommend that you and your daughter join us for a Taster Day or for a personalised tour. At a Taster Day, your daughter will spend a day with her prospective class to sample all the exciting activities which take place in the Junior School. She will be able to experience a timetabled day where she will join in lessons, study the current topics, play with new friends, explore our grounds and enjoy life at Norwich High School.
Bishy Barney Bees offers a warm and friendly environment for girls to relax after their busy day, to extend their learning when they are particularly intrigued by a topic or to have a go at a different challenge. When you visit you may find the girls enjoying story time, creating puppet characters or singing; you will always see them laughing! Girls have tea and join in with a variety of fun activities until they are collected. All girls are looked after by our experienced team, often with help from pupils in the Sixth Form who participate in our DofE or Big Sister programmes. There is a fully qualified paediatric first aider on duty at all times. Older girls can do their homework here as well.
Pupils usually join Stafford House in Reception at ages 4+ or Year 3 at ages 7+. However, places can sometimes be made available in other year groups if required. Entry to the Junior School follows a simple selection process which includes play and participation in the younger years and written tests for those pupils in Year 1 and above. If you wish to combine a Taster Day with an assessment day, we can tailor the programme to include these tests in Maths and English on the same day.
Bishy Barney Bees is held daily in its own specialist room within the Junior School and provides a safe, secure and enjoyable extension to the school day for Norwich High School girls. We also understand that there may be occasions when unforeseen circumstances dictate that you may not be able to collect your daughter at the usual time, and we will always try to accommodate last minute emergency bookings.
Further details about how to apply to join Stafford House can be requested by calling our Registrar on 01603 453 265 by emailing admissions@nor.gdst.net
For more information please call our Registrar on 01603 453 265 or email admissions@nor.gdst.net
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Stafford House
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Norwich High School for Girls aged 3 to 18 Part of the
Norwich High School for Girls 95 Newmarket Road Norwich, Norfolk NR2 2HU United Kingdom t: +44 (0)1603 453 265 e: admin@nor.gdst.net www.norwichhigh.gdst.net Follow us on:
Junior School Prospectus