Chantry Middle School

• Are you an enthusiastic and mature reader?
• Do you enjoy talking about what you are reading?
• Are you interested in meeting authors and getting your books autographed?
• If so, we would you like to help select this year’s winner of The North East Book Award

We have roughly 10 weeks to read and discuss all 5 shortlisted books before voting! Obviously, there’s more to say – and disagree about – as the weeks progress and more people have read more of the books!  As we read, we post reviews and comments on the NEBA website, which is closely monitored by the shortlisted authors. Extracts are used for giant promotional posters that the authors like to take home as souvenirs. (You can see some outside the library.)

When all participating schools have voted, we attend an evening prize giving at The Centre for Life.  We talk to the authors, get our books signed and generally have a good time.  The ceremony will be held in June.

Visit the NEBA website for more information – http://northeastbookaward.wordpress.com/

Click ‘continue reading’ to find out more about our meetings and which books are involved.

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Over the last two weeks, groups of students from Years 7 and 8 have had the opportunity to take part in two Northumbrian Dialect workshops with James Tait, a local musician and poet who works with The Morpeth Gathering.

Students have learnt about the roots of words that feature in our local dialect and have started to embed them in their own pieces of creative writing. Today, the groups finished off their final pieces of poetry, prose and narrative writing to enter into a local competition.

Here are some short videos of Ciaran, Izzy, Katie, Amrit and Owen reading their finished products!

‘Getting and keeping, young people reading’.

On Monday evening, 18 students from Chantry, Newminster and King Edwards attended the North East Teen Book Award ceremony at The Centre for Life in Newcastle. Since October, they’ve been sharing the reading of 20 contenders for the shortlist and helping to whittle this down to just six finalists.

The Teen Book Award is aimed at Year 10 students and challenges Key Stage 3 in terms of the numbers of books to be read and their themes and complexity. It’s greatly to the credit of our younger students that they’re so keen to have a go!

Not only do they have to read the books, they have to meet regularly to discuss them and then summarise their opinions for everyone – including the authors – to
read on the NETBA website: http://northeastteenagebookaward.wordpress.com

Before the winner is announced, each author is introduced by a group of students to talk about their books and answers questions. This year, students from Chantry and Newminster introduced debut author, Alwyn Hamilton and her novel, Rebel of the Sands.

Click ‘continue reading’ underneath the gallery for our parent’s thoughts.

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Wow! What a night was had on Saturday 11th February for the second ever Morpeth Partnership Ceilidh. King Edward VI High School, Dr Thomlinson’s, Newminster and Chantry Middle Schools Ceilidh Bands came together to perform in a wonderful evening of music and dance which was led by a caller. Families enjoyed an evening of superb entertainment, fun, laughter and even a pie and pea supper.

Many congratulations to the joint band of over 60 pupils and staff who performed on this night and the McGuinness School of Dance, Irish Dancers. A special thanks to Heather Harrison who organised the event.

Thank you to the KEVI PTFA for their support with the event.

Click ‘continue reading’ for an image gallery. (more…)

On Thursday 9th February, NMS and CMS Bronze Arts Awards students went to work with the Laing Learning team and a professional artist, as part of the ARTiculate Project, to develop their ability to interpret the work on display in the exhibition Modern Visionaries: Van Dyck & the Artists’ Eye. They learnt about how artists communicate stories and ideas through their work. 

Students participated in a visual literacy workshop at the gallery, worked with a photography artist to develop and refine ideas for their own interpretive artworks and took a self led tour of the work on display in the ‘Out of Chaos’ exhibition. This exhibition included powerful works by 50 international artists such as Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Marc Chagall, Chaïm Soutine and Alfred Wolmark, which address the universality of migration and resulting issues of identity and belonging.

An exhibition of the students work will be displayed at the gallery at the end of the project, with the opportunity to take part in a preview event for all participants involved towards the end of April. 

Click ‘continue reading’ for the full article.

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Thank you to those parents who attended the Year 6 Literacy Parents Lunch. It was lovely to see you all.

Comments from parents included;

” I always enjoy coming into lunch. I find the classroom time really insightful. My child likes my support and interest in his work”

“A lovely experience – thank you. A good insight to what happens in the English class”

” Lovely baked potato with cheese and beans – thank you”

All Year 7 & 8 parents have been invited into school on Tuesday 14th February from 11.50am and all Year 5 parents on Wednesday 15th February from 11.20am – please make sure that you have informed the school office.

Congratulations to Rachael who represented the Newcastle and Northumberland in the Regional Final of this year’s Future Chef competition at York College.

Rachael, who won the local final of the competition, cooked an amazing Steak Diane with a selection of vegetables followed by her delicious chocolate fudge brownie!

Well done Rachael!

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