Chantry Middle School

The pupils from Chantry and Newminster Middle Schools were invited to participate in a Heritage Lottery funded drama based on a book written by Bridget Gubbins called ‘The Conquest of Morpeth’. They have been attending drama club on Tuesday’s after school and working really hard this term. Students have examined different drama techniques including freeze frames, script writing, prop making, costume design, movement, music and shadow puppetry.

They will be staging a performance of their own devised work based on ‘The Conquest of Morpeth’ on Thursday 23rd November 2017 at 2pm in the Chantry Hall. There will be no charge for tickets for this production however there will be a collection tin for donations to the Creative Arts fund in the school foyer.

The children’s book, ‘The Conquest of Morpeth’ by Bridget Gubbins, will be on sale at the event.

Newminster and Chantry choir will be performing at St James’s Church, Morpeth on Wednesday 20^th December from 6.00pm-7.30pm, with doors opening at 5.50pm. The performance will include a festive play called ‘Miracle Child’, Christmas songs and carols performed by our collaborative Middle School Choir. Mince pies will be served at the end of the evening and a collection made for a charity chosen by the church.

Tickets will be on sale from Monday 20^th November from the school office at break times only. Tickets are priced at £2.00 for children and £3.00 for adults and can be purchased with either cash or cheque, (cheques must be made payable to The Three Rivers Learning Trust Ltd).

From the 9-13 October Artsmark are celebrating the amazing achievements of the Artsmark schools who are putting arts and culture at the heart of education.

Lookout for the #CelebrateArtsmark.

For this year’s Children in Need we are going to attempt to make and decorate a giant cake which will take the shape of a patchwork quilt – what a spectacle!

Each form class will​ design, plan and decorate a 12 inch square cake on the theme of friendship, care, Children in Need and charity.

On the Friday morning of Children in Need all students, in form classes, will decorate a class cake to match their design. The cakes will then be taken to Chantry Hall where they will be displayed as one giant cake. Students will be given time to admire their work as a whole before sampling later in the day.

The ingredients for the cakes, icing (not decoration) and boards will be provided by the school. However, to allow students to be as creative as possible, we will ask students to volunteer to bring a small amount of the decorations required, as directed by their form teacher.

There will be no charge for the cake as we are also having a Pudsey themed non-uniform day to raise money for the charity with a voluntary £1 donation. The choir will also be doing a sponsored sing in the hope we can raise some additional funds for this fantastic charity!

Linking to the health and well being of our students we have designed whole school projects to encourage individuality and uniqueness. This year we have planned for each pupil to create a unique design on a pebble and we are putting them together, as a school, to form an outdoor sculpture. We have based the project on a book called ‘Only One You’.

‘.

Congratulations to Year 8 students Lydia, Emily, Eleanor and Amrit for achieving the British Science Association’s Bronze CREST Award.

The girls achieved the prestigious award by completing 20 hours of Science investigation work after school. Lydia and Eleanor made their own bath bombs; Emily made and tested different types of nail polish remover; Amrit made her own stain remover. After completing their practical work, the girls had to write up a detailed report of their findings.

The next round of CREST Awards will be open to current Year 7 students after Christmas. Further information from Dr Jackson.

When a student achieves 70% or more on a book quiz, the words in the book are totalled. When this total reaches a million, the student can choose a book to keep as a record of their success. These prizes are funded with commission earned from the annual Book Fair, so prizes are selected from the Scholastic UK website.

Some of the students pictured have read more than 4,000,000 words this year and every million earns them another book!

This year’s Word Millionaires (numbers indicate multimillionaires):

This year’s tournament got off to a flying start but unfortunately due to years of wear and tear, our tennis posts could not see us through to the final.  Morpeth Tennis Club at Longhirst very kindly allowed us to use their facilities to finish off the competition.

It was Gus Singer and Jac Caygill who both fought their way through to meet each other in the final.  Gus actually had to play four matches that afternoon having not yet completed his 2^nd round match.   Both boys played their best tennis but it was Gus’ stamina, powerful serve and accurate placement that led him to a 6-2 win against the speed and dexterity of Jac.    Well done to both finalists and the other boys who produced a great afternoon of tennis.  We made full advantage of the free courts and after the tournament, all 7 boys managed even managed to sneak a few cheeky games in against Miss Said.

Miss Said would like to thank all competitors for a fantastic championship.  She would also like to give a special thank you to the ball boys and girls who helped out this year.  Mr Ord arranged for us to play at Longhirst on Wednesday and it must have been good karma because he drew Gus in the staff sweepstake at the start of the competition and won £16. J We all look forward to what next year’s tournament will have in store for us.