Chantry Middle School’s Mini Police set out today with a speed camera to find some baddies!

They successfully caught 16 people speeding in Morpeth in just an hour!!”

The speed limit in Morpeth ranges from 20 – 40 mph. Exceeding 40mph could result in severe injury and even death. But there is one fault. Speed cameras check people carelessly going over the limit but most accidents, apparently, are caused by slow drivers. So are the Police doing enough to prevent accidents happening this way?

We asked the Mini Police about what they do.

Why do you think the Mini Police is important?

“It’s good because we are keeping the community safe and it helps with our education and learning about the police.”

Do you enjoy Mini Police?

“Yes, it’s great fun.”

What are the best bits?

We were even lucky enough to get a picture with the police!

“Going to the police station – that was cool. We also did a light switch on simulation in which we had to look for a lost child in a pitch black room. The speed gunning was cool too – and we actually caught some people!”

How did you all join the Mini Police?

“We had to do a one-hundred word application and seventy-five people entered. We were the chosen 10.”

Why did you want to join the Mini Police?

     “So we could learn more about police and take part in all the fun activities.”

By Amy and April 7W

School girls are more actively involved thanks to this charity.

Girls Active is a new charity funded by Sport England, which helps motivate and build girls’ confidence in physical activity. The Girls Active programme aims to make a positive difference by improving girls’ attitude towards sport.  Female teachers and students work together to change the old perspective of girls’ fitness levels. This includes extra curricular activities and trips to new sports and competitions. This charity has an amazing impact on girls in the UK. Research has shown that by the time girls are 7 they are already less active than boys. This gets worse once girls get to secondary-age. There are more barriers on their participation than for boys so Girls Active identifies what is holding the girls back. Teachers pick girls from each year to be a GLAM girl, motivate them, run extra curricular activities and much more.

The charity hopes to help the girls who lack confidence or are just inactive. Two million more women than men are not involved in any sport. However, about thirteen million women and girls in England want to play more sport. The Girls Active scheme will hopefully help them accomplish this goal.

At Chantry Middle School they haven’t just included the teachers and students, they held a free netball evening in which a female family member (over the age of 16) could come along with the child and play netball.

We have interviewed teachers from Chantry to find out what they think.

We started with Miss L Mckenzie, who regularly attended the sessions because her year 7 girls were very enthusiastic. She thinks that Girls Active has improved girls’ fitness. She pointed out that this programme has opened opportunities, including trampoline sessions at the high school. It also encouraged family members to join in with the fun. Students from year 5 – year 8 have been working together and Miss McKenzie thought it was great that some of the older children were able to run the sessions, for example zumba.

We interviewed the two teachers who led the club when it first started. First we interviewed Miss K Scott, who brought the scheme from her previous school. She thinks it has increased girls’ participation, self confidence in front of their peers and fitness le
vels. She would like more year 5 students to get  involved. When she first came, some girls did nearly every club and some were afraid of joining. Miss K Johnson thinks it has been a great opportunity for girls to sample different sports in one club.

Students from the school have been very enthusiastic about this new activity. Ella and Keira from Year 6 are two of the Glam leaders and have enjoyed working with girls, taking control and creating, games for other girls to try.

By Gabrielle and Emily, Y7

A Virgin Atlantic flight from Barbados to Gatwick Airport has had its passengers quarantined after a widespread illness swept through the plane.

Trevor Wilson, a passenger on the plane said: “A bad chesty cough, possible a chest infection” could’ve been the illness responsible.

Thirty people have been assessed by doctors and treated, three have been admitted to hospital.

A spokesman for the Airline said that the problem had not originated on the plane. A spokeswoman said: “We are working closely with London Gatwick Airport and medical teams to offer assistance to customers, and will conduct a full investigation into the circumstances.”

What a terrible way to end your holiday!

By Thomas, Year 8.

It’s a new year which means new series! Get ready to be blown away by The Great British Bake Off!!

There are new competitors, new challenges and tasty treats all waiting to be found in these mouthwatering episodes. It might almost make you want to have a go yourself! So get ready and hold onto your pastry brushes because this series will blow your Yorkshire puddings out of this world!

This year’s series is all about standing up for cancer and the four contestants taking part are the six-time Emmy Award winning actor John Lithgow; Russell Brand, who currently runs his own YouTube political talk show; the Lancaster-born comedian Jon Richardson and, last but not least, Hannah Cockroft, who is a Paralympic athlete from Yorkshire. Paul and Prue definitely won’t go easy on this lot! Noel and Sandi will be alongside the bakers – hopefully not distracting them – but that may be a challenge.

By Ruby Y7

The current year 5 students have settled into their new school and PE has come to be a big part of their school lives, providing many different activities for all abilities such as boccia, badminton, netball, martial arts and athletics.

We have asked some Year 5s how PE has changed.

Katie said, “We have more opportunities.”

Casey added, “ We use different skills here at Chantry.”

We also asked what their favourite thing is about P.E at Chantry and Katie said, ”It’s made me more confident” while Casey thinks, ”They challenge us more.”

We were wondering how these clubs have impacted the students choices in school and what clubs they enjoy the most. Molly, from Year 8, said that, “Clubs such as GLAM have given me lots of opportunities.” Her favourite clubs are “Netball and The GLAM Squad.”

For some more information about the wide range of clubs at Chantry we asked Lewis, also a Year 8 student, what clubs he enjoys attending. His response was,  “ My favourite clubs are football, rugby and cricket.” He also says that, “ The clubs could improve by being longer!” Lewis told us that the clubs that he attends have helped him with his teamwork skills.

By Lexie & Elspeth, Year 8

World Book Day is an annual event organised by UNESCO involving over 100 countries  in which everyone celebrates books and the positive effects of reading!

World Book Day is a great way to make children’s reading a habit and expand the range of children’s reading. World Book Day was created as a tribute to the two famous authors, Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare. You can celebrate World Book Day in many ways, including supporting your local library where you will be able to find all your favourite books.

World Book Day attracts people from all over the world to get reading!  You can get your books from anywhere including public libraries, school libraries, charity shops and book shops.

The theme of this year’s World Book Day is ‘Around the World’. You can dress up as a character from around the world, wear traditional clothes from different countries or even dress up as a country’s flag!

Thanks to National Book Tokens Ltd, millions of book tokens have been sent to schools and nurseries all over the UK This means one book token for every child under eighteen in the whole country! You can swap your token for one of the specially produced World Book Day books, which are sold in high street bookshops displaying the WBD icon in their window

(e.g. Waterstones or WH Smiths in Morpeth) or use it to get £1 off any book or audio book costing £2.99 or more.)

What are you waiting for?

World Book Day was first celebrated on the 23rd April 1995 and is still being celebrated now. We are going to interview some of the staff at Chantry Middle School to find out how they are celebrating World Book Day!

We have interviewed Miss Falkingham about world book day.

What are you coming dressed as? “A chilli to represent Chile, the country”

What do you think of this year’s theme? “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to combine our love for reading and geography”

What do you enjoy about World Book Day?  “I love it because it brings books to life and engages students in reading.”

What is your favourite book genre? “ I can’t pin it down but I have just finished a book that I really enjoyed called Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I loved it!”

How are you going to celebrate world book day?  “By dressing up and finding out what other people dressed up as and why.”

Now we want to introduce you to this charity:

Book Aid International is the UK’s leading international book donation and library development charity. This charity sends books out to places which don’t have books so children find it very hard to learn to read. For adults they send out books on subjects like how to look after their children, farming and health care. Children get the same books that we read.

Book Aid International provides books so that people can change their lives through reading and also to make them happy.

A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five. So don’t forget to bring in your £1 donation to Book Aid International on World Book Day to help this come true for more children!

By Millie and Kate, Y8

A poll run by First News has revealed that kids in Britain want to stay in the EU!

2,650 kids took part in the poll that was on the First News’ Website and on iHub Classroom and a whopping 77% don’t want Brexit to happen!

After the votes had been counted, 2,041 kids wanted to stay and only 609 voters wanted to carry on with the plan that on the 29th March we will leave the EU.

First News first ran a poll back in 2016 and the result was that 71% wanted to stay. It looks like 6% of voters have changed their mind.

I asked some people what they thought about Brexit and if they wanted to leave or stay:

“I want to stay because this decision is going to affect our future and results have clearly shown that more kids want to stay.” said Maddy.

“I think another referendum is in order because the results were so close last time and some people didn’t know what Brexit entailed. Now it’s been fully explained some people could potentially vote differently.” says Freya.

Image from BBC

“I think staying would be a good idea because we have been in the EU for almost 50 years and yes we have to abide by the rules of the EU but there are so many positives of staying.” says Jack.

“I want to leave because other countries in the EU are giving less money to the EU and they are getting more money back from the EU.  England is putting in billions of pounds and getting less back.” says Jason.

It’s difficult to say what’s going to happen but we are still scheduled to leave on the 29th March.

By Katie, Y7