On 26th February, the Chantry Year 8s participated in a careers day of Speed Dating. As a part of this, we had to interview different workers about their jobs and what they do in those jobs. There were fourteen different ambassadors who came during their own time to have us interview them. With every three ambassadors, we were given different questions to ask them, but the two general questions for everyone were, ‘What is your job title?’ and, ‘Who do you work for?’ We were given a workbook to record the answers to all of our questions.

Each person had a different job and we were given unique answers from everyone. Some of the jobs of the workers who we interviewed ranged from a Filing Apprentice to a Greggs Quality Controller to a Military Recruitment Officer.

We interviewed Mr Shaw, who is in charge of all of the careers days, this year Mr Shaw took over the careers events after Miss Edwards in September. These are some of the questions that we asked him:

Q: What do you think is the point of the careers ambassadors coming in?

Mr Shaw: The main point is to give Year 8 an opportunity for them to find out what they want to be when they are older.

Q: What is it like being in charge of the careers days?

Mr Shaw: Good fun getting to meet new people but it’s a challenge to sort out all the classes. It’s also very rewarding to see people being happy and positive. So it’s all worth it and it’s something different.

Q: Are there any other events coming soon?

Mr Shaw: Year 8s are going to be going to Linden Hall and Year 7s will have a construction day.

Q: What is the difference between organising the whole school and a year group?

Mr Shaw: The whole school is more difficult because you have got to sort out everyone and the year groups are easier since there aren’t as many numbers.

During each event, Carole Richards, who works for Northumberland County Council, always sets up the events.

By Naomi and Grace, Year 8

Recently, particularly in Europe, there has been an outbreak of measles: the highly contagious virus that can be deadly to young children. The countries in Europe with the highest number of cases are Ukraine, Serbia, Israel and France.

This outbreak is linked to the anti-vaccine movement: a large group of people who are refusing to vaccinate their children or be vaccinated themselves because they believe that the vaccine causes Autism.

Before the vaccination was introduced to the public in 1988, measles was deadly. As more people don’t get immunised, it seems the virus is becoming more scary again.

The measles hasn’t just infected Europe, either – there have been high numbers of measles cases in the US states of Washington and New York. A lot of people who live in the Philippines refuse to have the vaccine, so far the virus has claimed 130 lives. It has also hit Japan, who are now fighting the worst measles outbreak in a decade.

Why are people against the vaccination?

Much of it comes down to social media. Many people read that the vaccination is harmful on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, believe it and spread the word. Others are against it for religious reasons.

If someone who is against the vaccine has a child, they will likely not get them vaccinated against the measles. As the measles is incredibly infectious – it can spread to someone else within 15 minutes – if this child who hasn’t been protected catches the disease and comes into contact with a baby under a year old, this puts the younger population at risk.

Also, some adults who didn’t get the vaccination as a child have travelled to countries in Europe unaware of measles, brought it back to their countries and spread it.

Since 2000, it is estimated that the measles vaccination has saved over 21 million lives.

If this continues, the infection will become more of a public health threat.

Will there be a measles epidemic?

By Izzy, Year 7

On 11th March 2019, people from Commonwealth countries from all around the world will witness Commonwealth day. Formerly known as Empire day, Commonwealth Day celebrates the Commonwealth and the nations in it. The day will be celebrated with a large range of activities such as faith and civic gatherings, flag raising ceremonies and street parties to name a few.

On the day, there will be a multicultural and multi faith service at Westminster Abbey. There will be multiple performances and readings from the Commonwealth throughout the service. There will also be a procession of 53 flag bearers representing the countries involved. In addition to this, there will be a Commonwealth Day message from the HM The Queen and the Secretary-General Patricia Scotland about the principals and values on the Commonwealth charter, and how 2.4 billion people from 53 countries have been united by it.

This year’s theme is called ‘A Connected Commonwealth.’ This offers  opportunities for the people, the government and the nations to connect and work together on many levels of deep-rooted friendship and good will. This year will also mark the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Commonwealth as it is today. Hopefully in the coming future, this great family of nations will continue to stay with us as the Commonwealth ages.

By Thomas, Year 8

Stranger Things is the biggest franchise of 2016, All together this TV show in my eyes is one of the best, with a great story line and some amazing actors. But none of this could of been done without the amazing directors Matt and Ross Duffer: also known as the Duffer brothers. Some viewers from Chantry Middle School saying that ‘Its the best show on Netflix yet!’ from one student and ‘It’s different and Original’. One person said that they liked it as it was a scary story line based around kids in the 80’s and all of the unexpected plot twists. It’s true stranger things is strangely addicting!

Cast list:

• Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven (Jane Hopper)
• Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler
• Noah Schnapp as Will Byers
• Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson
• Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair
• Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers
• Joe Keery as Steve Harrington
• Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler
• Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers
• David Harbour as Hopper          

The whole story base line is about a young girl called Jane, but her friends call her Eleven due to the tattoo on her wrist from when she got experimented on. Eleven is able to move and control things with her mind, but everytime she uses her powers she loses a lot of energy and her nose starts to bleed. One day, when she runs away from Hawkins Lab, young Mike Wheeler and his ‘party’ find Eleven on her run away adventure, from then on mike secretly lets her live in his basement, teaches her to talk properly, and he also teaches her to trust.

Later on in the series, Will Byers goes into a parallel universe called the upside down. While at Hawkins Will is assumed dead, Will’s mother Joyce Byers and brother Jonathan Byers are convinced Will is alive and everyone thinks they are going mad. Well that’s everyone but Nancy Wheeler, Mike Wheeler’s brother. Nancy’s best friend Barb goes “missing”.

I’m sure you’ll be thinking. But who is taking them there? Well that’s when the demogorgon comes in…

Emma Tait (Year 8)

In Chantry Middle School Year 8 students  have a jigsaw and each piece means something different.

On each piece of jigsaw is a word such as: achievement then aspiration, care, cooperation, creativity, reflection ,resilience, respect and responsibility.

Each of these jigsaw pieces makes us think in order to achieve what we need to get on each piece of jigsaw. Every time we place a piece of evidence in the portfolio we hand it in to the head of the school and then we can get our jigsaw piece sticker which we put in the front of our portfolio. If we complete the whole thing we can use it to show people in high school, this gives us good credit. It is also very fun to do and achieve.

We both interviewed Mr Johnson (Head of School) about the jigsaw.

Elise: Why did you want to set up the jigsaw?
Mr Johnson: So the year eights that do it can learn to be individuals.

Elise: What do you think is the most beneficial about the jigsaw and why?
Mr Johnson: It helps you learn about the values you need in life.

Lottie: How many years have you been doing the jigsaw system for, now?
Mr Johnson: I have been doing this for about four years now.

Lottie: How can this helps us as an individual?
Mr Johnson: it helps us by learning different skills and being proud of ourselves.

By Elise and Lottie.

This year is our last year in Chantry, which means lots of opportunities! One of them is to get a chance to participate in Magistrates Mock Trial. We got given a trial case to audition with, and we had to argue whether we thought ‘Chantelle’ was guilty or not. We argued our case in front of Mr Warner (the teacher who runs Magistrates) and in front of anyone else who was auditioning. Less than a week later, 13 students who Mr Warner deemed the best for each role where picked, to start practicing with our case every Friday afternoon.

The different roles consist of:

3 Magistrates: Alice, Rebecca and Kelsey
2 Prosecution Lawyers: Amrit and Isobel
2 Defence Lawyers: Alice and Millie
1 Legal Advisor: Conall
Usher: Ben
1 Defendant: Kate
2 Defence Witnesses: Kate and Elise
2 Prosecution Witnesses: Joe and Finlay

On 24th  March we will compete as a team defending and prosecuting the case.

We (Rebecca and Alice) are magistrates and our role is to decide whether or not the defendant is guilty. We have to weigh up the credibility of the witnesses and if we believe that the defendant is telling the truth or not. This case is incredibly difficult as it all depends on the credibility of the witnesses as there is reason to believe that the defendant may have not done the crime however there is also evidence to suggest that they did! Unlike the lawyers, we have to have a balanced argument and take into account both sides of the story and decide what’s fair.

I, (Alice) am a defence lawyer and my role is to be very one sided by twisting the prosecutions side of the story to make the defendant innocent. I question one prosecution witness and one defence witness trying to make the defendant seem innocent either way. Also I have to give a closing speech trying to persuade the magistrates the defendant is innocent. So unlike the magistrates, I have to only use one side of the case to do my job and the prosecution lawyer does the opposite to me (make the defendant guilty). Overall, it is my job to keep the defendant out of prison, no matter what the case.

We are very excited to be taking part in this competition but the pressure is on as Chantry have won it many times before! We’re looking forward to experiencing what a court is like and taking the roles that many adults do!

Alice, Alice and Rebecca (Year 8)

Over 3.4 million people play Fortnite globally at one time and as of December it has had over 40 million downloads. Out of our friends on xbox and Playstation over ¾ of them play Fortnite.

Due to popular demand, epic games are developing a mobile version of the game so you can play where you want. In Fortnite you have two game modes; Save The World and Battle Royale. The Battle Royale is free to everyone!!!

Fortnite has a currency called Vbucks which you can spend on ingame items in both modes. You can purchase skins, gliders, emotes and harvesting tools. The BattlePass is a seasonal event where you level up in tiers and get rewards for every time you ready up. This season (season 3) has 100 levels with six skins to unlock!

In Save The World you fight off monsters of all kinds such as husks, pitchers and sploders. The story is that a sudden worldwide storm causes 98% of the world’s population to disappear as zombie like creatures attack the survivors. Each mission, the game randomly generates maps and the player needs to collect resources in order to build fortifications around objectives that help fight the storm and protect survivors.                            

In Fortnite Battle Royale you go up against 99 other players in order to be the last one standing you jump out of a “Battle Bus” and skydive down to the ground to your choice of landing on the map.

Once you reach a certain height you pull out your chosen glider once you land you have to find guns and try to kill people after one minute there will be a ring and you have to go to the in the ring and after a certain amount of time the storm will move in and if you go in the storm you will slowly die so it is making it so people fight each other.

Freddie and Cole (Year 8)

In recent studies at State University of New York in Florida they found plastic in popular brands of bottled water .

To find these tiny pieces of plastic, scientists at the university used a dye that attaches to the surface of the plastic turning them to a different colour.

Some popular brands that include pieces of plastic:

• Evian
• Nestle pure life
• San pellegrino

Some plastic is only from the lids of the bottle!

Will this stop you from drinking these brands of bottled water?

By Amber and Emily (year 8)

This year Sports Relief is on 17th – 23rd March. Like Comic Relief, Sports Relief is on the television in the afternoon as the CBBC are having reports and different events. The charity raises money for mental health issues, maternal care for mothers and babies, a global fight of Malaria, domestic violence and much, much more. To raise money, they set up lots of activities to be active in for you to raise money, and it encourages you to take part or set up your own sport/activity to raise money for this.

When Sports Relief is on television, they have a different celebrity every hour. These celebrities do the job of hosting it for free and raising more money! The crew also help the show for free and the facilities are given by the BBC. In 2002 Sports Relief’s first song was ‘Your Song’, it was sang by Elton John and an Italian opera singer Alessandro Safina, reaching number four in the chart. Now we have many more songs raising money and awareness each year for this charity, including Greg James doing a very tiring event:

DJ Greg James is doing a ‘Gregathlon’ to raise money for the fantastic organisation, Sport Relief! As a part of this, he will pedal 500 miles and then he will climb three of the UK’s largest mountains…. In 5 days, he did it last year but not as far! It’s definitely going to be a challenge! He has already started this and his going to climb Ben Nevis! It just goes to show how willing people are to help others! We think that this is amazing and very impressive! So far, Greg has raised £739, 425 and it keeps rising!

By Rebecca, Katie and Alice (Year 8)