Earlier this term all of Year 8 were given the opportunity to work go ‘speed dating’ with some local businesses. The focus of this event was to interview a range of employers about the industry that they work in and the journey that they took to do the job that they do.
Pupils found this an invaluable experience as they were able to speak to a high number of business ambassadors in a very short amount of time.
More than 600 Morpeth school children improved their understanding of the night sky when the Kielder Observatory mobile planetarium visited Chantry in mid-November 2019. Children from Chantry and several feeder first schools took part.
Each child took part in an interactive session in the planetarium dome, where they could view fascinating constellations in dark sky conditions. They also learnt how technology has evolved to allow deeper exploration of the universe. Kielder Observatory astronomers delivered an interactive walk-through of the Solar System using planet models and used digital microscope imagery to explain the structure of meteorites.
The week-long planetarium visit was funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
On Wednesday 12th February, Chantry Middle School held their annual Careers Afternoon. This is an exciting opportunity for business ambassadors to visit the school and take the opportunity to educate the young people about the vast array of jobs that exist.
This year we had 15 visitors in the school with a range of business expertise and advice including M&S, Intelligence, Fire & Rescue, Banking, Lecturers, Engineering and Dance. All of which provided a wealth of knowledge to the pupils and shared their stories about how they have become involved in their line of work.
Pupils gained a lot out of the afternoon with feedback being really positive:
“It was great to find out about lots of jobs in a short amount of time.”
“The intelligence sounded cool – I would love to be MI5 one day”
“I never knew you could do management training schemes to work in big companies like M&S”
“I have always wanted to help people so if was great to listen to people from the fire service and learn about the equipment and vehicle”
This was echoed by the visitors who mentioned:
“I enjoyed the afternoon and the children were very well behaved and asked lots of good questions”
“Great day, great interaction from kids and they all showed amazing enthusiasm”
“Great kids – very enthusiastic. Would love to attend next year!
“Love the idea, really enjoyed being part of it and the kids had great questions”
Enterprise Day
Chantry took part in our annual Enterprise Day on Thursday 5th December facilitated by Carole Richards, Northumberland Education Business Partnership, part of Northumberland County Council.
The theme of the day was ‘Build a Business’ and with the help of over 30 local Business Ambassadors the pupils worked in small groups to plan, design and develop a business. The groups of pupils, who were all mixed, from Year 5 to Year 8 then had to present their business ideas to the rest of their class group for the chance to win the grand prize… a Terry’s Chocolate Orange!
The day was a huge success and all pupils were thoroughly engaged in the learning that was taking place. Cooperation, teamwork, resilience, creativity and achievement were all core skills that the pupils developed further throughout the day as they all worked collaboratively to ensure the end goal was met.
Pupils who took part in the event commented:
‘I really enjoyed the day and liked working with different types of people.’
‘It was good fun as we were learning but in a different way.’
‘I think my idea will sell for millions…will Alan Sugar be interested?’
For the full result of pupils feedback please click here
On Monday 30th September and Tuesday 1st October, Year 5 pupils had the opportunity to take part in a ‘ready for work’ skills workshop called Clowning Around, facilitated by Carole Richards, Northumberland Education Business Partnership, part of Northumberland County Council.
The objective of the morning to work in small teams to design, create and sell a Clown Mobile, the type above a babies cot. The event helped the pupils to understand various aspects of how businesses run and explore different job roles. Some of the other key skills developed were teamwork, communication and resilience.
On Thursday 23rd May, Key Stage 2 pupils will be meeting Robin Stevens, award-winning author of the Murder Most Unladylike series, and will be able to buy signed and personally dedicated copies of all her books, featured below.
Agatha Christie meets Malory Towers in these thrilling detective mysteries set between the two World Wars. Neatly plotted, they have plenty of twists and a particularly engaging narrator in Hazel. Linking the books is the development of the two central characters, Wells and Wong, which is as fascinating as the crimes they strive to solve.
Blackwells Bookshop will be selling all the books on the day for a discounted cash purchase price of £5.00. Please note that we cannot, therefore, accept cheques.
The event promises to be exciting and inspiring and we are very much looking forward to it!
Some students in year 8 visited EDF’s Nuclear Power Station in Hartlepool as a satellite event of British Science Week. Students found out more about how a gas cooled nuclear reactor works and saw how safety was the overriding priority on site. During the tour students got to see the reactor, boiler, turbines, condenser and transformer. They also found out about the 3 categories of nuclear waste and how the waste is processed.
Some year 5 students got the opportunity to take part in Campus Explorers. In this activity students got the chance to take part in a virtual tour of the campus of Newcastle University through an interactive map. Throughout their journey through the campus they got the chance to play fun, educational games and activities.
This activity contributes towards our
Careers Education Information and Guidance (CEIAG) programme and introduces the concept of Higher Education.
All year 6 students are taking part in Raising Aspirations workshops with the outreach team later this week.
On Wednesday the 1st & Thursday the 2nd of May students visited Northumberland College to find out more about the world of work and post 16 courses as part of our Careers Education, Information & Guidance (CEIAG) programme.
On Wednesday the students were at Kirkley Hall for a World of Work Conference. Students got the opportunity to take part in some of the workshops below:
On Thursday the students were at Northumberland College take part in taster sessions in a range of departments. The departments running the taster sessions were:
On Friday, 15th March, the whole school took part in our annual British Science Day that including all elements of STEM. Each year group had their own experiences either in or out of school but on speaking to pupils they all agreed how they valued their experience and took many positives from their day.
Year 5
Year 5 spent an amazing day for NSEW week at the Centre for Life. During the day, the pupils took part in either a Fantastic Fossils or Science of Sound workshop.
“I loved the Sound workshops because it was fun and interesting. I found out how to make a musical instrument out of a straw and that sound can travel through solids”, said Ruby from 5I. During the Science Theatre Show, volunteers were invited to the stage to participate in kitchen experiments and encouraged to try some out at home. A number of activities also explained amazing facts about the wonders of space and some students even decided to get hands on with the moon. The Brain and Curiosity Zones gave the pupils a great opportunity to experiment with science.
“I thought it was an interesting day and I learned a lot from it such as what the moon looks like and how big it actually is. My favourite part was the Planetarium because you got to understand about the movement of the moon and how all the planets revolve around each other,” said Olivia from 5B
Year 6
The whole cohort stayed in school and took part in wide variety of activities. In total, the year group took part in 5 activities including:
The pupils commented on how they loved the interesting and innovative ideas that Technology Tom discussed and they particular liked the last activity in which some pupils were chosen to be electrocuted by Mr Shaw! The teachers in the room were amazed with how much the pupils knew but most impressive was how they could relate the science to experiences they have had.
The other big hitter in Year 6 was the Dove Marine Lab from Newcastle University. They brought with them a variety of sea life creatures including starfish, crabs and lobsters. Pupils were fascinated to find out about the animals and many pupils have never had the chance to handle such animals previously so it was a great new experience. It was amazing to see so many smiling, inquisitive faces around the room eager to learn.
A special thank you to Miss Larsen, Ms Kerr, Mrs Brown and Mrs Elliott for also running workshops on the day – they all played a key part in making the day a huge success and the pupils are proudly showing off their ‘Creative Bags’ made with Mrs Elliott in Technology.
Overall it was a fantastic day and the pupils were amazing!
Emily said “I really enjoyed the construction workshop as we had to work hard as a team to be successful.”
Poppy said “I really liked the marine session as you learnt loads of interesting things about the animals and I liked the construction task because it made you think and use knowledge.”
Year 7
Year 7 visited Newcastle University to take part in a campus tour and CSI investigation. During the campus tour, students were able to visit many buildings on the campus including the Medical School and their close links with the RVI hospital, Old Library, King’s Gate and the Northern Stage. They also visited the Student’s Union and found out about the extra clubs and societies offered at University and were able to ask student ambassadors questions about studying at Newcastle University.
The CSI investigation involved three workshops where the children had to identify who, out of 12 suspects, had stolen the Martin Luther King Statue which is located within the university’s campus. The children extracted DNA from a strawberry and compared it’s amino acids to that of some of the suspects. They then compared the moisture and PH of soil samples to identify where the crime took place. Following this the students looked at a range of artefacts which linked famous crimes such as the great train robbery. From here they found it more information about the criminal such as their gender and height.
Jack said “I found the deciphering the DNA task very interesting because I got to combine English and maths in a very interesting puzzle. Although the time was short, I had lots of fun!”
Maisy said “I liked the first activity, which was history and social science, because you used props and tried to link them to the case. It creates ideas in your head about how and why the props were related to the crime.”
Eva C said “I really enjoyed going to Newcastle University because the whole day was dedicated to one investigation. The campus tour was interesting but I would have liked to look into more buildings. The cryptography was very fun, especially when we created our own coded message! The whole trip was really fun and I would love to go again.”
Year 8
Year 8’s British Science Day activities were supported by sixth form students from KEVI and STEM Ambassadors from Virgin Money. The KEVI sixth formers led a series of practical investigation tasks designed to find out who stole a rugby trophy from the school trophy cabinet. This involved conducting a series of tests on pieces of evidence left at the crime scene, including paint scrapings and foot prints. The Virgin Money STEM Ambassadors delivered a session about coding and cyber security, which have particular relevance in the financial sector. Year 8 students also took part in a special maths problem solving session and workshop about healthy lifestyles.
