At this event students got the chance to talk to a variety of people from a wide range of workplaces and find out more about their careers. In their work booklets, students recorded information about:

• Career paths from school
• Qualifications & skills
• Clothing for the job
• Usual working hours
• Typical customers and expectations
• The best part of their job and the part that they enjoy the least

Organisations represented were:

Northumberland College
Northumberland Learning & Skills Service
Barclays
HMRC
Northumberland Wills
Charles Tyne Recruitment
Legal Aid Agency

7S and 7H took part in an enterprise workshop on Friday morning. Students had the opportunity to work with Carole Richards, Business Ambassador for Northumberland County Council. The students also worked with two other Business Ambassadors that volunteered to take part in the session. Debra Phillips from Galliford Try has supported enterprise sessions at Chantry before and hopes to work with us to give some students the opportunity to visit the construction site where Galliford Try are currently building new homes in Morpeth. Thanks also to Tony Kirsop who manages Social Enterprise Northumberland.

Students found out about the skills and attributes of a variety of roles within a company and calculated the profit for their group using their own records of expenditure and revenue of their own company. The students quickly realised the need for quality control in terms of their production and developed their negotiating skills when buying and selling stock.
Well done to “Bombay Ducks” that were the overall winners. Members of the winning team were:

• Grace Fyall (7H)
• Billy Rowe (7S)
• Scarlett Robertson (7S)
• Lewis Halliday (7S)
• David Lowes (7S)
• Emma Sykes (7S)

Well done to all 40 year 7 & 8 girls that took part in the ‘Girls Go Digital’ event at the Sage Gateshead on Thursday 28 January.

All girls got the chance to work with industry experts and got hands on experience with a diverse range of digital technologies. It was a great opportunity to develop their skills and be inspired by ground-breaking women from this exciting sector.

Interactive sessions covered; Hakitzu Hackathon, Crypt-Analysis & Working in STEM panel.

All girls got a goody bag at the end of the event. Many of our girls won spot prizes during the day. Well done to Grace Coffee & Miriam Cummins who both won tablet PC’s for the silver prize in the Hakitzu Hackathon, Code Warrior Challenge! Breeanne Moody & Megan Bell also won iPod Shuffles for scoring the most points in the Crypt-Analysis workshop.

5B & 5C have been taking part in an enterprise activity led by Business Ambassador, Carole Richards. Two Business Ambassadors supported the session, one was from Heather from Talking Point Events and the other was Mark from Charles Tyne Recruitment.

Students worked in teams of 6 to design and manufacture products and agreed their roles within each company group. Students experienced being a Sales Executive, General Manager, Buyer, Production Worker, Accountant or Quality Controller.

All students developed their leadership, decision-making, negotiating, teamwork and listening skills during the session as well as learning about the world of work and employability.

Well done to the winning team from 5C: Naomi McDougall, Will Smith, Max Kirby, Poppy Hewson Sienna Howard & Reeve Laviers.

5I and 5G will take part in Clowning around next Friday.

As a class DLE project, 8W have had a busy term taking part in Virgin Bank’s make £5 grow scheme. This scheme gives pupils the opportunity to build their mathematics, literacy, research, team-building and financial skills, whilst giving them a taste of what it is like to be an entrepreneur.

Each pupil was loaned £5 by the bank, which they then had to invest in a business idea so that the £5 would grow and make a profit. The pupils worked in groups to research a business idea and then to complete a business plan which they had to present to the rest of the class and to Mr Johnson.  Business logos and adverts were designed, market research was carried out, business letters were written and sourcing of value for money resources was carried out. It was a busy time with all hands on deck to make six businesses succeed within the term!

We had ‘Winter Warmers’ selling hot chocolate to pupils on cold break times, ‘Chantry Car Wash’ taking over the carpark at the back of school to wash cars, ‘Cream Base’ Making and selling bath bombs, ’Christmas Crafters’ decorating and selling Christmas baubles, ‘BBR Popcorn’ selling bags of homemade popcorn and  ‘Pop-Diggerty-Dog’ selling popcorn and hot dogs at the end of the school day.

The day we counted up the profits was certainly exciting and we were delighted that every group was able to pay back the bank loan they had been given and be left with a healthy profit.

We plan to spend some of the profits made on well-deserved last day of term treats and then to take  a class vote on what we would like to spend the rest on; wet break time resources has been one of the great suggestions made so far.

A huge well done to George and Ella who represented our school at the Local Final of this year’s Future Chef competition at Gateshead college yesterday.

The professional chef judges were extremely impressed with both Ella and George’s efforts and said they both worked extremely well under pressure to create their amazing meals.

George made salmon teriyaki with jasmine rice cubes and an Asian salad followed by raspberry and mascapone mille feuille.

Ella made chicken supreme with goose fat roasted winter roots followed by apple, cranberry and cinnamon syllabub macadamia nut crumble.

Ella and George competed against pupils from 4 other schools and we are delighted to announce that Ella won!  Ella will go on to represent Northumberland and Newcastle at the Regional Final in February! Good Luck Ella!

Medics from Newcastle University Medical School recently visited Chantry to deliver a Discovering Medicine Outreach session to Year 8 students.

The medical students ran activities relating to body organs, the effect of exercise on the body, the recovery position and stethoscope use. The session tied in nicely with Year 8’s current Science topic on respiration. Our thanks go to the medical students for giving up their time to come and visit.

6W & 6S took part in a Tetrahedron workshop led by Business Ambassador for Northumberland County Council, Carole Richards. Two Business Ambassadors supported the workshop. Mrs Cuthbertson represented Proctor & Gamble and Miss Turner represented Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust. We are really pleased that Mrs Cuthbertson has been able to support the school on many occasions. It was the first time Miss Turner has supported Chantry and she was very complimentary about our students.

 “It’s such a pleasure to come to Chantry as everyone always wants to do so well”.  

The workshop is part of our Carers Education, Information and Guidance (CEIAG) and Enterprise programme of study. The experience aims to develop the students understanding of the world of work and develop their teamwork, organisation and entrepreneurial skills.

Congratulations to 6S for winning the competition after creating and testing an impressive structure.