We are delighted to be able to tell you that Chantry and Newminster Middle Schools have been 2 of the 4 schools in Northumberland to be awarded the prestigious Platinum Arts Mark, accredited by Arts Council England. A huge thank you to Ms Jones and all the staff who have worked so hard to provide the opportunities for our students. It goes without saying that the engagement, enthusiasm and commitment of the students is what allows all of the Creative Arts events to be such a success and continue to go from strength to strength.

​This what Artsmark said about Chantry:

Your school’s Artsmark Case Study presents evidence of a pre-existing strong arts offer, with excellent practice around curriculum planning and a good circulation of skills and knowledge among staff with regard to arts pedagogies. The panel recognised how your school has used your Artsmark journey to strengthen your collaboration with other schools, the degree of focus on understanding impact and effect, and the willingness to share and debate that knowledge with a range of local schools.

Future development might focus on developing your CPD offer more widely, sharing and disseminating best practice further afield and using pupils as ambassadors for CPD. The panel look forward to seeing how you continue to develop your leadership role and advocacy for arts and culture with other schools.

As a Platinum Artsmark school Arts Council England celebrates your commitment to arts and cultural education at a governing body level, the opportunities established across your provision and the leadership you are demonstrating in this area. Your children and young people are offered equal opportunity to influence, lead, experience and evaluate a diverse range of high-quality arts and cultural activities across a broad range of media and you are able to contribute to development opportunities in these areas for both your own staff and others. You have strong partnerships with arts and cultural organisations and can evidence the positive impact of this collaboration. Your children and young people have an opportunity to continually develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of arts and culture and you are working to further develop the leadership role you have established.

We were invited by Northumberland County Council to participate in Local Democracy Week (9 – 15 October) this year. The children took part in one of two workshops which involved making posters, banners and leaflets either about a campaign they are passionate about or about Emily Davidson and her work as a suffragette. Posters included: the number of houses being built in Morpeth, litter, parking, Morpeth’s skatepark, Brexit and more.

The day also included a panel of county and town councillors which pupils were able to fire questions at.

Some quesions included:

• What is the difference between a town councillor, county councillor and MP?
• What interested you in the first instance to become a councillor?
  
• Could you give us any helpful tips and advice on how we can run our student parliament successfully?
  
• What is the hardest decision within your job you’ve ever had to make?
  
• What are the future plans for empty local shops and why are so many businesses struggling in the area?
  
• What is your best memory or proudest moment as a councillor?
  

Lee, Cameron, Alfie and Lewis handed over a hand written letter to County Councillor D. Bawn about their concerns with Morpeth’s skatepark. He said he would take this to the next town council meeting. Well done boys! 

At the end of the session, our School Parliament representatives received a certificate to recognise the school’s participation in Local Democracy Week. *see photo in folder*

This is our 7th year of running the Arts Awards at Newminster and Chantry Middle Schools.

Some pupils in Year 8 are taking part in the Bronze Award which encourages you to try new things and reflect upon your progress in creativity, communication, leadership and an arts form development. It is a nationally recognised award and you will achieve a Level 1 National Certificate on completion.

Doing your Bronze Award means you will:

• Take part in an arts activity (working with an artist, designing a backdrop, developing a personal challenge) .
• Go to an Arts event.
• Find an Arts inspiration, research their story and discover how they got to where they are today.
• Share your skills by helping to run a workshop or by giving a demonstration to others.

Pupils taking the art Bronze Arts Awards will be involved in a project called ARTiculate with the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle.

The Explore Arts Award is being run for students in Year 6 and is also a nationally recognised award and you will achieve an Entry Level 3 qualification on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) certificate on completion. As their main project they are embarking on a project to create wall art for the steel pan room.

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’.

‘.