On Friday 14th July, 44 pupils’ creative work from across Chantry and Newminster was moderated and all successfully passed.

Jane Grey, the Arts Award Assessor, commented, “A beautifully presented set of very creative portfolios, showcasing the range of creative arts the young people have done. They had clearly gained a great deal through doing the award.”

Eve Haines said ‘ I loved the personal challenge as you could choose what you wanted to create’.

All pupils said they loved seeing their photography work exhibited at the Laing and enjoyed working together to create the Rocky Monster Show backdrop.

We are asking all students at Newminster and Chantry Middle Schools if they would like to design a logo for the CMS and NMS Steel Pan Band. This logo will be used on various banners and pieces of clothing for the steel pan band next year.

Designs need to be on A4 paper and handed to Mrs Wilson, Ms Jones or Mrs Woolley by Friday 8th September 2017, clearly named along with detailing the student’s school and class.

There will be prizes for the best designs and the winning design will be used as the band logo.

Good luck everyone!

Thank you to all students who helped raise £572.45 from a non school uniform day earlier in the term.

One of our students, Kirsten, was involved in a fire on the Simonside Hills last Easter and was treated at the Burns Unit in the RVI at Newcastle.

As a thank you she planned our non school uniform day and was delighted when Alison and Fiona came into school to receive the cheque.

A special thank you to Mr Stoker’s group who donated some of their profits from their Make £5 Grow project.

For more information about the Grafter’s Club please visit www.thegraftersclub.org.uk

Samuel Tate (Y7) and Joe Yates (Y8) took part in the Great North Swim Saturday 10th June in the
wind and the rain at Lake Windermere.

Both boys  train regularly with Morpeth Swimming Club but did well to complete the 1/2 mile open water course in choppy conditions.

They’d practiced in local lakes and Joe completed the swim in 2016. It was Sam’s first time.

Their hard work paid off when Joe took nearly three minutes off last years’ time to finish in 16min 12sec (13th in under 20 age-group) and Sam was pleased with his 12mins 24sec swim putting him 3rd in the under 20yr age-group.

Both boys were relieved to beat their Mums who also swam…

Almost six months of hard (but pleasurable) work came to an end on June 19^th when nineteen Chantry and Newminster students and their parents gathered at the Centre for Life  to meet the authors whose work they had come to regard almost as ‘old friends.’

A small group of us has been reading and discussing possible contenders for North East Book Award 2017 since Christmas and gradually whittling down a long list to five strong candidates. In March, younger students – many still in Y5 – came on board, eager to read and review the shortlist and vote for their favourites.

This year, we were privileged to be asked to present two of the five authors and – by far the youngest participants – our Year 5s rose to the challenge. Ellen (Y7), Talullah, Lilly and Rachel (Y5) introduced debut author Lucy Strange, who was so overwhelmed she was moved to tears.

Not to be outdone, Simone (Y6,) Izzy, Finlay and Chloe (Y5) overcame the inconvenience of being unable to see over the lectern by sharing a script and rotating rapidly around it, managing not to collide and receiving an enormous ovation from the audience for their completely unrehearsed choreography!

Debut author, Peter Buzl is a TV animator by day and he animated the front covers of his steampunk series for our entertainment.

He also decided that demonstrating deportment was better than explaining it – spot our Chantry volunteers!

You never know quite what to expect at a NEBA ceremony!

As usual, a lot of our comments are selected for the posters:Most of us thought that Lucy Strange, debut author of The Secret of Nightingale Wood, should have won NEBA 2017 and we were delighted to meet her.

As usual, a lot of our comments are selected for the posters:

Most of us thought that Lucy Strange, debut author of The Secret of Nightingale Wood, should have won NEBA 2017 and we were delighted to meet her.

In light of the recent Grenfell Tower incident the Learning Trust has carried out a review of both fire safety in its broadest terms as well as narrower concerns on cladding and tower block evacuations.

All of the Learning Trust school buildings have a fire risk assessment in place and all have been reviewed within the last six months, including a discussion with a fire officer. Regular checks of fire safety equipment are undertaken and fire evacuation procedures are practiced termly. Any recommended actions from these systems have been minor improvements and have been implemented quickly.

In April 2017 the Education funding Agency approved an application for capital funding for Newminster Middle School and Chantry Middle School to update elements of fire safety equipment; upgrading alarms, detection and fire doors to the latest building standards. This work will be completed by 31/08/17. The fire risk assessments carried out for this purpose indicated a good level of fire safety existed and that a timely upgrade of equipment would continue to ensure these standards were maintained.

The fire escape procedures for our tower blocks are approved by the fire officer and regularly tested. The blocks are all evacuated in a few minutes.

The cladding on each building has been reviewed and it meets the highest class of fire safety rating. In addition no tower block is higher than four storeys or 18 metres and they are not residential which fire regulations class as a much lower risk situation than Grenfell Tower.

This review has been supported by fire safety professionals, building specialists and the Local Authority Health and Safety Team. The results have been provided to the Department for Education who are satisfied that each school has a low fire risk.

Year 7’s Rebecca Watson took a trip to Cambridge last week to compete in the National Final of the French Spelling Bee in Cambridge.  She spelled accurately and confidently and could not have done any better. We are very proud of her accomplishments both on the day and throughout the whole tournament. She has put in a tremendous amount of effort and shown immense dedication over the last six months. To have been one of the last 40 pupils out of 20 000 across Great Britain is an astounding achievement. Rebecca was accompanied to Cambridge by Alice Hepton who supported her all the way and helped her with some practise sessions.

Rebecca : “I found my adventure to Cambridge both exciting and inspiring.  I was incredibly nervous for the competition as it was the grand final and there were people from all over the country there.  I am happy with how I did and although the final stages were daunting,  the experience was very worthwhile – I look forward to helping mentor next year’s competitors.  We also got a chance to look around Cambridge and visit the Fitzwilliam museum which had a variety of artefacts from many centuries.  It was really impressive.”

Alice : “I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to join Rebecca in Cambridge.  I thought she was absolutely amazing with her spellings.  It was the first time I had visited Cambridge and found being on the university campuses really inspiring, particularly the King’s College site.  It has actually inspired me to go there to do my degree.”

Morpeth Town Football Club are holiding a recruitment day on Saturday 8th July.