For the past few months, Chantry and Newminster have had the pleasure of hosting Ruth Hedley in their MFL departments.

“As a School Direct Languages Trainee, I spent my long placement teaching French (and a little German!) across both middle school​s​ in Y6-8.

Having spent my short placement in a High School, adapting to the pace of working with younger learners was one of the biggest challenges I faced. The initial experience of KS2 language delivery, and transition into the KS3 framework, was invaluable in terms of my appreciation of the challenges involved in striving for consistency across the key stages. Another beneficial aspect of this placement – and one new to me, despite having worked in schools for many years – was the experience of working within a Trust, and across two schools.

Of course, the highlights of my placement have been all about the students, and I remain impressed by the positive attitudes and ‘have a go’ approach to learning by so many pupils. Much of my training has focused on group work and encouraging the students to create a supportive atmosphere. I can confidently say that all of my classes demonstrated some really wonderful collaborative skills, producing thoughtful work and reflections. Très bien fait! It was also rewarding for me personally to use my knowledge of the Swedish language to deliver DLE sessions to very enthusiastic Year 7 students – many of whom surprised themselves with the accuracy of their pronunciation. There are, in fact, many similarities between Northumbrian/Geordie and Swedish! Keep it up! A big thank you to everyone involved for making my experience at Chantry and Newminster so rewarding. Hejdå!”

We wish Ruth the best of luck ​with the rest of her training and continued success as a​n​ NQT this September.

Au revoir et bonne chance.

The only local interschool competition that gives children who’ve always loved to read, a chance to display their knowledge and win prizes for it!

A record twenty-nine teams of students and two teams of staff from Tyne and Wear and Northumberland took part in this year’s Mini Lit Quiz, which is written and produced ‘in house.’

The Quiz is modelled on the Kids Lit Quiz (UK) with both individual and team prizes, but has five rounds instead of ten and its own unique style.  Each round of ten questions follows a particular literary theme but, unlike the KLQ, there is also a Pictionary round featuring picture clues and between-round elimination competitions for cash prizes.

Chantry B and Richard Coates A took an early lead after opting to play their Jokers in the first round, which featured beasts – mini and not-so mini.  However, Dr Thomlinson’s C got the highest score and probably regretted not playing their Joker to double it.

Most teams did very well in the next round, which was all about threes.  Chantry B maintained their early lead but Marden Bridge B snatched the highest scoring round by just half a point from Chantry A and B and Newminster D, who all tied on 9. If Chantry B had played their Joker on this round, it might have clinched the competition for them. Chantry A pushed Richard Coates A into third place.

The Pictionary round has always proved immensely popular and no fewer than nineteen of the thirty one teams competing played their Joker. Unsurprisingly, this really shook things up!  Five teams achieved perfect scores on this round but only Gosforth Central A and Newminster A correctly predicted their strengths and risked their Jokers in what would become a decisive move for one of them.

Newminster A and D shot from nowhere into the first two places, toppling Chantry A and, for the rest of the competition, the placings remained the same.

Round 4 on transport, featuring several titles published within the last year, proved to be surprisingly challenging but Chantry B remained unfazed and held on to their third place.  Newminster A and C tied for highest score, beating Newminster D by half a point.  Newminster C went on to win this round.

The final round on fictional detectives completely floored many teams and, sadly, proved the undoing of some steady performers. Chantry B, however, sailed through unchallenged, securing a very well deserved third place and a book of their choice for each team member.

Newminster A won the competition for the very first time and with the highest score ever achieved in this Quiz – 50 out of a possible 60 points – but nearly every school had at least one team in the top ten positions, which shows how closely matched they were.

HUGE congratulations to our Year 5 team, who would have finished in the top ten if they hadn’t come a cropper on the last round!  We’re expecting great things of you in the future!

Teams that win the top three paces aren’t eligible for a round prize, so the final results are as follows:

A very big ‘THANK YOU’ must go yet again to our caretaking, catering and lunchtime supervision teams, who worked so hard to get our hall ready in time for the afternoon’s competition; to our IT staff for their technical expertise and moral support and to student marshals, Lucy and Katie, who stood in the drizzle for half an hour to welcome our visitors and ensure that none of them got lost!  This really was a tremendous team effort!

Year 5 has just returned from an action packed three day adventure to Hawkhirst Scout Activity Centre. During their time at Hawkhirst they took part in bell boating, raft building, abseiling, crate stacking and bushcraft.

We apologise that we were unable to share these photographs earlier, owing to a lack of internet access at Hawkhirst.

On Monday 5th June KS2 pupils at Newminster and Chantry Middles Schools are to be treated to a performance by the Ned Corvan Shadow Troupe.

Ned Corvan was the first professional North East singer/songwriter and music hall star.

Here is a taster of the show:

Congratulations to Lana, Izzy, Lawrence, Harris, Josh, Joe, Robert, Safia, Abbie, Neve, Jac, Gina and Harry who took part in the Law Court Competition. They won the Local Heat against 13 other teams and went onto represent Northumberland, Newcastle and North Tyneside in the Regional Final on Saturday 13th May.

Competition on the day was extremely high and Queen Elizabeth from Cockermouth were the eventual winners. Good luck in the National Final in Nottingham!

All the students have been amazing throughout the whole process and should be very proud of their efforts. They were true ambassadors for Chantry, The Three Rivers Learning Trust and Morpeth.

A massive thank you to Mr Warner for his hard work and support, to Carolyn and Kate, our assigned magistrates who were on hand to give us advice and to all the parents who supported us at the competition – well done!

We’ve partnered with Go Raise – a brilliant and effortless way to raise money for our school.

Simply shop as usual with all your favourite retailers and, as a thank you, they will donate a percentage of the amount you spend to us at no extra cost to you!

So whenever you buy anything online – from the weekly grocery shop to renewing insurance or booking a holiday – you could help us raise £1000s in additional free funding this year.

Simply sign up to support us before you shop.

How it works:

• Sign up to support us at https://www.goraise.co.uk/chantry-middle-school
• Click through to shop with your favourite retailers – there are over 3,000 to choose from including M&S, John Lewis, Expedia, Boots, Sports Direct, Argos and more.
• When you make a purchase, a donation is generated and Go Raise will pass this on to us.