Back in September, we celebrated  European Day of Languages. You may remember that our Y6 pupils entered a national competition run by Association for Language Learning,  The theme was ‘A Magical Trip’ and pupils had to produce a short piece of writing using a language other than English. Leon in 6I was one of the students in the region that ALL wanted to acknowledge.  His entry was based on a trip to Europe and all the things he wanted to do there. Bravo Leon!  We hope your travel plans will turn into reality for you in the future.

Congratulations to Aimeeleigh, Lila and Lara in Year 7 who are our winners of the MFL Spelling Bee Round Two.  These pupils successfully spelt the most Spanish words – using the Spanish alphabet – from a list of 100 in one minute.  The regional heat is postponed for the time being, but the girls are already working hard on their next list of words and we are hopeful that they will be able to compete against other schools in the near future.  ¡Fenomenal chicas!

Following the announcement from the Prime Minister on Monday 16th March, we have decided that the MFL trip to the Cinema has been postponed to a later date.

A Magnificent Day at the Magistrates Mock Trial Competition 

On Saturday 14th March, our Magistrates Mock Trial team competed at Newcastle’s Crown Court on the Quayside. It was an excellent opportunity for our students to experience what a real life case would have been like in the courtroom. Our team did exceptionally well and feedback from an actual magistrate complimented them on how confident and articulate our Chantry were in presenting their ideas. We’re very proud of all of our students that were involved and think that they are remarkably brave for standing up and presenting themselves in a room full of people whilst under pressure- well done!

A Whole Lotta Fun at ‘Holes’!

On Thursday 27th February, 50 Year 6 students visited Newcastle’s Theatre Royal to watch a performance of Louis Sachar’s novel, ‘Holes.’ ‘Holes’ is currently one of our Year 6 class readers that students might read during reading time in registration so it was a fantastic opportunity to see this novel being brought to life on stage. We had fantastic seats at the front of the Grand Circle and the performance was both entertaining and memorable. On our journey home, the bus company had sent us their ‘Party Bus’ so our students very much enjoyed finishing the trip with a good sing-along as they travelled back up the A1 to Morpeth.

A WWII Themed World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day this year, we had a whole school drop-down day with lessons based around Michelle Magorian’s best-selling novel, ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’. Staff and students had the option to dress up in WWII themed fancy dress which really helped bring the novel to life (see photos). The day started with students being organised into classes of mixed year groups; they then had an introduction to what the novel was about.

Over the course of the day, students read extracts from the novel and gained a solid understanding of the characters and plot. They did activities linked to the text and showed empathy by putting themselves into the shoes of Willie Beech, the novel’s protagonist. Students also spent the day developing their knowledge about what life would have been like for an evacuee during WWII.

In addition to this, we had a ‘decorate an egg or potato as your favourite book character’ competition; as you can see from the photos, we had lots of amazing entries.

Newminster and Chantry appear in a film for @Artsmarkaward

Please click here to watch the film.

Did you know that the majority of schools in France are named after French people of cultural and historical importance?   Pupils in 7T have been looking at some of their biographies to find out why they have been chosen to be commemorated in this way.

“Our heroine is Marie Curie.  She worked tirelessly with her husband to discover radium which is now used in the treatment of cancer patients.  Her research caused her own death but her legacy lives on. She was also the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize.”  Lizzie

“I enjoy reading so I chose Victor Hugo as my hero as he wrote some inspiring books such as Les Misérables and Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”  Emily

“Coco Chanel is my heroine as she started her business from nothing and it grew into one of the world’s most well-known fashion brands.  Impressive!” Ella

“I love music and we listened to some compositions by Claude Debussy which I have heard in a lot of films.  It is great to know music lives on long after the composer is gone.” Keira

“I hadn’t heard of Edith Piaf before but her story is one of courage and resilience which is why she is still one of the most loved singers in France.”  Amy

“Arnaud Beltrame was a police officer who exchanged himself for a member of the public during a hostage situation.  He was unfortunately killed but is being honoured by having a school named after him in Lyon next year. I find it really inspiring that he was willing to risk his own life for the safety of someone he had never met.”  Lara and Mykaela