I hope that you enjoyed the bank holiday weekend – it was so lovely having an extra lie in. The wonderful news of the new Princess of Cambridge being born brought some cheer to the country. Remember that Mrs Wilson’s baby is due at the end of the month and we will let you know as soon as we know!

In the next three weeks all the children will be taking part in their end of year SATs tests, which measures the progress they have made since September, in all areas of the curriculum.

In particular Year 6 will sit the national tests in reading, SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) and Mathematics during the week of 11th May (please see newsletter for dates and times of the actual tests). The children have worked really hard in preparation for these and I hope that they will show the external examiners how good they are at these areas of the curriculum – they deserve to do well! The staff would also like to thank all our parents for their support. We would urge all children to be in bed early during the week so they get the amount of rest they need to do their best. Children are reminded of the need to read the questions carefully and to check their work thoroughly – have they used the correct units in Maths or the correct punctuation in English? Mrs Hoyle and her team will serve toast and juice to all Year 6 students from Monday to Thursday, from 8.20am. Children may bring a good luck charm into school if they wish, which they can have at the end of their table. At the end of the tests the children’s papers go to a central location and are scanned into a computer before they are sent to an individual examiner to be marked. Results will be known on Tuesday 7^th July and we will send these out as soon as possible after this date.

Until a few years ago, children also sat a writing paper which was sent away to be marked. A couple of years ago, the Government changed this and writing is now assessed in school by your child’s teacher. We have just been informed that Chantry Middle will be moderated by Northumberland County Council. This will happen in the first week of June and three moderators will come into school to see if they agree with our teacher assessments for writing across the curriculum.

I do hope that you took the time to read our May newsletter which was published on Friday, celebrating the achievements of the previous month and informing you of important dates and events for the remainder of the school year.

With best wishes for the coming week

Steven Johnson