Newminster Middle School

Congratulations to Cameron and Ayhan, students of Newminster and Chantry Middle School’s on their recent achievement of winning first place in a competition designed to help ‘Save the Environment’.

Both Cameron and Ayhan are members of Morpeth 6^th Scouts and won the competition, arranged by the Scouts as part of their Scout Camp in March, by designing a picture using articles they found during a beach clean-up in Seahouses.  As both boys are avid animal enthusiasts and keen to reduce ocean plastic pollution, their design was that of a turtle, showing their commitment to saving the environment and reducing harm to animals in the process.  We’re sure both Cameron and Ayhan will thoroughly enjoy their prize, a free scuba dive with 5drive Centre. Well done boys!!

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It was NETBA’s twentieth birthday on March 11th and we had a splendid anniversary celebration at the Centre for Life.

Two senior students from Thorp Academy presented their recollections of past NETBAs, and Seven Stories provided an excellent array of titles from which our students could select prizes – recompense for all their hard work over the past four months.

Book Club was invited to present two of the shortlisted authors, Martin Griffin and Sally Nicholls, and we were proud to see a very large proportion of our own work on the six enormous posters displayed around the walls, one poster for each book. Authors take these home as souvenirs of the awards ceremony and we hope they’ll find our comments uplifting when they’re struggling with a particularly tricky bit of plot!

Martin Griffin made us laugh with a story from his student days involving a chainsaw, a Polaroid camera and a very attractive policewoman – a recount that didn’t make it into his book – while Lauren James astounded us with spreadsheets of calculations, which she revealed in answer to a question from the audience.  Evidently, her novel – a romantic, sci-fi thriller – was inspired by a calculation she was assigned as part of her physics degree! Relax – the story has nothing to do with maths and is really very readable!  Sally Nicholls talked at length about the history of women’s suffrage in Britain and left us with a fascinating fact. The habit of calling female teachers ‘Miss’ derives, apparently, from a law that prevented women from continuing to teach once they married!

There were raffle prizes to be won and prizes taped under seats; party food and tempting bargains at the book stall.  All in all, it was an evening for book lovers to indulge and a fitting way to celebrate a twentieth birthday!

Library Matters – Libraries Matter

Do you have a high ZPD for your age?

Are you an enthusiastic and mature reader?

Do you enjoy talking about what you are reading?

Are you interested in meeting authors and getting your books autographed?

If so, would you like to help select this year’s winner of The North East Book Award?

We have about ten weeks to read and discuss all the shortlisted books before voting!  There are six books this year instead of the usual five because two of them are are short.  Obviously, there’s more to say – and disagree about – as the weeks progress and more people have read more of the books!  As we read, we post reviews and comments on the NEBA website, which is closely monitored by the shortlisted authors. Extracts are used for giant promotional posters that the authors like to take home as souvenirs.

When all participating schools have voted, we attend an evening prize giving at The Centre for Life.  We talk to the authors, get our books signed and generally have a good time. The ceremony will be held at the end of June.

Visit the NEBA website for more information – http://northeastbookaward.wordpress.com/

If you think you’d like to give this a go – and don’t forget that you need to write a bit about the books as well as reading them – find out more from Mrs Inverarity by Friday, April 5th.

Meetings are as follows:

Tuesdays after school until 4:30pm in Newminster library – this group includes KEVI members and is limited to 15 students.

Thursday lunchtimes in Chantry library at 12:30pm                                              

The books involved are:

The closest thing to flying    – Gill Lewis

A darkness of dragons  – S. A. Patrick

Girl in the window          – Penny Joelson

Boy 87                             – Ele Fountain

She wolf                          – Dan Smith

Seaglass                          – Eloise Williams    

and we’re looking forward to seeing you!

Mrs Inverarity   

Library Matters – Libraries Matter

Thanks to your support and generosity, our annual Book Fair took £2,031.

This has raised £1,219 in commission, which will be spent on books to support English lessons and book prizes for a variety of literary challenges.

Once again, a big “THANK YOU”!

Everyone is involved in making our Fairs a success: our customers (of course!) but also our student Fair Makers.

A BIG BIG “THANK YOU” to Chloe C and Tallula P in Y7 who gave up lots of lunchtimes to staple together more than 500 letters and Fair fliers publicising our Fair

and to Eva MacD  and Chloe S in Y6, who provided lots of support every break time during Fair Week and helped to set up the Fair, distribute orders and tidy up on the last day.

There was a great deal to do and we simply couldn’t have done it without you!

Celebrating World Book Day

We collected £300 to support the work of Book Aid International in getting books to children in parts of the world that have none. Thank you to all those who supported this worthwhile charity which makes it possible for children in desperate need to learn to read, the first step towards helping themselves out of poverty.

The number of students spending the day in character this World Book Day was astonishing and a real pleasure to witness!  The costumes were tremendous, making the job of judging extremely difficult. Just take a look at the prize-winners!

Thank you to everyone who dressed up, whether or not you made your own costume.  Your efforts contributed to making World Book Day special – and that’s what it’s all about!

Enormous thanks to Eva Mac in 6P and Chloe S in 6B for patiently naming more than 500 World Book Day tokens so everyone could be sure of getting one in time for our Book Fair.  You really are heroines!

Year 6 students and their staff are currently working hard to ensure that they are well prepared for the end of KS2 tests.  The KS2 tests will take place in the week beginning 13th May 2019. The tests will take place as follows:

Monday 13h May: Spelling, punctuation and grammar test

Tuesday 14th May: Reading test

Wednesday 15th May: Maths arithmetic test and maths reasoning test 1

Thursday 16th May: Maths reasoning test 2

Over the year we have worked in class using the following websites which can be accessed from home. In the coming weeks we will be using them to reinforce learning and it would help all children greatly to do some work using the following resources at home.

https://sites.google.com/a/nms.cheviotlt.co.uk/english/year-6

https://sites.google.com/a/nms.cheviotlt.co.uk/maths/year-6

The above links take you to our school pages where you will find links, papers and video clips explaining concepts and ideas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/ – English and maths

English:

https://www.spag.com/ – totally free site to which all children have a username and login – they can choose what they need to practise

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/

https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/interactive

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/7-11-years/spelling-and-grammar

http://www.educationquizzes.com/ks2/english/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/search.aspx?q=spelling

http://spellingframe.co.uk/ – a fantastic free site we have been using in school that really helps improve spelling.

Maths:

https://sites.google.com/a/nms.cheviotlt.co.uk/maths/

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/maths/

http://www.transum.org/software/tablesmaster/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GHAHfdyq6QjQPUfoDOqd6oMfVJRUbgeH/view

This link is particularly useful and can be accessed here or from the year 6 maths page.  It has work that has been broken up into the different topics with links to youtube – if you or your child are unsure of how to complete a task you can have it explained.

Past Papers

These can be accessed via the internet for free.

We will also be using past papers in class and they will bring them home, building up a bank of resources that they can use at any time.

Short, sharp and sustained revision at home will help to reinforce learning taking place in school.  We will use time in lessons to do this ourselves but are also using afternoon registration time and focused intervention sessions to assist any child who needs a little more help.  There are also three after school maths booster sessions taking place (Monday,Tuesday and Thursday) which children are welcome to attend if they wish to.

How much time should I spend on revision?

Research has shown that short, sustained sessions are the most effective.  

Children should spend about 20 minutes doing revision / practice and then take a break.  It is also more effective if when revising you are active – answering questions or talking about what you are doing.  Making mind maps/concept maps to see the links between topics. Completing past papers and using the mark scheme to correct mistakes or clear up misconceptions are the best way forward.

If you, or your child, are unsure of any aspect in maths for example, you can use the video links on the maths page on the school website to be talked through how to do tasks (the school homepage, maths folder has video links with explanations.)

Any support at home would be most welcome and we hope that the resources listed will be of help with this.  

If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact either Mrs Perkins, Mrs Richardson or Mrs Sampson at school, we are only too happy to offer any assistance or advice.

Mrs Perkins (DLT Year 6)

Mrs Sampson (CL English)

Mrs Richardson (CL Mathematics)

Open Day, Morpeth Castle, Saturday 27th to Sunday 28th April 2019 – 10.00 am – 4.00 pm.

Morpeth Gathering 26th – 28th April 2019.

Please click here for further information.

Chantry and Newminster ensembles are performing in a Musical Ensemble Evening on Tuesday 2^nd April at 6.00 pm in Chantry School Hall to showcase the wonderful musicians we have here in Morpeth.

There will be performances from the joint middle schools Jazz Band, Ceilidh Band, Steel Pan Bands, Percussion, Guitar, Pipe and Vocal Ensembles.

Tickets for this event can be purchased at the door on the night and will be priced at £3.00 for children and £4.00 for adults.

Refreshments will be on sale during the interval.

Students performing in this concert will need to be at Chantry Middle School on Tuesday 2^nd April 5.30 pm, wearing full school uniform and in time to tune their instruments.

Please note ALL steel pans, ceilidh band, jazz band, percussion ensemble, guitarists, vocalists, brass players, pipers and drummers are involved in this event