Newminster Bake Off

11th July 2019Sarah Hall

Many congratulations to all of the students who participated in the recent Newminster Bake Off.  As always the quality of the cakes produced were to an exceptional standard, well done to everyone who took part.

Key Stage 2 Results

10th July 2019Sarah Hall

We are delighted to be able to share with you our KS2 results for 2019. The students and staff have worked incredibly hard to achieve some fantastic results. 95% of our students reached the expected standard for maths; 88% in writing and in SPaG and 85% in reading. These are some of our best results ever and we are incredibly proud of our students. Well done to everyone involved!

Three Rivers at the North East Book Awards 2019

27th June 2019Sarah Hall

Four months of hard (but pleasurable) work came to an end on June 10th when thirty-nine Chantry and Newminster students and fifteen 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 started reading and discussing possible contenders for the North East Book Award 2019 at Christmas, but the process was tricky as the books we liked best were less challenging than usual.  For this reason, and because some of them were also quite short, we settled on six strong candidates instead of the usual five. In April, younger students came on board, eager to read and review the shortlist:

 Boy 87        Girl in the Window The Closest Thing to Flying       A Darkness of Dragons   She Wolf Seaglass

vote for their favourites and meet the authors.

This year, we were privileged to be asked to present two of the four authors who were able to attend and our Year 6 students did us proud!

We warmed immediately to debut author, Ele Fountain. She is an articulate and engaging speaker who moved with her young family to Addis Ababa at the height of the refugee crisis.  She felt a moral obligation to expose the impossible choices refugees have to face by helping readers see the situation through their eyes. To find out why we thought her book was so good, read our reviews on http://www.nebookawards.org.uk/        Use the links to navigate to the shortlist. 

Year 6 students: Eleanor and Lucy of Chantry and Maisie and Eva of Newminster were thrilled to be asked to present her and she was quite overwhelmed by what they had to say about her book.

We first met author, Gill Lewis three years ago when she donned a gorilla suit to promote her book and shared the stage with a bemused Ross Welford and a hyper active teacher. This time, she’d brought some flamboyant headgear – a tropical rainforest in a hat – and our students were very keen to try it on!  To understand the connections between a hat and modern slavery; global extinctions and the origins of the RSPB, you’ll just have to read the book. It covers a lot of ground!

Well done to Gill’s presenters, Year 6 students Amelia and Lily of Chantry and Lauren and Chloe of Newminster.  Gill was obviously thrilled by what you had to say – and you said it beautifully!

Sadly, this year’s winner was unable to attend the ceremony for health reasons.  She suffers from the same chronic fatigue syndrome as her central character and this prevents her from getting out and about.  Everyone was very sad that she was unable to collect her well-deserved award.

Although we all thought Penny Joelson’s, A Girl in the Window was a deserving winner, we would have been quite satisfied if any of the first four had won, they were so good!

Click here to see our presenters in action

Click here to see Ele responding to one of our questions

Click here to once again see our presenters in action

Click here to see Gill’s thanks

Click here to see Gill responding to a question from Pippa in Year 5

British Dodgeball

27th June 2019Sarah Hall

British Dodgeball would like to invite any young people aged under 16 to participate in the European Dodgeball Championships junior event, on Thursday 25th July 2019 at Sport Central, Newcastle.

Please click here for further information.

 

 

Newminster Middle School Bronze Art Award

27th June 2019Sarah Hall
The Year 8 Newminster Middle School Bronze Arts Award students have contributed to the community of Morpeth by creating art for Platform 2 of Morpeth train station. The project was funded by Northern’s Community Funding and SENRUG where Newminster won a bid for £1000 for art materials. The pupils chose the Morpeth in Bloom theme, ‘Between Woods and Rivers We Dwell’, to help promote the rich landscape of flora, fauna and architecture found in and around Morpeth.  They have designed and painted large square boards to be displayed at the station inspired by what they see around them living and attending school in the Cheviot Trust. For instance, the foxes are regular visitors to the school playing field and the kingfisher is seen along the River Wansbeck near the school.These large pieces of eye catching art will be seen by commuters from London to Edinburgh when they are passing through our town.  Amber said ‘ I’m looking forward to seeing our paintings on the platform‘, Maria thinks’ they will help brighten up Morpeth’ and Anna stated that ‘they will help show off our town, especially to people who have never visited before’. Mrs Woolley, the art teacher and Deputy Head from Newminster, said ‘ We hope that the designs reflect Morpeth’s beautiful architecture and wildlife. The pupils have worked collaboratively over five months to complete the artwork and we are thrilled that our students have been given the opportunity to develop their creative skills and resilience within a real life brief.’