Picnic in the Park – Sunday 14th July, Carlisle Park, Morpeth
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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 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.
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.’
We are pleased to inform you that from Wednesday 4th September, when your child returns to school after the Summer holidays, we will be moving to a cashless catering system, called School Grid (formerly Live Kitchen).
Please click on the links below for further details;
Do you love athletics? Can we Inspire you to become the next Generation of athletics Champions at the next World Championships or the Olympics!
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The 9th Mini Literary Quiz
– 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!
Twenty-six teams of students and two teams of staff from Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland took part in this year’s Mini Lit Quiz in Morpeth. The Quiz is modelled on the Kids Lit Quiz (UK) with both individual and team prizes, but has six 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, a stand-alone round and between-round elimination competitions for cash prizes.
The first round, which was all about numbers, produced some high scores – including a perfect 10 for Staff B – the only one of the competition! Chantry C won this round outright and, if they’d played their Joker, they would have clinched the competition before it had really got going! However, only Gosforth East C took advantage of this relatively easy round to double their score and take the lead.
Marden Bridge excelled in the Sports round, both A and D teams tying with the highest scores. Sadly, neither team played their Joker – unlike Gosforth Central B and Dr Thomlinson C, whose doubled scores propelled them into joint first place, relegating Gosforth East C to third. Marden Bridge D went on to win this round on a tiebreaker.
The Pictionary round, as always, turned out to be a real game-changer. More than half of the twenty-eight teams played their Joker but…. found it much harder than they expected! Newminster C and Dr Thomlinson B tied on 9, wisely played their Jokers and pushed themselves into joint third place. (Staff A, also with 9, must have regretted not playing theirs!) Marden Bridge A and D, playing very consistently, soared to the top of the leader board and Dr Thomlinson B won the round on a tiebreaker.
In round 4, the students proved to have far more knowledge than the staff about what goes on in garages and sheds! No fewer than five teams tied with the highest scores but Marden Bridge A and D clung on to the top two places of the leaderboard. Ovingham A bounced back into the reckoning, tied with Dr Thomlinson B and D. Newminster D won this round on yet another tiebreaker.
The penultimate round on Being Different floored nearly everyone. Ovingham A pushed Marden Bridge D into joint third place, which they lost in a tiebreaker to Newminster D. Chantry D won this round as other teams with the same score had already won prizes.
The final stand-alone picture round on Publisher’s Logos was won by a team of two, Gosforth East C, after teams that had already won prizes were eliminated.
Marden Bridge A won the contest with an unassailable lead of 3½ points over Ovingham A, who came second. Separated by only 1 point, Newminster A came third after a nail-nibbling tiebreaker. Marden Bridge D, made up to strength with students from Dr Thomlinson and Chantry, performed brilliantly and their excellent team spirit really paid off!
Nearly every school had at least one team in the top ten positions, which shows how closely matched they were and it was good to see lots of Y6 teams gaining experience for next year. The staff teams were evenly matched as usual but Staff B’s secret weapon – a librarian – gave them the advantage. Well done to them!
Teams that win the top three places aren’t eligible for a round prize, so the final results are as follows:
| First | Marden Bridge A | Round 1 | Chantry C |
| Second | Ovingham A | Round 2 | Marden Bridge D (¼ Chantry) |
| Third | Newminster A | Round 3 | Dr Thomlinson B |
| Round 4 | Newminster D | ||
| Round 5 | Chantry D | ||
| Round 6 | Gosforth East C |
This was the last Quiz for our amazing Year 8s – Iona, Anna, Will and Tom – who were split between different teams this year. Do we have anyone to take their place and carry us to victory next year? We might find out at the regional heat of the Kids’ LitQuiz in Gosforth in November!
If you have always been an avid reader of a wide range of books and would like to have a go at the Quiz, let us know!
A big THANK YOU goes to Alice and Tallula who worked tirelessly, keeping the markers, adjudicators and data team supplied with answer sheets and refreshments, taking superb photos and generally making sure they were always in the right place at the right time. Girls you were indispensable!
Thank you also to our student marshals, who waited patiently for half an hour before the Quiz to welcome our visitors and ensure that none of them got lost, and then saw them safely away at the end! You are a great team!
On Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th June 2019 Newminster and Chantry pupils and staff performed the musical ‘School of Rock’ to sold out audiences!
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Canoeing, Kayaking, Stand up Paddling.
After School Club at Morpeth Riverside. More fun on the water!
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Please click here to view a copy of the arrangements for the Year 8 Induction Programme at The King Edward VI School.
