On Monday 19th June and Tuesday 20th June Newminster and Chantry pupils put on The Rocky Monster Show.
This bizarre, anarchic and very funny, Rock ‘n’ Roll musical was a riotous mix of the Addams Family, Young Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera, with Rebecca and The Rocky Horror Show thrown in for good measure!
Baron Frankenstein’s descendant, and ex-pop star turned professor of Genetics, creates DNA moulds of people in his computer. How these moulds come to life as the ultimate Rock Group, headed by a clone of Elvis himself is the highlight of the hilarious plot.
More traditional monsters also add spice to the explosive mixture. The packed out audience and cast loved the Rock ‘n’ Roll score, much of which is an affectionate send-up of the 60’s.
The whole show was done by the pupils and involved around 200 youngsters. The set was made by the Bronze Arts Award students, tickets and programmes were designed by students, lego club made props, sound and lighting crew provided wonderful special effects not to mention the singing, dancing and acting.
The production has involved many partnerships. Students from the Acting Degree at Newcastle college provided acting coaching, a sixth form KEVI student choreographed and taught the dances, KEVI staff and students have helped with the sound and lighting with many staff from both schools involved with tuition and supporting roles.
QUOTES
I have enjoyed rehearsing the show with my friends because I loved dancing and singing – Leah Clark, year 7.
The Rocky Monster Show has given me the opportunity to make new friends and given me new opportunities. We all thoroughly enjoyed being taught dance by Antonia, a sixth form student from KEVI – Tyla Miller, year 7.
The show was a wonderful mix of acting, singing, and dancing, and was really funny too – Melissa Daglish, year 7.
The costumes and set had been designed by the pupils and it was all so creative! -Charley McClellan, year 7.
I thoroughly enjoyed being part of a brilliant performance. The best part was dancing to the Time Warp, which involved some complex dance moves – Imogen Mellor, Year 6
I enjoyed being part of the performance because I learnt more about myself and challenged myself musically – Ethan Carter, Year 6
I loved being part of the show. I made lots of friends and it boosted my confidence. I love being on stage as it makes me feel happy as well as giving me butterflies – Sienna Howard, Year 6
It was superb. We were resilient in making the show the best it could be, always striving to be better. The end show was amazing after the amazing guidance of our teachers and coaches – Kate Leja, Year 6
Simon Taylor, Executive Head teacher of the Three Rivers Trust said, “This was a wonderful show, full of fun, great tunes and fabulous dancing. With almost 200 students involved from the cast, technical and stage crews, it highlighted the talent, energy and enthusiasm of our children and staff, and continued the great tradition of the creative and performing arts at the Three Rivers.”
Morpeth Town Junior Cavaliers U12s are recruiting players for next season.
National Women in Engineering Day was set up by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate its 95th anniversary.
The premise of the day is based on highlighting the great opportunities for women in engineering, at a time when it has never been more important to address the engineering skills shortage.
The year 7 girls took part in a full day of activities on 13th J
une to celebrate International women in engineering day. Throughout the day the girls were involved in a themed ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ activity where they carried out a range of practical activities and problem solving exercises to avoid getting infected by the zombie virus!
The RAF roadshow at the end of the day gave all the KS3 girls and insight into a range of careers in the RAF.
We would like to thank the following organisations for their support during the day by sending out Ambassadors to either run or support activities.
- Nissan Sunderland
- Institute of civil engineers
- MWH Global
- Teeside university
- RAF engineering roadshow
A special thank you to Fritha Bevin-McCrimmon for facilitating the Zombie Apocalypse
Here are some quotes from the girls..
“My favourite part of the day was the RAF presentation, I might end up joining!”- Louise
“Girls can do it too”-Fran
“It has made me think about my future and what I want to be”-Chloe
“I really enjoyed today, because the theme was fun” Amelia
On the penultimate day of the last half term, children’s crime writer, Robin Stevens, visited our combined Year Five. She talked about her early inspirations, explained how to construct a murder mystery and helped her young audience put together and solve a dastardly crime set in a museum!
We discovered that Hazel, one half of the Wells & Wong Detective Agency, is modelled on Robin’s teenage self. Robin felt as though she’d been transported back one hundred years when, newly arrived from America and aged thirteen, she found herself at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. Just like Robin, Chinese Hazel finds the food, traditions and uniform at Deepdean School for girls bizarre, hates the English weather and playing games in the rain and feels clumsily out of place.
To comfort herself at boarding school, Robin read voraciously, devouring Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle mysteries. It’s not surprising that superior, calculating Daisy – the self-styled leader of the detective duo – is based on Sherlock Holmes while self-effacing Hazel takes the role of Watson and narrates the stories.
As a teen
ager, Robin was struck by the impossibility of solving Agatha Christie crimes and tries to emulate this style in her own writing – a fact that may contribute to the wide appeal of her work. A great number of students already had books by Robin Stevens and are eagerly awaiting publication of the next one. Now they can put a face and a personality to the author!
School: Abbeyfields First School
The Governors of Abbeyfields First School are seeking to appoint a talented and enthusiastic teacher to cover a maternity leave. This is an exciting opportunity to join a dedicated team who enable all pupils to succeed.
We encourage candidates to visit our school prior to making an application, please contact Mrs Sharon Mungall on 01670 513582 if you would like to arrange this. Please also visit our website for further information about our school.
Closing date: 12 noon on 19 June 2017
The year’s Picnic in the Park takes places on Sunday 16th July.
For the past few months, Chantry and Newminster have had the pleasure of hosting Ruth Hedley in their MFL departments.
“As a School Direct Languages Trainee, I spent my long placement teaching French (and a little German!) across both middle schools in Y6-8.
Having spent my short placement in a High School, adapting to the pace of working with younger learners was one of the biggest challenges I faced. The initial experience of KS2 language delivery, and transition into the KS3 framework, was invaluable in terms of my appreciation of the challenges involved in striving for consistency across the key stages. Another beneficial aspect of this placement – and one new to me, despite having worked in schools for many years – was the experience of working within a Trust, and across two schools.
Of course, the highlights of my placement have been all about the students, and I remain impressed by the positive attitudes and ‘have a go’ approach to learning by so many pupils. Much of my training has focused on group work and encouraging the students to create a supportive atmosphere. I can confidently say that all of my classes demonstrated some really wonderful collaborative skills, producing thoughtful work and reflections. Très bien fait! It was also rewarding for me personally to use my knowledge of the Swedish language to deliver DLE sessions to very enthusiastic Year 7 students – many of whom surprised themselves with the accuracy of their pronunciation. There are, in fact, many similarities between Northumbrian/Geordie and Swedish! Keep it up! A big thank you to everyone involved for making my experience at Chantry and Newminster so rewarding. Hejdå!”
We wish Ruth the best of luck with the rest of her training and continued success as an NQT this September.
Au revoir et bonne chance.
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!
A record twenty-nine teams of students and two teams of staff from Tyne and Wear and Northumberland took part in this year’s Mini Lit Quiz, which is written and produced ‘in house.’ Our Quiz is modelled on the Kids Lit Quiz (UK) with both individual and team prizes, but has five 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 and between-round elimination competitions for cash prizes.
The sun shone down on the Key Stage Two students today as they enjoyed a variety of workshops to investigate how we can stay healthy and happy. This included trying out smoothies to keep us healthy, learnt how playing the djembe drums as a group helped our social skills, participated in zumba and hoopstarz to build up our physical wellbeing and made glitter jars to help our mental wellbeing.
