Newminster Middle School – Autumnal Day on Thursday 26th October 2023

26th September 2023Sarah Hall

We would like to invite all Newminster pupils to come to school wearing autumn coloured non uniform on Thursday 26th October 2023. No Halloween costumes this year please.

There will be a voluntary contribution for non school uniform of £1 or pupils can bring in non perishable food with all proceeds going to the Wansbeck Valley Food Bank. The year 8 Bronze visual Arts Award pupils have ‘spruced’ up a trolley that the Food Bank have in Morpeth Iceland to collect donations in the hope it will encourage more people to donate to the Wansbeck Valley Food Bank, so look out for this when you are there!

Get creative with our yearly ‘‘Creative Pumpkin Design Competition’. Photos of all entries are to be sent to [email protected] by Wednesday 1st November 2023. Please note that the photo needs to be of the student who created the design with the pumpkin. Great prizes to be won for the most creative and original designs! Make sure you get an adult to help with any carving.

Thank you for supporting the Wansbeck Food Bank and we look forward to a lovely Autumnal day in school with the pupils.

Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir visit Newminster and Chantry Middle Schools

20th September 2023Sarah Hall

The Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir spent a fabulously energetic day at Chantry and Newminster Middle Schools on Monday 18th September as part of their tour of the North East for 2 weeks.

Their visit comprised of an assembly performance for key stage 2 pupils at both schools and an afternoon workshop for the joint schools choir. The visit culminated in the most amazing evening performance in the Chantry hall. The Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir performed music, singing and dancing along with some joint pieces with the Newminster and Chantry school choir. The audience of young and old loved the cultural exchange and Newminster and Chantry would like to thank the choir for visiting and providing us with amazing musical memories.

To coincide with the visit and raise money for the charity Pearl of Africa Child Care Ltd, the pupils at both schools wore non uniform in the colours of the Ugandan flag – black, red, yellow and white. The choir brought African crafts which were on sale all day. The schools raised over £2500 for the Pearl of Africa Child Care Ltd charity over their day at the school. We would like to thank everyone who donated, came to the concert and bought crafts,

The charity Pearl of Africa Child Care Ltd, which organises the tour, is a registered charity in England and Wales and all the money is sent to the charity which sends it to Uganda to help the schools educate, house and feed orphans and destitute

children in six schools in Kampala and Masaka District in S.W.

Uganda. www.pearlofafrica.org.uk

 

Matilda the Musical Junior

3rd July 2023Sarah Hall

Pupils at Newminster and Chantry put on a production of Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda the Musical Junior’ this Summer term on Tuesday 27th, Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th June 2023. There were over 200 pupils in the show from both schools and past pupils from Newminster and Chantry came to support the pupils with tech, backstage along with Ava Da Costa playing Miss Honey and Thomas Davidson playing Miss Trunchbull. Performances on each night were a sell out. Huge thanks to Kelly Coccalis for choreographing the show.

Here are some audience quotes – 

Wow! What can I say other than I was absolutely blown away by how amazing and talented all your students are. It was an absolute privilege to be able to see everyone perform today.
 
I just wanted to say what an absolutely delightful treat it was to come and see Matilda today! The standard of the production was so high it is hard to believe that middle school children have performed it! I know how much time, hard work and effort must have gone into it from staff and students and it was absolutely spell-binding. Not to mention the children’s talent!  Amazing! 
 
Wow, what an absolute triumph!  
You have achieved something special with the production of Matilda, it really was wonderful.  To have so many children involved, from both schools, and so clearly having the time of their lives.  The strength of acting, singing and dancing was fantastic and the audience were clearly having a great time.

Futsal

26th May 2023Sarah Hall

Fantastic news funding is continuing to be brought into Newbiggin through the ‘Get Onside’ programme, allowing us to develop a brand new and FREE to attend Futsal session for males ages 16+ in partnership with AFC Newbiggin!

For more info on Futsal and what it is all about, see the video by FIFA here – https://youtu.be/py_kCVO4CHk?t=18