Spring 2020 edition

SEATON VALLEY FEDERATION SEATON SLUICE MIDDLE SCHOOL . WHYTRIG MIDDLE SCHOOL . ASTLEY COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL

OUR CURRICULUM VISION

A HARRY-TASTIC DAY! PAGE 5

FINAL SUCCESS PAGE 9

Our young people will: • Have the skills and attributes to be successful members of society regardless of their starting point.

• Experience an ICE Curriculum: teaching and learning which is Interesting, Challenging and Engaging.

OUR CURRICULUM INTENT ACHIEVERs Our young people will be: • All become intellectual, social, creative, physical, resilient, moral and spiritual learners • Contribute to the best of their ability in a broad, balanced, relevant, personalised and progressive curriculum • Have recognition as unique individuals and be celebrated for their differences (within each school) • Invest in all their talents and experience a wide range of opportunities • Experience a childhood and adolescence which is happy, fulfilling and full of enquiry: no limits are put upon curiosity, new experiences and knowledge • Value and develop a love of reading and become confident readers, enabling them to access skills, knowledge and concepts within our curriculum • Expand their cultural capital through their learning both inside and outside of the classroom • Recognise, support and celebrate local and national traditions and events and actively engage with our local community.

SMALL ENOUGH TO CARE; BIG ENOUGH TO DELIVER A POSITIVE IMPACT.

Spring Term 2020

THE TERMLY MAGAZINE OF THE SEATON VALLEY FEDERATION

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READING ACROSS THE FEDERATION

JOHN BARNES WELCOME WELCOME

SEATON SLUICE MIDDLE SCHOOL At Seaton Sluice Middle School we believe reading to be hugely important. All of our classrooms have engaging reading corners, with books for pupils to read in ERIC (Everyone Read In Class Time).

In the autumn term, we held a Reading Challenge which saw children win prizes and awards for the number of books read.

November saw us host Dan Smith, author of books such as ‘Below Zero, who gave an engaging talk about his childhood in Brazil and why he became a writer and encouraged many people to read his books.

Hello and welcome to the spring edition of SVF Focus. I am again amazed at how quickly the year seems to be going. We are heading towards the time of the year when exams take place and revision and pressure mount; I would like to say that all we want is for our young people to try their best.

This term we have purchased £5000 worth of new books for our library which we hope will inspire many people to read more.

WHYTRIG MIDDLE SCHOOL Whytrig Middle School is fostering a love for reading in many ways this year.

This issue of SVF Focus covers a wide selection of the activities that have taken place across the federation; highlighting how much we value an educational experience that is beyond the classroom.

It is great to see so many of our young people accessing so many different activities and I encourage as many of our pupils as possible to try these activities.

Fluent Reader A new programme called Fluent Reader has been introduced to KS2 pupils. The aim of this short but focused session is to improve accuracy and ‘fluency’ when reading at speed. Students are in reading partners; they have three minutes to read aloud, using expression and accurate pronunciation of words; and they record their progress on a chart. Students who get a personal best earn rewards throughout the year. The children have engaged with this new initiative and we are seeing the benefit in lessons throughout the school. Finally, we have had a visit from a therapy dog, Minnie, who some of our younger pupils will be reading to regularly, in the hope that it will help grow their confidence in reading.

Safer Internet Day assemblies have been held across the federation; to help you as parents/carers keep your children safe online, we have a range of resources available on our website at: Keeping Safe Online As a parents and carers please encourage your children to take part in the activities that we offer: they will remember these events long after they have left school. As always, such opportunities could not happen without the efforts of the fantastic staff across our federation; they do so much for the young people and I am so grateful that these staff work in our schools.

I wish you all the best for the rest of the year and ask that if you have a child doing exams this year, please encourage them to revise and try hard but also support them, as it can be a very stressful time for anyone.

All the best.

John Barnes Executive Headteacher Seaton Valley Federation WWW.SVF.ORG.UK

Finally, we have had a visit from a therapy dog, Minnie, who some of our younger pupils will be reading to regularly, in the hope that it will help grow their confidence in reading.

TERM DATES SEATON VALLEY FEDERATION Easter holiday School finishes on Thursday 2 April and reopens on Monday 20 April 2020. Friday 3 April SEATON VALLEY FEDERATION is a teacher training day.

Please note that the early May Bank Holiday, usually held on a Monday will be on Friday 8 May 2020. This change has been by the government to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Summer half-term holiday School finishes on Friday 22 May and reopens on Monday 1 June 2020.

Summer holiday School finishes on Friday 17 July 2020.

For the full list of 2019/2020 term dates please visit: Term Dates

Reading Challenge KS2 pupils have been set a Reading Challenge: read for 20 minutes each night and get a signature from a parent/guardian.

The challenge has a variety of rewards along the way. We are still waiting for the first form class to reach the 50 signature mark and there is a prize awaiting the winners!

Accelerated Reader We are excited to start this new initiative across the whole school soon. This is a reading programme which tracks student progress and achievement in reading. WMS pupils have already sat their ‘Star Test’ and the results are being analysed to set a personalised reading range for each student. They will then be able to select a range of interesting books from this range, read them and then show off their skills by answering a quiz. There will be many challenges and competitions for the students to compete in, with fun prizes.

Many other things happen to encourage reading in WMS: Mr Souter reads to the whole school in assembly and some form classes enjoy reading a class novel with their form teachers. It is evident that all these events are having a positive impact on the students and we encourage parents to promote a love for reading at home too.

ASTLEY COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL There has been a lot going on at Astley Community High School since September to promote a love of reading across the whole school.

The English faculty all have ‘Currently reading…’ posters on their classroom doors so students can see which book their teacher is reading and Mr Carter and Ms Power have their own personal reading challenges to see how many books they can read in 2020!

Not only that but one lucky Y10 English class has had members of the Senior Leadership Team reading a short story to them every other Friday afternoon. This has helped to not only develop their comprehension skills but also has enabled them to

become more active listeners. The reading was kicked off with Mr Barnes reading ‘The Hitchhiker’ by Roald Dahl and the class have even had Mr Scott reading in full character costume too!

One student has described it as “fun and something I really look forward to,” whilst another has asked if it could be on “every Friday.” A definite success!

The ACHS focus on reading has also moved into Y9 form time every Thursday morning too. Form tutors have chosen a class reader and are reading to their form class for 15 minutes every week to develop literacy, comprehension and listening skills.

Books chosen by form tutors include ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ and ‘Noughts and Crosses’ which has been turned into a drama and will be shown BBC One later this year.

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SEATON SLUICE MIDDLE SCHOOL OUR LATEST NEWS HEAD OF SCHOOL MRS MCSPARRON

This term has been a really busy one. Our pupils have been involved in all sorts of fun things from Shakespeare inspired art and drama workshops, STEM trips to Nissan, sporting triumphs in football and rugby and a trip to London.

We held a Safer Internet Day assembly led by a group of Y8 pupils and a range of resources about keeping children safe online for parents and carers are available at: Keeping Safe Online Safer Internet In addition to all of these activities, we have been focusing on how we can improve our school environment and the coming of spring has brought the opportunity to do this.

Some of our Y5 students have been busy recruiting a group of ‘eco-warriors’ and delivering an assembly to the whole school to promote improving our school grounds, while reducing our carbon footprint. We hope to gain a ‘green flag’ award by the end of the summer term.

To complement this, since September, our PTFA have been busy fundraising in aid of new outdoor seating for our grounds and we have invited in some of the volunteer gardeners from Seaton Delaval Hall, to help improve our planted areas and grow some veg!

We look forward to seeing this all evolve over the coming months.

Mrs McSparron GREEN FLAG AWARD Well done to our new Y5 Eco-Warriors who delivered an informative assembly to the whole school about the importance of looking after our environment. They will be recruiting pupils from other year groups to begin planning how we can gain the Green Flag Award for being an Eco-Friendly school.

Mrs McSparron

SHAKESPEARE WORKSHOP

REPORTING THE WEATHER Y5 have been enjoying their weather topic this term. After finding out about different weather types and how weather is created - including the Beaufort scale and the water cycle; the children then discovered how meteorologists determine and predict future weather.

Current weather conditions have initiated some interesting discussions. Many of the children had been watching the news and following Storm Ciara.

The children watched some reports about the repercussions of the storm and relayed their personal experiences of what had happened in their localities. The children have been presenting their own weather reports to the class. They were very professional and confident in their presentations!

Our Y5s were lucky enough to take part in a fantastic workshop with The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust drama group, Highlysprung on Tuesday 14 January.

They spent the morning learning about the play ‘As You Like It’. It started with lots of fun warm up games where they had to listen well to instructions. They then had to work in groups to make the different scenes as a child friendly version of the play was narrated. It was lovely to see the children grow in confidence in their acting abilities as the morning progressed.

Mrs Cassidy

BALTIC ART WORKSHOP Leading on from the Shakespeare workshop, the following week we were visited by an artist from the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art who continued with the theme behind ‘As You Like It’.

The children had to make a disguise for a character by making a hat and a 3D mask using plain paper and card.

Their creative skills shone through as they created some fantastic masks.

Once they finished these they then used an acetate and markers to draw another part of the disguise – their outfit.

We then used an overhead projector to project their outfits and letters onto a white tabard over each child while they were wearing their hats and masks.

The children loved the fact that their outfits changed in appearance once they were projected!

All in all, a fantastic time was had over the two workshops – it’s actually helped us be more adventurous in our English lessons as we do much more drama now.

Mrs Cassidy

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Mrs Middlemiss

CRYPTOGRAPHY The children in Y5 have been doing Cryptography in their computing lessons. They have been learning about communicating in different ways, including Morse Code; where the children used torch flashes and knocked on the desks to send messages to each other. They made their own flags and practised sending messages to each other using Semaphore. Caesar Cipher proved quite tricky to encrypt but the children enjoyed the challenge. The pupils had lots of fun, here’s some of their feedback: ‘I liked cracking codes!’ - Sonny.

‘I liked doing dots and dashes because it was fun.’ - Rudi.

‘I liked making the flags.’ - Layla.

‘It was fun when we had to get the flags in different positions to do different letters.’ - Danielle.

Mrs Middlemiss

LIFE SKILLS Over the coming months, Y8 will be involved in a series of Barclays Life Skills workshops with the Transformation Trust.

The workshops are designed to provide opportunities and experiences for pupils to develop skills and build confidence geared towards their future employability.

The Transformation Trust is an education charity funded entirely by the private sector. The charity focuses on improving the employability of young people nationally; giving them the necessary tools to fulfil their potential. Working on areas such as team-work, problem solving and resilience, young people develop skills which are valued in the workplace and will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Our pupils will do four workshops with Transformation Trust volunteers and three follow up sessions in school. The charity sessions will develop: self-confidence, setting and achieving goals, value for money, problem solving and enterprise skills. In the school sessions pupils will cover: aiming high, recognising and building strengths, importance of challenge and adaptability.

Miss Staines

LEARNING THROUGH THEATRE Collingwood Learning delivered a theatre performance and workshop called ‘Smashed’ about underage drinking to Y8 pupils at SSMS in January. The workshop covered: health and social facts, causes and consequences, anti-social behaviour, making informed choice, peer pressure and self-esteem. Some feedback on the workshop from our pupils: ‘It was a more fun and engaging way to learn about the topic.’

‘We learned that sometimes people do things when they are drunk.... that they wouldn’t normally do.... embarrassing things or starting a fight.’

Mrs Staines

MAGICAL MUSICAL TOUR OF LONDON A group of forty-three KS3 pupils embarked on a magical musical tour of London in February organised by Mrs Docherty. The tour started with a visit to the Gillian Lynne Theatre to see the amazing School of Rock. We were all dazzled by the incredible performances of the young cast who were playing instruments live throughout the show.

Day two was jam-packed starting with a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Here we learned about the history of the theatre and even got to see part of rehearsals for an upcoming production of Macbeth. We cruised up the Thames to the London Eye where we enjoyed breathtaking views of

London. We spent the afternoon walking to famous landmarks and managed to fit in Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square before a well-earned meal at Planet Hollywood. To round off the day we were treated to the spectacle that is the Lion King.

Our final day was spent at the Warner Brother Studios visiting ‘The Making of Harry Potter’. We explored iconic sets including the Great Hall, Diagon Alley and Gringotts Bank; viewed original costumes and props up close; learned how magical creatures were brought to life on screen and how sets were created, from sketches, to technical drawings and scale models; and got behind the scenes of special and visual effects, discovering how they were able to make Harry and his friends fly. A truly magical way to end a fantastic trip.

Mrs Dowson

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WMS SPORTS LEADERS CHALLENGE FIRST SCHOOL PUPILS

JOHN BARNES WELCOME OUR LATEST NEWS WHYTRIG MIDDLE SCHOOL HEAD OF SCHOOL MR SOUTER

A HARRY-TASTIC DAY What a Harry-tastic day at Whytrig for World Book Day! It was fabulous to see so many children (and staff!) in costume.

The spring term is always a busy term. Our children are now very settled into their new classes and sets as they work hard to make good progress this year. I write at a time when booster sessions are starting for our Y6 pupils as they begin the build up towards the end of Key Stage 2 assessments which adds to the full schedule in school.

We had a whole variety of Hogwarts-inspired activities going on: drama; MuggleMaths; poetry writing; prospectus design; artwork...even a game or two of Quidditch! The day culminated in a Harry Potter Quiz, with each of WMS’s houses swapping allegiance for the afternoon and competing as Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. There are some real Harry Potter experts in school and it came down to multiple tie-breaks. Eventually, Slytherin (Delaval) were triumphant! A real buzz around the school to end a fantastic day.

Of course, the children have also enjoyed a number of extracurricular experiences since the start of the new year. Y5 have continued to work with the Newcastle United Foundation, this time focusing on mathematics. Bike Club and our programme of bike riding sessions in Key Stage 2 continue to gather momentum, with the annual Bikeability course starting very soon. Key Stage 3 children have benefitted from sessions from the Northumberland Domestic Abuse Service and our Y8 pupils have enjoyed input from the National Health Service and a careers day, which provoked a lot of thought. We look forward to many more opportunities for all of our pupils as we move towards the end of term.

Mrs McClellan

Mr Souter

By Isabel

NUFC LITERACY AND NUMERACY We had a fun time with Jak and Phil who came in this January to teach us about maths and writing. Jak taught us loads of stuff about how to write a sports report and we scored points every time we included the things he wanted, like adverbs or brilliant sentence starters. Phil came in to teach us about finance and we learned words to do with banking as well as practising our maths skills. Every week, we had different warm ups and then learned about, for example, percentages, ratio...all sorts of things. We scored points for everything we got right and then saw where we came in the league. Most of us have scored much better than Newcastle this season!

By Year 5 Pupils

Some Hogwarts inspired acrostic poetry from Y5: Quidditch - your first match Under the canopy, waiting to go Inside, your stomach churns and rumbles.

Daring to go; Desperate to win...

In a flash, the game begins!

The crowd of gryffindor depend on you.

Crowd goes wild with excitement.

Hurry! the Snitch is in sight!

Quickly - but silently - everyone zooms off to get the quaffle.

Urge to win in everyone’s head.

Inside the ring, the players fighting for the ball.

Ditching the rules, the Snake team thwack players to the ground.

Dying to win, the competitors get mad.

Inside Snake’s box, Snape jinxes Harry’s broom.

The existence of fear in the players’ heads.

Cheating by the Snake team but Harry will beat them all!

By Kai

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Twenty-four pupils were trained in sports leadership and went on to run a festival for over 150 first school pupils. The ‘Challenge Me’ festival took place in February at Lakeside Leisure Centre. The sports leaders set out twelve stations which were designed to challenge the first school pupils’ agility, strength, co-ordination, balance, and reaction time.

The sports leaders did an excellent job of explaining the challenges and encouraging the younger pupils to achieve their personal best. Each station was linked to a School Games Value such as self-belief, honesty, passion, determination and teamwork. The

SAFER INTERNET DAY On Monday 10 February all pupils at Whytrig Middle School participated in a Safer Internet assembly. The assembly explored how we manage our online identity and how this can be a positive and a negative experience.

As a parent or carer if you feel as though you don’t know what this internet thing is all about – ask! Your children are the experts at what they do online; so ask them, get involved and be part of their online world.

Parents and carers can get involved at home by checking out resources at: Keeping Safe Online Safer Internet

sports leaders brought the Values to life demonstrating how they could be applied to the challenges.

The festival was a great success with many of the first school staff commenting on how professional and enthusiastic the sports leaders were. There will be more sports leadership opportunities in the spring and summer terms.

Mrs Dowson

ARTS BRONZE AWARD A group of Y8 pupils visited art galleries in Newcastle as part of their Arts Award - Bronze in January. They gained inspiration from seeing many different artists’ work at The Biscuit Factory, North East Arts Collective, The Hatton Gallery and the Time Freezer Photography gallery. We were also very lucky to meet the photographer Matt Hale who talked to the pupils about his photography and career.

The pupils were challenged with finding ‘their artist’ and now they are working on their portfolio back at school and discussing the experiences and influences that they gained from the day.

Many of the pupils had not visited these galleries before and they all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They are now looking forward to our visit to see The Angel of the North, Northumberlandia and artist Sean Henry’s sculpture ‘The Couple’ at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in March.

Mrs Lawton and Mrs Telfer

Mr Dennis

KS2 MATHS MORE ABLE DAY MUCH ADO ABOUT SHAKESPEARE!

In January we were delighted to be able to take some Y5 and Y6 pupils to a Maths More Able Day held at Shanklea Primary School. The day was run by specialist maths tutor, Mr Ian Botwright, one of the UK’s leading maths consultants, with a focus on applying maths and problem solving through a number of very practical and hands-on activities.

In January Year 5 were lucky enough to get the chance to explore “As You Like It” with a travelling player direct from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford! We had a fabulous and informative time, exploring different drama techniques, working collaboratively and acting out the plot. It was brilliant fun. Bringing Shakespeare to life, and the pupils were enthusiastic and engaged throughout our afternoon.

Our children demonstrated that they could work well with each other and with pupils from other schools to tackle a variety of challenges, ranging from discovering patterns in sequences of numbers to successfully completing a strategy game with Tantrix colour coded tiles. It was an excellent day, with our children getting a lot out of it as well as being great ambassadors for maths and our school!

The same week, we had an art expert from the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art assisting us in creating disguise - an integral part of the play. We made fantastically intricate masks and headdresses which were proudly modelled at the end of the session. We even wrote love letters to ourselves, which were then projected onto our bodies, demonstrating to everyone all that is great about us!

Mr Souter

Mrs McClellan

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JOHN BARNES ASTLEY COMMUNITY WELCOME HIGH SCHOOL OUR LATEST NEWS HEAD OF SCHOOL MR SCOTT

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CAREERS DAY

MUSICAL THEATRE TRAINING On 19 January I travelled to The Sage Academy of Performing Arts to take part in an audition for the West End Prep Elite Musical Theatre Training Programme. For the audition I had to take part in a dance workshop in a large group. I then entered to read a monologue that I had written and sing a section of a song to a live pianist. I really enjoyed the experience of getting to do a proper audition with professionals from the West End.

In January we held a very successful careers day in the sports hall with a huge range of different organisations in attendance including colleges, universities, apprenticeship providers, and public and private sector organisations.

ACHS and WMS students in Year 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13 had the opportunity to speak with and ask questions to the exhibitors to find out more about careers, apprenticeships and courses of further study. The aim of the day was to help students come to an informed decision about their future.

A Y9 student said: “I got to speak to a number of universities and to the NHS about careers in Health. I now really want to become a physiotherapist so that I can help treat people with sports injuries.”

Mr Drought, Careers Leader said: “The careers day was a tremendous success, students were engaged in conversations with a vast array of different employers and education institutions and the feedback we received from students and the exhibitors was universally positive. I hope that this experience has planted the seed in many of our students’ minds and that they go on to have successful careers when they leave ACHS.” Mr Drought

A new decade up and running…

The autumn term was as usual very busy and in my opinion the atmosphere around school was fantastic, particularly towards Christmas on the back of a really positive OFSTED inspection. Our ethos of striving to ensure that students are happy, safe, achieving and have access to lots of opportunities appeared to be highly visible and the vast majority of students certainly took advantage of everything on offer to them.

The spring term is always one which prepares students for the next stage in their journey, whether it be choosing options, preparing for final examinations, sorting out work experience, accepting university offers or applying for jobs. One of my highlights of the term so far was the very successful careers event organised by Mr Drought in January.

To see all of our students really engaged and seriously thinking about their future careers was very powerful.

As you will see, the latest edition of the SVF is packed with positive news and events from across the federation. Thanks once again to everyone who is involved in the success of our school and here’s to another busy and productive term!

Mr Scott SIXTH FORM REWARDS TRIP In December some of the sixth form students were treated to a trip to Tyneside Cinema as part of a new rewards scheme. The reward trip was a lovely morning out of school where we were celebrated as students for always doing the right thing. Before the trip we had a vote to decide on what film and the outcome of this was the Christmas classic Elf.

A few days after I received an email informing me that I had been offered a position in this programme. I, of course, took this place and had my first session on 1 March. There are ten 5 hour sessions in total, ending with a performance at Christmas with the professionals of musical theatre.

By Sofia

KNIFE ANGEL Student Morgan was invited to perform at the unveiling ceremony of the Knife Angel sculpture at the Sage Gateshead on 30 January 2020. The 27ft tall sculpture is made from over 100,000 seized blades and was created to highlight the negative effects of violent behaviour. It symbolises a call for change whilst acting as a national memorial for victims of knife crime Local charity Samantha’s Legacy secured the display for the region as part of an educational campaign taking place throughout February. Morgan gave a fantastic performance of ‘Lost Without You’ by Freya Ridings.

Mr Gilhooley

INVESTIGATING THE HEART

Throughout the film you could hear the laughter of people enjoying themselves and embracing the Christmas spirit. After the cinema we were given a free day to relax and enjoy; some students went into Newcastle and experienced the Christmas markets while others finished off their Christmas shopping.

Overall it was a very fun day that we enjoyed thoroughly.

Y12 PE students have been investigating the structure and function of the heart. Students created their own versions of the heart using skipping ropes, cones, bibs, rounders’ bats and elastic bungee ropes.

By Ellie

Mr Lamb

AWARDS EVENING Congratulations to all of the students presented with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at an evening ceremony for both the Bronze and Silver Awards in school on Thursday 13 February. Through the scheme, young people dedicate their time to developing themselves across a range of activities including sport, personal skills, volunteering and the expedition. Well done to all students.

Mrs Pawsey

YOUTH ELECTION SUCCESS Y11 student Erin has been successfully elected to represent the young people of Northumberland as a member of the Youth Parliament. Voting took place on Wednesday 22 January 2020, 18 candidates from across Northumberland presented their manifestos on the issues that they felt were important to the young people in the area.

Erin received an impressive 510 votes to secure her place as one of only two representatives for the Youth Parliament.

Erin has worked incredibly hard on her campaign and everyone is immensely proud of what she has achieved and we wish her every success in her new role.

Mr Gilhooley

SAFER INTERNET DAY The advance in digital technologies has led to many young people spending lots of time immersed in online culture, often on many different devices; at times it can be difficult to remove the devices from their hands.

A big part of this culture is the gaming environment. Quite often young people are so focused on being part of the gaming environment that they don’t pay much attention to the information that they may share online; or think in the same rational way that they would in the real world.

In Safer Internet Day assemblies ACHS students were shown a hard hitting BBC Panorama documentary about student Breck Bedner and how he was groomed in the online gaming world; how easily he was manipulated and ultimately murdered.

Safer Internet Day resources for parents and carers can be found at: Keeping Safe Online Safer Internet Mr Dennis

RAISE YOUR POTENTIAL James Roberts, manager of Premier Inn Hotels Ashington and Cramlington visited school in February to speak with Y13 students to provide guidance, support, advice, inspiration and the benefit of his personal career experiences. The purpose of this session was to improve the students’ chances of finding enjoyable, well paid, meaningful employment and to realise their potential. James delivered a second session to help with CV writing, provide tips on interviews and how to present oneself.

Mr Drought

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NSFA FINALS

SVF SPORTS ROUND UP NORTH EAST RUGBY TOURNAMENT FINAL 2020 In January, the SSMS Y8 boys’ rugby team travelled to Kingston Park to play the annual North East Rugby Tournament final. After the previous years’ success, when the team became North East Champions, the boys in blue arrived (alongside their fantastic coach Mr Barkley) with their heads held high. However, they were cautious of their opponents, who are notoriously tough rivals.

The SSMS team were scheduled to play Eaglescliff but they cancelled at the last minute, leaving a three team battle between WMS, Belmont and SSMS. WMS and Belmont played first, giving SSMS the opportunity to observe Belmont, who have a reputation for being a skilful and strong team. After just 10 minutes of the game SSMS knew that they were in for a tough match; Belmont quickly scored five tries past WMS, who SSMS weren’t as worried about as they’d previously been successful against them. WMS put up a good fight but Belmont were the clear winners.

Due to the WMS loss against Belmont, they became the first team to play the boys in blue. It was a slow start to the game, as SSMS regularly need 5 minutes to get into the first game, however after a lovely offload from Kyle, Ethan scored the first try. From there on SSMS breezed past WMS. Finally, SSMS were ready for the game against Belmont. The boys were anxious but excited to play this game. As the boys had warmed up against WMS, this game was fast-paced and a higher tempo than Belmont could cope with. Callum made a fantastic

NATIONAL STAGE FOR LILY A brilliant start to 2020 for ACHS student Lily who ran at the English Schools InterCounty Cross Country event in February. Lily qualified for the national stage to compete at the English Schools Cross Country Championships in Liverpool on Saturday 14 March. Well done Lily

COUNTY CUP SUCCESS The ACHS Y11 football team made into the next round of the County Cup after a comfortable victory against Ponteland in January. First half goals from Codey and Will secured the match and a special mention goes to Ethan for two outstanding saves. Next up is John Spence in the third round.

Mr Lamb

The Northumberland County Schools’ FA finals of the national five-a-side football competitions took place in January at the Evolution Football Centre, Royal Quays, North Shields. The following SSMS pupils were involved in the competition after winning the regional round hosted by ACHS: Jamie, Murray, Ciaran, Rhys, Frazer, Junior and Louis. We weren’t successful in getting to the next round of the competition but the boys played really well and represented the school superbly. Cieran was our player of the tournament. Well done to all of the team.

Mr Elliott

run from the halfway line in the opening of the game, after a great catch from Ethan. Although SSMS had a great start to the match, they still played with caution. However, great runs and tackles were the reason for the success of this exciting game along with the chemistry between the SSMS boys.

‘Man of the Match’ was awarded to both Ethan and Callum, who had played outstandingly. Kyle (Captain) and Callum (Vice-Captain) led and guided the team, accompanied by new first-timer Noah, who had a fantastic debut. An honourable mention also goes to an outstanding kicker, Lewis, who earned a lot of extra points to keep the boys ahead.

By Kyle and Ethan

DANCE CITY WORKSHOP Once again we were lucky enough to get a visit from Dance City choreographer Geoff. Geoff held a dance workshop for pupils with an interest and talent in dance. Pupils from WMS and ACHS Y8, Y9 and Y10 took part in lots of fast paced dance activities and learned some contemporary style techniques.

The group also had the opportunity to develop a motif and choreograph their own section of dance.

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THE HIGHEST LEVEL We are celebrating the sporting achievements of current and former students selected to play rugby for Women’s Super League. Over the winter, the girls were trialling for Women’s Super League teams including training at Leeds Rhinos and Huddersfield Giants. They were put through their paces with fitness, skills tests, and matches against other trial players.

The girls contributed significantly to ACHS successes in rugby at national school level and we are proud that they have been selected to play at the highest level in women’s rugby.

Leeds Rhinos have selected Gabrielle, Grace and Cleo; meanwhile Huddersfield Giants have selected Frances, Alisha, Emma and Nesha. Casey is trialling for Scotland.

Mr Carbutt

SMSS HOCKEY

The feedback from Geoff was that he loves working with our pupils and is always impressed by the high standard of our dancers. At the end of the session, Geoff handed ‘You’ve been spotted’ cards to Katie and Olivia as they had shown excellent potential. The girls have been invited to audition for a place at Dance City’s Advanced Training Academy in 2020; we all wish them the best of luck!

The PE department has recently purchased new hockey equipment.

Pupils in Y5 and Y6 are learning new skills and thoroughly enjoying their Quicksticks hockey lessons. Pupil, Summer said: ‘I really like playing hockey bulldog.’

Mrs Hewitson

Mrs Middlemiss

WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL SUCCESS Callum in Y11 gave a man of the match performance in January.

Scoring four baskets, Callum helped his wheelchair basketball team Tees Valley Titan to win the Stephen Johnson Memorial Cup against the Carlisle Panthers.

In a tightly contested game Callum’s baskets proved vital as Tees Valley edged to an 18-9 victory. Callum’s performances have not gone unnoticed. He has been selected to try-out for the School Games 2020 to represent England North. We wish Callum every success at his trial.

Mr Gilhooley

A THRILLING WMS PERFORMANCE WMS Y8 girls explored the theme of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, in their PE dance lessons last term. The class understood that the dance was a character piece and that staying in character throughout the dance was just as important as the technique and steps. The class learned a large section of choreography before splitting into smaller groups to develop their own section. Their ideas, creativity, and ability to work together, along with the determination to get everything right was inspiring.

In one of their last lessons, the class donned black performance wear along with some costume and stage makeup and put on a performance of their dance for a few lucky members of staff.

All agreed that the performance was fantastic and really showed how hard the group had worked over the previous 6 weeks. We hope this isn’t the last we get to see of this talented bunch!

Mrs Hewitson

WMS CYCLING GENERATION A great start to our School Sports Premium cycling provision this year at WMS, working with Cycling Generation and Richard Rothwell. In February our intermediate group and advanced group started their sessions with challenging rides to Holywell Dene and Seaton Sluice, building on their super skills shown last year. The advanced group are building up to a three-day residential trip in July to Rothbury, so lots of miles to get in their legs yet!

Mr N Robinson