Ponteland Community Middle School E-mail: admin@ponteland.academy

Www.ponteland.academy

Telephone 01661 824853

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Dear Parents and Carers

The consultation report that was removed from the website will be re-posted in due course.

The 2018—2019 School Holidays are now available on the website.

Attendance—Unfortunately there have been so many children poorly with colds, flu and various

other bugs over the last couple pf weeks. We hope everyone is well for half term and that we have good attendance for the rest of the year. We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday

19th February 2018.

We raised an amazing £138.00 over Christmas selling our Festive Friends beanies, this money

was donated to St Oswald’s hospice. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to have the Premier League Trophy in school on

Wednesday 8th February, here is a picture with our very own Mr Baggett and Newcastle United

Mo Diame.

Jennifer Slater played guitar in assembly this week and was absolutely amazing.

During the year our KS3 children took part in various activities at Newcastle University including

the Holmes Lectures, Youth Ambassador visits, Animal Vision, Street Science and Micro Biology.

We welcome International students next term and know that the children love these visits.

Reminder regarding school lunches—Please always ensure that you cancel your child’s school

lunch should they be off sick or you may be charged. £10 has been handed in to reception, this was found in the coachpark.

Ski Week—Montegenevre 2018

S

5JH 5MG 5LC 5MB 5CW 6RP 6BN 6KS 6OT 6CE

96.6 96.3 97.0 97.1 96.6 96.6 97.2 94.7 96.7 96.8

7MP 7ABe 7CC 7TB 7CJ 8BF 8DR 8NM 8AP 8PC

97.7 96.9 95.8 96.9 97.2 95.8 95.7 96.8 96.1 95.8

Attendance percentages to date for each class– Target for school is 98% Percentages taken 02/02/2018

Sports News

Indoor athletics Congratulations to the School indoor athletics teams, who

competed in the Area Championships at Chantry on Friday. All of the pupils represented their school with distinction

and 5 of the 6 teams won their event, against four other

really strong schools. Those 5 teams will represent Castle Morpeth in the County finals in March.

Basketball Congratulations to the Year 7 and 8 basketball teams who

played Mowden Hall on Wednesday, winning all 6 games. On Thursday the Year 8 team competed in the Castle

Morpeth round of the School Games, winning all of their

matches. They will now go on to represent Castle Morpeth in the County School Games in March, joining 5 indoor

athletics teams, 2 badminton teams and 2 volleyball teams. Well done to all involved.

Cross Country

Three Ponteland pupils travelled to the School Intercounties Championship at Barnard Castle on Saturday.

All ran well against an incredibly strong and talented field. Abi Leiper placed 30 in the Junior Girls race; Zara

Naughton came 20th in the Minor Girls; whilst Zak Old came 36th in the Junior Boys race. Both Abi and Zak were

competing against Y9 students so a great achievement for

them! Well done all on an incredibly strong school XC season.

English Schools’ National Cup The Year 6/7 girls football team are through to the next

round of the English Schools’ National Cup after beating

Ovingham Middle School 2-0. The girls showed great grit and determination to win the game on a freezing cold

afternoon against very tough opposition. Sophia Mayers earned man-of -the-match for yet another commanding

performance in defence. Wins of 5-0 and 10-0 in the

previous rounds, highlight her defensive ability and will make scary reading for our next opponents. I would also

like to take this opportunity to thank Jemima Aspinall for her contribution to the girls football team over the past two

years. I'm sure the girls’ would agree that we owe a lot of our recent success to her talent and her ability to tear

through defences at crucial moments in games. She will

be greatly missed and we wish her all the best in her footballing future!

U13 Boys Football The boys are through to the county cup semi final after

beating

St. Benet Biscop Catholic Academy on Monday night 5 - 2. An excellent team performance with stand out individual

efforts from Ethan Nash, Tom Bell, Joe Beckwith and Bobby Clarke. The semi final will be against

Newminster Middle School at a date to be confirmed.

Recite Class

We have proudly welcomed PC Darren Fisher and PC Ingrid

Clayton who have visited every Year 7 and 8 RECITE class this

term. The pupils have had the

chance to ask questions about their job, including career paths, the

role of a police officer and life experiences. Pupils have also had the chance to hold the equipment and experience

carrying the equipment as well as some of the processes the police go through with criminals. This has been a

fantastic experience for the students which has put all they

have been learning in to perspective. Year 8 related this to their topics of human rights, 'what is law',

age restrictions, civil and criminal law, youth offences, joint enterprise, and cyberbullying; while Year 7 related it to

'rules, laws and fairness', rights and responsibilities and

bullying.

Future Chef Competition

A fantastic achievement for Melody Brooks (8AP) who travelled to Sheffield on Wednesday 31st January to

compete in the Springboard Future Chef Regional Final. The final was held at Sheffield Hallam University and Melody was

the youngest of six competitors. Working to a 90 minute

deadline Melody produced two dishes of outstanding quality which were highly commended by the Head Chef from the

Hilton Hotel. Unfortunately Melody did not win on the day but her dedication to the competition amongst a busy

schedule of sporting fixtures and a ski trip is to be admired. A huge thank you to the support that Melody had from her

family who put up with all her practice sessions and

organised all of her equipment and ingredients. Miss Beckett hopes to run the competition again next year and would

love to see the same standard!"

Misuse of Staff Car Park

A polite reminder to parents. Please do not pick up or drop off pupils in the staff car park unless permission has been

granted on medical grounds.

Dodgeball

Last Wednesday we had our first Year 7 Dodgeball fixture against St Cuthbert's, who also brought year 8 pupils. We

didn't manage to win all the games but the team spirit and resilience shown was something each and everyone of our

players should be proud of.

MFL Languages

Some Key Stage 2 classes have been using www.languagenut.com in their MFL lessons. Any pupils who

wish to practise their French, Spanish or German (or a different language such as Mandarin or Japanese) can

use our log in details on the website www.languagenut.com

or download the free app. Our username is Ponteland03 and our password is rhino2664.

Polo shirts

A reminder that the order for Summer polo shirts must be in by Friday 23 February. They can only be ordered through

the school and are not available elsewhere. We currently have sample sizes in the front of school if you would like to

have a look and check sizes.

London trip

A big thank you from Mr Burgess, Mrs Calcutt and Mrs Quigley to the children who attended the London visit. The

children were all really good company and we had a great time.

Dodgeball with Miss Peach! Year 7’s practising for their first clash against