Wellfield Middle School
Friday 10th May 2019
Dear Parents, Carers and Governors
A Summary of Y8 Learning
This week, Year 8 have been lucky enough to learn and explore various exciting topics throughout a range of subjects. One of the most notably fascinating topics covered recently was in science, during which Year 8 all had the opportunity to investigate the human body and nutrition. There were many amusingly disgusted glances from peer to peer as various unusual activities commenced, which - to Year 8’s surprise - included dissecting animal organs. Along with an enthralling visit to Newcastle’s Centre for Life on both Tuesday 23rd April and Wednesday 24th April 2019, it is certain that all of the activities and educational workshops Year 8 participated in made their week one to be remembered.
In addition to science, geography has supplied some increasingly enticing lessons throughout the week. Year 8’s minds have taken a journey to Africa as they covered topics such as: the statistics of HICs (higher income countries) and LICs (lower income countries); malaria, and treatments taken to help prevent it; and world issues such as poverty and famine in places like Africa. I found it quite interesting when I got to write a fact file focussing on malaria and its causes, as we have never studied it before and I wanted to know more.
Rowan R
Dancing the Night Away
On Tuesday 30th April, our school had a disco; it was great fun!
We all danced from 18:30 - 20:00, enjoyed some good music and some delicious sweet treats. Eva P exclaimed, “I wish we could do it every week!”
Emily M
Parent Partnership Update
As you know, Wellfield is on a journey to achieving the Leading Parent Partnership Award by next February. As such, lots of events have been (or are in the process of being) planned.
Recently, Y6 hosted parents and grandparents at their WW2 end of topic VE Day celebration. It was brilliant to see the amount of family members who made it along to the afternoon. We also massively appreciated every parent/carer who sent along food items, helped with WW2 homework and put together 1940s costumes. Daryl D, nominated best dressed, won the prize of a family pass to Beamish. As you can see from the parent responses below, the afternoon was very much enjoyed and therefore we will be repeating this kind of activity for other year groups in the near future.
All parents and carers were also invited along this week to an e-safety talk given by Simon Finch, a prominent figure in computing circles. Again, it was great to see such a broad range of parents come along. We plan to have similar joint events as well as student-parent clubs in the forthcoming weeks (at the moment, these include a cooking club, a science club and a photography club). A family football club (with parents and grandparents invited to play alongside their sons and daughters), hosted by NUFC, is due to start in June; there will be more information coming home about this very soon.
As we are always looking to improve home-school communication, we plan to create a Wellfield Facebook page very soon.
As always, we are keen to hear your feedback and as a result have sent home questionnaires about the above events. So far, your feedback has been invaluable. Linked to this week's newsletter, is a general survey that you may wish to complete in order to let us know what we do well and what we could improve on. This is now a regular feature of Wellfield newsletters.
We would also like to express our thanks to all parents who have recently helped out on the many school trips that have taken place, including the Y7 trip to the Tyneside Cinema and the KS3 trips to the Centre for Life. Such enrichment visits would not be possible without your help.
We would also like to welcome Donna McCurry and Elizabeth Glen who have joined Lisa Tait in volunteering to be reading mentors. Our students are thoroughly enjoying reading with you all.
We are very fortunate in that we have parents and carers who speak a range of languages: from Estonian to Chinese to Greek, French, Japanese - you name it! If you would be willing to host a one off club to no more than 10 students, please contact katie.barton@wellfieldmiddleschool.org.uk.
Finally, if you would like to become a part of the Leading Parent Partnership working party (who meet informally with refreshments and biscuits), please contact katie.barton@wellfieldmiddleschool.org.uk. In the last half hour session, we discussed events that could be held and that we could invite parents to (our Y6 VE Day party was the result), school policies and many other items. We meet termly and dates/nights can be adapted to suit you.
Thank you for all your support,
Miss Barton
Knitting Club
The benefits of knitting in schools are huge. As well as providing an opportunity for social, emotional and developmental benefits, knitting can improve:
- Fine motor coordination
- Reading
- Mathematics
- Comprehension
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
I would like to start a knitting club after half term, initially on a Thursday after school but with the potential to add some lunchtime sessions too.
If any parents, grandparents or carers would be interested in coming along to help please contact me. If you have any spare knitting needles or wool that you would like to send in to school that would also be very much appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Mrs Tarn
We are supporting St Oswald's Hospice
As you will know, we have been fundraising this year to support St Oswald's Hospice and take part in Elmer's Great North Parade. We have now raised enough to receive our very own mini Elmer, thanks to your generosity and support on non-uniform days and cake sales. We are now thinking about the design for our Elmer and Miss Whillis will be working with some keen artists to decorate it.
Following the success of the Great North Snowdogs in 2016, Elmer’s Great North Parade will feature over fifty individually designed Elmer the Patchwork Elephant sculptures from August – November 2019. It promises to be another spectacular art trail and we are thrilled to be a part of it.
Parliamentary Outreach Assembly
On Wednesday 1st May, KS3 had a special visit from the Parliamentary Outreach Worker, who taught us all about what life is like in Parliament. She will hopefully return for a workshop about debating. School Council also joined the assembly. Poppy Chaplin said “It was the best assembly ever!”
The Magpie: Gary Toward
#WMSACHIEVE
Handball Regional Finals
His family are undoubtedly proud and mum wrote: 'His exam was a week long and he had 15 intense weeks of observations. He has grown so much over this period and discovered how hard he needed to work to achieve something he very much wanted.'
Parent Shout Out
Your support is massively appreciated!
Parent Voice
This form is now a regular feature of our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2JrfahN
The Daily Mile
All year groups and classes gave a go at completing the mile whether or not they did. Most people ran and jogged the Mile, but some walked it. Many people succeeded, and some completed more than expected; lots of people went out of their comfort zones on that day. The full Mile was 5 laps of our running track and lots of classes completed it within 10 to 15 minutes.
I asked some students how they thought the day went: Emily told us, “I really enjoyed the day!”
By Lucy France