Meadowdale Academy. Newsletter April 2015

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1 Meadowdale Academy Newsletter April 2015 Dear Parents, As this newsletter highlights, Meadowdale Academy never stops still and it never will! Yet another term has been filled with a huge range of exciting teaching and learning experiences that have been enjoyed by all and illustrates our school belief, that Together we can... It s the team effort of students, staff, governors and parents that makes Meadowdale Academy the school that it is and I thank all of you for that. We are a school that is committed to continually develop and extend excellence of provision. We value the views of students and the wider community to achieve this. This term our MMPs will be launching pupil surveys to collect student views about their learning and how they feel about the many aspects of school life. In addition, we are seeking the views of parents and carers too, so that we can evaluate provision and act upon the feedback. Attached is an anonymous survey and it would be fantastic to see what you think about Meadowdale and for you to contribute ideas for the future. STUDENT PRIZE: For every survey returned, each student will be given a Top Citizen Sticker and a nonuniform pass as a reward. Please take a few minutes to complete the Meadowdale Survey. Your views can make a difference. Mrs J Finn (Headteacher) Annual Reports Annual reports once again celebrated student achievements and progress. Parental feedback from reply slips and the Parent Consultation Evenings was extremely positive. Very proud parents!, New school, new friends, he has settled even better than we had hoped, Amazed at her achievements, Thank you to all the teachers for their hard work and efforts. Guinness World Record We are delighted to announce that Meadowdale Academy are officially Guinness World record holders. 24 of our budding mathematicians took part in the worlds largest treasure hunt, organised by Newcastle University. Maths skills were tested around Newcastle s Quayside, solving real life problems and pupils participated in a rhythm workshop at the Sage, Gateshead pupils had an excellent day and proved that Maths can be good fun. Year 6 SAT s All of our year 6 pupils and staff are working really hard in the build up to the SAT s in 3 weeks (Monday 11th May to Thursday 14th May). May we remind all students of the importance of their attendance in school. Days missed inevitably leads to gaps in understanding. Last Half Term s Highlights -This Term s Treats Easter egg competition some fantastic entries with the overall winner being Jordan Leigh Fayers in Year 8. Robbie in Year 7 competed in the British Kick boxing championships and is now under 40Kg British Champion. Robbie will be competing in the World championships in Portugal, later this year. Fantastic fundraising efforts last half term with raised for British Heart Foundation and raised for Comic Relief. A group of year 5 pupils took part in bikeability. Residentials to London, France and Ford Castle will take place this half term. This year s academy production is The Lion King Junior which will be performed week commencing 22th June. Thank you to the many parents who have signed up to our Meadowdale Parking Promise. Creative Curriculum week week commencing 29th June.

2 Other Meadowdale News We will be having a Lion King themed non-uniform day on Friday 1st May, to raise funds towards the production costs of this year s performance The Lion King Junior Electric gates and fencing improvements have now been completed. Our bid for funding towards a new boiler / heating has been successful. Work should commence in the next few months. We have a new parent governor, Mrs Claassen, parent of Molly in year 7. We still have one vacancy for another parent governor. Please contact Mrs Finn for further information. For the third year, all pupils who live in Bedlington and applied to go to St Benet Biscop and BCHS in year 9 were allocated their first choice. This week, year 5 pupils are looking forward to an exciting time. On Wednesday, some pupils are off on their adventure to Robinwood, whilst the others have two fun filled days in school, followed by a day of exploration at Gibside on Friday. Across the school last term, writers entered the BBC s 500 Word Story competition. This is a nationwide event and there were over 120,000 entries. Out of this huge number of entries, only 3,800 were chosen to move on to the second round of judging. Miss Smith is proud to announce that Faye in year 7 is one of those talented entrants. What an achievement, well done and good luck. This comes after 19 of our year 7 writers were published as part of a winter poetry competition and confirms that Meadowdale does have talent. Pupils also entered a 50 word challenge to win a visit from David Walliams, but were not successful. Learning in Liverpool Where- heading North West to LIVERPOOL When June What We will view the amazing Library in the city centre, cruise along the River Mersey, and visit the Albert Dock area HOW can I go on this visit? Name of all eligible pupils will be placed in a draw which will take place on Friday 15th May HOW does my name get in the draw? Automatic entry to the draw, if you are a word millionaire (We have three already!) Entry via Staff nomination, your class teacher, librarians, and members of staff who supervise quizzes will all be nominating pupils for the draw. HAVE YOU IMPRESSED THEM? - They will be looking for accelerated readers with these qualities: A positive attitude An enthusiasm for reading Great quizzers Flying through books Making good progress SchoolGateway Thank you to the many parents who have registered and are using our new online payment provider Schoolgateway. To date we have collected nearly 19,000 via the online payments. Parents are able to top-up and monitor lunch accounts and pay for school trips, residentials and music lessons. This is a safe, quick method of sending monies into school with the advantage that lunch accounts can be monitored. There is also an app! To encourage more parents to use this service we are having a prize draw for ALL parents who pay for lunches online during this half term. First prize will be a credit of 35 to the winners lunch account and four further prizes of a first lunch pass for the winner and a friend (1 for each year) for the remainder of the school year! If you would like more information or would like to start using this service, please contact Mrs Calvert in the school office. IT COULD BE YOU GOOD LUCK!!!

3 Meadowdale Sports Report April 2015 Year 7 Netball Congratulations to all the girls in the year 7 netball team. They have shown real dedication to training sessions and won every game at the Campbell Cup tournament to bring home the trophy. Well done to Emma Richardson and Molly Claassen who participated in the regional netball talent games. Also, Molly, Emma, Lilli, Jodie, Jasmine and Grace were all ball girls at the televised Team Northumbria netball match during the Easter holidays and did our school proud! Well done girls. Year 8 Netball Well done to the year 8 netball team who, after a rocky start, gained confidence and made great progress with their skills, going on to proudly achieve joint 3 rd position in the year 8 Bedlington Blyth netball league. Skiing in Les Menuires The year 8 s had a fantastic weeks skiing in Les Menuires. The weather was great and everyone successfully achieved a certificate for their skiing skills. We had some great falls and impressive jumps but thankfully we made it home safely. The pupils enjoyed mixing with Lindisfarne and Belford Middle, participating in evening activities, such as bum boarding and the Winter Olympics challenge. We are already looking forward to next year. Under 11 Football Well done to the under 11 football team for reaching the semi-final of the county cup. In the last round they were narrowly beaten by Cragside Primary, 2-1, but showed great determination and effort. Year 5 Football Congratulations to the year 5 football team who won the Blyth Bedlington Sports competition and will now represent Meadowdale for our area in the county school games.

4 Dance Well done to the girls who participated in the Blyth/Bedlington Sports Partnership dance festival. Everyone did extremely well putting on an excellent performance that all were impressed by, especially Maddison Kirkup who was brave enough to do an individual display. Miss Holden and Mrs Gair will be accompanying a group of our dancers who will be taking part in a dance festival at The Darlington Dolphin Centre on Saturday 16th May. Year 6 pupil cuts off hair for charity Next month, Ellie in 6LG is going to cut off her long hair and donate it to the Little Princess Trust. The charity makes wigs for children who suffer from alopecia or have loss their hair due to cancer treatment. Anyone wishing to support Ellie with her fundraising efforts can send donations into school and you will be added to her sponsorship form. Visit to Whitley Memorial In March, some of our year 8 pupils went to Whitley Memorial First School to take part in a year 4 French lesson. The visit was in preparation of our French day. It was a success and everyone was very enthusiastic and enjoyed the experience. Bravo! Poisson d Avril! - Transition day On the 26th and 27th March, Meadowdale sported French colours to welcome year 4 pupils from our feeder schools. Parents, grandparents and friends joined pupils in our French café where they enjoyed a French breakfast. Pupils learnt about the French tradition of Poisson d Avril, made chocolate Easter nests and took part in an Easter egg hunt. Over 30 year 8 pupils were involved and helped running the event. They didn t fail to impress our visitors and proved themselves to be worthy Meadowdale ambassadors. Comments from visitors You all made this morning fantastic, Merci, What a great idea, fantastic café, Well done, Once again, WELL DONE MEADOWDALE French trip - 22nd May 2015 With four weeks left before our departure, we are getting ready for our French trip to Paris and the Opal Coast. Parents have received the final itinerary and there will be an information evening on Tuesday 21st April, at 6pm. Bon voyage! Doodle Maths for Year 6 pupils Doodle maths is available free to all year 6 students in the run up to the SATs. Doodle maths is an individual learning system which identifies both a child s strengths and weaknesses, and is proven that with just 15 minutes use it can have a significant impact on their understanding of Maths. The App is available on the ITunes store, there is a ldirect link to this on our website. Students can log into the system with the same username and password as their MyMaths logins.

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