Special delivery

The Nursery children enjoyed their visit to the Post Office in the town centre. They had their parcels weighed, paid the postage and took very good care of the receipts that they were given.

Fruit "cakes" in the Nursery

We are delighted that our Orme Nursery parents support our healthy eating policy.  The children really enjoyed these spectacular fresh fruit creations brought in to share as part of recent birthday celebrations.

Keeping healthy

The Nursery children visited a local dentist surgery as part of their `Keeping Healthy and Safe' topic. The dental staff were very kind and accommodating,they explained the use of all the equipment and checked the childrens' teeth whilst they were there.  

Bollywood fun

The Newcastle-under-Lyme Junior School Parents Association recently held another very successful Bollywood evening.  The popular event raised over £1200 for additional items in The Junior School, and the PA would like to thank parents for all of your support and to the staff at school who work so hard in the background.

A special thank you has to go to Gemma and Amy from the Academy for Performing Arts, their students and parents.  Both dance teachers were ill on the night, but the show still went on.

The two very young ladies who opened the evening with solo performances, Aarushi Sinha-Chawla and Nisha Chandrasekhar, were brilliant as were the Junior School children who closed the entertainment with the performance that they had prepared.

The parents and children of Newcastle-under-Lyme Junior School had a really fabulous evening.

Politicians of the future

Junior pupils in English Enrichment sessions have been working on improving their public speaking skills through a series of exciting debates. Using a combination of rhetoric, flattery and emotive language with a confidence that belied their age, the speakers debated such wide ranging and controversial issues as the purpose of doing homework and the ethics of keeping animals in zoos.  The final debate saw Mr Erian arguing against Shreya Sridharan in 5E (and his own personal beliefs!) that teachers should be replaced with computers.  Fortunately, Shreya’s eloquent, persuasive defence of the teaching profession guaranteed that, in the end, common sense prevailed.  Well done to all the speakers.  Politicians of the future?  There was far too much substance for that!

Mr Erian

U11 Girls crowned County Hockey Champions

The U11 girls A team enjoyed a very successful afternoon of hockey at this year's county round. They began with the tough prospect of facing their B team, but ran out as 3-0 victors. They went on to defeat St. Edwards school 4-0, Chadsmead 3-0 and finally Chase Academy 1-0. The B team battled hard against the same teams, and recorded three losses and a goalless draw. Earlier in the day the boys worked hard in all of their matches, enjoying much of the possession throughout their games; sadly, they were unable to capitalise on chances. The A team finished fourth with the B team sixth; particular congratulations to Ben Lewis for standing in as a superb goalkeeper at the eleventh hour, and some Year 4 boys showed great potential to be stars of the future. A fantastic day of hockey from all the children, but ultimately congratulations must go to the girls A team. They will look forward to representing Staffordshire and the Midlands finals at Highfields Hockey Club, Nottingham on Tuesday 30 April.

Miss Shipton

Chef School

3F recently became chefs for the morning, creating the most delicious
sandwiches.   This was the culmination of a topic to design a healthy
sandwich and everybody enjoyed preparing their ingredients and displaying
them attractively on their plate.   Several children tried the advanced
skill of creating tomato roses, however for others it was their first
experience of food preparation. The fillings included Coronation Chicken,
ham and cheese, tuna and sweetcorn.   The sandwiches were judged
'Masterchef' style and the three winners, Eva, Ilakiya and Oliver were
delighted with their prizes.

Mrs Farnsworth

Junior School County Netball Champions 2013

Congratulations to the Newcastle-under-Lyme Junior School Netball team who were crowned County champions this week. The girls beat 10 teams from Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire to take the trophy. The tournament took place at Northwood in Stoke on Trent and the girls were victorious against St Josephs Catholic Primary of Lichfield in the final. The team thoroughly deserved their win and have put in a great deal of practise throughout the term. It is the second year running that the school have been crowned County Netball Champions.

A Hive of Activity





The Junior School was abuzz with the return of the Spelling Bee this week. After a preliminary classroom-based test to identify the strongest spellers in every form, the finalists in each category battled fiercely over three rounds in the Hall until the winner was unveiled.  Our valiant wordsmiths were required to attempt increasingly challenging spellings in front of an enthralled audience.  Huge congratulations must be extended to all the competitors for tackling everything that came their way, from surprise to traipse and from diamond to rhododendron.

A special Well Done, of course, to the Spelling Bee 2013 Champions: Hiya Ray (Y1/ Y2 winner), Zagham Farhan (Y3/ Y4 winner) and Urvashi Nanda (Y5/ Y6 winner).

Anyone desperate to improve their own spelling ability or simply keen to have a go at some tricky words should check out the Times Spelling Bee website and head for the Mini Bees section.  Happy spelling!

Mr Erian

Junior School Pupil "steps up"...

Newcastle-under-Lyme Junior School Year 5 pupil, Eemeli Heiskanen, has won the opportunity to take penalties on the pitch at The Britannia Stadium on April 27 2013 before the Norwich City FC Premier League game.  

Eemeli initially won the Newcastle-under-Lyme Schools penalty shootout competiton that took place in games lessons in January and has now gone on to win the North Staffordshire finals.  

A thrilled Eemeli is looking forward to taking the penalties on the pitch of the team he supports and is a season ticket holder of.  There are certain to be several of our staff, parents and pupils in the audience to give him an extra cheer too!

Eemeli beat children from schools across North Staffordshire.  There were some very good players at Clayton Wood, where the finals took place, and many of his challengers are currently attending football academies and centres of excellence in the area.

Also competing in the final were Jack Kyte and Gabriel Watkins in the Year 6 competition and Neelakshi Vasudevan in the Year 4 event. Neelakshi was the only girl in North Staffordshire to qualify for the finals.  They all took some great penalties but were just edged out of the Stoke City experience by some top class finishing. 

World Book Day

Children throughout the Junior School and Orme Nursery were extremely excited today, as it was time to ditch the uniform and don some exciting attire to mark 2013's World Book Day. Our theme of myths, legends and fairy tales saw a host of characters walk through the doors, from Robin Hood to Pocahontas; James Bond to Mummy Bear. An absolutely superb effort was made by children and staff alike. We hope the pupils will enjoy spending their £1 book tokens in the coming weeks.

Miss Shipton

 

The art of handwriting...

Just before half-term, the Junior School held its second Handwriting Competition.  Entries were submitted by all pupils from Reception to Year 6 with children copying out poems of their own choice in their best handwriting.  And what neat handwriting it was!  Form teachers selected the three neatest poems in each class while Alison Keay, Senior School Head of English, had the unenviable task of deciding on the overall year group winners.  Congratulations to everyone who entered the competition and, in particular, to the following children: Kiru Rajkumar (RG), Harini Arulraj (1S), Rubens Leonard (2S), Maya Uppal (3M), Robert Jones (4S), Amar Segal (5Q) and Eleanor Burnham (6L).  In this exciting age of rapid technological advancement, it is reassuring to know the art of producing beautiful cursive handwriting is flourishing at Newcastle-under-Lyme Junior School!

Mr Erian