On the 28th of January The super cool optimistic jumping noodle squad (Luke, Josh, Dylan, Daniel, Ben, Jake and Aadil) visited Age UK Gateshead for our KEY project. We want to help the elderly by providing them with a thrilling afternoon of fun and entertainment with, singing, a game of bingo (maybe 2), a raffle, dominoes and some nice food.

On the 12th of February, a regular visitor at GEMS, David Burn, came to school to talk to the year 8s about the important topic of knife crime. He started by asking the pupils a question, “Could carrying a knife be safe?” It was a mixed response shown by a show of hands. However, the same question was asked at the end and there was a completely different result. He talked about the idea that people had that carrying kept you safe and then proved that the idea was wrong and would put you in a dangerous situation. After a couple of stories and a demonstration, the year 8s watched a video about a boy who was killed and the importance of the law, Joint Enterprise. That law says that if you are connected to a crime, you could get arrested. The main idea that we all learnt was that carrying a knife will leave you in a dangerous and difficult situation, no matter what if going on. At the end, no one thought that it was a good idea to carry a knife around.

By Katie and Leila, 8HC

Four students from each year group (including me!) were chosen to go to the Apple store on Tuesday 22nd January. We were all picked by our ICT teacher because of our work in computing lessons since September.

We travelled by metro to Eldon Square and arrived back to school for lunch at 12:30pm. One of the staff from the shop gave each of us a new iPad, Apple pen and headphones (BEATS!) to use while learning about  three of their apps in more detail: GarageBand, Procreate and Clip.

On the 1st February some Year Fives were chosen to represent the school by playing basketball.

We played all day and it was very enjoyable. We went on a mini –bus and came back on one. This event took place at the new Newcastle Eagles training and matches centre. It was huge and lots of schools went there. Our school had 2 teams, mine and Emma’s team were, Dan, Isaac, Olivia, Theo, and Sam. The other team included, Owen, Archie, Amelia, Lola, Annabel, Conner and Abdul (but he was sick so he didn’t come.) Both of our teams played around 8 or 9 games, and luckily one of our teams got into the semi-finals.

On the 22nd of January, a group of Year 8 musicians went to the Academy for a transition day. In the morning, the Year 8s were split into three groups and went to practise a song. These songs were Rolling in the Deep, Hound Dog and Mustang Sally. Once they had practised, they performed  to the rest of the year 8s.