New directions

Hello and welcome back to the Dorchester Middle School Blog!

I hope that you are all well and that life is treating you as well as can be expected. As you can imagine, it has been another busy week at DMS but it is you - the wonderful children and parents of our school - that keep us all going.

We have all been enjoying connecting with everyone through our assemblies and the live Homebase Sessions that many of the HB Tutors have been hosting for those who are working at home. 

Next week takes our connecting with everyone to a whole new level when we start our live lessons. The school has been working incredibly hard to make sure that the technology we need is available which has been frustrating for us all hasn't it? At the end of day, we are in the hands of our internet so fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly!

Ms Pluck has sent out the timetables for all of the year groups along with her weekly letter:

 https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/dorchester-middle-school/UploadedDocument/223c1a76051143a294e8a3575943d89a/ms-pluck-weekly-update-letter-5th-feb-21.pdf

https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/dorchester-middle-school/UploadedDocument/d67b7c2bcf77490b82c489294388aa9e/time-table-for-pupils-at-home.pdf

The main aim is to streamline and unify the timetables of the children who are working at home, school and both so that we can accomodate elements of 'live learning' within the school day.

Like Ms Pluck says, next week is a trial so fingers crossed that it all goes according to plan!

Right, let's crack on with the Blog and see what has been going on in our fabulous school...

Children's Mental Health Week - Express Yourself

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in this year's Children's Mental Health Week. It wasn't quite the week that we had planned but it was so good to see so many of the children, regardless of where they were, taking part in some shape or form.

I hope that you found the suggestions that I sent out useful and that you were able to do one or two activities during the week.

Here are a few of the things that the children have been getting up to at home and in school...

Ivy's mushroom that was shared in our Year Six Assembly

.

Here are some of the things that Olivia in Year Six has been up to including writing a story for her little sister:

In school, I adapated a Circle Time to 'Row Time' which was great fun and we had a go at the 'Draw how you are Feeling' activity, the results of which are pictured below.

This is our display in 5 Durnover. I think the outline of my person (in the middle) looks like something that Matisse would have cut out and stuck on one of his pictures.

Dress to Express

On Friday, we marked 'Dress to Express' day by wearing bright colours that expressed how we were feeeling.

Finlay wearing ‘Blue’ while playing the blues to express his blue feelings through the art form of his choice - music!

Nell - a vision in yellow!

Meanwhile, in school...

Can you guess who the 'Lego Man' is? I reckon it's pretty obvious!

A huge thank you to the awesome staff who also took part in this event. I wore a bright pink tutu, sparkly rainbow socks and a green scarf on top of my black jumper and trousers. I got some funny looks when I went into Waitrose on the way home!

Assemblies

I held two really enjoyable assemblies on Monday and Wednesday for Year Five and then Year Six where our focus was Children's Mental Health Week and the theme of expressing ourselves.

We were delighted with the responses and feedback from the children in both assemblies. Year Six in particular were absolutely brilliant on the Chat Box as they shared all the fabulously creative things they are doing in Lockdown.  

Miss Clements (dressed as Wonderwoman!) held her Key Stage Two Assembly on Friday along the same theme of Children's Mental Health Week.

She even did the Wonderwoman Spin for everyone!

Mrs James and Ms Rooke held a virtual Homebase Assembly for their children (6EJ) who were at home. It sounded as though they had A LOT of fun and have lots of fun things planned for the next one.

It was lovely to see that Emilie and her dog Max were enjoying the Year Six Assembly from home.

The focus on Children's Mental Health does not stop once the week has finished, far from it. Please keep being creative and keep expressing how you are feeling - it is so important to keep going. Mental Health is just as important as physical health - please never forget that.

Next week's assemblies are:

Monday 2pm - Year Five Live (email invites have gone out)

Wednesday 2pm - Year Six Live

Thursday 2pm - Key Stage Three Live

The Five Ways to Wellbeing

So, what have you been doing this week? Creativity has been a key focus but what about the other ways that you can look after your Mental Health?

This last week I have GOT ACTIVE by taking part in the inter schools 5KM relay.

I have taken NOTICE of the bunnies and CONNECTED with them by allowing them to come inside more frequently. It looks as though Beryl thinks he is a cat now as this is his new favourite 'go to' place.

Mr Benham and I GAVE this week by making the bacon rolls for the staff on Friday and we LEARNED that it's not the end of the world if it's only two of us are available.

Charlie is dividing his time between home and school and look at what he's been up to!

To help with his wellbeing during lockdown, Charlie has been learning how to take care of horses with his mum. If he works hard and mucks out or grooms, he gets to have a ride on Magic, we call him Grandad. 

Out of this world!

In Year Five, Mrs Whiting is receiving some amazing solar sytems!

Ella's

Oakley's

Seb's solar system made out of pom poms!

This is what the children have been doing in school:

I'm over the moon to see what the children are producing! Well done one and all!

The Penguin Strikes Back!

The naughty penguin made a return to the classrooms to help the children with complex sentences this time. I fear that Pete is more of a distraction than a help though? He generated a lot of laughter and made the art of complex sentence writing a lot more fun!

RIP Captain Tom

On Wednesday night, at 6pm, Ms Pluck and I went out on onto Queen's Avenue to clap for the incredible Captain Tom. We were very proud to represent DMS. My brother-in-law worked with Captain Tom a few months ago and feels very honoured to have met him. 

He really was an inspiration and his memory will live on through his amazing legacy.

Harry Potter Night

I was delighted to receive this fabulous picture of Tilly taking part in the virtual Harry Potter Night organised by our brilliant Librarian, Mrs Spackman.

It is usually quite a highlight of the year so we were so thrilled that not only did Tilly take part in it, she also had a fantastic time.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Well, that's it for this week. 

Good luck for next week with accessing all the live lessons. Please be patient - technology isn't always our friend (I have had a war with virtaully every electrical devise and app in my house today!) so we need to be kind and understanding at all times! 

We all need to remember that it is a trial!

Don't forget that next week is a four day week and then it's time to put all the digital devices away for a week so we can recharge our very worn down batteries!

Mrs Ray

(who is about to embark on her virtual Winter Run 10km  - she should have been in London today competing. Sigh.)