Full steam ahead!

 Hello and welcome back to the Dorchester Middle School Blog!

I don't know about you but I was convinced it was May? Every morning, I optimistically think Summer is approaching when, in fact, Autumn seems to have snuck into its place! Tsk! Never mind, I will look forward the sixteen day heat wave that is allegedly around the corner.

The Year Four to Five Transition process has well and truly started with Miss Easton visiting some of our Feeder First Schools which she has enjoyed enormously. The process continues next week and beyond with various visits and meetings booked in. It's all so exciting! We are also looking at the transition from year group to year group so that the children are ready and raring to go in September.

Without further a do, let's crack on with this week's Blog..

Worth a Mention Children

Huge congratulations to all of the children whose names appear on this week's Worth a Mention Boards. 

Let's start with Year Six this week:

Now for the turn of Year Five:

I just love all the reasons why these super duper children have been chosen.

Well done one and all, we are all incredibly proud of you!

The Big Ask

The Big Ask survey is the largest consultation with children and young people in England ever conducted. 

This is your chance to have a say on the things that matter to you. You can tell the Government what your life is like, what you want in the future and anything you think is holding you back.

The information that you provide will tell the people who are running the country or your local area what you think needs to happen to make your life better.

Here is the link for our school's age group:

https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigask/survey-9-12/

The survey closes on 28th May.

The Hall is alive with the sound of music!

On Friday, I was in our Meeting Room and was distracted by a rather magical sound coming out of the Hall which has been divided in half and is doubling up as a Key Stage Two and Key Stage Three Classroom. 

 

To my delight, I found 5MW having a rather wonderful time in their music lesson. 

I was incredibly impressed! 

Our Hero

A HUGE 'Thank You' to everyone who contributed to Friday's Non Uniform Day to support Mr Robert's fundraising for Target Ovarian Cancer.

I don't how much we have as raised yet but I will let you know as soon as the money has been quarantined and counted.

Here is the link to his Just Giving Page

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/matt-roberts23target?experiments=b2c_059_donate_to_yourself_v3&successType=StaticDonateButtonClick

It's not long to go before this epic challenge so it would be amazing if we could really boost his final total!

Wellbeing? Check!

Last week, I asked you to tell me what you and your family did when it comes to connecting with nature and 'de-stressing'.

Callum in 6PC's Mum contacted me with these very wise words:

Not advice as such but we find a walk in the woods to clear our head works a treat. It helps us relax,come together as a family and to talk more openly. This is us this week - we even hugged some trees!

Here are the pictures to show how it's done:

 

Gorgeous!

Conscience Alley

In Year Five, we are reading Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. For those of you who have read it, I think you will agree that it is one of his finest.

Here are some of 5CWT's predictions...

One of the activities that we completed this week was called 'Conscience Alley'. Someone takes on the role of the main character Michael has to make a big decision about his future. To help him do this, the children have to form two parallel lines. One side is 'for' and the other side is 'against'. As 'Michael' walks down the line, relative statements are made at him giving him reasons to leave or stay.

In 5MW - Kurtis was an excellent Michael...

In 5MR, each group had a terrific discussion and came up with excellent for and against statements.

We will now be writing a balanced argument based on this. 

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you have a lovely weekend and that the last week before half term is a good one.

See you back here next week!

Mrs Ray

(OK, who couldn't resist a sneaky selfie with Roy the Rabbit. Ahhhh....!)