Testing Times

 Hello and welcome back to the Dorchester Middle School Blog!

I hope you are all well and enjoying the long-awaited arrival of the most glorious weather that we have had for a long time? Sunshine really lifts the spirits doesn't it?

Another busy and extremely hectic week has come to an end and I for one am rather delighted to have a few days off to enjoy catching up with myself. I would imagine that many of you are feeling the same way? It's all systems go on our return so this feels a little bit like the calm before the storm.

In order to see how much progress the children have made and to see where the gaps in the learning are, we have recently carried out a variety of assessments that will continue for different groups of children after half term.   

I was very impressed with the mature and postive way that the Year Five children approached the tests. No prizes for guessing what the teachers will be doing this half term...

Our Year Four to Five Transition continues to gather momentum. We have just three and a half weeks before our new recruits come up for Transfer Day on the 1st July and we cannot wait to meet them in person. 

Although our current Transition information on the school website may be a little out of date as it is very Covid-orinetated, it is stil worth looking at. 

Right, without further ado, let's crack on with this week's Blog!

Award winning children

Friday was award day in Year Six! Sophie in 6PC and Olivia in 6TH both won prizes for competitions that they had recently taken part in. 

Sophie's was for achieveing Bronze in the Primary Maths Challenege and Olivia's was for her Earth Day poster.

Congratulations girls!

Goodbye Mrs Gaffney!

It was with a very heavy heart that we said our fond farewells to the fabulous Mrs Gaffney. Over the thirteen years that she has worked at DMS, she has made an incredible impact on the children in the school. Her caring nature, kind heart and practical approach to everything is second to none.

Words cannot begin to express how much we will miss you but we wish you all the very best for your new career. 

She is off to pastures new and will be working with families in East Dorset within the realms of Early Help. 

Our Hero!

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our Non Uniform Day last week to help support Mr Roberts and his fundraising for Target Ovarian Cancer.

 

£582 was raised on the day and many more of you have kindly contributed to his Just Giving Page. 

Thank you to Isobel and Zac for organising it.

One half of the epic fundraising duo - Isobel.

As you might have seen on the school's Facebook page, he successfully finished his epic challenge in just over 13 hours which is just incredible. 

Well done Mr Roberts - words cannot begin to tell you how incredibly proud we are of you!

United we stand!

On Thursday, I had the priviledge of being invited to a meeting at St Osmund's to meet with Assistant Headteacher Mr Biddle and Naomi Mason who is the county's Health Programme Advisor about the Five Ways to Wellbeing, something that, as you know, is very dear to our hearts.

 

It was such a good meeting as we were looking at ways on how we can build on the work that we have achieved in our schools so far. I really enjoyed listening to and sharing the activities that have completed in our schools. 

There is no doubt that those ways to wellbeing are an excellent starting point when looking after our mental health.

Watch this space for the next phase...

Conscience Alley - 5CWT Style

I shared this activity with you on last week's Blog so 5CWT were rather looking forward to their turn. As it was such a beautiful day, we took it outside which was such a joy!

Mrs Hurst was an excellent Michael and listened carefully to all the arguments for and against. Unsurpisingly, she decided that she would go on the trip around the world and who could blame her!

Five Ways to Wellbeing

From torrential rain to glorious sunshine - we've had it all this week! 

My week started off running with RunBlandford on Monday and then finished with a beautiful walk around Poundbury with Mrs Whiting (I forgot to bring all of my running kit - tsk!). 

I have (hopefully) ticked lots of my mental health boxes. I got ACTIVE by walking and 'running', I CONNECTed with my friends and took NOTICE of how gorgeous our surroundings are. I have managed to GIVE - not only birthday/leaving presents but also my time. I have also LEARNt a lot this week, unfortunately sometimes it was the hard way!

How about YOU? What have you done this week and what will you do over half term?

Worth a Mention Children

As always, HUGE congratulations to those children who have found themselves featured on this week's Worth a Mention Boards.

Let's start with Year Five:

Now it's the turn of Year Six:

Cute alert!

Meet Luna. She belongs to Mr Jones and is all of ten weeks old. How gorgeous is she? Mr Jones whizzed home especially so that Mrs Gaffney could meet her. It wasn't long before Mrs Whiting got on in there and who can blame her!

Let's hope that we will see more of Luna in the not too distant future.

Sharing and Kind

You are such a lovely bunch. Mia in 5CWT handed her classmates sweets on Friday as it is her birthday next week. I know that Mia isn't the only child who does this so thank you to everyone who looks after their classmates by sharing treats and birthday joy.

Well, that's it for this week and for the next couple of weeks as this Blogger will be knee deep in marking test papers and English Books! 

I hope you all have a fabulous half term and that you all get the rest that you all so deserve. Get those batteries recharged and come back to school on Monday 7th June refreshed so that you are ready and raring to go for the last half term of the acdemic year!

Mrs Ray

(who bumped into a regular reader of the Blog on the Trailway on Saturday whilst out for a walk and they had such a lovely chat. The picture below is especially for you!)