The Grand Return

 Hello and welcome back to the Dorchester Middle School Blog!

So, please could tell me where that week went and who made sure that half term feels like nothing more than a distant memory? Anyone?

I hope that you all had a good half term and managed to relax and enjoy the time off. We were so lucky to have those extra days weren't we? I for one was very grateful for them, especially as my Pet Teenager had to go to school for those first three days.

It has been lovely having the children back in school and even lovelier that they got back into the flow of the school week with relative ease.

Enough of my ramblings - on with Blog!

PTFA

On Wednesday, the PTFA had a very successful and productive meeting. It was lovely to welcome new members and to get together again in person. 

During the meeting, we voted in a new Chair - Matt Hirst and a new Vice Chair - Cat Rundle.

We cannot begin to thank our outgoing Chair, Anneka Gardner and Vice Chair, Kelly Samarasingha for all of their incredible hard work and dedication. In fact, we have had a few fabulous members who we have had to say goodbye to this year as their children have moved on to other school including Polly Kenway whose Candy Flossing skills were second to none.

Anneka very kindly joined our meeting via Zoom. In her car. Fantastic!

 

Message from Matt Hirst - new Chair of the DMS PTFA

The Parent Teachers and Friends Association exists independently to - and in support of - Dorchester Middle School. We have members from all backgrounds, bringing a variety of experience and skills, with our aim to add value to the time children spend at the school, and to benefit the local community.

Traditionally, the PTFA runs events to fund raise, with members planning and running these with the support of volunteers  and sponsors.

Due to recent pandemic restrictions it has been difficult for the PTFA to run traditional fundraising events, and a creative approach is now needed as we all live with a new normal. We are now actively recruiting members, volunteers and sponsors to work with us to plan and run safe events to provide much needed additional funds to make our children’s education more enjoyable and involve the local community.

Please contact us to be involved if you can bake or cook, help with refreshments, DJ at a disco, source prizes for fairs & raffles, run virtual events online, have creative /crafty skills, DIY, weed/ garden, fund-raise, design posters or websites, speak on the phone, run a meeting, put tickets in envelopes, or setup & takedown stalls for events, or simply if you have enthusiasm to be involved in any way!

Our next 1hr meeting is on Wednesday 15^th December at 17:30 in the DMS Library where we will discuss a schedule of events for the year ahead. New members are very welcome.

Contact us at PTFA.dms@gmail.com or through our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/2514380885500426/ to add your skills, experience, contacts and energy to ours!

Thank you Matt.

One of the first fundraising events that we are going to participate in this year is the Casterbridge Rotary's Christmas Draw. Envelopes with tickets will be winging its way to you soon! 

Parkruns are Go!

                                          

Last weekend, a small group of us from Blandford, travelled to Dorchester to take part in the town's first ever Parkrun. It was a glorious morning despite the early morning hacking rain. To be there was such a privilege as you could tell that a lot of hard work and effort had gone into getting it off the ground.

Needless to say, I bumped into a few familiar faces...

The fabulous Naomi Mason who was the inspiration behind The Five Ways to Wellbeing.

I enjoyed my experience so much that my friend and I travelled to Weymouth this weekend to join our very own Miss Clements who was aiming to achieve a Personal Best (PB) which she did with bells on!

Needless to say, we bumped into a few more familiar faces... 

Well done to everyone who took part in a Parkrun this weekend. I am hoping that we will be participating in a Parkrun as a school in February 2022. 

Watch this space... 

Uniform

Whilst you all look lovely and smart for the majority of the time, I have noticed that uniform isn't always as spot on as it could be.

Trainer socks are not part of the regular uniform and if black boots are to be worn they need to be under a pair of trousers. There also seem to be rather a lot of trainers being worn instead of school shoes. We do appreciate that shoes break or are grown out of and that they can't be replaced immediately. If this is the case, please make sure that a note is put in the Home/School Diary. 

Expectations

Just a quick reminder to Year Five (and Six!) that we are expecting the following on a weekly basis:

* The Home/School Diary is signed every week. 

* Three signed reads every week.

* Homework is completed every week.

Our recent Stripes Assembly did show that the reads are rather lacking in Year Five so let's get on it!

Virtual Tour of the House of Commons

As mentioned in Ms Pluck's letter this week, we were treated to a virtual tour of the House of Commons by our local MP, Chris Loader.

It was a really insightful tour and I felt very honoured to witness it. When he went into the Main Chamber, it was so exciting to see Members of Parliament debating in real life.

Fingers crossed that we will get to see the real deal in the not too distant future.

Open House

It was lovely to see so many prospective parents and carers of Year Four children coming to visit the school over the last couple of weeks. Our Year Eight guides were excellent and gave the parents very thorough and insightful tours of our fabulous school.

Stripy children

It was with great joy that Miss Easton and I held the first Stripes assembly of the academic year. I was so pleased that so many children have earned stripes already. The Achievement stripes that we ordered should be arriving any day now so if you didn't get yours on Friday then we'll make sure you get them as soon as they are in the school. 

As previously mentioned, the reads were few and far between so I hope that Friday was a bit of a reality check for some of you. 

We read out the total reads per class and will check them again in a couple of weeks to see which class is in the lead.

Get reading Year Five!

Armistice Day

We will be marking this incredibly important day on Thursday 11th November at 11am as we do every year. 

Poppies are on sale in school and are being brought round to the classrooms by our Year Eight Prefects.

Worth a Mention Children

Huge congratulations to this week's fabulous Worth a Mention children. I am loving the reasons why your names have been included on the boards.

Let's start with Year Five this week: 

Now for Year Six:

Well done one and all!

Dr Ray

She's back! 

Dr Ray has returned to DMS and 5MW were able to attend her Sentence Clinic on Thursday. Although they were a little reluctant to begin with, 5MW soon got into the swing of it. Here is Macy during her drop in session with Dr Ray.

Due to the popularity of the clinic, we have had to take on an extra member of staff so look out for the arrival of Nurse Travers...

...and finally

Do you recognise these ladies? 

Answers on a postcard...

Well, that's it for this week. I hope that you all had a good weekend and that the week ahead is fabulous for you all!

See you next week!

Mrs Ray

(who took two teenage girls to Southampton on Saturday but still managed to have a quiet coffee in Ikea before she bought her bodyweight in napkins and tealights!)