We will not be beaten!

 

Hello and welcome back to the Dorchester Middle School Blog!

I am so sorry that technology has, yet again, defeated me. Sigh.

I keep being denied access to the Blog. Double sigh.

By the time I have (hopefully) published this Blog the Platinum Jubilee weekend would have been and gone as would have the half term break. I hope that you and your families had a wonderful week off and enjoyed not only that glorious sunshine but also the opportunity to have a bit of time off and a chance to relax and unwind after a few frantic weeks.

I have LOADS of fabulous pictures to share with you this week so, without further ado, let’s crack on with this week’s offering…

It’s Showtime!

In Year Six, we have been looking at The Tale of Three Brothers as a stimulus for writing dialogue. The children got into small groups and made Shadow Puppets so that they could perform the story, adding in the dialogue.

This was an excellent starting point and I am looking forward to seeing what the children produce in their own re-telling of the story.

Vocabulary Challenge

Every week, every child in the school learns two new words. As a school, we are working hard to expand and develop the range of vocabulary of the children and this new initiative has been a great hit!

Mrs Jeffery, our School Librarian, has set the children a challenge. If they can spot the word/s in their Reading Book then they can win themselves a rather lovely Book Mark.

Here are a few of our winners. 5MW had a clean sweep and won all of the bookmarks that were on offer that week.

Dorchester Royalty

Miss Easton, Miss Sharpe and I had the pleasure to visit the Prince of Wales School before half term for our annual Team around Transfer Meeting.

We thought it was rather lovely of them to put the flags out especially for us but it soon dawned on us that it wasn’t actually for us!

It was so lovely to see Ms Brown and Mr Spracklen again. We had a really productive morning and I can’t wait to meet the Year Four children in person in the next few weeks.

Did someone say cake?

There hasn’t been a cake sale in school for at least two years and my word, they have been missed, haven’t they? The queues were phenomenal and every single cake was sold.

A huge ‘thank you’ to all the kind souls who brought in the most incredible selection of cake and to the kind souls who bought in (and ate) the cake.

I’m not sure how much we raised for the chickens but of you see them wearing gold jewellery and eating the finest chicken feed known to man then you know it was a success!

Lights, camera, action!

As I was coming back from helping at the Cake Sale, I heard a lot of excited children working together and having fun. Yes ladies and gentlemen, fun!

On closer inspection, I could see that they were making films. Mr Duffy told me that they were creating animations and he was really pleased with how well the children were working collaboratively and achieving excellent results in the process.

Should Steven Spielberg be shaking in his metaphorical boots?

Jubilee Jamboree

The Friday before we broke up was, quite frankly, a fabulous day! The patriotism that the children demonstrated was second to none which was evident in the sea of red, white and blue that cascaded through the school.

In the afternoon, we all trooped up to the field, heavily armed with picnics, ready for the afternoon’s festivities. Ms Pluck delivered a fabulous assembly and her words about the Queen and her years of duty and service really resonated with many of us.

I was lucky enough to see the cake competition entries before the winners were announced and I was incredibly impressed with not only the high quality of the entries but also the originality and creativity.

The judging was a very hard job indeed and poor Ms Pluck wanted to choose every single one of them but didn’t have enough prizes. However, every child who entered came away with a yummy bar of chocolate.

A massive well done to the children whose cakes were in the top three but especially to the winner, Rosie, whose corgi was exceptional.

Huge congratulations to everyone who entered - you were amazing!

Once the formalities were over, it was picnic time! It never ceases to amaze me how there is always room for a yummy picnic, despite having had lunch just an hour before. Maybe we have a ‘picnic stomach’ that we were not aware of?

What a fabulous way to spend an afternoon – well done Team DMS!

 

Worth a Mention Children

With the excitement of Platinum Jubilees and half term, not all of the Worth a Mention Boards were completed before half term but the majority of them were so let’s start off with Year Five:

Now for the turn of Year Six:

A huge well done and congratulations to every single child whose names were on the board  - brilliant!

Goodbye Mr Davis

It was with great sadness that we said ‘Goodbye’ to the lovely Mr Davis on the last day of the half term. He has been an absolute star and if you were lucky enough to have him in your classroom, you will know what I mean.

I would like to wish Mr Davis all the very best and who knows, we may well see him again when he is a fully fledged teacher.

Summer Fair

Please remember that our PTFA Summer Fair is being held on Friday 8^th July 3.30pm – 5.30pm. Raffle tickets should have come home the week we broke up for half term so please rifle through your children’s bags to check that yours have come home. We have some cracking prizes on offer so they are well worth buying.

On Friday 1^st July, we will be having a Non-Uniform Day to support the Fair. Further details to follow nearer the time.

 

Well, that’s it for a few days. Fingers crossed that the production of the next Blog is smoother sailing than the last two!

Have a good week everyone and I’ll see you back here soon!

Mrs Ray

(who went to Parkrun and saw a few familiar faces. Poor Mr Benham took pity on Mrs Ray and ran with her - he was very kind as was Harriet who stayed with us throughout. She also thought she would share a couple of pictures of her soggy Platinum Jubilee Street Party!)