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In the lead up to National Talk Like Shakespeare day, coming up on Tuesday 23^rd April (William Shakespeare’s birthday) the language ambassadors got together this week to learn a bit about the history of the English language and Shakespeare's impact on it. They realised just how much of his language, and particularly, his phrases he created are still very much in use today - like 'all that glitters is not gold' or 'I have not slept one wink'. We also practised speaking in old English accents for a bit of fun too!

Next week, in their classes, the language ambassadors will support their class teachers in teaching about William Shakespeare and his linguistical impact on the English language. The activity the whole school will be taking part in will be for children have the chance to learn about how to create their own wonderfully verbose Shakespearean insults - what better way to celebrate the Bard!

JLT have been working hard liasing with children at school, FODS, governors and SLT to get this outdoor area redesign happening soon.

The old maze, now cordened off and unusable, is taking up precious space in our playground. So, JLT figured it would be the perfect opportunity for all of the Dorchester community to be involved in the redesign process. This is what it looks like currently.

This Easter, we are tasking all children at Dorchester who wish to take part with designing what their ideal outdoor area in place of this maze could be. Some ideas which have floated around out JLT meetings have been a sheltered outdoor comfortable reading area, but also some suggestions of a large sandpit! One thing it must include is the tree which as you can see is not going to be going anywere - otherwise, this is a blank canvas for creative ideas. One element which we do feel should be included also is the fact that this will be a sheltered space due to children every year in the height of Summer that there are not enough shaded spaces on the playground - so it needs shelter!

We would love to hear what our Dorchester children have in mind, and so they all have until the 29th April to submit their design ideas to the school. This could be a 3D drawing, a birds eye view diagram, it could include a written explanation or simply a labelled picture! Think, what would be a fun, useful and enjoyable space for all children to make use of.

You have until 29th April to submit your design. After this date, JLT will look over all the designs and use these to determine the best course of action for initially redesigning. 

Happy creative designing! You may either email your designs to ddennis14@dorchester.school or bring them in to hand to your teacher.

Please find attached the March 2024 Sutton Youth Newsletter.

Please see below for the final order of performances for next Wednesday. The order is as follows:

1. KS1 Choir performance
2. KS2 Choir performance
3. Recorder Club performance
4. Music Ambassadors performance
5. Aryahi, on guitar, Year 6
6. Unai, on piano, Year 4
7. Scarlett, on piano, Year 5
8. Nuwaira, singing, Year 5
9. Lisa, on piano, Year 3
10. Dylan, on guitar, Year 4
11. Jasper, on piano, Year 3
12. Ora and Unai, singing, Year 4
13. Dominic, on guitar, Year 6

Short break

14. 4pm - Drama Tree Performance

Families wishing to join just for the Drama Tree performance may choose either to come into the hall at about 4pm, just before Drama tree begin when there will be a short break, or they may choose to come for the entire concert from 3.20pm. All are welcome to join as audience members for all performances.

We will not ask for food and drink contributions this time around since there was not really time to indulge in the donated treats in truth, what with all the wonderful performances to see and listen to - so just bring yourselves!

We are very excited to see what the afternoon event will bring, and thanks to everyone in advance for offering to bravely perform in front of an audience, which as we all know does take some courage. We look forward to welcoming as many parents and families as possible to come along and support what should be a wonderful afternoon of live music again.

The whole school were very privileged to be the audience to Hanisk and Saffiya, both Year 6 children and Faith and Culture ambassadors, who spoke eloquently about Ramadan to the whole school. Several children in the school who are Muslim will be recognising this special time of the year currently, and it was wonderful to hear all about it. The girls were extremely informative and presented in a very mature manner. Ramadan well wishing cards were also delivered today, again, by our faith and culture ambassadors.

Clickbait, hyper-partisan opinion, and completely false information are running wild across the internet.

This just in! Breaking news! You don't want to miss THIS!

If you get your news online or from social media, this type of headline sounds very familiar. What's real? What's fake? What's satire? Now that anyone with access to a phone or computer can publish information online, it's getting harder to tell. But as more people go to Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and other online sources for their news and information, it's even more crucial that all of us -- especially children -- learn to decode what we read online. (Learn more about how children get their news and how they feel about it in Common Sense Media's report, News and America's Kids: How Young People Perceive and Are Impacted by the News.)

When fake news has threatened people's safety, tech companies have joined forces to crack down on the misinformation super-spreaders. But ad-supported networks are in somewhat of a bind, since they get money when users click on these stories -- so the crazier the headline, the more money they make. Most children and teens get their news from their feeds, so they need to learn how to view stories critically (and they should learn that skill anyway!). Even younger children can start to think about some key media-literacy questions. And as children get older, parents can help them become more sophisticated critical thinkers. 

Here are a few basic questions to consider whenever you and your children encounter a piece of media:

• Who made this?
• Who is the target audience?
• Who paid for this? Or, who gets paid if you click on this?
• Who might benefit or be harmed by this message?
• What is left out of this message that might be important?
• Is this credible (and what makes you think that)?

Older children especially might enjoy learning tricks to spot fake news. Here are a few things to watch for:

• Look for unusual URLs or site names, including those that end with ".co" -- these are often trying to appear like legitimate news sites, but they aren't.
• Look for signs of low quality, such as words in all caps, headlines with glaring grammatical errors, bold claims with no sources, and sensationalist images. These are clues that you should be sceptical of the source.
• Check a site's "About Us" section. Find out who supports the site or who is associated with it. If this information doesn't exist -- and if the site requires that you register before you can learn anything about its backers -- you have to wonder why they aren't being transparent.
• Check Snopes, Wikipedia, and Google before trusting or sharing news that seems too good (or bad) to be true.
• Consider whether other credible, mainstream news outlets are reporting the same news. If they're not, it doesn't mean it's not true, but it does mean you should dig deeper.
• Check your emotions. Clickbait and fake news strive for extreme reactions. If the news you're reading makes you furious or super smug, it could be a sign that you're being tricked. Check multiple sources before trusting.