Newsletters

Dorchester News -28th February 2025

Newsletter

28th February 2025

Dear Dorchester Families,

We hope you all had a lovely half-term break.  The children have returned to school full of enthusiasm for their learning and lots to tell us about all they got up to during their holidays.

This term is set to be another busy one with lots in the diary already.  In a couple of weeks' time we have our Challenge Partners Quality Assurance Review.  This involves three Senior Leaders from schools across the country visiting us, along with a Lead Reviewer, to look at our provision at Dorchester, celebrating our successes and identifying anything that might make us even better.  It is always a useful process and we very much look forward to welcoming the team to our school.

We also have Parent Consultations this term (26th and 27th of March), so please make sure you have the dates in your diary and make your appointment when the bookings open - we will let you know via School Gateway when this will be.

There is plenty in store in the run-up to the Easter break too - we will be marking Holi, Ramadan and Eid and Lent and Easter with special assemblies and workshops; Book Week and World Book Day; Superhero Day for our Nursery children), and of course, thanks to our hard-working FODS team, we will be running our Mothers' Day shop and Easter Egg Hunt, as well as our new event, the Quiz Night, on 7th March.  Lots to look forward to....

Can I please remind parents that the Spring Term School Fund donations are now due.  If you haven't paid yours yet then we would be really grateful to receive it - school budgets are tighter than ever and these contributions really help us to continue to provide those little extras for our children that bring the curriculum to life.  You can make the payment via School Gateway.  Whilst this is a voluntary donation, it really does make a difference.  Thank you for your support.

Enjoy the weekend.

Cathy Bell 
Headteacher

 

28 Feb 2025
Guess the sweets in the jar!
How many sweets do you think there are in this jar? If you think you know the answer, bring in £1 next week, and Hazel and some of our Oasis children will offer you a list of numbers to choose from (100 - 650) and the winning number, or closest to it, will win the entire jar! You can enter as...
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28 Feb 2025
Faith and Culture Ambassador's Ramadan Assembly
Our Faith and Culture ambassadors delivered an informative and delightful assembly to the children in KS1 and had several parents come along to watch also. Perfectly timed since Ramadan begins for Muslims today! The ambassadors spoke clearly and confidently after a few practices together, and were k...
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Sports News

28 Feb 2025
Netball Matches vs Cheam Common
Having had a well-earned, successful first group stage of the league last term, we progressed through as winners of our group to the top pool for this second half. This pitches us against the top teams from the other groups and so we knew that this would prove difficult and that we may find the game...
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28 Feb 2025
Sitting Volleyball
On Friday 14th February, a group of children from Years 5 and 6 took part in the Sitting Volleyball competition at Avenue Primary School.
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Friends of Dorchester School

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FODS Quiz night is fast approaching, Friday 7th March! Don't miss out on your chance to win lots of fantastic prizes! We have £120 cash up for grabs for the winning team!

We will also have some fantastic raffle prizes up for grabs:

  • Chanel goodie bag.
  • Tesco hamper of goodies.
  • Wine tasting at Majestic.
  • Hairdressing gift voucher.
  • Jewellery.
  • Beaty products.

Ticket price includes hot food; order your ticket now via Gateway. Tickets are on sale until end of day Monday 3rd March, unless capacity is filled before this date. Book now to avoid disappointment; once capacity is filled we will be unable to sell any more tickets. If buying tickets for more than one person, please complete the transaction for one ticket before adding another. Only 1 can be purchased per transaction. Make a team with friends, or we can create a group for you. A fun-filled evening for all, with something for everyone in the quiz!

Why not give it a go? You could be our big winners!!

Once you've purchased your ticket, a form will follow with food choices.

Hot food included (1 per ticket):

  • Burger & fries.
  • Gourmet fish finger burger & fries.
  • Veggie burger & fries.
  • Chicken burger & fries.
  • Hot dog & fries.

Any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at dorchesterpta@gmail.com

We can't wait to see you all there!

Do you know about Your School Lottery? Dorchester Primary School is part of this fantastic lottery. This lottery has been set up specifically to raise money and make a difference for our children! It's a fantastic way to bring parents, carers, teachers, and the wider community together, in partnership with our school, and at the same time give something back. There are lots of amazing prizes to be won, your support is greatly appreciated, and we wish you good luck! To sign up or find out more information, please visit the website via this link: https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/dorchester-primary-school?fbclid=IwAR2UqkYQ4Yf79s9ZZul-tgcgLtJp9McVlXXqWutUrjklVom85O1EppaUonM

 

We have been made aware of an error with Amazon & eBay while using easyfundraising, please ensure that your basket is empty prior to shopping, or it will not register the use of easyfundraising. Thank you for your continued support.

Easyfundraising currently have a promotion on so FODS will get a bonus £2 for every person who installs the app and signs up to support us via it by 28th Feb. If you haven't already, now is a perfect time to sign up! Please sign up to help raise funds for our wonderful school! https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/dorchesterpswp/

If you aren’t already, please follow us on Facebook where we keep you up to date on all things FODS! Find us at: Friends Of Dorchester School PTA

Learning Highlights

& Peek of the Week

28 Feb 2025
Nursery: How can you use your super powers to help others?
This week in Nursery, we have been reading different superhero stories and thinking about different superhero characters. We have been thinking about the different superpowers that heroes have and how they use their powers to help people. We have been thinking about how we can help each other. The c...
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28 Feb 2025
Reception: Why do animals hibernate in winter?
This week the children in Reception have been learning about animals that hibernate and why they need to. They have built shelters for the animals themselves and collected water for them to drink in case the animals were thirsty while in hibernation. In Maths, they have been practising different way...
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26 Feb 2025
Year 1: What did the first castles look like?​​​​​​​
Our highlight of the week was creating towers out of tubes in Art!
Read more
28 Feb 2025
Year 2: How can I do different jobs in a group?
This week the children took part in a team drawing exercise, where they had to think about how to communicate and describe pictures to another. They took turns with the different roles in their team and fed back to each other what went well and what they could try differently next time. We discus...
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26 Feb 2025
Year 3: What route does the River Nile follow?
This week we have been acting out the route which the River Nile follows.  We followed its journey through the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.
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26 Feb 2025
Year 4 - How do we categorise different types of animals?
To be able to talk effectively about animals, we have discovered this week that we need to be able to categorise them. We have learned a fun song about BRAMF - birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and fish. We have also started learning about Ancient Greece and rehearsals have started for our Spring...
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28 Feb 2025
Year 5: What did you learn from the Space Dome?
The children loved the Space Dome this week. It was fantastic to experience a planetarium from the school hall. The children learnt lots of facts about the planets and the earth's rotations around the sun. It was a fantastic way to launch the topic. Please make sure you check out the reel o...
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27 Feb 2025
What were the '5 Evils' at the end of World War Two?
Our History topic this half term, continues straight on from where we left off before the holiday. We have been looking at the state of Britain at the end of World War Two, and the children were surprised to realise that despite a great victory, Britain was broken. The children have been finding out...
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Safeguarding and Pastoral Care

Need-to-know: how to set boundaries and build positive relationships

Balancing the various demands parents have to cope with isn't easy and all parents can come under pressure or stress from time to time.

This guide shares practical advice and tips for positive parenting techniques that work well for children - from babies to teenagers. These techniques encourage better behaviour and help parents find out what works for them and their child.

The guide is also a valuable resource for services and professionals offering parenting advice to new parents and those caring for young children or teenagers.

https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/leaflets/positive-parenting

Lunch Menu

Our Spring menus are available here. 

Upcoming Events

To view the school calendar click here.

Potential Dates for start of Ramadan
All Day
From 28 Feb until 01 Mar
28
February
World Book Day - Children dress as book character
All Day
06
March
FODS Quiz Night
7:00pm – 10:30pm
07
March
Holi
All Day
14
March
One Y5 Class to Easter Experience
9:30am – 12:00pm
20
March
Two Y5 Classes to Easter Experience
12:00pm – 3:00pm
20
March
Mothers' Day Donations - Non-Uniform Day
All Day
21
March
Buttercup Class Assembly
8:55am – 9:25am
21
March
Parents’ Evenings with Book Fair
All Day
From 26 Mar until 27 Mar
26
March
Parents Evening
3:30pm – 5:30pm
26
March
Mothers' Day Shop
All Day
From 27 Mar until 28 Mar
27
March
Yippy's Easter Raffle Ticket Sales
All Day
From 27 Mar until 02 Apr
27
March
Parents Evening
3:30pm – 5:00pm
27
March
Parents Evening
5:30pm – 7:00pm
27
March
Cake Sale - Years 5 and 6
3:15pm – 3:45pm
28
March