Dear Dorchester Families
Happy New Year and welcome to the Spring Term. I hope you managed to spend some quality time with family and friends over the break. It has been lovely to welcome the children back to school this week — they have returned, as usual, with great enthusiasm, especially for their new topics.
Year 6 have also enjoyed a wonderful day today on their Come Dine with Me project. The quality of food they produced was truly inspiring — our children clearly have very sophisticated tastes!
We have welcomed some new members of staff this term. Mrs Ahmad is joining us as a Class Teacher in Rose Class, working alongside Mrs Patel. We have also expanded our learning support team with Afia (Early Years and Year 5), Katie (Year 1), Lucy (Year 6 and Year 2), Nye (Year 3 and Year 5) and Hazel (Early Years and Year 3). A warm welcome to you all. Our support staff do amazing work with our children every day, and we are fortunate to have such a wealth of talent and experience working alongside our teaching team to ensure the very best outcomes for our children.
Our teachers spent a productive Inset Day on Monday focusing on how we can further embed oracy across the curriculum. Oracy is how we teach children to speak and listen effectively — to articulate their ideas, deepen their understanding and engage with one another. It focuses on fluency, vocabulary development and listening skills, building confidence and communication across all subject areas. We want our children to learn in talk-rich classrooms, as this is such an important life skill, particularly in an age when so much time can be spent in front of a screen.
It will, of course, be another busy term, so please check the calendar and Peek of the Week for dates relevant to your child’s year group(s). Do also note the information below about the Spelling Bee, which is rapidly approaching.
Have a lovely weekend.
Cathy Bell
Headteacher
