Dear Dorchester Families,

Happy New Year!  We hope you enjoyed a wonderful break and that those of you who celebrate had a joy-filled Christmas.   As lovely as a break is, I'm sure you are delighted that the children are now back in school and can return to a bit of routine.

We have new staff to welcome to the school this term.  Mr Rayner has joined us as Class Teacher in Emerald Class.  Mr Rayner has taught in Sutton schools before but has most recently been teaching in Spain.  We are delighted to welcome him.  The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a returning familiar face in the office as Tracy Mullins has rejoined us in a part time Office Administrator role (having previously been School Bursar before her retirement from that post) - it is wonderful to have her back.

We also have a number of new children to welcome to our school community.  A big Dorchester welcome goes to Amelia, Aulon, Bruno, Cruz, Darleen, Elodie, Hashvitha, Hassan, Jabril, Marwa, Sebastian, Tia, Varshika and Zayyan who have joined us in Nursery, and to Jay (Amber Class), Maria (Emerald Class), Sanaya (who has re-joined us into Green Class - welcome back Sanaya) and Aaryaa (Sapphire Class).  We hope you have had a fantastic first week at Dorchester and we look forward to getting to know you and your families over the coming weeks.

 The Spring Term has started with a bang!  The children are certainly well rested and eager to get on with their learning.  Do take a look at the Class Notes below to see all the exciting learning that has been going on across the school.

Of course, learning isn't restricted to our children, and our staff kicked off the week with an Inset Day centred around the way in which we currently engage parents in their children's learning, and importantly, how we can improve in this area.  Thank you to all the parents who completed our Parental Engagement Survey ahead of the Inset Day; your feedback was extremely valuable in guiding our thoughts and helping us to begin to formulate a strategy to implement over the coming terms.  You can read more about the survey outcomes by clicking on the news article below.

Do note that the cold weather is due to continue into next week, with some sleet forecast to add to the fun - let's hope we get some snow for the children to enjoy too.  Please make sure that your child/ren's coats, hats and gloves have name labels in them so we can get them back to your child if they go astray - Yippy is doing a great matching job with lost gloves this week but it is so much easier when they are named.

Important - If you are looking for a Reception Place for September 2024, the deadline for applications is Monday 15th January.  Late applications are only considered after all the on-time applications have been processed, so it is important that your iapplications in on time. 

Enjoy the weekend.

Kind regards

Cathy Bell
Headteacher