5th July 2024

Dear Dorchester Families,

A huge thank you to everyone who helped at our Summer Fair last week, and to those who came along to enjoy the fun. We were blessed with glorious weather once again, and the atmosphere was amazing. Of course, these events wouldn't happen without our wonderful team of volunteers - manning the stalls and setting up/clearing down. We are grateful to all of you. I haven't yet had a total funds raised figure, but the FODS committee will share this with you as soon as they have calculated the profit.

A group of 8 mathematicians headed to Oxford University last Friday to take part in the Quiz Club Maths National Final. Out of the 34 teams from across the country participating, just 4 were from state schools, and 2 of those teams were from Dorchester Primary! What an amazing achievement! Furthermore, both of our teams finished in the top half of the finalists. They had an inspiring day in Oxford too - perhaps some of them will attend university there in the future.

Over the next week, you will receive your child's end of year Record of Achievement report. We are delighted with the progress the children have made this year. Please make some time to share the highlights from the report with your child/ren so that you can jointly celebrate their successes.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards

Cathy Bell
Headteacher

News

05 Jul 2024

Year 6 End of Year Performance Success

Huge congratulations to all of Year 6 children and staff for the collective efforts and incredible outcome of their wonderful performances this week. It was so obvious that the children really enjoyed performing, and all their hard work truly paid off. It was an utterly brilliant, hilarious and impr...

05 Jul 2024

Squash Festival in Purley

This was a brand new event for this year and was a follow-up competition to the squash festival and multi-sports events, earlier in the year, that we took children along to. Our team of four squash players played against St Mary’s, Barrow Hedges and Foresters – eac...

04 Jul 2024

Nursery: What was your favourite part of pirate day?

Our highlight of the week was Pirate Day on Tuesday. The children enjoyed finding out about real life pirates from History. They practised using their positional language to direct each other to the treasure. Our treasure hunt was very exciting and when the children found a gold coin, they were able...

05 Jul 2024

Reception: What are you most looking forward to about moving to Year 1?

A Highlight for Reception this week was watching the Year 6 production. They sat right at the front of the audience and were superstars, listening beautifully and clapping in all the right places! Well done children.

02 Jul 2024

Year 1: What is the difference between an evergreen and a deciduous tree?

Our highlight of the week has been meeting and visiting our new classes and teachers!

05 Jul 2024

Year 2: What can we do to protect our environment?

Our Geography and PSHE were linked this week, as we explored how climate change affects the environment in Southern Africa, and what we can do about it. After a very thoughtful discussion on how climate change is affecting the lives of people, plants and animals in Southern Africa, the children made...

04 Jul 2024

Year 3: What songs did you enjoy in the Year 6 production?

Another busy week in Year 3 as we continued with our Science topic about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We had a discussion in class as to whether recycling or reusing is best for the environment and the children came up with some lovely ideas! We were also fortunate enough to watch the Year 6 performance...

05 Jul 2024

Year 4 - So what did the weather forecaster say?

These lyrics are famous from Louis Armstrong's song "Jeepers Creepers". Now, I don't care what the weather man says, When the weatherman says it's raining You'll never hear me complaining. I'm certain the sun will shine. So what has the weatherman been say...

02 Jul 2024

How do you demonstrate the Dorchester Values?

The children all enjoyed meeting their new teachers on Wednesday and are very excited about being at the top of the school. They are all demonstrating the Dorchester Values in everything they do in order to be brilliant role models to the younger children in the school. What a fantastic Year 6 cohor...

05 Jul 2024

Which was your favourite song in our production?

What a performance! The children were absolutely fantastic and put on an incredible show. They have worked so hard since Easter, to pull this off, learning lines, songs, dance routines, stage management and using lighting and technology as well. They have also learnt about teamwork in quite a s...

FODS News

The School's Summer Fair 2024 was a massive hit once again, we hope everyone enjoyed themselves!!

The FODS Committee - Mandy, Louise, Clare, Kirsty, Becky, Zuzanna & myself (Jackie)would like to say an absolutely massive thank you to all the parents & carers for all your continued support! We couldn't do any of this without you. Thank you for coming along to the Summer Fair to support the school, all the amazing donations in the lead up to the fair, to those who volunteered their time either in the lead up to the fair, during it or afterwards, thank you so so much. We really appreciate all the help!

A big thank you to the school choir for the beautiful performance; what a lovely way to start the fair! Also to Pure Vibez Dance Co. for an amazing dance performance!

We'd like to thank all the amazing external stalls who joined us, Mini Sleepers Sleepovers, Viv’s Craft Corner, Guilty Pleasures Cakes, My Slime Workshop, Fun Fest Worcester Park, Happy Harmonies & Thomas Duret - Boy who Crochets.

A massive thank you to Darren Altman for being fab once again on the mic doing all the announcements & entertaining the crowd.

Massive thank you to all the lovely school staff members who helped us Mrs Bell, Mrs Hall, Mr Dennis, Riad, Mrs Cucharo, Mrs Thackwell, Carol, Annabel, Debbie, Mrs Rankin, Coach Carol & to all the lovely others that helped. Thank you to lovely Kim for letting us prep & store food in the kitchen. Also to all the wonderful ladies in the office for being super helpful in the run up to the fair!

Another massive thank you goes to all the fantastic businesses who donated such great prizes to our Summer Fair Raffle, we're sure all our winners are very happy with their fantastic prizes!

Lastly we'd just like to say once again a massive thank you to all involved for making the 2024 Dorchester Primary School Summer Fair such a great success!

Watch this space for an announcement of money raised for the school!

Please remember we have daily ice cream sales after school. Please see poster below. (only on dry weather days)

Safeguarding and Pastoral Care

Are you worried about a child?

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/spotting-signs-child-abuse/

If you think a child could be at risk of significant harm, you can call the children's social care team at the council in Sutton (Go to their website)

020 8770 6001 (Monday to Friday, 9am and 5pm) 020 8770 5000 (out of hours)

Always call 999 in an emergency