Latest News

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.

We had 3 teams of children representing Dorchester Primary School in  the Quiz Club general knowledge area heat today, linking up with schools all over the UK online. The children bravely took on a range of extremely challenging questions, and with 88 teams competing in total, we came 54th. Well done to all the children who took part!

Great News - The Egg Raffle is back!

TOTF team won the second round are into the quarter finals! DPS 60, Brookfield 49. Brookfield staff praised Dorchester children’s honesty when the scorer made an error in their favour and they challenged it. Well done everyone - we eargerly await the next round!

Every Thursday, I (Mr Dennis) teach Maths in Orange class, and I am consistently blown away by the outstandingly thorough note-taking and mathematical diagrams that Lydia and Emma both draw on their whiteboards throughout the learning input. They do this simply because they want to, and it is staggering what they produce! As a result, I simply had to share this with the rest of the school - these two are ambassadors for hard work and dedication to Mathematics and deserve recognition for their incredible efforts. Well done!

Number Day 2024!