22nd March 2024

Dear Dorchester Families,

We have had a lovely week this week with the sunshine peeking through occasionally and even some t-shirt weather for some brave enough! It was wonderful to see so many parents and carers join us for parent consultation meetings this week and thank you for your support with the book fair during both evenings – raising lots of money for the school as well as topping up your home libraries!

I am pleased to report that Mrs Bell’s planned operation has now taken place – she came back to school for a few days while she was waiting for it but it went ahead yesterday and she is home and recovering well. She will be off next week but I will be wonderfully supported by Mr Dennis and the rest of SLT in keeping things running smoothly until the end of term.

I am looking forward to the Spring Hats in our Spring Celebration Assembly and the tea time concert next week.

Remember that we finish at 1:30pm on Thursday.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Hall

News

22 Mar 2024

Teatime Concert Wednesday 27th 3.20pm - 4.15pm

Please see below for the final order of performances for next Wednesday. The order is as follows: KS1 Choir performance KS2 Choir performance Recorder Club performance Music Ambassadors performance Aryahi, on guitar, Year 6 Unai, on piano, Year 4 Scarlett, on piano, Year 5...

22 Mar 2024

Junior Leadership Team School Updates

It was brought to my attention that JLT information was not being posted on the newsletter - which is such a shame since they have been working hard on improving our school in our fortnightly meetings. So, expect fortnightly updates from now on! Highlights from recent meetings for all to know abo...

22 Mar 2024

Faith Ambassadors Ramadan Assembly

The whole school were very privileged to be the audience to Hanisk and Saffiya, both Year 6 children and Faith and Culture ambassadors, who spoke eloquently about Ramadan to the whole school. Several children in the school who are Muslim will be recognising this special time of the year currently, a...

22 Mar 2024

Netball and Personal Bests Week

A Team The A team have shown great resilience in their last two games, showing determination not to give up when the score lines have not been in our favour. A hefty 16-3 defeat against a strong Holy Trinity team could have led to a despondent approach to their match against Foresters but this wa...

22 Mar 2024

Basketball Champions!

The Year 5 and 6 school basketball tournament held at The Phoenix Centre on Thursday, 21st March, marked an exhilarating showcase of skill and sportsmanship. The event, now in its second and final round, brought together young athletes from various schools to compete for glory on the court. Dorch...

22 Mar 2024

World Water Day

Eco Club this week learnt about World Water Day Friday 22nd May 2024. This year’s theme is: We talked about the importance of reducing our water consumption, keeping our water clean and helping people across the world access the clean water we all have a right to. The children loved learnin...

22 Mar 2024

Nursery: What does a habitat need to be a 'good place' for insects?

This week in Nursery we have been reading the story ‘A Good Place’ by Lucy Cousins. In this book we learn that different insects need different things in their habitats to make it a ‘good place’ for them to live. Bees need flowers for nectar, ladybirds need leaves, beetles ne...

22 Mar 2024

Reception: Which is your favourite planet and why?

This week Reception have been very busy learning about all the planets in the solar system. They have learnt about what the weather is like on the planets, whether they are made of gas or rock, whether they spin fast or slowly as well as many other facts. The term 'gas giant' has been used m...

20 Mar 2024

Year 1: What are conjunctions and what conjunctions do you know?

Our highlight for the week has been making our giant sculpture of a spider!

21 Mar 2024

Year 2: Design a bug hotel - what features will your microhabitat need?

This week we have reviewed what a microhabitat is and how they might be different for a variety of animals/ insects. Microhabitats can provide alternative food and water sources, shelter and climate than larger habitats. Small animals such as insects, mice and frogs often make use of microhabitats w...

20 Mar 2024

Year 3: How did we use programming in D.T?

This week we have revisited our D.T and started to consider how programming can be used to enhance new products! The children very excitedly started to work on this and showed great resilience. They also had a brilliant Tuesday morning engaging in 'Personal Bests'. The children had a fantast...

22 Mar 2024

Year 4 - What would I see if I went in a church?

The highlight of our week was taking a short walk in the sunshine to visit Christchurch with St. Philips Church in Worcester Park. The Reverend Hannah set up an exciting treasure hunt for us to find different features of the church. We even discovered there was a squirrel and a frog hiding - we were...

20 Mar 2024

Year 5: What did you learn from making a pop-up book?

The children have been continuing to work on their D&T project 'Pop up mechanism in books!' They have been really busy bringing their designs to life and can't wait to show everyone their finished products.

21 Mar 2024

Year 6: What was your 'Personal Best' this week in PE?

The children have been enjoying Personal Bests Week in PE this week, where they have experienced a number of physical challenges in a range of different PE skills. Working as a year group also allowed them to collaborate with children from other classes.

15 Mar 2024

How can you help with this year's Summer Fair?

15 Mar 2024

Easter Raffle

Yippy has once again done us proud, putting together some amazing prizes for our Easter raffle. More information about how you can join in the fun below.

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD'S MENTAL HEALTH

Children face many pressures in modern society. Most do fine but some find it difficult to cope or do not get the support they need to feel safe, happy and confident. ?If your child is feeling distressed or troubled, they may express their unhappiness in a number of ways:

unable to concentrate
behaving out of character - irritable, sad, depressed, loss of interest/enjoyment
not sleeping, having nightmares, wetting the bed
becoming disruptive in class
getting fussy about food, or cleanliness, or developing eating problems
trying to harm themselves
having trouble making friends, or finding relationships at home difficult
becoming fearful and resentful
getting into fights and becoming aggressive
increasing alcohol/drug use

Equally, your instincts may tell you there is something wrong.
If you are worried about your child, you could:

talk to your doctor or health visitor - they may refer you to special services for children, young people and families
talk to your child's school - the school may be able to help sort out problems, provide extra support and make allowances for your child
contact social services to find out what support is available for your family

Find a mental health organisation in your area
Your local doctor (GP)

https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/supporting-others/childrens-mental-health/

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

FODS

We want to thank everyone who has purchased raffle tickets, the funds raised from the raffle go straight back into the school. Winners will be announced soon. Once again, thank you for your ongoing support! We are super egg-cited to share we will have an extra special guest joining us in school on Wednesday 27^th March! The Easter bunny will be visiting the children during the school day & all children will be able to find a Easter treat hidden by the Easter Bunny! Children will be taken in their classes to enjoy an Easter egg hunt. Please remember to send your reading grids for the sponsored reading challenge into us, either via handing into your class teacher or emailing us at dorchesterpta@gmail.com. Thank you & we hope you’ve been enjoying reading in different ways! Remember the class with the most grids filled & the class with the highest amount of squares ticked off will both get extra playtime!

SAVE THE DATE – Saturday 29^th June will be our FODS Dorchester Primary School Summer Fair. We will once again be having external stalls. If you or someone you know would like to have a stall at the fair, please email us at dorchesterpta@gmail.com

We love to hear your feedback & suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at dorchesterpta@gmail.com

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

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