14th June 2024

Dear Dorchester Families,

What's great? What's not?

We are getting to that time when our school leaders, governors and staff work together to review our strengths, improvements and highlights of the current year and identify our focus priorities for the next academic year. Our starting point is always our school motto - how do we enable every child at Dorchester Primary School to 'achieve excellence together in a caring community'; how do we make sure that what we offer is strongly focused on academic excellence and also covers a broad range of other skills and activities; and how do we ensure that our children learn the behaviours, social skills and values which enable them to lead meaningful and happy lives?

Your views are really important as part of this process, and we value all of your feedback - both the positives and the areas for improvement. We would therefore be hugely grateful if you could spare a small amount of time to complete our parent and carer survey, which can be found at:

https://forms.gle/Ki6qJuZEWgpArEsE9

Responses to previous surveys have led to so many developments at school - the introduction of maths challenges, the Peek at the Week to ensure parents are fully informed about what their child is learning at school, the expansion of pupil leadership opportunities and so much more besides - all came about as a result of your feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We really appreciate your support.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards

Cathy Bell
Headteacher

News

14 Jun 2024

Quiz Club Finalists head to Oxford University!

We amazingly have two teams who have now qualified for the National Finals to be held at Oxford University later this month! What an incredible achievement! Credit also must go to our third team too who did themselves proud but didn't quite make it as far as the others.

14 Jun 2024

Year 6 in the Top of the Form final!

A monumental effort from our resident genius collective - AKA, Maahnoor, Minha, Matheo and Vihaan who have made it to the Top of the Form national final after a nail biting effort against All Saints Primary last week. This is the furthest we have ever got as a school (or at least as far back as Mrs...

14 Jun 2024

JLT Cancer Research Ice Cream Stalls

JLT met this week to discuss a charitable event which they could lead on and carry out for this term. After researching and discussing various different charities, our JLT voted and decided that we would choose to raise money for Cancer Research UK, after finding out that a few members of JLT had ha...

14 Jun 2024

Year 5 and 6 Sports Day Success

What a wonderful morning we had at Year 5 and 6 Sports Day today.

14 Jun 2024

Reception Sports Day Speedy Success

On Monday, all of the Reception children turned out in their house team shirts and ran, jumped, threw, balanced and persevered exceptionally well in all events! So many smiles, and so many talented young athletes we have! Thanks so much to all parents who came along to support, and of course to all...

14 Jun 2024

Nursery: What do you think the dinosaur did in Nursery?

We had a very big surprise on Thursday morning when we arrived at Nursery and found that the giant egg had hatched. Luckily, our CCTV cameras managed to film the whole event. When we looked at the film, we saw a very large and extremely noisy dinosaur walking around the nursery. The children were fa...

14 Jun 2024

Reception: Which was your favourite activity at Sports Day?

The children excelled themselves this week. It was their first ever Sports Day, and they took to it like they have been doing it for years! They also learnt how to make a fire in Forest School. I wonder if they can remember what three things are needed to make a fire? I will give you a cl...

12 Jun 2024

Year 1: What types of transport do you know and when would you use each one?

Our highlight of the week has been creating paintings using colours that we have mixed.

13 Jun 2024

Year 2: How have people adapted to the different climates in Southern Africa?

This week, we learned that there are lots of different climates across Southern Africa. In the hot and sunny areas, light and loose clothing to stay cool will be worn. They also build houses with materials that don't trap too much heat, so it's not too hot inside. In the cooler areas, more l...

13 Jun 2024

Year 3: What are horizontal and vertical lines?

This week the children have started to learn about our local area and the borough of Sutton, many of us were shocked at just how large a population it has. Every week the children have been taking part in their Spanish lessons and it is amazing to hear how confident they now are in talking about the...

13 Jun 2024

Year 4 - Read all about it!

Read all about it here! - well, in our Star Write books. This week we have put our best journalistic skills to the test in researching and writing a newspaper report about Henry VIII's break from the Catholic Church and his marriage to Anne Boleyn. In our research we discovered Henry and Catheri...

12 Jun 2024

Year 5: What did you learn about using a compass?

We have a great week back in the classroom after our wonderful camping experience. We are all a little bit more tired than usual, but that hasn't stopped us getting stuck into learning.

13 Jun 2024

How did this model help you to understand how the lungs work?

As part of our Science topic about the Circulatory System, the children have made models of a lung, using a plastic bottle and 2 balloons. They were able to use vocabulary such as 'diaphragm' , 'oxygen' and 'trachea' to explain this. It was quite tricky to stretch the ba...

FODS News

SAVE THE DATE – Summer Fair on 29^th June. 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.

A big thank you to all parents & carers of Year 5 for your cake donations & to those who volunteered to run the cake sale today!

Volunteer opportunities for the Summer Fair are now open. We really appreciate everyone's help, let's make this the best Summer Fair! All volunteers will be given 1 token to cash in on the day at the prize/toy stall as a thank you, you will also be added into a volunteer’s raffle prize draw for the chance to win a special hamper.

Please click on the following web link (or copy it into your web browser if clicking doesn't work) to go to the signup sheet:

volunteersignup.org/47L7Y

To sign up, just follow the instructions on the page. It only takes a few seconds to do. Thank you for volunteering!

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

Key dates:

Everyday after school, ice creams will be for sale outside the hall. £1 each, don't miss out! (Closed on wet weather days)

Monday 24th June: Bottle donations for the Summer Fair tombola in exchange for non-uniform.

Saturday 29th June: Summer Fair 12-3pm

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

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