Did you have a good Christmas?

Thank-you to everyone who engaged in our first ever Santa discussion on SWGfL Merlin, despite being very busy Father Christmas managed to reply to every child who wrote, sketched or filmed a message to him in the run up to Christmas. He would now like to know if you had a good Christmas? Father Christmas' new discussion on SWGfL Merlin reads: 'Ho Ho Ho! It has been a busy time but I am back safe in the North pole and the Elves have already started preparing for next Christmas. Did you have a good Christmas? Why not use this discussion board to tell others what I bought you in my sleigh and what you did over the Christmas holiday. Did you visit family? Did you play games? Did anyone see snow? I look forward to reading your replies!' Login to SWGfL Merlin now to join in.

Parent information sessions

As usual at the beginning of each term the teachers will be running information sessions about the term's learning and activities for parents. These will take place in the school hall from 9.00am until 9.30am as follows: Friday 6th January - Reception, Tuesday 10th January - Year 4, Wednesday 11th January - Year 1, Thursday 12th January - Year 2, Friday 13th January - Year 3. It is hoped that we can video these sessions to provide for parents who cannot make these times.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Thank you for your kind support for the children's Christmas Concerts this year! We are all very proud of the way the children performed! We look forward to a new term of exciting learning in 2012. Can I remind you that term starts on Wednesday 4th January, the day before being a training day for staff. Have a lovely family Christmas!!

End of term awards ceremony

Today we shall be giving out our half termly special achievement certificates and cups. These are for PE, Creative Arts (music, art, dance, drama), ICT, Maths and English. We shall also be awarding Citizenship Certificates to seven children in each class for their efforts in being Courteous, Co-operative, Confident, Caring, Considerate, Conscientious and Communicative. Finally, we shall be giving certificates to any child who has attended school every day this term!! Congratulations to all the children! Next term we are revamping our Praise Certificates for rewarding exemplary behaviour. The children will accumulate praise points towards Bronze (25 points), Silver (50 points), Gold (75 points) and Platinum (100 points) certificates. We are also introducing a new certificate for Home Learning, WOW What Writing! a classteacher's reward for good work and parents will receive slips to inform you when your child's work has been praised in our Wednesday Praise assemblies.

Prince of Wales School Calendar for 2012

The Prince of Wales School Calendars for 2012 have now arrived! Come and collect the calendars that you have pre-ordered at the School performances (in the main hall) or after school by the Office.  If you haven't managed to order one and you would like one, please come and speak to us as soon as possible.

Christmas Puddings - last chance!

Do you need a tasty pudding for Christmas? Hold off on that supermarket shop..... POWSA will be selling super tasty Plum puddings and Chocolate puddings from the 'Ulitmate Plum Pudding Company'. All proceeds will go directly to The Prince of Wales School. Buy them at the Christmas Performances on Tuesday 13th, Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th December 2011 in the main school hall.

POWSA Christmas Fair 2011

A big thank you to everyone that attended (and especially those that helped at) the school fair. We had a great time and managed to raise a fantastic £721.55!

Fri 16th Dec - School Carols

This year we have decided to end the term with 'Carols in the School hall' as we tried out last year. This is a lovely opportunity for all children, staff and parents to squeeze in and sing together! If you wish to join us then 2.45pm is the beginning of the Carols, please bear in mind that there might not be chairs due to numbers but we will gladly hand over a carol sheet and place words onto the screen! Lastly, if you are a musician and would like to come and play along please let me know as we love the opportunity for children to see people playing instruments. Many thanks, Mrs Mewett

Song for Dorchester

As a school, we are keen to support the 'Song for Dorchester' project currently being run by the Mayor of Dorchester. One plan to do this is to send a tag cloud to the mayor with our thoughts in and we would love you to help us with this. To add to the tag cloud, simply click the 'Song for Dorchester - Contribute Now' button at the top of school website homepage. This should take you to a form where you can give us your one word that describes Dorchester. The more popular a word is, the bigger it will appear in the tag cloud. Before sending the tag cloud to the mayor, I will share this with you all through our whole school blog. Thank-you for your help in advance. Mr. Spracklen

“Ho Ho Ho!” - Father Christmas on SWGfL Merlin

Pupils can now join a discussion started by Father Christmas using SWGfL Merlin. To access the special Father Christmas page, log in to SWGfL Merlin and click the ‘Father Christmas comes to Merlin’ title. On this page you will find a Christmas countdown, Christmas games and even a ‘Santa Tracker’. At the very bottom of the page you will see  a ‘Father Christmas’ discussion board’. He has already posted his first question asking you: “What you are doing to prepare for Christmas? Have you put up your Christmas tree yet? Have you started your Christmas shopping? Have you written me a letter telling me what you want for Christmas?”. Log in now to join the discussion.

REMINDER - POWSA CHRISTMAS FAIR! (TONIGHT)

Just a short reminder to say that the POWSA Christmas Fair is tonight (Friday 2nd December, 2011). The Christmas Fair will take place in the school hall from 3.30pm until 6.00pm. Teas and cakes will be available from the pre-school stall from 3.00pm onwards. We hope to see you all their supporting POWSA (The Prince of Wales School Association) and their fundraising for the school. Mr. Spracklen

Fri 9th Dec

All musicians who learn an instrument at The Prince of Wales School have been invited to play a Christmas piece in this informal assembly if they wish to. The main purpose of this is to give all the opportunity to play in front of an audience, work towards a goal and hopefully enjoy themselves and give them confidence for the year ahead!
The assembly will begin at 10.10am, if you and your child are happy for you to come along then of course you’re welcome to sit on a bench along the side of the hall and watch the performance. Any questions please see me. The music teachers should have made clear to children if they are performing or not. Mrs Mewett

Christmas Games for all on SWGfL Merlin

The '12 Games of Christmas Game' is now available for all pupils to play through SWGfL Merlin. This features 12 educational games and activities for children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. The games have a value of £29.99 and we hope that you will enjoy playing them free through SWGfL Merlin. P.S - If you have forgotten your login details, please see Mrs. Dukes in the Library or Mr. Spracklen who will happily get you a fresh copy.

OLYMPIC TORCH HAND OVER

On Monday 28th November 2011, pupils from our school took the DASP Olympic Torch to Manor Park. Carrying banners proclaiming the Olympic values, we walked across town to deliver the Torch. As we passed Dorchester Middle School, we were cheered on by all the pupils who had come out of lesson to see us. On our walk we were accompanied by members of the Thomas Hardye Student Voice. A large number of Manor Park children welcomed us on our arrival and watched the handover of the Torch.

Olympics dressing up day!

We all had a great time today, dressing up as Olympic competitors. We had equestrians (one of whom found controlling her horse extremely difficult!), gymnasts, swimmers, weightlifters, boxers and other martial artists, along with a sailor, a cyclist, many runners, football players (including a blind one), basketball and rugby players, tennis players, archers, a discuss thrower and even a hockey goalkeeper.  A snowboarder swept in from the winter olympics! A couple of kayakers managed to make it up the white water course!  Look out for photos on the front foyer display!

Many thanks for all your support, including your kind donations for POWSA's Christmas Fair, which is next Friday after school!

DASP Olympic Torch Arrives

Today (23/11/11) we received the DASP Olympic torch which is making its way around all the schools in the Dorchester Area Schools Partnership. Today children from St Mary’s Dorchester shared with us some of their learning about the Olympics. On Monday (28/11/11) November some of our children will be making their way across town to Manor Park. We shall be working with some of their classes and passing on the work we have done in making our banners. All of this will be filmed by students from Thomas Hardye School. For more information on the torch relay visit the dedicated page on the DASP website: http://www.dasp.org.uk/daspolympictorch.htm. Mr. Spracklen

MARK NEWTON - PARALYMPIC MEDALIST VISITS

Today Mark Newton, former pupil of Maiden Castle School visited us. Mark competed at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, winning a bronze medal in the 4 X 100m relay. Mark, who has cerebral palsy, led an assembly with Mr. Spracklen and unveiled a special piece of art work that the pupils in Year 2 have created. The work includes a picture of mark made of all the images of pupils in Year 2 using a mosaic effect. Mark inspired us to think about what we could become if we are determined enough. Following the assembly, Mark worked with unit roll and other pupils on a special PE session led by Mrs. Hibberd. Mark also visited each class and had a picture taken. We now all very inspired! Mr. Spracklen

DASP Olympic Torch relay

On Wednesday 23rd November children from St Mary's Catholic School will be bringing us the DASP Olympic torch! During the week our children will be learning about the Olympic Values through designing and making large banners. Some of our children will be carrying these along with the Olympic flame, to Manor Park School on Monday 28th November.

Olyorts Festival

On Wednesday 15th November six of our children from Year 1 through to Year 4 enjoyed participating in a sports day specifically designed for children with disabilities. They competed with each other and with older students from Dorchester Middle School and Thomas Hardye, learnt new skills and took part in some different sporting events! They had a great time! Well done to them all!

Olympic Dreams Week

On Wednesday 23rd November as part of our Olympic Dreams Week, a Paralympic Champion will be visiting the school!! Mark Newton has cerebral palsy and won a Bronze medal for Britain in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics in the 4 x 100 relay!

Ofsted Parent View

As you know at the Prince of Wales First School we are always looking for feedback and encourage you to provide this in a variety of ways. Whether this is through face-to-face conversation, comments on our class blogs or through our annual parents questionnaire, we always welcome your feedback. Building on this, we would now encourage you to go online and express your views using the new ‘Parent View’ website from Ofsted. This 12-question survey will help other parents as they make important choices about their child’s education and provide Ofsted with information about our school that will help them inform their priorities for inspection. The questionnaire does not allow free text comments but invites responses to a series of closed questions. To express your view, please visit our school website now and click on the parent tab and look for the link to the Parent View website. Alternatively, visit: http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/.

Home Learning!

We have been really excited this term by the number of children who have brought learning that they have done at home into school to show us! It is particularly exciting that the children have been motivated to do this themselves without being asked: they have just continued some learning started in class. Examples have been diaries, stories, poems and other pieces of writing. Two children even co-operated together to write some instructions about a little toy they had made together! We always try to reward the children who do this! Please keep it coming!!!

New praise certificates!

This week we are about to present a range of new praise certificates to complement our PE and Arts awards. These will be presented each half term for Maths, English and ICT to one child in each class who has demonstrated either very high standards or exceptional effort. We shall also be giving out seven Citizenship awards to each class to praise children who have shown the qualities of our Seven Caterpillars.

What have you been up to this half-term?

A big thank you to Jack in Year 2 who started a discussion in the whole-school area of our SWGfL Merlin pages asking: 'What are you doing this holiday?'. Why not share with Jack and others what you have been up to this half-term through adding text, an image, a video or a sketch? We would all love to hear what people have been doing as well as see the pupils practising their SWGfL Merlin skills. Mr. Spracklen

POW on the BBC!

On Sunday 30th October at 6pm, BBC2 will showcase excellence in education when it broadcasts the 2011 UK Pearson Teaching Awards ceremony – held at the Palace Theatre, Cambridge Circus in London. As you may know, pupils from our school made a film at the end of last term about our school and it has since been made a finalist in the National Teaching Awards, ‘Film my School’ competition. Pupils and staff will be traveling up to London for the awards ceremony and will be joined by host Lenny Henry at the event. Other stars presenting awards include Minnie Driver, Al Murray, David Morrissey and Beverley Knight. More information on the competition and other finalists can be seen at: http://www.teachingawards.com/film_my_school

Year 4 Game Designing (ICT)

In I.C.T, Year 4 have been creating their own video games using Purple Mash and 2DIY 3D. We completed these games in small response to the following news article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9503255.stm. Pupils in Year 4 can access each others games and play them using the links within a Year 4 discussion board. Two games you may particularly enjoy at home are Matthew's 'RED GAME':http://www.purplemash.com/members/programs/2diy3d/?play=3969 and Kai's 'INVISABLE ALIENS GAME': http://www.purplemash.com/members/programs/2diy3d/?play=4074. Comments welcome.

P.O.W.S.A Blog

P.O.W.S.A (The Prince of Wales School Association), now has it’s own section of the school website which includes a blog detailing all their latest news and events. To access the P.O.W.S.A page simply click the link labelled ‘POWSA’, at the top of any page within  the school website.

Harvest Festival reminder...

Just to remind all of our community that Harvest Festival is taking place this Friday (30^th Sept) in the school hall. KS 1 begins at 9.15am with produce sold afterwards. Then KS2 begins at 9.50am again with produce being sold afterwards. All produce for Harvest please take to the Servery in the morning; we will be awaiting you to begin placing onto our display areas.

If you are bringing in cakes, etc for the Harvest Café please take this to the classrooms; we will then collect this later on in the day when the hall is prepared for the afternoon. Harvest Café is open to parents, friends from 2.30pm and will close at 4pm, this is so hopefully pre-school children and parents can come over and join us. Children will be able to buy two cakes and a drink for 20p.

We very much look forward to seeing you, thank you for your help and support.

Mrs Mewett

CONGRATULATIONS!

The film that was made at the end of last term about our school was submitted to a national competition organised by the Teaching Awards. The film can be seen on our home page. We have just heard that our film has won through to the final three in the whole country! This means our school will be featuring again in this year's Teaching Awards ceremony at The Palace Theatre in London on Sunday 30th October! WELL DONE TO ALL STAFF AND CHILDREN INVOLVED!!!!!

Parent Information Sessions

You are invited to our parent information sessions in the hall or staff room from 9.00am until 9.30am on the following mornings: Monday 12th September - Reception, Tuesday 13th September - Year 1, Wednesday 14th September - Year 2, Thursday 15th September - Year 4, Friday 16th September  - Year 3.

SUMMER HOLIDAY NEWS!

Well done to Mr. MacBean and Mrs. Howell who are the first to respond to our discussion on SWGfL Merlin asking what has been your highlight of the summer holidays. Log on to SWGfL Merlin now by clicking the logo on our school website (www.princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk).

New SWGfL Merlin!

SWGfL Merlin has received a big update and now looks very different with lots of new features and extra functionality. Over the coming weeks Mr. Spracklen will be working hard to prepare our VLE (virtual learning environment) for the new academic year. In the meantime, why not log on to SWGfL Merlin in the usual way and check out what’s new? As one suggestion why not have a go on the V-Me editor which now includes new items like a space suit (see picture) or a pirate costume. To access the V-Me editor simply click the ‘Home’ tab followed by the ‘My Account’ button on the left hand side. For pupils in Years 3 and 4 (or 4 and 5 depending on how you now see yourself) click the ‘My Place’ tab to see you e-portfolio instantly. While you are on it why not update your blog with your latest holiday news? More ideas to follow, Mr. Spracklen.

New term start!

We wish all our Blog viewers a happy summer holiday!! A reminder that the children return to school on Wednesday 7th September (Monday and Tuesday are staff training days and the office will be staffed if you need school uniform or advice).

End of Year Awards Celebration

The hall was packed on Wednesday to see the award of special certificates and cups to the children. These were for 100% attendance over the whole school year, participation in the School Council, the award of the PE and Arts cups for the outstanding performer of the year, the five winners of our Gambian art competition, and finally our Citizenship awards. Next year we hope to introduce special termly awards for ICT, maths, writing and exemplary behaviour for learning to reward children's achievement in these areas.

Goodbye to Year 4!!!

Today we say a fond farewell to our 32 Year 4 children. All the staff offer our very best wishes to you all at your new middle schools. We hope you remember the lessons you have learnt at The Prince of Wales School!

Art Display

I hope you enjoyed seeing all the excellent children's work stimulated by our Arts Week with a Gambian theme. The hall display was a wonderful array of colour and creativity. I had the lovely task of choosing five winners in the competition: I could have chosen fifty! If you didn't get to see the display, photos can be seen on the foyer display. Mr Farrington

Open afternoon

Monday 18th July – 2.30pm – 4.30pm. Just a reminder of this opportunity! In the School hall will be a gallery of all the children’s work compiled through their work this week in school ‘Gambia week’. Also you are more than welcome to visit your current child’s class and look at their work and join in with this session. At 3.30pm you will then be able to go along and meet your child’s new teacher and discuss with them any questions that may have arisen. We look forward to seeing you Monday!

What do you think of Merlin?

How do you use it? What are your favourite tools? Are you batty about blogs?  Wild about wikis? Or dotty about discussions? As a pupil you are invited to tell SWGfL Merlin what you think of Merlin and in return for taking part they will put our school forward to win one of three amazing prizes! A year subscription to I am Learning for your school, the Merlin Team in your school for a day and a stunning digital photo frame. To take part in the survey please Click here. (You will need to sign in with your Merlin username and password).

An Olympian visits POW!

On Thursday 30th June we welcomed Sarah Ayton into school to talk to the children about what it is like to be an athlete who has successfully won an Olympic gold medal (or two!). Sarah spoke to the children about how when she was 6 yrs old she tried a few sports out and found that she particularly enjoyed sailing. Watching Sally Gunnell win an Olympic gold medal for hurdles was what drove her on to win her very own olypmic gold medal. She spoke about her boat, the sport itself, keeping fit and healthy and having goals and dreams. All the children and staff found her extremely inspirational .... and we all got to hold an Olympic gold medal - very exciting!

Comments Please

We have all been working hard on updating our Blogs at The Prince of Wales First School and have slowly been building momentum with this method of communication. We would now encourage you all to comment on our blog posts to support our work and encourage your child's class teacher and/or year team to keep blogging! To add a comment to any post simply click on the blog title which will load the chosen blog from www.blogspot.com.Next, click the 'comment' button below the post and enter your comment. You will need one of the supported accounts to post your comment, e.g. 'Google' and all comments will be moderated for content. Thank-you all for your continued support, Mr.
Spracklen

Exclusive Interview with World Champion

Lamb Cam has gained an exclusive interview with 5 time World Champion sheep shearer David Fagan. David Fagan is the world’s most successful shearer. He has set 10 world records and won the New Zealand Golden Shears contest a record 16 times. David has additionally won 5 world titles, 6 world team titles and 16 national titles. In total, David Fagan has won more than 600 open titles worldwide since 1983. Click Lamb Cam to see the exclusive interview now.

ParentMail

We are keen to streamline our communication with parents and reduce the amount of paper we use. We would like to encourage more parents to sign up to Parent Mail: collect a form from Kerry in the office! At the moment we have the following numbers of parents who have not signed up to Parent Mail in each class: Reception: 14, Year 1: 9, Year 2: 8, Year 3: 13, Year 4: 12.

Parent questionnaires

I would like to thank all the parents who returned our questionnaires. We are currently preparing our responses to your comments and we shall display the outcomes as usual in the school foyer. It is very pleasing that there is a universally positive view about what we are doing! Many thanks for all the lovely comments! I am about to start a similar process with the children as it is so important to see what their views of the school are as well!

Collection of children

Can I remind all parents of our ‘Collection of children policy’? If your child is to be picked up by someone different to normal routine then the year team must know this and write it on their communication board within the classroom. Likewise if you have booked a session with a childcare provider please let us know as soon as this is made. We cannot allow children to leave school with other parents/members of the community if the parent themselves has not expressed this either by writing, telephone message or verbal communication. Many thanks for your support in this matter. Mrs Mewett

New stock of Library books

We are in the process of renewing some of our library books. Dorset Library Service have delivered new topic books and these will be available for classes by the end of the week. We hope the children enjoy these new books.

POW Garden Allotments (Pre school field)

Can those parents and families who placed their names on the previous list and who still want a allotment plot please enter their names on the board outside of school and tick if they would be prepared to assist with the development and running of a plot holders group. We don’t know how many plots we will have yet so they will be offered on a first come basis. Successful applicants will be contacted via the details held in the school office.

Music on Monday's assemblies

At The Prince of Wales school we ask all children who learn a musical instrument to sign up to play on a Monday’s assembly when they feel ready to do so. It’s a wonderful opportunity in practising in front of others, the audience love to see what other children in the school are up to as do the staff and it really helps build upon their ability to play live. The music teachers are aware of this opportunity but if after talking to your child they wish to put their name down, the list is just outside the music room. Mrs Mewett

Fairthorne Manor

I just wanted to let Year 4 parents know how fantastic all the children were on their exciting trip to Fairthorne Manor! All the adults thoroughly enjoyed the children's company. Year 4's enthusiastic, friendly and positive attitude to each other and to the challenging activities was a joy to see. I hope your child has passed on some of their achievements and fun they had! Mr Farrington

Cranborne Viking Longhouse trip

I just wanted to let Year 3 parents know how successful our trip to Cranborne was last week. I was really impressed with the way that all the children participated in the range of activities which were often hard, physical work and it has been interesting talking to them about their favourite activity. We were also really pleased with how well the children slept which meant we could get the most out of the second day. The children were all a real credit to you as parents with their positive and co-operative attitudes. Mr Farrington

Year 2's Special Visitors

This morning (10/05/11) we had four special visitors in Year 2 who were passing on their way to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Before leaving for their magical tour the four golden ticket winners helped us with our Literacy lesson in which we considered Roald Dahl's description of the four characters. We considered both the internal and external characteristics of each character and tried to write down as many adjectives and similes as possible. For more pictures see the Year 2 section on our Merlin pages.