Happy Easter!! A few random things!

1. Don't forget the POWSA Easter Egg Hunt and quiz: available from the office on Thursday!
2. We return after the holidays on Monday 15th April!
3. Last chance to return your parent questionnaire!
4. Home learning from the stone age week has been SUPERB!
5. Children: please keep reading and writing over the Easter holidays!

School Council visit to Aldershot

Representatives from the School Council, accompanied by Mr Farrington, Mrs Johnson and Mr Gibson visited our link school in Aldershot today. The children did a great job in making a presentation about our Ancient History Week. They did this with great confidence. Then the children worked co-operatively with children from Newport and Bellevue on a history quiz and a practical creative activity. We hope to welcome our friends from Aldershot to our school sometime in the summer term!

Parent/Staff Book Share

We are in the process of setting up a Parent/Staff lending area in our School Library. If you have any reading books/novels at home that you would like to donate to the library, please can you bring them
to the school office or to Mrs Dukes directly.
Many thanks.

No orchestra this week

Just to let you know that orchestra will NOT run this week. Apologies, but it will return the first week back after Easter for all players.
Thank you!

Mrs Mewett

Standing stone

Despite the mud and rain, a chosen band from each class helped Anthony to drag the standing stone into place. The ditch around the stone has become a moat! Next year more stones will be added to make a dolmen. It was all very exciting after a great deal of effort and co-operative teamwork when the stone fell into the hole we had dug. Horns and conch shells were blown and we cheered and clapped long and hard! 

Celebrating our stone!

This afternoon each class performed brilliantly in the hall. They used some ancient musical instruments, costumes and weapons and other artefacts to tell a story of a stone age hero! One of the dances was a hunting dance! Have a look at our cave painting of an aurochs in the corridor!

Mesolithic farming

On Thursday, despite the rain, the children carried on ploughing with our ard. Then we planted some onions and broadcast some spelt wheat. We hope to watch it grow over the summer! We have some more vegetable seeds to plant, so if any parents have some time to help to hoe and weed and sow, please contact your child's classteacher!

Parent questionnaires

Many thanks to parents who have returned your completed questionnaires. I shall be analysing these over the Easter Holidays so there is still time for you to complete and return yours before next Thursday!

Chalk figure

We have chosen a design by Thomas Hoskin in Year 4 for our chalk hillside figure on the slope near the roundhouse area. Watch it develop tomorrow! We shall also be planting wheat and vegetables in our ploughed area.

On Friday, we welcome back Kate and Corwen who will be leading our ceremony celebrating our stone age week with music, dance and story!

Ancient dance and music

Yesterday each class worked with Kate and Corwen to create a dance and musical story using ancient instruments. On Friday each class will be performing their dance to the rest of the school as we celebrate the "planting" of the first standing stone.

Stone age learning

Today we have started to dig a ditch around our standing stone: we'll be searching for archaeological evidence later in the soil. We also started some cave painting inside the roundhouse, using natural pigments from ochre and chalk.

We also started using an ard (a stone age plough) to make lots of furrows ready for planting some wheat and vegetables. The children were the pulling and pushing power!!!!!

Epic stone drag!!

Congratulations to all the classes who yesterday succeeded in dragging and rolling the one tonne stone from the top of Thomas Hardye playing fields all the way to the roundhouse area!!! Lots of effort and co-operation in evidence.
The stone will be "planted" in place this week and next year we shall be adding other stones to make a "dolmen" or burial chamber.

Orchestra this week...

Just a reminder that the instrumentalists I need this week for Orchestra are Violinists, Ukelele players and guitarists. If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups.

Easter Egg Hunt and quiz!

Mr Farrington has prepared another Dorchester quiz for families to complete over the Easter holidays. Every child involved in completing a quiz will receive an Easter Egg and the winning entry will get a special prize. For those of you who have participated in previous years, the route of the quiz will be different this year, but as usual, the questions will teach all the family something new about our home town!
Entry forms will be available from the school office from Monday 25th March for a small donation of £2 for POWSA funds!

School evaluation visit

On Friday we had a visit from Juliet Muir who is our School Evaluation Partner. Along with Robin Potter (our chair of the Curriculum Committee) she visited each of the classes during the course of the morning. I am happy to report that she was very impressed with the active engagement of all the children and with the way that staff are providing challenge and support for children of all abilities, which is the reason why our children are making such good progress at school.

Wizard of Oz

On Tuesday afternoon all the children will be watching a theatre production of The Wizard of Oz by M&M productions. This excellent theatre group wowed the children last year with their production of Tom's Midnight Garden and I am sure that their latest show will be just as good. I am pleased that we can provide opportunities for the children to experience live theatre.

Comic Relief Day

Many thanks to everyone for your fantastic support for Red Nose Day. As soon as your generous contributions are counted, we shall add them to funds raised at the One World One Country Cafe and send them off!

Ancient History Week

We are getting very excited about all the activities planned for next week with our friends from Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre. The one tonne piece of Portland stone has been delivered to the top of Thomas Hardye Playing Fields and on Monday we shall be all be helping to move it down the field, through our gate and into the roundhouse area! Hopefully, we may get some help from some students from Thomas Hardye and Dorchester Middle School. It's a communal effort just like building Stonehenge!

Orchestra this week

Just a reminder that we are now in the third week of orchestra (Thursday 14th March)

Those instrumentalists I need this week are Brass players, Drummers and recorder players. If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups. The recorder and ukelele players were super last week, I've been really impressed so far!

Thank you, Mrs Mewett

Dorchester Fun Run and POWSA

Some parents are involved in supporting the Dorchester Fun Run this year and are keen to get your support.


Join us for the Annual Dorchester Lion’s Club Fun Run and support the Prince of Wales School. This is a chance for great fun!!! 50% of funds raised go to the Lion’s Club Projects and 50% to your chosen Charity (i.e. Prince of Wales School). Run suitable for all. There is 1, 2 and 10 miles to choose from (1 and 2 mile suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs too!!).
Sunday 24th March 2013 at Dorchester Middle School
 Registration 9.00-10.00
 Fancy Dress Competition 10.00
 Warm Up routine 10.10
 1st run starts 10.25
For more information: www.lionsdorchester.org.uk
Sponsor and Registration forms available from: School office, Lions website, Dorchester Sports Centre & Goulds

Second week of orchestra

Just a reminder that we are now in the second week of orchestra (Thursday 7th March)

Those instrumentalists I need this week are Ukelele players and recorder players. If your child was selected by their music teacher they would have received a letter from me inviting them to attend. Children need to come to the school hall for 3.30pm, bring a snack and drink, and then we’ll rehearse. Finish time is 4.15pm; please come around the back of the hall for pick-ups. The violinists and pianists set an excellent standard for the first week, so the challenge is set!

Thank you, Mrs Mewett.