Training Day Friday 25th October

Friday 25th October is a training day for all staff. So children will have an extended half term holiday break until Monday 4th November.

In the morning of the Training Day, we shall be working together with our colleagues in all the other schools of the Dorchester Area Schools Partnership to consider our action plan for developing the literacy skills of all our pupils.  

POWSA Autumn Fest

Hope you all enjoyed the event on  Friday evening! Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to organise it and to everyone who volunteered to help in some way!

This year is the school's 20th year so I hope we can organise a really super party sometime in the summer term 2014. Any creative and innovative ideas are welcome!

Parent View

Can I please encourage parents to give us your opinions about the school through Ofsted's Parent View?

This is available via the hyperlink on the school's home page of the website. Click it to proceed to register, when you will be sent a password to your email address so you can log in and answer 12 questions about the school.

Parent View is not intended to replace the annual paper questionnaire we send home each March /April.

Parents' evenings

Thank you to everyone who attended our parent teacher consultation evenings this week.  Please remember that if you were unable to make either of the evenings, to arrange a mutually convenient time to meet your child's classteacher.

Apologies if anyone had to wait a while for your appointment. I am sure you understand that keeping to 10 or 15 minutes per child is difficult for the teachers!

Bling a Bike!

We would like to thank you all for the marvellous response to "Bling a Bike" day. There were 65 bicycles and 35 scooters that were colourfully decorated at our parade during the school assembly which was a bright and spectacular occasion. 

Our Sustrans Bicycle Officer, Jonathon Dixon, was most impressed by all of the wonderful "blinging" and was very complimentary about the effort that had been put in by children and parents. There were a selection of children who received prizes for their work, though I must say it was very difficult to select winners from so many fantastic entries.

We will let you know about our next "Sustrans Bike It" event.

In the meantime, why not consider walking, scootering or cycling to school on a regular basis!

After School Club Activities w/b 14th October

Here are the activities that we will be doing in After School Club this week:

Monday - Football with Alex.  Making an autumn leaf mobile to take home.

Tuesday - Sport with Elliott.  Making a leaf crown for you to wear.

Wednesday - Sport with Elliott.  Create a large piece of art using leaves outside.

Thursday - Sport with Elliott.  Cooking pizza baguettes.

Some ideas to help you with Bling a Bike Day!

Bling your Bike Ideas

All ideas below were collected from various Bike It officers, which hopefully will give you a few ideas to get started with!

The possibilities are endless, but it’s also important to make sure the decorations don’t obstruct the controls of the bike.

§         Search for ‘scraper bike’ online and look at the images for some great wheel decoration ideas

§         Lots of pipe cleaners and ribbons for weaving between spokes and around frame (of course making sure not to get in the way of any moving parts)

§         Plastic drinking straws. Split up the side and put on the spokes (this was very popular and looked very effective with bright colours)

§         Stickers. All sorts for putting on helmets and vinyl stickers for placing on the bike frame.

§         Tinsel and feather boas. Attach with cable ties and cut the ends short so it won’t come undone too easily.

§         Lengths of fabric cut into long strips and weaved in between spokes and around the frame.

§         Cardboard cut outs with one placed each side of the bike and attached with cable ties. Obviously this needs consideration so as to avoid clogging up moving parts and so on.

§         Print outs of popular cartoons and bike images, laminate and cut out, punch holes and then cable tie or use pipe cleaners to tie onto spokes and frame. Also really good if you can use a laminator on the day and laminate the pictures drawn by the children to attach to their own bike.

§         Flags! Bunting with lots of different flags to cut off and use or get children to create their own flags. Can be attached anywhere, but it looks good if attached to a thin piece of bamboo so it can be attached to the back of the bike and wave in the air as they cycle.

§         Use modelling clay. Makes great dust caps.

Bling a bike day!

“Bling a Bike Day”

Yes that is “Bling”, although we would like you to “Bring” your bikes too!

On Tuesday 15^th October we will be holding an event to promote “Being Safe by Being Seen” when out on your bikes and scooters. We will have a competition to see who can make their bike or scooter extra colourful and bright,- so that it really stands out!

The children may score extra marks for having bright, colourful clothing that they can put on when parading their “blinged”-bike.

Children who would like to take part in the competition should bring their bikes or scooters to school on the morning of Tuesday 15^th October. We will be asking Jonathon Dixon, our local Sustrans Bike Officer, to judge the competition. Winners will be decided during our school assembly at 10.10 am.

It is important that any materials added to your bike or scooter should not be in the way of moving parts, and that your bike or scooter can still be wheeled along in the parade without any difficulty.

Duncan MacBean Prince of Wales Bike Champion!

Whoops!

Whoops, when we did the planning for the activities for After School Club we forgot about half term!!! Therefore the activities planned for the 28th October will take place in the week beginning 21st October. Those activities planned for the 21st will take place at a later date.  Hope this does not create too much confusion! 

We hope that the children who have attended so far have enjoyed the activities and we look forward to seeing you again.

Once again sorry for the confusion.

The After School Club Team

Our Harvest celebrations!



Wonderful harvest gathering this year!

Thank you for all the harvest produce brought in, also the wonderful cakes and breads which were for sale in the Harvest café during the afternoon. The children created some wonderful food in class too! We hope some of you got to savour their delights? If not, ask your child what they cooked and what they enjoyed trying?

The School council decided that they would like all proceeds to be sent to help children in other countries whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. We will endeavour to find the right avenue to send this money and will keep you posted.