Dorchester Middle School

Huge congratulations to the Year Five and Six children who were presented with ROARS certificates in assembly today. The range of reasons were beyond impressive. Who will be next week's recepient? Watch this space!

Thank you to everyone who attended our inaugural Community First event. A special 'thank you' to the fabulous pupils who were incredibly supportive from beginning to end.

Our keen artists have done it again!! We are so very proud of Mia H, Niya B (both in Y8) and Lily N (Y7), who have been selected as 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners respectively, of the intermediate category of the Young Artist Competition from the Casterbridge Rotary Club. Huge congratulations to all three of them on this wonderful achievement. They have now the opportunity to be entered into the District competition!!

Continuing with the different sporting opportunities we offer to our pupils, today we hosted the Inter School Tabletop Cricket Tournament. This event is also such fun to participate in and watch. The winners were Cheselbourne Primary but DMS was a Runner up which was amazing!! Well done to everyone!!!! Big thank you to Mr Roberts, Ms Bullick and the PD Base team for organising the whole event. We look forward to hosting it again next year!

Community first project 'We are looking forward to welcoming our families from 2:30 until 4pm tomorrow. We have been busy using our money donations to buy store cupboard essentials for the food bank. We hope that families will come along to visit us, collect what they need and have a tea or coffee. The professionals will be on hand to offer any support or advice. Mrs Stewart-Pope will be waiting to greet you at the year 6 entrance.'

Exciting news! We are launching our new 'Community first project' - a food bank and support hub for our families! This will be running every third Friday over the next few months. Our project is a support Hub and local support groups will be available to speak to regarding, housing, benefit support, bereavement, young carers, early help and many more for anyone who attends. We will be launching this event on Friday 23rd January, from 2:30 to 4:00pm in the Drama Hall at DMS, and everyone is warmly welcome to attend. This project is inspired by the many families we see struggling, especially at this time of year. I know personally what it means to grow up underprivileged my dad spent his childhood in care with no underwear, no coat, no shoes or socks. But through the love and support of others, he grew into a successful man. That experience has stayed with me, and it fuels my desire to bring hope and practical help to the families we serve. With such a fantastic team behind me, we believe we can make a meaningful difference to help any of our DMS families who may need some support at this time. Do come and support us as we launch this exciting project! Mrs Stewart Pope

The KS2 pupils were lucky to be able to listen to new children's author, and ex-DMS pupil Emma Green, talk about her new book 'The Not-so-Great Escape'. Emma told them all about herself and the story, gave them an insight into how to create a character, the children learnt lots of facts about alpacas and Mrs Sprules ended up blindfolded and standing on a chair! The children were thrilled to be able to get their books signed by Emma and a brilliant morning was had by all.

Parents of Year 8 boys football - Mr Palmer and the team are heading back from Wey Valley now - a little later than anticipated. ETA is 17.30 Apologies - the games ran on.

Dorchester Middle School is very proud to be participating in Children's Mental Health Week again. This year the theme is This is My Place. Once again, we will be encouraging members of our school community to participate in The Great Field Parkrun. We will be supporting the Junior Parkrun on the Sunday 8th February and the Saturday 14th February Parkrun. Further information about the week, including how to participate in the Parkrun events, will follow in due course.

On Friday, Key Stage Two came together to celebrate the fabulous children who received ROARS certificates this week. Huge congratulations to our ROARSome children!