Dedication

Hello and welcome back to the Year Five Blog!

It may have been a four day week but my goodness, we managed to pack it all in. Again.

One of the highlights of the week has definitely got to be our fabulous Open Morning on Saturday. The Year Five Guides were amazing and I was so proud of them. There were lots of lovely compliments from the families that were shown around but more of that later...

Worth a Mention Children

Oh dear.

I have failed.

Amidst all the excitement of Saturday morning, I totally forgot to take a photograph of the Worth a Mention Board. 

I am soooooooooooo sorry Year Five - I will right this wrong and make sure that I take the picture first thing Monday morning and then include it in next week's Blog.

You'll have to wait a few more days for your moment of glory but I promise you, it will be worth the wait!

Dorchester University

Our roving reporter, Ruby, took 'BlogCam' to her Dorchester University session this week and took this gorgeous picture of Dolly (Year 6) and Dexter. Isn't it a lovely picture? 

Thank you Ruby!

Saturday School

What a terrific morning! We had so much fun meeting our 'new recruits' and their families. There was such a fabulous buzz in the school - especially in the Tech Department where our visitors were able to taste biscuits amongst taking part in lots of lovely other activities including printing.

 

As you can see from the pictures, everyone had a good time and quite a few Year Fours, who looked rather nervous at the beginning of their visit, went home with a spring in their step and a relieved look on their faces!

A HUGE Thank You to all the children and staff who came in on their precious day off. Our Year Five Guides were amazing and we were all so impressed with the way you showed off our school. The staff were brilliant - thank you for giving up your Saturday morning to meet, greet, guide and reassure our new Year Five Gang.

What a team!

Golden Time

I am very sad to report that 31, yes, 31 children missed their Golden Time this week. That is a fifth of the Year Group. The expectations have not changed and some of these Golden Times could have been easily gained if the children had been a bit more organised.

Let's hope for a dramatic reduction in numbers for next week... 

Pupil Voice

Our Pupil Voice Representatives are brilliant. They are voted for by their classmates and give up their free time to represent and voice the opinions of their class.

This week, only four of the possible ten attended our Wednesday meeting but what they contributed was fantastic. We are in the process of discussing what we can do to improve our playground so it is important that everyone's views are taken on board.

Keep checking the daily notices to see when the next meeting is. 

Well, that's it for another week. I'm going to be heavily involved in next week's Year 6 SATs as my lovely English Group (6LS) are sitting them. 

We wish all of Year Six the very best of luck for next week, they'll be absolutely brilliant as they are such a terrific group of children.

See you back here next week for a double-dose of Worth a Mention Children as a starting point!

Have a good week everyone!

Mrs Ray

(who marshalled White Star's 'Love Station' with some of her Runblandford Buddies on Friday night - the theme was 'The Day of the Dead'. White Star are the same people who organise the Dorchester Marathon and Half Marathon so if you know anyone who is running, they're in for a treat!)

I would like to assure you that this is not my normal 'Friday Night Look'!

Sunny, sunny, sunny!

Hello and welcome back to the Year Five Blog!

Oh my! What a glorious week both and in out of the classroom! There is something about sunshine that is incredibly therapeutic, don't you agree? It puts everyone in a good mood which can only be a positive thing, right?

Anyway, here goes for the latest installment of the wonderful world of Year Five...

Worth a Mention Children

Huge congratulations to this week's Worth a Mention Children.

What an impressive range of reasons for being up on this rather prestigious (and unique) board. Well done to one and all - brilliant work!

Dippy the Dinosaur in Room 4!

Well, not quite but it was a rather realistic version!

We are in the process of producing a descriptive piece of writing based on our recent visit to see Dippy at Dorset County Museum. In 5MW we are either writing about Dippy from our own point of view or Dippy's. To help us 'get into the zone' we hot seated Ciaran as Dippy and then Oliver as, er, well, himself! 

Mrs Pluck is working with us at the moment and we are having rather a lot of fun. Let's hope the children's excellent ideas are reflected in their writing! 

Wonderful Writing

There is, without a shadow of a doubt, a lot of fantastic writing in Year Five. The amount of progress that the children have made this year is simply outstanding.

Being the show-offs that we are in Year Five, we always like to make sure that everyone know how fantastic we are by emblazoning it on our walls...

See what I mean?

Open Morning

A huge 'thank you' to the children who have kindly offered to be Guides for this Saturday's Open Morning. Please make sure that you return your reply slips as soon as possible so that we know you are definitely coming.

Please could we meet with our confirmed guides on Friday so that we can go through the morning with you? I'll make sure something goes on the Daily Notices so you know where and when.

PE Kit

The lovely Mr Roberts was in touch with me this week to let me know that quite a few of you are forgetting to bring your PE Kit to school for your Games and PE Lessons.

Please remember to bring your kit to school so that you can participate in PE lessons.

Thank you!

Well, that's it for this week! I hope you had a fabulous Bank Holiday weekend and that you all enjoyed the glorious weather.

I look forward to seeing you back here where there is bound to be lots to report back to you!

Mrs Ray

(who has been celebrating our Triathlon Club's 25th Birthday with a particularly competitive game of rounders. 'Brutal' doesn't cover it!)

The theme was 'Hawaii'!

One of our dinosaurs is in Dorchester!

Hello and welcome back to the Year Five Blog!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we have had another fantastically busy week this week.  The definite highlight was, without a doubt, our visit to see Dippy the Dinosaur at Dorset County Museum. More of that later.

It's been nice to see the children using the field and being able to spread out a bit more at play times. It is imperative that everyone plays sensibly at all times, especially when you're on the field as we need to keep you all safe and injury-free!

Anyway, let's see what is going on in Year Five...

Worth a Mention Children

Huge congratulations to the children who are this week's Worth a Mention Board - what a fabulous group of pupils!

 Lots of terrific hard-work going on in the different classes - marvellous! I am, as always, so proud of you all.

Dippy-tastic

What a fabulous and visit and right on our doorstep too!

We had a brilliant time seeing Dippy. We learnt so much through the excellent workshops that were run by the Museum's Volunteers.

A huge thank you to Ruby who took the photographs from the first session. Mrs Dovey and I were in our very own relay team as she passed the camera to me as we encountered the first group in the street on our way there!

Here are a few pictures for you to see what the children did when they were there.

We had such a brilliant time, I think you can see that from the pictures. Thank you so much to all the parents who accompanied us on Thursday - we really couldn't have done it without you!

We are now in the process of producing some rather impressive follow-up work - watch this space!

Year 4 Open Morning Volunteers Needed!

On Saturday 12th May, we will be holding our annual Open Morning for the current Year Four children to have a look around the school with their parents before they start with us in September. Do you remember doing this last year? It was the first time that I met the majority of you and what a super morning it was!

This year, I would like to use Year Five Guides again. You are the children who know what it is really like to be in Year Five and are perfect for the job!

If you are free between 10am and 12pm on that Saturday and would like to be a guide then please let your Homebase Tutor know so that they can give you a letter.

Might see you there?

Pants!

A few months ago, the NSPCC came into school to talk to the children about keeping safe and about telling trusted adults if there were things that were happening in their lives that they felt they needed to share.

On Tuesday, Dorset County Council is launching their NSPCC 'Let's Talk Pants' campaign with the help of their friendly dinosaur, Pantosaurus. Talking PANTS is a simple way to teach children how to stay safe from abuse. They are hoping that local schools will be able to colour in some pants for the event so that they can be hung up in the museum around Dippy as bunting.

So, guess what we'll be doing on Monday!

Uniform Reminder

Now that the weather is (finally!) starting to look a bit more 'summery' now is a good time to remind everyone of what is expected uniform-wise.

Taken from the school's website:

KS2 Boys’ Uniform

Round necked school sweatshirt

Light blue school polo shirt

Smart dark grey school trousers or smart knee length, dark grey school shorts (no ‘fashion look’

trousers, including skinny trousers or ‘jean like’ trousers.

Grey/black ankle socks or knee length socks (no running or training socks)

Black shoes – all black (no sports logos, no trainers. During Winter time only, boots may be worn under trousers so long as they cannot be seen. Sandals may be worn with socks during the Summer term)

KS2 Girls’ Uniform

Round necked school sweatshirt

Light blue school polo shirt

Dark grey school skirt of an appropriate length / smart dark grey school trousers or smart knee

length, dark grey school shorts (no ‘fashion look’ trousers, including skinny trousers or ‘jean

like’ trousers. 

Dark grey tights (thick) or dark grey/ black socks (no running or training socks)

Black shoes - all black. Suitable for school wear – high heels are NOT suitable (no sports logos,

no trainers. During Winter time only, boots may be worn under trousers so long as they cannot

be seen. Sandals may be worn with socks during the Summer term.)

In the Summer: a dress in light blue/white gingham or light blue/white stripes.

Uniform can be worn in the Summer term and until the end of September.

Please note in particular the 'socks' part. Trainer and running socks are not permitted so it's best not to wear them!

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you all have a fabulous week and I will look forward to seeing you back here next time.

Mrs Ray

(who had great fun at a Quiz Night in School on Friday night, all in aid of Miss Clements' and Mrs Jarvis-Woodbridge's charity fundraising following last week's London Marathon. We came a very respectable third. Go us!)

... and then the sun came out!

Hello and welcome back to the Year Five Blog!

A fabulous first week back! It was so lovely to see everyone again - the break clearly did everyone the world of good. It was good of the sun to make a reappearance, we had almost forgotten what it looked like!

Anyway, let's crack on the with what our Year Five children have been up to this week...

Celebration Assembly Photographs

Here is a small selection of the promised pictures from our assembly before half term. A huge thank you to Mrs Schnorr for taking them, especially as the job was somewhat thrust upon her seconds before the start of the assembly!

Worth a Mention Children

Huge congratulations to this week's chosen children - and trust me, there are A LOT of children up there!

I am so impressed that two whole classes are on the board, for two very different reasons!  Well done for the children who have been mentioned individually, you must so pleased. I am so proud of every single one of you.

Farmer Daniel?

So, not only is Mrs Daniel an accomplished artist (!), she now turning her hand to animal husbandry by helping out with the Chickens as part of our Dorchester University module.

Wearing a boiler suit on one of the hottest days of the year was a feat in itself!

The question is, have the chickens fully recovered yet?

DMS meets Dippy...

I had the great pleasure of taking some of the Year Six children to see Dippy the Dinosaur on Thursday and it was an absolutely brilliant experience. Our Year Five children are in for an absolute treat.

We are due to go on Thursday 26th April - please make sure that the slips and payments are returned to school as soon as possible.

We are having to divide the year group into two so we will be splitting 5MW to enable this to happen.

5CW, 5PC and half of 5MW will be going in the morning and 5AD, 5KD and the remaining half of 5MW will be going in the afternoon. The afternoon session is a little more complicated as we are in the Museum during our designated lunchtime so we will be asking children to have a 'big' snack (or half of their lunch) before we go and they will be able to eat the rest of their lunch on their return to school which should be around 2.15pm.

If you are one of the DBS checked parents who have kindly agreed to accompany us to and from the Dorset County Museum, we will be in touch very shortly. 

The morning session involves us leaving school by 9.30am to be at the Museum for 10am. We will leave at 11.45am and will be back in school by 12.15pm.

The afternoon session involves us leaving school at 11.30am to be at the Museum at 12pm. We will leave at 1.45pm to be back in school by 2.15pm.

Personally, I can't wait to go back! Let's just hope that the weather is as lovely for us as it was for the others...

Warm Weather Warning

Who knows how long this glorious weather will last but whilst it is here, please make sure that the children have sunscreen applied before they come to school or that they have access to some in school. They will also need a hat and a water bottle. As the field is now in use, the children need to be aware that there is very little shade available when they are playing. Overheating is best avoided at the best of times!

So, that's it for this week. I hope you all have a glorious weekend and I will look forward to seeing you back here next weekend.

Mrs Ray

(who is going to watch Miss Clements and Mrs Jarvis-Woodbridge running the London Marathon this Sunday. Crazy fools!)