Today the school has been awash with spotty children and Pudsey ears! Yes, It’s Children in Need day today!
Form 6 arranged a cake sale today, with delicious home made cakes, and Reception and Nursery had a wonderful time in the gorgeous Autumnal sunshine (at long last) creating a Pudsey bear face out of leaves. Thank you to everyone who wore spots, baked and donated money for such a wonderful cause. Thank you in particular to Mr Willemse and the Form 6! So far we have raised £270.
Our ‘Well Done’ winners this week were Violet, Toby, Alice, Matilda and Natty. Our Academic Excellence winners were Gabriel, Ivy, Tabitha, Rosie, Arthur, Nora, Phineas, Louis C and Lottie. Sasha Mae and AJ received the Commitment award this week, Albie and Rosie the Creativity award, Ava S and Nora the Compassion award and Daisy and Juliette the Courage award.
In the spirit of thinking of others, on Monday we held our Remembrance Service at St. George’s Church.
Nora read her beautiful poem, ‘Poppies’ and Louis and Natty in Form 8 read ‘In Flanders Fields’. They all read each poem with such poise and confidence which made me so proud as it is incredibly daunting reading in front of a full congregation.
We also had musical performances from Lottie, Anna and Daisy, from our Senior Vocal Group, who sung the stunning ‘Peace’ by Buchanan, and our Chamber Choir who sang and signed ‘Little Blue’ by J. Collier and there was not a dry eye in Church. Mr Penfold’s ‘Last Post’ was also incredibly moving. I am sure I am not alone when my thoughts went to those who are currently suffering as a result of war, as well as those who lost their lives for peace and freedom.
My thanks must go to Mrs Nolan-Stone for putting this service together, to our speaker Lieutenant Colonel James Porter (Rtd.) from the Royal British Legion, Revd Magee and our guests – the Dorchester veterans and our buddies from the Glencairn Residential Home.
Pupils in Bobbins, our 3-4 years in Little Robins Nursery, also marked Remembrance Day this week. They watched a two minute Poppy animation about a bunny’s journey through the war. The beautiful Poppy paintings the children did were displayed at the church. On Thursday the children walked to the war memorial to look at all the Poppies that had been laid.
Forms 4-8 had some exciting science lessons on Wednesday when our delivery of dry ice arrived.
They were able to see first hand the sublimation of the solid carbon dioxide into a gas. They were wowed by the fog and bubbles but also loved the experiments looking at gas pressure where Mrs Evans inflated a glove with a few pellets and exploded the lid off a pot as the gas particles filled the container!
Form 4 took part in a fantastic art lesson on Wednesday with Lizzie and Eli from ‘Art in Poundbury’. They worked hard and created hexagonal images based on honeycombs for the big hive installation in Jubilee Hall. This will be part of Art in Poundbury’s Winter exhibition. The pupils used colourful collage on one side of their artwork and then created black pen drawings of bees, flowers and honeycombs on the other side. The pupils had a great time and made some lovely art.
The art will be displayed as part of the hive installation at Jubilee hall in Poundbury from November 23rd to December 1st, so please come and visit the exhibition. Thank you to Lizzie and Eli for a wonderful lesson!
Form 2 had a fantastic visit to Shire Hall Museum today, learning about the history of Dorchester, particularly the events of 1613. The visit began with a fascinating look at how the town of Dorchester appeared in the early 17th century. Using paintings and an historic map, the students were able to identify well-known locations and gain a deeper understanding of the town’s layout.
One of the highlights of the trip was walking down the street to see where the infamous fire of 1613 started. The children learned about the causes of the fire and the challenges the townspeople faced in trying to control it. They even had the chance to experience what it might have been like during this emergency, ringing the bell to alert others about the fire and passing buckets of water down the line to “help” put it out!
The students also went down into the museum’s historic cells, where they learned about the storage of gunpowder during that period and the potential dangers it posed to the town.
It was a fantastic hands-on learning experience that brought history to life and helped the children connect with the past in a meaningful way.
This weekend a few of our pupils will be taking part in a climbing competition in North Devon with Mr Stazicker organised by our friends at Rock and Rapid Adventures, who help with a lot of our residentials. We wish those children the best of luck and look forward to hearing how they got on on Monday.
Have a lovely weekend!
David
