Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been a great two weeks at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

School Football

Well done to our Boys Key Stage Two and Key Stage Three Football teams who took part in fixtures over the last week.

Friday March 18th Comic Relief

Please be aware that next Friday is Comic Relief and children will be able to come to school in Fancy Dress.  Children are asked to make a voluntary contribution of £1

World Book Day – Thursday, March 3rd, 2022

We all enjoyed our World Book Day on Thursday 3 March and there were a number of competitions for children to enter.

The first was for children to decorate a potato as their favourite character from literature.

Y5:Potatoes: 1st-Jack who painted Christian Ronaldo, 2nd-Hannah who painted – Gertrude from Code Name Bananas, joint 3rd-Layla  who painted Harry Potter, Rosie  who painted- Cheshire Cat

Y6 Potatoes: 1st- Max PP who painted- Gandalf, 2nd:TJ who painted- Bison Boy, 3rd Ceci  who painted- Ugly Duckling

KS3 Potatoes: Joint 1st: Sarah Duffin who painted- Napoleon (From Animal Farm), Elsa  who painted- Anne of Green Gables – 2nd Alex  who painted – Slime

The next competition was for children to paint a stone illustrating  who painted favourite book cover.

Y5: Stones: 1st- Rosie  who painted- Harry Potter, 2nd- Gabrielle  who painted-Secret Garden, 3rd-Leon  who painted- White Fang

Y6: Stones: 1st-Eva  who painted- Charlie and Chocolate Factory, 2nd Sam  who painted- The Silver Pony, 3rd- Toby  who painted- Ladybird, ladybird

We had some wonderful entries in this competition and it has become something of a Dr Thomlinson’s tradition!

The next competition was for children to take a photo of a parent/relative reading their favourite book in an unusual position/place.

Well done to:

1st Joey, 2nd Edward, Joint 3rd Jonah &, India

The next competition was for children to write a book review of your favourite book.

Well done to Amelia and Luke who won this competition

There will be prizes for the best potatoes, stones, reviews and photos. The closing date for all entries is Thursday 3 March.

Children were also invited to come to school in Costumes dressed as a character from Literature:

Best Costumes: KS2: 1st- Ava- Mary Poppins,  joint 2nd- Maddiey- Bessie & Lewis – Boy in a Dress joint 3rd:  Miles and Nick- Robinson Crusoe & an evacuee from Eagle in the Snow

Costumes: KS3: 1st- Freya- Alex Rider, 2nd Esme – Cher 3rd -Luke as a character from fiction

Headteacher’s prize for Great Costume went to Isla

Well done to all of these award winners.  We all really enjoyed the day – thanks for all your great support.

International Women’s Day of Prayer

Tuesday 8th March was International Women’s Day and our school always celebrates this event by taking part in the International Women’s Day of Prayer.  The service this time was at All Saints Church in Rothbury.  Each year the event celebrates a particular country and people from this country write the Church Service in which we all take part.  This year the country was the United Kingdom.

It was lovely to be able to take children once again to a Church Service and I was very impressed with the singing of our school choir – I couldn’t remember a time when they had sounded better; it was beautiful.  I was especially moved by their rendition of “Make Me A Channel of Your Peace”.

Ukrainian Refugee Crisis

We have spent time in School Worship talking about and praying for the people caught up in the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.  Children have asked how we can help these people and in response to this we have collected donations of clothing and basic supplies in conjunction with the donation centre at All Saints Church, Rothbury.  Thank you to all those who donated.

We have also looked at the importance of friendship and empathy with others as a way in which each of us can help make peace in our families; friendship groups; school and wider community.  We realise that this is a difficult time.  We do have support available for children and if parents/carers wish to contact the school to discuss this further then please do not hesitate to do so.  Our thoughts and prayers are with those families affected by this terrible crisis.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher, Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School