Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this message finds you well.  We have had a very busy fortnight of learning.

It was great to see our Yr 5 children arrive back from their residential visit at Kingswood Activity Centre this afternoon.  Our children had a great time and it was wonderful to be able to resume this annual experience for our Yr 5 cohort.

The residential was one of a series of trips children have enjoyed over the last two weeks.  On June 14th our Yr 6 children visited Safetyworks.  The centre, based in Newcastle’s West End, was set up in 2016 and is managed by Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, working in partnership with Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Northumbria Police, Nexus, St John’s Ambulance and Sainsbury’s.

SafetyWorks! promotes safety through a range of interactive scenarios for young people and community groups. These include actions that keep people safe, such as installing smoke alarms and dealing with bogus callers.

 They also include activities designed to deter children from littering, committing anti-social behaviour, trespassing on the railway and starting fires, and warning of the dangers around grooming. Lessons are delivered by Northumbria Police Community Support Officers and staff from Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service.

Yr 6 really enjoyed their visit and found it very informative.

Friday, June 17th saw a number of Key Stage Two children from our school taking part in a Commonwealth Sports Festival at Alnwick Gardens.  The sporting festival was laid on to inspire the next generation of young people to enjoy being active by providing a whole range of fun, outdoor activities and sports, all within an iconic backdrop.

The event was organised by a partnership comprising Northumberland School Games, Active Northumberland, RISE Northeast, The Alnwick Garden and Alnwick Castle, and was funded by Sport England Commonwealth Games Legacy Fund.  The event was very much enjoyed by our pupils.

On the same day our Year 7 children visited the Hancock Museum in Newcastle.  Pupils used their visit to complete focussed observational drawing in The Living Planet Galler.  The work directly linked to our Yr 7 Climate topic “Where have all the animals gone?”

On Tuesday, June 21st our Yr 5 children visited Vindolanda.  Although first built by the Roman army before Hadrian’s Wall, Vindolanda became an important construction and garrison base for the Wall and the visit was an excellent way of further strengthening History curriculum knowledge of our pupils..

TOP Award Winners

Wk beginning June 27th, 2022.  The core value was Koinonia

5T Daniel

5H Matthew

6O Lewis

6M Cecily

7I Phoebe

7L Toby

8N Kaitlyn

8S Rose

 

Wk beginning June 20th, 2022.  The core value was Endurance

5T Rosie

5H Rosie

6O Ryan

6M Jessica

7I Hannah

7L Edward

8N Joel

8S Katie

Well done to all of these award winners.

I hope you have a restful weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been a very busy week at Dr Thomlinson Middle School.

 

Yr 7 attend Anne Frank exhibition

June 12th was the birthday of.Anne Frank – a Jewish girl who was killed in the Holocaust 1945 at the age of 15, after having hidden from the Nazis in a secret annexe in Amsterdam for over two years. During her time in hiding Anne Frank wrote a diary, in which she expressed her hopes, fears and ambitions for the future as well as what it was like to hide in fear of your life for all that time. After the war, her father Otto Frank, who miraculously survived Auschwitz concentration camp, made her diary into a book.  You may be one of the millions who have read Anne Frank’s diary and – on Friday 10th June – Yr 7 visited the Anne Frank exhibition which is currently in residence at KIng Edward VI High School, Morpeth.  Led by Yr 10 exhibition guides, our children learned more about Anne Frank – a learning experience which followed on from the work the Year group have done this year in English on the novel “Once” by Morris Gleitzman.

 

Children raise money for Christian AId

Christian Aid Week was from the 15th to 21st May this year and children at Dr Thomlinson’s are organising and taking part in a number of planned fundraiser events for this very important cause.  On Friday, 10th June 5H organised an excellent cake sale and 5T organised a children v staff football match…the cakes were very much enjoyed and the staff won 5-0!

 

Yr 5 attend Safetyworks

As part of our school’s Safeguarding Education Plan, Yr 5 attended Safetyworks this week.  The centre, based in Newcastle’s West End, was set up in 2016 and is managed by Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, working in partnership with Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Northumbria Police, Nexus, St John’s Ambulance and Sainsbury’s.

 SafetyWorks! promotes safety through a range of interactive scenarios for young people and community groups. These include actions that keep people safe, such as installing smoke alarms and dealing with bogus callers.

 They also include activities designed to deter children from littering, committing anti-social behaviour, trespassing on the railway and starting fires, and warning of the dangers around grooming. Lessons are delivered by Northumbria Police Community Support Officers and staff from Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service.

Yr 5 really enjoyed their visit and found it very informative.

Road Safety Assemblies

It is very important that we do our best to ensure children are aware and educated about road safety.  This week Northumbria Police gave road safety assemblies to both Key Stage Two and Key Stage Three children.

 

Year 6 take part in a Geography Field Trip

On Thursday, June 10th Year 6 took part in our annual Key Stage Two Geography field trip.  Children studied the long profile of a river using the river Coquet as their case study.  The day was split in two – in the morning our Yr 6 looked at the middle course of the river running through Rothbury and in the afternoon they examined the upper course of the river running through Shilmoor.  The day was spent collecting data to answer the question: “How does the depth, speed and sediment change throughout the course of a river?”.

Year 6 had a great time (as did I) and, thankfully, the weather was kind to us.

Yr 8 take part in Eurvoice, Newcastle

On Friday, June 10th all Year 8 children took part in a virtual Eurvoice – a European Youth Parliament event.  The workshops involved discussion on the repatriation of artefacts and the plight of climate migrants. Children then took part in a panel discussion with Thom Campion: Liberal Democrat Councillor for Castle Ward in Newcastle upon Tyne and Professor Hartmut Behr: A Professor of International Politics at Newcastle University whose  areas of specialisation include migration, political theory and critical European studies.

Can you help with our History Project?

Dr Thomlinson Middle School is involved in a project with the Out of Town Museum based in Alnwick to collect evidence from the past about the school and we need your help.  This evidence is going to be collated and displayed at the Woodhorn Museum in Ashington.   If you have any photographs from the past or particularly interesting memories/stories then please send them in electronically to the school office so that they can be used.  Please include your name so that we can inform you if they have been used in the project.  We thank you in advance for your contributions.

 

TOP Award – Wk beginning June 6th

The following children were awarded our TOP award this week for exemplifying our core value of Service.

5T Leon

5H Rory

6O Emma

6M Sam

7I Esme

7L Emily

8N Daisy

8S Sasha

 

Well done to all of these award winners.

 

I hope you have a restful weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.

Celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Thank you to Mr Heath and our Year 8 Young Sports Leaders for all the work they did in organising our Sports afternoon in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.  It seemed that everyone really enjoyed the activities – styled as they were on an “old fashioned sports day of the sort they had in the days of the Silver Jubilee (of which I remember vividly and fondly!)

Thank you to Mrs Muir who made Jubilee Celebration Cake for everyone.  Children took part in parachute games; had three legged races; egg races; sack races; tug of wars and space hopper races (we really did recreate 1970’s Britain…)

Year 6 Residential to Edinburgh

Thank you to the staff who led our Year 6 residential to Edinburgh.  The visit was very successful.

Raising Money for Christian Aid

Thank you to those form groups who have already raised money for Christian Aid Week (15-21 May).  We have already raised over £100.  There are more fund raising activities planned for Friday, June 10th.

Climate Change Challenge

All Year groups took part in a series of quizzes about our Climate during Science this week.  It was good to see how much our children knew and the areas in which they need further information.

Prizes were awarded to the children in each Year group who achieved the best score in their respective Year group tests.

Well done to the following children who received awards for their success:

Yr 5

Winner – Rory; Runner up: Nancy

Yr 6

Winner: Hylton; Runner Up: Hylton

Yr 7

Winner: Jacob; Runner up: Chloe

Yr 8

Winner: Max; Runner Up: Dan

Road Safety Workshop

Well done to all of Year 7 who were so attentive and engaged in the Road Safety Workshop on Monday, 16th May.

TOP Awards – the core value of the week was Reverence

Wk beginning 23rd May, 2022 – the core value of the week was Reverence

5T – Gracie-Mae

5H James

6O –  Mary Anne

6M – TJ

7I  – Reverence

7L – Oliver & Toby

8N – Elliott

8S – Rosemary

Wk beginning 16th May – the core value of the week was Justice

5T – Oliver

5H – Ben

6O – Ethan

6M – Jonah

7I – Harriet

7L – Ailsa

8N  – Lucy

8S – Skye

Well done to Tyler in Yr 5 who won the P&Q award this week.

I hope you have a restful weekend.

We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday, 6th June, 2022.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.

 

Key Stage Two Tests

Well done to all our Year 6 children for their exemplary attitude and commitment to the Key Stage Two tests they completed this week..  They all did their very best and  enjoyed a richly deserved trip to the cinema today to see the animated film “Bad Guys”.

 

Collaboration with school in Zambia

5T had a virtual meeting today with children from Linda Community School in Zambia.  It is part of our ongoing collaboration with the school.

 

Careers

On May 4th Year 8 enjoyed an interactive presentation on careers in the NHS.  This informative and entertaining drama was fully funded  by Health Education England North East and North Cumbria  and is part of our ongoing career programme.

 

TOP Awards

TOP Awards for the week beginning May 9th – the theme was Reverence

5T – Daniel

5H – Callum

6O – Emily

6M – Cecily

7I – Michael

7L – Zara

8N – Maisie

8S – Zac

 

TOP Award for the week beginning May 2nd – the theme was Friendship

5T – Laila

5H – Florence

6O – Alfie

6M – Edward

7I – Amber

7L – Fran

8N – Kaitlyn

8S – Will

 

Well done to all of these award winners!

 

I hope you have a good weekend!

Take care,

Liam

Dear Parents & Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.

We have had an excellent week back at Dr Thomlinson’s following the Easter Holidays.

Year 8s take part in The Mock Trial Competition

The Mock Trial Competition is Young Citizens longest-running active citizenship experience.  It provides unparalleled exposure to the criminal justice system and access to senior legal professionals. Year 8s from Dr Thomlinson took part in this on Monday, April 25th and, in doing so, played all of the key roles involved in a criminal trial: from lawyers to witnesses.

Each year children have to imagine they are part of an actual court case – this year the criminal offence was imagining that a student was charged with the offence of Harassment contrary to Section 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act of 1997 and they pursued a course of conduct which amounts to harassment of another, and which she knew or ought to know amounted to harassment of the other.   The case centred around threatening and abusive emails . Our team had to provide both a prosecution and a defence team as well as the defendants; witnesses and court ushers and magistrates.  Our team then conducted a “mock trial” which was observed and marked by an independent judge.

Dr Thomlinson School competed against Coombe Girls’ School and gave an exceptional performance and, although we did not win overall, the team can be very proud of their efforts.  Well done to Luke; Sasha; Imogen; Daisy; Isaac; Aaron; Isla; Ryan; Rose; Max; Esme; Demi; Kate and Jasmine.

On Friday, the team visited London where they will be getting the opportunity to have a guided tour around the Houses of Parliament so that they can see where our laws are made.  We would like to congratulate all of the students that were involved especially, on their hard work and amazing attitude throughout the competition and the many weeks of preparation!

Key Stage Three Girls Football

The football season for our Key Stage Three girls continued on Tuesday with games against Chantry Middle School and Walker.  The team played very well and scored their first goal of the season following a clever reverse pass by Emily to Maisie who drove the ball home emphatically.  Unfortunately this was our only goal in a narrow 1-3 defeat against Chantry.  The team also lost to an excellent Walker side.  I was so impressed by all our team’s efforts.

TOP Awards Week beginning April 25th

The core value for this week was Trust

5T – Finley

5H – Jessica

6O – Hylton

6M – Lucy

7I – Chloe

7L – Hannah

8N – Harry

8S – George

TOP Awards Week beginning April 4th

The core value for this week was Compassion

5T – Jack

5H – River

6O – Jayden

6M – Xanthe

7I – Millie

7L – Edward

8N – Isaac

8S – Sam

Well done to all of these award winners.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.

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

Our Year 5 children really enjoyed their trip to All Saints Church, Rothbury.  The visit further helped our Year 5 understand the story of Easter – an activity that helped to enrich their cultural capital.

Well done to our House Captains who led and organised our House Point Reward shop – it was lovely to see so many children enjoying the rewards of their hard work.

The school also enjoyed the Collective Worships planned and written by our Collective Worship Monitors in 60 and 7I.  I was especially impressed with the presentation skills of Will in 7I.

 

Easter Service Thursday 7th April 1;40pm

Parents/Carers are very welcome to join the school in our Easter Service at All Saints Church, Rothbury on Thursday, April 7th.  It will be lovely to be able to celebrate Easter as a school and it would be lovely to be joined by Parents/Carers.

 

TOP Awards Week beginning March 28th

5T – Leon

5H – Matthew

6O – River

6M – Flynn

7I – Sarah

7L – Oliver

8N – Daisy

8S – Demi

 

Our P&Q winner this week was George in Yr 8.

 

Well done to all of these award winners.

 

I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.

Take care,

Liam

Dear Parents/Carers,
I hope this email finds you well. It has been a busy fortnight at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

Dr Thomlinson raises £540 for Comic Relief
On March 18th we raised a very impressive £540 for Comic Relief. It was lovely to see the many activities that pupils devised to raise money – activities that ranged from cake sales to a skipping challenge; a balance board challenge; Guess the Sweet Flavour; Decorate a Cupcake; a Raffle and A Coconut Shy. Our Young Sports Leaders also ran a series of Sports Day Challenges with Egg and Spoon Races; a 3 Legged Race; a Sack Race; a Slide Jump and a Vertical Jump. Children also organised a Wet Sponge Challenge to which I gallantly offered my services to be a recipient of – fortunately our children are better academics than throwers of wet sponges so I remained relatively unharmed from this experience.

Dr Thomlinson Football
Well done to our U13 Boys Football Team and our U11 Girls Football team who competed in three matches over the last fortnight. Both our teams lost to very good Newminster teams.
Unfortunately both matches against Newminster ended with no goals scored by Dr Thomlinson but there were goals galore in last Monday’s game against Blyth where our U13 Boys team took Blyth to the wire in a close and thrilling 3-4 defeat. Goals by Lewis and Joey took us level with a strong and physical Blyth team. Then, following two quick goals by Blyth, a wonderful solo effort by George who weaved past four players before calmly steering a shot just inside the keeper’s far post – gave us a thrilling final five minutes where we pushed for an equaliser but which left us enjoying glorious defeat. George’s goal was the best goal I’ve had the pleasure of seeing by a Dr Thomlinson pupil – well done.

Dr Thomlinson takes part in Lit Quiz
On March 18th we had two teams take part in the Regional Lit Quiz Competition. Our children did very well in this Literary Quiz. With over 50 teams competing our Yr 8 team finished a very respectable joint 8: well done to Demi, Noah, Isaac, Isla and Imogen. Our Yr 7 team finished an equally impressive 20th – well done to Toby, Harriet, Freya, Findlay and Luke

TOP Awards – Over the last three weeks we have awarded our Thomlinson Outstanding Pupil Awards to pupils demonstrating our core values of: Friendship; Wisdom and Reverence.

Week beginning 7/3/2022 – Friendship
5T – Yasmine
5H – Henry
6O – Alfie
6M – Dillan
7I – Gus
7L – Oliver
8N – Imogen
8S – Daniel

Week beginning 14/3/2022 – Wisdom
5T – Annabelle
5H – India
6O – Emma
6M – Max
7I – James
7L – James
8N – Heather
8S – Lewis

Week beginning 21/3/22 – Reverence
5T – Liam & Lucinda
5H – Emily
6O – Daisy Lou
6M – Adam
7I – Freya
7L – Ben
8N – Katie
8S – Isla

P&Q Award Winner this week – Ava in Year 5.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Take care,
Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

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