School will be OPEN to Years 5, 6 and 8 on Wednesday 1 December.  Unfortunately due to the damage sustained to the school during Storm Arwen Year 7 will have to remain at home and complete work set on Google Classroom until further notice.

Dear Parents / Carer,

I hope this email finds you well.

Positive Covid Cases

During this week we have had a further rise in the number of confirmed positive cases at our school.  The number of confirmed positive cases is now at slightly over 12% of the school population.  I informed you of the additional mitigations we have put in place earlier this week and we are working closely with Public Health Northumberland.  Our school remains open and your child should continue to attend as normal if they remain well. NHS Test & Trace will contact individuals who have been identified as a close contact.

I know this is a very difficult time for those pupils and their families who have been infected.  Our thoughts are with you.  Please do not hesitate to contact the school if there is any support or help you require.  We want to serve you in the best way we can although please do appreciate that some of our staff are currently absent from school either having had a confirmed positive case of Covid 19 or with symptoms awaiting the result of a PCR test.  Thank you for your ongoing support.

Parent Evenings

It was lovely for our staff to be able to speak to Parents & Carers on Tuesday, 23rd November.  We are looking forward to our next parents evening on Thursday, December 2nd.

Odd Sock Day

Odd Sock Day is a way of celebrating each of our unique identities.  Thank you to all of those children who sported such an eclectic array of socks.  I enclose pictures of a few of these socks.

Anti Bullying Resource for Parents/Carers

Odd Sock Day is an initiative linked to Anti Bullying Week which we celebrated last week.  The Anti Bullying Alliance – who organise the week – have published a resource pack for Parents & Carers.  The pack is a tool for Parents/carers with advice on how to further support and guide children through their school years.  The pack also promotes a parent advice phone line run by Kidscape – details of which can be found via this link – https://www.kidscape.org.uk/advice/parent-advice-line/

TOP Awards Week beginning Nov 22nd.

This week our core value is Humility.

5T – Rosie

5H – River

6O Hylton

6M – Sophia

7I – Luke

7L – Toby

8N – Lucy

8S – Kate

Our P&Q award this week is Ethan in Year 5

Well done to all of our award winners!

November Reading Challenge

We are continuing with our November Reading Challenge and EXTENDING it!  Due to some children currently being absent from school we wanted every child to have a chance to have the books they are reading and have read this month to be accurately recorded therefore we are going to extend the reading challenge to December 10th.  Remember the challenge is to read three books – each by a different author.

The Outlaws Scarlett & Browne by Jonathan Stroud

Set in a future United Kingdom suffering the aftermath of a huge ecological disaster, teenage gunslinger Scarlett Browne terrorises the Kingdoms of Mercia; Anglia and Wessex robbing banks!  Fresh from a successful bank raid of the Cheltenham Bank she comes across teenager Albert Browne – the only survivor of a terrible bus crash.  Together Scarlett and Albert become an unlikely duo traversing an England more akin to the Wild West than the sensible; civilised country we know it to be today.  In doing so they must do battle with outlaws; armed vigilantes and animals grown to beasts following the environmental changes wrought by the undescribed eco disaster.  Their only hope is that they find refuge in the Lost Ruins of the London Lagoon.  Can they survive?

This is an absolutely fantastic book.  One I could not put down and one in which I wanted to reread the moment I completed it.  Suitable for Key Stage Three ( as there are some quite scary moments) this is one of the very best books I have read this year.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh -Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers.

It has been a very productive week at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.  We really enjoyed celebrating Children in Need yesterday, thank you to all those children who donated to such a worthy cause.

Positive Covid Cases

The number of confirmed positive Covid 19 cases in school have slightly risen to just over 2% of our school population.  As a result of this we are going to add further mitigations to our current Covid-19 control measures. In order to further reduce mixing between Year groups, from Monday, 22nd November, we will be:

• Limiting all lunchtime clubs to single Year groups;

• Serving lunches to one Year group at a time;

•  Reviewing risk assessments for all educational visits

Please remember one of our mitigations is advising all adults and children in KS3 to wear face coverings in corridors.  Please remind children of the importance of this mitigation and support us with this advice.

Trinity Presentations

The concept of The Trinity in the Christian religion is sometimes a difficult one to understand.  In Religious Education Year 7 were tasked with designing a model that would explain this.  Well done to:

Sarah; Freya; Toby; Martha and Harriet for designing these excellent models.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Calling Year 5,6 and 7: Can You Rise to Dr Thomlinson’s Reading Challenge?

Read some different authors and enter a draw to win a book voucher

Dear Parents/Carers,

For the month of November we are encouraging all pupils in these three year groups to further broaden their reading… We would like as many children as possible to set themselves a target of reading three quality texts (or more!) in 30 days.  It is great to see so many of our children reading books by such popular authors as Geoff Kinney, JK Rowling, David Walliams and Liz Pichon (after all – they are popular because their books are so enjoyable), however – for the month of November and whilst they are in school – we are challenging our pupils to see if they can read other different authors to those they normally read.

 It is very easy to get stuck in reading habits with the same writer when you find something you really like  ( I went through a phase of Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie). Why not try something different? Have a look at some of the new and classic texts in the recommended school reading list attached with this email. We will be celebrating all those who step up to our challenge. In addition, every child who succeeds in this challenge will be entered into a special prize draw to win a Waterstones book voucher.  For every book by a different author pupils read in November, pupils will receive an entry to win this exciting prize.

Year 8 already has embarked on our own well established and ambitious 50 Book Challenge for the year.

The Library in school is steadily increasing the range of books available. We also are having our Scholastic Book Fair immediately after half-term , so there will be ample opportunity for picking up the pace, boosting book power and rejuvenating reading. All children have independent reading as their English homework over the holiday so why not make an early start on the Reading Challenge?

Also, thank you to all those KS2 parents who were able to come to our ‘Come Dine and Read Event’ in school- it was lovely to see you all.  Please find attached a copy of the PowerPoint with suggestions on how to support your child with English.

Thank you for your ongoing support in further developing our culture of reading at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

Suggestions for books to further broaden your child’s reading

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Watson – Head of English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laK1-fteyTA

We are pleased to welcome back our annual Scholastic Book Fair to school which will take place from Monday 1 November to Friday 5 November 12.00 – 1.00 pm.  Pupils can purchase books and stationery items from the Reception area of school.

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.  It has been a very productive week at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

Well done to our U13 Boys football team who played so well in defeats to Cramlington Learning Village and St Bedes this week.

Come Dine With Me

It was lovely to see Parents/Carers of children in 5T attend our Come Dine & Read With ME event.  We work very hard to continue to create a culture of reading at our school and such events as these are a very important part of our ongoing work.  We look forward to welcoming the parents/carers of 5H on Wednesday 20th October, 2021.

History Primary Quality Mark

As a school we are working towards achieving the History Primary Quality Mark.  An important part of our work in this area is being greatly helped by a project our Year 6 children are working on in collaboration with the Out of Town Museum.  The Out of Town (OOT) Museum is a National Lottery Heritage funded project which celebrates the rural heritage of Coquetdale.  The Museum is part of Bailiffgate Museum in Alnwick and is training our Year 6 Historians in the skills of obtaining oral history resources.  Both Year 6 classes have received an initial training session in this important area of History.

Religious Education Pilgrimage Visit

On Thursday, October 21st both Year 6 RE classes will be taking part in a curriculum workshop on Pilgrimage at All Saints Church, Rothbury.  This workshop will further support our children in our next RE Unit entitled Is Life Like a Journey?

Year 8 Careers Visit

As part of our Careers programme Year 8 will be visiting Barrasford Quarry on October 21st.

Year 7 attend Northumberland Space Event

A group of Year 7 children will be attending a “Northumberland Space Event” on October 18th, 20212  in which children will take part in a Space Workshop led by Jim Christensen.  Jim Christiensen has designed NASA’s Astronaut Training Experience and Mars Base 1 and has served as an advisor for multiple experiments that have flown in microgravity aboard NASA’s Reduced Gravity Aircraft, the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the International Space Station and the SpaceX Dragon.

In the workshop Jim will be sharing stories from his experiences of working for NASA, enthusing students about careers in the space sector and showcasing his Mars and Moon map resources.

Harvest Festival October 20th

On October 20th all our children will be taking part in our annual Harvest Festival.  Thank you for your donations of food for the Alnwick Food Bank,  If you still wish to donate please do so for the whole of next week.  Unfortunately our Harvest Festival event this year will not be open to Parents/Carers but you have all participated in the event already with your very generous donations.  Thank you very much.

Community Safety Officer Visit

Thank you to Judith Davis – our Northumberland Community Safety Officer who was invited into school on Wednesday, October 6th to  give a talk to all our children on the dangers of anti-social behaviour.  The talk contained many useful and important messages for all of us.

TOP Awards week beginning October 4th and October 11th.  Our awards were given to those children who showed our core values of Justice and Thankfulness

Week beginning October 4th

5T Nancy

5H Nichlas

6O Ryan

6M Adam

7I Will

7L Dexter

8N Euan

8S Demi

Week beginning October 11th

5T Laila

5H Daisy

6O Hylton

6M Samantha

7I Harry

7L Maisie

8N Katie

8S George

Well done to Hannah in Year 7 who won our P&Q award this week.

Well done to all our award winners.

Have a good weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher