Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.  We have had a good first week back at school.

Well done to the following children who won this week’s TOP Award.

TOP Awards Week beginning Jan 3rd 

This week our core value is Endurance

5T – Matthew

5H – Jake

6O – Mary-Anne

6M – Grace

7I – Josh

7L – Amy

8N – Euan

8S – Archie

Well done to all these award winners.

Please remember that:

Children in Key Stage Three are recommended to wear face coverings

All staff, and children in Years 7 & 8 have been advised that unless exempt, they should wear a face covering in classrooms as well as communal areas of school including corridors and halls. In addition, they are required to wear face coverings on school transport. Please support us by providing your child – if they are in Key Stage 3 –  with an appropriate face covering every day.

The advice is short term only and will be reviewed on the 26 January, in line with the review on Plan B measures.

 Continued regular LFD Testing for KS3 children

Children in Key Stage Three are strongly encouraged to continue testing twice weekly at home and then for the results to be reported to NHS Test and Trace and to school. In the event of a positive LFD result, please contact school to let us know. From 11 January those children who do not have symptoms and have a positive lateral flow will still have to isolate, but will no longer take a PCR.

Even if your child has tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 90 days, they are strongly encouraged to take part in LFD testing once they have completed their isolation period for their prior infection.

Symptomatic PCR testing

If your child develops symptoms at any time (including a high temperature; a new, continuous cough; or a loss or change to their sense of smell or taste and in addition sore throat or headaches) they must immediately self-isolate, and book a PCR test by visiting https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test.  Please contact the school and advise us of this, and then again once you have received the results of the PCR test.

Isolation

Since Wednesday 22 December, the 10 day self-isolation period for people who record a positive PCR test result for COVID-19 has been reduced to 7 days in most circumstances, unless you cannot test for any reason.

Children may now take LFD tests on day 6 and day 7 of their self-isolation period. Those who receive two negative test results are no longer required to complete 10 full days of self-isolation. The first test must be taken no earlier than day 6 of the self-isolation period and tests must be taken 24 hours apart. If both these test results are negative, and you do not have a high temperature, you may end your self-isolation after the second negative test result and return to school from day 8.

Daily testing for close contacts

People who are fully vaccinated, or children and young people aged between 5 and 18 years and 6 months, identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19, should take an LFD test every day for seven days and continue to attend their setting as normal, unless they have a positive test result or develop symptoms at any time. This is so that any subsequent positive cases can be quickly picked up and for self isolation to begin as soon as possible. We will continue to distribute test kits as needed to pupils in Year 7 and Year 8.

Remote learning Work is on Google Classroom

Work for remote learning during self isolation – if a pupil is well enough to complete it – is available on Google Classroom.  Please do not hesitate to contact our school if there are any problems accessing the work.

We realise that this is a difficult time.  We will keep you updated with any further information however always remember that you can contact us if you have any problems or concerns.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Our Year 8 pupils all did a wonderful job making and decorating their Christmas Cakes this year.  The winners were chosen from unnamed photographs by a team of judges.

Winner – Lacey

Second Place – Katie

Third Place – Noah

Highly Commended – Imogen

Dear Parents / Carers,

It has been a very difficult week for our community and I hope this email finds you all in a better place than we were in during the previous weekend.  Our school site has been cleared and we are grateful that we have been able to be open from Wednesday, December 1st.  Thank you for your ongoing support.

Positive Covid Cases

During this week we have had a fall in the number of confirmed positive cases at our school.  The number of confirmed positive cases is now at 4% of the school population.  We will still continue with the additional mitigations we have put in place in November, 2021.  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.

Parent Evenings

It was lovely for our staff to be able to speak to Parents & Carers on Thursday, December 2nd.  We are looking forward to our next parents evening on Tuesday, December 7th.

P&Q Award Winner

This week’s P&Q award winner is Alex in Yr 7.  Well done!

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.

I am continuing with my reading and this week I read:

The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr

As a child I loved books set in World War Two that wrote about Evacuees.  The choosing scene on a train station platform in Nina Bawden’s “Carrie’s War” is seared into my memory.  Equally I adored “Goodnight Mr Tom” – a book that we teach in Year 6 English.  Therefore books that return to such a well trodden area have much to live upto, however I can strongly recommend Lesley Parr’s “The Valley of Lost Secrets”, a book about World War evacuees who move from London to Llanbryn, Wales.

Jimmy and Ronnie – his younger brother – struggle to adapt to live in Wales but their arrival in this rural community disturb and uncover dark secrets hidden for many years…

I thought this book was superb and would recommend it to all readers.  It is Lesley Parr’s first novel and I am looking forward to her second – “When The War Came Home” – which is released in January, 2022.

Incidentally if anyone is looking for books to give for Christmas presents and the person you are buying for is a football fan I would also recommend “Das Reboot – How German Football Reinvented Itself” by Raphael Honingstein and “Don Revie – The Biography” by Christopher Evans – two books I very recently enjoyed by candle light whilst shivering despite wearing all the clothes I possess…

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

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.