Dear Parent/Carer,

Due to Coronavirus our annual Christmas Cake competition and Coffee Morning could not take place so Year 8 pupils made Yule Logs instead.

Our winners were:

First place – William

Second Place: Felix 

Third Place: Lily 

Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope this message finds you well.  We have had a busy week at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

Design a star at Christmas and donate money to the Alnwick Food Bank

The Wise Men travelled following a star. We have each put our Christmas wishes on a star that will be displayed in All Saints Church. There is a picture of a selection of these above. These stars – designed by our children –  have been collected by Canon Sinclair and will be soon on display wishing Happy Christmas to our whole community.  We are encouraging children to make a £1 donation to the Alnwick Food Bank for the star they have designed.  The stars are what the school are doing this year instead of giving each other Christmas Cards.  If you wish to contribute to this worthwhile cause and give the suggested donation of £1 to the Alnwick Food Bank then please use this link.

Donate shoes to school to help reflect on a difficult year

This year we have really benefited from the Prayer Spaces at Advent resource developed by Prayer Spaces in School.  Next week we are asking staff and children to bring in a pair of shoes they no longer need to display in the foyer.  The shoes will represent both the journey made by the Three Kings to Bethlehem and also the Journey each of us have made through this very difficult year. It is not known exactly where the wise men travelled from.  Some think a place near Babylon in what was then the Partian Empire – which is approx 1300 kilometres from Bethlehem – a journey that would have taken about 50 days.  To mark this journey and mark the journey each of us made please bring in a pair of shoes that you no longer need, leave them in our foyer next week.  At the end of the week the shoes will be donated to Charity.

Arrangements for next week

Please remember that school is now finishing for children on Thursday 17th December, 2020 at 3:30pm.  School will reconvene on Tuesday 5th January, 2021.

We have Christmas Dinner Day and Christmas Jumper Day on Wednesday, 16th  December, 2020.  Please bring in suggested £1 donation if children are wearing a Christmas Jumper.

Maths Help

Craig Barton is a Maths Specialist who has developed a website used by many teachers looking at common maths mistakes and misconceptions to support teaching and learning.  He is offering a free parent webinar and the focus is common mistakes students make in Years 6, 7 and 8 and how to help at home.

He will dive into the 200+ million answers on Diagnostic Questions to find the 5 most common mistakes made by students of each Year. For each mistake he will suggest some free resources and activities that parents can use with their children at home to help them better understand the concept.

The aim is to help parents feel better connected to school mathematics, and reduce the anxiety surrounding supporting their children.

Each webinar is completely free, and parents can reserve a spot here: https://eedi.com/webinars

 The dates of the webinars are:

• Year 6 parents: Jan 7th at 8pm

• Year 7 parents: Jan 14th at 8pm

• Year 8 parents: Jan 21st at 8pm

We hope you find this useful should you choose to join the webinars.

TOP Awards for Week beginning 7th December, 2020

The following pupils have won our TOP Award for best exemplifying our core value of Justice

Well done to all of these award winners.

I hope you have a restful weekend.

Take care,

Liam

The Department for Education (DfE) is seeking to minimise the burden of track and trace falling on schools over the Christmas period and has suggested that schools
use Friday 18 December as an In Service Training Day to support this aim.
Therefore, all of the schools within The Three Rivers Learning Trust will break up for Christmas for students at the end of the school day on Thursday 17 December.

The letter issued to all parents/carers from the CEO, Mr Simon Taylor can be read here.

Please note that the school telephones will not be monitored over the holiday period, so in the event of a +Covid case that we need to be aware of, please email [email protected].

Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope this message finds you well.  We have had a lovely week at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

Advent Reflection

Sunday, 29th November was Advent Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent and the school is using resources devised by Prayer Space in Schools and the Archbishop of York Youth Trust to create a space in school where children can take a moment and pause and reflect on some of the most important things during the special season.  Part of this week’s Advent Prayer Space in School has been a sleeping bag placed on cardboard in our entrance foyer (please see below).  As a school we reflected on the fact that – unfortunately –  4750 people sleep on UK streets on any given night of the year.  We were all asked to stop for a moment – be thankful for what we have and offer hope and a prayer for people this Christmas who have no homes.  During this week we raised awareness of Shelter – a registered charity that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing in England and Scotland.  You can support this charity by visiting their website https://england.shelter.org.uk

Social Media Presentation for Parents

Please find attached a social media presentation for parents from our Community Safety Officer.  The purpose of this presentation is to familiarise you with some of the popular sites being used by young people, to identify how and when they may be at risk and to help you to support them to use social media safely and legally.  Please take some time to read the presentation.

Parent Evening

It was lovely to see some of you during our first ever “remote” Parent Evening yesterday evening.  We have two more evenings on Tuesday, December 8th and Thursday, December 17th.  Can I ask those who have booked appointments to contact the school if they think they will be unable to attend as then we can offer these times to other parents.  Thank you for your support in this matter.

Top Award Winners – Week beginning 30th November, 2020

Well done to all of these TOP Award winners.

I hope you have a restful weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh