Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.  It has been a very busy few weeks at Dr Thomlinson Middle School.

Celebrating our Culture of Reading and Writing at Dr Thomlinson

We had an eagerly anticipated and ‘most unlady-like’ treat on the morning of  December 2. Robin Stevens, best selling children’s author, paid an exclusive virtual visit to Dr Thomlinson’s, sharing her experiences of reading and writing.

This event was part of a prize won on the school’s behalf by previous Y8 pupil, Will.  He, along with other KS3 students, entered a national competition, writing about war from a child’s perspective. However, we did not only have one person scooping a prize. As well as Will’s winning story, Xanthe in Year 7 achieved a ‘Highly Commended’ for her entry. Well done and congratulations to both these winners. A national award is certainly worth celebrating and a significant achievement! Will has now moved up to KEVI, and so unfortunately did not get to experience Ms Stevens. Xanthe did have the pleasure of reading part of her story aloud to Robin though.Both students received individual awards for their efforts. In addition to this personal audience with the author, our School Library received twenty-one of Robin’s books. They are a mixture of Malory Towers meets Cluedo- well worth stuffing in a stocking for someone this Christmas. Many thanks to Mrs Lamont, who entered those eighteen pupils from her English classes who wished to submit an entry. You have got to be in to win, and it most certainly could be you!

Dr Thomlinson’s got Talent

Last week I really enjoyed being part of our auditions for Dr Thomlinson’s Got Talent.  We will announce the acts that have been chosen to go through to the final on Monday, 11th December. Well done to all those who took part.

Parents/Carers are invited to attend our Dr Thomlinson’s Got Talent show on Monday, 18th December 2023.  The show starts at 6:30pm. We look forward to seeing who will claim the prestigious prize.

Dr Thomlinson Christmas Service at All Saints Church, Rothbury – Wednesday December 20th

Parents/Carers are invited to join us for our annual Christmas Church Service at All Saints Church on Wednesday, December 20th.  The service starts at 1:45pm.

TOP Awards Week beginning 27th November & 4th December November

Our Thomlinson Outstanding Pupil Award is given to the child in each Form Class who, in the opinion of their form tutor, has best shown our core value of the week.

We are concentrating on the core values of Hope; Service; Koinonia; Friendship and Service this year as our school feels that these values will help us best raise awareness of the United Nations 17 sustainability goals that have been devised to help us tackle Climate Change.  Through this important work we feel that we will best live our school mission statement of using our skills and talents for “the good of all”.

 

This week our core value was Creation.

5T Ruth

5H Delphie

6O Ryan

6M Leo

7I JHenry

7L Myles

8N Mary Anne

8S Amelia

 

Last week our core value was Hope

5T Will

5H Paige

6O Louie

6M Jake

7I Rosie

7L Daniel

8N Kayden

8S Harry

Well done to all of these award winners

Prayer for Advent

Newcastle Diocese is committed to working with parishes to encourage and support them in reaching out to children and young people and designed a series of prayers for Advent to help with this.

Heavenly Father,

We pray that all children and young people are given opportunities to use their voices to call for change.

We think especially of those who want to make a difference but don’t know how to start.

Surround them with adults who will listen and give them the right spaces and places to speak out.  Give them the right words to inspire others, and light to path in front of them so they will know where to tread.

And give them peace so they can live their lives without fear for the future.

In your name,

Amen

I hope you have a good weekend,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.  It has been a very busy few weeks at Dr Thomlinson Middle School.

Zambezi Sunshine Trust visit Dr Thomlinson’s

We were delighted to welcome visitors from the Zambezi Sunshine Trust on Wednesday, 29th November, 2023.  The Trust is further extending Linda Community School in Livingstone, Zambia.  The school specifically provides an education for vulnerable children in a very disadvantaged area of the city and one of the charity’s trustees was explaining how the school is now benefiting from almost £2000 of new textbooks which was bought for the school through the money raised by Dr Thomlinson Middle School in a sponsored walk on June 23rd, 2023.  Dr Thomlinson has made plans for further links with Linda Community College in March 2024 when teaching staff from both schools will be exchanging good practice through a series of online meetings.

 

Theatre Company visits Dr Thomlinson Middle School

Dr Thomlinson welcomed the “Why queue theatre Company” on Tuesday 28th November who presented a educational drama on road safety to Year 7

 

Dr Thomlinson School visits Barter Book

A group of Dr Thomlinson pupils visited Barter Books on Wednesday 29th November.  The visit, part of the school’s strategy to promote a ;love of reading, was very well received by the children who attended

 

Year 8 Christmas Cake Baking

It must be getting near Christmas as Year 8 are beginning their annual Christmas Cake Competition.  Year 8 pupils are baking their fruit cakes during one Food lesson then decorating them in the next with the design of the cake decorations being judged and prizes awarded to the best designs.  Best of luck to all those taking part.

 

Dr Thomlinson’s got Talent

Parents/Carers are invited to attend our Dr Thomlinson’s Got Talent show on Monday, 18th December 2023.  The show, starting at 6:30pm, will be a culmination of a series of auditions which begin during lunchtimes on the week commencing December 4th.  We look forward to seeing who will claim the prestigious prize.

 

Welfare Meetings

At Dr Thomlinson there are two parent meetings each year.  In the Autumn parents/carers have an opportunity to book an online welfare meeting with their child’s form tutor.  Then in the Spring, parents/carers have an opportunity for face-to-face meetings with their child’s subject teachers.

Thank you to those Yr 7 parents/carers who spoke to our Yr 7 Form tutors on Wednesday, 22nd November and our Yr 8 Parents/carers who took part in the Year 8 Welfare meetings on Wednesday, 29th November.  Our Face-to-face parent evenings will take place in March and May of 2024.

 

Dates for Parent Evenings (Face-to-Face 3:30pm – 7;15pm)

Yr 5 – 14th May

Yr 6 – 21st May

Yr 7 – 21st March

Yr 8 – 7th March

 

TOP Awards Week beginning 20th November

Our Thomlinson Outstanding Pupil Award is given to the child in each Form Class who, in the opinion of their form tutor, has best shown our core value of the week.

We are concentrating on the core values of Hope; Service; Koinonia; Friendship and Service this year as our school feels that these values will help us best raise awareness of the United Nations 17 sustainability goals that have been devised to help us tackle Climate Change.  Through this important work we feel that we will best live our school mission statement of using our skills and talents for “the good of all”.

This week our core value was Hope.

Well done to the following award winners:

5T Reuben

5H Finley

6O Anna

6M Imogen

7I Jessica

7L Leon / Bethany

8N Madeline

8S T-Jay & Hollie

Well done to all of these award winners

Prayer for Advent

Newcastle Diocese is committed to working with parishes to encourage and support them in reaching out to children and young people and designed a series of prayers for Advent to help with this.

Heavenly Father,

As we join together to pray, we think especially of the children and young people in our parish – those in our schools; in our streets, in our own homes and in our families.

We give thanks for each one, we praise you for all you are doing in their lives, and all you are doing through them.  Help us to see them with your eyes, listen to them with our grace, and love them with your heart.

In the name of your son Jesus Christ, who welcomed the children and placed them in the centre.

Amen

 

I hope you have a good weekend,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Inter Faith Week 2023

Dr Thomlinson celebrated Inter Faith Week in November 2023 by organising a poster competition to design an alternative poster to promote this important event. See the competition winners in the attached presentation.

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope you are well.  It has been a very busy two weeks at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School,

 

Remembrance Day

Dr Thomlinson marked Remembrance Day last week with a visit by the British Legion who, together with the Fusiliers Museum, gave an excellent workshop on what it was like to be a soldier on the front line in World War One.

Thank you to all of our House Captains who represented both our school and the other schools in the Coquet Valley at the Remembrance Sunday service at All Saints in Rothbury.  The House Captains laid a wreath at the Rothbury War Memorial as part of the service.

 

Macmillan Coffee Morning

It was lovely to meet so many parents whose children are new to the school during our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning on November 10th.  We raised £259.65 for this very important cause.

 

Cross Country Success

Well done to the 35 Dr Thomlinson children who took part in the North Northumberland Cross-Country competition on November 8th.  Conditions were tough in wet and windy weather.  Mr Heath was very impressed with the attitude and commitment of all those who took part.  Particular congratulations go to the 12 Dr Thomlinson competitors who qualified for the County Finals in January – Nick; Oliver; Jake; Amberley; Nancy; Bethany; India; Daniel; Miles; Cecily; Amber and Emma.

Dr Thomlinson progress in Football Competition

On Thursday the 9th of November, Dr Thomlinson Middle School took a squad of KS2 players to take part in the Newcastle United Foundation Football Tournament. There were 8 other schools taking part – the format involved every school playing each other and then the top four teams advancing to the semi-finals.

In the group stages, Dr Thomlinson’s played matches, winning 5 and drawing 2. This meant we qualified in first place for the semi-finals.

 In the semi-final we played Shilbottle, a team we had previously drawn against. This time Dr Thomlinson’s were able to capitalise on their position and comfortably won the game 2 – 0. This set up a final against Swansfield. This was a closely fought game with both teams having chances before Dr Thomlinson’s scored the decisive goal 2 minutes before the final whistle.

Dr Thomlinson’s will now represent the North Northumberland Area in the regional finals – well done to all the boys.

Children In Need

Thank you to all those who donated to Children in Need today. We raised £207.11

 

Welfare Meetings

At Dr Thomlinson there are two parent meetings each year.  In the Autumn parents/carers have an opportunity to book an online welfare meeting with their child’s form tutor.  Then in the Spring, parents/carers have an opportunity for face-to-face meetings with their child’s subject teachers.

Thank you to those Yr 6 parents/carers who spoke to our Yr 6 Form tutors on Tuesday of this week.  We look forward to our Yr 7 Welfare Meetings on 22nd November.

 

Dates for Welfare Meetings (online appointment during the school day)

Yr 7 – 22nd November

Yr 8 – 29th November

 

Dates for Parent Evenings (Face-to-Face 3:30pm – 7;15pm)

Yr 5 – 14th May

Yr 6 – 21st May

Yr 7 – 21st March

Yr 8 – 7th March

 

TOP Awards Week beginning 6th and 13th November

Our Thomlinson Outstanding Pupil Award is given to the child in each Form Class who, in the opinion of their form tutor, has best shown our core value of the week.

We are concentrating on the core values of Hope; Service; Koinonia; Friendship and Service this year as our school feels that these values will help us best raise awareness of the United Nations 17 sustainability goals that have been devised to help us tackle Climate Change.  Through this important work we feel that we will best live our school mission statement of using our skills and talents for “the good of all”.

This week our core value was Friendship.

Well done to the following award winners:

 

w/c 13.11..23 – Friendship

5T Theo

5H Iona

6O Betsy

6M Oscar

7I Gracie

7L Laila

8N Poppie

8S Gracie

 

w/c 6.11..23 –  Service

5T – Tilly

5H Niamh

6O Bobby

6M Isla

7I Jake

7L Leon

8N Jodie

 

I hope you all have a restful weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Following requests by pupils at our school we are going to support  “Wear it pink for breast cancer”  – an initiative led by the charity Breast Cancer Now who are encouraging people to wear pink to raise money to help fund life-changing breast cancer research and support.

 

On Friday, October 20th children can come to school in pink or red.  If children chose to do so we suggest children bring a donation of £1 for this very good cause.

Dear Parents/Carers,

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

 

Open evening – September 28th

Thursday, September 28th was Dr Thomlinson Middle School’s annual open evening and it was wonderful to see so many children and parents/carers visit our school.  I thought it was a really enjoyable evening and the school looked and felt wonderful.  The best thing about our school are our pupils and I really appreciated the fact that so many pupils gave up their evening to represent the school in either assisting subjects with their activities or being tour guides showing our visitors around the school.  Thank you so much for all those pupils who gave freely of their time – their actions encapsulated perfectly our core value of Service

 

Yr 8 Careers Talk

On Friday, September 29th we welcomed visitors from Northumberland National Park who led sessions with all Yr 8 children about possible careers with the National Park. The sessions also told our children about the history and context of the parks as well as giving an opportunity to appreciate the parks and the work they do in conserving, enhancing, sustaining and giving opportunities for us to enjoy the natural beauty; wildlife and cultural heritage of these areas.  The visit was well received and linked well with our core value of Creation as well promoting the idea of working “for the good of all”.

 

Boys Football

Our boys school football fixtures continued this week with Dr Thomlinson playing Newminster.  Our Key Stage Two team gave of their best in defeat.  Very well done to Alex who scored a debut goal!  The goal put Dr Thomlinson’s 1-0 up and our joy was great yet it served to rouse Newminster to reply with goals to give them the victory.  Mr Pickup – our team’s coach –  was very complimentary of all our team’s efforts.

 

Yr 5 Welfare Meetings

At Dr Thomlinson there are two parent meetings each year.  In the Autumn parents/carers have an opportunity to book an online welfare meeting with their child’s form tutor.  Then in the Spring, parents/carers have an opportunity for face-to-face meetings with their child’s subject teachers.

The first of these – Yr 5 Welfare meetings will take place during the school day on Tuesday, October 3rd.

 

Dates for Welfare Meetings (online appointment during the school day)

Yr 5 – 3rd October

Yr 6 – 14th November

Yr 7 – 22nd November

Yr 8 – 29th November

 

Dates for Parent Evenings (Face-to-Face 3:30pm – 7;15pm)

Yr 5 – 14th May

Yr 6 – 21st May

Yr 7 – 21st March

Yr 8 – 7th March

 

Further dates for your diary:

9:30am – 10:30am – parents/carers who are new to the school are invited to our Macmillan Coffee Morning at Dr Thomlinson Middle School on October 20th

 

TOP Awards 29th September 2023

Our Thomlinson Outstanding Pupil Award is given to the child in each Form Class who, in the opinion of their form tutor, has best shown our core value of the week.

We are concentrating on the core values of Hope; Service; Koinonia; Friendship and Service this year as our school feels that these values will help us best raise awareness of the United Nations 17 sustainability goals that have been devised to help us tackle Climate Change.  Through this important work we feel that we will best live our school mission statement of using our skills and talents for “the good of all”.

This week our core value was Koinonia.

Well done to the following award winners:

5T – Martha

5H  – Olivia

6O – Teddy

6M – Finn

7I – James

7L – Lucinda

8N – Daisy Lou

8S – Sam

Every week we also award a P&Q award – this award is drawn from all those children who were awarded a P&Q slip – slips given to those who show caring behaviour to others during our school day.  Mind your Ps and Qs is an English language expression meaning “mind your manners” – so people gaining this award at our school are those being kind; friendly and respectful so behaving and acting in a way that lives out our school’s Christian Vision – “for the good of all”

This week this award was awarded to Cecily in Year 8.

I hope you have a restful weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher