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

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.

We have had a busy and productive week at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

House Captain Elections

This week was election season at Dr Thomlinson’s as fifteen candidates campaigned for one of our six House Captain roles.  The role of House Captain is an important student leadership role at our school and part of the role is to raise awareness and educate pupils on the life and works of their House Saint – St Aidan; St Bede the Venerable and St Cuthbert.

I was very impressed with the application letters and presentations and speeches of all the candidates.  The successful pupils were:

Aidan House Captains – Daisy and Edward

Bede House Captains – Xanthe and Miles

Cuthbert House Captains – Danny and Lily

TOP Awards 22nd 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 Friendship.

Well done to the following award winners:

5T – Jasper

5H Elliot

6O – Isabella

6M – Oscar

7I – Henry

7L – Oliver

8N – Eva

8S – James

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 Oscar in Year 6.

Well done to all of these award winners.

Thank you to those who attended our Online Safety Education Session For Parents on Monday 18th September.  The session was very well attended and it was lovely to see all those who were there.

Boys KS3 Football

Our football season kicked off last night with a game against Newminster Middle School.  Our team did very well against strong and highly committed opponents.  The match was closer than the 1-7 scoreline suggests, the Dr Thomlinson highlight being an outstanding goal from Matthew.  Well done to Lewis who was our person of the match.

Dr Thomlinson School Open Evening

Thursday 28th September sees our annual School Open Evening.  The evening is from 5:30pm – 7pm.  The best aspect of our school is our wonderful pupils and it is pleasing to see that so many of our children wish to help out during the evening.  Those children who are helping will be given a letter – please respond promptly to these invites.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you well.

We have an enjoyable week at Dr Thomlinson CofE Middle School.

TOP Awards 15th 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 Service.

Well done to the following award winners:

5T – Jasmine

5H Dylan

6O Charlie

6M Kaitlin

7I Emily

7L Kane

8N Lily-Kate

8S Cecily

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.  This week this award was awarded to Finn in Year 6.

Well done to all of these award winners.

Thank you to those who responded to the invite to attend the Online Safety Education Session For Parents.

These sessions (for those who responded to the invite) will take place in Room One (turn right at the main entrance and Room One is the first classroom you walk past) –

Monday 18 September 2023 at Dr Thomlinson Middle School, Rothbury

● 5.30pm – 6.20pm – Early Years to Year 6

● 6.30pm – 7.20pm – Year 7 to Year 13

School Photographs

Our school photographs are taking place on 21st September at school.  Those who wish to have photographs with younger siblings please arrive at 8:30am.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Take care,

Liam Murtagh – Headteacher