We are DMS!

Hello and welcome back to the Dorchester Middle School Blog!

We did it! 

We made it to half term and what a wonderful four days they were. 

Children's Mental Health Week is always a joy: watching children connecting and working together is fabulous at the best of times. However, the theme of 'Let's Connect' was simply perfect as you will see throughout this week's Blog.

DMS Connects

On Wednesday, the whole school participated in two 'drop down' lessons so that we could dedicate time to focusing on connecting. I cannot begin to thank the tremendous staff who embraced the whole concept and enabled the children to connect as a Homebase.

The range of activities that were chosen by the teachers ranged from connecting through singing, dancing, poetry, mindful colouring, booklets, music - basically, you name it, we did it!

Here are a few pictures to give you a sense of what we got up to... 

Poetry from Year 8 pupils on the theme of connecting.

Dress to Express Day

On Thursday, it was Dress to Express Day! I was very impressed with the originality of some of the fabulous outfits that were on show. I am so sorry that I didn't get many pictures (hectic doesn't cover it) but here is a taster.

Total respect to Mrs Whiting for her wearing her amazing shoes all day. Every part of her outfit expressed various aspects of her life including the Fraggle Rock t-shirt (if you know, you know) which represented her childhood on Portland. 

Mrs Stewart looked fabulous too - like she has just returned from a festival!

Meanwhile, in the Library, it was Hogwarts Day!

Saturday's Parkrun

It was just brilliant to see so many of our DMS Community rock up to The Great Field on Saturday morning. The Great Fields Parkrun volunteers made us feel incredibly welcome and it was such an honour to be there from start to finish.

Some of these pictures were taken by the fantastic photographers Dorsetbays and they very kindly gave me permission to share a selection of their pictures on the Blog.

Before...

During...

After...

This is the fabulous Tom who started DMS the same time as me. I think I ought to point out that he was in Year Five.
I won't say out loud how many years ago that was...

Well done and a HUGE 'Thank you' to everyone who rocked up on Saturday.
You are all amazing!

Sunday's Parkrun

As if Saturday wasn't exciting enough, we came back and did it all again on the Sunday for the Junior Parkrun.

It was an impressive group of hardcore DMS pupils, their parents and staff who rocked up. In some cases, it was Part Two!

Here is a selection of pictures, mostly taken by the mighty Dorsetbays...

I thoroughly enjoyed Tail Walking and cannot thank Mrs Whiting enough for reminding me that it said 'Tail Walker' on the back of our High Viz vests and not 'Tail Runners'!

Again, the Parkrun team at The Great Fields were, well, amazing. They were so friendly and pleased to see us, our school community felt completely and utterly welcomed. 

We are aiming to return to Parkrun in a couple of week's time to commemorate International Woman's Day so let's all have our trainers on standby, ready to remind Dorchester that DMS is awesome. Fact.

Year 5

This week's report is from Blog Squad Member Jess.

This week is Children's Mental Health Week and in Thursday we would have had a Homes Clothes Day. The money that you donated will help to make a difference to the lives of children and young people in Dorset by supporting the Space Youth Project. The theme of 'Let's Connect' is perfect.

In Dorchester, we are lucky enough to have two Parkruns at The Great Field: the 5km on Saturday and the Junior Parkrun on the Sunday. At both Parkruns you can walk, jog, volunteer or spectate. It is a weekly run and everyone is welcome. On Saturday at 9am adults and children are welcome but if they are under 11 years old then they need to run with an adult. However, the Junior Parkrun is every Sunday at 9am for children aged between 4 and 14. Parents can run with their children but they can't get an official time.

Mrs Ray attended both Parkruns as she is trying to achieve 100 Parkruns this year. She ran on the Saturday and tail walked on the Sunday with Mrs Whiting. Miss Ashley also volunteered and cheered everyone on.

All Parkruns are free but you must remember to register before you come along. You only have to sign up once and don't forget to bring a scannable copy of your barcode - if you don't bring it along then you won't get a time.

Year 7

This week's report is from Blog Squad member Sophia.

Last week on Wednesday, as everyone may know, many teachers were striking.  Over 300,000 teachers across the UK were not working.  They were fighting, not only for a pay rise, but also to end the crisis in education.  The value of teachers pay has fallen over the last 10 years, and they want a pay rise to come from the government, not from the existing schools budgets. About 80 to 90% of English schools have been having budget cuts.  

 But what about you?  Across the UK, school children have been off school and working from home.  Teachers that were not striking set work online for their pupils to complete. It looks like we're set for more strikes to come, the next date is set for 2^nd March on World Book Day. 

Also one more thing.  This week is Mental Health Week and in school we have been doing lots of things to celebrate it such as the drop down lessons.  In these lessons pupils were doing activities like making posters, watching videos, doing quizzes and orienteering.  Another way that we are going to commemorate it is DMS is going to take part in the Great Field Parkrun.  Unlike last year, we are going to raise money for The Space youth project which helps support young people who are or may be LGBTQ+ and give them a positive self-esteem, to know they are supported, to have a sense of community.  

We'll see you there!

Year 8

This week we have reports from Annabel and Sophie.

Let's start with Annabel.

Hello again! 

I hope everyone has had a good week and are looking forward to the half term . 

Over the past week our year group has been focused on mental health. The definition of mental health is a persons condition with regards to their physiological and emotional well-being. We had two drop-down lessons on Wednesday (lessons 3&4) in order to make sure we fully understand the meaning of mental health, and ways we can all help each other overcome difficulties. 

Here are some of the things 8VG thought of:

. Offering support to friends

. Giving them space

. Respecting that they might not want to talk straight away

. Be a good listener 

During our drop-down lessons we also did a bit of mindful colouring as relaxation can relieve stress and wash away any worries. It was also a great opportunity to get to know our classmates better. It was really good because as well as learning about mental well-being, we also felt calm and bonded with friends

Now it's time to hear from Sophie

 

Hi again! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying a well-earned rest. Today's entry will be slightly shorter (bet you're all going 'phew'!). 

This week was mental health week; a time to really tune in to how we're feeling not just physically, but psychologically, emotionally and socially too. If I'm correct, the theme was connecting with other people, one of the (very important) Five Ways to Wellbeing, and especially so after the Covid-19 pandemic. I know that lately I've been going through a rocky time and making sure I eat a meal with my family, or catching up with a friend over text has been really helpful. 

Lessons three and four at school were drop-down lessons as we talked about what we can do to keep mentally healthy. We listened to some songs which explored the theme of connection. Then, we wrote a song/poem based on connection. I really enjoyed the activity! 

Remember, if you're going through a tough time (which happens to everyone) reach out! There's so many people who'd be happy to talk it through: teachers, friends, parents, siblings, friends' parents. Don't suffer in silence. 

This year, the chosen charity for donations is the Space Youth Project. As I'm sure you've seen in previous blogs, this charity aims to support LGBTQ+ young people in Dorset, through boosting self-esteem, growing confidence, helping to overcome issues presented by prejudice, and learning vital life skills when it comes to life as an LGBTQ+ person. The Space Youth Project tries to create a safe, welcoming community where LGBTQ+ young people can hopefully feel at ease. For those who may not have found home to be a safe or welcoming place, the charity provides a space to be themselves. Ultimately, the Space Youth Project is about making friends, exploring identity, and freedom of expression.

 

Over the weekend, there were two parkruns at the Great Field, Poundbury, a 5k on Saturday and another fun run on Sunday, to raise money and awareness about the charity. Unfortunately I couldn't go but I hope everyone had fun! Whether you did or didn't run, if you can spare it consider donating a little to this awesome charity. 

 

I'd like to finish this post with another book recommendation. It's becoming a bit of a regular thing now so maybe I'll do it every time. 

Anyway, the Book of the Week from me is The Knife of Never Letting Go (first book in the Chaos Walking series), by Patrick Ness. It's so good that I'm rereading it… again (and I'm already halfway through). It is somehow endearing yet unflinching, a stark, important book about growing up and the choices that come with it. It'll grip you from the first sentence with its ethical questions, relatable characters and plot twists, as more of the truth is revealed. This book with its powerful, raw emotivity touched me in a way that is single and affecting. In fact, I spent half an hour trying to make this recommendation worthy of such a fabulous book. Everyone should read this. It's available in the school library if you're interested, however it is in the Y8 only section because it deals with quite mature themes and graphic scenes. 

DMS Pledge

When we return to school on Monday, the whole school will be doing some work around our DMS Pledge.

We worked on this as a school a few weeks ago so this is the result of all of the school community's thoughts, ideas and opinions.  

Thank you to Mr Murray for all of his hard work on ROARS and the Pledge. It is all very exciting and I am very proud of what has been and will be achieved as a result.

...and finally...

I saw this is 5CWT and absolutely loved it! 

Kindness really doesn't cost anything and to see this on display just makes may heart sing.

Well done 5CWT!

Well, that's it for this instalment of the Blog. I know that it was a bit of an epic but I hope that we have managed to give you a flavour of what we have been getting up to in school.

I hope that everyone has had a good half term and I will look forward to seeing all on our return to school on Monday.

Mrs Ray and the Blog Squad

(As per my New Year's Resolutions, I have been working hard on my mental health and wellbeing by trying to action as many of the Five Ways to Wellbeing as possible. Hopefully these pictures, taken on my local trail way and in my sitting room reflect this!)