Chocablog!

March 08, 2023

Chocablog!

Hello and welcome to the Dorchester Middle School Blog!

Apologies for not posting anything last week. There are a variety of reasons but the most important thing is that we back this week and my goodness me, what a full old Blog we have for you!

So many things have happened over the last couple of weeks so, without further a do, let's crack on!

Previously at DMS...

Sorting things out

Did any of you spot this lady floating around school a few days ago?

Was she asking you questions about your books?

She certainly visited a lot of classes as it took me quite a while to find her!

Last week, one of our Year Eight Blog Squadders, Annabel wrote the following;

Hello again everyone! I hope you have all had a fantastic first week back after a nice restful break. As part of our new DMS pledge, the whole school missed Monday first lesson to learn about our new values and expectations that the senior leadership team have been working very hard on over half term. We discussed expectations for the classroom, the corridors and the playground. All of our morals revolve around ROARS (Ready, Original, Ambitious, Respectful, Safe).

In other news, a group of our students went up to Thomas Hardye School on Thursday to take part in the inaugural Wessex MAT music workshop. It consisted of three categories: Orchestra, choir and rock band. I was lucky enough to be part of this group and had a great time taking part in the rock band performing to my peers. It was so lovely to see other musicians and meet new people like me. Alongside all this we were lucky enough to see performances from Hardye's multiple choirs, showing us all what we can expect when we transition this year, and it really helped me realise what I want from my secondary school experience starting next September. DMS were joined by Purbeck school, St Marys and St Osmund's. It was overall an inspiring experience and I would definitely recommend getting involved if another opportunity should arise.

This is the video that shows you what we got up to:

Unfortunately that's all I have this time, have a great week!

This was the contribution from one of our Year Five Blog Squad, Jess:

This week has been a very exciting week for us all. The Year Fives and Sixes went to the Thomas Hardye Theatre to meet an author called Sue Cheung. Some lucky people were able to buy a signed copy of her book 'Maddy Yip's Guide to Life'.

She shared some of her life with us. Did you know that she lived in a Chinese Restaurant?

Recently at DMS...

DMS does World Book Day

It may have been a day early but you can never accuse DMS of not making an effort. Your costumes were brilliant and I was so impressed with the effort that was made.

Our Year Seven Blog Squad, Sophia, Molly and Harriet, were our roving reporters and took all of the following photographs. They told me that they loved seeing all of the costumes across all of the year groups, something that wouldn't have normally happened.

Congratulations to the winners!

DMS aka Hogwarts!

Just brilliant!

A huge thank you to every single member of the Dorchester Middle School community who contributed to such a successful event.

You are all wonderful!

Year Five's Monumental Day Out

We did it!

Year Five had THE best day on Friday when we visited Stonehenge in Wiltshire as part of our History topic in school. You can read all about it in the report further below from Jess. In the meantime, here a few pictures taken on the day.

A HUGE 'Thank you' to Mr Greetham for organising such an excellent trip - we really did have a brilliant time!

Time to hear from Jess again:

Stonehenge was built around 5000 years ago. They had to carve the rocks with bones or another stone because they had no metal that they could use.

In Stonehenge, there are 30 vertical and 30 horizontal stones. all the stones are called trilithons. The centre trilithon is called The Great Trilithon but it has all fallen down, except for one.

To get to the stones at Stonehenge was very difficult because they had to drag them for at least 20 miles. The reason they dragged them for so for so long was so they could put the stones near all the graves that are around Stonehenge. There was even a real skeleton to see from one of the graves. They also put some of their own dead under the stones.

One of the stones had rusty waster on the corner and the Victorians thought that it was blood so it got the name 'Slaughter Stone'.

Some builders stole from Stonehenge and if you look at some buildings carefully, you can see parts of Stonehenge. Once, someone bought Stonehenge for £6000 and gave it to the country.

The trip was very fun. When we went to see the stones, we also filled in a booklet. Some classes took a bus there and others walked and vice versa. It was great that we all had the same experience!

Jack's Saying of the Week

I can definitely say, with great confidence, that Jack was inspired by this book:

So, which saying have you chosen this week Jack?

This is perfect. Well chosen Jack!

It's time to hear from Annabel again:

Hello all!

I hope everyone has had an amazing week.

This week we had a very exciting world book day across the school, with many people dressing up as their favourite book character, one of my favourite teacher outfits was definitely Mr Heaton as Cruella! The first ever world book day was celebrated on the 23rd of April, 1995, and continues to be recognized on that day in England and Ireland. It's aim is to educate children on the importance of reading, and to help inspire young people to start writing. However, DMS celebrated World Book Day a day early due to teacher strikes across the country, with only the Year 8 pupils attending school. It was actually surprisingly peaceful with only 150 students in school!

The final thing I want to talk about is the exciting weather that is predicted for the coming week, with many weather reports on the news claiming that the UK will be experiencing another lot of snow, and just when we thought spring was around the corner! Weather warnings are already being issued around some parts of the UK, so I'll definitely be getting my hat and scarf ready just in case !

That's all from me this time, but I hope everyone has a fantastic week.

Over to you Sophie...

Hi! It feels like absolutely ages since I've written anything for the blog and I did nearly forget (although the night before is the perfect time for writing blog entries so I think that's okay).

This week has been really exciting with possibly my favourite event in the whole school year…

(Drumroll please!!!)

World Book Day! Well, a day early, but it's close enough. World Book Day is the perfect excuse to wear completely stupid clothes and not have to worry about anyone thinking you're insane. That's probably why I enjoy it so much.

Throughout the day, we had lots of fun competitions and activities. These included a book quiz, which was challenging to say the least - I'm still puzzling over some of the questions; a competition for best-dressed pupil, which was rightfully won by Cohan in Year 6 (I distinctly remember his costume being directly related to ice-cream, and anything related to ice-cream is outstanding in my opinion); and a school-wide vote over best-dressed teacher. Mr Heaton won that with his awesome Cruella costume. I say "his": it was a last-minute borrowed costume which caused some controversy! I also really liked Miss Clements as Cat in the Hat; Mrs Sprules as the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe all in one (very creative); and of course Mr Palmer with the giant inflatable dinosaur from Dinosaurs Love Underpants, inspired by his four year old.

I dressed up as the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith's regeneration. I just absolutely couldn't help myself, being a total Whovian (people don't know about the part of me that is OBSESSED with everything related to this wonderful sci-fi world). On cue, the moment I walked into school, all my home-made props started to fall apart but I spent so long making them I'll have to tape them back together and put them on my shelf or something. I was pleased to meet fellow fans who actually knew what the hell I was on about too! People did keep nicking my fez, but I can't exactly blame them. Who wouldn't want to wear a fez? Fezzes are cool. Also, I made it to the final of the fancy-dress competition! (Probably thanks to my fast-learnt bow-tie tying skills - bow ties are cool.) It was a moment of great pride for me.

It would be a crime not to include a book recommendation, this week of all weeks. After much difficult pondering, I've decided on Famous Five Run Away Together. (Enid Blyton is a legend!) I read this a few years ago but I've been revisiting it, in Greek this time. Every time I pick up the book, golden sunlight seems to spill out of the pages. It's full of life and adventure, for both young and old alike. The book is a reminder, especially since lockdown, that there's always room for the freedom of long summer days spent outside; having fun with your mates; and obviously unearthing secret treasure troves. Even if you don't have your own island, you can have an adventurous time with Enid Blyton's books!