Weekly Newsletter 17th November 2023

Welcome to DSJ Weekly!

Everybody is looking fantastic today in their Pudsey ears, spots, and non-uniform! Thank you very much for your generous donations. These will find their way to Pudsey!

I've had a lot of children come to visit me this week to show me their fantastic work. I absolutely love seeing all the amazing effort going on, and the pride that results. One thing I keep hearing from staff is that children are working really hard, which is wonderful to hear.

I'm also seeing the results of the weekly assemblies we've been having on the school vision. Walking around school is a joy: children smile and say hello, they hold doors open for each other and for staff, they say please and thank you consistently. Even though these are small things in and of themselves, they do add up and the environment is lovely - it fits right in to our 'kind and respectful' part of the Dodworth Pledge.

Whilst I'm on the subject of the Pledge, I was excited to take delivery of some printed copies of it to hang up in and around the school - we already have a few up!

We had Mrs Cuthbert from St Mary's Academy Trust come to visit us on Monday and Tuesday this week, monitoring a few aspects of school. On Monday, Mrs Cuthbert, Mr Kaufman and I took part in a learning walk to focus on behaviours for learning. This was a great success. Children were attentive, on-task, and there was no disruption. Pupils spoke really positively about school!

On Tuesday, Mrs Cuthbert joined us again, this time to look at Writing and PE. Mrs Whiteley and Mrs Jones did a fantastic job discussing their subjects, the reasoning behind our curriculum design, and what our next steps are. The lessons observed were also really strong. A huge well done and thank you to staff and children for making both of these days a success.

I must say a huge thank you to Dawn on our PTA for organising and collecting advent calendars for all the children - a really wonderful idea, making Christmas that little bit more special for the children! These will be given out shortly.

Mr Smith

School Works

Piece by piece, the school is coming together nicely! It sounds like a little thing, but something that's making a big difference is the new doors that are popping up throughout school. Nearly every child that saw them earlier in the week commented on them; I never thought I'd see children so excited about new doors!

We are - hopefully - providing them with a school that they can take pride in. Have a look at the before/after below:

Special Visitor

On the 15th December, we will be welcoming the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, Miriam Cates, to the school for a visit.

Miriam is aware of the improvement works that have been happening in school, and will be joining us for some of the morning to discuss and see what's been happening and how the school has benefitted from the work that's been done.

Remembrance Day

Thank you to our Year 6 volunteers for doing such a superb job last week in representing the school and laying the wreath on behalf of the school. They were both fantastic.

This was, of course, my first Remembrance Service since I've been at Dodworth and I was so impressed by the turnout. It's a very important event to commemorate and it's incredible to see a community come together like that.

Community Events

School Menu - Autumn 2

Please see the new school menu below. Images best viewed in landscape mode on mobile devices

Packed Lunches

Another reminder this week please to ensure that the food put in packed lunches is nut-free. Items containing Nutella are not permitted due to their high nut content.

Thank you for your understanding with this. Obviously, the safety of pupils has to come first.

Diary Dates