Welcome back to another year at Allenbourn Middle School and a special welcome to all of our
new pupils and staff. Well done to Year 5 and new pupils in other year groups – you have
settled into AMS positively and it has been lovely to see lots of smiley faces as you have been
getting involved and making a great contribution to our school community.
As always, the time has passed very quickly and we are suddenly at half term! We have already
been very busy, carrying out our start of year assessments, such as CAT tests and
reading/maths assessments, which enable us to track the pupils and make sure that they make
the right amount of progress across the year and during their time at AMS. Pupils have also
been involved in a number of events and initiatives, some of which are outlined below, and
there are many more coming next half term, so please have a look below for key dates.
Thank you, as always, to all parents who attended our recent Parents’ Evening. We very much
value you taking the time to come in and meet with us and recognise how important it is for us
to work together to ensure the happiness and success of the children. Thank you, too, for your
feedback via our Parent Questionnaires which was extremely positive. Where comments were
made regarding improvement, please be assured that these are noted and shared among staff
so that we can continue to improve our communication and response to you and your children
(whose views are sought separately through school surveys). Finally, thank you to the House
Captains who helped to sign parents in – you were fabulous!
Wishing you all a lovely half term break and looking forward to seeing you back on Tuesday 1st
November. Ms Pritchard
Following a number of concerns being raised, please can we remind
parents about the expectations regarding picking up and dropping off at
the beginning and end of day. We have had a number of cars driving into
the car park at the front of school, sometimes ignoring the one way
system, which creates increased traffic in a very restricted area and
raises the potential risk of accident. Please can we politely remind
parents that children should be dropped off outside the school gates and
should then walk onto school site. Equally, please be mindful when in
East Borough and the Allendale car park due to the large number of
people in this area at the beginning and end of day. While this is obvious,
we have had concerns raised about the speed of cars. We have
contacted county in this regard to ask them to carry out a survey in East
Borough to evaluate the risk and are hopeful to have some response
shortly.
Volume 20 Issue 1
October 2016
GEVO2teach Evolution Project (Bath University)
This term Mrs Dana Buchan from Bath University has
re-visited Allenbourn to receive our feedback on the
teaching resources trialled by our Year 6 pupils in the
Summer Term.
This innovative research project aims to improve the
resources available in schools for teaching the
Evolution topic which has recently been introduced
into the Year 6 Science curriculum. Our pupils learnt
how ‘the loo roll of time’ could help them learn about
geological time and how Natural Selection in the
Peppered Moth can be simulated by using
newspaper.
The resources and pedagogy behind them will now be used across the country to promote further
high quality teaching. Mrs Buchan presented us with a book for the library entitled ‘What Mr Darwin
Saw’ as a way of saying thank-you for our pupils’ enthusiasm and hard work during the project.
CSI Wimborne: The Mystery of the Ruby Earrings
On Monday 26th September, fifteen Y6 pupils took part in ‘CSI Wimborne:
The Mystery of the Ruby Earrings’ at Queen Elizabeth High School. This
was an opportunity for these children to be intellectually challenged and
solve the mystery by piecing together the evidence. This involved watching
CCTV footage, interviewing the suspects and surveying the crime scene.
The pupils were then required to present their findings and identify their chief
suspect in front of a large audience made up of children from local middle
schools. Everyone really enjoyed the experience at Queen Elizabeth Upper
School who had organised the event.
Art extension class pupils visit amazing drawing exhibition at Poole
Museum!
A group of Year 7 and 8 artists had a wonderful time at Lines of
Thought, a highly recommended exhibition at Poole Museum. (It's
on until November 6th and is free!) We looked closely at and
discussed the drawings before choosing an appropriate art media
and paper for a drawing inspired by our favourite pieces. These
included a flying tortoise, a lovely old wrinkly Asian elephant by
Rembrandt and some complicated geometric patterns by Bridget
Riley and Rachel Whiteread. There will be a display up in the
school soon!
Charity Fundraising:
Last term Year 7 (now our current Year 8 pupils) took
part in a Fun Run as part of fund raising activities for
the Trussell Trust, our chosen charity. The Fun Run
took place on a very hot day and included dressing
up in fancy dress. It was great fun and we raised a
total of £821 over the year. Well done!
Volume 20 Issue 1
October 2016
Cross curricular work on a global scale!
To celebrate National Poetry Day, alongside our school's commitment to supporting the Global
Goals initiative, pupils were asked to find, read and create their own poems based on the theme
‘Messages’. Our partner schools in Sri Lanka, Palestine and Lebanon were keen to participate
and asked us if we could write about our own personal dreams and record special messages of
peace inside bottles. Mrs Jenson, our librarian, has a put up a display of the bottles and their
special messages. We have also selected some bottles to send to the schools. Feel free to take a
look when you are next in school. Below are a few of the messages written at the school in
Palestine and our pupils with their messages:
Christmas shoe box appeal:
Leaflets have been handed out this week
for the annual Shoe Box Appeal. Thank
you to those families who have
contributed to this worthy cause in past
years. If you are unable to donate a shoe
box, but would like to participate please
send in items and we can make up some
shoe boxes in school. Thank you.
HOUSE CAPTAINS 2016
Congratulations to the following students who have been elected as House Captains this year.
Very well done – we are sure you will do a fabulous job!
AVON
House Captains: Kiera Mitchell & Oscar Street
Vice Captains: Charley Marks & Arthur Heckstall-Smith
FROME
House Captains: Charlotte Piper & Oli Rawles
Vice Captains: Ava Keay & Will Dewar-Cutts
Volume 20 Issue 1
October 2016
ALLEN
House Captains: Ellie Wall & Alfie Hillman
Vice Captains: Rosie Tighe & Joe Rose
STOUR
House Captains: Lydia Rusling & Drew Mcgregor
Vice Captains: Amy Waddington & Ryan Scriven
FILM CLUB
Can you help? At the request of several pupils, we would like to revive the Film Club that ran until 2
years ago. It would be after school on a Wednesday or Thursday, every fortnight, running until 5 or
5.30. We will probably have a theme of 'Book into Film', reading as well as watching. To do this we
need at least 2 parent helpers to work with Mrs Jensen. If you can help, please contact the office.
Thank you!
LIBRARY NEWS
Roald Dahl Day, September 13th
We celebrated Roald Dahl Day with quizzes, and the very
popular Mrs Twit’s Challenge. Blindfolded, brave volunteers
had to find the jelly worms in their bowl of cold pasta (with
tomato sauce), within a minute! (In Dahl’s The Twits, Mrs Twit
gives her husband a bowl of earthworms instead of spaghetti.)
Congratulations in particular to Mr Hazell and Mrs Randall,
who boldly took part and were cheered on by pupils.
Quentin Blake illustrations of Roald Dahl characters were
hidden around the library through September, and at Open
Evening Student Librarians gave out sweets as prizes for anyone who could find all twelve
pictures.
The Library Dragon
Last term, members of Year 6 book group built a dragon, and at
Open Evening we asked for suggestions for a name. Thank you
to everyone – pupils, parents and visitors – who posted up ideas.
The winning name is ‘Kevin the Killer’. Kevin is now back on his
shelf overseeing the library.
National Poetry Day
.
The theme for this year’s NPD (October 6th) was ‘Messages’
http://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/ . As in past years, Mrs Jensen found
every tutor group a poem linked to the theme, ranging from shape
poems to William Carlos Williams’ well-known poem about plums.
The staff room and office also have a poem on display. We are also
asking pupils to write a short poem about peace, a ‘message in a
bottle’ to share with our international partner schools in Sri Lanka,
Lebanon and Palestine. Some of these poems will be appearing on
the school website in the near future.
Wanted: books in Spanish for readers aged 7-12. We have several children in school who
speak or are learning Spanish, and we would like to have a selection of fiction for them to enjoy. If
you have children's books in Spanish you would like to give to Allenbourn, they would be very
welcome. (If you have children's books in other languages too, Mrs Jensen will be very pleased to
hear from you!)
Volume 20 Issue 1
October 2016
Allenbourn Year 6 pupils had a very successful weekend at the
Bournemouth Marathon Festival; here they are proudly wearing
their finisher’s shirts and medals! Kitty came fourth in the 2K girls
category with a very impressive 8:30 time and Kate was hot on
her heels with a time of 8:51 with Lucie at 9:57 close behind.
Tommy ran a very respectable 12:11 in the boy's 2K race. Jonah
completed his 5K race in a fabulous time of 29:17. Amelia had a
fantastic time of 43:10. Huge congratulations to all!
From time to time we are informed that pupils have head lice. This is a polite reminder to check
your child’s head on a regular basis. Many thanks.
Calendar – key dates for your diary
Please note: for specific events, letters with further detail will be sent nearer the time.
Date
Event
Year Group
Friday 21st October
Break up for half term
All
Tuesday 1st November
Pupils return to school
All
Thursday 3rd November
PTA AGM – 7:30pm
All parents invited
Wednesday 9th November Post-adopted/LAC parent’s meeting
Parents/carers of postadopted and LAC pupils
th
Wednesday 9 November Homework and setting parent’s meeting Year 5
Monday 14th November –
Shadow your child week
Year 5
Friday 18th November
Thursday 17th November
SATS Information Evening
Year 6
th
Thursday 17 November
Year 4 Maths Day
Year 4 children.
Thursday 1st December
Intech Science Museum Trip
Year 6
Tuesday 6th December
ESafety Day – Dorset Safer Schools
All
Parents after school.
team.
th
Wednesday 7 December Minster Concert
All involved in the
concert
Parents
Friday 9th December
Autumn term reports issued
All
th
Friday 9 December
Year 5 Christmas Bazaar and party
Year 5
Thursday 15th December
House Day
All
Friday 16th December
End of term – 12:30pm
All
Wednesday 4th January
Monday 16th January to
Friday 20th January
Tuesday 17th January &
Thursday 19th January
Monday 23rd January to
Friday 27th January
Friday 10th February
Pupils return to school.
Mock SATS week
All
Year 6
Parent’s Evenings
All
Leeson Residential
Year 8
Break up for half term.
All
Monday 20th February
Pupils return to school.
All
Volume 20 Issue 1
October 2016