Litton Cheney, Dorchester, Dorset, DT2 9AU Tel: 01308 482410 Email: office@thorners.dorset.sch.uk  Web site: www.thorners.dorset.sch.uk Head Teacher: Jyotsna Chaffey SCHOOL NEWSLETTER - MARCH/APRIL 2012 The children have been busy! The Eggardon children made Christingles for the church service at Puncknowle.  They had a great time making Christingle oranges and we kept an eye on the sweets! We celebrated St David’s Day on 1 March – we learned a little bit about the food and language of Wales, and Eggardon made Welsh cakes for the whole school.  Thank you to all our volunteer helpers. Each class displayed their learning to parents and friends in our Spring Celebration assemblies.  It is wonderful to see the children’s confidence – singing, dancing, reading and playing music. The children had a ‘shoebox’ assembly.  A slide show and presentation showed them how their contributions to ‘shoeboxes’ (collected at Christmas) are used across the world.  The children are raising money for ‘Prokick’.  Any money raised will go 50-50 to our school and to a school in Africa.   Staff from Monkeyworld came to school to appeal for spare towels, sheets, blankets, duvet covers, pillowcases, anything that is not stuffed or crocheted – to help keep the monkeys warm! The Life Education Van visited school; Harold the Giraffe and Jocko the Elephant showed the children how to keep safe and have healthy bodies and minds.  The older children were encouraged to think about bullying and friendship.  Healthy Ted visited Litton. Chesil had a great time measuring trees in the Discovery Area! The children have been learning new ICT skills: Chesil have enjoyed learning how to move and control ‘Roamers’ - wheeled directional gadgets.  Eggardon have been recording ‘TV interviews’ related to their literacy work and will be making animation movies. Chesil and Litton had a superb day orienteering and map making with their visiting tutor from the Weymouth Outdoor Education Centre.  Bredy visited the centre for a day of adventure – tunnelling and climbing. Our netball team came second out of eight schools that took part in the cluster netball tournament at Colfox.  The weather was freezing cold but we lost only one match.  Our football team won a Kenway Cup match 3-1 against Sticklands Primary School.  WE ARE SO PROUD OF OUR TEAMS!  Musicians from the Dorset Music Service played a variety of instruments – violin, bass and acoustic guitar, flute, piccolo, trumpet, trombone, hosepipe and watering can (!) - to show the children the fun to be had from music. At exactly 2.45pm on Wednesday, 8 February, all the children and staff joined the rest of the country in the ‘Sign2Sing’ challenge for the Guinness Book of Records. (Last year 94,489 children and adults helped to teach the world to sing and sign.)  The event is promoted by SignHealth, a charity working to support profoundly deaf children, young people and adults throughout the UK, whose first language is not English but British Sign Language. The Farmhouse Breakfast in LATCH was a huge success.  There was a book stall, the school Gardening Club sold plants and trees they had raised and the children provided live music. The following Monday the whole school had a breakfast of porridge and muesli prepared in school by our parents and helpers – thank you.  The children enjoyed it so much they asked for more!  And so… the next school breakfast will be on Monday, 23 April.  This being St George’s Day, it will be the full English!  Any donations of eggs, bacon, and sausages welcome nearer the time! Jyotsna Chaffey, Headteacher