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Message from the Headteacher, Mr J Rielly

It is clear from the articles and photographs that are presented here that this has been an extremely busy term with lots of opportunities on offer for pupils to extend themselves beyond the normal curriculum. I would urge all pupils to take similar opportunities that will undoubtedly be on offer in the summer term. Perhaps the most striking example of this has been the incredible entrepreneurial skills shown by Year 8 pupils in their various Micro Tyco projects. For the past few weeks, the pupils have shown creativity, teamwork and tenacity in order to develop fun raising schemes using a ‘seed capital’ of £1. All money created by the Micro-Tycos is invested by WildHearts charity fund micro-loans for poor entrepreneurs in the developing world. Participants 'become entrepreneurs to fund entrepreneurs'. With alarming speed, we are approaching the last term of the school year where our attention will also turn towards transition: ensuring our year 8 pupils make a positive start to their upper school phase and ensuring that new Y4 pupils feel welcomed and included in our school community. It will also be a time for summative tests in all year groups as we prepare our most detailed end-of-year reports for pupils and parents. I am very proud of the resilience and focus shown by our Y6 pupils as they approach the final few weeks before the tests in the week beginning 14th May. It is worth noting that following these tests, attention will turn to ensuring that there is sufficient evidence of pupils’ writing skills to allow for secure teacher assessment judgements before the end of June. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the school has made some successful appointments to the teaching team in recent days and more details of this will provided in the summer term. Most significantly, following the confirmation of DCC funding for the resourced base for pupils with complex communication needs which will be hosted by WMMS from September 2018, we have appointed a lead teacher for this facility who will begin her work later in the summer.

THE LIZARD

West Moors Middle School

Easter, 2018

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JET

We at West Moors Middle School are proud to have started our inspirational outreach programme with JET (Jon Egging Trust). We have had 4 hours of group session so far with our 15 year students involved in the programme and we are looking forward to the upcoming sessions next term. So far we have worked on teamwork and communication and our next session is on goal setting and resilience. We also have a reward trip planned for the end of the programme and we will be presenting and sharing our skills learnt with our peers. Our sessions are active, fun and engaging for all those involved.

Mrs Beavan

Commonwealth Day Celebrations 12th March 2018

On 12th March 4 of our school prefects accompanied by myself, Mrs Beavan and Mr Long (school governor) helped to escort pupils from Oakhurst 1st School down to the West Moors village for the Commonwealth day Celebrations. We listened to the affirmation being read out and watched the flag being raised by the parish council. The event was attended by all 3 schools from the village and local representatives from the parish council. The children were rewarded for their excellent behaviour with hot chocolate and biscuits in the local

café.

KS3 Brunel Challenge Trip

On Tuesday 20th March, Miss Belcher and Mrs Lamb took 18 pupils from Year 7 and Year 8 all the way to the Steam Museum in Swindon to take part in a competition called the Brunel challenge. Pupils had the opportunity to work in teams to design and build an engineering solution using the micro:bit to keep trains safe on a track. The final part of the day involved pupils having to demonstrate their ideas to professional engineers and industry leaders. It was a fantastic day and all the pupils worked really hard to come up with their final solution. I am pleased to announce that Tyler, Lesley, Yusef, Harvey and Toby won the innovation category prize. They have won a school trip! – Yet to be confirmed!

‘The day was amazing and I especially loved all the coding and electronics. Even though the last bit of code I did

went a bit wrong, it was a great day’. Marc Collins

‘The trip was great fun and we learnt some new coding skills as well as learning how a micro-bit worked. It was a

great challenge’. Harvey Sears

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‘I really enjoyed the coding trip. I learnt how to code traffic lights, so that trains could pass through the

tracks safely. I was on a team with my friends. I hope we can go again next year’. Amy Entwistle

Brunel Science Trip

Stem Science Day Sunninghill School partnered up with us and our team name was Ocean Secrets. There were six teams all containing three people from each of the two schools in the team. The aim of the day was to get most points and get your crew from the submarine to land. The first challenge The first challenge of the day was to do Morse code and to make a circuit to sound the alarm and turn on the lights in the submarine. When we finished we had to run and get a buzzer. We came second. The second challenge The second challenge was to build a bridge out of spaghetti, sweets and marshmallows to get out of the submarine. Mmmmmmmm! Other challenges were included and after a final quiz we won £500 for the school, a trophy and knex. We also got goodie bags and sweets, a water bottle, a pen and a slap band. We had a great day. Alyssa Mist 6PP Rosie Teed 6PP Ella Hendy-McGill 6CW

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Spring Concert

On Tuesday 20th March we held a small spring concert as an opportunity for those who learn instruments at school to perform for their parents. All pupils practised their pieces well and performed to a high standard. Mr Mein and I were very proud of our pupils - well done!

Mrs H Watkins

Summer Show - Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th July

We have now had the auditions for our summer production of 'Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits'! There were some very talented pupils at the auditions and we now have an amazing cast to work with. Rehearsals begin in earnest after Easter for those with a main part. Other pupils are very welcome to still join in and sing in the chorus. Please keep the dates of the show free so you can come along and watch!

Mrs H Watkins

PTFA Bingo Night

This term the Friends of West Moors Middle School (PTFA) organised a bingo night including a Fish and Chip Supper. We had an amazing turn out, the evening was a great success and we hope to repeat it. The intense concentration was palpable - congratulations to all the winners. We raised an amazing £547.80 profit which included a very generous donation of £100 from an individual who was unable to attend. Thank you for all the kind donations of prizes from: 3 Wishes West Moors K&B Installations Tesco Epicentre Coffee Lounge Morrisons All the parents, staff of WMMS And of course to all the people who attended and made this such a fun evening. Look out for the next events: Friday 15th June - Summer Fayre Friday 30th November - Christmas Fayre

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WMMS Sporting Fixtures Spring Term

WMMS Dance Ambassadors opened the level 3 Year 7&8 Girls Football Quarter Finals 9 Winter school finals at Leaf Academy aside at St Michael’s Middle School

Year 4 Football Tournament lead by our year 7’s and 8’s Another fantastic year 4 football tournament for our feeder schools was held here at WMMS on the Wednesday 7th March. All of the schools thoroughly enjoyed it and our year 7 and year 8 leaders made us extremely proud again by ensuring the day ran smoothly and efficiently. Well done to everyone involved! By Isabella Ashcroft Year 8

Years 5&7 Cross Country Championships at Canford School

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Year 5 Swimming Summer Term

Next term we are giving the opportunity for all year 5 pupils to take part in swimming lessons at Ferndown Leisure Centre. We feel that having water confidence and the ability to swim is an essential life skill that all young people should have. It is hoped that by providing these lessons it will help your son/daughter have more water confidence and give them the ability to swim 25 metres, which is the standard required, set by the National Curriculum.

The lessons will commence after Easter, the first week of the new term for 10 weeks, swimming on Wednesday afternoons. (First lesson being Wednesday 18th April, through to last lesson Wednesday 4th July 7th). Pease note that children will not be swimming during half term or SATS week in May.

The children will travel by coach and return to school by the end of the day so as not to disrupt usual travel arrangements.

Your child will require a suitable swimming costume or trunks, a towel and a swimming hat and goggles if desired. In addition an extra drink and a snack would be advisable.

Office Reminders

Please can we remind parents that medical appointments for your child should, where possible, be made outside of school hours.

If your child is absent from school, please don’t forget to contact the School Office on 01202 872474 before 9am when the registers close. We would ask you to call us each day that your child is absent. We are having to chase a large number of pupil absences at the moment and if we do not have a valid reason for your child to not be in school, they will be recorded as having an unauthorised absence. Thank you.

Uniform reminder As we head into the summer term and children perhaps outgrow uniform bought at the start of the year, it is relevant to show this extract from the school handbook: We believe that school uniform is important. It helps children to develop loyalty to the school and pride in their appearance. The uniform is economical and serviceable and consists of standard and easily obtained items:

School tie (girls wearing V-neck blouses do not need to wear a tie)

White shirt or blouse

Black skirts, culottes, trousers or formal shorts (Summer dresses of green/white may be worn)

Bottle green sweatshirt* or cardigans (All skirts/culottes should be approximately knee length)

Shoes (not trainers) should be black, suitable for school and flat. All teachers will be vigilantly checking uniform standards after Easter so that we can continue to set the highest standards for our pupils.

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Healthy Lunches Can we please remind parents that we are a ‘Healthy School’. This means that food served in our canteen complies with government requirements ensuring that we provide nutritious and balanced meals for our students. This also means that we would like you to support us in maintaining this by ensuring that packed lunches do not contain a surplus of crisps, sweets or chocolate. Fizzy drinks are not allowed in school. We have noticed that there are a number of children who have quite a lot of ‘junk’ food in their packed lunches, which is clearly not conducive to a healthy lifestyle.

Attendance Certificates for 100% Attendance: Ashleigh Chew Aimie Lomax Lauren Pigott Marc Collins Lucy Lomax Tiago Rola Amy Entwistle Sophia Mawson Alfie Turner Rebecca Howard Ruby Morris Charlotte Webster Mark Hunter Peter Nash Jack Webster Lillie Jackson James Nawavuka Henry Wilks Certificate for most Improved Attendance: Ibrahim Mutanser Certificate for most Improved Attendance Tutor Group: GC

Lizard Trophy Winners Pupil Points Winner: Ruby Morris Year 5: Joy Zheng Alistair Lockey Year 6: Summer Agate Will Pitt Year 7: Amber James Adam Hector Year 8: Evie Marshall Tiago Rola

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School Calendar 2018

Date Event Monday 16th April Students return to school

Wednesday 25th April Year 3 Cricket Festival

Monday 7th May Bank Holiday school closed

Monday 14th May Year 6 SATs week

Friday 25th May Break up for half term – students in school

Mon 28th May -1st June Half term week

Monday 4th June Students return to school

Friday 15th June PTFA Summer Fayre

Wednesday 27th- Friday 29th June

Year 6 Residential Trip to Fairthorne Manor

Thursday 28th June Sports Day

Thursday 29th June Reserve Sports Day

Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th July

School Summer Production

Friday 25th July Last day of term – students in school *Please note: there are times when we are offered opportunities at the ‘last minute’ which means we are unable to give parents a lot of notice. There may, therefore, be additional events that take place which are not detailed above.