Dear parents/carers,
Thank you
We have reached the end of another academic year and I would like to say a huge thank you to all the children, staff and families and all the members of the community for all your support during my first year as the sole head.
Thank you from all of the staff for all your lovely cards and gifts and, as a staff, we were overwhelmed by the donations we have received which will enable us to have a lovely night out at the start of the next academic year. It is very much appreciated by us all. We would like to wish you all a restful summer.
Goodbyes
Today we have said farewell to our Year 6 children as they move onto their new secondary schools. We wish them all well with their future endeavours. We also said goodbye to Aaron, Betsy, William and Emily and we wish them many happy days ahead in their new schools.
Staffing.
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the four staff who are all moving on to pastures new next year. Good luck to Mr Stoodley at your new school. We wish Serinne a speedy recovery and many happy days ahead as she begins a new journey in North Yorkshire. Good luck to Mrs Forde as she continues in her finance role in ODST, and our final farewell goes to Mrs Robertson who begins her retirement today. Thank you all for your hard work and the wonderful contributions you have made to Dr South’s over the years.
We are pleased to announce that we have appointed Mrs Hannah Penwarden as our new school business manager. Many of you know Hannah as a parent and we look forward to welcoming her in September as she takes on this role at Dr South’s. I know that you will make her very welcome as she makes the move from parent to staff.
Welcome (Back) BBQ: save the date (Saturday 13 September)
The FODS Welcome (Back) BBQ will take place on Saturday 13 September from 3.30-5.30pm at the Village Hall. We will provide more information about how to pre-order food for this next term, but hope that you will save the date for this lovely family event.
100 Club Winners
The final 100 Club draw of the year took place yesterday and the winners are as follows:
1st prize: £29.63 – Mrs Watson (No 52)
2nd prize: £17.77 – Willow Class (No 25)
3rd prize: £11.85 – Susan Sawyer (No 82)
£59.25 going to the Sparkle Fund.
We will pass on the winnings as soon as possible. Thank you very much for supporting the Sparkle Fund this year by buying numbers for the 100 Club. Your support for Dr South’s is greatly appreciated and makes a real difference. We hope that you will support the 100 Club again next year; we will be in touch in September!
Dates for the year and clubs
I will send out an email in the holidays with details of clubs for September and term dates for the next academic year. You will be able to email requests for clubs over the holidays which we will process on the first few days in September.
ParentPay
We still have quite a lot of outstanding payments that need to be cleared before the start of the next academic year. Please could you check your accounts to ensure that all accounts are settled before the end of next week.
New term – Wednesday 3rd September 2025
School will re-open on Wednesday 3rd September as there are two inset days for staff on the 1st and 2nd September.
This week we congratulated:
Willow Class: Remy, for working really hard on forming the capital R in his name; Brenley, for his ever-growing confidence and lovely smile that he has on his face every day;
Ash Class: Arvin, for increased independence and organization; Benji, for always applying himself with a wonderful smile; Emily, for being a shining star in Year 1. Good luck in your new school!
Oak Class; Betsy, for having worked incredibly hard this year and for being resilient, positive and willing to try new things every day; William C, for showing a positive attitude to learning, becoming resilient and for always doing his best; Aaron, for his unconditional positivity, being a good friend and an even better learner. Well done!
Beech Class: Sammy, for positivity all week and a great attitude in Maths when working with charts; Charlotte, for incredible organisation and helping everyone during our afternoon tea.
21/07/2025 INSET Day – school closed
22/07/2025 INSET Day – school closed
Don’t forget – you can always check term dates at: https://dr-souths.co.uk/term-dates/