19 April 2024

Headmaster's Letter 19th April 2024

Dear Parents

There are only two more weeks to get your tickets for the Enchanted Woodland Ball at School on Saturday 18th May! We are so looking forward to it, even though organising a ball on top of running a school is a logistical conundrum... Who says teachers aren't multitaskers? My thanks to Mrs Shaw and her willing team of organisers who are doing a sterling job here.

In a fabulous marquee from DP marquees, a drinks reception, a three-course sit-down waiter service meal with catering by Rebecca Green catering, live music from the highly recommended Kingsmen, a disco, magician, bar and excellent company from other Dumpton parents, staff and former staff, we are really throwing everything at it! As a reminder, we only plan to do one of these every five years, so please don't miss your chance to be part of such an important community event, and we hope you will all do your best to support the school and attend if you can. For those of you who are worried about how the seating will work, we will contact ticket holders in the coming weeks asking for dietary requirements and requests for the seating plan. Whether you are coming on your own, in a couple or in a group, we will make it all work for you!

Please see Summer Ball page of our website where you will find the link to book tickets:

https://www.dumpton.com/dumpton-summer-ball-2024

Deadline for ticket sales: Friday 3rd May.

Scholarship Success
I wanted to congratulate our Y8 group who secured 19 scholarships in total to Senior Schools this year, with comfortably over half the pupils in the year group securing an award. It makes us so proud to see pupils ‘aiming high’ in this way and achieving such prestigious success. Whilst we continue to secure record numbers of academic scholarships, how wonderful to see pupils recognised in sport and the performing arts too.

Hobbies
Our Hobbies programme has kicked off in fantastic style this Summer Term. The Pre-Prep children are enjoying new hobbies including Tennis, Art Attack and Summer Sports this term, whilst Prep School children are trying activities like Street Dance, Movie-Making, Volleyball and Nature Art. A big thank you to all our staff team who work so hard to put on such a varied and engaging Hobbies programme.

House Art Competition – from Mr Loe, Head of Art
The House Art Competition was extremely popular, with nearly 100 entries – half of the Prep School. The standard was incredibly high with a wide range of media and techniques used; from drawing to painting, computer generated images and some photography as well. With 14 images being chosen for consideration to be named winner, the staff found it incredibly difficult to choose a winner, especially as they had no idea who had made the art they were looking at. I think you will agree that the four images (attached) are of the very highest standard and show just how accomplished these artists are. A big well done Ivory J, Chloe G, Lola G and Charlotte G. Look out for more exciting artistic opportunities next year...

Music exam success – from Ms Oakes, Director of Music
Huge congratulations to all our musicians who took Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music exams last term. We had 100% success with lots of merits and distinctions too. This is a huge achievement for all these pupils and for Dumpton, with these tough exams. Well done to all those who practiced hard, and good luck to our many LAMDA pupils who are sitting their exams next Friday!

Performing Arts Summer Holiday Club
We had a such a great time with our performers in the Easter holidays, who put on a reduced version of 'Matilda: The Musical'. We had a blast! If you would like to come to our summer holiday club, booking is now open on a first come first served basis for the 12 - 14 August.

All you need to know about Future Schools – Webinar, Tuesday 23 April
We are holding this webinar on Tuesday evening, aimed at parents with children in Y3,Y4 and Y5. It remains important to me that Dumpton continues to provide you with the information and advice you need to make decisions over where your child might go next, be that independent, state or grammar school options – as well as ensuring we do all we can to help them secure a place at their chosen school.

Drop Ins
Look out for the Drop Ins next week for Reception, Y3, Y4 and Y5 – we hope it's a lovely chance to pop into the classroom and look at your children’s most recent work.

Lunch with the Head
I am already looking forward to sharing a lovely lunch with many of you next Thursday – you will have received a confirmation email from Lerryn if you made the short list, and apologies to any of you missing out: there will be more opportunities to come.

Whole School Photograph
Fraser Portraits will be in school next Friday afternoon (26 April) to take our whole school photograph. Please can you ensure that the pupils arrive at school looking their very smartest – thanks in advance!

Staff News
It has been lovely to have Mrs Jasmine Williams back in school after her maternity leave. She will be spending time supporting children and staff across the early years classrooms. She has already been given the warmest of welcomes from the pupils who I know have been so pleased to have her back. It is also lovely to have Tim Harrison join our team of minibus drivers this term as well as Katherine White who joins our catering team. We are delighted to welcome them into the Dumpton community.

With best wishes