Dear Parents,

In the wake of our weekend long fortieth birthday celebrations, we are very proud to be part of a school like Dolphin.  The party arranged by Funraisers on December 3^rd epitomized all that is great about our community. Spectacular fireworks, catering for over three hundred people and dancing to our very own Matt Allwright’s band, The Choppers, set the tone, and Ophelia’s talk to the children gave them a real sense of their place in the history of the school.  Each child was given a bauble (in true Dolphin colours) that they will treasure, and the retail of T towels and a stunning cookbook maintained the high standard of the proceedings.  We cannot thank Funraisers enough for their commitment and support of all that we do here; we really feel that there is a sense of all of us working together for the good of the community.

On Sunday, December 5^th the celebrations continued as over two hundred past pupils and some old colleagues returned to visit the school, some of whom had not been back for over thirty years!  To mark the occasion Ophelia had invited the Old Delphinians to contribute to a book entitled Freedom to Learn, a highly entertaining romp through forty years of the life of the school which is well worth a read.  It was a delight to listen to their fond memories of their time with us and to hear about how they have carried the school’s philosophy close to their hearts all these years; it is a testament to the school that these adults still feel the desire to return to what is essentially their primary school.  The proceedings ended with a rendition of the school song Gaudeamus Igitur!

We were greeted at the start of this term by the welcome sight of a Kawai baby grand piano, kindly donated by Funraisers, and this has already proved its value in many ways ranging from accompanying the children in assemblies to participation in an array of school productions.  The Year One and Two Christmas production, to take place in the Hall this year, will use it as its accompaniment and it was used to excellent advantage when the senior children performed their very own black tie Poetry Cabaret Evening. The quality of the poetry produced by your children at both this event and throughout the school year is outstanding and I would encourage you to take a look at their writing when you can. Dolphin also took delivery this term of two brand new minibuses with our distinctive logo emblazoned on the side and we hope that your children will enjoy travelling in them.

The European Day of Languages earlier in the term saw the whole school learning how to say hello in seventeen different ways.  The song was sung as part of a special assembly, when an international word chain that had been created by pupils using words from as many different languages as possible was displayed.   Children could also take part in a languages treasure hunt to find as many words as they could that had been hidden around the grounds.  On Friday, Year Three enjoyed a delicious French breakfast including croissants and jam, washed down by chocolat chaud and paid for with euros, whilst the recent Nursery International Day saw our littlest children taking a journey across the continents and even performing their own Haka!

This term we held our first ever parent and toddler sessions in Nursery and we were delighted to welcome both current parents and local residents into the school.  Whilst our visitors were in school our children were taking advantage of the new outdoor classroom on the school field towards which we were given a grant by Wokingham Borough Council.  This is another step in our work towards becoming a ‘Forest School’, and we will have completed the accreditation by the end of the year. Rita Robinson is piloting the Forest Schools’ work to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through positive outdoor experiences, which is very in keeping with our ethos.  This is a very exciting new venture about which you will hear plenty in the future; initial work with the Foundation Stage will be gradually moved up through the school and linked with our residential field and walking trip programme.

As mentioned earlier, Funraisers have continued to be an endless source of enthusiasm and commitment.  The welcome barbeque for parents set the tone in September and this was closely followed by a Hot Lunch and a fantastic Race Night where we discovered hidden talents as jockeys!  All that coupled with the inaugural cookbook, T towels and amazing Fortieth birthday celebrations mean that some parents have spent much of this autumn in school.  Thank you very much indeed for all that you do.

All of our children from Year Five upwards had some form of residential school trip over half term.  The delights of Boulogne were explored by the youngest group where they sampled the gastronomic delicacies of the region, studied local geography and history and spoke plenty of French. Year Six spent five days in North Wales learning all one could hope to know about castle architecture, and finding out how the geology of the region has fashioned its landscape and industry.  Normandy with our senior years was a real treat as we not only explored the Invasion of Normandy in World War 2 but also looked at the history that led to the Norman invasion of England back in 1066.  The geography of the region played an enormous role in both invasions and this was studied in depth.  On all of these trips the children had considerable opportunities for sketching and creative prose; do take a look at some of the displays in the Hall that will give you a flavour of these trips.

All pupils in Years Three to Eight have had sports matches this term and there has been a lot of work in lesson time and after school trying to make the team-play as successful as possible.   In football the U9A and U11A team have won most of their matches and in netball the senior teams have had some good results too.   The U11 netball team came third in the Bradfield tournament and the senior girls’ football team also won their first match this season in convincing fashion.   Our hockey skills are improving and the U9 girls played well to win and draw a match against St Piran’s recently.  We also hosted our inaugural U11 football tournament here at Dolphin which we hope to repeat in the future.  Despite the cold weather all pupils have coped well with the frost and the frozen pitches!

In an effort to make ourselves more ‘accessible’ to parents we held an Afternoon Tea this term where parents were invited to join us for a drink and a chat; this proved to be rather successful and we will be repeating the event next term.  I am also trying to keep you up to date with exciting new events taking place in school, so have moved with a certain amount of trepidation into the 21^st century and opened a Twitter account called dolphinsch.  The twitter feed appears on the front page of our website and we would be keen to know if you find it interesting!

We are sad that we had to postpone the Year Five Christmas play this term due to an unprecedented amount of illness and we are hoping to find a date for a future production.  On a similar theme, in response to requests from parents, I have decided to bring forward the end of the Autumn term next year so that we break up earlier on Friday December 16^th.  Next school year will begin on Tuesday September 6^th 2011 and end on Thursday July 19^th 2012, as shown on your new version of the school calendar.

Two very recent highlights have been the participation in the Young Voices at the Royal Albert Hall and the Charities Fair. Our junior choir braved illness to join with thousands of young people to sing in this prestigious venue and then the older ones also sang at a local Christmas service.  Your children surpassed themselves at the Charities Fair where the imaginative range of the stalls that they organized was the best that we have seen for some time and we were thrilled that they managed to raise nearly £700 for Afghan Aid, the charity that they voted to support this year.  The Year Eights gave some excellent presentations on the charity of their choice to the rest of the school and each child was given a vote - an early introduction to democracy!  A visit to the Houses of Parliament next week will round off a fantastic term for our oldest children where they will hopefully see this democracy in action for real.

Just one farewell this term: we are sorry to say goodbye to Ryan Malone who has been with us for just one term as a teaching assistant.  As a past pupil, Ryan had much to live up to and he has not disappointed us!  We remember him as a confident and personable child who left us to board at Marlborough where he achieved outstanding results, and it has been a delight to see how readily he has shouldered the responsibilities on offer and the lovely rapport that he has built up with our children. After a few months travelling the world, Ryan is off to study Italian and Russian at Jesus College, Cambridge and we know that the combination of his determination, charisma and obvious ability will take him far!  Next term he will be replaced by Kate Stacey.

This has been a fabulous term in which children, staff and parents have really pulled together to achieve many successes.  On behalf of the school I would like to send you our very best wishes for a wonderful holiday and we are looking forward to welcoming you back in 2011.

Best wishes

Veronica Gibbs

Headmistress