Sherborne Primary wins international reading award!

Sherborne Primary pupils and staff are celebrating an outstanding year of reading by pupils throughout the school. Competing with schools from around the world, they have been declared winners of the Renaissance Award for Success and Achievement.

The award recognises educators across the globe for their dedication to teaching, and celebrates whole school achievements. The Renaissance software, called Accelerated Reader, helps track a pupil’s reading age and ability throughout their time at school. Children can keep track of how many books, and even words, they have read each year.

Felicity Griffiths, deputy headteacher at Sherborne Primary says: ‘Our children love reading – we’re lucky to have a vast selection of books in our library, and they know they can read what they love and what interests them.

We centre our English curriculum around sharing amazing reads and promoting a love of literature, and I think it’s because of this that we achieve amazing results. Over 95 per cent of children in Years 2 to 4 are meeting or exceeding their expected reading age, which is truly fantastic!

Last year, children in our school read 9,922 books, totalling nearly 64 million words! Pupils can earn awards for the number of books they read, and earn ‘millionaire’ badges when they exceed that many words.’.

Could you buy a book?

Sherborne Primary has also teamed up with local bookshop, Winstone’s in Sherborne, to further enrich their library. With such keen readers it is important to have a supply of new books to keep them interested, so the school have created a ‘Buy a book for the school’ wishlist, where families or members of the local community can donate a book to the school via the shop. If you are interested in donating a book, see the wishlist here

Forum School marks its 25th anniversary

The Forum School (TFS) is tucked away in Shillingstone, near Blandford, and is both a school and a home for children and young people aged seven to 19 who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Sitting behind big gates in the middle of the village, the interior is often unknown to locals, but the school combines specialist education on an adapted national curriculum with therapies for speech and language, behaviour and psychology. With 24 hour care, the pupils are also able to enjoy acres of land for play, as well as facilities such as a theatre, sports hall, indoor and outdoor riding areas, a climbing wall and a swimming pool. Headteacher Daniel Pitt says ‘This will be a year of celebration for us as we mark our silver anniversary – we want to really celebrate what it means to live and work at TFS. We plan to create a book of stories and news from students and staff, past and present. There will be many activities (during the warmer months!) and we will enjoy time for reflection of the past 25 years and look ahead to the next 50.

‘In addition, we are delighted to see the commencement of our extensive plans to improve the site. We have high aspirations, not just for our current students but also for those we’ll meet in the future.’