Principal’s message to families – 17th July 2026

As we reach the end of another busy and successful week, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the many wonderful experiences our students have enjoyed. From exciting classroom activities, school trips to the fantastic achievements of our Duke of Edinburgh participants, it has been a week full of learning, challenge and memorable moments.

Today, we rounded off the week in the best possible way with our Summer Fair. The sunshine provided the perfect backdrop for an afternoon of fun and celebration. Thank you to everyone who supported the event and helped make it such a success we will share some of the photos of today in our message next week.

We hope you enjoy reading about the many highlights from this week and wish you a wonderful weekend with your families.

A highlight of just some of our school activities and school trips….

Chimes Trip to Playwell Corner

On Tuesday, pupils and staff from Chimes had a wonderful trip to Playwell Corner in Retford, where we were welcomed by Lego enthusiast Chris.

Playwell Corner is a charming Lego café where people of all ages can enjoy a cup of tea, hot chocolate and a selection of tasty snacks while creating fantastic Lego models. With hundreds of Lego sets and pieces to choose from, there is something to inspire everyone.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and had a fantastic time building and being creative together. It was a truly memorable experience, and we are already looking forward to returning in the future.

These are some of the pupils amazing creations:

Cardio Drumming Session

Matthew and Vihaan engaged extremely well in a cardio drumming activity this week, which supported the development of their gross motor skills, listening skills, participation, and self-regulation. Using cardio drums made from a flexi tub with a therapy ball on top, they enthusiastically took part in a range of drumming activities and enjoyed the unique sounds the drums produced.

Both pupils followed instructions well and demonstrated excellent coordination by successfully crossing the midline and using both their left and right sides effectively. They were able to maintain rhythm and timing throughout the session and particularly enjoyed creating their own beats to Eye of the Tiger by Survivor and High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco.

Matthew and Vihaan appeared to thoroughly enjoy the activity, frequently smiling, singing along to the music, and engaging positively throughout. At the end of the session, both reported that they had enjoyed the drumming experience, reflecting the success of the activity and their enthusiasm for participating.

KS3 – Maths

This term in Maths, Key Stage 3 students have been learning about shape, including identifying and describing a range of 2D and 3D shapes, exploring lines of symmetry, and investigating shape nets. They have also developed their understanding of statistics by collecting, presenting, and interpreting data using a variety of graphs and charts.

Today, students enjoyed a practical lesson where they were challenged to recreate different shapes using cubes. This hands-on activity provided a fun and engaging way to develop their spatial awareness, problem-solving skills, and understanding of shape properties. The students participated enthusiastically and demonstrated good teamwork and perseverance throughout the task.

We will share some of the photos on our website.

Food tasting session

Here are some positive comments from the students’ written reviews, highlighting both their enjoyment of the meal and their thoughtful constructive feedback:

· “The chicken sauce was lovely.”

· “The curry was just right.”

· “I love the noodles.”

· “The food was aromatic.”

Students also provided helpful suggestions for future meals, including:

· “More carbohydrates, such as naan bread.”

· “More vegetables.”

· “More seasoning, such as rosemary or thyme.”

· “A little less spice.”

Yorkshire Wildlife Park Trip

This week, Primary 1 and Primary 2 enjoyed their end-of-year trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Uproar Play Barn. The children were exceptionally well behaved throughout the day and showed great excitement and enthusiasm as they explored the park and met a wide variety of animals, with the giraffes and polar bears proving particularly popular!

What began as a cool morning soon turned into a very warm day, but the children coped brilliantly. A refreshing ice cream helped everyone cool down before enjoying some free-play time at Uproar. It was a fantastic day and one that was thoroughly enjoyed by children and staff alike.

KS3 Cooking

KS3 have refined their chopping skills whilst making an authentic vegetable noodle stir fry. We used onions, spring onions, garlic, red pepper, mangetout, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar snap peas and baby corn before stir frying them with noodles, seasoning and a chilli and garlic sauce. This went down very, very well.

As did the Pizza Pinwheels in Primary 2. The dough work was excellent and the choice of toppings was inspired. Anything to do with pizzas are always popular so well done everyone with your dedication and cooking skills.

KS5 had a baking afternoon today, despite the hot weather. Making and blind baking a sweet pastry case was then followed with a sweet classic butterscotch filling. I’m sure you’ll agree that they look highly appetising.

Pizza pinwheels to start, vegetable stir fry for mains and then butterscotch tart for dessert could make for a brilliant menu perhaps.

Makaton Choir

Our Makaton Choir has been busy performing in the local community this term. The choir attended Sing Up at Joseph Whitaker School, joining pupils from local mainstream primary schools for a wonderful celebration of music. Our children were fantastic, singing and signing clearly and confidently throughout the performance. We were especially proud when an audience member took the time to tell a member of staff, “I know I shouldn’t say it, but you were my favourite!”

The choir also represented the school at the local community event Renfest. Although only two choir members were able to attend, they were brilliantly supported by staff and showed great confidence and courage as they performed on stage in front of a public audience. We are incredibly proud of them both for being such wonderful ambassadors for our school.

Summer Fair and our Makaton Choir

Our Summer Fair was a great success and a wonderful celebration of our school. There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the event, with students, families, and staff enjoying the wide range of activities and stalls on offer.

A particular highlight was our amazing Makaton Choir, who performed twice and were a real credit to the school.

Thank you to everyone who attended, supported, and helped make the event such a memorable occasion. We are incredibly proud of all our students and grateful for the continued support of our families.

Summer Show

This year our summer show will take place on Thursday 23rd July around the theme ‘Dawn House Talents and Skills’. To support hosting pupils, parents and staff comfortably, we will have two shows that will run as follows:

10.30am Lower School and KS3 (Pupils from Primary 1, Primary 2, Juniors, The Bridge, KS3JC, KS3AD, KS3DE, and the Makaton Choir. Makaton Choir also (some upper school children are also part of the choir)

2.15pm – Upper School -this includes pupils who have chosen to produce and/or perform in the show linked to their options and enrichment activities this will be pupils from the KS4, Chimes and Sixth form groups.

Please attend whichever show your child is in or you would like to see; each show should run for approximately an hour in the school hall, please arrive ten minutes before to be seated for the shows to begin promptly.

Next week is our final week before the summer break and, as always, it promises to be a busy and exciting one! Across school students will be enjoying a number of end-of-term activities and trips, including visits to Slick City, Twin Lakes, and Escape Rooms.

We also have some important school events to look forward to, including our Summer Show and Sports Day.

Parents and carers are warmly invited to attend the Summer Show and celebrate our students’ achievements.

While we are unable to invite parents and carers to Sports Day, we are sure the students will be keen to share all the highlights and successes from the day when they get home.

We look forward to ending the term on a high!

Have a lovely weekend,

Jenny

 

If your child leaves home in the morning a little unsettled and you want to quickly tell us, so we know to expect a tricky start to the day, a quick email (that we can follow up later) to the tutor and/