We are looking forward to celebrating Harvest on Thursday, 23rd October, with Roger, the Vicar of St Paul’s Church.

The Harvest celebration provides a valuable opportunity to support our local food bank. We kindly invite families to contribute canned food items, which may be sent into school with your child(ren) or delivered directly to the main school reception area.

Donations will be gratefully received on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week.

Pre-school families - You’re invited to our Pre-School Harvest Stay and Play on Friday 7th November, 2:00–3:00pm.

We’ll enjoy a harvest-themed story, sing a song together, and have lots of time to play!

We’re really pleased to welcome Jack Collins to our team. Mr. Collins is working as a Teaching Partner in Year 5 and brings lots of great experience as an OPAL Play Partner. We feel very lucky to have him with us.

We’ll also be saying a sad goodbye to Helen March at half term. Mrs. March will be leaving us to take on more teaching responsibilities, and while we’ll miss her greatly, we wish her all the very best for the future.

Last Friday, we were delighted to welcome 25 Japanese students and 5 of their teachers to Dunalley.

The students were secondary aged students from Chigakukan Senior High School, Japan. They had a tour of the school and then gave a presentation to children from Y2 and Y4 with a range of topics including food, sport and culture. After this, Y4 completed a range of cultural activities which included origami and some Japanese songs. It was lovely to see both our children and the Japanese students interacting with each other.

The highlight may have been their PE teacher doing handstands in the playground - unfortunately we don't have a picture! Thanks to Aska Holtz from Cotswold Wind Academy for bringing the students to visit.

On Tuesday, Year 5 were lucky enough to visit the Cheltenham Literature Festival where we saw the Children's Laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce. He talked to the children about his new book, 'Blockbusters', as well as showing us some fantastic magic tricks. He also discussed how important it is for a good 'imagination' for pupils to write stories and to take ideas already thought of and make them even better!

Following on from last week’s newsletter, as we begin our reaccreditation process for the Platinum OPAL Award, we would like to reach out to families for donations. Half term is often a great time for a good old declutter, so if you have any of the following items, we would be delighted to give them a new home at Dunalley:

• Tennis balls – or any type of balls
• Dolls’ prams/pushchairs
• Paint brushes, rollers and painting trays
• Buckets – the more the better!
• Old musical instruments (suitable for outdoor use)
• Old saucepans (no glass lids), sieves and plastic bowls for our lovely new mud café

Together, we can continue to make play a powerful part of every child’s day at Dunalley!

No Nuts
We would like to remind families that we have a NO NUTS policy at Dunalley Primary School and in our Nursery and Pre-school. It is very important that we follow this rule as we do have children in our school with severe nut allergies.

Healthy Snacks
Reception and KS1 children receive free fruit at for break time and we like to encourage all children in KS2 – years 3-6 - to follow the same healthy eating habits during their breaks too. Please encourage your child to bring any of the following for break times: 

• Cubes of cheese 

• Fruit or veg 

• Mini box or tub of plain dried fruit 

• Savoury rice cakes or bread stick 

If these can be placed in a re-usable, plastic box (named) then we can also do our bit for the planet. By not having items in wrappers or plastic bags we can minimise litter and prevent hazards for wildlife and Pippin our school dog who will try to eat wrappers and cling film if it is on the floor! 

Do you have a child starting school in September 2026? If so, come and join us for our Open Morning on Wednesday, 12th November — we’d love to meet you!

Full details can be found at the following link.

Once your children turn 5 they no longer receive Free School Milk.

If you would like them to continue having milk at school, please register with the following website:

https://coolmilk.com/parents/

Great News from Monkhouse!
For a limited time, enjoy 20% off all orders online and in-store – perfect for an opportunity to save money! USE CODE SAVE20 

Offer Dates: 

20% Off All Orders

• Start Date: Monday, 27^th October
• End Date: Sunday 9^th November (midnight) 

We’re here to make uniform shopping as simple and stress-free as possible. Happy shopping!