One of the reasons ‘One Kind Word’ was the theme of Anti-Bullying Week and chosen by the anti-bullying alliance is because kindness is more important today than it has ever been. The isolation of the last year has underlined how little acts of consideration can break down barriers and brighten the lives of the people around us. Last week we embraced this theme in school and the children came with many kind words, look out for them appearing outside school soon. A poem has been compiled into a short video (link below) that we hope you enjoy. Our lessons last week also included ensuring that our online experiences are safe too. We started last week in our zoom assembly by sharing the theme for the week and our odd socks too. The week ended in a final celebration assembly where our video was shared and pyjamas, worn for Children in Need, were admired. Thank you for making a donation to this charity. We raised a fantastic £415.41.

Once again, please can we ask you to park considerately outside school. This means not parking in front of neighbours’ driveways and blocking access, not parking on double yellow lines and not parking where you are causing an obstruction. Please remember that there are plenty of places to park for free in the park area from which Dunalley is a short stroll. We would really appreciate everybody making a huge effort to ensure that parking is safe and considerate for our neighbours and school community.

Please also be aware, that staff and visitors are also coming in and out of the main car park gates at these times too – please do not stand in the entrance way.

Please can we ask you not to bring your dogs on to our school site when dropping off and picking up your children because they have not been risk assessed.

A huge thank you to everyone who donated items to the Hamper Scamper Appeal we have an amazing pile of food to be made into parcels as you can see from the photograph.   It was all collected by Cheltenham Community Partnership’s van this morning.

Year 3 were very fortunate to be invited to the University this week to participate in some outdoor maths learning with their students. This annual event was obviously missed last year due to covid so the children, staff and university students were excited to be participating in this again. We would like to thank the BEd maths students for providing an excellent array of well-planned maths activities. The children had a very enjoyable learning time with their favourite activities being doubling and halving, negative numbers and creating symmetrical pictures with natural materials. We look forward to having the students return to us in May to lead some problem- solving sessions with some other classes at Dunalley. It has been lovely to re-establish these links that we all missed last year.

There are some great vacancies at Dunalley Primary.

We need a Business and Finance Administrator to work closley with Mrs Byrne in the school office, this role is for 20 hours a week (mostly mornings), term time plus inset days. 
For full details please follow the link to our opportunities page. 

We would still like to add to our fabuolous team of Play Partners to support meaningful and productive child-initiated play during our lunchtimes, ensuring that our children have the very best lunchtime opportunities possible. 

We are also keen to increase our after school club staff.  If you are interested in a role with Lates please email [email protected] to express an interest or ask any questions.

This is a perfect time to join our team here at Dunalley, also a fantastic opportunity to get back into the work place if you have taken a break due to family commitments.

We offer excellent training for all of our roles and being in school, even if only for an hour or two a day is very rewarding and an excellent step for a career in education. All of our jobs at school come with excellent work place benefits too.

The school year is well underway and new families have hopefully had time to get used to the routine that school brings!  It has been a challenging 18 months for school and families, the PTFA have been unable to raise funds for school in the same way as they normally would with cake sales, discos and the summer Fayre, however they have managed to run a socially distanced uniform sale, which was very successful. The PTFA has provided the school with funds this year for: 

£5000 to buy new books, promised £4000 towards improvements to the school grounds, partially funded 12 new eco-friendly benches, with the balance kindly donated by parents, either towards a class bench or through individual donations.  We have received a very generous ‘matched funding’ donation from a family, this money will be used to subsidise visits for the children in the coming year. We put some money towards seeds, plants and children’s gardening equipment. Last but not least we paid for leaving presents (a hoodie and a yearbook for each of our Year 6 children who left in July). 

All families/carers and staff are automatically members of the PTFA, but at this time the PTFA is not able to host events.  With this in mind you might wonder how you can support the school……… well, there are lots of ways to get involved virtually!

Easy Fundraising is a really simple way to donate to the PTFA whilst you shop online!  At this time of year many of us are Christmas shopping and by signing up to easyfundraising your online shops will donate a percentage of what you spend to the PTFA, at no added cost to you. It is really simple to sign up to: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/dunalleyptfa or scan the QR code →
Amazon Smile allows you to shop as normal on Amazon, but provides a donation to your chosen charity at no cost to you.  Just click this link to register your amazon account for smile:  https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1153823-0		If you simply wish to donate to the PTFA then you can do so by using our gofundme page.  Use this QR code to donate:

The Dunalley School 100 club is another great way to get involved - you pay £5 per month and have a chance of winning cash prizes, for more information and to sign up see the information below: 

The monthly prizes are one x £60 and four x £10. Choose a number (the green shaded numbers are already taken) then please email your chosen number to [email protected] You will get confirmation that no one has chosen the same number or you will be asked to choose another number.

 Once you get confirmation please set up your standing order & email: [email protected] again,   confirming: - Your name / contact details / relationship with Dunalley / 100 Club ball number. 

Details for Standing order:

Account name:  Dunalley PTFA 100 Club.              Sort Code: 401710            Account no.  42354721

Amount:   £5 per ball.   
Date of transfer:  14^th of the month (or before) unfortunately any payments made after 14^th will not be in time for that month's draw.

Unique reference:           YOUR INITIAL & SURNAME the word DUN and your BALL NUMBER

Our Bank:                       HSBC, 2, The Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1LR

CONTACT YOUR PTFA TEAM

Email: [email protected] 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/DunalleyPrimarySchoolPTFA

Website: http://www.dunalley.gloucs.sch.uk/

School Twitter: https://twitter.com/dunalley4lb

PTFA Charity Number 1153823