11 September 2026

Headmaster's Newsletter, Friday 11th September 2026

Dear Parents

It was a pleasure to see so many parents at Dumpton on Monday and Tuesday evening, as we came together to talk about the year ahead for you and your children. I'm grateful to all the staff for giving such a useful and thorough overview of everything you need to know as parents, and how you can support your child to thrive this year. Form teachers will be sending their slides out soon, if they haven't already, for any parents who couldn't make it.

The evening also gave me the chance to share our new vision and strategy for 2030, and I've attached some of the slides for those who couldn't be there. It's been a genuinely collaborative process, and the input from you as parents, as well as from staff and pupils, has really helped shape the outcome. Sharing that vision was energising — especially with our brilliant staff team. They care deeply about this school, about your children, and about the difference they can make, and I can't wait to see them delivering on our ambitious goals and helping every single one of your children discover just how remarkable they really are.

As I also explained on the night, The Canford Schools Group sits quietly behind us as we deliver this strategy. The decisions about what's right for Dumpton remain ours to make, because no one knows this school better than we do. The Group's role is to help the schools within it flourish: giving us the support to be more ambitious, more confident, and more capable, so we can deliver on what we, as a school community, believe truly matters for our community.

September Stroll - Woodland Opening - Sunday 20 September
We're so excited to share our new woodland spaces with our whole school community, so do come along to what should be a particularly special September stroll this year. A big thank you to Dumpton Friends who support this event each year so well. All are welcome, but please do RSVP on Classlist to confirm attendance.

Prep Plus+
As we look to develop our co-curricular as part of the 'We Grow' pilar of our new strategy, I am delighted that the introduction of Prep Plus+ has already been so successful. Sculpture with Mrs Stoodley and Interview Skills with Mrs Shaw were very popular, with other pupils choosing Book Club, Maths Maths Maths, and Music Mastery, depending on their interests and talents.

Rowing at Canford – Y7 and Y8
Mrs Clemmitt was delighted to announce another exciting new opportunity for Dumpton pupils – we will be offering rowing on Mondays during the Prep slot to any keen Y7 and Y8 pupils, led by the Canford rowing department. What an amazing opportunity to get an introduction to a new sport.

Hockey and Football Fixtures
Around 200 pupils played for Dumpton this week – a special well done to all those who made their debut! There were some highly promising performances all round and thank you to all the parents who came out in force to support too! Do remember that Match Reports are uploaded to the Dumpton Sports website (SOCS) each week. We look forward to seeing the children's progress over the coming weeks.

Y8 Leadership Trip
Good luck to our intrepid Y8s who head off to Snowdonia next week, for a week of team-building and leadership set against the backdrop of that amazing mountain region. Leadership is an integral element of the Dumpton Diploma, and we hope this trip sets our top year up brilliantly to be confident leaders and role models in their final year here at Dumpton.

SOCS - Individual Lessons now live
You may know that 'SOCS' is the system we use for scheduling Sports Fixtures, Music lessons and LAMDA lessons. Lessons are currently published each week via the Performing Arts Hub but if you are interested in using the Parent function of SOCS to see 'live' information of your child's extracurricular schedule, please visit the Hub for more information.

Head of Pre-Prep – Mrs Wort
Mrs Wort will be leaving us at the end of this term, having secured a fantastic new role with Ofsted, helping to oversee the quality of Early Years education across the region. Whilst we are delighted for her, we know she will be greatly missed.

Since joining us in 2024, Mrs Wort has made a significant impact on the Pre-Prep and Nursery. The quality of teaching and curriculum, and the progress of our youngest pupils, have never been stronger. She is also a wonderful classroom teacher in RW alongside Mrs Williams.

She leaves the Pre-Prep in excellent shape, and the strong foundations she has put in place mean we can look to the future with real confidence. We are now advertising for her successor, and I have no doubt we will attract someone wonderful to build on all that Mrs Wort has achieved.

I will, of course, keep you updated in the coming weeks as the process progresses.

With best wishes for the weekend.