A DORCHESTER school said a special farewell to their final year students with a socially-distanced Oscar's style leavers assembly.

At The Prince of Wales School, students in Year 4 would usually have lots of traditional events to look forward to to mark the end of their time at the Dorchester school.

However, with everything going on with the coronavirus pandemic, the school had to find a new, inventive way of saying goodbye to their students ahead of the summer holiday.

An 'Oscars' leavers assembly took place outside with a giant screen and the whole school came, with parents and carers of the Year 4 leavers also in attendance while all observed proper social distancing.

Headteacher Gary Spracklen said: "It was very important to us that we found a way to say good-bye to our amazing Year 4 class in an appropriate way. Usually, Year 4 would have a series of 'rights of passage' as they prepare to move on to middle school. Sadly, many of these had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 including our Year 4 residential to Hooke Court and Year 4 sleepovers in our on-site Celtic Roundhouse. With so many activities cancelled we were determined to make the Leavers Assembly something special and one to remember."

The assembly included a series of awards with every single child being recognised for their unique achievements. Children, staff, parents and carers dressed in full formal attire to enjoy the proceedings. Special messages were also shared from teachers past and present. Following the assembly a special Covid-aware family picnic was held on the school field.

Speaking about the event, Year 4 parent Tracy Brooker said: "It was incredibly special, a fitting end to seven wonderful years at the greatest school on earth. We are so thankful to Mr Spracklen and his incredible team for going above and beyond to make the impossible happen. Memories have been made that will last a lifetime."

Mr Spracklen added: "Here at The Prince of Wales School, all children, including those in Year 4, have been able to return to school for the last few weeks of term. This has been made possible through the hard work of our incredible staff team. We've converted our library, staff room and school hall to make this possible and we even installed a temporary marquee classroom on our school car park to accommodate everyone."