Oaks Primary Academy Newsletter

Welcome to this week's newsletter.

As always, it has been a very busy week at Oaks. Following two very important inspections already this term, we have been recruiting for a new Principal. There were many strong applications, which made for a difficult choice, but we selected the ones that stood out and put them through a rigorous interview process on Thursday. The day included a presentation to Leigh Academy Trust executives, observations of teaching and learning around the school, meeting with staff and, the toughest part of all, meeting with pupils. All survived and I am delighted to confirm that Mr Moore was successful and will be the Principal of Oaks Primary Academy from January 2022. I know from the many comments we receive that you will all be as delighted as we are about this and will join us in congratulating Mr Moore on this great achievement.

Mrs Tipple

Community Liaison Officer

Dear Parents/Carers,

As the beautiful Autumn weather approaches, which is very unpredictable at the moment, please can I remind you to send your child into school with a coat.

Attendance

It is your responsibility to phone on the first day of absence on 01622 755960 option 1 leaving your child’s name, class and reason for absence or email clo@oaksprimaryacademy.org.uk.

This needs to be done every day by 9.30am. If contact is not made with you regarding your child’s absence then we will mark this as an unauthorised absence in the Register and this will be monitored by the school’s Community Liaison Officer.

The following reasons are examples of the kinds of absence that will not be authorised:

• Absence of siblings if one child is ill

• Oversleeping

• Inadequate clothing/uniform

• Confusion over school dates

• Medical/dental appointments of more than half a day without very good reasons

• Child’s/family birthday

• Shopping trip

If your child arrives at school after 9.00am they will receive a late mark. If they arrive after 9.30am they will receive an unauthorised late mark.

Leave of Absence during Term Time

Parents are requested not to take their children on holiday during term time and holidays taken during term time are classed as unauthorised unless prior authorisation has been granted by the Principal.

I will be on the playground every morning by the Oak Building and available every afternoon at pick up should you have any questions or concerns or messages to pass onto teachers.

Reminder about different Covid tests

If you or your child develops symptoms of Covid then you MUST book a PCR test - a lateral flow (LFD) test isn't sufficient if you think you/your child has symptoms. But remember that the symptoms are:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)

• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Lateral flow tests are used for people who DO NOT have symptoms as a way of identifying people who may be carrying the virus but aren't actually showing symptoms themselves. All households are recommended to take part in lateral flow testing twice a week to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

Best wishes

Mrs Osborne

Ducklings Update

This week we have been explorers in Duckling class. We have noticed some seasonal changes in our environment and with the weather. We became inquirers and found out that it is now Autumn so began to look for signs of Autumn all around the school. We read a story called Pumpkin soup and asked lots of questions about pumpkins , the main question being, what does a pumpkin taste like? We made pumpkin soup for our snack. The children decided that pumpkins really taste like pumpkins!

Reception

Robins have had a very busy week learning new sounds, exploring different numbers and becoming more independent everyday within our classroom environment. The children are learning lots of vital skills using the snack bar in the mornings as they are serving their own breakfast and cleaning up after themselves. Robins are working really hard in phonics and have been impressing all the adults as they are applying their new sounds in lots of different ways around the classroom. We have seen the sounds painted, written in sand and the children showing us objects around the classroom that begin with the sound we have been learning.

Year 1

Sparrows have had a super fun and busy week this week. In Maths, Sparrows have been learning an alligator song to help them remember how to compare objects using greater than, less than and equal to. Sparrows have used a range of different resources to help them compare objects in each group. As part of our inquiry, in Reading and Writing, Sparrows have been reading Charlie and Lola 'My Wobbly Tooth Must Not Ever NEVER Fall Out' by Lauren Child. Through this book, they have used role play to help them retell the story using actions and words. Sparrows have been learning about different exercises and how different types of exercise makes them feel. They compared how they felt during yoga with how they felt after High Interval Intensity Training with Joe Wicks.

Year 2

This week we have been looking at supply and demand. We have learnt that supply usually depends on whether something is in demand or not. The bigger the demand the bigger the supply will have to be. We have specifically been looking at the current petrol panic in the community. We have been discussing how issues with petrol deliveries have caused a huge problem with companies being able to supply enough fuel to keep up with the demand. We then talked about how fuel is having an effect on the planet and what we can change in our daily routines that can help. We know that if we all make simple lifestyle changes this could have an extremely positive impact on the world we live in!

Year 3

Year 3 have been cooking up a storm in the kitchen! Last week, we made Stone Age stew with berries and honey and this week we designed and made our own vegetable stew. Each group chose three vegetables and we had a blind taste test to decide which was the most popular.

Year 4

This week we have been enjoying World Space Week! We have been learning about Neil Armstrong and did you know that he was the first person to step onto the moon?! From this, we designed our own space buggy which included many fun gadgets such as cameras, spikey wheels to grip onto the moon and a satellite!

Also, we have been focusing on our writing and how we can make it interesting for the reader! We have been creating morning stories and conferencing with one another to improve our grammar, punctuation and spellings. We have found this helpful and have learnt to be a risk taker within our writing.

Year 5

This week we have been celebrating World Space Week. We were inspired by a live lesson where we saw a comet being made and then heard Brian Cox answer some interesting questions. With this, Kingfishers designed and created our own space rovers and once finished, we will write a descriptive piece explaining exactly how our rover would work in space.

Through our inquiry, we have started looking at how children in the Victorian era had to work until the law changed, making school compulsory. Victorian pupils didn't have it easy and were punished for different reasons. We looked into why children were used in factories and the impact this had on the economy.

Year 6

In Year 6, we have continued reading our class novel, 'No Ballet Shoes in Syria', which has really opened our eyes and helped us to learn about a different part of the world. We have used this book as inspiration for creative writing this week and we are all proud of what each other has written: we challenged ourselves to use figurative language and we all succeeded!

We have been looking at the art created by the sculptor Antony Gormley; he created The Angel of the North and he also has a sculpture in Margate beside the Turner Contemporary gallery. Last week, we created our own stencils and print patterns and this week, we will improve these and work on overlapping different colours. Each of us has chosen an artist that inspires us and we have been using our research and communication skills to create and present work on our chosen artist. In our next newsletter, we will share a link to our Year 6 Class website with you where you will be able to see all of our different work on the artists as well as our own artwork.

PE

This term PE club have been working on a variety of different skills. We have also been talking about the importance of equality and being inclusive in sport. They have shown a wide range of their learner profile attributes. It has been wonderful to see children from Reception class all the way through to Year 6 supporting each other and being respectful of others abilities and knowledge. PE club has shown the importance of having fantastic role models of older students not only to demonstrate skills but show the importance of being kind and caring to others, especially those who are much younger than ourselves.

Well done to all and thank you for always showing great determination and working as a true sporting team.

Miss Clark and Mrs Palmer