Dear all,

The weeks continue to fly by and your children continue to amaze us and all of our visitors with their passion for learning. Central to such success are excellent behaviours for learning which we see in the academy all day every day. However, we have sadly been receiving reports of one or two pupils who have been displaying poor behaviours outside of the academy including exceptionally foul language. Please support your child to be the best they can be all day every day and to show respect for other pupils, families and the community.

Following our recent successes in the PYP and Ofsted inspections, we received the exciting news that we have been shortlisted in the National Schools Awards 'School of the Year' Award to be held in December. Irrespective of the outcome, it is further recognition of the outstanding learning and teaching at Oaks Primary Academy.

Thank you all for your support and collaboration that makes this all possible.

Enjoy your weekend.

Mrs Tipple

Ducklings Update

Ducklings have had a wonderful start to the new term. We have been learning about different celebrations around this time of year. We have been focussing on Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. We made diva lamps and listened to the story of Rama and Sita. This week we have begun to learn about the Christmas story. We will use our knowledge to perfect our roles in the nursery Christmas nativity!

Reception

Robins class have been very busy this term already, exploring different celebrations and communities linked with our Inquiry. We spoke about the different celebrations we have seen during half term and this included bonfire night and Diwali. We gave the children real life experiences such as making their own fire and listening and dancing to Indian music. The children came up with different adjectives to describe these celebrations.

Year 1

Sparrow Class have had a fantastic start to Term 2. In our first week back, as part of our inquiry finale, the children made their very own fruit smoothies! They all thoroughly enjoyed making and trying their delicious fruit smoothies. In Maths, Sparrows have started adding within ten using different resources to aid them and have done exceptionally well in this! Sparrows are extremely excited to learn about and engage with a new inquiry this week about communities and how they are improved when people work together. To kick start the new inquiry, they designed 'different communities' posters and did some great work about themselves, including a self portrait.

Year 2

Blackbirds, as usual, have had a fantastic start to the term! We have begun our inquiry 'Understsanding and celebrating differences can help bring people together'. We have started by looking at families and how we are all different. We have investigated family stereotypes and compared these to the family in our class text 'And Tango Makes Three'. Blackbirds have concluded that as long as a family provideds love, safety and care, it doesn't matter who makes up their family.

Year 3

Woodpecker Class have started their brand new inquiry this week: Celebrations reflect people's culture and traditions. After discovering what their own culture and traditions are, the class have been researching the Islamic religion after being inspired by the book Omar Accidental Trouble Magnet. They went on to use their research skills to find out more about Muslims.

We have also started learning about light in Science. The children sorted light into different groups (including natural light and man-made light) and explored how dark a blackout tent could be! On top of all of this, Year 3 are becoming experts at coding - they have been making a range of shapes on the computer.

Year 4

We have had a lot of fun this week within our science lessons! We went outside and searched for insects in our forest school, did you know that living organisms that do not have a backbone are known as invertebrates? This means that living things with a backbone are grouped as vertebrates!

We have begun practising the songs for our Christmas performance this year. We are so excited to show our adults what we have been getting up to.

Our inquiry this term is 'The actions of individuals can have significant implications on the lives of others'. We have been learning about Malala Yousafzai who stands up for the rights of girls having an education. We have been discussing what our beliefs and rights are as children.

Year 5

Kingfisher class have had a great start to the new term. We have dived in to our new Central Idea, Peaceful resolutions to conflict can improve quality of life. With this new central idea, we have started to read a new book called Letters from the Lighthouse.

As a class, we decided to start off our inquiry with looking at Remembrance Day and that then sparked our interest to look at World War 1 in more detail. We have been fascinated and gripped by all of the facts that we have learnt so far and have tried to understand why wars happen. We have been learning about trench warfare and what soldiers needed to do to survive not just the war but illnesses and diseases. We have also looked at the Christmas Truce and were truly amazed to see how all soldiers from opposite teams could join together for a day of no fighting.

Year 6

Since returning to school after the half term, we have started reading a new class novel, 'Who let the gods out?'. It has hooked us so far and we love the language and descriptions used by the author. We absolutely adored the characters in the book, particularly Mrs Patricia Porshley-Plum, or Patricia Horses-Bum as the boy calls her! In Maths, we have been learning about improper fractions and mixed numbers and we love how well we are doing. Conferencing with each other when we're stuck really helps us. Our new Central Idea is about the legacies of ancient civilisations, and we are focusing on particular legacies from Ancient Greece and the Romans that are still visible in society today. We are all creating our own Google Site to document our learning.

Last week, we learned about the different meanings behind the different coloured poppies and we made circle books to hang which share this information. We also found Remembrance images online, cut out a strip of them and then used oil pastels to continue the drawing and match the colours as accurately as we could.

You can see some of our examples below.

Key Dates for Term 2

Please see below key dates for Term 2:

24th November: Parent Consultations - more details will follow shortly

30th November: Reception 2022: Open Afternoon(2pm-3pm)

9th December: Valley Park Panto for the whole school

10th December: Christmas Jumper Day

15th December: Christmas Lunch for staff and children

17th December: Last Day of Term. Whole Academy finishing at 1.30 pm.

Christmas Performances - more details and dates will follow shortly

PE

All our pupils have come back to school after the restful halfterm fully engaged and enthusiastic with their learning in PE. This term we are focussing on fundamental movements under the guise of gymnastics. However we are very fortunate again this year to have Steve from Charlton Athletic Community Trust running the Joy of Moving programme to Yr 4 & 5. The children are learning the importance of the positive impact that daily exercise has on their bodies and being introduced to new games that are raising their heart beat but great fun too.

School Council

Our visit to Barty House was a very good experience to see what a care home was like and meet residents which included meeting Ivy who is 100 years old (Jayce Year 6). It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience (Jessica Year 6)

It was very fun and interesting to visit Barty House. We enjoyed meeting the residents and having brunch with them. (Leo and Indie Year 5)

We had fun and liked seeing the elderly people. It was nice for the residents to have company as not all residents get visitors.(Poppie and Trayton Year 4)

It was fun talking to the residents and visiting Barty House (Catalaiya Year 3).

We really enjoyed ourselves meeting the residents and the food was really good. I got to speak in Spanish to a lady from Gibraltar. (Yuliana Year 2) We all had a great time and had lots of food.(Tijesubomi Year 2)

I enjoyed myself. Barty house put my poppy drawing on their window. (Ezra Year 1)

Dogs on site

Please be mindful that Oaks Primary Academy conduct indepth risk assessments for animals on the school premises. This only permits guide and school trained dogs on our site. We have a number of child and staff allergies alongside additional risks assessed by our site operatives to keep our children safe. Many thanks in advance for your continued cooperation.

Our School Neighbours (Parking)

We have got wonderful neighbours on Oaktree Avenue and Mangravet Avenue. Please respect their property during drop-off and pick-up times as we know it’s very busy outside our school. We appreciate that the weather has now changed but we would ask parents to ensure they park safely and legally on the road. Please DO NOT park across the crossing on the double yellow lines or pathways as this not only causes a hazard for your children but also members of the public who are passing the academy.

Please take the opportunity to enjoy a walk, however brief, to school with your children.

Please ensure your children wait with you and that you keep them safe.

COVID 19

Please inform the academy office if your child displays ANY of the below symptoms immediately on 01622 755960 (option 4) or by email via clo@oaksprimaryacademy.org.uk if you are unsure, please contact us for advice.

If your child/ren have any of these 3 coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, even if mild please use the below link to get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test as soon as possible:

https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test

• a high temperature

• a new, continuous cough

• you’ve lost your sense of smell or taste or it’s changed

PCR tests are for people with symptoms, they’re sent to the lab to be checked.

Rapid Lateral flow tests are only for people who DO NOT have symptoms (staff complete such tests twice weekly).

Both tests are free.

Get a PCR test as soon as possible if:

• you've done a rapid lateral flow test and had a positive result or your test sample could not be read (void result)

• you had a PCR test and your test sample could not be read

All results MUST be emailed into the academy via clo@oaksprimaryacademy.org.uk.