Oakfield's Instagram:
Please take your time to log on to the Parent Portal and remind yourself of all the things that have been posted this week, thank you.
Reflections from our Head
'Keep Calm and Carry On' continues to be very much our mindset as we navigate the challenges of the current situation in the UK and abroad, and my thanks go to all members of our school community for your support, understanding and good cheer! It is so important that we keep school life as normal, busy and happy as possible, whilst at the same time being mindful of staying as healthy and safe as we can. I hope that you have found communications timely and helpful, and we will continue to share updates with you as soon as we receive new information, guidance or directives.
Outstanding achievement and personal development has been in evidence this week as always! Congratulations to our Year 6 netballers who, in their capacity as ISA London South Regional Champions, travelled to Rugby School to take part in the ISA National Finals. They finished 8th out of 21 schools - a fabulous achievement.
Today a group of Drama pupils are taking part in the ISA National Drama competition at Luckley House school in Berkshire, showcasing their condensed interpretation of the story of Roald Dahl's 'Matilda' - we are so proud of them and look forward to hearing the outcome!
3CM treated us to a brilliant assembly this morning on how to recognise and deal with our worries - such great advice and real wisdom being delivered by these children through speech, drama and singing. It was a privilege to listen to such an assured and energetic presentation. Well done to them all and huge thanks to Mrs McFall.
Moyra Thompson
PREP SCHOOL PREPARATION SESSION- 19TH MARCH
On Thursday 19th March there will be a session for parents to meet with Mrs Thompson and Miss Walker to gain a better understanding about the transition into Year 2 and beyond. This will include a tour of the Prep building. It promises to be an informative session and we look forward to seeing many of you there.
LOWER FOUNDATION
Last week, Lower Foundation enjoyed a fun-filled, space-tastic space day!
They went on a space adventure with a Perform Workshop. They made moon, galaxy and milky way biscuits – which were delicious!
They decorated aliens and even turned into aliens themselves by making alien headbands!
LFLS children also worked as a team to build their very own rocket; to infinity and beyond Space Invaders!
UPPER FOUNDATION
Message from EYFS Lead
Dear Parents in Upper Foundation,
A gentle reminder that you have access to a wonderful tool to gain insight into your child’s educational experience at Oakfield – TAPESTRY!
You can view observations, like and comment on your child’s progress and see how they interact with others in school. Moreover, you could contribute to your child’s learning journal by uploading a picture or video with a short comment to show your child’s achievements at home.
There is a handy app that can be easily downloaded onto your mobile phone: https://tapestry.info/features/android-ios-fire-apps.html
Here is a link to more information: https://tapestry.info/parents-carers.html
At the end of this year, you are able to download the entire Learning Journal document and enjoy your child’s complete learning experience of Early Years at Oakfield!
If you’ve not registered, please email your child’s teacher to subscribe to this service.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask a member of staff or enquire via email.
I hope this message inspires a greater contribution from all parents and Upper Foundation teachers are very excited to see many likes , comments , and uploads on Tapestry!
Best wishes,
Wendy Nicholson, EYFS Lead
This Week's News
This week we have been learning about travelling to Space. We have loved exploring stories, making rockets and looking at the different planets in our solar system. We have thought about what an astronaut needs and made lists in our literacy lessons.
In Maths we will continue to work on halving and doubling next week, along with the concept of sharing equally through practical activities.
In phonics this week, we have been learning the ‘ir’ sound. We are also working on building sentences with ‘ir’ words and key words, to consolidate the children’s learning. Please practise this at home.
We had the most brilliant day at the London Transport Museum. The children were taken round by Charlie and Monty the Mole, who needed help finding his way home. We looked at the difference between the old and new types of transport throughout the museum. The children had a go at driving an underground train and driving a single decker bus.
YEAR 1
This week in Year One the children have been learning about forces and discovering magnets. The children made predictions and planned a fair investigation with one question: Which of our different magnets is the strongest?
The children tested this by attracting metal paper clips to their magnets, seeing which one could hold the most.
Year 3
Humanities study
On Tuesday 10th March, Year 3 enjoyed a day full of Egyptian themed activities linked to their humanities work. They travelled back in time to over 4000 years ago and took part in several drama sketches from ancient Egyptian times, measured each other using royal cubits, learnt some Egyptian dancing, saw real artefacts from Tutankhamen's tomb and even took part in a pharaoh's funeral procession!
The children dressed up for the occasion and all looked brilliant, thank you to the parents/carers for their time and efforts with the children's costumes. The children were able to draw upon their humanities learning to answer several questions and learnt lots of new facts too! Well done for engaging with this topic so well Year Three, you were a credit to yourselves and to Oakfield.
Year 4
In last week's newsletter I included a wonderful account of the day but I neglected to include any photos of the trip to Harry Potter Studios. Please don't take it personally Ms. Marshall and just to prove it did happen please see some wonderful images below.
YEAR 6
Diploma
To kick off the start of our Oakfield Diploma we had a visit from a company last week called the Rap project. It was a Year 6 workshop that focused on promoting a positive body image, E-safety and the transition from Year 6 to Secondary school.
SPORT
ISA National Netball Finals
Even a poorly minibus couldn't stop our amazing U11 netballers from getting to Rugby School on Wednesday and performing admirably in the National Finals. They won all their group matches except one and Oakfield are officially 8th best in the entire country. CONGRATULATIONS!!
U11 Boys Dolphin Hockey Tournament
On Friday 6th March some of our Year 6 boys travelled to Brixton to play against Dolphin School in their annual hockey tournament. Well done to all of the boys that played!
MUSIC
Composer of the Week
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Dear musical comrades,
We travel from Japan to Russia this week, as we let in Spring, as though it were following the flight of an imaginary bumblebee through our metaphorical window.
It was always going to be hard to follow Joe Hisaishi, and it was wonderful to see how many children were engaging with his music, but Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov is another kettle of fish all together.
His most famous work is possibly Flight of the Bumblebee, a piece of music that only the bravest of souls would attempt to perform. But Korsakov believed in mixing traditional Russian folk songs with elements of music from Asia, in a movement called orientalism. This can be heard in his work Scheherezade, a colourful symphony based on The Arabian Nights. The symphony is Mr Allen's favourite - so you know it must be good!
Sam Howes (Director of Music)
Upcoming Competitions
We are keen to alert you to some upcoming competitions which offer a great opportunity to practise your art and writing, and potentially win prizes at the same time! Why not give it a go over half term!?
British Science Week Poster Competition
There is an exciting poster competition we would love you to get involved in which combines the best of art and science. The theme for the British Science Week 2020 poster competition is ‘Our diverse planet’. You can find out more, including activity packs, by clicking the button below. As you will see from the website the competition is open to lots of different age categories so there's no excuse not to give it a go!
Oakfield will be collating and submitting the entries so please bring your poster into school well before the entry deadline of 3rd April .
Evesham Festival of Words Short Story Competition
It is an open entry competition with the category open to Oakfield pupils as 8-11 year olds. The word limit is 500 words and there is no specific theme or subject.
The deadline is Friday 20th March. Book tokens and trophies are there to be won so get entering!
Writing Wizadry Competition
Calling all writers of eleven years and under! If you like to write poems or stories, why not prove what a Writing Wizard (or Witch) you are, and enter our competition? You could see your work published AND win a fabulous prize!
Send us a poem or a story of fewer than 500 words and you could see it published in the Writing Wizardry anthology AND win a fantastic prize. Your story or poem can be about ANYTHING you like, so let your imagination run wild!
There are two categories for this competition each with their own magical prizes: Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6
There are no restrictions on what your story must be about but entries must be your own original work, so get scribbling! The closing date is 27th March 2020.
Cricket Writing Competition
For all cricket fans out there this competition is FREE to enter and the categories you will be interested in are 6 to 10 year olds and 11 to 14 year olds.
Your piece of work can be about cricket in general or a totally made up story about cricket. It must be your original work. Closing date is 31st March 2020 at 5pm. Why not give it a shot!
Roll of Honour
Alexander S - English Writing
Sophie C - Spanish
Monday 16th March:
Parents Evening: Y5 and Y6
Thursday 19th March:
2nd hand uniform sale: Pre-Prep Hall - 8.45am
Transition to Prep and Tour of Building with Mrs Thompson and Miss Walker: Prep Hall - 2pm
Parents Evening: Y5 and Y6
Friday 20th March:
Nursery and LF - Cake Bake Sale (AM)
ISA National Cross Country (All-day)
Credits:
Created with images by Anton Darius - "untitled image" • Garett Mizunaka - "Part of a shoot I did for my church’s youth ministry. Summer in a studio, obviously fake, but with iconic summer themes. It was a lot of fun!" • Sunyu - "untitled image" • José Ignacio Pompé - "Travel to Egypt" • Caleb Woods - "untitled image" • Lysander Yuen - "untitled image" • Mark Solarski - "Vinyl + Grado Headphones" • Ariel Besagar - "Anticipatiom" • 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum - "untitled image"