As usual please log on to the Parent Portal and remind yourself of all the important updates and messages that have been posted this week.
Note from our Head
At the end of our second week, I would like to thank you for your support and partnership in making the start of the new term a very smooth and happy one. It is great to have the children back in school, and I cannot tell you how proud I am of the way in which they have settled – I had a lovely time in Pre Prep yesterday afternoon and was frankly amazed by the smiling, chatty, self-assured and well-mannered children that I met. Absolutely brilliant!
However, despite the sunny weather, we have returned, as we would expect, to the usual coughs and colds of the Autumn Term. Naturally, the combination of normal childhood illnesses and the current public health emergency makes it difficult for parents and school staff to determine how to act for the best when children are feeling unwell. We are all trying to exercise sensible judgement as best we can. There has been much in the media over the last few days regarding what to do when children display various symptoms and whether they are indicative of coronavirus or simply the expected seasonal illnesses.
We continue to follow the government guidance for the full opening of schools (updated 17th September 2020), and I hope it will be helpful to share with you our understanding of the current guidelines on responses to symptoms.
1. For households where one person develops symptoms, please see the document below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection
If your child develops any symptoms which could potentially be Covid-19, please persist in refreshing the online site to book a test, as the alternative is for your child to self-isolate for at least 10 days from when their symptoms started.
We understand that these symptoms in children are:
- a high temperature (feeling hot to touch on the chest or back)
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot, for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours
- a loss or change to sense of smell or taste – this means they cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal
If a family member living in the same household has Covid-19 symptoms and is awaiting the result of a test, your child should remain at home until the result of that test is known. If it is negative, they may return to school; if positive, please let the office know via email (office @oakfield.dulwich.sch.uk) or the absence line immediately.
If your child is entirely well but is self-isolating awaiting the result of a test for a family member, please also contact your class teacher, who will liaise with you regarding arrangements for home learning during this period.
2. The rules are slightly different for a family where someone is required to isolate as a result of a linked case rather than actual symptoms in the household, for example if a sibling were sent home from another school as a result of a bubble being instructed to isolate by NHS Track and Trace. In that case, only the child linked to the case needs to isolate rather than the whole household. However, if that child then develops symptoms, the whole household will need to be tested. More detail can be found here:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing-and-tracing/nhs-test-and-trace-if-youve-been-in-contact-with-a-person-who-has-coronavirus/
Finally, in the event of a member of the school community testing positive for Covid-19, please be assured that we will follow the updated guidance, which says that: Schools must take swift action when they become aware that someone who has attended has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). Schools can contact the dedicated advice service introduced by Public Health England (PHE) and delivered by the NHS Business Services Authority. This can be reached by calling the DfE Helpline on 0800 046 8687 and selecting option 1 for advice on the action to take in response to a positive case. Schools will be put through to a team of advisers who will inform them of what action is needed based on the latest public health advice.
I do hope that this is helpful, rather than even more confusing, but I just wanted to be in touch with you again as we continue on our journey through these uncharted waters.
We are doing so well as a school community, so let’s all remain vigilant so that we can stay well, safe and at school.
Wishing you all happy and healthy weekends.
Moyra Thompson
LOWER FOUNDATION
Zero Heroes
UPPER FOUNDATION
Dear Parents/Carers,
Thank you to all the parents who attended our Teams online Curriculum Evening this week. It was a lovely way of getting to know you, and we hope you found the information useful. Please do not worry if you were unable to attend or had technical difficulties, the information can all be found in the packs sent out by Rachel in the office. If you do have any further questions, please do contact us at any time. We can’t believe how well the children have all settled; it has been such a fantastic start to the year.
This week we have been looking at things that we like. We have decorated capital ‘i’s’ to help the children learn the tricky high frequency word ‘I’ so they can begin to recognise it within text. The children have made drawings and talked about family members. We have also been talking about how everyone is different and special, and writing this down. We have also matched numerals to their matching Numicon pieces. The children are currently being assessed, so teachers have a good idea of how each child learns, what they already know and what their next steps are.
Next week, we will continue the focus of Ourselves, looking at My Body, My Senses and My Feelings.
Thank you to those who have already sent in family holiday photos and information regarding family heritage. We look forward to receiving the rest of these.
With best wishes,
Miss Treppass and Mrs. Barrett Nnochiri
The Upper Foundation Team
Rosh Hashanah
Today Luna brought the class in some delicious honey cake which she had baked at home with her mummy for Jewish New Year
Year 1
Shalom from them
In RS this week, we have been learning about the Synagogue and discussing items that could be found in this place of worship.
The classes enjoyed holding real life objects and learnt the names of each item. We will continue to discuss the Jewish faith next week.
Year 2
Alice in Fun-derland
"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!"
Year 2 enjoyed re-enacting a section of Alice in Wonderland during English. They enjoyed watching an extract from the Disney show, drawing a story map and sequencing the events.
The children had fun colouring and cutting their characters for their story. They worked well together and delivered some amazing drama. The creative juices were flowing.
“This is going to be fun!” said Zara
“Ooh! I want to do it again!” shouted Oliver
“Could we do the whole story?” asked Tippi
YEAR 3
Body to Body
In Science this half term, Year 3 are learning more about the human body. This week we conducted an experiment to test the impact of calcium on our bone strength! Mr Meza soaked one chicken bone in vinegar for 7 days to remove the calcium and another in water for 7 days. He then clamped both chicken bones to the table and the children in 3CF added more and more weight until the bones snapped! We found out that the chicken bone with less calcium was the weakest and snapped after just 1kg, but the chicken bone with more calcium didn't snap until we had added 3kg!
YEAR 6
Year 6 have enjoyed their first lesson on their new laptops this week - 6AH did some e-safety work and 6JW started working on Band Lab which they will use this term to compose, produce and record music.
In Science we have been investigating the role of calcium in bones! We added different weights to bones which had been in water, and bones which had been in vinegar (which dissolves calcium) to see what would happen.
CLUBS AND ACTIVITIES
Cooking Club
We made some delicious Oatmeal Chocolate Chips Cookies with Year 3 on Wednesday. More tasty treats await!
LanguageNut
Dear Parent/Guardian,
I am sending home logins for pupils to use on the ‘Languagenut’ website in order to help pupils achieve maximum success in Modern Languages. Access details are as follows:
1. Type in ‘Languagenut’ to find the site (or go to www.languagenut.com / download the free iPad app)
2. Click on ‘Login’, (top right)
3. Enter personal Login details, you will find them in your child school diary.
One of the aims of subscribing to an online course is to enable pupils to work on vocabulary, phrases and structures at home or in homework club, in order to build competence and independence. As you will know, it is very hard to learn a language if you do not practise! I hope the children will enjoy playing the games on the site and that it will enable you to engage with your child’s language learning experience.
If it is possible, I suggest taking some time to explore the site with your child to help them get started. They will be able to revisit topics we have covered, but also take responsibility for their own learning and move ahead independently if they wish. Learning is on the ‘topics’ section where there are games to practise and there is a progressive “language course” that is split into difficulty levels.
Although this product is compatible with all browsers, the Languagenut team recommend using Google Chrome.
I hope they enjoy it!
Many thanks,
Mrs P Diaz
Head of Modern Foreign Languages
Credits:
Created with images by Hana Lopez - "untitled image" • Crew - "Hanging shirts and jackets" • Kimberly Farmer - "A collection of books. A little time. A lot of learning." • Caroline Justine - "untitled image" • Arièle Bonte - "grl pwr in lisbon" • Annie Spratt - "Mathematic calculator" • Aaron Burden - "Hot air balloon on blue sky" • Joes Valentine - "Pioneer 2000 nexus close up " • JESHOOTS.COM - "untitled image"