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 Acting Head
How can I possibly begin to express my thanks to the Oakfield family for your support, encouragement, kind words and messages this week! It is such a delight and privilege for me to be leading Oakfield into the next exciting stage of its journey and development, and to know that I am doing so in partnership with you means such a great deal.
The experience of the children at school and how we can make it even better is our priority in all our planning and decision-making here at Oakfield. As you know, as a staff we believe in providing the children with exciting, creative and meaningful learning experiences, which build their enthusiasm and confidence and help them to grow and develop both academically and personally in a variety of ways. It is of course vitally important to involve the voice of the children and their families as partners of the school in their education - the power of three - and I am looking forward to developing these relationships further as we move forwards.
I hope to have the opportunity to see and chat to as many of you as possible over the coming weeks, but in the meantime I wish you all a happy and relaxing weekend.
Moyra Thompson
NURSERY
Foodie Fun
Our topic in the Nursery this half term is ‘Food’. We have been discussing our likes and dislikes. The nursery children were given a chance to talk about what they like to eat. Healthy options and independence are encouraged. We carefully used the knives to cut the fruit and vegetables, and then we tasted them.
LOWER FOUNDATION
Autumn Walk
What a lovely morning for an Autumn Walk!
The children were absolutely amazing on their first out-of-school outing in Lower Foundation.
Belair Park did not disappoint, as we found many leaves of every shape, size and colour, blackberries, a conker, mushrooms and a squirrel. The children alongside their adult, searched high and low for the items around the park.
A massive thank you to our amazing parent volunteers who were equally enthusiastic searching for our autumn items and getting their hands dirty- Thank you!
UPPER FOUNDATION
Diwali Divas
In Upper Foundation, we have been learning about religion and have made divas out of clay.
Alexia: I'm holding my diva, and it lights up your house with a candle inside. It's for Diwali.
Maximus: I made a diva, because it was the Hindu Festival of Lights and it's called Diwali.
For Bonfire Night, we made our own bonfire out of twigs and crepe paper. Then the children wrote descriptive words - they are really good at using their sounds to write words!
Year 1
The year one children have been busy in the kitchen!
Our topic this term is all about food and the children have been busy making a food product over their half term break. Some of their food products included: bread, cake, gravy, sandwiches and stir fry noodles! Some excellent culinary skills were on show.
YEAR 3
Politics in Action
In 3CF, we have enjoyed learning more about democracy and the running of our country during UK Parliament Week. We used iPads to take a virtual tour around each room in the Houses of Parliament and learnt about how back in the 1600s Guy Fawkes had tried to blow it up!
This year's UK Parliament Week theme is 'Have Your Say' and we have been focusing on climate change. We have been inspired by videos of Greta Thunberg and have conducted class surveys to analyse our own carbon footprints.
Science of Teeth
In Y3, we have been learning about teeth and our mouths in science. This week we used blue food dye to help us to investigate whether we were a non-taster, taster or a super-taster according to how many fungiform papillae and taste buds we had on our tongues!
We then learnt about the five basic tastes that our tongues can recognise (Sweet/Salty/Sour/Bitter/Umami) and tried different foods to deduce which taste each food was. We learnt that the sides of our tongues are more sensitive and now understand more about why our tastes can change over time.
YEAR 5
Maths Problem
This week Year 5 children tackled 'The Handshake Problem' as a Maths investigation. If two people shake hands there is one hand shake. if there people all shake hands with each other, there are three handshakes. What about four people? five? Can you find a pattern? A rule?
Year 5 children worked really hard in pairs to find some solutions to this problem and have displayed their findings in their classrooms.
There were some great discussions and excellent reasoning skills on show. Well done Year 5!
YEAR 6
Writing with Suspense
On Tuesday all of Year 6 went outside and created a tense environment with a combination of cheering and silence, before each pupil then had one chance to shoot the netball into the hoop. To really increase the pressure the pupils were told that whoever scored got a prize, and those who missed couldn't have any lunch (they were allowed to really!).
Inspired by the events on the playground they then had to write about the experience the next day, building up the tension and creating drama and suspense for the reader.
Sports
Netball at St Christopher's Tournament
On Friday 18th October the 1st Team headed out to the prestigious tournament and it proved to be a very open affair. The team won 2, drawn 2 and lost 3 meaning they finished 5th out of 8 schools.
There was some great play on show and well done to the girls who took part!
Composer of the Week
Wendy Carlos
Hi musical adventurers,
This week we are taking a look at the synth-pioneer Wendy Carlos. Famed for her Grammy award winning work on Switched-On Bach, where she combined the music of Bach with cutting edge synthesisers, she went on to compose the soundtracks for Tron, The Shining and A Clockwork Orange - seminal works in the movie pantheon!
Mr Howes, Head of Music
ROLL OF HONOUR
Chiara Licheri - Creative Writing and Book Creation
Monday 11th November:
Anti-Bullying Show
Y5 Hinduism Talk
Tuesday 12th November:
Odd Socks Day
Y3 trip to Natural History Museum
Wednesday 13th November
Second-hand Uniform Sale
Y5 Sky Studios trip
Friday 15th November
Assembly 6JW
Crystal Palace National Sports Centre Activities
Crystal Palace Sports Centre offer a huge number of activities. To book online or if you have any queries please visit their website at www.better.org.uk/crystal-palace
Activities in the pool include: One-to-one lessons, intensive learn-to-swim courses in the holidays, adult & child lessons, pre-school lessons for 3 and 5yo, children's aquatic skills and adult swimming lessons.
There are also toddler parties, trampolining, karate, athletics, tennis and gymnastics among other opportunities.
St Christopher's Christmas Market on 16 November
Whether you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas or simply want to get into that festive feeling, our Christmas Market at Kingsdale Foundation School in Dulwich is just what you need!
As part of our brand new market, we’re opening our doors to a selection of locally produced food and drink stalls. There will also be a ‘makers market’ which will consist of local crafts people.
Our market has something for everyone and it’s not just about shopping. You’ll be able to meet Santa as well as watch entertainment throughout the day provided by local performers including a short pantomime by St Mark’s Players at 2pm.
The market will run from 11am - 4pm and while there you’ll be able to enjoy:
- A bouncy castle, tombolas and lucky dips
- Cake and refreshments
- Fresh bread
- Bottles of wine and small kegs of beer from local producers
- Cheeses and cured meats
- Honey products produced by local bee keepers
- Make up and perfumes
- Jewellery
- Handmade soaps and bath bombs
- Cashmere and silk scarves and shawls.
They are accepting donated gifts, volunteers and stallholder applications. Entrance to the market is £2 in advance (until midday on Friday 15 November) or £3 on the door for adults. It is free for under 16s.
For more information please contact community fundraiser Jo Mowbray on 01689 892 991 or J.Mowbray@stchristophers.org.uk
Credits:
Created with images by Elisha Terada - "July 4th Independence Day Fireworks" • Bruna Branco - "Oranges" • Chris Lawton - "untitled image" • Nithin P John - "Festival of Flowers" • Brooke Lark - "untitled image" • Markus Spiske - "Global climate change strike - No Planet B - 09-20-2019" • Amador Loureiro - "untitled image" • Annie Spratt - "Child completing maths homework" • Tevarak Phanduang - "Soccer ball on grass green field with copy space" • Mark Solarski - "Vinyl + Grado Headphones" • 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum - "untitled image"