Oakfield Social Media Channels:

Now more than ever it is vital to subscribe to our social media channels to keep updated on all things Oakfield by using the following links:

We will be providing links to useful sites on our Twitter feed

Follow our Instagram feed for photos, links, stories and more.....

We are going to be uploading many more videos to our YouTube channel over the coming weeks so subscribe now. You can find the Oakfield Sports Challenges 1 - 6 on the channel now!

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.

https://oakfield.engagehosted.com

Reflections from our Head

Welcome to our first newsletter of the Summer Term! Oakfield is in good heart, and I am so proud of the way in which our school community of children, staff and families has pulled together and supported each other since we began our journey into this new way of living and working that we have never navigated before. Thank you to all our parents who are combining their own work commitments with supporting the children's learning and also to those members of staff who are doing the same with their own children at home, in addition to their teaching responsibilities.

It has been lovely this week to receive messages from some of the children and share in what they are busy with at home - please do keep sending photos or videos so that we can gather together and celebrate all that is being achieved in our online learning community.

I have been reflecting on the importance of keeping a sense of proportion and perspective when faced with everything that we have to deal with at the moment. The pace of life in the world around us has certainly slowed, and the planet is consequently showing signs of recovery in different ways. Thank you to Miss Francis for sending out World Earth Day resources during the week, which I hope the children enjoyed exploring. There is much to be thankful for as we take this opportunity for extra family time that we would not otherwise have (I do, however, totally recognise that there will be moments when this may not seem so desirable!!), there is pleasure to be found in little things such as new life in our gardens or time to learn a new skill together and above all there is the chance to connect with family and friends, which we might be too busy for otherwise.

At the weekend I took a walk in the woods nearby and really appreciated the time to go slowly and actually take notice of everything around, including the bluebells in the picture below! It reminded me of childhood walks every Spring with my parents - they were of the wartime generation and essentially 'lost' 6 years of their young lives in their teens and early twenties serving the country, when it might otherwise have been a time for further education and other career opportunities. In the scheme of things, the 7 days at the end of last term and (hopefully) just a few weeks ahead does not seem too much to be worried about. We must stay upbeat and confident that our children will be fine - they are learning, growing and developing all kinds of knowledge and skills, even at this unusual time. Keeping them physically, mentally and emotionally healthy is the priority.

I hope that you and your wider families are staying safe and well and the staff and I send thoughts and love to any who are worried about family members or friends who may be ill or vulnerable. As I said to the children in 'Assembly' this week, our school values and the importance we place on building character have never been so important.

Take care, have a lovely weekend and enjoy some sunshine.

Moyra Thompson

Noticeboard

There are just a few things below we would like to make all parents and carers aware of

1. Please be aware of the goverment's latest advice on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people in the current crisis. We recommend all parents and carers read it here:

2. Please note that Teams class calls should not be recorded. Thank you for your co-operation.

3. Children need to turn devices off and stop working at the end of the day to ensure that evenings are for rest and relaxation.

4. We are still very keen to award House Points to the children, not only for work but also for good behaviour, kindness, great attitude towards learning, exhibiting Oakfield's 6 Cs, showing initiative, resilience etc. Could parents and carers please let teachers know about any examples of this that they are seeing at home too.

5. From next week children might not get notices in their inbox about new lessons being published. Instead they should check their 'Assignments' on Monday morning to see what has been set for the week. This will reduce the amount of incoming messages that children are receiving and allow them to keep their notice inboxes free for correspondence with their teachers e.g. direct questions and feedback.

NHS SUPPORT

Thursday Claps and Rainbow Display

We hope you are all continuing to offer whole-hearted support for our public health workers. We would love to see our Oakfield community's rainbow displays in your home and the Thursday clap on your street. Please send them onto bgolden@oakfield.dulwich.sch.uk. Thank you very much!

Letters of Support to the NHS

We have continued to receive some lovely emails in response to the letters of support Oakfield children wrote.

King's College Hospital

All of us at King’s would love to thank you for the absolutely wonderful cards of Support from year 4/5.

Every card was read out and then distributed to the incredible team I work with. Many laughs an many tears of joy were shed. Your gesture was hugely appreciated by all and so well timed.

Year 3

Times New Roman

A task for 3CF was to research a topic to do with the Romans and write a newspaper report about it. Fearless reporter Sebastian decided to write a brilliant article about Roman weapons.

DRAMA

ISA Drama 2020 Competition - Best Musical Winners

This week we received the incredibly exciting news that Oakfield have won the prestigious ISA Drama 2020 competition for Best Musical for their performance of 'Matilda' last term. What an amazing effort from all the children who took part in the production as well as from Mrs Cubberley-Lobb and Mr Allen for leading and inspiring Oakfield to a wonderful win! Oakfield talent knows no bounds and to beat specialist theatre schools to the crown is a truly remarkable achievement. Well done all!

'Stay at Home' Word Challenge

This week 2CS were set the challenge of trying to find as many words as possible in the phrase 'Stay at Home'. The words need to be at least 2 letters long and be in the dictionary.

Olive (with a little help from her older brother) managed to find 42 words. Can you beat her score?

Good luck!

Spanish

Languagenut

Well done to all children who have been practicing their Spanish skills and completing tasks using languagenut.

This week, Oakfield is number 10 against 3200 schools worldwide! Muchas gracias chic@s!

And we have more good news: We have 2 Oakfield children in the top 4!

• Number 3 is Ryan in 2CS
• Number 4 is Seb in 4PD

Languagenut have over 55,000 students playing with their resources so this is a HUGE achievement!

PUPILS SCHOOL RANKING

1. Ryan 2CS
2. Seb 4PD
3. Kenzie 3CM

CLASS LEAGUE

1. 2CS
2. 4DD
3. 5NA

SPORT

Mr Bower has registered with findarace.com and set himself the challenge of running 200km in the month of April. There are Plan B Virtual Run Challenges for all ages (includes children) and abilities. It is £10 entry for the formal races and all profits go to the World Health Organisation's COVID -19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Strangely I have never counted up how many miles I do in a week, despite trying to keep to a training plan! Trying to keep to the plan provides the motivation as well as train the body to run a marathon. So taking on PLAN B VIRTUAL RUN CHALLENGE will require me to start adding up the miles this month. Taking on a Challenge feels good. Have a look for yourself and take one on. All for a good cause! Good luck! Mr Bower

Birthdays

Happy birthday to these children from this week:

• 20th April Anneke LFKS and Lorenzo PNF
• 21st Beth 2CS
• 22nd Rosa 3CM and Elijah 3CF
• 25th Luna LFLS