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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
We have been fortunate this week to have welcomed Assembly speakers to Oakfield who have reinforced and celebrated our school's core values (our 6Cs).
On Monday we were delighted to meet the distinguished artist Alison Pullen, who came to declare our newly-refurbished Art Studio officially open. Alison spent time in a Year 4 lesson and then spoke in Assembly about how important it is to nurture and value the creative instinct in everyone. She then cut the ribbon in the Art Studio, accompanied by the pupils from Y5 and Y6 Art Masterclass.
The Art Studio is already proving to be a flexible working space, where individual and group work takes place and children's art can be displayed and celebrated. We are looking forward to developing it over the months to come as an inspiring showcase for the excellent outcomes achieved by all our children in this area of the curriculum.
The Headmaster of The Cedars School, Robert Teague, joined us on Thursday for a Guest Head Assembly. He told the children an uplifting story about courage displayed by a member of an air crew during World War 2, emphasising how fears can be overcome by showing a determination to be brave when facing them, and how our actions can make a real difference to the lives of others.
Our School Councillors from Year 1 to Year 6 led Friday's Assembly, telling the school about the work that they do, what has been achieved and what their plans are for Oakfield in the future. They spoke beautifully and showed genuine commitment, enthusiasm and collaboration - wonderful character qualities that were truly moving to see. My thanks go to Mrs Fidler for all that she does to develop the Council and the children who take part in it. It is a great testament to the excellence of Oakfield.
Wishing you all happy and restful weekends.
Moyra Thompson
Note from our Head of Early Years
Dear Parents and Carers,
It is a great honor and pleasure to say that Oakfield Pre-Prep is filled with happy faces, buzzing classrooms, and a plethora of exciting activities!
It has been so refresshing to return to school with a sense of normality, where we are once again allowed to visit others’ classes, and where there are fewer restrictions on all the amazing learning, resources and activities we can access. There have been some amazing celebrations, including our new ‘Place of Peace’ donated to the school by Harrisons Catering. This sensory, edible garden was inaugurated on Tuesday morning, and enthusiastically planted by the School Council and Eco Warriors from Year 1 to Year 6 on a bright and sunny morning.
We are inspiring Care and Creativity and Collaboration across the school.
This half term, we have had Year 1 children read to the Nursery children in the Library. This is a wonderful reflection on both the confidence of the Year 1 children in their reading, and the Nursery children in their sense of peace and enjoyment in the Oakfield environment. It makes me immensely proud. The children needed some help in focusing the attention of the little ones by pointing to pictures and using expressions to convey the stories.
We are inspiring Courage and providing character-building attributes to Challenge.
Next term, we look forward to introducing ‘Playground Buddies’ where a small group of Year 1 children will be invited to spend 10 minutes of their play time in the Nursery playground to explore, interact, read, play, investigate, sing and make music with the Nursery children. Through these important sessions, we are building the skills of both the Nursery children to play, and the Year 1 children to share in meaningful experiences with others.
We are inspiring Care for each other, and building on Collaboration across key stages.
A real highlight in our school has been the availability of Activities and Clubs and full wraparound care at Oakfield. The children have enjoyed a wide range of activities to inspire their Creativity in Lego, Hamma Beads and Art and Craft. They have been building on their resilience and acquired new skills, knowledge, Curiosity and Challenge through STEM clubs, Gymnastics and Fun Ball Sports. The weather has been brilliant, so it has been wonderful to see how the children in After School Care Club are following their interests, building new friendships and enjoying our wonderful facilities.
This week, teachers have been able to meet with parents and carers to deliver a settling-in report on each of the individual children. Please note that we are listening, have taken your positive and reflective comments on board for future parent evening sessions, and look forward to seeing parents in the classroom face to face again soon.
Next week we look forward to the Year 1 Cake Bake! All children in Pre-Prep should bring their donations to school to hand in at the gate on Friday morning. Cakes will be available for all the children in the playground during their morning play time, so excuse the chocolate and cream smeared clothing next week – messy clothing is surely a sign of a great day had by all.
Finally, I would like to wish everyone a happy half term holiday and we look forward to lots of Christmassy adventures upon our return to school in November. All being well, we will have all parents in school to see their little ones sing, speak and cheer each other on in our Christmas nativity. Much excitement awaits!
With best wishes,
Wendy Nicholson
BIRTHDAY BROADCAST
RAINBOW DAY - THURS 14th Oct
"Try to be a Rainbow in someone's cloud" Maya Angelou
Firstly, thank you to those who have donated through my VICTA JustGiving page. We have raised close to £300 to date. https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/bower-1232314-iav
Running 26 miles with 40,000 other runners is an amazing experience on many levels. Running it virtually is another! With 3-miles to go, running alone, back up to Dulwich Park into a strong wind, weary legs- this did test my inner strength. No hundreds of thousands of people cheering one down the London Embankment. Knowing Jesse was waiting was the only way forwards- I didn't want to be late! It really was- head down and try to run faster! Thank you, Jesse- you made my day! And thank you also to the other families that came and helped me get over the line.
The saying, Strength in Numbers is certainly true and Oakfield as one can make a difference by raising some money for VICTA.
Message from the School Council:
As you know, our charity this term is VICTA, the charity that supports children and young adults who are blind or partially sighted.
Next Thursday ALL Oakfield children (and teachers) are invited to come into school dressed in rainbow colours! Get dressed up in your most colourful wardrobe: what about blue trousers, green hats, pink wellies, orange dungarees, flamboyant socks, purple jumpers, anything goes! You could even wear colourful ribbons in your hair if you want to.
Angela and her team in the kitchen will be bringing even more colour into their delicious dishes and Mr Howes will be singing rainbow songs with us all in assembly. WOW so many colourful things all in one day. We are very excited about the day and look forward to raising, not a pot of gold at the end of it, but a good number of pounds that will make a difference.
A suggested donation of £2 for the day is welcomed.
Best regards,
Oakfield School Council
Place of Peace
The School Council and the Eco Warrior teams were very excited to welcome Tom, from our catering company, to school on Tuesday morning. Harrisons are dedicated to providing healthy fresh food for schools and what better way than to help us grow our own!
Last summer, the council suggested that it would be great to find a quiet place in the Prep playground to plant a sensory garden, somewhere you could go to be calm and peaceful and enjoy nature. The Council suggested that the garden should be called the 'Place of Peace'. With Harrison's help (and some sterling carpentry skills from Mr Bailey and Mr Brendan) our little garden of herbs, fruits and edible flowers is a reality!
The children had a lovely time planting all the fragrant herbs that Angela, our chef, bought for us and they are looking forward to the spring when they can plant the seeds.
The council hopes that the new 'Place of Peace' will bring us all the chance to enjoy a slice of nature here at Oakfield!
SPORT
Snippets from this week
It is so wonderful to have Oakfield children enjoying sports both at school and at inter-school fixtures including:
- Year 5 Football Squad at Alleyn's Football Competition
- 50 Oakfield runners in the Rosemead Inter-schools Cross Country - I was so impressed by everyone's attitude and efforts. Thank you to the runners that come out to Running Club before school on a Tuesday and Friday mornings.
- Thank you so much to the children for coming to help me finish the marathon last Sunday and to all others that came to see me cross over the line. £300 raised to date!
YEAR 6
Humanities
This week in our humanities lesson, we looked at different events from WW2 and worked in pairs to try to order them chronologically. To work out the very beginning and very end of the war was easy enough but it was quite a challenge to order some of the events in the middle. We used collaboration skills to work as logically as possible and then went through the correct order as a class. Once we had written the correct dates onto our event sorting cards, we drew our own timelines into our books.
Science
This week in Science, Year 6 were learning about adaptations, inheritance and evolution. This week we discussed how we are a mixture of our parents' DNA and that this can predetermine physical features such as eye colour, hair colour or height. The teachers made a male and female bug using pom poms and pipe cleaners and then the children made their own offspring choosing which traits had been inherited and which were mutations. We enjoyed looking at pictures of labradoodles, cockapoos and puggles too!
YEAR 5
In English this week we have been making advert for Street Children in Victorian London.
We have been finding out about Victorian childhoods and how they are treated. We got to see just what they went through on the streets of Britain.
Year 5 made some posters to engage out sympathies and support them any way we could.
YEAR 2
The children in Year 2 have had amazing science-filled few days. Last Friday, the clever scientist form Fizz Pop came to our school and together with the children explored various chemical reactions. We especially enjoyed the chemical reactions which occur when making slime. There was foam, fire and finally, it all ended with a BANG!
On Tuesday the following week, the children in Year 2 put on their imaginary lab coats and detective hats and became scientists/investigators. We investigated the question: Which materials are waterproof? We experimented in teams and took turns being the scientist and their assistant so that everybody had their go. We loved sharing our results with the whole class!
YEAR 1
The children in Year 1 were excited to use the ICT room for the first time. They learnt the main parts of the computer and practised logging on, navigating and using the mouse and the keyboard independently. The children showcased the Oakfield values of Collaboration, Challenge, Curiosity and Care remarkably well, by: working together, asking questions, not giving up and looking after the computers with great care. We were so proud of them!
MATHS WORD OF THE WEEK
Perpendicular
A perpendicular line is a line which is at right angles to another line.
BEYOND THE OAK
PLAY THE STAGE
Miss B and Play The Stage are back for half term, 18th - 22nd October, with more acting, singing, dancing and of course a whole heap of games!
Half term will work a little differently to our Summer holiday courses:
We will have an overall theme for the week but with a different focus explored each day. That means a new dance and song every day! We are open for ad hoc bookings so your child can come for 1 day, 3 days or the whole week and won’t feel that they have missed out as it is something new every day!
For more information, drop us an email at info@playthestage.co.uk or visit our website at www.playthestage.co.uk.
We can’t wait to boogie, sing and act with your kids again this half term
Credits:
Created with images by diapicard - "birthday cake candles" • sergiovisor_ph - "abstract rainbow pattern" • Wokandapix - "vote word letters" • anncapictures - "tartan track athletics track and field" • AlexAntropov86 - "dna biology biotechnology" • Illuvis - "moth macro insect" • deepakrit - "chemistry lab experiment" • PublicDomainPictures - "autumn leaves foliage" • councilcle - "school abacus count" • Simon - "sky clouds atmosphere"