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The newsletter is just a small selection of all the amazing things going on at Oakfield so do follow our social media channels for many more examples of Oakfield life!
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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 were delighted to welcome Years 3 and 4 back to school on Monday and are very proud that all our children have been able to return to Oakfield during this Summer term. They have settled back seamlessly into classroom learning again and are impressing us all with their focus, keenness to learn, maturity and independence.
We are in the midst of preparing for the end of this term and the following transitions. Your child's teacher for September is looking forward to meeting you and the children through the welcome video messages and Teams calls that will take place next week, as mentioned in the recent letter to you. Further details will be following in due course about how we will mark the end of term.
May I add another reminder that Covid-19 is not yet over, and we are mindful of the need to maintain social distancing between adults on site and also between children in different bubbles. Please ensure that you and the children remain vigilant when arriving and leaving school, so that we can all stay as healthy as possible for the remainder of the term and throughout the holiday period.
I hope you can all enjoy a relaxing and sunshine-filled weekend
Moyra Thompson
Stick it up!
Today the key worker children made stick puppets and played with them in the sunshine!
LOWER FOUNDATION
This week Lower Foundation have been showing off their amazing writing skills by writing a fun fact about their favourite sea creature.
The children are forming the most beautiful letters and using their phonic knowledge to decode words they wish to write. Very impressive stuff!
Did you know turtles don’t have ears? Dolphins sleep with one eye open in case of predators and sharks have 5 rows of teeth!
UPPER FOUNDATION
Dear Parents and Carers,
The following message has been sent to all Early Years parents at the start of this week. I thought that they would be appropriate for children in all other years, so am forwarding for you to share with your children at home.
As there has been a greater media focus on race and equality in society, especially with the death of George Floyd, we will be discussing this topic with your children in school. Sometimes we don't realise how aware the children are of current news, so it is very important to discuss relevant news topics in our family and class discussions, to ensure concepts are clearly understood without misconceptions. Please refer to one of the accompanying documents, 'Parents Guide to Black Lives Matter' to help you in your discussions at home.
As always, it is best to centre your discussions round a story, so we have some lovely suggestions for great reading materials for 0-5 year olds here, along with the attached here and below:
At Oakfield, we are lucky to have such a multi-cultural and diverse range of families. We work very hard to celebrate our differences and uniqueness and cultivate a culture of mutual respect. This was evident in all our wonderful celebrations and contributions from parents to discuss and share children's cultures and backgrounds in our topics across all year groups. Please enjoy the 'We are all different' PowerPoint story.
The focus of our class discussions are to continue to recognise our differences and uniqueness and embrace and respect each other for bringing so many great perspectives to our learning. This extends beyond race, to those who have disabilities and have strived to make a difference in our world. Please use the 'We are all different - Inspirational People' PowerPoint to explore this.
Alongside this, we will discuss the slogan of 'Black Lives Matter' and what this means, as the children would surely have heard this in the media. I have collated a bank of reading resources to spark discussion at home and at school in a positive manner. There is a lovely series on CBeebies, which can be found on the link here:
BBC Bitesize also has a range of video clips to help in your discussions at home:
On Monday 22nd June, at 10:27am we celebrated National Windrush Day. I attach these resources for those children learning from home. Please follow the link to enjoy some wonderful resources that were used to celebrate this event and spark inspiration:
Finally, please click on the following link to listen to some children sharing their views in an episode of Newsround:
I hope you find these activities and resources useful, and that we all keep our ideas and conversations positive around these sensitive subjects, to continue to cultivate acceptance and equality in our world, and to recognise that all people are celebrated, respected and appreciated regardless of colour.
With kind regards,
Wendy Nicholson
Head of Early Years
Migration and ethnicity
Oscar’s auntie shared this great resource from Royal Museums Greenwich. Young volunteer filmmakers made films using the themes of identity, migration and ethnicity as a starting point, the volunteers explored the museum’s collection, interviewed local people and reflected on their own personal stories. Watch the films at the link below!
Year 1
Dear Parents,
The children have thoroughly enjoyed having a whole week of wall to wall sunshine! Mr Lawrence took it easy on us during our PE session as we were all tiring quickly and in need of constant drinks of water!
In Mathematics the children revised ordinal numbers. They had fun furthering this learning outside playing running races. It was tricky to remember the abbreviations for the number however, by Thursday the children were doing well.
In English the children became authors and illustrators to create and design their very own comic strip. There were heroes saving the world from villains stealing mobile phones, dropping litter, protecting people from sunburn and being unkind to humans!
In Science the children have been exploring the density of oil and water. It looked like mini fireworks!
On Monday the children celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Windrush Generation. They all joined in with a live song from Colourful radio to mark this special day. The lyrics of the song were very poignant as they link to Oakfield’s 6Cs! The children had a very mature discussion around acceptance and equality.
Thank you again to the children who are still working so hard at home. Please continue to share your work with your class teacher.
Microsoft Teams meeting week 10: Wednesday 1st July 11:15am
Class chat with new Year 2 teachers: Thursday 2nd July 6pm
The Year One Team
Year 3
Ye Olde Job
In Year 3, the children have learnt about different job roles during the Roman times. They put them in order of which they deemed to be the most important to least important and then researched more of the history behind each position. There were lots of interesting questions, including what they would eat and wear! In pairs, children then placed the cards face down and played matching pairs, trying to match the picture with it's correct job role.
Next week they will write job adverts to try and encourage some new recruits!
YEAR 4
Year 4 have been looking at the life of Malala Yousafzai, a young girl from Pakistan who fought for the equal rights of girls to have access to education. They were so inspired by her story that they created some wonderful posters to promote equal rights and to highlight the amazing work that Malala has done.
Lucas (4JM) also did some extra research at home and found out that Malala was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!
YEAR 5
Year 5 have been learning about Alexander the Great over the last two weeks and discovering the enormous impact he made on the geography of the world. Most of us had never heard of the countries he conquered, so this week we used modern atlases to identify the countries as we know them today. Did you know for example that Turkey didn't exist at the time of Alexander the Great? (I wonder what they had for dinner at Christmas?)
Next week, we are going to link our new map drawing skills to plot the journey of Charles Darwin,as he sailed the seas on HMS Beagle.
Year 6
This week Year 6 have been recording their radio play. They are enjoying being able to still take part in a socially distanced summer production and are working very hard. The final step will be to add in sound effects so we have been learning about the Foley technique and are excited to try and recreate some every day sound effects using different objects.
Have a great weekend!
ART
Credits:
Created with images by Aaron Burden - "untitled image" • Charlein Gracia - "untitled image" • Hana Lopez - "untitled image" • Studio Dekorasyon - "Tree-lined alley" • Jared Rice - "A palm located in Nassau, Bahamas" • Virginia Choy - "The Roman Baths" • Arièle Bonte - "grl pwr in lisbon" • T.H. Chia - "untitled image" • Leo Wieling - "Recording the vocals" • @plqml // felipe pelaquim - "untitled image" • Nikhita Singhal - "Birthday cake"