4 Feb 2008 - Oaklands Junior School Newsletter

Dear Parents,

 

Staffing

 

Our Site Controller, Mr Munson, is on sick leave at present so please bear with us if jobs around the school are not getting done as quickly as usual. Please help us to keep the site tidy by picking up any litter etc.

 

 

 

Site Improvements

 

The playground fence is being replaced the week beginning Monday 25^th February.  It is hoped that the old fencing will be dismantled during the INSET day, when children are not in school, but the work will go on into Tuesday and possibly Wednesday.  Do take care when taking children to and from school.  It is hoped that the children will still be able to use the playground at break times, although this may be limited.

 

 

Play Time

 

We would appreciate donations of softballs for the children to play with during break times.   No smaller than tennis balls please!

 

 

School Lunches

 

Please note that a carton of milk is now 30p

 

 

SATs Assessment Week

 

Next term year 6 will be taking their Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs). The SATs tests will be taking place during the week beginning Monday 12^th May.  It is most important that parents avoid taking children out of school during that week and please consider that the weeks leading up to it will be important for revision.  Year groups 3, 4 and 5 will also given standardized assessment tests (Optional SATs) during this period of time, which helps us to track their progress from year to year.

 

 

Parents’ Evenings

 

Parents’ Evenings will take place on Wednesday 5^th and Thursday 6^th March.  Further information will be sent out at a later date.

 

 

PTA Disco

 

Once again the PTA organised a disco for the pupils of both the Infant and Junior Schools .  I would like to thank the PTA and the staff who freely gave their time to enable this event to take place.  I know the children thoroughly enjoyed the disco, although we would appreciate it if, in the future, all children left their mobile phones at home.  These are costly items which may be lost or damaged; we also found a number of children competing with the disco by playing their own music and taking photographs.  As you are aware the school closely monitors photographs being taken of the children and we do have a few parents who object to their children being photographed.

 

 

At the last PTA meeting (29/01/08) the lack of parental support to take up essential roles was discussed. In order to continue in the manner in which we have become accustomed the PTA need:

• Parents to organise this years Summer Fete
• Volunteers to organise this years Carnival Float for the Crowthorne Carnival
• A Vice Chair

 

Without parents volunteering to take up these posts the Fete and our participation in the Crowthorne Carnival will not go ahead.  Without a Vice Chair the PTA will not be able to continue after January 2008.  The PTA provides a valuable source of income for both schools and a number of very enjoyable activities throughout the year for the pupils, parents and the local community as a whole.  Please contact Nicky Simmonds via the school office if you are able to help in anyway.  Your support will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Science Club

 

We have two more sessions of science club left. This term the children put forward their own suggestions for experiments. The most popular experiment was to put mentos mints into a diet coke bottle (only to be done outdoors). In June the science club will be invited to visit the wind turbine in Reading after school.
 

Big school's birdwatch

 

Over 50 children joined the birdwatch along with four adults - Ms Moores, Mr Cotterill and two others, Hannah Moores and Mrs Deakin. We are particularly grateful for this extra support. We spotted fewer birds this year but probably a greater variety. Our top visitor was the woodpigeon.
 

Children's garden

   
Many of you will have noticed the five wooden constructions outside year 6. These will become the new garden plots for the children. Hopefully the children will develop green fingers and we will have many delicious plants growing. We will be asking parents for help once the children have decided what they wish to plant.

 

 

Sport

 

This term sees many of our children enjoying a wide range of extra sporting events. 

 

A number of our children are enjoying activities run by Coachmark for rugby on Tuesdays after school and J K Coaching for basketball on Wednesdays after school.

 

In addition to this Mr. Pearse continues to take Year 6 boys after school and Year 6 girls at lunchtime for football. Mrs Ginty is running the netball club at lunchtimes for Year 5 and 6. Mr Pearse, Mr Cotterill and Mr Hutton have taken Years 3, 4 and 5 pupils for rugby training at lunchtimes and are now taking them for football.  Mr Hutton has a group of children running in the mornings before school and is entering a number of them in a mile run. Mr Cotterill has arranged for some Year 3 and Year 4 pupils to take part in the Tag Rugby Festival of Sport on Tuesday 5^th February at the Readingensians Rugby Football club.

 

Despite having to cancel many matches due to the weather we have played St. Sebastians and Nine Mile Ride at tag rugby and St Sebastians at football. 

 

We are planning rugby matches against other schools for Year 3 and 4 pupils and netball matches for Year 5 and 6.

 

We are extremely grateful to our enthusiastic staff who are freely giving their time to enable so many children to enjoy sport in school and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all.

 

 

French Day 

 

We are all looking forward to time off the curriculum when the whole day in school will have a French feel to it.  Details of the day on Wednesday 13^th will be sent out shortly.

 

 

Year 3 Trip to Corinium Museum

 

In spite of the delayed start due to a very heavy traffic jam, Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their educational visit to the Roman Museum at Cirencester on 30^th January. Jake (class 2) and Jacob (class 1) reported as follows:

 

“On Tuesday Year 3 went to the Corinium Museum in Cirecester.  It was a museum all about the Romans; who they were and what they did.  Some of our favourite bits were the mosaics, dressing up as Romans, seeing the Roman garden and learning games, both looking at them and making our own.

 

We spent half of the day looking round the museum and half of it doing activities.  There was so much to see!  The Romans looked quite funny because their clothes were very different to ours.  They were good at fighting, building houses and inventing things like their roads, their number system and heating their houses.

 

 

We all had a good day.  The museum was great and it was more fun than doing work.  We wish we were still there!    It was the best school trip ever.

 

 

Daisy Trophy

 

Benny Deacon was awarded the trophy at the beginning of term.  Well done Benny

 

 

Yours sincerely,

S. Charnley

Deputy Headteacher