Message from the Headteacher October 2013

October 2013
Message from the Headteacher
It has been a very busy end to the term with Parents'
evenings, Key Stage 1 visits to Rockingham Castle and a
KS 2 sports event. We have been very pleased to
welcome new families to our school and hope that they
will enjoy their time with us at Oakley Lower School.
We have a number of exciting activities planned for
next term, including the Christmas Carol Services and
parties which play such a significant part in the run up
to Christmas, as well as the many events planned for the
Oakley Lower Big Build and PTA events. We will keep
you informed by newsletter and our website and look
forward to seeing you at some of our forthcoming
events.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
Oakley Lower and Oakley Preschool
joined forces to bake some fantastically
yummy cakes and cookies! A huge thank
you to our brilliant bakers as well as to all those Mums,
Dads and governors who gave up their time to help to host
this event! It was good to see many of
you ’Gift Aiding’ your donations this year.
Thanks to everyone ‘s brilliant support we
raised £168.60 for Macmillan nurses.
Jeans for Genes Day
Once again we participated in
this annual fundraising event.
The children spent time
learning about this charity that
aims to change the world for
children with genetic disorders.
Everyone enjoyed spending the
day in denim and an impressive
£191.37 was raised! Many thanks
to everyone involved.
Harvest Festival
As part of our on-going links
with the local community,
some of our Year 4 children
visited the residents from
Oakley Day Care Centre
straight after our Harvest
assembly. The children
enjoyed chatting to them and
the members were extremely
grateful for the impressive array of tins,
biscuits etc that parents had so kindly
donated. A big thank you to everyone
who helped to make this possible.
Sports Festival at Sharnbrook Upper
Rockingham Castle Trip
As part of their Castles project, the Year 1
and 2 children visited Rockingham Castle
in Corby. Despite the weather, they had a
wonderful time looking around the castle and
seeing what if was like to live in medieval
times. Some even had a go at putting on
helmets and imagined themselves as
medieval soldiers!
Keep in Contact: Station Road, Oakley, Bedfordshire MK43 7RE.
Mr Redford took 30 Year 3 and 4 children to a
Sports festival this week where they had a fun
morning playing tag rugby, goal ball and
other fun sports activities. It was a very
successful morning. Not only did the school
came second in the Tag Rugby and Goal Ball
competitions but Harry R was
also awarded a certificate for
showing ’Respect’ during the
activities! Well done, everyone!
Tel: 01234 822104
Fax: 01234 826472
Email: [email protected]
Keep up to date with letters and newsletters on our website: www.oakleylower.co.uk
Foundation Stage News!
The children have settled well into Oakley Lower School. They have enjoyed making new friends and
finding out more about each other from their ‘All About Me’ boxes. Our main topic this half term
has been about ‘Ourselves’ where we have explored what we look like, our families, what we like
to do and how we change as we grow. This week we have been finding out about ‘Diwali’, the
Hindu festival of light. The children have been making rangoli patterns, their own clay diva
lamps and tasting Indian foods during the week. We also enjoyed listening to Indian music
and making up our own Indian dances.
Key Stage One News!
We began the term by finding a letter from Knight James and a mysterious egg that he asked us to
look after. It has now hatched and we have learnt how to look after baby dragons. We have made
some collage dragons in Art and have been learning how to use the pastels and art pencils to draw
portraits. We have had some fantastic homework and spellings sent in and the children are really
enjoying sharing what they have done. We have been learning about Ourselves in Science and
have brightened up the classrooms with all of your lovely family photos.
The trip to Rockingham Castle was a great success and it gave the children a real insight
into life in medieval times.
Key Stage Two News!
Our Autumn term began with the children in Key Stage 2 becoming detectives and trying to find out who owned a
suitcase that was found near the old railway station in Oakley. They used the clues to establish that it belonged to an
evacuee from World War 2 which led us into our new exciting topic - Children in World War 2. The children have
used a range of sources to discover many exciting facts about evacuation and the Blitz. In Literacy, they have written
letters as evacuees, written stories set in an air raid and become newspaper reporters to create a newspaper report
about the Blitz. They have used their knowledge about the Blitz to help them produce a Blitz
collage in their art lessons. In science they have been looking at materials and their properties and
investigated which material is best for making blackout curtains. The children have worked very
hard this term and are now looking forward to their experiencing life as an evacuee at Stibbington.
Dates for your diary
4 Nov—Teacher Training Day
5 Nov—Back to school
11 Nov—Willow class to sports festival at Lincroft
13 Nov—Asda Road Safety Awareness Day
6 and 7 Nov—KS2 Stibbington Trip
15 Nov—PTA Xmas Shopping /Coffee Morning
9-11 am
28 Nov—Y2 to Barn Nativity in Clapham
6 Dec— Oakley Lower Big Build Coffee Morning
9 Dec— Foundation Stage Nativity Play 9:30am
10 Dec— Foundation Stage Nativity Play 9:30 am
11 Dec— OLS Year 1.2.3 and 4 Carol Concert held in
Lincroft School Hall 9:30 am
12 Dec— OLS Year 1,2,3 and 4 Carol Concert held in
Lincroft School Hall 9:30 am
14 Dec— PTA Christmas Bazaar
20 Dec—Arena Theatre visit to school
20 Dec—Last day of term
Keep in Contact: Station Road, Oakley, Bedfordshire MK43 7RE.
Dinner Money
Achievements
School dinners cost
£2.10 per day.
Please remember to
put dinner money
in an envelope clearly named
with your child’s name, class
etc, with cheques made
payable to Caterlink.
The total cost of school dinners
for next half term is £71.40 (34
days @ £2.10 a day). Thank
you.
Sarah Lovett, Headteacher
Tel: 01234 822104
Fax: 01234 826472
Email: [email protected]
Keep up to date with letters and newsletters on our website: www.oakleylower.co.uk
Lots of children share
their achievements with
us on Friday assembly.
However we felt that
two children deserve
special mention —Kian
G J for catching an 8lb
carp on a recent fishing
mission and Grace P
who is having a poem
published in a Young
Writers’ Anthology .
Well done to both of
them!