Latest News | Oakley Church of England Combined School

Stay at Home Guidance for Households

Thu 26 Mar 2020 Iola Seaton-Reid

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance/stay-at-home-guidance-for-households-with-possible-coronavirus-covid-19-infection

Robins Class Visit to the Living Rainforest

Fri 13 Mar 2020 Serena Courtney

On Thursday 12^th March Robins visited Living Rainforest near Newbury.

We have been learning about where tropical rainforests are located in the world and studying the plants and animals. We had time to explore as well as an amazing tour by the guide who taught us all about how plants and animals have adapted to live in the different layers of this unique environment. We saw waterproof leaves, camouflaged animals and some with the most amazing colours, either because of their diet or as a warning of danger. The children learned so many facts they could recall back at school and all of them commented on how hot and sweaty it was there! It really brought to life everything they have been learning and of course a quick run in the park at lunch time caused a great deal of excitement, where they made me very proud by being so caring and considerate of a mum and her little boy. She was so impressed she thanked us several times. What great ambassadors of our school they were!

Sports Relief 2020

Fri 13 Mar 2020 Iola Seaton-Reid

Rothschild House did a tremendous job raising approximately £115 for Sports Relief. Money was raised through a sports gear mufti day and by selling healthy fruit cones (with a little bit of ice cream) after school. Thank you to everyone who supported us today.

Science Week

Thu 12 Mar 2020 Serena Courtney

We celebrated British Science Week in school with an assembly led by school staff. We led science demonstrations to wow the children including making elephant toothpaste and lighting a whoosh bottle which surprised the children and triggered a round of applause from them. We set up varying amounts of white vinegar in film canisters, added Alka Seltzer tablets and the lids. The children squealed as the lids popped off and flew into the air one at a time! There were one or two that didn’t work, providing us with the opportunity to discuss the fact that scientific discovery doesn’t always go to plan and how many things were invented by accident, or discovered whilst investigating something different. Hopefully this gave the children greater confidence to have a go at their own investigations during the week. I am looking forward to seeing the work they have produced.

We decided to make our STEM fair bigger and better this year so we moved it to the summer term. Please come along on 19^th June at 1.30pm to join us.

West End in Schools

Fri 06 Mar 2020 Iola Seaton-Reid

As part of our World Book Day celebrations we welcomed Amy from West End in Schools today. She worked with each class acting and dancing scenes from The Lorax and Coraline.

Mrs Courtney said that Robins' Class 'thoroughly enjoyed acting out and dancing scenes from The Lorax. The children were so keen and excited, they forgot to be quiet until later on! The freeze frames, movement to tell parts of the story and dance really helped the children to bring the story alive. They had such a good time and it really helped them to pick out the key parts of the story.'

Owls' Class teacher, Mrs Morley, said 'The children were really engaged in the dance activity. They worked well in groups and really appreciated that, by the end of the session, they had produced a piece of dance theatre. I was impressed at how the session was structured and paced, providing a framework but also allowing space for the children's creativity.'

World Book Day 2020

Thu 05 Mar 2020 Iola Seaton-Reid

We have had a fantastic day in school celebrating World Book Day. As well as dressing up as our favourite book characters the pupils made a book character with a potato. Lots of stories were shared and read in class. Thank you to our parents for your efforts in creating such original costumes.

Year 3/4 Basketball Final, The Buckingham School

Wed 26 Feb 2020 Iola Seaton-REid

We are so proud of our Year 3/4 Basketball team for playing so well at yesterday's finals held at The Buckingham School. Well done to each one of you.

School Drummers Perform at Celebration Collective Worship

Fri 14 Feb 2020 Iola Seaton-Reid

Phil Heard and our school drummers led our Celebration Collective Worship this morning entertaining a packed hall with many popular songs. Lots of audience participation and some parents even took to the drums to have a go. Thank you to Phil, our drummers and everyone who came along to support.

We look forward to our drummers' next performance at OakFest at 1.00pm on 6th June.

Safety Internet Week

Tue 11 Feb 2020 Iola Seaton-Reid

Today is Safer Internet Day, part of our Safer Internet Week. Mrs Cochrane, our ICT Co-Ordinator, gave a presentation during our collective worship and reminded our children about the importance of keeping safe on the internet.

Internet safety is part of every ICT lesson with regular class discussions about this important issue.

Links to useful websites can be found under our 'Useful Links' page under the 'Parents' tab.

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2020

Percussion Classes

Mon 10 Feb 2020 Iola Seaton-Reid

Badgers class are really enjoying their weekly percussion classes led by Michael Lee from the XYZ Music Academy. These have been very generously part funded by our friends at the First Thursday Music Club in Thame. Our fundraising focus at this year's OakFest event will be to continue to provide music lessons across the school and to re stock our musical instrument resources. Save the date - Saturday 6th June 2020.