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Oak Hill Church of
England Primary School
Newsletter Friday 7th May 2021
KS1 Trip
We are very proud of all of the Dumbleton
children for representing Oak Hill so well and
being such a pleasure to take out for the day.
A member of the public stopped us to say what
a pleasure it was to see the school children out
and about and how well behaved they all were.
They said the children were really cheerful and
that it was lovely to hear them so excited.
They said that their trip on the steam train had
been made even better because of the
children.
Thank you to the members of staff at
Winchcombe Train Station for looking after us
so well; it really was a fantastic day!
Recount written by Louie (Year 2):
On the day of the trip we were all excited! We
got on the bus and I sat by Will. When we got
there we met a lady and she told us the rules.
Then, we went to wait for our train. We heard
a bell, then saw smoke and steam rise up and
when the train arrived we all got on. After that,
we found our carriage but we weren't allowed
to stick our heads out of the window. Then, we
heard a rumble and a burst of steam rushed
past us and we set off waving at the people on
the platform. Next, we saw sheep and a dog
out of the window whilst we ate our snack. We
got off the train and we saw it turn around
before getting back on to go back to
Winchcombe. When we got back to the station
we had a run around on the grass and then we
had our lunch as we were very hungry! After
lunch, we went on a hunt around the platforms
to look for the things on our sheet. I found a
lot of things. Then we said goodbye and we
went back on the bus to school.
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The Big Ask
You may have read that the Children’s
Commissioner, Dame Rachel De Souza, has
started the largest online survey of children to
gather their views. She would like as many
children in England as possible to complete
the 5-10 minute survey. It is for all children
between 4-17 in age, and there is also a section
for parents and carers. If you would like to
take part you can find further details at the
following website;
https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/th
ebigask/
Mental Health Week
Mental Health Awareness Week is held every
year to help people of all ages understand what
mental health is, what we can do to keep our
minds well and how to ask for help to feel
better for ourselves or others. This year,
Mental Health Awareness Week takes place
from 10th – 16th May. The theme for this
year’s week is ‘Nature’. Recent National Trust
research found a link between feeling
connected to nature and having improved
wellbeing. We will be completing some lovely
outdoor activities in our classes throughout the
week and you can join in too, by getting
outside as much as you can and enjoying being
with nature. The WWF website has some
lovely ideas for
inspiration: https://www.wwf.org.uk/5-ways-
connect-nature-help-our-wellbeing
Transition Visitor into School
This week Year 6 was visited by Mrs
Burgees who is a member of the transitions
team at Winchcombe School. She was very
excited to meet the children and will be
returning for another visit soon. The Year 6
children will also have the opportunity to take
part in a transition day if they are heading off
to Winchcombe School in September which
will take place in July!
Deaf Awareness Week
This week was Deaf Awareness Week and in
Hawthorn we had a special guest teacher.
Alana took over the role of teacher and
explained to the rest of the children how her
ears work. The children asked Alana questions
about her routines in the morning and night
time. They asked how long the batteries for
her implants last and how and why she has her
cochlear implants.
Alana then helped us label a cochlear implant
and explained a little bit more about the use of
each part. After that as a class we learned how
to do the alphabet in sign language, spell our
names out and we also played a game of 'guess
what' where the children took turns to sign
letters to spell words and the rest of the class
had to guess.
Thank you Alana for sharing with us all about
your special ears.
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Life Education
We are looking forward to welcoming Coram's
Life Education team to school next week,
where the children will get to meet Harold, the
happy and healthy giraffe, and take part in an
important session on keeping healthy, safe and
responsible. You can read more about these
sessions
here: https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/d
ownloads/Coram_LifeEducation_Programme_
Overview_Leaflet_updated_2020-21V1.4.pdf
Co-ordinator Days
Over the next few weeks, the teachers will be
having a day off timetable to focus on
developing the curriculum areas that they are
responsible for. This will help us to finalise
our development plans for the next academic
year.
Half Termly Christian Value
RSE and Health Curriculum KS2
Reminder: There is a Zoom meeting for KS2
parents Wednesday 12th May at 5pm to go
through the new changes to the RSE and
health curriculum and how we plan to teach
this at Oak Hill. Please note this session is for
parents only. A link will be sent to parents via
email nearer the time.
Church Service in Alderton
Services this week are as follows:
HC 9.00am Wormington
HC at 10.30am Alderton.
You are warmly welcome to Zoom and listen
into the 10.30am Communion Service being
held in Alderton.
Please see Zoom link below.
Join Zoom Meeting
Topic: Holy Communion
Time: 10:30 AM London
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82052149954?pwd
=N3NDQnJ3eVNWVGE3N2c4c3pCalg4Zz09
Meeting ID: 820 5214 9954
Passcode: 203355
Maple Class
We have had another fantastic week in
Reception continuing with our work on
Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The children
have really impressed me with their use of
their phonic knowledge to write some fantastic
captions and sentences about the story. In
Maths, we have been getting quite wet as we
have explored capacity and compared different
sized containers. We thought that a tall
container would hold more water than a short
one, but we soon learned that this isn’t always
the case! We went on a very special trip
yesterday, on the GWR steam train. It was a
really wonderful, educational day out that all
the children thoroughly enjoyed. They have
written about their favourite parts of the day
which you can see in the photos.
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Willow Class
We have had a fantastic week in Willow Class.
We began the week with a new unit in Maths
and have been focussing on position and
direction. We have worked really hard to learn
our left and right and also which direction we
turn for clockwise and anticlockwise. In
English, we have continued with our unit on
traditional tales and enjoyed writing character
descriptions. We even created our own alien
characters to describe!
On Thursday, we had a really exciting day as
we got to go on our first trip of the year. As we
have been investigating transport in the past,
we took a trip to Winchcombe Train Station
and had a ride on the steam train. We had a
fantastic day and learnt so much about the
railway and how steam trains were/are used to
transport people and goods around the country.
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Hawthorn Class
We have had a very busy week in Hawthorn.
The children have been finishing their work on
The Mousehole Cat. Over the course of the
week, the children have written engaging
setting descriptions, used speech to describe a
character, and then changed an event in the
story to add drama and suspense. Some had a
sad ending and some added a twist. But all the
children have created a wonderful edited
version of this tale.
In Maths, we have been telling the time and
organising events into AM and PM. If you can
continue this work at home by asking the
children what the time is, what will it be in 10,
15, 20 minutes that will really help! We have
also used our timeline skills to put events into
chronological order.
We had a wonderful presentation from the
RNLI. The children learned all about water
safety, how to stay safe on the beach, and also
a little about the different boats the RNLI use.
The children can also tell you the 4 golden
rules for staying safe in and around water. Did
you know a football or even an empty water
bottle can help save someone’s life if they
have fallen into a body of water?
We have been really enjoying our Cricket
lessons on Friday afternoons. The children are
learning how to throw and catch accurately
over longer distances and last week we started
to develop our batting skills.
Juniper Class
We have had another fun-filled week in
Juniper Class. The children really enjoyed
making fake blood as part of our new science
topic - circulatory systems in the human body!
As part of our DT topic we tried a range of
different breads that the children tasted and
evaluated. Next week we will be putting our
own bread recipes to the test!
In English this week, we have been learning
about the different people who boarded the
Titanic and have even created our own tea-
stained boarding passes.
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The children have also enjoyed their third
week of cricket and we just managed to dodge
the rain! In addition, the second week of
swimming was a success and children really
enjoyed getting to swim again!
Stars of the Week
Maple Class:
Star of the week: Ollie, for fantastic use of
phonics when writing
Value of the week: Guy, for demonstrating
perseverance, particularly in our PSHE lesson
this week!
Willow Class:
Value of the week: Miles - For persevering
with your writing and spelling and not giving
up!
Star of the week: Megan - For being so well
behaved on the trip this week and being
extremely helpful with the younger children
Hawthorn Class:
Value: Ellie. T - Being kind and a good friend.
Star of the Week: Harry B- Excellent Maths
work in Time, showing good reasoning skills.
Juniper Class:
Value of the Week: Jess - for being really
resilient when making blood in science this
week and for continuing to push herself in
swimming lessons.
Star of the Week: Alice - for working hard in
all her subjects, particularly in English (she
wrote a lovely description about the sea).
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Always having a go at a range of different
sports and never giving up.
Diary Dates
Please be aware that these may be subject to
change.
May
13th Life Education visits whole School
14th Swimming Year 5 and 6
Maypole Dancing
18th KNex Challenge
21st Swimming Year 5 and 6
28th Break up for half term
Swimming Year 5 and 6
June
7th Return to School
9th Yr R Height, Weight and Vision
11th Swimming Year 5 and 6
18th Swimming Year 5 and 6
21st ISing POP
22nd Yr 5/6 Bellboating trip (to be
confirmed)
25th Swimming Year 5 and 6
July
2nd Swimming Year 5 and 6
9th Swimming Year 5 and 6
1st – 2nd Year 6 visit to Winchcombe
15th Gloucestershire Kwik cricket
competition (Year 5/6 open)
16th Gloucestershire Kwik cricket
competition (Year 5/6 girls only)