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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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)