Newsletter: November 2017 www.oakhillfirst.com

Oak Hill First School

Wirehill Drive, Lodge Park, Redditch

Dates for the diary

Christmas Performances

You will shortly be receiving information regarding Christmas Performances for Year 3, Year 1, Reception and Nursery.

Year 1 and Year 3

As pupils will have put a great deal of hard work and effort into producing their performances, we would ask that only adults attend. This will ensure that all members of the audience will enjoy a distraction free performance. Parents of pupils in Years 1 and

3 will have the opportunity to pre-book a crèche place for children below school age.

This does not apply to Nursery and Reception Performances as they are shorter and may be enjoyed by younger children.

Reception to Year 4 pupils will see the performance during school hours. Nursery pupils will watch the Reception performance during their normal Nursery hours.

Admissions A reminder that applications for September 2018 places in Reception and Middle School need to be submitted to Worcestershire County Council by

15th January 2018.

Applications should be made online at http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/schooladmissions

For further details, please contact the

School Office.

7th Nov Year 3 Outdoor learning

7th Nov Year 4 Visitor Dennis Dinsdale (History Focus)

13th —17th Nov

Book Fair in school

13th –17th Nov

Book Fair

13th Nov Open Morning for

prospective Reception 2018 parents 9:30-10:30

14th Nov Reception Visitor Little Bob (Magician)

17th Nov Tea Day

21st Nov Year 4 Parental Engagement

28th Nov Year 2 Parental Engagement

Don’t forget children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to Universal FREE meals. Book your

child’s FREE tasty hot dinner today via ParentPay!!

If you need any help with this, please speak to a member of our office staff.

Book Fair

Our ‘Travelling Books’ Book Fair will be in school from Monday 13th November until Friday 17th November. Please pop in through the main entrance after school to view and purchase some new books (perfect for Christmas presents!) and help support our school. Alternatively, you could take a look at what is on offer during Tea Day on Friday 17th. All money raised will provide us with funds to purchase new books for our school library and class reading areas. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Please look at page 2 to see all Christmas performance dates and Christmas

activity dates.

Walk to the woods

Year 2 had a fabulous time during our trip to the woods. The pupils learnt the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees, identified trees by their leaf shape and collected a variety of art leaves to then use in their artwork.

Children In Need

We love to raise money for special causes at Oak Hill and we like to have fun while we do it!

It’s Children In Need on Friday 17th November 2017 and we like to raise money for this every year as it helps children not only around the world but in our local area. Our School Council are organising the fundraising for this charity and will be sending details out about this very soon.

Year 4 Invasion Games at Woodfield

Invasion games at Woodfield. Oak Hill were joined by Woodrow first school and St George’s first school to take part in an invasion games competition. Before we left we had to decide if we wanted to be in the hockey, football or bench ball group. We based our decision on the skills session we had done the week before. The competition was hard and we had to pull together as a team to try and complete against the other schools. It was a very steep learning curve but we rose to the challenge and at the end of the day it is the taking part that counts not the winning.

Harvest Celebrations

Our school rejoiced in the celebration of the Harvest festival. Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils joined together for some lovely singing and the message of Harvest was shared through a poem. We reflected upon things that we should be thankful for. Thank you to parents and carers

Christmas Events

Tuesday 5th December

RM Christmas Performance

Wednesday 6th December

RB Christmas Performance

Thursday 7th December

RA Christmas Performance

Friday 8th December

Christmas Lunch

Nursery Entertainer ‘Magic Bob’

Monday 11th December

Years 2 & 4

Christmas Carol Concert

Tuesday 12th December

Year 1 Christmas Performance*

Year 3 Christmas Performance*

Wednesday 13th December

Year 1 Christmas Performance*

Year 3 Christmas Performance*

Thursday 14th December

Christmas Parties

Friday 15th December

Pantomime

Monday 18th December

Nursery Performance

Tuesday 19th December

Nursery Performance

Tuesday 19th December

Last day of term

*We ask that younger siblings do not attend these performances and offer a crèche facility on these dates. Thank you.

2C Class Assembly

Class 2C left their audience speechless with an outstanding performance of their Class Assembly! A wolf had been placed on trial following suspicions that he had been involved with the crimes in Fairy Tale Forest. Everyone was amazed by their confident acting, enthusiastic singing and entertaining dancing! Thank you to the many parents and carers who were able to attend.

November Festivals and Awareness Days

During November, the whole school will focus on:

Remembrance

Children In Need

Anti-Bullying Week

School Council The launch assembly for School Council went really well and the children seemed very excited at the opportunity to put forward their ideas. Last half term our new School Council councillors were decided by their friends. We have our first School Council meeting on Monday 6th November where the children will be discussing the arrangements for our Children In Need day on Friday 17th November and future plans for other fantastic events we have planned.

November Assembly Themes

Each week, we will be discussing issues that are in the news in an age appropriate way. Your child may come home and want to discuss views on the

question of the week. To support this, we will send the question out to you via text.

Tea Day

We welcome you all to attend Tea Day on Friday 17th November. Tea Day is a great social occasion for family members to come into school and share a drink and snack with their child. It is an excellent way of raising money for a nominated charity and for our school as well.

Attendance Awards

Best Attenders Early Birds

12th October 12th October

KS1 2C (99.2%)

KS2 3S (97.8%)

KS1 1S & 2W

KS2 3S

3rd November 3rd November

KS1 2C

KS2 3S

KS1 1A

KS2 3J & 3S

Composer of the Month

This month we will be learning about

Saint-Saëns The children will be listening to 'Danse macabre' linking to Halloween. We will also be listening to some of the works from 'The Carnival of the Animals' later this month.

Year 4 Outdoor Learning

Year 4 enjoyed good weather for their outdoor learning day where they were developing their volcano expert skills. We went from causing explosions by mixing together cola and Mentos, water and Alka-Seltzer to simulating volcanic eruptions with vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and red food colouring. We investigated the effect moving a fulcrum had on the weight needed to lift a load so we could get our sample rocks home safely and improved our map reading skills through an orienteering activity.

Eco-Warriors

Year One have now elected their Eco Warriors and we

have held our first meeting. The Eco council has decided to

continue their focus on recycling, rubbish and saving energy. We will be monitoring

the level of rubbish on the playground and selecting ‘litter pickers’ to help tidy up. We will also be participating in ‘Switch

Off Fortnight’ 2017 – more details to follow soon!

2W Class Assembly

2W had a magical time visiting all the fairy tale characters in fairy tale land whilst trying to find Rapunzel. It turned out that all was well. The Evil Queen had asked Rapunzel to help her arrange a party! All the children were fantastic in performing, dancing and singing. Thank you to all the parents/careers who helped the children with their costumes, they really looked the part!

2T Class Assembly

2T turned out to be excellent habitat experts last half term. The children spoke confidently about their knowledge of different habitats and as a team they made sure the alien found where the underwater animals lived. It seemed that the alien actually enjoyed eating her lunch with the shark after her long journey! I’m sure you’ll agree that the children did an amazing job of learning their speaking parts and joining in with all the singing and dancing. Thank you to all the parents/careers for coming to share your children’s learning and providing them with clothes to wear on the day!

Remembrance Our Year 4 children will be selling poppies each day from Friday 3rd-10th November. Donations of 20p or more for a poppy please. Thank you.

The poppy is:

A symbol of Remembrance and hope

Worn by millions of people

Red because of the natural colour of field poppies