There have been so many exciting things happening this term that it is hard to know where to begin! I would like to congratulate our Year 6 teaching team and all our Year 6 pupils for such a fantastic performance of Shakespeare Rocks – I am still singing all the songs from this wonderful production and I smile each time I think of the different characters and how well they performed. The singing throughout was incredible, including the solos – not sure I could have done this at their age! Thank you to our Year 6 families who came to their play performances and gave voluntary contributions towards the children’s chosen local charity this year ‘The Cowshed’, raising just over £230 which was amazing. We wish all our Year 6s every success as they move on to the next stage of their education – we will miss you all.
At our awards evening, there were several pupils deserving a very special mention:
Teale Trophy: George R English Trophy: Jamie S Maths Trophy: Annika DS Oracy Trophy: Lucas S Outstanding Sports Trophy: Thomas W Sports Trophy: Lucy K
Our Daisy trophy has also been awarded and this time went to Lara B in 3L. Well done Lara – very well deserved.
Staff Leavers/Staff Returning: This week we sadly say ‘goodbye’ to Mrs Hine, Mrs Balague, and Mrs Plonka – thank you for all your support as part of our Oaklands’ team and your maternity cover for Mrs Winter and Mrs Dyer. We are looking forward to welcoming Mrs Dyer back in September. Mrs Winter will however not be returning from her maternity leave in September but we wish her all the best and hope to see her at some point in the future. We are pleased to welcome Mrs Koufopoulou to our staff team – she has also been covering maternity over this current year and will now return as a full-time Teaching Assistant from September.
We have a fantastic PTA who raise valuable funds for our school and we would like to thank them for funding our Year 6 BBQ and our social evening with parents which followed the Year 6 play. Our Year 6 pupils were also very pleased to receive a gift from our PTA – a memorable Oaklands Junior School leavers’ autograph book.
All that remains is for me to thank ALL our staff, governors and families for the amazing work you do all year round to support Oaklands Juniors and I would like to wish you all the very best summer break.
We will look forward to welcoming all our new Year 3 children joining us on Monday 4th September, together with all our existing children who will be moving up and new to Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6.
Enjoy the summer!
Hazel West, Headteacher
News from Year 3
We have had a great Summer Term, full of exciting activities in Year 3. The stand out this term has been our topic on the Egyptians which has spanned our History, English and P4C lessons. We explored how important the afterlife was to the ancient Egyptians, looking in depth at pyramids and even trying to decide if the idea of “the mummy’s” curse could be real. In English, we wrote as archaeologist Howard Carter and imagined what it would have been like to discover the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. All the children took part in our fantastic Egyptian Day and were able to show off their wonderful scarab beetle sewing.
Back in May, as part of our RE topic on Sikhism, we were able to go to a Gurdwara in Slough. We were welcomed with open arms and the children were all engaged, respectful and beautifully behaved.
We have also fully embraced a range of sporting activities this term. From taking part in their first Juniors’ Sports Day and field sports afternoon, to choreographing their own dances, Year 3 have been very active. We also enjoyed a fabulous afternoon out on the water at Horseshoe Lake where we tried out kayaking.
This year group has made a fantastic start to Oaklands Junior School and we have loved teaching them. We very much look forward to seeing the people they become as they move through the school.
We hope you have a lovely, restful and enjoyable summer and we look forward to seeing you again in September.
The Year 3 Team
News from Year 4
What a busy term we have had! The children have been fantastic and taken on all the activities in their stride.
As part of our ‘Animals’ unit in science, the children have been learning about the human digestive system and they investigated what happens to food by making a model of the digestive system. The children were enthralled and disgusted in equal measure as they simulated some bread’s journey from food in a ‘mouth’ to being excreted!
In May, we arranged for a visit from a local Rabbi, who talked to the children about Judaism, his beliefs and some of the ceremonies and festivals that are celebrated in his religion. They all enjoyed the experience and asked interesting questions. A real credit to the school.
In June, the children took part in the government times tables check, and we are extremely proud and pleased to announce that on average the children scored a very impressive 21 out of 25, which, considering that they had just 6 seconds to type their answer, is a fantastic result!
Both classes thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Horseshoe Lake to have a go at kayaking. A great time was had by all despite a few initial nerves. It was great to see the ‘have a go;’ attitude and care the children had for each other.
As part of our art and clay unit, the children have learnt how to manipulate clay and make different joins in the form of a dragon’s eye. They absolutely loved working with clay and we think their outstanding art pieces were a testament to how much care they took and how proud they were of them. You may see some of these still in school on display in reception and in our library.
To conclude our Ufton Court work the children made PowerPoints and presented these to a willing and enthusiastic audience. They did a great job, so good in fact that we invited a selection of children to then present their work to the Year 3 parents to give them a feel for the trip from the true experts.
We have loved teaching the children this year and look forward to hearing of their many adventures in Year 5.
The Year 4 Team
News from Year 5
What another busy term Year 5 have had!
In English, we have been studying 2 books: The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan and Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen. When we started reading The Lost Thing, a mysterious lost creature appeared in our classrooms causing much commotion! We then designed and created our own lost things using junk modelling, wrote character descriptions and finally wrote a prequel to the book, which we presented in the style of Shaun Tan. Whilst reading Boy in the Tower, we wrote a series of newspaper articles about the Blucher disaster and concluded the topic with a TV news bulletin, which we filmed and put together using iMovie.
In Maths, we have been busy consolidating our knowledge from this year’s topics and using it to solve reasoning and word problems. We have been impressed by the children’s perseverance and eagerness to complete challenges. A highlight of the term was our orienteering Maths lesson, where the children had to solve fraction and decimal problems to navigate their way around the course. The combination of Maths and PE proved to be very popular with the children, who were very enthusiastic about the task.
In Geography, we have been studying rivers. We started our topic by investigating the path of a river through a series of photos and used subject-specific vocabulary to identify key features. We then used atlases to locate famous rivers of the world, which we labelled on maps. The topic concluded with a fabulous trip to the River Pang at Rushall Farm. This field trip allowed us to experience the river practically – from spotting river features, including erosion and deposition, to making measurements of the river depth and flow in the river. We went pond-dipping where we used a flow map to identify the different creatures. The children enjoyed the experience of wearing waders whilst exploring the river.
On Tuesday 11th July, we had a fantastic trip to Wellington College as part of our local history study. Mrs Jones gave us an informative tour of the school, including the chapel where we had to spot various elements in the stained-glass windows. We learnt a lot about the life of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington.
Other highlights of this term have included swimming at Harman’s Water; a Maths Challenge at Luckley House School and kayaking at Horseshoe Lake.
It has been a thoroughly enjoyable year this year and we would like to take the opportunity to thank the children for all of their hard work and the parents for their ongoing support of the school. Have a well-deserved break over the holidays.
The Year 5 Team
News from Year 6
We have had a fantastic Summer Term which built up to the final SATs exams. We were extremely proud of how the children tackled these exams and showed many of the Oaklands’ mindset qualities. They all worked exceptionally hard in the run up to the exams and gave their best efforts throughout the week. We could not have asked for more.
In English, we have spent the term studying the book The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie. The book is a fantasy novel about the adventures of Daniel Holmes who time travels with a mystical shop. Within the shop, rooms of wonders are created by using imagination. For our final piece of written work, the children chose and wrote about an adventure in their own created wonder.
Following SATs, we moved onto a project to house the local gnome population – Gnome Homes! This project covers a range of mathematical skills, such as shape and measures, sequencing, and calculations. The children needed to use their problem solving and reasoning skills to solve a series of tasks that followed on one from the other. They also spent a morning outside learning how to measure the height of a tree without climbing it!!
Inspired by their enjoyable trip to Legoland and their electricity topic in science, the children designed and constructed their own fairground rides as part of a DT project. Firstly they had to measure and saw their own wood to create a jinx frame to form the base. Then they had to add all the electrical components and decorate it to make it into a themed ride.
This term Year 6 undertook a new DT/Computing topic – Crumble which uses software programming to control switches and sensors to turn on lights and buzzers to make a Crumble Bot buggy move. They worked with light and motion sensors, and on the Bot 1 sonar and line sensors. This was great fun and culminated in their Crumble Bot being able to follow a black line around a circuit, avoiding any obstacle it may come across.
As a fun-filled event for the end of the year, we went to Horseshoe Lake to try out kayaking Year 6 were extremely lucky with the weather as it was some of the hottest days of the year. During our time on the lake, we played lots of games and some of us spent more time in the water than in the boat! The afternoon ended with a team jump off the jetty!
The final event of the Year 6 calendar was of course the leavers’ play – Shakespeare Rocks. The children have absolutely loved performing the play and have excelled themselves, with many of them taking on new roles at the last minute.
They have been a fantastic year group and we will miss them very much. We wish them all the best as they move on to their new adventures at secondary school.
The Year 6 Team
Other News from Around the School
Dates for Your Diary
For the latest dates for your diary please click here.
Netball
On Tuesday 11th July, to celebrate our last netball session for the season, the Year 5 and 6 players took to the courts to play against a group of the teachers. The children were formidable opponents and it was very clear how good they have all become, however, the teachers were victorious on this occasion. Much fun was had by all and we are looking forward to carrying on the tradition next year. Well done to all the children who have been attending the club and we hope that you continue to enjoy netball. We hope to see many of the Year 5 children back next year. Well done Year 6 for some fantastic play this year.
Miss Hanks and Mrs Broadhurst
September Fundraising – Calling all Summer Crafters!
A group of 6 children currently in Year 4 but moving to Year 5 in September have been keen to survey other children on how funds can be raised to provide the school with new and better gym equipment. They have come up with a few ideas for sales and would appreciate your help. Some of the ideas they have had for fundraising (which are not exclusive and you may have other ideas which would be most welcome) are:
Friendship bracelets
Key rings
Bookmarks
Cards
Painted rocks/stones
Crochet / knitting, or sewing small decorative items (e.g. badges)
If you or your extended family are able to help in any way to make small items over the summer, then these would be most appreciated. They are a very proactive group who are keen to see old and tired gym equipment replaced, with new mats and a range of equipment, possibly for inside the hall and outside. They have started to create friendship bracelets etc. to build up some stock and have already held a whole school assembly to share their thoughts with the school. Their plan is to run sales after school in the Autumn Term and we will let you know with a flyer next term when they have organised the days/times.
Thank you!
Taskmaster Club
It has been an absolute pleasure running this club this term. The children have had some ingenious attempts at solving tasks and have embraced the best part of it, ‘To have fun!’ The tasks have varied from making a flying object from whatever they could find, adding sound effects to a video clip and putting the most surprising thing under a mug – to name but a few. My particular favourite was when they were tasked to create a portrait of Alex Horne using toilet paper.
I have just registered to be able to run the club again in the Autumn Term and will release the details on how you can book when we return in September.
Mrs Jones
Pants!
As some of you may remember a few months ago, myself and a few select scientists buried some pants around the school grounds as part of a National soil campaign. The 16th June arrived and it was time to dig up our bounty and see what state our soil at Oaklands Junior School was in. We started our dig in jovial spirits and found our first and second pair easily. The vegetable garden and woodland pants were pretty much still in tack, albeit with a little bit of disintegration in the form of small holes. We were quite surprised as we had thought that the ones in the vegetable garden would be in worse repair because that is an indicator of good soil (The more decomposers in the soil the more the pants should have deteriorated).
We went with high hopes in search of the 3rd and 4th pair that we had buried in the long jump pit and in the raised bed outside of 3L but alas they were nowhere to be found! Perplexed and a little disheartened we put this down to foxes or overzealous gardening and endeavoured to try again next year. Luckily for us, the gardening club were determined to locate the pants in their raised bed and what a treasure they uncovered! They had been hard to find as they had decomposed beautifully in the soil leaving just the elastic and some rags. The children and I were delighted as it meant the soil in that raised bed was in excellent condition (Mr Jones was not so delighted as I photographed them on my dining room table). Science is so much fun!
Mrs Jones
Book Sale
Thank you to everyone who joined us after school on Monday 17th July for our book sale. We are delighted to announce that we raised £65 and sold just over 180 books. The funds raised will go towards purchasing resources/equipment for our library.
Culinera Menu
The new school meal menu from Culinera will be available to order on-line from mid-August. To view September’s menu please click here.
Playground Equipment
If anyone is having a clear out over the summer holidays, we would be grateful for racquets of any type, tennis balls, skipping ropes and hoops for the children to play with at lunch time.
Foundation Stage Wish List
Please use the followinglink to access a wish list from Oaklands Infant School for their Foundation Stage outside area. If you are able to help in anyway, it would be much appreciated.
My Journey Wokingham Summer Bike Bonanza
The “My Journey Wokingham Summer Bike Bonanza” is taking place during the summer holidays on Wednesday 9th August. To view more details click here.
A Summer of Self-care
The summer holidays offer an opportunity to recharge, but some young people (and adults!) may find themselves struggling without the structure and support network of school.
The Anna Freud Centre has created a #SelfCareSummer pack for primary schools, featuring a range of creative activities based on self-care strategies which other young people have found useful in helping them stay mentally healthy. Explore:
Parents and carers are being supported through two webinars sharing tips and advice to help them support their children with important milestones. The first webinar will be for parents/carers with children waiting for their exam results, and the second will be for those with children about to start Year 7.
Over the summer, The Owl Centre will be running several remote psycho-educational workshops:
Exploring the stages and changes for children moving into pre-teenhood workshop
Birth to 5: Understanding your child through ages and stages workshops
Eating Disorder workshop
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder workshop
Attachment workshop
Anxiety workshops for teenagers workshop
Managing your child’s anxiety workshop
Behavioural Activation workshop
Descriptions of the workshops are given here and you can find out about dates, times and prices (most are £19 with discount code ‘summerworkshops’) by completing the contact form at the bottom of this page theowltherapycentre.co.uk/contact-phone.
Mrs Mullier, Educational Psychotherapist
Yateley School – Important dates for your diary
Yateley School are now able to confirm dates for the cohort of September 2024 to visit Yateley School. They will have a Year 6 Taster Day on 26th September 2023, followed by their Open Evening on 27th September and Open Mornings on 3rd and 4th October.
Local Community Information, Activities and Events
For information on local community activities and events please visit our web page below which is updated on a regular basis. You will find information about “Real Tennis” sessions at Wellington College; The Owl Centre Workshops; Summer Reading Challenge to name but a few.
It can be used to pay for food, bills, energy and other essentials.
Our partners can provide £100 per household with a food, fuel or cash voucher through the Household Support Fund.
It’s open to anyone to apply. You don’t need to receive benefits to be able to apply.
There’s also specific support for families where children receive means-tested free school meals.
This is £15 per child, per week. So you could get £90 to help this summer, as well as help at Christmas, next Easter holidays and the half-terms between.
Chair of Governors: Charlotte Kieran Email: chairofgovernors@ojsgovernors.co.uk
Oaklands Junior School Governing Body
The Governing Body is ambitious for all children and infused with a passion for education and a commitment to continuous school improvement that enables outstanding outcomes. We oversee financial performance, challenge, support, and focus on the strategic direction of Oaklands Junior school.
If you want to raise a concern, please speak with your class teacher in the first instance. We welcome your feedback if you wish to contact the Governors, please email Charlotte Kieran, Chair of Governors.
Contents To go straight to any one of the sections below simply click on the wording. Snap shot of activities this half termSports NewsAchievements & AwardsFundraising ActivitiesContact Us Here’s a snap shot of what’s been Read more…
Contents To go straight to any one of the sections below simply click on the wording. Snap shot of activities this half termSports NewsAchievements & AwardsFundraising ActivitiesContact Us Here’s a snap shot of what’s been Read more…
Dates for your diary For the latest dates for your diary please click here. News from Year 3 The new Year 3s have settled into the Juniors brilliantly and it has been lovely to get Read more…
