Summer Newsletter 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

What an exciting end to this summer term, which has also included the Crowthorne Carnival which is always a lovely community event.

This week, as part of the Carnival celebrations, we took part in the Flower Festival at St John the Baptist Church with our display entitled ‘South Pacific Ocean’.  Our grateful thanks to our volunteer gardeners: Ian Hopley (Juniors) and Kristina Fry (Infants), who both did a stirling job of planning our display, growing plants with the help of our children (which also included a volcano) as well as organising this wonderful display with some of the children’s sea creatures!

For the Crowthorne Carnival on Saturday 6th July, the weather was intermittent with rain during that morning, but the skies brightened for the procession with Oaklands winning FIRST for our ‘South Pacific Ocean’ float!  It was lovely to see so many people lining the streets, waving to us, as we swam by!  Our thanks not only to Katie Stone and her team who led the creativity for float decorations but also to all the children who took part in their ocean-themed costumes as part of the procession.  You all looked incredible!

We enjoyed taking our choir to Wellington Chapel for an evening concert last week, which was also part of the celebrations – our choir sang a selection of sea-themed songs, and our belle plates played beautifully too.  My thanks to both Mrs Broadhurst and Miss Davidson for all the rehearsals, and to the children and parents who attended as well. You will find photographs from this event later in the newsletter.

Our Year 4’s have enjoyed a day making pizzas this week. Our thanks go to the Cassidy family who donated their time, ingredients and pizza van to enable both 4D and 4JG to complete their D&T packaging project for this term. Everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable time and the pizzas were delicious too.

I would like to congratulate our Year 6 teaching team and all our Year 6 pupils for such a fantastic performance of The Inspector Calls . The acting and singing throughout was incredible!  We wish all our Year 6s every success as they move on to the next stage of their education – we will miss you all. 

Staffing news for September: We are all very pleased that Miss Green has successfully completed her chemo and will be back to part-time teaching in 4JG from September.  It has been lovely to see her in school over these last few weeks on a phased return.

My thanks to all my Junior staff, Senior Leadership Team and the school’s Team of Governors successfully led by Charlotte Kieran, for all their hard work and support this year – I wish you all a lovely, restful summer break.

We have a fantastic PTA who raise valuable funds for our school and we would like to thank them for funding our social evening with parents which preceded the Year 6 play and our Year 6 Leavers’ BBQ.  Our Year 6 pupils were delighted to receive a gift from the PTA – a memorable Oaklands Junior School leavers’ autograph book. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication throughout the year, it is very much appreciated by us all..

I would like to wish our children and their families, a very happy and hopefully sunny summer!  Thank you for your continued support for Oaklands Juniors.

This is my last update as Headteacher of the Juniors, but I am very much looking forward to taking on the role of Executive Headteacher across the Infants and the Juniors from September.  I will be working closely with Miss Weston as Head of the Infants and Mr Holland as Head of the Juniors.  We will also meet regularly as joint SLTs to lead our schools together, for the benefit of our children, staff, parents and governors.

Mrs Hazel West, Headteacher

Contents

To go straight to any one of the sections below simply click on the wording.

Snap shot of activities this half term
Sports News
Achievements & Awards
Fundraising Activities
Contact Us

Here’s a snap shot of what’s been taking place at Oaklands Junior School this half term

Return to Contents

Sports News

Sports Day – On Wednesday 26^th June, a very hot day, we had our annual Oaklands Sports Day. This started with an opening ceremony with each house parading in their coloured shirts around the daily mile track. The Infants joined us for this, and it was fantastic to see the whole school parading to the parent cheers. The children had all been learning the Oaklands Rap song, which they sang before the reading of the Berkshire and Olympic pledges. This year these were read by a Year 2 and a Year 6 child. The Junior Games started with the long-distance event due to the heat. It was a brilliant morning of sportsmanship, competition and cheers by the crowd. Hamilton house, (red) were the winners and were presented with their cup at the end of the morning. Mercury house, (yellow) won the Field Sports which took place in the weeks preceding Sports Day and their cup was presented in an assembly.

District Sports – On Tuesday 2^nd July we had a fantastic time at the Wokingham District Sports. The weather was better than the torrential rain from last year, however, it was still cold for the first half of the day!

We competed in running, throwing and jumping events against seventeen other schools. All the children worked well as a team, supporting each other, cheering for each other (we were by far the loudest cheering school!) and looking after each other. We had many positive comments from the organisers about how lovely our children were, helping others and showing good sportsmanship at the finish line. A lot of the other schools commented on our fantastic sports T shirts. The highlight of our day was when the 6 x 60 metre relay won the final. It was lovely to see the children from our school support the runners and celebrate with them afterwards.

Congratulations to the following who made it through to the finals – Sharrif K in the 80 metre sprint; Ezri N, Lilah R, Amelia G and Holly H in the Girls’ over 10 relay and Emily F, Rory C, Jack P, George H, Chloe M and Gracie P in the 6 x 60 metre relay. There was also a Cup win for Emily F, Rory C, Jack P, George H, Chloe M and Gracie P in the 6 x 60 metre relay. Our Oaklands’ Girls team came 7th out of 18 schools, Oaklands Boys team came 10th and overall our combined Oaklands team came 8th.

Games Mark Accreditation – Gold! – We are pleased to announce that Oaklands Junior School has just been awarded a Gold School Games Mark accreditation for the second year running. The School Games Mark is a government-led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. Participating in this process allows schools to evaluate their PE provision and assists them in developing an action plan for future progress. Oaklands joins in many extra-curricular games and events each term organised by Wokingham School Games.

Cricket – On 14^th June, we played Hawkedon at Kwik cricket. The team was a mixture of experience and enthusiasm while our opposition proved to be well-drilled, competent and highly competitive. They proved this by setting a total of 340 in their 10 overs. Although Oaklands gave it their best shot, they were outmatched and only managed a total of 220 in their 10 overs. The children enjoyed the opportunity to put their skills to the test in a match and there were many year 5 children who played, which bodes well for next season.

On 28^th June, Oaklands played Aldryngton. A much more composed fielding display kept the opposition to a total of 263 runs, a target we felt was manageable. After a solid start with the bat, we lost a few quick wickets and were then chasing the game. At the end of our overs, we had managed 241 runs. Again, the children played in a positive and collaborative way and the moments of success will hopefully maintain their enthusiasm for the sport.

Return to Contents

Achievements & Awards

School Awards – Congratulations to the following children who have been presented with awards this term.

Teal: Harry G
Oracy: Maya E
Outstanding contribution to sport: Lilah R and Nathan S
Sport: Gregory R and Amelia G
Daisy: Bethany L
English: Maia S
Maths: Charlie IB

Wellington College Chapel Music Evening – Well done to all the members of the school choir and musicians that performed on Thursday 11^th July at Wellington Chapel. They were absolutely fantastic and all their hard work beforehand showed on the night. We were exceptionally proud with how well they represented the Oaklands values.

Corvus Trust Schools’ Spelling Bee – On Friday 12th July four of our Year 6 pupils represented Oaklands Junior School at the Corvus Trust Schools’ Spelling Bee. They did fantastically well achieving first place. Well done to Isla, Shariff, Jamie C and Yasmin.

Return to Contents

Fundraising Activities

Thank you to everyone who has supported the following fundraising activities:

• Year 6 Leaver’s Play Collection raised £161.20
• PTA Sports Day Raffle made a profit of £1,402.12
• Student Council Cake Sales raised £275.15
• NSPCC Number Day 2024 raised £188.35
• Mr Hopley’s Plant Sale raised £70.00

Return to Contents

Contact Us

Headteacher: Mrs H West
Address: Oaklands Junior School, Butler Road, Crowthorne, Berkshire RG45 6QZ

School Office
Telephone: 01344 773496
Email: admin@oaklands-jun.wokingham.sch.uk

Parent Support Advisor: Nikki Lenon
Telephone: 07748 415 285
Email: nlenon@oaklands-jun.wokingham.sch.uk

Return to Contents