This Term’s Virtues
This term we are trying hard to be
Loving and Compassionate.
From Our Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
We have had a very positive start to the Summer Term at St Aloysius, the children have returned happy and enthusiastic in their learning. Our virtues this half term are ‘Loving and Compassionate’ and these virtues form the basis of video assemblies led by myself, class Collective Worship and our Virtues Certificates on a Friday. Perhaps you could take the opportunity to talk about ways to show love and compassion and recognise these at home too. This week, staff have enjoyed meeting with you all for virtual Parents Evenings. It has been a great opportunity to share your child’s achievements and talk about ways that they can be supported both at home and at school.
Thank you for your continued support and I hope that you enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend.
Kind Regards, Hannah Duncan (Acting Headteacher)
Breakfast and After School Club
Breakfast Club NOW OPEN. 7.45am until start of school (Monday to Wednesday). Booking is essential and should be made online or via the school office. This is important to ensure the right staffing, bubble planning, etc.
Just a quick After School Club update. Mrs. A. has returned to manage our After School Club, welcome back Mrs. A. The club now runs Monday to Friday until 5.00pm. Again, booking is essential to ensure correct staffing, bubble planning, etc.
We still believe that there is a strong demand for the Breakfast and After School Club provision. Unfortunately, the numbers attending are still quite low. Do you have any suggestions as to how we can increase this number? If so, please email Jo on the school office email address.
Please can you spread the word that the ASC is now up and running and hopefully numbers / demand will increase.
Thank you for supporting After School and Breakfast Clubs!
We now have a Twitter presence! Fly on over and have a look …
Other News
Important letter from Kevin Gordon, Director of Children’s Services – please click here to read.
Class Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser – these can now be found under the CLASSES tab where you can easily click on your child’s class. Acorn Class Curriculum Information can also be found there.
Admissions – we have places available for all children across all year groups!
Swimming – Swimming lessons will be restarting in September 2021 for both Year 4 and Year 5 classes. More information to follow soon.
Payments to The School Office – PLEASE NOTE we are no longer accepting cash or cheques as payment and have moved to a CASHLESS system. All payments should be made via the Schoolgateway (click here for further information). Permission slips can be either emailed or bought into school with your child and handed to the school office.
Term Dates for 2022-2023 – the calendar is avaialble now under INFORMATION.
This Term’s House Point Totals
Ashmolean
Bodleian
Radcliffe
Sheldonian
Sheldonian are the Spring Term House Point winners!
Prayer
Lord God, our light and our salvation, we praise you for your gifts of life and faith. We thank you for the desire that you have planted in our hearts, our yearning to see your face. Help us to meet you in prayer, to walk in your ways, and to speak to others of our joy and consolation in your presence. Give us faithfulness in this present life so that we may come to know and praise your beauty, with all our brothers and sisters, in the life to come. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dates For Your Diary – 2020
Summer Term
SummerTerm Ends – Tuesday 21st July (1.00pm)
May Half Term Holiday – Monday 31st May to 4th June 2021
INSET Day – Monday 7th June 2021
Autumn Term Starts – Monday 6th September 2021
Some Future Dates
October Half Term Holiday – Monday 25th to 29th October 2021
Autum Term Ends – Friday 17th December (1.00pm)
CORONAVIRUS ADVICE
If you are visiting our school site, please always wear a facemask, follow the one-way-system and observe social distancing. HANDS – FACE – SPACE.
There is continuing coverage in the media about the ongoing Covid-19 situation around the World. At school we are continuing to receive daily updates from Oxfordshire County Council, Public Health England and the DfE.
A copy of our full opening letter can be found here
Covid-19 Tier 2 High Alert Information
Covid-19 Tier 2 High Alert Information can be found here
Updated Guidance for Parents and Carers
What parents and carers need to know about early years providers, schools and colleges in the autumn term can be found here
Department for Education Coronavirus Helpline
Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline as follows:
Phone: 0800 046 8687
Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)
Where to find the latest information
Updates on COVID-19: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Travel advice for those travelling and living overseas:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus
Latest Department for Education information:
https://twitter.com/educationgovuk
https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk/
The Oxford Oratory
If you would like to subscribe to the weekly reflection and newsletter please click on this link CLICK HERE
School Meals
Please click here to see the current lunch menu.
We have recently expanded our school lunch menu to include more hot meals. If you wish the school to provide a lunch for your child (all year groups with the exception of Acorn Nursery Class).
The new menu will still come in the form of a packed lunch delivered to your child’s classroom. Please click here to see the proposed menu.
As usual, school meals must be paid for in advance preferably by term. The cost of a school meal is £2.40 per day. As we are no longer able to accept cash or cheques, all payments must be made via the Schoolgateway (for more information please follow this link). If you had an outstanding balance owing (or credit) from last term it will be carried forward. You can also check your child’s balance and make payments via the Schoolgateway app.
Please note, if you want your child to have a school meal and you do not have any credit in your account, you will receive a telephone call from the office asking you to provide a packed lunch for your child.
If you have any queries regarding school dinner money or require a statement, please email Mrs. McIntyre admin.3842@st-aloysius.oxon.sch.uk .
CLASS NEWS
Acorn Nursery Class
Firstly, a huge welcome to our newest members! Acorns have had a great start back after Easter, especially considering all the ups and downs of this year! They never cease to amaze me! Spring is in the air; the sun has been shining for our outdoor play and friendships are blossoming. We have been learning about plants and how to care for them including plant life cycles. We will take this knowledge and learn about the life cycles of butterflies and mini beasts with a range of books forming the backbone of this topic, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Vibrant colours will form part of our creative activities and we are continuing to strengthen our marking skills, name writing and tripod pen grip in preparation for the transition for the older children to reception.
I have seen amazing progress in phonics this year and we are busy learning new letter sounds and beginning to segment and blend simple words. We also enjoy group rhyming and rhythmic games as well as stories and songs. In maths we are concentrating on one-to-one counting, learning one more than a number and comparing different groups of objects. We are also re-capping the shapes we have learned so far and encouraging construction using different media to develop our awareness of shape. All in all, a really strong start to the term, may it continue!
Tigger Reception Class
Since returning to school after the Easter break, we have zoomed into Space for our topic this term! The children have been keen to learn about astronauts, space shuttles and the moon. We have been using information books to find out more and to answer questions we have. The Tiggers have built spaceships, made their own information books and even taken part in Space Cadet training to go into space. In phonics we have started learning our set 2 sounds. The Tiggers have taken on the challenge of learning more digraphs and have been working hard to apply them in their reading and writing. In Maths, we are learning all about teen numbers; their place value, composition and order.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Fir Year 1 Class
Fir Class have made a great start to the summer term. They have all been working hard as well as enjoying creating lots of different games with their friends during playtimes.
In English we are still working hard on our phonics and learning to write all the ‘red words.’ The children have storyboarded The Rainbow Fish and written non-fiction captions for our ocean display. In Maths, the children have been learning to make equal groups of numbers for example 5 groups of 2 and then making 2 groups of 5 and noticing these are the same. We have been using equipment to help understand these ideas.
In Art the children have painted some brightly coloured fishes and made papier-mâché balloons which are going to be globes. It was a very messy lesson!
The highlight of this week must be returning to outdoor learning. This will take place for about an hour on a Wednesday afternoon. We have a number of pairs of wellies and waterproof trousers in school if we need them but hopefully the weather will not be too bad. The children loved searching for bugs and looking for signs of Spring.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Fig Year 2 Class
Welcome Back Fig Class! We hope you had a wonderful Easter half-term- in the snow, sun and every other imaginable weather!
We have been extremely busy kicking off our summer term with lots of fun and exciting learning experiences. Our class is full of budding film directors- filming, editing and creating their own stop motion movies. This will of course require a lot of time and patience but hopefully we will all be sharing our movies with each other in weeks to come.
In Science, we have been rolling up our sleeves and getting stuck in with planting our sunflower and vegetable seeds. Children are full of anticipation to find out what different vegetable seeds we have planted in the class and are continuously checking the pots for any signs of germination.
As mathematicians, we have just finished our unit on fractions and begun our new unit on measurement by investigating as a class whether ‘Do taller children always have bigger feet?’
In English, we wrote letters home about our safe arrival by train to our new home in the countryside. Using role-play, we have discovered a new world called ‘Narnia’ that exists and is only accessible by walking through the wardrobe.
The children were very excited on Friday as they got to learn some basic hockey skills for the first time with a focus on dribbling. Over the next few weeks, we will continue to progress and equip the children with the better understanding of the game which will lead us to playing some hockey matches. Next week’s hockey focus will be on passing the ball and teamwork.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Oak Year 3 Class
We have had a very positive return to Oak Class. In our discussion today. a few of us were a little worried that we may have been forgotten by friends or lost some of our learning skills but we have found that our friends and skills are still with us. We have enjoyed learning about ‘The Romans’ and we are glad that Tracey, our fantastic dinner lady, doesn’t have ‘The Roman Cookbook’ which had recipes for stuffed dormouse and peacock brains as we wouldn’t want that for school lunch. We do admire that The Romans were a very resourceful, intelligent but sometimes violent civilisation. Did you know that Julius Caesar and his mother plotted to have his father killed so that Julius could become Emperor? We have been learning about the dangers and power of sunlight in Science and designed our own fantastic sunglasses. These were not like any others with night vision, motion sensors and danger detectors. We then had to make a formal business proposal and take this to the Dragon’s Den where we had to present our business and ask for funding.
We are learning about fractions in Maths and now exploring decimals. We have been rejoicing and singing Alleluia now that we are in the season of Easter. In our preparation for this season, we buried the word Alleluia as this cannot be said during the season of lent and now have dug the word back up and returned it to our RE wall with our Paschal Candle display. We are delighted that Father Benedict is joining us regularly now as we make our preparations to receive the Sacraments of reconciliation and First Holy Communion later in this term. We have written some wonderful environmental stories raising the issues of deforestation and climate change. We have taken our responsibilities very seriously and are converting these to E books with information links and soundbites of our performance “We Are Unstoppable”. We hope to encourage younger children to care about the environment.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Ash Year 4 Class
It has been great having the children back since lockdown and the class have slowly been getting back into the swing of learning. In English, we have been focusing on instruction writing, where so far we have found the features that are most common when producing one of these. In terms of grammar, we have looked at time adverbs and imperative verbs as being the key elements and they have been trying to find ways not to repeat these words throughout so that it is clear. We have also focused on using specific language and being clear in our instructions (the class loved me being a robot and getting me to make a jam sandwich – after many attempts, they succeeded). In Maths, we have still been concentrating on decimals. We have looked mainly at comparisons and ordering and just recently, they designed their own poster outlining all the key information that they have learned so far this year, which were very detailed and also stood out. In PE, we have been looking at agility skills and have just started our new game of Danish long ball (a mix of cricket, football and rounders). They are understanding that they need to be focused, organised and ready to make sure that the other team get the least number of points as possible. Finally, we have just started our new unit on the Tudors and so far, have created portraits of the well-known monarchs throughout their reign.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Bay Year 5 Class
Bay Class welcomes you back to a new term. This term our class topic is Oceans, exploring the five Oceans of the world and understanding the causes and impacts of pollution. In Maths we have begun looking at decimals, understanding what a decimal is and linking them to fractions and percentages. In English we have begun looking at our class book ‘Song of a Dolphin Boy’, linking to our Topic on Oceans. Furthermore, we have started to look at writing non-chronological reports, where the children will write their own based on pollution in our Oceans. In Science this term we are exploring the properties and changes of materials, where we will be making predictions, and conducting investigations. In RE we are looking at Easter, learning about the Easter Vigil and exploring the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The children have enjoyed doing observational drawings of shells in Art, looking closely at the object patterns, and using shading to bring the artwork to life.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Willow Year 6 Class
Willow class have come back from their holiday with a renewed vigour for learning and I have been so impressed with the work they have produced! Our topic this term is ‘Survivors’ and the children have enjoyed reading about Juliane Koepcke, who fell from a plane crash, landed in the South American rainforest and trekked for days to find civilisation. The class have produced poetry and some truly outstanding accounts of the event. In Maths, we have progressed to learning about algebra and we have enjoyed using concrete resources such as multi-link blocks to represent the algebraic expressions. We have also studied Hokusai’s Great Wave painting and the children have produced their own impressive watercolour versions.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.