This Term’s Virtues
This term we are trying hard to be
Faith Filled and Hopeful.
From Our Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Term 6 has started well at St. Aloysius’. Children have been keen to learn and over the past couple of weeks, teachers have been using age-appropriate assessments to identify strengths and next steps for pupils. These assessments will feed into your child’s end of year report. Children have also been developing spiritually with Year 6 pupils receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation just before the half term break, our final group of Year 4 pupils making their First Holy Communion last Saturday, and the Sacraments of First Reconciliation and upcoming First Holy Communion this Saturday for Year 3 pupils. Please continue to keep these children in your prayers. On Monday of this week, we also celebrated the Feast of St. Aloysius’, our school patron saint. Our virtues this term are Faith-Filled and Hopeful. In class collective worship sessions, we are considering what we are hopeful for and thinking ahead to the next academic year. We are also thinking about ways that we can strengthen and share our faith through our words and actions. Perhaps you could take the time to talk to your child about how they can show their faith through the way that we help and treat others, both at home and at school. We also ask God to guide and support us as we are hopeful for the future.
Kind Regards, Hannah Duncan (Acting Headteacher)
We now have a Twitter presence! Fly on over and have a look … 
Code Ninjas
Dear Parents and Carers,
Code Ninjas is coming to Oxford! Our mission is to empower the kids of today with skills needed for tomorrow.
Code Ninjas offers games-building after school and summer camps for 8-14 year olds that transform children’s love for technology into learning adventures. We are a brand-new venture opening in July, offering activities that incorporate Minecraft, Roblox, Lego robotics and more which we know children engage with, to make learning super-fun! We are driven by the need to share the fundamentals of computer code to the next generation in our technologically advancing world, so that all our kids have the tools to become future leaders.
Click HERE for more details of the activities that we will be running in the summer. Click HERE to see our general information leaflet. Please visit our website HERE for more information, where you can also book for a tour and a FREE games-building taster session!
Please find us on social media to keep abreast of news and offers! www.facebook.com/CodeNinjasOxford/ Instagram #codeninjasoxford
Breakfast and After School Club
Breakfast Club is open from 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 reminder, After School 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 remain 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.
Thank you for supporting After School and Breakfast Clubs!
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.
This Term’s House Point Totals
Ashmolean
Bodleian
Radcliffe
Sheldonian
Sheldonian are the Spring Term House Point winners!
Prayer
Lord help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I cannot handle together. Amen.
Dates For Your Diary
Summer Term
Summer Term Ends – Thursday 22nd July (1.00pm)
Autumn Term Starts – Monday 6th September 2021
Some Future Dates
October Half Term Holiday – Monday 25th to 29th October 2021
Autumn 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
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/
PTA News
Fundraising – our fabulous PTA have raised £265.01 for Smarties Tubes and £498.00 for the film afternoon so a total of £763.01. Thank you to parents and carers who supported both these events.
Classlist – due to administrative issues, the school PTA have decided to stop using Classlist as a communications tool for parents. They have now set up a new Facebook page and would encourage parents to join at St Aloysius Primary School PTA.
Other News
Parent Governor Election – In September, we will have two parent governor vacancies. There are five candidates standing. Voting has started and will close on Monday 5th July at 4.00pm. The link to the ballot paper has been sent via Schoolcomms email. If you have not received the link or would like a paper ballot, please email the school office – office.3842@st-aloysius.oxon.sch.uk.
Headington Youth Under 11 Girls
School Health Nurse – Please click HERE to read the latest newsletter from the School Health Nurse team.
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 can no longer accept 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 available now under INFORMATION.
CLASS NEWS
Acorn Nursery Class
Acorns have had a great start back to their final term. The children enjoyed learning about weddings and performing their own weddings in class. They listened to the story of the Wedding at Cana and I managed to perform the miracle of turning water into wine, much to their amazement! The classroom was transformed and the next thing we knew, a castle had appeared in the middle of Acorns and we spent a fun week learning about castles, dragons and knights, using stories such as Zog and information books to deepen our knowledge. We have zoomed up into outer space in our very own rocket for our latest topic and I think we have a fair few budding astronauts in the class! Mary’s picture of space in particular was wonderful to see unfold and has inspired many more wonderful space drawings from the other Acorns. We will spend a little longer floating about up there before coming back down to Earth to explore what is under the sea.
In phonics, we have been recapping the letter sounds we have learned so far and have also learned the new sound ‘j’. We have continued to focus on rhythm, rhyme and alliteration as well and in Maths we have now visited all of the characters in Ten Town. Mark making is always a strong focus in nursery as well and the older Acorns (and even some of the younger ones!) have been perfecting their name writing skills as well as their beautiful drawings. We will spend the last weeks of term deepening our understanding of what we have learned so far so that we are ready for the best start for our oldest Acorns into Reception! I cannot believe it is coming to that time of year already!
Tigger Reception Class
We have had a busy couple of weeks in Tigger Class. We have started to learn about Africa and have been looking at the different types of animals you might find in countries in Africa. We read the book Handa’s Surprise and the children then wrote their own versions of the story. We even tasted some of the fruit in the story. The mango was a big hit! In Maths, we have been learning how to add by counting on from a number and subtract by counting back. We have also been looking at how we double a number. The children have been practising these skills in lots of different practical contexts. We have started to learn about symmetry and pattern, and some of the children have had a go at making their own symmetrical pictures.
The Tiggers have also been very creative. Following our animal theme, we learned about the artist Henri Rousseau. The children then used his style to create their own jungle pictures.
We are still hoping for some old electronic equipment that you do not have use for anymore- old video players, hairdryers etc. Please do bring them in if you have any!
Thank you,
Mrs Hendry and Mrs Feller
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Fir Year 1 Class
Fir Class have been working hard in Maths, they have continued to do lots of work on place-value and partitioning numbers using equipment to support their understanding. The children continue to regularly practise their counting in 2s, 5s and 10s forwards and backwards within 100 and looking at the patterns of numbers.
The class have loved using the Bee-bots and in small groups have now created their own maps and then written algorithms to get the Bee-bot to move between chosen places.
In English, they have continued to do a great deal of writing focusing on remembering all the aspects of writing a perfect sentence. The writing has been inspired by a film of the book The Way back Home and then a picture of dragons. Outdoor learning has continued to be an exciting activity with many mini-beasts and plants being collected, drawn and written about. These sessions allow children to develop new ideas and language because the learning is very much being led by the children’s ideas. In RE, the class have been doing some amazing drama with Mrs Brookes which the children have very much enjoyed and has led to some lovely writing.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Fig Year 2 Class
What a busy couple of weeks we have had in Fig Class!
Children have continued to learn about time in Maths. Time is tricky to learn, especially when telling the time to 5 minutes. However, it has been a delight to see children understanding and feeling more confident telling the time to o’clock, half-past, quarter past and quarter to. Continually throughout the day, we stop children so that they can make an attempt at telling us about the time on the classroom clock, we would have to say that it is working well. Please continue to support your children with telling the time at home.
In design and technology, we have had an exciting Fig Class Bake Off – with this week’s technical challenge, making banana and chocolate chip muffins. Children had to follow a recipe and measure quantities to ensure their muffins rise to perfection; judges then inspected the children’s muffins before the overall winner was rewarded with the judge’s handshake and star baker prize. Previously, during the week, children had made and decorated cake boxes to carry their banana muffins home to you. They smelt delicious and I am sure they tasted great too!
As you would have heard all about it! Our school trip to the Museum of Natural History exceeded our expectations, not only with the weather but also the impeccable behaviour the children displayed throughout the trip. A couple visiting the museum commented on how incredibly well-behaved our wonderful Fig Class children were. We all had fun exploring the Museum looking at the dinosaurs, animals, minibeasts and skeletons. The highlight must have been observing up close, the various minibeasts in the workshop with our magnifying glasses and learning about these incredible creatures from the minibeast expert. The children learnt a wealth of facts about how to introduce more minibeasts into our habitats, how we cannot survive without minibeasts and if your child has not already told you, ask them about the dung beetles… After our visit we all enjoyed a picnic outside, marvelling at the museum’s architecture in the glorious sunshine. Here are some photos of our trip.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Oak Year 3 Class
The unique 2021 Oak Class would like to share with you the wonderful and creative activities and learning that we have all been involved in since returning from our well-deserved rest during half term.
The month of June is very important in the Sacramental journey of many of our pupils as the children receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. We have enjoyed sharing in our preparation with Father Benedict as he has guided us in how to grow in God’s love and ask for forgiveness when we have sinned or acted in a manner that does not show kindness and compassion to those around us.
On Monday the whole class will celebrate with those communicants who will receive the Eucharist for the first time this Saturday. We are nervous, excited but ready to receive Our Lord’s grace in the Sacrament.
In our literacy work we created extraordinary paper boats. Theses folded pieces of paper could calm your mind, help you to relax and control your anger. The instructions we are writing will help your mind to calm and grow as you become more successful, resilient and have a whole lot of self-belief. Oak Class believe that with our strong minds we can overcome any challenge, problem or obstacle and we will succeed!
Not only have we learned about sin in our religious activities but we have learned that sin in Latin means left and it is bad luck to march starting with your left foot. The Roman army were organised into legions of 5000 men and we have been recreating some of their fighting and marching positions. Why not ask us about ‘The Orb’? We wrote poems and designed alters or larariums to worship our chosen Roman Gods just as any wealthy Roman citizen would have in their home. Over the next few weeks our class will ‘roar’ with cries of battle as we learn about Boudicca and the invasion of Britannia.
Our science world is full of light and shadow. We have explored how light is reflected and designed safety back packs to be worn at night.
Question: What is always moving and gets longer as an object gets smaller?
Answer: Your shadow.
We hope you have enjoyed exploring the world of Oak Class. Join us next time for more exciting adventures…
Written by the boys and girls of Oak Class 2021
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Ash Year 4 Class
Ash Class have been stepping into the Tudor period during the last couple of weeks. We have started looking at one of the best playwrights known: William Shakespeare. We are delving further into his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We are using the adapted version to help with the understanding of the play first and, so far, they are getting to grips with the characters and their roles. In Maths, we have carried on with our recently planted sunflowers and are going to continue tracking them until the end of term. Currently, Summer is winning the race and has tripled in size. Children have used this knowledge of line graphs to help them understand the data that they are plotting. In Topic, we have been designing and creating our own Tudor crowns. The class were set the task of making these as authentic as possible so be aware that you may have a mini monarch walking around your house soon. Finally, in Art we have looked at pointillism from George Seurat. The children first tried to copy this with a ball, thinking about where the light was coming from and then using pencils to create this. They have since progressed to using pastels and the same technique and idea with an apple. They have enjoyed comparing the differences between looking at their art up close and the array of colours it has far away to see how they blend into one.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Bay Year 5 Class
In Maths, the children are looking at properties of shape, measuring, and drawing angles using a protractor. In English, the children are looking at different types of persuasive writing, which will lead on to writing their own piece of persuasive writing based on helping our Oceans. The children continue to enjoy reading our class book ‘Song of a Dolphin Boy’, predicting what happens next and finding out more about the characters. In Science, the children enjoyed investigating, exploring different ways to separate mixtures, and recording the findings. In RE the children are looking at the work of the Apostles, exploring stories in the Bible and thinking about how they can follow them. The class have created lovely pieces of textured artwork using different materials to show the impact of pollution on ocean creatures. Also, the children have used instruments to create their own pieces of music relating to the ocean.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.
Willow Year 6 Class
During the past few weeks in Willow Class, the children have enjoyed reading “Kensuke’s Kingdom” and writing tanka poems based on this. We have also been undertaking our end of year assessments during which the children produced some excellent creative writing about dragons. Over the past two months, the children have been volunteering to plan and deliver collective worships in class and I have been impressed with the variety and high quality of the assemblies we have had so far- they have been on a wide range of topics; the lives of saints, Black Lives Matter, JR Tolkien (and his involvement with the Catholic church) and Earth Day. Finally, we are beginning to prepare for our leavers’ assembly and leavers’ lunch – the children are very excited and cannot wait to share their ideas.
Click here for this term’s Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser.