This Term’s Virtues
This term we are trying hard to be
Eloquent & Truthful
From Our Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
Thank you for your continued support, it has been a busy couple of weeks at St. Aloysius’. Children have been working hard in lessons with a focus on being ambitious and there are some wonderful displays around the school to showcase their learning across the curriculum. Year 6 have been on their residential visit to Yenworthy OEC this week and there has been excellent feedback from staff about the teamwork and determination demonstrated by pupils. In addition, we have been inspected under Section 48 (an inspection for Catholic schools), focussing on the Catholic Life of the school, Religious Education and Collective Worship. We are looking forward to receiving the report in the coming weeks but the inspectors did comment on the enthusiasm of the pupils and their caring nature during their visit.
In assemblies, we have been talking about how the children can be stewards of God’s creation and about October being the month of The Holy Rosary. Perhaps this is something that they can tell you about and form discussions at home.
Finally, thank you to all those who have already brought donations to school for the Community Emergency Foodbank – we will continue to collect donations until Monday 18th October.
Kind Regards, Hannah Duncan (Acting Headteacher)
Parking
Sadly, we have had numerous complaints from our neighbours regarding inconsiderate parking. We rely on our neighbour’s goodwill but above that, we should all be considerate towards others. The parking in and around school during busy times can be tricky. There is plenty of parking in St. Margaret’s Road (on the opposite side of Woodstock Road) and in Polstead Road. Please do not block our neighbour’s drives, even for just a minute.
Governor News
If you would like to see who our governors are and that they do, click HERE.
Breakfast and After School Club
Breakfast Club is now open every morning from 7.45am until start of school. Booking is essential and should be made online or via the school office. This is important to ensure the right staffing, bubble planning, etc. Bookings close at 5.00pm the previous evening.
After School Club will continue to run Monday to Friday until 5.00pm. Again, booking is essential to ensure correct staffing, bubble planning, etc. Bookings close at 2.00pm on the previous day.
Thank you for supporting our After School and Breakfast Clubs!
After School Club
As a long-standing parent of 19 years, I am still grateful to be able to rely on the after school club. A provision that my children experienced and enjoyed as they advanced through school. From work demands to ad hoc happenings, such as being stuck in stationary traffic, I know with total confidence my child will be offered a warm, welcoming smile and a snack by staff running the club. After school activities range from supervised outdoor play (weather allowing); indoor play, a chance to complete homework, computer use, quiet reading, sharing of board games and, more recently, a more extensive and eagerly anticipated range of craft activities including sewing and baking. In summary, after school club provides an engaging and worry-free bridging gap from end of the school day to 5.00pm collection time, whether scheduled in advance or when necessity demands, with just a call to the office. Year 6 Parent.
General Information
Individual School Photographs – individual school photographs will be taken on Tuesday 12th October. We will also take photographs of in school sibling groups. If you are the parent of an Acorn Nursery Class child who does not attend Tuesday mornings, you are welcome to bring them in for their photograph to be taken at 9.00am.
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.
Swimming – swimming lessons are currently postponed due to the Ferry Pool being closed for urgent maintenance work.
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.
We now have a Twitter presence! Fly on over and have a look … 
Recycling
Just a reminder that you can donate clothes, shoes, etc. at our Aspire collection point located in the rear car park
This Term’s House Point Totals
Ashmolean
Bodleian
Radcliffe
Sheldonian
Sheldonian are the Summer Term House Point winners!
Prayer
Father, as we celebrate this season of thanksgiving, we give thanks for the blessings of food, provision and nourishment. Please grow in us a harvest for the world. Sow a seed of hope within our souls Lord, that we might yield goodness, patience and kindness in abundance. Sow a seed of peace in our lives Lord, that we might bear the fruits of forgiveness, compassion and righteousness. Sow a seed of love in our hearts Lord, that others would reap the blessings of family, friendship and community. May each seed of hope, peace and love grow within us into a harvest that can be feasted on by all. Amen.
Dates For Your Diary
Autumn Term
Individual School Photographs – Tuesday 12th October
October Half Term Holiday – Monday 25th to 29th October 2021
NOTE – there is no October INSET day – see the updated Term Dates HERE
All Saints Day – children to come to school dressed as a saint or community hero (e.g. doctor, nurse, etc.)
OPEN MORNING (Reception 2022) – Tuesday 9th November @ 10.30am. Email the school office for more details.
Autumn Term Ends – Friday 17th December @ 1.00pm
Some Future Dates
INSET day – Monday 4th January 2022
Additional Holiday – Monday 6th June followed by INSET day Tuesday 7th June 2022
Admissions – September 2022
Applications for secondary schools (Year 7) for September 2022 are now open.
Applications for primary schools (Reception) for September 2022 will open on 2nd November.
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.
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
CLASS NEWS
Acorn Nursery Class
The children have continued to settle in nursery and have become noticeably more confident, allowing them to share stories about their life outside nursery with the class, access resources within the classroom and outdoors more readily and continue to build friendships. We have formed class ‘promises’ together to be kind, be safe and to look after the things in our classroom (including ourselves!) and we have agreed to all work together and try to remember these promises at all times.
We have been reading and sharing fairy tales this week, such as The Three Little Pigs and Hansel and Gretel as we begin to explore story ideas and how stories are structured. The children have also enjoyed our library role play area, which has also been a good opportunity to learn how to care for books. We have begun the early stages of phonics, listening and tuning in to different sounds both inside and outside the classroom and we are also beginning to expand our vocabulary as we share stories, learning new words such as ‘gigantic’ and ‘invisible’.
The children have had access to our different maths resources before we begin smaller group work, exploring counting loose natural materials such as shells and stones as well as more specific maths resources such as Numicon and number lines. This allows the children to become familiar with all of these things and will help to create a strong foundation in number which we will continue to build on as the year progresses.
Tigger Reception Class
Tigger Class, as always, has been a busy place. We have been looking closely at the story of the Little Red Hen and using it to reinforce literacy skills, talking about characters, settings and the structure of the story. The Tigger’s have created some great story maps. We have a bakery in our role play area and have made salt dough cakes and biscuits which we have painted and are selling to each other in the bakery. The bakery has given us lots of opportunities to develop our language skills and to interact with each other, mark make and use money.
We have also been cooking this week and have made our own bread. Mrs Hendry bought the ingredients but I am sure the Tiggers would have helped if we had asked (ala Little Red Hen)!
In Maths, we have been doing lots of sorting of shapes and natural items. We have been reinforcing the children’s knowledge of fewer, fewest, less and more.
In phonics, we have continued to learn new sounds and reinforce the ones we already know. We have been practising forming them and have started to think about how we can blend them together to make and read some simple words.
We have been busy with RE this week, talking about our God given gifts and reinforcing our knowledge of the creation story. The children have produced some lovely art work in the class. We also learnt about our class saint, St. Francis of Assisi and how he cared for the animals that God created.
Our outside area is always a hub of learning and this week, as well as the water, mark making, mud kitchen etc., we have been role-playing being builders and building lots of vehicles from loose parts and again using our language skills to negotiate the building and to role play with each other.
Mrs Hendry and Mrs Feller
Fir Year 1 Class
It has been a busy time in Fir class this week! We have been learning all about the different compass points and how we use one. We had a go at making our own compasses too. We have also learnt about the four different countries in the UK and looked at the differences between Oxford and Scotland. We looked at the buildings in Oxford and discussed their features. We noticed the gargoyles on some of the buildings and decided to make our own gargoyles out of clay.
In Maths, we have been practising place value and continuing with counting. We have also been practising writing numbers and looking at teen numbers. In Science, we have looked at the different senses and which sense is linked to which part of our bodies. Finally, in English we have been making story maps for Alice in Wonderland!
Fig Year 2 Class
If you were standing outside Fig Class on Wednesday, you may have thought you were in the Caribbean as the children joined together with their instruments to play Reggae music as part of our exploring the countries and cultures of the world topic. I must say, we all seemed happy and relaxed at the end of the lesson.
The children are enjoying our lessons as we celebrate the great array of cultural backgrounds that we have in our school community. We have been building upon our map skills as we have created our own ordinance survey maps of the local area with a helpful key. Our literary lessons have focussed on sentence structure and purpose. The children all have great ideas and imagination in their writing. We want to ensure this is demonstrated with a good use of punctuation, handwriting and spelling. Our maths and numeracy skills are being put to the test as we move on to addition and subtraction. This week we have looked at pictorial representations and using our existing knowledge to build number stories. The children have also enjoyed discussing and exploring our rights and responsibilities as children of God’s World. We have thought of the needs of others and the role that we have to use our talents to help others now and in the future. Over the next two weeks, we will be reading Pattan’s Pumpkin and using this story to reflect upon the changing environment and climate in which we live so don’t be surprised by the enthusiasm of our Fig Class environmentalists.
Oak Year 3 Class
The children continue to show great interest on our Rainforest topic, exploring the tropical climate, the different layers of the rainforest and animals and plants that live there. In Maths, the children are looking at addition and subtraction, investigating ways to represent adding and subtracting 3 and 1 digit numbers. In English, the children are beginning to plan and write their own narrative based in the Rainforest. The class continue to show great interest in reading our class book Journey to the River Sea, obtaining great vocabulary to use in their own writing. In Science, we are looking at the human body, exploring the bones and muscles in our bodies and their functions. In RE, the children enjoyed learning about the Seven Sacraments, creating artwork in groups to display in the classroom. The children were very happy with how the frogs from the rainforest turned out in Art.
Ash Year 4 Class
This week, Ash Class have enjoyed reading our new class book, How Does a Lighthouse Work? We have begun to use this style of writing (explanation text) to create our own pieces about how mountains are formed. We have also enjoyed learning about Hokusai’s famous painting of The Great Wave and created our own versions. In Maths, we have just finished our unit in place value and enjoyed making ‘under the sea’ number lines when learning about negative numbers! Next we will be moving on to addition and subtraction. Finally, in RE, we have completed our unit on creation by retelling the story of Joseph and considering what we can learn from him and his brothers. The children’s work has made our prayer corner look especially beautiful.
Bay Year 5 Class
Bay Class have been continuing to work hard on place value, using numbers up to a million. In English, we have been learning about relative clauses so we can make our writing richer and more informative. We have been finishing off our unit on creation. Everyone has been so eloquent and thoughtful in our class discussions. We have been inspired by our class saint, St. Josephine Bakhita. We have produced some beautiful portraits of Saint Josephine to display on our RE wall.
Through our topic on space, we have produced some fantastically creative paintings of the solar system and we have turned our origami skills into a beautiful ‘class galaxy’ of stars.
A huge well-done to Bay Class for a thoroughly hard-working and enjoyable fortnight.
Willow Year 6 Class
This week Year 6 have been on their residential visit to Yenworthy Lodge Outdoor Education Centre. The daily news we have received tells us that they have had an amazing week undertaking all the outdoor activities including coasteering and surfing in the sea! Each day children in individual groups have been awarded Star of the Day for outstanding achievements and for going above and beyond. We are sure they will return to Oxford this evening both happy and exhausted (children and staff).