This Term’s Virtues
This term we are trying hard to be
Curious & Active
From Our Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
The month of January has been a rather busy one! Year 5 and 6 have been developing their confidence when cycling and learning how to keep themselves safe on the roads, Tigger Class have immersed themselves in traditional tales with a runaway gingerbread man and wolves in the playground. I saw some great drama work in Year 2 based on their class text of The Iron Man and Year 1 pupils have been mini-historians, comparing past and present. I was impressed with the artwork that Year 3 created based on cave art and I was very fortunate to teach a Science lesson on teeth in Year 4 this week and even spend time in provision with our youngest pupils in Acorn Class. In addition, Chance to Shine visited school to deliver bespoke cricket lessons to our Year 1, 2, 3 and 6 classes and staff from St Edwards have continued to provide hockey lessons for Year 4 and 5 pupils on Monday afternoons. For further opportunities for Hockey and Cricket extra-curricular activities, please see below in our newsletter.
In assemblies this term we have been focussing on our virtues of ‘curious and active’. With Key Stage Two pupils we have also been exploring the Catholic Social Teaching value of Human Dignity in Monday assemblies. We have discussed how we are all created in the image and likeness of God, and that we should celebrate diversity as we come together to seek respect, care and compassion for all.
Kind regards, Hannah Duncan (Acting Headteacher)
Tigger Class have been using charcoal to draw wolves.
Look at the detail included 🐺What big ears…
What big eyes…
What sharp teeth…#beambitiousforthehighergifts#littleredridinghood #wolf pic.twitter.com/KmttsZo77Q— St Aloysius’ Catholic Primary School (@AloysiusSchool) January 26, 2022
We now have a Twitter presence and would love to boost our followers! Fly on over and have a look … @AloysiusSchool
Oxford Hawks Hockey Club
An after-school Hockey club for Year 4, 5 & 6 pupils will be starting on Fridays after school from Friday 4th February and will run weekly until Friday 1st April. The club will run from 3.05pm to 4.05pm and will cost £40.00 for the 8 week session.
If your child is interested in joining, please contact Drew Blackburn via email drewblackburn@hotmail.co.uk for more information and to sign up.
You will need to collect your child from outside the School Office at 4.05 promptly.
General Information
Extra Curricular Clubs – Details of the new after school club being run by Oxford Hawks Hockey Club are above.
Data Collection Forms – please can you return your child’s data collection form as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Class Topic Overview and Knowledge Organiser – the Spring Term Class Topic Overview and Knowledge Organisers can 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 – unfortunately, swimming was cancelled again this week due to staff shortages at The Ferry Pool. We are hoping that swimming will restart after the February half-term. We will keep parents informed.
School Meals – if you have any queries regarding school dinner money or require a statement, please email Mrs. McIntyre HERE.
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.
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 via the Schoolgateway (bookings can be made up until the day of the session). This is important to ensure the right staffing, bubble planning, etc.
After School Club is open Monday to Friday until 5.00pm. Again, booking is essential, online via the Schoolgateway, to ensure correct staffing, bubble planning, etc. Bookings close at 2.00pm on the day of the session. PLEASE COLLECT YOUR CHILDREN ON TIME – staff finish at 5.00pm.
Thank you for supporting our After School and Breakfast Clubs!
If you would like to register your child for All Stars Cricket and Dynamos Cricket which will be happening at Wolvercote Cricket Club, Oxford Cricket Club, Oxenford Cricket Club and Horspath Cricket Club this summer.
A Google search on any of the cricket clubs will also bring up additional information about the club.
All Stars Cricket – 5-8 year olds and
Dynamos Cricket – 8-11 year olds
This Term’s House Point Totals
Ashmolean
Bodleian
Radcliffe
Sheldonian
Radcliffe were the Autumn Term House Point winners!
Prayer
Blessed be your name Lord, in the land that is plentiful and where your streams of abundance flow.
Blessed be your name Lord, in every blessing you pour out, may we turn back to praise of you.
Blessed be your name O God, when the sun’s shining down on us, when the world is all as it should be.
Blessed be your name Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen.
OFSTED Report
Please click on this link to read our recent Good OFSTED report.
Section 48 Report
Please click on this link to read our recent Section 48 report.
Safeguarding
Our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy and Safeguarding Statement can be found on our website under information or by clicking
Dates For Your Diary
Spring Term
Spring H/T Ends – Friday 18th February @ 3.05pm
Spring Term Ends – Friday 8th April @ 1.00pm
No Afterschool Club on Friday 8th April!
Some Future Dates
Additional Holiday – Monday 6th June followed by INSET day Tuesday 7th June 2022
Attendance
If your child is too ill to attend school, please contact the school office (text, email or answer phone message) before 9.00am with full details of your child’s illness/symptoms. If we do not hear from you, we will call or text you to find out why your child is not in school. If we are unable to make contact and you do not provide a reason for your child’s absence, this absence will be recorded as unauthorised and if appropriate, we may contact the relevant authorities to carry out an investigation. If a pupil has two consecutive days of unauthorised absence with no reason given then this becomes a safeguarding concern.
Children in Reception to Year 6 should arrive between 8.35am and 8.50am. This time will be spent completing retrieval and practice tasks. Doors will be closed and registration will be at 8.50am prompt. If your child arrives after 8.50am they will be marked as late and will have to enter school via the school office. Children arriving after 8.50am will be asked for a reason for being late.
The school day ends at 3.05pm for all pupils in Reception to Year 6. Please ensure that you collect your child promptly from their current classroom door. Children not collected by 3.15pm will be taken from their class to ASC and parents will be charged.
Remember, arriving on time for school ensures that your child does not miss out on the important learning activities that happen early in the day when they are at their most alert. Give your child the best start to the day and ensure he/she arrives to school on time.
Doors Open At 8.35am
Registration At 8.50am
Gates Locked At 8.50am
Music Lessons
Saxophone, violin, guitar, etc. – Oxfordshire County Music Service – https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/music-service
Piano – Michael J. Davies – mjmusicservices@aol.com
Guitar & dumming – DrumBeats – nigel@drum-beats.co.uk
Governor News
If you would like to see who our governors are and that they do, click HERE.
Recycling
Bikeability Cycle Training
Bay Class completed the Bikeability Cycle Training last week – well done!
CORONAVIRUS INFORMATION
CLASS NEWS
Acorn Nursery Class
We have been continuing our Winter topic in Acorns and the children had great fun exploring ice balls, discussing different ways to help them melt. We have been looking at animals that live in colder climates and incorporated some penguin songs into our group times to act the part as well! Mark making continues to be a strong focus and we have been experimenting with ice paints and painting on silver foil to make some beautiful pictures to decorate the classroom.
In Phonics we have been concentrating on musical sounds and in particular those instruments which might make ‘winter music’ such as bells and the xylophone. The children showed some excellent listening skills as we explored the sounds of each instrument and gradually joined all the sounds together, listening carefully when to start and when to stop. We have also looked at letter sound ‘a’ and the children are already picking out the letter sounds from their names!
In Maths we have continued up our number line to number 7, learning the different ways in which we can represent it. In group time we have been focusing on matching quantity and numeral, counting out a small group of items and finding the numeral to match that amount on the number line.
The children have really shown some fantastic listening and counting as well as some lovely sharing and turn-taking during play. Well done Acorns!
Tigger Reception Class
Tigger Class have continued to focus on traditional tales and have moved on to looking closely at the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
We have used the story to map make and we have explored our local area with a trip to the park. We looked closely at all the local landmarks and buildings finding the symbols on the map and then finding them in real life during our walk. The children walked fantastically and were so well behaved at the park and followed instructions whilst exploring the woods and looking for mini beasts. We didn’t see any big bad wolves or Little Red Riding Hood. They, of course, had a great time on the play equipment. We also used the time for reinforcing and teaching road safety.
The children attempted writing their own stories based on Little Red Riding Hood, changing the setting and the characters. Little Red Riding Hood travels by bus, shops in Marks and Spencer and loves smoked salmon!
We have started looking at healthy eating and deciding whether food is good or bad for us . We have constructed a healthy eating cafe in our classroom and a vegetable shop in the outside area. We have designed and made our own healthy snacks thinking about what we should include and why.
In Art, the children drew some fantastic pictures of wolves using charcoal.
The children have started to learn about baptism during RE lessons and are looking forward to a visit to the church next week so Father Benedict can show us the church and the font. The children have been enjoying their new hymn practice.
In Maths, the children have been learning to be accurate with their counting, using it to play games when needing to count spaces. Our main focus has been ordering numbers 1-5 amount and numeral.
In Phonics, we have continued to learn and use the sounds v, y, th and w along with red words you and no.
Mrs Hendry and Mrs Feller
Fir Year 1 Class
We have started learning about everyday materials in science. We discussed properties of materials and went on a classroom hunt to try and find things made out of certain materials in the classroom.
In Topic, we looked at photographs from when we were babies. We compared the photographs with some pictures from a different period of time and decided whether they are from the past or present. We have learnt about timelines and even made timelines of our own lives. We have started to talk about different ways that we find out about history such as paintings, fossils and books.
In Maths, we have been learning about place value within 20. We have been putting numbers into part-whole models to help us understand the value of the tens and ones.
We have started looking at the characters in the Old Bear stories and describing them. We looked at Little Bear, Duck, Bramwell Brown, Hoot and Old Bear. We talked about their physical features and what they might be like based on the pictures.
Fig Year 2 Class
Fig Class are enjoying reading The Ironman and have done some excellent pieces of creative writing based on the story. The children included lovely descriptive words in their writing which was from the point of view of a seagull seeing the Iron Man! In Maths, the class have been reviewing their understanding of times tables and then using them to facilitate their understanding of division. To help the children’s understanding they have used concrete apparatus. As a class they’ve also being learning about tally charts and pictograms so to bring the learning to life we went on a walk last Friday to record different items. The children then created their own charts and formulated questions for their partners to answer using the collated information. During RE lessons the children have done some lovely pieces of work to complete the unit of Christmas. In Art, Fig Class have begun creating their own version of a Turner painting. Overall, a busy start to the term.
Oak Year 3 Class
Oak Class has shown great interest and engagement this week. In Topic, the class have been exploring prehistory representing key events of the Stone Age to Iron Age on a timeline. In Maths, the children continue to explore multiplication and division, solving calculations using the grid method and column multiplication. The class continue to show great interest in our class book The Wild Way Home exploring the setting and characters. The children have enjoyed carrying out an investigation in science, looking at the characteristics of different types of rocks. In Computing, the children are using scratch programme to create stories. The class created lovely artwork based on the shepherds going to Bethlehem to end our topic on Christmas in RE.
Ash Year 4 Class
This week in Ash class the children have finished their retelling of the Beowulf legend and completed some incredible portraits of the legendary warrior (see below)! In Maths, we have progressed to using formal methods of written multiplication and will be learning about division before the week is over. Science has been focused on the human digestive system for the past couple of weeks along with learning about the names and functions of human teeth. The children have really enjoyed hearing all the gruesome parts of the digestive journey and made a comic strip of a cornflake’s journey through the body!
A few reminders:
This past week I have handed out reading journals to the class. These will be useful for recording weekly homework and logging reading time at home. Please ensure they are brought into school every Monday and that you are regularly reading with your child and signing it in the reading journal.
A reminder that our PE days are Monday and Friday and kits should be in school for both of these days.
Finally, please remember to return library books on Fridays. Due to an increasing number of library books not being returned (or going missing), I am now unable to issue a new book to children who still need to return the last one.
Bay Year 5 Class
Bay Class have been busy brushing-up on their cycling proficiency skills this week. Rosy-cheeked and well-exercised, everyone returned proud of their efforts. Certificates will be handed out this week in Friday Celebration Assembly. Well done everybody!
We have been exploring multiplication of multiple-digit numbers in Maths. We have been using different methods to prove answers. Keep up with your times-table fluency practice Bay Class, it will really help with these more complicated calculations.
Everyone had a great time using Modroc to start creating their Ancient Greek-styled theatrical masks. We have been learning about the history, why and how they were used. Next step will be to paint and decorate the masks. We’re really looking forward to seeing the finished pieces.
Willow Year 6 Class
Thank you to Shennelle and Ella for writing this week’s newsletter article.
RE – For RE Year 6 have been preparing for their Confirmation and have been focusing on Luke and John’s gospels.
English – They have been learning in more detail about expanded noun phrases, their class book, Secrets of the Sun King and writing their very own tour guides through New York and London.
Maths – In Maths, Year 6 have been focusing on co-ordinates in four quadrants, translating shapes and adding/subtracting hundred thousands to build pyramids.
Art/Topic – They have been focusing on Ancient Egypt in Topic and linked that knowledge to their art of themselves with ancient Egyptian headdresses. See below.
Science – They have been planning circuits for their desired light shows, Making some incredible designs and have learned how to safely work electrical appliances.
PE – In PE, they have had one-to-one cricket lessons led by the great trainer, Zoe, who came in for tuns of fun! Also, they have been working on counter-balance and team building exercises.
