This Term’s Virtues
This term we are trying hard to be
Grateful & Generous
From Our Headteacher
Dear Parents & Carers,
It feels as though the children have been very productive during this past half term, despite it only being five weeks! Children in Year 6 and Year 2 have completed their end of key stage assessments, Year 4 have spent a week at Woodlands and we have had whole school Masses for Ascension and our May Procession. In classrooms, children have enjoyed starting their new topics, learning new knowledge and skills and consolidating and building upon previous learning. As we move towards Pentecost, this has been the focus of RE lessons across the school and there has been some lovely artwork and written work produced on this. We have also had a Whole School Write in which pupils in Year 1 to Year 6 have applied their written skills to a shared stimulus and children across the school took part in a National Numeracy Day event last Wednesday, 18th May.
Gratitude and Generosity have continued to underpin whole school and class Collective Worship as our termly virtues and it has been wonderful to have the whole school together to celebrate these virtues in Friday Celebration Assemblies.
Just a reminder that Monday 6th June will be a Bank Holiday in lieu and Tuesday 7th June is an INSET day and therefore we look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Wednesday 8th June with their Science posters to launch the start of St Aloysius’ Science Week!
Wishing you all a restful half term.
Miss Duncan (Headteacher)
We have a Twitter presence and would love to boost our followers! Fly on over and have a look … @AloysiusSchool
Message from Mr. Walker
Dear Parents & Carers,
I just wanted to let you know that I managed to complete about a third of the Camino Frances at Easter, accompanied by my fellow pilgrim Mrs Brookes. We hope to return next year to complete the journey. Best Wishes, Tom Walker
General Information
Breakfast Club is open every morning from 7.45am until the 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).
After School Club is open Monday to Friday until 5.00pm. Again, booking is essential, online via the Schoolgateway, to ensure correct staffing, activity 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!
School Meals – We now have a new menu – click to see it. If you have any queries regarding school dinner money or require a statement, please email Mrs. McIntyre HERE. Please note, the cost of a school meal will be increasing in September to £2.50.
Payments to The School Office – PLEASE NOTE we 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.
Governor News
If you would like to see who our governors are and that they do, click HERE.
Covid-19 Vaccinations
Dear Parent/Guardian,
All children aged 5-11 continue to be offered vaccination against Covid-19 vaccine and this half-term holiday is good time to get your child vaccinated in time for the summer when cases might increase.
Two doses of the vaccine (at least 12 weeks apart) should give the child long-lasting protection against serious complications of infection and some protection from mild symptoms. To book an appointment, please visit https://www.nhs.uk/covidvaccination or call 119.
The NHS wants to support you to make an informed choice with more information available here COVID-19: A guide for parents of children aged 5 to 11 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
If you do not know your child’s NHS number you can get it:
- by checking your child’s personal health record (the red book given to you when your child was born)
- by checking any NHS letters, prescriptions or test results you may have received for your child
- by going to the NHS.UK website
- by asking your GP practice to help you
Kind Regards
The Clinical Commissioning Group
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
This Term’s House Point Totals
Ashmolean
Bodleian
Radcliffe
Sheldonian
Sheldonian are the Spring Term House Point winners!
Prayer
Generous God, make our hearts like yours, always ready to give.
Help us to see opportunities to give our time, so we can achieve amazing things together.
Teach us to be grateful for all the good gifts in our lives and to be generous when giving to others.
Amen.
Dates For Your Diary
Summer Term
Bank Holiday – Thursday 2nd & Friday 3rd June
Summer Half Term – Monday 30th May to (and including) Tuesday 7th June
Summer Term Ends – Thursday 21st July @ 1.00pm*
Additional Dates
Science Week – 8th, 9th and 10th June
Thursday 9th June – Jubilee Picnic Lunch
Tuesday 28th June – International Day
Tuesday 12th July – Year 5/6 Performance
Wednesday 20th July – Year 6 Leavers Assembly
W/b 11th July – Sports Day (actual date to be confirmed)
* No Afterschool Club on this day
Some Future Dates
First Day of School, Academic Year 2022/23 Tuesday 6th September
Term Dates – 2023-2024
OFSTED & Section 48 Reports
- Please click to read our recent Good OFSTED report.
- Please click 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
Polite Reminder
Please can parents leave the school site by 3.20pm. After school clubs need to start and cannot do so whilst parents are still in the playgrounds. In addition, please can you make sure your children are supervised at all times and not using the climbing frame or other school equipment. Thank you!
OFSTED & Section 48 Reports
- Please click to read our recent Good OFSTED report.
- Please click to read our recent Section 48 report.
Online Safety Newsletter
SCOMIS, the school provider for management systems, have published the May edition of their Online Safety Newsletter for parents. Do you know about child influencers, BeReal or Virtual Reality?
SCOMIS Online Safety Newsletter for Parents (May 2022)
Ceramic Club
There are 4 places available in Ceramic Club (Years 3-6) after half-term. The cost is £54.00 for the three remaining sessions. Please contact Daiva directly via email dkojelytemarrow@gmail.com
School Lunches
The new school menu is remaining popular with our children. Please note, on Wednesday 8th June there will be a change to the menu – instead of the usual roast dinner, we will be serving pizza (margherita / ham) or jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn mayo.
Have a look at the new menu options.
ChatHealth Has Launched!
ChatHealth is a safe and secure text messaging service between healthcare professionals and service users that provides confidential help, advice and signposting support.
CLASS NEWS
Acorn Nursery Class
It is hard to believe two weeks have passed and we are almost at half term but we have certainly packed a lot into the time! We have spent the last couple of weeks learning what it means to be healthy – as Dominique explained so succinctly, doing things that are good for our bodies! So, we have been finding out what foods are good for us and why and which ones aren’t so good, the importance and effect of exercise, having good hygiene habits, sleep habits and finally how important it is to keep our teeth healthy and how best to do this. The children have really enjoyed this as a topic and it’s been fun to see what healthy foods everyone has in their lunchboxes! They are particularly enjoying learning about teeth in more detail and have been role playing dentists and having fun brushing our giant teeth.
We have been focusing on how we keep the classroom tidy and remembering expectations for indoors and outdoors to help our newer Acorns and set a good example. We are also spending time thinking about how different situations might make us feel and as well as ensuring a good hygiene routine, we are encouraging the older children to be as independent as possible. They are doing really well, zipping up their coats and changing their shoes (and even helping each other!), opening packets, going to the toilet by themselves and accomplishing tasks for themselves. It is wonderful to see them gain so much independence!
In phonics we have learned new sound ‘u’ to add to our existing sounds (m, a, d, s, t, i, n p, o, g, c,k) and in group time the children have been enjoying drawing to music and learning more about the rhythm and melody of songs. In Maths, we have revisited the skills already taught, checking if there are any gaps that need strengthening. We are also learning how to compare sizes and ordering items by their length.
It’s been a very energetic time in Acorns as you can see but they have really embraced it all and never cease to amaze me!
Tigger Reception Class
The Tiggers have continued to launch themselves into our superheroes topic and using them in their learning. They enjoyed writing superhero riddles for their friends and teachers and had their very own superhero mini me that they have then taken to explore the garden and classroom. They have used their adventures to write about and practise using their phonic knowledge. The children have had great fun making and designing their superhero masks, finding their way out of laser traps and designing and building traps on the workbench.
The children have been practising their number bonds to ten and using their knowledge to problem solve. They have also focused on ordering numbers and looking closely at their position.
We have continued to learn sounds and have now finished ‘ou’ and ‘oy’.
In Art, the children made a thumb pot using their fine motor skills for building. The children decorated it by making marks and watched as it dried and then painted it. The children used paper shapes to make superheroes pictures.
In PE, the children have been exploring the moon, crouching down low to explore the surface, and experimenting with different ways to move. They have been finding alien eggs and carefully balancing them while avoiding the other children on the moon. The children used the eggs to move around their bodies in different ways. Then they left them on the moon and returned to earth in their rockets.
In Music, the children composed music as a group and played instruments to represent parts of a superhero film.
In RE, we have been looking at Pentecost, hearing the story of what happened. We have been discussing how the disciples might feel about what happened then relating this to a time we might have been scared. The children took part in the crowning of Mary with flowers and a procession around the school. The children sang As I Kneel Before ~You – Ave Maria. The children, as usual, sat beautifully and paid full attention. They also drew some great flowers to decorate their spiritual reflection book around Mary.
Fir Year 1 Class
Outdoor Learning
Children were very excited to be using new bug pots and magnifying glasses at outdoor learning this week. They identified some new flowers and found 2 ladybirds. We were extremely lucky to have lovely weather so we were able to have a picnic lunch too.
Other News
In Maths, we have been practising our counting in twos, fives and tens. We have started multiplication of numbers within 10. We use the blocks and Numicon to help us count.
In Writing, we have been looking at some unfamiliar words and discussing their meaning in the story The Pirates of Scurvy Sands. We talked about words such as frolic, grub, peckish and elope then added them to our word wall to help us remember them. We wrote sentences and tried to use these new words to make them exciting!
In Topic, we have looked at the continents in more detail and talked about where they are on the map and which continent the UK is in. We also looked at the five oceans and found out some fun facts about each one. We have loved singing the continent and ocean song!
In Science, we looked at parts of a plant. We used microscopes to look closely at flowers from the garden and see them up close. We even did a science experiment where we planted cress seeds. One plate of seeds has water and is growing on the windowsill, one has no water on the windowsill, one is in the fridge and one is in the cupboard. It will be exciting to see which ones grow and why!
Fig Year 2 Class
This is the Fig Class news written by Fig Class.
We decided that this time we, the children, are the people who should tell you what we have enjoyed and spent our time exploring in Fig Class. We are budding scientists that are exploring how buds and plants grow. We have planted our own running beans and have drawn and labelled plants in our science books. I wonder whose runner bean will run up the wall fastest and be taller than any year two? Some of us are going to be making elephant’s toothpaste in science club. We love science club but Mrs Lavety says, “the elephant cannot stay in the class during playtimes!” We started with a spider man on our topic wall but now we want to fill our wall with true heroes. We want heroes who are kind, confident, helpful, courageous and determined. This week we learned about the explorer Shackleton who saved the lives of 27 men on his expedition to the South Pole. We have admired Mary Seacole who overcame the prejudice of many people to build the British Hotel hospital and saved the lives of both Russian and British Soldiers during the Crimean War.
In our writing, we have written our own stories of heroes in school based on the book Shine by Sarah Asuquo. It is an emotional story that tells us that we are all special, “unique in our own way” to quote Maymunah. Now Matilda, whom we are reading about, is a true hero because she helps her classmates to defeat the terrible Mrs Trunchbull. She is a headteacher who thunders with terror and anger Celestine thought. We think Matilda is very smart and wise. We are enjoying the story and singing the songs. No ‘chokey’ for us!
We have had fun inside and out, perfecting our forward rolls in PE and flying on our brooms playing Quidditch. In Maths, we have been consolidating all our skills and giving each other secret spy directions to locate hidden numbers on a huge snakes and ladders board. The sun shone as we celebrated the month of Our Lady in May with flowers and we created our own Paschal Easter candles to show the light of the risen Christ. Our talents have shone like Matilda’s and with your guidance as we have also completed half of our year 2 SAT’s. Please remember us for the next two exams.
Oak Year 3 Class
Oak Class continues to show great enthusiasm on our topic the Romans, discovering how the Romans conquered Britain and making observations about Roman artefacts. The children enjoyed designing and creating Roman mosaics in Art. In Maths, the children have been learning about time, identifying the time on a clock and solving word problems. In English, the class continue to show great interest in reading our class book Thieves of Ostia, discovering new vocabulary and writing a character description. In Science, we are looking at the life cycle of plants, identifying the parts of a flower and the process of pollination. The class enjoyed dissecting a plant to see the inside of a flower. In RE, we have started learning about The Eucharist, exploring the celebration of Mass and the importance of thanksgiving.
Ash Year 4 Class
This week in Ash Class we have had great fun exploring sound! In our music lesson, we played with boom whackers (pitched percussion tubes) and discovered that different lengths have different pitches of sound. We then read a book about all the notes on the stave and learnt the names of some of them. In Science, our topic is also sound so we had an hour of exploring – banging drums with popcorn on top to see vibrations, working out how to make sounds and change the pitch using different string instruments and finally playing with water and glass milk bottles to make an ascending scale. The children were fascinated by the concept of sound being a wave and I have encouraged them to do some more exploring with any instruments they have at home. In Maths, we have been learning about money and I also encourage you to take your children shopping so they can practise counting coins and calculating change. In Literacy, we have begun to read our class book for the term: ‘The Boy and the Globe’ by Tony Bradman. We used laptops to take a virtual tour of the globe theatre, the setting for the story. Finally, I have put up a display of Woodlands photos in the corridor which the children have enjoyed having a look at. Our letters of thanks were posted last week to the team at Woodlands and I am sure the staff will have enjoyed reading them.
Bay Year 5 Class
Written by Emilia and Lucy
Sport – These past few weeks Year 5 have done quite a bit of sport, so let’s jump into the action starting with Year 5 and 6 rounders matches. We have had tonnes of fun and learnt lots of new skills along the way. Also we have been playing handball in our house groups with Y6. As well as all that, swimming has been a blast with children reaching new depths and learning new skills for the future.
RE – Lately in RE we have been learning the order and events of Holy Week and Easter. We have also been creating artwork linked to Holy Week. For example, pastel art based on the resurrection of Jesus and cutting and sticking coloured paper to create a picture of the Stations of the Cross. We had our May procession with Father Benedict on Friday and we sung some related hymns.
English (The Promise) – For our English lessons recently, Year 5 have been planning and writing up their own versions of The Promise by Nicola Davies. This is a lovely book giving the message that a small change can make a huge difference. The book is linked to our class topic, climate change.
Science (Biome in a Bag) – In Science, we discovered how to make a biome in a bag. Here is how we made them:
- cut a 2 litre bottle in half and discard the bottom (in recycling of course)
- cover the bottom of your newly formed pot with gravel of small pebbles
- pour some potting soil over the gravel (your pot should be ¾ full)
- plant some seeds in your soil
- next, water until it collects under the gravel/pebbles
- put the pot into a large freezer bag and place it by a window
- watch your seeds grow – you don’t even need to water them!
Thank you for reading our section of the newsletter. Emilia and Lucy.
Ms. Selway wrote.
As part of our Climate Change topic this term we have been learning about climate zones and biomes. To help us understand the condensation, evaporation and precipitation process we have made our own ‘biomes in a bag’.
After a week with no further watering, vegetation is growing! Well done Bay Class!