Oakthorpe News

Dear Parents

Summer seems to have begun at last so we can

enjoy all the activities we have planned for this half

term. Year 6 have just returned from their trip to

the Isle of Wight where they have had a brilliant

week visiting the

Needles,

Carisbrooke Castle,

Blackgang Chine,

Osbourne House and

many other

attractions.

The rest of Year 6

have enjoyed

Activity Week

with exciting trips

to Harry Potter

World,

Chessington and the seaside. Do take a look at our

blog site to see what they all got up to!

Links with Germany: Over the last couple of years

we have built good links with a school in Berlin. A

group of children and staff from the school visited

us recently and spent time working on a project

with Year 6 that involved making an animated film.

We are hoping to have a return visit next year.

23rd June 2015

We started this half term with Science Week on the

theme of space. Along with visits to the Science

Museum and a visiting planetarium, children learnt

about galaxies, black holes, the life cycle of a star

and a host of other fascinating facts.

I was really impressed with the facts which children

learnt and with the research they did at home.

Thank you to parents for supporting them with this.

And thank you to Mrs Leventis and Mrs Pitsillides

for organising such an inspiring week.

Happy Fathers’ Day! On Friday we welcomed

around 100 dads, uncles, big brothers and grandads

to our first ever Fathers’ Day Breakfast. We were

delighted with the response and hope that

everyone who joined us enjoyed their breakfast.

Remember our summer Fete on

Thursday 2nd July from 5—9pm

The Arts

Parents will know that the Arts are a really important aspect of life at Oakthorpe.

Children in Years 3, 4 and 5 were treated to a very

special workshop this week. We were honoured to have

members of the Royal Shakespeare Company lead

drama and dance workshops… and in just a couple of

hours the children were performing parts of the West

End production of Matilda! and the choreographer said

the children’s performance was fit for a West End stage!

The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and

were commended for their skills and their confidence.

This opportunity was organised and funded by BP who

we are very grateful to.

Our choirs are involved in two musical events this half

term: our Glee Choir has just performed at the Lyric

Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in front of an audience

of five hundred people. They were amazing. Later in the

term the school choir will be performing at the Royal

Festival Hall as part of a Barnardo’s charity event.

We are shortly taking part in our third exciting project

organised by the Tate Gallery and BP (we are a BP link

school!). The project combines art and music— some of

our children will be producing pieces of art while a

school in Mexico will produce the music!

Oakthorpe is regularly assessed. The head of Enfield’s

school improvement service recently presented a report

on our school to the Governors. We were delighted that

this stated that Oakthorpe is still an outstanding school.

She particularly commended the relationships between

children and staff, the progress that children make and

the support we give to other local schools.

Our value for June is cooperation. We give our children

opportunities to work together in groups to help them

achieve more.

‘Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so

much.’ Helen Keller

‘Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.’

Kenyan proverb.

Birlikte Çalışmak Συνεργασία

Value for June - cooperation

We have lots to look forward to in the last few weeks of the year, with a number of educational visits to places including a local synagogue, Paradise Wildlife Park, Legoland and the British museum.

There are plenty of sporting opportunities with our Health, Fun and Fitness Week, Tennis Day, Sports Day and competitions against other schools.

We realise that some educational visits are quite expensive. We do try hard to keep costs down by buying group tickets, visiting local places and by using public transport or our own minibus as much as possible.

When we have to hire coaches for longer journeys it adds a lot to the cost of a visit. Each seat on a coach costs about £10.00.

Oakthorpe never makes a profit from school visits and in fact we often subsidise the cost.

Outstanding!

Upcoming events…

Did you know… about the cost of school visits?

Summer Fete

Separate letters are being sent out about our Summer Fete on Thursday 2nd July.

Please offer whatever help you can to help ensure this is a successful event.

Our children are busy rehearsing dances and songs to perform on the stage during the evening. They are also taking part in the heats and semi-final of Oakthorpe’s Got Talent. The final will be held at the fete!

Uniform: Please help ensure children have the correct uniform. This includes—

·Black shorts, t-shirt in house colour and trainers/plimsolls

·Plain black shoes without coloured laces or stripes

·Plain white or grey socks

Jewellery: plain stud earrings only

Nail varnish: should not be worn

The Uniform Shop will be open on two Inset Days—3rd and 4th September between 9 and 10:30am.

On the 9th and 16th September the Uniform Shop will remain open until 10:30am.

Parents may also buy uniform by completing a uniform request form and handing it to the office with the correct money.

Attendance

Our overall attendance so far this year is 96.19%.

Attendance for this half term is 97.24%.

Well done to the classes whose attendance is above 97%.

Let’s continue the improved attendance this half term.

Please do not request time off for holidays.

I am pleased to let you know that those children with less than 85% attendance (persistent absentees) has reduced this year to just 8. This is really good news.

From September however, the government is changing the figure for persistent absentees. Children with attendance below 90% will be recorded as persistent absentees.

Punctuality: Please help your child to

be on time for school so they don’t miss

any learning time.

Uniform Shop Opening Times

A Few Reminders

4MU 97.58%

5H 97.33%

6L 97.32%

6R 97.16%

6RO 97.08%

During June Year 2 Year 2 Assessments

Monday 15th - Friday 26th June Year 1 Phonics Screening

Thursday 25th & Friday 26th June Whole School Tennis Days

Tuesday 23rd June Reception Visit to Willows Farm

Tuesday 30th June Year 3 British Museum

Wednesday 1st July Year 1 Legoland

Thursday 2nd July @ 5pm Whole school SUMMER FETE

Monday 6th—Friday 10th July Whole school Health Fun and Fitness week

Tuesday 7th July Year 2 Paradise Wildlife Park

Thursday 9th July @ 9.30am Reception

& KS1

Sports Day

Thursday 9th July @ 1.30 KS2 Sports Day

Monday 13th July (4MU), Wednesday 15th

July (4HS), Thursday 16th July (4S)

Year 4 Visit to local synagogue

Friday 10th July Whole school Reports due out

Friday 24th July Break up for summer holiday

Autumn Term 2015

Thursday 3th and Friday 4th September INSET days

Monday 7th September @ 10am Whole school Children return to school

Diary of Events

Each year our children benefit from ‘Bikeability’ —receiving free lessons and training on cycle safety. Check out Enfield's cycle training pages to see whether you fancy a one-to-one lesson or a group lesson training lesson. It might be possible for your to borrow a bike for a month for just £10.

Enfield are providing free Dr Bike checks at different locations in Enfield on regular dates. Take your bike along for some tweaking, such as adjusting clicking gears or fixing a puncture.

If you want to go one step further and learn to fix your bike yourself, Enfield Council provides Bike maintenance classes.

To find out more please go to http://cycleenfield.co.uk/

Bikeability

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our events.