Latest News | Oakwood Primary Academy

Headteacher Update - Friday 1st December 2023

Wed 29 Nov 2023

Welcome to this week's Weekly Update!

Our week at Oakwood got off to an exciting start as we hosted our first ever 'School Food Roadshow'. As part of our Healthy Schools initiative, the pupils got to take part in a very special cook-off (with some adult helpers, of course), preparing and producing some tasty dishes. Everyone then got to use their vote card to choose the tastiest plate of food. The pupils enjoyed learning about the ingredients, how to prepare the food and the health benefits of the foods we eat. Please see our Facebook page and Bulletin with some photographs from the roadshow.

Also this week, Beth Fitzpatrick, one of our dedicated LAB members, visited Oakwood to see some of our reading and to talk about our careers project, 'Start Small, Dream Big'. This year, we are looking at developing the opportunities to show children about the amazing jobs that the people in our local community, and beyond do, and bringing them into school. Beth was very impressed with the pupils' behaviour and their attitudes to learning.

Our pupils have been busy practising ahead of their Christmas performances this year. All of the dates can be found on the Bulletin and we really hope to see you in school, or at the church, across these next two weeks.

'Thank you' to all of you who took the time to complete this year's Parents Survey. Your feedback is really important to us. It helps us all take time to reflect on the things we do well, focus on what we can still do better and remind the staff of the importance of the job we do in teaching and looking after your children. Your positive comments are always really well received by staff. An analysis of the survey will be sent as part of this week's Bulletin.

In our Celebration Assembly this week, we announced our very latest 'Stars of the Week'. The list of this week's winners can be found on the Bulletin. In our Attendance Challenge, the 10 points went to Year 4 Attenborough Class with an attendance of 97.2% this week. 'Well done' to them. At the end of Week 4, Year 4 Logie Baird Class lead the way with 31 points, but just 2 points separate the top three classes.

In this week's 100% Attendance Raffle, there were 230 children in the draw. The number 120 was selected at random. 'Well done' to Denise in Year 6.

Our Christmas Post has started today and will run until the last collection on Friday 15th December 2023.

Next week, we will be welcoming Frances Nation to Oakwood on Tuesday. She will be completing a school visit, meeting with staff and talking to pupils, and reporting on the school's improvements. We will share more details of the visit with children in our assemblies on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

With my best wishes,

Ryan Laker

Headteacher

Headteacher Update - Friday 24th November 2023

Fri 24 Nov 2023

Welcome to this week's 'Weekly Update!'

It's been a great week at Oakwood! 'Well done' to all of our brilliant pupils for their effort this week!

Hopefully, you will have now seen a copy of our timetable of Christmas events taking place in school across the next few weeks. There is much going on, including Christmas performances from all of our year groups, our annual Reindeer Walk and Christmas Lunch. I hope you will be able to join us for one of the events taking place, either in school or at St. Mary's Church in Willingdon, this term.

This follows on from a successful Winter Fair, which took place in school last weekend. Thank you to our PTFA for organising this. Our 'Breakfast With Santa' and 'Winter Discos' are all scheduled for December, run by the PTFA.

Our Christmas Post starts on Friday 1st December. Pupils can send cards to their friends using the post box. Please include the name of the child you are sending the card to and the name of their class / teacher. This will help our Year 6 pupils to circulate these to where they need to go...stamps are not necessary!

We know that the run-up to Christmas is a busy time. The structure and pace in school changes and we understand that, for some pupils, this can be challenging. We will do all we can to minimise this impact, but please do speak to your child's class teacher should you be worried. They will be more than happy to help.

In today's Celebration Assembly, we awarded some fantastic certificates. I was incredibly proud to share the amazing reasons why children were Star Writers, Mathematicians and Stars of the Week. The full list of this week's Stars of the Week can be found on the Bulletin. It's Week 3 of our Attendance Challenge. This week's winners were Year 4 Logie-Baird Class, with an incredible 100% - well-deserved winners of the 10 points. This moves them onto 28 points. In the 100% Attendance Raffle, there were 224 pupils this week - Well done to you all! The number 34 was drawn at random, which belonged to Wynter C. in Year 4!

As always, please check out this week's Bulletin for further information.

Wishing you all a brilliant weekend!

Ryan Laker
Headteacher

Headteacher Update - Friday 17th November 2023

Fri 17 Nov 2023

Welcome to this week's 'Weekly Update!'

'Well done' to every single one of our pupils this week - you have produced some excellent work and really thought about our values of 'Knowledge, Equality, Determination and Achievement'.

This week, we were visited by Steve Harris, who did some professional development work with our staff. We are always looking to improve the school, and this includes the offer that we provide all our pupils at lunchtime. Steve, who works for the 'Happy Lunchtimes' organisation, also worked with our pupils and met with the School Council, to introduce new games and the 'Epic Activity of the Day'. The launch day forms part of a larger piece of work that we are all excited about. The English 'Button Stacking Championship' is already a favourite!

In today's Celebration Assembly, we awarded some fantastic certificates. I was incredibly proud to share the amazing reasons why children were Star Writers, Mathematicians and Stars of the Week. The full list of this week's Stars of the Week can be found on the Bulletin. 'Thank you' to the pupils in Year 5 Rashford Class who shared their learning in assembly today - some super warning stories, accurate descriptions of topography and Ordanance Survey maps and some unique designs for shelters, all presented with confidence.

It's Week 2 of our Attendance Challenge. Tis week's winners were Year 4 Attenborough Class, who achieved an impressive 99%. They pick up the 10 points this week. This has moved them into second place in the challenge, with 17 points. It's Year 4 Logie-Baird Class who lead the way with 18 points. All to play for! In the 100% Attendance Raffle, there were 232 pupils this week - Well done to you all! The number 55 was drawn at random, which belonged to Alfie E. in Year 4!

As always, please check out this week's Bulletin for further information.

Wishing you all a brilliant weekend!

Ryan Laker
Headteacher

Headteacher Update - Friday 10th November 2023

Thu 09 Nov 2023

Welcome to this week's Weekly Update! I hope your child is enjoying a day away from school this week.

Despite the shorter school week, we have still been incredibly busy. All of the staff have been engaged with training in school today, looking at planning and resources for Maths, as well as some time to look at teaching and learning across our subjects.

'Thank you' to all of the children who have shown me their brilliant home-learning projects. I am always impressed with the huge effort that goes in to these, and the time that children and families spend together doing them.

This week, our 'Forest School' sessions have got underway. We certainly chose a great week, weather-wise, to get started, but the children in Year 4 have come prepared with wellies, waterproofs and puddle-suits. They enjoyed some sessions in our brilliant woodlands and had a class on Dennis the Bus, too. The children have loved it, moving tree-stumps and wheelbarrows full of leaves...and some puddle-jumping of course! A huge 'Thank you' to Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Mathews who have led the sessions this week.

It has been lovely to see so many of you at our Autumn Parents' Evening this week. I really hope you have found the opportunity to meet with your child's class teacher useful and informative. I know that teachers have really enjoyed meeting you and talking about your child's start at school in these first few weeks. If you haven't been able to make an appointment this week, please call the School Office so that a time can be arranged to meet with your child's teacher.

We haven't had our Celebration Assembly today, but not to worry, our 'Stars of the Week' will be announced in our assembly on Monday, and we will share the list of winners with you then.

Please see this week's Bulletin, where we have shared our Christmas Performance dates. We will write to you in the coming weeks with further details, but I hope having the dates now will be helpful in planning for a busy festive period.

Have a great weekend!

Ryan Laker

Headteacher