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11 Sep 2009 - Newsletter 11th September 2009

AUTUMN TERM

NEWSLETTER 2

11th

Newsletter - September 11th 2009

Please remember that you can also email the office if your child is ill:
Office email: office@oaktree.surrey.sch.uk Tel: 01483 474 981
HOPA website: www.hopa.ik.com

Dates
14th Sept	Marrow Competition
17th Sept 8:00pm	HOPA AGM - All parents invited
16th/18th Sept	Open Evening/Morning - Prospective Parents

Notes this week

Solf Club Letter

Year 1 'Meet the Teachers' Information Letter

Year 2 'Meet the Teachers' Information Letter

Hermitage and Oaktree Parents Association (HOPA) Annual General Meeting

HOPA is a very important part of The Oaktree School. It is through HOPA that we can undertake fundraising and provide facilities such as tea and coffee at events. Without the help of HOPA we would not be able to provide the children with such a wonderful learning environment or enjoy lovely family events.

The HOPA Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 17th September at 8.00 pm in the Acorn Centre. All parents are invited to attend.

SPORTS 4 ALL

This year the charity that we are supporting is SPORTS 4 ALL. This group support children to participate in sport and they are supporting the training of our athletes for the 2012 Olympics. Their mission is: to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities by education to enable full participation in sports and recreation activities.

On Tuesday a representative from the company came to school to ask the children to raise money by holding a sponsored circuit training event. The children were shown four exercises that they will need to do next Tuesday. Please see details in the letter in the book bag today. After expenses the sponsorship money is shared between the charity and the school and we intend to use the money to provide better sports provision for our children

We are delighted that the company are bringing along one of our gymnastic Olympic hopefuls Kieran Behan. He will speak to speak to the children and then demonstrate his skills. We feel this will really inspire our children.

We hope that you will support us with this very worthwhile charity. I am sure that family, neighbours and friends would also like to support Sport 4 All.

THANK YOU

HOPA AGM -Thursday 17th September

All parents/carers/teaching staff of children at Oaktree and Hermitage schools are members of HOPA and are invited to the HOPA AGM.

As well as nominating and voting in a new committee; we will be voting on a change in the constitution. The constitution currently states that all profits are to be split as equally as possible between the schools. To take into account the changes in pupil numbers and to allow each school to choose the number of events they want HOPA to organise, it is proposed as follows

Profits from individual events will be allocated to that school
Profits from joint events (eg Summer Fairs, Christmas Fairs etc) will be split as equally as possible between the school.

Also on the Agenda is the rebranding of HOPA 100.

As ever, we will be looking for enthusiastic parents to join us, either as part of the committee or as part of the wider band of helpers. You do not need any particular skills or to commit a lot of time. If your children were in either school last year then you will be aware of the fundraising events we organise. If you are new to the school, please come along and find other like-minded parents who care enough about their children to find out what this is all about.

Nomination forms are available in the school office - nominations also accepted on the night. We desperately need a Treasurer and willing volunteers to join the team.

Building Work

During the building work the Hermitage School have very kindly offered their front playground for our parents to wait at the end of the day.

The Hermitage have several classrooms and offices adjacent to this playground and we would like to cause as little disturbance as possible.

Therefore we would please ask parents to wait on the part of the playground that is nearest to The Oaktree School. There is a yellow line on the playground markings and we would ask our parents to stand the Oaktree side of the line. Please can you ensure that the children stay on the playground and close to you.

Thank you for your support at this very difficult time.

School Council

The School Council met today for the first time. Each Year 1 and Year 2 class have a representative. Representatives from Year R will be voted in over the next few weeks. The following children were voted on to the School Council by their classes:

Fox	Isaac King
Rabbit	Kayla Vine
Owl	Tea Dock

Ladybird	Amy Ballinger
Magpie	Jos Barker
Woodpecker	Finley Hayter

At the meeting we found out that our plans for the front of the school are going to take place this term. Last year all of the children in school put forward designs to make the front of the school more friendly. The School Council chose a lovely floor sun and wanted to build a statue to help people to understand what we believe in. Mr Saetta whose son is in Ladybird class has agreed to put down the sun. The Year 11 children and the Art Department at Winston Churchill have agreed to help the children build the statue.

We also discussed the charities we wish to support this year. Each year group will decide on a charity they would like to support and then arrange to raise money in some way. For our whole school charity this year we are supporting Sports 4 All. Please see separate article.

We would also like to have a new and exciting name for the ICT Suite and each class will be thinking of what this could be. We will let you know the new name shortly.

Miss Hogg—School Council Co-ordinator

FRIENDSHIP FRIENDS

Next week the position of 'Friendship Friend' will be advertised to all Year 2 children. Application forms need to be returned to school no later than Tuesday 22nd September. Interviews will be held on Friday 25th September.

So what are 'Friendship Friends'? Friendship Friends will work with our Teaching Assistants watching out for children sitting on the Friendship Bench looking sad, help younger children to play games, choose and put out play equipment at playtime. They will also be helping the younger children in the lunch hall and playground. There will 6 children in each group and they will work for one week each term, depending on the number of applicants for the position. Everyone knows who the Friendship Friends are because they wear special caps.

The children who undertook this role last year really enjoyed the experience and gained valuable skills. This part of our PSHE programme which encourages children to take on responsibility and exposes them to real life experiences.

ECO NEWS

BIKE CLUB: Due to the building work we will not recommence bike club until after Half Term.

Ink Cartridges, mobile phones, spectacles: These can all be recycled at the school.

AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS

Please find the list of clubs available below.

The children will be informed about all the school run clubs, by the teachers, during assembly time

The School Internet Cafe has started again on a Thursday under the management of Mrs Bladon and Mrs Taylor. The Cafe closes 4 pm (The ICT suite will be open and coffee can be made by parents in Parents corner). This is a drop in session so there is no need to indicate that you will be attending. There will be an opportunity to work with your child on the programs they have been working on this week or to explore web sites suitable for children that the staff suggest. We request that the you do not use the printer as it is fairly costly.

You are welcome to bring siblings along to the club but please can you ensure that they stay quietly with you at all times. To ensure that all Oaktree children can access the computers with their parents we request that siblings are only allowed on the computers if there is not an Oaktree child wishing to use the computer.

If there is a high demand for the club we will need to start a booking system but we will see how many people attend.

CLUBS
Day	Time	Club	Organisation	Starting
Monday	Lunch Time	Eco Club Y2	Oaktree - Mrs Taylor	15th Sept
Tuesday	After School After School After School	Spanish Y1 Football Dance Club	Mrs King Coerver Coaching Oaktree - Mrs Pope	29th Sept Started Started
Wednesday	After School After School Lunch Time	Spanish Y2 Multi Sports Garden Club Y2	Mrs King SCL Oaktree - Mrs Afzal	16th Sept 16th Sept 16th Sept
Thursday	Lunch Time After School After School After School Lunch Time After School	Eco Y1 Fun French ICT Club (children and parents) Art Club - Y2 Choir - Year 2 Football	Oaktree - Mrs Taylor Le Club Fancais Oaktree - Mrs Bladon and Mrs Taylor Oaktree - Mrs Sheppard Oaktree - Mrs Odam Funsport Fitness	17th Sept 24th Sept Started To be advised To be advised Started
Friday	Lunch Time After School	Recorders Y2 Football	Oaktree - Mrs Hogg Planet Soccer	To be advised Started

Year 1

Hello from the new Year 1 team! It's lovely to be back at school with your children who are already settling in really well! We have been imagining an alien has come down to earth and we've been writing labels to explain the different parts of our body! In maths we have been singing number songs to help us count.

We were delighted to meet some of you at "Meet the teacher" - we sent a copy of the information home for those of you not able to come. The children brought home a spelling folder on Tuesday. Can they spend a little time practising the first week's words ready for a quiz on Monday?

If your child has a marrow that they grew over the holiday could they bring it along with their marrow diary on Monday 14th September? Mrs Palmer will be judging the competition to find the biggest one.

Please let your child's class teacher know if your child cannot eat crisps because we are using them to taste in our science on the Learning Bus this week.

Finally a quick plea - can the children put their jumpers in the class jumper box and any raincoats on their pegs to avoid bulging book bags!

HOMEWORK CHALLENGE

Can your child help to write a few items for the family shopping list?

Year 2

Some instructions to follow:-

1. Sit down and have a cup of tea

2. Read this section of the newsletter

3. Ask your child about all the exciting things they have learnt this week!

We hope you had fun following these instructions as the children have done in Literacy this week. They have been reading, following and writing instructions to make Africa Masks to use in their role play areas and make interesting Tangram pictures in their maths lessons. Don't be surprised if your children wagging their fingers and being bossier than usual this weekend; we've been learning lots of verbs!

We've been gearing up for the Olympics and we'll be meeting a real-life gymnast next week, after taking part in a sponsored circuit training session. Please remind your children to be 'Safe Sponsors'!

As our topic this term is Africa it would be really helpful if you could lend us any African artefacts you may have.

If your child has a marrow that they grew over the holiday could they bring it along with their marrow diary on Monday? Mrs Palmer will be judging the competition to find the biggest one.

HOMEWORK CHALLENGE

Take a shape walk around your house. How many 2D and

3D shapes can you find?

Are any of the shapes tessellating?

Reception

Our new children are all in school now and look so smart in their new uniforms! On their first day they enjoyed looking in the mirror at themselves and then painted a picture of how they looked. We have been impressed by the way they have taken part in class activities and thank you for preparing them so well for school.

The children are starting to settle well now and are making new friends. We have taken them on a walk around the school and they have helped their teachers make up some class rules to keep everyone safe and happy and remember The Oaktree Way': to care for everybody and everything. Yesterday our excited autumn born children had lunch and stayed all day!

You will find in your child's book bag a sound sheet. Next week we will be starting our daily phonics sessions and will be working on a new sound each day, beginning with 's'. These sessions include learning the sound the letter makes, the corresponding action and its name through songs and stories. Please use the sheet to support your child with learning the sounds and letter names at home.

If you are able to make playdough for your child's class, please see your child's teacher. The playdough must not be made with any nut-based products and please keep the products away from the area when making the play-dough. Thank you.

Please can we remind you that children are not permitted to wear earrings at The Oaktree School. We will be starting our PE lessons next week. The PE bags need to come in on a Monday and be taken home on a Friday to be washed! Homework Challenge Can you tell someone at home what your class rules are?

Thank you very much for your support Year R Team

Packed Lunches

If your child wishes to bring a packed lunch please ensure it is a healthy and well balanced lunch. Please avoid including these foods in packed lunches:-

Chocolate bars or sweets, however a chocolate coated biscuit is allowed

Nuts, as these can cause allergic reactions

Sweet fillings for sandwiches, chocolate spread, peanut butter or jam

Please encourage your child to make a healthy option.