Oak
2022 - 2023
Summer Term 1
Another fantastic half-term in Oak Class! With the advent of fairer weather, we have been getting out and about and enjoying our outdoor learning. For Outdoor Classroom day, we measured perimeter and area in the school field as well as ventured out on a visit to Swanage! The children thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to visit Swanage Beach to learn about coastal erosion and other environmental issues. We have been so lucky with the weather and have made the most of all the opportunities living in such a wonderful environment has presented us.
A highlight of the half-term was the BSO concert at Poole Lighthouse. The children learned a song, using the Makaton sign language, together with a dance. We were so lucky this year to be five rows from the front and this made the concert even more special. We really got to see just how professional and amazing these musicians are and we had great fun dancing to the orchestral version of Dancing Queen!
As Summer 1 half-term ends it is only natural to look forward to what the future holds. After such an amazing year, the children can now look forward to their transition days and visiting their new schools and teachers. This is a wonderfully exciting time of year for Year 6 and after such an amazing year, I am sure that their transition will be smooth and they will have so many fabulous opportunities at the Secondary level of their education.
Spring Term 2
As we head towards the Easter break, I would just like to reflect on how brilliantly all of your children are doing this year. It is so wonderful watching them write as they take so much pride and effort to produce work of a very high standard. With only one full term left, this pride in their work will pay dividends moving onto their new secondary placements.
Yet again another packed half-term with so much achieved. For Science Week, the children learnt about water resistance and forces when they designed and built rafts for a raft race. Once they had designed their rafts, they used Design and Technology techniques (such as measuring, cutting and sawing) to produce wonderful balsa wood rafts. The races were amazing as all the rafts floated and made a good show of themselves. Combining all of the STEM skills in this one activity was very rewarding and we had so much fun!
Continuing with Science, Oak class welcomed two visitors into school to learn about animals, their habitats and classification. To begin with, a teacher from the Wessex Wild Foundation taught the children about Charles Darwin, evolution and inheritance with a particular focus on farm animals. The children learnt how farmers bred sheep, for example, depending on the type of wool required or cows on their muscularity. It was good that they could see how inheritance and evolution is still very relevant today especially in a commercial setting such as farming. Our second visitors were Creature Teacher who brought in a wide variety of animals to talk about their habitats. The children loved having the opportunity to hold a snake and even to stroke hissing cockroaches-they were very brave! During this visit they learnt about how animals adapt to their habitat and how, when taken out of their habitat, they struggle to survive.
As we head towards SATs week, it is so pleasing to see that the children are working really hard to be the best that they can be. This work ethic will stand them in good stead as we head towards the final term thinking about transitioning to their new secondary schools. Such an exciting time for everyone with so much to look forward to! As ever, your continued support is very much appreciated!
Happy Easter everyone!
Oak Class Spring Term 2023
Spring Term 1
Another fantastic half-term in Oak Class! The children are really enjoying their learning and it is so pleasing to see that they are taking pride in the quality of their handwriting. They really enjoyed writing their mythical stories, based on the poem Beowulf, and it was wonderful that they did such a good job that the final drafts were put on display for the whole school to read. Oak Class even had the opportunity to read their stories to Acorn Class! A highlight, so far this year, has been Mr Keys teaching the children how to compose on the Digital Audio Workstation. This initiative, set-up by the Dorset Music Service, has meant that the children are able to use computer software to create digital compositions. The quality of their work has been amazing and the children are really enjoying exploring the sounds in their compositions.
We had the opportunity to visit Leeson House earlier in the term and the children had the opportunity to put into practice their mapping and compass skills. It is such a valuable resource to have on our doorstep and the children always learn so much from their visits. We had another visitor, Linda, who talked to the children about Judaism. It is always special when the children can learn about the lives and beliefs of other faiths and Linda did a wonderful job to answer their questions and extend the children’s thinking.
As we look forward to warmer days, as well as further opportunities to learn outside of the classroom, it is lovely to know that we have so many wonderful, different opportunities to learn in our environment and we are all very much looking forward to doing so! Well done Oak Class-keep up the fantastic work!
Autumn Term 2
I would just like to reflect on how brilliantly all of your children have done at St George’s. This term got off to a great start when Oak visited the indoor planetarium and they learnt about the Solar System as well travelling at great speed through the Asteroid Belt! A big ‘thank you!’ to the PTA for their continued support and payment for this wonderful experience.
The children’s artwork has been a highlight this half-term and they were fortunate enough to be taught paintbrush skills by a visiting teacher with a specialism in Art. It was lovely to see the variety of brush techniques such as: pointillism, hatching, blending and swirling. The artwork that they produced was amazing and so colourful!
I am so proud with the improvement in all of the children’s writing since September. They have worked really hard and the quality of the children’s sentences is amazing using: fronted adverbials, subordinating conjunctions and synonyms. The children no longer accept basic sentences and they strive to make their writing as interesting and exciting to read as possible. Well done everyone-keep up the fantastic work!
A big thank you to my Maths Booster group who got to school early and have really benefitted from the extra tuition. This extra effort will really pay off on their transition to Secondary School maths. Next term, we can look forward to another exciting year of learning with the children exploring animal classification, in Science, as well as lots of opportunities to get out and about and Live Learning: Love Learning in the Great Outdoors!
Thank you to parents and carers for your continued support and I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Autumn Term 1
It has been fantastic having the children back at St George’s and they have all settled in really well. The daily routine has been established and the children are enjoying being back at school and learning again. This half term we have been learning about the Solar System and the children have really enjoyed researching the history of astronomy as well as researching facts about their chosen planets. From this, they produced super writing about Galileo, Capernicus and Sir Isaac Newton that they can be really proud of.
In Design and Technology, the children have been designing and making models of a planet, constructing a frame and then building on this frame with papier mache. They really enjoyed this process and did a superb job of painting them. I am looking forward to constructing a display in Oak Class with these!
Science has been fun researching the topic of Light and learning about mirrors and shadows. The children enjoyed the experiments, especially exploring how the angle of a light source affects the length of a shadow!
Well done everyone for keeping up with your home learning and I am very much looking forward to the Autumn 2 term!
