A huge Woodcote welcome to our new starters!
We are really excited to be working with you this year. We understand that every child is unique and the curriculum we plan continually evolves to ensure that all children can grow and flourish. High quality interactions with and observations by staff, along with strong, positive relationships between home and school ensure the provision meets each child's needs and interests in order to engage them in their learning.
The website will give regular updates, and photos once all the consent form preferences have been recorded. Please also read the weekly newsletter as this will give you weekly updates as to what the Oakies have been busy doing at school and important reminders. If ever you have any questions or feedback, our doors are open to you.
This week's news - 1st July 2022
Oak have enjoyed their first school sports day this week. What a wonderful afternoon as the sun shined, and the children ran, jumped and cheered their way to success! We may have future sports starts among us, especially with the javelin throwers. What great distances the javelins travelled! We are very proud of how the children handled victory and defeat. There was an excellent buzz as the children cheered for older children in the same school team. A huge thank you to all the families who came to watch, we loved having you support us and hope you enjoyed it as much as us.
This week's news - 24th June 2022
Oak have had a super week at school. We have welcome Miss Berks to the Oak team this week, to give us an extra pair of hands in the classroom. The children know Miss Berks from lunchtimes, and have made her feel very welcome. In maths we have been learning about odd and even numbers. We have finished our final phonics assessments of the year. The children have all made great progress and Mrs Martin can’t believe the change since September. Well done Oakies 😊
We loved watching the Oxford Playhouse performance of Animal Rocks in the tent. There were super characters, great outfits and even live music. It was so good we went back to watch it again! The actors complimented the children on their super participation. Next week is Sports Day and we have been practicing our skills very hard.
This week's news - 17 June 2022
Oak have had a somewhat quieter week after the excitement of our Waddesdon trip last week, although no week in Reception is every truly quiet! We have been talking about how brilliant Dads are, inspired by Nick Butterworth’s book. We have been hard at work making a special something which you will find in your child’s book bag today, ready for Sunday (shh, it’s a surprise!). We hope all our Dads have a superb Father’s Day on Sunday : )
In Maths, we have been doubling and sharing equally. The children did a superb job watching the dress rehearsal of the Y3 and Y4 play. They were an excellent audience. The beautiful weather has also enabled us to have lots of water play and we are well underway practicing our sports day skills. With the good weather set to continue, please can children come to school with a water bottle and hat every day. Ideally sun cream should be applied at home, but you are welcome to send a small bottle into school if your child is able to apply it independently.
This week's news - 10 June 2022
Oak have had the most exciting start to a school term – our visit to Waddesdon! What an adventure we had. Even the coach journey was exciting... what a fantastic opportunity to play I-Spy as we weaved our way through beautiful countryside and tiny villages. When we arrived, we couldn’t believe the size of the grounds and the house was described as “a palace” and “a castle” by the children. One of the Oaks wondered whether it was bigger than Buckingham Palace, and the criss-cross ivy around the base of the turrets was much admired!
Once we were there, we met our workshop leader Sophie. She read the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then we discussed the lifecycle of an insect. In little groups we put models of insects in order – eggs, larva (baby insect), cocoon and adult. What a “wow” start to our new Minibeasts topic! We also learnt about growing and planting, and we got to plant our own cress seeds in a little pouch which we took home to grow. With rumbling tummies, we stopped for lunch in the shade of a tall tree and then had running races on the front lawns. What a very special experience. Our next stop was to see and hear the rare birds at the aviary and then a family of wooden elephants, before hitting the adventure playground to run, jump, climb and slide. Just before we left, Mrs Wornham took a group photo outside to mark our fantastic visit. We returned to the coach tired, but very happy. A huge thank you to our parent volunteers, Mrs White and Ms Wernham, who kept us safe and happy while we were out of school. Photographs of our trip are below!
In everyday matters, we have resumed running laps of the field every dry day and we have now finished our unit on taking away in maths. Our home corner role play has been transformed into a hair salon by the children’s imaginations – so watch this space as Mrs James and Mrs Martin add some authentic props (except scissors!) to support their play. On Monday we welcome Ms Lloyd back for the day, and on Tuesday we have our class photo taken. Another busy week ahead!
This week's news - 26 May 2022
Oak have had a wonderful final week this term. We have sadly said farewell to Miss Lloyd, but we will see her around the school now and again when she returns. She is like the Mary Poppins of Woodcote School :)
This week has all been about preparing for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We have had a wonderful time chalking castles, making crowns and having a very special celebration on Wednesday. We rolled around with giggles and roared with laughter at Jester Giggles' show, and we had our very own star of the show from Oak class when Matthew was called up to help! It was a joy for the children to watch the show, and a privilege for the adults to see the children having so much fun. After lunch we changed into our party outfits and played a few traditional party games before being collected by our Year 6 buddies to attend a tea party fit for the Queen! We enjoyed scones, jelly and ice cream and cake with our friends. It was noisy but great fun to see so many people packed in the hall. Florence had a very special job and represented Oak class beautifully. As youngest girl in the school, Florence helped unveil the plaque on the new oak tree planted in the school grounds as part of the Jubilee Green Canopy project. This tree will mature after over 100 years! Florence then helped cut the cake with Hugo, the oldest boy at Woodcote. Well done to them both, we are super proud of you Florence!
As if the week could not get any better, on Thursday we had a special visit from a Puma helicopter. It came to do three laps of the school grounds at low altitude. It was exciting and noisy at the same time, but the best bit was seeing someone inside the helicopter waving back at us! What a fantastic way to round off a memorable week at school. Happy Jubilee everyone!
This week's news - 20 May 2022
Oak have had a busy week, and have been enjoying lots of water play now that the weather is warm enough to dry off! We have been working on gross (big) motor skills in PE. We split into three teams and rotated around different activities outside. Our final rotation was the best, as we could choose one activity to repeat. Some of us loved the bikes, others wanted to play ball games and some of us practiced balancing using the Trim Trail. In maths, we have started to ‘add more’, using objects and pictures to help us. As the week has progressed, we have then moved to having a “missing step” where we know the start and end of the addition story, and have to work out how many more were added. This has proven great fun and has allowed us to show off our fantastic skills with the tens frames. In topic, we have been learning about the Jubilee. It was surprising to find out that the Queen has ruled for nearly 70 years (it’s a really long long long time!), and that she became Queen at a young age. We read The Birthday Crown by Davide Cali and Kate Slater. All of the Royal household make the Queen a crown based on their jobs, so we had a go at making our own crowns based on the things we love. We are getting really excited about the celebrations next week. Not long to go!
This week's news - 13th May 2022
If you go down to Oak class today, you’re sure of a big surprise! This week we had an Oak class celebration – with some very special invited guests of all shapes, colours and sizes. Have a look at the picture and see who and what you can spot! Yes, Oak class held a teddy bear picnic with fun, play and lots of time to introduce our soft toys to each other. We made a wish list of things to do with the teddies, and we ticked most of them off the list. Rain meant that we couldn’t have our big game of ‘duck, duck goose’ on the field so that will wait for another day. At the end of the day, all our families joined us for an enthusiastic rendition of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt where the children recited the whole story with incredible story telling skills. What super stars- you thoroughly deserved your certificates! Thank you to all our families for all their support. A special thank you to Mrs Butler who came to plant Jubilee flowers with the children too this week. They are going to look fantastic outside the church.
This week's news - 6th May 2022
We have had another busy week in Oak class. In maths we have been counting back from 20 using tens frames, and playing lots of games involving dice. We have also been ordering numerals from 11-20 and making changes to the number line for our partner to spot. In English we have been describing the settings from the Bear Hunt, and the children have been able to think about superb descriptive words to use in our sentence writing. In Topic, we have been learning about England and finding out about our historic cities, open spaces and important discoveries. The children were amazed to find out that lots of sports and inventions have come from England, like lightbulbs, the telephone and the first train. We have been continuing to celebrate ourselves and the children have been able to tell us about the brilliant things they can do... playing rugby, going swimming and being a kind friend. We are lucky to have such superstars in Oak class! Please see the Parent Mail about our teddy bear picnic and performance to parents next Tuesday 10th May. We can’t wait to perform our story to you!
This Week's News - 29th April 2022
This week the children of Oak class have warmly welcomed Mrs James as their teacher while Miss Beesley is enjoying her maternity leave. Mrs James is working in Oak class Monday-Wednesday for the next four weeks, and Miss Lloyd will be teaching at the end of the week. From the last week before half term, Mrs James will be teaching full time in Oak class. Both Mrs James and Miss Lloyd are looking forward to a busy and exciting term!
We were delighted to explore new outdoor resources this week. The softwood wooden bricks have prompted lots of collaborative imaginative play, especially when teamed with hi-vis and safety barriers. The trim trail construction has given us lots of ideas for our play. We have also been investigating the uses of different tubing and have discovered exciting green piping that makes our voices travel like a telephone! The children are working hard to ensure they tidy away thoughtfully at the end of the day. Over time, more resources will be added to the outdoor area from the shed, so the children can lead their own learning.
In maths we have been focussing on teen numbers, and representing numerals with different resources such as cubes and numicon. We have also used tens frames to represent different teen numbers. We are even using numicon to count the date every day, and have noticed that each day we add one more!
This term, our story of the term is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. So far we have listened to the story, created a shared story map and by Wednesday this week, we could retell the whole story (with actions) by following the story map! We are planning a teddy bear picnic and would like to invite parents to a shared retelling of the story in week 3– more details to follow next week.
In PSED, we have been thinking about what makes us brilliant and the Oak children have been thinking about times they have been brave, helpful, honest and kind. What a way to celebrate ourselves, and the new start of term!
Oak Class have had a busy week exploring different ways of making 6, 7 and 8 in their Maths lessons. They used dominoes to explore different ways of making 7 and also enjoyed playing dominoes on the carpet. |
The children started to brainstorm about Australia this week with Mrs Ward. They loved sharing their knowledge and also came up with some super questions to explore in the coming weeks. They also enjoyed listening to some Aboriginal music and studying Aboriginal art. The children have also been busy making beautiful, giant Mother’s Day cards – just right for these sunny Spring days.
What a productive week we have had in Oak! The most exciting production of all was the arrival of Miss Beesley’s baby on Tuesday morning. We all wish Miss Beesley well and are looking forward to hearing lots more about her little daughter and to meeting her in the future. We worked hard to make some lovely cards for her sending our best wishes.
We got busy baking on Monday, having great fun mixing, rolling and cutting our gingerbread men. Mrs Kew popped them in the oven and, thankfully, none of them ran away so they were ready to decorate on Tuesday. On Wednesday we made super gingerbread hand puppets, cutting and sticking carefully to make sure that they looked smart. We have also been thinking about the different characters in the story and writing thought bubbles for them. In our Maths, we have been counting to 20, making sure that we use one to one correspondence to get an accurate answer.
On Tuesday afternoon, we enjoyed getting outside in the sunshine. We teamed up with our friends in Beech and with their help and the checklist on our clipboards, we explored the school grounds looking for signs of Spring. We enjoyed our teamwork and Mrs Pearson was very proud of our behaviour.
This Week's News- 11th March 2022
This week we have been busy in phonics writing sentences and simple words using our sounds and digraphs. We have also had fun adding objects together and working carefully on one to one counting. We have had fun playing in the Bakery and have been busy pretending to make many delicious delights! We have also had fun learning the rhyme for the letter g and developing our handwriting.
We also enjoyed creating junk models and learning about Holi a popular ancient Hindu festival.
This Week's News- 11th February 2022
This week in Oak we have enjoyed exploring measuring in heights. We made towers and placed them in order by height. We also talked about how we measure and if it is fair to measure our friends if we let one of them stand on a box! We continued to develop our number recognition and demonstrated our skills by showing the amounts on our fingers. In phonics we have been developing word and sentence writing. We discussed the importance of making sure we write all the sounds we hear! We have enjoyed fixing up the outside area with our builder's toolkit and had a great time in the water tray talking about capacity. Although we did get very wet!
This Week's New's: 4th February 2022
This week we have enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year. We enjoyed hearing the story of the animal race and finding out which animal represents the year we were born in. We have lots of monkeys and roosters in Oak Class! We also had great fun dressing up in traditional clothing and making puppets. Many of the children continued this activity during their child-initiated time the next day! In phonics we have continued to develop our sound recognition and developed our skills of writing these. We have also begun to write our tricky words. In Maths we have been practising one more and one less to 10 through playing a jumping forwards and backwards game!
This Week's News- 21st January 2022
This week we have been busy practising our sounds and writing. We have been developing our segmenting and blending skills, being careful not to confuse the initial and final sounds. In writing we have been talking about our journey to school and thinking about how we affect the environment. We have continued to learn more about India, making the flag and learning about how it is different to our flag. In Maths we have been developing our understanding of number bonds to 10. We are getting very good at showing how to make different numbers using our fingers. Ask us two different ways of making the number 6! We have enjoyed making stories around our new farmyard. We have also been talking about our favourite stories and the books we have at home. We had a great time choosing our favourite books to share
Settling into Oak Class
We have enjoyed exploring the areas of the classroom and have settled into school well.
We had a great time drawing with chalks outside and exploring how to get cars through the guttering! The children thought carefully about where to place the guttering in order to catch the cars in their bucket!
We have enjoyed developing our skills in PE. We have been busy learning to balance along objects, roll and jump off of equipment. We have also been learning to walk along small beams and learning to hold a pose whilst on equipment. We have enjoyed crawling through tunnels and moving in a variety of ways.
Working from Home
Please see our 'Working from Home' page for your first home learning project.
Keep smiling, keep healthy and keep reading and writing!
We have enjoyed exploring outside. We worked hard to make sure our guttering maze carried the cars down into the bucket! We had a great time making changes and thinking through all of our decisions.
We love drawing and writing and the chalk board. We also enjoyed relaxing in the sun!
We have been enjoying the warmer weather!
We have had a fantastic time in our new wooden Garden Centre. We have been busy making seed packets, potting plants and we have had lots of customers!
We have also had fun catching fish and adding our nets together.
We have enjoyed playing number bingo! We had to say one more than the number we turned over. Whoever covered their numbers first was the winner!
We also had lots of fun making our own number bingo games too!
We have had a great time learning the story of The Gingerbread Man.
The children enjoyed rolling dice, adding the numbers together and placing the amount of buttons on their Gingerbread men.
Oak Class enjoyed a wonderful day in the woods with some teddy bear friends. Despite the hot weather they were busy making ponds and shelters, searching for bears and using all their senses to explore the woodland: smelling herbs, listening to birds and grasshoppers, and making teddy paw prints in clay. Their enthusiasm, good manners and enjoyment made all the staff very proud - what wonderful Woodcote woodland ambassadors.
Swimming
The children had a fantastic time on their first swimming lesson! They listened beautifully and followed the instructions of the swimming teacher well.
Great fun was had by all!
We have had a very exciting visitor this week!
We have enjoyed learning about the role of a police officer and how to stay safe when we get lost in a shop or somebody talks to us at the park. We were able to wear the policeman's hat and enjoyed listening to his radio.
We also learnt about police dogs and that they can run as fast as 30 mph!
On Thursday 29th March, Oak children celebrated their achievements in dance this term in a special Sharing Assembly alongside all the other classes. The children demonstrated their Haka with fabulous enthusiasm.
Easter Fun
We have been busy making Easter nests this week!
The children had a fantastic time in PE! They have been learning the best techniques to balance cones on their bodies and how to stay very still, so that none of them fall. We had some very interesting balancing positions!
The children had some very special visitors!
Snowy and Halo the reindeer flew into Woodcote Primary School playground and were greeted by some very excited Oak children. We enjoyed learning all about the reindeer and had great fun stroking and feeding them.
The children had great fun enjoying the inside and outside craft activities.
They made some fantastic creatures with playdough and objects collected from outside. They also enjoyed conker painting.
The children are very excited about the new addition to the mud kitchen! Thank you to the parent who kindly helped to dig and finish this!
The children have had a fantastic time exploring the areas of the classroom.
They have been learning about solid 3D shapes and using them to build models and create many new inventions!
We have enjoyed some quiet time reading stories and we are about to begin our own story of the Gingerbread Man.
The children have enjoyed exploring the outside area!
They have had a fantastic time in the mud kitchen making mud pies and chocolate ice creams! The children have enjoyed playing football and building with equipment to make dens and spaces.
Bug Hunting
The children really enjoyed exploring the outside area looking for insects! The children were excited to find many insects living under logs and we discussed different habitats and environments. We talked about why we are different to animals and ways in which we are similar.