March 2015 - Oakfield Academy

March 2015
Oakfield Academy, Oakfield Road, Frome BA11 4JF
Tel: 01373 462539 Fax: 01373 453370 E-mail: office@oakfield.somerset.sch.uk
www.oakfieldacademy.co.uk
If you would like further information on any of the items in the newsletter, please contact the school
office. A large font version of the newsletter is available from Reception.
Internet Safety
19 Mar
Fundraisers Mtg 6.30pm
25 Mar
Spring Interim Reports home
25-26 Mar Blues Night Performances
27 Mar
Last day of Term 4
13 Apr
First day of Term 5
23 Apr
St George’s Day
Fundraisers Bingo !!
4 May
Bank Holiday
w/c 5 May KS2 Revision Week
w/c 11 May Year 6 SATS Exams
w/c 11 May Yr 8 Exam Week
22 May Last day of Term 5
1 June
First day of Term 6
w/c 1 Jun Yr 6 Arts Week
3 Jun
Yr 8 Field Trip (details to follow)
3 June Yr 5 Speaker—Fireman Ian
w/c 8 June Year 5 Exams
w/c 8 Jun Yr 8 Charterhouse Camps
10 Jun Parents Forum, 2pm E Centre
w/c 15 Jun Yr 5 Arts Week
16 Jun
KS3 Sports Day
17 Jun
Yr 5 Forensic Science Day
23 Jun
KS3 Sports Day (reserve)
24 Jun
World Sports Day
30 Jun
Yr 6 Sports Day
2 July
Yr 5 Sports Day
2 July
Yrs 5, 7 & 8 Reports home
3 July
Transfer Day
w/c 6 July School performance week
6 July
Middle School Athletics Tournament
10 July Yr 6 Reports home
13/14 July KS2 Bikeability
15 July Yr 5 end of year trip
16 July Yr 7 French Day
16 July Yr 8 end of year trip
17 July Last day of Term 6 FINISH 2pm
We would respectfully
encourage all parents to
be aware of what their
children are looking at
when using the internet.
Safe monitoring of what
your child is accessing
can avoid difficulties which can occur as a
result of inappropriate sites or information
being used. We cannot take responsibility for
any interaction on social media sites or any
other sites your children may access through
their personal phone, laptop or
computer. Any unpleasant messaging should
be dealt with by parents, through blocking
unwanted contacts or if there is a serious
concern, reporting it to the website
owner. We do not allow mobile phone use in
school and our internet access has stringent
firewall restrictions. Any curriculum use of
internet sites is strictly monitored in school.
If you would like help with internet safety
can we suggest the following sites.
http://www.digizen.org/
http:/www.childnet.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/topic/stay-safe
Pastoral Team
Oakfield Academy, Oakfield Road, Frome. BA11 4JF Company No 769044 registered in England
Our ever-growing collection of un-named lost property continues
to accumulate. Please encourage your child to visit Reprographics
and reclaim any items that they are missing. Parents are welcome
to pop in and look through the items between 3.00-3.30pm.
Unfortunately due to the shortage of storage space that we have
and the volume of lost property, any unclaimed items that are still
with us during the Easter Holidays will be donated to Charity.
In future, all lost property will be disposed of at the end of each half term. Last days
for collection until the end of this school year will therefore be:- Friday 27th March,
Friday 22nd May and Tuesday 21st July, after this all items (coats, sweatshirts,
lunchboxes, drink bottles, pencil cases, PE Kits ) will be disposed of or donated to
charity. Thank you for your support.
All the year 8s went to Frome Community College recently to try
out new subjects for their GSCE options.
College Staff put on sample lessons to help pupils make their
decisions as to what subjects they should study next year at the
college. It was extremely well organised and pupils and staff
alike had an excellent day. Pupils remarked how useful it had
been and how much they were now looking forward to going up
to Year 9 at the College in September.
Kindly remember to send into
school any Sainsbury’s
vouchers that you receive
when shopping. We are once
again collecting, and will
redeem them when we reach
the deadline at the end of
June, for new school
equipment. Please mention
this to any friends and family
that might do their shopping
at Sainsbury’s, and collect
their vouchers also.
THANK YOU.
Our DT Department
urgently require more
chiller space, to replace the
old fridge freezer that
recently broke down. If
you are currently upgrading
your kitchen or moving
house and have an
unwanted fridge freezer
that you would like to
donate to the school, please get in touch
with Mrs Nightingale via the school office for
a chat. Thank you very much.
From left to right:- Mr Ken Fricker, Frome Rotary,
Lewis Wells 8N, Soli Llewellyn 8A and Jayden Wheeler 8C.
And so, our brave Public Speakers went courageously into the district finals
of "Youth Speaks", the national public speaking competition organised by the
Rotary Club. Held at Frome Community College, ‘The Oakfield Three’
competed against the other schools from the wider area, giving their highly
informative speech on their opinions on footballer's pay.
The standard was outstanding and the evening was an incredible showcase
of our local talent. Again, Oakfield presented with the skill and confidence
that most adults would be envious of. The spokesman of the evening
congratulated our speakers and reiterated that this experience would be one
which would benefit them greatly in their future.
MISS HALL, English Department
BLUES NIGHTS—Oakfield Academy Fundraisers
will be running refreshments on both evenings and
would like to thank Juliet Vowell from FROME GOLF
CLUB for purchasing and donating the Alcohol
Licence for these evenings.
Dear Parent and Carers,
I write to make you aware of the somewhat scandalous
existing arrangements regarding funding for Somerset Schools.
As Headteachers across Somerset we are campaigning to
encourage a fairer funding system for schools through the
establishment of a national funding formula.
Currently, Somerset schools are amongst the worst funded in
the country. Consequently, students in Somerset are likely to suffer from larger class sizes,
fewer support staff and inferior facilities compared with students in other authorities. Our
argument is that the quality of education should not be a function of postcode.
The variation between authorities is largely due to replication of historic spending
patterns. There are enormous differences as you can see:
Local Authority
City of London
Tower Hamlets
Nottingham
City of Bristol
Reading
Somerset
Leicestershire
Total Dedicated Schools Grant
Rank
Total 2015/16 DSG funding expressed as
£ per pupil (5-16 only)
1
£12,159
8
£8,991
28
£6,536
26
38
£6,582
£6,299
£5,250
£5,086
137
150
This means Oakfield receives c.£720,160 less than the same sized school in Nottingham
(equivalent to employing another 24 experienced teachers) and an astonishing £3,869,040
less than the same size school in the City of London.
The Pupil Premium, designed to support disadvantaged pupils is paid at a blanket rate across
the country. Currently, the level of per pupil funding and Pupil Premium combined, means
that disadvantaged pupils in Somerset are funded well below the level of an affluent pupil in
better funded authorities.
Somerset is a member of the f40 group of low-funded authorities that seeks the
implementation of a national funding framework for schools, to be introduced from
2016/2017.
F40 proposes that:
* Funding based on historical patterns is removed and that funding is distributed based on
a fair national formula.
* That implementation should be phased over a three year academic period, the first of
these years being 2016/2017.
* That all school funding should be through a single stream, with no specific grants, and
incorporating the Pupil Premium.
It is in many ways scandalous that the provision for children educated in Somerset is
undermined by a system which funds children in vastly different ways according to where
they live.
I am sure that you as parents will be interested to hear about funding for schools and may
wish to seek re-assurances from our political representatives that this will be addressed as a
matter of priority in the near future.
Yours faithfully,
Emma Wilkes—Headteacher
Our netball teams have enjoyed a good win against Hugh
Sexeys School recently. Year 7 won 3-2 and Year 8 won
5-0. We are not usually successful against Hugh Sexeys,
and the girls should be really proud of themselves, they
played extremely well.
Further success was enjoyed at St Dunstans School in Glastonbury by our Year
7 team, when they beat the opposition 9-7. The match took place in
St Dunstans’ new sports hall. Keep up the good work girls.
MRS COLEMAN
CONGRATULATIONS
to Mr Holden for
passing his Crossing
Patrol training
recently. Mr Young
will cover mornings
and Mr Holden will
supervise in the
afternoons.
Our next Bingo Night will be
on Thursday 23rd April—
which is St George’s Day!!
More details to follow.
Oakfield Fundraisers would like to
thank everyone that came to our
Family Valentines Bingo on 13th
February. We had a wonderful
evening and some great buckets of
love (themed hampers) were won.
Our last house prize was for £50,
which was won by Jakayla, 5S.
Lucky girl !!
KS2 Cheerleading club
Fridays 3.10-4.15pm in the gym
Starts 17th April til 22nd May
Due to popular demand, we are
running another KS2 club. Those who
were on the reserve list will get first
refusal. First come first served for the
remaining places.
Letters available
from the office.
Pictured above, the top five pupils, one from each year group and the flexible
learning group, who were rewarded for their Superschools fundraising
efforts. Each of them received Gold Medals and a £40.00 Clarks voucher.
Mr Fowler and the PE Department would like to thank all the pupils who raised
money. Top fundraisers (from left->right) Amelia Warrick (Y7),
Carl Cooper (FLG), Kyle Knight (Y5), Damien Metchal (Y6) and finally
Hannah Bobbet (Y8).
We are pleased to announce that we have two new members of staff.
Ms Smith and Mr Mepham have joined us to train to be Teaching Assistants.
They have settled in really quickly, and the children are already benefiting
from their support in class. Welcome to Oakfield Academy.
A breaktime Table Tennis exhibition took place
recently, intended to inspire pupils for their
upcoming Table Tennis lessons. These have just been
added to the curriculum this year! Pupils from years
6, 7 and 8 are all currently doing 1 hour of table
tennis a week this term.
Roll of Honour – Key Stage 3
January – February 2015
Teigan Throup
7A
Hannah Bobbett
8A
Aiden Loughlin
7N
Lewis Wells
8N
Molly Lindley
7A
Grace Lindley
8C
Baxter Raithby
7S
Grace Rawlins
8R
Niah Earl
7N
Arwen Wilkie
8A
Spanish
Tom Leigh
7R
French
Sabrina Roberts
7O
Gabriel Wild
8S
Jude Scholefield
8C
Irek Swierczynski
7S
Soli Llewellyn
8A
Kate O’Connor
7O
Kitty Peyton
8O
Charlotte McCoy
7S
Alex Willmott
8N
Eve Lindley
7N
Ben Underhill
8C
Felix Piper
7S
Camille Whittaker
8R
Stephanie Verwey
7A
Barney Nuttall
8A
Kelly Clark
FLG/
8R
English
Maths
Science
History
Geography
German
Computing
D&T
Art
Music
P.E.
Drama
Most
Progress
“Last Tuesday I went to a quarry at Stoke St Michael
with my dad to watch a blast. I travelled around the
quarry on a peculiar shaped jeep, it was really bouncy
sitting at the back. We watched the blast from a
viewing point on top of a giant crusher, the platform
really vibrated when the explosion happened! The
countdown from 10->1 was amazing, then BOOM!, dust
flew through the sky”. Aaron Bowring, 5O
NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL CANTEEN
Due to internet technical difficulties, meals taken
from the canteen on the 4th March will recorded
on Parentpay on Friday 13th March. Apologies for
the confusion.
Don’t forget to ‘like’ the Oakfield
Academy information page on
Facebook—for up to date
information and news as it happens
at school. Updated daily.
THANK YOU.
Review of G&T Art Residential at Kilve Court
“The art residential at Kilve Court was really fun. We each produced lots of pictures using
pencils, charcoal and chalk pastels, as well as a lino cutting and print, a wire sculpture, a
clay model and a soap stone carving. We were able to take home all the items that we
produced.
In small groups we also created a willow animal, which we were also allowed to take home,
if everyone else in the group agreed. Each of us also received a certificate to show that
we had participated in the course”.
STEPHANIE VERWEY 7A
Can pupils please avoid crossing the
road directly outside the school when
there are coaches parked outside.
Our staff have witnessed several near
misses (some involving parents and
their children) with vehicles passing
the school.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
CO-OPERATION.
Miss Wilkes and Mrs Elloway have
decided to have their hair chopped
off for charity on 1st May!!
http://www.justgiving.com/ByeHair
Please sponsor this great cause, the
hair will be made into wigs for
children with cancer and the money
raised is going to PAC. Thank you.
Oakfield Academy celebrated World Book Day in style today with a
remarkable effort made by KS2 pupils and staff, dressing up as book
characters. The costumes were extremely creative - it has been one of the
best years yet! Winners from each tutor group were chosen- Nancy Lloyd,
Evan Davies, Alex Hall, Tilly Kempshall, Tabby Spiers,
Oscar Mukhopadhay, Louis Simpson, Paige Davies, Paige Daniels (Year 5),
Rudi-Blue Deneka, Finlay Hopkins, Damien Metcalf, Sabrina Garrod and
Milly McIntosh (Year 6).
After much deliberation the overall winners were chosen - Rudi-Blue as the
Goblin King from Labrynth and Evan as Kester Jaynes.
Alongside the dressing up the pupils have been creating dioramas,
a book scene in a shoe box, entries are still coming in and will be
judged next week.
Well done to all the Oakfield pupils who joined in with celebrating
World book day- we truly had an enjoyable day!
Mrs Hornby, KS2 Literacy Co-ordinator
Our Key Stage 3 Girls Rugby teams have done us proud again, with our “A”
team qualifying for the County finals later this month. “A” Team results:beat Selwood 8-2, beat Hollyrood 3-1, beat Bucklers Mead 6-4 and drew with
Fairlands 4-4.
WELL DONE GIRLS!