Mrs Scarth's End of Half Term Letter

                                                                                                                                         24/10/25

Dear parents /carers,

PTA

A huge thank you to our wonderful PTA, parents and staff helpers who organised very successful Halloween Discos, which raised over £700 and the Family Bingo Night which raised £600. In addition to these events £528 from the park run and £424 from the Adult Back to School Disco which was held jointly with Infants. Lots of fun was had by all! Money raised this year will go into the new MUGA fund. Thank you to everyone for supporting our fundraising efforts.

Year 6 Application for Secondary Places – reminder.

Y6 Residential Trip to Mount Cook

Our Year 6 pupils (and teachers!) have managed to make it through the final week of term, after a fantastic week of outdoor adventurous activities in the Peak District. Fantastic memories for all our pupils, which I am sure will be the highlight of their time in Year 6.

Eco Committee

This week, the Eco Committee have delivered our very own scarecrow, called Wallace, to Southlands BUPA Hospice as part of a display for the residents there. We used garden canes to make the structure, old tights for the head and arms and newspaper to stuff him and make him look real. For the hair we used orange and brown wool and for clothing, an old school sweatshirt and joggers. Two buttons were used for his eyes. We think he looks pretty realistic - he certainly kept making everyone think we had a new pupil in school when they saw him! Great job, Eco Committee!

Report by William, Snow Leopards

Yorkshire in Bloom

We competed with 9 other schools from across Yorkshire and I am pleased to announce that we are winners of School Grounds and the  Young People's Award. A superb achievement! A special thanks to Mr Gray and Miss Hind for leading Sustainability and Outdoor Learning across the school. Joy Smith, judge for the Yorkshire in Bloom competition, presented the Eco Committee with the certificates in assembly this week and we received a lovely email following her visit to school:

 

''Thank you to Mr Gray, Mrs Bradley Coles and some of the gardening club for a delightful visit to Oatland's lovely school grounds. Thirteen children in Gardening Club, which started two years ago, and twelve Eco Committee members support the up-keep of the school grounds and have been involved in creating colourful, homemade bird houses and raising money for bird seed via a sponsored litter pick. Pupils are involved in looking after many planters across the school, including those with winter and summer plants, as well as a herb garden.

 

Currently, the school is re-wilding some of its grounds and children helped to create a hedgehog highway and wildlife sanctuary after an interesting walk by a local hedgehog rescue charity. There was also a visit to an allotment open-day and the school's PTA have donated money to buy two 'Buddy Benches' for a quiet area in the school's courtyard. The lovely nature area and reading retreat has apple trees, a small pond with tadpoles and frogs and a large bird table and bughouse, as well as a wildflower meadow area. Parents and teachers and the children have planted many saplings donated by the Woodland Trust, and the children have a compost bin in each classroom for their finished fruit and vegetable snacks at break times. A local arborist donated seven tons of mulch which is used in many planters and beds which the children have planted around the school, either with seasonal flowers or herbs such as rosemary, coriander and sweet basil, as well as vegetables which are used by the school's kitchen for pupil's meals. There is a rota for watering all the plants around the grounds, with the help of a water butt donated by Yorkshire Water. Notices are visible around the grounds such as ''Shh, birds nesting'' near the bird houses and ''Dig for Victory!''.

 

It was altogether a lovely visit to an inspiring school with its dedicated teachers - Thank you very much.''

Brass Brigade

This half term, Tigers have had the pleasure of welcoming Mr Ratcliffe from St John Fisher's into school to teach us brass. The children have enjoyed learning the trumpet or trombone at both home and school. We are looking forward to our final lesson and showcasing our talents to the rest of Year 5 after half term.  

Maths Competition 2025

Yesterday, we held the finals of the OJS Maths Competition. Each class had a representative for their house, who worked together to answer timed questions and score as many points as possible. The Year 5 and Year 6 Maths Ambassadors led the event with expertise and enthusiasm. It was a fantastic event with the winning house being announced today!

'One Mic' hip hop workshops!

Benji, Olivia, Jacob and Mia from Year 5 had a fantastic time at the Red Kite 'One Mic' workshops run by Hello Hip Hop. We spent time learning all about hip hop culture, from appropriate use of graffiti to emceeing and breaking before putting our new knowledge into action, writing our own raps to be performed at a multi-school battle! All four children (and Mrs Horne and I!) gained a lot from the event - a better understanding of an important culture, confidence and self-belief. Perhaps our most important lesson was that we should always be ourselves and bring our own 'flavour' to all that we do, which the children definitely did! Well done to Oatlands rappers in the making - we are very proud of your hard work and super representation of our school!

Miss Allenby

Extra-curricular sporting opportunities at OJS

We have had a busy half term in PE since returning in September and from a personal point of view it has been fantastic  be meet all the classes and children. We are looking forward to starting after school clubs on Monday 3^rd November, offering football clubs to boys and girls in all year groups - the ta  ke up is fantastic! Thursday will also see our multi sports club take place. This is a great opportunity for children to learn a variety of skills and team building that can be used in sporting and non-sporting activities, both in and out of school.

Mr Charles

School Streets

I am delighted to introduce our new staff member Will Godfrey, who has taken over the barrier duties from Tomasz. I am sure you will all make him feel welcome as he settles into his new role, keeping our children safe on their journey to school. A polite reminder that if you are running late, you will not be given permission to drive through the barrier and we ask that you respect Will in his role. It was disappointing to hear from the traffic wardens, who were kindly covering barrier duties this week, that they were unfairly challenged and received some unpleasant comments from some of our parents.

Our Active Travel scheme is showing impressive results, with more families choosing to park and stride, cycle or scoot. We are always looking for volunteer parent helpers, so any time you can spare to support Will, is greatly appreciated. Please get in touch with Mr Morley at school. Thank you!

A reminder that our weekly news and information is shared through the school website and Instagram. This is an accessible and convenient way of keeping up-to-date with school news.

 

Also attached are dates for your diary for next half-term. If you are able to help in any way, please contact your child’s class teacher.

 

Wishing you all a lovely half-term holiday and I look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday 3^rd  November at 8:55am.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely

  

Estelle Scarth

Headteacher