Newsletter - Oaktree...understanding Pythagoras’s theory and carrying out tests on seeds that have been in space. They have ... having an impact and boosting student results –

July 2016

NewsletterCamping Trip

Primary camp was a huge success! The children helped set up tents before heading to St Ives by train. We played beach games, turned Holly into a sandy mermaid and splashed in the sea. We returned to camp for fish and chips, built a camp fire and toasted marshmallows before heading to sleep in our tents after a busy day. The next morning we enjoyed bacon and sausage sandwiches before heading to Bissoe for some muddy mountain biking. It was a lot of fun and the kids’ behaviour was a credit to the school. For some of the younger ones, it was their first night staying away from mums and dads and they were incredibly brave!

2 | Oak Tree School Newsletter – July 2016

Message from the HeadteacherAn incredibly busy school year draws to an end. Children at Oak Tree have experienced an incredible amount of varied activities and I am delighted with the progress they are making.

This year children have being flying to London, camping in the woods and cooking at Rick Steins restaurant. They have been reading Shakespeare, understanding Pythagoras’s theory and carrying out tests on seeds that have been in space. They have been in fire engines, lifeboats and police cars. They have climbed cliffs, swam rivers, cycled across moors and jumped from waterfalls. They have built furniture, designed gardens and learnt to cook a hearty meal from the bare ingredients.

We try to do all we can to motivate and inspire our children to fully engage in their learning and develop the social skills that can help them be successful out of school. Please let us know if we can do more to help.

This summer holidays we are also running “Oak Tree Summer Adventures” for the first time and I hope that you make the most of this free service that we offer.

I would like to take this opportunity to say “well done” to our only year 11 leaver. Mark has done really well at Oak Tree and we are delighted with the qualifications he is leaving us with. All the staff at Oak Tree will miss him greatly. We all wish Mark the best of luck for the future and we hope that he makes the best of all the opportunities that life throws his way!

I also want to say a big “thank you and good luck” to Shaun, Holly and Kathy who are staff that are leaving us this year. They will be missed a great deal and they have all played key roles in the growth and development of our school – once again, thank you!

Just a reminder that our children are expected back at school on Wednesday 7th September 2016, please do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any questions about next academic year.

All the best.Mike

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Healthy Schools

Green TimeConsistent good work and behaviour gets rewarded! The trips have been fantastic this year with students being rewarded for excellent behaviour and good work.

Trips this year have included visits to Mt Hawke Skate Park, laser tag, Flo rider & Aqua Park at Retallick, mountain biking, crabbing, Newquay zoo, Oasis fun pools, Paradise Park and Bodmin Jail to name a small selection!

Well done to everyone who’s made green, and let’s smash some more reward trips next term!

Share packaged foods.

Many foods and drinks are packaged for two adults sharing, so if you’re eating by yourself avoid temptation and save some for later. Don’t give a whole one to a child - let them share a bag of crisps, or save some.

Year 11 LeaverThis term has seen our Year 11 student complete his education at Oak Tree.

It has been an emotional time for the student, his family and all the staff as we have helped to prepare him for life after Oak Tree – all with a very definite feel of ‘See you soon’ rather than ‘Goodbye’ .

We have seen some real progress in Year 11 and there have been many high points through his time at Oak Tree. We are very proud of the number of qualifications he is leaving us with, and that he has opted to join the school on the trip to London this term.

All the staff and students would like to take the opportunity to wish him all the best in the future.


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Camping Trip Continued....Secondary CampThis year, the camp for secondary students went up a gear as we prepared to stay under canvas for two nights rather than one! Students were able to complete a whole range of activities whilst out on camp including a train journey down the coast to Saint Ives, crabbing, surfing, bike riding along the Bissoe trail, camp fires, night walks, manhunt in the woods, paintballing and many, many more – all this on top of pitching their own tents!The behaviour from all students on the camp was exemplary and they were a credit to the school and their parents and carers. It is really good to see the students outside of the school environment and spend time with them doing activities without the pressure of having to be back for a certain time. One of the highlights was certainly Olly teaching Mike how to ‘dab’ and be a chav around a camp fire! I only wish we had some photos of this experience!A huge thank you to parents, staff and students for their quick response to the camp and for allowing us at the school to have a really good few days out and about with the students.


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Polly Joke have recently been looking at the Artist ‘Tony Plant’, who makes shapes on the beach in large scale using a rake. They have been using wax crayons and water colours to create their own patterns using swirls and circles. Using Styrofoam, students created their own patterns and then created prints from these.Other students have been looking at the work by Van Gogh. They have been focusing on creating a variety of different types of textures and experimenting with a range of materials. They have just started using paint to create some of their final pieces, watch this space!

Art

Physical EducationOak Tree Olympics!This term It’s been athletics mania across the whole school. Each class has developed skills across a multitude of events including the Javelin, sprints, long distance events, long jump and triple jump.The school hosted its second sports day which saw all classes taking part, working together to get their best results.Harry Smith was awarded first place for an incredible Javelin throw of 28m, whilst Olly Parry smashed the long 1000m record.


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We have had a number of different English programmes running in English in Gwithian this half term to enable all of the students to achieve and continue to improve on their English skills.The majority of the class have continued their work on The Hunger Games – we are really pleased with the way the students are responding to this text and the quality of the work that is resulting from this interest. Students have completed their Wikipedia style pages about The Hunger Games, which look amazing, and have gone on to complete more extended writing pieces based on the novel. Our final strand of English in Gwithian has been with one of the students following a bespoke programme involving a reading scheme – Dockside, and a combination of other extended writing opportunities. This has been really successful, with some fantastic creative writing being produced by a particular student making huge progressing his English skillsGwithian have made fantastic progress overall this year in English, and have definitely proven that they are all ready to move on in their learning to the next stage next academic year. All of the students should be really proud of their achievements in English and the outstanding progress they have made. Well done Gwithian!

English in Gwithian

Reading, Comprehension and SpellingEach term, students are asked to complete assessments in reading, comprehension and spelling to allow us to track their progress in these three areas. Results for these tests are expressed as ages, in years and months, and offer a standardised method of seeing how well students are getting on with their key skills.

With this round of testing all complete, I am extremely proud to be able to share with you that there is not a student in the school who has not been awarded their 2000 credit bonus – every single one has made progress with their reading, comprehension and spelling ages! This is a really good reflection of the hard work going on at school and home, with homework, lessons and plenty of Literacy Planet definitely having an impact and boosting student results – a huge thank you to everyone for all their hard work on this!

It would be unfair not to highlight the truly outstanding progress made by the top student in each area who have made the most progress. In reading, one of our students has made a staggering 41months progress. In comprehension, another has made a massive 30 months progress, and in spelling, one has made a fantastic 19 months progress.

These are really great achievements for these students, and an additional credit bonus will be on its way, to recognise the top achievers across the whole school – well done boys, and to all the students – keep up the hard work!


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All of the students this term have worked hard to complete DT folder and practical work ready for the end of the school year. Polly Joke have continued to work on their ‘To the Rescue’ project from last term and have concentrated on adding decoration, colour and lettering on to their working rescue boat. Students have also had the chance to solder their own circuits together and explore in more detail how electricity can pass from components to wires. Fistral have been exploring linking mechanisms this term and have created simple paper models to explain the different types of movements produced. This has helped to inform their decisions on how to make their Hero/Villain character that they created last tem move. Tolcarne have continued with their dragon themed topic work from last term and have used their knowledge and understanding of dragons to create their own stop motion animation storey board. Students have worked hard to create, plan and draw their own storey and have used a variety of materials to make their own stop motion characters and backgrounds. We are all looking forward to shooting the films very soon!Gwithian have also been creating their own stop motion animation films. Students have again created their own storey board and models and have developed new skills by using video editing software to edit their film and add title pages, sounds and visual effects. Crantock class have been focussing on improving their accuracy when measuring, marking out, sawing, drilling and sanding. Students have experimented with using a variety of different permanent joining methods, (such as dowel joints, butt joints and housing joints) all of which require a lot of skill and accuracy to produce and have consequently created some great pieces of work. Ryan has now completed his London city scape art installation which has taken a lot of time, determination and focus to complete. Well done Ryan! It looks amazing! We now need to find the perfect place to put it!

Design Technology


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CateringIn both key stage 3 and 4 students have been working towards an assessment, planning, budgeting and planning timings for a two course meal. They have two lessons to independently cook a course at a time, demonstrating the skills that they have learnt over the past year. It has been great to see some confident independent working. Students have also enjoyed trips to Rick Stein’s Falmouth to work with a chef to cook fish and chips and crab. Personal provision students have also been to see how pizza has been made, visited shops to work out budgeting and nutrition and learn about food suppliers. School lunches cooked by our key stage four student have included tasty dishes such as a Greek mezze banquet, tagine and enchiladas.

The students in Tolcarne have been shaking eggs, hitting tambourines and rattling the shakers. The sound of Music has been bouncing across the car park. We have been learning to play percussion instruments and sing. Each student has learnt to recognise musical beat symbols and they have been creating their own compositions for the other students to perform. Each student has been playing musical beats to a wide range of songs. We have been learning to sing a range of songs this term, most of the students have even taken solos in class.

Music

SwimmingWe have had a lot of fun swimming this term. We have been playing games, learning new techniques and having races. Every student in Tolcarne has been sensible getting out of the swimming pool. Each student really enjoys going swimming and it is one of the highlights of our week.


Outdoor EducationThe children of Oaktree school have had a very rewarding end of term with lots of activities for them to take part in, they have been surfing, body boarding kayaking and mountain biking for their lessons and even had full days of activities on school camp, the pupils who attended had a really good time and there was lots of smiles all round.

The primary groups have done really well on all activities and some of the pupils are much more confident in the water from when we started at the beginning of the term, the problem now is getting them out as opposed to getting them in. the secondary groups have had some amazing days out on the mountain bikes as well as some rainy days out on the lake kayaking. The outdoor education team look forward to seeing some of you on the summer adventures course .

This summer Fistral have been building water confidence at the beach and learning to surf. The ability has varied as has confidence levels. Many of the pupils initially didn’t want to go in the water at all. Some were surfing independently from the first session. However, we are pleased to say that all pupils have been in the sea and the sea pool at Perranporth and enjoyed themselves a lot. Confidence levels have grown massively and everyone knows how to be safe at the beach and what all the flags mean. Surfs up dudes!

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CrantockPolly joke have done some incredible cooking. We made sausage rolls from scratch and even attempted our own pastry. We baked healthy wholemeal fruit muffins and not so healthy chocolate chip muffins. You can probably guess which ones were more popular!!!

Polly Joke DT have had an exciting term exploring their project ‘To the Rescue’ and subsequently have researched, designed and made their own motorised working rescue boats. Students have tested a range of materials to discover the most suitable ones and have independently chosen their own materials based on their properties. The boats are due to be tested very soon!

SennenMalachi held an ‘Oak Tree Referendum’ regarding the European Union.

He made a Ballot Box and used Ballot Papers to collect votes from staff and pupils. Malachi explained how the voting system worked and what people were voting for. He also gave instructions on how to use the Ballot Papers and asked some people about the Pro’s and Con’s of the EU.

Malachi counted the Ballot Papers and the results were 33.5% to leave (Brexit) and 66.5% to remain.


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Malachi enjoyed a visit to the Post Office, where he went to post the cards he had written in school. Malachi was very polite in the Post Office and was able to use money to purchase his stamps. He then met the a Post Man who talked though collecting mail from the Post Box.


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FistralStudents in Fistral class have been challenged to investigate weights and measurements during maths classes this term. Stanley, known for his inquiring mind wanted to investigate how the weight of books compared to how much scales could possibly measure. It was an interesting experiment and really proved that students were able to differentiate between various weights and measures.

Outdoor learning team have been providing students with some fantastic opportunities to develop teamwork skills throughout the summer term. RE and LP worked extremely hard together when the task of creating a perfect insect hotel was set during one weeks session.

Fistral students have been really lucky with the weather recently; this allows them uninterrupted visits to Perranporth surf beach. During the weekly sessions led by Oak Tree’s Outdoor Team, the students learn about how to stay safe at the beach and also about how beaches are important for wildlife. One highlight of the session last week was seeing Tommy take to the waves and ride a wave perfectly back to the shore; gracefully executed with real style and confidence.


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Polly JokePolly Joke have had a very busy and fun packed half-term, continuing with our “To the Rescue” Topic”. Truro Fire Brigade came to visit Polly Joke class with blue lights flashing and sirens blaring. The children had a fantastic time learning about what the Fire Service does in keeping our local community safe. They had the opportunity to look around a fully operational fire engine and try out some of the gadgets used such as heat sensing equipment. It was left to Holly Mann to take up the challenge of dressing up in the uniform!!

In Literacy we have been acting out emergency scenarios for our “To the Rescue” stories. The children performed their roleplays to each other and showed great imagination to bring their “999” scenes to life. We have also been studying poetry and the children have written their own amazing anthologies.

In Science we have been learning about seasons which is also linked to our lessons on time in Maths.

Keisha performed in her first gymnastics competition and did incredibly well. We are so proud of her achievements.


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But the highlight of our half term has been our trip on camp!!! Keisha and Justin were both incredibly brave and stayed overnight in tents!

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Newsletter - Oaktree...understanding Pythagoras’s theory and carrying out tests on seeds that have been in space. They have ... having an impact and boosting student results –