Whole School – Self Isolation – TT Rockstars – Week 5 Challenge – 22.5.2020

26th May 2020H Smith
The Ozzie Observer Friday 22nd May 2020
 
RECORD-BREAKING ROCKSTARS!
Latest contests see the bar raised again
 
It was a wonderful week for the even year groups as Y2, Y4 and Y6 recorded narrow victories in the final TTR battles before the mid-season break. Interestingly, though, it was the odd year groups who actually had the most children taking part, with a record 99 children across school making it onto the overall leaderboards this week! Battles between Y1 and Y2 and Y4 and Y5 went right to the wire and were decided in the final minutes in a pair of epic battles. After his words of determination last week, Mr Usher was delighted with the response from his class, singling out specific praise for Mia-Louise and Charlie after their monumental efforts to defeat Y4. But it was Mr Hayton’s class who were victorious again in the highest-scoring battle of the past five weeks, with Charley leading the way with the highest individual weekly score ever recorded by a St Oswald’s child! Y2 turned the tables on Y1, with Joshua leading the charge quite brilliantly. There was a technical issue with Y3 & Y6 as they had double leaderboards, meaning a special mention needs to go out to Joseph in Y3, who only just missed out on a place in the top three when scores from both leaderboards were added together.
 
Top performers this week (in order from 1st – 3rd)
Y1: Daniel, Lucy, Sebastian
Y2: Joshua, Paige, Charlotte
Y3: Rowan, Daniel L, Daniel M
Y4: Charley, Kate, Erin O
Y5: Mia-Louise, Charlie, Alfie
Y6: Alex, James, Isla
 
Well done everyone!
 
We are monitoring the timings of when some children are on TT RockStars and for how long as we don’t want this at any point to have a negative impact upon any child’s well-being.
 
The battles will return on Monday 1st June!

Return to school – Google Form – Please complete ASAP

16th May 2020H Smith

Hi Everyone,

The government have now, as you will be aware, released guidance regarding the school re-opening with some of our children beginning to return to school from 1st June 2020.  INITIALLY THIS WILL ONLY BE OUR RECEPTION, YEAR ONE AND YEAR SIX AND KEY WORKER/ VULNERABLE CHILDREN.

Myself and the governors (in consultation with the LA) will not hesitate in suspending or delaying the opening of the school in the event that Public Health and Health & Safety measures would be compromised.  At present the 1st of June is an aspirational date and is subject to change.

As I’m sure you can imagine the situation is a huge challenge to us in school however we will not compromise on the safety of either our children or staff.  I realise you trust me, the staff and the governors to keep your child safe and whilst we will do everything within our power to minimise the risks it is impossible to keep the children two metres apart at all times.  We are dealing with children who have a lack of understanding of the severity of the situation and will ,through human nature, want to hug, greet and play with their friends.

Staff members WILL NOT be issued by the government with PPE unless administering first aid.

Our aim is to reduce the class sizes as far as possible below 15.  All teachers and teaching assistants who are able to come into school will be working with groups of children and all classrooms and break-out spaces across the school will be utilised.  This means your child will need to work in different classrooms and with a different adult.  The adult they are assigned will ‘bubble’ with them at least until the end of term.  There is no way around this if we are to attempt to keep everyone safe.

There will be no hot meals during the return to school until the end of the Summer Term as we feel by offering daily packed lunches to the children we can reduce further transitions into the dining hall and children will be able to either eat these in their designated room or outside.

We will attempt to get all year groups into school between June 1st and the end of term but this may mean that your child is not back at school for the full period.  For example if Year Six were to return first they may spend two weeks in school and then have to leave to allow another year group a short period of time in school.

Start and end times to the day will have to be revised to allow the safe arrival and departure of the children to and from the school site.

It is also worth noting that at this early stage that school will be closed each Friday, during this phased period.  This will allow a deep clean to be conducted each week, and also allow staff to plan both the home learning, for those children not in school, but also the learning for children accessing school.  Key Worker children will still be able to access school on a Friday if required.

Whether you wish to return your child to school this term or not is your decision as parent/carer.  I fully respect whatever decision you decide upon.  If you decide to keep your child at home during this period there will be no fines or further action taken by school between 1st June and the end of the Summer Term.

PLEASE CAN YOU COMPLETE THE SHORT SURVEY ATTACHED?  This will give us a much clearer idea of how many children we will be expecting to return to school for the rest of Summer Term from 1st June.  Once we have this information Miss Pape and myself can begin to add more flesh to the skeleton plan we have started to compile this week.  Once we have our plan securely in place this will be shared with you. PLEASE COMPLETE ONE SURVEY FOR EACH CHILD IN YOUR FAMILY and if you can complete ASAP that would be great.  The DEADLINE IS TUESDAY 19TH MAY 2020.

https://forms.gle/XsFaAJTYtfom3G9N6

Thank you so much for all of the support we have received from our parents during this worrying time.  You have all been amazing.

Stay safe and enjoy your weekend.

All my love

Helen Smith

Whole School – Self Isolation – TTRS Battle Results – 16.5.2020

16th May 2020H Smith
The Ozzie Observer           Friday 15th May 2020

WEEK FOUR SUCCESS FOR YEAR FOUR!

“Giant-killers” record third straight win
Y4 have continued their tremendous recent run in Times Tables Rockstars, getting the better of Y5 by the narrowest of margins. Scoring 11,396 this time round, Y4 edged out their older opponents, who themselves managed a five figure total for the second week running with a total of 10,794. Since losing to Y3 in week 1, Y4 have since defeated each of their KS2 counterparts to become the number one seeded class in the school. Mr Hayton, 73, was over the moon with his class’ success. “Now that we’ve reached the summit, no-one can defeat us now!” the former rockstar boasted. However, there are already rumours that Mr Usher, 15, has demanded an immediate rematch next week. “I’m not a sore loser, I’m just not willing to accept that we lost,” stated the former beatboxer. Only time will tell if Y4 really are the invincible force that recent results suggest they’re becoming.
Meanwhile, in other battles, Y1 managed to beat Y2 for the third time in four weeks, while Y6 beat Y3.
The top performers in each class (in order from 1st to 3rd) were:
Y1: Daniel, Sebastian, Lucy
Y2: Paige, Joshua, Ivy
Y3: Rowan, Evie, Marvellous
Y4: Charley, Erin O, Freya
Y5: Mia-Louise, Alfie, Charlie
Y6: Alex, Isla, Jacob B

Whole School – Self Isolation – TT Rockstar Challenge Results – 9.5.2020

9th May 2020H Smith

Another unexpected twist in the latest TTR battle as youth prevailed in our new-look tournaments, with Y3 defeating Y5 and Y4 defeating Y6! Y1 also beat Y2 in their customary KS1 battle. The most noticeable feature of this set of battles was how close all the final scores were: a fantastic effort all round!

Top performers in each class (in order from 1st to 3rd) were:
Y1: Daniel, Simon, Sebastian
Y2: Joshua, Paige, Charlotte
Y3: Rowan, Daniel, Ellie G
Y4: Charley, Erin O, Freya
Y5: Mia-Louise, Charlie, Naomi
Y6: Alex, Jacob B, Lucas
Certificates will be sent out to parents of these children on Monday.
Well done again, everyone!
Mr R

Y1/Y6 – Self Isolation – The Mordue Family write a poem to commemorate VE Day – 8.5.2020

8th May 2020H Smith

Emily and her family have been set the task of doing something creative to commemorate VE Day. Here is their amazing poem:

Ode to Our Heroes
Hitler had ambitious plans 
For German’s to have more living space,
He wanted to unite all German speakers,
And create his Aryan race.
 
He resented the Treaty of Versailles,
Because Germany accepted the blame,
He ignored it to increase the size of his army,
So that he could continue with his reign.
 
Britain and France turned a blind eye,
As they were recovering from the First World War,
Then Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia,
Which they continued to ignore.
 
Germany went on to take Poland,
As Hitler was feeling so smug,
Britain and France had to declare war,
To halt this brutal thug!
 
But there was no stopping Hitler,
He invaded Denmark and Norway,
His tactics were barbaric,
Causing Europe to dismay! 
 
In 1940 he blitzed Great Britain,
By bombing major cities at night,
The British people blocked up all their windows,
So German pilots had no light.
 
Germany bombed Britain’s food ships,
In Hitlers pursuit of power,
Causing the British people to ration food,
Such as sugar, bacon and flour.
 
Children were sent to the countryside,
In an attempt to keep them safe,
Parents did not know who was taking care of them,
So they had to have a lot of faith!
 
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour,
Then America joined the fight,
To help to put a stop to Hitler,
And end all this misery and strife.
 
Germany had conquered most of Europe,
Until the Allies planned D-Day,
They attacked Germany on Normandy beaches,
Which altered the state of play.
 
The Allies grew from strength to strength,
Making the German army retreat,
In 1945 they marched into Germany,
Hopeful that Hitler they would greet.
 
But when he knew he’d lost the war,
Hitler took his own life,
Many of his supporters followed him,
Including his future wife.
 
Seventy-five years have now gone by,
Since the Allies won the war,
Up to eighty-five million lost their lives,
But what was it all for?
 
I hope it has showed us how to respect,
Our neighbours, friends and foes,
To celebrate our differences,
And forget about our egos.
 
Thank you to all of the heroes,
Who fought for you and for me,
So that we could have a better life,
And live peacefully and trouble free.
 
By Emily Mordue (Aged 11) and her family.

Whole School – Self Isolation – TT Rock Stars Weekly Results – 1.5.2020

1st May 2020H Smith

Oh how the (times) tables have turned this week! On Times Tables Rockstars last week, each of younger year groups won their battles, but this week it’s the turn of each older year group to be victorious (see screenshot of results)! Special mention to Y3 though, who were the second highest scorers in the whole school and therefore would have beaten Y5 or Y6 had they been battling against them!

The top three individuals from each class (in order from 1st to 3rd) are as follows:
Y1: Daniel, Simon, Anna
Y2: Joshua, Paige, Ivy
Y3: Leon, Charlie, Rowan
Y4: Charley, Aaron, Erin O
Y5: Charlie, Naomi, Alfie
Y6: Alex, Jak, Jacob B
Certificates will be sent to parents of these children by email on Monday.
Well done again, St Oswald’s!