Oaklands School Newsletter

Newsletter April 2014 Volume 3 - Issue 22 Contents Head Teacher s News 1 Forthcoming Events 1 Class A1 2 Spring in the Art Room 3 Class M1 & S2 4 Class Yellow Group 5 ASD Group & Class A2 6 Class M2 7 Class S2 8 Richmond Upon Thames 9 Class S3 10 Café Oaklands 11 Sixth Form 12 Dates for your Diary (See website for details) April Friday 4th Last day of Term - School closes at 1.45pm April - Wednesday 23 rd Pupils return to school April Wednesday 23 th St George s Assembly 2.30pm May Friday 2 nd Heads Drop In 10.00am May Monday 5th May Day closure May Friday 16 th Parents Workshop AM (details to follow) May Friday 16th Heads Drop-In 2.30pm Website: www.oaklands.hounslow.sch.uk Headteacher s News Dear parents, families and friends I am writing to you on a beautiful sunny day. Everyone at school has been taking advantage of this better weather which we ve been waiting for so long to get out and about. Many groups have been visiting the lovely open spaces and parks in this area of London. Our ne sensory garden which was installed last spring is beginning to look lovely again as the plants start to grow again. As the term ends we are sad to be saying Goodbye to two of our teachers. Malwina Sadowska has moved out of this area and Dimitrios Alexiou is also moving on. Both teachers have worked very hard with the pupils and will be missed. During the Easter Holidays we are having a new canopy fitted in our playground. This will provide a covered walkway between the main school building and the lodges. Finally rainy days will not mean getting wet while moving around school. Now that all the building is complete a group of staff have started work on planning how to develop our remaining playground area. We would like to improve facilities for play and leisure time and are planning to choose some new equipment to be fitted over the summer. We are also waiting for news about developments to our vehicle access at school a project is planned to improve access by creating a one way system for vehicles, and we are expecting this to happen before September. It has been wonderful to see so many of you visiting school this term with coffee mornings with benefit advisers and the carers outreach team being particularly popular. I do hope you will continue to feel welcome and come to events as we advertise them. May I wish you all a very happy Easter and hope that you all enjoy the holiday. School re-opens on Wednesday 23 rd April. Anne Clinton

Class A1 During this Term Class A1 celebrated World Book Day by looking at stories by Roald Dahl. A1 s favourite story was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Students enjoyed the testing session and made some chocolate bars. They looked delicious. As Easter is coming up we learned about the celebration and made some Spring Fairy cakes in the Food Technology lesson which we have decorated and shared with the Head teacher. We also participated in a department game of rounders to burn all those unwanted calories. In our ASD Department we are seen as a very competitive bunch. Well done A1!

There s been heaps of COLOUR in the Art room this term!. S3 have been painting Aboriginal animals, S2 have been creating silhouettes and M2 have been painting an underwater textile piece. Well done everyone! Jo Noble 31/03/14

Oaklands School Newsletter Page 4 Page 7 China Adventure As part of Inclusion, in the spring term M1 and S2 have been working together on the theme on China. Students from M1 were paired up with students from S1 and they all went on a pretend trip to China in a hot air balloon represented by a parachute. The hall was especially filled with music, lights and various props to create a real flavour of China, which enabled all students to be drawn in the happy and engaging atmosphere of the lesson.

Yellow Group. Students in Yellow Group have been working on functional cleaning tasks this term and experiencing aspects of maths, English and ICT though a variety of everyday activities.

ASD Rounders! With the lovely weather the ASD department decided it would be a great opportunity to come together and play Rounders. The students had a lot of fun bowling and batting. They were very good at fielding and many caught the ball too! The students shared the equipment and enjoyed being outside in the sunshine! Sharmila A2 Teacher A2 Go Shopping! In maths A2 have been learning about money, they have been practising in lessons how to ask, and buy things that they would like. The class visited Syon Park Garden Centre Café. They were able to buy whatever they wanted and they then got to enjoy eating it with their classmates. Well done A2! Sharmila Class Teacher

M2 During our final weeks together we had a lot of fun and exciting learning experiences. We visited Gudwara in Hounslow, where we tried traditional Sikh food. We saw Kew Gardens and local parks in bloom. We continued our topic of creating mixtures and hosted M1 in our Indian Café. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the fabulous pupils and parents that I had a pleasure to work with at Oaklands. I will always remember you lot! Malwina M2 is visiting a Gudwara, where they had an opportunity to try Sikh food. M2 is exploring beautiful Kew Gardens.

Class S2 S2 have joined M1 for Humanities this term. We have been going on a (pretend) trip to China in hot air balloon. The pupils in S2 have made good friends and have enjoyed working with M1. During our registration session every morning we have been focusing on our handwriting. There has been lots of hard work and progress made. In particular Maryam who is now able to trace very accuratly and write the letter M independently.avid has been choosing which stations to write from the tube map and Ryan has been working on remembering finger spaces between words. Well done S2! We have also spent a few lesson recapping shapes this term. Several of the students have moved on to 3D shapes. The whole class spent a lesson making shapes using straws and playdoh it was harder than it looks!

Richmond-upon-Thames During the Spring Term, some students from the 6 th form attended Richmond upon Thames for a one day a week inclusion/transition link. Students focused on how to run a shop. Their main duties included pricing, stock taking and selling beverages and snacks to fellow students and staff. They all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and quickly familiarised themselves with many skills needed when serving customers. At lunch time, students happily compromised their burgers and chips for healthy options prepared by the Learning Support Students at college.

Class S3 S3 went to Kew Garden s as part of their community visit. They enjoyed looking at the different plants and flowers, and they enjoying going inside the hot house.

This term some students from the 6 th Form have been leaning how to make drinks and prepare snacks. The aim of this Entry Level 1 LASER module is to encourage students to gain independence through preparing drinks and snacks. Students learnt how to: Use kitchen equipment in order to make snacks or drinks Clean up after preparing food or drinks Store food and drinks Be safe in the kitchen