OAK BITES 25^th May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Happy Monday Fair Oak.

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend. The weather was particularly glorious today! As we prepare for the potential opening of the school to our year 6 pupils, I wanted to let you all know that our home learning package is to remain in place. This will only need to change if we have an unsustainable level of staff absence.

Year 6

On Friday I wrote to all Year 6 parents about June 1^st. The email highlighted which bubble your child will be in. Please note that all Year 6 children have been assigned to a bubble, but I am fully aware that not all children will be attending due to the survey results.

Parents, please be aware that we have a duty to safeguard our children, so we will be calling parents to check where their child is during their bubble weeks as we know that a number of children walk to and from school alone. If you are not planning to send your child in, please just say that to us when we call. The purpose for phoning parents to check attendance, is so that we know that our children are safe.

Please see the documents from Skoolkit - scroll down the page.

As school is closed to all children this Thursday and Friday, the newsletter may well come out on Wednesday.

Have a good few days.

Mr De Silva

OAK BITES 22nd May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Happy Friday Fair Oak. I hope you are all safe and well.

Let’s start with some exciting news

Over that past few days we have had some work carried out at school – predominantly outside the hall, (please see the attached picture).We will also be having some additional outdoor gym equipment installed. The outdoor gym equipment is very popular with the children and we can’t wait for them to actually be back to play with it all.

At yesterday’s virtual governors meeting, the governors agreed that we would increase our usable outdoor space by laying artificial turf on a part of the school field. Why is this a good idea?

• As a result of the planned building project, we will be losing outdoor playing space (the playground closest to the infant school). The artificial turf will provide us with the equivalent of 2 playgrounds on an area of the field that isn’t used.
• As social distancing is something we have to be aware of and rightly cater for, we are now able to have multiple wet weather options for keeping the children outside, socially distant and safe.

The governors also approved a brand new mini bus! This is really exciting, especially as we will be getting an extra minibus from a generous business donation to the school. We have exciting plans for how these two brand new minibuses can help to support Fair Oak Junior School.

INSET days for next year

Following the Governors meeting, I can now confirm that the INSET days for the 2020/2021 academic year are:

Thursday 3^rd Septemer 2020

Friday 4^th September 2020

Monday 2^nd November 2020

Monday 4^th January 2021

Friday 18^th June 2021

For children in school now and for those in Year 6

I will be writing to Year 6 parents, Key Worker parents and the parents of children classified as Vulnerable at some point today with details about the 1^st of June return to school. Your child may be feeling a bit anxious about school and about not being able to hug their friends, or indeed members of their own family. Mrs Smith came across this video. Whilst we aren't promoting any book, you may want to watch it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PnnFrPaRgY&feature=youtu.be

Marking and Feedback

The return of year 6 will mean that I will need teachers teaching in school. This may well have an impact on the level of feedback they are able to give on Purple Mash. Please do bear with us. Also, next week is technically Half Term, therefore I am not expecting my teachers to give feedback during the week.

This week is Mental Health Awareness week and, whilst we are not actively promoting it, there are some fantastic resources available online, should you wish. Click here.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mr De Silva

OAK BITES 20^th May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Happy Wednesday! The children and staff who are in school have been making the most of the lovely weather so far this week, with lots of outdoor activities, as I am sure you have been at home.

A quick reminder that school will not be open on Thursday 28^th May and Friday 29^th May.

As I am sure most of you will be aware, from the 1^st June we will be welcoming our Year 6 children back into school in addition to the Keyworkers and vulnerable children we are already looking after. We have been busy getting ready in school for the additional numbers so that we can continue to provide a safe learning environment for our children and staff.

We will communicate the plan to year 6 parents as soon as possible, but please note that we will be staggering the start and end of the days, as well as the weeks that children are in e.g. half of year 6 in one week and the other half of the year group, the next. We aim to have provision for all year 6 children to be in at the same time, but this is something we will work towards.

From the 1^st June, once the children are in school, the Fair Oak Junior school gate will be locked. There will be no access without contacting the school office via a telephone call. The exception to this will be on a Monday when parents come to collect food parcels and/or work packs between 11am and 11.30am – the gate will be opened for this period of time. For those parents who collect only a work pack on a Monday, you will also need to arrive between 11am – 11.30am as the gate will be locked outside of this time.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Mr De Silva

OAK BITES 18^th May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend and were able to enjoy some fresh air in the sunshine.

We continue to work in school with the children of Keyworkers and vulnerable children, whilst busy continuing our provision of online learning packs/You tube videos for the vast majority of our children who are learning at home. A real team effort. We hope you are all staying positive and keeping up the good work of looking after our children, we know how difficult this time has been.

Just a little reminder to those families who are collecting food packs from school on a Monday – please can you make sure you collect between 11am – 11.30am, as our kitchen staff need time to prepare the hall for lunchtime. Thank you.

OAK BITES 13^th May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Happy Wednesday! I hope you are all well. Following the Oak Bites sent to you on Monday, the Government has sent out further documentation relating to the partial opening of schools. Whilst there are still some questions, the guidance is clear and is helping me and my team to put together a plan for the proposed opening of Fair Oak Junior School for Year 6 children from June 1^st 2020.

What does this mean to you as parents?

If you are a year 6 parent, please await a letter from me, which will give you more details about our initial thoughts to open the school to your child; as you can imagine, this isn’t a quick task. In order for the plan to be a success, the letter will provide you a link to a survey. Please do complete this when it is sent, even if you are not planning to send your child back to school on June 1^st.

This week’s newsletter will include an update from our Chair of Governors, Rob Gardner, about the Head Teacher Recruitment process.

Update on Year 6 Hoodies – Message from those organising the hoodies

The hoodie warehouse is hoping to open in 6 – 8 weeks. Assurances have been given that our order will be the first produced. If this cannot be done, then they will reimburse our money.

Have a good end to the week.

Mr De Silva

OAK BITES 11^th May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Please note that the contents of this communication is correct at time of writing (10am, 11^th May 2020)

I hope you all had a good weekend. I’m sure many of you watched, or have subsequently heard, the speech from the Prime Minister on Sunday 10^th May 2020, and that you may have many questions. As you can imagine, I also have many questions of my own.

I hope to receive further guidance and clarification from the Government/Department for Education (DfE) regarding the suggested phased reopening of some year groups in primary schools. This will hopefully include how I can keep your children and my staff safe at all times.

What we do know is that our current guidance is still applicable and must be followed by schools and parents. We will continue to provide care for Critical Key Workers and for those who are classified as Vulnerable. If you are a Critical Key Worker – please remember that school should be the last option for your child’s care, as they will be safer at home.

Our home learning offer is remaining in place. Please watch the learning videos on our YouTube channel and complete the learning presentation work – found on each year page of the school website.

As always, I will keep you informed of any changes.

Message for our Year 6 children from our Year 6 teachers – Please look at the video message on YouTube

Have a good week.

Mr De Silva

OAK BITES 6^th May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Happy Wednesday. I hope the week is going well.  Just a quick reminder that the Home learning section of the website includes resources for curriculum areas other than English and Maths (these can be found on the individual year pages). You may be interested in your child continuing to learn French. If so, Mrs Pascoe has put some French resources on the Home learning page.

If you are struggling with aspects of your child’s behaviour at home, please do look at the Support for Parents page on the school website. However, please remember to be kind to yourself; you can only do your best with the plates you are spinning.

Young voices – If your child was involved in Young Voices at the O2 earlier this year, please do have a look at the video on our Twitter Feed (@FairOakJS). The children had a wonderful time, and that is clearly captured in the video.

Mr De Silva

Messages from the office…..

We have received some music based resources from Hampshire Music Services, for activities and things to do at home. Please see the Home Learning section of the school website to access these. These include power point presentations entitled Man on the Moon and Getting Creative with a Song, VE day celebration activities and a link to a singing assembly.

If your child was attending After School Club before school closed, we would be really grateful if you could check and see if you have an outstanding balance due. If you do have an amount owing, and you are able to clear this, as soon as is possible, we would be very grateful. Many thanks

Please see below some ideas of things to do whilst you're out on your daily walks from Living Streets

OAK BITES 4^th May 2020

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Dear Fair Oak Family,

Happy Monday. I hope you had a lovely weekend. On Friday, Miss Coxhead posted our lip-synch video onto YouTube. If you haven’t seen it yet, please do take a look by clicking here.

Whilst you’re on our YouTube channel, please do subscribe and look at the learning videos; these are supported by the learning presentations on the school website (found in each year group page).

If you would like learning packs to be printed off for collection, please do contact the office, so that they can get them ready for you.

Have a lovely week.

Mr De Silva

Message for Year 3, 4 and 5

Music Lesson request forms – the deadline for accepting any requests for music lessons for the next academic year has been extended to this Friday, 8^th May. If your child wishes to start playing/ continue playing an instrument next year, please ensure your completed form is return to school by then. The form is reattached in case you need it.

Messages for Whole School

The NHS Healthier Together website (https://what0-18.nhs.uk/) provides advice to parents as well as professionals including School and Childcare staff. The site has put together some useful information for parents about the inflammatory condition affecting children that was reported in the media earlier in the week. Please click the link here:

https://what0-18.nhs.uk/popular-topics/coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR2y2055UZ7jqZj3EK7Nzkr_ncOMkLWS_xIoUC-DdK6o0kCFSU-Ku7t-qsM

Please see below some links from Bike it Ray that you may find useful and a sample bike obstacle course that you may wish to copy.

Ray’s BOX IT Bike balance game (one of a series)  Bananaman’s 7 minute workout!

https://youtu.be/Z8cdYQVMJMU                                     https://youtu.be/7RnSdNsK1TI

Make an origami cycling jersey                                 How to Trackstand

https://youtu.be/uDRKCPbOKoY                                      https://youtu.be/v46p7c8OQb8

How to do an M check Part 1                                    How to fix M check problems Part 2

https://youtu.be/jMyWZQ-I1iU                                            https://youtu.be/5kX2ahLW5CA