Oak Class 2023 - 2024

WELCOME TO OAK

Class teacher - Mr M Thomas

Mrs Shapland teaches E-Safety and Computing every Tuesday afternoon, Mr Parish teachers PE every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and Miss Graves teaches English and MfL every Friday morning.

Learning Support Assistant - Mrs K Shapland

Follow us on Twitter  @WhitegateOak

As role models for the rest of the school, Oak class embody the values and vision that we have for our school community.  In the courtesy and gratitude we demonstrate around school, we model how our faith that making wise choices and always striving to do the right thing by ourselves and others allows us to grow in confidence and maturity.  The wisdom that comes from always striving to make these wise choices allows us to thrive as we take advantage of the many opportunities we have to shine in Oak class, from whole school dramatic performances to residentials and projects to support our local area.  

Deep in the heart of the frozen south of our planet, our current learning takes us to the Antarctica. Our geography lessons will see us focus on the Southern Hemisphere and the region around the Antarctic Circle as we discover how and why time zones work - and why Antarctica is plunged into darkness for half of each year! Linking to our Geography learning about Antarctica, in Maths, we’ll calculate how many calories would be needed by polar explorers and what types of food would be most suitable. Using this information, in DT, we'll design and bake our very own Antarctic Explorer Cakes and test them on an audience before refining the recipes for future improvements.  

Our Science lessons will see us learning about different organisms and how they have adapted to their habitats, exploring different biomes before focusing on classifying Antarctic organisms. This will support us to write an explanation text exploring in part how Emperor penguins have adapted to life in the frozen South.

All of this learning will underpin our English lessons for our first vehicle text - the incredible Shackleton's Journey which tells of Ernest Shackleton and his crew's heroic efforts to survive their Antarctic journey. We'll write an adventure narrative inspired by this incredible tale.

Once we have finished our current class novel, Anglo Saxon Boy (which is written by our current Spotlight Author Tony Bradman), we will dive into the truly touching novel, Wonder, which explores themes of belonging, bullying and acceptance.

In Maths, we will continue to build on our fluency skills with reasoning and problem solving questions that will stretch our understanding in fractions, decimals and percentages.  

In PSHE, we’ll be learning about relationshsips and wellbeing, including personal hygiene, and in RE, we’ll explore why Advent is special to Christians and what it tells us about Christian beliefs, as well as learning more about the life and teachings of Jesus.  In PE, our next focus will be on basketball as we build our, shooting, passing and movement skills.  

As mentioned above, our current spotlight author is Tony Bradman. Next, we’ll be focusing on Piers Torday as we dive into some of his best novels to give us a taste of his style and stories. Reading is at the heart of successful learning and we will immerse ourselves in a range of quality texts over the course of the year. As Reading is a priority across all subjects, we regularly use a range of fiction and non-fiction texts in our guided and whole-class Reading lessons to help inform richer learning across the curriculum. In addition to this cross-curricular learning, a single day might also see us exploring the motivations of characters in our gripping class novels or simply allowing children time to develop a love of reading through our provision of high-quality fiction books. Wherever and whenever possible, we will prioritise developing the skills and positive attitudes towards Reading that will enable Oak class to become confident, informed and engaged learners. 

Home Reading expectations are detailed below, but should your child express an interest in a particular author, series or genre, please let us know and we would be delighted to order books from our library partners free of charge.  Visits to your local library are also encouraged!

PE

PE will be on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  Please can children come into school on those days already dressed in their PE kits. 

Homework

Please ensure your child reads at home at least 4 times per week for 15-20 minutes.  In Years 5 and 6, they are expected to record their own reading in their Home – School contact books; parents just need to sign each time. 

TT Rockstars should be practised at least 3 times per week also for a minimum of 5 minutes each time.

For Year 6, Mental Maths will be sent home twice per week; both sheets will be given out on Mondays. The first sheet will be due on Wednesday and the second on Friday.

Both Year 5 and Year 6 will also have a weekly SPaG sheet. This will be given out on Mondays and is to be returned the following Monday.

All Oak children will be given their own personal spelling lists to practise at home.  These are linked to the statutory spelling lists for each year group available at the bottom of this page. There will also be a statutory spelling list for each half term: these will be different for Year 5 and Year 6.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me using the Home-School book  We love to celebrate any out of school learning or achievements by our children so please email to the office or send in anything your child would like to share with us. 

Oak’s Introduction Meeting for parents took place on Monday 22th September at 5pm in Oak's classroom. A copy of the presentation is available to download in the links below.

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