Summer Term 2026 – Newsletter 9 – Oaklands Infant School

Dear Parents/Carers

It only seems 5 minutes since we were coming back for a new school year last September and yet here we are, starting the summer term! I do hope you all managed to find time to relax over Easter and make the most of the longer days and improving weather.

I would also like to re-iterate from what has gone out in previous newsletters about parking and driving safely in the community around school. There have been some complaints from residents and the public about parking too close to junctions which affects visibility and blocking residents driveways. Please respect the community around us and park/drive safely and responsibly when you pick up and drop off at school.

National offers for school places were announced last week. I am delighted to say that our numbers for Foundation Stage 2026 are looking promising, which not only validates the hard work and ethos of the staff and community but also helps our financial position to become even more secure in a difficult economic climate.

In what promises to be a busy term, included with this newsletter are key dates, including Sports Day which comes just after half term this year – quite a bit earlier than usual. There are also several class trips and assemblies to add to your diaries. In addition, we are launching Aspirations week on Monday 18th May, with a non-uniform day where children can dress up as the job that they would like to do when they are older. Please try to use what you have at home, I look forward to seeing what the children aspire to be.

Finally, I would like to thank all the parents who take the time to speak to me or say just say hello as I wander round the site before and after school. It has been a steep learning curve getting to know the children and parents in the infant school but, with the help of the friendly children and supportive adults, I am feeling increasingly at home.

Mr D Holland

Co-Headteacher

Oaklands Infant and Junior Schools

School Calendar

Thank you for all your feedback around communications of event & dates between the school and families.

Going forward we are changing the way we communicate these to make it more accessible and more accurate. The calendar in Reach More Parents by WEDUC will now be updated and serve as the definitive resource for all events taking place in the school. To reduce the possibility of errors we will no longer also publish dates in the newsletter.

You can access the calendar via the Reach More Parents by WEDUC app on your phone and you also have the option to integrate it into your calendar app of choice (which we highly recommend). To do this go to the Reach More Parents by WEDUC app, click on the 3 lines to open menu, press App Settings and then Calendar Integration. Toggle the radio button next to Oaklands Infant School and follow the instructions on the screen to integrate with your chosen calendar app.

Each half term, we invite parents/carers to each class to celebrate the children’s learning. Please find listed below the dates and times for this half term.
Please come directly to the classroom for the time stated.

Class	Date	Time
Ash	Friday 22^nd May	2:50pm
Willow	Friday 22^nd May	9.00am: class assembly in the hall
Chestnut	Wednesday 20^th May	3pm
Silver Birch	Friday 15^th May	3pm
Beech	Thursday 21^st May	3pm
Elm	Tuesday 19^th May	3pm

Character Leaf Award

This term our focus for the school character is Laurie.

In the first Olympics in Greece, the winner needed to have a crown to wear. They couldn’t use gold or silver so they chose laurel. Laurie was very proud to be used to make the first wreath that was worn on the heads of the winners.

Laurie often says….

· You’re the best!

· Be proud of yourself and be proud of others.

· I’m so proud of my achievements.

· Be proud of who you are.

· Are you proud of your work today?

· What have you done to be proud of yourself today?

“Take Pride” like Laurie

Children who have received a Laurie leaf
(Now on display on the Oak Tree in the hall)

Ash: Sienna, Kenver
Willow: Rudy, Toby
Chestnut: Mabel, Liam H.
Silver Birch: Olivia, George
Beech: Rosie, Ryan
Elm: Bethan, Jaxon

Home Learning

We do not provide the children with formal homework but expect children to regularly practise basic skills such as reading, spelling and number facts.

Home learning sheets are shared half termly which link to our topics. They contain ideas and activities you can do at home to support work ongoing in class. Children are encouraged to bring in any learning tasks completed at home to share with their class. Alongside the home-learning sheets we have created Victor Vocabulary sheets, these provide a list of key vocabulary being taught.

Please click the links below for your year group:

Foundation Stage: Ash and Willow

Year 1: Chestnut and Silver Birch

Year 2: Beech and Elm

Foundation

We can hardly believe we are in the summer term already. This half term our topic is ‘In the Garden’ and we will hopefully be spending lots of time outside exploring. We have been hunting the school grounds for Minibeasts and looking at their similarities and differences as well as learning about their habitats. One of our focus texts is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We will be using this to learn about the lifecycle of a butterfly and as a prompt for some writing. In Maths we will be looking at odd and evens, doubles and completing some addition number problems. Our creative tasks will include printing, painting and minibeast drawing as well as practicing our cutting skills. We are all looking forward to another fun packed half term of learning.

Year 1

Year 1 This half term, Year 1 are starting our ‘And It Grew’ topic. In Science we will be learning about the parts of plants and trees and the names of different plants. We will also be keeping a diary to track the growth of the nasturtiums that we planted. We have our walk to Bucklers Park to look forward to which will follow up on our Science lessons. In English, we are reading ‘The tiny seed’ by Eric Carle, ‘Olivers vegetables’ by Vivian French and ‘Planting a seed’ instructions. In Maths, we are starting by finding place value within 50 then moving on to learn about measuring mass, volume, length and height. We will be practising our bat and ball skills in PE lessons as well as learning some dances. What an exciting half term!

Year 2

We will start our ‘Day in the Life’ topic this half term by learning about Rosa Parks’ life and how her brave actions led to important changes. The children will also learn about Emily Davison and discuss the similarities and differences between these two important women.

In English, we will continue developing our ‘I’m a Clever Writer’ skills by focusing on using a wider range of conjunctions both within and to start our sentences. We will also try to vary our word choices to add interest and begin to use adverbs.

You can see our Clever Writer texts for this half term pictured below.

In Maths, we are learning about multiplication and division before moving on to finding out all about fractions and making links between these two strands of maths.

In Design Technology, this half term, we will be designing and making our own bridges thinking about how we join materials to best make our bridges stable Our other learning will include finding out about how plants grow and what they need to stay healthy in Science, what a family is in PSHE and how to sort data to answer questions in Computing. Another busy half term ahead!

Playground Zoning – Request for Outdoor Toys

We are looking to zone our playground at lunchtimes to offer pupils a wider range of activities to choose from. To help us create engaging and enjoyable play areas, we are kindly requesting donations of toys and equipment that can be used outdoors.

Examples of items we are looking for include:

Giant Jenga or other large outdoor games
Skipping ropes
Soft balls or foam sports equipment
Chalk for playground creative areas
Building/construction toys suitable for outdoor use
Small-world play items (e.g., cars, animals, figures)
Storage boxes with lids to help keep items organised

If you have any suitable toys in good condition that you are happy to donate, we would be extremely grateful. These resources will help us create a fun, active, and stimulating lunchtime environment for all pupils. Thank you.

If you would like to sponsor them, please donate through Mrs Somerville’s just giving page:

Moonwalk Cancer Research donation page

Thank you

We would like to say a massive thank you to our volunteers, Mrs Turner & Mrs Weston for their time and dedication in tidying up and donating the plants for the beds and tubs by the entrance to school reception. They have done a wonderful job so far, it brightens everyone’s day up.