Oakwood Avenue Community Primary School

PE days

Your child can come to school in their school PE kit (black tracksuit bottoms /leggings/school shorts, plain white crew neck t-shirt, Oaky sweatshirt or plain green and pumps/trainers) on PE days. Please ensure everything is named and that Oaky Hoodies are no longer PE uniform. If your child isn't wearing the correct PE uniform, they will be asked to remove it and will be given an alternative for the day; their clothing item will be given back to them at the end of the day.  Please refer to the School Uniform booklet, which can be found under the Parents tab on our website for any further clarification. 

All classes will be having PE on Tuesday until October half term. They will be taught Karate by an external provider. 

In the spring term, Y4 will be going swimming – more details about this will follow.

On forest school days your child can come to school in suitable forest school clothes. Your child’s teacher will let you know the dates for this via a letter or School Ping

Snack

Parents can provide a healthy snack from home. Alternatively, toast can be bought from the canteen at a cost of 25p, juice 35p and milk 30p.  An amount of £3.00 must be loaded onto your Parent Pay account by 9am on Monday at the beginning of each week. 

Homework

Reading

Your child will have been given a reading book suited to their level of reading, after using the information sent up from year 3 teachers. Reading in Y4 continues to be a huge focus - it is this year group which sees the demands of the curriculum become more challenging after lots of consolidation in year 3 of the 'basics'. By continuing to practise reading at home, children will have every opportunity to succeed and be able to confidently access the rest of the curriculum. 

We ask that you continue to good habits embedded in KS1 and Y3 by encouraging your child to read daily.  We realise that family life is busy, yet 10-15 minutes each day will hugely benefit your child's opportunties of accessing the year 4 curriculum. As a minimum, we  ask that they read at least 3 times per week with adults making a comment and signing the reading record each time, so they can earn their Reading Karate Certificates. One of these comments must be written or signed by an adult. Reading books and records need to be brought in daily as the children do a lot of 1:1 and group reading with adults. 

We ask that all reading records be brought in every day so that teachers can monitor and praise home reading as well as using it to comment on reading in school. Unlike KS1, all children do not have the same set day to change their books. They are sent out in small groups during Guided Reading time if they need to change their book, which is a way to encourage that little bit more independence. We also rely more on the children to take grerater ownership of their reading books and become more independent when they need to change them. Of course, their reading records continue to be monitored by school on a weekly basis so children will be prompted if needed. 

Spelling

This is given out weekly. Please make sure you practise these regularly as children need to know them by heart. Again, little and often is best. The homework will be an extension of their learning in class.

Maths

Just like in Y3, maths homework is largely centred around the statutory times tables test, which is administered at the end of the this academic year. Just to remind you,  children have a set amount of time to complete 25 questions on a device. The results are collated by the Department of Education and the school is measured against a National benchmark. Children have to achieve 25/25 to pass. Therefore,   as a school, we invested in Times Tables Rockstars, which is an online resource which helps children to prepare for this test. We expect your child to practise x3 weekly at home- it doesn't have to be on a device, we also have paper copies if this is more convenient for you, although if possible, the more practice children can get on a device, the more beneficial this will be.  Once a week we will use TT Rockstars in class so the children can see the improvement that practising at home makes.

Home Learning Projects

There will only be one piece of Topic homework per term i.e. 3 in the year. Each term Oaky will ask the children to complete a project linked to their topic learning. Letters will be sent out informing you of this and the children will have quite a few weeks to complete the task. There will always be a choice to make learning as personalised as possible for your child 

The Oaky Way - Staying Connected

At Oakwood, we very much have an open door policy where we welcome open communication. At least one member of staff from the year group is on the playground at the beginning of the day. If parents/carers need a quick chat or need to pass on any information, then please feel free to do so. 

If you require a more lengthy conversation, then please email or ring for an appointment with the class teacher, as you can appreciate that teachers need to be back up in class to maximise learning time.

For safeguarding and welfare concerns, please continue to use Option 4 on the school phone line and ask to speak to Mrs Frank

Members of the senior leadership team will be visible at drop off and pick up times at the gate. If you require a meeting with a senior leader, then plase contact the office to arrange an appointment.