Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Letter from the Executive Headteacher

  Fri 21 Jun 2019

  Please click the link below to read a letter from Garry Ratcliffe, the Executive Headteacher of The Galaxy Trust. A copy of the letter is published in the latest newsletter.

   

  Equality Week letter

• Diversity Workshop

  Wed 19 Jun 2019
  

• One Group Meeting

  Wed 19 Jun 2019

  As part of Equality Week:

   

  THE GALAXY TRUST “ONE” GROUP

  ONE VOICE

  ONE COMMUNITY

  ONE VISION

   

  Parents of Oakfield, Temple Hill and West Hill are invited to an informal meeting of

  The Galaxy Trust “One” Group.

  TUESDAY 25^th JUNE, 6:00pm – 7:30pm

   @ OAKFIELD PRIMARY ACADEMY

   

  Come and meet other parents to talk about how we ensure equality in our schools.  How do we help our pupils and families in all aspects of race and ethnicity equality?

  What experiences do our families have of discrimination in our community and in our schools?

  What can we do as a school community to support our children from all ethnic backgrounds?

  What do we do well and what can we do better?

   

  The aim of this meeting is to agree three things across all 3 schools of The Galaxy Trust  that we will achieve in the next year to improve ethnic equality in our schools.  EVERY PARENT IS WELCOME – regardless of school, skin colour, religion, ethnicity or experience.

   

  The meeting will be led by Garry Ratcliffe, Executive Head of The Galaxy Trust.  There will be coffee and cake and I look forward to seeing you there.  In order to buy enough cake (!) please email garry.ratcliffe@galaxytrust.co.uk to confirm your attendance.

   

  Please note:  every parent is welcome to attend this meeting, it will be held in the spirit of respect and cooperation.  If there are 30 parents that attend, every voice will be heard.  If 1 parent attends, the meeting will still go ahead and that 1 parent will be listened to.  Please help to make your child’s school a safer, more secure, more tolerant and more inclusive environment for every child.

   

  FOOTNOTE:  This meeting is intended to address one aspect of inequality that is present in our community and in our schools.  This meeting has a focus on ethnicity and race.  Each and every parent is as welcome as any other parent.  We are an open, welcoming, tolerant and positive school community – but there is ALWAYS more we can do to make things better for everyone…

• Parent Questionnaire Results

  Mon 17 Jun 2019

  Dear Parents and Carers,

   

  Here is a summary of the survey of parental views about the school. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their views.

   

  Thank you.

  

• Letter from the Head of School

  Fri 14 Jun 2019

  A letter from the Head of School (please note this was previously published in the May 17th Newsletter):

  Dear Parents and Carers,
  We seem to be hurtling towards the end of the school year with increasing pace. I can’t believe we are soon to break up for the May half term. After this, the summer will be upon us in a blink of an eye!
  Term 5 & Term 6 are the ‘testing’ terms. Our children now have statutory tests in Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6 – next year the introduction of a Time Tables Check at the end of Year 4 and baseline assessment as children come into Reception, mean the only years that children will not have national tests in are Years 3 & 5. At West Hill we try and create a stress free zone around children who are taking part in any tests. Of course the results are important for the school, but the well-being and mental health of our children is far more important. Our children are more than data.

  I have included a poem by Michael Rosen; a children's novelist, poet, and the author of over 140 books.

  First they said they needed data about the children to find out what they’re learning.
  Then they said they needed data about the children to make sure they are learning.
  Then the children only learnt what could be turned into data.
  Then the children became data.
  As a school, along with every other school in the country, we have a legal requirement to submit data but how do we ensure that our children do not ‘become data’? At West Hill Primary Academy, our vision is ‘no limits, only possibilities’ – ask your children to explain what this means. Our Curriculum Intent, which is published in each newsletter, is clear that all children should be given the opportunity to explore, learn actively and become critical, creative thinkers.

  If we take a moment to really think about the attributes that underlie creativity, its importance in developing these skills becomes clear. Art, drama, music, design – these in themselves do not represent creativity; they are tools for accessing creativity and for growing in confidence as a creative being. Creativity itself means taking an interest in the world around you, enquiring, thinking flexibly and exploring possibilities – the spark that ignites an original thought. Through these processes we can learn to be thorough investigators, to articulate complex ideas, defend a point of view or to innovate and be enterprising.

  More than ever before, the world of work is uncertain. It has been suggested that up to 65 per cent of children entering primary school today will end up working in completely new jobs that don’t yet exist. Self-employment and employment in entrepreneurial start-ups is on the rise. It is vital that education equips learners to be creative, flexible and resilient enough to survive and thrive in this fast-paced world.

  This creativity feeds through all subjects at our school; English, maths, science, geography, history, art etc. Last term, if you had been a fly on the wall in our school, you would have seen Year 1 children creating a map of the world by exploring the continents and placing these together – all through their own research and problem solving. Year 2 children used creativity to decide which material would have been best to build London houses from in 1666 to have slowed the spread of fire from Pudding Lane. In Year 3, children have been making and investigating their own water cycles, recording observations and linking the phenomena to real life. In Year 4, the children visited Bluewater Pizza Express, where they designed and made their own pizzas to bring back to school. In Year 5, their topic started off with a challenge from an Alchemist and Year 6 have been dissecting pig’s hearts, asking questions and making links with a human heart. In Reception, children are constantly learning through play, where they lead and adults facilitate the next steps. All of this learning is underpinned by P4C and BLP.

  Within the new Ofsted Inspection Framework, they too have identified the importance of a broad and balanced curriculum. They make reference to ‘cultural capital’ and state that any school found to be ‘systematically gaming’ could be judged inadequate; gaming happens when the decisions made about the curriculum favour the league tables, rather than the individual needs of pupils.
  We need to make time for creativity because it is here that we build not only the curators, designers and filmmakers of the future, but also the most imaginative scientists, successful entrepreneurs and dynamic politicians. 
  If you have any questions, please come into school and speak to myself or any member of the Senior Leadership Team (Todd Sillett, Pennie Hills, Carla Glover, Vicki Brown, Rachel Roe or Danielle Davenport) who all make strategic and organisational decisions about teaching and learning within the school.

  “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)

  Let’s keep lighting those fires!

  Sara White

• Leeds Castle

  Thu 13 Jun 2019

  Dear Parents and Carers,

   

  The deadline for registering interesting for attending the workshops for Leeds Castle 900^th  anniversary has passed however if you would still like to attend the event on the weekend of the 27^th and 28^th of July then here is a short video promoting the artistic work on the carnival featuring the work of Shademakers UK, students from UCA, Dizzy O’Dare and more…

   

  Leeds Castle Video Wall: https://www.leeds-castle.com/additional+information/video+wall?vtype=youtube&vid=C4wy_ZyeFQw

   

  Additionally, here is a link to their event page:https://www.leeds-castle.com/CarnivalofHistory

   

  Todd Sillett (Deputy Head Teacher)

• Apply Now for Oakfield Nursery

  Wed 12 Jun 2019
  

• Letter from the Executive Headteacher, 7.6.19

  Fri 07 Jun 2019

  Please click the link below to read a letter from Garry Ratcliffe, the Executive Headteacher of The Galaxy Trust. A copy of the letter is published in the latest newsletter.

   

  Letter from the Executive Headteacher

• Non-School Uniform Days

  Sun 02 Jun 2019

  We normally run several non-uniform days in the lead up to the fair to help us with furnishing the stalls and prizes.  The following dates will be non-uniform days.  Instead of donating a pound we will kindly be asking for the following donations:

   

  Friday 7 June                          Pocket Money Toys for the Lucky Bags – the kind of thing you get in party bags

  Friday 14 June                        Sports & Stationery Tombola

  Friday 21 June                        Teddies for the Teddy Tombola

  Friday 28 June                        Sweets for the Sweet Tombola

   

  There will be more updates over the next few weeks and obviously requests for help for the Fair so if you are able to help or you want to talk to any of us about an idea then please do approach us.  We are more than happy to get new ideas and welcome new faces.  Quite a few of us have children in Year 6 so will be looking to be replaced in the coming months so any budding Treasurers etc out there, please make yourselves known! We can be contacted via the PTFA email address on westhillprimaryptfa@gmail.com.

  Many thanks for all your support so far this year, we look forward to the next event!

  Sue Dumbleton, Chair & the rest of the PTFA