John Watson School Newsletter 26th January 2018

Contact Details: 01865 452725 (Primary and Nursery) 01865 876716 (Secondary) www.johnwatsonschool.org primary@johnwatsonschool.org , secondary@johnwatsonschool.org , wheatleynurseryschool@johnwatsonschool.org

Dates for the Diary: Last day of half term: Friday 9th February 2018 Start of term: Tuesday 20th February 2018 (Please note INSET day on Monday 19th February)

NO NUT ZONE: We are a no nut zone, so please could you ensure that you do not put any items of food that contain nuts or nut oils in your child’s packed lunch. Please check the ingredients. Thank you for your support.

Celebrating Birthdays! We like to celebrate birthdays at John Watson School and will sing Happy Birthday in class to children. Unfortunately we have a number of children in each class are not able to eat buns, cakes and sweets for a range of health reasons. We would therefore remind parents that we are unable to give these out, so please do NOT send food in to share. PE Kit Reminder: Please can all pupils have the following clothing in their PE kits- trainers, t-shirt, shorts and/or tracksuit bottoms, socks and a jumper. KS3 and KS4 now have weekly PE sessions at the Park Sport Centre. We are working on team games and fitness. Staff News Laura Davies’ maternity leave is to be covered by Ben East who is returning to work with us (NHS Speech and Language Therapist.) Site news The new road markings have much improved the parking at both sites. Thank you for bearing with us, with some of the changes. We are keen to ensure that the minibuses and others dropping and off and collecting are able to do so as safely as easily as possible. The improvements at the Primary Site are progressing well, despite wintry conditions, and we are all itching to get out there and enjoy the new play surface in the quad and to the rear. Photos will be included in the next newsletter.

This week’s round up from the classes…. Nursery & Little Windmills The children are continuing to enjoy role play games based around watching the contractors at work. Busy builders at work! We are thinking of the story of the 3 little pigs this week and having fun retelling the story and building houses using a variety of resources. The children have enjoyed going on winter treasure hunts in the garden and playing with the very strong winds we had last week.

Reception/ KS1: Holton & Forest Hill:

We have been very busy constructing this week and have transported objects around the classroom galore. Our science consisted of traffic light biscuits and a talking walk plus we have had lots of discussion on the environment on a windy day. The past few weeks activities have been around our focused book Naughty Bus and we have been acting out scenes from this in our play. We have also been exploring heuristic materials and counting race cars on the car mat.

KS3&4: Wheatley and Shotover Class: Wheatley and Shotover class has been learning about Recycling. We have designed a model toy we are going to make using recycled materials. We researched which countries are Fairtrade countries, and learnt what it means to be one. A Careers Advisor visited the group and they had a look at careers students might choose. During the session they explored a range of materials and dressed up in work uniforms. In English we used SRS strategies to read and spell keywords from our topic books. Students also joined in with Sensory Stories and Bucket Time activities. We continued to collect information and present it in different forms in Maths. In Design and Technology Cooking, we continued to work on skills such as measuring, following instructions and timing. Sarah Bearchell, who is from Sarah’s Adventures in Science led a Science session and the students did fantastic hands on experiments where they measured a spring onion, and planted it in a greenhouse to grow. They also planted cress seeds in a pot. We are looking forward to watching them grow.

Sixth Form: Oxford Class: Competing in the Swimming Panathlon is now becoming part of the annual calendar - an event that both staff and pupils look forward to with great anticipation. Competing in such events provides our students with life skill opportunities - planning the journey, the catering arrangements, travel and of course visiting an incredible and historic sporting venue. It also provides social opportunities to meet other competitors from different schools, and experience the mix of emotions associated with competition. Participating in sporting events is important but so is the experience of winning and losing. The Panathlon has provided a focus for swimming lessons during the last two months. Students have worked hard training for their events, adding meaning and excitement to the occasion. Ten special schools across Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire took part in the gala which took part at The Aquatic Centre, Olympic Park, London. It is a spectacular venue which boasts state of the art facilities. A venue that can’t help to impress and cause added excitement. John Watson School came overall first. Team members received individual Gold Medals, a Certificate, a towel and a Team Trophy. The day was well organised and enjoyed by all!

KS2: Waterperry: Last week we had a lot of fun with patterns in our maths. We made repeating pattern towers and snakes, and random pattern fish. We finished the week by making patterns on biscuits - and then eating them! We also started work on an under the sea themed piece of collaborative artwork which should be finished soon. This week we have been learning about deserts and we are making our own book of desert animals. The children used the internet to find out more information about the desert animal of their choice.

KS2: Cornfields: Cornfields class has enjoyed learning about the Sea this week. They have enjoyed making Fish tanks and fish. They have also enjoyed identifying things that belong in the Sea and those that belong on the land. Cornfields have also enjoyed copying some sounds heard in the song ‘Under the Sea’ , completing the percussion part using a range of musical instruments. KS2: Riverside Class:We have all settled in well into our new routines and have been enjoying learning about our “Awesome Earth” as our topic. We have been looking at animals that come from the sea and have started working from a new book called My Friend Whale. We are in the process of doing some descriptive writing taking inspiration from the book. In maths we are developing our number work using a 100 square, number lines and objects to support our work. Our Art work has been linked to animals of the sea and we have been creating them using different mediums, collage, pencils and paint.