Leavers assemblywill be on:

Friday 2nd Octoberfrom 9:30 - 11:00am

OASTLERSNEWSLETTER

Welcome to our ‘Covid’ Newsletter!

What very difficult and challengingtimes we currently live in! I sincerelyhope, above all, that you are all well,safe and virus free.

During the lockdown period, we havebeen running a ‘care hub’ and manychildren have been attending thehub, taking part in activities each dayof which I am pretty sure have beenenjoyable and supportive during thisuncertain time. We have a routine -wash hands, sanitise, Lexia then getgoing with whatever activity isplanned. We don’t forget the handwashing routine all day long and wetry our very best to ensure we areoperating the social distancing rules,which are currently at 2m but thatmight change soon to 1m. There isso much happening now in terms ofupdates and guidance. What is im-portant to say, is that we will be re-turning to school, one way or theother, in September. I cannot sayenough how much you have all beenmissed! I hope you are looking

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADforward to coming back – it’s been toolong!

So, keep doing what you are doing fornow – plenty reading, completingtasks from the VLE, keeping in touchand most of allkeeping safe.

Lyndsey Brown

Oastlers School, Flockton Road, Bradford, BD4 7RH,Tel: 01274 430 7456, E:office@oastlers.co.uk

Safe, Secure, SuccessfulREMINDERS

WELL DONE MATTHEWWow! We are amazed how well Matthew has done putting up fencing forsomeone in his neighbourhood. I know who I’ll be asking for help whenit comes to fencing!

GCSE Results DayThursday 20th

August 20209.30- 11.00am

September 2020

We wish all our Year 11and 12 leavers the bestof luck for the future.We will miss you and

our doors are open foryou always!

England Cricket Stars past and present have been sending messages of encour-agement to Callum after watching him in remote training during the Covid-19 lock-down. Rory Burns and Sam Curran started 2020 on England’s victorious tour ofSouth Africa. And now they have taken time out to watch some innovative onlinecoaching sessions with a promising young talent from Yorkshire. Oastlers Schoolhas been using technology to give Year 10 student Callum the chance to continuepracticing his batting and fielding skills. The school has stayed open throughout thelockdown acting as a local care hub for young people unable to be home-schooled.

Twice a week Callum receives a one to one training session from a professionalcoach based in Surrey. England international Sam Curran has been a rising starsince his test debut two years ago and has been impressed with what he hasseen. “I’ve seen some amazing videos of your sessions which you have beendoing during lockdown and it looks great.” The Surrey all rounder also invitedCallum to visit him after restrictions are lifted in a personalised video. “I reallylook forward to meeting you in person at the Oval and to show you around theground.”

Robert Fairbairn, part of the Oastlers School leadership team, explained howthe training sessions were set up. “A couple of years ago we were invited to takesome learners down to The Oval as guests of Surrey County Cricket club.Around that time we had identified we had a fantastic young cricketer in ourmidst. Now during the lockdown period, Callum has been working with one of Surrey’s coaches, MichaelJacobs, and the outcomes have been stunning. These virtual reality, one-to-one sessions, have reallyhelped Callum and it’s been absolutely special and amazing to watch him develop.” Former EnglandCaptain, Alec Stewart, is Director of Cricket at Surrey CCC also passed on his regards; “We would liketo wish Callum all the very best from everyone in the Surrey dressing room, players and coaches.”

Before lockdown, Michael Jacobs was coaching Under 9s for Sur-rey County Cricket Club. Now he is coaching Callum from his gar-den in the Surrey suburbs. “These one-to-one sessions work thesame way they would face-to-face. Before we start, I have a quickchat with Callum, make sure the technology works. Then I get oneof the teachers to feed some balls to Callum, whilst observing so-cial distancing. We are lucky, in that Mo from the school is a prettyhandy club cricket bowler. I get Callum to work on a prescribedskill, if it goes really well, we move onto the next one. If he needsto work on something, I can give him some feedback, and thenwork on it again.”

Surrey Captain and England opening batsman Rory Burns also sent Callum a personal video message,“It’s great to see you have been managing to practice and train during the lockdown. Particularly with thegreat man that is Michael Jacobs, he coached me as a youngster. So I’m glad that he is sharing his

WELL DONE CALLUM!

NEWS FROM THEOASTLERS ‘CARE HUB’

knowledge with you.” John Neal, Head of Coaching Development at the ECBdropped into a session on Microsoft Teams, to see how it works. “In this time,where we are not allowed to be in the same place and so close together to coach.It is fantastic to see coaches, players and schools, innovating and showing creativi-ty to demonstrate how coaching can still be delivered to motivate and inspireyoung players.”

Head of Oastlers School, Lyndsey Brown is delighted with the results. It’s fantastic tosee Callum working with an elite coach during lockdown, I’m so proud just to watchthis learner really focussed and enjoying his cricket. On a serious note, this type ofactivity is about helping our children to heal as they deal with a really difficult situa-tion of coming into school during a lockdown where many of their classmates are notthere and they have to social distance with staff.”

Oastlers invited media trainer Paul Holloway to make a short film on Callum’s cricketsessions. Paul has worked on projects improving Oastlers’ students digital and em-ployability skills prior to lockdown with social enterprise, Digital Advantage. “Thewhole film was recorded and edited remotely. One thing that comes across, is thepassion and enthusiasm the staff have for the students at Oastlers. I’m a big cricketfan and I was delighted this film has been watched by some cricket superstars whothen took the time to send Callum such personal words of encouragement.” You cansee the film of Callum in action on twitter @Oastler_School

JADE - 5D PAINTING

Jade has created some amazing picturesusing a technique called 5D Painting.This is a similar technique to cross stich-ing where small diamonds are applied toa sticky canvas to create a work of art.Jade well done! We love every piece youhave created.

Raj Kaur

When the sun is shining the staff andlearners are out cleaning cars. Theyhave loved the group activity and theexercise that comes with cleaning cars.They have become quite good valets!

OASTLERS CAR WASH

For the past few weeks a group oflearners in the care hub have beenbaking buns and cakes for the staff atAiredale and Bradford hospitals. Lee- anne, sam, Lisa, Ellesha, Kenny,Stefan, Jayden, Hammad, Matthewand myself. Each week I havedropped them off with one of myneighbours who works at Airedale orImmy at work has sent them into BRIwith his wife.

The learners have loved making thecakes and buns and giving some-thing back to the NHS staff. Its lovelyto see all the learners doing some-thing for others. Its been really heart-warming to see and everyone lovestaking part.

Lucy Harper

ACTS OF KINDNESS - THANK YOU NHS

Kayden (captain) scoring aheader in one of the gameshelped the team go on to winthe tournament.

Oastlers were unbeatenthroughout the tournament andmanaged to not concede agoal in the process.

Winning this prestigious tour-nament means that Oastlerswill now play in the NationalFinals at St Georges Park

(The home of England trainingfacility)

Lyndsey said “Well done lads!”

Sean Regan

ENGAGE IN THEIR FUTURE

CUPNOTHERN REGION

2020

Lyndsey identified a need within ourDAP School partners that thosesettings would require specialisedPPE when they considered reopen-ing. She asked if that was some-thing do'able at Oastlers. My initialthought was that we could make theclear face screens easily on thelaser cutter, but that the headstraps would be difficult as the ma-chine bed is only A3 size which istoo small for them. Maybe wecould share the job with a schoolwith a larger laser cutter? After abit of digging, I found an existingstrap design which was freelyavailable to download and changed the design a little to make it possible tobe made in three sections. With clear acetate for the screens and 0.5mmpolypropylene for the straps it was possible for production to begin.

In addition to the DAP schools, I also supplied a batch to Bradford Cat WatchRescue Kittens, who were unable to carry on their important work ofre-homing rescued cats without being able to keep themselves and theirvisitors protected.

“A massive well done Chris” - Lyndsey Brown

Chris Davis

PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT BY OASTLERSLIFE WITH ISOLATIONThey are good and bad thingsabout being in isolation.The good things:● There would be a less

chance of getting Covid19.● We do not have to go to

school● And more time with family.Bad things:● We cannot go outside or go

to see your friends.● There is less stuff in shops

to buy because everyone ispanicking.

● And there are less sports onTV.

Protection:To keep yourself more protect-ed you should wear a mask tocover your mouth to stop peo-ple from coughing or sneezingon you. Keep six feet awayfrom people unless you knowthem or if he/she is your child.Facts:●Covid-19 is a new illness that

affects your lungs and yourairway.

●Symptoms of Covid-19,coughing, short of breathand high temperature.

●Simple measures like wash-ing your hands and usinganti bacteria hand gel willstop the virus from spread-ing.

Opinion:In my opinion I think the isola-tion is boring and annoying be-cause it has stopped things likegoing to the park and seeingyour friends face to face andnot on a screen. These are thetype of mask you should bewearing if you are going to theshops or just a simple dogwalk. Sometimes people canbe happy with isolation be-cause we don’t want to catchand spread it around our fami-ly. I get it can help us but some-times it gets boring.

James 8TB

This year’s GCSE art Learners have worked extremely hard creatingartwork ready for their assessments and to be exhibited within theschool. Unfortunately, due to these unprecedented times this year’s artexhibition has been unable to go ahead. Both learners Ryan and Taylorshould be proud at the amount of effort they have put into their work tocreate astonishing portfolios and pieces of art. Here is some of theirpieces of art for you to have a look at we hope that you enjoy.

Jennifer Blackwell

GCSE ART

My name is Naruto and I am aghoul who lost everything, Iwanted to leave earth to fight adragon who took everythingaway from me and I wantedrevenge.

The only way I could get to thedragon’s world was to travelthrough a portal. The onlyproblem was I did not knowwhere it was. Just before Igave up looking, I spotted aweird glow underneath a car. Iwent to have a look and sawthe portal. I jumped into theportal and suddenly the worldturned dark everywhere.

I knew I was in the world be-cause I straight away saw darkelves walking to the castle ofthe dragon. I followed themquietly when they reached thegates I crept into the lair.

The dragon was there he start-ed laughing as he saw me andI knew I was in for a battle. Webattled for a long time but Idefeated him. Everyone look-ing was shocked at me. Justthen a dark elf prince put acrown on my head.

I knew I was the ruler of thisworld so I made it a happierplace. I made everything greenand happy and made sure eve-ryone was happy as could be.

James 9TB

THE WORLD OFHORROR

Tyler has been workinghard over the Covid 19period and created afantastic poster ontourettes.

Tyler Churchill

TOURETTESAWARENESS MONTH

Aspire is a city centre basedcafé that provides catering,hospitality and customerservice training to local youngpeople. Run as a real café,they cater for local businesslunches,  their own businesshub and event space, or any-one who fancies popping infor a bite to eat.

Hammad started a placementat Aspire’s café in the earlypart of 2020. His culinaryskills immediately came to thefore as he started to bake hisamazing cakes. Some of hisproduce was sold in the caféand the rest eagerly awaitedby staff at Oastlers. Lock-down curtailed his one day aweek placement but hopefullyhe will be able to continuewhen it is safe to do so.

Robert Fairbairn

HAMMAD’S CAFECREATIONS

We were lucky to take an active part in Bradford Manufacturing Week inOctober 2019, little did we know at the time that 2020 would curtail all theexciting activities that had taken place in the previous term. Learners experi-enced a wide range of opportunities at companies like Solenis, Christeyns,Cardinal, JCT600 and Pennine Pnuematic Services.

At Solenis two of our learners had the chance to see how a chemicalcompany works, they participated in experiments and got involved in a widevariety of activities such as research and development, testing and manufac-ture.

At Christeyns two groups of learners were challenged to make a newfragrance of shampoo. They had to design and manufacture it under super-vision and then go into the board room and present to a senior team in thecompany.

Robert Fairbairn

WORK EXPERIENCE

Before l was at school doing my music. Then a few days later lockdown started,when it started I was quite annoyed because I couldn’t finish my music GCSE.After a month of being inside I was starting to get really bored in the house. Iwas missing school loads, the things I miss about school are being with myband at lunch time and helping Duncan and Lyndsey out. I’ve been keeping myself entertained by coming up with new songs for my band and going on bikerides with my brother and doing a bit of free running with him. I’m still doing myguitar lessons with Geoff on Wednesday through Zoom, at least I’m still gettingmy guitar lesson so I’m not missing out.

I’ve been in my room most of the time and then a few days later my next doorneighbours got a dog called Geoff. During the weeks of the warm spell I’vebeen playing with him in our garden which has been so much fun. When theweather was really hot we’ve had a BBQ with the neighbours and one at mygrandma’s house which was really nice to see them and just to get out was nicetoo. Now that you can go out more I’ll be going out more to stop me from gettingbored in the house. I can’t wait till lock down is fully over so I can go in to Leedswith my family. I really can’t wait to go back to school in September just to seeeveryone and to help out like I always do.

I’ve missed the staff at school while not being there. This has been a hard timeat home not been able to go out and see anyone. Hopefully things will be backto normal soon.

Kyle 11AE

LOCKDOWN

Coronavirus is effecting teenagers the most as from year 9 and up every littlebit of work counts as we pick our options now because of coronavirus wecan’t pick them and we are missing out on important work that we need tolearn and we are also missing out on friendship and fun times that we havein school and at breaks and lunches.

From my view of things, I think everyone needs to stay inside otherwiseteenagers will never learn the things that are important to us although we mayhave online school and can get in touch with the teachers it is not enoughespecially for those who have got learning difficulties and struggle to learnwithout the extra assistance that they require.

My school (Oastlers) helps kids that struggle to learn without extra assistanceand my school has shut down. Now for me I struggle to sit still and do mywork but at Oastlers they help me stay calm and sit still for long enough justto get through the lesson. Working from home for me is a bit boring and bit ofa struggle so I just have to put my mind to do it. At my school they make surewe learn what we need to but they do it in a fun way while keeping us all calmand they make it more interesting without that we just get bored easily.All the people in my school have different learning abilities some of them canonly do so much in one lesson while others can do a bit more.

We are also missing out on chances to talk about our home problems andworries with the counsellor in our school which can lead to arguments athome because the kids that find it hard to speak to their parents or carers athome and can get frustrated with themselves and others. I know this becauseI find it hard to speak about certain things with my parents and can only talkto Phil (the counsellor). There's just some things that teenagers can’t talk orask their parents or carers because they are either embarrassed or find itdifficult to talk with the people at home.

All of this above we are missing out on and from a teenager’s perspective itcan seem really important to us and some of us can be really upset at a timelike this.

If everyone in the world just stayed in and listened to the government, it couldactually make some teenagers really happy and also it would make the worlda better place and we could all get back to normal life and teenagers can getback to what is important tothem.

I hope that some adults out thereread this and realise what is im-portant to us teenagers and ac-tually stay Inside instead ofmaking this coronavirus worse.Yours sincerelyJade

Jade 9CB

HOW IS IT AFFECTING US? A TEENAGER’SPERSPECTIVEKEY MESSAGES

FROM LEARNERS

James 9TB

Jade 9TB

Tyler Churchill

Arran 7MG