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

• Oakley School wins Green School Award

  Thu 14 Feb 2019

  The Kent Messenger Charity Team’s ECO Warriors scheme selected Oakley School to receive a prestigious Green School Award. Last year staff and pupils did a lot of work on the garden behind one of our classrooms. However, that garden needs some changes to adapt it for the current, younger class. Thanks to Sue Hobbs, who nominated us and who leads our Eco Committee and Lunchtime Gardening Club, we will be able to make those changes in the Spring. The photos below show two of our most enthusiastic and green fingered pupils collecting the Award at a formal ceremony on Thursday, 14th February.

   

  (This is the same garden that won the 'Tallest Sunflower' prize at this year's Tunbridge Wells in Bloom!)

   

  

• Challenge Partners Quality Assurance Review judges Oakley School to be OUTSTANDING!

  Wed 13 Feb 2019

  Challenge Partners is a practitioner-led national network of schools that improves school performance through peer-to-peer challenge and knowledge sharing. Oakley School joined the network last year and we had our first Quality Assurance (QA) review between 21st and 23rd January 2019.   The QA Review is a peer review involving senior leaders from other schools in the partnership. The review has a whole-school remit and focuses on teaching and learning, which enables practitioners to have deep conversations about the quality of learning in the school being reviewed. All outcomes are agreed between the school and the review team as part of an ongoing professional dialogue that seeks to unpick and articulate effective teaching practice and school improvement strategies.

   

  The Review was, as the title implies, challenging, but we are delighted with the outcome.  However, we are not sitting back on our laurels, as we continue our path of continuous improvement, to be the very best we can be for our children and young people.

   

  The Review report (see link below) is best viewed as a summary of conversations between peers during the three days spent in Oakley school. By nature of being a collaborative peer review, the QA Review is different from other external inspections. Due to the review’s focus on teaching and learning, the review does not consider areas such as safeguarding or governance and so its outcomes are not directly comparable to an Ofsted inspection.

   

  If you would like more information about Challenge Partners, please go to their website: https://www.challengepartners.org or you can e-mail: review@challengepartners.org. 

   

  For the full QA Review Report please go to: https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/oakley-school/UploadedDocument/72579ea555b44bc3923110ff5a70a838/qa-version-oakley-review-report-pdf.pdf

  

• Oakley swimmers win GOLD!

  Fri 08 Feb 2019

  On Thursday, 7th February, after just two training sessions, eight Oakley School pupils, Years 7 to 9, competed against 8 other Special Schools in a Panathlon at Medway Park swimming pool in Gillingham. The event started with 25m and 10m individual races of front crawl and backstroke and the team swam fantastically, securing many 1st and 2nd places. We then had the team events: float relay, treasure hunt and raft race. Oakley dominated the pool showing amazing determination and strength.

   

  It is the first time we have competed in a swimming competition like this, so imagine everyone's delight when we came first and won GOLD.  Our staff and parents are so proud and the children themselves are thrilled with their success and haven't taken their medals off.  Well done and congratulations to everyone involved.