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

• Further Education (FE) trip to France!

  Tue 16 Jul 2019

  Bright and early on the morning of Monday, 15th July a group of Further Education (FE) students headed off for a residential trip to France!  Having arrived safely, they started their French experience with a visit to a snail farm, before exploring the beautiful town of Montreuil-sur-Mer and then enjoying an evening in the beautiful surroundings of their hotel.  Today, Tuesday, 16th July they are going to a market, before going swimming and enjoying playing games on the beach - sounds wonderful!

  

• Another superb Summer Fair

  Mon 08 Jul 2019

  Saturday, 6th July was Oakley's annual Summer Fair.  This year, in addition to all the usual activities and treats on offer, we had the official opening of our MUGA - Multi-Use Games Area - a new outdoor facility thanks to The Wooden Spoon Charity and their generous grant.  We were lucky with the weather, it was so lovely and warm which attracted so many of our children and young people, their families and friends. The Fair had a lovely, friendly atmosphere with the pupils showcasing some of the things they do in school; our Makaton Choir sang for everyone, our Speech & Language Therapist demonstrated just how much fun the children have with Attention Autism to support their learning and some of our pupils demonstrated Tag Rugby.

   

  There are so many people to thank for the success of the day; the Friends of Oakley (our PTA) who give up so much of their time to organise the event, Oakley staff who make donations and help out on the day, our parents and carers who support everything we do and finally our wider School community; local employers and businesses who donated raffle prizes, local supermarkets who donated fruit, the local emergency services who let the children climb all over their vehicles and charity and individual supporters and fundraisers.  Collectively, it made the Summer Fair a joyful and memorable occasion.

  

• Final update and photos from Wales

  Fri 05 Jul 2019

  Our intrepid Welsh mountaineers are on their way home.  No-one can quite believe how quickly the week has gone and how lucky they have been with the weather.  We are expecting some happy but very tired young people and adults home later.

   

  Yesterday, their last full day, they started by walking to the lake and building 2 rafts with the help of Karl and Jez who were their instructors for the morning. They were shown how to do a reef knot to secure the wooden poles and plastic drums together. Once they had built their rafts, each team got on and raced each other on the lagoon. Each team won a race and both rafts stayed afloat, which was a huge relief! 

   

  Yesterday afternoon was spent at Caernarfon Castle, where the Prince of Wales was invested. In fact it’s the 50th anniversary of this and filming was going on around the grounds of the Castle in recognition of it. Everyone was very impressed with how big the Castle was and how well kept. 

  

• Wales Trip Update

  Thu 04 Jul 2019

  Yesterday was another fantastic day. Our intrepid group walked down to the lake after a hearty breakfast and spent the morning kayaking. Two kayaks were joined together to make it more stable and 5-6 of the group were in each of the kayaks. There was lots of laughter, splashing and bumping into each other initially but once they got going and got the art of how to use the oar, they were off!

   

  Back to the house for lunch and some of the pupils decided to rest for the afternoon and watch a film whilst the rest of the crew went mountain climbing. Our young people were so brave and adventurous, all attempted the climb and felt so proud of themselves afterwards. Once at the top of the mountain the views were breathtaking. The Kent Mountain Centre staff have been so accommodating for all the needs of our pupils and are making their experience such a memorable one. Last night was piggery pottery, which everyone had been looking forward to.

  

• The latest news from Wales

  Wed 03 Jul 2019

  Everyone had a wonderful day yesterday walking around LLyn Ogwen.  It was a long and tricky walk, up a steep rocky hill at first and was challenging for a few of our young people but they did so well, with the help of their friends.   They all felt extremely proud of themselves. They walked up to the lake, had a lovely packed lunch and some even enjoyed a paddle and threw stones.  Continuing around the lake, the views were incredible and everyone very much enjoyed it.  One of the pupils said it was his type of holiday and that he never wanted it to end.  Another said it was one of his highlights of Year 11!  

  

• Years 10/11 Residential to Wales

  Tue 02 Jul 2019
  Yesterday morning a group of our Phase 3 pupils headed off to Wales for a week's residential.  It was a long journey by coach but they all coped so well, arriving safe and sound in time for tea.  They had to make their own beds before getting into them, but had a great first night's sleep before getting up to make their own breakfast this morning, in preparation for all the day's fun activities.

  

• HMS Oakley!

  Mon 24 Jun 2019

  We are excited to share how our Playground Development Project is coming along on our Tunbridge Wells site.  We have been lucky enough to have raised sufficient funds to start this project off with a big bang  - in the form of a wooden ship called HMS Oakley!

   

  The pupils couldn’t have been clearer with what they wanted to see in their playground - a pirate ship!  The photograph below shows the ship being built in “Dry Dock” and all being well and with fair winds, we should be able to set sail on her from September 2019.

   

  We are not going to stop there and have plans for a trim trail to be built under the canopy of our giant trees – we have so far raised £5,400 and need around another £6,000 to make this a reality – the funds from this year's Summer Fair (Saturday, 6th July, 11am to 1pm) will go towards the trail – so please come and support.

   

  

• The Big Battery Hunt - UPDATE!

  Fri 14 Jun 2019

  We have had our first six boxes of batteries collected this week, which means approximately 2,500 batteries that won’t go to landfill!  Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far, but please keep up the good work – we are still collecting batteries for recycling, so keep sending them in.

  
  Thank you

  Oakley School Eco Committee

   

   

  

• FE students have fun at 'It's a Knockout'

  Tue 11 Jun 2019

  On Friday 7th June, Oakley School entered two teams of Further Education (FE) students into the annual It's a Knockout at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge. The event was organised and hosted by Tonbridge Lions. There were 15 teams from schools and other organisations who support young people and adults with a variety of physical and learning needs in the area. Broomhill Bank School, Horizon and Aspen were just some of the teams we competed against. 

   

  Both of our teams were amazing, showing great team work and supporting each other and we are very proud to share that Oakley School came third overall.  Well done to all our students and thank you to all involved in organising such a great event.

  

• Ultra Marathon Runner for Oakley!

  Mon 03 Jun 2019

  You may have been following our amazing supporter Stuart Coleman who ran an ULTRA MARATHON on Saturday, 25^th May in aid of Oakley school. He sent us an update when he completed his 100k London to Brighton Challenge;

   

  Hi Oakley

  Hope you're all well and have enjoyed the half term. Just to let you know I survived the run! I managed to come in 39th in the men’s race in a time of 13 hours 37 minutes which I was really pleased with. A few donations still to come in but we're looking at just under £4k which I hope you'll be able to use to buy something with!

  Look forward to seeing you for the summer fair.

  Thanks

  Stuart

   

  What an incredible achievement – massive thank you to Stuart for putting himself through such a rigorous test of endurance and the 6 months of training!