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

• Greg Clarke MP visits Oakley's Further Education students

  Mon 13 May 2019

  On Friday, 10th May, Greg Clark MP visited our Further Education provision on the Tonbridge site. He spent an hour and a half chatting to students about work experience and their hopes for employment and the barriers they felt they faced.

   

  One of our students gave a presentation about his work experience and two other students shared a film they had made to represent the students’ views.

   

  Mr Clark said he wanted to support the students with their aspirations and help remove some of the barriers if he can, he has promised to come back and share feedback when he has spoken to local employers and ministers.

  

• Year 9 Residential a great success

  Wed 08 May 2019

  Our Year 9 pupils ventured off to Bentley Copse near Ashford from Monday, 29th April to Wednesday, 1st May 2019.  Bentley Copse has over 15 adventurous activities and offers a range of accommodation for groups in its extensive forest woodlands and twenty-eight acres of natural Hurtwood Forest.

   

  We know, being a Forest School, how much the majority of our children and young people love being active and outside, so it was no surprise how much they enjoyed their time away.  

   

  The staff team who went with them were so proud of them all, they behaved brilliantly and they all tried every activity, even if they didn't complete it, overcoming fears, nerves and disabilities.  

   

  We hope you enjoy the photographs below, as much as the children and staff team enjoyed their time at Bentley Copse.

  

• The Big Battery Hunt

  Wed 08 May 2019

  We are taking part in a very exciting campaign called the Big Battery Hunt.  This will form the whole school Energy project for our Eco Schools Green Flag application.  In school, pupils will learn how important it is to recycle batteries and what happens when people don’t.  

   

  Pupils have been challenged to find and collect as many old batteries as possible and we are asking parent and carers to help them.   The children can be as creative as they like by asking friends, family and the wider community to help them collect as many batteries as possible to help make sure that no battery ends up in landfill.

   

  The children have been given a collection box, to bring into school when it is full so that we can add it to the main container and enter the competition.

   

  You can visit https://nationalschoolspartnership.com/initiatives/bigbatteryhunt/ for more information about the campaign.

  

• Oakley's Eco Committee lead on our Healthy Living Project

  Wed 08 May 2019

  This term we are encouraging each other to drink more water.  We are hoping to use our maths skills to create tally charts and graphs using data we collect in class and improve our health and well-being at the same time.  (We are also encouraging each other to use our drinking bottles rather than throw away cups, to help our environment).

  

• Oakley School awarded Centre of Excellence status

  Tue 30 Apr 2019

  The Balanced System for Schools and Settings is a whole school approach to improving outcomes for children and young people across the range of speech, language and communication needs.

   

  For the last two years, as detailed in our School Improvement Plan, we have been working hard to embed our speech & language therapy provision across the school (along with Occupational Therapy, Art Therapy & Physiotherapy).  It has been a whole school effort, lead by our speech & language therapist, and so we are delighted to share that we have been awarded CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE status.   

  

• Oakley School working with Asda to promote SEN

  Tue 09 Apr 2019

  On Monday, 1st April Owl Class visited Asda in Tunbridge Wells to take part in the national launch and social media campaign of their Makaton communication boards. 

   

  Look out for our pupils on social media from 6th April!  Below are just a few of the photos that were taken as part of the campaign.

   

  A big thank you to Asda for the work they are doing and for inviting Oakley School to be part of it. Thank you also for the donation of Easter Eggs for our Easter Egg Bingo night!

   

  

• The Great Oakley Spring Clean has begun!

  Thu 28 Mar 2019

  On the morning of 28th March, pupils from Eagles Class got our Great Oakley Spring Clean off to an amazing start by clearing the outside area beside the construction workshop.

   

  They worked really hard to create piles of rubbish and recycling and by the end of the lesson the whole area was free from rubbish.

   

  In the last week of term, week commencing 1st April, classes from all across the school will be joining in to "Spring Clean" our outdoor areas ready for the summer.  This is all part of our Eco Schools green flag application and linked to the Great Big Spring Clean that is happening across the country. 

  

• Warburtons support Oakley School

  Thu 28 Mar 2019

  The smell coming from our Tonbridge site on Tuesday, 26th March was AMAZING! Warburtons were in school making bread – possibly the best smell in the world!

   

  From scratch, the students weighed, kneaded, shaped and baked Cottage Loaves, Plaits, Hedgehog Rolls and even a Bread person!  We all loved it!

   

  We then went onto making sandwiches for the whole site – cheese, ham, chicken, salad with all the sauces and dietary options you can image, we fed students, staff and visitors at lunchtime and even washed up!

   

  Meanwhile outside Warburtons also brought with them an incredible (hard) “working party” who cleared some of the garden to the new mobile home – all ready for the plants to go in that were generously donated by Hadlow College Nursery.

   

  What a great day that fed the tummy as well as the soul! Thank you Warburtons.

  

• Oakley School Open Evening a great success

  Mon 25 Mar 2019

  On Thursday, 21st March we held our first Open Evening, inviting Teachers and SENCos from mainstream schools in the District to come and find out more about the provision and strategies we use to support pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

   

  Those attending were given a tour of the Tunbridge Wells site, a presentation about visuals and strategies and were able to visit a range of information stalls from our specialist staff including; the Thrive approach, TEACCH, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy etc.

   

  We were overwhelmed by the number of attendees and their enthusiasm to learn as much as they could from us.  We also had some great feedback: "Staff are lovely and helpful", "Thank you for taking the time to share your good practice", "Oakley has a comfortable feel"; "Thank you so much for inviting us to visit your beautiful school and lovely staff", "Great to know that our children will be going somewhere so wonderful", "Inspiring, motivating and inclusive".

   

  Every professional who attended said they would recommend Oakley School and the feedback has given us some ideas of how we can make the event even better next time!

  

• Red Nose Day 2019

  Wed 20 Mar 2019

  On Friday, 15th March 2019 Oakley School joined in with the nationwide fundraising extravaganza that is RED NOSE DAY!

   

  Pupils and staff paid £1 to come into school wearing red.  On the Tunbridge Wells site we then had a massive cake sale at break time (and beyond) and games and activities for all ages during the lunch break.  On our Tonbridge site, our Further Education students offered parents, drivers and escorts afternoon tea, at a very reasonable cost!  

   

  In total we raised a wonderful £385.68.  Thank you to everyone who supported on the day, including the School Council who planned and ran the activities on the Tunbridge Wells site and thank you to all our parents and carers for their support and generous cake donations.