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

• National School Funding Issues - letter from the Executive Head

  Fri 08 Mar 2019

  As you may have heard in the news today, Friday, 8th March, over 7,000 Headteachers  have written to the Government about funding for schools.  As you will hear more and more of the issues in the news, I have written an update for your information on current issues relating to school funding: 

   

  https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/oakley-school/UploadedDocument/b101f1958ccb4624808e7210b56d0ba4/national-school-funding-issues-08.03.19.pdf

   

  Best wishes

   

  Gordon Tillman

  Executive Head

  Oakley School & Oakley College

  01892 823096     01732 207950

  www.oakleyschool.co.uk

  www.oakley.ac.uk

• Update from the Slopes in Pila, Italy

  Fri 08 Mar 2019

  It snowed in Pila overnight on Wednesday and into Thursday morning.  Our skiers found it a bit easier on the fresh snow as it slowed them down so they could work on their turns.

   

  Four of the twelve pupils went up the mountain and skied through the forests and down the Narnia run and everyone went on the chair lift up the mountain for lunch, which they loved.  Bowling last night for their evening entertainment, which we know they would have enjoyed.

  

• World Book Day 2019

  Thu 07 Mar 2019
  Oakley School pupils and staff have, as always, thrown themselves wholeheartedly into World Book Day.  We have Mr Men and Little Miss, Princesses, Super Heroes, Harry Potter, Postman Pat, the Gruffalo's child and so many more, everyone looks amazing, as you can see in the photos below.  A big thank you to our parents and carers for supporting the children and being so creative with their costumes.

  

• News from the Slopes!

  Wed 06 Mar 2019

  Our 2019 Ski Trip is underway with 12 Oakley pupils and 5 members of staff on the slopes in Pila, Italy. 

   

  They left School at tea time on Saturday, 2nd March and had a good overnight journey, arriving safe and well at the Resort in Pila, where they joined pupils from two other Special Schools.

   

  They had a great first day on the slopes on Monday, it was little hectic but everyone did really well.  Charlotte took to ski-ing like a duck to water and was awarded "skier of the day". Felix was awarded "star of the day".  After a long day on the slopes they all enjoyed tucking into pizza.

   

  They had a fantastic day 2 on Tuesday, 5th March. Miles went down the slope with minimal support and reduced his instructor to tears, saying it was a day he will never forget!  Day 2 finished with a disco which everyone loved!

   

  We will share more news as the week progresses but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy some photos of our intrepid skiers.

  

• 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.

  

• Oakley pupils helping to look after our local environment

  Fri 25 Jan 2019

  On Thursday, 24th January Maple Class took our Eco work into the community when we went to Dunorlan Park in Tunbridge Wells to do a litter pick.

   

  In very cold weather we walked all around the park collecting as much litter as we could find, some of it tucked into bushes and blown into the trees.

   

  While we were there several members of the public stopped to thank us for looking after the park and said what a great job we were doing!

   

  Hopefully some of us will go back later in the year when the weather is a bit nicer!

  

• Christmas Treats for Everyone!

  Mon 17 Dec 2018

  Stephen Mason of The Mason Mile and friend and supporter of Oakley School donated a chocolate selection box for every child and young person at Oakley School. Every child was delighted with the generous gift—a big thank you and Merry Christmas to Stephen from Oakley School.

   

  On Friday, 14th December we wore our Christmas Jumpers and each donated £1 to Save the Children. We raised £134 for children less fortunate than ourselves.

   

  We would also like to thank our whole school community for their donations to Nourish, our local foodbank—another of our chosen charities this year, working hard to ensure no-one goes hungry at Christmas.

   

  

• The Countdown to Christmas has begun.....

  Mon 10 Dec 2018
  Saturday, 8th December was the Oakley School Christmas Fair, it was a great success thanks to the efforts of the Whole School Community. We had lots of fantastic donations of chocolates, bottles, bric a brac, books, DVDs, toys and cakes from our parents and carers, friends and family members and some wonderful raffle prizes donated by local businesses. Our children and their families came and enjoyed a go on the bouncy castle, a visit to Santa, face painting and so much more, all in a safe and familiar environment, which makes it such a unique and wonderful event.  Thank you to everyone involved, we are delighted to share that we raised £2,130 and that wouldn't have been possible without such great team work and community spirit.