Everybody Writes Day Grand Opening

What an exciting week! Years 3 and 4 had the opportunity to work with a "Poetry Slam" workshop earlier in the week. They wrote their own poems and performed them with actions. Year 4 even extended this by reciting some poems using our new Macbooks, using Photobooth software.

Today, Years 5 and 6 were lucky enough to work with Ali Sparkes, local author of the "Monstermakers" and "Shapeshifter" series of books, as well as many others. She was our special guest at the grand opening of our story garden that the Year 5 children have been working hard on over the past few months.

She was honoured to be asked to officially open the garden, and then to be the first person to read from our Story Throne. She read an extract from her forthcoming book, "Frozen in Time", which will be available in paperpack in January 2009.



Wooden Tiger came along, as well as Sue Bence, Literacy Advisor for Southampton. When Ali finished reading, some of the Year 5 children read their own writing about the garden and performed some poetry for us all to enjoy.



We are very proud of the children who have all worked extremely hard on our new garden area, and we hope you all agree, it is a fabulous success. We hope the whole school will be able to enjoy the new area, both at break and lunchtimes as well as during lessons.

Successful Start to the Football Season!

Our three football teams have all made a very successful start to the season.

Our Girls' Squad played brilliantly in their first league game against Abbotswood winning 3-2. They also represented the school really well at a 6-a-side tournament at Wide lane.

Well done to Megan, Caitlin, Emily, Olivia, Amy, Jessica, Chloe, Katie G, Katie M and Katie C !

Our U10 Boys' Squad won the first round match of the Hampshire Cup against Orchard 3-2. They also won their group stage at a 6-a-side tournament at Wide lane and got to the quarter finals. A real achievement, especially as the games were only 4 minutes each way!

Oakwood work hard to ensure they keep the ball out as it comes in from the corner!

Well done to Kieran, Sean, Lewis, Aaron, Kane, Billy, Jake, Ben, William, Elliot and Henry !

Our U11 Boys' Squad won their first round match of the Hampshire Cup against Locks Heath 2-1.

They have also won all three league games so far (8-1 v Bassett Green, 7-0 v Mount Pleasant and 1-0 v Hollybrook).

On Friday they also won 2-1 in the first round of the Southampton Cup!

Well done to Matt, Alex, Mitchell, Dalton, Ryan M, Jack, Ryan O, Jordan, Harry and Oliver !

Good luck to all the squads for their future games and thank you to Paul and Gary (our football coaches).

Gardening Next Steps

You may remember last year's Year 4's work on improving our quiet space garden area in the playground. We made stepping stone mosaics, carved benches and a story throne, and created mosaic "season stones".

However, all work had to stop for a while, because of the replacements to our main perimeter fence. The good news is, that's all complete now, and we are back on track for finishing the garden before half term!

Today, three boys from Year 5 learned how to use a spirit level, watched while sand and cement was mixed and set the stones in the cement themselves!



Keep checking the blog for further updates, including next week's grand opening!

Land Ahoy!

Year 4's first home learning project has been based around the topic of lighthouses.

We have been incredibly impressed with the quality of work that has been handed in, and anybody who visited our exhibition on Thursday would undoubtedly agree!

Have a look below for just a few fantastic examples:



We have also been making working lighthouses in class - so watch this space for even more illuminating examples soon!

Let's Get Cooking in Year 3!

When we asked children what they'd like to do more of in school, one thing was at the top of everyone's list...

Cooking!

Year 3 decided they they wanted to cook for some members of our local community and so today they made delicious muffins for some of the residents of Neptune Court.



Our visitors had a great morning in school, learning about what we get up to at Oakwood. They were then treated to their muffins with tea at break time and they even stayed for school dinner!



Now a few people in year three know how to make the muffins (Thank you Mrs Hayter and Mrs Mattack!), everyone from the year group will be cooking next week!



Watch out for many more muffins!

Get the Rhythm!

We had a great assembly this morning when we were visited by the talented musicians of Southampton Music Services!

Ted, John, Alex and Kath showed off a variety of percussion instruments and entertained us with Latin rhythms and a great song which has travelled all the way from New Orleans to St Mary's Stadium... (I bet you can guess what it is!)

Have a look (and a listen!) for yourself...

All children from the school were invited to join in the Percussion Ensemble, which will be held at Oakwood Junior School on Tuesdays, so things are about to get louder!

Thanks to Ted, John, Alex and Kath for a great performance!