In partnership with the Lordshill and Lordswood Schools Cluster, Southampton YMCA is providing Summer workshops and activities.
They will take place at the different school sites - give them a quick call to find out what's happening at Oakwood!
There's lots on offer, including:
SAM says:
I met up with an old friend again the other day when Mrs Hamilton came into assembly to tell everyone about her trip to Mexico last summer - and to tell us why she's going again this year...
I spent last summer working on the dumps on the outskirts of Mexico City - for me, it was just a couple of weeks, but for many families and children, it's their home.
They live on the dump, with no access to clean running water, education or doctors.
I went out to Mexico with a charity which takes health workers, dentists and other care workers out to the dumps and provides check ups to the families who live there.
You can see some of the conditions and the help we provided in the photos below...
Mrs Hamilton and her family are there again this summer with the charity, so next time you turn on your tap, or think about school, or go to the doctor or dentist, please spare a thought for the families they are helping.
Year 6 had a very busy end of term and everyone went on one of the Big Ships in Southampton Docks. The cruise ships are basically floating hotels, but the WhitChallenger gave us a better idea of what a life at sea is really like!
We had to follow very important health and safety rules, including wearing yellow hi-viz jackets, and we toured every part of the refuelling tanker, learning about navigation, safety, food and accommodation on board - and even knots! (Some things never change at sea!)
We also learned a lot about what goes on behind the Dock Gates in the city and how important the maritime industry is to Southampton.
Some of us were shown around by 2nd Officer Tom Barkley, who has recently been awarded the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's Officer Trainee of the Year Award, so we couldn't have had a better guide!
Thanks to Tom, the rest of the crew and to Ashley Jenkins, a director of the Whitaker Group for giving us this great opportunity!
Year 6 have had an amazing afternoon celebrating their Land Ho! home learning projects. We have read stories of desert islands, facts about distant lands and have seen some outstanding 3-D islands - some were even made out of cement and had exploding volcanoes!
All the parents and visitors thought that the work had been completed to a very high standard. Also the children recieved a certificate, which they can be very proud of!
Congratulations year 6 on all your hard work!
Year 4 have worked incredibly hard to create their own innovative popcorn holders over the past few days. They have then worked in their groups to create a persuasive poster and a detailed accounts (and profits) analysis so that they could persuade the Dragons to invest in their product.
On Tuesday, the day had come! Each group had to enter the Dragons' Den and pitch their product. The Dragons then had to make a decision about whether to invest in the popcorn holder or not. The companies that offered a higher percentage of their profits to the Dragons were the most successful!
Well done to all of Year 4! Your teachers are very proud of you.
As the first year in junior school draws to a close, Year 3 travelled en masse to the Sports Centre to celebrate their many successes this year. They were joined by parents and friends for a picnic lunch, before every child was presented with a certificate to celebrate their star achievements in Year 3.
Thank you to children and parents for making it such a fun-filled, happy occasion.
Keeping a sketchbook is a great way of keeping track of creative ideas and getting in the habit of regular drawing.
All week Year 3 will be looking at examples of how real artists (specialising in both 2D and 3D artwork) use their sketch books to record and trial their ideas. They will also add to their own sketchbooks-recording their own innovative ideas from several fun projects.
They started today with some crazy collage, where they used pictures or words from magazines as well as sketching to produce a finished picture. As you can see from the photos lots of merriment was had by all and some amusing and clever pictures produced.
For their second task they were given the job of rewriting a paragraph of text. Their challenge was to replace as many of the words as possible with pictures instead. Look carefully at the pictures-can you work out the missing text?
Year 4 have transformed into budding entrepreneurs this week. After a trip to the cinema, we have been designing some innovative popcorn holders. However, not only have we had to come up with a unique design, we have also had to think about how to insulate our popcorn to keep it nice and warm!
As you can see from our photos, we have come up with some wonderful ideas. As we have been working, we have had to keep track of our accounts to work out how much it costs to make our holders, and we have also had to price our designs to ensure we make a good profit.
Next week, we will be pitching our ideas to the "Dragons' Den", asking them for investment for our new product, so we have also been working on persuasive posters and speeches.
Every Wednesday for the past 5 weeks you might have noticed the playground filling up with cyclists after school.
Go-Ride club is held for Year 5 children to help them become confident and safe cyclists. It's also a lot of fun! So far the club members have successfully managed several different activities to test their individual cycling skills. They have also worked in groups, to help them become more aware of what is happening around them as they cycle.
The club has been extremely lucky to have been joined by Penny Cossburn, an experienced cycling coach, who has been greatly impressed by the skills that the children are showing.
Go-Ride will continue in the Autumn term and will culminate in an exciting and challenging ride through the woods.
Monday was the Travel Team's last get-together as Year 6 are leaving and the Oakwood years are moving on. The Travel Team will be splitting up next academic year into different committees, so other people get a chance at each committee. There'll be a brand new Travel Team next year!
We all have enjoyed ourselves and we thank Mr Taylor for running this committee this year.
This is what we have been doing:
School signs. We have designed our own School Zone signs to send to Southampton City Council and ONE might get chosen to be placed alongside Sandpiper Road.
We took a trip outside of school too take a look at a safety sign informing us about the Council placing speed bumps outside the school - Jed and Dillon measured the length of the bumps using Trundle wheels.
Mr Clapham (one of our School governors) said that this lesson has been very interesting and has said he had learned how to use a trundle wheel (because he had never used a one...)
Marking on the safety and danger signs on maps! Last Committee Day we printed out an aerial image of Sandpiper Road from the Internet. We then marked on the safety and danger zones on the map, this way if they were detailed enough we could mail them to the Council and ask them what they would do about it.
by Jed and James
As the school begins it end of year book return to the library, the ECT Committee have been doing their bit to ensure that the library has some exciting new literature ready for September.
After the last committee afternoon 2 members of the ECT organised a visit from the school library service. On Monday 29th June 2009 Chris Thomas joined the committee for the afternoon. Chris came armed with boxes of books to help the committee implement one of their previous ideas - to get pupils involved in choosing books for the library.
After formulating criteria by which to evaluate the books, the committee spent the afternoon reviewing and choosing new books (fiction and non fiction) for all the pupils of Oakwood to enjoy. Books about pirates, beautiful picture books and lots of humorous and exciting new story books were all chosen, with every member of the committee having at least a couple of their choices added to the school collection.
The ECT team hope to continue their good work in the new academic year and would like to thank the Year 6 members for all their hard work and wish them all the best in their new schools.
The current Year 4 cohort proved yesterday that they were equal to any challenge that might come their way next year.
As part of their taster day in Year 5 they were set a mission to undertake 6 different individual and team challenges. These challenges were chosen to test their problem solving, creative and team work capabilities. They incuded activities such as:- Gloopy Slime; Monster Pictures; Krazy Creator; Tantalising Tangrams and Guess the Object.
As you can see from the pictures a lot of fun (and mess!!) was had by all. The day cumulated in a celebratory welcome party where the children paraded their own fantastic headwear creations, which they had designed and made especially for the celebration.
Well Done New Year 5 - your teachers were very proud of you and we know you will be as successful next year.
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