Dance Festival 2010

OJS Dance club showed some serious talent yesterday when they performed at the Turner Sims Concert Hall at Southampton University.

Joining together with lots of other schools from all over Southampton, they spent the day sharing dance moves and watching lots of other talented youngsters from all over the city.

Performing 'Broken Heels' and 'Ciara 1,2 steps', they were hugely popular and were given a very loud cheer.

Many thanks to Emma Maeer, dance coach, for helping the team put their routines together - they did you proud!

Knapp House 2010!

Here is the final evidence of a fantastic week at Knapp House 2010! Can you believe we crammed so much into just one week? We had such amazing weather, company and of course, activities...I think we all could have stayed another week!

Terrific Tankers!

Year 6 had a fantastic morning at Whitaker Tankers today.

We learnt how to tie a reef and bowline knot, saw how radar worked and pretended to fight a fire onboard!

The Captain decided to play a trick on us when we were investigating the meaning of the flags flying at the bow of the ship. After deciphering the flags, we discovered that he was telling us a submarine might be passing by! Definitely not possible at dock gate 4!

Thank you to everybody at Whitaker Tankers for such a unique and fun experience.

Goodbye Knapp House!

Our last morning at Knapp House was as busy as ever!

Group 14 braved the crate stack and crawled their way through the tunnels of doom!



Group 15 and 15 spent the morning soaking up the sun on the beach and feeling the wind flying through their hair as they ringo-ed around the River Torridge!



What a fantastic end to a fantastic week!

All that was left to be was pack up and say goodbye to the sheep!



Thank you to all the staff at Knapp House who made our week so brilliant!

D..I..S..C..O...2!

Here are some more super photos from the disco!

D..I..S..C..O!

A very hot and sweaty Oakwood crew tumbled out of the 'bar' at 11pm!

After dancing the night away to Lady Gaga and Beyonce, which included a fantastically acted rendition of 'Single Ladies' by the boys and a giant conga line all around the site, we made our way to the field for some stargazing.

We spent some time reflecting on our best moments of the week, then a tap on the shoulder meant it was time for bed and our last 'knapp' at the house!

Up, up and away.....

This afternoon it was group 15 and 16's turn to abseil down the Great Tree of Terror. As you can see from the photos, it was not an easy feat, but by the end of the session everyone was scampering up and down like monkeys!



Swapping vantage points, Group 14 braved the abseil tower; they gritted their teeth and drew upon every ounce of strength and determination to reach the top!



As this blog is being written, the air is thick with deodorant, hairspray and anticipation, as everybody puts on their best clothes ready for the DISCO!

After busting a few moves, we are going to have a relaxing end to the holiday stargazing before bedtime. Is it really our last night? It has gone so quickly!

Up here, over there and down under....

This morning group 14 gazed down at Knapp House from the dizzying heights of the mighty abseil tree.

Before anyone could say 'vertigo', Ashleigh was flying 'like an angel' (group joke, sorry!) down the rope!

Meanwhile, Miss Denton took considerably longer to get up the tree. The whole group, plus Josh and Lewis P, helped hoist Miss D into the upper branches of the tree - we didn't think the huge cooked breakfast this morning helped!

We also played some fantastic brain teaser games such as 'The Towers of Hanoi' using car types and '15 Rusty Nails' using, not surprisingly, rusty nails!

We were officially the fastest group to complete 'The Towers of Hanoi' this summer, demonstrating our great teamwork and logical thinking skills!

See what group 14 have been up to below. Look closely at the 'Observation' photograph. Can you spot something that shouldn't be there?!?



A few sheep fields over, groups 15 and 16 were navigating the low rope course. A test of balance and co-ordination skills, many of us nearly ended up being tied in knots!

Go-Kart Krazy!

Yesterday evening we had huge amounts of fun go-karting!

From team relays to drag racing, we learnt a thing or two about steering a moving vehicle and when to use the brake!

Mrs Adams was disqualified for cheating! We decided that Brayden needed to wear 'L' plates as he crashed spectacularly into the fence, and Hannah D's feet appeared to be on fire as she zoomed around the course!

A great evening...even if the helmets were not exactly fashionable according to the girls!

Super Surfing!

We awoke to another sunny morning in North Devon. After a hearty breakfast all three groups hit the beach surfer style!

After squeezing into our wetsuits, we grabbed our surfboards and bodyboards and rode the waves. Everybody had lots of fun and Elliot and Cameron were proper surfer dudes - they nearly stood up on their boards! Following many wipeouts we headed back to base for lunch; wet, weary, but very, very proud and happy!



In the afternoon, group 14 'water babies' ringo-ed around the River Torridge, clinging to the inflatable ring for dear life (or to simply avoid a mouthful of salty sea water!) We were then given a lift in a speedboat back to camp, pulling some scary 'doughnut' moves along the way!

Meanwhile, group 15 and 16 were scaling the heights of the climbing tower...you will have to wait for the video to see this fantastic feat! As if this was not enough excitement for one day, after celebrating England's victory over Slovenia we are now just about to head off for some go-karting!

It's Macbook Time!

Year 4 have been very lucky this week to use a set of Macbooks to complete their English work.

They had the challenge of writing their own film review of Charlotte's Web which is also our current class novel. It has been wonderful for the children to have the opportunity to work on the Macbooks in the classroom.

Cool Cricketers

Yesterday, Year 5 cool cricketers played a tournament at Fairisle Junior School run by Testlands Multisport Coaching.

The standard of cricket was really high, with fours and sixes being hit and wickets being bowled. Oakwood team won their heats and made it to the final where they came runners up by just 4 runs. The team would like to thank Dan Annetts and the Sports Leaders for their superb coaching over the past 10 weeks, which helped them reach the final. It was a fantastic afternoon with all the family schools. Well done, Oakwood!

Crashing splashing Tuesday!

Crashing, splashing canoe Tuesday!

After our canoe boat drills in the swimming pool yesterday, we left for the unchartered waters of the lake!

Working as a team we had to paddle and race the 'dragon boat', 'Canadian canoe' and 'blue raft' across the murky depths, hoping not to capsize...although there were a number of voluntary man overboards!

After a yummy lunch, we walked down to Appledore in the sunshine to catch some crabs. It was fantastic to fill the bucket full of crabs of all colours and sizes.

We were then taken for a spin in the speedboat, James Bond style, we were all certainly thrilled.

Once we had finished zooming around the River Torridge, some of us spent our pocket money on clotted cream ice creams, yum! We were very glad we had decided to do this after the speedboating!

This evening we are looking forward to our Coastal Walk at Westward Ho! (Do you know why this name has an exclamation mark at the end of it? We do!)

Check out out fab day below...

Kings (and Queens) of the Swingers...

What have group 14 been up to?

Well, this afternoon they were wet and wild in the water, practising their strokes and capsizing techniques to be let loose on the lakes tomorrow!

Later in the evening, they had to use their initiative and team building skills to get around the low ropes course and we are here to tell you that some of it is more difficult than it looks!

Each person needed 'spotters' for each section of the course to help them with hand and foot holds and to be there should the inevitable happen...(in other words if they fell off!)

See how they got on below....

Higher and Higher...

Crate stacking is a really excellent example of the kind of Knapp House activities which demand teamwork...

18 children from groups 15 and 16 worked together to build the highest crate stack possible, with three team members at a time taking turns to be the climbers.

Other group members passed up the crates and three sets of three people "belayed" for them. (This means they pulled the ropes through the safety locks and kept them tight so that when the crates fell over, their team mates were safe...)



We used special time lapse photography to capture one group's work...

Going Underground...!

On a very sunny day, the first thing groups 15 and 16 did when we got here was to get very warm and very dusty boiler suits on and go underground! (Group 14 were cooling off in the pool, more of them later...)

It's a quick hop over the fence to the Big Field of Tunnels (guarded by the Big Scary Sheep).

Now, it's not easy on a sunny day to bury yourself away underground like a Womble, but every one of the team managed it! If you're a bit worried about the dark, or being underground, or being in small spaces, you had to be especially brave to go into the tunnels.



But everyone came out smiling and had another go!

Well done!

Here Comes the Summer Sun!

Year 6 Knapp Housers have arrived safely in Devon after an unexpectedly long journey!

Firstly, our coach went to the wrong school first, but after we'd picked up our new friends from Fryern, we were on our way...

It's the summer solstice today - the longest day of the year. Where do lots of people go to celebrate the solstice? - Stonehenge! What did we have to go past on our journey? - Stonehenge! (So it was a bit busy!) (Especially with the Doctor being locked in the Pandorica underneath, eh, Miss Beavill?!)

We stopped at Cartgate for the loo and the staff decided a bacon sandwich would be order... (but just for the adults...!)



We were about an hour later arriving than normal because there was a v e r y l o n g traffic jam to get onto the M5, but we were straight into our activities... Keep your eyes peeled for more news!

By the way, just in case you want to know where Knapp House is...



(Zoom out to see where we are...)

Celebrating Summer!

Continuing the Country and Western theme from the Yee-Haa! Concert earlier in the week, Gill Handley-Garland, Gary Chafe and the OSA organised a fantastic Summer Fete today!

It's the first time in three years that the weather was good and we were able to hold the Fete outside!



Everyone had a brilliant time - there was so much to do, lots to buy and many, many games to have a go at! Lots of hot dogs were eaten too!

The Songsters performed and the Respect Drummers ran a workshop for everyone to have a go...

Thanks if you came along and spent some money - we'll let you know how much we raised soon!

We Can Animate...

Year 5 want to make some movies about The Hatseller story which we have been learning and rewriting.

Four of us have learned how to use stop motion animation so that we can think about storyboarding our movies and getting them filmed.

We haven't made any characters yet, because we needed to see how big they needed to be and if we needed to build special staging. (Turns out we do...!)

The software is called I Can Animate and is very easy to use. We only started half an hour ago and we've already made our first "test" movie - It's called "The Flip and the Mug." (See if you can guess why!)

Yee-Haaaaaaaa!

Foot kickin' - finger clickin' - leather slappin' - hand clappin' -
hip bumpin' - music thumpin' - knee hitchin' - heel and toe -
floor scuffin' - leg shufflin' - big grinnin' - body spinnin' -
rompin' stompin' - pumpin' jumpin' - slidin' glidin'...

...here we go!

What a fantastic Country'n'Western concert!

Songsters entertained two audiences of children and parents and grandparents and friends today with a boot-scootin' selection of songs and dances and instrumental performances.

From Dolly Parton to Taylor Swift, there was something for everyone...



We even had a visit from Black Rose, a Year 9 band from Oasis Academy Lord's Hill who performed two of their songs and, along with Paul Ibbot, provided live backing for our songs! (Three members of Black Rose used to go to Oakwood - Mrs Heathcock says it was her music lessons which made them so talented!)

Thanks also go to Mrs Peregrine and Mrs Larder who have worked with the children every week to prepare them to such a high standard.

Well done Songsters! We're really proud of you!

Community Activities at Oasis

There are lots of community activities ccoming up at Oasis Academy Lord's Hill.

Click on the thumbnails below for full details!

Concert Cooking!

There have been lots of preparations and hard work going towards our "Yee-Ha!" Songster's Concert this Wednesday.

Year 3 have been helping out by making some delicious chocolate crispie cakes which will be available as refreshments for the matinée and evening performances.

Be sure to have one if you are part of the audience!