The Governors have a great day!

Governors come into school for a day each term and Friday was our day. We had such a great time - and we were allowed to come in jeans! Mr Taylor told us at assembly that the school was donating eight large bin liners of clothes to the Dreams Come True charity as a result of non uniform day. (We should have auctioned Mr Taylor's jazzy shirt!)

We visited different classes - Some of Year 6 were recovering from their visit to Woodmill, while the rest of the year group was at Knapp House; Year 5 were designing an information leaflet about the Lordswood area, saying why it's such a good place to live; Year 3 were buzzing about bees, and blowing their trumpets and tenor horns; Year 4 were reading and answering questions. We were even lucky enough to see some experts in quick fire times tables. What a great way to increase confidence with numbers. Some of the Governors will need to practise!

Mrs Worley told us about a training course she is doing to help her be an even better admin manager, and we chatted with pupils about swimming, Joseph, and Catch Up literacy. And of course we had an update from Mr Taylor about how the school uses Google Apps.

Fortunately we had a welcome cup of tea at break time and an excellent school lunch to keep up going in our action packed day. Thank you Mrs Whitmarsh for organising the timetable for us and to all who talked to us during the day. We will be back in September.

You can find out more about the Governors' work, who we are, and our support and challenge for the school on our own website page.

Sports Day on the Hottest Day of the Year...!

We had a fantastic Sports Morning today on the hottest day so far this year!



There was a new name on the Sports Day Cup as Oriana stole the cup away from last year's winners Aurora by a single point 448 to 447!


A big thank you to all our Work Experience leaders, Sports leaders from Oasis and to Luke Newman and the gentlemen from TMC, who were all absolutely brilliant!

The biggest Thank You goes to Mrs Rogers for organising the whole event!

Count on us...

A story of teamwork and friendship at Knapp House...



And now for the Fireworks!



Disco Nights and Homecomings.

Pottermore...

You may have heard that J K Rowling had a special Harry Potter Announcement today!

Watch the video below to see what it was and how you can get involved...



We'll certainly be joining in at Oakwood!

Knapp Calling Southampton...

Just to let you know that everything is fine down here at Knapp House and we're still having a great time!

However, dodgy wifi means we can't upload pictures at the moment...

Rest assured we are still taking lots of photos and we'll blog the last couple of days' activities when we get back.

Football Fantastic!

A team from Year 3 and Year 4 attended the annual football festival today held for all the schools in the local area. Oakwood have been winners of the cup for the past two years so the teams had a lot to live up to. I am proud to say that both teams represented Oakwood fantastically and managed to come first and second! It was a close run between our two teams as they both finished on the same points so in the end it came to down to goal difference. Both teams had the same goals against difference but the Year 3 team pipped the Year 4 team to the title by winning by having scored one more goal. The trophy therefore stays with Oakwood for another year, well done boys!



Thank you to James for his photography during the tournament and the rest of Year 3 for supporting the teams so well.

News Bites...

Don't forget our new blog page where the latest news video from Espresso is published...

It's the Climb!

Year 6 cannot escape the rain this week!

No matter where they are in the country, the weather hasn't stopped their adventurous activities and their amazing teamwork!

Down at Woodmill, they climbed - not easy in the rain...



...they also made their own towers of crates and climbed those, at the same time learning the skills of belaying for their team members and how to use equipment like a grigri safely.

They were also archery stars and several members of the groups scored bullseyes!

They were complimented on their behaviour and how quickly they learned new skills by the staff.

Well done, Year 6!

Busy Bees

This week Year 3 have been busy bees learning all about bees! The Soroptimist International Virtual One in partnership with The British Beekeeping Association and Rowse Honey are running a bee project for children to help them find about about bees and the conservation of bees for the future. We have learned about the different types of bees, the anatomy of a bee and the different jobs that honeybees do.

Today we have created some fantastic art, using pastels to draw a bee.



Look out for some more buzziness from Year 3.

Beaming Smiles, Tired Boys and Technical Difficulties!

Yet more fabulous lifetime memories have been made over the last two days here at Knapp House.

All children (and staff!) are well and having a FANTASTIC time. Over the last 24 hours children have been surfing; body boarding; hiked along the coast; abseiled down trees; been 'ringo'ing, powerboating, speed boating, tunnelling and crabbing. To say we have some happy, excitied campers is an understatement- there are lots and lots of beaming campers around here. Everyone has risen to every challenge thrown at them and been a credit to themselves and the school. Needless to say a good night sleep was had by all last night with lots of exhausted children fast asleep well before lights out (especially the boys!)

We are having a few technical difficulties here especially with uploading photographs but would like to reassure everyone that we are photographing and videoing everything and will publish these to the blog as soon as we can. In the meantime we have a brief selection of photographs from yesterday and this morning for you to browse.

Tunnelling and Crate Stacking



Crabbing at Appledore Quay

Fairthorne Day 2

Finally, the photos from our exciting Day 2 at Fairthorne Manor are here for you to see!

You will see some of our sing-a-long at the evening bonfire, some of the obstacle course, a few more abseilers and even a few of the beautiful bluebells in the grounds.

Memories to treasure for years to come!

If Everybody Had An Ocean...*

The sun came out! It didn't rain! The surf was up!

Everyone from Oakwood went down to Westward Ho!** this morning for a spot of the sport of surfing. Wetsuits on, surf boards and body boards firmly attached, they braved the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean. (They actually weren't that icy and the wetsuits keep you warm as long as you keep moving).

Action shots are courtesy of our friends at Fryern who let us borrow their waterproof camera!

(Watch out for the pirate!)



*A special Knapp Prize for this reference. Mrs Worley, you're not allowed to enter as you will just Google it!
** Another Knapp Prize for why Westward Ho! has an exclamation mark...

Near a Tree by a River...*

We have wifi! Which means we can show you just a little bit of what we have been up to today...

First of all, two groups went up a tree in two different ways. The first way was the hardest - they had to climb, ably supported and belayed by faithful members of the group. The second way was the easiest, an express elevator to the top, powered by pupils. The only way down was to free abseil, so any fears of heights have been well and truly conquered...

The other two groups went ringo riding in the Torridge Estuary - there are no "close up" photos of this, because by the time the talented photographer had reached the bay, the tide hadn't gone out far enough to get round to see them. Even Mrs Collins and Mrs Adams had to wade through rockpools to get back! But we think you will agree, these photos show just how spectacular the setting is...!



(The sheep is just the obligatory Knapp House Photo Of A Sheep, which we have to include every year...)

*A special Knapp House prize for the first person to comment about the title of this post!

Welcome to Sunny* Devon

We have all arrived safely in Devon!



The staff were able to stock up on fuel at the Cartgate Picnic stop in Somerset, where everyone had a loo break and a run around.

We got to Knapp at about 12.30 and had a quick lunch.

Then we were straight into our activities: tree hoist, initiative exercises and a coastal walk (at least 20 miles, Ms Dowle and Mrs Collins say!)

Photos to follow if we can get a decent wireless connection!

(*Weather Report: NOT Sunny! More Soggy!)

Road Safety Theatre

We had a special treat at Oakwood today. 'Theatre in Education' visited to give us an entertaining show all about road safety.

Despite lots of laughs and songs, we learned some serious messages about keeping ourselves safe on the roads and in cars.

We learned to "Clunk Click" when riding in a car. This means clunk the door shut, and click your seatbelt in.

We also learned to 'Stop, Look, Listen, Think' and also how to cross the road safely when there are lots of parked cars.

Our two local PSCOs also attended, so will be keeping an eye out to make sure children are obeying the rules of the road when out playing.

Thank you to Theatre in Education for this fantastic show!

Keep up-to-date with the News!

We have a brand new page on the blog which will keep you up to date with what's happening in the UK and around the world. It contains the latest news video from Espresso...

We use Espresso in school a lot. It contains thousands of videos, news articles and lesson ideas to support the curriculum and engage children when they work on computers.

More than just drums!

We had a great time in assembly today when we were visited by our musical friend Alex Pope!



Alex taught us to use the oldest percussion instrument in the world - our own bodies - but also got us marching to the beat and taught us that percussion is much more than just drums.

All children can take part in public percussion performances by joining up the Showcase Performance Group and Alex certainly passed his enthusiasm on to everyone! We look forward to hearing some of our pupils perform in one of the group's future concerts!

Have a listen...

From a caterpillar to a butterfly

Before half term Year 4 had the wonderful opportunity of learning all about the life cycle of a butterfly. They vividly watched the caterpillars change over time and wrote an explanation of what happens in the process. There were many new and technical words to learn too!

Have look at our amazing photos, it really was a fantastic experience!

GO, GO, GO Joseph!

With less than a week to go, full rehearsals for Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat are well under way!

Here are some "behind the scenes" shots of the first run through at the Oasis Academy Theatre...



The full performance is on Thursday 16 June! The Songsters are getting very excited!

(Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. An Amateur Production by arrangement with the Really Useful Group Limited.)