A late addition!

Video just in of the Showcase Percussion Academy Concert at Oasis Lordshill on 10 December.



See more information and pictures!

Our Christmas Service

After a week of special events, hard work, loud singing, dramatic acting, festive eating, silly hats and jumpers, we took time out for our very special Christmas service.

Trudi from Lordshill Church joined us to lead us in prayer and we lit the final candle on our Advent Crown.

As always, our Nativity tableau retold the real meaning of Christmas.

All the Trimmings!

We have just had a fantastic, FREE Christmas Dinner at Oakwood!

Governors came in to hand out crackers provided by the OSA and Maureen and Cheryl (The "Suits" from City Catering) were on hand to serve puddings.

All the staff helped with dinners, but special thanks go to Mrs Le Bas and her excellent team, and to Mrs Lyons and her fabulous cooks in the kitchen!

The gents from TMC and Joe from Springwell were also on hand to make the lunchtime go with a swing!

Year 4 and Year 6 Christmas Production of 'A Pudding for a Chimney Sweep.'

It was Year 4 and Year 6's turn to put on the show this afternoon and tonight!

To capacity crowds in the Oakwood hall, they performed A Pudding for the Chimney Sweep, a sorry tale of downtrodden Victorian workers and evil factory owners. We learned of accidents in the loom machinery, cuts in wages and light-fingered debt collectors.

But hey! It's Christmas, so all worked out well in the end, and the frightfully posh Mortimer sisters got their longed-for brother!

Have a look at the photos below and the videos, which show the making of the Christmas pudding and their rehearsals.

Well done, everyone! A shilling's rise in wages all round!

Y3 and Y5's Nativity

Year 3 and Year 5's Christmas production this year was a traditional nativity play, with a chance for them to sing some of the songs and hymns their parents and grandparents knew from their own childhood Christmases!



They sung old traditional favourites such as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!", "We Three Kings", "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks", "O, Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Away in a Manger".

The finished off with a rousing chorus of "Mary's Boy Child" and got the audience to join in!

You can also look at their rehearsal video below...



If you weren't feeling Christmassy before, you should be now!

We're in the Echo!

Oakwood's Key Stage 2 results were mentioned in a very good article about rising standards in Southampton.

Our results, as you might remember from the summer, were the best ever achieved by the school, so we were delighted when the Echo contacted us.

As the Year 6 pupils who achieved the results are now working hard in Year 7, our new Year 3 children represented us in the photo!

Introducing our December 'Club of the Month'

Oakwood’s December ‘Club of the Month’ had a bit of a twist to it today. Instead of being visited by a local club and having their coaches work with each of our nine classes throughout the day we simply rowed the day away.

Thanks to our close links with Oasis Academy Lordshill we were able to borrow some top of the line rowing machines for the day!

After a brief reminder of our past Olympic success in rowing (Rowing is the only sport which Team GB has won a gold medal in at every Olympics!) The children were given a go at rowing against the clock in a 100m sprint.

Amie-Megan recorded the fastest time in the school stopping the clock at 25.0 seconds, whilst Mr Ackland narrowly pipped Mr Newman to the top of the teachers leader board with 17.8 seconds.



Many thanks go to Mr Lloyd at Oasis for making the day possible!

Our Very Own Gold Post Box!

To commemorate British gold medal winners at the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, many post boxes across the country have been painted gold.

Each gold medallist had the post box in their home town painted gold in recognition of their achievement.

Have a look at this local post box:



This one can be found in Hamble, the home town of Dani King who won a gold medal for her achievement in the velodrome as one third of the women's cycling pursuit team.

As a symbol of Oakwood's dedication to the Olympic legacy and our continuing commitment to living the Olympic Values, our Christmas post box has had a golden makeover and we have launched it on 12/12/12!



It can be found in the entrance hall from today until the end of term.

Stationery Shop Launch

Today saw the launch of Oakwood Junior School's brand new stationery shop, organised and run by the School Council.

Not only can pupils replace lost or damaged school items such as handwriting pens and whiteboard pens, but they can also choose from a range of colourful and interesting stationery items at very reasonable prices!

Items are priced from 10p up to £1.70 and come with a free name label if requested.

We will be running our second stationery shop next Tuesday. Have a look at some of the stock we are selling:

Festive Drumsticks!

It was a loud and rhythmic celebration of Christmas at the new Oasis Lordshill Theatre last night, as children from Oakwood Junior School and Fairisle Junior School met together with Alex Pope and staff of the Showcase Percussion Academy for their Christmas Concert.



They got us in the festive mood, drumming along to a range of festive songs and carols, and they also gave out Percussion Awards, presented by the Mayor.

Many thanks to everyone involved for another celebration of the talent in our schools!

"Further" A Mystery Story

Alice has created an Audio story of her mystery story - Listen to it here!

listen to ‘Further’ on Audioboo

Year 4 and Year 6 Christmas Production

Year 6 and Year 4 children have been working hard practising for their upcoming Christmas production of 'A Pudding for a Chimney Sweep', For more details please listen to Ben and Jake's podcast-we hope to see you there!

listen to ‘Ben and Jake's Christmas Advert’ on Audioboo

Sumdog Superstars!

Ms Dowle's maths set have been working on Sumdog (a free maths website for children ages 7-18.)

They went up against 174 schools in the UK, including some Secondary schools and Colleges, with 8,803 students playing. As a grand total altogether, the students answered 2,117,392 questions. However they got, 1,834,432 correct.

Out of all these statistics Oakwood Junior School won!!!!

As a prize, the whole of our school was rewarded a free subscription of all the new games and different clothes and accessories for the students avatars. Having already won the Southampton competition, this a great achievement and all of Ms Dowle's maths set are extremely proud of themselves.

Another example of Achieving Excellence Together.

By Amie-Megan, Mary-Beth, Alice and Jacob.

If you would like to see some of our results for yourself click the link below:

Link to results

Live! On Stage at the Guildhall!

Following in the footsteps of many famous bands, comedians and entertainers, (including at least four other Oakwood Choirs in the past!), our fabulous Songsters entertained a full house at the Southampton Schools' Music Association Christmas Concert on Tuesday evening.

We joined together with the choirs from Fairisle Junior School, Bitterne Manor Primary School and Highfield Primary School to get everyone in the Christmas mood.

Our Showcase Percussion Academy Drummers also entertained everyone in the first half, and Alex Pope, who compered the whole evening in his best suit, donned something a little more festive to lead the percussionists...

OSA Christmas Fair

Many thanks to everyone who came to the OSA Christmas Fair - it seems a long time ago now, but the OSA Christmas Elves have been busy packing up and totting up the the money you spent on games, presents, raffles, Santa visits, hot dogs and chilli!



We are delighted to announce that the grand total raised on the evening (Drum roll....!)

£3330!

This is an amazing total, especially when times are hard, so we'd like to say a very big

Thank You...

to everyone who came. The money will be split between the two schools for the benefit of all pupils. We will let you know what we spend it on during the year!

World Links Committee

Hello, we are the World Links Committee from Oakwood Junior School.
We would like other schools around the world to look at Oakwood Junior School's blog  and to get in touch with us. We could compare life in our different schools.

We thought it would be good to put pictures of our school on the blog.




We will let you know a few of the things we do at Oakwood: Every year we have a Christmas performance, Year 3 and 5 together and then Year 4 and 6 together.

Our school day starts at 9am and finishes at 3.15pm We have 5 lessons every day.  Every Wednesday we have singing assembly; we have school assemblies on the other days. Every pupil takes part in a committee, for example, there are the Travel Team, School Council and Healthy Schools Committee. We go on many exciting trips throughout our time at Oakwood, for example, Intech science centre, the Southampton Boat Show, the Sea City Museum, Southampton Art Gallery and residential trips to Minstead and Knapp House.

Oakwood has many exciting after school clubs to take part in, for example, netball, Songsters, football, hockey. We have a fantastic school netball and football team!

We hope this has given you a flavour of Oakwood and will entice you to get in touch! There are 242 pupils in our school.

Year 3 Jittterbug down at a WW2 tea party!

Year 3 had so much fun today celebrating the end of the war at a tea party. Thank you to all the parents and friends who came.

Year 3 Angels Day

Year 3 had a wonderful time with Chris Davies from 'Scratch' last week learning all about angels.

Year 6's visit to Milestones Museum

On the 22nd of November 2012, Year 6 visited Milestones Museum in Basingstoke. We had a fantastic time walking through Victorian London streets and visiting shops and homes. Steam trains and antique cars were among the marvelous things we saw. Many people visited the 1940's sweet shop for their ration of the sugary treats. They were meant to last us the whole week, but most of them were gone in minutes!We also had a school session with a Victorian teacher where we used slates and slate pencils.

There were so many other extraordinary things that happened that day and (just to prove it) here are some pictures from that fabulous day! 

We dressed up too. Can you spot the poorer citizens?




By Beth

Year 6 Victorian Day

On the 15th of November 2012, Year 6 took a step back in time as they experienced a vile Victorian school day. They were under very strict instructions: hands on desks at all times; only speak when you are spoken to. Break these rules, and you could end up in the corner, wearing the Dunce Hat! The teachers were very strict and for those who they shouted at, it wasn't very amusing!

But we won't tell every thing that happened! You can find out for yourself with these pictures.

Can you spot the teachers?!





Presented by Kezia & Beth

Year 5 visit INTECH

Today Year 5 and an 'awesome' day at INTECH, as part of our 'Up, Up and Away!' topic. We watched a planetarium show, where we whizzed around the Solar System. We even launched rockets of our own!

We had a great time exploring all the new exhibits, especially the new area dedicated to the science of sport. Well done for a fantastic day, Year 5!

A Paralympian Visits!

Aaron Phipps, a member of the Paralympics GB Wheelchair Rugby Team, visited Oakwood last week.



He told us about his life, how he came to lose his legs and parts of his fingers, and how his determination led him to represent his country at London 2012.

He gave us all a clear message - when unexpected things happen, you can either moan, or you can pick yourself up, get on with life and work hard! No prizes for guessing which he chose to do... If you watch this video of his training, you can see the effort he puts in seven days a week!



Have a look at his website to find out more!

Our OS Digimap Ambassadors

Three of our very able ICT students met up with three able students from Fairisle Junior School yesterday and went to the brand new Ordnance Survey HQ here in Southampton.

They were learning to become Digimap Ambassadors. We also had a tour of he new building and grounds.

Digimap is an online system which has all of Ordnance Survey's map data in for use by schools.

Our ambassadors explored the system fully and learned some of the tricks and shortcuts.



In the new year, the six ambassadors will plan and run teachers' meetings to share their knowledge and expertise with the staff of the two schools.

Thank you to Darren and Ian at OS for their hospitality!

Hooray for the High 5 netball teams

Team A have had a great start to the Southampton Netball League, winning 4 out of 6 games. They have worked very well as a team and improved a lot since the first training session.
Results are as follows:
Oakwood A v St Monica A
                 3 v 2

Oakwood A v St Monica B
                6 v 4

Oakwood A v Bassett Green A
                1 v 8

Oakwood A v Sholing Junior A
                 7 v 4

Oakwood A v Sholing Junior B
                11 v 0

Oakwood A v  Heathfield
                 1 v 2

Well done to Team B for a great effort and sportsmanship in all their games.
Players' of the matches have been Tom, Jack and Ellie. Fantastic!



We look forward to the remaining matches beginning 17 January where Oakwood A will play Oakwood B!

Match report by Oakwood A players' of the matches so far: Abbie, Cassidy and Morgan.

Christmas Shoebox appeal

We collected an amazing 29 boxes for the shoebox appeal. A big thank-you to all of you who kindly put together a shoebox of gifts!!!

Our new ponchos!

We would like to say a big thank-you to Sainsbury's who have kindly donated these ponchos to the school! We will have lots of fun in them!!!

Our November Club of the Month – Southampton Rugby Club

On Friday we welcomed Jim, Nick and Mike from Southampton Rugby Club to Oakwood as our November Club of the Month.

They shared a little bit about the History of Southampton Rugby Club which is based only a short distance from Lordshill, before WOWing the children with a passing display in assembly.

Jim, Nick and Mike stayed with us for the rest of the day put each class through their paces in a 30 minute coaching session on the now, very muddy field!

The youth coaches at Southampton Rugby Club have a vast wealth of coaching experience and all the children thoroughly enjoyed their sessions, picking up many hints and tips during the sessions.

If our Club of the Month has inspired you to play Rugby and you would like to get involved with Southampton Rugby Club then have a look at the leaflet you took home on Friday or look at their website.

Their training is on a Sunday at 10am. Your first four sessions with them are free! So go and give it a go!

Year 3 Explore an Evacuee's Suitcase

This week, Year 3 have been learning all about WWII and life as an evacuee. They have had the wonderful opportunity of exploring items borrowed from Hampshire Wardrobe.

Trip, trap, trip, trap!

Year 3 treated us to the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff in assembly this morning. See if you can learn it too!

Wizard Maths

Year 4 became wizards for the morning. They had to pass a wizarding test (reading blank marks on a scale) followed by careful measurement of liquids in each potion bottle.

Shipwrecked!

Year 4 enjoyed a day of tasting exotic island goodies, planning a backpack full to survive on a desert island and producing a scrumptious menu for The Lighthouse Keeper's Christmas lunch.

A Hallowe'en Spectacular!

Hallowe'en seems a long time ago now, but we've just seen the photos of the fantastic concert which our drummers took part in!

The concert took place at Central Hall in Southampton on the evening of last day of the half-term and included ghosts and ghouls - even the Phantom of the Opera made an appearance! There were special effects and indoor fireworks to add to the mood!

The highlight was over 150 drummers, including the Showcase Percussion Academy drummers from Oakwood Junior School, making the loudest, most rhythmic noise and really bringing the house down.

Well done to everyone who took part and thanks to Alex Pope for allowing us to republish a few of the photos here. You can see the full gallery on the Showcase Website.

Remembering those who fought for our rights

Year 3's visit to the war graves at Hollybrook Cemetery was a little different this year.

Firstly, we went today (9th November) because we won't be at school on the 11th of November when the main Remembrance Ceremonies are being held.

Secondly, because we have been working on making our school a Rights Respecting School, we remembered that brave men and women had fought so that we could enjoy the rights we have.



We laid a wreath made by Year 3 and the Royal British Legion gave us small wooden crosses with poppies on them to place alongside of the individual graves.

Our House Captains, who have been selling poppies in school, accompanied Year 3 and we'd like to thank Mrs Wheeler and one of our governors, Mrs Vaudin, who also helped us on our visit.

We will let you know when we hear from the charity how much money we raised towards the Poppy Appeal.

Going (slowly!) round the bend...

Members of Oakwood Junior School's Travel Committee have been thinking about how to make travel to and from school safer!

At our first meeting, we came up with several ideas:

• A travel survey for all pupils
• Another video to teach everyone the Green Cross Code
• Another visit from the Truck Safety Team
• Try to get people to drive and park more safely on Sandpiper Road.

For the last one, a team of four children came up with the idea of a banner, did several designs and came up with a slogan and then spoke to the very nice people at Hampshire Flag.

The banner they designed is now up along Sandpiper Road, and they are very proud of it.

If you are a driver, please take notice!

Smile Home Learning Project

Before half term Year 3 put on a wonderful home learning exhibition showing off all their hard work. Outstanding Year 3, well done! Thank you to all the parents and friends that came.

House Captains' Assembly

The House Captains did their first assembly this morning and set out to challenge the teachers to see if they knew the Rights Respecting Schools' Articles.

Their knowledge was good, but the House Captains told the story of a young girl in another part of the world who had been denied the right to an education and been punished for asking.

House Captains will be leading an assembly every half term.



The Vice Captains launched their poster competition to encourage people to be on time for school. We want to reduce the number of late minutes from 1182 this half term to less than 600 next half term, and then see if we can reduce it even further. Vice Captains will blog about the winner next half term.

Harvest Festival

We welcomed Chris Davis into school today to lead our Harvest Festival.

Chris is a well-known friend of the school and he and his team have already spent time with us this term leading the Year 6 RE Week.

We have collected packets and tins and dry goods which are put into storage for the winter by the SCRATCH charity.

Chris has led over 30 Harvest celebrations in schools this term, and so they are storing about 30 times the food you can see in our pictures. Chris told us that the sad news is that they will have to distribute all of that food this winter, leaving them with an empty warehouse in March.

Our Harvest Festival has never been more important.



We all sang and prayed together and our amazing Songsters sang a new song. Please enjoy!

Lordshill Cluster Concert

On the 18 October 2012, Oakwood's Musicians took part in the Lordshill Cluster Music Concert at the brand new Oasis Academy. They put on an outstanding concert and it was enjoyed by all.

Please take a look at our pictures from the day.

By Abbie and  Kezia

Outside Grounds Committee

The Outside Grounds Committee met for the first time this week. In our first meeting we thought about how we can make the nature trail a lot more exciting and more usable. We also started a resource box that other classes can use. Our first resource was lots of leaf identification cards which we then used to identify all the different variety of trees we have here at Oakwood. You would be surprised at how many different trees there are - why don't you have a go!

We made a plan/list of all our ideas so far. They included:

• Develop the resource box to include bug and bird identification laminates
• Design and make signs to mark entrances to the nature trail
• Paint stones to brighten the trail
• Make 3D sculptures ie. insects out of clay and wire etc for trail
• Create a sink swamp for frogs
• Visit another school that has a nature trail to magpie ideas. 

Keep an eye on the blog to see how we progress.




By Kezia

Harvest Festival

Look at all the food that has been collect for the harvest festival! A big THANK-YOU to all the children that donated items. Well done!!!

Southampton City Under 10 Champions!

On Monday, Team Oakwood went to the Under 10 football tournament held at Wide Lane, Near Eastleigh. We went into the tournament with high hopes of doing well.

Our first match was against Ludlow we lost 2-1 our goal scorer was Jack.

Our second match was against Bevois Town we won 1-0 Ben scored.

Our third match was against Springhill we won 2-0 Lewis and Jude scored.

Our fourth match was against Sinclair we won 3-0 Jude X2 and Ben.

Our final group match was against Orchard we needed to win and we did we won 1-0 our goal scorer was Jude.After a long and nerve racking wait we were given the thumbs up, we had reached the semi finals.

We now faced Holy Family, but at the final whistle it was 0-0, so three minuets extra time would be played - it looked like it would be penalties but in the last ten seconds Jude hit the back of the net, we were through to the final!

We now were against a dangerous looking Ludlow. Early on, Lewis scored to make it 1-0. It stayed this way until the final whistle arrived. We had done it we had won the tournament! We were City Champions!



The presentation: the medals were received and the trophy was lifted.

Player of the tournament went to Lewis.

The next day we were rewarded with a Domino’s pizza - that was delicious. Thank you Mr Ackland!

Well done to all the players: Billy, Billy, Jack, Ben, Ben, Lewis, Sam, Oliver and Jude.

Match report by Billy.

Southampton City KO Cup

On Wednesday the school football team played their 1st round match of the Southampton City KO Cup against Bitterne CE Junior School.

After the match Kicked off Bitterne scored the first goal, they scored two more to make the half time score 0-3. In the second half we went out and gave it our all, we scored first bringing the score back to 1-3 before hitting the post. Bitterne scored two second half goals meaning at the final whistle the score was Oakwood 1 - 5 Bitterne CE.

Thank you to all the Parents and friends who came to support the team.

Scorer: Matthew.

Year 3 Become Artists for the Day!

Year 3 had a wonderful day yesterday visiting our local Southampton Art Gallery. The children learned a lot about the art work in the gallery, and how it links to our Science unit 'Materials'.

As part of our topic work the children made clay self portraits learning many new skills of how to use clay. 

Have a look at our photos below!

Year 3's Special Visitor

Year 3 were very lucky yesterday to have a special visitor come into school. Mr Mandigora who talked to the children about his home country of Zimbabwe and answered all their interesting questions. Thank you Mr Mandigora!

Year 3 and Year 4 use iPads to learn phonics

Year 3 and Year 4 had a great phonics session today using the iPads to help learn the new phoneme "y" and recap last week's phonemes too!

Introducing our ‘October Club Of The Month’

Oakwood held its second Club Of The Month day on Friday and we welcomed The Saints Foundation, from Southampton Football Club, to the school. John and Andy put our future Premiership stars through their paces.

They started by introducing The Saints Foundation and the work they do with local schools. Following this was a 30 minute football skills coaching session for every pupil in the school from Year 3 right up to Year 6.

It was a fantastic day and all the children really enjoyed their sessions with the excellent coaches. There was a real "Saints Buzz" at the end of the day! So many thanks to Andy and John.

If your child enjoyed our football day and would like to give it another go or is thinking more seriously about playing then why not go along to a Saints Foundation Coaching Course or sign up to TMC’s Wednesday after school football club.

St. Marks Junior School 4 -3 Oakwood Junior School

After a disappointing group stage knockout at the Under 11’s Wide Lane tournament Team Oakwood were hoping for a win against St Marks.

We had a bad first half and were losing 4-0 at halftime. We performed better in the second half scoring three goals but at the end of the match we lost 4-3.

We’re looking forward to the Under 10s tournament on Monday!

Our goal scorers were: Jude, Ben and an own goal.

Match Report by Lewis 

Celebrity Book Launch!

There was a first for Oakwood Junior School last night, as the biggest group of published authors the school has ever seen assembled in the hall for their book launch!

The best bit was that all the published authors were Oakwood pupils!

Proud parents and friends raised a glass of "champagne" (!) to these talented writers and illustrators as they signed their Chocolate Muffin books.



A big Thank You to Claire and Kate from Chocolate Muffin, and also thanks to Elisha-Jade, who took the amazing photos, really capturing the atmosphere!

Dr Bike's Playground Surgery!

As you may be aware, Oakwood Junior School has been selected to become a part of an exciting new initiative in Southampton: Bike It.

As a Bike It School, we will be working very closely with Bike It Officer Matt Porter, from sustainable transport charity Sustrans. This work is funded as a part of Southampton City Council’s My Journey programme.

Matt will be supporting us to develop our cycling culture, encouraging our pupils to travel to school in a safe, healthy and sustainable way. However, it’s not just about cycling; we want you to be scooting and walking your way to school as well!

Through the Bike It programme we will get to take part in lots of exciting events and competitions; already we have had the Bike Doctors come to school and give children’s bikes and scooters a full service and replace broken parts for free, and children can currently take part in a competition to win safety gear, brand new bikes, and family holidays!



The Bike Doctor will be coming again throughout the year, and we will also be undertaking events such as: cycle skills training; road safety awareness; bike-powered smoothie maker days; bling-your-bike sessions; bike maintenance lessons; national competitions with cool prizes; bikers breakfasts; topic related cycling work and activities; and much, much more!

There are many benefits of cycling, scooting and walking more, especially before school where morning exercise can dramatically improve children’s academic performance and learning experience, as well as their health.

If you want to find out more about cycling for yourself and your family, you can follow the links below!

• Sustrans
• Bike It
• Free Range Kids
• My Journey Southampton

Finally, Matt will be available to talk to parents about the programme, any cycling questions that you may have, to discuss alternative routes to school, and tell you how your whole family can be involved in Bike It, at our parents' evening on Tuesday 16 October, between 3:30pm and 7:00pm.

The missing I-Pads

On Monday  1st of October,  Oakwood Junior School were trying to solve the mystery of the missing
I-Pads. We had lots of fun but we were working hard as well writing a letter of application for the post of Sherlock Holmes assistant.

Work from Year 6

By Kezia & Hermione

Team Oakwood back in action!

Team Oakwood attended the annual Southampton Under 11 Football tournament held at Wide Lane on Monday afternoon and with twenty four schools in attendance it as always going to be a tough afternoon!

Oakwood were drawn in group C against Hollybrook, Bassett Green, Townhill, St Marks, Bartley, Calmore and Shirley.

The team only lost one game, picking up four draws and a 1-0 win over Bassett Green.



Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to qualify for the semi-finals but the team played well and did Oakwood proud!

Many thanks to all the parents and friends who came to watch and support the team.

Oakwood Needs a Hero (or Heroine!)

It was possibly his most baffling puzzle yet. He couldn't solve it on his own. He needed a hero or heroine to help. Who could possibly assist Sherlock Holmes with "The Case of the Missing iPads"??

Heroes and Heroines wrote persuasively to apply for the position of Sherlock's sidekick. What qualities can they bring to the investigation? Are they brave and fearless? Do they have special powers? Can they stay strong in the face of great adversity?

Once the sidekick was chosen (for his incredible ability to blend seamlessly in with a crowd...!) the investigation had to begin. Clues were found, evidence was interrogated.

Was it Gangsta Granny? Her only alibi was that she was visiting Buckingham palace at the time of the theft?



Or could it have been James Bond? He claims to have been playing swingball with Snoopy!

Little Red Riding Hood and her sweet old granny must surely be blameless? Robin Hood only steals from the rich...



...and Hermione Granger and Matilta are surely just too good?

Well, following some carelessly discarded clues, Sherlock and his new assistant soon found out the culprit!

Keep your eyes peeled for the WANTED posters around school...

Macmillan Coffee Morning

What a wonderful community we have at Oakwood!



This morning, we took part in Macmillan's World's Biggest Coffee Morning to help raise money for families affected by cancer. Years 3 and 5 made some scrumptious cakes in school, including scones with jam and cream and chocolatey rocky road. Years 4 and 6 donated delicious cakes: home made rock buns, 'Cookie Monster' cupcakes and even some mini savoury pasties to name but a few.

Meanwhile, all children were busy hand-writing invitations to family members and friends of the school to make sure nobody missed out on the tea, cakes and chance for a good natter.

And what a turnout!

We didn't count exactly, but estimate that around 250 very generous people attended this morning and in just one hour, we raised £588! The school has since rounded this up to £600.

This means that we have raised over £1800 since we started supporting the Macmillan Coffee morning in 2009.

Although the fundraising element was incredibly important and the contributions will undoubtedly make a difference to many people whose lives have been affected by cancer, the palpable sense of community and warmth has left me feeling very privileged to work at Oakwood. The children, their families, the staff and the many friends of the school make it a very special place.





A very big THANK YOU to everyone who helped make this worthwhile event such a success.

Mrs Whitmarsh

Hollybrook Junior School 1 – 6 Oakwood Junior School

Oakwood’s school football team got their season off to a flying start with a brilliant performance in a 6-1 friendly victory over Hollybrook Junior School!

Oakwood made a great start getting on the score sheet after just a couple of minutes. The team passed the ball quickly and soon found gaps in the Hollybrook defence, scoring twice more before half time. 

Substitutions were made in the second half but the team continued to play well scoring another three goals before finally conceding.

For many of the players it was their first match representing Team Oakwood and all of them performed admirably showing great team spirit and determination.

Our goal scorers were: Jude 4, Jack 1 and Ben 1.

Year 4 Fishbourne Trip

On Thursday 20 September, Year 4 were lucky to visit Fishbourne Roman Palace.

They had a fantastic time dressing up as Roman slaves and citizens, writing in Latin, playing Roman games, making mosaics and role playing in the kitchen.

They also enjoyed the Roman Palace - remains of the mosaics, the museum, the garden and the audio visual presentation.



Year 4 are working hard on the Roaming Romans topic. Next week they will be writing newpaper reports about Ben Hur's Chariot Race.

Have a look in the Year 4 classrooms at their amazing Boudicca descriptions!

Year 3 get cooking for the Macmillian Coffee morning

Today Year 3 made some beautiful scones ready for our coffee morning tomorrow to raise money for Macmillian Cancer Care.

2012 Oasis taster day!

Yesterday, Year 6 went to Oasis Academy for a taster day to find out what secondary school is like. We were given a tour of the AMAZING new building and all the incredible facilities. We had fun in the science labs with Bunsen burners; got to play on some of the many percussion instruments in the state of the art music rooms and then got to get fit with inflatables in the gym.

Some pictures from the day...


By Kezia & Hermione

House UNICEF Quiz

Yesterday, the Houses gathered in the hall for a whole school quiz about the environment and global warming. This was to help us become global citizens and raise awareness of some of the articles we have been learning about, as we work towards UNICEF's Rights Respecting Schools Award.

A great time was had by all and many congratulations to Arcadia - our winners!

Mrs Latto will be giving house points to any children who can tell her which articles were linked to yesterday's quiz (hint: there was more than one!)

Y5 visit The Southampton Boat Show

Ahoy there!

On Wednesday Year 5 made their annual trip to the PSP Southampton Boat Show at Mayflower Park. Where they explored all things nautical!

Although this year school children were not allowed out on to the Marina there were plenty of boats to be explored. After boarding the luxurious Princess and Sunseeker cruisers and posing for a few pictures the children disembarked to explore the rest of Solent Park and Mayflower Park.

They found the powerboat used by David Beckham to transport the Olympic torch down the River Themes to the Olympic Village, it even came with its own torch! They visited the canoe-England stand where Olympic Bronze medallists Liam Heath and Jon Schofield’s two man kayak was displayed. They even had some races on a couple of canoe/rowing machines. There were so many wonderful sea faring things to explore they didn’t want to leave.

All the children thoroughly enjoyed their day and are looking forward to discovering more at the Sea City Museum next week.

A Busy Beginning for New Year 6!

What a busy start for new Year 6! They have already amazed their teachers with how well they have settled down and with their determination and teamwork. Take a look at some of the photos from our first couple of weeks:-

Friction Fun



 RE Week with Chris Davies and his team!




By Kezia & Hermione.

Getting even more out the School Day!

Our clubs have launched for the Autumn term!

Over 100 pupils were in clubs yesterday evening (Tuesday) and we're expecting another 100 tonight!

We have our largest number of after-school clubs EVER, with many being run by teachers and others by volunteers and sports groups.

Here are some hightlights from...

• ICT Code Club
• Cookery Club
• Karate
• The Apprentice Club
• Jewellery Making Club
• First Steps Music Ensemble

You can find out more about the clubs we offer online!

Introducing our ‘September Club Of The Month’

Oakwood held its very first Club Of The Month day on Friday and we welcomed Trojans Hockey Club to the School for the first time. Chris Gidden, Head of coaching development, and assistant coach Ian spent the day coaching our future hockey stars.

They started by introducing the school to hockey in assembly where the children got to watch Team GB’s Trojans' Hockey star, and Olympics Bronze medallist, Alex Dansford in action on the blue pitch at the London 2012 Olympics. Following this was a 30 minute hockey coaching session for every pupil in the school from Year 3 right up to Year 6.

It was a fantastic day and all the children really enjoyed their sessions with the brilliant coaches. There was such a buzz about Hockey at the end of the day! So many thanks to Chris and Ian. But that’s not the end for Hockey!

Trojans coach Chris will be running a Hockey club at Oakwood this term on a Friday after school from 3:30-4:30.

If your child enjoyed our Hockey day and would like to give it another go or is thinking more seriously about playing then why not go along to a Trojans training session and have a go! They have a variety of children’s and youth teams. U8s and U10s train at 5:30pm and the U12 at 6:40 on Friday evenings, all at their very own fantastic site on Stoneham Lane.

For more details and contact information please visit their website.

Studywiz

We will be starting to use our Studywiz pages in the next couple of weeks. All the children will be reminded of their usernames and passwords. The new Year R children will have theirs sent out after half term.
Remember to keep an eye out for important dates; such as assemblies and inset days, on the newsletters.

We want to say a big Welcome to the new Year R children who are starting full time today!

House Captain Hustings

We have had a very busy and democratic week at Oakwood this week! On Wednesday, the four House Captain Candidates from each House presented their speeches to their House members.

 

After impressing their Houses with persuasive speeches, all that was left was to hope that the votes reflected their hard work.

On Thursday morning, everyone in the school attended the polling station, manned by our newly appointed "House Champions". An 'X' in the box and their fate was sealed!

Watch this space for election results very soon...

 

(P.S. A big THANK YOU to Mrs Dimaiolo for organising the polling station!)

Year 3 Get Cooking!

Year 3 had a wonderful day yesterday learning all about their new 'Smile' topic. This included many art and craft activites and starting to learn all about 'Flash' the main character of the novel 'Smile'. The children also began looking at the artist David Hockey and his photo montages. Pizzas in the style of a smiley face were also made by Year 3, they looked yummy! Have a look at our pizza making photos!

What's in the news...?

Just a quick reminder that you can always get this week's Espresso Pupil News on our blog!

It's a short video, and we'll sometimes do a little in-school quiz or competition based on it, so it's worth watching. Here's the page you need to go to.

This week, there's also a special London 2012 Olympics round-up which helps us remember an inspiring summer!

Year 4 Roaming Romans

Many of year 4 arrived for the Roman Feast Day dressed in terrific togas.

They spent the day researching what Romans ate and found some interesting answers, for example dormice rolled in honey and poppy seeds, peacock brains and flamingo tongues.

Year 4 enjoyed a breakfast of bread, honey, dates and figs. Later on, they ate a feast of Roman stew, cucumber and eggs (no flamingo tongues in sight



Year 4 look forward to researching about the Roman army, leisure activities and much more...

Work will soon begin on the Roman Home Learning Projects which we expect to be outstanding!

Year 5's Boat Day

Ahoy mateys!

The children in year 5 have 'sailed' through their first few days in upper school.  On Wednesday, year 5 launched their new topic 'Iceberg Ahead!' with Boat Day.

First, the children had to work together to design and build a ship that would float and hold cargo, using only sugar paper and glue. They certainly rose to the challenge and congratulations to our winners!

Later they were taught by our resident expert how to make a boat using origami. Try it yourself!

In the afternoon, the children learned about the history of Southampton as a port and they created a timeline of famous ships that have sailed to and from our city. We finished the day with some boat art.

Well done year 5 for a great start to the year!

Oscar Goes to Norway...

I had a great time during the summer!

As you can see, I was on a cruise which took me all the way from Southampton to the Norwegian fjords...

There are photos of me leaving Southampton for Norway on board the P&O ship Azura and you can see the Itchen Bridge in a background shot. The life jacket didn’t fit very well!

I attended the formal dining evening on board boat. You can see me with the cabin steward and then several senior crew members. The sunsets were amazing as we crossed the North Sea.

We dropped into Stavanger where the Queen Elizabeth was also in port.



As you can see, I have seen lakes, waterfalls, glaciers and snow. The snow was unusual, as by August there is only snow on the highest peaks, but as the weather has not been good this year snow was still much lower down and by the roadside in lots of places. We went down the steepest road in Norway with the most hairpin bends and through the longest road tunnel in the world – 27 kilometres! Finally we visited Bergen which is the shot of me looking down over the harbour having gone up the funicular* railway.

Returning across the North Sea, I checked out the Health Spa and the pools on the boat. Finally, I met Captain Paul Brown, Master of the Azura and tried the bridge simulator!

Zoom in and have a look around...



(*A small prize for anyone from OJS who can leave a comment to tell me what a funicular railway is...!)

Year 6 Prom - The Movie

Year 6 Prom

Year 6 have now left, but not before they had their Leavers' Prom...

The photo albums below will come alive during the evening!

Arcadia Cleans Up!

Arcadia was awarded the Oakwood Junior School House Cup in our special Celebration Assembly this morning!

On 30,500 House Points, they were a mere 950 ahead of Oriana, which is a really tight win - after all, 117,250 were awarded in total this academic year!

Congratulations to Arcadia, who have made it a double this year, winning the Sports Day Trophy as well!

Year 6 - Going for Gold!

There were floods of tears tonight - and that was just from parents and staff - as Year 6 performed Going For Gold, their look back at their time at Oakwood Junior School...

They remembered their teachers and other members of staff, their trips and visits, their dreaded SATs, but most of all, they remembered the fun times and the friends they have made.



Sandwiched between the sketches and songs, they showed us two videos which you can watch again here, which give a real flavour of their time with us.

Us Against The World...



Oak House and Knapp House



Goodbye, Year 6! We will miss you!

Hello Mummy!

Year 5 have been learning about the process of mummification in Ancient Egypt.

To share their findings with a wider audience, they have made Photo Stories.

This involves writing a script, taking photos to illustrate the process and then recording a commentary.

They have shown off their historical research skills and their ICT expertise!

Oakwood's Got Talent!

Oakwood staged its annual end-of-year talent show yesterday and, as usual, there was a wide-ranging display of quality acts:

• singers
• rappers
• dancers
• gymnasts
• sports players
• musicians

For the seventh year running, Simon Cowell did not turn up -we're a bit fed up of asking him now - so he missed out on any signings he could make, especially this year's winners, The Chase!

The Olympic Torch comes to Southampton

The Olympic Flame came to Southampton over the weekend, and lots of our pupils joined the crowds to cheer on the torchbearers and celebrate in Mayflower Park on Saturday evening!



Some early birds even got up to see the torch on Sunday morning as it left Southampton at 6am!



(Thanks to Mrs Walker for the video!)

Loving the iPads

Mr Handley-Garland writes about seeing Year 3 using the new iPads - "Visiting a Year 3 class last week as part of the Governors’ day in school gave me the opportunity to see the newly acquired class iPads in action. While the children are no strangers to using the computers in the IT suite and at other locations around the school, the wireless touch screen devices bring the resources of the internet to their classroom desks. Some of the children demonstrated how they logged on and used the iPad’s Safari web browser to search for information on the famous American artist Andy Warhol as part of a project they were doing. I’m sure all the classes will find these a very useful addition to the school’s ITC equipment."

Celebrating Our Houses!

Our Houses in Oakwood Junior School are named after four of the P&O Liners which sail from Southampton:

• Arcadia
• Aurora
• Oceana
• Oriana

Last night, all of our "House Liners" were in Southampton, along with Adonia, Ventura and Azura, to celebrate the 175th Anniversay of P&O. Despite the drizzle, it was a really impressive sight.

Mr and Mrs Handley Garland and Mr Barrett were all there and took some photos of the "convoy" down Southampton Water.

Governors go back to school

Governors visit school each term and sample a typical school day.  Mrs Short spent some time last week with Year 5. She writes:

Thank you to the group of Year 5 children who welcomed me into their reciprocal reading session, allowing me to be the "Clarifier". Reciprocal reading works like this - pupils work in groups and each pupil in the group has a copy of the same book which they read aloud in turns.



One of the group is "Questioner", another "Predictor", one "Summariser", another "Clarifier", all under the guidance of "Big Boss". The children in my group all said how much they enjoy reading like this and how it helps them understand the book.

I hope I will be able to join another group the next time I'm in school. In the meantime, keep enjoying your reading.'

Hampshire and IOW Athletics Championship

On Tuesday 26 June Primary athletes from across the South competed in the Hampshire and Isle of  Wight Year 5/6 Athletics Championships, this year being held at Southampton Sports Centre.

Twelve children were chosen from each of the ten competing cities/areas.

Oakwood is proud to say that one of our year five girls was chosen to compete for Southampton!

She competed in the:

• 1KG Chest push
• Long jump
• 150m.

She was cheered on all afternoon by her loyal fans and Mrs Worley. There was even a surprise visit from Mr Ackland!



There were five heats for the girls 150m with the times from these used to decide the winners. Oakwood's representative won her heat in a time of 25.2 seconds! Unfortunately, there were quicker times in the other heats, the winning athlete clocking an impressive 22.5seconds!

Southampton did very well during the day and finished the day in third place, bringing home the team bronze! Well done Southampton!

The Hamiltons in Mexico

Sorry it's been a while since our last blog - things have been pretty busy!

We came home to the UK for 3 weeks over Easter and enjoyed seeing a lot of our family and friends. When we returned to Mexico we spent a couple of weeks in a beautiful area called Cuernavaca - it is an old part of Mexico and had some lovely buildings. We were there to attend a language school for 2 weeks, staying with a Mexican family who were great hosts.

At the moment we are in the middle of our 'summer teams'. These are teams that come in, mainly from the US, and work with us - doing what we do all year round. In the last 3 weeks we have served around 2500 people, offering them medical, optical and dental services as well as having a children's and hair/nails area! A lot of the people simply cannot afford to go to the doctor, dentist or optician although they often need treatment. They are very grateful when we offer it to them for free :)

Mexico has now entered the 'rainy season'. Usually, this means we have sunshine for most of the day and somewhere around 4-5pm it will start to rain. The rain is often accompanied by a thunderstorm which lasts about 2 hours. Last week, however, it was cloudy, drizzly and rather chilly during the day - most unusual and, I'm happy to say, the sun has returned this week!

Lucy's school, which follows the American system, finished for the summer on May 30th! Therefore, she is free to work with us during the summer - although some school work, using the internet, is done when we have free time! Their school year starts again on August 16th.



We have been following your school blog with interest at all the different activities going on at Oakwood Junior School. We were impressed with the 5 Olympic rings that you managed to make together on sports day!

Enjoy the rest of your summer term and then your summer holidays!