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...!)