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...