Happy Easter!

Just a quick blog post to wish everyone a really Happy Easter!

Here are a few photos from our Easter Service at Lordshill Church this morning. The children represented the school very well on the walk and the readers did a really professional job!

The singing was some of the best we've heard at the church - thanks to Miss Patchett and her flamboyant conducting...



We're really pleased that the Easter story is part of our curriculum every year - it's so wonderful that all children know such a long-lived story with so many important messages about how we should look after one another.

Have a peaceful weekend.

Minstead Day 3

Our last full day, and it couldn't have been busier!

The day started with a bit of a song and a reminder about the purpose of the seven Minstead Beads and what they stand for. Remember to ask your child about the importance of the Thenga! The children then went off to the last of their three special session, earning their fifth bead.

After a brisk lunch break everyone donned their warmest and driest clothes before embarking on the journey to... THE BOG! The Bogs play a key role in the development of the beautiful new forest countryside and after finding out why from our guide and leader, Chris, the children (and teachers) braved the wobbly and unpredictable moss.

All the children enjoyed the final evening's camp fire and are looking forward to the morning activity and making their way home.

Oakstead's visit to Marwell Zoo

The Oakstead pupils enjoyed a chilly but thrilling day at Marwell Zoo.
They experienced first hand contact with a Royal Python and a giant thorny stick insect, whilst learning about various species of animals under threat across the world.
They had a brief play time and a chilly lunch before they moved onto discovering which animals were deciding to brave the weather and appear for the public.

Year 5's Biscuit Business Sale

Last week, Year 5 held a biscuit sale to complete their Biscuit Business topic. Both classes had a fantastic time baking their biscuits, decorating their stalls and selling their products.

Overall, 5SL raised £70 for Cancer Research UK and 5TA raised £80 for the Testlands Support Project. Well done, Year 5!

Biscuit Boos!

As well as having a great time designing recipes, baking biscuits and selling them to raise money for charity, Year 5 have also had time to tell you their stories in their own words. We said that we would give you more to listen to on our blog, so enjoy this mini radio station of Biscuit Boos!

Minstead Day 2

Breakfast!

Cereals, followed by beans on toast and/or homemade jam, with juice - A great start to Day 2 at Minstead 2013.

Having earned their Purple ‘Biodiversity’ and Yellow ‘Energy’ beads for their necklaces during day 1 at Minstead, Tuesday brought about the beginning of the childrens’ quests to earn the Blue (Water), Red (Reduce, Reuse Recycle) and Green (Food and farming) beads.

There were sheep to look after, and wool to transform into felt. Pond dipping and insect identification galore and MUD, MUD, MUD! There was even time to fit in a walk to the Minstead Church where Sherlock Holmes author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is buried and all before dinner!

After pasta bake and garlic bread with veg, and bananas and custard for pudding. The evening activities involved making Minstead inspired bandanas, clay faces and podcasting. The children also enjoyed the visit from Mr Taylor who popped in for dinner.

Here's our walking route from today - click the map to have a closer look!

oakwoodwoodywalk

2.9 miles / 4.6670976 km

Created 03.26.13 by Minstead

Minstead Day 1

Having been waved off at school by all the parents we completed the short journey to Minstead Study Centre with no problems. After arriving the children had some time to unpack their things and settle into their home for the next 4 days.

The first activity was the Monday woods walk and despite the bitterly cold weather and even a bit of snow we had lots of fun exploring. Where we encountered; ditches, puddles, bogs, rivers, leaf monsters, ponies, and the beautiful New Forest countryside - just the ideal spot for a picnic!

After a delicious dinner of sausages and roast potatoes with veg followed by apple and plum crumble and custard we headed to the classroom to prepare some lanterns for later in the week.

We also walked to the round house to enjoy an evening of songs and stories around the fire.

Apprentice Club: Cinema

We knew it would be tough to beat the £30 profit made by the BC Landline Cookie Company, but the Howlers Cinema was extremely popular. So much so, that it will be running again next Wednesday too!

Listening to Oakwood!

We're finally getting the hang of making sound clips at Oakwood!

We already share lots of photographs and videos, but you should be hearing a lot more from us in the future too!

Pupils and teachers are learning to use Audacity, a program which lets us edit sound clips, music and sound effects. We can then upload these to Audioboo - a great service which means the sound clips can be played on the web:

listen to ‘Sea City Museum’ on Audioboo

or tweeted about like this:

Oakwood Live! Further-a mystery story by Alice in Year 6.: listen to ‘Further’ on Audioboo(functio... tinyurl.com/a5uk74h New Blogpost!

— Oakwood Junior Sch (@oakwoodlive) December 7, 2012

We can also give you a playlist of our latest audioboos, like this:

Listen out for more chances to listen!

Year 3 In2Music Concert

Thanks to the hard work of Year 3 pupils and the staff of Southampton Music Services, our In2Music concert showed off more Oakwood musical talent and promise!



It's that time of year when every Year 3 pupil has to decide if they want to carry on learning a musical instrument in school. We currently offer a very wide range of choices and nearly 30% of years 4, 5 and 6 are still learning!

Southampton Festival of Music and Drama

Twenty six Oakwood pupils joined their peers from Fairisle Junior School and Shirley Warren Primary School on Sunday to play in the Lordshill Cluster Junior Orchestra at the Southampton Festival of Music and Drama at Thornden School.

This was the first time the full orchestra has played in public after only two rehearsals together. We were up in Class 103 against the well-established orchestras from Romsey Abbey Primary School and Princes Mead School.

Our programme comprised Wallace and Gromit, Pachelbel's Canon and the James Bond Theme.



Romsey Abbey won the class, but the Lordshill Cluster Orchestra came away with a very creditable 83 marks, which earned a merit.

Many thanks to Paul Ibbott at Oasis Academy Lordshill for his continued work with the orchestra!

One Way or Another...!

It looked like time to laze around on the sofa or have a little snooze at Oakwood today, as everyone came to school in their onesies or their pyjamas!

It was all in a good cause as we raised £350 for Comic Relief!



(We have a tradition of making great Red Nose Day videos!)

Thanks you to our Pupil Voice Charity Committee, who organised the whole day, and to Alex Pope, who led us in some drumming and dancing!



You can find out more about Comic Relief by watching the video below...

Our March 'Club of the Month'

March's 'Club of the Month' came to Oakwood in the back of a Van, with a little help from the Solent Sport Partnership run by Solent University.

Friday was Dance mat day! Instead of using one or two dance mats in the front room at home, each class had the opportunity to use the 15 full size portable mats attached to the main screen in the school hall. Where two students from Solent University guided the children through a selection of songs testing their dancing shoes and co-ordination to the max.

Take a look at our pictures and see if you can spot the next Fred Astaire or Diversity Dance Troop member!

Southampton Sharks - Wheelchair Rugby arrives!

Following on from the exposure which the London 2012 Paralympics gave to Wheelchair Rugby, Aaron Phipps came into school to tell us his story...

We're now really pleased to report that Southampton has its own wheelchair rugby team, set up in partnership with Southampton Solent University.

Aaron talked about this great new opportunity on the BBC - and see if you can spot Oakwood's very own wheelchair rugby star on the video too!

Weather Kid Jack!

Jack appeared on Wave105 on Thursday afternoon to tell everyone what the weather was like!

listen to ‘Weather Kid Jack’ on Audioboo

If you become a Radio Weather Kid, send us the mp3 file and we'll let everyone listen again...!

World Book Day

It was World Book Day on the 7th March. We had a fancy dress day. Well done to the all children who came to school dressed as thier favourite book character. We had some fantastic costumes!

Can you guess who these characters are....?

Team Oakwood!

It's nearing the end of the football season...

The Oakwood school football team have played twice in recent weeks picking up important 1-0 home victories against Table toppers St Marks Junior School and Hollybrook Junior School.

This means they have now won four out of five league games played and are still in with a chance of challenging St Marks for the league title!

Unfortunately the away match against Fairisle on Friday was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch, but the team still has two games after school on Monday against Tanners Brook. We will try our hardest to re-arrange the Fairisle game before the league finishes on the 15th of March.

Hard working High 5 Netball teams

The Oakwood Netball teams have been working hard this term, playing many matches and training.

Our Oakwood A team are expected to come second in the Southampton league to Bassett Green A. An amazing result, well done.

Their results this term are as follows:
Oakwood A v Bassett Green B
9 v 0
Oakwood A v Oakwood B
8 v 1
Oakwood A v Thornhill
5 v 0
Oakwood A v Mount Pleasant (friendly match)
5 v 3

All players in Oakwood A and B team have really improved their netball skills since September and should be very proud of their achievements. Fantastic effort!

I Got Three Stars!

"I always thought I wasn't any good at maths, but I had fun and was able to answer more than I thought! I got 3 stars!"

Parents showed a real sense of enjoyment and achievement at our Maths Open Afternoon!

Over 120 parents, grandparents and family friends came to see how we teach maths and how children learn. We gave them number, algebra, data, logic, shapes, problem solving, practical challenges, games, "computer" maths to name but a few things!

Everyone worked hard, faced challenges, made their brains work and 100% of the comments we received were positive! Lots of parents also said what fun maths was! Who would have thought that?!



Our aim was to help families understand their children when they do maths homework, talk about methods and use different strategies and vocabulary to those they learned at school...

As one parent commented..."I wish I could have learned this way when I was at school!"

Year 5's trip to Pizza Hut

Year 5 went to Pizza Hut today to help us in our topic Biscuit Business. At Pizza Hut we learned  how to prepare food and even make our own pizzas. We also learned some interesting facts about how they make, cook and deliver their pizzas. 

A majority of 5TA said their favourite part was making the pizzas, everyone wanted to go back.We had the pizzas delivered to school and we ate them for lunch. Two pupils from 5TA said the most impressive piece of equipment was the large oven which can fit six normal ovens inside it!

This will help with our own businesses because we will be working in the kitchen making biscuits to the best quality possible.

By Billy and Bronte   

            

Year 4: The Iron Man

If you're looking for ideas for your Iron Man Home Learning project, watch the video below for inspiration!

It's a narrated animation of the introduction to 'The Iron Man' by Ted Hughes. The animation shows an interpretation of the description of the Iron Man's movement, appearance and descent from the cliff.



If the clip doesn't work on your computer, try looking at it on the BBC Website instead.

4TW and 4MM go (Hammer) Head to Head!

Year 4 have gone head to head with an oral storytelling battle!

But this time, they have been using non-fiction texts to learn off by heart.

Listen out for some of the language structures which learning off by heart gets into your head:

• moreover...
• on the other hand...
• the most __________ thing about...
• and many, many more!

How do you think each class did?