Roast Turkey and "All the Trimmings!"

Thanks to Mrs Lyons, her team in the kitchen, and all the lunchtime staff, everyone was able to have a scrummy Christmas dinner today!

Once again, the school offered dinner for free to all pupils, not just those in Key Stage 1, and nearly everyone took up the offer - the kitchen cooked over 450 servings!

There was a traditional roast turkey meal, with lost of choice for dessert, including a proper Christmas Pud and custard.

The jokes in the crackers were the only things which were bad!
(What do you call someone who makes clothes for rabbits?*)
(Where would you find chilli beans?**)
(Who hides in the bakery at Christmas?***)

We look forward to the final event in our Christmas Calendar tomorrow - our Christmas Service.

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(* A hare dresser)
(** At the North Pole)
(*** A Mince Spy)

Sending Arty Festive Cheer!

As always, we asked some of our most able artists from right across the school to design the cards we send out to our friends and volunteers at Christmas!

What a talented bunch of arty pupils we have!

We chose eight different designs this year - if you didn't get one, we wish you a Happy Christmas and you can have a look at the finished cards below...

(If you're on an iPad or iPhone and want to see the designs, try our new PhotoStory feature!)

Special Visitor in KS1 Celebration Assembly

Santa took time out of this very busy time of year to join us in Celebration Assembly this morning. He surprised the children and Mrs Vanes by joining in and handing out the many certificates and badges we had....



Thank you Santa and to our guests who enjoyed it just as much as the children!

Year 1 Biscuit decorating

Year 1 have enjoyed creating a winter themed biscuit topping, to be like a snowman. They used marshmallows, white icing and other decorating items.

Using their modelling skills they made some fantastic snowmen to be enjoyed as part of their fun, Christmas celebrations. Don't they look great!

Aladdin Trouble!

Year 4 and Year 6 finished off our round of Christmas productions in style tonight!

We've already had the nativity scene (Year R), the story of Silent Night (Years 3 and 5), and the First Christmas Miracle (Years 1 and 2), so all we needed complete Christmas was a good old-fashioned bawdy pantomime!

(Oh no, we didn't!!!)
(Oh yes, we did!!)

It was full of drama, comedy, corny jokes, princesses, princes, baddies, dames and servants - what more could you want? Tap-dancing? Well, yes! It had that too!

Congratulations Year 4 and Year 6! You really put on a great show!

(If you can't see the photos - perhaps you're using an iPhone or iPad - try looking at them with our new PhotoStory feature!)

Picnic basket making in Year 2

As part of our recent Twisted Tales topic, the children were challenged to create their own picnic baskets - without any help from an adult! The children knew they had made a successful basket if it was able to hold two pieces of fruit without breaking. We think they did a fantastic job and showed great teamwork skills. Well done, Year 2!

Year 3 Christmas Activities-Getting Arty!

year 3 have been getting in the Christmas mood this week. Following the Oakwood tradition that every child takes a home made calendar home at Christmas, Year 3 children have had fun making an Andy Warhol inspired calendar that we hope will bring a smile to parents faces. Take a look:-



We were also lucky enough to have one of our brave parents come in and teach us the tricky and fiddly craft of origami.Even though we found it difficult we used our growth mindset to persevere and create an origami inspired Christmas card. A big thank you to Mrs Polcarova

A Miracle in Oakwood Town!

Years 1 and 2 entertained us yesterday and today with their performance of A Miracle in Town!

The nativity is an age-old story of love, peace, acceptance and tolerance - just as important today as it was all those years ago in Bethlehem.

The signing and acting were wonderful and we particularly liked how parents, grandparents and friends joined in at the end too!

WELL DONE, Years 1 and 2!

(If you can't see the photos - perhaps you're using an iPhone or iPad - try looking at them with our new PhotoStory feature!)

The (Slightly Adapted!) Story of Silent Night

Thank you to Years 3 and 5, who told us a Christmas story today that perhaps not many of you know...

It was the story of how the carol, Stille Nacht (or Silent Night, as we know it) came to be written.

It all took place in an Austrian town, and the beautiful words of the clergyman's poem and the organist's guitar came together with... (because it's an Oakwood play...!) mice, Vindaloo, Dean Martin, The Voice, a Carol Mega-mix and Band Aid. It may (or may not!) be a true story.

Of course, the carol was ready in time for the nativity scene, and was sung beautifully by the children.

THANK YOU, Years 3 and 5!

(If you can't see the photos - perhaps you're using an iPhone or iPad - try looking at them with our new PhotoStory feature!)

Mice Vandalise School

A gang of boisterous mice broke in to school this morning and have left the building in chaos!

Year R put on a Christmassy Show!

Year R kicked off a week of Christmas performances yesterday and today- live theatre at Oakwood!

They told the famous 2000 year-old story to an audience of their parents, families and friends and really got them in the Christmas spirit.

How brave of them all to be on stage for the very first time!

Happy Christmas from Year R!

(If you can't see the photos - perhaps you're using an iPhone or iPad - try looking at them with our new PhotoStory feature!)

The earth- as made by year 5!

This term year 5 have been learning about volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes as part of their 'Fierce Earth' topic. They have explored where volcanoes and mountains are, and where natural disasters such as earthquakes have happened. As homework, for the past few weeks, Yr 5 have been busy creating their own globes - locating continents, mountains and volcanoes.

Angels in Year 1

Year 1 have been exploring the concept of Angels in their RE unit of work this half term. They started with imagining what Angels look like and drew a chalk picture to show their ideas. They then created a word bank to describe them.

Following this the children looked at the role of angels in the Christmas story and role played the messages that were told.

Using their artist skills the children then made a peg doll angel for their Christmas tree.

A Record Breaking Christmas Fair!

Many thanks to everyone came along to the Christmas Fair, whether you are a child, a parent, a grandparent, an auntie or uncle, a past-pupil or... anyone else who knows us!

It was a great start to the Christmas season at Oakwood, and the OSA worked very hard to make it an exciting, festive event.



You may have played a game, entered a raffle, bought a present, seen Santa, eaten a hotdog (or done all 5 and more!)... your pennies mounted up and the sum total raised on the evening was...

£4492!
Thank you!

(Some exciting news in the new year about how we're going to spend it!)

Key stage 1 athletics festival

This week a group of Year 1 and Year 2 children attended an athletics festival at St Georges school.

They worked with children from other schools to score points on each station, which involved balancing on a beam, long jump, throwing basketballs, jumping over a beam, and many more!

Well done to all the children who took part.

Year 3... Music on the MAP!

It's always nerve-racking when you have to perform...

...but when you're playing an instrument you first picked up only 15 weeks ago, you're sitting on stage and you're putting on a show to an audience of over 70 friends and family, you can imagine your heart is beating very fast!

But didn't Year 3 do themselves proud this afternoon?

A wonderful performance of single pieces for the glockenspiel, the trombone, the trumpet and the clarinet, followed by an ensemble piece which required them to play together for the very first time...

Thank you for entertaining us, Year 3 musicians! You are well on the way to your Central Hall concert in June!



Thanks also to your amazing Showcase teachers!

Personal Best day

All children in Year R, Year 1 and Year 2 took part in personal best day which was run by our TMC sport coaches and Year 5 and 6 sports leaders.

This half term the focus was on balancing. The children learned and practised how to balance on a beam, on a spinny board, balance on one leg with a blindfold on, balance whilst throwing a ball to a partner and trying to pick up a cone.

The children enjoyed practising this skill and are all looking forward to the next personal best day.

Thank you to the TMC coaches and sports leaders for making it a successful day!

Basketball Grand Final 2015

Blogging on a Saturday is a bit of novelty! But it's not every Saturday we have two basketball teams playing in finals events!

Oakwood B and Oakwood A both finished in the top two of their respective School Games leagues so had to fight it out in the championship games.

Oakwood B were on court first, taking on Springhill B. It was fascinating to watch the end to end game with both schools making a number of shots count. At half time the scores were even at 6-6. The team continued to play well and attack, unfortunately Oakwood didn't manage to score again until 6-12 down. The final score as the hooter blew Oakood 8 - 12 Springhill.

Oakwood A took to the court second, looking to beat current trophy holders Bassett Green. Oakwood stormed into the lead 6-0 and fought tooth and nail to keep their noses in front. Slowly Bassett clawed their way back but could only narrow the score to 6-4. As the noisy crowd counted down the clock Oakwood A celebrated! Oakwood 6 - 4 Bassett Green.

A huge well done to all the players!

Autumn 2 Sport 4 All

The Autumn 2 Sport 4 All activity has been completed by all KS2 classes this week, earning every child another hour of physical activity on their Road 2 Rio cards.

Children from all years groups walked in the sunshine to Oaklands Swimming pool and enjoyed a swimming session with all their friends! It's great to be active, but it's even more fun to do it with your closest friends. (Even better...everyone remembered a towel!)

I hope everyone is looking forward to the Spring 1 Sport 4 All Activities!!

Dens!

Year R have been building dens of all sorts this week! We have been exploring using different materials and different methods in our building. We had to really put on our thinking hats (just like CAPTAIN THINK) and problem-solve when our dens weren't working.

Travel Committee Teach The Green Cross Code

The Travel Team have launched our "Green Cross Code Badge" across the school.

Do you need to cross a road, and don't know what to do? Maybe you could look for an Oakwood Expert now easily identified by their lovely badge.

We can always use more experts though, so if you go to Oakwood, why not learn the "Green Cross Code" from a Travel Team member or from this handy video:

Volcanic eruptions in Year 5!

As part of Year 5's Fierce Earth topic we spent the morning finding out about volcanoes. We created our own salt dough models of volcanoes, before erupting them after break. We put bicarbonate of soda into our volcanoes before pouring in vinegar to cause a chemical reaction. The reaction caused our volcanoes to 'erupt' (we added in red food colouring to make the liquid look like lava). As a grand finale we 'erupted' the big paper mache volcano, which some of us had made as a special project. To make it feel like a real volcanic eruption we even played sound effects of volcanic eruptions in the background!

Reading Champions Committee Explore Christmas at the Literacy Shed.

Today the Reading Champions Committee explored the wonderful Christmas clips available on the Literacy Shed. We did this to remind our classes of all the wonderful resources there that can inspire our reading and writing.

https://www.literacyshed.com/

We also looked at the  range of Christmas books available in our library and each took a book back to share with our classes.

The results the Athletics Team have been waiting for!

We have been waiting for 2 weeks, but all the results are finally in and here is where we finished!!

It's All About Christmas!

As it was our last session of after school art club, we decided to make Christmas cards which included an element of collage. Here are the results:-

Testwood Lakes Navigation

Today Year 4 tried out their navigation and survival skills at Testwood Lakes. They looked across Southampton and located landmarks using 4-figure grid references. They used their compass to build a shelter which would protect them from the cold Northern wind, and used smaller scale maps to set the record for the fastest time (for any year group!) to complete the orienteering course!

BRAKE Giant Walk

For Road Safety Week, every year group went on a Giant Walk around Sandpiper Road and talked about how to stay safe around the roads. We also learned about being bright as the evening falls sooner.

KS1:



KS2:





Be Bright assembly video:

Y3 Visit Down To Earth

This week Y3 have been getting up close and personal with local farm life and exotic international wildlife. They walked down to Down To Earth Farm. They used their new-found understanding of classification to understand the animals they met, and found out more about life-cycles and how animals are adapted to their habitats.

Vroom vroom!

Year R have been very busy planning and creating Superhero vehicles. We have used junk-modelling techniques and materials to make these fantastic creations! To inspire us, we have looked at non-fiction books, watched videos on the internet and even had an ambulance come to visit us! We invited our parents and carers to come in to see our vehicles before taking them home.

Y4 Gymnastics festival

Year 4 have been working hard during the last half term on their gymnastics, they even blogged a video back before half term showing off the work they have been doing.

However, on Monday 10 Y4 boys and girls went to the Southampton Gym club facility at Redbridge school to take part in the School Games gym festival. Children had a go on the trampolines, tumble pit, balance beam and bars.

The children were fantastic and were chosen as having the best routine during the performances! Well done Y4!

Year 6 Victorian Fayre

A huge thank you to everyone, children, brothers and sisters; mums, dads, grandparents, friends for visiting the Year 6 Victorian Fayre this afternoon.

We hope you enjoyed your visit, the children certainly enjoyed putting it on for you. For those of you who didn't managed to make it there were: cake stalls, sweet stalls, street sellers, 2nd hand toys and games; table top games, and a tea room.

Year 6 managed to raise a wonderful... £519.

Y3 Gymnastics-Balances.

Strength, stamina, stillness-Year 3 have been working hard to master their balances. From pike, kneeling cross to balances with just one arm support-they have shown some amazing technique and determination. Shortly, they will use what they have learned and chose different individual and paired balances, and different means of travelling to perform a gymnastic routine based our theme of animals. Take a look at how they are doing so far:-

Superhero visitors

In Year R we have been learning about real life superheroes, people who help us. We have been really lucky to have lots of lovely superhero visitors come in to speak to us about how they help people everyday. The children even planned and made a healthy superhero lunch to give them energy for their days work.

Can you work out which superheroes they are and what jobs they do?



Year R would like to give a massive THANK YOU to all of our visitors, we really enjoyed having you.

School Games Basketball league - Week 3

Wednesday saw the third round of games for the School Games basketball league being held at Cantell school.

Both Oakwood A and B have been in scintillating form, and great news...the hot streak continues.

Oakwood A 16 - 0 Thornhill A
Oakwood A 10 - 0 Valentine A

Oakwood B 12 - 4 Bassett Green B
Oakwood B 18 - 0 Springhill C

Well done to the two players of the Week:
Oakwood A - Ollie Plunkett
Oakwood B - Ben Shaw

To decide the winning teams for each league there will be a championship play-off game for each of the leagues on December 5th. Both Oakwood teams will be in the championship play-offs for their respective leagues. A letter will be sent with more details.

Indoor Athletics

On Tuesday evening 12 children from Y5&6, 6 boys and 6 girls, represented Team Oakwood in the Southampton Indoor Athletics competition at Bittren Park School.

The girls and boys teams had to compete in a number of 'lapped' relay races in the sports hall and a range of indoor athletics field events. Children earned points for their finishing position in each race and event, the winning school being the one with the highest number of points.

We are having to wait for the results as there has been some...inaccuracies...with some of the results which need to be addressed before winners are announced.

Reading Champions Committee - A Polite Reminder!

In our Reading Champions Committee today we decided to remind children and teachers of two important things. The first was to remind teachers to share poetry in the class. To do this we each chose a poetry book to take back to our class to share with them. Our second task was to remind more children to use the library after school and during lunchtimes. So we made the following video:-

Year 1 and 2 Gymnastics festival

Today a small group of Year 1 and 2 children traveled to Southampton Gymnastics Club to have a go at using specialist equipment with the help of coaches from the gym club.

The children had the opportunity to learn some new skills, have fun and perform a short gym and dance routine to other schools.

Well done to all the children who went and represented Oakwood!

3D Art club-Wire Trees

Continuing with the theme of Autumn, Year 3 and 4 art club made some wire trees this week. Take a look:-

Art Week Exhibition

To celebrate our Amazing Art Week, we held an exhibition for friends and family today.

As well as showing off our sketchbook work and all our beautiful finished masterpieces in drawing, painting, collage and 3D, we also gave our visitors a chance to 'have a go' with clay and wire sculpture!

What a fantastic way to share our exciting week!

Children in Need 2015.

Superheroes, Clowns and Father Christmas!

The school is awash this morning with Superheroes, princesses, and onsies,  We were even visited by James Bond and Father Christmas. Of course, this was all done to raise as much money as possible for Children in Need: each child was asked to contribute a pound. Our final total (at the time of writing) was £363.91. Well done Oakwood.

Toy Museum in School.

Year 1 were lucky enough to have Lymington St Barbe's Museum visit us.

The children had the opportunity to explore many different toys from the past and work out how to play with them. Toys included Jacob's ladder, flick books, Jack in the box and many more.

Children compared teddy bears from different years and discussed the materials that were used to make them.

As well as this children thought about what toy of theirs they would put in a museum in the future.

What toy do you think will be in a museum in the future?

We Will Remember

Oakwood always commemorates Remembrance Day.

We sell poppies on behalf of the Royal British Legion, and all children learn about the armistice and observe the two minutes' silence in school, joining in with millions of others, in Britain and around the world.

Year 3 children do something special. They represent the school at the commemoration at Hollybrook Cemetery, alongside veterans, members of the public and the Lordshill History Society.

This is a solemn event where we respect the dead of all wars, all nationalities and all faiths and cultures. There are memorials to those who fought at sea, Sikh and Muslim soldiers who fought for Britain in the two world wars, and the graves of many German soldiers who were never repatriated.

We remember them all.

School Games Basketball League week 2

Tonight was week 2 of the School Games Basketball league at Cantel Secondary school.

Both the Oakwood A and B teams picked up maximum points from last weeks games and were hopeful of another successful week.

Team A only only had one game this week, but they made sure they enjoyed it:beating Springhill A in a tough battle.

Team B again had two games. Winning one and loosing one.

Oakwood A 8 - 4 Springhill A

Oakwood B 4 - 0 Charlton B
Oakwood B 2 - 4 Springhill B

Well done to players of the week, Ellie Hamlet and Rhys Radford.

Y6 Victorian Day

Year six children got to experience what it would be like to attend a Victorian school this morning. Some found it a a real eye opener and now think themselves very lucky that schools have developed significantly in the last 100-150 years.

There was the 3Rs, handwriting, drill, inspections, arithmetic and dictation. Children were also told about schools expectations and everyday activities such as reciting the Lords prayer and singing hymms and the national anthem.

Children who dressed up for the occasion looked fantastic! So a huge well done to children (and parents) for putting the extra effort in.

This afternoon children have had the option of sewing/embroidery or technical drawing - two very Victorian single sex activities - both of which were enjoyed by all.

Animal Hook Day

Year 3 started their Swim, Slither, Snap topic in style today. They all came in dressed as wild animals and though their imaginations, documentary clips and first hand interactions, they learned about how real animals behave.

London's Burning!

Today Year 2 had a fun morning taking part in a drama workshop as part of the 'hook' to their new topic, London's Burning!

The children learned lots of new facts and now know when the fire started, where is started, why it spread so quickly, how we know about the fire and many more facts!

Now we are all excited to begin our topic for this half term.

Toy Adventure for Year 1

On Friday Year 1 were invited to bring in a favourite toy for their very own Toy Adventure!

During the day the children had the opportunity to talk about their toys and introduce them to the class and the toys were able to meet up with other toys in role play.

It was unfortunate that the toys couldn't go outside to explore with their owners, as the weather was so wet, but that did not stop them having fun.

The toys were able to play parachute games with the children and they even completed an obstacle course around the hall which included.... crossing a "bridge" over a river, going over hurdles, under the "rainbows", between the "bushes", balancing along a "snake", as well as jumping in and out of "puddles" which were more recognisable as hoops!

With a little bit of imagination a real toy adventure took place. I wonder which activity they enjoyed most?

Autumn at Oakwood.

During our recent Autumn Art Week, Year 3 decided to use the iPads to photograph some of the signs of the season here at Oakwood. In groups we explored outside-observing signs both high and low. Allowed to take as many photos as we wanted, each group then had to decide on our best 5 photos to upload to google drive. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by heavy Autumn rain but we still managed to take a few shots which show the beauty of Autumn here at school. Take a look and watch out for further shots of different seasons in the coming weeks and months.

Oakwood 0-0 St Monica (Oakwood win 3-2 on pens)

Despite the horrendous weather during the day on Friday, the school football team had to brave the weather after school to play their Southampton City Cup game against St Monica's.

Before kicking off, the team had to clear a mountain of leaves from the pitch: so we could see the lines around the pitch. They also had to battle with a few rather boggy patches.

Despite looking like the more dangerous team throughout the match, Oakwood were not able to make the crucial final pass to an attacker. So when the final whistle blew it was still 0-0. Being a cup match extra time followed. But still neither team could find a way to break the deadlock, meaning the game would be decided on penalties.

Oakwood captain, Reece, chose to shoot second in the shoot-out and it turned out to be the right decision! Both teams scored their first two penalties; Reece and Sam netting for Oakwood. The third St Monica penalty was missed, meaning if Oakwood scored their third penalty they would progress to the next round. Alan, always calm under pressure, stepped up and slotted the ball home; sending Oakwood through to the quarter final.

Alan also picked up the Man of the Match award for his all round performance.

An Art-tastic Arts Week at Oakwood!

This week Oakwood has been buzzing with excitement as it has been our Arts Week. The theme of our week was Autumn and each child has participated in four skills based activities throughout the week; painting, drawing, collage and 3D. As you can see from the photos we have used lots of different materials and produced some fantastic work, having great fun along the way.

We will be having an art exhibition on Friday afternoon next week to give parents and friends the opportunity to come and look at the fantastic work that has been produced!

We look forward to seeing you all then!

Basketball League week 1

Oakwood sent two teams to the Southampton School Games Basketball league today.  

Last year Team Oakwood finished 6th in the league against some tough opposition; so this year the teams have been in training at lunchtimes to ensure they would be at their best for the competition. 

Both teams have gotten off to a flyer in their leagues picking up two wins a piece. 

Results:

Oakwood A 26 - 2 Ludlow A

Oakwood A 14 - 0 Charlton

Oakwood B 14 - 0 Ludlow B

Oakwood B 12 - 0 Thornhill B

And a big well done to our two players of the week;

Oakwood A - Libby Morse

Oakwood B - Amelia Staples

Arts Week in Year R!

We have really enjoyed dancing, painting, splattering, swirling, gluing, creating, pretending and imagining for "Arts Week" in Year R. The wet weather didn't stop us from getting arty today! What fun!

Year 4 Mayflower Workshop

Year 4 were lucky enough to be involved in drama and art workshops based on the panto Aladdin run by staff from the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. Mike worked with the children on sculpting their own human statues, disguising their voices to become a different character and finally freeze framing scenes from the panto. Watch this space for the art workshop blog.

 

Cross county Week 4

Whilst everyone else was busy celebrating the start of the half term break the cross country team were busy taking part in week four of the Cross county league. Week 4 turned into a bit of a mixed week, lots finding it tough going, but with others making huge gains; but it was definitely a week for the girls!

Boys results: (+/- position from best previous best position)
Ethan - 6th       (-1 places)      
Owen - 9th        (0 places)
Alex - 12th       (0 places) 
Reece - 13th     (+3 places)          
Dan - 20th        (-3 places)  
Jenson - 22th     (-3 places)   
Sonny - 30th     (+15 places)
Rhys - 40th       (-6 places)
Marcus - 43th   (-5 places)
Nathan - 44th    (-7 places)
Oliver - 58th     (-2 places)
Jola - 83th      (+32 places)  
Craig - 122th    (-12 places)   
    

Girls results: (+/- position from best previous best position)
Amy - 4th              (-1 places)
Libby - 9th          (+4 places)
Renae - 18th          (+9 places)
Monique - 20th      (+10 places)
Caitlyn - 27th         (+43 places)
Shannon - 28th      (+17 places)
Sophia - 53th         (-9 places)
Phoebe - 82th        (-3 places)
kayla - 90th            (-26 places)
Ellie - 95th           (+14 places)
Abbie - Injured        
Katie - Injured           

Buddy classes meet

During the last few weeks Year 2 have been learning 'The Three Little Pigs' song as part of their 'Twisted Tales' topic. Today they performed it to their buddy class in Year 3 and Year 4.

Their hard work paid off as they all did a brilliant job of acting and singing! Well done to Year 3 and 4 for joining in too. 

Year 3's VE Tea Party

War is over! Thank you to all the parents and friends who made this the most successful Tea Dance ever: your cooking, sense of fun and willingness to help out made it so easy for us. So many children said how much they loved showing their dancing off and how pleased their parents were. They really enjoyed tucking into the wartime snacks they made themselves and pointing out their own contribution to the giant propoganda posters which decorated the hall. Because of their wonderful dancing and superb behaviour, they made their teachers so proud!

Bread as a symbol in Year 1

This week the children have been exploring the RE concept of symbol with a emphasis on bread. They have tasted various breads from around the world, designed their own symbol and made this with bread.

Today Year 1 were excited to welcome Liam and Amanda from Christchurch Southampton. They entertained the children through the use of drama and interactive story telling to teach them all about how bread is used as a symbol. The children also were given the opportunity to be creative with a follow up activity to deepen their understanding.

A huge thank you to Liam and Amanda for bringing the topic alive!

Into the woods....

Year R have been exploring the woods and today decided they would like to build a house for a squirrel and a fox! They worked together to design and build each house, thinking carefully about what materials to gather. They made a sign saying, "the squirrel house" so that the squirrels would know it was for them (hopefully they can read).

Blitz Poems by Year 3.

In English today Year 3 wrote a short descriptive poem about experiencing the Blitz in WW2. Have a read:-

Year 2 fairy tale picnic

This week the children have been cooking in preparation of their fairy tale picnic,which they were invited to by the three little pigs, to celebrate the big bad wolf leaving!

The year group baked bread, made rocky road, cut vegetables into small pieces and made delicious fruit smoothies.

Have a look at our photos to see how much we enjoyed eating and celebrating at the picnic this afternoon!
 

Wire figures tell a message.

A first exhibition of completed work from Year 3 and 4 after school art club is currently in the foyer of the KS2 building. Using garden wire and papier mache the club members have created small wire people-each with their own unique messages. Look out over the next few weeks for more exciting creations, including wire, bead and paint sculptures. Well done Art club!

Year 3 Wartime Posters-Loose Lips Beware!

After analysing propaganda posters from WW2-the message, layout and artwork, Year 3 children worked together in teams to produce their own. Take a look-we think they have done a pretty good job!

Oakwood 5-0 Newlands Primary

Team Oakwood played their final Autumn league fixture of the year against Newlands Primary School this evening.

In a rather one sided match, Oakwood found it difficult to take advantage of having the vast majority of possession. By half time the team had only managed one goal, having missed 2 penalties! The team regrouped at half time and changed tactics slightly managing to score four in the second half.

Whilst the team found it difficult to break through the packed Newlands defence it was their goalkeeper who time and time again made save after save to frustrate Oakwood.

Man of the Match - Dan
Goal Scorers; Sam 1, Oliver 1, Reece 3

Year 4 Roman Celebration Day

Year 4 have been transported back to the Roman era today. In fine Roman costume, we have been soldiers eating porridge (lumpy of course), marching in our legion and attempting to recreate a tortoise maneuver. We have learned all about the table manners of the Romans, which are not the table manners we expect from our children today and then eaten some stew using a Roman recipe. After all the hard training and eating our Year 4's required a bath in the public baths, using drama and imagination to learn about the strigil and different areas of a Roman bath. Finally, they were fit for some entertainment at the nearest amphitheatre, where the Gladiators put on an excellent show.

 

Personal Best day

Last week all of the children from key stage 1 and Early Years took part in their first Personal Best Day of the year! The children worked through different activities linked with ball skills.

They practised using a hockey stick, dribbling the ball through cones, passing and bouncing a basketball and balancing and bouncing a tennis ball on a racket. The children had lots of fun and were able to improve their ball skills and learn new ones!

Thank you to the TMC coaches who coached the children throughout the day.

Cross Country Week 3

Week 3 of the School Games cross country competition took place on Friday after school. Although the weather was slightly colder than the previous weeks, Team Oakwood was once again red hot! We also welcomed a number of new runners who were keen to test themselves.

Boys results: (+/- position from best previous best position)
Ethan - 5th       (+1 places)      
Owen - 11th        (-2 places)
Alex - 12th       (+1 places)           
Dan - 17th        (+7 places)  
Jenson - 19th     (New runner)   
Rhys - 34th       (+3 places)
Marcus - 38th   (+0 places)
Nathan - 37th    (New runner)
Sonny - 45th     (New runner)
Oliver - 56th     (New runner)
Craig - 111th    (New runner)   
Jola - 124th      (-9 places)      

Girls results: (+/- position from best previous best position)
Amy - 3rd              (+0 places)
Libby - 13th          (+6 places)
Renae - 27th          (+10 places)
Monique - 30th      (+18 places)
Keisha - 32th          (+27 places)
Shannon - 45th      (+7 places)
Sophia - 51th         (-7 places)
Katie - 53th           (-24 places)
kayla - 64th            (+17 places)
Caitlyn - 70th         (New runner)
Phoebe - 79th        (New runner)
Ellie - 121th           (-12 places)
Abbie - 127th         (New runner)

Year 1 Fire Safety

Year 1 were lucky enough to have Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service come to them.

Throughout the day the children were engaged in many different activities to promote the awareness of road and fire safety.

These activities included:

Seeing a firefighter in his special protective clothes.
Learning a rhyme and drill to remind children about what to do in the case of a fire.
Explored a fire engine simulator and put out an imaginary fire.
Listened to stories about fire safety.
Played a game called hoses and ladders where the children had to answer questions on road and fire safety.

What a fantastic day! Thank you to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service for visiting us.

Remember... GET OUT, STAY OUT, CALL 999!

Oakwood Boards The Titanic!

Year 5 have had an eventful day aboard our very own RMS Titanic. The day started with the final preparations for our voyage (ticket and passport making). Followed by a cat walk show in our new linkway to show off our outfits.

This afternoon we set sail, celebrating with afternoon tea and dancing entertainment. Putting into practice our historical dance PE unit, dancing the waltz and Irish jig. We then found out the fate of our passengers that we have been writing our diaries in the role of (our English unit).

There were some fantastic costumes and it was a spectacular day.

The Titanic Count Down Begins!

With Titanic day on Friday Year 5 spent the day preparing. We made lots of items to decorate the hall (our Titanic) including: portholes, bunting, place mats and menu cards. We also baked some tasty scones in the kitchen ready to eat on board on Friday.

We are all really excited for our Titanic day, watch out for our passenger photos and an update of our exciting day.

Bounce Bounce Boogie Pedal!

Year 3 enjoyed a fun packed, exercise-filled morning at Oasis today - trampolining, dancing and enjoying the benefits of the high tech sports facilities. Thank you to Mr Newman and all the sports leaders for their guidance and support - we had a terrific time.

Oakwood 4 - 2 Tanners Brook

The school football team registered their forth straight league win of the season after school tonight following their exciting 4-2 victory over Tanners Brook Primary School.

A mistake early in the 1st half allowed Tanners Brook to take the lead, but with the half time looming, a mazy run by defender and team captain, Reece, ended with him coolly slotting the ball home.

A sensational 10 minute period at the start of the second half saw Oakwood score three quick goals. Robbie tapped home a rebound from close range, and following excellent passes by midfield man Sam, Ethan scored twice more.

For his two goal brace Ethan picked up the man of the match award.

Well done Team Oakwood!

Exploring our senses

This term Year 1 have had fun exploring their senses. They have participated in a range of activities which have included:

Finding out what it would be like to be blind folded without the sense of sight.
Exploring sound with lots of different instruments as well as creating loud and soft sounds ourselves.
Investigating our sense of smell with our "smell pots".
Testing sense of taste by tasting different biscuits.
We used our sense of touch to guess a mystery item!

Which sense do you enjoy using the most?

Year 4's Amazing Vaulting

This half term Year 4 have been working on their vaulting skills. Their confidence has grown through the weeks as the horse heights have increased. They have learned to squat on mount and pencil jump dismount. Well done Year 4!

Second Group of Evacuees Arrive at Testwood Lakes

Yesterday, the second group of evacuees arrived at Testwood Lakes and quickly set about learning some of the skills that would help them during their stay with potential host families. From raking the land, making charcoal, doing some shopping, helping the local ARP warden with a spot of espionage and building a shelter, they were kept very busy. Take a look:-

Year R and the Little Red Hen

We have been reading the book, "The Little Red Hen". We have been retelling the story using puppets, by sequencing pictures and by doing drama with our teachers. We have been baking delicious bread, just like the hen! We have learned about where the flour for our bread comes from. We have also made some lovely collages of the hen and some of us even tried to write, "hen". In maths, we have been learning to find 1 more or less than a number. We had to help the hen unmuddle her bread recipe by finding 1 more or less of each ingredient.

Mystery Stories on the way!

Year 6 have been learning how to write mystery stories. Having listened, planned, discussed and explored we are now turning our hands at being the next big thing in mystery writing! Prepare to be mystified!!

The Mystery of the disappearing SATs papers...

The Y6 teachers would like to say thank you to all the parents who visited us this evening, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone else tomorrow.

However...

We put some sample SATs test materials on a table in the Y6 shared area with the children's books, for parents to have a look at. But we only had one copy of each of the tests and lots seem to have gone for a walk...If they came home with you please can you return them to school!

Thank you!

HUGE thanks for your donations for our Harvest Festival!

We have had one of biggest collections ever and, thanks to your generosity, many families will be able to receive food from the Basics Bank right through the winter.

Matt and Duncan let us know that they have been able to deliver nearly 10,000 individual food parcels - and hope to do even more this winter...

Thanks to them both for leading us in celebration this morning.

Launch of the Attendance Bike Competition

In Assembly today our Federation Attendance Officer and the owner of The Hub cycle shop in Shirley, helped Mr Taylor launch our exciting Attendance Competition.

Every child in Oakwood has the opportunity to win a brand new bicycle, along with a goody bag of safety equipment including a lock, a water bottle and a stylish helmet!

Every Friday, every child with full attendance for that week will be given a raffle ticket to enter the prize draw. The more weeks that they come in on time without missing a day, the more raffle tickets they will be able to enter.  The winner's name will be drawn from a tombola at the end of the year.

So keep trying your best to come to school on time, and good luck!      

Y3 Modern Dance with TMC

Here are the children from Y3 performing a 'Love Story' dance taught by the TMC coaches.

First Group of Evacuees arrive at Testwood Lakes.

Yesterday, the first group of evacuees arrived at Testwood Lakes and quickly set about learning some of the skills that would help them during their stay with potential host families. From raking the land, making charcoal, doing some shopping, helping the local ARP warden with a spot of espionage and building a shelter, they were kept very busy. Take a look:-

Year 3 War Research!

Last week Year 3 were set a speaking and listening task to try and find out more about how WW2 had affected members of their extended families. Well, what a terrific research team they have proved to be! As they delved into the wealth of family stories, they have amazed us with not only the breadth of information they have discovered, but also with the passion they have shown as they uncovered one interesting story after another. We have heard recounts of daring bravery;  been lucky enough to see real medals awarded to real heroes; learned more about what it was like to be evacuated and live through the Blitz-we even discovered that a street was named after a Year 3 relative. We would like to say a BIG thank you to all the families of our Year 3 children for sharing these wonderful stories and artifacts with us all. Real stories about real people-thank you.

They've been at it again!

The cross county team were at it again after school today.

It was week two of the Southampton Schools' Cross Country league, and Team Oakwood were looking to build on their great 1st week.

There were some really impressive runs and again everyone did Oakwood proud.

Boys results: (+/- position from week 1)
Ethan - 6th       (+3 places)      8:07
Alex - 13th       (0 places)        8:28
Reece - 16th     (+6 places)      8:39
Dan - 24th        (-1 place)         8.59
Rhys - 37th       (+7 places)     9.13
Marcus - 38th   (+31 places)    9.14
Jola - 135th      (-20 places)      11.30

Girls results: (+/- position from week 1)
Amy - 3rd              (+1 place)
Libby - 19th          (+14 places)
Katie - 29th           (+2 places)
Renae - 37th          (+64 places)
Monique - 48th      (0 places)
Keisha - 59th          (DNR)
kayla - 81th            (+18 places)
Shannon - 82nd      (-30 places)
Ellie - 109th           (+9 places)

Year 4 Roaming Romans for the Day

Year 4 had a fun packed and informative day at Fishbourne Roman Palace.  They developed their understanding of the Roman way of life by dressing up and exploring the remains and mosaics of the original Palace.  Super learning, super weather and super behaviour.  Well done Year 4, you all made it into the Gold Book.

Year 6 English

Some of our Year 6 children had a fantastic time this morning discovering the 'virtual classroom' on ICT. They managed to log in, watch a short film and complete a task - all on ICT! We are all very happy that our POSITIVE mindset has enabled us to do new things!