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.