Lunar Theme Park Maths Challenge

Last week Year 5 had the job of designing their own theme park on the moon. The children had a budget of £500,000 to set it up and run it for a day. This would then help them decide on admission costs and running of the park. The children worked in pairs or small groups. Their first job was to design it using a criteria for what they were allowed and then use a price list for how much each item cost e.g. a major ride cost £50.000. The final part of the challenge was presenting their parks to their classteacher and evaluating their learning and taking on board on all the maths they needed to know and use to complete the task.

A Great Start!

Year 6 have been working hard towards their End of Key Stage Tests for a long time, and now they're here!

To help pupils relax and prepare for their days ahead, Mrs Worley (helped by lots of staff and a governor) has been running 'SATs Breakfast'.

Toast in abundance and a choice of cereals whilst chatting with friends - what better way to start the day?!

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!"

We're in the Echo!

Oakwood's Key Stage 2 results were mentioned in a very good article about rising standards in Southampton.

Our results, as you might remember from the summer, were the best ever achieved by the school, so we were delighted when the Echo contacted us.

As the Year 6 pupils who achieved the results are now working hard in Year 7, our new Year 3 children represented us in the photo!

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!

A healthy way to start the day...

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so Year 6 started today as they meant to go on...

It's also a very social way to start the day, gives you some energy and makes sure tummies don't rumble during the Year 6 tests!



On the menu: Rice Krispies, Cornflakes, toast and jam! There was even Marmite - which everyone either loves or hates! (A bit like the SATs, really!)

Thanks to Chef Worley and all the other staff who are helping this week!

Marvellous Marking Stickers!!

Today the 'L' Factor committee returned to the topic of marking.

Firstly we discussed what had happened since our very first committee when we talked about how well we thought the marking helped us with our learning. The good news was that the majority of committee members felt that lots of things had improved in that time. In particular the majority of children felt that they were given more time to reflect on, and respond to, marking comments.

To help all children become even more reflective when considering the recorded outcomes of their work, the committee spent the afternoon designing both self and peer assessment stickers that all children at Oakwood can use. As you can see from the following photos they did a great job!!



The stickers have been scanned into the computer and committee members will be delivering a master set to every class later in the week. We look forward to seeing how different classes make use of them.

Well done to every member for another great committee afternoon.