Songsters have had a wonderful afternoon entertaining the residents of Sunrise Residential Care Home. The ladies and gentleman of Sunrise enjoyed themselves so much they have requested an encore at Christmas.

Sing Christmas!

Sing Christmas! was the first performance of The Living Lordswood Community Choir.

The choir, which was formed in October, has 35 members aged from ten to seventy who all love to sing. The audience packed into the Oakwood School hall on Saturday 14 December to hear them perform a selection of traditional and modern Christmas songs. Former pupils of Oakwood were involved - singing, reading, manning the car park and serving refreshments - and you might even spot a governor or two if you look at the photos carefully.



Admission was free but the audience were asked to donate a tin food for the Basics Bank which supports families in poverty. Forty carrier bags of food were donated!

"The choir is a real community effort," said one of the organisers. "We live locally and are delighted to be able to bring joy and hope to the neighbourhood. Our thanks to Oakwood for allowing us to use their great venue."

Showbiz Comes to Thursday Evening!

A little bit of showbiz was sprinkled onto Thursday evening, as the Songsters put on their show Oakwood at the Musicals!

They sang their hearts out as they took us on a musical journey through Annie, The Sound of Music, Hairspray, Oliver, My Fair Lady, Bugsy Malone and many more.

Oakwood's Songsters have become famous for their hard work and professionalism and this performance was no exception! The audience agreed wholeheartedly!



Big thanks to Miss Patchett, Mrs Larder and Mrs Vaudin for all the rehearsals!

Oakwood's Last Night of the Proms

Oakwood Junior School staged a rousing celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this evening with a performance of songs and music fit for The Royal Albert Hall and a Regal Audience!

The songsters were in fine form and gave us some fantastic performances of songs from the Young Voices Concert at the O₂ and some Proms classics: Jerusalem, Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory and, of course, God Save the Queen!

The orchestra accompanied them very professionally under the leadership of Emily from Oasis Academy - we would like to say a huge thank you to her for her hard work!



Have a very relaxing half-term and enjoy the Jubilee Celebrations!

Three cheers for Her Majesty, and for Oakwood!

Young Voices at the O2 - An Experiment!

We're going to experiment with "live blogging" the Young Voices visit to the O₂!

This will be our first go and it might not work, but we're going to be taking photos during the day which should appear in this photo album as we take them!

As of late on Wednesday afternoon, it's only got a photo of Mrs Worley holding up a Young Voices t-shirt, but we hope that more and more photos will appear during the day so you can keep up to date with what's happening. Fingers crossed!

GO, GO, GO Joseph!

With less than a week to go, full rehearsals for Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat are well under way!

Here are some "behind the scenes" shots of the first run through at the Oasis Academy Theatre...



The full performance is on Thursday 16 June! The Songsters are getting very excited!

(Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. An Amateur Production by arrangement with the Really Useful Group Limited.)

Guildhall Carol Concert Cancelled

We have just heard from the Southampton Schools Music Association that the Guildhall Carol Concert tonight has been cancelled.

Although this is very disappointing, we think it's the best decision given the circumstances.

We await to hear whether it can be rearranged, given all the hard work the staff and children have put into rehearsals, and we'll keep you informed.

Any parent who has bought tickets via the school will receive a full refund. If you bought your tickets direct from the Guildhall, please contact them for information.

Yee-Haaaaaaaa!

Foot kickin' - finger clickin' - leather slappin' - hand clappin' -
hip bumpin' - music thumpin' - knee hitchin' - heel and toe -
floor scuffin' - leg shufflin' - big grinnin' - body spinnin' -
rompin' stompin' - pumpin' jumpin' - slidin' glidin'...

...here we go!

What a fantastic Country'n'Western concert!

Songsters entertained two audiences of children and parents and grandparents and friends today with a boot-scootin' selection of songs and dances and instrumental performances.

From Dolly Parton to Taylor Swift, there was something for everyone...



We even had a visit from Black Rose, a Year 9 band from Oasis Academy Lord's Hill who performed two of their songs and, along with Paul Ibbot, provided live backing for our songs! (Three members of Black Rose used to go to Oakwood - Mrs Heathcock says it was her music lessons which made them so talented!)

Thanks also go to Mrs Peregrine and Mrs Larder who have worked with the children every week to prepare them to such a high standard.

Well done Songsters! We're really proud of you!

Goodbye* Mrs Vaudin...

We wanted to make sure that we gave Mrs Vaudin a really good send off from Oakwood! In fact, so may people wanted to say goodbye, that we gave her two!

Firstly, we invited lots of people who have worked with her over 28 years to have a cup of tea and a bit of cake. We also surprised her with some of her family who turned up unexpectedly...

And on the very last day of term, all of the children and lots of parents came together for a special assembly, where we presented her with some special Memory Books.

Although it was a sad occasion, it was a very happy way of wishing Mrs Vaudin all the best for her retirement!

* We know it's not really goodbye - Mrs Vaudin will always be a very important part of the Oakwood family and we hope she'll soon be back as a governor!

Christmas News Round-Up... (Part 1)

It seems like a very long time ago now, but it was really good to see so many people at the OSA Christmas Fair playing the games, buying stocking fillers, winning prizes and generally getting into the festive spirit (even though it was still November!)

We thought Santa’s sleigh was better than ever this year!

In what are still hard times, when money is tight, we didn’t think we would beat last year’s total of £2800, but thanks to you, the OSA raised a new record total of…

£3537.02!

A big Thank You to you all (especially the person who gave us the 2p!) and, of course, to Gill Handley-Garland and the OSA.

The OSA will now be able to donate money to both schools in the new year.

On Friday 4 December, many parents and friends of the school were privileged to listen to our Songsters at West Quay Shopping Centre, singing Christmas Carols and entertaining shoppers!

We are always very proud to see our children representing the school so well.

Money was collected in aid of the Hampshire Autistic Society, so we were glad to play our part, as we do every year.



And finally for this part, the Southampton Schools Music Association concert took place at the Guildhall on Tuesday 8 December.

It was no surprise to us that all soloists in the Junior School section were Oakwood pupils... and the biggest junior school choir there? You guessed right again!

It was an amzing concert and really showed off the talent we have here, while getting everyone in the mood for Christmas!

(We weren't allowed to take photos! Booo!)

Roll on our Christmas performances next week!

If I Could Turn Back Time....

It was Back to the 50s on Tuesday evening at Oakwood... (and the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s!) ...as everyone joined in celebrating the Dazzling Decades!

Our poetic narrators had to do some digging back into history to find Sandie Shaw, The Sweet, The Nolan Sisters and Kevin Keegan's perm!

Mrs Heathcock went into her attic to find some choice pieces for the fashion shows and the Songsters, the dancers and Mrs Spring all worked so hard to produce a fantastic, professional show!



We had some amazing soloists, magical musicians and we were very lucky to be joined by Paul Ibbot and students from Oasis Lord's Hill who played live for us!

A Dazzling Display from the Decades was enjoyed by a packed crowd (including someone with an "I ♡ WHAM!" scarf... Hmmmm!)

The collection on the door raised a grand total of £230, which will go towards the music department. Thanks for your support!

Getting Christmassy with the Shoppers...

It's now a tradition that children from our school go to West Quay Shopping Centre in Southampton as Christmas approaches to sing to the shoppers!

This year, we were represented by our Songsters group, who have been busy with songs for the Guildhall Christmas Concert and with supporting the Rosewood School concert.

The part of the centre where we normally sing was much smaller this year, as a smoothie bar, calendar shop and coffee bar all seem to have sprung up recently, but we squeezed into our little gap and sang to an audience of Christmas shoppers (including lots of parents from the school!)



We sang some more traditional carols this year, such as "O Come, All Ye Faithful", as well as old favourites like "Rock Around the Shops".

The performance was in aid of the Hampshire Autistic Society and there was a collection while we were singing.

Well done to everyone!

There's a whole lotta shoppin' goin' on!

Our fabulous choir performed to family and friends (and hundreds of Christmas shoppers) today at West Quay in Southampton.

This has become an annual event for us at Oakwood and all the money raised goes towards the Hampshire Autistic Society. Choirs from lots of Southampton schools provide a whole morning's Christmas entertainment!



Here you can see Miss Smith keeping everyone under control, singing in time and in tune! One of their favourites (and good for West Quay) is "Come on everybody, there's a whole lotta shoppin' goin' on!", but they also sang some more traditional songs.

Well done, choir!