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.

(iPad or iPhone? Can't see the photos? Try our new PhotoStory feature!)



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

Poppy Day at Oakwood

All children at Oakwood respected the Two Minutes' Silence at 11am today and, as usual, Year 3 attended the Armistice Ceremony at Hollybrook Cemetery.

Mrs Sansome says:

"How proud I am of Year 3.
So respectful, knowledgeable and a credit to themselves today at Hollybrook.
Well Done....."



One of our governors, who also went on the visit, says:

"Wow, what a lovely morning I had with such well behaved, knowledgeable children today.

I really enjoyed coming with you all to the remembrance service at the cemetery. The children walked quickly and sensibly in the cold and rain all the way and did not complain about it. When they were asked questions in the service they answered sensibly and were interested in what was being said. They waited patiently while the soldier played the last post and then placed their poppy crosses at the graves and were astonished at the youth of some of the soldiers who had died.

As we came to leave, several of the old ladies who were there (even older than me!) commented on the good behaviour of the children, which is all credit to you all.

Thank you for inviting me. Please pass on my sincere thanks to all the children several of whom were kind enough to look after me all the way.

I hope I can help and join you on future visits or in school."

Oakwood Primary School - Official Opening!

Today was our Official Opening Day!

Even though we became Oakwood Primary School at midnight on 1 January, and our first day with children was 7 January, it's been the first sunny day for our special event!

Everyone, children and adults, released an Oakwood Primary School balloon to celebrate the new school. (Every balloon has a tag, so we'll wait to see which one travels the furthest! Look at a map of finds!)



We also got our youngest and oldest pupils and staff members to cut a commemorative ribbon on our new sign.



A big thank you to everyone who helped decorate and blow up balloons, and to Sainsbury's Lordshill, who donated some new books for our library!

Some of the pictures will be in the Daily Echo on Friday 10 January.

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."

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 3 Become Artists for the Day!

Year 3 had a wonderful day yesterday visiting our local Southampton Art Gallery. The children learned a lot about the art work in the gallery, and how it links to our Science unit 'Materials'.

As part of our topic work the children made clay self portraits learning many new skills of how to use clay. 

Have a look at our photos below!

Loving the iPads

Mr Handley-Garland writes about seeing Year 3 using the new iPads - "Visiting a Year 3 class last week as part of the Governors’ day in school gave me the opportunity to see the newly acquired class iPads in action. While the children are no strangers to using the computers in the IT suite and at other locations around the school, the wireless touch screen devices bring the resources of the internet to their classroom desks. Some of the children demonstrated how they logged on and used the iPad’s Safari web browser to search for information on the famous American artist Andy Warhol as part of a project they were doing. I’m sure all the classes will find these a very useful addition to the school’s ITC equipment."

Governors go back to school

Governors visit school each term and sample a typical school day.  Mrs Short spent some time last week with Year 5. She writes:

Thank you to the group of Year 5 children who welcomed me into their reciprocal reading session, allowing me to be the "Clarifier". Reciprocal reading works like this - pupils work in groups and each pupil in the group has a copy of the same book which they read aloud in turns.



One of the group is "Questioner", another "Predictor", one "Summariser", another "Clarifier", all under the guidance of "Big Boss". The children in my group all said how much they enjoy reading like this and how it helps them understand the book.

I hope I will be able to join another group the next time I'm in school. In the meantime, keep enjoying your reading.'

Keep going Year 6!

This is an important week for Year 6 as they sit their end of Key Stage 2 tests and the OJS Governors would like to encourage you to do your very best.  We know that you, and your teachers, have worked hard and we hope that you will feel confident to answer all the questions and show what you have learnt. Good luck!

A healthy, safe school

In my capacity as governor with a Health and Safety interest, I attended a walk round the school. A group of us does this every term. As a relatively new governor to the school, it was good for me to have a proper look round. We were very thorough and I'm pleased to say that there was nothing very serious to be sorted out. The school is healthy and safe!

Governors learn about spreadsheets...and lots more

Some of the governors spent a day in school recently. We all enjoy seeing the school in action and spending time talking to the children about their work. On this visit year 5 enthusiastically told us all about the biscuit business topic. Their knowledge of spreadsheets put us to shame and it was lovely seeing the children work in teams to come up with so many creative ideas. We also took part in singing assembly and spoke to a group of children from all of the year groups about their writing books. The thing I enjoy most about our visits to school is just popping in to see the various classes doing their day to day work. A particular highlight for me on this visit was seeing year 4 act out their poetry. All of the children I spoke to during my visit were happy and enthusiastic about their time at school and very keen to talk to us about their experiences.

Competition time!

Judy Short, one of our governors, loves collecting words and has her own magpie book. Her latest word is dragée. She will give a prize to the first person who tells her the meaning of the word and uses it correctly in a sentence. There will be another prize for the first person who can guess correctly where she read the word. Submit your answers here. Good Luck!

The Governors have a great day!

Governors come into school for a day each term and Friday was our day. We had such a great time - and we were allowed to come in jeans! Mr Taylor told us at assembly that the school was donating eight large bin liners of clothes to the Dreams Come True charity as a result of non uniform day. (We should have auctioned Mr Taylor's jazzy shirt!)

We visited different classes - Some of Year 6 were recovering from their visit to Woodmill, while the rest of the year group was at Knapp House; Year 5 were designing an information leaflet about the Lordswood area, saying why it's such a good place to live; Year 3 were buzzing about bees, and blowing their trumpets and tenor horns; Year 4 were reading and answering questions. We were even lucky enough to see some experts in quick fire times tables. What a great way to increase confidence with numbers. Some of the Governors will need to practise!

Mrs Worley told us about a training course she is doing to help her be an even better admin manager, and we chatted with pupils about swimming, Joseph, and Catch Up literacy. And of course we had an update from Mr Taylor about how the school uses Google Apps.

Fortunately we had a welcome cup of tea at break time and an excellent school lunch to keep up going in our action packed day. Thank you Mrs Whitmarsh for organising the timetable for us and to all who talked to us during the day. We will be back in September.

You can find out more about the Governors' work, who we are, and our support and challenge for the school on our own website page.

Governors in School

Some of the school governors spent today seeing our school in action. In the picture from left to right are Jackie Kerwood, Peter Clapham, William Handley-Garland and Richard Wilson.



Judy Short also came but had to go before we took the picture. They went to lots of lessons and learned all about the catch-up programme and had a jolly good lunch. The Governors learned about the 'helping H' (ask your child about it)!!! They were singing sensations at the school singing assembly!!! Lewis and Rishab showed them how the e-City learning portal works. You'll hear more about this exciting project soon!

by Amie and Conor, Year 5

Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning

A personal message from Mr Taylor...

Oakwood Junior School is a very special place to work, but on some days your children and our staff leave me so proud I'm speechless. (And that's saying something!)

Friday was one of those days!

We had decided to host a coffee morning in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Care Charity. We know that so many families are affected by this horrible, vicious disease and wanted to do something positive and amazing to show that we are part of beating it.

So we got busy...

The kitchen was buzzing as children made cakes and classrooms turned into "Invitation Factories!" We invited parents, friends and families, local businesses, people from organisations we work closely with, such as Neptune Court and Semble House, governors - in fact anyone and everyone we could think of! We said "Come and have a coffee and a cake and make a donation to Macmillan..."

But we weren't sure how many people would come and how much money we would raise...

Friday morning came and after a steady build-up, the queue stretched out of the door! We reckon over 250 people came and shared the morning with us...

We raised a grand total on the day of £644 - in just one hour! (And a little more has come in since!)

My personal thanks to everyone who came and had a cake or helped organise the morning - and a very special thank you to all our children. If it weren't for them, we'd have had no cakes, no people to eat them and no money to give to Macmillan... You are superstars!

A Life at Sea for Me!

Year 6 had a very busy end of term and everyone went on one of the Big Ships in Southampton Docks. The cruise ships are basically floating hotels, but the WhitChallenger gave us a better idea of what a life at sea is really like!

We had to follow very important health and safety rules, including wearing yellow hi-viz jackets, and we toured every part of the refuelling tanker, learning about navigation, safety, food and accommodation on board - and even knots! (Some things never change at sea!)

We also learned a lot about what goes on behind the Dock Gates in the city and how important the maritime industry is to Southampton.



Some of us were shown around by 2nd Officer Tom Barkley, who has recently been awarded the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's Officer Trainee of the Year Award, so we couldn't have had a better guide!



Thanks to Tom, the rest of the crew and to Ashley Jenkins, a director of the Whitaker Group for giving us this great opportunity!

Travel Team's Last Road Safety Review

Monday was the Travel Team's last get-together as Year 6 are leaving and the Oakwood years are moving on. The Travel Team will be splitting up next academic year into different committees, so other people get a chance at each committee. There'll be a brand new Travel Team next year!

We all have enjoyed ourselves and we thank Mr Taylor for running this committee this year.

This is what we have been doing:

School signs. We have designed our own School Zone signs to send to Southampton City Council and ONE might get chosen to be placed alongside Sandpiper Road.



We took a trip outside of school too take a look at a safety sign informing us about the Council placing speed bumps outside the school - Jed and Dillon measured the length of the bumps using Trundle wheels.


Mr Clapham (one of our School governors) said that this lesson has been very interesting and has said he had learned how to use a trundle wheel (because he had never used a one...)

Marking on the safety and danger signs on maps! Last Committee Day we printed out an aerial image of Sandpiper Road from the Internet. We then marked on the safety and danger zones on the map, this way if they were detailed enough we could mail them to the Council and ask them what they would do about it.

by Jed and James

Super Separating in Year 6 Science!

Year 6 had a fantastic time separating mixtures and solutions this afternoon!

We had to choose the best equipment to separate:

1. Sand and cold water
2. Soil and leaves
3. Warm water and sugar/salt

We had to decide to use filtration, evaporation or a sieve. Oli, 6CD, concluded that "sieves are really good for separating different sized solids, filter paper separates liquids from solids easily, and evaporation can be used to separate solids which have dissolved in a liquid."

We also discussed the EFFICIENCY of separation methods. We decided that you could separate tea leaves from tea water by evaporation but it wouldn't be efficient - "the tea would go cold and you wouldn't be able to drink it immediately" realised Cameron. "It would be more efficient to use filter paper" he decided.

Take a look at all the super scientists in year 6!

New Governors Please!

HELLO!

We are the School Council and we are on a mission to find two new school governors!

Today, during Committee Afternoon, we interviewed Mrs Larder, a school Governor, to find out what a School Governor's job really is!

She explained that a Governor is someone who really cares about the children at OJS and voluntarily gives up their time to check that we are being given a good education and that we are happy and healthy at school!

The Governors meet every six weeks to discuss things like; how we spend the school's money, who we want to work at the school, how well we are all learning at OJS and what experiences we are being given.

All the staff and parents already on the Committee are really friendly – Mrs Larder explained that all a new Governor needs to bring is enthusiasm to help our school be the very best it can be!

SO...COULD YOU BE ONE OF OUR NEW SCHOOL GOVERNORS PLEASE?

We can’t wait to hear from you, please speak to Miss Denton or any one of the School Council members if you are interested!

Thank you for reading this,
The School Council

Harvey
Taylor
Rebecca
Charlotte
Olivia
Ben
Billy
Chloe
Aimee
Ben
Angela
Connor
Matthew
Kaitie
Courtney
Ewen
Joel
Carina