Oakwood Groundforce Day

On Wednesday we were joined by volunteers from the Ordnance Survey and some willing parent helpers to dig, cut, chop, pull, push, heave, jump away from frogs, sweat and generally work every muscle they have to prepare some of our outdoor areas for the start of something new. We are so thankful to each and everyone of them, without their hard work we would not be where we are now.




Over the next few months classes will develop their areas, spend the money we raised from our Move'athon and our donation from The Barker Mills Foundation. There may even be another Groundforce day! Ask your child about their area for more information.

Plastic Free Day

You will see from some of our other recent blog posts, that Oakwood had a great 'Plastic Free Day' this week.

All children got involved with learning about single-use plastic and its effect on our environment. Key Stage 2 were lucky enough to have a visit from a group from King's Church who told us all about their ecobricking project, Year 6 did a local community litter pick and two of our Pupil Councillors were lucky enough to have a slot on local breakfast radio!

Across the school children also completed their own pledges to reduce plastic, wrote letters and emails to local companies to ask them to reduce their plastic use, they found inventive ways to re-use plastic in school, to name but a few!



Have a look at Year 3's top tips for reducing plastic:

Top Tips for families to reduce plastic use!
These are some of the ways our class have thought of to reduce our plastic usage and help the environment.
1. When you buy an ice-cream, ask for a cone instead of a cup as you get given a plastic spoon too – too much plastic!
2. Ditch single-use plastic items
3. Always take your litter home, wherever you are!
4. Re-think your birthday bag! Ditch the rubbish plastic toys you only use once. Include just a cake or something home-made.
5. Take a cloth bag/re-usable bag to the shops.
6. Always use paper straws instead of plastic straws.
7. Use re-usable tubs in a lunchbox not food wrapped in plastic.
8. Use metal cutlery.
9. Drink from a re-usable bottle at school and when you’re out.

Please think about using these tips at home. These tips will help our planet!

Rights Respecting School Week

Last week, we had a focus on our Rights Respecting School learning.

As a Rights Respecting School, the Unicef Convention on the Rights of the Child is threaded through all of our learning at Oakwood. We have whole school, class, playground and restaurant charters which remind us of our rights and how we can respect them. We learn about our rights in assemblies and in our lessons. Our whole school PSHE theme for this half term is 'This is Me', and we are learning about ourselves, and how our words and actions portray our character.

Last week, we learned more about the rights of children in other countries, particularly those children who, for one reason or another, are forced to leave their homes. We also took part in the Send My Friend to School Campaign. This year, the focus for this is 'Let's Unlock Education for Everyone'.

Our learning included reading books, completing research, drama and freeze frames - to name but a few. Every child has also written to our MP as part of the Send My Friend to School campaign, and we will be sending off our letters very soon.

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!

Rights Respecting School Committee

Our Rights Respecting School committee met today and had lots to consider.

We started by thinking about how we respect rights in school, and where we see those rights - we thought of the School Charter, Class Charters, Playground Charters, displays... We also talked about how we can respect those rights everyday, by being kind and thoughtful to people around us.

This year, we will be focusing on the 'Global Goals'. We talked about what some of the goals mean for us, and how we sometimes take them for granted in our everyday lives.

The committee will be sharing the Global Goals introduction video with their classes, and next time, we will think about which goals we can campaign for!

LKS2 Superstars-Working hard in Year 3 and 4!

What a TERRIFIC start to the school year by the Year 3 and 4 children. Not only have they created some crazy, colourful artwork to display in our shared area, but they re already hard at work learning about the rights of children; why children were evacuated during WW2; exploring Roman Britain; creating wanted posters for Robin Hood; using chrome books to help the with their place value in maths and even starting to learn how to jitterbug.

Take a look for yourselves:-

Great Display




Hard Workers

Year 1 at Manor Farm

This week Year 1 went to Manor Farm to finish off our topic learning about Victorian life.

We got the chance to meet the animals and learn about how the farm was important during the Victorian times. We also got the chance to do some laundry the Victorian way in the farm house and go to school and meet Miss Stubbs.

We had a fantastic day!

Do you know how often you should test your smoke alarm?

Well ask any member of Year 6 and they will be able to tell you the answer.

Following a visit from the Hampshire Fire Crew, Year 6 have been made very aware of how to avoid fire hazards particularly in the home.

Have you ever planned an escape route with your family should a fire ever start in your home?

Article 21 - All children must be protected and kept safe.

Krypton Factor

On Wednesday 26 November, Oakwood were proud to host a special Federation of schools event for able, gifted and talented mathematicians: Krypton Factor.

The following schools attended with six pupils from years 3 to 5:
Oakwood Primary
Redbridge Primary
Mansel Park Primary
Fairisle Juniors
Tanners Brook Primary
Newlands Primary

The children worked with those from others schools on a range of fun and exciting maths activities and investigations. The Brussel Sprouts two player game from the Numberphile website was particularly popular!

All children were fully engaged in the tasks given, enjoyed themselves and said that they would love to take part again.



Watch this space for future Krypton Factor events!

Paper and Pen Fun with the Playtime Committee!

Today the playtime committee have been learning lots of different paper and pen games that we can teach our classes to play during wet plays. We had lots of fun playing Twins, Boxes, Character Consequences and making chatterboxes and the great thing is they didn't cost anything! Here are a few pictures:-

We also had a great idea for wet play artwork and will be emailing the office later-we think it will be great for pupils and teachers alike. We will keep you posted. 

ChildLine visit Year 5 and Year 6

Article 19

Governments must do all they can to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and mistreatment by their parents or anyone else who looks after them.

Article 24

Every child has the right to the best possible health. Governments must provide good quality health care, clean water, nutritious food and a clean environment so that children can stay healthy. Richer countries must help poorer countries achieve this.

As part of our rights respecting and anti bullying work, Year 5 and 6 were visited by experienced ChildLine volunteers. Through a special assembly and guided workshops, they helped us to understand how we can all keep happy and safe. They also showed us what we can do when we we feel unhappy, unsafe and feel we don't have a voice.

Reflective Jackets

In year 1 we have been learning about light sources and reflectors. We also read a book called 'The Owl who's Afraid of the Dark'. We designed the main character Plop a reflective jacket to make him feel safe at night. We put all our science skills into action to test different materials and see which ones best suited the purpose.
Come and see our winning designs on display in year 1.

Blackboard, Easel and Dunce's Cap - A Day in a Victorian School

Year 6 left their brown uniforms at home today as they took a step back into the Victorian era.
Donning their Victorian clothes and clasping an authentic Victorian penny in their hands, they stood nervously awaiting drill before they were allowed into the building.

Once inside, after a very thorough inspection of hands, shoes and fingernails, they were instructed in the 3Rs.

After a brief lunch (not gruel) the children got to write with real nibs, ink and blotting paper, worked together to produce a portrait of Queen Victoria and worked on their needlework skills.

Stripes or Spots

A big thank you to children, parents and friends for getting involved with our Stripes or Spots challenge yesterday. 259 of our children came to school without using a car, which is good news for our bodies, our planet and our learning!
      

Year 1's Fun Fire day!

Year 1 were really lucky to have firefighters Nick and Paul come in to visit us yesterday.

The children learnt all about fire and road safety.
They were lucky enough to go inside a fire engine and race to the scene of a fire and put it out using the powerful hose.
They also learnt some catchy safety rhymes, so if you see a year 1 child ask them to teach it to you, it might come in handy one day!

All the children would like to say a massive thank you to Hampshire Fire Service for such a great day!

Rights Respecting School Committee

Our Rights Respecting School Committee met for the first time today, with representatives from Year 1 to Year 6 all having a say in how we can improve how we respect rights at Oakwood.

We started all together, with a discussion about what rights are and how we are already respecting rights in school. We also talked about the adults' responsibilities in making sure we have these rights.

Then, Key Stage 1 children went off around the school in search of rights evidence. They took photos of our whole school charter, playground charter and displays where Articles are shown.

Meanwhile, Key Stage 2 children produced an information leaflet for parents and wrote a letter to our governors asking for one of them to volunteer to be part of our future committee meetings.

We will keep you updated with our progress throughout the year!