We had a fantastic day completing our non-stop 15 minutes of activity for our Groundforce Move-a-Thon. Thank you to everyone who managed to collect sponsorship money - all of this will go towards our plans for improving our school grounds!
A big thank you to TMC who supported us with the day and made it lots of fun!
Many thanks to Steve Trent, one of our parents, who came to take a whole school photo with his drone on Friday!
While he was up there, he took some amazing video! (We hope he'll be able to come back in the summer when the weather's better!)
Yesterday Year 1 had a busy day of planting. The children had already written instructions about how to plant a sunflower so were already experts, now all they had to do was get planting. So that's exactly what they did!
As well as the sunflowers, the children also repotted some tomato plants and also had the chance to try the cress they had grown last week.
Fingers crossed they look after them well enough to survive the summer.
Today Year 1 kicked of their summer term by going on a walk around the local area to see what they could see.
First we put our geography skills into action and plotted the route we would take on a map. Then we opened up our science investigation eyes to spot different plants and trees along the route and identified them as we went.
We have learned lots of names for plants and trees that we recognised, but didn't quite know their name. Can you spot any that you recognise?
The OSA Summer Fete was a little different this year!
Instead of taking place on a Saturday afternoon, it all happened on a Friday evening and, for the first time in several years, it was sunny and we were outdoors!
We had a great range of stalls and activities - the boat races went particularly well and got everyone wet!
Miss Patchett kept us all in check as Mistress of Ceremonies (and played lots of loud music!)
Thanks to you all, we raised just over £2000 - a record for a summer fete at Oakwood!
Big thanks to Mrs Handley-Garland, all members of the OSA Committee and everyone who helped make it a huge success!
During our topic this term - It's Alive, we have planted some sunflower seeds in our garden area. All the children followed instructions carefully to give the seeds the best chance of growing. Who will grow the tallest sunflower?
Watch out for a cheeky squirrel in the garden! One afternoon a bag of seeds had been torn open and scattered everywhere...next to them a squirrel filling his cheeks with pleasure!!!
While everyone is safely off the site, the tree surgeons have moved in!
Oakwood (the clue is in the name!) has more trees on and around its site than most other schools in the city and it's really important they are all healthy and safe!
Over the last term Y4 have been learning all about Planet Earth and our local environment. As part of our learning we decided to do something to improve the school grounds and we decided to build a 'Bug Hotel'. These can take many different forms but are designed to encourage native insects and mini-beasts to populate certain areas.
We have built ours outside the Y3/4 classrooms, in the quad next to the KS2 top playground. Although it's not 100% finished yet we hope that our first inhabitants will move in regardless. This will give future Y4 children a great chance to study the local insect population.
We do ask that you help us look after it, by not allowing others to climb on it or remove things from the different levels. It's taken us a long time to plan and make and we're really proud of what we have achieved - please help us keep it safe.
Autumn half-term is a perfect time to get out and about!
Our latest newsletter tells you about 50 Things to do before you are 11¾!
This is a National Trust scheme to get children out and about doing all the things we tell them not to do!
Some examples are:
Today Year 3 completed some extreme reading (as reading is one of the schools curricular targets). We went on the field and using excellent team work skills, we put up a tent, then spent some time reading in and around the tent. Also when on the field we used our new sketch books to sketch our surrounding. We had a great afternoon in the sunshine!!
As Oakwood Junior School prepares to become part of Oakwood Primary School in January 2014, we've found these old photos of the building being constructed back in 1978.
The school opened as Oakwood Middle School on 1 September 1978.
As you can see, it all looks a bit bare - the trees and bushes on the site are not as mature as they are now!
There are also some photos from lessons - do you recognise anyone? If so, please get in touch: info@oakwoodlive.net.
(You can also go back to 1984, and have a look at the Junior School Prospectus!)
Thanks to the hard work of the team from Southampton City Council, we've had three of the upright poles replaced on our playtrail today!
They've also done a general service of the whole climbing frame to make sure that it stays safe for everyone who uses it...
As you can see, a few of the poles were getting quite rotten underground, but we have it surveyed ever year so that we can spot problems before they become dangerous.
As soon as the concrete which holds the poles up has dried, we can let everyone back on...!
On Friday the children worked very hard on the gardens outside year 3. They have designed and planned where to plant and they have put in some wild flowers in the wild flower garden. It is really important that nobody walks on either garden so that the flowers have a chance to grow.
The Oakthorne children had a fantastic couple of days and will be able to use their skills in teamwork, designing and planning in the future!
The Outside Grounds Committee met for the first time this week. In our first meeting we thought about how we can make the nature trail a lot more exciting and more usable. We also started a resource box that other classes can use. Our first resource was lots of leaf identification cards which we then used to identify all the different variety of trees we have here at Oakwood. You would be surprised at how many different trees there are - why don't you have a go!
We made a plan/list of all our ideas so far. They included:
Oakwood Infant and Junior Schools have been working together to make the school site safer for pedestrians, cyclists, prams and buggies and scooter users who arrive through the gate near to the driveway.
A lot of people crossed the car park to get to the Junior School or the Cycle Store because that was really the only way to go.
Now, there's a clear way to go, with a fence separating the path from the driveway. There's also a proper zebra crossing and a new path linking the Infant School path to the Junior School.
Thanks to Long and Dibden Fencing, R and D Surfacing and David Deane at Southampton City Council for working with us on this project.
You'll also notice that the fencing along the front of the schools along Sandpiper Road has been finished. This completes a project to replace the fencing around the entire schools' site which has taken about five years and cost about £125,000.
Oakwood Infant and Junior Schools have been working together to make the school site safer for pedestrians, cyclists, prams and buggies and scooter users who arrive through the gate near to the driveway.
A lot of people crossed the car park to get to the Junior School or the Cycle Store because that was really the only way to go.
Now, there's a clear way to go, with a fence separating the path from the driveway. There's also a proper zebra crossing and a new path linking the Infant School path to the Junior School.
Thanks to Long and Dibden Fencing, R and D Surfacing and David Deane at Southampton City Council for working with us on this project.
One of the photos has the Junior School House Captains recreating a famous pop group's album cover! Leave a comment telling us what it is and you might win a prize!
You'll also notice that the fencing along the front of the schools along Sandpiper Road has been finished. This completes a project to replace the fencing around the entire schools' site which has taken about five years and cost about £125,000.
The city council has now finished its project to install Solar Photovoltaic panels on our roof!
There are 42 panels, capable of generating 10kW of electricity, and they were busy working just a few minutes after the last connections were made!
You can click on this panoramic photo for a closer look!
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The panels are linked to a live electronic display in the school which shows everyone:
Year 3 worked extremely hard last week learning all about the 'Easter Story'. They showed their understanding by designing and making 'Easter Gardens' in small groups. the children also showed great teamwork.
Year 4 had a visit from a fabulous Environmental artist: Helen Adams
She spent time creating a web of nature links with the children. This helped explain how we should care for everything in our world in order to protect our local and global environment.
To promote caring for all creatures, the children painted 'Love bugs'.
To encourage small animals into our walled garden the children all took part in creating 'Bobby's Bug Hotel'. He is made entirely from old materials including flower pots, twigs, compost, plastic crates and a broken piece of furniture from the local dump.
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