Oakwood - Live at the O2!

Oakwood Songsters put on a very special performance in a very special venue to help celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Young Voices...!

It's four years since we went to Young Voices last time, and it was even better this time.

Everyone had worked so hard, not just rehearsing songs and actions, but also booking buses and ordering t-shirts!

We performed alongside our friends from Fairisle Junior School and Showcase Performance Company, and together with over 7,000 other Young Voices from schools across the country.

We also shared the spotlight with Urban Strides, The Beat Box Collective, Laura Wright and Tom Billington.

A very special and inspiring day!

Well done everyone!




(If you can't get the photos on an iPhone or iPad, try our new PhotoStory feature!)

New trees for Oakwood!

We were very lucky to receive 30 free tree saplings when we ordered resources with our Sainsburys Active Kids vouchers. Sainsburys teamed up with the Woodland Trust to provide schools across the UK with free tree or bush packs. The tree packs have been funded by donations from Sainsbury's 'Woodland' brand of free range eggs and chickens.

We have a range of trees: cherry plum, hazel, dog rose, black thorn, dogwood, elder and crab apple.
Yesterday, Year 4 spent the afternoon planting the saplings around our school field. Well done Year 4 - you did a great job. Everyone really enjoyed it, take a look at the photos to see for yourself.
They have been marked with plastic markers in the hope that they don't get stepped on! They are very small and fragile at the moment!



We will look forward to observing them grow and identifying which trees are which. Maybe in the future we will be able to use the fruit grown on the trees in cooking at school.

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!

A Look Back at Mrs Vaudin's Time at Oakwood!

As Mrs Vaudin starts her retirement tomorrow, we thought you would like to see some of the photos we've decorated the school with!

Mrs Vaudin thought some of these photos were lost forever, but...



...it's amazing what you can find if you look hard enough!

Quick Links to our OFSTED Report

Thank you for your support during our recent OFSTED inspection.

The report confirms that Oakwood Junior School is a good school, with outstanding practice in a number of areas.



Here are some quick links to documents and pages about the inspection:

• Letter to parents and carers from Richard Wilson (Chair of Governors) and Ian Taylor (Headteacher)
• Full 2010 OFSTED Report for the school
• Our page on the OFSTED Website. The report will also be published here in due course.

Celebrating with Mrs Rogers

Congratulations are in order for Zita Rogers who has successfully completed the National PSHE CPD Certification Programme.

This is a nationally recognised qualification run by the Healthy Schools programme and Roehampton University, and Zita was amongst the first group of teachers and school nurses to achieve this very important award.

Here she is receiving her certificate from Paul Nugent, head of School Standards in Southampton...



The award is important because it means that the Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship education at Oakwood Junior School, which Zita has planned and oversees, is of an extremely high standard!



Well done to all the recipients!