HUGE thanks for your donations for our Harvest Festival!
We have had one of biggest collections ever and, thanks to your generosity, many families will be able to receive food from the Basics Bank right through the winter.
Matt and Duncan let us know that they have been able to deliver nearly 10,000 individual food parcels - and hope to do even more this winter...
Thanks to them both for leading us in celebration this morning.
Year R kicked off our Christmas Performance season this week, on Thursday and Friday, with their wonderful Nativity Play!
We always put on a great show at Oakwood for Christmas (and, don't tell anyone, but Year R's is always a little bit more magical than the rest!)
We hope you enjoyed it if you came along...
...and thanks for your donations to Basics Bank - we'll let you know what we did with the money you gave before we break up!
After many days of rain, the year 2 doors can no longer hold off the water!
It was all hands on deck on the last day of this half term to keep us dry!
Jack appeared on Wave105 on Thursday afternoon to tell everyone what the weather was like!
We are fully intending to open the school as normal on Monday 21 January.
The path from the wooden gate on Sandpiper Road will be open and clear, and we suggest you use that route into school.
Children can come in via reception rather than going to their classroom doors, which may still be inaccessible.
We will try to clear other paths to the side entrances during the day.
Please take care on your journeys in, as some roads and pavements may still be icy.
Once again, apologies for the closure due to snow on Friday, but thank you for the excellent snow pictures you sent in! If you have any more, please email them to snow@oakwoodlive.net and we'll blog them.
Thanks to those of you who sent in snow pictures!
If you've got any more, please send them to snow@oakwoodlive.net, and we'll add them to this album!
Thanks to Jas, Oliver, Jacob, Abbie, Oliver, Nathan, Toby, Sophie, Luke and Sam, Robbie, Maisy and Georgia, The Peggs, The Walkers, The Handley-Garlands and the Worleys!
If you are out in the snow today, we'll be offering a prize for the best "snow-thing"!
This could be a snowman, snowlady, snowdog, snow dinosaur or something else equally creative!
There will be a prize for the most creative snow sculpture and another for the biggest, so get working...
Wrap up warm and send us your pictures...
Send them to snow@oakwoodlive.net and we'll publish the best ones on the blog.
Here are some pictures staff took of the school site this morning...
And thanks for the lovely email we have already received from a parent:
"As ever Oakwood, good call and thanks for letting us know nice and early.
I for one know you don't take these decisions lightly, but today I think you would have been fighting a losing battle with the snow!
Hope all the staff who came in get home safely as it's much worse now than it was when they came in. "
Both Oakwood Schools have to remain CLOSED today
We have done our very best to stay open today, staff have come in early and Martyn and Gary have been trying to clear paths, but with little success.
After closing on Monday because of the heating failure, the last thing we wanted to do today was close, but unfortunately we have no choice.
Most other local schools are closed and the conditions on the roads are very bad.
The forecast is for the weather to get worse rather than better.
We are very sorry for the further inconvenience.
We are pleased to announce that we expect the school to be open as normal on Tuesday 15 January.
We are very sorry that we had to stay closed on Monday, but as I said yesterday, the sudden cold snap over the weekend meant that the classrooms were bitterly cold. Even wrapped up warm, this was uncomfortable, and would have been for children.
Heating engineers were on the school site from 7.30am on Monday and stayed all day. (If you're interested in the technical detail of what went wrong, please see below...)
I can only apologise once again for the inconvenience this has caused, but even though the heating system has been out of action for a full four days, we have remained open for three of them. As many of you know from previous snowy weather, closing our school is the very last resort. We hope that the system will carry on working properly and we don't get any deep snow!
The heating was working fully from about 2pm on Monday and it was due to stay on all night, so we expect the school to be warm for Tuesday morning.
Thank you for your support.
What went wrong:
A separate fault, exacerbated by the major leak from last week, meant that a fail-safe pressure device in our boiler room was not allowing the heating to stay on before it automatically shut off. This device could not be over-ridden, and so was completely replaced on Monday.
The replacement for the pressure device which failed, now working properly.
We are sorry to report that Oakwood JUNIOR School will have to remain closed today, Monday 14 January.
After engineers spent most of Thursday and Friday digging up corridors and restoring heating to the site, the system failed completely again over the weekend, and has left classrooms as cold as 7°C. This is too cold for children to sit, even in coats.
We expect engineers to be on site again today and will keep you updated via the website, and via text message if necessary. We will also update the school answerphone.
Oakwood Infant School is open as normal.
Many apologies for the inconvenience this will undoubtedly cause.
We have engineers on site today looking into ducts which haven't been opened for over 10 years to track and track down our leak! Our lovely carpet in the shared areas is being torn up!
Nothing yet...
The school is fairly warm today and we'll keep you updated!
You can also read our letter from 9 January, about the problem and about wrapping up warm...!
We welcomed Chris Davis into school today to lead our Harvest Festival.
Chris is a well-known friend of the school and he and his team have already spent time with us this term leading the Year 6 RE Week.
We have collected packets and tins and dry goods which are put into storage for the winter by the SCRATCH charity.
Chris has led over 30 Harvest celebrations in schools this term, and so they are storing about 30 times the food you can see in our pictures. Chris told us that the sad news is that they will have to distribute all of that food this winter, leaving them with an empty warehouse in March.
Our Harvest Festival has never been more important.
We all sang and prayed together and our amazing Songsters sang a new song. Please enjoy!
The Oakwood Schools will be open as normal today, Friday 10 February 2012.
There has been some snow overnight, but the roads seem to to be generally clear, and we see no major problems with staff getting to work or pupils getting to school.
Roads and pavements may be icy, so please take care on your journey and allow extra time.
We may need to keep some pedestrian gates closed, but the gates from Sandpiper Road will be open. We welcome your understanding if you can't use your normal gate.
Thank you!
The Oakwood Schools will be open as normal today, Friday 10 February 2012.
There has been some snow overnight, but the roads seem to to be generally clear, and we see no major problems with staff getting to work or pupils getting to school.
Roads and pavements may be icy, so please take care on your journey and allow extra time.
We may need to keep some pedestrian gates closed, but the gates from Sandpiper Road will be open. We welcome your understanding if you can't use your normal gate.
If your child is at Minstead, we will update you during the day - they did have snow last night, but at the moment, we don't see any problems with the journey back.
Thank you!
Snow at Minstead
Today at Minstead we rotated to our final chicken, muck moving or pond dipping activity.
In the afternoon, we explored more of the New Forest and made our seven special words using only natural materials. There words are: biodiversity, transport, rich world, poor world, energy, water, recycling and food and farming.
In
the evening, we sat around a glowing bonfire, told jokes, sang songs and Chris
told us a fascinating and magical story. We might even share it in assembly when
we get back!
We can't believe we are going home tomorrow! This
week has gone by so quickly, probably because we have been so busy and have been
having such a brilliant time.
Please see today's photo gallery!
We're pleased to say that Southampton seems to have escaped the snow so far, so unless we turn into Narnia by morning, the Oakwood Schools will be open as normal and the visit to Minstead will leave on time.
If your child is going to Minstead, please remember gloves, scarves and extra socks for warmth. It's still going to be cold!
As you will know from the letter we sent home yesterday, and from the weather forecasts, it's just possible that Southampton and the surrounding area may get some snow over the weekend.
If there's snow, we will do our best to make sure the Oakwood schools open on Monday as normal, but we will let you know as early as possible if we can't open.
We'll update this blog and send texts either late Sunday evening, or very early on Monday morning.
For those children going to Minstead on Monday, we'll need to check that Minstead is open and safe, that the coach company can get us there safely and that we can follow all the safety regulations which the City Council and Hampshire County Council put in place.
We will make sure information about Minstead is also posted on this blog.
The current forecast for Southampton suggests that temperatures will stay just above freezing over Sunday night and that rain and fog are more likely than snow by Monday morning, but obviously things could change.
Thank you for your support. Keep your eyes on the blog and stay warm!
M&M Productions once again made our first day after the Christmas break a really good day - they entertained us royally with a brilliant show.
In fine panto tradition, Sleeping Beauty did fall asleep and there was no Handsome Prince to wake her from her slumber! What to do?!
Just in the nick of time, the King knighted our hero and, as a new Prince, he fell in love and woke the Princess with a kiss.
And they all lived happily ever after!
(Apart from the evil old crone who cast the spell in the first place, of course!)
Dear Parents
It was a very busy last week at Oakwood!
It was really wonderful to see so many of you at the two Christmas performances and I was very proud of our talented singers, dancers, actors and technicians!
I hope the performances got you in the Christmas mood!
We had a really lovely Christmas dinner – roast turkey, stuffing, chipolatas and all the trimmings. Thank you to our amazing kitchen and lunchtime staff for producing fantastic fare for us!
And on Friday morning, we had our Carol Service. This is always a very magical occasion and we were joined by the team from Lordshill Church, who led us in celebration.
As we come to the end of 2011, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas on behalf of everyone at the school. Enjoy spending time with family and friends and we’ll see you in 2012! School reopens for pupils on Tuesday 3 January 2012.
Best wishes
from all at Oakwood Junior School
A fantastic time was had by all at the OSA Christmas Fair!
As usual, there was lots to do, many things to buy, things to eat and drink and lots to win...
Santa and his helper Elf gave their usual sleigh rides around the playground, and even a slight drizzle didn't put them off. (Santa is used to inclement weather!) The reindeer were in training, so the sleigh was pulled for one evening only by a magnificent white horse.
Thanks to all the children helpers, visitors, stall holders, staff and the committee of the OSA - a grand total of £3334 was raised, which will be split between the two schools.
In the junior school, we use the money to pay for our M&M performances - the next of which is Cinderella on 4 January 2012!
Thank you all!
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