The Most Important Meal of the Day!

It's a busy week for Year 6!

There are End of Key Stage tests every day, starting with Science today.

It's really important to have the right start to the day when you have a hard-working, hard-thinking morning ahead of you, so everyone was very lucky that Vaudin's Breakfast Bar was open for business this morning (and will be all week...!)



On the menu: juice, cereals and toast, but more importantly, a chance to de-stress and chat with your friends.

Over 40 children took part this morning and we expect it to get busier during the week. (We already have six toasters on the go - not sure we can plug any more in!)

Thanks to everyone who helped and good luck with the tests, Year 6!

Big Yellow Truck...

The Totally Travel Committee organised a visit from the DHL Truck and Child Safety Team.

Ian and Andy came along bringing a 44-tonne DHL delivery truck - they brought it the night before, as you need to be a very skilful driver to thread it through the school gates! (We thought it would be best if there were no children and parents in the way!)

During the day, every child had the chance to see the truck close-up - it's really big! - and to learn about how to keep themselves safe around really large vehicles.



A whole class of 30 children can fit out of the driver's sight below the cab, and with the engine running all 30 children can shout loudly and not be heard. Everyone got the message about how dangerous it would be around the front of the truck!

We also saw what would happen if a balloon got caught under one of the massive wheels. If that had been a football or person, they would get very badly damaged and the truck would be perfectly fine. So we learned not to go anywhere near the wheels as well...

Some of the teachers managed to get a ride in the cab too!

Thanks to DHL and to members of our Totally Travel Committee who organised the day!

Upper school writing survey

Over the next few weeks, children in Years 5 and 6 will be completing a writing survey in school. It is being conducted by the Literacy Trust and aims to find out young people's views and opinions about writing.

The link to the survey is below.


http://nltwritingsurvey.questionpro.com/

Operation Super Library-An Update!

Pupil Power!!

Just like lots of the other great committees at Oakwood, the ECC team are helping to create a brighter, more exciting environment for children's learning.

Their ideas on how to improve the library are already having an impact-Mr Taylor has been shopping!!!! The library now has lots of brightly coloured rugs to sit on while children become engrossed in the exciting books around them.

Mr Taylor was also impressed with their other ideas. He is already looking into getting a computerised system which will enable children and parents to access library information at home.

Further news to follow!! Well done ECC!!

Talking to Tom!

Some of our pupils met Tom Daley, the Olympic Diver, earlier this year...

But, they actually didn't! It only looks like they did!

Southampton City Catering asked our children to come up with questions for Tom about his life, his sport and his training. They then came in and filmed the children asking the questions. Tom's busy schedule meant he answered the questions while away on training and then the two bits of film were cleverly joined together!

The questions about how Tom eats a healthy diet were particularly important considering how school lunches are a really good, healthy, balanced meal!

Watch the question below...



...and then head to the City Catering website to see the rest!

There are about 30 short videos altogether - half of them are Oakwood pupils. Everyone who asked a question got a signed photo of Tom - they were great ambassadors for the school!

Year 4 TASC Day

On Thursday, Year 4 had a very special day. We were in charge of our learning for the whole day! We chose our group, our activity and our end product. This was to encourage Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC).

We had a TASC wheel to help us structure our thinking, which includes sections such as "generate", "decide" and "communicate".

The topic title for the day was "Take a Seat", but no boring chairs for us! We had cinemas (including a luxury cinema that seated only one person in luxury surroundings!), play parks, rollercoasters, office chair advertisements, rockets... We really let our imaginations free with some fantastic results!



At the end of the day we presented our end products to the rest of the group and evaluated our learning.

Our teachers were very impressed with our attitude, co-operation skills, communication skills and our creative thinking!

Girls' Football Team Success!

Congratulations to the Girls’ Football team who continue to have a very successful season. They have won four out of their 5 league matches so far and yesterday secured a 1-1 draw v Tanners Brook Junior. It is very likely that they will finish top of their league. They have really progressed in their skills this year and we are all very proud of them.

Thank you to Gary Davison, for the time he gives to train the team and referee the matches and to the parents for their support. A really big 'Well done' to Emily, Caitlan, Amy, Megan, Katie, Jessica, Katie, Chloe and Olivia.

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!

Festival of sport for Year 6 pupils

26 lucky Year 6 children took part in the Oasis Academy Multisports Festival last Wednesday. Shirley Warren Primary and Fairisle Junior also brought groups of Year 5/6 pupils to take part in the event organised by Jon Cook of the Southampton Sports Partnership.

Activities included badminton, trampolining and a game of Kwik Cricket.

It was a great afternoon of sport!

Every child is to receive a medal in a school assembly in recognition of their participation.

We hope that there will also be an article about this event in the Summer edition of the Southampton Sports Partnership newsletter.

Make the jump!

On Tuesday, Lee and Scott, skipping coaches from Skip-Hop, came to Oakwood to get our pupils skipping for fun and fitness.

Every class took part in a skip-hop workshop where they learned a selection of moves, including individual moves, double-dutch, long rope, and partner skipping. To finish the day off, there was a whole school assembly with a floor show of the skills learned during the day, performed by children chosen from each workshop.

Every child received a sticker to show appreciation for their participation. Winners from class competitions received certificates.

We hope that the data collected from the competitions will be put forward for ‘virtual competitions’ to compare our results with other schools and youth groups.



We will also be encouraging children and adults to skip for fun and fitness, and to re-introduce traditional skipping games back into the school playground and lunchtime activities.

Many children have already bought skipping ropes and are using them in school.

If you would still like to buy a skipping rope, please bring your order and cheques, made payable to "skip-hop Ltd" by Friday 27 March. Speed skipping ropes are £3.50. Special adult ropes are available at a cost of £4.50 each.

If you would like more information about skip-hop, you can visit their website.

We are really glad to say that everyone had a fantastic time skipping!