Year 5 Oasis Trip

On Tuesday 16th March 30 Year 5 children visited the Oasis Academy in Lordshill. We were invited by Year 10 students who put on a range of fun activities for us to do. Check out the photos.

by Amie and Conor, video by Amie

Year 6 and the Law of Averages...

Year 6 able mathematicians have been using their knowledge of averages (mean, mode and median) to solve some quite tricky problems...

In this group of seven numbers, two are mystery numbers which you have to work out!



Using the facts that the mode for the set of numbers is 5 and the mean is 10, can you work out what the two missing numbers are?

Year 6 can!

Oakwood's Mathematicians and the Collatz Conjecture...

Some able mathematicians in Years 5 and 6 have been working on a very old number problem. They didn't get any instructions, just this cartoon by Randall Munroe:



The Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős said "Mathematics is not yet ready for such confusing, troubling, and hard problems," but Oakwood's mathematicians were!

They had to work out what was happening before they could work out what to do! Can you work it out? (See the answer below if you can't!*)

The problem is called the Collatz Conjecture and was orginally suggested by Lothar Collatz, a German mathematician, in 1937.

Nathaniel, Aaron and Isaac in Year 5 worked out the rules for each step and then tried the rules starting with the number 27. They found all 111 steps by working it out accurately on big sheets of paper (click on the picture to see a big version!)...



They then put all their data into Excel and graphed their results. Starting with 27, they found that the rules took them as high as 9232 before coming back down to 1...



(*Starting with any number, if it's even, halve it, if it's odd, multiply it by three and add one. Carry on following the same rules on each answer you get. If you get to 1, stop...)

A Better, Brighter, Greener School!

If you have wondered what the Portakabins outside both schools are at the moment, they are home to Dave and Matt who are busy replacing all of our lights. (I don't think they sleep in there, though!)

The old lights were very old, getting dirty, buzzed a lot and they have stopped making bulbs for them, so we had to do something quickly!

In some rooms, the old ceilings have had to come down too so that the new lights can fit in new, square tiled ceilings.



The new lights will also help us get even greener!

We are already one of the most energy efficient schools in the city with a DEC Rating of "C" (54).



This is an improvement on our first rating of "C" (63) last year - we might even be a "B" next year!

Racing Rockets in Year 5!!!

Yesterday Year 5 were set another problem solving challenge. We were given the task of designing our own rockets. Our success criteria were:-

• The Rocket must be able to stand up.
• Rocket must include boosters and other attachments.
• The Rocket must be decorated -looking awesome!!!
• Work co-operatively as a group - everybody must contribute.
• Work co-operatively as a class-sharing resources and helping each other.

Here are the results-we hope you agree we did a great job!

Funky Fractions!

Year 5 have been learning about about fractions. We were set some challenging problem solving activities. Here is one for you to solve.

Can you find two ways of cutting a doughnut into 1/8s with only 3 cuts of a knife?

Here are year 5 trying to solve the problem.



If you solve the problem, come to 5LD to claim your sweet or sticker. If you're stuck come to us for the solution. Who will be the first to solve the problem???

By Conor and Amie.

OJS School Council get campaigning!

Last Thursday OJS School Council made themselves heard!

During our last school council meeting, we learnt how pupil voice needs to be heard, not just in schools, but also in our city.

Southampton Youth Parliament have four new candidates who want to represent the views and opinions of children living in OUR area.

We split into four groups and researched each of the four candidates; Nathan King wants to lower the voting age to 16, Miriam Hall hopes to organise more gigs and shows for young people, Grace McPherson plans to give children rewards for excellent achievement, whilst Danielle Townsend has strong views on child abuse.

We presented each of our four campaigns to year 6, who used this information to vote for their candidate interactively using the 'MiVote' system.

Who do you think should be the next candidate to join Southampton Youth Parliament?

Year 6 and the school coucil have had their say....now have yours!

Shadowy Science

Year 3 have been learning about light and shadow as part of their science topic.

We took advantage of the sunny weather on Monday and investigated how shadows are formed and what happens to them over the course of the day.

We learned:

• light travels in a straight line
• shadows change direction over the course of the day - this is because the sun appears to move position in the sky
• the sun appears to move position (but really stays still) because the Earth spins
• shadows are formed when opaque objects block the light

Oakthorne Day 2

While our friends were enjoying their second day at Fairthorne Manor, Oakthorne group had some adventures of their own!

We travelled across Southampton to Woodmill Activity Centre. We had a fantastic time learning archery, rock climbing and tackling the low ropes course.

We learned lots about teamwork, safety and above all, conquering some of our fears!

Marvellous Marking Stickers!!

Today the 'L' Factor committee returned to the topic of marking.

Firstly we discussed what had happened since our very first committee when we talked about how well we thought the marking helped us with our learning. The good news was that the majority of committee members felt that lots of things had improved in that time. In particular the majority of children felt that they were given more time to reflect on, and respond to, marking comments.

To help all children become even more reflective when considering the recorded outcomes of their work, the committee spent the afternoon designing both self and peer assessment stickers that all children at Oakwood can use. As you can see from the following photos they did a great job!!



The stickers have been scanned into the computer and committee members will be delivering a master set to every class later in the week. We look forward to seeing how different classes make use of them.

Well done to every member for another great committee afternoon.