Blog

Worship Assembly May 2023

At the end of last term, the children enjoyed sharing the work they had produced over the past few months with their parents at the school’s Worship Assembly.

The assembly takes place at the end of each term. It is an opportunity for the children to proudly show off all the great things they have been learning about. It’s a good opportunity for parents to get involved, have an informal chat to teachers and catch up with other parents too.

Class 1 showed everyone some beautiful drawings of their trip to the steam engine museum, (above) while class 2 showed off their large scale field study drawings of insects they had studied while on a field trip to the local nature reserve, Strawberry Banks, just a short stroll from the school.

At the end of each assembly, certificates of achievement are handed to many of the students.

Worship Assembly Easter 2023

We’re all hopping and skipping our way into the Easter holidays after a lovely morning spent with the children to celebrate their wonderful achievements this term.

At the end of every term, Oakridge school invites parents and carers to an ever so lovely service in the Church that leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy. The children stroll across the village green after morning registration, the little ones in particular are always ever so excited!

This morning, Class 1 wore their Easter bonnets, which they had made in school earlier this week. They absolutely loved showing them off to their Mums and Dads!

They had also been busy blowing eggs and decorating them to hang on their Easter tree, which was proudly displayed in Church.

The older children from Class 2 gave some lovely musical performances. Despite the nerves, they powered through the pieces they had been practising hard on all term. The Church was filled to the rafters with rapturous applause!

Next it was Class 1’s turn to come to the front and tell everyone what they had been learning about. This little girl was proud of the Easter bunny moving picture she had made.

The children then delighted in parading up and down the aisle, waving a beautifully colourful cross they had decorated. It was really joyful to watch.

At the end of each assembly, the children are handed Golden Acorn’s. These are certificates of achievement that recognise any super special efforts, and there are always a lot to give out!

Finally, the children were treated to a bit of a surprise by a very special visitor who had ‘hopped’ by!

Earlier in the morning some parents had hidden lots of colourful wooden egg ‘tokens’ around the Church. There was almost a crush down the aisle as the children bumbled over each other to try and be the first to find a token!! Luckily, there were plenty and they came running back to swap it for a real chocolate, plastic free egg. Happy Easter everyone!

Eco Warriors

Before Covid hit, Oakridge school had been gearing up efforts to become one of a small handful of Gloucestershire primary schools to be awarded with a prestigious Eco Schools Green Flag Award. Sadly, during the pandemic, focus shifted and the project was put on the back burner.

Two years on, and thanks to the determination of our wonderful staff and pupils, we’re going for it again! Applications are open and the school is putting together an action plan, led by a team of 9 eco warriors.

Our students care deeply about environmental issues and have a strong desire to actively protect our planet. However, environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity-loss or plastic pollution are huge global issues and the thought of tackling them can be intimidating, leaving many feeling overwhelmed and wondering ‘Where do I begin?’

The Eco-Schools programme provides a simple, seven-step framework that answers this question whilst empowering young people to make a difference in their school, local community and beyond.

Schools connect their activities to three or more of the Ten Eco-Schools Topics. These topics break large, global issues like climate change into more manageable and directed themes that prompt young people to consider environmental changes that they can make in their school and everyday lives.

STEM Week 2023

Last week, to celebrate STEM week, class 2 were treated to a crazy morning of amazing science activities. The workshop was led by the brilliant Diatom Dave, owner of Fun Science, providing science edu-tainment to children aged 3-11. Their aim is to foster within children a life long passion for learning and a desire to find things out for themselves through access to high tech equipment in a safe environment.

The theme for the workshop was ‘communications,’ and it began with a very informative slideshow that involved a few unusual items!

The children were then invited to get involved with a variety of different hands on activities, including making their own megaphones!

Pupils also had the opportunity to make string telephones, to help them understand how sound waves travel. They had a lot of fun!

There was also the opportunity to try their hand at flag semaphores, used to convey information by means of visual signals with hand-held flags, rods, disks, or paddles. Information is encoded by the position of the flags; it is read when the flag is in a fixed position.

World Book Day 2023

Last Thursday, class 1 welcomed a very special visitor to help them celebrate World Book Day! Their topic for this term is knights and castles. The little ones enjoyed spending the day dressing up as real life knights and learning all about the life of a knight.

Despite the school strikes, Oakridge School remained open, allowing the children to continue with their learning, uninterrupted, and what a wonderful World Book Day they had as a result! A big thank you to all the teachers for their amazing efforts.