HEADTEACHER’S NEWSLETTER
March 2016
Dear Parents
As we finally see true glimpses of spring, with longer days and clearer skies, there is a real
sense of increasing energy and optimism in school. Indeed this week’s Ruby Red Spring
Concert, commemorating 40 years of the Pre Prep at Oakwood, was a truly uplifting
celebration of our Oakwood community at its best; we were delightfully transported back to
the 1970s with a fun and enjoyable performance from our younger members of school
finishing with a wonderful array of ‘Ruby Red Easter Bonnets’ too! Congratulations to
everyone and a particular well done to the Easter Bonnet award winners:
Nursery:
Kindergarten:
Reception:
Year 1:
Year 2:
Lara Dartmouth
Ferris Connor and Sebastian King
George Knight and Valentina Rollason
Simran Bansil and Amber Large
Archie Southers and Lilly Adams
Curriculum
Across the whole school I have been impressed by the academic focus this term. I
was fortunate to share in many wonderful pieces of work through our Credit Awards
and the stand out feature of such work for me is the determination of our pupils and
the pride they universally have in their achievements. Year 6 has led the focused
attitude in school, excelling in their attitude to work, as well as achieving excellent
results. I am thrilled to announce all of our Year 6 pupils have gained entry into a
senior school of their choice and we are delighted to have been awarded 8 academic
scholarships.
Congratulations to the following award winners:
Thomas Bisatt
Portsmouth Grammar School
Broghan Collier
Portsmouth High School
Miles Davidson
Seaford College
Harry Foster
St John’s College
Lily Morrison
Churcher’s College
Francis Palmer
St John’s College
Emily Taylor
Portsmouth High School
Comfort Yeates
Lavant House
With these Year 6 successes in mind we begin to focus on the preparation of our future senior pupils;
striving for excellence is key and this is only achievable with a clear aim for pupils, parents and staff. To this
end I would like to highlight a Senior School Information Evening we are hosting next term for Year 4 and
Year 5 pupils and parents on Tuesday 19th April. This is the perfect opportunity to meet ‘Old Oakwoodians’
as well as teachers from many of our feeder schools to find out more about life at senior school and the
transition from Oakwood.
We have continued to celebrate Star Badges in the Pre Prep and the weekly Merit Awards across the Prep
School, highlighting children who have achieved their individual house point targets each week. I am
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always impressed to see the consistency of approach by our senior pupils and would like to congratulate all
our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils who have been awarded their Bronze, Silver and Gold Merit Badges this term;
they have worked consistently hard to meet their weekly targets and should be very proud of their
achievements.
I am also thrilled to announce this term’s Effort & Achievement prizes across the whole school:
Class
RT
RM
1S
1E
2Z
2R
3SB
3P
4M
4B
5Q
5H
6W
6P
Achievement
Katie Mason
Isla Solly
Broghan Collier
Emily Taylor
Achievement
Perry Webb
George Knight
Angus Strike
Maia Middleton
Archie Southers
Isobel Firth
Maria Gotheridge
Luke Hawkins
Piya Jones
Alice Waterworth
James Potts
Bethan Potts
Francis Palmer
Charlie Steele
Effort
Fen Todd
May Nguyen
Esta Carr
Theo Springett
Oliver Davies
Lilly Adams
Rosie Ellis
Olivia Dickens
Jamie Holligon
Chloe Mackley
Archie Elliot
Maddie Styles
Bella Hamilton
Oliver Curley
The Prep School families will by now have received their End of Term Reports. These reports have a slightly
different format and presentation to previous reports as we are now using the school’s new Management
Information System for report writing. To this end the content is no different but the administration
system behind the scenes is far more efficient. Next academic year our hope is for these reports to become
digital in format, akin to the Early Years’ Digital Learning Journals, sent home electronically through a
Parent Portal. There are exciting times ahead for the academic development of the school and I encourage
you all to take a moment to look at the ‘Year 6 Academic & Enrichment Programme’ and the ‘Top Tips for
English and Maths’ published on our website.
The Easter term is no quieter than any other term out on the sports field and despite some wintry weather
before half term we have been fortunate to be able to continue with the majority of planned fixtures. I
would like to highlight some notable performances in our sport this term. The U11A Netball team has
represented Oakwood admirably, winning the Prebendal U11 Tournament, coming a close second in our
own tournament and also playing at the IAPS Regional Tournament at Roedean where they narrowly
missed entry into the afternoon qualifying rounds. The U10A Rugby team were the triumphant winners of
the Conifers Tag Rugby Festival and the U11 7s Rugby team finished as Plate Runners Up at the Oakwood
tournament. Well done to all our U8 and U9 girls and boys for their enthusiasm and team spirit in our
Oakwood U8 Netball and Rugby Festivals this term; they were a credit to us all and I was immensely proud
of them.
As we reach the end of the rugby and netball seasons I am delighted to announce the awarding of Rugby
and Netball Colours to the following Year 5 and Year 6 pupils. These are awarded in recognition of their
achievement and sporting ability in either rugby or netball:
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Blue Rugby Colours
Year 5
Year 6
Alec Bradpiece
Thomas Helyer
Toby Jackson
Ben Cotton
Oliver Lancaster
Harry Foster
Cameron Sutherland
Francis Palmer
Archie Elliot
Ethan Gillett
Jack English
Ruby Phillips
Henry Harris
Jack Mitchell
Ben Nader
Blue Netball Colours
Year 5
Year 6
Evie Kell
Broghan Collier
Milly Orr
Rosie Crane
Rose Parry
Lottie Creak
Amber Street
Sophie de la Grange
Freya Stevens
Minie Gardner
Maddie Styles
Bella Hamilton
Ruby Phillips
Veronica Smirnova
Comfort Yeates
Red Rugby Colours
Year 5
Year 6
James Potts
Ollie Evans
Ben Blair
Oliver Curley
Hugo Francis-Braconi Joshua Jennings
Ben Bradpiece
Fenton McNally
Bevan Morrison
Zac Peterson
Hugh Willing
Charlie Steele
Henry Ball
Leke Davies
Red Netball Colours
Year 5
Year 6
Ruby Chandler
Milly Betsworth
Saskia Fawcett
Bella Crandon
Katie Mason
Imogen Curtis
Bethan Potts
Florence Giddings
Iris Randell
Lucie Steele
Isabella Rose
Matilda Giddings
Isla Solly
Chrissie Holligon
Gold Rugby Colours
Year 6
Thomas Bisatt
Hector Crandon
Jack Waterworth
Miles Davidson
Sam Bradbury
Gold Netball Colours
Year 6
Poppy Chandler
Izzy Harris
Lily Morrison
Emily Taylor
Extra Curricular
Whilst life at Oakwood is busy it does not stop simply within our school grounds!
Throughout the term we have seen many Oakwood children taking part in the
Chichester Festival of Music, Speech and Drama with many individual successes as
well as the Oakwood Choirs sweeping the board. Again I was incredibly proud
listening to our Oakwood School Choir and Oakwood Acorns Choir as they
performed beautifully in the festival, taking home the Junior Choir Cup and the
Under 9 Choir Cup. By the end of the day they had also received the title of ‘Choir
of the Day’ – a great achievement. As a celebration of our festival participants we
have a Chichester Festival Assembly planned for Friday 29th April next term; we
hope you are able to join us.
Year 6 recently spent an extremely enjoyable week at Château de la Baudonnière in
Normandy, immersing themselves in the French way of life and language, returning to school
full of their experiences and speaking in French more confidently, as shown in their ‘French
Assembly’ on the last day of term. I would like to publically thank the staff team – Susannah
Stockton, Zoe Williams, Felix Page, Lindsay Campbell and Yvonne Lee for all their hard work in making this
trip a great success. No sooner have their feet touched the ground, many of our Year 6 join other pupils
from Year 4 and Year 5 to head to Pila in Italy on the Oakwood ski trip! We wish all the children and staff a
safe and enjoyable trip in the sunny mountains of Italy, with hopefully good snow conditions! The summer
term will also bring further opportunities for our Prep School pupils to extend their learning beyond the
classroom with residential trips for Years 3-5 and sailing opportunities with Bosham Sailing Club for our
senior pupils; for some this will be their first ‘taste’ of sailing and for others this will be the opportunity to
take part in RYA courses.
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Community
Supporting both the school and local community is important to us all and we have been truly appreciative
of the support Oakwood families have given to our Awesome Oaks in their fundraising for St Wilfrid’s
Hospice. The charity car wash and cake sale were all successful and our marathon runners have now
reached a grand total of £3,650. I am sure you will all join me in wishing Yvonne,
Sarah and Catherine the best of luck with their training over the holidays and of
course with the marathon itself on 24th April. If you see the Awesome Oaks out
pounding the streets please give them an encouraging ‘toot’ of the car horn as you
pass by and of course any further donations would be gratefully received as they still
have a little way to go to reach their fundraising aim of £6,000. Please follow the link
to donate: https://give.everydayhero.com/uk/awesome-oaks
On the theme of charity support I would like to congratulate Minie Gardner on her amazingly energetic feat
of covering the equivalent distance of John O’Groats to Lands End on skis all in the aid of Big World Impact
and has raised an impressive £630 to date – well done Minie.
In the last week of term the competitive rivalry of the Oakwood houses came to the fore once more with
House Netball and Rugby matches, the House Music Competition, the House Cross Country and the muchcoveted House Winners Tea. Indeed, to say these events are competitive would be an understatement;
there is no doubt that once the children are all wearing house t-shirts something changes! The afternoon
of the music competition saw the whole school come together and we were treated to some excellent solo
performances and house songs from both the Pre Prep and Prep School. We were delighted to be joined
by Mrs Debbie Mabbitt and Mrs Jeanette Fido as our accomplished adjudicators with Jeanette kindly
donating a new cup for this event, the aptly titled Fido House Music Cup. The results of these house
competitions and the overall terms winners were:
Junior House Netball:
Senior House Netball:
Junior House Rugby:
Senior House Rugby:
House Cross Country:
Avenue
Summersdale
Avenue
Summersdale
Summersdale
Easter Term House Results
Summersdale
98.49
Avenue
91.20
Wilsey Down
83.21
School
79.52
The affiliation to a house or indeed Oakwood as a whole school is important as it helps create a sense of
shared purpose and identity. It was perhaps no surprise therefore that the quality of entries we had for the
House Crest Competition held this term was excellent. The entries were considered and judged by our
School Council and I am delighted to publish here the 4 winning house crests designed by Amber Large (1S),
Rufus Knight (4B), Archie Elliot (5Q) and Sophie de la Grange (6P). These crests will now be ‘professionally’
created to now become a part of our house system for years to come. Well done to our designers!
Avenue
School
Summersdale
4
Wilsey Down
We are also pleased to have new Oakwood swimming hats available to purchase, either via the school
uniform shop or the school office, from the start of next term at a cost of £3. We plan for these to be used
for all swimming lessons and of course by our swimming teams at future swimming competitions.
In any community, food is a hot topic and I firmly believe children learn best when they are well fed and
nourished through the day. We are fortunate therefore to have a fantastic catering team, led by Christine
Tomlin, who is willing to constantly look for ways to ensure we have balanced nutritious meals and healthy
snacks from which to choose. We have been looking recently at providing a menu that offers a greater
variety in the main meals, a better balance of homemade snacks made with natural sugars and widening
the choice of fruit and vegetables on offer. Watermelon, grapes and Christine’s homemade banana
flapjacks are a real hit! Match days are also key in our children’s lives and through the colder months the
children have enjoyed hot match teas whilst parents and visitors have been enjoying Oakwood’s delicious
array of cakes and sandwiches at the parent match teas. A huge thank you from us all to Christine and her
team.
Despite focusing on healthier options in school our charity bake sales at Oakwood are always popular
therefore we thought it was time to find out who the Oakwood Star Baker is! Please look out for
information about the ‘Oakwood Bake Off ‘ for children in Years 3-6 to enter over holidays (entries to be
handed in on the first day of term). We also have a Charity Fruity Friday to ‘kick start’ Sports Day in the
summer term as an alternative to the traditional charity bake sale. Smoothies, fruit pots, blueberry
muffins, breakfast bars or anything involving fruit to give an energy boost on Sports Day will be the order of
the day! We will send out more information nearer to the time and all proceeds will appropriately support
our marathon running Awesome Oaks team.
Staff News
Spring often feels like a time of celebration and it is fitting therefore that I send our congratulations to
Debbie Noakes, bus chaperone and catering assistant, and her fiancé Mark on their forthcoming wedding in
April. We of course also send our best wishes to Vikki Penny as she begins her maternity leave and hope
she is able to enjoy a few weeks of much deserved rest before the new arrival to the family! I would also
like to thank Sarah Cavanagh for all her work over the years at Oakwood, offering Speech and Drama
classes and preparing children for LAMDA examinations. Such activities are popular and valuable additions
to the curriculum.
We are now delighted to be welcoming Mrs Amanda Bailey to the Oakwood team for the summer term as
class teacher to 3P and as a teacher of humanities in the Prep School. Amanda has recently relocated back
to her home village of Bosham and is an experienced teacher. I am also pleased to announce the
appointment of Mr Neville Lacey to the Board of Governors and thank Mini Elliot for embracing the
opportunity to raise the profile of Speech and Drama at Oakwood and encourage children to participate in
LAMDA examinations and the Chichester Festival of Music, Speech and Drama in the future. Please do
contact Mrs Elliot if you are interested in your child/children having a free Speech and Drama ‘taster
session’ in the summer term: [email protected]
FOO & Future Events
There is no doubt the theatre trips for both Pre-Prep and Prep School were wonderful experiences for our
children earlier this term and I would like to express our thanks to FOO for helping to fund these successful
events. It was no mean feat getting over 200 children to the theatre but certainly well worthwhile and a
memorable occasion for all. FOO funding remains ready to support the dining room extension and we are
currently waiting for planning permission with work planned to start as soon after Easter as possible. We
are then hoping to be using our new facility by October half term.
As we look to the future Oakwood continues at a pace! The summer calendar outlines plenty of events for
families and we hope to see many of you at these; I have no doubt the sunshine and longer days will entice
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us all to join in the fun! A few highlights are the Open Day and Summer Fete on Saturday 21st May, Sports
Day on Friday 24th June, Oakwood Speech Day on Thursday 14th July with guest speaker James Shone and
the FOO ‘Rio’ Summer Ball on Friday 15th July. Please save the dates now!
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the Vision Update send out via
Parentmail and soon to be available on the school website. I am sure you will agree
it has been a busy two terms since my first day at the beginning of this academic
year; I have relished the opportunity to see our vision coming to fruition with the
support and hard work of all the Oakwood staff and the Senior Leadership Team. I
finish simply by wishing you all a restful and relaxing Easter break and I look forward
to seeing the children ready for more action at the start of the summer term. Happy Easter to you all.
Kind regards
Clare Bradbury
Headteacher
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