01388 827380

theoaks@durhamlearning.net

Welcome to

The Oaks Secondary School

Latest News From the School Blog

7T trip to the Police Station

As part of our Safety 999 topic in PFA, 7T took a trip to Spennymoor Police Station.

We explored custody cells, equipment and even got to start the sirens on the police van.

Everyone had a great time.

10s – Air resistance

Following on from our exploration of air resistance, 10s spent today looking at how air resistance can be useful to slow objects down. We looked at this through the use of parachutes. Pupils were tasked with creating a range of parachutes. These could be varying shapes, sizes and created from a range of materials. We then tested them out to see which group had created the one that fell the slowest ( ie the one with the most air resistance acting upon it.) Mr Pilmoor kindly helped us out with this by bringing out the cherry picker, so that we could drop them from the highest point possible in school.

As you can see some groups created some fantastic designs and could talk confidently around the Science that explained how some worked better than others. a great job done 10s!

8W – visit to Spennymoor police station

Throughout the last term, 8W have been learning about the people that help us in the community. To see this in a real life context, 8W had visited the Spennymoor police station to see our local police force.
8W learned about the roles that the police force have and how they can help us. We got to look around the cells and police cars, they even let us turn on the sirens!
8W had a great time and we look forward to another visit from our local PCSO.

9H – Bikeability

On Friday, 9H took part in bikeability. We all had a fantastic time!

7T Bikeability

7T had a great afternoon today showing off their skills and taking part in Bikeability.

9H – Science

This half-term, 9H are working through the science topic of Rocks and Fuels. This week we examined different rocks and labelled their properties. We discussed colours as well as rough and smooth, bigger and smaller.

We introduced the rock cycle, and are ready to explore how the three different kinds of rock (sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic) are created next week.

Year 10 independent living group

As part or our NOCN Independent living accreditation, some of our year 10 pupils have been completing a topic around the importance or having hobbies and enjoying leisure time within our lives, to support positive mental health and well-being. As part of this Mrs Dove has asked a number of guests into school to talk about their hobbies and the services they offer to our young people in the area. First up we had Catherine Batty join us today, who is a Scout leader, and has been attending the scouts groups for the last 15 years having won many awards, and visited many countries  (taking part in Scouts events with thousands of others from all over the world!) along the way.

Catherine started by giving us a short talk about how she got into scouting and the sorts of activities they would complete.

The pupils then got to see the sort of items she would take on her travels and expeditions and got to try some of these out.

Catherine showed the pupils her uniform and discussed the badges she had displayed.

The pupils then got to see how to set up a one man tent and had a competition to see which team could put it up the most efficiently.

Finally the pupils had the opportunity to learn some camp songs around the ‘fire’.

Our young people thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and would like to thank Catherine for joining us today!

 

11W Coronation Big Lunch

We had a fabulous time in 11W today for our Coronation “big lunch”. We have been busy this week baking biscuits, quiche and making a rainbow salad.

We also decorated our classroom in red, white and blue.

We had fun doing coronation crafts with our special visitors.

Low Mill Residential

The Sixth Form and 11D enjoyed their residential outdoor adventurous trip to Low Mill at Askrigg. The students took part in canoeing, caving, archery and climbing. They also visited Aysgarth Falls. All of the students developed a range of skills including resilience, team work, confidence, independence and respect for each other.

10s Forces and Air Resistance

10s have been continuing their work on forces. Today we focussed on air resistance and how it pushes against moving objects to slow them down. We looked at how this can have both positive and useful effects (such as for those who may use a parachute) but can also be a hinderance for others ( for example on planes  or cyclists that may not be as streamlined as required) inevitably slowing them down. We took the parachute out into the school grounds to demonstrate how air resistance works. We used the different sizes to show that the larger parachute created more air resistance than the smaller parachute.
We used our learning to play some group games.

Latest School Letters

Ofsted
Makaton
Rights Respecting Schools
Local Offer
New Starters
Home Learning
Magic Breakfast
SOS
Covid-19 Information
LPPA Certificate
Translations