Home - The Oaks Secondary School

9H – RE – Beliefs & Values

Karina Hyams May 25, 2023

This term in 9H, we have been exploring diversity of beliefs and values in religion. Today we went for a visit to St Paul’s Church to learn about important symbols within Christianity. After the holidays we will be visiting a Mosque, to see how their symbols differ.

Before setting off we made sure we all knew what was going to happen on our visit.

Then it was time to set off. Upon arrival at the Church we were greeted by Vicar Matt, who told us about the Church and their services.

We then looked around the Church to find important symbols in Christianity.

We popped into the cafe for a drink, ready for our walk back to school.

RRS – Eco-Schools Project

Karina Hyams May 25, 2023

In Rights Respecting Schools, we have been working on a project about climate change. Our class decided to create a sculpture to represent the many negative impacts we are beginning to experience that will only continue to worsen if something doesn’t change

Students researched the different negative impacts, and decided how best to model them into a sculpture.

We are very proud of our final piece.

STEM visit

h.davis May 23, 2023

This morning, pupils in KS4 and 6th form enjoyed an assembly with Dave, a local engineer who has worked all over the world. He explained about different aspects of his job, and why engineers are so important.

Some pupils in Mrs Davis’ and Miss Heads’ classes then enjoyed a workshop with Dave, where they had the opportunity to ask lots of questions and handle some different pieces of machinery, switches and tools. Everyone found it really interesting.

10s Forces- up thrust and buoyancy

Stephanie Dove May 23, 2023

Today we continued with our work on forces. This time exploring the effects of upthrust and buoyancy. The pupils looked at a range of boat designs and discussed the shape and size of these. The pupils were first tasked with creating a boat from play doh that was able to float without letting the water inside. We found that those with a large surface area on the base floated the best. The pupils were then tasked with adding marbles to their boats to see how many ‘passengers’ it could hold before sinking, and discovered those that could spread out the weight evenly floated better. Easten managed to add 7 passengers to his boat before it eventually sank. We will continue to explore this topic further using a range of materials next lesson.

7T Messy play afternoon

Ashley Tierney May 23, 2023

7T enjoyed some messy play this afternoon. We made chocolate mud and used plastic cars and animals to expand our play and creativity, it also helped to encourage our social skills, sharing and acceptance of playing along side each other as a class.

Messy play releases happy hormones in the brain and 7T were extremely happy playing along side each other this afternoon.

Careers Assembly and Workshops

Stephanie Dove May 23, 2023

Today we had Dave Corrigan join us, who currently works as an engineering manager at Huntsman, but has had an extensive career within this sector and jobs associated with chemical, nuclear and mechanical engineering. Dave talked the pupils through his education background, the skills and qualifications he needed and the jobs he has held, that took him all around the world ( As far as Australia!) The pupils were well behaved , listened intently and asked a range of questions that allowed them to gain an insight into what this kind of role would entail.

Dave followed this up with some workshop sessions where pupils could explore some of the equipment, join in with some hands on activities and ask further questions.

Fun was had by all and Dave thoroughly enjoyed his time with the pupils. We would like to thank Dave for giving his time up to share his experiences with us and hope to invite him back in the future!

9H – Preparation for Adulthood, First Aid

Karina Hyams May 22, 2023

9H continued our topic of first aid. We recapped cuts and bruises, then moved on to learn about how to treat burns. We watched a video from St John’s Ambulance, then role-played treating staff members.

Once again, 9H proved themselves to be fantastic first aiders, will calm treatment with smiles all round!

Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award Presentation – Buckingham Palace

clare.irvine May 20, 2023

I am delighted to share with you all this post celebrating our DofE Gold Award achiever Aaron!

He worked through his Gold Award over 2.5 years in 6th form, overcoming many personal challenges along the way. On completing his award Aaron was invited to Buckingham Palace to celebrate his achievement along with other Gold Award participants.

It was a fablous day for Aaron. This was his first trip to London and to be invited inside the Palace grounds, see Prince Edward, who gave a great speech congratulating all the attendees was an experience we are sure he will never forget. He took a walk around the beautifully kept palace gardens, enjoyed a cup of tea and a special cupcake and a game of nought and crosses. There were inspirational publc figures talking at various points throughout the event and the Royal Marine Regimental band entertained us, playing tunes from musical theatre shows (one of Aarons passions!)

The Duke of Edinburghs Award scheme is totally inclusive and the latest mission ” Youth Without Limits” is now well underway and proving that the scheme is open to all who wish to take part. It is a challenging scheme, however extremely rewarding and a great accolade to have on a CV!

We are incredibly proud of our first Gold Award holders at The Oaks and look forward to celebrating more in the future!

We hope you enjoy looking through these pictures of such a special day.

Mrs Irvine

9H – Preparation for Adulthood, First Aid

Karina Hyams May 18, 2023

This term in Preparation for Adulthood, we have been learning about first aid. This week we focused on identifying and treating bruises and cuts. Students all had a go locating injuries on screen, and then moved to treat the staff’s injuries.

Bedside manner was a definite 10/10, and all injured staff were well treated and smiling by the end!

10s Science

Stephanie Dove May 17, 2023

We continued our work on forces and air resistance today, and followed up our experiment of creating the most air resistance for a parachute to creating the least. We looked at how engineers design planes that are streamlined and aerodynamic to reduce the air resistance acting upon them. Mrs Dove set the class a task to see who could make to most aerodynamic paper plane. Pupils were provided with some visual stepped instructions to follow if required, but the task was open ended to allow pupils to create their own unique designs also. We of course followed this up with a challenge to see who could fly their plane the furthest. Easten was our overall champion with an outstanding streamlined and efficient design!