From the SLT’s Desk…

The Oaks Academy News Friday 14th February 2020

#everydayisanopenday Tel: 01270 661223 I www.theoaksacademy.co.uk

The Oaks Academy, Buchan Grove, Crewe, Cheshire, CW2 7NQ

14th February Break for Half Term 6th—13th March National Science Week

20th February Enterprise & Marketing Coursework Workshop 26rd March HPV Vaccinations (Years 8 and 9 only)

24th February Start back after Half Term

Y11 Enterprise + Marketing Half Term Coursework Workshop

Thursday 20th February 2020, 10am-2pm in Room 8. Miss Marshall

There have been many exciting events that have taken place this half term and although only 6 weeks in length it has been

packed with students displaying 'Pride and Respect' on a daily basis.

Approximately 30,000 achievement points have been issued to students so far this year and thirteen students have over 1000

achievement points each, which is a remarkable effort.

The Academy launched a new BFL system in January and this is supporting better learning in the classroom. Students have

earned just shy of two thousand '1's' (outstanding grades) in lessons which is a terrific achievement. This demonstrates the

high standards of our students who are committed and engaged in their studies.

A mixture of year groups have attended the boxing each Tuesday at a local gym and students have thoroughly enjoyed the

workout along with the discipline of such a sport. Thank you to Mrs Hall for organising this each week.

The Academy has welcomed a Ugandan choir, 'Livvy K' (an up and coming pop star) and a special presentation about

International Women's Day to assemblies plus our very own Mr Austin delivered an insightful and poignant Holocaust

memorial assembly. The students behaviour has been impeccable when inviting external speakers into the Academy.

To celebrate the achievements of our students, twenty individuals have been invited for a lunch with myself and the

Headteacher to recognise their efforts and a significant number of students have been selected for a reward afternoon during

period four and five of the final day of the half term. Well done to all of those invited.

Mr Frost

Deputy Headteacher

Upcoming Events...

HPV Vaccinations

HPV Vaccinations will be held in school on Thursday

26th March. This is a national screening programme

offered to all 13 and 14 year olds

(Years 8 and 9).

If you would like to know more

please visit the NHS website /vaccinations or click the

logo.

English

Across Year 7 and 8, students have been launching into narrative

writing in preparation for the 500 word story competition. They have

been working extremely hard and committing their own time for the

competition. Students will be shortlisted by the BBC in April so watch

this space… Mrs Brindley

Science

Totally Awesome

Totally Awesome Science

On Monday 3rd February, 30 year 10 students attended

a ‘Totally Awesome Science’ event at Keele University.

The event was organised by Higher Horizons and aimed

to encourage our students to consider a career in

science and study at University, giving pupils a chance

to see life on a campus.

The day started with a session on circuits

and waves where pupils had a great time

making game controllers out of just tin foil

and play dough. This was followed by an

introduction to the elements that make up

our body before moving on to a visit with

some animals in an exotic zoo. Rango the

chameleon was a big hit and some pupils

even overcame their fear of spiders to hold

a tarantula in their hands. We finished the

day in a star dome watching and listening to

a 360° show about how our planet was

formed.

Overall, a fun day was had by all and pupils

came away with some exciting ideas of where

science can take them. There are no limits!

Mrs Tzabach

Specialised Cells

Year 7 produced excellent models and research on specialised cells for homework. They worked with the support of Miss

Hodgkinson to research and write about the structure and functions of the cells.

8abSc1 demonstrated resilience and accuracy when carrying out their investigation into using different indigestion remedies

to neutralise 'stomach' acid. The students developed and demonstrated the ability to use a burette accurately during the

investigation.

Miss Howlett

Future Chef Local Final

Future Chef Regional Final

Future Chef Local Final

Huge Congratulations to Kyra Colebourne and Demi-Lou Corfield

for their participation in this years Local Final of Future Chef

Competition.

The event was held on 7th January at Cheshire College South and

West. The competitors had to design, make and present a two

course meal within a specified budget. Both pupils produced high

quality work which was judged by

industry experts.

The winner of this heat was Demi-Lou Corfield with her menu

of ‘Cottage Pie and Apple Strudel’.

We hope that both students thoroughly enjoyed the experience

of cooking at the college, the standard was high and they should

be so proud of all their achievements.

Future Chef Regional Final

Demi-Lou went on to represent the academy at the next stage

of the competition, the North West Regional Final which took

place on Friday 31st January at UCAN in Preston.

This heat saw Demi-Lou compete against 10 contestants, aged

between 13 to 16 years of age, from around the North West of

England of which she was the youngest competitor.

Congratulations Demi-Lou, who was awarded a ‘Highly

Commended’ Certificate for her developed design and

presentation of her menu.

The Future Chef Competition is a yearly event which begins in September. Please speak

with Mrs Williams if you are interested in taking part next year.

Totally Awesome Maths

Totally Awesome Maths

On Monday 20th January 2020 30 year 9 pupils attended a Higher Horizon event at Keele

University.

Higher horizons is a national collaborative outreach programme aimed at encouraging pupils ‘to

be whatever they want to be’. The day consisted of looking at maths in other contexts and careers.

Our pupils enjoyed programming ‘spheros’ using I-pads to navigate landing on the moon. The pupils had time to experiment

with speed angles and distance travelled using code, although some of them may have hit a few craters.

We were able to use the computer facilities to engage with a valuation game where pupils negotiated for the best possible

price for a range of farm machinery and farm products. The Oaks Academy were the most successful at this game beating all

other schools on the day, future rural surveyors in the making.

The final activity of the day saw us in the bunker where the pupils decoded a range of secret messages using keyword codes

and ciphers, showing great skills and resilience. Acacia Collett and Alarna Byrne were naturals decoding the final secret

message.

I look forward to the next enrichment opportunity for our pupils. Mrs Piggin

ABC Boxing

We have been fortunate again to be

invited to participate in boxing sessions at ABC Boxing at the Chuff Chuff studios

in Crewe. Students from years 7-10 have been taking part in sessions to improve

fitness and boxing skills. Sessions have been led by Andy and Hayley from

Sportscape who have been inspiring students through their enthusiasm and

demonstration of skills. Congratulations to Luke Roberts in Year 9 on winning

'The Plank Challenge'. He managed to hold the position for over 3 minutes,

beating both students and staff.

Mrs Hall

ABC Boxing

Sports for Champions

On Wednesday 22nd January, our PE department held a sponsored fund raising

event through Sports for Champions. This is a national scheme that sends GB

standard athletes to visit both primary and secondary schools, to deliver a

sponsored PE session. During the morning 9-12 am, Matt Lee attended The Oaks

Academy.

To give some background, Matt is 25 years old and competes for Great Britain as a

Decathlete. In recent years a number of injuries have unfortunately have held him

back, he is currently preparing for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in

2022. Hopefully Matt will be in

peak condition for the Olympics in Paris in 2024 when he will be 29.

During the morning Matt worked with Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils delivering a

fitness based activity that was part of his usual training. Matt gave an

inspirational talk and general Q+A session to the pupils, during this he was

able to explain the path that he has taken in life, where it has lead him and

the important role that school had in

his development. All pupils that took

part enjoyed the session and worked

extremely hard.

As a school we raised a huge £140

from fund raising, thank you. Rhys Griffiths managed to raise a staggering £46 alone

which earned him a signed picture with Matt. Well done to all pupils who took part in

the event, hopefully we will have another opportunity for a visit in the future.

Mr Moss

Sports for Champions

Awards and Achievements

So many awards and achievements have been presented to students in the past few weeks, too many to list!

Well done to you all, look out for your name on the TV screens in school and on the website news feed.

www.theoaksacademy.co.uk/heads-welcome/news/

Holidays Time

We break up for half term on Friday 14th February and look forward to welcoming students back on Monday 24th February 2020.

To see all of the holiday dates this year please visit

www.theoaksacademy.co.uk/school-office-2/holiday-dates/

On the Website

What’s for lunch?

If you would like to see the food choices served in the canteen each week please visit

student-zone-new/whats-for-lunch/

Year 11 Revision

We would encourage all Year 11's to continue to attend from 2.45pm until 3.45pm every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Don’t forget each session attended earns you an entry to the half term raffle and points towards a free prom ticket. #youvegottobeinittowinit

On the 27th January 2020 the annual

‘AlanTuring Coding Competition’ started;

every Monday at 4pm a code is released and

teams of 4 attempt to solve it.

Our group of year 8’s were slightly

disadvantaged as they are against teams up to

year 11 and one member of the team has already decided he could not commit the time to this competition.

The three eager year 8’s turned up on Monday 27th January at 3pm for some pre competition practice, they looked at

cypher’s, key word cyphers, binary codes and Morse codes to name a few different styles of codes.

The code was released at 4pm and at 5.15pm after several different tries of making sense of the cryptic message it was time

for home, with the students wondering if they would ever solve this code.

The following week all 3 students returned with new ideas on how to solve the original code and

they were able to continue to work on the code and hoped for a breakthrough. Alas this first code

seemed impossible. At 4pm the new code was released and they felt this was easier to solve. The

three students worked together and after just 44 minutes it was solved. They achieved 15 points to

put up on the board. That was not a signal to pack up and go home, instead they continued to work

on the first code until once again at 5.15 pm after working solidly for 135 minutes I told them it was

time to go home.

I am super proud of how these year 8’s have worked so far not only have they seen success but they have shown resilience

to continue when they seem to be getting nowhere - what a great attitude! An attitude we should all aspire to have.

Mrs Piggin

Clubs

If you are interested in joining a club please see

the posters around school, speak to your form

teacher or visit the Student Zone on the website

for more information.

www.theoaksacademy.co.uk/student-zone-new/

Extra-curricular

Year 8 Coding Competition

The last official exam date is Wednesday 24th June 2020

Year 11 Exam Alert!

Sargent Bernard Morgan turns 96!

To celebrate our friend Sergeant Bernard Morgan's 96th birthday, Jess Shea in year 7 made him a birthday card with a beach scene. Staff and students wrote birthday wishes and messages of thanks on the back. Bernard was the youngest sergeant at Normandy and he landed at Gold Beach. Jess did a modern twist with her design. Bernard showed us some of his mementos from the war. He is a big football fan and showed us the actual pair of boots he played in. They had metal toe caps and as Jess said, " That would hurt if you were kicked by them!" Thanks again Bernard for all you have done for us.

Mrs Hall Sargent Bernard Morgan is a regular visitor to schools in our area, if you would like to read more about him and his fantastic historical stories please have a look at this article published recently in The Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7946799/D-Day-veteran-learned-end-WWII-Europe-48-hours-early.html

Happy Birthday Sargent Bernard Morgan

Science Week Competition

Science Week Competition

In the new half term we will be taking part in science week from 6th—13th

March. As part of this celebration of science Mrs Tzabach is running a

competition to produce a fact file about endangered species. Please visit the

student zone of the website to read more about this competition.

http://www.theoaksacademy.co.uk/student-zone-new/ Mrs Tzabach

Celebrations

English Work of the Week

In Miss Bailey's English class we have created a

wall of fame to showcase our best work.

Congratulations Lewis Sumnall, excellent work!

The Oaks Academy love hearing about and celebrating your achievements both inside and

out of school. If you have a story to share with us and would maybe like it to be featured in the newsletter

please speak with your form teacher.

Special Assembly with Livvy K

Wow… what a Half Term Treat! Great music and an important message about ‘Healthy Lifestyle Choices’ too. Thoroughly enjoyed by both students and staff. Thank you Livvy K for coming to visit The Oaks Academy.

Art Trip to Lowery Gallery

A group of year 7, 8 and 9 pupils visited the Lowry gallery in Salford with Miss

Grimes and Mrs Abberley. Pupils took part in a workshop with a local artist and

learnt some valuable art techniques. They also found out about the interesting

life of the artist LS Lowry. Pupils then had the chance to have a look around

the gallery and the amazing pieces of artwork painted by Lowry himself.

Whilst looking at these they discovered the contemporary exhibition that had

some interesting and very strange pieces of artwork. It was a fantastic day

and a great experience for the pupils involved.

Miss Grimes

Creative Arts Trip

Livvy K Visit