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NEWS

Spring Review 2016

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This may have been a very short Easter Term but you wouldn’t know that from all the things that we have still managed to pack into it. There has been the Bishop’s visit, Jungle Book and so many other things, all of which you can read about here in our termly Oakhill News.

January saw a new start and we welcomed Miss Woods as the new Nursery Manager. Miss Woods settled in very quickly and has become a reassuring, smiling presence in and around Oakhill Nursery.

The visit from Bishop Arnold was a very special occasion as it was the schools first ever visit from the Bishop. The day went very smoothly and the Bishop enjoyed his lunch with pupils, staff and governors; meeting the pupils and celebrating a prayerful and well sung Mass with our school community. He described Oakhill as such “a happy, welcoming school” and very much enjoyed his visit.

Another highlight of the Easter Term has been the Mock Trial which was prepared as an Interhouse event and included a visit to Preston Magistrate’s

Court. The Mock Trial was judged by a retired judge, Peter Ward, and the Trial itself proved dramatic watching. All those involved then presented an assembly about the trial and the incredibly close result was announced as one mark separated the teams.

The Easter Term holds a number of sporting events including the Cross Country Race in both Seniors and Prep. The Senior Race took place on a lovely sunny afternoon and, as expected, Daniel Riding, broke his course record by an amazing 23 seconds in spite of the very wet ground. Ben Thompson set a new record in the Prep Cross Country with a fantastic run. The Senior Swimming Gala proved memorable in other ways and there was some fantastic swimming from Maisie Holme, Louis Coupe and Giles Bridge. There was great sportsmanship too with some thrilling team events and lots of shouting.

The term ended with the much anticipated performance of Jungle Book and what a great ending it was! The production was a great success as the children performed with confidence, helped in this by some amazing

costumes and an effective set. The Senior pupils who provided the musical entertainment for the first part of the evening showed off their incredibly diverse and skillful talents in their high calibre performances.

We hope that you enjoy reading all about our busy day to day life in the Oakhill News and we look forward to another action packed Summer Term.

With every best wish,

Principal Carmel Crouch.

Welcome

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Staywithus,

Lord,onour

journey.

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In the Baby Room children have been getting involved in lots of messy play.

The first thing they did was to use hand and foot painting to make Mr Noble a card.

He loved it and they loved making it!

We Love Messy Play

Happy Chinese New Year

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BabiesGoingQuackersAs Spring is upon us, the Baby Room have got the baby ducks out and been fishing for them in the water.

They loved splashing around and practising their hand-eye coordination!

Pre School had a great time celebrating the Chinese New Year through various activities. They had a very busy week, starting by painting their own Chinese dragons with chop sticks, making red dragon islands with the Playdough and designing their own Chinese lanterns for display around the classroom.

They had a Chinese restaurant in their role play area, which proved very popular! Their Chinese dragon paraded around school, they made lots of noise and showed off the

fantastic dragons that they had made. Some of the girls brought in their own Chinese outfits from home to show the class. They looked fantastic! The children tried to eat their delicious dinner of sweet and sour chicken with rice with chopsticks. Finally, as the lucky colour in China is red and with Valentine’s Day coming up they all had a very red snack! The children tried red peppers, tomatoes, raspberries, grapes and red jelly.

Well done, Pre School!

Colourful Easter

Going Back To Our Roots…

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Spring into action

In preparation for Easter the toddlers have been making and colouring in Easter egg pictures to decorate their room and to take home.

They love all thebright colours.

In Nursery they have been talking about Spring. The children decided the spring flower they liked the best was the daffodil, so they painted lots of daffodils for their room.

The Nursery children also welcomed Pip and Pop their new fish.

Pre School have planted spring flowers. The children have enjoyed learning about what the plants need to grow and were fascinated by the roots.

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Playground Leaders

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An Upside Down Day in the Life of Michelangelo

Happy Mother’s Day Mummy

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All Year 5 and 6 pupils were trained by Gareth Martindale, our school games organiser to become playground leaders.

The pupils completed a theory session discussing leadership qualities and people who exhibit these. It was a lovely session where the pupils highlighted the importance of hard work, co-operation, empathy and determination all of the qualitiesthat encompass our ethos at Oakhill.

Our pupils then participated in a practical session trying out new games and fun challenges. They learned how to differentiate tasks to make them easier or harder so that anyone could get involved and achieve success. Our focus was to make all of the tasks inclusive to engage all ages and levels of ability.

All of the pupils passed the course with flying colours and Maeve Bentley was selected by Gareth as our playground leader of the day.

Over the last few weeks the boys and girls in Year 1 and 2 have been doing lots of sewing for their Mother’s Day cards.

It has been a time of ups and downs with some children finding it quite simple whilst others quite challenging. There were lots of “Oops I’ve lost my string again!” and “I think I’ve done it wrong again!” but they got there in the end even if they made Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Livesey a little more grey!!

I’m sure their mummies will treasure the memento for years to come.

Sometimes a teacher feels inspired and challenged to create learning opportunities that help the pupils to empathise with a certain person or situation. So, with Year 3 studying European artists this term one such opportunity presented itself. The class have been studying the artist Michelangelo and in particular his painting of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he spent four years lying on his back painting the ceiling of the chapel.

In order to get just a tiny idea of what it might have felt like Year 3 have spent two Friday afternoons on their backs painting pictures fixed to the underside of their desks. Words they used to describe the experience were...painful, exhausting, exciting, challenging, dizzy and tiring.They all now have a much greater understanding of how Michelangelo literally suffered for his art and not surprisingly they have no real desire to repeat the lesson...I wonder why?!

Healthy Caféand Fruity Faces

World Book Day at Oakhill

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Reception have been learning all about their bodies this half term.

They have learnt about the different food groups and sorted out the food in the ‘Healthy Café’.

They also had a food investigation and tasted lots of different types of fruit. Melon was the most popular but there were some funny faces when we all tastedthe lemons and limes.

Year 4 have been making mini-books to tell the story of Grand-mère Denise and her knitting.

They had a great time learning how to tell the story themselves and some very brave members of the class also performed it for Year 3. Well done, Year 4!

A FrenchPerformance

As part of World Book Day, Year 6 chose a book that is special to them to bring in and share with the class: there were books from early childhood days with fond memories attached; information books about favourite hobbies; comic-style books and a variety of novels from serious, historical fiction to ones by classic authors.

The class enjoyed listening to each other explain why their book was special to them. Each child has decorated some bunting to hang over the reading area that depicts their special book.

Don’t forget to take your World Book Day tokens to a bookshop and exchange it for a special book!

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A Distant Question to Tim, 249 Miles Up!

Set Sail for Annual Boat Building Challenge

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At the beginning of this term schools were invited to send a question by video to British ESA astronaut Tim Peake.

We were pleased to announce that Year 10 pupil Imogen Campbell, 14, was chosen as one of the videos to be shown to astronaut Tim Peake as part of the Cosmic Classroom event!

More than 7000 videos have been submitted and only 20 questions have been chosen to be put to Tim. Imogen’s winning question to Tim was, “Has being in space changed your outlook on life?”

Unfortunaletly Tim Peake didn’t have time to answer the question but still well done to Imogen for getting the question chosen.

The annual Year 7 boat building challenge was undertaken with great enthusiasm this term.

It was a close call but the joint winners were Alexander and the dynamic duo of Sam and Josh. With similar designs they both managed to hold an impressive 1100g - not bad for one piece of paper!

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A Distant Question to Tim, 249 Miles Up! A Profit Margin to be Proud of…

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Jac’s candles would like to thank everybody who supported them during their trading period for the Tycoon in School Competition.

The four Year 10 budding entrepreneurs; Charlotte, Amy, Sam and Jack, have worked tirelessly on making the candles and getting as many sales as possible. The team ended in 8th place out of 425 on the leader board with a profit margin of 376%!Now the team have to submit an evaluation report and will find out their final placing soon.

How the Industrial Revolution changed usYear 8 History have been studying the Industrial Revolution and thinking about how it has been interpreted over time.

They have produced their own Art Gallery ideas imagining they are the curator and deciding what images should be put into their exhibition.

Harry and Isabelle focused on people whereas Ruby, Amy and Phoebe built an overview of the social, political and economic changes and looked at the positive and negative aspects.

Arthur looked at the power behind the revolution and James and Freddie looked at trains as the embodiment of the Industrial Revolution.

Excellent work Year 8 - well done!

Year 11 pupils were interviewed to prepare them for the process of College and Apprenticeship applications.

Each pupil had prepared a personal statement outlining their course and career choices plus their achievements to date in and out of school. They were asked a series of probing questions by our very own ‘Jeremy Paxman’ and ‘Lord Sugar’, who contrary to their television egos were very complimentary about Year 11.

Each pupil received constructive feedback to refine their interview technique and polish their personal statements which will help them secure the offer of a place at college or on an apprenticeship programme.

Thank you to Joe Morris and Jim Pugh for their assistance and support.

Under the Microscope

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A Visit from the Bishop John Arnold

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On Tuesday 23rd February, Bishop John Arnold, the Bishop of Salford visited Oakhill. Bishop Arnold toured the school and met with the children.

Bishop Arnold even took part in Year 5’s maths class and was one of the closest in guessing the size of the angle!

After putting the Bishop to work he met with the Sacramental group who took their First Holy Communion in May.

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Over lunch the Bishop met with Governors, pupils and staff. Afterwards, Bishop Arnold said Mass to the whole school and many of our parents. Several of our children played instruments, sang and offered the prayers during Mass.

Our children were exemplary and the Bishop remarked on their confidence, their ability to communicate and their manners.

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What’s Your Skill?

Bletchley Park Trip

Order, Order in the Court

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Students studying for their GCSE History and Computing enjoyed a trip to Bletchley Park.Despite the cold, they worked their way round the original mansion, huts and museums to discover more about the code breakers and workers who broke Japanese and German secret communications to eventually win the war.

Students then visited the National Museum of Computing next door to Bletchley and saw Colossus, the computer built to break the Lorenz communication sent by the German High Command; it was as big as a room! They also enjoyed playing on some of the computers from the 1980s - a real trip down memory lane for staff.

All students were excellent and a good day was had by all.

The teams from Martyrs and Scholars houses visited Preston Magistrates’ Court to see the real working environment of a court room.

They were met by barrister James Hawks and Magistrate David Spencer who took them into Court Room Number 3. Mr Spencer explained to students the role of a Magistrate and talked them through the court room layout and personnel.

Then those over 14 went to observe proceedings in Court Number 2 whilst younger members thought through scenarios and gave their sentences from the Magistrates’ chairs. All students listened well and asked and answered questions. Our thanks to Mr Hawks and Mr Spencer for giving up their time and for making the morning so informative and worthwhile.

Year 10 pupils attended a careers exhibition Skills North West atEvent City, Salford.

The pupils gained hands on experience of courses and careers from a range of employers and colleges. Kaplan ran an interactive number game to inspire future accountants and pupils gained an insight into veterinary and robotics careers, some had fun decorating cakes!

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Friday afternoon in Prep is Sock Monkey time.

Over the past six weeks children from Years 5 and 6 along with Mrs Crouch and Mrs Turner have been busy sewing and stuffing socks to eventually turn them into Sock Monkeys.

The results were fantastic but we hope they don’t get cold feet!

Sock Monkeys

Puttingon aShow…

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In Spanish Club, the Upper Prep children have been having fun with finger puppets and putting on their very own puppet shows.

The children practised greetings and asking their characters lots of questions to find out more about their exciting lives in their fantasy worlds.

With the new Easter term extra curricular programme comes new opportunities for all of our pupils.

Mrs Smith has encouraged Mr Peel to take his hockey club to a younger cohort within the Prep department. Year 3 and 4 now have hockey on Friday lunchtimes. The first session had a great turn out with almost 100% attendance.

The pupils were quickly put through their paces by our Vice Principal learning the grip and stance in hockey. They then moved onto dribbling and stick stopping the ball. Great fun was had by all and fantastic enthusiasm was on show throughout.

We look forward to watching their progress through the term.

Hockey Time

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Lovely Day for a RunThe annual Senior cross country event took place this term on a lovely bright day. All pupils in Year 7 to 11 took part and completed the course, which was the muddiest it had ever been!

The stars of the show were Daniel Riding, winner of the boys Elite race knocking 26 seconds off his PB, Isabelle

Pugh from year 8 won the girls race and Herbie Davies who pulled away from the crowd to win the boys race with a good 50 metre lead.

All of the pupils involved made a great effort and finished with smiles on their faces. Well done everyone!

Year 5 and 6 competed in the Ribble Valley Schools tag rugby competition at Clitheroe Rugby Club. This was a huge event with 20 teams entered from across the borough. Eleven pupils including 4 girls made up our squad.

Rugby is a new venture for Oakhill and has been introduced by Ms Rollason, a former player herself. The team were excited and looking forward to their first competitive match. Our squad was excellently warmed up and drilled by Jacob McHugh who was their manager for the day. Jack Hodder, Tyler Phillips and Giles Bridge took on the roles of referees for the day. All four pupils made a great impression on the local schools and were highly commended for their performances.

The squad played 4 matches across the afternoon and improved their passing and tactics within each match. It wasn’t our day and unfortunately we didn’t make it through to the semi finals, but with continued effort and practice we look forward to returning to the tournament next year.

Tag Rugby

Senior Swimming Gala 2016

Catterall Shield Cross Country

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The toughest cross country event on the calendar took place at Giggleswick school. The Catteral shield is an annual prestigious event with well over 300 runners taking part each year.Nineteen schools in total entered the event with boys and girls teams at under 13 and under 11 age groups. At Oakhill we were proud to be one of only 4 schools entering in all four races.

In the under 11 boys race, Ben Thompson was our first boy home. Next, it was the turn of our under 11 girls team. There was great effort and enthusiasm from all of our Prep girls who should be rightly proud of themselves for all of their individual achievements.

For our under 13 and senior girls race the course was extended to 2700m this meant two laps of the flat but boggy field before enduring the hilly fell part of the race. Our three girls worked magnificently hard, showing great strength, grit and determination.

The final race of the day was the toughest, our under 13 boys had to run 3400m and complete two laps of the fell section of the course. Not to mention the state of the terrain after the previous 3 races. Our boys were excited and confident as they lined up on the start. This was to be the toughest cross country challenge to date but they all rose to the challenge.

Thank you and well done to all of those involved, Mrs Smith is one extremely proud teacher. You were all brilliant!

The Senior School made their annual trip to Daisyfield pool in Blackburn for their interhouse swimming gala.Our two houses, Martyrs and Scholars, went head to head in the spirit of friendly competition, with over 50 pupils taking part and earning points for their house.

At the end of the heats the competition was very close with 159 points to Scholars and 184 to Martyrs. The finals proved to be very exciting with some very close races, and the event finished with medley and squadron relays and a Year 11 fun relay involving flippers, armbands and some serious endurance testing under water swimming!

Special mentions must go to Giles Bridge, Lucy Fielden and Maisie Holme for their beautiful, fluent and efficient swimming strokes Jacob McHugh for his pure power and strength thrashing through the water, not to mention his flying free style start diving in lane two yet emerging from the water in lane four after cutting up two other swimmers! Amy Wellock and Jessica Chatburn for going above and beyond to feature in every heat of every stroke for the Martyrs senior girls team. Finally Jacob Woods and Jack Hodder for their amazing full length underwater swim, with Jack Hodder pipping Daniel Riding to the finish line due to him being unseen sneaking the full length underwater in the Year 11 fun race.

The gap between the houses was widened in the last few relay races leading to a Martyrs victory. Well done to Martyrs and to all who took part in a very exciting event.

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30 pupils, staff and parents had a very enjoyable week skiing in the French Alps.

Having tried other resorts we were glad to return to our favourite destination of Alpe D’Huez and the Beausoleil Hotel, located right on the edge of the piste.

Winter had not quite fully reached the French Alps so snow was often hard to come by, and at our time of arrival it had not snowed since November! The French pisteurs however had done an amazing job at piling it up and most of the resort was open and skiable. We were also lucky to be skiing in glorious sunny and warm conditions.

The large resort and range of pistes meant that our skiers of all abilities were able to enjoy a great week on the slopes and all skiers made excellent progress in their daily lessons and enjoyed practising their skills and skiing together each morning. Many also had the opportunity to ski La Sarenne – the longest black run in Europe at 16km!

Pupils also enjoyed the evening activities, bumboarding, games and movie nights, high ropes, and the annual quiz. The highlight for many was singing karaoke at midnight on New Year’s Eve!

Well done and thanks to everyone for their contribution to an excellent week.

Ski Trip 2015/2016 to Alpe D’Huez

Bronze D of EAdventures

Silver D of EAdventures

Silver D of E Training

Our explorers from Year 10 headed out to begin their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition adventures.

Pupils have undergone over 12 hours of training since September focusing on teamwork, map skills, navigation techniques and dealing with emergencies. All three teams were ready and excited for their first independent challenge in the great outdoors as they were dropped off in Airton, near Malham, and given their instructions. They were given detailed route cards which outlined their challenge, which they used along with maps to navigate their way around a 13km circular route.

Their challenge involved navigating their way out of the village through a maze of fields and out into the wild terrain of the Yorkshire Dales. A long climb up onto Weets Hill above Malham gave some excellent views before a tricky descent, testing their map reading skills, back down to Kirkby Malham and eventually returning to Airton.

All three teams performed very well, navigating successfully and arriving at all checkpoints ahead of time. Well done everyone!

Our Year 11 Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award group enjoyed more adventures as they headed out in the Dales for their first independent challenge. Heading to Wharfedale, the group were provided with maps and compasses and a route card detailing their instructions for the day. They started with a 450m climb from Buckden up a steep valley to the summit of Buckden Pike. At the summit they were met by staff for lunch and enjoyed some incredible views across the Dales. The temperature at the summit remained below zero which allowed for a quick bit of ice-skating!

The group then headed off again to descend into Starbotton, navigating Moorland paths and putting their skills into practice. The final leg of their journey took them along Wharfedale to finish in Kettlewell. The group succeeded in their challenge and performed brilliantly - working together very well to finish well ahead of schedule, walking 15km and climbing over 500m. They can now look forward to their next challenge which will be a 60km 3 day expedition taking place further north in the remote reaches of Swaledale at Easter.

Well done team!

The adventures for the Silver D of E group have started as they headed out into the wild to fine tune their expedition skills.

They ventured to our local moors above Sabden and Wiswell where the group began working together to practise navigation skills, revisiting the techniques learnt during their Bronze expeditions last year. They also learnt more advance skills to use in low visibility. The weather provided a further challenge with wild winds and regular hail showers keeping the group on their toes.

The team showed great determination but were glad to return to warmer surroundings! They are looking forward to further training next month when they will venture out into the Yorkshire Dales for their first independent adventure.

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2 School and Nursery

Independent Catholic Day School and Nursery. 0 – 16 years. Open to all.Oakhill, Wiswell Lane, Whalley, Lancashire. BB7 9AF. Just off the A59.

01254 823546 www.oakhillschool.co.uk Principal: Mrs C. Crouch B.A M.A enquiries@oakhillschool.co.uk

Faith stronger than the Oak

A B R E A T H O F F R E S H A I R

At Oakhill, we believe our students education continues outside the classroom and that is reflected in our outdoor facilities. Nursery playgrounds, prep school trim trails and sporting facilities all make up our

extensive woodland school grounds, ensuring our students remain physically as well as mentally healthy.