Year 5 and 6 mountain biking club ventured up to Weybourne viewing point during their weekend adventure.
Oakeley House charity week started off brilliantly with a cake sale on the 6th February to raise money for Breast Cancer Now charity. It was incredible to see everyone in house get involved by baking cakes, brownies and cookies over their weekend to sell around school. Everyone in house was very enthusiastic and the effort put into the baking was shown through the fabulous turn out that they had! The house prefects and Sixth Form were very helpful as they sold cakes in break times and it was great to see other houses getting involved by buying lots, as well as teachers buying trays of cakes for their classes. Oakeley were all really pleased with how the day went and were very grateful to everyone who contributed to such a great cause!
Oakeley held their annual Valentine’s Ball for all Sixth Form pupils on the Thursday of the same week. The ball included entertainment for the guests, including line dancing, a Mr & Mrs quiz, a temporary tattoo parlour and a delicious meal. It was decorated in an Alice and Wonderland theme with bottles filled with fairy lights that the girls had made themselves. The ball was in Big School Hall, which had been decorated with fairy lights, playing cards, roses and lots of flowers. The night ended with more dancing and a DJ, and all the girls contributed to not only putting up the decorations but also making them. Thank you to everyone who made it a night to remember, the girls should be very proud of themselves! With the Bake Sale, Valentine’s Ball and Home Clothes Day combined, Oakeley raised a total of £2089.44 for Breast Cancer Now!
For some, public speaking is considered a challenging skill. However, our Year 12 Biology pupils gave excellent presentations on a plant and animal disease as part of their A level course. They delivered with confidence and impressed with their in depth knowledge of their disease which went above our syllabus.
On Friday 3rd March, the RAF NCOs organised a series of first-aid scenarios to practise the knowledge and skills necessary for dealing with emergency and non-emergency situations. In addition to the practicals, there was a British Red Cross quiz to test theory. First-Aid is an integral part of the RAF cadet training syllabus and Year 10s have basic first-aid sessions led by trained professionals as part of the programme. Early next term the RAF contingent will send a team to the Wingfield competition for Norfolk and Suffolk Air Cadets, and they will be examined on a series of skills, one of which will be first-aid. We wish the competitors the best of luck and hope that this afternoon will have proved excellent training for the competition.
Senior and Prep pupils have been pondering the environmental and societal impact of our food choices in Chapel during Fairtrade Fortnight. Lots of fun was had with Fairtrade bananas and chocolate, as they learned how they can support producers in protecting the planet and the future of some of our most-loved food.
The English Department held the Literary Bake Off Competition for World Book Day – well done to Bea C L and Emilie G for their wonderful ‘Matilda’ inspired cake. As the book tree in the corridor grew with contributions from the pupils, the classrooms buzzed with chatter about books and book recommendations!
Pupils at the Senior School impressed their tutors when participating in a fun World Book Day quiz, testing their knowledge of children’s and classic books, Netflix re-workings and pixelated book covers. Our ‘Masked Reader’ activity, which launched on World Book Day, continues, with pupils guessing which members of staff are reading in disguise. Hamster, Tiger, Smiley and Dog have made an appearance so far, with more staff characters to come!
Last week our Year 6 and 5 pupils entered teams of 4 into maths competitions in Norwich.
On Friday, the Year 6s competed in a 3 round Maths Dash using problem solving skills and team work against 52 other pairs. Eddie B and Ben M finished in a solid 20th position with Cameron M and Ignacio H coming an impressive 5th place.
On Wednesday it was the turn of our Year 5s who took part in a five round multi-Maths skill competition working with cards, tangrams, numbers and dominoes.
Santiago O and Olivia M finished in a pleasing 19th place out of 47 pairs, but the highlight of the week was Hansen W and Ella P who finished in 1st place and so took home brand new scientific calculators.
All pairs worked well together and really enjoyed the experience.
Year 7 had fun ordering drinks and snacks in a French café role play using menus they had created themselves.
Many congratulations to Miranda, Georgie and Tillie in doing so well in the English Speaking Union Mace Debating Regional Final at Bishop’s Stortford, where they faced the five other strongest debating teams in the East Anglian region. The Gresham’s team proposed the motion ‘This House would introduce a 100% inheritance tax’ and performed really well, only narrowly missing out on qualification for the national finals of the ESU competition. Tillie was singled out in feedback for the quality of her summary speech.
33 Prep School swimmers went to Culford School to compete in the IAPS qualifying round. Thousands of swimmers from across the country compete, and those with the 20 fastest qualifying times in each event are invited to the IAPS National Swimming Championships, which will be held at the National Aquatic Centre in June.
