Recently we took part in the Joseph Swan Girls Football tournament. Due to the large number of girls who have been interested this year we entered 2 teams to take on Glynwood and Harlow Green. Even showers and a drop in temperature couldn’t dampen spirits. Oakfield 2 played superbly to become runners up and Oakfield 1 battled hard for a share of third place. Well done all.

Results for Oakfield 1

v Oakfield 2 - Lost 2-1 Megan C scored
v Glynwood 1 – Lost 1-0
v Glynwood 2 – Lost 1-0
v Harlow Green – Won 2-0 Megan C scored both

Results for Oakfield 2

v Oakfield 2 - Won 2-1 Anna scored both
v Glynwood 1 – Lost 1-0
v Glynwood 2 – Won 5-1 Molly scored 2 and Anna 3
v Harlow Green – Won 3-0 Megan H, Ellie and Anna scored

The Year 5/6 girl’s football team came so close to making the final of the County Durham 7 a side cup. On Wednesday they travelled to Pelton for their semi final. First up was a game against Catchgate. A bright start saw us race into a 2-0 lead with goals from Megan C and Anna. This forced Catchgate to rally and they quickly pulled a goal back but we hung on to win 2-1. The second game was against the host team Pelton. It was a tight game with few chances, but unfortunately Pelton did nick a goal to run out 1-0 winners. Unlucky girls, but you have improved greatly as the season went on!

But there was nothing gentle about it as 5 Willow used every last drain of energy when the virtual rowing machines arrived from Joseph Swan school. Years 5 and 6 all experienced the effort needed to row 400 metres in a timed competition against all Joseph Swan cluster schools. As the pictures show it was hard work! Well done to all, especially Carl, Nat, Alicia and Lauren B. who are the quickest year 5’s across all cluster schools.

On Friday morning 5 Willow visited the Sunderland Climbing Wall as part of their Mountains topic. After gasps of fear at the size of the 23 metre wall it was on to the safety briefing and warm up. Then, at last, TWO HOURS of climbing fun. As confidence grew so did the level of challenge, and I think it is fair to say that everyone pushed themselves to exceed their goals. Well done 5 Willow, it was great to hear the encouragement you gave each other as well as seeing the fun that was had by all!

After a Winter break that seems to have lasted a lifetime, the football season recommenced on Wednesday night with the girls team in the first round of the County Durham FA 7-a-side. On a cool evening first up was a game against the hosts Colegate. Early pressure saw Oakfield take a quick 2 goal lead through Megan C, but despite creating many more chances no further goals were added. The second game saw a tough 0-0 draw against Jarrow St Bedes, a game with chances at both ends but no one to apply the finishing touch. With Colegate and Jarrow drawing 1-1, it meant Oakfield progressed to the semi final, new s that was greeted by 10 screams so loud my eardrums are still ringing!!!

Wednesday brought the chance for 5 Willow the visit Heworth CLC and experience a day of programming Lego robots to follow commands, (They’re far easier than children!!). After being introduced to their new plastic friends, children worked in pairs to input the commands to make them undertake a series of tasks. Judging by the smiles it was learning enjoyed by all!

On Tuesday the 8 members of the school Council spent the day at the Civic Centre finding out about the work of the elected councillors and the major. Once there they had the chance to sit in the council chamber and find out about the work of Gateshead Council. After lunch it was questions with the major before finally watching a real council meeting in operation. Not an everyday experience and one we are sure they will cherish!

On a typically bitter and windswept Gateshead Stadium, the Year 5 football team progressed without trouble to the Felling Gateshead FA Final (to be held in the summer…yippee). On Friday they won their group and remained unbeaten. Up first were local rivals Kells Lane. Nick Hall opened the scoring after 8 SECONDS and that set the tone for a 3-0 win; Nick scoring the perfect hat-trick.
The next challenge was Windy Nook, a game of no goals where both defences proved up to the task. Finally Colegate and another 3-0 win, Kieran Costello (2) and another from Nick doing the damage.
Overall, a superb team performance by all 10 squad members. Roll on the final….and hopefully a bit of sun!!

Dear readers,

The children of Oakfield Junior School are setting up a healthy tuck shop. It will start on Monday 16th November. This includes fresh fruit, dried fruit, cereal bars including, Special K and Nutrigrain bars. These prices range from 20p-40p. Please support us.

Many thanks,

Snack Station Staff.

Last Thursday all pupils in Year 5 visited local secondary school Joseph Swan for a sports afternoon. The idea was to experience some new sports and see what Joseph Swan has to offer. Check out the (rather dark) photos to see what we got up to!! (Sorry, flat camera battery :-( )

Another busy week of football got underway despite a major flu outbreak. On Tuesday a depleted Year 5/6 team travelled to Chester-le-Street for the Durham area semi final of the National Under 11 7-a-side competition. (There’s a mouthful of a name!) As winners of Gateshead’s leg we took on the regional winners from Chester-le-Street, South Tyneside and Darlington.

Three very close matches followed. An opening 2-0 win against Mount Pleasant (Darlington) was followed by a 4-3 lose against East Boldon. The final game saw Hetton Lyons overcome us 3-1. Jack, Jamie, Nick and three goals from Lewis were not quiet enough and dreams of Wembley finished.

However on Wednesday an equally depleted team won their first round group in County Durham’s FA 7-a-side competition. A 2-2 draw with Durham St Godrics was followed by a 2-0 victory over Lumley. Jamie with 3 goals, and Nick bagging one. Hopefully another good cup run on the way!

Keep checking for updates.

Using pictures by 16th century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo as inspiration, children in Year 5 set about creating their own fruit and vegetable faces. I’m sure you will agree the results look delicious!!

The combined year 5/6 team have bagged their first trophy of the season by winning the Gateshead Felling FA round of the National Under 11 7-a-side competition. They qualified for the local final by beating Falla Park 6-0 (Jamie Johnson and Nick Hall both with hat-tricks) and Carr Hill 2-0 (Lewis McNall and Jack Fisher Diaz with the goals.

The final was a closer affair and started with a 0-0 draw against Harlow Green. This was followed by a 3-0 win over Windy Nook and a 3-1 victory over Colegate. A very impressive Lewis McNall scoring all 6!!

The semi Final of the Durham leg of the National Under 11 7-a-side competition is this Tuesday, at Red Rose in Chester-le-Street against schools from Darlington, South Tyneside and Chester-le-Street.

Mr Thompson works in Year 5. We think he is great as he helps our other Mr Thompson with football practises and tournaments. He also runs a gardening club, which we really enjoy. Mr Thompson is great.

Our involvement in this year's School Linking project is now coming to an end and I would like to congratulate 5 Willow for their attitude towards this project. They have thoroughly enjoyed being paired up with children from Roman Road Primary School and were excellent hosts when they visited us last week. Their maturity and respect has helped the project be a huge success.

Last friday Year 5 provided their support for a local celebration. On sat 25th July Wesley Memorial Church will be celebrating World War 2 by holding a street party and parade in Low Fell. Our children have already supported this event by dressing as evacuees in fantastic costumes and have had their photos taken by local newspapers to advertise the event. Information on how to buy your ticket is coming soon !

Presentation night has been confirmed as Thursday 9th July, commencing at 7.00pm. Year 5 and 6 will have trophies to pick up (and hopefully Year 4 after this Wednesdays final)

On Thursday the year 5 football team regained the Gateshead Felling FA football Cup won last year by the current Year 6. On a sunny evening Colegate hosted the final, contested between Glynwood, Kelvin Grove, Colegate and ourselves.

Finals Results
v Kelvin Grove – Won 3-0. Lewis, Aaron and Megan scored
v Glynwood – Won 2-0. Lewis scored both
v Colegate – Won 2-0. Jamie and Lewis scored.

The year 5 team remained undefeated all through the competition, scoring 16 goals. At times they played some brilliant passing football and worked really hard for each other. Well done to you all! Role on next year when they have the chance to play in 5 different competitions!!

After a very busy fortnight, it’s time to bring everyone up to date with the progress of all our teams. So………..

Four year 5 pupils represented Oakfield in a digital animation competition yesterday at Gateshead CLC. Molly Bradshaw, Daniel Austin, Harry Young and Joseph Gray created an outstanding digital animation entitled 'The Circle of Life' knocking out some serious competition to win a digital camera for school. Miss Batey was extremely proud of them - their team work and ideas were second to none !
The judges were impressed with their professional approach to their film and their excellent ICT skills.
The team will now go through to the final of the competition after the easter holidays - Good Luck !!!!

As part of a national school linking project Year 5 children are being given the opportunity to explore different communities and schools in Gateshead. As part of this project they have been paired up with children from a Year 5 class from Roman Road Primary School. Last week they spent the day at The Shipley Art Gallery, met their partner and began creating art work that reflected their life in gateshead.
This is a very exciting opportunity for the children and they are looking forward to meeting up with their partners when we visit eachother's schools in the summer term.

Year 5 and year 6 had a fantastic afternoon today – the Newcastle Eagles came into school to teach us about healthy eating, the dangers of smoking, why we should stay fit and of coarse, to play basketball!

“It was really good. I learnt that you can waste 11 minutes of your life just by smoking 1 cigarette! The basketball players were fab, they were really funny!” said Connor in 6 Cedar.

The teachers decided which child had contributed the most throughout the 4 sessions and that child won a prize. Congratulations to Kevin in 6 Birch who won a Newcastle Eagles t-shirt. We also had a basketball competition which Chris in 5 Maple won, and Lewis in 6 Birch came runner up. They won tickets to the next Newcastle Eagles game - well done Chris and Lewis!

Thank you to the Eagles for a fun afternoon!

Today year 5 were given an e-safety talk and joined in a discussion about the importance of staying safe on the web. It was a pleasure to hear their ideas and see how safety aware they are when using the internet. We hope the children take this message home.

Congratulations to Joe, seen below receiving his prize (a stunning mountain bike) for being one of 5 lucky winners in Gateshead’s Reading Challenge. All primary children in Gateshead had the chance to enter, just by visiting their local library regularly over the Summer holidays. Over 4000 children did so with 3000 completing the read-a-thon. Those that did were then entered into the prize draw; and much to his surprise Joe came out with a star prize. This was presented at last Friday’s assembly. Again well done from everyone at Oakfield!

Year 5 recently visited Beamish where we were transported back to Victorian times for the day. We were taught by a scary Victorian teacher, went down the mines and even travelled on an open top tram ! Thank you to all parents who accompanied us on the trip and thank you to all who helped make the children look so fabulous in their costumes on the day. A great day was had by all !!!

This week Oakfield are going to be studying countries of the world.

Year 6 got off to a fine start with cookery this afternoon.

Birch, who are studying France, made garlic bread and tasted brie.

6 Cedar are studying Spain and have made tapas - manchego cheese, chorizo, spanish olives, spanish caperberries and patatas bravo. This morning cedar also recieved a Spanish lesson where they learnt colours, numbers and songs.

5 Maple are looking at Greece and have made some masks and carried out quizzes to test their knowledge on Greek olympics and theatre.

5 Willow are studying China and have made some chinese dragons on sticks. They have also been learning about Chinese New Year.

Reported by ICT Club

Year 5 have had a week in school filled with lots of different sports activities!
Our week started off with Skipping; We participated in a skipping workshop where we were taught many skipping tricks which really tired us out ! Some children were lucky enough to be chosen for a skipping assembly to show off their skills. We then spent a day with Conrad and Gary from 'Show Racism the Red Card', during the day we discussed the issue of racism in sport and what we can do to make sure these issues don't occur in sport at Oakfield. We then visited Joseph Swan High School yesterday where we were invited to climb the climbing wall, bounce very high on their trampolines and play table tennis. Aaron Wadey even beat Mr Davidson at table tennis and Mr Thompson reached the top of the climbing wall!!
Well done to everyone in Year 5 for showing such great sportsmanship in all of our activities.

5 Maple have enjoyed foraging in their gardens to find branches, berries and all manner of exciting things to use in their sculptures.

Children in Year 5 have been exploring work by Italian artist Arcimboldo. We were inspired by his seasonal paintings of faces and have been creating our own autumnal sculptures. See if you can see the hidden smiling face !

As part of outr digital media week, year 5 had to produce a piece of art in the theme of Summertime. Look at our efforts.

Joe D

Paul

Owen

Jenny

Kameron

Blake

Hannah + Marni

Emma C

Stephanie + Rachael

Megan + D'arcy

Connor

Evan

Daniel

Sophie

Recently, a team of four Year 5 pupils took part in a Robotics competition at Heworth Grange CLC. Using computer software they had to programme a Lego robot to complete six challenges. These included making it complete manoeuvring tasks, play 6-pin bowling, play bowls and park within a garage!! A great time was had by all with the team coming second, winning a Lego robot for the school and memory sticks for themselves. Well done Emma, Elizabeth, Dylan and Megan.

On Wednesday 13th February four budding young directors from Year 5 represented Oakfield at the annual Heworth City Learning Centre animation competition. Molly Bowden, Katie Hammond, Joe Donnehue and Owen Barker were up against pupils from Brighton Avenue, St Peters and Dunston Hill for a place in the grand final next term. There task, using ‘I Can Animate’ software was to produce a short film. On arrival they were given a range of material to make props, and 4 plastic figures that were to be used as characters in their film. The group had to work together to write a storyboard, make the setting, operate the camera, download stills and edit their film, which was given the title ‘Boogie Knights.’
After a day of hard graft and a 43 second film they were rightly proud of, the four young Steven Spielberg’s held their breath as the judges watched all films, looked at storyboards and marked workmanship. After 20 minutes, (during which they all aged with worry!), we were called back in, and, in great excitement and nervous tension, sat waiting for the envelope to reveal………………….Oakfield as winners!!!! (Cue celebrations). In recognition for all their hard work, they won a new camcorder for school and a place in the grand final. Well done to all four, we wish you well, and watch out Hollywood, here we come!!!!

Click here to see the photographs

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What the children...
Ms Collins is a nice teacher because she always makes us laugh. She is in charge of most sports in the school and we have fun PE lessons with her. She trains people for tournaments such as rugby and cross country, which she is great at. Ms Collins has a good range of talents, which helps us in lots of different ways. She is a good role model to follow.

Our class are lucky enough to be working with a local artist for the next six weeks on an art project studying the local area and stories behind pictures. We will be creating our own art work which will be displayed in Saltwell Towers for public viewing. We can't wait for such a fabulous opportunity !

What the children say...
Miss Batey is, “Kind, caring and helpful. She likes children and hates snakes. Miss Batey is tall and slim and her dad used to pilot a helicopter for seven years. I am happy she came to our school. She sets us lots of fun challenges such as the marble challenge"

On Wednesday 7th November we went on a trip to St. Ninians Church. We found out that the church is 40 years old - just like our school ! They have over 50 crosses in the church and they have banners insted of stained glass windows. They change these banners for different celebrations throughout the year. We had a lovely and very informative trip and would like to thank Reverend Mark for welcoming us into his church. By Kirstin Gibbons and Lewis Terrell

This year we are going to sell cakes and a mini magazine to raise money. The cakes will be on sale for 10p each and the magazine will be 15p.
So bring your pennies to school to help raise money.
Molly and Hannah 5P/T

I am really looking forward to our One World Week when we will be studying China. I am excited about working with my new class - exploring this country, culture and traditions. A quick reminder to all my class - if they have anything at home from China or information about the country it would be lovely to see it in class. Thanks, Miss Batey

Following a visit to the Shipley Art Galley, this term Year 5 children are currently customising their own shoe. The title of their project is Memories, whereby children are designing a shoe based on their memory.

What the children say...
Mr Thompson is the best teacher ever. He is kind and helpful and he is good at English and Maths, but he is even better at Science. He is very clever and looks after people. He enjoys it most when people are good, happy and quiet. He helps around school.