Katia, Elizabeth, Georgina and Millie in Year 6 joined with seven pupils from Normanhurst School to participate in the Forest School UII Netball Tournament on Friday 14th October 2011.

They played 8 matches in total, winning 4 and losing 4.  They finished 17th out of 2 schools.  This was an excellent performance by everyone as they had not played together competitively as a team before.

They all enjoyed the experience and learnt a great deal about match play as well as improving their netball skills.

The weather was kind to us this year and all events went ahead, with tough competition in some.  All children competed and had fun.  The winning team this year was Yellow Team.

On Saturday 21st May 2011, the Year 5 & 6 Dance Club competed at the Red Cross 'Dance for Life' competition at the Bhavan Centre, Kensington, London. The dance, which had to reflect the work of the Red Cross, tells the story of a mother searching for her missing child, living on the streets of London with other homeless children. With the help of the Red Cross mother and daughter are reunited. The final part of the dance shows the emotional and personal difficulties they have to resolve in order to move forward to have a more fulfilling life.

The girls danced superbly and were awarded a Commendation Certificate for the emotive quality of their performance. They will be performing the dance at the forthcoming Summer Fete and annual Prize Giving event at Oaklands during the second half of the Summer Term.

The sponsored Mini Olympics event was held on Monday 16th May.  All the children, from Lower Kindergarten to Year 6 participated in the three events of throwing, jumping and a running relay involving hurdling and negotiating a tunnel or completing 10 speed bounces.

All the money raised will support Paralympic athletes to train for the Paralympic Games, such as Jonathan Adams who attended the Mini Olympics.  If you would be interested in following Jonathan’s progress in his hopes of selection for the Paralympics he has a website and updates his blog regularly. The web site is www.jonathanadamsGB.com.

The top three from each class in the throwing and jumping events were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates, which were presented in Key Stage assemblies.

The children all had a wonderful and enjoyable sporting day.  The Yellow Team won the new 'Olympic' cup.

 

Our Swimming Team took part in the Forest Swimming Gala on 25th January.  Congratulations to all team members on their individual performances and to the relay teams who both came second in their heats.  Well done to Mia who won her heat and to Katia and Millie who came 2nd.  The team came 5th out of nine teams.

On Thursday 14th October 2010, the Oaklands swimming team travelled to Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre in Barnet to participate in the ISA Swimming Championships.

All the girls swam superbly.  Special congratulations to Ava in Year 4 who came second in her backstoke heat and third overall in the event; to Katia who came first in her Year 5 freestyle heat and second in her breaststroke heat, and to Mia who came second in her Year 6 freestyle heat.

The swimming team look forward to competing at the Forest School Gala and Bancrofts School Gala later in the academic year.

 

Hockey

The Girls Hockey Club at Oaklands is now in its third year. The Astroturf surface on the playground has provided an excellent start for the girls learning their hockey skills. They have trained hard to develop their dribbling, passing, tackling and shooting skills and have enjoyed playing small-sided games and tournaments on our own 'mini' pitch. The girls have also been given the opportunity to learn goalkeeping skills and have practised these enthusiastically wearing full goalkeeping kits! In the Autumn and Spring terms the club trains regularly at Old Loughtonians Hockey Club in Chigwell to make use of their full sized mini hockey pitch there and to learn the roles, rules and tactics of the 7-a-side game. Progress has been excellent and the Oaklands hockey team had their first match against Bancrofts earlier this year. Girls have been encouraged to join the Junior sections of local clubs and have been selected for teams and matches. Those who have now left Oaklands have made an excellent start in representative teams for their Senior schools.