@oakwoodMarch - 2018 UnderUnder 1717 SideSide FirstFirst teamteam toto winwin TWOTWO KentKent CupsCups Dear Parents, Carers and Students, Welcome to the Spring edition. It is great to see so many students participating in a wealth of events since the last edition. Well done to the Sixth Form for the money they have raised so far for their charities, the U17 football team for their sharing of the trophy in a thrilling final and to the students who participated in the BBC School Report. These are only a few of the achievements mentioned in this edition. Thank you to the Publicity Team for their hard work in continuing to make @Oakwood such a superb publication. Best wishes. Mr K.W. Moody - Headteacher BBC School Report 2018 On Thursday 15th March, the BBC the BBC Schools Report was really like: held their national BBC School Report Newsday, whereby the responsibility “Today, OPGS students in Years 7 and 8 have of reporting across the UK is handed created a range of reports for the BBC. We have over to the students of the nation been producing reports from the Winter Olympics between 11-16 years old. to International Women’s Day. We have tried extremely hard to produce these reports and At Oakwood Park Grammar School, the students write them to the best of our ability. The BBC worked exceptionally hard, as we missed our Schools Report could also include local things, preparation day due to the snow in previous for instance some students produced a report on weeks and so had to cram researching, writing, the Kent Cup (including Oakwood), World Book editing and publishing our reports into the day Day and Readathon. everything went live. Having said this, all the students involved worked diligently to write 49 We have had to write the report, source images written reports, many with images they had taken, and upload them to the BBC Schools Report sourced and checked copyright of themselves. webpage. Writing reports has helped us with our Students’ news coverage included topics from vocabulary, punctuations and editing skills. This OPGS U17 recent win at the Gallagher Stadium initiative from BBC News helps 11 to 16-year-old to the impact of plastic on our environment or students improve their journalist skills. what it is like to be a teen in 2018 with the rise in digital technologies. To see all their hard work Even though we did not participate in the filming, for yourself, please see the articles on our linked I am sure everyone who took part enjoyed it. We page: https://www.opgs.org/news/Pages/BBC- have all completed a different report and have News-Schools-Report-2018.aspx organised who is doing which topic.” Callum Harrington explains what participating in By Callum Geography Field Trip to Burham. On Wednesday 7th March the whole notes about the relief, soil and land-use of the of Year 7 went on a Geography field area. As we walked near the River Medway we trip to Burham. After the previous could see the new St Peter’s village, which is being week of snow, we were very relieved built between Burham and Wouldham. The final to discover that the weather forecast task for the day was to evaluate the advantages for the day was above 0C temperature and disadvantages of this site by looking at factors and some rain in the morning! The such as flood risk and accessibility. fieldtrip could go ahead as planned. By the end of the day, the rain had stopped and After some time in the classroom, Year 7 then the sun had started to shine. After walking for headed off in the coach and mini bus to the picnic over 4 miles, we gained a clear understanding of site at the top of Bluebell Hill. The first task was Bluebell Hill and Burham village. Year 7 worked to draw the view that we could see. Despite the hard during the day and will now be spending weather, we still had a clear view of the Medway time writing up their findings. Valley. We could see Burham village to our right (our destination later on in the day), Eccles, Aylesford newsprint, the River Medway and Maidstone in the distance. After the students finished drawing their field sketch we walked along the footpath stopping at various points along the way noting down what we could see around us. The ground was saturated as a result of the melted snow and recent rain, so we had quite a slippery walk down Bluebell Hill! As we carefully descended the hill, we observed the characteristics of the soil, relief and land-use noting down the information as we went. At the bottom of the footpath we entered a park, which was used as a meeting point whilst we worked in Burham village. After a short break, Year 7 split into small groups and walked around the village filling in a map by labelling the age of the buildings and the services. The history of the village of Burham can be traced back to Roman times. The Battle of the Medway took place in AD43 at the crossing point on the River Medway where Burham is now situated, when the invading Roman legions, advancing west across Kent, were confronted by a massed army of the ancient British Tribes. Around 1830 Burham became a “Cement Village” on the Medway, after the discovery of the manufacturing technique for Portland Cement. Once we had surveyed the village, we walked towards the River Medway and finished off our Creative Arts Masterclass On Thursday 22nd February, primary school students took part in a In Drama, students explored body language ‘Creative Arts Masterclass’ evening and non-verbal communication with a practical at OPGS. exploration of how they can use facial expressions, posture and gesture to help them The Design and Technology department ran a with communication and dealing with the changes lesson on forces, structures and engineering, as they move up to secondary school from primary. looking at the different types of forces and how structures are designed to withstand them. The students all seemed to find the evening enjoyable and it gave them a brief insight to Students then used their newly acquired lessons at Oakwood Park Grammar School. knowledge in manufacturing to create the tallest structure that could support a small weight. Students had only paper, masking tape and glue to create their designs. They had to work as a team and apply their knowledge from the lesson to create the tallest and most stable tower. The winning team managed to build a free standing tower nearly 3 meters in height. The students in the art masterclass, started the session with some team building exercises using clay, this included making the highest tower, the longest snake and final as a group constructing a figure. Students were then introduced to mythical beasts and had to create their own in pencil tone. After this they were shown how to mould and construct clay and then they were able to construct their mythical beast using the techniques shown to them. After the sculptures were complete, students presented their work to the rest of the class and discussed the work in front them. Two students gain places at prestigious College of Theatre and Performance. Following auditions, two of our Year Applications are in the thousands but there are 13 students (Gabby Mclean and Ty only 30 places for, the course. Testament to the Nicholls) have just been offered a place Drama departments teaching and their talent. at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance (one of the most prestigious drama school in the UK). Design and Technology Students visit Design Museum in London On Wednesday 7th March, students Charting the varied techniques used throughout studying Design and Technology Ferrari’s history, the exhibition demonstrates how visited the Design Museum in London drawings are translated by sculptural techniques to complete a design workshop and into the final form of the car. view the ‘Ferrari: Under the skin’ exhibition. The students then visited the ‘Designer, Maker, User’ exhibition which features almost 1000 The exhibition explores Ferrari’s powerful items of twentieth and twenty-first century personality, the design and manufacturing process, design viewed through the angle of the designer, the famous clientele and the future of the luxury manufacturer and user, including a crowdsourced car brand. From the very first Ferrari to Michael wall. The exhibition covers a broad range of design Schumacher’s winning Formula One car and disciplines, from architecture and engineering, to the newest hybrid model, the exhibition features the digital world, fashion and graphics. rare cars and memorabilia displayed in public for the first time. Original hand-drawn sketches After visiting the exhibitions, the students feature next to high-tech wind tunnel models and completed a design workshop, where they beautifully crafted early wooden master models gained a greater understanding of the materials, to present a survey of the manufacturing process processes and design behind many common and the relationship between form and function. household products. Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 took Renie Inow wrote about how our words are very place on 27th January, and Year 8 powerful, writing: had the opportunity to write postcards to holocaust survivors through the “The words we use when we speak to each other Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. We are very powerful. We have to choose which words have received replies to our postcards we use carefully to make sure people understand from two of the survivors we wrote to.