Learning today for our tomorrow

Oakfield High School

& College Newsletter Issue Three: Summer 2016 - 2017

Welcome to the Summer edition of our newsletter.

Another school year has flown by so quickly again. Thank you to all our parents and families for their

support for the school community. It is our families’ sense of commitment to our school that allows us to

continue to improve in everything that we do and that allows the learners at Oakfield to flourish.

This year has been an extremely positive one. Earlier this year Oakfield was placed in the top 3% of

special schools based on published performance results. This is a testament to the hard work and

determination of our learners and staff. The wide range of extra- curricular opportunities continues to

enhance and enrich our learners’ experiences, including the residentials to Low Bank Ground, Hinning

House and Bibby’s farm.There was a fabulous performance from year 9 at Robin Park in July and the

learners’ musical skills continue to amaze everyone.

The school has achieved Citizenship Award status and customer service excellence award has been

renewed. Finally, the learners have been fantastic this year and I am very proud of the achievements of

all of them. Have a wonderful summer and let’s hope the sun shines.

Mrs S Allen

Head of School

Awards Evening Celebrations! Oakfield celebrated the achievements of our learners and presented our Y11 and Y14 learners with

their Record of Achievement.

The evening was a huge success! Many congratulations to all of our students on your hard work,

determination and achievements and we would also like to thank all parents and carers for attending

this fantastic celebration.

Thank you to Kelly Partington, Education Business Intelligence Manager and Adrian Speakman, a

former student of Oakfield who presented the awards to our students.

2

“It’s not Fair, Access for All!”

On the 25th April 2017 our Student Council planned, organised and held a conference with

Student Councils from other local schools – Hindley High School, Rosebridge, Landgate and

Fred Longworth. They worked extremely hard to organise this event which took place at our

school. The conference aimed to support our representatives in a new campaign which they

want to take forward, prior to the conference during a meeting they decided that as well as

making a difference in our school and college they wanted to help in our local community

to make it a better place by improving public areas by making them more accessible for

everyone.

Their ideas included Access for All in Local Parks, A more poop free Wigan Borough and

Making a Difference in Borsdane Woods. During the conference the representatives sought

the opinions of the others and gained their views on their campaign, the other schools were

all in favour of our council taking their ideas forward and thoroughly enjoyed the morning

they spent at Oakfield.

I am so proud of our Student Council representatives, all learners make us proud on a daily

basis and on this occasion the representatives excelled all expectation. Well Done to each

and every one of them for their hard work and dedication!

Mrs Grace

Friday 30th June, all College leavers attended a celebratory lunch at Frankie and Benny’s

Middlebrook, Horwich. The afternoon was a huge success with empty plates in abundance!

Thank you to everyone who helped bring it all together and we wish the 2017 leavers all the

very best for the future.

Mrs K Jolley

Learning today for our tomorrow 3

Story Telling

Workshop

Year 7 visited Knowsley Safari Park. They had a fantastic day

learning about all the animals from their tour guide Laura.

Laura explained the main adaptations of each animal and the

continent they are from. Laura also showed learners the

meerkats and the giraffe on their walking tour. Learners and

staff enjoyed the flight display of the birds of prey - well most

of them did as some of it was a bit scary! The bat cave

was exciting and frightening at the same time!

Mrs Doubleday is going to be

discussing

animal right issues this term and

the students will be considering

the care of the sealions at the

park. Positive comments from

learners included brilliant,

Awesome and Fantastic!

Year seven learners experienced a Story

Factory workshop. Through the stories of

Roald Dahl to myths and adventure, learners

were taken via an open book back in time, to

another country, to explore and to

engage through literature.

Rodney the story teller brought the stories to

life as learners acted out the plot using

fabulous masks and music. All learners

engaged with the activity and

commented

how much

they enjoyed

it and would

like to do it

all again.

This year the Landbased Studies group at

college have worked with local

environment education company

ONEGREENWORLD.

Ian and Sarah McDougall came into school

to help us to build a second raised bed and

also two new compost bins. Both elements

were made out of recycled wood and the

college students all helped in the

construction on the allotment site. The team

work and previously untested construction

skills from the group were fantastic and the

raised bed is already full of new vegetable

plants.

Landbased Studies

4

Exploring Coniston! In May, a group of Key Stage 5 learners went to Hinning House in Coniston, Cumbria. The sun

started shining first thing on Monday morning and continued throughout the week.

All students needed very little encouragement to get stuck into all the activities and they

thoroughly enjoyed exploring the surrounding area at Hinning House. They faced their fears

and rock climbed up a mountains edge. Other activities throughout the week included

Canoeing, Orienteering, double kayaking, and individual kayaking; self-led walks and

Gyhll scrambling.

Well done to all students, you were fabulous and showed great determination and excellent

teamwork.

M&M Theatrical Productions visited Oakfield.

Key Stage Three learners enjoyed a fantastic

production called The Kosmic Krew and the

Search for the Parthanoid Gateway.

It was a magical space adventure which

transported us through space and time,

singing and dancing all the way. Year 7 learners also took part in a theatrical workshop after

the production. This offered them an opportunity to broaden their knowledge of the arts and

enjoy a practical and unique insight into what goes on behind the scenes of the production

that they had just enjoyed.

Learner’s commented how much they liked the villain ‘Destron’ and the music and the

dancing.

Learning today for our tomorrow 5

Do you want to be healthier?

Do you want to learn more about mental

health, sexual health, physical health, healthy

eating?

Do you want to help your friends and family?

Do you want to know where to get advice,

information and help?

Do you want to be a Young Health Champi-

on?

If you are 14 to 20 years old we are running

summer holiday workshops in Wigan and Leigh

to create Young Health Champions and we

want you!!!

Monday 24TH until Thursday 28TH JULY - LEIGH

TOWN HALL

Monday 31ST JULY until Thursday 3RD AUGUST

– WIGAN LIFE CENTRE (SOUTH)

If you would like further information or to book

a place on a workshop please call Natalie on

Year 14.2 contributed to the composition of BBC Ten Pieces ‘No

Place Like’ by Kerry Andrew.

The group discussed where they are from, what they think when

they think of home, the places they like to go where they live

and the sounds they can hear near where they live. They sent

their answers to the BBC Ten Pieces and Kerry Andrew

composed the piece using the student’s answers from across

the UK as a stimulus.

The piece will be premiering at the BBC Proms in July and will

be made available for schools to listen to and use at the start of

the next academic year. All students involved received a

certificate.

GET CREATIVE WITH CLASSICAL MUSIC!

On Tuesday 27th June, year 13.1 and four

year 11 learners took part in Mock interviews

as part of the Careers preparation

curriculum. A team of three employers, led

by Gill Diggle, our Employer Engagement

Advisor, sat as an interview panel and

provided a realistic interview simulation for

our learners tailored to their specific career

aspirations.

The whole group did brilliantly and the

feedback from the panel was that “It was a

pleasure to interview such polite and well

prepared young adults." Each learner was

provided with individual feedback which will

help prepare them for future interviews and

equip them with skills to achieve their goals.

Fantastic work guys you did Oakfield proud!

6

Stay Safe in the Sun!

Special Olympic Athlete Oakfield High School & College are always proud of our learners

achievements and successes both in and out of school, however one

young learner in particular will be not only be representing the school,

but the North West this August in the Special Olympics GB National

Games in Sheffield. Y10 learner Ben Fairhurst, who joined Oakfield from

Shevington High School in September 2016, will be part of the Badminton

team at this year Games.

The Special Olympics Games runs from 7th - 12th August and consist of

21 different sports from badminton to equestrian, even powerlifting is

featured. For more information or to support in anyway please follow the

link:http://sheffield2017.org.uk/

Our Sun Safe themed week has once again been a success here at Oakfield High School

and College. We have achieved our 2017-2018 annual accreditation for the 2nd consecutive

year. We are very proud of all of our learners, parents and staff for the commitment,

involvement and shared support that has been given.

We have enjoyed a Sun Safe themed week, which involved competitions and activities over

two weeks of term. Staff shared the important message of how to stay safe in the sun with our

learners through cross curricular ideas and a variety of shared resources.

A competition was planned by Mrs J Taylor, which encouraged each form to design, create

and produce a Sun hat and coordinating sunglasses. There were some fantastic ideas and

as always the ‘fun’ element has been captured. Mrs Barlow’s form won for the 2nd year!...It

was a ‘SUM’ summer hat!

Year 7’s have also been involved with a competition that was accessible to all young people

across the country. They had to produce a 5 minute film that delivered the Sun Safe message.

Fantastic news........We have won!!

Learning today for our tomorrow 7

IDL Cloud is proving to be an

enjoyable programme with our

learners. Please encourage

learners to use it as much as

possible when at home because

it does have a positive impact

on the development of our

spellings.

To access the website visit

http://www.idlcloud.co.uk/

Learners have usernames and

passwords in their planner. IDL

Cloud can be also accessed on

IOS devices like IPads and

IPhones. The tool is a fantastic

resource that develops not only

spelling but independent

learning for our learners.

The Year 11 School Leavers Ball was held at Leigh Sports Village. It

was an amazing night with the boys smartly dressed in their suits

and the girls dressed in their beautiful prom dresses. Everyone

who attended enjoyed the three course meal which was followed

with everyone dancing at the disco.

Thank you to everyone who supported us and we wish all the year

11’s lots of luck in their future.

Mrs Penny

School Leavers Ball

Creating Eco-Warriors This final week of the term has been all about the

environment with a focus on upcycling, recycling and

reusing items we would normally throw away. Oakfield

High School & College prides itself in holding the

Eco-Schools Green Flag Award, held by only 5% of the

Eco-schools. This week has seen all of the department’s

use all of their curriculum skills to develop an

environmentally friendly take on things. They have

recycled cardboard boxes into Rubbish Monsters, plastic

milk bottles into pen holders and plant pots and used

waste paper to build the biggest bridge they can. The

learners and students have also created a song about the

environment and waste materials to make 'rubbish'

instruments.

Learning today for our tomorrow 8

Oakfield High School and College ¦ Long Lane ¦ Hindley Green ¦ Wigan ¦ WN2 4XA

Tel: 01942 776142

Email: enquires@admin.oakfield.wigan.sch.uk

Autumn Term 2017

Start Wednesday 6th September

Finish Friday 20th October

Half Term Holiday:

Monday 23rd October to Friday 27th October

Start Monday 30th October

Finish Friday 22nd December

Christmas Holiday:

Monday 25th December to Wednesday 3rd

January

Spring Term 2018

Start Thursday 4th January

Finish Friday 16th February

Half Term Holiday:

Monday 19th February to Friday 23rd February

Start Monday 26th February

Finish Wednesday 28th March

Easter Holiday:

Thursday 29th March to Friday 13th April

Summer Term 2018

Start Monday 16th April

Finish Friday 4th May

Bank Holiday: Monday 7th May

Start Tuesday 8th May

Finish Friday 25th May

Half Term Holiday:

Monday 28th May to Friday 1st June

Start Monday 4th June

Finish Wednesday 18th July

Oakfield's holiday list can also be

viewed via our website:

www.oakfield.wigan.sch.uk

School starts

Wednesday 6th September

at 8.25am

Together Everyone Achieves More We held our second annual offsite Sports day at Leigh Sports Village on Wednesday 19th June 2017.

The conditions on the day were excellent. During the festival of sports, students competed in five

carousel sports including Sprints, Slalom, Long Jump, Javelin and Target Throw. Students were

exceptional and showed they were all true sporting champions by never giving up, putting complete

effort into each event and really testing each other to improve on previous performances.

On the return to school, Mr Neacy, Mr Jameson & Mrs Carr held

a sporting champions assembly that included our special

guest Cory Paterson giving out prizes, certificates and medals

to each events sporting champions by year group.

Cory Paterson is a professional Australian Rugby League

player that plays for Leigh Centurions in the Super League.

Having Cory attend was the icing to the cake of a very special

day enjoyed by all learners, staff and supporting spectators.