Oakwood_Autumn_Term_2007 - Oakwood Park Grammar School

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Autumn Term 2007
oakwood
@oakwood
Oakwood Park Grammar School Newsletter

@oakwood
Autumn Term 2007
Oakwood Park Grammar School
Oakwood park
Maidstone
Kent ME16 8AH
Contents
@oakwood
Introduction
Student Voice
Robot Club
Zimbabwe Campaign
Moodle
Sixth Formers Pass On Local Anti-slavery Heritage to
Primary School Children.
Creative Partnerships
Open Evening
Steel Band
Acoustic Wonder
Qwerk
Ben Knowles Joins Kent County Youth Orchestra
Music Tie Awards
War Horse
College Work
Enrichment I.T
Champion Shooter
Maths Day
Sutton Valence Quiz
Cross Country
Year 9 Football
OPGS Student Chosen for National Olympic Training
Programme
Friends of OPGS Prize Draw
opgs.org
Any Questions?
Recycling

Introduction
It has been a packed term, full of activity and achievement by our students. As I write these
comments, there is the sound of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” thundering from the School Hall as
Stars in Their Eyes wannabes practice. Rehearsals for our end of term Christmas concert are
also well under way. These events have become a traditional part of our end of term
celebrations and I am sure they will continue to be well attended in the future.
There was a tremendous response to our shoe box appeal with well over 300 being collected;
can I thank Miss Tipp, Mrs Ford and the Sixth Form Prefects for their hard work in organising
this.
@oakwood
The first meeting of the Student Union Executive took place on Friday 30 th November in the
Library. I had the privilege of attending the meeting, along with Mr Keeling-Jones, Mr Housden,
and former Headteacher and Governor Mr Sandford. The contribution of the Student Executive
was extremely impressive and it made me feel very fortunate and privileged to be Headteacher
of a school with students who like their school and have positive suggestions on how to make it
better.
The school has successfully met the standards to be designated as a “Healthy School” and we
will be receiving this award shortly. The standards included areas such as nutrition, well-being
and physical activity. Can I thank Miss Robinson who co-ordinated the whole process as well as
the other teachers and students who helped support the application.
I hope you will enjoy the format of this end of term newsletter which gives an opportunity for a
more in depth look at the life of the school. This has been very much the brainchild of Ms Hern,
aided by Mr Rains and a list of other individuals. Thank you very much for your efforts.
Last of all, may I wish every student and their families a Happy Christmas and New Year.
The new term starts on Thursday 3 rd January 2008. Can I also remind you that Friday 11 th
January 2008 will be a Staff Training Day where pupils are not required to attend school.
K.W.Moody
Headteacher

Student Voice
Having worked hard over the last two terms, we have now set up a strong base for the student
voice. Every form now has two representatives to put forward the form’s ideas in the year
meetings. Each year also has two year representatives to meet with the full school council and
put these ideas forward. We have now met with all the form representatives 3 times in year
council meetings, allowing us to gain a huge range of ideas to be put forward to the full school
council. These ideas were put before the first full council meeting held on the 30 th November.
Sitting in on this were Mr Keeling-Jones, Mr Fuller, Mr Moody and Mr Housden. This was the first
real opportunity to develop these ideas.
With Mr Fuller, we are helping develop the KPI surveys, hoping to include a section involving the
welfare within the school, hoping to improve and work on this as well as the academic side at
Oakwood.
Being the first school council at Oakwood Park, it is important we set up a strong base that can
be worked on and developed as our successors implement their own ideas and thoughts. It has
been a little slow to get off the ground, but has now picked up and there is a huge amount of
enthusiasm from both the staff and the students. We are grateful for all the help we receive and
hope that the ideas of the students will make a difference in the very near future.
@oakwood
Cassie Holland and Thomas Entwistle
Purpose of the meeting
The meeting was held to discuss the school curriculum; the rewards & sanctions of the
school; and the developments of the KPIs used in the school.
The Curriculum
The meeting began with the discussion of the curriculum. From earlier meetings, where
only representatives of each individual year attended, the subject that was being
suggested was Food Technology. Food technology was proposed as a subject to be
discussed by every year group in the school and the opinion of the school council is that
it is a subject that will be thoroughly enjoyed by the pupils and will be very useful.
Mr Moody addressed that the main problem with introducing this subject would be the
cost of getting the supplies and maybe even a new room to do the subject in. As a result,
several members of the council began to come up with ideas to solve the problem.
Mr Keeling-Jones suggested that mini burners from the Duke of Edinburgh course could
be used and other ideas were that small groups could be sent down to the kitchen to
use the equipment with permission of the catering staff, food could be prepared at home
with instructions and that partnerships with local schools could be made to use their
facilities.

Other subjects that students on the council were keen to introduce were languages.
The introduction of possible Japanese, Chinese, Italian and classical Greek were discussed.
The biggest drawback though, is the ability to find teachers who can speak these
languages to teach to the students and the ability of the school to pay all of the extra staff
needed. Along with these subjects, Drama, Business studies and Politics were proposed as
extra GCSE options.
The topic of the transition from KS3 to KS4 and KS4 to KS5 was also discussed.
Possible GCSE option afternoons were discussed to allow pupils to know what each
subject consists of in detail at GCSE level instead of the current system of information
booklets and an evening for the parents. Another suggestion was the sitting in of students
on GCSE and A level lessons as well as an introduction day, very much like the day for
moving from Primary to Secondary school.
The current enrichment days were discussed as ways to introduce new subjects, for
teachers to tell students why they take certain subjects and what qualifications can be
achieved with those subjects. The idea of mixed forms was put forward for enrichment
days where students from different years are mixed into forms.
Although the subject is already in the current curriculum, Outdoor Games was a point of
deliberation. Mr Housden told the council about a proposal for two period outdoor
games lessons. This was welcomed by the lower and middle school members of the
council and many students will be excited at the prospect of longer Games lessons as
much of the time is spent changing and getting to the field. Also, the introduction of new
sports and more options in sports for KS3 was suggested but the budget and the
amount of equipment available meant that this would be difficult to do.
@oakwood
For the six form, Outdoor games was still a point to be debated. The two suggestions
were Outdoor games was to be put in as a compulsory subject, but this would be hard
to implement. The second and less controversial option discussed is giving six formers a
free period in which or do sporting activity or sensible community activity. With this idea,
six formers will do which ever activity they choose to do and then report to Mrs Tipp
about what they are doing in the designated period.
A common complaint from the year meetings that was repeated in the council meeting
was a lack of PSHE. The subject of PSHE is vital for life skills and emotional well being for
secondary school students. The idea put forward by six form members of the council
was that PSHE was taught by or involved older students as it is easier to relate to the
subject from a student’s mouth than it is from a teacher’s.
Rewards & Sanctions
When discussing rewards and sanctions to be used in school the idea of trips for those
who behave well was introduced. Although this could be quite expensive, it is a good
incentive to get students to work. On the other hand though it was said that this may be
immoral and money, possessions and trips should not be what makes people want to
work and be the best at the things they do. After thinking of this side of the argument,
book tokens as a prize was introduced so that children that did well in school could then
use the tokens to buy reading books or books for school. Another idea was a wall of
achievement or using the television screens to put up peoples achievements. On a wall of
achievement, names or handprints could be engraved or drawn on as part of the wall to
show the success of the student.

The merit system was something that was challenged by the council as “ineffective” after
year 7 and 8. What was suggested to improve the system was to introduce merit and
debits into a house system (A which is written about in the AOB). By giving a student a
merit for doing good work or improving behaviour or work standard, it would go to their
house not just for themselves and using debits when a student does something bad as it
goes against their team and will give them a feeling of guilt that works as a good and fair
punishment.
KPI Development and use within The School
The current KPI system in school is currently not working at a level where the students
know what improvements are being made. The results of the KPI need to be shown to
students and let students know what they mean and what will be done. An improvement
was suggested for the comment boxes was that there was a comment box under each
question with a possible “because” to get students to think. This way, more sensible
comments will be put in on why things are good and why some things are bad. Form
times were being discussed as a possible way to talk about the KPI and get some face to
face questions done for the survey and help get more information.
Open Forum
The meeting was concluded by discussing student observers and how it could be
implemented into the school. This way the students could give feedback on how the
teachers conducted their lessons. The only problem with this idea though was the
control of suitable criticism to use.
@oakwood
Items and date for next meeting
A firm date wasn’t decided on, but the next meeting has to be before the 11 th of January
2008. This is so that the new curriculum can be discussed.
AOB
The introduction of Houses was an idea that was accepted and built upon by the school
council. The first thing we considered was how to identify students with their houses.
The idea of badges was thought of as a bad idea as it is currently being used at MGS and
is unpopular with the students. The idea of a coloured strip on the blazer was thought of
as a good idea but the best idea and most popular was a change in tie for different houses
for example, a different colour horse on the tie. The use of Houses would also help
younger students get to know some older students and have people to look up to and
look for help from in school. This will introduce a “brother system” in which students are
put in pairs or groups with people in different years. The most interesting thing about the
idea though, is a new competitive edge in school that may increase results and
achievement across schools as people work harder to earn points for their house which
will go towards a house cup. Points from school work, sports day and other activities will
go towards the competition so that at the end of the year, house champions can be
announced. The televisions can be used to show the standings in the house cup at any
given time.

Robot Club
Jamie Russell
Recently one of our more unusual teams took part in a county wide event. The team I’m
talking about is the ORCs Robot Club. We build and program robots to complete a series
of tasks on a large table, the surprising thing is that all of these robots and challenges are
made of LEGO.
@oakwood
The competition was held at the University of Kent. We had plenty of time to continue
tinkering with our robot, which is a good thing as it could only complete one challenge
out of over ten.
With our first attempt at the ‘table of challenges’ we managed to do 4 tasks which took
us to fourth place.
We then had to do a presentation about electricity production and usage within the
school. In this we showed how energy is produced via induction and spoke about our
eco-schools work. This, to our excitement, took us to joint second place.
In the third challenge we had to put a model water turbine in the sea. The robot decided
to crush it against a house, losing its bumper in the process. The robot also knocked over
trees and a coal truck, pushed a truck into the sea and threw a hydro-electric dam and
power lines over a power station. This dragged us back to seventh place!
We just got into the next round in which we lost with dignity to a good team.
We planted trees, put up wind turbines, placed a wave turbine, hooked up power lines,
lowered the solar panels on a satellite and replaced a dirty petrol truck with a clean
hydrogen car.
So a good day was had by all who attended. There was a medal and trophy ceremony at
the end, with all participants winning medals. We came 4 th out 15 competitors!

Zimbabwe
Campaign
Mark Magonde joined Oakwood Park
this year. He made an immediate
impression by starting a petition
demanding that the U.K. government
intervene in the situation in
Zimbabwe.
@oakwood
With the help of the Politics and I.T. departments, Mark and two students from 6A have
been using the school’s I.T facilities to publicise the Zimbabwe campaign. Below he
outlines the reasons why he feels moved to raise the profile of Zimbabwe.
I was born in Zimbabwe 18 years ago, and I moved to the UK (Eastbourne) in December
1999. I’ve lived here for half of my life, thus I feel I have really adopted this culture as my
own. But I feel that I still have my roots firmly in Zimbabwe. I still have a lot of family there.
I went back to Zimbabwe in the summer of 2006 for the first time. I was amazed at how
things were so different, so bad. The problems, the corruption, the scandals, the ill
treatment, the injustice… I found out that is was all true. I know I’m being overly poetic,
but the sense of fear and death is actually putrid.
In Zimbabwe, I didn’t have the power to do anything. All I could do was to give money to
the very poor in the streets, or give the food that was in my hands to those who were
hungry. I wasn’t hungry. I’m not hungry. Those people, I felt, knew what hunger was.
Now that I am here, I feel a sense of duty- and obligation- to help people there. I keep
reading about the problems that are worsening. It is as if the idea of helping those less
fortunate is ubiquitous, yet people aren’t up to it, or they don’t want to actively do
something. That is what I want to change.

Consequently, I have been lobbying for support, I have written to Ann Widdecombe.
I have also written a letter that is going to all the ME16 schools. I will deliver them myself.
I have been given a ‘carte blanche’ by the head to write these letters. I haven’t had any
responses yet.I have all the signatures from the sixth form prefects and teachers in my
school. I have full confidence that the other ME16 schools will support my cause.
‘MOODLE’ is a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) that I use to write about the progress
about the petitions I am doing, putting bulletins and information about Zimbabwe. It’s
used by the Government and Politics classes. They can then come to me if they have any
further ideas about how they can help me in the petition.
I have a copy of ‘East Magazine’ about the fashion show my friend Lizzie and I organised
for Fairtrade Eastbourne. (The mayor of Eastbourne attended the event, and the local
press covered it.) Since then, Eastbourne has gained ‘Fairtrade status’.)
See: www.fairtradeeastbourne.co.uk - There is a picture of me under ‘Fairtrade Fashion’.
I am going to continue lobbying for support from MPs to help Zimbabwe. Firstly,
campaigning for all countries that have links with Zimbabwe to fight for fair elections and
to bring back democracy. Secondly, I want to raise awareness about Zimbabwe- and the
rest of the world- to the youth. (I choked when Mr Moody told me that some people in
the school didn’t even know where Zimbabwe was!) It’s a fact that our youth aren’t
aware of global issues that touch us.
The thing that we need to address immediately is the President attending the UE-Africa
Summit. I think more countries should boycott the event if the president is coming.
We need to make sure that countries that aren’t democracies know where we stand.
Portugal should not grant him a VISA.
If you would like to find out more about the campaign or can offer Mark some advice,
please go to the Zimbabwe forum on Moodle.
@oakwood
Moodle
Moodle is now being used for a large number of 6th form subjects. The courses have
been set up and work is posted by teachers onto the courses.
Students can then access the work once they have
enrolled on the course. Some teachers are also
using other features such as assignments where
students can post their work onto Moodle, and
forums to encourage online written contributions
from students.
OPGS Moodle is located at www.oakweb.org
where students and teachers can create their
own accounts. Most courses are then locked by
enrollment keys to protect the courses and
comply with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
act.

Sixth Formers
Pass On Local
Anti-slavery
Heritage to
Primary
School
Children.
Sixth Formers worked with the History Department to run a history and drama
workshop at Boughton Monchelsea Primary School exploring the life and work of East
Farleigh slave abolitionist William Wilberforce.
@oakwood
Year 6 pupils used historical sources to
investigate the campaign led by Wilberforce to
end the horrors of the slave trade 200 years
ago. Some of the activities run by the sixth
formers involved recreating spiritual music
from the time, exploring African cultural
heritage, using the internet to research today’s
slave trade and re-enacting scenes from
Wilberforce’s life based on historical sources.
Ms Hern, one of the teachers who organized
the workshops said ‘Our Sixth Formers were
amazed at how talented the Year 6 pupils were!
They found being teachers for the day really
fun and really nerve-wracking.’
Wilberforce campaigned with the Kent
abolitionists and put an end to the slave trade
in 1807. Wilberforce’s son, Robert Wilberforce,
was the vicar at East Farleigh church and the
family’s grave stones lie in the church yard.
Wilberforce’s picture can be seen in the vestry. Contact Ms Lena Mercer at East Farleigh
church for details.

Creative
Partnerships
@oakwood
A selected group of 15 students from years 7-12 are working in mixed age groups on
Enrichment days with two creative practitioners Gregg Stobbs and Dom Lemoussu
producing media-based interactive art installations on the subject of memories.
The 4 groups of pupils have been brainstorming the idea of Interactive Memories by
going on ‘Memory Hunts’ around the school and by staging ‘Happenings’.
One group papered over a block of lockers with slogans on the subject of world peace
and another created a crime scene. Both groups taped the reactions of other students as
research into the idea of interaction.
The project has been aimed at developing the creative process and bringing the school
together as a community. Pupils have been given a free reign to develop their response to
the idea of an Interactive Memory System. As Oakwood Park is an I.T. Specialist School,
the students have a wide selection of resources to choose from over the next 10
sessions.
So far their ideas for the final product range from a ‘memory room’ to a series of
overlapping movement sensitive films. The school community will have to wait until March
to experience the pupils’ Interactive Memory Systems.

Open Evening
Open evening was again a great success. The school seemed to ‘buzz’ with excitement and,
as always, our pupils did us proud, whether as guides or working in classrooms.
This year the Head Boy and Head Girl gave short presentations during the two
Headteacher talks. They spoke very well and with great professionalism, but also with
sincerity.
Around 500 prospective parents took prospectuses, with a further 150 being given out
during our three Open Mornings and so we expect to be considerably over-subscribed
when first preferences are revealed.
@oakwood
Steel Band
The Coconut Grove steel band have been very busy this year.
One of their most successful
local functions was at the
opening of the new hall at
Boughton Monchelsea School.
They entertained special
guests, cricketer Geraint Jones
and cartoonist Graham Clarke
after whom the new hall was
named.
They also played at the
Athenium on Pall Mall and at
the recently renovated Port
Lympne Primary School.

Acoustic Wonder
Rob Holland P10
Fred Clark is a great performer and an enthusiastic songwriter in the 6 th form at Oakwood.
He has released countless songs over his two albums and many people in and out of OPGS
love to listen to them.
Fred’s songwriting began in year 5 and 6 when he used to write songs about how he was
feeling and situations that he was in. Whatever his emotions were when he returned from
school, he would express them in music.
When he started at Oakwood, he joined the Junior Jazz band where he played rhythm
guitar but stopped his song writing. He continued this until year 8 when the Jazz band
stopped and he joined the choir as a singer.
@oakwood
It wasn’t until year 9 that he started his songwriting again. He had to write a song for one of
the tasks in the music course. Fred found it much easier to write as his guitar playing had
improved with guitar lessons from Vic Hyland. Over the years, he also taught himself piano,
drums, keyboard and bass guitar. He was bought a 32 track recording system for his PC so
that he could record and edit his songs.
He has played at the OPGS music concerts in front of over 200 people but prefers St.
Nicholas’s church, as he gets to play for longer. He also plans to play in Maidstone and would
like to appear at the River Festival and Peace One Day.
Fred hopes to do very well in his A levels so that he can choose what he can do in the
future. He would love to be signed to a label and do music as a career. If this doesn’t work
then he would like to go to university and study music technology. He says he is ‘open to
lots of ideas but his job has to be with music.’
Fred thinks that he has a good chance of being attached to a record label in the future and
I wish him the best of luck. I hope the students of Oakwood Park think the same.
Fred also owns the domain www.fredclark.co.uk but it is currently under construction.
When it is finished it will be an excellent site to visit. In the meantime you can visit
www.purevolume.com/fredclark. It contains several full length recordings of his songs as
well as an in depth biography.

Qwerk
Rob Holland P10
Qwerk are an alternative band with a bit of Rock thrown in for extra ‘Qwerkeyness’ in
S10 at OPGS. They are all highly skilled and experienced musicians who stand out from
everyone else.
The name Qwerk was Stefan’s idea, as he had always wanted to play in a band called
Qwerk since an early age.
Stefan, Alec and Charlie originally formed the band along with two other members.
It wasn’t until these members left and Chris was heard singing on a school trip that he
was asked to join. At their first practice session Stefan had never seen a drum kit before
and he just wanted to try it out. The others were all receiving instrumental lessons from
their teachers and Chris had been singing for many years.
The band has seen each other’s musical skills develop over the three years they have
been together. They have written four well-developed songs in this time and have
rearranged many covers. They always practice for nearly one and a half hours in the drum
room after school on Tuesdays. Chris comes up with the lyrics and tune of a song and
then the others will all put in their parts. Charlie with lead guitar, Stefan with drums and
Alec with bass.
@oakwood
Chris’s lyrics are very strong as he writes about things that are meaningful to him and
things he feels strongly about. He says, “They are all meaningful apart from ‘Symptoms’,
which Stefan and I wrote in five minutes before he had to catch the bus – he missed the
bus.”
Chris’s favourite song is ‘You’re Always’ as it means the most to him and the other band
members like the songs that involve their most complex instrumental parts.
Their music is different as they are so young. They remember making their first few songs
and Chris’s sister commenting on how professional they sounded for their age.
They also like to stress that everyone is equal in Qwerk – which is unlike most other
bands where the lead singers often take most of the credit.
They can be seen regularly at OPGS school concerts where they play a couple of songs.
They also play at Nettlested Village Hall. All the band members love playing live because of
the experience and the ‘adrenaline rush.’
Qwerk’s plans for the future are to write more of their own songs so they don’t have to
play as many covers. I wish them the best of luck with this.
Listen to a Qwerk song from the OPGS website at www.opgs.org/qwerk.wma

Ben Knowles Joins
Kent County Youth
Orchestra
Ben is well known in school as a talented musician. His talents have been recognised by
Kent County Youth Orchestra which has asked him to play the viola and violin with them.
Ben was spotted while playing in their summer course where young musicians work with
a well known conductor on a piece for performance.
Ben has been playing the violin for 13 years and has aspirations to play in a professional
orchestra once he has finished his higher education.
@oakwood
Music Tie Awards
Congratulations to the talented musicians who received Music Ties in the awards
ceremony this term.
In Year 13 ties went to:
Ben Burton and Ben Knowles, both music prefects.
James Gill and Lee Woodger, both Tech. Prefects,
Tom Entwistle, Anthony Harris, Sam Weller, Ralph Dyer,
Charlie Hibbins and Tom Slater.
Year 12 ties were awarded to: Sam Burton, Mathew Sweeting, Matthew Part and
Fred Clark.
Year 11 ties went to:
Alex Brabyn, Harri Glazier, Alex Weller, Callum Glazier and
Tom Murton.
Year 10 ties were awarded to Michael Turner, Daniel Crittenden, Daniel Stearn, Elliot
Berger and Michael Smith. Sam Slaughter in Year 9 received the only tie in his year group.

War Horse
As part of their Enrichment Programme Year 8, and some year 12 students, were taken by
the English Department to see War Horse. Daniel Green has written a review of the play
for this newsletter.
The National Theatre’s amazing adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Warhorse book into a
stage production is certainly one of the best theatre productions I have seen for a while.
Full marks go to the National Theatre for putting on this amazing spectacle.
@oakwood
From the actors to the puppets to the music, the production is pretty much faultless.
The South African puppet company Handspring has made the puppets, and they are a
real credit to the company and of course the puppet operators, you really do forget that
they are not real horses, they have pulled it off so well! They are operated by three
people, each person with a different part of the horse’s body to move and control.
One person controls the head movements, another controls the leg and foot movements,
with another person controlling the chest and body area of the horse. Once again, you
forget that the people are there and they are not real horses.
As you may know, one of the theatre’s main attributes is their rotating stage. It is used in
many places in Warhorse, mainly to represent the horses walking, at one point half of it
even rises up to give the effect of a trench!
A brief outline of the plot: Albert’s horse Joey gets sold to the cavalry and sent to France
ready for the First World War. He ends up working for both the British and Kaiser.
Albert runs away from home on a mission to find his beloved horse. To see what happens
and whether he finds his horse you will just have to go and see the show.
I would recommend this show to anyone who loves a great theatre production.
Of course it will be of special interest to anyone interested in Michael Morpurgo or
horses in WW1, but really, you do not need to have any knowledge of either to enjoy the
show, as it is simply astounding.
The production gives you a real sense of what it would have been like being a soldier or
horse in the war. The show lasts for about two and a half hours with a twenty-minute
interval. It is a marvellous production and I would say that if you only go and see one
show this winter, make it Warhorse.

Champion
Shooter
Robert Goble became Junior .410 World Champion shooter at the finals in Wales on
Saturday 7th July. Robert (13), who has only been shooting for a year, said “It didn’t really
sink in until I got home and saw all the flags my dad had put up!”
He was sponsored by West Kent Shooting School and supported by his uncle, the gun
license holder, who keeps the gun in a secure cabinet. Robert, who wants to train as an
armed response officer, said he liked “the responsibility of owning a gun and using it
correctly.”
College Work
We have run a number of classes in local primary schools. Some of these have included
using the Drawing Toolbar in Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint to create images.
We have also run 3 after school sessions for local Cubs groups; around 43 cubs have
now completed their IT badges!
@oakwood
We are also running an Adults course where a number of parents and staff are working
towards their OCR Nationals qualification in ICT.
Enrichment I.T
Our Enrichment Activities in I.T. have been very successful, especially the year 8 and ICT
enrichment day focusing on graphics. Students completed 3 activities:
· Create a War of the Worlds poster using Macromedia Fireworks
· Create an image in the style of Julian Opie using Macromedia Fireworks
· Create stylised graphical text of film names using Macromedia Freehand
Visit from Martin Weeks of BJW Computing Ltd to talk to Year 12 students about how his
company uses and relies on ICT to run their business both nationally and internationally.

Maths Day
This is a firmly established annual event on our Specialist College calendar. It is an
opportunity for primary school children from our feeder schools to have fun, meet
children from other schools and experience a ‘secondary’ styled day, moving from class
to class and working in mixed groups.
167 Y6 pupils from our partner primary schools attended the Y6 Maths and IT Day on
Thursday 8th November. The main schools attending were Barming, St Michael’s,
Wateringbury and Mereworth, plus a small group of children from West Borough.
They were involved in a variety of activities as part of the World of Maths road-show and
did some maths problem-solving involving triangles and angles. In IT they worked on
animating shapes. The quiz in the hall at the end became very exciting and loud!
It was all great fun, the children thoroughly enjoyed their day.
@oakwood
Many thanks to the Kent
Messenger, who have kindly
allowed us to reproduce their
article on our Maths Challenge.

Sutton Valence Quiz
Mr Thomson & Mrs Thomson.
Congratulations to the boys in Y7 and Y8 who represented Oakwood Park at the Sutton
Valence Quiz on the evening of Thursday 8 th November 2007.
The competitions were very tightly fought this year and both of the OPGS teams did
extremely well despite some challenging questions and problems to solve.
Twenty teams entered the Y7 competition and scoring was frantic. At one stage any one
of the top 10 teams could have won but eventually the team from Derwent Lodge ran
away with the U12 trophy scoring a magnificent 90 out of a possible 100 points.
Our team finished in a very creditable joint 7 th place with 55 points.
Seventeen teams took part in the Y8 competition. Here the scoring started off at a much
slower pace and was not such a high scoring match. The team from OPGS were always in
contention, however, two teams tied for first place on 60 points with St Edmonds
snatching the U13 honours in a tense tie-break with Kings Canterbury.
The OPGS team finished close behind in joint 5 th place on 50 points.
Y7 (U12)Team
C7 Andrew Bailey
P7 Thomas Scoley
P7 Zachary Simmons
T7 Toby Funnell
S7 Jaymes Randall (Reserve)
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Y8 (13)Team
C8 Sam Greig
S8 Aaron Wilsher
P8 Jonathan Rimmer
P8 Jamie Powell
We would like to thank all the boys and their families for coming along and supporting
them. In particular a big thank you to Jaymes who was the reserve for the evening.
Despite not being required for the team he supported the others enthusiastically and
kept a detailed record of their progress throughout the competition.
Some example questions for you to try:
· 2007 ¸ 11, 2007 ¸ 13. What is the product of the remainders?
· The doctor gives you 15 pills to take, one every hour starting at mid-day.
At what time will you take the last pill?
· All the pages in a small book are numbered. If there are 31 digits in total, how
many pages in the booklet?
· What is the sum of all the factors of 2007?
· 14 legs, 7 tails, 20 eyes. How many goats, fish and horses?
· What was the date of the 1000 th day after 31 st December 1983?

Cross CountryAndrew Watkin Year 9
On Thursday 15 th November 2007, Oakwood Cross Country Runners from Years 7, 8, 9
and 11 enjoyed great success at the Maidstone Schools’ Cross Country Race in Mote
Park. The conditions were perfect for running with little wind and a moderate
temperature. Out of the 18 runners that we had competing, 7 managed to qualify for the
Kent Cross Country Championships to be held at Somerhills School, whilst a further 3
are in their respective reserve teams.
The Year 7 Boys’ race ended with a 1 st place team position and 5 runners qualifying to
represent Maidstone in the Kent Championships. Sean Adams was Oakwood’s best
placed finisher coming home in 2 nd position only 3 seconds behind the winner.
James Evans and Daniel Melvin also had excellent top 5 finishes. Simon Waterworth and
Jaymes Randall also qualified for the Kent Race so well done to them. Freddie Muir and
Simon Allen also enjoyed top 20 finishes. Well Done Boys!
In a race dominated by boys who compete for Tonbridge Athletics Club outside of
school, Oakwood’s Junior Boys Team finished in a respectable 3 rd position with two of
their runners qualifying for the race at Somerhills. Andrew Watkin and Max Jones finished
in 9 th and 10 th positions respectively with Sam Gibbons finishing in 15 th, a reserve
position. Joel Jennings also did well in the race.
Callum Johnstone was Oakwood’s lone competitor in the Intermediate Boys race.
This didn’t stop him finishing in a very good 15 th place, enough to qualify as a reserve for
the Kent Championships. Although a lack of runners stopped our school being given a
team place in this race, Callum still did extremely well!
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Full Results:
2 – Sean Adams 9 – Andrew Watkin
15 – Callum Johnstone 4- James Evans
10 – Max Jones 5 – Daniel Melvin
15 – Sam Gibbons 10- Simon Waterworth
17 – Joel Jennings 12 – Jaymes Randall
35- James Delaney 14 – Simon Allen
38 – Joe Atkinson 19 – Freddie Muir
65 – Joe Goody 27 – Oliver Burton
28 – Miles Palmer 30 – Thomas House
Year 9 Football Andrew Watkin Year 9
On Saturday 3rd November, the Year 9 Football Team played a friendly against Simon
Langton from Canterbury at home on the OPGS School Fields.
An understrength OPGS team played well against Simon Langton and the scoreline did
not reflect the gameplay. Sam Holland and Ben Collins-Smith made their debuts for the
team and not only enjoyed the experience but played well too.
Oakwood’s crisp passing was not rewarded with a goal but everyone agreed that the
team did as well as they could!

OPGS
Student
Chosen
for
National
Olympic
Training
Programme
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Morgan Hellen, has had the privilege of being one of 160 young sports people from
Britain to be selected to take part in the National Orientation Camp.
The aim of the camp is to prepare talented young sports people for the personal,
sporting and academic and vocational challenges past compulsory education and beyond
2012. The NTOC will bring together young people selected by Governing Bodies for
Rowing, Canoeing, Sailing, Triathlon and Cycling.
It is a fully paid for residential camp where students will receive individual athlete training
and conditioning programmes.
Morgan was put forward by the Amateur Rowing Association because he has already had
considerable success. His greatest achievement has been to win a gold medal at National
Championships, a Silver at BIRC 2006 and a bronze in 2007 at BIRC.
His sporting ambitions for this year are to represent GB in GB vs France, to win the
National Schools Championships and the National Championships. His ultimate sporting
aim is to win gold medals at the Olympics.

Recycling
The school has now become a Silver Award
Ecoschool. This is due to the work of our Senior
Environmental Prefects and the ‘Recyclers’ in Year 8.
These students, wearing their ‘Woodland Trust’
badges, collect waste paper from around the school
for recycling. They were treated to an outing to the
new Greenwich Planetarium to thank them for their
commitment.
The school also recycles mobile phones and printer
cartridges. Pupils can bring them in to Ms Hern and
receive merits!
Friends of OPGS Prize Draw
In February 2008 we will be having our annual prize draw. The Friends would be grateful
for any donations of good or services. Should you wish to make donation please bring
into school. Mr Housden, Mr Solly or Mrs Hubbard will be able take your donation.
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Please email opgsfriends@oakwoodpark.kent.sc.uk should you wish to donate a service
or ring the school and speak to Mrs Hubbard. Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Hubbard, Friends secretary.
Any Questions?
The school will be hosting Any Questions on Friday May 16 th 2008 at 8pm.
If you would like to have a go at putting your questions to Jonathan Dimbleby and his
panel or would just like to hear their answers, then get your free tickets from the school
office.
opgs.org
The school website has been revamped and will now include, among other things,
information about our Specialist Status, weekly and termly events, extra-curricular
activities, examples of excellent work and student-run websites like that for History and
Politics. www.opgs.org