Friday 10th February 2017

ISSUE 20

20th Feb

Y13 PPE2 ( with Study

Leave) begins

21st Feb No Event

22nd Feb No Event

23rd Feb No Event

24th Feb

Y13 PPE2 Complete

Dear Parents and Carers,

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that Mr Douglas (Assistant Headteacher) has

been appointed to become Deputy Headteacher from Easter. Mr Douglas has worked at

Oaks Park for eleven years and will be replacing Mr Dutch who after fourteen years of

truly dedicated service to the school will be retiring. Mr Dutch will be very well known

to our families and will be missed. However, Mr Douglas will be an excellent

replacement and has clearly demonstrated his commitment to the school community

over the years.

I wish you all a restful and peaceful half-term break.

Ms JL Hamill Headteacher

Mr Douglas

U/13 Girls Festival at Upminster RFU

This is the second festival that the u/13 girls team have attended, we had slightly less players this time round but the effort and

commitment of those in attendance could not be questioned. Their first game was against Clacton County High School where both

teams took a while to switch on defensively which led to a high scoring game for both teams. The girls took on Eastlea in their

second game which saw some excellent tackling and trying scoring from Teneiyah Henry & Godwina Zola, who were outstanding

role models to the younger players with their positive runs and strength throughout the tournament. The girls went into the last

game against Clacton Coastal Academy with the principle target to work on their teamwork within defence and this was really

clear to see from the sideline. Overall this was a great afternoon of rugby where the girls came away with experience and

confidence that they can take into their game against Robert Clack next week. The next tournament is the Essex Finals at

Thurrock on 22nd March. Training is every Tuesday after school 3:30-4:30pm.

Ms Tricker

Oaks Park Year 10 thoroughly enjoyed their first day in Austria. They visited the mediaeval

city of Friesach and had a mediaeval style meal complete with court jester and knights. On

Monday we went to school through the snow. The students gave a lovely presentation to different classes about our school and Redbridge. We then had cooking lesson making

desserts. On Tuesday the Students have been preparing traditional Austrian three course

meals with their Austrian and Dutch peers. The recipes will be published in the project cook

book. Please check the school website and twitter for photos.

Mr J Hawthorne

Oaks Park Bullfrogs 22-23 Seven Kings

The Oaks Park Bullfrogs were within millimetres of a great victory against Seven

Kings in this month's Hans Woyda fixture. Four debutants started the match, and

took a little while to get on the scoreboard. Some nice mental Maths at the end of

Round 3 ensured that they only went into the Team Round 6-3 down, but the sixth

formers will have been frustrated to have been so close to 2 extra points in

Geometry. The Team Round was a little careless and Seven Kings opened up their

lead to 13-6; Oaks Park knew that they would have to fight hard in their favoured

second half.

The calculators round went back to the times of old, as Oaks Park almost picked

up a clean sweep of points, to rebuild the team's confidence. The algebra round

was all about algebraic graphs, and the Bullfrogs were superb. Each member of

the team picked up points and the score closed back up: 21-18 to Seven Kings.

The final round is a race round, and Oaks Park have won this round in both their

opening fixtures this year, but it has been too late to win the match. To secure

their first victory of the year, they would need two more questions than Seven

Kings. It started well as Rai picked up the first question, but Seven Kings replied

immediately. Raghav scored the third question, and Oaks Park knew that one

more question would win them the match. The next five questions came and

went without a winner though, and Oaks Park fell tantalisingly short.

Hearty congratulations go to Rai Bansal, Deeplata Jha, Raghav Sharma and

Robert Batey for performing so well and getting the school's second highest

score since January 2014.

Mr A Bissett - Maths Department

On Tuesday 31st January, thirty Year 10 Students took part in the Jack Petchey

Speak-out challenge workshop. They were involved in different workshops

throughout the day, where they developed valuable skills for public speaking.

Students had to prepare a speech about something they were passionate about

and present it to the group. They did incredibly well; we had a range of topics,

from why education is important to why we should not judge one another.

However, we could only pick one student to represent Oaks Park High School at

the regional finals that are going to be held on the 22nd March 2017, at The

Palmer Catholic Academy. Congratulations to Mia Olagbaju 10W, who wrote an

inspirational speech about ‘life and the hardships it presents’.

Good luck Mia!

Ms Pillai- English Department

Jack Petchey Speak-out Challenge

Ski Trip 2017

On Friday 27th January, 30 students set off on a coach bound for Switzerland for

the annual ski trip. After a short drive to Dover, we boarded the ferry to Calais.

Fortunately, the ferry crossing was very smooth. Once we landed at Calais, we

settled down for a nice overnight sleep. We travelled through France, Belgium,

Luxembourg, back into France and finally made it into Switzerland. The last few

miles were exciting as we were driving up a very steep road full of hairpin bends.

We stayed in Torgon which is in Switzerland. The first two days we skied in

Torgon, then we drove every day to Chatel which is in France. The mountains were

beautiful and massive. We had no idea that the Alps were so massive. The skiing

was fantastic and everybody made great progress. There were lots of funny

moments and some great wipe-outs! We had special awards every night for

"Crash of the Day", " Crazy Moment" etc.

Our evening entertainment consisted of a Roller Disco, Rock-Climbing, Dodge-Ball,

a visit to the Thermal Baths and another Disco on the last evening. On the last day

we went to a fantastic Aquapark where there were some brilliant waterslides. One

had a trapdoor with a vertical drop which was very, very scary!

A fantastic trip and one which we would thoroughly recommend to any student.

Thank you to all the staff on the trip and a special thank you to Mr Todd who

organised the trip.

Mr D Dutch Deputy Headteacher

U/13 Girls Rugby vs Robert Clack

On Monday 6th February the u/13 Girls Rugby Team travelled to Dagenham RFC to play Robert Clack. We were short of a few

players and Robert Clack are lucky enough to have a big squad so we used some of their players and continued to play an 8-a-

side game. Robert Clack are an experienced side who play some great rugby so it was a good experience for our girls to play

alongside them. The girls showed some good development over the course of the game and they too were playing some good

rugby by the end. Romani stood out as our main try scorer with great feet and excellent running lines and Katelin made some

excellent carries and tackles, putting her body on the line!

Training is every Tuesday after school with an RFU coach - All ages, girls & boys welcome.

Ms Tricker

PE Teacher & Director of House Development

Most Able Programme

Congratulations to Mia Olagbaju in 10W for being the first

to solve our very first Challenge!

Also a big well done for those who also completed the challenge::

Haniyyah Adeel 7I

Natheesa Gankatharan 7I

Musa Awan 8N

Jaheim Forrester 8N

Junaid Butt 9Y

Krishna Nair 9P

Omair Ali 8N

Milan Patel 8N

Joshua Fage 7I

All of you are on the leaderboard!

Look out for our new challenge this week!

Mr Fletcher

Chinese Visit

Last week Oaks Park was home to 22 Year 8 & 9 students from Hangzhou Guancheng Middle School

in Guangming Xiang near Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. It is in a small city of one million people near the

coast between Shanghai and Beijing.

Mr Xu Zhiqiang, Ms Zhang Huiqun, and Ms Tong Yanna were their teachers. This follows on from a

previous visit by students from Xian last July.

Each Chinese student had one of our Year 8 or Year 9 students to look after them and they spent the week

attending lessons, breaks and lunches following a Year 8 or 9 timetable. Both the Chinese and Oaks Park

students and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the visit and our visitors were very impressed with the

school. On Wednesday their students met our students who had previously visited Beijing for a cultural

exchange of experiences. On Friday we had a special assembly where certificates were presented and the

Chinese students gave a memorable performance of songs and dance.

We hope to develop further links with our visiting school and possibly host another visit of students next

July.

Mr J Hawthorne

Economics Trip to Mercer

A group of year 12 and year 13 Economics students were given the opportunity to visit Mercer for

an insight day on Thursday the 26th of January. Mercer is a global human resources consultancy

company specialising in talent, health, retirement, wealth and investments.

The students were given an insight into the different sectors of the business with particular

reference to Mercer’s role in the financial markets. Year 13 students are currently studying the

financial markets which made the day highly informative and should give the students the

opportunity to apply some of their new knowledge into their studies.

One of the most valuable elements of the day was gaining first-hand experience from Mercer

employees that joined the firm through the apprenticeship scheme and through the graduate

programme. This gave the students integral information into the application process and the

attributes required to succeed in a professional role.

The students were praised for their conduct throughout the day and for asking intelligent

questions. Mercer hopes to maintain links with the school and has extended an invitation for these

students to apply for work experience at Mercer in July.

Mr Barnes

Subject Leader for Economics

Spanish Theatre Trip

The MFL department took fifty year 8 and year 9 linguists to see a Spanish play called

‘¿Cuántos me gustas tienes? (How many Facebook ‘likes’ do you have?) at Forest School.

The actors spoke entirely in Spanish but our pupils were surprised to discover that they

understood everything! Two Oaks Park pupils, Dilan Luhar in 8I and Alexandra Lupu in 8B

were invited to perform on stage where they were given instructions in Spanish – they stole

the show! Pupils enjoyed having the opportunity to see Spanish being used in its real

context and we were impressed with their enthusiasm and high level of comprehension.

Ms Moffat MFL Department

Homework Club Food Technology

I will be running a Homework Club in E2 on Wednesdays after school until 4:30 and a

Lunchtime Homework Club from 1:20 until 2pm on Thursdays. Both are starting the first

week back after Half Term.

Ms Roffey

Word of the Week

Crepuscular

(Adjective)

Meaning:

Resembling or relating to twilight.

In a sentence:

“As the sun slowly sank into the horizon, she watched

the bats dance across the crepuscular sky .”

Quote of the Week

“When life gives you a

hundred reasons to cry,

show life that you have

a thousand reasons

to smile”

Unknown