April | 2015 | Oakington Manor Primary School

An Audience with Marcus Stroud -NFL Jacksonville Jaguars

Wow, wow, wow! The children in KS2 were so lucky this afternoon to have had an audience with Marcus Stroud, NFL Jacksonville Jaguar’s former defensive player. He came to inspire children into playing American football and to see the classes in Years 4 and 5 taking part in the NLF coaching pilot being run in 6 schools. Marcus Stroud focused on ‘General Good Character traits and its benefits

Marcus, talked to the children in a whole KS2 Assembly to inspire them into working hard, and having a good character trait. All the children were delighted to have met a real pro American football player. It was brilliant! Coach Kenny prepped KS2 before Marcus Stroud’s arrival. During the session children asked Marcus about the things that inspired him to play football etc.

Following this session the team from Oak Manor Radio Network conducted an interview for Channel 1’s Celebrity Corner. Marcus Stroud spoke about his early days in American Football before playing for his first team Jacksonville Jaguars. His message was clear, education was very important! He studied hard and made his grades before playing football. He wanted his mum and dad to be proud of him and they were. When he started playing pro football, he trained for at least 5 hours a day and ate a balanced diet so that he could be able to run fast for playing his defensive position.

Great Finborough School visit to Year 5

22 Apr

Today, Year 5 pupils at Oakington were visited by a local village church school, Great Finborough Primary School in Suffolk as part of an exciting project focusing on comparing and contrasting their two localities.

On arrival, Great Finborough School were greeted by the school councillors who followed this with a presentation about their school and local area. After the presentation the two schools took part in an ice breaker activity, a woodland activity with Mr Miles and a 3D lesson with Ms Vanderpuye finished off with a demonstration by Red Candy, RedCurrant and Bluey the humanoid robots, showing off their skills in dancing to Thriller, Tai Chi and following instructions.

As part of the day, children from Oakington and Great Finborough visited Wembley Stadium as the FA marked St. George’s Day at one of three special ‘Together For England’ events. During their time at Wembley, pupils designed their own England football posters. This was followed by a surprise visit from England football manager, Roy Hodgson and Chelsea defender, Gary Cahill. The star guests judged the poster competition and after signing autographs and posing for photographs with the youngsters, both Hodgson and Chelsea star Cahill sat down for a Q&A session with the youngsters.

Tulsi from 5WS, Oakington, who won the poster competition, commented: “Meeting the two football stars was incredible and everyone was so excited as soon as they walked through the door. I was delighted that they chose my poster. It focused on teamwork and the importance of working hard, so I thought I had a good chance of winning.” Children from both schools had a fantastic time at Wembley and it is unlikely that the star-struck pupils will ever forget the day!

Visitors from Bihar, India

16 Apr

Today Oakington had the pleasure of hosting a delegation of dignitaries from the State of Bihar in Eastern India. They were here to look at inspirational leadership and outstanding teaching in England. They were also keen to look at how we improve our schools and how we support our teachers. Bihar is a very large state and although they have achieved a huge amount in getting most of the children in the State into school, they now need to focus on getting the best people into teaching and the best teachers into school leadership.

They were greeted in the morning by our schools councillors who were keen to show off their school. This was followed by a meeting with Mrs Libson (OBE) to answer some of the questions about the running of Oakington, development of ICT, preparation for SATs in Year 6 and an informal chat with a number of subject and year group leaders.They were keen to know more about how Mrs Libson (OBE) as a head manages performance and underperformance and also to understand teachers are held to account. They were also keen to know how subject and year group leaders are held to account and the role of the governing body. The CfBT had already done a session with them on head teacher and teacher standards / OFSTED / models of peer review / self improving school systems.

They went on a tour of the school, visiting many classes including our fantastic multimedia studio where Ms Vanderpuye was conducting a robotics lesson with 3HA. The delegation were impressed initially by the media team who were ready to with their cameras and camcorders to record and photograph our guests in 2D and 3D. They watched the introduction to the lesson conducted by one of the Nao robots, RedCurrant, teaching the class how to do yoga to relax them before starting their highly concentrated lesson. The ‘Coding Champions’ further demonstrated some of the robot pre-programmed actions before they themselves used the Choregraphe software to program, RedCandy, Bluey and RedCurrant. The visitors went to see another class before returning to watch a short video on plants and leaves in 3D.

They were so impressed by the work of both Oakington Manor and Furness Primary School – they found Ms Libsons leadership inspiring and they observed the wonderful work the staff do for the children and the high expectations they have of them in both schools. It was a memorable visit for them. They told Mrs Libson (OBE), “You have contributed to giving the children of Bihar a better education”.