Farewell Ms Vanderpuye

Today, we sadly said goodbye to Ms Vanderpuye after nearly 26 years at Oakington.

Ms V as she was affectionately called by all pupils and staff, decided to take early retirement and at a party held in her honour, she remembered the journey Oakington had made to reach its outstanding status in ICT and Computing.

In the days long before USB pendrives and terabytes of storage space, Ms Vanderpuye reminded her guests of what had gone before.

Her interest in computers started as a 15 year old, it blossomed as she got older. One of her first computers was one of the first solar powered calculators which she  still has at home –it has seen better days but still works when she tested it last week, after more than 30years. Some people may not have heard of some the first computers Ms V had owned such as Sinclair’s ZX80, ZX81, Dragon 64, BBC B, BBC Master with PC emulator MS Dos, Acorn computer with RISC OS, before moving onto a Windows 3.1 PC.  All of this was even before the Internet as we know it now.

BBC Master

Acorn with RISC OS

Dragon 64

BBC B

WIndows 3.1

SInclair ZX80

Sinclair’s ZX81

SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA

Ms Vanderpuye thanked the Governors, the SLT and staff and pupils for allowing her the opportunity to pass on some of her passion. Ms V gave a personal thank you to  Mrs Libson for all her love and support she had given her for more than 30 years since they had known each other. She thanked her two network managers, Andrew and Gaddi, without whom ICT & Computing would not be as ‘Outstanding’ as it is.

Ms Vanderpuye said that the highlight of her evening was the fact that so many ex-teachers of Oakington came back to celebrate with her.  There was also a very beautiful performance from one of Ms V’s favourite robots, Bluey with messages from twins RedCandy and RedCurrant too.

Staff and pupils will miss very much Ms Vanderpuye’s enthusiasm and her love for all things ICT and computing. CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK, MS V!

 

 

Dutch Visitors

Today we were happy to host a group of educationalists from Holland. There were visiting our school to learn about how we teach Computing and to be inspired with new ideas.

They were given a tour of our school by a selection of our school councillors. They visited classes and spent some time talking to pupils and teachers. They were impressed by what they saw, especially seeing children working with Beebots, A.L.E.X, using Mathletics to challenge Year 6’s mathematical knowledge and Ms Vanderpuye working with year 3 in programming RedCandy, RedCurrant, Bluey and the Ozobots.

After break, the visitors spent some time programming the robots themselves before spending time in the woodlands with Mr Fletch and the chickens.

 

 

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016. We have a lot of exciting things in store for this year!

 

Acorn Nursery Christmas Carols

Aah, what a lovely end of the day for our Acorn Nursery. Acorn Nursery parents were invited to see their children performing. The afternoon was started by the school choir who sang a beautiful carol. Together with mince pies, mulled wine and lots of treats, parents were very happy and excited to share in the Christmas cheer.

After a short break Acorn children sang two of their favourite carols that they had learned. They sang beautifully. After their song, children were able to get their face painted, play treasure hunt games and eat goodies. All the children were surprised when Santa himself paid a visit. Everyone was excited and asked Santa lots of questions about where he had left his reindeers.

 

Skype Test with Zachariou International Language School

5LR were lucky enough to conduct a Skype test call with the English teacher Mrs Eleni Amourgi from ‘Zachariou Foreign Languages school ‘ in Piraeus, Greece. Oakington started a project with them last year where all three classes in Year 4, learned about life in Piraeus a fishing town in Greece. The classes exchanged PowerPoint presentations and video they had created about their school and local area.

It is now a chance to meet and say hello before Christmas. Next week we are going to meet the children and share our hopes for Christmas and the New Year.

 

Welcome back!

Welcome back to a fantastic new academic year!

 

Apple Event @ Brent Civic Centre

Ms V, Mrs Akonor, Mrs Jesani, Ms Gordon, Mr Libson and Mr Ryder attended the Brent School Partnership (BSP) and Apple event to present what Oakington has been doing for the new Computing curriculum. The day was opened by Jeff Smith from Brent Schools Partnership, followed by Lara Harvord from Apple. Ms V, Ms Gordon and Mrs Jesani, ran a workshop on coding. They demonstrated three apps, Beebot, A.L.E.X and Fix the Factory. Each candidate were able to have a go on their own iPads to see how children from EYFS to KS2 can engage in coding activities.

In the afternoon Mrs Akonor’s class 5RA who also attended the meeting, demonstrated what they had been doing using the ‘Book Creator’ app. It was an excellent session as the children confidently showed the adults how to use the app to create their own stories.

 

Year 5 visit to Great Finborough Primary School

Children in Year 5 recently visited Great Finborough Primary School in Suffolk. They had a fantastic time experiencing life in a small village church school, which proved to be incredibly different to Oakington! They were given a tour of the school and children were also fortunate enough to visit a local ancient farm nearby. Children saw wheat crops, farm animals and even sat in tractors. Oakington pupils had lots of questions to ask about life in Suffolk and were very excited about the experience.

Friendships were formed between pupils from both schools and after a long two and a half hour coach journey, we arrived back to school at 6pm. We now hope to have a Skype session with Great Finborough in the near future!

 

 

Visitors from Denmark and Holland

What fantastic morning we had hosting our visitors from Denmark and Holland. When the visitors they were greeted with a range of hot drinks and pastries. Our school council members from KS1 and 2 were also on hand to meet and greet their guests before Mrs Libson (OBE) and Ms Vanderpuye gave their introduction and information about our school, SEN, EAL and ICT/Computing curriculum.

After the talk, the visitors were guided around our school visiting classes and observing children engaged in a variety of subjects where ICT and technology were being used to support. This included coding, Maths and Literacy. They got a chance to visit our woodlands and participate in Forest School activities with Mr Miles. Ms Vanderpuye, demonstrated our 3D and explained how we use the technology to support children’s learning. Our guests were truly fascinated to watch the 3D Space movie and to take part in Captain Jack’s Maths.

Our new team at Oak Manor Radio Network, conducted two amazing interviews to find out information about both Denmark and Holland. For the Year 3 members of the team, it was their first time conducting an interview as they only joined the OMRN team a week ago. They all enjoyed their stimulating experience.

After having their lunch, the Dutch group left to visit Wykeham Primary School, whilst the Danish group stayed to learn a little more about the new Computing curriculum.

They had a wonderful morning. We hope you enjoyed your visit to Wykeham and BETT!

 

Teachers at BETT

On Wednesday Mrs Griffiths, Mrs Vernalls and Mr Newton attended the first day of the BETT exhibition at the Excel Centre, London. The were fascinated by some of the new technologies they saw. Mrs Griffiths was on a mission to find some new  resources for our new Nursery which the building work should be finished in the coming months.

Mrs Vernalls was looking for new Literacy resources, whilst Mr Newton was looking at ways of developing/updating the classroom and ICT suite resources.