Monday 9^th March

Fair Oak entered two teams into a mixed netball tournament involving local schools held at Wyvern. The participating teams were split into two pools with the winners playing each other in a final to deicide the overall winners. Both of our teams played superbly with some quick skilful netball on display but after all of the group matches had been played, the two teams that made it through to the final were Fair Oak A and Durley. In the final, Fair Oak A dominated right from the start and ran out comfortable winners by a score line of four goals to nil. Well done to all of our players from both our A and B teams for playing brilliantly throughout!

Tuesday 10^th March

Today, the Fair Oak rugby team travelled to Toynbee School in Chandlers Ford to attend a player development session in preparation for a tournament coming up later this month. Our pupils displayed some superb handling and finishing skills which bodes well for the upcoming event. Well done to the team and keep up the hard work!

Thursday 12^th March

Durley girls were our visitors today for a football friendly game. Despite the blustery conditions Fair Oak had much the better of the first half and were much stronger on the ball than their opposition. A great run from midfield and a composed shot gave Fair Oak a one nil lead at the interval. In the second half the Fair Oak dominance continued but our girls could not find the second goal that their good play deserved. The match ended in victory for Fair Oak. Well played girls.

Tuesday 17^th March

Wildern School hosted a girls football qualifying tournament for the Hampshire School Games today which is an extremely prestigious competition which will take place on Friday 19^th July in Aldershot. Only the winning team would get to represent our area so the stakes were high! Fair Oak began their campaign with a solid one nil victory over Freegrounds and followed that up with a nil nil draw with St James despite dominating the match. Next up were Botley who were beaten by our girls by a goal to nil. Our final match was against a very good Berrywood side and again, the game ended goalless. That left a nervy wait to see if other results would go our way but after the rest of the games had been completed, the Fair Oak girls discovered that they had won the competition by a single point! What a fantastic result from our girls who now go into the Hampshire Games having not conceded a goal during the whole of their qualifying tournament!

One of our Year 6 pupils had previously qualified for the Eastleigh and Winchester District Cross Country Team qualifying race in which only the very best runners in the area from Years 6 and 7 compete. Our athlete ran superbly in a really tough field and finished a highly respectable 53^rd which was well inside the top third of runners. Well done and keep up the hard work!

Friday 20^th March

Fair Oak took an inexperienced team to play a girls football friendly match away to Colden Common. Despite being up against some strong opposition, our Fair Oak girls played well and battled hard but ultimately lost a closely contested match by a score line of two goals to nil. A great effort by all of the girls who took part.

Monday 23^rd March

Our boys football team played a home friendly match against Herne Junior School in preparation for our upcoming Hampshire Cup semi-final. The game was played at a frantic pace on a rather hard bobbly surface which did not allow the home team to get into their usual flowing style of football. As a result, the match was a rather close affair but in the end Fair Oak ran out one nil winners. Well done to our boys who go into the semi-final with a solid win behind them.

Tuesday 24^th March

Our rugby team went to Toynbee secondary school to attend the second and last of their development sessions. The team were again put through their paces by the Toynbee Sports Leaders in what was a very useful practice session before the tournament next week.

Wednesday 25^th March

Netley Abbey travelled to Fair Oak for the much anticipated boys Hampshire Cup semi-final. Both teams had been eagerly awaiting this extremely important fixture. The match began with Fair Oak on the back foot and Netley Abbey doing most of the early attacking. However, our boys soon got into their stride and began to take control of the match. This was bad news for the visitors who soon began to leak goals. At the half time interval Fair Oak were leading by two goals to nil. In the second half the home team continued to press our visitors allowing them no time on the ball and imposing our strong passing game on our opponents. This pressure lead to more goals and by the end of the match the score stood at five nil to Fair Oak! Well done to our boys who have set up a mouth-watering final with Lyndhurst of Portsmouth. 

Monday 30^th March

Today our Lower School Swimming Team travelled to Bishop’s Waltham Junior School to take part in a Primary Schools Aquasplash Swimming Festival. The competition was comprised of a variety of different races including both individual and relay events with points being awarded to teams depending on where they finished in each race. Our team performed superbly and really enjoyed the event. By the end of the gala, the points totals were as follows:

Bishop’s Waltham – 117

Swanmore – 88

Berrywood – 83

Botley – 73

Fair Oak – 72

Netley Abbey – 32

Well done to our fantastic Lower School Swimming Team!

Tuesday 31^st March

Our annual Invitation Cross Country Relay Race took place here at Fair Oak Junior School. 16 schools participated in the event with over 400 runners in total competing. Our school entered two teams in three of the four races that took place and one team in the other. Our lower school girls ran really well but unfortunately finished outside the top three positions. However, our lower school boys, upper school girls and upper school boys A teams all won of their races which is a quite magnificent achievement considering the number of other competitors they were up against. Brilliant running by all of those pupils who participated!

Our tag rugby team were entered into a local area tournament which took place at Toynbee School. They had been attending development sessions previously to really fine tune their skills so that they were ready for the competition. This hard preparation worked showed in the morning pool in which Fair Oak were placed. Our team did superbly, winning three matches and drawing one. Despite going unbeaten in the group we were just pipped to first place by Knightwood who had the same results as Fair Oak but had scored more tries. This meant that we were placed into the second pool for the afternoon matches along with all of the other morning group runners up. The competition here was extremely fierce. After a promising two all opening draw with Berrywood, Fair Oak found the going tough and lost closely in each of their next three matches. This meant that overall Fair Oak finished in tenth place out of a field of twenty six. Well done to all of the athletes who took part.

On Saturday the 14th March, Mrs Welch took the choir to Winchester cathedral to sing in a concert composed by the acclaimed June Boyce Tillman. When everyone arrived at roughly 1:30, we began rehearsing the show. Three other schools were there and all the children were wearing or carrying flowers because of the song Flowers of Peace which was just one of the beautiful songs we were to sing.

The rehearsals were hard work and the choir tried to do their best to rise to the expectations of the cathedral-which were extremely high. After perfecting the performance, we ran through the show once more. To start, selected children (2 from each school) were chosen to play a tune by hitting a model of a soldier made out of old rifles with drumsticks. He was nicknamed ‘Garry the Gunman’ and made a surprisingly pretty metallic sound. Then a lady unhooked one gun which turned out to be a flute made of a rifle!! Then all the children paraded with blazing candles and bells through the cathedral towards the stage, were high up on a platform many other singers from various adult choirs were already singing. Then everyone began to sing the first number. In the song Flowers of Peace everyone waved a ribbon of either gold, orange or yellow. After singing our hearts out, we were able to go with our parents for dinner, before coming back for the proper concert.

Yesterday we had a very special visitor to school - Kyle Finch! Kyle is the number one ranked under 17 squash player in England and Europe. He was the youngest ever player to play for Men’s Hampshire team and has gone on to win numerous national and international titles. In February of this year he was called up for the England under 19 squad! He is the youngest ever player to be asked to play in the older junior group. If he holds his place he will be even more unique in that he could be in the squad for three years, again the first time this will ever have been achieved.

Kyle led a demonstration assembly for the children which they all thoroughly enjoyed. Hopefully Kyle will be an inspiration for some of our pupils to take up the sport.

On the morning of 13th March the children were accompanied to school by parents/grandparents/aunties/uncles - 74 of them in total! It was a marvellous morning where all enjoyed a challenging maths problem and a guided reading session.

The maths problem required children and parents to create a seaside theme park. As I said to the parents during their tea and coffee break, I was very impressed by the theme park with 10 blocks of toilets and one ride! It was very encouraging to see both parents and children so engaged with the activity and the problem solving required - including the extension questions. Perhaps I should have provided ice cream...

The guided reading required a different type of thinking. It needed parents and children to think on their feet of questions based on pictures. Some of the higher order questions coming from the children were very impressive.

Huge thank you to the staff for organising this event and to the parents for supporting the school and the children.

On Monday the 9th of March, eleven pupils from Fair Oak Junior School were selected to take part in filming an educational DVD to be shown to all schools in Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire with the South Central Ambulance Service. When the Wednesday of that week came round, the eleven pupils were buzzing with excitement at the thought of being filmed for a nation-wide DVD.

It was an early start for our young film stars - 09.15 am! We met up in the learning support room ready to film. The whole school was wallpapered with posters saying ‘Shhh! Filming in progress!’ There was a team of Paramedics on site and a cameraman, producer and a mascot. We were each filmed asking the Paramedics questions about the ambulance service. It took lots of re-takes to make one question perfect! There was a large light shining on our faces as we spoke into the big camera. The pressure was slightly overwhelming! After a lot of hard work, phase 1 was complete!

The next part of our clip was outside in the fresh air-we were filming near a Simbulance (an ambulance used for training and education). We had some fun playing with the microphone and camera system and turning on the sirens. Some of us were then filmed asking some questions about the ambulance service inside of the ambulance. Both scenes were good fun to film but everyone’s favourite part was being filmed giving the mascot (999 Ted) a bear hug!

In September 2014, the Government introduced the new National Curriculum in schools.

The project overviews show how we have introduced this curriculum at Fair Oak in each year group.

The end? The children enjoyed their gargantuan breakfast this morning after a good night, following their long day yesterday. Amazingly they were up quite early with teeth brushed, bags packed, sheets stripped off beds and settled waiting for adults (with a bit of chatter).

Is this really the end of their time away at Avon Tyrrell? Well...yes. They will be leaving in about 15 minutes, but as I said to the children yesterday, they will not be leaving the experiences, the memories, the friendships and the skills. Around the camp fire last night I spoke to the children about how proud I am of them and of what they have achieved. In the short time they have been here, they have epitomised and lived out the values of perseverance, care, friendship, dedication, team work, hard work, resilience and self belief. Yes they have taken part in activities, but these activities have just been a vehicle to get them to live out these values. The children feel confident to take these values and skills into school when they return and I believe that they really will make progress in many ways.

Parents, you should be proud of your children - as I know all the staff are. It has been a privilege to share this time with them and to have new memories.

Thank you to the children.