LiFe Link 9
Welcome one and all to our 9th edition of the LiFe Link Community Newsletter! In this BUMPER issue we have celebrations and events from July to December. We have been very busy over the past 3 terms and are looking forward to sharing the following items with you:
- The Principal’s Round up
- Sports Day
- Year 10 Futures Week and Aaron Phipps
- Year 6 Transition Day
- Inflatable fun- a rewards extravaganza!
- England Rocks Competition – Times Tables Rockstars –Year 7 and 8
- Careers Insight Day
- Female Football festival
- BBC Workshops
- Our NEW Basketball Court
- The Duke of Edinburgh Award Year 10
- Year 6 Discovery Days
- Collaboration with Oasis City Farm
- The Lion King Mayflower Trip – Years 8-11
- Wetwheels Rewards Trip – Year 11
- The London Eye and Globe ‘Tempest’ Trip – Year 8
- Black History Month – Year 11 Assembly on ‘What is Racism?’
- The Color Purple Mayflower Trip - Year 10 and 11
- Our new Rewards Policy (Classcharts)
- My LiFe, My Culture; Our Community non-uniform day
- Rags 2 Riches clothing collection
- Ordnance Survey Trip
- A Story by Amelia S Year
- Children in Need Charity Bake Off
- Happy Hat Day
Please grab a cuppa, relax and immerse yourself in this grand issue. As always, if you wish to contribute or give us some feedback on the LiFe Link, please contact Liz Lea directly via liz.lea@oasislordshill.org.
On behalf of our wonderful Academy community, we wish you a happy, healthy and restful Christmas Break.
Dear parent/carer,
As we approach the end of the longest term of the academic year there is a good deal to celebrate and share. This newsletter represents much of this across every part of the academy and reading it is the highlight of my term.
Since we have been able to get back to a range of educational trips and visits they have taken place for many students. I am always grateful for staff who go above and beyond to give our students a truly enriching experience. I am equally proud of those young people who represent Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill so brilliantly.
I have spent much time this term discussing leadership opportunities with several student groups especially those who have been meeting and greeting guests and visitors. We always receive great feedback from our guests and this helps us keep improving. I know many more students are interested in additional opportunities and these will always be explored.
During the recent open evenings and sessions, we have welcomed many Year 5 and Year 6 pupils from across the area. Families were rightly impressed by our student presentations and awesome facilities. We have followed this up with several Primary school visits and we also hosted a meeting of all our local Primary school Headteachers.
Year 11 students have just completed their first round of mock examinations and are diligently preparing for the next set after the holiday. In addition, other year groups have completed their termly assessments which allows teachers to fine tune their lessons next term.
On Friday the 9th we enjoyed our annual Christmas Lunch and Jumper Day. It was wonderful to see so many of our students wearing their festive knits and having Christmas dinner in our theatre. The event raised £180 for Save the Children.
As the build up to the Christmas break continues, I am looking forward to our showcase event on Tuesday the 13th of December. At the time of writing this article the preparations are full steam ahead and I know it will be well attended. Whatever your plans for the holiday period I wish you and your family a well-deserved break. We will see everyone again in January for the start of the Spring term.
All the best,
Mr Bond
Sports Day
On Tuesday 12th July all students from years 7, 8 & 9 competed in the Oasis Academy Lords Hill Sports Day. This was the first Sports Day in 3 years due to the restrictions caused by the Covid pandemic and the students and staff were keen to compete and have fun. On the day the students competed in three separate activity areas ranging from traditional track & field Athletics, team games in the form of the tug of war and rounders and finally a fun session on the inflatables area. There was something for everyone to enjoy and the competition between the tutor groups was fierce and exciting.
In each year group the students worked with their tutors and HOY to try and gain as many points as possible for their tutor group. At the end of the day all the points were added up and the winners were revealed in the end of term celebration assemblies. The winners of each of the athletic events were rewarded with a bronze, silver or gold achievement badge. All the winning students and teams were awarded with certificates in the celebration assemblies.
The whole day was a huge success that united the whole school community through competition, sport and fun. The weather was great, and the determination and effort shown by all the students was amazing to see. There were some fantastic individual and team performances throughout the day. This was combined with great team spirit and general excellent conduct and behaviour. Support was also provided by some Year 10 students and also some ex-year 11 students that returned for the day. Well done to everyone involved and the PE team look forwards to hosting another great sports day in 2023.
Year Group Winners: Year7 - 7NSO, Year 8 - 8EPL, Year 9 - 9KMA
Mr Jonathan Cook, Curriculum Leader of Physical Education
Year 10 Futures Week and Aaron Phipps
On the 11th July we proudly hosted our new and improved futures week for our Year 10 cohort. In lieu of physical work placements, our students enjoyed a whole week of activities and workshops to help prepare them for the important choices ahead for their future. The students took part in a range of Microsoft office masterclasses, CV and application writing workshops, Interview preparation including mock interviews, as well as lots more to help them understand the options available to them for their future. We even had a visit from Paralympic gold medalist Aaron Phipps to talk to us about motivation, attitude and striving for success! I know many of our students felt much more prepared and confident for making decisions about their future.
Year 6 Transition Day
We were pleased to host our Transition on Wednesday 6th July. We invited all our new students, from Primary schools across the city, to join us for a day in the LiFe at Lord’s Hill. The students enjoyed a range of different subjects throughout the day and got to familiarize themselves with the academy and its facilities as well as each other. The day gave them a great idea of what to expect and look forward to for their educational adventure at our academy.
Inflatable fun - a rewards extravaganza!
On the last day of term, the excellent INFLATAPLANET were invited in to support us with our end of year Rewards extravaganza!!!! They brought bouncy castles, inflatable assault courses, jousts and the brilliant inflatable Wipeout, and set up camp in the Sports Hall!!!!! 60 students from every year group were invited to attend a one-hour session fun activity throughout the day and students were selected based on their excellent attendance and attitude across the whole of the academic year. The event was a massive success and several students stated that it was the most fun activity they have done in school to date, which was great to hear. We are hopeful that we will be doing something similar again this year to reward our wonderful students!!!
England Rocks Competition – Times Tables Rockstars –Year 7 and 8
In November, Year 7 and 8 students entered the England Rocks competition on Times Tables Rock Stars in tutor groups. This competition saw classes from across the county compete in a 3-day times table competition. Our school did really well, and we had some standout performances!
Well done to all the students that took part. And I hope to get us involved in more competitions throughout the year!
Mr Brodie, Year 7 and 8 Numeracy lead
Female Football Festival
In June last year we took two female teams to Bittern Park School to play in the annual female football festival in the lead up to the women's Euros! Although we had challenging conditions with temperatures above 30 degrees, the Year 7/8 team managed to get all the way to the Semi Final! We're hoping to beat that this year and get all the way to the final!
BBC Workshops
We were given the opportunity to take part in a BBC workshop at St Mary's stadium where 6 lucky year 10 students learnt all about what it's like to work as a reporter on a matchday. They commented on a game and got to have a tour of St Mary's to see where the press room is and how everything works!
New Basketball Court
Two Southampton friends have donated their time and money to provide our students and the local community with a new basketball court.
Nathan Challis and Louis Moody, who run two road maintenance companies in Southampton, took on the basketball court project after being contacted by former classmate and Lord's Hill teacher, Mr Missouri.
Mr Missouri said:
“I reached out to Nathan & Louis, two close friends of mine that I attend Redbridge Community School with, and now run successful companies. Initially, I asked if they could donate some money to help build a basketball court for our students. You can imagine how taken back I was when they said they would not only donate some money, but they would also fully fund the £14,000 project and build it for us themselves!”
“The pair have also donated some basketballs and offered to donate some kit.”
Academy Principal, Mr Bond, added:
"It is already well loved and used by the students during lunch breaks and after school.”
"We hope to create a student-led basketball team supported by adults and many students are excited to get involved."
Nathan Challis said:
"It's good to give back as a company, especially in the heart of where we grew up, and to be part of the community."
Year 11 student, Eimiya said:
"We finally have somewhere to play basketball outside.”
The Duke of Edinburgh Award: Year 10
The nationally recognised and prestigious Duke of Edinburgh award is now well under way with 20 participants working towards their bronze award. Meeting weekly, plans are starting to build ahead of their ‘all important’ expedition, learning new skills such as first aid, map reading, team building and food preparation. Each participant must complete 4 sections; Skills, Volunteering, Physical and Expedition. Students involved have already started building hours of work to evidence completion of each of these sections, some working in charity shops, helping elderly relatives, becoming leaders at local cadet groups, and taking up new sports. I am incredibly proud of the participants' drive and determination to complete this award and of the DofE team supporting them in reaching their goals. I can’t wait for this initiative to grow year-on-year and if any year 9 student is interested in completing the award next year, please speak to a team member for more details.
Mrs Bennett – DofE manager
Mr Amery – Assistant manager
Mrs A. Roath – Leader
Mr Collins – Leader
Year 6 Discovery Days
We have been delighted to welcome Year 6 students from Fairisle and Newlands Primary Schools respectively for separate Discovery Morning’s, where students from these schools had the opportunity to take part in some exciting practical PE and Science sessions as well as meet some of our staff and students. Our amazing Year 9 student helpers were on hand to support with the groups and were great ambassadors for the academy. The year 6 students had a blast, and it was great to see so many students having so much fun as well as learning some new skills and knowledge. We can’t wait to welcome them back soon!!!
Collaboration with Oasis City Farm
A new partnership with the Oasis City Farm has begun this term. Funded by the National Lottery, Awards for All, students will earn the John Muir Award for caring for animals and the natural environment. A small group from Year 8 has started the six-week course this term and have been busy caring for small animals like guinea pigs as well as feeding the farm animals. This has involved clearing out the barns, cleaning water troughs and washing down the sleeping areas. Students have also harvested tomatoes, pumpkins and chard at the farm.
Leading the trips, Paul Woodman said,
"Our first group of students have worked hard at the farm, putting down their pens and paper in the classroom and picking up a broom and chose instead to clear out a barn or pig pen. We’ve all learnt a lot from our experience at the farm. The students have had a positive attitude, working in all weathers, and I look forward to taking other groups to the farm in the coming months’’.
The Lion King Mayflower Trip – Years 8-11
Hakuna Matata! It means no worries, and on the 12th of October, we left our worries behind because it was time for 32 students to visit The Mayflower theatre and witness the musical spectacular that is ‘The Lion King’. It is difficult to put into words the wave of emotions you experience watching this Disney masterpiece come to life in front of your eyes. As we took our seats, snacks at the ready, the curtain lifted, and we were treated to life-size giraffes, Rhino and lions prowling across the stage whilst birds swooped above our heads and an elephant made its way through the crowd. The students’ faces lit up and most reported it was the best thing they had ever seen!
Wet Wheels Rewards Trip – Year 11 LiFe Leadership Team
Forty students from Oasis Academies Lord's Hill and Mayfield enjoyed their trip with Wet Wheels from Ocean Village.
The new prefects (student leaders) came to Ocean Village to be taken on a high speed, exhilarating ride to Netley.
They were able to see inside Empress Docks, where the Titanic berthed and learn more about Southampton’s history and place as an international port.
Accompanying the trips, Oasis Director of Ethos, Paul Woodman said,
‘It is rare for our students to get onto Southampton waters and to have a view of the city from the sea. Many of those participating have never been on a boat before. We are grateful for this opportunity afforded by Wet Wheels to enhance the young people’s life experience with this trip on the water.'
Speaking from Oasis Academy Mayfield, Karen Dawkins said,
’Time spent on the Wet Wheels boat helped build our team of student leaders and gave us a chance to build their confidence at the start of the academic year’
Echoing this from Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill, Assistant Principal Liz Lea said,
‘We can sometimes forget how difficult the past two years have been for young people, with months of home learning and social isolation, so it was a joy to see our students on board the Wet Wheels boat, enjoying their time together and learning more about our history as an international port’.
The London Eye and Globe ‘Tempest’ Trip – Year 8
Students from Year 8 had an enjoyable day in London on Friday 23 September. They arrived by coach to the foot of the London Eye, just opposite the Houses of Parliament. They then had spectacular, panoramic views from the London Eye, as the group of 50 filled two pods and experienced the 30 minute ride over the city. From there, they walked along the South Bank, alongside the Thames, and were entertained by a number of buskers and a giant bubble maker along the way. They were in good time for lunch by the river before going into the home of Shakespeare, The Globe Theatre. The theatre was full for a performance of the play, The Tempest.
Curriculum Leader, Jaz Curtin-Sewell said,
’The play was a fun presentation of the Shakespeare text with the main character, Prospero, dressed in luminous swimwear and the stage was full of fun props including an inflatable lobster, pink flamingo, palm trees and hundreds of rubber ducks. The tale of the storm and shipwreck and eventual happy reunions and romance was lovely to watch. I was very proud of our students who concentrated well to follow the storyline, despite the old vocabulary found in Shakespeare’s work.'
Assistant Principal for Personal Development, Mrs Lea also commented on the students attending the trip, saying,
‘We were delighted to see the group enjoy a rich cultural day. They all made the most of the opportunity and showed an excellent and mature attitude to these new life experiences in London.’
The academy would like to thank parents and carers for supporting this trip.
Racism PowerPoint By Christell Kpohomouh Year 11
In October, Black History Month, I was given the privilege to educate my peers about Racism by giving a presentation to each year group during their time in assembly. I find that educating people about matters, such as Racism, really does play a part in our community and I’m glad I was able to take the lead in this process. Not only that, but as a community we all need to play a part in tackling Racism.
I’ve had many comments from not only students, but staff as well, that applauded me with comments such as “Your assembly was so good!” and the Head Teacher, Mr Bond, seemed very pleased with me. I’m happy that my voice has been heard, so I thank Mrs Lea for allowing me to do the presentation, and I thank Mrs Gale for giving me tips on how to make the presentation better.
By doing this presentation, it has built up my confidence and made me less nervous about getting my voice heard. It’s great how our school really strives for student voice! I hope this presentation can be used for future years yet to come, and I hope it can influence students to report and act upon racism. I also hope my words and my presentation encourage students to do the same when I leave.
Earlier this year students took part in a workshop run by The John Hansard Gallery which focussed on Connecting Cultures in Southampton. This was funded through Trinity College London by the Arts Council England. Their work and feedback were used to support the bid for Southampton to become the City of Culture. Congratulations to them all!
The Color Purple Mayflower Trip - Year 10 and 11
During the half term break, students and staff alike had the opportunity to see one of the greatest literary adaptations at the Mayflower Theatre. The Color Purple is a seminal piece of work by Alice Walker that charts the journey from adolescence to adulthood for a young black woman in the 1900s. The Color Purple tells the story of courageous heroine Celie, as she journeys through joy, despair, anguish and hope in her own personal awakening to discover her unique voice in the world.
A great time was had by everyone!
Our new Rewards Policy (ClassCharts)
Classcharts is the new whole school rewards system that we have adopted at Lord’s Hill. It’s a very exciting and easy to use platform where students can easily view their progress in each of the categories on an ongoing basis through the use of the Classcharts app on their I Pads. Staff at the academy are awarding points on a regular basis as a way of recognizing and rewarding positive behaviours and a wide variety of students are formally recognized and rewarded in our end of term Celebration Assemblies. A new addition to the Rewards system with Classcharts, is that Heads of Year will lead a celebration event at the start of each term for the top performing students as it’s important to recognize when students are consistently demonstrating high standards of themselves.
There are several different categories where students can be rewarded with Classcharts merits and these categories recognize and acknowledge a wide range of positive behaviours as well as the Oasis 9 Habits that we live by.
Prestigious badges are also given out at the end of every term for a selected number of students in each group that have demonstrated the 9 Habits around the academy and students are already wearing these with pride.
My LiFe, My Culture; Our Community non-uniform day
A massive thank you to our academy community for raising £275 for the charity Stand Against Racism and Inequality! Grown from an idea from one of our Year 9 students, students were encouraged to attend school wearing traditional dress that represented their culture. We were blown away by the number of students who took part and shared their heritage this way.
Thank you to everyone who donated money to SARI and for raising awareness of the importance of equality in our society today.
Rags 2 Riches 4 Schools clothing collection
In October, we held a school-wide clothes collection for Rags 2 Riches 4 Schools, which is a business that recycles and distributes clothes to help developing nations. The eco club and I collectively gave fliers and bags to each tutor, which were then distributed to students to put their old clothes in. The clothes that have been donated will be distributed to several developing countries to help the less fortunate people of the world. On the 8th November, the clothes were collected, weighed and sent to be shipped off. In total, we've raised £91.20 from 228kg of donated clothes. We hope to hold more events like this in the future with the help of organisations and members of the academy community.
Bobby G, Year 11
Ordinance Survey trip
On Wednesday 9th November, nine lucky students visited the Ordinance Survey to take part in a GIS Day workshop.
Summary by Rifat H and Liana AS
Firstly, we learnt how maps were used during emergencies. To teach us about this, they used a fake scenario of a dinosaur invasion. During this session we learnt multiple key words, which included a cordon (an area that is blocked off by police or soldiers). Throughout the presentation, we had a brief on cartography. We learnt about many different types of maps. One example of these maps are weather maps. These showed us the weather in different places, with this information we could predict the number of dinosaurs in an area and if they would inhabit the place or not.
After we learnt about this, we played a quick game of Pictionary between our group. During this game a member of each school went up and got tasked with a map symbol they had to draw. The rest of the group had to attempt to guess the symbol and the first school to guess it won. After that we compared our symbols to the real map symbols. This activity helped us develop our understanding of map symbols and how they were designed.
Next, we were given a task which required us to locate objects and places around the building and then write down a ten-figure grid reference. All the different schools were given different places and objects to locate. Our school had to find and note down the grid reference of all the seating around the outside of the building. After everyone collected their data, we went back inside and uploaded the data on an excel spreadsheet. From there we then took this newly organized information and input it into this website which allowed us to visually see our information on a map of the Ordinance Survey building.
For a final task, we were given the objective of listing the necessities for a housing estate. We came up with many ideas. Some examples that were included were: a clean water supply, electricity and gas. Other needs that were included were: transport and schools as well as healthcare. After the different schools listed their ideas, we shared them out loud. Therefore, we had an opportunity to learn and build on it with our own ideas.
The Nightmare’s Lure - A story by Amelia S in Year 8
Chapter 1 - Noah
Michael sat on the soft green grass surrounded by dandelions as the wind softly brushed against his hair. The beautiful blue sky barely held a cloud in sight, giving it the look of a big blue blanket over them. The dandelions were blowing away lightly from the wind.
“What more beautiful view could there be than this to share with my best friend?” Michael turned to smile to the red head next to him. Properly looking at him, the boy could see his friend’s expression was emotionless, or maybe even blank.
“Noah?” He asked to reassure if his friend was okay.
“Wake up.” The red head murmured, not even looking at Michael.
“Wha-??” Michael questioned again, more worried.
Suddenly, the clouds and sky were no longer that vibrant blue. The sky went blood red as the clouds twisted into view, black and unhappy. The wind blew harder, causing the dandelions around them to start flying all over the place.
“Wake up", Noah said, looking at the now panicked brunette.
The wind blew violently as the red head disappeared and the world started to close up on Michael. Everything went black.
Moments later, Michael woke up in tears and covered in sweat. He sat up in his bed, frantically looking around. What had just happened?
The boy let out a small and tired “huh?”. Where was his best friend? What was that?
Just then, the door opened, and Michael saw his mother’s face peek in. He could see a worried look on her usually happy face.
“You had another nightmare, didn't you Mikey?”, She asked softly, sitting on the edge of Michael’s bed.
Mike looked at her in pure confusion.
“Huh?”. It was the only thing that came out of his mouth.
“You can talk to me about it, hun. I’m here for you.”, his mother said as she wrapped her arms around her shaking son. Mike sighed and hugged her back, knowing what she was talking about.
“Well-“He started to tear up, “I saw Noah, we were on a field of dandelions, and everything was fine, we were just happily sitting and then suddenly he’s all like ‘wake up’ and-”
“Take a breath, dear”, his mother said.
Mike breathed and carried on.
“Then, after he said that, everything went scary, the sky went red, and the wind blew so violently“.
He gulped and felt tears form in his eyes,
“Then Noah disappeared.”
Michael’s mother hugged him closely as he cried.
“Can I go see Noah?”, he asked with a sad expression.
His mother looked at him in confusion.
“Mikey…He died a year ago.”
Children in Need Charity Bake Off
What a delicious day! 8 student entries and 5 staff entries made up a glorious array of sumptuous cakes, cookies, doughnuts and muffins. We raised an astounding £110 for Children in Need and some extra funds for our new Agora display and catering for the Christmas Showcase Event.
The student winner was – Kayleigh W for her stupendous Pudsy cake and the staff winner was Mr Collins with his incredible salted caramel 4-tiered extravaganza!
Thank you to our superb Future Leaders across years 7-10 who helped serve and sell the wares.
Happy Hat Day Campaign
On World Mental Health Day, all Oasis staff, students and teachers came together with the hats that make them happiest to show young people they are not alone.
Students and staff at Oasis Academy Lord's Hill were invited to wear any hat of their choice and donate £1 to help support the mass awareness and fundraising campaign Happy Hat Day!
According to NHS latest figures, 420,000 young people are being treated for mental health problems every month.
One in six children aged 5 to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem in July 2021 (a huge increase from 1 in 9 since 2017).
This equates to 5 children in every classroom. Approximately 5,500 Oasis students.
Understanding the role we play in helping them navigate their feelings and emotions as well as supporting them through a crisis is more important than ever. The Oasis family is working hard to ensure that support is given. Whether that be through various hub led interventions in the 'Let's Talk It Out' programme (mentoring, wellness activities, emergency intervention and whole family engagement) or through one-to-one and group counselling sessions managed by our partnership with Place2be.
Credits:
Created with images by twobee - "soccer field and the bright lights" • Наталья Босяк - "Abstract dark red background. Dramatic red sky. Red sunset with clouds. Fantastic sunset background with copy space for design. Halloween, armageddon, apocalypse, end of the world concept."