Blog

May Revels

We had a fantastic day on Saturday at May Revels - Oakridge School’s annual fundraising event. The children and parents could not have asked for more on a gloriously warm day as people from the village and surrounding Stroud poured onto the green, which doubles up as the school’s playground.

We started off with crowning our new May Queen, which is a tradition the children really enjoy. This year’s May queen was Eeva, who, being the oldest girl in her year, was chosen.

Shortly after, the children put on their dancing shoes and, with the help of Ballyhoo dancers, valiantly danced around their maypole. Following on from this was a vibrant Caribbean dance, where the entire school wriggled and showed off their moves to Wul Up.

A first for the Revels this year was the dance display by Ballyhoo Dance company, who dazzled the crowd with performances from children from different aged groups.

It was a busy day with lots going on. The schedule was packed full of fun, family activities.

Cranham orchestra also attended, they provided the perfect sound track to a blissful afternoon.

Craft and food stalls were busy, as were the book, plant and cake stalls…

There was plenty of opportunity to win prizes and enjoy go-karting and jumping on the bouncy castle, plus cheese rolling and welly wanging.

The whole day was very busy, with crowds gathering to enjoy ice creams and cream teas.

We ended the afternoon with our raffle and a (rather competitive) tug-of-war. Well done to everyone!

Worship Assembly Easter 2023

We’re all hopping and skipping our way into the Easter holidays after a lovely morning spent with the children to celebrate their wonderful achievements this term.

At the end of every term, Oakridge school invites parents and carers to an ever so lovely service in the Church that leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy. The children stroll across the village green after morning registration, the little ones in particular are always ever so excited!

This morning, Class 1 wore their Easter bonnets, which they had made in school earlier this week. They absolutely loved showing them off to their Mums and Dads!

They had also been busy blowing eggs and decorating them to hang on their Easter tree, which was proudly displayed in Church.

The older children from Class 2 gave some lovely musical performances. Despite the nerves, they powered through the pieces they had been practising hard on all term. The Church was filled to the rafters with rapturous applause!

Next it was Class 1’s turn to come to the front and tell everyone what they had been learning about. This little girl was proud of the Easter bunny moving picture she had made.

The children then delighted in parading up and down the aisle, waving a beautifully colourful cross they had decorated. It was really joyful to watch.

At the end of each assembly, the children are handed Golden Acorn’s. These are certificates of achievement that recognise any super special efforts, and there are always a lot to give out!

Finally, the children were treated to a bit of a surprise by a very special visitor who had ‘hopped’ by!

Earlier in the morning some parents had hidden lots of colourful wooden egg ‘tokens’ around the Church. There was almost a crush down the aisle as the children bumbled over each other to try and be the first to find a token!! Luckily, there were plenty and they came running back to swap it for a real chocolate, plastic free egg. Happy Easter everyone!

Community Knit

The children recently took part in a community knit as part of the school’s involvement with WWF’s Show The Love week. Show The Love is an annual celebration of all that we love but could lose to climate change and tied in well with the children’s topic for the term - Our Wonderful World.

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The knitting marathon took place during the course of a school morning. Children, teachers, parents and grandparents all sat down together to chat, knit, teach. That’s what’s so lovely about Oakridge: it’s all inclusive, everyone is welcome to get involved with the children’s education.

Some of the children had never picked up a pair of knitting needles before, but with careful guidance, they soon got the hang of it. It was so successful, there’s now talk of starting a knitting club on Friday afternoons!