Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Year 5/6 Boys Football - Oakridge v South View

  Wed 29 Mar 2023

  This week the year 5/6 boys had a match against South View, looking to bounce back from a way below-par performance and result from the last time out. Unfortunately, this being the third match report I have written, it's a case of Deja Vu. We did not start the game well and found ourselves 4-0 down within 10 minutes. My mission is to understand why this is happening to all our teams, as it's not putting us in a position to dominate and win a game. We couldn't get near their technically gifted forward players as they reaped havoc through our team.

  Shortly after this, we were awarded a penalty, and Teddy stepped up to power it past the South View keeper, which breathed new life into our team. We then started our feet in the game. We started to string together some passes to create some good goal-scoring opportunities that we, unfortunately, couldn't put away. South View then broke on the counterattack to make the score 5-1 to them heading into halftime. 

  We had a good chat about how to deal with their forwards at halftime. First, we realised we needed to put stronger tackles in and engage them earlier in the phase so they had less time to turn and run at us. Secondly, I reemphasised the importance of trying to pass the ball through the team, as this is how we created most of our chances.

  Heading into the second half, we took more control of the game by tightening up at the back and moving the ball more efficiently, as we looked a lot more dangerous on the attack. We clawed a couple of goals back through Teddy and Luca again to get the score to 5-3. South View then won a free kick, which was expertly placed into the top corner, and another chance to score 7-3. However, our boys did not give up. We got two more goals in the second half, with Luca firing in from a corner via a deflection, and then an own goal took the final score to 7-5.

  Whilst the score line didn't end in our favour, this game was 100x more pleasing than the last time out. All the boys worked their socks off and continued until the final whistle. I could sense from them that they enjoyed it much more and knew they played much better this time. Suppose the boys keep applying themselves by doing the right things, staying positive and working hard. In that case, they will all succeed in football here and in their local football teams.

  Team: Miguel, Riley, Zach, Teddy, Luca, George, Oskar, Tommy, Adam and Henry.

• Oakridge's World Book Day

  Fri 24 Mar 2023

  We celebrated World Book Day a little later this year on the 24th March. 

  As usual we thoroughly enjoyed the day, getting involved in treasure hunts, book picnics and even visiting Waterstone's travelling book shop! 

  The costumes were fabulous- we even had a real life dinosaur in year 6! 

  Reading for pleasure is so important and World Book Day promotes exactly that. We're looking forward to next year already!

  

• Girls Football Match (Oakridge V Merton)

  Mon 20 Mar 2023 Coach Jordan

  Firstly it was so pleasing to have over 30 girls come forward and say they wanted to be a part of this team. It shows how much the Lionesses winning the Euros last summer has inspired young girls to play football. In the end, I took 14 girls to play with two teams of 7.

  Unfortunately, the game didn't get off to the best start, the nerves got the better of us, and we found ourselves 4-0 down quite early on. After ten minutes, we changed the 7 that were playing and soon began to find our feet within the game by preventing the opposition from scoring too many more. We identified that we needed to close down their number 9 (an excellent footballer and scorer of most of their goals). Once we did this, we were able to get a foothold within the game. We did come in at half-time 5-0 down, after another wonderful bit of play from the Merton attack. After a good chat at half-time, we came out in the second half with renewed energy and started creating more goal-scoring opportunities. Whilst we were attacking well, we couldn't find the back of the net and ended up being 6-0 down. This kicked us into gear, and soon Rosie found herself through on goal and coolly slotted home to score our first goal as a team! The girls reacted amazingly to this, and Rosie had another chance to make it 6-2 and grab her second of the game. In the closing moment, Taiyah scored a goal to make it 6-3, which was the final score.

  I am beyond proud of the girls as we didn't ever give up, kept cheering each other on and worked extremely hard until the final whistle. We only had 1 practice together and 2 team meetings, so all things considered, we did very well. I look forward to the next game and hope to see the girls give it another good go!

   

• Year 3/4 Football Match - Oakridge v Marnel

  Mon 13 Mar 2023

  On a very windy Monday afternoon, we returned to Everest for a rematch against Marnel, hoping to secure a win after a 3-3 draw last time out. Oakridge were kicking into the wind, and we struggled to get out of our half as the constant Marnel pressure forced us into a few mistakes, and we quickly went 3-0 down. Just on the stroke of half time, we were awarded a penalty which Tommy cooly slotted past the Marnel goalkeeper into the bottom corner to make it 3-1 and gave us a lifeline to go into the second half. After a good chat with the boys during the break, we came out on fire in the second half, full of confidence. We quickly forced the opposition back into their half with our relentless work rate and determination to get the scoreline back in our favour. We created numerous chances but couldn't find a way past their goalkeeper, who was making some outstanding saves (to us, he was their man of the match). Halfway through the second half, we won a corner, and it produced the goal of the game. The ball was swung into the area, was cleared and fell to Jackson, who was on the edge of the box... he set himself up. He struck a phenomenal half-volley into the bottom left-hand corner, which sent our team into hysterics and gave us the belief to go on and win the game. With the score at 3-2, we were awarded another penalty which Finley stepped up to take, he struck it well, but their goalkeeper made another outstanding save to keep his team ahead in the game. This seemed to knock the wind out of our sails a little bit, allowing Marnel a late goal as we were chasing the game to make it 4-2.

  I wanted to add how proud I am of the boys as we changed our formation and tactics only on Friday, and they executed the game plan perfectly. When learning to play possession-based football, it takes time for everything to click. We dominated them with our intricate passing and work rate for large parts of the game. On another day, we would have scored the penalty to make it 3-3 and could have gone on to win the game, but this is football, and we will go again next time. 

   

  Team: Ethan W, Ethan P, Jackson W, Oscar A, Blake M, Finely P, Alex A, Tommy S and Jack W

• Mad Hair Day

  Fri 03 Mar 2023

  Well done and a big thank you to everyone who took part in Mad Hair day on Friday 3rd March 2023. The school raised £450.61 which has already been passed to St Michael’s Hospice.