Oak Lodge School

In October 05, pupils from Oak Lodge took part in The Big Draw which involved school children drawing in subjects other than Art. There was an exhibition of their work at the Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park.

Skateboarding Competition

In July 05, Year 10 pupil Shumalia Qureshi and some of her classmates spent a day at a skatboarding school after Shumalia had won a national competition to design a deck for a skateboard. The winning design is below:

Trip To Switzerland

At the beginning of September, 9 lucky pupils went on a trip to Switzerland, courtesy of the Rotary Club. Here are two pupils' diaries from the week.

Tuesday Michael's Diary

We go to school on Monday night and wake up at 4.30 a.m. and finish breakfast and get picked up in a car. We go to the Gatwick and meet the Rotary Club people (Tom, Penny and Jill). I never went on aeroplane before. We wait long time to get on plane 20 mins but it go fast and we fly the wing. I felt more and ore confident as the plane flew higher and higher. We arrived in Switzerland I felt strange. I looked around and went to wait for the bus. It takes an hour to get to the hostel. I am number 210 with Timothy and Abdi. We went to visit the BBQ for dimmer. We went to the hostel very tired before we can all talk to others to 10 p.m.

Wednesday Jagdeesh's Diary

We went downstairs and sit down. Tom has been talking to Mark. Mark told us about tobogganing cancelled and we are very disappointed. Tom has changed plans today and we all go to Mountain river. We saw a beautiful mountain and river and heard a noisy water fall. We arrive back at shop and Margrit told us to got a small room and we saw a diamond. Colour is pink, brown, black and clear white. We go way out and find a hotel for lunchtime. We chat to each other and get ready to shopping. Mark told us to choose sunglasses we liked. I choose one black small smooth pair, they look cool and adult. We watch boys plays table tennis and Rume and me decide to go to bed now.

Thursday Michael's Diary

We went to zoo. Animals there: ants. Monkey, lizards, bird. Owl, sealion, horses, moose, vultures, seal and snakes. We wet to lunch, finished the food and got the bus back to Berne. We went walking to see bears and then the church. I am interested in going in but see long tower, 300 steps up. We finish climbing the stairs and look down. Went to the shop and a posh hostel for ice cream and then back to the hostel. We had dinner and played a card game. Everyone wanted to go to bed.

Friday Jagdeesh's Diary

We have to wake up and change and go to breakfast. We go to glass factory and I want to make a red ball of glass. Penny is very kind because she will buy all of us a small clear glass animal. We go outside to wait got the boat but it is a long time so we decide to eat before boat. Tom told us the boar will come. We are excited and saw a very very big boat. We go inside the boat. We go inside the boat and have nice fresh air. We go back hotel and have little work then go change into nice clothes. I wore an Indian clothe very beautiful green with blue. I was with Sheldon and Miss Kelly to go to a Swiss family. I ask questions to the family and we have a good time with nice family. We got back to the hotel we arrive first. We sleep now.

Saturday Jagdeesh's Diary

We have to wake up early because we go to the top of mountain. We go change train and we arrive at a beautiful high mountain. We go inside mountain and go to lunch. We finish then go to ice build. We saw a few ice animals. We have fun and Magrit have an idea. We go outside in ice and Magrit buy board. We have fun and go back to hotel for dinner.

Sunday Jagdeesh's Diary

We woke up a bit early because we go to view stories of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle was an author. We go into the museum about Arthur Conan Doyle. Then we go to village of mountain. We go lunch there and go walk to view a waterfall. We walk back then get a train back to the town. We go back to the hotel and get ready to go for a posh meal with Rotary people. We have a good time. Rume and me sit next to Luckas. We carry on talking and Mark told us to get ready to talk about what we have done this week. I talk to the audience and Mark helps me by interpreting. We watch a film about all of us and say goodbye to everyone who is Rotary. We have laughter so much. I am upset because we will go home tomorrow. I was happy because we dance too much and we laugh too much.

The school was featured in a German language local newspaper - see the article here.

GCSE Art Exhibition

Year 11 held a very successful exhibition of their GCSE Art work at the school on 25th June 2004 with many items being sold. See the Art Gallery for photographs. Three of our Year 11 pupils, Akram, Minara and Hannah, will be receiving an Art Prize from the Tate Modern. A mural they have created will be at the Tate Modern for a fortnight from 1st July. Also on an artistic note, Darryl Bedford, one of the art teachers, has compiled a DVD of school events from the last two years.

Football Competition

Boys and girls from every school year went to the Derby Football Competition this year. We had good players and so did other schools. My team nearly got through to the to the semi-finals, but we lost but it doesn't matter because we had a good time and met some people from other schools. I was surprised when the junior team went through to the semi-finals and won the whole competition. They got a shield and it was amazing!

We are so proud of the junior team and I am proud of us because we did our best and we had a good try. My team was fourth, but it doesn't matter. Some of the schools we played were nice, but some had a bad attitude but Oak Lodge were the best because we accepted losing and were polite. We went on the bus and we arrived at school late. We were so tired and my legs especially tired.

By Akram, Year 11

March 2004