Welcome to a very special edition of the Oak Leaf, produced by students at the Academy’s Learn In!

The New White Belts

Everyone wanted to make masks in art, working with Miss Maguire in room N305! Students had to design their own

masks onto pieces of paper, then draw it onto a piece of card. They did all kinds of designs, from elephants to

Colourful Art

This Oak Leaf was created by the Learn In Media group! Firstly, we looked at how to write an article successfully and

the importance of getting accurate quotations from your witnesses. Then we took photographs using the academy‘s

SLR cameras and created our articles. This is our finished result and we hope you enjoy reading all about the fun ac-

tivities we did at the Learn In!

Approximately 20 people donned a white judo suit at the

Learn In with WM Judo. Over in the gymnasium children from different primary schools and Shire Oak Academy

learnt the basics of judo, including stances to start off with and then grappling. Once this was complete, they

then moved onto more difficult techniques, including a

step, then a swing over and then returning back to stance. The mentor for the students was Wayne, a judo

black belt. We spoke to Mr Hitchen, the group leader for judo. He

said: ―Everyone seems to be involved and getting quite sweaty!‖

We also spoke to one of the students from Shire Oak.

―I think it is fun and I find it easy,‖ was Jess Harvey‘s response to our question.

Everyone was really enjoying the WM judo experience and everyone seemed to be concentrating very hard on

the techniques.

Posh masks for masked balls. This was one of the most

fun activities in the Learn In. With brightly-coloured card-board creations, they caught everyone‘s attention. Miss

Maguire was busy teaching students how to construct a mask and soon pieces of cardboard became colourful art

work.

Natasha Greenwood from Year 7 said: ―The lesson is lots of fun so far!‖

Ben Vause from Year 8 added: ―It‘s interesting. I would

recommend this to a friend! My rating is a 9 out of 10.‖

Lots of people enjoyed MFL with the French team at the

Learn In. We just happened to disturb them when they were completing a game of bingo, or lotto as it is called

in France! We had to be very quiet to avoid disturbing

the tense atmosphere as everyone waited for their num-ber! Students were enjoying it and they also did lots of

colourful drawing in their booklets. They learnt lots about different languages. So much so that they probably could

go home and start speaking in a different language! Lynsey Bayney (from year 7) said: ―I am learning a lot.

The lessons are great!‖

So it‘s ―house!‖ Or should that be ‘maison‘?

Bingo International!

Learn In 2013 Special Edition Page 2

A Taste of Bollywood!

The Real Red Riding Hood!

Morgan Peach, from St John‘s, said: ―I‘m really enjoying

creating photo frames relating to Red Riding Hood.‖ Eve-

ryone really enjoyed having the freedom to conjure up

their own scene. Holly Spooner, in Year 7 at Shire Oak,

cried: ―I‘m Red Riding Hood‘s mum in my freeze frame!‖

Mrs Markham-Moore, one of the group leaders, was very

impressed with the children‘s performance: ―I‘ve got a

lovely group, who are all future Oscar winners, definitely!‖

Keep your eye on those awards ceremonies!

During the Learn In, Jag, a professional dancer, taught

some pupils from different primary schools how to Bhan-gra Dance. Some Shire Oak pupils joined in too!

Over in the Performing Arts Centre, the children danced happily to the music, taking in everything their instructor

told them to do. The enthusiastic environment filled the

hall. Students were enjoying it so much, you could hear them from right across the yard!

When we could finally get the students to stop dancing, we caught up with Laura Allwood, in Year 7 at Shire Oak,

who said: ―It‘s really fun and energetic!‖ Jag was clearly very impressed with the quality of our

dancing at the Learn In: ―I‘m enjoying it, the kids are su-

perstars!‖ So brush up on your Bollywood and watch out, because

this Bhangra team is coming!

In the Roy Hulbert Studio, a group of children from differ-

ent schools took part in devising a section from Red Riding

Hood, which has been shown through body language. First

of all, in practice, they were rehearsing scenes through

freeze framing. As they had no props, they had to show

the stereotypes and exaggerate each one to help others to

make out which characters they were playing. Also, they

turned a poem into a story. They found this the most diffi-

cult to them; however, they enjoyed it thoroughly.

Shire Oak: Space Centre

Over in the Maths department, young rocket scientists

were designing future space stations, that could be built on the moon. They were using straws and tape to make

the ultimate creation in space technology. Oskar Przybyl, aged 10, from Pelsall Village, said: ―It‘s

really hard!‖

Zak Wyton, aged 13, from Shire Oak, said ―Building it is fun!‖

Students were learning geometry, because they were

making shapes with the straws to act as the walls and

base. The young space architects were looking at which

shape would be the best for a colony or house on the

moon and other distant planets. They ended up using

many different shapes for the base, roof and walls.

These students are ready to blast-off in the mathematical

rocket!

Picture Perfect!

All of the photographs in this newsletter were taken by

the students involved with the Learn In, using the Media department‘s SLR cameras.. The talented students visited

each group and took photos wherever they could!

Learn In 2013 Special Edition Page 3

Curriculum Award 2000 and 2002

Everyone had something to do, so they had plenty to get

on with while Erin Waddilove enthusiastically informed us

that the lesson is very enjoyable and educational on dis-

tances. As challenging as this may be, teamwork and fun

will lead to success (hopefully). By the way, I‘m not clean-

ing up broken Polos!

Pupils of Shire Oak‘s partnership schools and academy pu-pils marvelled at the stories and information of the ―History

Man‖ on 11th July. As one of the activities of the ―Learn In‖, attending students have learnt about the history of Britain,

World War Two (The Blitz to be precise) and about their

leader‘s family history: he survived the Holocaust. Madeleine Teece –from Year 8— said when interviewed:

―It‘s interesting, I‘ve found out stuff I didn‘t know before‖.

Pupils enjoyed their experience and the History Man has

impressed once again. However, when we asked if we

could take a photo, he insisted on his faithful companion,

Teddy, being photographed: ―Because Teddy never gets in

any pictures!‖ Not any longer...

As we went into the library, we felt the hard work that

was going into the pictures as students worked to make up their own comic strip. The leader of this cartoon chaos

was Kev—a professional comic artist!

Kev said: ―I get paid to draw pictures, I was drawing at a young age and then they just started paying me.‖

Aston Wade from Leighswood said, ―I have enjoyed it. I think he is interesting.‖

Later, Kev wrote a lot of different titles on pieces of paper and the children voted for which one should be used on

their comic. And the winning title was… Why did Ken

dump Barbie? (It was a close draw between the winning title and ‗Amazing Facial Hair‘!)

Charlotte Gough from St Johns said ―I think the teacher is really chatty, funny and a really good artist.‖

Everyone really enjoyed their experience as a cartoonist!

Crazy Cartoons

Everyone was getting busy in STEM (Science, Technology,

Engineering and Maths) at the Learn In. Have you ever

heard of a polo launcher? Neither have I, but that‘s what

they were making. They planned on making a polo

launcher to shoot the delicious sweet at a giant corkboard

target and the team with the most points would win.

These launching machines were made of wooden lollipop

sticks (unused), planks of wood and metal springs. All of

this was taking place in North 103 and being led by Mr

Bates. If you think that sounds like fun, you‘d be abso-

lutely right!

Poppy Munn from Leighswood told us: ― I‘m enjoying it a

lot.‖

She wasn‘t the only one: everyone was having fun here!

The Amazing History Man

Leaping Polos!

Staff from across the academy delivered the Learn In:

Mrs Markham-Moore and Miss Massa, Miss Shelley and

Miss Downes from English; Mrs Bouyer, Miss Staton and Mrs Williams from MFL; Mr Hitchen from PE; Miss

Maguire in Art; Miss Smith and Ms Would from RE; Ms Hughes, Mr Swan, Ms Roberts and Mr Bates from Science

and Maths,; Miss Guy from Music; and Mrs Gilbert the

Librarian. Thank you to everyone involved, especially Miss Skeates-Lodge for organising everything!

The Learn-In Staff

Learn In 2013 Special Edition Page 4

Curriculum Award 2000 and 2002

Flash goes the camera... And time too! Working under a tight time scale, the Media group (led by Miss

Shelley and Miss Downes) have triumphed – reaching their aim. It‘s clear that the Media class has been successful, completing their set task of getting the articles and photos ready for

the Oak Leaf. The lesson was jam-packed with pleasure – something clear from the students‘ comments and enthusi-asm. Dot Sales – from St. Johns – said: ―It was fun and exciting. I enjoyed it lots!‖

And it wasn‘t just Dot who enjoyed the session! Luke Chapman from Castlefort School commented: ―I thought it was a

great experience, and I loved it‖, which isn‘t hard to believe.

Inside the Newsroom

The Learn In Editorial Team

Everything you see here was written by the students of the Learn In. Every photograph was one they took, and every

headline was one that they came up with. A big thank you and well done to everyone involved! Chief Editors:

Miss Downes and Miss Shelley Editors:

Dot Sales, Eliza Hatchard, Bethan Leivers and Leah Preston from St Johns

William Heath from Holy Trinity and Amy Holford from Leighswood Zoe Beet, Reece Buttle and Reanne Potts from Pelsall Village

Katie Tolley and Sam Coldicott from Year 8 at Shire Oak Gabriella Bough, Grace Parsons, George White, Luke Chapman, Harriet Edwards and Grace Fawkes from Year 7 at Shire

Oak

5 hours, 24 bottles of water and

134 pictures later, here we are at the end of a very productive day!

The most important things we learned were how to work together

to meet deadlines, and why it was

vital to check our facts before going to print!