OAKBANK has been praised as one ofthe most improved schools in thecountry – after the school’s GCSE re-sults hit an all-time high.

Head teacher, Chris Thompson, wasdelighted with the results – and thehard work put in by both staff andpupils.

“There has been a real shift in the at-titude of young people over the lastfive the ten years and that, coupledwith to dedication of the staff has beenreflected in the exam results.”

Across the school Oakbank regis-tered 54 per cent for all GCSEs, theschool’s best ever results.

Thirty seven percent of pupils gotfive A*-C grades including English andMaths.

Mr Thompson is aiming for evenmore improvements in the coming

year. “We look forward to further im-provement this year. We are con-

stantly looking at good practices andalways trying to improve,” he said.

Oakbank’s success was highlightedby the Specialist Schools and Acade-mies Trust (SSAT) during a special din-ner held at the Royal College ofPhysicians, in London.

The number of students gaining fiveor more GCSE at grade A* to C hasimproved by more than 10 per cent be-tween 2005 and 2008.

Mr Thompson added: “We are al-ways pleased with our technology de-partment which produces a number ofstrong results and our science depart-ment also did particularly well.”

Elizabeth Reid, Chief Executive ofthe SSAT said: “I would like to con-gratulate Oakbank.”

■ Pictured (above) GCSE studentscelebrate their success last summer.

Oakbank Times

All the latest news and information from Oakbank School

SPORTS MINISTER Gerry Sut-cliffe has praised Oakbank’s pio-neering maths and PE project –which could be a blueprint forsimilar schemes across the coun-try.

The ‘Outdoor Classroom’ wasdesigned by pupils with the helpof Burnley-based company ESPLtd. It is designed to help im-prove skills in both mathematicsand sporting multi-skills.

When he visited the school MrSutcliffe saw pupils workingwith outsized dominoes andhuge cubes, there were giantwooden puzzles and a newly cre-ated multi-skills recreation area.

Already the project has beensuch a success that ESP are usingit to promote the idea to schoolsacross the country and they willbe carrying out further researchthroughout the year to judge justhow effective it is.

Staff and pupils have beentrained to make full use of theequipment with several studentsbeing made ‘maths leaders’ torun special Maths Zone sessionsat lunchtimes.

“We are a case study for thisproject and research will be doneover the year by ESP to see howit impacts with the students andhow effective it is,” said head ofspecialism, Christine Buckley.

The Government Minister wascertainly impressed with what hesaw, telling staff and studentsthey were paving the way for-ward, with a superb project thatwould spread throughoutBritain.

“I want to see this happenacross the country. Throughprojects like this we can showour colleagues how sport canalso help in maths, science andEnglish.

“It is great so see such an inno-vative way of engaging youngpeople in physical activity. ESPand Oakbank are leading theway in displaying how PE, sportand physical activity can have aneducational benefit across thewhole school.”

Andrew Wood, managing di-rector of ESP has also been im-pressed with the way theOakbank project has progressed.“Everyone at Oakbank from thesenior staff to the pupils has beenwonderful to work with. Theyhave been very enthusiastic andhave used the facilities in cur-riculum time as well as makingthem available to students duringbreak times.

■ Pictured (above) Sports Min-ister, Gerry Sutcliffe, tries hishand at giant dominoes.

Special Report: Pages 8-9

THE NEWSPAPER OF OAKBANK SCHOOL

Spring 2009

Minister backsmaths project

School is

set to get

a major

make-over

Page 3

Oakbank

to make

African

dreams

come true

Page 5

Matthew

is our

Sports

Personality

Page 16

Our own

celebrity

chefs cook

up a storm

Page 7

Exam performancehits an all-time high

Mr Thompson

2009Oakbank TimesPage 2

STAFF and students at Oakbank School held afancy tie day in memory of a “true intellectual”teacher who was a stickler for smart uniform. Denis Elton-Condon, an assistant head of year,died at Manorlands hospice in October after abattle with cancer.

To his staff and students, 68-yearold Deniswas “like an evergreen tree, always there, hav-ing expectations forstudents and proudof their achieve-ments”.

His colleague JessMcPhail – an inclu-sions manager whohired Denis eightyears ago – said theschool decided tohold a “dress smartfor Denis day” in hismemory to raisemoney for Manor-lands.

She said: “Denis always wore the most amaz-ing ties. He would have a musical tie on atChristmas and always liked ties to be onstraight, so we thought it was a good idea tohold a fancy tie day in his memory.

“Denis was very valued by all the staff andpupils who worked with him. He would knowhow to communicate with people, whoeverthey were, and however they felt about things,he had a way of empathising with people thatwas amazing.”

In a notice placed in the Keighley News, col-leagues said Denis demonstrated “great knowl-edge and wisdom” and had a “wonderful andwicked sense of humour”.

People could “rarely walk along the corridorwithout cries of ‘hello Denis’ enriching the lifeof Oakbank,” they said.

The fancy tie day raised £1,300, of which£1,000 was donated to Manorlands, and stu-dents have decided to make it an annual event.

The remaining money will be used to pur-chase and plant a memorial tree for the much-loved teacher, in the school grounds, and it willalso go towards wood for design technologystudents to create two memorial benches. Oneseat will go in the school grounds while theother will be given to Manorlands.

■ Mohammed Arfan and Wendy Richardsonheld a curry lunch for staff in memory ofDenis.

Mohammed and Wendy, both learning men-tors, held the lunch to raise money for Manor-lands where Mr Elton-Conron was cared for inthe later stages of his illness. A total of 65 mem-bers of staff took partand £200 was raised.

Two members of staff from Manorlands alsoand joined us and received a cheque in memoryof Denis from the smart tie day.

Raffle prizes were donated by members ofstaff and the Broomhill Co-op and the food wasprovided by Northan Leave of Dalton Lanewho gave a generous discount as their contri-bution to the charity event.

■ Pictured (top) students take part in the TieDay in memory of Mr Elton Condon and (bot-tom) staff enjoy a curry to raise money forManorlands.

Tie Day memorial for Denisgives support to Manorlands

AFTER delaying her retirement for fiveyears at the request of the Information Man-ager, Mrs Marrin Smith retired as LearningResources Centre Assistant to take a wellearned rest.

Mrs Smith, who had worked in the LRCfor over seven years, was presented with acard and bouquet, a champagne cake, andthanks to a collection amongst colleagueswas treated to a trip to London to see themusical version of “Lord of the Rings”.

“I’m delighted with all the gifts and goodwishes,” said an emotional Mrs Smith, “andso touched at the thought and considerationeveryone has shown. I will miss everyone agreat deal, but will be coming in as an examinvigilator from time to time, and checkingon the plants in the LRC!”

Information Manager, Ms King, said:“Mar-rin has been an incredible asset to the LRC,and will be very much missed.”

Mrs Smith is replaced as LRC Assistant byMiss Nicola Farrar, who attended Oakbankherself several years ago.

She said: “I’m really enjoying working atOakbank, and getting to know all the stu-dents. The school is supporting me in work-ing towards a Level 3 NVQ in InformationWork, which is excellent.”

■ Mrs Smith meets the author, Bali Rai.

ORGANISING exams and mak-ing sure everything runs smoothlyis a complex process these days.

It’s not just a task for a fewweeks in summer, but an all-yearround responsibility, with modu-lar exams, on-line tests, portfoliosand internal assessments.

Phil Corp has been the ExamsOfficer at Oakbank for over sixyears and retired at the end ofApril. He was previously Head ofScience at Pudsey GrangefieldSchool in Leeds for 20 years andthen became part-time Exams Of-ficer there in 1999.

He moved to Oakbank in Janu-ary 2003 to combine teaching Sci-ence with organising exams.Eventually in 2007, he took a ca-

reer change, leaving teaching tobecome full-time Exams Officer.After a break, Phil hopes to start agarden maintenance business.

His place is being taken by MrsCatherine Shaw, previously ExamsOfficer at Holy Family School forover five years.

Previously, Cath was a managerof a textiles company but follow-ing redundancy, went into the ed-ucation sector. She is lookingforward to getting to know a lotof new faces but is starting at Oak-bank at the busiest time of yearfor Exams Officers. However weare confident that the school issafe in her hands!

Good luck to both in their newcareers.

Marrin leaves

the LRC

All change forOakbank exams

Phil Corp hands over control of exams to Cath Shaw

Denis Elton-Condon

Page 32009 Oakbank Times

A bumper redevelopment plan is in thepipeline for Oakbank – with work due tostart within the next three years.

Head Chris Thompson is determined tocreate a school fit for the 21st century withestimates for the work ranging from £15 to£25 million.

“We are not looking at cosmetic improve-ments. We are trying to provide buildings fitfor the 21st century,” Mr Thompson said.

Plans would see a complete redevelopmentof the site which first became a school in1964 based around Oakbank – the formerhome of Victorian mill owner John Haggas.

The house, which now houses offices at

the school, was built in 1872 and the Haggasfamily moved out at the start of the SecondWorld War when it was used to house evac-uated families.

In 1964 Keighley Grammar School movedfrom its town centre site, and several stagesof building work began.

The school has been left with a mixture ofbuildings from the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1990’stagged onto the old house.

Currrent plans would see one of the blocksdemolished and another would be strippedback to its basic structure. Buildings whichremain standing would see major adapta-tions including the construction of new

classrooms and even new outside walls.The work is part of ‘refurbishment and re-

modelling’ proposals under the BuildingSchools for the Future programme.

It is planned to double the size of the pres-ent sixth form accommodation and expandfacilities for technology and performing arts.

“We see expansion of our technology fa-cilities as a key priority. This September wewill be one of the first schools in the countryto offer a new diploma in engineering.

There has also been a significant increasein the number of sixth form students andany building work will have to cater for this.Sports and community use through our out-

standing Extended Schools cluster is also ear-marked for development,” he said.

Money has already been set aside to replaceOakbank’s astro-turf sports pitch.

Students have been working with the ar-chitects who are drawing up plans for the de-velopment.

“Oakbank is already a very popular schooland we are involving students, parents andthe wider community in our planning forthe future,” Mr Thompson said.

■ Oakbank School council members showplans for new buildings, from left: Nick Fos-ter, Matthew Moore, Charlie Rawson, LucyHagyard and Jade Smith.

School set for multi-million pound facelift

OAKBANK’S School Sport Part-

nership is among the best in the

country – performing well above

average according to a Govern-

ment survey.

The National Physical Educa-

tion and School Sport and Club

Links survey 2007-08 checked

out the 450 school sport part-

nerships across the country.

Oakbank is the ‘hub’ for five

secondary schools with each

working alongside a total of 35

primary schools. There are also

two special schools, one inde-

pendent school and Keighley

Park Lane FE College in the

partnership.

The survey checked the im-

pact each partnership was hav-

ing on pupils with a series of

questions to find out how much

sport was taking place in the

schools.

The survey found that 88% of

pupils at schools in the Oakbank

Partnership did at least two

hours of high quality PE and out

of school sport each week

They also scored well in the

‘league table’ of partnerships

encouraging young people to

take up sport outside school

time. Almost half of all students

took part in out-of-school sport

with clubs which had developed

links with the schools.

The Oakbank Partnership was

above average in eight of the 10

areas covered by the survey.

“For a Partnership as big as

ours, covering such a wide and

socially diverse community it is

a fantastic achievement,” said

Partnership Development man-

ager, Steve Bell.

“Credit goes to all the staff and

students in the primary, special

and secondary schools. The link

teachers in primary schools and

school sport co-ordinators in the

secondary schools have been

superb.

“They have all worked well

alongside staff at Oakbank to

deliver first class sport through-

out the Partnership,” he said.

Partnership is on a sporting high

Partnership manager, Steve Bell, with pupils from Nessfield School

Pictures required

2009Oakbank TimesPage 4

A-LEVEL geography students visitedMalham for three days of fieldwork andresearch.

During their stay the Year-12 studentscarried out data collection and experi-ments to help with the fieldwork part ofthe examination.

A study called ‘Unequal Spaces’ looked

at rural deprivation in the communitiesof Grassington and Kettlewell and ‘Re-branding Places’ used the market town ofSettle as a case study.

Home made food, accommodation inthe woods without lights, and classroomactivities until late in the evening put theYear-12s through their paces.

Malham exam boost

Artists shine at Cliffe Castle

Colourful window showssixth form in a new lightTHE Sixth Form block has been given amagnificent new look – with a stained glasswindow above the entrance door.

Many hours of work went into the proj-ect as senior students gave up their freetime to work on the design and productionof the work of art.

Instead of developing their abilities atcomputer games, Playstation-ing or social-ising, they were working with traditionalskills to create the glass masterpiece.

“We poured everything into it, includingour sweat and blood. Yes – red glassdoesn’t come red, you know. Creating thewindow took place in two stages. StageOne saw the creative arty types of SixthForm locked away in a room – not al-lowed to leave – until they came up withthe design.

“Stage Two consisted of cutting the glassand arranging it and sealing it with lead. Infact this is how you make a lead-light win-dow, which is actually what we made.

“It’s just that ‘Stained Glass Window’sounds more impressive,” he said.

“Cutting the glass was probably the

most difficult part of the process, trying tomiss your fingers was a challenge indeed,and we learned a fair bit while making it.

“Firstly that cutting your finger withglass or a glass cutter hurts, it really does.

“Secondly Mr Martin told us that glass isreally a ‘slow-moving liquid,’ which is notcorrect. Glass – just because we love to ed-

ucate you – is an ‘amorphous solid’ – asolid nonetheless – despite the fact that itmight move a bit. Anyone who tells youotherwise is fibbing.

So, when you have a few minutes tospare, take a look at the window – itmakes us feel better.

By: Jonny, Dean, Jake and Lolli

THE music department has loads of clubs for all yearsincluding two choirs and sessions for many different in-struments.

The Pop Choir meets on Tuesday lunch times, singmodern songs, and perform in school concerts.Wednesday Sing is on Wednesday lunchtimes when theysing songs from musicals and old favourites. Studentsfrom any year can take part in both choirs.

Instrument groups include: Brass group (trumpet,trombone etc), string group (violin, cello), sax group(saxophones), clarinet group, guitar group, swing bandand flute group.

You have to be able to play the instrument to be partof the group, but they open to all years and all abilities.There is also a Samba Band which is made up of drumsand percussion.

The groups are:Brass group................Monday lunchtimeString group...............Monday lunchtimeSax group...................Tuesday lunchtimeSamba band ...............Tuesday lunchtimeClarinet group...........Tuesday lunchtimeSwing band ................Tuesday after schoolGuitar group..............Thursday lunchtimeFlute group................Thursday lunchtime

There is also a keyboard club on Friday lunchtimes.They don’t take part in the concert but it is a good placeto practice for any music assessments or piano exams.

Jodie England – 8IC

Music for all tastes

Well – are you worried about something or needhelp or advice. No need to worry anymore be-cause Shirley is here to help!

Shirley will answer any question you have tooffer. If you have an issue and want no one to findout, but you need a solution, Shirley will be therefor you.

Shirley is completely anonymous, all your prob-lems or any note you send will not be seen by an-other pupil or teacher, only Shirley will be able tosee it and give you free help or advice.

If you want your answer then it will be in theschool newspaper without your name or any ofyour details.

There will be a box in Mrs Poxon and Mrs Co-breys office for your letters and hopefully yourquestion will be answered. Do not write yourname on your note use a name that matches yourissue.

Thank you and we hope Shirley will be able tohelp.

Shirley

Shirley – Oakbank’sstudent Agony Aunt

We pride ourselves on the quality of the teaching atOakbank and giving the students a varied diet ofexperiences.

It is also important to educate the teachers of to-morrow and we work in partnership with a numberof local universities on the Initial Teacher EducationProgramme, enabling future teachers to learn theircraft from experienced practitioners.

The youth, vitality and new ideas that the studentteachers bring with them are also of great benefit toour students, giving them the opportunity to experi-ence different methods of learning. New ideasbrought into school also help our staff to stay at theforefront of educational theory and practice.

As one of the student teachers said recentlywhen she left us: “I can’t think of a better place tolearn to teach. The staff have been extremely sup-portive and the kids were great.”

John Page: Initial Teacher Education Co-ordinator

Teachingthe teachersof tomorrow

TALENTED musicians have beenperforming throughout the year –and there are more concerts to come.

One of the highlights saw JamesLongbottom perform the themefrom Schindler’s List as a violin solowith the Bradford Youth Orchestraat the annual Schools Prom held atSt George’s Hall.

James also attends the Junior Sat-urday School of the Royal NorthernCollege of Music.

A group of GCSE students per-formed at a Manorlands Concert inDecember and there were also per-formances at the school’s Christmasconcert.

Musiciansshow theirskills

TALENTED Art students from Oakbank’sSixth Form have exhibited work in Keigh-ley’s Cliff Castle Museum.

The Good Start Exhibition aims to show-case the best art work from the schools inthe Aire Valley and has been growing yearupon year since 2005.

This year, Oakbank, Holy Family, Park-side and South Craven schools each exhib-ited the work of up to ten students.

The exhibition, which ran from Februaryto March was well attended and the previewevening, open to the students and their fam-ilies was a great success, with the studentsand their parents proud to see their work insuch a professional setting.

Students Jake Cope-Smith, Emma Wine,Lee Walker and Rachel Mitchell each exhib-ited AS Art work whilst Oakbank studentSian Pearson showed her talents in both Artand Photography.

Former students Michael Moore andGemma Wood returned from their currenthigher education courses to see their A2work on show. Jake Cope-Smith with some of his artwork on display at Cliffe Castle

FIT-4-ACTION is a new club in school,which aims to help pupils gain a health-ier lifestyle.

The main focus of the club is to helppupils get fit, especially those who maysuffer with weight issues such as beingoverweight or obese.

We have a club every Wednesday andThursday after school where pupils canexercise, either in the Fitness Suite or bytaking part in games and activities.

Pupils who attend are rewarded fortheir commitment with prizes such aswater bottles, wristbands, pens, pedome-ters, bowling passes and trips out ofschool.

Members of the group recently visitedSki Rossendale where pupils had a go atboth Snow Tubing and were given a Ski-ing lesson. Pupils in the club also get dis-counted rates at Keighley Leisure Centre

and Oakbank Recreation Centre forthemselves and their families.

Once a month pupils meet with ahealth co-ordinator to monitor theirprogress.

The group is also planning ‘Cook and

Eat’ sessions to learn how to preparehealthy meals. There will also be a trip toHebden Hey for an intense three days ofleaning how to maintain a healthylifestyle with exercise in the beautifulsurroundings, activities to help buildself-esteem and a cookery course.

Thirteen of the pupils took part in theKeighley 10k run/walk. All pupils didextremely well, worked hard and all com-pleted the course, even those pupils whonever thought they would!

If you feel your child would benefitfrom being in this group or have anyother questions please contact MissGreen (PE) at the school or send an emailto: fit4action@oakbank.org.uk.

■ Pictured (left) members of the clubreach the finishing line in Victoria Parkas they complete the Keighley 10krun/walk event.

Page 52009 Oakbank Times

THROUGHOUT the year under the leadership ofRuth Simpson there have been regular SchoolCouncil meetings.

Each tutor group elects its representative to reflecttheir views and raise issues put forward by pupils.Each Year Group Council elects a Chairperson andsecretary who take the meetings.

The most discussed issues centre on uniform, foodand toilets but each year group has focussed on itsown interests.

Year 7 Fund Rising: Pyjama Day and Wet SpongesYear 8 Health Issues in particular SmokingYear 9 Signs around school and Red Nose DayYear 10 Improving Strollers AreaYear 11 School Year BookThere are Whole School and Key Stage meetings

each term when the Chairperson and a selected rep-resentative meet with senior staff to discuss mattersarising from the meetings and most recently they dis-cussed the Building Schools for the Future project.

TEACHERS from Oakbank have experiencedlife in a school in the African country ofCameroon – and are building links with Keigh-ley.

Chris Buckley, director of specialism at Oak-bank, and sports co-ordinator Kathryn Shep-herd travelled to the southern Cameroon cityof Ebolowa where they visited the Governmentbi-lingual High School.

What they found was a far cry from Oakbank.The African school had just two footballs andheld assemblies for 5,000 people.

“It was certainly an experience to visit theschool and it makes you realise how lucky weare,” Ms Buckley said.

They travelled to Africa as part of the Dreamsand Teams project run by the British Counciland Youth Sport Trust. It aims to broaden theinternational view of people in the UK andAfrica and eradicate stereotypes about youngpeople in both countries.

The aim is to form a partnership betweenOakbank and schools in Ebolowa and Bafous-sam which will develop over the next threeyears.

Ms Buckley said: “We are going to be settingup pen pals, a Dreams and Teams committee

and doing work about Cameroon in art and tex-tiles, music and dance.

“I think this partnership will benefit thewhole school, in every subject. I took across 30letters which Year-7 pupils had written to theCameroon pupils and when I returned I had 30

letters to give back to them. They were very ex-cited that they had received letters so soon.”

Following the initial visit students threwthemselves into the project with their ownfundraising campaign. They sold ‘Dreams andTeams’ wristbands and money raised went to

buy more sports equipment for the Africanschool. Oakbank was even asked to expandtheir project and also build links with a secondschool in Bafoussam in the west of the country.

Deputy Head, Mr Dave Maxwell, and scienceteacher Jack McPhail, visited the school earlierthis year.

“We had been warned what to expect, but itwas still quite a shock. The school had 4,100pupils, but virtually no equipment – they hadjust eight computers for the whole school,” MrMaxwell said.

The two Oakbank teachers took lessons at theschool and also joined local teachers at staffmeetings.

“There were 70 pupils in the class I taught andthe only equipment was a blackboard and apiece of chalk, but all the students were desper-ate to get to university,” Mr Maxwell said.

Primary schools are also going to join in withthe project and it is planned to set up sports-based leadership projects in Keighley andCameroon with local sports clubs asked to jointhe partnership.

“We already have support from YorkshireCricket Club and we hope local sports clubswill also give their support to the project,” saidMs Buckley.

Year-9 students producedbooks about themselves tosend to pupils in Cameroon.

The students gave up theirfree time to make them and

they were delivered to theAfrican school together withpencils, pens, rulers, and apencil case for each recipient.

The books will be the first

stage in developing links be-tween students at bothschools, and help to developan understanding of bothcommunities.

School Councilleads from front

Growing African project getsits own school Dream Team

Mr Maxwell and Mr McPhail receive a warm welcome from students in Cameroon

The Oakbank teachers visit a primary school classroom in Bafoussam

Students target healthier life

STUDENTS went Red Nose Daycrazy to help raise money for ComicRelief.

Some spent the day in pyjamas andteacher, Mr Hoyle, took a soaking forthe cause as he was pelted with withsponges during break.

During the day the variety ofmoney-raising schemes helped tocollect £169 for the charity.

Students also did their bit to sup-port Children in Need.

Pudsey Bear visited and activities in-cluded a non-uniform red/white/yel-low day organised by some of thehouse captains, cake stalls and a carwash. The events raised about£1,460.

2009Oakbank TimesPage 6

£Nightstop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268.15Braithwaite School . . . . . . . . 201.01Haworth RDA. . . . . . . . . . . . . 201.01British Red Cross . . . . . . . . . . 39.00Children In Need . . . . . . . . . 1460.05Marie Curie Cancer Care. . . . 357.57Myasthenia Gravis Assc . . . . 231.00Comic Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169.01CLIC Sargent . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88.84Manorlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841.05

TOTAL 5856.69

MEMBERS of form 11HN held abumper fundraising effort to helpthe Bradford homeless charity,Nightstop.

Martin Berry, Danny Jones,Luke Terry, Reece Pawson andFrazer Harding organised a spon-sored bike ride with family andfriends supporting the event.

Together with a sale of homemade cakes and biscuits, made by

other members of the form, theyraised a total of £268.15.

The money raised by the stu-dents enabled the charity to helpat least 18 homeless young people.

“The hard work of the studentsat Oakbank to help other youngpeople was fantastic, we can’tthank them enough,” said Night-stop’s education worker, Bill Mc-Cann.

Nightstop gets help

TWO schoolgirls have togetherraised more than £200 to help en-able a riding group to carry on op-erating in bad weather.

Jessica Meegan, 15, and Lucy Fer-guson, 13, both pupils at Oakbank,arranged a non-uniform day attheir school at the end of the sum-mer term.

The proceeds of £201 have gone toHaworth Riding for Disabled As-sociation (RDA) which needs£60,000 to build an indoor ridingschool at their Vale Mill Lane base.

At present the group has to closeduring the winter months, but theindoor arena will allow them to op-erate throughout the year.

The girls are volunteers at the rid-ing group, where they give upmany hours of their time lookingafter a pair of ponies.

Praising both teenagers for theircontribution, Haworth RDA secre-tary Jackie Butterfield said: “Theyare a credit to the group, they arebrilliant volunteers.

“They’re very reliable and just bycoming along they learn new skillsall the time.”

The association was formed in2001 with just one horse and onedisabled rider, but over the years ithas gone from strength to strength,thanks mainly to the work of vol-unteers like Jessica and Lucy. Theynow have nine horses and cater for140 riders, with the numbers still

growing.“Our members improve their rid-

ing skills and develop their co-ordi-nation in a fun and friendlyenvironment. We think socialisa-tion is a huge factor in helping ourmembers to develop their confi-dence.

“Both the disabled members andthe volunteers gain a great dealfrom the work they do,” Jackie But-terfield said.

Jessica, who lives off Fell Lane,

and Lucy, of Haworth, have beenvolunteers at Haworth RDA forfour and three years respectively.

They take care of two of thegroup’s ponies – Molly and Bessie.

“It’s great to meet new people,and it’s just good fun, “ said Jessica.

Lucy added: “It’s really nice meet-ing the riders and helping them.”

■ Students Lucy Ferguson, left,and Jess Meegan with horses Bessieand Molly at Haworth Riding forthe Disabled

Friends back arena planfor disabled rider group

Lucy Ferguson, left, and Jess Meegan with horses at the riding centre

Oakbankenjoys abumper

charity year

Charity Total. . . so far!

DAVID LEWIS and Ryan Mitchell,walked more than 500 miles fromJohn O’Groats to Manorlands to raisefunds for the hospice.

David’s father, John, was in the careof Manorlands for three months as hewas treated for cancer.

His prospects were not thought tobe good when he was first admitted tothe in-patient unit but following treat-ment he was discharged and laterlearned he was in full remission.

Both David and his 15-year-old sis-ter, Ellie, are members of the hos-pice’s teenager support group.

But the idea for the walk came fromRyan, after he heard speakers at

school talking about the need forfundraising. The hospice needs toraise over £1 million a year to con-tinue its work.

David said they were extremelylucky with the weather during theirwalk, which took place last year dur-ing one of the wettest summers.

“We seemed to dodge the worst ofit – there were only two or three daysof rain and the first week was actuallyblazing hot, “ he said.

They raised at total of £4,000 forManorlands.

■ David Lewis, left, and RyanMitchell at Manorlands after walkingfrom John O’Groats.

Trek brings in cashfor hospice appeal

THE school handed over a cheque for £1,000 to Manorlands frommoney raised by staff and students during a ‘Fancy Tie Day’ held inmemory of teacher Denis Elton-Condon.

Students go fundraising crazy

Maths teacher Mr David Hoyle (above) took a soaking for the fundrais-ing cause when he was pelted with wet sponges and (below) students sellhome made cakes as their part of the Comic Relief effort.

Page 72009 Oakbank Times

Young chefs takeon beef challenge

CHEFS at an award-winning restaurant havebeen teaching Oakbank School pupils howto cook the perfect curry.

Shimla Spice executive chef MahmoodAkhtar and Keighley branch manager FaisalHussain taught GCSE food technology stu-dents how to cook dahl, a lentil dish, and achicken masala curry.

Shimla Spice won the Keighley NewsRestaurant of the Year award this year andchefs there have now agreed to run curryclasses for students at Oakbank over the nextfour weeks.

Head of food technology at the Keighleyschool, Sue Brearley, said that children hadcooked a curry before using a paste but thistime they would have to cook the dishesfrom scratch.

She said: "This is increasing their foodknowledge and it links in with their enter-prise work by learning about businesses."

Mr Hussain said he would like to see moreyoung people going into the restaurant trade.

He said: "I think with cooking it is a jobyou have to have a passion for.

"I run the restaurant but I have started totrain as a chef as well.

"I have always had a keen interest workingwith students and I think not enough youngpeople are going into the restaurant trade."

Mr Akhtar said it took him a few years to

master his trade, but he had high hopes forthe Oakbank students who were being givena head start learning about life in the kitchen.

He said: "It is a bit difficult to get it rightfirst time but they're trying."

Pupil Robyn Holmes said she hoped torecreate the dish at home.

"I am hoping to do it myself and transferthe ideas to other dishes that I make, " shesaid.

■ Shimla Spice executive chef MahmoodAkhtar (left) and restaurant manager FaisalHussain teach Year-10 students the art ofmaking the perfect curry.

TWO budding cooks from OakbankSchool, in Keighley, battled it out witheight other competitors in a regional YoungChef Challenge.

Katy Town and Darren Smith cookedtheir own beef dishes against the clockwhile celebratory chef James Martin lookedon in judgment.

The pupils were picked out of hundredsof entrants for the Quality Standard BeefMince Young Challenge.

The competition involved adapting or cre-ating a nutritious recipe involving beef,which had to be cooked in under an hour.

Pupils also had to submit a time plan anda cost breakdown within a strict £10budget.

Although they did not win Katy and Dar-ren were crowned Highly CommendedYoung Chefs by Mr Martin.

Sue Brearley, head of food technology atOakbank, said she was proud of the stu-dents.

She said: “Oakbank was the only schoolthat had two pupils nominated to gothrough to the regional finals, the othereight were all from different schools, so Ithink we have done quite well.

“They both enjoyed the day. The compe-tition has been running for three years andthe winner of the first year helped Mr Mar-tin cook for Prince Charles recently.”

Katy cooked stuffed vine leaves baked inchilli sauce and served with a Greek saladand Darren cooked Darren's Spicy Fritters,with a green salad and spicy dip.

Mr Martin said he was “thoroughly im-pressed” with Katy and Darren’s recipes.

He said: “The food was innovative, nutri-tious and well presented and they deserverecognition for their hard work and effort.”

Lessons are spiced up

ENTERPRISING stu-dents are designing andproducing a healthyrecipe book containingrecipes from the world ofTV Chefs, celebrities,sport, politics – and thesimply famous.

Parents and studentsare also being asked tocontribute their own

special recipes.When it is completed

the book will be sold toraise funds for charity aswell as to promote the ‘BFit’ campaign whichaims to increase thehealth, fun and fitness ofchildren who are facingthe challenge of healthissues.

YEAR-11 students faced a frantic last few weeksto get their technology coursework ready for theexamination deadline.

All student from the four areas of technology,food, textiles, graphics and resistant materials, hadto hand in a folder of research, design and devel-opment sheets and practical pieces related to theirarea of specialism.

As usual they managed to meet the deadline andproduced some excellent pieces of work.

Technology staff then spent time standardisingpupils’ work.

In the graphics department (above) staff sawsome stunning examples of packaging producedby the students.

Overall, it seems like a very good year for the de-partment so far – now there is just the summerexams to contend with – and pupils are revisinghard.

YEAR-12 Business students established a FairTrade business within the school as part of theirAS Business Studies course. They promoted tea,coffee, chocolate and a range of snacks and gifts,to students, staff and parents.

“Increasing the sale and demand for Fair Tradegoods will enable producers to provide food andclean water for themselves and their families.

“They will receive a fair price for their products,and this in turn will reduce the levels of diseaseand death faced by impoverished farmers,” saidbusiness studies student, Sam Chapman.

■ Pictured are (from left) Sam Chapman, TomMoses and Ross Beaumont.

Fair Trade Business

Celebrity recipes

Darren Smith and Katy Town meet celebrity chef James Martin

Tech studentshit a high note

OAKBANK’S outdoor maths ‘classroom’ has proved a bighit with students – and is set to be the blue-print for similarschemes at schools across the country.

The idea for the project came when four teachers attendeda School Sports Specialist Conference. They met representa-tives from an innovative company, ESP, which specialised inproducing health related equipment for schools.

The Oakbank staff realised a similar approach could beused linking maths and sport to make learning fun.

“At that point ESP had not worked closely with any Math-ematics departments but we felt there was an opportunitynot to be missed for students at Oakbank to have a resourcethat would complement other developments in the depart-ment – and be a focal point for a new curriculum being in-troduced in the Autumn of 2008,” said Head of Maths, MrJim Phillipson.

“I liked the big Soma Cube pieces and mak-ing a massive cube from them. It kept usthinking and entertained”

Bethany Pursey, 7KG

The new curriculum is designed to make students thinksituations through for themselves and increase their motiva-tion to learn. It incorporates sports related aspects within thecourse and encourages group work and opportunities forgreater co-operation and imagination.

Maths classrooms already had a range of thinking skillproblems and traditional mathematical puzzles. They in-cluded Chinese tangrams, ancient Chinese puzzles made upa square divided into seven pieces, and Soma cubes.

The idea behind the ‘outdoor classroom’ was to scale-upsome of the favourite ‘puzzles’ thus enabling youngsters towork in small teams to solve the various challenges and tohave fun – and exercise – while they were doing it.

Year 9 pupils, James Moore and Tim Hargreaves, bothMaths leaders, became involved in the design and layout ofthe area. Their task was to ensure that the space was used ef-fectively with an interesting variety of resources spread acrossthe zone.

James said: “It was great to be involved in making deci-sions when we were planning in the headteacher’s office andworking with a real life businessman” Tim added “It givespeople a chance to do practical activities whilst still doingtheir Maths. It encourages teamwork too.”

“It was good. It was problem solving. Youhad to solve a really hard block puzzle. Onlyone person solved it!”

Bradley Corbey, 7AT

So far it is proving to be a great success with everyone thathas had the opportunity to use it, but it is more than just fun

and games.The tasks link directly to the work done in the classroom.

Pupils might be asked to calculate surface areas of the solidsmaking up the giant Soma Cube or to graph the minimumnumber of moves taken to solve the Tower of Hanoi prob-lem.

The game of Battleships even has its place in using co-or-dinates in four quadrants and the Traverse Wall allows Year7 students to find complements to a hundred as they selectappropriate grips along the way.

In January 2009, just one year after they first had the idea,the school held an official launch for the ‘Classroom’ and.Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, attended together withabout 70 invited guests.

They were treated to demonstrations by pupils in Year-7

Page 8 Oakbank Tim

A giant puzzhelps to mak

At the annual prize evening to cele-brate Academic and Pastoral Excel-lence, David Ross a schoolgovernorand founder of ‘Partnership& Innovations’ presented over 200Prizes to students who had been cho-sen by the teachers.

The presentations were inter-spersed with music and dance, andconcluded with students, staff andparents enjoying light refreshments..

Prize WinnersYears 7, 8 and 9: Matthew Vear, Cas-sandra Hall, Abul Habeeb, PeterKounnas, Sohail Ali, Josh Ferguson,Lauren Laycock, Ollie Gallagher,Nicholas Sharples, Saqalain Miah,Oliver Watson, Samantha Strickland,Solomon Wright, Lee Lowther,Samuel Todd, Mollie Gaddas, AkibulIslam, Rebecca Illingworth, JessicaSargent, Hannah Hiscock, EllaUpton, Luke Macadam, JessicaCourtman, Shane Barlow, MarjanaHanifah, Ben Addison, Abigail Proc-tor, Zara Knappy, Joshua Mitchell,Marjana Hanifah, HenrietaGallyasova, Taisa Stefanska, Shan-non Throupe, Caitlin Sheppard, Lau-rence Lorriman, Natalie Whitehead,Helen Crouch, Gamze Oksuz, AnumRehan, Rebecca Harrison, NaomiDavies, Jessica Rowley, EleanorWilliams, Lewis Wrathall, Mahria Ali,Danny Holmes, Joe Robinson, TimHargraves, Paige Lowndes, BenBrearley, David Slepcik, MuhammadMasum, Jack Davison, KatieHouldsworth, Joshua Benfield,Abdul Abdullah, Alice Turner, Rhi-anna Smith.

Years 10 and 11 – Anthony Garnett,Katie Brennan, Stuart Hopper, JadeMaude, Jake Thorp, Amasjasz Ste-fanski, Georgina Scrutton, LukeFleetwood, Sophie Law, RobynHolmes, Samantha Walsh, EmilyWilkinson, Kim Bowe, JasmineSimpson, Lauren Moore, AaronMacAdam, Catherine Wall, WaqaasSaleem, Maria Sajjad, Fateha Uddin,Taklima Begum, Nicole Cameron-Moore, Emma Kettlewell, Ruby Whe-lan, Jake Bradley, Jessica Law, MarkBrunskill, Ben Cotton, MatthewMoore, Carly Robertson, Beth Mur-ray, Amy Tomlin, Aisha Kelly, JessicaMeegan, Nicola Langthorne, TanyaGogliormella, Sam Portlock, HarrietShires, Ryan Summerscales, PeterClark, Christopher Andrews, VictoriaHarris, Carly Robertson, Kieran Clay-ton, Jasmin Camm, Mary Fuller,

Matthew Pearson.

Years 12 and 13 – Rujina Ali, RossBeaumont, Haley Williams, LouiseSoothill, Joshua Huntley, GeorgiaBeattie, Joanna Eastell, MichaelClegg, Joshua Heinrich, ChristinaBooth, Bethan Turner, Jack Lons-dale, Hannah Schofield, CharlotteNevison, Samantha Foster, RebeccaMitchell, Jodie Healy, Ben Lamb,Joseph Harrison, Roshida Begum,Nabeela Hussain, Tom Cruikshank,Stephanie Butterfield, LaurenFeather, Jonathan Brammah, EmmaBullock, Anne-Marie Mellor, LeanneSwinbank, Hollie Ogden, DavidLewis, Joe Park, Daniel Lomax,Dean Knapper, Nicola Golding,Rachael Mitchell, Carly Mason,Khathza Ali, Stephanie Butterfield,Samuel Fletcher.

School Council – 7YS Emily Cole-man, 7KC Frankie Morrison, 7GHPeter Kounas,7AT Alice Chapman.8JF Ella Upton, 8ZW Joe Wilmore,8AD Luke Maunsell.9HJ Annabelle Allan, 9TL Demi Gir-van, 9NW Arianne Thomas.10DR Scarlett Allmark 10RG NikkiWhiteoak 11EN Charlie Rawson.

House Prize Winners House Sports – Amy Minnock 10RB,Tom Marshall 10JA, Lewis Kemp,10KM. Hannah Spencer 11PQ,Matty Moore 11LP.House Award Certificates – 7DLCassandra Hall, Opal (300); 7DLAbul Habeeb, Sapphire (275); 8POMarjana Hanifah, Platinum (175);8IC Shannon Throupe, Platinum;9AR David Slepcik, Emerald (75);9LB Gamze Oksuz, Emerald. House Competitions and Fund Rais-ers – 7 QK Tutor Group; 7YS Sam‘Pudsey’ Hird; 9SF Laura Lynch;9SF Amy Paxford; 9LB Jodie Hop-kinson; 9LB Laura Parkes. House Captains – ASHE: 11CHJade Smith , Tom Hudson. 11WMRhianna Jones, Harriet Shires; 11XBNick Foster, Jade Hargreaves.GLENNIE: 11HN Jess Meegan,11DP Charlotte Hutchinson, EmilyMcLaughlin; 11HL Matty Pearson,Peter Clarke.KELLER: 11FM Josh Kaine, EmilyHuck; 11NL Laura Mitchell MichaelSpencer; 11TF Georgie KnappyAktar Miah.SHACKLETON: 11MH AmyWadsworth, Dave Parker; 11ENChris Lynch; 11 LP Matty Moore.

FORTY Year-11 students have beengiven intensive Mathematics revisionsessions at Future House in Bradford.

The days were organised and runby maths teachers from OakbankSchool, together with a Bradfordmaths consultant, Vanessa Wear.

The sessions were targeted at bor-derline C/D-grade students andincluded methods for revision, examtechnique, answering exam ques-tions and lots of fun and games alongthe way, including a game of ‘WhoWants to be a Millionaire?”

All the students were very positiveabout the days and felt much moreconfident and equipped to face theModule 5 exams.

This was just one of the strategies

to help Year-11 students. Others in-cluded lunch time and after school re-vision sessions open to all students;after school one-to-one revisioncoaching for selected individuals andinteractive DVD’s.

A variety of innovative approacheshave been employed including“Maths Gyms and Exam Races”, andextra support staff have been used insome lessons.

With all this help and these initia-tives it is hoped this year’s Year-11students will have even greater suc-cess in their GCSE examinationswhich are approaching – but all stu-dents need to put in the time and ef-fort to revise if they are to ensuresuccess.

Two Year-11 students have set up alunchtime darts club – a great wayof improving maths.

Jason Guest and Lee Waggett ap-proached Mr Geddes in the mathsdepartment to see if they could usethe dartboard in Room 505 atlunchtimes.

Mr Geddes agreed to give up twolunchtimes each week to supervisethe sessions and the boys set

about organising a competition.A total of 32 entrants – including

four members of staff – entered andthe competition is in full swing.

There are now three dartboards inthe room enabling those not in-volved in the current official gameto enjoy a friendly match betweenthemselves.

The club meets on Wednesdaysand Fridays.

All Year-11 students will now complete an innovative course of PersonalFinance through Enterprise.

The course involves budgeting, credit and debit cards and mobile’phone contracts. There are also challenges and realistic problem-solvingincluding budgeting. This programme has been developed through the na-tional organisation Personal Finance Education Partnership, and has beentailor-made for Oakbank students in response to a need to make schoolleavers more financially aware.

The response to this new Enterprise initiative has been very positive fromboth staff and students.Students work out one of the puzzles in the outdoor classroom Trying to work out how to build the g

Minister of Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, and school gover

Prize evening rewardsstudents’ achievement

A group of Year-7 prizewinners

and the activities were supervised by a group of Year-9 MathsLeaders who also run lunchtime sessions for younger pupils.

Mr Sutcliffe said: “It’s great to see such an innovative wayof engaging young people in physical activity. “

“I managed to put the big Tangram piecestogether. Only two other groups got as faras us.”

Brodie Hudson of 7LM

“So far, only Year-7 have had the resource built into les-sons but as the new curriculum develops, all of our Key StageThree pupils will find themselves thinking their way througha myriad of challenges providing memorable Maths thatkeeps their skills moving forward,” said Mr Phillipson.

Page 9mes

le makeoverke maths fun

.

Prize WinnersYears 7, 8 and 9:

Years 10 and 11 –

Years 12 and 13 –

School Council –

House Prize Winners House Sports –

House Award Certificates –

House Competitions and Fund Rais-ers –

House Captains – ASHE:

GLENNIE:

KELLER:

SHACKLETON:

FORTY Year-11 students have beengiven intensive Mathematics revisionsessions at Future House in Bradford.

The days were organised and runby maths teachers from OakbankSchool, together with a Bradfordmaths consultant, Vanessa Wear.

The sessions were targeted at bor-derline C/D-grade students andincluded methods for revision, examtechnique, answering exam ques-tions and lots of fun and games alongthe way, including a game of ‘WhoWants to be a Millionaire?”

All the students were very positiveabout the days and felt much moreconfident and equipped to face theModule 5 exams.

This was just one of the strategies

to help Year-11 students. Others in-cluded lunch time and after school re-vision sessions open to all students;after school one-to-one revisioncoaching for selected individuals andinteractive DVD’s.

A variety of innovative approacheshave been employed including“Maths Gyms and Exam Races”, andextra support staff have been used insome lessons.

With all this help and these initia-tives it is hoped this year’s Year-11students will have even greater suc-cess in their GCSE examinationswhich are approaching – but all stu-dents need to put in the time and ef-fort to revise if they are to ensuresuccess.

Two Year-11 students have set up alunchtime darts club – a great wayof improving maths.

Jason Guest and Lee Waggett ap-proached Mr Geddes in the mathsdepartment to see if they could usethe dartboard in Room 505 atlunchtimes.

Mr Geddes agreed to give up twolunchtimes each week to supervisethe sessions and the boys set

about organising a competition.A total of 32 entrants – including

four members of staff – entered andthe competition is in full swing.

There are now three dartboards inthe room enabling those not in-volved in the current official gameto enjoy a friendly match betweenthemselves.

The club meets on Wednesdaysand Fridays.

New maths areais a blue-printfor the country

Bullseye – it is a laugh

(but it’s really arithmatic)

All Year-11 students will now complete an innovative course of PersonalFinance through Enterprise.

The course involves budgeting, credit and debit cards and mobile’phone contracts. There are also challenges and realistic problem-solvingincluding budgeting. This programme has been developed through the na-tional organisation Personal Finance Education Partnership, and has beentailor-made for Oakbank students in response to a need to make schoolleavers more financially aware.

The response to this new Enterprise initiative has been very positive fromboth staff and students.

Lessons in beatingthe credit crunch

Gearing up for exams

STUDENTS and staff helped design the new maths‘classroom’ – and now it is being used as blue-print forsimilar schemes around the country.

Together with Burnley-based company ESP they cameup with a way of making maths and sport work to-gether, and developed larger-than-life puzzles to getpupils working together.

The first to be impressed was Andrew Wood, manag-ing director of ESP who saw the potential of the idea putto him by staff in the maths department at Oakbank.Tother with his staff he worked with students and staffto make their ideas a reality.

“Everyone was really enthusiastic as we developed thescheme, and now it is in use it is proving to be a veryvaluable teaching resource,” Andrew said.

He is also using the ‘classroom’ to market the idea toother schools throughout Great Britain.

Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe was invited to per-form the opening ceremony, and he was equally im-pressed when he saw students working together to solvethe problems – and getting fit.

He said: “This is a marvellous idea, I want to seeschools throughout the country following Oakbank’slead. Projects like this show how sport can also helpother subjects throughout the school.”

giant Soma cube Getting fit while learning maths – and having fun

Students working together in the multi-skills zone

ernor Mr David Ross see the activities in action

“My name is Jenny Harris and I’m in Yeareight. I’ve finished my story now; it’sabout 72 pages. (26,632 words.).

“Once I started writing, I just couldn’tstop. I’d done some other writing before,like my own CHERUB-style story, butthis was my first original story, with myown plot and characters.

“My story, ‘Caught in the Crossfire’ is abit like the CHERUB series, but I gotmost of my inspiration from a series calledSpecial Agents, which is in the Oakbanklibrary.

One of my friends, Jessie Sargent is inthe book, and so is my friend Chantelle,even though she left school ages ago.

“Even if I don’t get my book officiallypublished, I will be able to put a copy inthe school library.

“I’ve still got loads of ideas and I’mgoing to try and keep on writing, al-though it would be a lot easier if theteachers stopped giving me homework.”

2008Oakbank TimesPage 10

A TOTAL of 50 Year-7 students visited South LakesWildlife Park following work studying Globalisationand Sustainability in English.

One aspect they had been learning about was en-dangered animals and the negative impact of hu-mans on their natural habitat.

“The trip was brilliant. You can wander throughdifferent areas which represent various countriesand see animals that you have never seen before.The animals are amazing and you can actually walkthrough their enclosures and feed and stroke them.

“Lemurs and emus wander around freely and eventhough it was a bit scary at first, we soon got usedto it.

“We fed giraffes and penguins and watched tigersleap 20 foot poles to catch their food. The animalsare extraordinary and different; some are colourful,others are patterned with lovely shapes and mark-ings.

“In the park there were many places to eat, shopor just sit and look at the beautiful animals and thescenery. You can enter competitions, adopt animalsor maybe put yourself forward to be a keeper for aday and learn about the work they do.

“Really this zoo is a wonderful place it keeps ani-mals wilder than other zoos I’ve visited. I woulddefinitely recommend this place because it was re-ally fun and interesting.”

EIGHT of the finest spellers from Year-7 auditionedfor a place on the school’s first Spelling Bee team.

After an ‘X-Factor’ style audition the team ofJonathan Corcoran, Frankie Morrison and MeganWild was selected, with Angela Roberts as reserve.

They are now preparing for the regional round ofthe competition which is sponsored by The Timesnewspaper.

Another two J’s have also taken up the pen – JoeWilmore and Joey Genchi have begun writing a storytogether.

“I don’t really know what inspired me to write thisstory,” Joe revealed. “I just woke up one Friday morn-ing with the idea fully formed in my head. I couldn’twait to get to school (believe it or not) to tell my friendand aspiring author, Joey Genchi. He took to the ideaimmediately and helped me work out what happensto the…… no, that would spoil it for you.

“I hope you enjoy this gritty, realistic tale of crime inVictorian Bradford.”

Joey added, ‘It has a great plot. We have includedan incredible twist at the end and we have decided touse the title ‘The Cane.’

Watch out for an extract of ‘The Cane’ in the next‘Oakbank Times.’

Meanwhile any students out there interested in writ-ing a story – and your name does not have to beginwith J – please contact Mrs Hankinson.

Young authors aim fora big publishing break

Budding authors

Spelling Bee setto test the best

Magic animals CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE

CHAPTER 1

He was a fairly ordinarylooking man. But then mostcriminals are. You have to look a bit

deeper than that if youwant to find something in-teresting. Such as the skintight black clothes thatclung to his dark figure. Or

perhaps the small, incon-spicuous case he carried.Maybe even what he doingat 21:30 outside a largeand apparently desertedhouse. He was moving with swift,

deadly grace. He’d foundthe house easily, but he did-n’t let his guard down. Henever did. Always alert, he scanned

the room before entering.He had less then ten min-utes to do what he’d come to

do. But no matter how littletime he had, he wasn’tabout to leave now. Notafter all the work he’d putin. He knelt down and felt

under a bookcase. It wasthere. The slim, black boxhad been left in exactly theright place. The man didn’texpect anything less. Heopened the box, carefullyinspecting the gleamingcontents. He was holding a bomb.

Jessie Sergant was inspired by an articleshe read in a magazine and explained:“My story is similar in genre to Jacque-line Wilson stories, which I really enjoy.Also I wanted to write a story for Jennybecause she’d written one for me!’ Here’sthe opening:”

I ran. And ran. And ran. I kept going, panting, out

of breath. My legs seemed soheavy, like I could hardlymove them. And still I wasrunning, only running. ButI couldn't stop. And I didn'tknow why...It was one of those dreams

where you wake up sud-denly, and then everything'sclear. Why you were run-ning. Where you were run-ning to. And who you wererunning from. Not that I was actually

running anywhere, but inmy dream, I had been. Justrunning for 20 minutes,over rivers and bridges,across roads and throughtraffic. I'd been heading

home. That was all. Just onmy way back to my house.But I hadn't known any ofthat whilst I'd been asleep. Itall became clear in an in-stant the moment I woke up. In my dream, I was fright-

ened. All of my surround-ings were unfamiliar. Irecognised nothing and no-body. I just had to get some-where, but I didn't knowwhere. I couldn't stop run-ning, but I didn't know why.Until I woke up. And that was the scariest

thing of all. The thing thatstill shakes my body rightnow, remembering it. I'dbeen running from Dad.And he'd been trying to killme.

Jessie’s terror dream

Page 11Oakbank Times

POLICE from across the country visitedschool earlier this year as part of a campaignto empower young people and help them be-come valuable citizens.

The police and prison officers were mem-bers of the ‘No Way Trust’ which was ini-tially set up to help break the cycle of youngpeople ending up in prison.

“We aim to guide and inspire young peo-ple; to promote and develop a fairer society,with fewer inequalities. Mistakes, poverty,exclusion, or social deprivation should notmean a future without hope,” said a Trustspokesman.

During the day the group – known asPrison Me . . . No Way! – set up workshopsfor all the Year-8 tutor groups where theyexplained what life was like inside prisonwalls.

“We learned a lot about the life of prison-ers, such as if they are good they can earn50p – to last a week. They can get one 20-minute visit a month and are allowed oneexercise session a day, providing it is notraining,” said student Nathan Pollard.

“We also got to speak to three prisoners tofind out what their life is like. It was aneventful day which was enjoyed by all theYear-8 students,” he said.

Prison Me No WayPoem

Prison Me No Way,What an eventful day,Gruesome pictures on the wall,And serving prisoners one called Paul,

In the workshop “Rachel” we wrote a letter,To a girl who in life, could have done better,

Year eight got this day,Prison Me No Way,I thought they should stay,And teach other years next day,

We hardly had time for our pen to write ,With exiting stories of a huge prison fight,

We where shown a prison cell,And all the guards started to yell,“Hands out of pockets, Stand up straight!”“Walk in two’s, don’t be late!”

Prizes and speeches ended the day,Of the exciting Prison Me No Way!

By Mark Pearcey

MARK and Paul Pearcey enjoy thestir they create when people findout they are actually twins, espe-cially when they are working to-gether as student assistants atlunchtime in the Learning Re-sources Centre.

“I’ve learnt lots of things work-ing here,” said Paul, “like how touse the library system, Access-It,what sections are where in the LRC,and which books are great to read.I’ve been reading more too.”

Oakbank has 25 student assistantsworking in the LRC, including fivemore experienced students whowork as supervisors helping the stu-dents who are manning the IssuesDesk, assisting with enquiries, and

passing out the numerous boardgames which are available at lunchbreaks.

All the student assistants com-plete a workbook illustrating theirskills, and are awarded a certificateon completion. Any student canapply for a post in the LRC, al-though Year 7 students have to waituntil after their first Christmas atOakbank so they can find their feetand explore all the other clubs andactivities on offer.

Mark agrees with his brother thatthere’s a lot to learn, and adds: “Thethings I enjoy most are the work ex-perience and meeting new people.Anyone can work in the LRC and Istrongly recommend it.”

Enterprise day aims to givebusiness a female’s touch

Getting a taste oflife on the ‘inside’

2009

NEARLY 100 girls took part in a specialSaturday Enterprise Day at Oakbank,designed to encourage more women andgirls to enter the world of business andenterprise.

Years 7 & 8 girls were involved in arange of workshops including chocolatemaking, cheerleading, music, makingpersonalised cards and clock design.

The day offered the students the op-portunity to learn new skills and gainconfidence in their own abilities.

Year 11 and sixth form students werealso involved in supervising and support-ing the events. All students involved re-ceived an Enterprise goodie bagincluding limited edition badges, pensand certificates.

Winner of the Enterprise Day Abigail Proctor receives her prize fromthe Director of Specialism Ms Christine Buckley and (right) studentsmade chocolate truffles during the day.

Move over Arnie –we really are twins

Cheerleaders taking part in the girls enterprise Day

2009Oakbank TimesPage 12

L H G M J G L B P N A A A W S H T H Y G

Y A W A B V P E V X A I R D P X O U R S

I L I H C N E R F H O M T I E F Q N L E

W T A C G R A P H I C S R M U S I C V X

S D Q I O E V M F K Q W Z E A W L D F E

R F D K O S G Y H Z W T G E G T I M C Z

G C I D I H D P B O B K P I V A H G G S

R E N U Z D Q N S O X E G I Q W W Z Q K

Y A N I B V S E A U Q P B W O S N M V P

W N C G A U L X Q H K V Z A O H L Y B B

M T U I L I Z E Q Y T W T S H C W O L L

E S D D T I A O I B J L O C H E O C B G

R E Y X G W S O E X C M A I A T W V Q O

M P E Y S P N H H E I V Z E S D B U A W

E T F U A S G D R N T F E N H O Z P G N

W N Y N E Y H W Z D G T F C V O E C D A

Q K I T P F A B D J R E A E M F E I V M

G S Q Z B J X K E W A J S K C G V X K A

H E X N Q U N P O N U J V I Q G C F Q R

Z D H T S U D X H M I A Z I B B K D H D

School Subjects

Find the following hidden words:

Art, Drama, English, Foodtech, French, German,

Graphics, Healthandsocial, ICT, Math, Media,

Music, Science, Spanish, Textiles.

Leigh Brown 10dc

Name.........................................Form........................Find the school subjects hidden in the grid above, cut out the

coupon and take to Student Reception at Oakbank School.

Prize winners will be drawn at random from the correct entries.

✁

OUR class took part in a RoboteachWorkshop – to learn about how ro-bots worked.

In the workshop we were taught aabout robots and how to use andmake them.

As a warm-up, to get us used to theequipment, we had to make an auto-matic door on a hinge. We usedLego and a laptop to make it workand programme it. Our door was thebest door the instructor of the work-shop had ever seen– and we named itDora the Door!

Next we had to make a robot thatcould travel in an ‘L’ shape acrossthe floor. It took time to work out

the programming, but eventually wemade it work. We built a basic framewith four wheels. The front twowheels were each attached to amotor, and could move separately.This meant that we could make therobot turn in order to draw the ‘L’.

After each of the four teams hadbuilt their robot, we had to attach apen to the back. Then we set themoff to drive. Each team’s robot drewan L on the floor, and then the Ro-boteach instructor judged which wasthe best. Unfortunately we didn’twin, but we had great fun.

Jenny Harris and Jessie Sargent,8HW

Fighting it out for successwith our own Robot Wars

Taking the eco challengeTHIRTY Year-9 students enjoyed thefieldtrip of a lifetime at CastleheadField Studies Centre at Grange overSands in the Lake District.

Students were selected for the freetrip based on their achievementsthroughout Year-8. The Field StudiesCouncil financed the trip as part oftheir drive to involve more studentsin the conservation, preservation andenjoyment of the beautiful Britishcountryside. These were aims whichthe Humanities Faculty at Oakbankhave also tried to instil through class-room learning and a wide programmeof fieldtrips such as the Malham andHolderness Coast trips.

In the first task students had towork as a team solving problems andovercoming obstacles. The task im-proved their communication skillsand showed the importance of work-ing harmoniously together.

On the trip students had involve-ment in hands-on care for the envi-ronment when they coppiced willowtrees, and used the wood to lay eco-friendly footpaths. Mr Moules’ grouphad a chance to experience the Climb-

ing Tree and abseiling, and also to seehim fall out of the tree!

■ We learnt new skills such as pathbuilding and tree felling. Although wewere there only three days, not a sec-ond was wasted we would all love togo again and try different activitieslike canoeing and different teambuilding exercises.

Daniel Holmes 9AW

The thing I enjoyed most about theeco-challenge was the team buildingchallenges, because we learnt to worktogether and got to know each othermore. Matty Wormald

We were setting off to go on a hillwalk but our mini bus broke downand we had to push it back to a lay-by (don’t ask). We went climbing in-stead which was brill!

Jasmine O’Neill-Stone

We orienteered to get equipment tobuild a fire and other accessories likemarshmallows and tea. We also madethe best den made out of logs andtwigs. Elliot Davitt

Prize word searchCompetition

FIVE Oakbank students joined in celebrating thesuccess of The World of Wonder STEM project atthe Midland Hotel Bradford for an evening of en-tertainment and celebration.

Guest Speaker Johnny Ball gave out prizes to stu-dents followed by entertainment from Bollywooddancers, rap artists, break dancers, comedy acts andother artists.

Selene Brammah, Jordan Kennedy, Simon Ferrey,Daniel Holmes and Katie Houldsworth were thenserved to a banquet dinner. The Science, Technol-ogy and Engineering project (STEM) centred uponthe creative and digital technologies.

Groups of students from Oakbank School haveused the WOW project venue to learn about cre-ative digital technology.

NEARLY 50 students travelled to Alpen-dorf in the Ski Amadé region of Austria forthe school’s skiing trip.

A large number of alpine ski stars comefrom the region and it frequently hostsmajor skiing events – such as the EuropeanCup and World Cup finals.

Other advantages of the area included ex-cellent runs (350km!) with numerous tradi-tional restaurants. High tech snowmachines ensured our slopes had ideal ski-ing conditions, however the slopes weren’tgood enough for Alex Whitehead who pre-ferred the woods!

Weather conditions were fantastic with

clear sunny skies throughout the week. At the start of the week the beginners

gained confidence on the wide-open runsbetween the Hirschkogel and Sonntagsko-gel peaks. The more experienced skiers en-joyed the challenging reds which sweptback through the trees towards the townsof Alpendorf and Wagrain. Once the stu-dents acquired their ‘ski legs’ we travelledfurther afield to Flachau – the home of thelegendary Olympic champion Herman“The Herminator” Maier.

We not only learnt to ski but had the op-portunity to improve our ice skating skillsespecially Mr Mack with his triple axel, our

dancing skills at the disco, where MartinLong tested and failed with his cheesy chatup lines and Jack Woodhead surprisedeveryone with his pole dancing routine.Other activities included swimming, apizza evening, quizzes and games (thanksto Jade Smith & Co.).

The students (and staff – Mr Lilley) madegreat progress achieving excellent awardlevels and everyone successfully skied a redrun, but exhaustion soon took its toll. Amassive thank you to the staff – Mr Lilley,Mr Mack, Miss Smith and Mr Heaton forall their hard work and effort.

Sarah Waddington

Page 13Oakbank Times2009

FIFTEEN Year-10 students from 10IM and 10RFspent four nights at Kirkcudbright, the school’s basein Scotland.

The group visited The Cream of Galloway experi-ence, where they sampled the ice cream fresh fromthe dairy, and played games in a 3D maze built inthe woods.

They visited Doon beach and played tag-rugby inthe surf. On the final night we organised a bonfireon the beach by the Hut.

Cream of Scotland

NEARLY 100 applications from poten-tial Year-10 Buddies where whittleddown to 35 successful candidates.

The volunteers are selected to trainto work with the incoming Year-7 stu-dents, to support and welcome them intheir transition to a much larger andbusier school.

Organised by the Head of InclusionJess McPhail, Oakbank has for the pasteight years been the lead school in de-veloping a highly successful Buddiesscheme. Other schools are now follow-ing the trail-blazing project.

The first day of the Buddies trainingwas held at Park Lane Keighley Col-

lege, and involved an interactive com-munication workshop and team build-ing through the use of art and design.A brochure produced by the studentswill be used to promote the scheme toparents and students.

■ Pictured (above) are successfulBuddies and Jess McPhail.

Buddies scheme is hailed a big success

WHAT did 30 Year-10 and 11 students do on a QuizShows study day at The National Media Museum inBradford?

A – take part in a seminar on the ingredients of asuccessful quiz show

B – watch clips of quiz shows from the past 30years

C – make a DVD of their own quiz show in thestudio

D – all of the aboveAs preparation for their GCSE exam, Key Stage 4

Media Studies students enjoyed a day out at Brad-ford’s National Media Museum in February. Theyparticipated in a variety of activities from a tradi-tional seminar in one of the lecture theatres to apractical session in the television studio where theymade their own University Challenge style quizshow. The more extroverted took on the roles ofcontestants whilst the rest became camera and au-tocue operators, vision and sound mixers, directorsand producers.

The day ended with a private screening of classicQuiz Show clips including Bullseye and Mastermindin one of the ‘TV Heaven’ viewing rooms. The realprize of the day however, came when Oakbank de-feated a school from Huddersfield during the quizshow filming with some great general knowledgeand quick buzzer action.

The Design & Technology Department awarded 14prizes at the Sports and Technology Prize Evening.

Sarah Storey, a multi-gold medal paralympian,presented the prizes for outstanding achievementsin D & T to students from Year-7 to Year-13.

The prize winners were: Joshua Ferguson (Year-7),Taisa Stefanska (Year-8), Amy Paxford (Year-9).

Year-10: Jack Thorp (Engineering), Katy Town(Food), Tom Wilmore (RMT), Marissa Pysarczuk(GP), Bethany Mosby (Textiles). Year-11: AmyWadsworth (RMT), Emma Nash (GP), Sarah Atkin-son (Textiles).

Year 12: Joanna Eastell. Year-13: Karen Quinlanand Rachael Mitchell (above).

Design and Techstudents rewarded

Starter for tenSki students hit Alpine slopes

Oakbank TimesPage 14 2009

The Year 11 football squad is entering the final stages of theirOakbank footballing journey with a list of trophies that makesthem one of the most successful Oakbank teams in recent his-tory.

The squad have won four Keighley League titles, three Brad-ford Cups and the prestigous West Yorkshire Cup. In additionthey have also won the Bradford Schools five-a-side tourna-ment for the last two years.

The team has remained ultra consistent over the years, amain contributor to its success – and are unbeaten in the

league sicne Year-8. All the lads deserve a massive ammount ofcredit for their efforts and we wish them all the best as theyhead for the next step in their academic lives. It has been apleasure to coach such a fantastic set of lads. Best wishes toMatthew Pearson and Joe Mitchell who head for scholarshipsat Blackburn Rovers and Bradford City respectively.

Squad: Tom Allmark, George Nixon, Jack Atkinson,Matthew Moore, Josh Kaine, Tom Hudson, Jordan AIrd, JoeMitchell, Matthew Pearson, Joe Alvey, Kris Hogg, BenWhiteoak, Jonny Greenwood and Chris Andrews.

Thirteen-year-old Dylan Mitchell made it through tothe semi-finals of the Yorkshire Open SnookerChampionships.

Dylan made it through five rounds of competitionbefore being beaten in the semi-finals.

Making it that far in the competition was no smallfeat for Dylan who was one of only two junior play-ers in the Open Age competition and one of his vic-tims was a former professional snooker player.

Keighley Amateur Swimming Club (KASC) is run byvolunteer coaches who teach you to swim in theirown free time – without any payment.

The club trains you and also helps you get spe-cial certificates and badges. Every year there areswimming galas and parties for special occasionslike Christmas.

Nearly every month there is a Fun Night when youdon’t have to swim and you can play with floatsand toys in the pool. The club offers swimminglanes for all abilities from beginners to advancedswimmers.

The Swimming club also offers courses in divingand Life Saving providing a wonderful opportunity.Joining the club is great because you learn lots ofnew things and meet new friends. The SwimmingClub is looking for adult volunteers to help.

Bethany Hunnebell – 7CW

Jack takes on thecycle trials world

Future snooker star

Super swim club

JUST two years after he started competing in biketrials Jack Carthy is ranked third in the world.

He has competed in trials in Spain, France andJapan and finished third overall in the world rank-ings, despite being disqualified in Spain.

Jack set out to ride the Spanish round in shortsand knee pads oblivious to a ruling that riders hadto wear trousers. He moved on to France wherehe took second place then went to Japan. As wellas holding the third place ranking in the world forhis group, Jack is also British and National Cham-pion.

Celebrating a

AthleticsThe school is looking forward to their year’s athletics

season and hope to build on last year when Oakbank wonthe Bradford Championship.

Twenty athletes were crowned Bradford champions, 14runners-up and five third places. Nine students repre-sented Bradford and the school won the Keighley andCraven Championships.

Already Zara Knappy has represented West Yorkshire atthe National Indoor Championships.

RugbyThe Year 7 and 8 rugby squad won the Bradford

Schools Carnegie Cup and made it through to the finals ofthe Yorkshire Regional Cup.

The Year-7 boys team won the Bradford Rugby Leaguefestival and represented Bradford Schools in the Power-gen Regional Schools competition. The Year-8 team werethird in the Bradford Schools competition.

DanceMembers of the Year-7 dance squad have given up their

lunchtimes to prepare for the Bradford Partnership Dance Com-petition.

Other dance groups have been working on ‘Street’ dance andpreparing for a public performance.

SPORTING teams and individuals have been celebratingone of the most successful sporting years in the history ofOakbank.

There have been a string of top performances at district, re-gional and county level – and several individuals have gone on toenjoy national success.

Years of hard training have seen16-year-old table tennis star MaryFuller represent England at full in-ternational level against India –and was named Player of the Dayon her debut at senior level.

She now has her sights set onrepresenting England at the Com-monwealth Games in India nextyear, and the 2012 Olympics inLondon.

Jack Carthy has travelledaround Europe and to Japan tocompete in cycle trials events andis now rated third in the world inhis section.

Matt Pearson and Joe Mitchell

are heading into the world of pro-fessional soccer with scholarshipsat top clubs Blackburn Rovers andBradford City.

In cycling Tom Moses won theNational Junior Cyclo CrossChampion ships and was selectedto represent England in the WorldChampionships.

Tom’s brother Joe is also theBritish Schools National Championand Yorkshire Cyclo Cross Cham-pion.

School teams have also gone onto win a string of titles.

End of an era for the soccer dream team

Sport Presentation

Page 15Oakbank Times2009

CricketThe Under-13 boys team won the Bradford Schools

Hardball League and were West Yorkshire InterCricket run-ners-up.

The Year-7 and Year-8 boy won their Bradford SchoolsInterCricket festivals.

RoundersIt was a good year for all the rounders teams with the

Year-7 team runners-up in te Bradford Schools champi-onships and the Year-10 team reached the semi-finals ofthe Bradford Schools League.

Both the Under-12 and Under-13 boys teams won theirBradford Schools Leagues.

Girls FootballThe Under-13 Girls Football reached the quarter-finals of

the Yorkshire Cup and the semi-finals of the BradfordSchools tournament. Leah Gilmore was selected to repre-sent the West Riding.

The Under-16 side were runners-up in the West York-shire League and Danielle Cox represented the West Rid-ing League and has signed for Doncaster Belles.

BasketballThe KS3 Brdford Schools tournament was won by the

boys A team with the B team in third place.The girls A team were runners-up in their tournament.

The KS4 girls team were crowned Bradford Champions.

Cross CountryIn another busy year the Under-15 boys won the Army

team championships and were Bradford Schools teamchampions. The Under-13 boys and girls finished third inthe West Yorkshire round of the English Schools Cup.Carly Robertson won the Under-16 National Army CrossCountry. Josh Ferguson was Under-12 boys BradfordChampion and finished fourth in the National Fell RaceChampionships.

Jack Thorpe took bronze in the Natioanl Army CrossCountry Championships at Under-15 level.

SwimmingAnother fantastic year for an ever growing team, winning

the Bingley Swimming Gala with Jack Lonsdale winning allhis races. Rebecca Lund, Sam Mitchell and Ben Addisonwon their individual races.

Rebecca Lund and Sam Mitchell were crowned BradfordChampions in the Bradford Schools Swimming Champi-onships. Jack Lonsdale and Ben Wortley were runners-upin their races.

super year of sport

NetballThe Year-8 team (above) finished third in the Bradford

Schools League with Abigail Proctor and Hannah Hiscockpicked for the District team.

The Year-11 team were runners-up in the Northern SportCollege tournament and third in the Bradford SchoolsLeague.

The Open Age team were runners-up in the BradfordSchools Tournament.

BadmintonIt has been an outstanding season for the badminton

teams with over 200 students taking part in clubs andmore than 80 representing the school. School teamsplayed 89 matches and won 76.

Five students have represented Yorkshire and 15 repre-sented Bradford – and the school has been awarded Bad-minton England’s Premier School status.

Several teams were crowned Bradford Schools Champi-ons and were unbeaten in the competition. They were:Under-13 girls, Under-15 boys, Under-16 girls, Under-18girls, Under-16 mixed (Yorkshire champions), SeniorMixed.

The Under-13 boys, Under-14 girls and Under-14 boyswere runners-up in the Bradford League.

SIXTEEN-year-old Mary Fuller hasmade her debut with the seniorEngland Ladies squad – and praisedthe school for its support in therun-up to her GCSEs.

She represented England againstIndia and was named Player of theDay in her first ever senior inter-national.

Already she is aiming for a placein the team at the 2012 Olympics inLondon, but her quest for successinvolves a tough training regime.She takes both Tuesday and Thurs-day afternoons off school to trainin Sheffield and sometimes finds ithard to catch up with her academicwork, which is vital in the run-upto her GCSE examinations.

Mary is one of several gifted

sporting pupils at Oakbank andPartnership Manager, Steve Bell,said all the students received one-to-one meetings with mentors toensure their academic work doesnot suffer because of their sportingsuccess.

He said: “We are a Sports Col-lege so we have a gifted and tal-ented mentoring scheme. I meetpupils about once a fortnight to dis-cuss any concerns they might havewith their work, where they feelthey are falling behind, and then Inegotiate with the teacher of thatsubject to see what we can do aboutit.

“We have to be really carefulwith other departments, in termsof taking pupils out of lessons, be-

cause they also have their pressuresand targets to meet.”

Other supported pupils include16-year-old Matthew Pearson, whohas a contract with BlackburnRovers football team and has everyTuesday off school, cyclists Tomand Joe Moses and cross-countryrunner Carly Robertson.

Mr Bell said it was crucial theykept on top of their studies becauseif they fell behind the school wouldnot allow them to skip classes totrain.

Mary has already representedEngland at under-12s, 13s, 15s and18s and recently won the NationalWomen’s Doubles crown with herpartner Emily Bates to become theevent’s youngest ever winners.

Helping sporting achievers

A YEAR of sporting success was celebrated at theschool’s Sports Presentation Evening held at KeighleyRugby Club.

“It has been a superb year with some very impressiveteam and individual performances,” said head of sport,Rod Fletcher.

A total of 32 teams in 18 different sports took part inthe Awards Evening when the chief guest was SarahStorey OBE, one of Great Britain’s most decorated fe-male Paralympic athletes.

Since making her debut as a swimmer at theBarcelona Paralympics in 1992, she has gained a total of18 medal, with seven gold. Just eight days after win-ning her second cycling gold at the Beijing Paralympicslast year, she became the first GB Paralympian to wina title at a Senior able-bodied National Championshipevent, winning the Women’s 3,000m Individual Per-suit title at the Manchester Velodrome.

Top award on the night was Oakbank’s Sports Per-sonality of the Year, voted for by fellow students.

The winner was footballer Matthew Pearson, captainof the school team who also competes at athletics andbadminton. The centre-back has recently been signedas an apprentice with Premiership side, BlackburnRovers.

He took the title by just one point from cyclist TomMoses, who has joined the North West DevelopmentSquad.

Tied for third place were Emily Horsfield (bad-minton) and Danielle Cox (girls football).

The Team of the Year title went to the Girls Under-16 Badminton team who have had an outstanding sea-son. They became Bradford, West Yorkshire, Yorkshireand Regional champions. After winning the Regionaltitle they went through to the National Finals wherethey took third place, gaining the Bronze Medal – outof over 1,000 schools from across the UK.

The Regional team was: Emily Horsfield, Liz Helli-well, Emily Huck and Jade Smith.

During the year Emily Horsfield and Liz Helliwellalso gained Yorkshire county honours.

Winner of the Junior Sports Personality of the Yearwas Zara Knappy who represented the school at net-ball, athletics and cross-country.

■ Pictured (top) is the successful Girls Under-16 Bad-minton squad.

Published by the Keighley News on behalf of Oakbank School

School co-ordinator: David Hoyle. Student Editors: Farayal Kaser, Bethany Hunnebell and Simon Ferrey

Oakbank School, Oakworth Road, Keighley, BD22 7DU

Tel: 01535 210111 Web: www.oakbank.org.uk

TOM MOSES has been tippedfor the top – and is already rub-bing shoulders with Britain’s cy-cling elite.

Tom, who celebrated his 17thbirthday just a few weeks ago,was snapped up by the NorthWest Cycling DevelopmentSquad and is now racing withPreston-based teamWallis-CHHCycling Team.

He recently led the team homein the Isel of Man Youth Tour,beating the Irish national teamand British Cycling’s regionalsquads.

Earlier he took fifth place in aNation Junior Road race de-

spite having to stop when anofficial car was held up by on-coming traffic.

He was approached to jointeamwallis after winning theNational Cyclo-Cross Champi-onships. Tom also won theYorkshire Cyclo-Cross Associa-tion’s Junior Championship andwas named the best under-23rider in Yorkshire.

He was placed 32nd in theWorld Cyclo-Cross Champi-onships in Holland earlier in theyear and hopes to ride in someWorld Cup races next winter inpreparation for the 2010 WorldChampionships.

School sport starsearn top honours

TToomm iiss ttiippppeeddffoorr tthhee ttoopp

Based within Oakbank School and using the school’s facilitiesduring evenings and weekends, Oakbank Recreation Centre hasbeen offering the community an alternative venue for sporting

and recreational activity for over 20 years.

• Astroturf pitch - suitable forfootball, rugby, hockey andgeneral sports training all year• 4 Badminton Courts• Recently upgraded grass pitch• 3 Cricket Nets• Full Basketball Court• 5-a-Side PitchOther facilities available include:• 2 Gyms• Dance Studio• Main Assembly Hall -with Staging• Grass Pitches

Our BodyZone Fitness Suite operates 4 nights a week and gives you the chance to get into shape at your own pace with a qualified Fitness Instructor available to give advice. We also have classrooms for meetings or courses and catering is available

For more information on any of our classes or to enquire aboutavailability of any of the facilities call 01535 609155

WE CAN OFFER

Weekly Classes range from:•Circuit Training• Aerobics• Arabic Dancing• Table Tennis• Strike TaekwondoFor the Kids:• Tough Cookies Gymnastics• Holiday Activities• Table Tennis Coaching• Strike Taekwondo• Badminton Coachingby Kobras Badminton Clubevery Saturday Morning

Oakbank Recreation CentreIngrow Lane, Keighley

Sports Personality – Matthew Pearson

Inside:Inside:End of an era for

Oakbank’s super

soccer squad

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