Oakwood Park Grammar runs on a two-week timetable. Every other Thursday students participate in Enrichment Days. These days are used by the school to enable pupils to explore cross-curricular themes or to deepen their knowledge of a particular subject. The activities may involve trips, guest speakers, theatrical performances or multi-media presentations.

Article on the Year 8 Enrichment Day with Joe Craig

Warhorse Visit

Holocaust Presentation by Students completed on a recent Enrichment Day

RESIDENTIAL TRIPS

Year 7 - Norfolk - At the end of the Summer Term all of Year 7 take part in the residential visit to Norfolk. The students stay in Youth Hostels and take part in a range of activities including town trails, a boat trip to the seals of Blakeney Point, a sandcastle competition, a ride on a military vehicle at the Muckleburgh Collection and visits to Holkham Hall and Hunstanton Sea Life Centre. For many boys this is their first experience of being away from home so it provides important social education as well as work linked to the curriculum.

Year 8 - Normandy - At the end of the Summer Term all of Year 8 take part in the residential visit to Normandy.The main visits are related to History (the Bayeux Tapestry and locations related to the D-Day landings in World War Two) but there is also ample opportunity for the boys to enhance their French speaking and to team build through making use of the excellent facilities in the Youth Hostel at Franceville-Merville.

Year 13 - Loire Valley - During October the Year 13 students all have the opportunity to take part in the 5-day residential visit to the Loire Valley staying in a very good hostel in Blois. Visits include Chartres Cathedral, a Vouvray vineyard, the city of Orleans, La Coupole Nazi rocket launch site near St.Omer, an aquarium and the chateau of Chenonceau, Blois and Chambord. This trip represents the last opportunity for Oakwood Park students to spend time together in an exciting cultural environment away form home before settling down to the 'home run' to A levels and on to university or the world of work.

HISTORY DEPARTMENT TRIP TO YPRES

Each year the Year 11 GCSE Historians take part in a day trip to the First World War battlefields around the Belgian town of Ypres. Sites visited include the vast Pool of Peace crater near Messines, Sanctuary Wood (where genuine WW1 trenches can be explored), the Britisn cemeteries at Tyne Cot (with over 11,000 graves) and Essex Farm (where the poem In Flanders Fields was written by the Canadian surgeon John MacRae) and the German cemetery at Languemark. The visit culminates in us attending the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres. Although such a trip is obviously of huge value generally it is used to inform and help the students with their History coursework.