Friday 12th July

Happy Friday!

Can you believe we have reached the penultimate Friday of this academic year? This leaves us with just five school days to cram in lots of learning, lots of socialising, lots of tidying, a few leaver’s events, and some goodbyes!

We have had a very creative week at Olive Hill, with many of our year groups participating in learning that involves art, design, music and performance. All of these things are an incredibly important part of the school curriculum and frequently provide the children with an opportunity to link their knowledge from different subject areas together.

As part of their design and technology unit of work, year three have been building bridges. The children have learnt (sometimes the hard way) about the importance of accuracy when designing and making a prototype. In year four, they have been sewing and printing their own bags. The children have been evaluating their success with some realising that they needed to increase the depth of their print design, or use less ink for their design to show up on the bag. Year two have also been sewing, with the support of Miss Frost, Mrs Allen and Mrs Ahmed untangling many knots! In all of these experiences the children have learnt some very important life lessons, including that things don’t always work out as you would expect and sometimes you have to try and try again to perfect the outcome. In all year groups, the children have shown show great resilience and they were proud of their end products.

Both year four and year five have exhibited their learning to an audience this week. For both year groups they had an incredible amount of parental support and we thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to support your children in this way. Oracy is a key part of our curriculum here at Olive Hill and we want to give our children the opportunity to speak in a range of different situations. Our exhibitions of learning support us to do this. We were very impressed with the matching t-shirts worn by Miss Raphael, Miss Flood and Miss Saleh!

Yesterday evening, we had our last governing body meeting of the academic year. The governors continued to be very impressed with the children and staff at our wonderful school. They were very pleased with all that had been achieved throughout the academic year, and had the opportunity to discuss the strategic plan for the following year. All our governors volunteer their time to support the Olive Hill community and we are incredibly appreciative of what they do.

It has been a big week for year six, with their production and their SATs results…and the arrival of their hoodies! It is such a great pleasure to watch our children grow and mature at Olive Hill, and knowing they are so close to leaving does come with a mix of emotions. For many of these children we will have known them since nursery. We will have watched them write their first sentence, complete their first maths calculation, form their first friendships, draw their first person, read their first chapter book … the list is endless. As they take to the stage, to perform for one last time, you can’t help but reflect on all that has been achieved before. These wonderful members of our school community who must now leave us for the next stage of their educational journey. Their performance of ‘Prexit’ was brilliant to watch, and the singing was awesome! We had a song about teaching assistants, a song about nits, a song about the caretaker, and their final song where the tissues were definitely needed.

Our year six children have worked incredibly hard throughout their time with us, and during their time in year six they have prepared themselves (with some support) for their SATs tests. We are delighted to tell you that as a cohort their combined percentage (for reading, writing and maths) is above the national average. Well done year six, we so proud of you!

As part of our big tidy up, the children will start bringing home their completed books. Hopefully, these will bring back memories in years to come. You will only receive the completed books, as any partially completed books are sent to the next year group with your child as this helps us to look after the environment, save our pennies, and allows the next teacher to ensure progression. The exception to this is year six, who will bring all of their books home, and reception who will bring home their learning journeys. As parents, this does provide you with an opportunity to sit with your child and share their learning, discussing what they are most proud of, what they can remember, and what they have found more challenging.

As we head into the weekend, many of our families will be planning on watching the final of the Euros on Sunday evening. Many will be hoping for an England win! We look forward to the match commentary on Monday morning.

Have a great weekend everyone.