Friday 14th October

Happy Friday!

Thank you to all of our families who have attended parents’ evening this week. The staff have enjoyed sharing the learning experiences of the children in their class and discussing each individual child with those who know them best. We expect all of our families to attend parents’ evening as it is a vital element of each child’s educational journey. If there are exceptional circumstances that make it difficult for you to attend on the allocated evenings, please do speak to the class teacher (if they haven’t already approached you) so we can arrange a suitable alternative. We look forward to seeing more of our families next week as our parents’ evenings continue.

Next Wednesday the children will be having their school photographs taken. Photographs will be taken of individual children, and sibling groups who attend Olive Hill. I am sure the children will attend school looking super smart! If your child has PE on that day, they will need to wear their school uniform and bring their PE kit to school so they can change - texts have been sent to individual year groups who have PE on this day. We do have a year five trip on this day, we will make sure the class going out have their photographs prior to leaving.

On Wednesday of this week, year four had a fantastic environmental day. Lots of the children were dressed in green, and this just happens to be my favourite colour. Across the day they accessed a variety of activities that supported them with their learning in geography and science. They had a very special visitor from South Staffordshire Water who engaged them in lots of learning about water and all things water related. They also made plant pots from recycled materials ready to provide a new home for their spider plants. This is where I have to say a very special thank you to my mum (Mrs Grasby), who carefully took 60 cuttings from her spider plants so each child could have one of their own. I hope our year four children are better plant owners than me - or you may be in trouble with Mrs Grasby!

This week, I may have been pretty hard to spot as I have been doing some training. Just like the children, it is really important that I keep improving my knowledge. I have been out of school working alongside heads from across our Trust, and I have also been meeting with the other headteachers from Halesowen schools. In these meetings we have the opportunity to share experiences and magpie ideas that can be used back in our own schools. I have also been on some health and safety training which I found really interesting. It is unfortunate that it all occurred in one week, because I have really missed the Olive Hill community (although I have been around for at least a part of each day). A big thank you to Mr Priest and Miss Walters for leading the school whilst I am in meetings or on training.

Next week will be a four day week for the children as we have an INSET day on the Friday. Our last day of this half term will be Thursday 20th October.

Have a good weekend all, and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.