Friday 15th May

Happy Friday! I hope many of you were able to clap for the NHS yesterday evening, although some of you may have been in bed at 8pm. I certainly felt like going to bed at 8pm - this week has been exceptionally busy.

Since Boris Johnson’s announcement on Sunday we have been busy planning, and I am now surrounded by lots of pieces of paper and various diagrams of the school. Families, we had further guidance from the government last night and this will now need to be incorporated into our planning for a phased return - as I said yesterday, we will provide you with the details that allow you to make an informed decision next week. In the meantime, please don’t worry, we appreciate that you will have many questions and concerns and we will be here to support you.

Something very special did put a smile on my face this morning, we have received another lovely video from the children of Olive Hill - with a beautiful message about us all being Stars of the Week. I loved how creative you were with your stars - some were made from paper, others from straws, some completed on the computer, a great use of emojis, one made from flowers, a star costume, some were small, some were large, one made from cars, one with a rainbow, lots of gold stars and some multi-coloured stars. Do you know what the best part was? Seeing all your lovely faces! We really do miss you so much. Thank you to all of the families involved, I understand that you have been supporting each other through a Facebook group, set up by the parents of Olive Hill for the parents of the Olive Hill community - they are keen to reach out to everyone during these uncertain times.

Keeping with the theme of Star of the Week, we continue to receive nominations from parents and carers regarding their wonderful children - it certainly appears that many of you have been excellent at helping around the house. We won’t need to employ any cleaners when you come back to school, as you will be keeping everything spotlessly tidy! I am only joking - Mrs Stonehouse, Mrs Bissell, Mrs Hopkins and Miss Lee will still be needed and they do a great job of making everything sparkle! I would like to share one of our Star of the Week nominations with you all…

One of our year 6 children, Jacob, was nominated by his parents because …

We have decided to give Jacob his Star of the Week award for his hard work and commitment to raise money for Alzheimer's Society, a cause close to his heart as his Grandad Jeff sadly suffers from this horrible disease.  The Jog on Dementia challenge is to raise a minimum of £100 by running or walking 26.2 miles that can be split out over a month.  It started as an idea to encourage Jacob to exercise and get out the house however he has really taken on board the responsibility and is keeping up the runs to hit the miles!  More importantly it has given our close family, especially his nan, some much needed positivity as we are unable to visit Jeff in his care home.  So far he has raised £835, and he is so happy that he can make a difference.  He makes sure he runs in his Alzheimer's t-shirt so that he can continue to raise awareness on our routes - 16 miles down...10.2 to go!

I am sure you will all agree that this a very heart warming story, and shows that the kindness of one person can spread happiness to many. Like your parents, we are super proud of you Jacob. Using our time to support others can really make a difference, whether that be helping around the house or raising money for charity.

In the lead up to school closing, and whilst the school has been closed to the majority of our children, we have been asking you to write letters to people in care homes or draw them a picture. In the current situation, many people who reside in care homes are not allowed visits from their families, as it is really important that we keep them safe, however this can mean that they need cheering up in different ways. We would encourage you to continue to write letters and draw pictures to send to our local care homes, you can pop them in our special post box on the school gates and we will forward them to the care homes in our community, I may even pop one in the post for my great uncle in London.

Have a great weekend all, and stay safe.