Friday 28th May

Happy Friday!

We’re entering a Bank Holiday Weekend and we hope all of our families enjoy the extra day off together on Monday. It has been another busy week in school and it was lovely to hear about the Eid celebrations which many of our families took part in last weekend. It has been lovely to hear of the children’s excitement as they talk about the festivities, food, family and gifts which made the experience so special for them.

Preparations are underway as we will be joining in with next week’s coronation celebrations. Families will have received a letter from Mrs White this week outlining how we are planning to mark the occasion. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone dressed in red, white and blue on Friday 5th May and we have invited families to join us for our Union Jack collage attempt.

Congratulations to Mr Patel who completed the London Marathon on Sunday. We are all very proud of his achievement and couldn’t quite believe he was still able to walk around school on Monday.

We’ve also been pleased to hear of the sporting achievements of one of our year six children who took part in a national darts tournament in Ireland over the weekend. Out of 40 competitors, he made it all the way through to the semi-finals - a great achievement!

Our year three children were treated to a visit from the Welsh National Opera this week. This was in preparation to their visit to the Hippodrome next week. They have been busy learning a song with actions which they will be able to join in with during the performance.

Unfortunately, this week has been disrupted for nursery and reception by the ongoing strike action. There is a further days’ strike planned for Tuesday 2nd May. The school will remain open for children in Years one to six, but will be closed to children in reception and nursery apart from those children who are considered as vulnerable or the children of critical workers.

Ensuring our children are safe online is always on our agenda at Olive Hill. The online world is ever-changing and can be difficult to navigate for parents as there are always new trends, apps and challenges that are difficult to track. We have very robust and sensitive filtering and monitoring systems which support our children to be safe online when using devices in school. We understand that this is not always the case when children have access to devices outside school. We would advise all parents to closely monitor their children’s use of devices with internet access as taking and interest in and checking in on what children are doing online is the best way to ensure their safety. We would strongly recommend that parents enforce appropriate age-restrictions which are recommended for various apps and games to avoid putting children at risk. Online safety continues to be a key part of our curriculum as we seek to ensure children know how to make the right choices with their own online behaviour to keep themselves safe. Further information is available for parents on our online safety page.

Our year two children have visited the Black Country Living Museum yesterday and today. The children had a wonderful time learning all about the history of Black Country industries. Their teachers were impressed with how much they have learnt and remembered from the few lessons they have had already - the children even managed to impress some of the tour guides with their knowledge too. This visit will have given the children a valuable experience that they will be able to draw from as they continue their learning in school on this topic.

Have a lovely weekend!