Friday 29th April

Happy Friday!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter break. We have very much enjoyed hearing about the many adventures that took place during the break - we’ve had holidays abroad, local holidays, holidays in Devon, holidays in Wales (the children are always very keen to tell me about their visits to Wales), day trips, sleepovers and mornings spent in pyjamas! The children always go into great detail about their memories and these are often the small things - the nearly falling off a rock as a train comes zooming by; the birthday they celebrated of a relative; the lights in a Premier Inn room; staying up late with popcorn to watch a movie as a family; playing out in the street with friends. Very rarely do the children tell us about the material things they had, it is the memories that burn bright in their minds.

We have had some sadness at Olive Hill this week, two of our beloved guinea pigs have died. Chocolate and Hazel belonged to Miss Raphael, however, they had made their home at Olive Hill in Cherry Class. Hazel and Chocolate were both very old in guinea pig years - Hazel went first and Chocolate soon after. They lived a wonderful life and loved nothing more than to be cuddled by the children, especially our year 6 children who looked after them on a daily basis. We are all feeling very sad but know they did not suffer. A huge thank you to all the children who have cared for them over the years, and to Miss Raphael for sharing them with us all. Caramel, the third guinea pig in Cherry Class, will now need a new friend and we look forward to sharing news of our new arrival in the near future.

Please can we remind all parents and carers to park considerately around the local area. Local residents frequently raise concerns regarding how cars are parked, including mounting curbs and blocking access to personal driveways. Vehicles that are parked illegally will be reported to the relevant authorities. Our biggest concern is the danger that irresponsible parking can pose to the lives of other road users, including our children. Please allow enough time in your routine to park further away from school and walk if needed as this helps to keep everyone safe.

Recently I was listening to an educational podcast around the subject of emotional literacy. Emotional literacy can be defined as: being able to recognise, understand and express emotions in a healthy way. It is strongly linked to the idea of empathy and being able to respond appropriately to other's emotional state. The podcast was very interesting and something it did raise was the over-exaggerated emotional responses that children are exposed to when watching various media clips, including those on YouTube. It is important that, as adults, we role model to children appropriate emotional responses and that we spend time discussing the emotional responses that they are exposed to, including those online. Being able to express our emotions in an appropriate way is a really important part of building and sustaining relationships. I have certainly seen the impact of observing over-exaggerated emotional responses on my own family - hands going up in the air, stamping of feet, the slamming of a door and the YouTube accent!

This weekend, which also happens to be a bank holiday weekend, will see many of our families celebrating Eid. Mrs Aziz and Miss Saleh have been busy preparing for their own celebrations this week - Mrs Aziz has been cooking lots of fantastic food and Miss Saleh has been doing her favourite thing - cleaning! We wish all of our families a wonderful Eid and we look forward to hearing all about their celebrations on Tuesday. Many of our older children have participated in the fast and we are all very impressed with the commitment they have shown. We can only authorise absences for Eid on the day of the actual celebration.

With the summer term now in full swing, and the idea of living with Covid19 becoming embedded in the community, we are looking forward to the return of many whole school events. Hopefully the sun will be shining for the majority of them!

Wednesday 18th May will see the return of the Friends of Olive Hill children’s disco. Further details will be sent to families in the very near future.

Friday 27th May will be our Jubilee celebrations!

Friday 24th June will be see the return of the Friends of Olive Hill Summer Fair.

We will also be hosting Sport’s Day this year and we will confirm the date with you soon.

We hope you all enjoy the long weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday. We are NOT a polling station on Thursday so all children will be expected to be in school.

Stay safe.