Friday 2nd July

Happy Friday!

Did you know, we only have two more Fridays left of this academic year! Our last day will be Wednesday 21st July. A letter will be sent out on Monday detailing our arrangements for the end of term.

This week year four visited a dairy farm as part of their learning about farming and where food comes from. As they stepped off the coach they weren’t very impressed with the smell but once they became used to the smell of cow poo, they thoroughly enjoyed their experience of becoming farmers for the day. Feeding the chickens was a highlight for many of the children and they also saw sheep, cows, a pig and a dog named Tinkerbell.

Today, year three had their WOW Day. You may have noticed them coming out of school - they had painted faces, fancy headdresses and tie-dye t-shirts. This morning, the staff involved in their day were in school exceptionally early - I imagine you were still in bed! They set up the most amazing obstacle course around our bottom field - it had tyres, tunnels, hurdles, netting, paddling pools and a slip n slide! I would have loved to have been a year three child today. Not only did they complete all of the activities listed above, they also toasted marshmallows and had hot dogs! Parents and carers, there will be some tired children this evening.

Year six have been busy making things this afternoon. They’ve decorated biscuits and they've made rice crispy cakes. I’m not sure that their creations will have made it home!

For our children, this week has been shorter than usual due to an INSET day on Monday. On Monday, the staff of Olive Hill continued to develop the curriculum offer at our school. The morning included an opportunity to collaborate with the staff from Northfield Road and Newton (both primary schools in our Trust). All of the teaching staff at Olive Hill have an area of the curriculum that they coordinate, in fact, some have more than one area. Children, I wonder if you could guess who coordinates which subject?

As you will be aware, Dudley and the surrounding local authorities continue to see an increase in the number of Covid19 cases due to the Delta variant. It is imperative that as a community we continue to do all we can to keep each other safe.

 The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:

-      a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back

-      a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

-      a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

If your child has any of these symptoms, get a PCR test to check if they have coronavirus and stay at home until you get the result.

You and anyone you live with should stay at home and not have visitors until you get the test result – only leave your home to have a test.

Anyone in your childcare or support bubble should also stay at home if you have been in close contact with them since your symptoms started or during the 48 hours before they started.

If you child tests positive for Covid19 when school is closed during the evenings or at the weekend, then please report this to covidreporting@olive.dudley.sch.uk.

I must finish now. Mr Weston will soon be jangling his keys at me, although he did allow me to lock up earlier in the week when England were playing football. I made it home just in time to see the second goal. For those of you who will be watching the England match at the weekend, have fun and fingers crossed they get another win.

Stay safe.

Hannah Grasby20/21