Friday 8th July
Happy Friday!
It has been a hectic week here at Olive Hill for many reasons. We sincerely apologise for the delay in sending out your child’s end of year report. Many staff members have stayed behind this evening to collate the paperwork and start to place it in envelopes ready for distribution on Monday. The writing of reports is a long process, but I won’t bore you with the details. When you receive your child’s report, you will also receive a covering letter with a space for you to make a comment and return it to school. If your child has taken a statutory assessment this year (reception, year one, year two, year four and year six), you will also receive the outcomes of these. Additionally, we have included a print out of your child’s attendance summary for the year. If there is anything you don’t understand, or wish to clarify, then please ask us. You can also book an appointment to speak with your child’s teacher if you wish to discuss the content of the report. Every child will leave school with their report on Monday, we would advise you to take this from them straight away. to avoid it becoming lost. Year six parents, your child should arrive home with an unopened report!
This week, our year six children have been visiting their new secondary schools - we have received lots of positive feedback about their visits. Some are under the impression that PE is the only subject taught! I am sure they will soon realise that they will experience a broad and balance curriculum, that will include their least favourite subjects. We only have 8 more days left with our year six cohort - the year six staff have lots of fun events planned for them, and they will be performing their epic production to at least four different audiences. On Tuesday, we received their SATs results. The individual results will come out to children on Monday, however, we are delighted to tell our community that the cohort of children have achieved above the national average in all areas that are assessed. This is fantastic conclusion to the end of their journey here with us and an accumulation of the hard work produced by the children, staff and parents. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in their educational journey.
On Monday, our year four, five and six children were treated to an inspirational talk from the author Onjali Q Rauf. She engaged the children for over an hour discussing her inspiration to write. Onjali spoke a lot about the importance of celebrating diversity and this is something that echoes our school values.
On Tuesday, the children had the opportunity to meet their teacher and teaching assistant for next academic year. There was certainly a buzz of excitement across the school. Unfortunately, some of our teachers were poorly on the day, but they still attended virtually - this meant that Miss Macaskill could show her dog off to her new class and they were thrilled. Some current members of staff were missing from the line up. Miss Grice, who has been a teacher for a number of years, will be relocating in the near future and has a new job. Mr Roberts, Miss Ford and Miss Mullard have all been at Olive Hill covering various maternity leaves, and as all our staff will have returned in September, we will no longer be able to employ them at Olive Hill. They have all found new jobs and we wish them well in the future.
On Wednesday, our new reception intake came for their stay and play visits. This meant that our current reception cohort had to find a new home for the day - so they went right to other end of the school and spent the day in our year six classrooms. The children were thrilled about this. The few year six children who remained in school on that day really enjoyed being able to support them. The year six staff were exhausted at the end of the day! They had forgotten what it was like to teach children who are still developing their independence.
On Thursday, we saw the return of Sports Day. This takes a mammoth amount of organisation and Mrs Tansley, supported by Mr Brady, did a fantastic job and everything ran smoothly on the day. We had a great audience for each of the phases - thank you so much for taking the time to join us. We know that some parents certainly kept themselves active as they watched their children in different year groups. We also loved the set-up where some parents had come very well prepared with their own seating! The children loved the event and they participated beautifully.
Next Tuesday, 12th July, is our Meet the Teacher event for parents. We will open our doors at 3.30pm and you will have the opportunity to meet you child’s new teacher and see their new classroom. We would encourage all parents to attend this event as it will support you to start building a relationship with your child’s teacher. You are more then welcome to bring your child with you. No appointment is necessary and our doors will close at 5.45pm. It will be very busy at the start and end of the evening, so if you wish to have more time to speak to the teacher, we would suggest avoiding these peak times.
We wish all of our families celebrating, a Happy Eid. We always enjoy hearing about the children’s celebrations on their return to school. Please remember, we are only able to authorise absence for religious observance on the actual day of the event. As it falls on the weekend, we will expect to see our children in school on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Stay safe.