Friday 9th June
Happy Friday!
We’ve come to the end of the first week of our last half term of the academic year! With the busyness of school life, the half-term break already feels like a distant memory - we trust all our families enjoyed the sunshine and time together.
Earlier this week, our year one children visited Leasowes Park. Their teachers were proud of how the children managed to do so much walking! The children were excited to notice some of the plants they have been learning about in their science lessons in school and they spotted the narrow boats at Hawne Basin where they will be visiting in a few weeks’ time. The main purpose of the visit to the park was to locate different bodies of water. First stop was the canal and the children found out that Mrs White’s parents own and live on a canal boat. The moved onto finding the pool where they stopped for lunch before heading over the bridge, listening closely to the water trickling in the stream below. The last stop was the cascade or waterfall; the children stood on top of it and watched as it flowed beneath them and crashed into the stream below.
On Wednesday, the school hosted visiting headteachers and advisors from the Ministry of Defence Schools based in Belgium, Cyprus, Germany and all over the world. They came to see the school’s Phonics programme, Sounds-Write, in action, observing phonics lessons in reception and year one as well as interventions in Key Stage Two. The visitors came away ‘buzzing’ about the way we teach our children to read here. It was wonderful to be able to share the excellent practice here at Olive Hill and fascinating to hear the stories and challenges the schools face in different settings, including how in one school they regularly have visits from wild monkeys on the playground!
A highlight from year two this week has been their science lessons where they have been learning about pollination in a very creative way! They used chalk to conduct an experiment to replicate how bees help to pollinate flowers. All of the children now think bees do an amazing job!
There was a special moment in nursery today when our youngest children in school had a very special visit from our Guinea Pigs! Miss Lee said the children were adorable when they got to meet Oreo and Margo, learning all about how they are cared for and even getting to stroke them.
Year 4 were enjoying some light relief from their multiplication checks this afternoon, getting stuck into their art lesson. They have been working on cave-art inspired relief printing with lino, experimenting with different designs and colours. Miss Clarke had the children walking to the sink like surgeons and using taps with their elbows because it did get a little bit messy!
Through our links with the Halesowen Teaching and Learning Community, the senior leaders had the opportunity to attend the Inspiring Leadership Conference held in Birmingham on Thursday and Friday. Miss Grasby, Mr Priest and Miss Walters were able to listen to inspiring speakers including Lucy Hawkins (Stephen Hawkins’ daughter) on a range of topics. Back in school, Mr Priest shared some of his learning about resilience during assembly this morning. We combined singing one of our favourite new assembly songs, ‘Feels Good (when we’re together)’ and listening to ‘Try Everything’ from the film Zootopia, to remind us that resilience is the strength we find in each other.
Have a lovely weekend.