Monday 1st June

Happy Monday to our wonderful community. How are you all? Did you have a good half term break?

After a week in the sunshine the majority of our school staff have returned to work refreshed and smiling. Hopefully you have found your online learning for today and some of you may have received a phone call from a member of school staff; I know that many of your teachers and teaching assistants have been really pleased to hear your voices at the end of the phone.

The school was closed last week, but we opened at 9am today for the children of key workers (as defined by the government guidance). Over the next few weeks we will start to welcome back more children from year six, year one, reception and nursery. It is really important that we do this safely, if you have walked passed the school today you may have noticed that there are no cars on the car park - this is because the staff have been asked to park their cars on the KS1 playground. Me and Mr Weston were on the car park very early this morning, putting down tape - a bit like they have outside the supermarkets. The tape is there to support everyone to keep a distance when you are being dropped to school or collected from school.

So, the big news over the weekend was the successful launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The Crew Dragon launched astronauts from US soil for the first time since 2011. Click here to view the launch.

The private rocket company SpaceX, in partnership with NASA, has sent two astronauts into orbit. Astronauts are trained to pilot and/or travel in a spacecraft, work in space, and do activities related to human space exploration. I think it sounds like a pretty amazing job. Have you ever dreamt of becoming astronaut? To make it a reality, you would have to do LOTS of training and LOTS of learning.

Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are the two astronauts who have been launched into orbit over the weekend. They are both very experienced astronauts and they are also really good friends. The strong relationship between the two astronauts supports them to do their job successfully - apparently, they can predict almost by body language what the person’s opinion is or what their next action is going to be. If you could be launched into space with someone, who would that be?

I first heard about the launch on Saturday afternoon, I thought it was really interesting and started to do some research to find out more information. Whilst I was doing the research, I found out that it was possible to see both the International Space Station (where the Crew Dragon would dock) and the Crew Dragon from Earth just after 10pm on Saturday night. At 10pm I went out into my garden, I lay on a blanket (and wrapped myself in another blanket, it was a bit chilly) and looked up to the night sky. It was magical, watching the stars appear. I believe that I did see the ISS and quite possibly the rocket - but I am no expert. Whatever I saw, I found it very exciting.

It has been great to be back at school today, but it just isn’t the same without all of wonderful children in the building. We all miss you and can’t wait to hear the sound of your laughter in our corridors once again. Families, please remember that you contact us through the school office between 8.30am and 3.30pm or you can drop us an email to info@olive.dudley.sch.uk. We have received lots of updated guidance from the government that we are now processing, we will be sure to communicate anything that is relevant to you.

Stay alert, stay safe.