Thursday 16th July

Congratulations all! We have made it to the end of term!

A huge thank you from all of the staff at Olive Hill to our wonderful community. Your support has kept us going!

Today we said goodbye to the children who have been attending school and we have had some pretty cool ‘bubble’ celebrations. I couldn’t write my last blog without mentioning our year six children. Year six, it has been an absolute pleasure to watch you grow at Olive Hill. I am sorry that you did not get the send off you deserve, but it certainly isn’t a year that you will forget. Your new secondary schools are all gaining the most awesome young people and we all wish you lots of luck for the future. Aim high in all that you do and follow your dreams.

Families, I think you have all been amazing during this time. You will have all had a differing experience - for some of you this time will have been filled with joy, for others the experience may not have been so positive. You have all been in our thoughts.

Tomorrow is our last day before we all break up for the summer. If you need to contact the school, for whatever reason, please do so before 2.30pm. The school will be closed over the summer break. The office will reopen on Tuesday 1st September.

The teachers have worked tirelessly to provide high quality remote learning to their year groups. We will not be providing online learning over the summer. Everybody needs a break, including you. We will leave the wellbeing activities and Art Adventure on the website for you to complete should you wish to do so. Don’t forget you can access lots of other activities including Times Table Rockstars and Bug Club.

Mr Priest has asked me to give you some information regarding Bug Club:

We are delighted to announce that we will be running a Bug Club Summer Reading Challenge during the summer holidays. We would like all of the children to take advantage of our Bug Club subscription and continue to read at home. Reading for pleasure has a positive impact on children’s future academic success and their mental health and well-being. Each child who completes at least 5 quizzes on Bug Club between 21st July and 21st August will receive a prize when they return to school in September. We hope this encourages a regular reading habit during the summer holiday!

Information for parents and a link to Bug Club can be found on the online learning page of our website.

I do feel quite sad that this will be my last blog, for this academic year anyway. Writing the blog has helped me to feel connected to a community that I am proud to serve. Like everyone, I am looking forward to a summer break. Hopefully I will be spending some time in Wales with my family, who I have missed so much. I am also hoping to walk along the sand and paddle my feet in the sea. If any of you take a day trip to Barry Island, do look out for me. I hope you are all able to enjoy your summer break and to take some time to forget all about the madness of 2020 so far. Go and create memories and have lots of fun!

The staff of Olive Hill are the most dedicated group of people, who are fully committed to making the difference in the lives of children. They all work exceptionally hard, but they also like to have fun. We all arrived in school in fancy dress this morning, apart from Mr Holder - even didn’t even bother to get out of his pyjamas! Mr Priest came as Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogworts, I am now rather concerned that he is after my job! Miss Walters came as a child, along with the other year six staff. We had a yellow theme in KS1, The Incredibles in LKS2, some beautiful butterflies, a giraffe, a tiger, a team of medics, some turtles, The Cat in the Hat and I know I am going to have forgotten some! Oh yes, me - I was the Queen of Hearts.

I am going to leave you with some pictures of our end of term celebrations. The whole school enjoyed waving their bubble wands in their magical bubbles - it literally was bubble madness, and the only thing that would have made it better would have been to have all of our children involved.

We have missed you all and cannot wait for your return in September. Enjoy the summer break and stay safe.