From the Head
This week has been one of those weeks that reminds me exactly why what we do matters so much. Across the school, I have seen children showing real confidence, pride and a genuine commitment to getting better; and it has been a joy to witness. On Monday, children from Years 3-6 performed poetry following their workshops with our Poet in Residence, Adisa. Standing up, sharing their words and performing in front of others takes courage and the confidence they showed was wonderful. The way they listened to one another, supported each other and took pride in their performances said so much about the culture we are building together. That confidence carried through to Wednesday, when our Upper School children performed at the O2 as part of Young Voices. Performing in such an iconic venue is a huge opportunity, and the children rose to it brilliantly. They were focused, enthusiastic, and completely ready for the moment. I would like to say a very personal thank you to Ms Tyler for preparing the children so thoroughly and so calmly; they were a credit to her and to the whole school. Thank you too to all the staff who supported the children throughout the day and evening; these experiences only happen because of teamwork and care. Every day this week, I have also been struck by the confidence of our youngest children. As I visit EYFS and Lower School classrooms with prospective parents, it has been a delight to hear children talking so confidently about their learning; explaining what they are doing, what they have learned and why it matters to them. These are small moments that speak volumes about the secure, nurturing environment our children are growing up in. Thank you to our Year 5 parents for attending the Secondary Transfer information meeting this afternoon. I value these opportunities to work closely with you at such an important stage and I hope I reassured you that I am fully committed to supporting your child and your family as we plan the next steps together. Partnership is key, and the strongest outcomes come when we work openly and collaboratively. Weeks like this are a powerful reminder of the importance of supporting one another as a school community. Our children flourish because they are encouraged, challenged and believed in and because they see adults around them modelling kindness, professionalism and shared purpose. I am incredibly proud of them all. I hope you all have a restful weekend as we look forward to next week and the final week of January. See you all on Monday! Kind regards, Miss Holloway
The week ahead...
Lunch Menu
Monthly Safeguarding Update
January – Attendance Matters
Did you know that attendance is closely linked to wellbeing and safety? If your child is struggling to come into school, let us know early so we can support you. Children who miss school can be more vulnerable - together we can make sure every child is present, safe, and learning.
Focus on School Values
Our children are continuing to explore the value of Commitment this half term, not only in their learning, but in the way they behave and contribute to our community. We’re helping them see that doing the right thing, even when no one is watching, is a true act of commitment. In Monday’s assembly, I shared the picture book What If Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick. It uses humour and simple scenarios to show how small actions, good or bad, can have a big impact when everyone follows (or forgets) the same rules. It’s a brilliant way to get children thinking about personal responsibility and social awareness. Our manner of the week is: “Don’t pick your nose in public.” As light-hearted as it may seem, this is a key part of helping children develop awareness of social norms and the impact of their behaviour on others. We talk about self-control and making choices that keep shared spaces comfortable and respectful for everyone. Thank you for reinforcing this message at home with warmth and humour. If you’re looking for a follow-up read, Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra offers another fun take on social etiquette for younger readers.
This week at St Olave's
Young Voices at The O2 Arena On Wednesday, following months of rehearsals, we took 77 very excited children to the O2 Arena to perform as part of the Young Voices Choir 2026. It was an unforgettable experience, and every single child made us proud. From the moment we arrived, the atmosphere was buzzing, building to a truly spectacular performance on one of the world’s most iconic stages. The children sang with confidence and enthusiasm, and were inspired by the special guest singers Ruti and Aneesa Folds, as well as the high-energy performances from Urban Strides. Throughout the long day and evening, the children represented St Olave’s impeccably. It was an absolute joy to see them singing alongside their friends and creating lasting memories of such a fantastic evening. The children are already asking about Young Voices 2027! Thank you for continuing to support this brilliant event.
A visit from Paddy O'Connell Our Year 5 and 6 pupils had a special visit from the BBC’s very own Paddy O’Connell this week! Paddy shared inspiring insights into the history and importance of code breaking and its pivotal changes that have shaped our technology today. In this session pupils explored the origins of computational thinking and we made links to how computers of today have evolved from these humble beginnings. Pupils had the opportunity to ask questions about Bletchley Park, the top secret nature of the work carried out there as well as the revolutionary roles that women played in the code breaking world.
Poetry Recitals showcasing our work with Adisa the Verbalizer On Monday, the children were thrilled to have their final session with Adisa the Verbaliser, where they continued developing techniques for performance poetry. In the afternoon, they rose to the occasion, demonstrating confidence, creativity and freedom of thought by performing their own written poems to a live audience of parents. The themes explored were thoughtful and powerful, including journeys, identity, symbols, the environment and climate change. We were incredibly proud of every child and the courage and maturity they showed – it was a joy to watch.
Sporting Round Up
Girls' Football League On Tuesday, the girls returned to the football arena and showcased their skills yet again. Another brilliant performance and a dominant display of team work and determination. The girls came away with a 3-0 victory and continued on their unbeaten streak. Well played everyone!
Year 4 Netball Fixture On Thursday after school, Year 4 took part in a netball fixture at Bromley High School. The girls were super excited to compete in a netball fixture, and were experiencing a wide range of positions on the court. The girls grew into the game contesting for every ball. Bromley High were well organised and managed to take the victory against us in a tightly contested game resulting in a 2-1 score. Well played girls, as we will learn from this and be stronger for the next game!
Nursery
The children’s interests have taken us in several different directions this week! Our groups for special group time are named after some woodland animals; we have squirrels, foxes, rabbits and hedgehogs. This has prompted us to find out more about one of the creatures, hedgehogs. As they are nocturnal they are very difficult to see in real life so we looked at some videos of hedgehogs and found out some facts such as what they eat, how they move and why they have prickles. Elsewhere in the classroom the children have been interested in making skeletons, exploring a collection of different sized zips, making a farm and snuggling in the dark den.
Outside the children have enjoyed some muddy fun in the mud kitchen as well as completing a challenge of getting from the sand pit to the gate without touching the floor! This prompted some brilliant teamwork as the children helped and encouraged each other to complete the challenge.
Reception
This week has flown by… literally! Reception have been very interested in taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. We have been looking out for birds and tallying them when we spot them, as well as creating our own birds to display in the classroom so they can “fly away.” The children have learned all about different types of birds and how they migrate. We have also enjoyed making our own bird nests and fat balls to help feed the birds. The children loved talking about how we can care for wildlife and why birds might need extra food at this time of year. One of our friends made a caliper at home, which sparked a real interest in measuring and comparing lengths around the classroom. We then made our own calipers and had great fun measuring lots of different things, including each other’s noses and ears! As the children have enjoyed learning about both measuring and birds, this week’s Drawing Club was based on the story Inch by Inch. The children created their own inchworms and wrote codes using full sentences and red words to make magical things happen. We have loved all the learning and fun this week. We hope you enjoy some bird watching this weekend too. Please let us know if any birds take a nibble on the fat balls, we would love to see some photos on Tapestry!
Year 1
We have had another wonderful week in Year 1. In maths, the children have continued their learning about place value up to 20. They have been finding 1 more and 1 less and using number lines to 20 with growing confidence. Please continue to practise number bonds to 10 at home, and see if the children can use this knowledge to help them find number bonds to 20. In English, the children have been writing statements and adding adjectives to include more detail and describe characters’ feelings. They have written some wonderful character descriptions of the lion and the mouse from the story 'The Lion Inside'. The children have completed our art topic by creating pieces inspired by the work of Clarice Cliff, using their colour-mixing skills. The finished artwork looks fantastic. In our topic lessons, we have begun our geography unit on the United Kingdom and the surrounding seas. The children have labelled their own maps and learned key geographical facts about the countries that make up the UK. We hope you have a wonderful, restful weekend, and we look forward to another exciting week of learning next week.
Year 2
The children have been super engaged in their lessons this week and we are pleased to report that their powers of concentration and resilience are resulting in some very good learning and high quality work. In English we have continued to develop our understanding of narrative writing, with Claude in the City as a text to learn from. It can be confirmed that Claude is ’no ordinary dog’, as he has managed to get all of the children planning a new adventure about him, which they have greatly enjoyed. To help with structure, we sorted our story ideas into a chain of events and then used a 5 box planning frame to further organise the content and layout of our work. We are really enjoying being authors, and can’t wait to write more about Claude next week. Alongside our narrative writing, we have been very busy learning new spellings and exploring the meaning of new vocabulary in our faster read book, 'The Boy who Grew Dragons'. In maths, our work with money has required us to use different combinations of coins to make a given amount. We have practised counting in twos, fives and tens using coins. Please do this at home if you have some spare coins around the house or in money boxes. This links very nicely to our times tables work. The children have worked confidently doing some calculations with money and were very interested in solving shopping problems, loving the real life context where these skills are vital. Our science lesson involved a practical investigation to test materials for the property of waterproofing. The children were very interested to see waterproof materials being used for a variety of purposes - not just for wet weather. They demonstrated some good observation skills when assessing the varying level of waterproofing offered by the materials. All agreed that plastic and foil were good waterproof materials and hessian and wool were not.
Year 3
It's been another busy yet exciting week in Year 3. As you know we have been showing off our poetry skills in our Adisa poetry recitals on Monday and showing off our voices during the spectacular Young Voices performance at the 02. On both occasions we were incredibly proud of how well the children behaved, how they performed and how they represented Year 3 and the school as a whole. Alongside all that excitement, we have been continuing with our story writing inspired by the story ‘Window’ by Jeanie Baker. The children impressed us with their detailed use of descriptive language as well as understanding and using fronted adverbials or time, place and manner. The children have also re-used their favourite ‘direct speech song’ to help them include dialogue that uses inverted commas, synonyms for 'said', and adverbs in their work. All the children perfectly understood the book’s message of protecting nature and enjoying the countryside and tried to include this in their work. In maths this week, the children worked hard to sharpen their multiplication and division skills. They used their foundational understanding of times tables and particularly multiples of ten to help them calculate 2 digit by 1 digit numbers. We were impressed to see how well children were able to calculate challenging numbers using partitioning and the knowledge they have honed by practicing all those tables. Keep up the good work! In RE this week, the children continued to learn about the concept of a miracle and applied this to bible stories from Christianity. The children now understand that a miracle is a wondrous, unexplainable event that is caused by a higher power and not simply just magic. They can be seen here sorting images into miracles and natural occurrences such as rainbows. Finally, in art this week the children were developing their shading skills. They used the side of a pencil technique and blending to help them create light, dark and even tones. They understood the importance of shading in one direction and used all this to shade images of leaves.
Year 4
What a wonderful and memorable week it has been in Year 4! On Monday, the children were thrilled to have their final session with Adisa the Verbaliser and we were incredibly proud of every child and the courage and maturity they showed in their recital – it was a joy to watch. In English, the children began the week by innovating The Princess and the Pea. They showed great imagination by changing settings, characters or adding an unexpected twist to the story. They then moved on to learning about the key features of a playscript, carefully annotating one to show their understanding. To finish the week, the children planned and began writing their own playscripts based on their innovative fairy tales. It has been fantastic to see their ideas come to life in a new format. In Maths, the children have consolidated their understanding of long multiplication and short division. We have been impressed with their secure knowledge of the processes involved. Some children are still developing confidence in applying these skills to problem-solving, and we will continue to support them with this. In Art, the children started a new topic, ‘Craft and Design: The Fabric of Nature’. They thoroughly enjoyed exploring pattern, colour and mood through images inspired by the rainforest. Many children were highly inspired and produced some excellent and thoughtful designs. The children have now enjoyed two weeks of swimming lessons. Please can you continue to support your child by ensuring they understand how to organise themselves independently, including:
- how to tie laces,
- the order in which they undress and dress,
- and how to pack their swimming bag correctly.
This independence is extremely important and will also help prepare them for the Danbury residential in May. Thank you, as always, for your continued support.
Year 5
Another week has flown by and we find ourselves at the mid-point of the half term. It was wonderful to see so many of you for our enthralling poetry recital on Monday. It was wonderful to see, and hear, the children share their own poems inspired by the work we have been doing with Adisa. In English we have focused on formal letter writing; with the acknowledgement that we do not write and receive them very often. We have focused on the use of standard English when writing formally, alongside ensuring our letters follow the correct format. In maths we have delved into working with negative numbers from numberlines to finding the difference and exploring coordinates, the children were very adept and using their number knowledge to problem solve. In art, we looked at composition and, using the foreground, middle ground, background concept to explore how things appear further or closer away. The children, inspired by our beautiful English text,‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan, attempted to recreate some of the illustrations. We also explored the creation of Sikhism in RE; creating storyboards of Guru Nanak’s journey. Those of us left behind at school during Young Voices on Wednesday still managed to put our brains to good use with a problem solving maths mystery. With various clues to be solved in order to find the final answers, the children worked diligently and with eagerness, not to mention a little frustration! An enjoyable afternoon was then had by all with an alternate take on games, owing to both the inclement weather and the reduced numbers. Have a wonderful weekend - see you next week!
Year 6
We’ve had another great and busy week in Year 6! As you know, we have been celebrating our poetry skills through our Adisa poetry recitals on Monday, as well as showcasing our voices at the spectacular Young Voices performance at the O2. We are so proud of all the commitment that the children have shown towards these fantastic events. In maths, we finished our topic of ratio and proportion and have begun our new topic on algebra where we have looked at how to apply one or two step rules to find input and outputs as well as using substitution to find the value of expressions. In English, we are continuing to develop our descriptive techniques and have thought about how we can amplify our writing to intensify the meaning and effect. In art, we looked at the street artist Sian Storey and how she creates upscaled street art in her local area. We then used scaling and proportion to upscale an image, focusing on detail and perspective. In PSHE, we discussed the impact of food on the body and how we can improve our lifestyle, specifically our diet. We are also very impressed with some of the alphabet projects, well done for putting in so much effort and time into your homework. Take a look at some below! Please remember to send a baby picture of your child if you haven’t done so already for our guess the baby game! We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Outdoor Learning
This week the children have been able to venture out into the allotment at various times as the weather has been quite warm. The younger children have filled the first polytunnel with compost from two of our bins that had rotted fantastically well. This will benefit the soil for our new plants in the Spring. Groups have also picked up a lot of the leaves that are still all over the plot. The good news is that the trees have finally lost all of their leaves so any we pick up will be used as a mulch later this year. Other classes have continued their project work in their classrooms.
Languages
This week Nursery and Reception astounded me with their incredible knowledge of our core vocabulary: Reception children even read the words confidently in French! The story for this week was the old favourite “Jaques et le haricot magique”: the children followed attentively even without any translation. Well done Early Years! Year 1 did a great job with their writing: the children had a set of words in English and they had to find the matching pairs in French, based on our current topic, 'family'; Year 2 learnt the words for the different parts of the face and used “j’ai” to talk about their face; Year 3 revised the months of the year and started to create sentences that combined the months with the different types of weather. Year 4 studied different music genres, learnt how to express opinions on them and to give reasons: this type of work is a crucial workout in language learning as it prepares the children for the structure of the GCSE writing and speaking tasks. In Spanish, Year 5 worked with two texts about school subjects: the children translated the texts and used them as a guide to produce their own. Year 6 analysed a very challenging text: the children translated the text, using a mixture of knowledge and healthy guessing for never-seen-before words, revising core vocabulary and grammar to a very high standard. In Latin, Year 6 focused on the imperative verbs: the children talked about the difference between imperative and indicative moods, and made many connections between Latin words from our story and English words, reinforcing the importance of learning Latin. Year 6, also, examined the attire of a soldier, Miles, coloring and cutting the equipment for a figurine.
Design & Technology and Computing
Quiz of the week, ask your child if they can explain what the words in bold mean. Year 3 Electrical Posters Pupils in Year 3 read and analysed their design brief and explored the problems and solutions by creating a mind map of thoughts. Year 4 Slingshot Cars This week Year 4 pupils tested and evaluated their cars and added final custom features. Year 5 Doodlebot In Year 5, pupils wired the circuits for their motors and considered the weight distribution that would best suit the movement that they wanted to achieve from the doodlebot. Year 6 Microbit Arcade Year 6 pupils constructed the case that will hold the wiring and Micro:bit, and they customised as well as downloaded the code needed for the Micro:bit to function as a scoreboard.
Computing highlights
Year 1 practiced taking photos for an image based story; they explored what made a good image vs a poor quality image. Year 2 pupils wrote a simple algorithm for directing a character through a maze. Year 3 learned about being good digital citizens, they noted how body language and tone of voice can make a difference when communicating and that digital written messages can be misunderstood without. They used an e-mail emulator to practice writing e-mails. Year 4 added subpages to their weather forecasting collaborative website. They added spreadsheet data and images to their subpages that explain where the hottest and coldest cities and places are on Earth. Year 5 and 6 pupils learned about code breaking and the history behind it from visiting speaker Paddy’O Connell,. Thye used their non verbal reasoning skills to look for patterns in code in order to crack a coded message.