From the Head
Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome back! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable half-term break. It’s been a brilliant first week back, filled with energy, enthusiasm and a renewed focus as we head into what promises to be a busy and festive term in the lead-up to Christmas.
We are thrilled to share some wonderful news with you: over the half term, we took delivery of our brand-new school minibus! This incredible addition to St Olave's would not have been possible without your generosity and dedication to our fundraising efforts. The children are absolutely delighted, and we couldn’t be prouder of this achievement. Thank you for your continued support - it truly makes a difference.
On that note, the Fundraising and Social Committee (FRSC) are hard at work planning this year’s Christmas Fayre, which will take place next month. Details of required donations were sent home with the children today in their book bags, so please do take a look and see how you can get involved. Your contributions to events like these are invaluable and help us continue to provide outstanding opportunities for our children.
Tomorrow, we are hosting our Open Morning, and we’re excited to welcome a large number of prospective parents to experience everything that makes St Olave’s so special. The school is looking fantastic, and I would like to thank all our staff for their hard work in preparing for this important event and to the children and parents who are giving their time to act as tour guides or perform for our visitors.
Thank you for all that you do to support our school community. We look forward to another term of learning, joy, and celebration as we move closer to the festive season.
Kind regards,
Miss Holloway
The week ahead...
Safeguarding Team
Notices
Children in Need
On Friday 15th November we will be holding our charity day this term, supporting BBC Children in Need. The children will be invited to come to school wearing something spotty in addition to their usual uniform (headband/tie/Pudsey ears, socks, tights etc) and will be taking part in sporting activities during their P.E. Lessons.
This week at St Olave's
Football Tournament
This week, teams from Year 5 and 6 travelled to Bromley to take part in a football tournament hosted by Bishop Challoner Catholic School. There were ten teams competing for either the cup or plate tournament trophies. The children were super excited, not only to be playing football, but also having the opportunity to be the very first children to travel in our brand new mini bus! The children were fantastic all day, showing both competitive spirit and strong support for each other in every match.
We entered two teams for the day and both teams grew stronger and stronger as the tournament progressed. Incredibly, both St Olave's teams finished joint first place in the plate trophy! Congratulations to both our two teams (Bishop Challoner did not have enough medals for both teams, so we will be ordering our own medals and will hand them all out together). Well done children for a fantastic and entertaining morning of football!
House Meetings
On Thursday, the Year 6 House Captains and Vice Captains led an informative assembly all about the value of teamwork. They led discussions about the importance of working together and even looked at specific animals that are well known for their excellent teamwork skills. The most exciting part of all was when they launched our first House Competition of the year - House General Knowledge. From Reception to Year 6 - all the children will take part answering questions that included subjects such as science, art, music, authors and many more! Good luck to everyone!
Nursery
Welcome back! The children have been enjoying the wonderful Autumn weather and we have had great fun sweeping up the leaves into big piles and then jumping in them! Our large oak and sycamore trees in our outside area keep us well stocked with leaves to play with but we also took a trip to Southwood Park on Monday to collect some leaves with different colours and shapes.
Before the half term the children were lucky enough to experience the joy of a campfire with marshmallows, hot chocolate and a sing song. The children were excited to tell us about the bonfires they experienced at home and the firework displays they have seen. They have used paint, glitter and chalks to recreate some of the fireworks in their art work and have added noises such as pppssshhh!, whizzzz!, and wheeee!
In our special group time, the children explored how to make different noises using a pair of drumsticks. We went outside and made music using the fence, the gate, the table and our mud kitchen! Hearing and distinguishing different sounds in the environment is an important skill to learn which will help when we start to learn letter sounds later in the year.
Reception
Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful half term. Thank you so much for all the pictures you have uploaded onto Tapestry. The children have really enjoyed standing up and telling their friends about what they have been up to during the holidays.
Fireworks and Diwali have been a talking point during circle times and discussion times so we have spent some time learning about the celebrations and traditions. The children have made their own fireworks and Rangoli Patterns using chalk.
This week, we have embraced the Autumnal weather and we set off to the local park on a Nature Walk. We had a hunt to find the biggest leaf, a red leaf, a triple coloured leaf and an interesting stick. We had a HUGE bag full of each and we took them back to the classroom to use throughout the week. The sticks have been used to create 2D shapes, make stick men and arrows to guide us on a treasure hunt. The leaves have been used to create pictures, leaf rubbings and sparking comparative language.
Next week is anti-bullying week. We will be focusing on how to be a good friend, how to be respectful and how to be kind.
We hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Year 1
It has been wonderful to welcome the children back for the second half of the Autumn Term! We can see the children have had a well deserved rest and have returned with enthusiasm in their learning and excitement to see their friends.
We have not held back in getting stuck into our learning. In English, the children have been reading the story ‘5 Minutes Peace’ by Jill Murray. Some of them were familiar with The Large Family and the exciting antics they get up to. We started the week by identifying the different characters in the story and discussing our own family members. The children then moved on to sequencing events in the story and creating their own story maps. There were many barriers in Mrs Large’s way to getting her 5 minutes peace, many of the children felt their parents may find this story relatable at home!
In maths we continued our unit on addition and subtraction. The children have been using concrete resources and the part-whole model to consolidate their understanding of fact families. We have been using vocabulary like ‘how many left’ and crossing out objects so that the children can visualise how an amount changes when subtracting. This may be something you may want to practise around the dinner table. We are sure the children will enjoy applying their learning to making their dinner disappear.
In Science, we have revisited our topic of seasonal changes. The children made predictions of how they think the allotment would look during the Autumn season. Once we had discussed what we may expect, we took a trip down to the allotment to find evidence of some seasonal changes. There were lots of fantastic observations made, including ‘trees becoming bare’ and ‘a variety of red, brown and orange leaves’. We even noticed that there was more moisture in the soil and how it looks much darker.
Next week, we look forward to our anti bullying week, don’t forget your odd socks on Tuesday!
Year 2
A whirlwind return to school and the children have returned keen and eager to learn! We are testing out maths heads this week with addition including 2-digit numbers, exchanging ones for tens and using the column method - wow! The children have blown us away with their perseverance. In English we have reignited our interest in ‘The Iron Man’ and have been practising writing statements, questions, commands and exclamations.
In Geography we launched our Extreme Weather topic by exploring different extreme weather events and learning the vocabulary associated with this. In RE, we discovered the festival of Diwali, looking at where it all began, exploring traditions and designing our own rangoli patterns.
It may only be early November, but the children found out their parts for the Lower School Christmas Show on Friday, and we are already getting super excited! Please help your children to start reading through and learning their lines so we can astound you with our performance in early December.
On a housekeeping note, please ensure your child comes to school with a coat every day now that the weather is getting cooler and damper. We always aim to use our outside spaces every day.
Have a tip top weekend!
Year 3
Welcome back to the second half of Autumn Term! We have hit the ground running with lots of fun activities and lessons this week. In our maths, we have begun our multiplication topic by looking at grouping and using physical resources such as counters to create arrays that represent multiplication calculations.
In Science, we began our topic on forces and magnets by testing contact and non contact forces. We kicked a football, slid toy cars down slides and even played tug of war. All this showed us that forces such as push and pull require contact with something but gravity is a force that works on its own.
In English, we have focused on grammar and looked at first and third person. The children enjoyed coming up with their own sentences that were focused on themselves (first person) and each other (third person). We also looked at past, present and future tense and the verbs we use to show each of these.
Finally, in RE we started our Christianity topic by discussing the Christian festival of Christmas. The children were very excited to share their Christmas traditions. They created freeze frames and images of what they do to celebrate.
Year 4
Welcome back and we hope you all had a wonderful half term break. In English, we started the week with a big focus on inference; forming ideas based on evidence (clues) and reasoning (our knowledge). We used only an image to answer comprehension questions and began reading from our new text ‘How to Train your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell. Using our inference skills, we created a character profile of Snotlout. On Friday, we used pronouns to create a ‘Wanted’ poster for Toothless.
In maths, we have started a new topic of area. We looked at the definition of area and how to measure area by using squares. We then compared the area of different shapes and created our own rectilinear shapes. This topic is brief but leads us on to our multiplication unit which begins next week.
In history, we learned about the expansion of the Roman Empire over a period of 600 years. The children were fascinated to see how far the empire reached and how quickly it was conquered.
In science, we started our new topic of electricity! Please look out for the Electricity knowledge organiser that the children took home to help support their learning. This outlines our sequence of lessons, key learning and topic vocabulary. We ended the week by creating a scratch mixed-media composition - this brought together the work the children have been doing over three weeks in art, and they were very impressed with the end results!
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Year 5
It has been a busy first week back in Year 5. In English, we have started our new poetry topic studying classic narrative poems. We have explored Lewis Carroll’s, ‘The Walrus and The Carpenter’. Looking closely at the poem, we explored the language and poetic devices to help with our own performances and understanding. Towards the end of the week, we began to explore newspaper reports and speech punctuation in preparation for our own reports on the oysters’ demise next week.
In maths, we have explored common multiples, factors and prime numbers. We drew upon our multiplication facts to support us and worked on sorting the information into venn diagrams. Using our new knowledge, we applied this within word problems.
We completed our geography topic this week by making our own biomes and developing our understanding of how different biomes are being damaged. Further to this, we explored ways in which biomes are being protected and preserved through conservation efforts. Towards the end of the week, we began our new art topic by exploring how drawing can be developed and how to combine materials for effect. We started by creating a continuous line portrait, which was very tricky, followed by producing backgrounds of different mediums to help further represent our sense of self.
Year 6
It was a delight to welcome the children back after a two week break, they all were full of stories about their half terms and it was lovely to be back together. In English, we are focusing on poetry with the theme of The Black Lives Matter Movement. The children have been reading and listening to various emotive poems and in discussions have had the opportunity to learn the style and form of different poems, develop performance poetry techniques and to offer their feelings and reactions to very moving poetry.
On Tuesday, Year 6 were trained as Anti Bullying Ambassadors. They learnt the nine different forms of bullying, thought about who may be vulnerable to bullying and discussed ways we could continue to make our school a kinder place to be. The children thought carefully about the attributes of an anti-bullying ambassador and now know how to spot the signs of children who may be victims of bullying. In the afternoon, the children all worked very hard at their first swimming lesson of the year!
The children enjoyed taking part in the Year 5 and 6 House General Knowledge Quiz and it was interesting to see the range of answers given by the children. We also completed our first Science Assessment on our topic of Light and the children have shown a good understanding of this topic. We will now move from Physics to Biology for our next topic!
To end the week, The Chocolate Museum (Brixton) visited our school to give a workshop. The children enjoyed learning about the Maya cocoa trade and consumption and of course tasting and making chocolate!
Outdoor Learning
Thankfully it has been a nice dry week so the children have been able to continue their hard work at the allotment. We had a huge delivery of bark chippings arrive on Monday morning so the children got out the wheelbarrows, forks and spades and moved most of it to cover our paths. It took us over two days! We have also started to remove the sunflowers from the two beds and some children got to use the saw to chop up the stalks. The scarecrows have been repaired and had new clothing put on them. They were a little faded! There are still a lot of leaves that are falling on the plot, so leaf picking has been an important job to keep everywhere clear.
Languages
Welcome back everyone! We had an amazing week after a refreshing break. Nursery and Reception started their new topic: the colours. The children learnt the rainbow song in French and played a game about recognising colours. Year 1 worked on “How old are you?” and learned how to ask each other and answer with their own age. Year 2 started the topic of hobbies: we introduced opinion verbs and we learnt how to say we like to dance, to listen to music and to play sport.
Year 3 had a lesson on numbers and the children practised how to count up to 50, with writing and listening activities. Year 4 children carried on a cultural lesson and they all showed off their artistic skills drawing the most famous landmarks of Paris. The children have also practised numbers up to 100 very successfully!
In Spanish, the children have had a cultural lesson on The Day of the Dead. We have learnt a little about Mexico and we have explored how this Mexican festival has its roots in the Aztecs civilisation. I am very much looking forward to seeing how creative the children will be with their homework. In Latin, the children witnessed the visit of the governor to our family in Vindolanda and we explored the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, after learning the “negative imperative” in Latin grammar.
Design & Technology
Year 3 Pneumatic Monsters
This week pupils in Year 3 were introduced to their new project. They experimented with using air as a force to move objects.
Year 4 Slingshot Car
Year 4 pupils read their new design briefs and explored the history of automobiles by creating a visual timeline.
Year 5 Doodlebots
In Year 5 we experimented with parallel and series circuits. Pupils discovered the advantages of wiring a circuit in parallel.
Year 6 Playground Structures
Pupils in Year 6 constructed the moving scale models for their playground designs.
Music
In Music lessons this week, we discussed all of the exciting events coming up this half term. The children will be taking part in Christmas plays, carol services and carol singing events in the local community. We will be starting to learn Christmas songs as of next week!
The children were introduced to their new topics this week. Nursery have been continuing to learn about a range of instruments and how they’re played. We are looking forward to having some of the older children play their instruments to the younger children in their lessons soon! Reception have been learning about celebration music. We learnt about Diwali and created a celebration dance to Diwali music. Year 1 had a sneak peak this week at some of the Christmas songs we will be learning this half term and Year 2 identified how instruments in an orchestra were used to create sound effects for a story telling of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We focused on pitch, dynamics and tempo.
Year 3 were learning to create a story along to a piece of music. On Wednesday, they listened to Mussorgsky’s ‘Night on a Bare Mountain’ and thought about how the pitch, tempo, dynamics and texture of the music could create certain sections of a story. They then added actions and freeze frames to their musical story. Year 4 started their topic about ‘Rock and Roll’! We listened and watched Elvis Presley perform ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, identifying what we like/dislike and key musical features of Rock and Roll music. We learnt that Rock and Roll originated in 1950’s America after the war and it made people want to dance and be happy! We also listened to music by Bill Haley and His Comets, ‘Rock Around the Clock’ and Buddy Holly’s, ‘Oh Boy!’ We even learnt the Hand Jive! You may like to listen to some Rock and Roll music together this weekend!
Year 5’s new topic is about ‘Blues’ music. We learnt about the history of the Blues and where it originated from. The children listened to 3 examples of Blues music, identifying key musical features and the emotion that the music was portraying. Year 6 started their ‘Film Music’ topic. We discussed how film composers create different music to show certain emotions in films such as excitement, danger, romance etc. Many of the children were able to name iconic music they have heard in films such as Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, E.T., Star Wars and Mission Impossible.