From the Head
Dear Parents and Carers
As we come to the end of 2024, I am overwhelmed with pride and admiration for the remarkable children of St Olave's. This term has been filled with moments of joy, reflection and community spirit, and it is impossible not to feel a sense of awe at their talents and kindness.
Our youngest children captivated us this week with their enchanting nativity performances. Their confidence, creativity and charm shone brightly on stage, leaving us all with smiles and perhaps a tear or two. These performances truly reflected the hard work and dedication of both the children and their teachers, and I want to commend everyone involved for bringing such festive magic to life.
Our Upper School children have embodied the spirit of the season with acts of generosity and goodwill. The Year 5 and 6 children's visit to Frognal House to perform for the residents was filled with warmth and compassion, demonstrating how small gestures can make a big difference. In addition, children in Year 3 and 4 worked hard to raise funds for Demelza by singing beautifully in Eltham High Street, showing their commitment to helping others in need. Their kindness and grace remind us of the true meaning of this special time of year.
A special thank you must go to our wonderful catering team, who outdid themselves once again with a delicious Christmas lunch this week. The children (and staff!) were treated to a festive feast with all the trimmings. It was a joy to see the dining hall filled with laughter and celebration as we came together to share a meal. Adding to the excitement was a visit from Father Christmas himself - proof, if any were needed, that the children of St Olave’s are well and truly on the ‘nice’ list this year!
Looking ahead, I am eagerly anticipating the Upper School Carol Service next week. It promises to be a fitting and uplifting finale to what has been a busy and rewarding term.
Finally, I would like to wish all our families a joyful and restful Christmas break. For those celebrating, Merry Christmas! For everyone, I hope the holiday season brings happiness and good health. As we turn towards 2025, I look forward to all that we will achieve together in the year ahead.
Kind regards, Miss Holloway
The week ahead...
Lunch Menu
Safeguarding Team
This week at St Olave's
EYFS Nativity - A KING IS BORN!
This week, the children in EYFS performed their Christmas Nativity THREE times to their friends at school and to their parents. They looked incredible in their costumes and they were so excited to show everyone how hard they have been working. The children sang their hearts out and warmed so many of their audience’s hearts. We were so proud of their enthusiasm and bravery as they got up onto the stage and said their lines and sang every word to every song.
Lower School Nativity
Shenanigans in the stable! The rocking and rolling animal band and the boogie woogie angels nearly had their concert postponed due to the arrival of the Baby Jesus, but all was well in Bethlehem when Mary declared she was ready to party! We were so proud of the Lower School children this week who performed their nativity not once or twice, but three times to their friends and families. Not a beat was missed as we boogied through the Christmas story with clearly and confidently delivered lines and toe tapping songs, not to mention some expert dance moves to finish off the celebration!
Carol Singing at Frognal House - Year 5 and Year 6
Our carol singing visit to Frognal House was a heartwarming experience for all. The children sang beautifully, spreading Christmas cheer to the residents, who were overjoyed to hear both traditional carols and some lively hits! After the performance, the Year 6 children engaged in conversations with the residents, learning about their lives and sharing stories. It was touching to see how much happiness our pupils brought to the residents' day. This visit reminded us all of the joy of connecting with others and the importance of community spirit during the festive season.
Carol-a-thon - Year 3 and Year 4
On Tuesday, Year 3 and 4 went to Eltham High Street to take part in a Carol-a-thon in support of Demelza. Despite the bitter weather, the children sang beautifully, and they looked amazing in their Santa hats! It was a community event that took place throughout the day with lots of different local schools supporting the cause. We were grateful for so many of our parents turning up to support the children too - it definitely helped us sing louder!
Seated Volleyball
On Tuesday, some of the Year 4 children took part in a sitting volleyball fixture. All of the children who came played really well even though they lost two. However, they didn't give up and they won two as well! We had a lot of fun even though we don't often play this sport - some of us didn't even know that sitting volleyball existed! Well done to everyone that participated!
Coralie, Y5
Engaging in more uncommon sports such as seated volleyball teaches children invaluable lessons about teamwork, resilience, and self-discipline. Equally important, it provides opportunities for our children to develop empathy by learning about the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities in sports. By exploring adaptive sports and understanding the determination, creativity, and effort required to overcome barriers, children can gain a deeper appreciation for inclusivity and the diverse ways people achieve success. These experiences encourage compassion and foster a sense of community, helping our children to grow into well-rounded, empathetic individuals who value and respect differences.
Year 5 Trip to The Design Museum, London
Year 5 pupils enjoyed a design based trip to High Street Kensington’s iconic and inspirational Design Museum on Tuesday. They had the opportunity to explore the static collections of various everyday objects as well as the more vintage elements from the museum’s product design archives. They had a workshop exploring the differences between the designer, maker and user and produced some fantastic work!
Pupil Achievements
Huge congratulations to Alfred for passing his Grade 1 Trumpet Exam with distinction this week!
Notices
Christmas Tree Festival - Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm
We are taking part in the Christmas Tree Festival this weekend at All Saints Church, Bercta Road, SE9 3TZ. The children have created our tree in collaboration with the residents of Frognal House. Please do visit the festival if you are able. All visitors will be asked to vote for the best tree. This is a community event, intended to bring us all together in the Christmas season. No previews of the tree…. Visit the festival to see our creation!
Nursery
It has been a wonderful week in Little Acorns as we have really embraced the Christmas season. The children absolutely loved performing to increasingly large audiences and we are so proud of them for their enthusiasm, confidence and amazing singing. We hope you will agree that they were all shining stars!
In class we have also been busy, decorating our own Christmas Cakes which were made for us by our fabulous chef Andy. We hope you will enjoy sharing them with your family.
The countdown to Christmas and the excitement that goes with it can seem endless to small children and to help them understand we have made our own Countdown Calendar. The children have enjoyed adding significant events to the calendar and then crossing off the days with a big red cross each day. Some of the children have had a go at making their own calendars and added their own crosses and special events.
Next week sees our last week of the term, the children have all made a fabulous start to their St Olaves’ journey and we are very proud of them.
Reception
This week, we have been busy creating lots of Christmas crafts for the children to put up in their homes. They have been focusing on strengthening their fine motor skills whilst making their creations. They have beautiful angels that we have put up in the classroom to create a Reception angel tree.
Elfy, our Christmas Elf, has visited us for another week. He has dropped more names into our Reception advent calender and the children have taken it in turns to look after his baby elf toys. They have shown them the Nativity Scene and re-enacted the story of Christmas to them.
The children were really on a performance high after showing you their Christmas Nativity. Thank you so much to so many of you that came to make their performance so special. We are so proud of them, they are so proud of themselves and we really hope you enjoyed the performance. As they were so amazing, Miss Holloway asked Father Christmas to pop in on after their Christmas lunch to say well done and Merry Christmas! They were over the moon to see him, learn how to say Merry Christmas in BSL and they even received a present!
We hope you have a very festive and relaxing weekend. See you next week for the final week of school in 2024!
Year 1
Christmas is around the corner and the children in Year 1 are very excited! We are so proud of their wonderful performances in the Lower School Nativity. We hope you enjoyed watching them as much as we did.
In English, the children have been writing their very own versions of the story Knuffle Bunny. They have used their plans to write detailed beginning, middle and ends of their stories. Including setting a scene and resolving a problem. They have loved using their favourite toys as the main characters in their stories and have produced some fantastic pieces of writing. On Thursday, it was Christmas Jumper Day so it was only appropriate that the children designed their very own Christmas jumpers and thought of adjectives to describe them. They used a wide range of vocabulary including ‘sparkly, fabulous and cosy’.
In Maths, we have been consolidating the childrens’ learning from across the Autumn term, with a Christmas theme! They have worked so hard during their first term in Year 1! Please continue to practise number bonds to ten and discuss any 3D shapes you may see during your day to day activities. After the winter break, we will begin their unit on Place value within 20.
In Science, we have begun our topic ‘Exploring Everyday Materials’. The children have been given their knowledge organisers to take home. Please take a look at these with them and discuss the materials used to produce the items you have around your homes.
We are sure the children will all sleep well on Friday night after such an eventful week in school! We hope you all have a restful weekend. We look forward to seeing the children on Monday for the last few days of term.
Year 2
Christmas is definitely in the air in Year 2 this week, from nativities to christmas lunch and a special guest visitor, we have all been getting in the swing for the festive period. We are so fiercely proud of the children and how well they all performed in The Boogie Woogie Nativity - thank you for your help getting them ready for their starring roles!
In maths, we reached the end of our shape topic - we’ll be kicking off the new year with multiplication and division so you’d better start counting presents in twos! In English we continued to hone our comprehension skills with a short story about a snowman; the children were brilliant at locating evidence in the text to underline to help with their answers. We also enjoyed some festive writing.
Geography took us to Boscastle to examine the impact of extreme flooding, we demonstrated our logical thinking skills in science designing bridges to span a gap and hold weights and created wonderful collages in art inspired by a landscape.
A special handwriting mention - for the past few weeks we have been doing short daily handwriting lessons, the children have really impressed us with their focus and we are starting to see improvement across all lessons. Please can you encourage your child to keep writing over the Christmas break, focusing on letter formation and size.
See you Monday for our final few days!
Year 3
What a jolly Christmassy week we have had! We started our week in maths by using hundreds, tens and ones charts to work out multiplications of two-digit numbers by one-digit numbers with and without exchanges. We have been impressed with the perseverance of all of the children in this tricky concept. Why not see if your child can explain the method to you this weekend?
In English, we have been learning all about adverbs to describe how verbs are done. We reflected on our favourite scenes from the pantomime last week and planned and retold them using appropriate adverbs. We had great fun using our trip to inform our learning! Then we turned our minds towards adverbs for frequency when writing some letters to Father Christmas to explain how we ‘always’ do our chores and we are ‘never’ naughty. Fingers crossed we get some replies.
Science saw us finishing our ‘Forces and Magnets’ topic by finding out about how compasses work. We found it fascinating to think of the world as a giant magnet and used our understanding of direction to plan a maze for our friends. I wonder how many magnets you can spot during the Christmas holidays?
Thank you for all of your support to get the children ready and their words learned for our Carol-a-thon this week. We had a blast! Please keep up the hard work ready for our first ever Upper School Carol Service on Tuesday! You’re in for a real treat.
Year 4
As Christmas approaches, we have had yet another busy week singing carols in Eltham High Street, showing our resilience at a chilly games sessions and celebrating Christmas Jumper Day on Thursday. On Tuesday, the children sang beautifully in Eltham High Street as part of the Demelza ‘Carol-a-thon’. Despite the weather, the children performed brilliantly and got all of the community in the Christmas spirit.
In English, the children have published their non-chronological reports about their landmarks. We have been blown away by their presentation, content and dedication to producing a final piece of work. During the process, we have also learnt so many interesting facts about each of the buildings we have researched. In maths, we have carried on with word problems and have also considered how to use the inverse operation to check our answers.
In science, we did two lessons this week where we used simple circuits to investigate conductors and insulators. We understood how to explain the difference between the two, and even found out that a very interesting material - Samarium Hexaboride - can be a conductor at room temperature, but an insulator at lower temperatures!
On Thursday, the children looked wonderful in their Christmas jumpers. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas lunch prepared by our kitchen staff, and even had a very special visit from Father Christmas. We hope you all have a lovely weekend, and we look forward to seeing you at our Upper School Carol Service on Tuesday evening.
Year 5
Wow what a busy and festive week we have had! On Monday we had a lovely visit to Frognal House and the children sang beautifully, filling up the home with joy.
On Tuesday, we had a spectacular time at the Design Museum. The children took part in their own designer maker workshop where they found out about the making process and the design steps to make their own product. We were very impressed by the creative ideas that the children showcased.
In science, we have enjoyed investigating which materials are soluble and whether temperature affects the solubility of a substance. The children have carefully written up their investigations thinking methodically and succinctly to write their methods, conclusions and predictions.
At the end of the week, we enjoyed another fantastic production held by students at Bexley Grammar School. We thoroughly enjoyed an alternative take on Snow White!
We have been very impressed with the dedication the children have shown in their preparation for the Christmas Carol Service next week. Please continue to support your child at home by practising the songs. Have a lovely weekend.
Year 6
This week has been filled with festive fun, inspiring lessons, and wonderful memories! Here's a glimpse of what our Year 6 children have been up to:
Our visit to Frognal House on Monday was a heartwarming experience as the children sang traditional carols and lively songs beautifully, bringing joy to the residents. Afterward, they connected through delightful conversations, spreading festive cheer and reminding us of the importance of community spirit during this Christmas season.
The children had their final swimming lesson of the year, and what a term it has been! The swimming coaches praised the children for their enthusiasm, positive attitudes, and impressive progress. Every child showed determination and growth, making them a joy to teach. Well done, Year 6, for your hard work and perseverance in the pool this term! (Imo Elf enjoyed his time at the pool too - and has just about dried off!)
In English, the children were tasked with a creative challenge: to write an origin story for The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. They could either explore the life events leading up to the Highwayman’s infamous career or delve into the story of how Bess first met him. The children were encouraged to use Year 6 writing techniques such as expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, vivid verbs, and descriptive adjectives to bring their stories to life. Some also embraced the 18th-century setting by incorporating language and imagery inspired by the era. The creativity and depth of storytelling have improved and we’re excited to share some of these stories with you soon!
Thursday was a day full of festive cheer as the children donned their favourite Christmas jumpers for our annual celebration. The delicious Christmas lunch was enjoyed by all, followed by a visit from Santa himself! Each child received a personalised gift—a carefully chosen book to inspire their imaginations over the holiday season. The excitement and joy in the air made this a day to remember.
Outdoor Learning
This week has been a very cold one at the allotment. The children have had various other events that have been going on so we have concentrated on beginning our project work which will happen next term when the weather is still on the cold side. During lunch times, children have been busy clearing the last of our leaves from the plot and the trees are all nearly bare in preparation for winter. The allotment is looking ready for winter and we are busy planning for another successful growing season next year. Have a wonderful Christmas break.
Languages
We are getting so close to Christmas and the excitement is building up! Nursery, Reception and Year 1 learnt more words related to Christmas and played games, showing super memory and lovely pronunciation.
In the Upper School, Year 3 played some memory games using Christmas vocabulary; Year 5 carried on working on Spanish Christmas food traditions, making super drawings of a Spanish feast.
In Latin, the Year 6 children explored the cursive script found on the Vindolanda tablets, and they wrote a message to a friend in the same style, and they had a glimpse of what a day in a Roman school would look like.
Design & Technology
Year 3 Pneumatic Monsters
This week pupils in Year 3 completed their monster designs and brought them home after evaluating the successes and areas for improvement in their final product assembly.
Year 4 Slingshot Cars
Pupils in Year 4 assembled the chassis for their slingshot cars by cutting and glueing the wooden frames to card.
Year 5 Doodle Bots
Year 5 pupils created a construction list for their projects which they could share as part of a DIY kit to making a Doodle Bot. They then installed all the circuit components and customised their Doodle Bot projects with supporting ‘legs’.
Music
A great time was had at our Christmas Fayre last Friday. Thank you to the many children who came to sing Carols, you sounded wonderful!
Festive music has filled the school this week! It was lovely to see so many friends and family join us in the hall for our EYFS and Year 1 and 2 Christmas plays. The children performed with such confidence and all their hard work to learn lines, songs and dances really did pay off, well done!
The Upper School children have been out in the local community bringing festive cheer by carol singing. Years 5 and 6 visited Frognal House Residential Home on Monday and Years 3 and 4 took part in the Carol-o-thon for Demelza in Eltham High Street on Tuesday - see the top of the Newsletter for more information.
The Upper School children and School Choir have continued rehearsals this week ahead of our church rehearsals next week. We are looking forward to seeing many of you at our Upper School Carol Service.
We have had many pupils taking instrumental exams over the past couple of weeks, achieving outstanding results, including Alfred in Year 4 for passing his Grade 1 trumpet exam with Distinction this week, well done!