From the Head
At St Olave’s, we often talk about the magic of childhood. One of the most beautiful and powerful parts of that magic is reading. There are few moments more precious than curling up with a book at the end of the day and sharing a story with your child. Watching them disappear into a make-believe world, fall in love with characters, ask questions, laugh at the funny parts and inevitably ask for “just one more page” is something truly special. Books open doors to imagination, language, empathy and curiosity. They take children to places they have never been and introduce them to ideas they may never otherwise encounter. In doing so, they quietly shape confident thinkers, articulate communicators and lifelong learners. At St Olave’s we place enormous value on reading because we know how transformational it is. Of course, it brings joy and wonder, but it also builds the vocabulary, comprehension and reasoning skills that underpin academic success later on. The truth is that the children who read widely and often are the children who develop the strongest language, the sharpest thinking and the greatest confidence in their learning. That is why reading sits at the very heart of our curriculum. This week we have celebrated that love of books throughout the school. Our classrooms have been filled with stories, poetry, laughter and discussion as children have explored the wonderful world of language together. It has been a joyful reminder that when children discover the pleasure of reading, they gain something that will support them not only through their school years but throughout their entire lives. We are also incredibly proud of our Year 6 children, who have received offers from an excellent range of secondary schools. These successes are the result of years of careful preparation, encouragement and individualised support from our teachers, alongside the determination and hard work of the children themselves. Each child’s journey has been different and it has been a privilege to guide them towards schools where they will continue to flourish. Meanwhile, our adventurous Year 5 children are preparing for their residential visit to Swanage next week. Residential trips are such an important part of the St Olave’s experience. They allow children to build independence, strengthen friendships and discover new confidence in themselves. We know they will return with wonderful memories and plenty of stories to tell. Finally, if you happen to be out and about on the roads of New Eltham over the coming days, you may spot some very focused Year 6 cyclists taking part in their Bikeability training. Learning to cycle safely and confidently on the road is an important life skill, and we are delighted that the children are able to take part in this programme. As always, thank you for the continued support you give your children and the school. Encouraging reading at home, celebrating their achievements and sharing in their excitement about learning makes an enormous difference. Together we are giving our children not only the skills they need for exams and future success, but also the lifelong gift of curiosity, imagination and a love of language.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you next week.
Kind regards, Miss Holloway
The week ahead...
Lunch Menu
Monthly Safeguarding Update
March – Spotting Signs Outside School
Exploitation and radicalisation can affect any child, in person or online. Look out for unexplained gifts, secretive behaviour or sudden changes in friendship groups. If you are ever worried, speak to us - no concern is too small.
Focus on School Values
Our children are continuing to explore the value of Curiosity this half term, not just as something you do when you’re interested in something, but as a way of life. At St Olave’s, we want curiosity to lead to action, noticing what’s going on around us, asking how we can help, and getting involved. In Monday’s assembly, I shared the thoughtful picture book What Do You Do With a Problem? by Kobi Yamada. It follows a child who avoids a growing problem, only to discover that by bravely facing it, they uncover possibility, hope and growth. It’s a powerful story that shows children how facing difficulty and helping others can lead to strength and learning. Thank you, as always, for supporting our values in everyday life.
Our manner of the week is: “When someone asks for help, don’t grumble – roll up your sleeves and chip in.” We’re encouraging the children to develop a helpful spirit; one that looks for ways to contribute rather than avoiding responsibility. This is a brilliant message to reinforce at home. Whether it’s helping to tidy up, setting the table or assisting a sibling, encouraging cheerful cooperation helps children build resilience, empathy and confidence. A great book for younger readers is Can I Help? by Marilyn Janovitz - a sweet story about the joy of helping others.
This week at St Olave's
World Book Day Celebrations Wow, what a week! A big thank you to everyone for supporting our Book Fair this year. An incredible £2,186.20 was spent at the fair, which means we will receive £1,311.72 to spend with Scholastic. This will allow us to replenish our stock of books and continue helping every child foster a love of reading. On Wednesday, our Lower School enjoyed a wonderful workshop with Annemarie Anang, where they learned about the importance of a name and the power and strength it can give. Through music and dance, the workshops were fun and engaging, and the children even learned the Shooby-Doo Mambo! On Thursday, we focused on sharing stories and book recommendations. Classes mixed together to share their favourite stories, write book recommendations and reviews, and celebrate the fantastic effort the children put into their costumes. Finally, on Friday, Upper School had a special visit from Jasbinder Bilan. We began the day with an inspiring assembly where Jasbinder shared fascinating stories from her childhood and explained what inspired her to become an author. This was followed by writing workshops where we crafted our own stories with Jasbinder’s guidance. The children were so inspired that they found it hard to put down their pencils and pens when the sessions came to an end.
Sporting Round Up
Gymnastics Plus Birch class in Year 5 had their Gymnastic Plus session at Sutcliffe Park on Monday. The children had great fun and benefited a great deal. From handstands to cartwheels, from beams to bars, from balances to front flips, the children had a great afternoon! Well done everyone.
Girls' Football League On Tuesday, the Years 5 and 6 girls football team bounced back and won their two games 3-0. The girls were phenomenal and goals were shared out amongst the team. In my opinion, a key part of their success is formed from our team's defensive qualities. They have a desire to tackle and put pressure on our opposition which forces our opponents to make mistakes, and regains possession back for our team. Keep going girls, one more game to go!
Nursery
The Little Acorns have continued to enjoy the Spring sunshine this week and made an exciting discovery in our outside area. We noticed a pair of blue tits building in a nest box on one of our trees and we observed the birds flying in and out after visiting the allotment to collect little bits for their nest. The children had a go at building their own nest using twigs, moss and leaves and we are looking forward to following the progress of our birds over the coming weeks. Another highlight of the week has been the celebrations for World Book Day which started on Wednesday with a wonderful workshop from author, actor, dancer and musician Annemarie Anang. The children listened to the story 'Dance just like so!' and joined in with the beat and the moves with Annemarie. Inspired by our author visit, the children have had a go at writing their own books and making up stories and it has been a joy to hear them talk about their ideas.
Reception
What a fun and busy week we have had! The children have immersed themselves in the life of an author as they began writing their very own books. They have taken great pride in sharing their stories and reading them to their friends. Not only did they write their stories, but they also illustrated them beautifully. On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to meet a real author, Annemarie Anang, who read one of her incredible stories to us during a workshop. We sang, danced and had so much fun. We have also been making the most of the glorious sunshine by taking our learning outside. The children enjoyed developing their fine motor skills by drawing on the playground with chunky chalks. Working together as a team, the children created a “jumping machine” using blocks and a tube. They rolled the tube down the machine and tried to jump over it. It was quite tricky and there were a few blips along the way, but by using teamwork and problem solving skills they managed to make it work! We also had great fun dressing up for World Book Day. The children were so excited to share their favourite books with their friends and parade their fantastic costumes around the playground. We hope the sunshine continues next week! Have a wonderful weekend.
Year 1
What an exciting week we have had celebrating books for World Book Day! The children were delighted to take part in workshops with visiting authors, book-sharing events, the travelling book fair, and dressing up as their favourite book characters. We have loved thinking about the stories we enjoy and sharing our love of reading together. We are sure the children were excited to tell you all about the wonderful activities they have taken part in this week. Alongside this, the children have completed a variety of assessments across the curriculum this week. We have been incredibly impressed with their focus and mature attitudes. They have grown so much this year and have made fantastic progress. We are sure they will all enjoy a very well-earned rest over the weekend! In History, we have continued our topic on the history of toys, exploring how toys have changed within living memory. The children compared the toys they enjoy today with those their parents and grandparents played with, thinking carefully about how materials, technology and design have developed over time. We were particularly interested to learn how the teddy bear got its name from Theodore Roosevelt, whose childhood nickname was ‘Teddy’. The children loved discovering the story behind this famous toy and have really enjoyed sharing information about the toys they cherish most at home. We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Year 2
This week in Year 2, we have had a productive week finishing off many topics. First, we finished our instructions topic by writing all about how to make a disgusting sandwich. The children enjoyed adding lots of detail with adventurous adjectives and powerful imperative verbs, mix these in with some time connectives and voila! Ask your child what was in their disgusting sandwich and be prepared for some giggles, as some of them were truly horrifying. In maths, we finished our topic of multiplication and division by focusing our attention on the five times tables. We used our growing fluency (helped by TTRS, thank you for providing time for them to use this) to answer word problems and build our understanding of division. Please keep practicing the 2, 5 and 10 times tables with division facts to keep this up! On Wednesday, we were so excited to be part of a workshop with Annemarie Anang. We enjoyed comparing how she read the book to how our teachers read it and hearing the author’s vision for her book come to life. On Thursday, we loved celebrating World Book Day together. All the children’s costumes were brilliant, thank you so much for all the hard work and effort that you put into supporting them with this. We had so much fun during our book sharing sessions with Year 1 and Year 4 too!
Year 3
This week in Year 3, we have begun our exciting new Maths unit on fractions. The children have been learning what fractions represent and how they show equal parts of a whole. Through practical activities and visual models, pupils have begun to explore equivalent fractions and can describe the meaning of given fractions using mathematical language. We are proud of the focus and determination the children have shown as they tackled new concepts and supported one another in their learning. In English, we have been exploring famous persuasive speeches and identifying the features that make them powerful. The children noticed how speakers use emotive language, rhetorical questions and strong messages to persuade their audience. They have begun writing their own persuasive speeches from the point of view of rainforest animals, encouraging humans to protect their homes and save the rainforest. The speeches include thoughtful arguments and clear calls to action, showing how well the children are learning to use their words to make a difference. It has also been a very exciting week across the school as we celebrated World Book Day with some truly wonderful costumes and a special visit from an author, which inspired the children’s love of reading and storytelling. In swimming, the class showed great resilience and careful listening as they practised new skills and built their confidence in the water. We were also lucky enough to enjoy some sunshine during our games afternoon, where the children had great fun working together, staying active and enjoying time outdoors.
Year 4
Year 4 have had a very busy and productive week in school. The children showed fantastic focus and resilience while completing their assessments. They approached each task with a positive attitude and tried their very best, which we were extremely proud to see. The results will help us to identify areas of strength and any areas that may need further support, allowing us to plan effectively for the summer term. In English, we continued our persuasive letter writing unit. We began by modelling and exploring what makes a strong persuasive letter. The children were then given the exciting challenge of planning and writing their own persuasive letter to Miss Holloway, trying to convince her that our school would benefit from having a school pet. Working in groups first, the children had lots of opportunities to discuss their ideas and think carefully about convincing reasons. We focused on three key arguments: wellbeing and happiness, responsibility and teamwork, and learning opportunities. The children were encouraged to expand on these ideas and to use the persuasive techniques we explored last week, including emotive language and rhetorical questions. We will be sending the letters to Miss Holloway and look forward to seeing if we receive a response! In Maths, the children have continued developing their understanding of fractions. This week, our focus has been on improper fractions. The children have worked hard to understand what makes a fraction improper and how these fractions relate to whole numbers and mixed numbers. They have shown good determination when tackling some tricky problems. In Science, the children worked in pairs to investigate how volume is affected by energy. Using a marble, metre stick and drum, they dropped the marble from different heights and measured the sound produced using a decibel meter. Remaining completely silent during the investigation proved quite a challenge and caused lots of laughter, but the children did a fantastic job working scientifically and recording their results. The highlight of the week was certainly World Book Day! The children looked fantastic dressed as their favourite book characters and loved sharing their costumes and explaining why they had chosen them. We also took part in a BBC Bitesize Live Lesson about finding your reading vibe, which helped the children reflect on when and where they enjoy reading most. We were also very lucky to welcome visiting author Jasbinder Bilan, who captivated us with her incredible storytelling. Her stories, often set in India and inspired by Hindu themes, were particularly fascinating for many of our Year 4 pupils. The children had the opportunity to take photographs with her and purchase signed copies of her books. We all left feeling very inspired – teachers included! We are very much looking forward to our trip to the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon next Friday, where we will watch Who Let the Gods Out? by Maz Evans come to life on stage. It promises to be a fantastic experience and a wonderful way to continue celebrating our love of reading. The children have certainly earned it! Please remember that we will be going to Gymnastics Plus on Monday, so children will need to come to school dressed in their PE kit. Wishing you all a booktastic weekend!
Year 5
It was another exciting and full week in Year 5, including the Book Fair, Mother's Day shop and World Book Day BBC live lessons. Birch Class started the week with their brilliant Gymnastics Plus session at Sutcliffe Park Sports Centre. The children enjoyed a carousel of activities on the advanced gymnastics equipment, projecting themselves around the facility with vigour and aplomb. They also loved the free time session at the end where even Mr Warner was seen attempting a cartwheel. In Maths, this week we have revisited the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages, with the children using their knowledge of equivalent fractions to help them convert, compare, order and calculate between the forms. In English, we have continued to develop the structural and planning skills needed to draft a new report, using the opening of The Explorer by Katherine Rundell which features a plane crash in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. The children used mind maps and box plans to develop their ideas, and identified features such as masthead, headline, byline and standfirst. On Friday, we had the pleasure of a school visit by Costa Children's Book Award-winner Jasbinder Bilan, author of Asha & the Spirit Bird, Tamarind & the Star of Ishta and Aarti & the Blue Gods, among others. Jasbiner led an Upper School assembly where she discussed her life and her journey to becoming a published author, and then a creative writing workshop which the children loved and couldn't stop writing! Next stop: Swanage!
Year 6
This week has been a full and productive one across the curriculum, with pupils demonstrating focus and resilience in their assessments and enthusiasm in their wider learning. In English, we explored our book, ‘The boy at the back of classroom’ and focused on Ahmet’s backstory and the impact this has had on him and how he navigates through his new environment and friendships. These chapters prompted thoughtful discussion and deeper reflection on the character’s development and themes that we have identified throughout. In maths, we continued our unit on area, perimeter and volume. We began by applying our understanding of factor pairs to identify shapes that had the same area but different perimeters. Following this, we revised and recapped our understanding of the properties of different types of triangles and found their area. We then extended this to support our understanding of how to calculate the area of parallelograms. We have continued our lessons focusing on secondary transfer with the focus this week being comparisons between primary and secondary and building confidence when reading timetables. We explored the different types of lessons they may have and staff members they may encounter. We had a lovely time exploring books with pupils from around the school and conducted ourselves beautifully when reading with our partner classes. Finishing the week, we were incredibly fortunate to have a writing workshop with Jasbinder Bilan exploring different settings and creating our own wonderful stories.
Outdoor Learning
This week, the children have started to sow their first seeds of the new season. We sowed lots of chillies and tomatoes as well as some padron peppers. The younger children sowed some peas given to us by Chef Andy and they have gone into the heated greenhouse. We have also been donated a large number of wooden borders which the children have begun to put around our fruit trees in the orchard. They were very excited to use the saw and electric screwdriver to put it all together. Let’s hope for more of this lovely weather next week.
Languages
Nursery and Reception carried on practising the animals, but have also added 10 extra zoo animals, which bring their vocabulary up to 20 words! The children can read the animals in French and find the listening games really fun and easy: it is such a pleasure to watch them flourish in their language lessons. Year 1, carrying on the topic of pets, has tackled the possessive concept, understanding the difference between “my cat” and “my cats”: the children find easy to recognise independently that mon becomes mes, and they all understand that the plurals are recognisable by the added -s. Year 2 talked about different body parts in French and had a great time signing and moving on the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in French; Year 3 had the first lesson on the weather forecast in French: the children revised the compass points, the types of weather and started to talk about temperatures and to build complex sentences about the weather. Year 4 started the revision of hobbies: the children worked on sentence building using a game on our online platform called “Fridge magnets”, which I would encourage them to use at home too to build up speed and confidence. In Spanish, Year 5 carried on exploring opinions and reasons about school subjects and describing their timetable; whilst Year 6 started their new topic, do you like science?, in which we had started to revise school subjects and opinions, using the singular and plural words. In Latin, Year 6 explored life in the Roman army: the children, in their teams, wrote a list of pros and cons about joining the army, then had a class debate, putting forward very mature ideas.
Design & Technology and Computing
Quiz of the week, ask your child if they can explain what the words in bold mean. Year 3 Static Electricity Game Pupils in Year 3 experimented with static electricity and learned how electrons can be transferred to create a negatively charged surface. Year 4 Pavilion Structures This week, Year 4 started cutting and hole punching the parts required to build their pavilions with non permanent fixings.
Year 5 Bridges In Year 5, pupils practiced cutting mitre joints as well as using sand paper to tidy up the edges of their cuts.
Year 6 Electric car Year 6 pupils cut out, folded and glued the chassis of their cars.
Computing highlights Year 1 made instructive videos explaining how to use and program Bee Bots. Year 2 reviewed their understanding of abstraction whilst exploring and labelling a map of the ISS. They also explored how sensors are important for the astronauts and how temperature is measured and controlled. Year 3 pupils learned about the 3 types of loops in coding that can be used to create music and Year 4 pupils learned about the digital structure of websites and how to view their HTML codes. Year 5 pupils created digital pixel images on Google Sheets, following on from their previous lesson about binary colour coding. Year 6 explored the pros and cons of AI and they started thinking of ways that AI can be useful in every day scenarios.