From the Head
As we approach the half-term break, I want to take a moment to reflect on what has been a fantastic start to the year at St Olave’s. The past few weeks have been filled with exciting learning opportunities, and it has been wonderful to see the children’s enthusiasm and dedication in all they do. From academic progress to creative achievements, they continue to impress us with their hard work and curiosity.
Looking ahead, there is plenty to look forward to when we return. World Book Day is always a highlight of the school year, and we can’t wait to celebrate our love of reading with a range of exciting activities. Encouraging children to develop a lifelong love of books is something we are passionate about at St Olave’s, and this event provides a wonderful opportunity to bring stories to life in a fun and engaging way. I have no doubt the children will enjoy immersing themselves in their favourite books and characters, being inspired by the incredible authors and poets we have arranged to work with the children.
Music will also take centre stage next half term, with our Spring Concerts providing a fantastic platform for our talented young musicians to showcase their skills. The dedication and hard work that goes into preparing for these performances is remarkable, and I know the concerts will be a real treat for everyone who attends. In addition, preparations will soon be underway for our Easter Concerts, which will provide another opportunity for children to share their musical and dramatic talents.
As always, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support. It is always a pleasure to welcome prospective families to the school, and I am delighted that so many of our recent visitors have come to us through word-of-mouth recommendations. St Olave’s is a special place, and your advocacy helps us to share its warmth, ambition, and community spirit with others.
I hope you all enjoy a well-earned break next week. Whether you are heading away, planning days out, or simply enjoying some time at home, I wish you a restful and refreshing half term. We look forward to welcoming the children back, ready for another exciting and busy few weeks ahead.
Kind regards, Miss Holloway
The week ahead...
Lunch Menu
Safeguarding Team
This week at St Olave's
Mystery in the Allotment!
Excitement filled the school when Mr. Pradic unearthed a mysterious bone while digging in the allotment. Intrigued by the discovery, two Year 6 pupils, Oliver and Chloe, took on the challenge of uncovering its origins. Oliver’s research revealed that our school grounds were farmland in the 1920s, suggesting the bone could belong to a farm animal. Meanwhile, Chloe sought expert advice from her mum, an archaeologist, and discovered that the 30cm bone was too shiny to be human and too large for a fox. Further analysis confirmed it as a tibia, likely from a sheep or a large dog. Both children shared their findings in assembly, sparking curiosity across the school. Pupils eagerly asked questions like, "How far down was it buried?" and "Where was it found?" Adding to the excitement, Year 3 pupils have reportedly uncovered more artefacts! What could be next? Stay tuned for more discoveries!
House and Vice Captains Inspire a Love for Reading
This week, our House and Vice Captains led an engaging and thought-provoking meeting about books that serve as "mirrors" and "windows." They explained that mirror books reflect our own experiences, helping us see ourselves in stories, while window books offer a glimpse into different perspectives, cultures, and experiences. Using excellent examples for both younger and older readers, they encouraged everyone to explore a diverse range of literature. The Captains also reminded pupils about the importance of joining a library and sharing their favourite books with each other, fostering a love for reading across the school.
Rights Day
We held our third Rights Day on Tuesday this week with a focus on Safer Internet Day. Learning how to be safe online is of paramount importance in 2025, and children are never too young to start this process. Introduced in assembly by our fabulous Rights Ambassadors from Year 6, all year groups then went on to take part in a variety of activities linked to scams, how to protect themselves and others, as well as what support is available to them. From Year 2 considering what is personal information, to Year 4 trying to spot scams and Year 6 exploring the impact of AI, we all finished the day with more knowledge than we had before.
Sports Fixtures
This week has been action-packed with sports, featuring four exciting fixtures!
Last Friday, Year 6 pupils showcased their teamwork and skill in an exhilarating afternoon of ultimate frisbee. It was fantastic to see their determination and enthusiasm on display throughout the tournament. Their hard work paid off as they secured an impressive 3rd place finish! A huge well done to everyone who took part!
Monday saw St Olave's Years 3 and 4 children travel across to Farringtons to participate in some friendly football matches. Year 3 drew the game 2-2, and Year 4 played two games losing both 2-0 and 4-2. Both year groups demonstrated excellent skill and never lacked effort. Well played Years 3 and 4!
The girls football league continued this week as we looked to maintain our unbeaten record. The girls were incredible yet again as our momentum continued on, with victories in both our two fixtures; 5-0 and 3-1. Another impressive display with the girls developing their understanding of positional play on the pitch. Well done girls!
St Olave’s hosted Babington House on Wednesday for Years 3 and 4 friendly football matches. Year 3 had a tightly contested 3-3 draw, while Year 4 had a 'goal-fest game' which ended in a 10-7 loss! A great effort from all the children involved.
Nursery
What a wonderful half term we have had in Little Acorns. It has been lovely to welcome new members to the class and see how well they have settled, our older children have been excellent role models and love to help the newer members with our routines and activities.
The children have continued to go from strength to strength with their learning and are using their skills in new and creative ways everyday. This week the children have made themselves into piggies to run from the big, bad wolf, they have dressed as princesses while reading stories about princesses, they have raced cars around a Formula One track with a start, finish and pit stop area and have each created a bejewelled heart to deliver to their loved ones. Phew!!
Have a great half term and we will see you soon!
Reception
What a lovely half term it has been. We have had so much fun and the children have blown our socks off with their resilience, kindness and enthusiasm.
This week, we have thought a lot about what it means to be kind and how we can share kindness and love with our friends and the people around us. We worked as a team to pass a heart around the class in a circle (sharing the love). We were only allowed to use a peg to move the heart around. This was a great activity to strengthen our fine motor skills, communicate, follow instructions and share kind words about each other.
Last week, we read the story ‘Mouse House’ in Drawing Club. The children absolutely loved learning about mice so we decided to make our own out of clay. We thought carefully about the shapes we needed to create a mouse. We pulled, squeezed, squashed and shaped the clay to make ears, a nose, a tail, a head and a body. We then painted our mice! They look beautiful.
If you are going away this half term, we would love to receive a postcard from you. It would also be lovely to see any pictures on Tapestry. We love hearing about your adventures and the children love sharing them with their friends.
We hope you have a lovely half term and we look forward to seeing you all after the break!
Year 1
What a wonderful end to the half term. The children have enjoyed their English unit looking at traditional tales and this week attempted writing their very own stories. They began the week creating the main character, villain and the characters they will meet in their stories. They then planned out the events of their story to guide their writing. They should be very pleased with the wonderful stories they have written.
In maths they have finished the unit of addition and subtraction to 20. Please continue to practise number bonds to 10 and 20 to embed the skills they have learned. After half term, they will begin the unit place value to 50. In preparation, please begin to practise in 5s and 10s to 50.
This week in science the children have carried out an investigation to find out which materials do and do not float. They made predictions and then tested a variety of materials and recorded their findings!
In Geography we have been looking at our school from an aerial view. We looked at maps showing the layout of the school and then the children attempted creating their own maps of our classrooms. Maybe you may want to use Google Earth to look at a satellite image of where you live.
We hope you have a wonderful half term. We look forward to welcoming the children back after a well deserved rest.
Year 2
How on earth is it half term already!? We’ve had a fabulously busy week and are all looking forward to maybe a cheeky lie in next week!
We continued our work on multiplication and division, this week focusing on the 2 times table, doubling and halving and odd and even numbers. The children have been learning lots of tricks and tips to become maths magicians! In English, we have used the wonderful story of ‘Bees Mission to Mars’ written by our very own Mr Horden, to inspire some adventure stories of our own.
In art, we created our design for our final clay piece, which we will make after half term. It was lovely to hear the children using subject specific vocab when talking about what they wanted to create and how they were going to do it. Our Rights Day on Tuesday was all about using the internet safely and how to spot an online scam. The children were excellent at discussing what they should do if they are ever unsure about something they see or hear online, and we had a brilliant conversation about the importance of keeping personal information personal.
An absolute highlight was visiting the Co-op to spend some money, which we managed on Wednesday. To consolidate their maths learning on money, the children were challenged to purchase two items but spend no more than £1 - which was harder than you might think! Please continue to talk to the children about money as the more they practice, the better they will be at using it!
Year 3
Year 3 have had a lovely end to the term with a variety of our topics coming to end, ready for exciting new things in Spring 2. In Science, we finished off our topic on ‘Animals including Humans’ by learning all about the muscles in the human body. Did you know that we have around 650 muscles? The highest guess was about 200 so we were surprised to learn this exciting Science fact. We also learnt which was the biggest in the body. Try asking your child to see if they remember! To help us understand how muscles contract and relax we created our own diagrams using cards and elastic. We noticed as the arm moved down the elastic tightened just like it does in our muscles. Fascinating stuff!
In English, we put our author skills to the test by writing our own stories independently using the skills we have learnt this half term. We were given a picture of a mantis and a butterfly and had to take our story from there. It was important to ensure we had an opening, build-up, problem, resolution and ending but all the rest was up to us! There were some unique ideas and fantastic use of description and dialogue. There could be a future author somewhere in Year 3!
In Maths, our learning about lengths continued as we explored finding the perimeter of 2d shapes. We learnt that if all the sides are the same we could use multiplication to give us an efficient and accurate answer and that if the sides are different they should all be added together to give you the perimeter. Not only that but we discussed how curved shapes are incredibly difficult to find the perimeter of - a skill we assured them they will develop in future years.
Not only did we enjoy our regular subjects this week but we also celebrated a Rights Day related to all things e-safety. This was part of the worldwide Safer Internet Day celebrations and the children in Year 3 really engaged well in discussions on how they use technology and how they can be safe online. In particular we discussed what ‘data’ means and how it is stored and used online. The children were excellent at writing lists of all the data that could be collected on one person but shocked by just how much is so easily shared! The children then used this information to come up with rules for protecting their data and displayed these rules in some eye-catching posters. We are proud to have some computer savvy children who are aware of how to stay safe in a world with ever growing technology. Great job Year 3!
As Spring Term 1 comes to a close, we want to wish you all a fun and restful break and we look forward to seeing you after half term.
Year 4
As we reach the end of this half term, we cannot believe we are already halfway through the year! This week, we have managed to cover a lot as usual. The children have been publishing their newspaper reports for our display. This has involved working on our feedback and also editing their work to produce their final piece. It is lovely to see how much progress they have made in their work as well as their handwriting.
In maths, we came to the end of our perimeter unit, and have started to look at fractions. The children already have fantastic prior knowledge of the subject, and enjoyed sharing this with the class. We have looked at what the whole means in fractions and counting on a number line. We have included some fraction revision in the children’s half term homework so we can continue this when we come back.
On Tuesday, we celebrated Safer Internet Day by finding out what scams and phishing are. The children learnt the acronym ‘SCAM’ which stands for S - Seems too good to be true, C - Contact from an unknown person, A - Ask for personal information and M - Money being asked for. We talked about how to spot this online and how it is always best to tell a trusted adult.
In science, we have looked at the ear and labelled its features. We revised how sounds reach our eardrum and how important wax is for our ears. In RE, we continued with our Buddhism topic and learned about the place of worship. We were also lucky enough to have one of the Year 4 children teach us about Japanese Buddhism too! The children finished their last swimming lesson on Tuesday, and we are so proud of their conduct, progress and listening skills!
We hope you all have a lovely half term, and thank you for your continued support at home.
Year 5
Year 5 has had an excellent start to the spring term and we can’t believe we are halfway through the year already! In English, we are super proud of all of the excellent non-chronological reports that have been published. This week, the children worked hard on using their research of either the Windrush Generation or the Mayflower Pilgrims to write a chronological report on their migrations. In maths, we have started our new unit on fractions and specifically looked at multiplying them by an integer and used our division skills to find a fraction of an amount.
On Tuesday, we marked Safer Internet Day as part of our Rights Day. We discussed how to stay safe online, including learning how to recognise scams and phishing attempts. We also explored the ways in which the use of online technology leaves a digital footprint which can be extremely hard to remove and sometimes can remain permanent. The children shared thoughtful contributions on how important it is to be responsible for our actions when using technology.
We hope you have a happy and restful half term, ahead of all the fun and wonderful learning experiences to come next term!
Year 6
This week, Year 6 transformed into investigative reporters, planning, writing, and editing their own newspaper articles. Their focus was the shocking murder of Lord Banquo from Macbeth, and they did a fantastic job capturing the drama of the event. The children used all the essential features of great journalism, including catchy headlines, concise introductions, and well-crafted witness statements. Their final drafts will be displayed in class after half term for visitors to read and enjoy.
Tuesday was a particularly important day as we marked Rights Day and participated in Safer Internet Day. The children took part in crucial discussions about online safety, learning how to recognise scams and phishing attempts. We also explored the ways in which changing technology, such as AI, is influencing the tactics of scammers. It was reassuring to hear that our pupils are very careful online and understand how to report any concerns.
In History, the children watched an informative Newsround film about the life of Anne Frank. The story deeply moved them, sparking thoughtful discussions about the impact of historical figures on the present. Inspired by Anne’s bravery and resilience, many pupils expressed a keen interest in learning more about other influential figures from the past.
Science lessons were equally engaging as the children explored the theory of electricity. They focused on conductors and insulators, learning about the different components used in a circuit and the symbols that represent them. Their enthusiasm for practical science was evident, with many eager to apply their knowledge in future experiments.
Always eager to express our creative sides in Year 6, we also enjoyed studying the artist, Lubaina Himid’s piece, ‘Five’ in Art this week. We discussed how artists use everyday objects to convey messages through their work. The children created their own expressive pieces depicting the amazing work that our local charity, Roots4Life, do within our community.
It has been a busy and exciting week in Year 6, filled with creativity, curiosity, and important learning moments. Wishing you all a wonderful and happy half term! Half a year complete!
Outdoor Learning
As you have read earlier, there has been much excitement at the allotment this week. I have started to clear another piece of land at the far end of the plot and discovered a huge bone which has fascinated the children all week. The children have been so eager to watch and they have been excited at what I have pulled out! We will keep you posted if we find anything else intriguing!
Languages
What a lovely week to finish this busy half term. The children worked with great effort in every lesson and they are now ready to rest. Nursery and Reception carried on practising parts of the body and singing in French. Year 1 revised everything they worked on this half term, with memory games and speaking activities to reinforce the vocabulary.
In the Upper School, Year 3 and Year 4 consolidated their learning on weather and music, with speaking and reading activities. In Spanish, Year 5 talked about appearance - eyes and hair- and the children had fun drawing a ‘wanted’ poster practising the new vocabulary.
Year 6 children worked on the paragraph that they started at home: what their favorite day of the week is and what school subjects they do, what are the subjects that they don’t like, what they used to study in the past and what they would like to study in the future. It made me extremely proud seeing the children confidently use different tenses in Spanish, and a vast vocabulary. Well done everyone!
Design & Technology
Year 3 Electronic Posters
This week pupils tested their circuits and finished assembling their posters. When they completed these, they took the time to consider what they learned and how they can further improve their products.
Year 4 Pavilion Structures
Pupils in Year 4 prepared the materials for their pavilion structures and made a start at experimenting with 3D shapes that can be applied to their final designs.
Year 5 Wooden Bridges
Year 5 pupils continued to cut their materials, taking care to check the accuracy of their cuts and correct these with sand paper.
Year 6 Automata Toys
In Year 6, pupils assembled the box structures for their Automata toys.
Music
Our Musician of the Month for February is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. During assembly on Wednesday morning, the Year 6 Music Monitors introduced the school to this influential musician and we listened to his music.
In Music this week, Year 6 reached the end of their World War 2 topic. We recapped everything we have learnt from the differences between WW1 and WW2 music, popular musicians and songs from the era, graphic scores, analysis of music notation and counter melodies. We were amazed at how much we knew and the children have even continued to sing ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ when back in their classrooms.
Year 5 created their final performance of ‘Shosholoza’ which included singing, African drumming rhythms (with a drum break) and three chord progressions we have learnt. A fantastic achievement Year 5, great teamwork!
The children in Year 4 completed their Rainforest topic and we recapped everything we have learnt over the course of this half term. We then had an end of topic quiz and discussed the vocabulary we have learnt such as, ‘loop’, ‘melody’, ‘body percussion’, ‘texture’ and ‘structure’.
Year 3 had a film premiere this week! They watched the recordings of their dragon dance compositions on the big screen in the Music Room. We discussed what went well and what could be improved. We revised the whole of our topic and had an end of topic quiz to share what we have learnt over the past few weeks.
Year 2 rehearsed their completed soundscape compositions in their groups. The children were complimented on how well they worked together in their groups, communicating in a kind and constructive way. To end the topic, each group performed their soundscape whilst the rest of the class sang the relevant song from the British Isles e.g. My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean with the seaside soundscapes. It created a wonderful atmosphere, well done children!
Year 1 drew their own seaside pictures and selected instruments to represent their images. They took inspiration from a coral reef clip they had seen. The children tried combinations of their instrument sounds to see which ones sounded the best together.
The children in EYFS have been focussing on their recall of the songs that we have been learning this half term. This week, we enjoyed adding actions to many of our songs to help us remember the words. Some of our favourites have been the sea shanty, ‘In My Backpack’, ‘Rhythm Robot’, ‘I’ve Got a Smiley Face’ and ‘Days of the Week’.
After the half term break, we will be looking ahead to our Spring Concerts. Letters have been sent home to parents of pupils in the Upper School who learn an instrument in school or outside of school and will be taking part in the Upper School instrumental concerts. Please contact me (s.aldridge@stolaves.org.uk) should you have any further questions. Have a wonderful half term break!