From the Head
Welcome back and a very happy New Year to you all. It has been a genuine pleasure to open the school doors again and to hear the familiar sounds of learning, laughter and conversation filling the building. After the quiet of the holidays, the return of the children brings an energy and purpose that sits at the very heart of what St Olave’s is about. I would like to begin by thanking you, most sincerely, for the generosity and kindness shown to staff at the end of last term. The thoughtful gifts, handwritten cards and warm messages were deeply appreciated. They are never expected, but they are always received with gratitude and humility and they speak volumes about the strength of the partnership we share with our families. There is something particularly special about the start of a new term. Children return taller, more confident and full of stories, ready to reconnect with friends and eager to learn. Seeing them settle so quickly back into routines, greet their teachers with enthusiasm and throw themselves into their work has been a real joy this week. It is a reminder of how much children thrive when they feel known, valued and secure. As we begin the spring term, our whole-school focus is on the value of Commitment. Commitment is about showing up, doing your best and persevering even when things feel challenging. It is about small, daily habits: listening carefully, practising skills, finishing tasks and supporting one another. These are the foundations on which confidence, resilience and academic success are built and they are woven deliberately through everything we do in school. You can be reassured that your children are in very capable hands. Our staff approach their work with professionalism, care and high expectations and we remain unwavering in our commitment to providing an education that is both academically ambitious and deeply nurturing. We know every child well, we notice the details and we hold their wellbeing and progress in equal measure. Thank you, as always, for the trust you place in us and for the pride you show in your children and in our school. It is a privilege to work alongside families who value education so highly. We look forward to a term full of purpose, progress and quiet moments of achievement that make us all proud. I hope you all have a lovely weekend - stay warm and I look forward to seeing you next week. 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
This week’s school value: Commitment
This week’s manner: Arriving ready to learn and trying your best, even when you feel unsure
This week, we are focusing on the value of Commitment — learning to stick with things, to keep going even when they feel challenging, and to act with purpose. It is a particularly important message at the start of a new year, as children settle back into routines and think about the kind of learners, classmates, and friends they want to be. In assembly, I shared the picture book The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein. This humorous and reassuring story explores the fear of getting things wrong and reminds children that mistakes are a natural and valuable part of learning. It encourages them to keep trying, even when things do not go to plan. We also introduced our weekly manner: Arriving ready to learn and trying your best, even when you feel unsure. This manner supports children in understanding that commitment is not about perfection, but about showing up with a positive attitude, engaging with learning, and having the courage to give things a go. It also reinforces our shared expectation that school is a place where effort, resilience, and kindness towards ourselves and others really matter. Please do talk about these ideas at home. When children see the same messages reinforced between school and home, it helps them understand that values and manners are not just school rules, but life skills. A lovely book to enjoy together at home is Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman — a powerful celebration of self-belief, perseverance, and having the confidence to try, even when others doubt you. Thank you, as always, for your continued support in helping us nurture confident, committed, and thoughtful children.
This week at St Olave's...
Emotional Wellbring and Mental Health Days Alongside our Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health days this week, we were lucky to have some workshops from Eastside on the Art of Oracy. These workshops strengthen key skills that underpin oracy from confidence in speaking and body language to listening and responding and teamwork. Years 1 & 2 had 'An Adventure to Communitopia' which targeted active listening and responding, working with others and confidence in speaking. Years 3 & 4 went on a 'Belonging Adventure', targeting listening and responding, body language, working with others, rhetorical techniques and confidence in speaking. Years 5 & 6 enjoyed 'Finding my voice' which helped with listening and responding, body language, working with others, rhetorical techniques, voice, confidence in speaking and reasoning and content. Hopefully you have heard from your children how much they enjoyed the workshops and about the skills they have developed.
Sporting Round Up
Happy New Year everyone. This week, the girls in Years 5 and 6 returned to the football league during the cold and frosty conditions to battle their way to a 1-0 victory. It was a closely contested game, where the girls rose to the occasion and were a credit to the school. Well played everyone!
Pupil Achievements
Over the Christmas holidays Starry, in Year 5, was selected to perform on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ show with the award winning rock band ‘The Darkness’!! She recorded two songs with the band, performing live, along with 7 other children and was on TV twice - 19th December and Christmas Day. Well done Starry, we're very proud of you!
Notices
Young Voices With the concert just around the corner, we have been busy distributing tickets, and finalising details for the event. We have distributed over 150 tickets to parents this week! What an amazing amount of support for our children. Next week you will receive a letter with information about what is needed for your children on the day of the concert, as well as an event information sheet published by Young Voices and the O2 with details more specific to the venue. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me or the school office if you have any questions or concerns. It is going to be ‘Wicked’! Warm regards, Ms Tyler
Nursery
Happy New Year to all our families and a very warm welcome to our new families that have joined Little Acorns this week. The children have all settled back brilliantly and it has been lovely to hear all their exciting news from the Christmas holidays. Thank you to everyone who has shared some news on Tapestry, the children love seeing the photos and telling their friends about what they have been doing. In class the children have been reconnecting with their friends and forming new friendships. We have explored the exciting resources in the classroom, making picnics, building models, going on safari, digging for treasure and drawing tropical beaches. The children have been making use of some donated spices including curry powder, cinnamon and nutmeg to make their own paints. They have experimented with different thickness and texture as well as enjoying (or not!) the different smells. We love to get outside as much as possible in Early Years and this includes during cold and wet weather. Please ensure your child always has a spare set of clothes in school as we often end up getting wet or muddy - even when we wear our wellies and waterproofs. If you’re not sure what we have in school, just let a member of staff know and we can send their spares bag home for restocking!
Reception
Happy New Year! We hope you all had an amazing Christmas break. We have loved looking at all your adventures on Tapestry and seeing what you have been up to over the holidays. It has been a very cold but incredible start to 2026! The children have had a great time smashing and banging ice to discover hidden treasures that had frozen over. We also froze penguins and had a fabulous time racing them down the guttering and slopes in the outdoor area. During all the excitement, our penguins migrated around the outdoor area. We went on a hunt to find them and placed them in a baking tray (we used this as 4 frame) to find out how many were missing. We realised that two penguins were unaccounted for, so we created some fantastic “wanted” posters to help us find them. The children have been very artistic this week, creating amazing things to display on their WOW boards. We have been blown away by their writing and their enthusiasm to write labels to explain what they have made. We have also continued working on recognising 'Special Friends' in words to support our reading skills. We hope you have a lovely weekend. We still haven’t given up hope for a flurry of snow!
Year 1
We are back for 2026! The children have made a great start and have enjoyed their communication workshops and their extra PSHE lessons about helpfulness. In maths we have begun our work to understanding numbers to 20 and the children have shown great commitment in their new learning. For our English lessons we had a recap on ‘where’ words and when to use them. We also very excitingly begun our new science topic, focussing on materials and their various uses. We are looking forward to all of the new learning that is coming up this term!
Year 2
It has been a wonderful first week back in Year 2. The children have taken part in a wide range of wellbeing activities, the perfect introduction to the Spring term. It was lovely to see them back in class, settling back into the school day and having special time to talk and share their news. We are glad that everyone enjoyed their Christmas break as well as turning their attention to some homework tasks - well done Year 2! A key part of our learning during wellbeing week was to explore the word ‘generosity’ and to think about what it means to be generous towards others - at home, in school and in the community. We listened to stories and found out there are many ways we can give and be generous, with our time, talents and sharing things as well and donating items which may be helpful to those in need. We have discussed the benefit of positive thinking to help us tackle something that may feel like a challenge and played games to test and boost our resilience. Being kind to our friends and thinking about how we can connect with others were also part of our class discussions to improve our wellbeing. A highlight of the week was taking part in The Art of Oracy workshop. Our leader, Mark, was full of fun and energy and led us on an adventure in the jungle to find ‘The Baffler.’ He inspired us to communicate clearly with others. On top of this, we also participated in music lessons and cooking, so all in all, it has been a very stimulating week, an ideal way to begin the new year. Have a lovely weekend.
Year 3
Welcome back and happy new year! We hope you all had a fun and restful break. The children have started their new term with a renewed sense of focus and effort. They worked well during their ‘Wellbeing’ theme days this Tuesday and Wednesday where we focused on being a good neighbour and member of our community. It was great to hear the children talk about all the ways that they communicate, interact with and support those they live with as well as the wider community. The children also learnt tips on how they could become better neighbours and build on relationships they already have. To help them do this they have been challenged to complete a neighbour diary where they can record all the ways they connected with those who live closest to them this week. We can’t wait to hear all about what they got up to when they hand it in next week. Also during our ‘Wellbeing’ days, Year 3 re-learnt about our ‘Zones of Regulation’ and how to recognise which zone they might be in as well as discussing strategies to help us move into the calm, happy and focused green zone. We also talked about how negative thinking can affect our feelings and actions and how this in turn could affect how we interact with our community. To help us with this, we discussed ways of switching our thoughts to positive ones and how this will then result in more positive feelings, actions and interactions. On Thursday and Friday we dove into our new learning topics. In English, we looked at the picture book ‘Window’ by Jeannie Baker. In this fantastic text, a boy’s view from his window drastically changes over time from picturesque country landscape to bustling city chaos. The children were able to discuss their initial thoughts on the pictures in the text and then sequence them to show their understanding of the story. It is amazing how much can be gleaned from a story that doesn't have a single word. We look forward to working with this text and many other exciting books this term. We also started a new multiplication and division topic in maths this week. The children revised what they had learnt in the Autumn term and built on this by taking part in hands-on activities that looked at multiplying using physical resources with a focus on multiplying by 10. The children enjoyed this practical approach and showed good foundational knowledge of this important multiplication skill.
Year 4
May we wish you happy new year and welcome to Spring term! Year 4 has had a fantastic start to the year, and it has been lovely hearing all about the children’s Christmas holidays. We eased back into the new term with plenty of opportunities to catch up, reconnect, re-establish routines, and focus on how we can take care of our emotional and mental health. To make the week even more exciting, the children were delighted to experience flurries of snow! We shared the story The Feelings Hotel, which helped us explore how to identify different emotions and understand that feelings need to be identified and looked after in different ways. The children shared thoughtful ideas for tools that can help us manage our emotions, and were excellent at role-playing different emotions for their friends to guess. We also looked at the ways we are all unique and how our differences can create opportunities for unity. The children took part in The Art of Oracy workshop, where they explored the theme of Belonging. Using drama and poetry, the children expressed what it feels like to belong and how we can help others feel included. In English, we made predictions about our fairy tales and practised retelling the story of The Princess and the Pea. In Maths, we built upon our times tables knowledge by identifying factor pairs. What a wonderful first week back – we are looking forward to an exciting term ahead!
Year 5
Happy New Year! Year 5 have returned to school with a spring in their step, despite the freezing temperatures, and have had a wonderfully positive start to the New Year. It’s always great to start the term with a focus on our emotional wellbeing and mental health and we've engaged in a variety of activities from considering our circle of control to managing friendships and exploring the Zones of Regulation. We also thoroughly enjoyed our workshop with Mark from East Side - we considered how we are influenced and who by, recognising that influences can be both positive and negative. In English, we completed our class learning on poetry by using our own personal experiences to plan and create poems in our own style - from free verse to rhyme, alliteration, similes and anaphora. In maths, we turned our attention to 3D shapes and nets, exploring how nets can look different but still create the same shape. We also continued our learning on Ancient Egypt with a lesson about Howard Carter and his discovery of ‘wonderful things’. Have a great weekend.
Year 6
Year 6 have had a fantastic, albeit freezing, start to the new term! In our Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health activities, the children showed great maturity and thoughtfulness when engaging with our discussions. We explored what it means to be a citizen and how to debate effectively, showing respect and understanding for others’ viewpoints as well as considering the idea of community and what we could do to make a positive impact within our own. We also thoroughly enjoyed our ‘Finding our Voice’ workshop, which focused on thinking about how we can express ourselves through a range of different ways. We enjoyed using acting, conscience alleys and ‘yes and’ stories to work on our oracy skills. In maths, we have begun our new topic on ratio, exploring the relationships between numbers in sequences and the link between fractions and ratio. In English, we have identified how symbols can be used to represent deeper meanings, encouraging thoughtful discussion and interpretation. We also have begun our new history topic on World War ll, where we explored key events and mapped them on a timeline. We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Outdoor Learning
What an introduction to the new term! We have had temperatures down to -5 degrees! The children have enjoyed finding as much ice as possible, as well as surviving a heavy snow shower on Tuesday. All the classes visited the allotment briefly to observe how things have changed over the holidays and will begin their projects next week. Hopefully it will be a little warmer by then!
Languages
Welcome back everyone! In French, Nursery, Reception and Year 1 have started their new topic, family. The children learned some names of family members and they practised recall. The book read to the children this week was “Le petit chien se trouve un ami”, a gorgeous story of kindness, friendship and diversity. Year 2 revised colours: the children buzzed around the room, practising writing the colours in French on sticky notes and finding objects that matched those colours. Year 3 started with a topic that never fails to captivate children’s interest: the weather! The students quickly learnt different types of weather combined with actions and were able to recall them correctly in different games. Year 4 also started with their topic for this half term, hobbies - music: the children learnt to recognise musical instruments in French and to conjugate the verb “jouer”. Given how many musicians we have in the year group, it was lovely to see how everyone talked in French about their instrument (or more than one!). In Spanish, Year 5 started 2026 with a revision of the last term: the children made a poster describing themselves: What colour eyes and hair do I have? Am I tall or short? Do I have siblings? Do I have pets? Year 6 tackled the short topic ¿cómo eres?: the students found the rhythm into translation very smoothly and did a great job combining all the learning to date.
Design & Technology and Computing
Quiz of the week, ask your child if they can explain what the words in bold mean. Year 3 Pneumatic Monsters Pupils in Year 3 completed and evaluated their Pneumatic monsters and continued to add features to their monsters. Year 4 Slingshot Cars This week, Year 4 pupils constructed the chassis for their cars. They reinforced the chassis with cardboard and attached the axles for the wheels ensuring that these were kept parallel to each other. Year 5 Doodlebot In Year 5, the children completed their Doodlebots and evaluated their final products. Year 6 Microbit Arcade Year 6 pupils continued to use canary cutters and steel rulers to accurately cut out the nets for the arcade game case.
Computing highlights Year 1 started planning how to sequence digital imagery in order to put together a photo story. Year 2 explored machine learning and how computers process data in large quantities in order to learn and define what instructions mean and how they can be carried out. Year 3 explored the advantages and disadvantages of various communication methods and how digital communication has improved. Year 4 learned about weather prediction and some of the devices used to record the data required to understand patterns in weather changes. Pupils in Year 6 continued designing a digital 3D case for Micro:bit.