St Olave's News

I would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Mossone Evans for all of her support in helping to organise the week and ensuring everything ran so smoothly. Thank you also to our staff, children and families for the warmth, flexibility and generosity you have shown throughout. Our visitors repeatedly commented on how welcomed and included they felt and that is a real credit to the kindness that sits at the heart of our school. We very much hope this is the beginning of a long and meaningful partnership between our schools and look forward to continuing the friendships that have begun this week. Arrivederci for now to our Italian friends - we already miss you! Alongside the excitement of the exchange, it has also been lovely to welcome more of our new children and families into school for their Jumping Jacks transition session. It has been wonderful to see new friendships already beginning to form and to watch the children settle so happily into the St Olave’s environment. Across the school, children have continued to work incredibly hard, showing excellent attitudes to learning and making us very proud each day. There is a lovely atmosphere across the school at the moment; calm, purposeful and joyful and long may it continue. I am now very much looking forward to a sunny Bank Holiday weekend, before our Year 5 ETAP sessions begin next week. After that, we will all enjoy a well-deserved rest ahead of what promises to be a very busy and exciting final half term. We look forward to welcoming everybody back to school on Monday 8th June. Con tanto affetto e gratitudine - with much affection and gratitude,

Kind regards, Miss Holloway

The week ahead...

Lunch Menu

Monthly Safeguarding Update

May – Trust and Transparency

At St Olave’s, we want every child to feel safe with the adults who care for them. If you or your child ever have a concern about behaviour you’ve seen, however small, please let us know. It helps us keep our community strong, open, and safe.

Notices

Save the date - Summer BBQ The FRSC Summer BBQ will be held on 27th June, 12pm until 3pm. More details to follow after half term.

Second hand Uniform Please use the half term break to have a good look through your child's school uniform ready for the final summer term - we will happily collect any unwanted pre-loved uniform after the break so that we can organise a uniform sale before the summer holidays, but we can only run a sale if we have enough donated uniform! Thank you in advance!

Father's Day Shop - 19th June

This week at St Olave's

Italian Exchange Week  What a truly extraordinary week! On Monday morning it was a dream come true to welcome to St Olave’s ten students from the Sacro Cuore Ludum, a bilingual primary school from Sardinia. This project has been in the making for a while and it is particularly close to my heart, given my connection to this ancient and strong island. Our Italian visitors spent an unforgettable week with us, starting what we hope will be a wonderful partnership.  Each visiting child was paired with a buddy from St Olave’s, who helped them throughout the exchange, making them feel welcome and at ease. The buddies took great care of their partners: they supported them in lessons, introduced them to new activities and friends, and helped them navigate the everyday life of our school. It was genuinely heartwarming to see St Olave’s values well and truly embedded in our children’s behaviour and interactions with their peers. All the buddies rose so beautifully to their responsibility and I personally witnessed acts of kindness during lessons, in the playground and in the hall that made me very proud. During their visit, the Italian children fully joined in with everyday school life,  not only taking part in all lessons, but also experiencing activities outside the standard Italian curriculum: we shared outdoor lessons, cooking lessons, horse riding and games. And... Trips! On Tuesday, the children visiting Year 6 stepped into the magic of the National Portrait Gallery, enjoying a day of learning in one of the most fascinating museums of the capital, and on Thursday we took our visitors to Greenwich, where history, beauty and nature are superbly represented. The children had a stroll through Blackheath, saw the deer enclosure in Greenwich Park, saw the Royal Observatory, had an amazing time at the playground and ended the visit with an epic ice cream, in true Italian style. On Thursday evening, our wonderful chefs created a feast for this special occasion: our Italian guests with their families, St Olave’s buddies with their families, and staff got together to celebrate this unique and precious experience.  Celebration Assembly on Friday this week was a truly amazing celebration: the perfect ending to a perfect week! By the end of the exchange, the children had grown in confidence, created happy memories and forged friendships that they will remember for a long time. It has been an honor and a privilege to have Sacro Cuore Ludum spending the week with us and I can only finish saying “Grazie e a presto!” Mrs Mossone Evans

Year 6 visit The National Portrait Gallery On Tuesday, Year 6 enjoyed a wonderful visit to the National Portrait Gallery, where the children engaged thoughtfully with a range of portraits and learned more about the stories behind them. This helped challenge their perception of what a portrait is and the use of different mediums. They particularly enjoyed exploring the Tudor section, especially as they visited on a very poignant day - the anniversary of Anne Boleyn's execution!

Rights Day - Gender Equality Thursday was our fifth Rights Day of the year. The focus on Gender Equality was chosen by our Year 6 Rights Ambassadors and linked to Article 2 of the UNCRC with Global Goal 5. Gender equality means that girls and boys enjoy the same rights, opportunities and protections. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) mandates gender equality by ensuring all rights apply to every child without discrimination. But we know, in practice that, both in this country and around the world, gender equality remains inconsistent.  Through age-appropriate discussions and activities, pupils explored the importance of fairness, respect, equal opportunities, and the rights of all people regardless of gender. They were encouraged to think about how everyone should feel safe, valued, and able to achieve their goals.  The Ambassadors then led an assembly on Friday morning to reflect on the learning and discussions that had taken place.

Sporting Round Up

This week, some of our Year 5 children took on a friendly cricket fixture at Merton Court. The children at school have really enjoyed playing cricket during Games, learning different types of shots from the sweep shot, drive shot and pull shot. We saw this in full action as the kids enjoyed the match. We unfortunately lost the game, but a great experience as we learn more and more about the great sport of cricket. As always we showed great teamwork and determination, well played Year 5! 

Nursery

This half term has been full of exciting play and learning opportunities, and we are delighted to see the children growing in confidence, independence and resilience every day. This week, the children have enjoyed using the construction resources to build houses, schools and even families of birds. In the creative area, they have been busy making bracelets, frogs and a variety of minibeasts. As always lots of our learning has taken place outdoors and the children have enjoyed playing in the mud kitchen and exploring our new water butt for collecting water. Maths and early number skills have been a key focus this half term. The children are applying their understanding of numbers in many meaningful, real-life situations, including self-registration, sharing snacks, using the calendar and taking part in our book vote. They are becoming increasingly confident at recognising quantities on a five frame and are doing a fantastic job of explaining their thinking by discussing “What do you notice?” and “How do you see it?” Have a lovely half term and remember to add photos and videos to Tapestry for your child to share with their friends.

Reception

What a wonderful and busy half term we have had in Reception! The children have embraced every opportunity with enthusiasm, curiosity, and growing confidence, and we are so proud of all they have achieved. This week, the children have been securing their new learning while taking part in lots of exciting activities. In our role play area, they loved becoming hairdressers, styling hair, taking bookings, and chatting confidently with their customers. The children also created their own zip lines, experimenting with different materials and using fantastic problem-solving skills to make them work. We have enjoyed deconstructing items, selecting the correct screwdrivers and explaining their choices using mathematical language. During Drawing Club, we read Stuck, which inspired the children to use imaginative ideas and ambitious vocabulary when creating their own stories and solutions. It has been a fantastic week full of teamwork, creativity, and problem solving. We hope you all have a lovely half term and can’t wait to hear about your adventures on Tapestry!

Year 1

As we reach the end of another wonderful half term, the children have continued to impress us with their enthusiasm, creativity, and positive attitudes towards learning. It has been lovely to see their confidence continue to grow across all areas of the curriculum. In English, the children have been retelling the story Lubna and the Pebble by Wendy Meddour. They have been focusing carefully on the feelings of the characters and explaining the reasons why the characters may feel that way. The children have shown great empathy and understanding through their discussions and storytelling. In Maths, we have been learning to find halves and quarters of shapes and amounts. The children have worked hard to develop their understanding of equal parts and have enjoyed applying their knowledge in practical activities. After half term, we will begin learning about time and money. This may be something you would like to practise at home over the break, such as recognising coins, finding change, and reading o’clock and half past times on an analogue clock. The children were also very lucky to welcome Italian exchange students into Year 1 this week. The boys settled in beautifully, and we were incredibly impressed with how welcoming, kind, and considerate the children were towards them. It was wonderful to see how children can communicate so naturally through play and kindness, regardless of the languages they speak. We are now coming to the end of our Galápagos Islands topic. In Science, the children have been learning about how birds’ beaks work and how they are adapted for different purposes. We have also been amazed by the time, effort, and focus the children have put into their Galápagos projects. There has been such a wonderful variety of creativity and imaginative ideas, and it was a lovely way to end the half term by sharing them with their peers. Thank you for all the support you have given the children with these projects at home. We hope you all have a safe, restful, and exciting half term break, and we look forward to welcoming the children back for their final half term in Year 1!

Year 2

Wow! What a half term we have had in Year 2. Between our fabulous trip, swimming every week, wonderful workshops and a poetry performance, we have managed to pack in a huge amount of learning. As we begin to approach the final half term of the year and reflect on the progress the children continue to make each week, we are feeling extremely proud. In English this week the children have turned their pens to persuasive writing. Focusing on ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt, we thought about how the stationery in our classroom would feel about the way we use them. We then took on the role of these inanimate objects to have a think about what they would want us to do in the future. We were also inspired by the story of Grandfather’s Pencil and gave our opinions - backed up by reasons, why an old pencil should be kept.  The children then learned about rhetorical questions and using evidence to support their ideas to plan a persuasive letter before writing very convincing letters. In maths, we learned about o’clock and half past. We are very excited to now be able to tell the time and are very much looking forward to learning more about 'minutes past' after half-term!  In geography, we had a fabulous time learning about London landmarks. We explored all the reasons why these important buildings and structures are so iconic and worked together to answer questions to put our knowledge to the test. Did you know there are homes in the Shard? We thought it would be fun to live so high up! On Rights Day this week we discussed gender equality. We had an interesting discussion about toys and challenged our own gender stereotypes in this area. We then thought about the qualities we would expect to see in boys or girls and realised that all the qualities we thought of were applicable to both boys and girls. Lastly, we reflected on being an individual and what we would like to be described as regardless of our gender.  We wish you all a very sun-filled, restful half-term break and look forward to seeing you for the final five weeks of Year 2! It’s going to be a blast!

Year 3

We have had another wonderful and busy week in Year 3, bringing this half term to a fantastic close. The children have worked incredibly hard and it has been lovely to see their confidence and independence continue to grow. In English, we have completed writing our own fables as playscripts. The children did an excellent job applying everything they had learned, including stage directions, setting descriptions and engaging dialogue. It has been fantastic to see their creativity shine as they transformed traditional fables into lively scripts ready for performance. In Maths, we have continued our learning about time. The children can now confidently convert between seconds and minutes, and we also explored the days of the week, the months of the year, and how leap years occur. They showed great curiosity when learning about how our calendar works and why an extra day is sometimes needed. In Art, the children created beautiful London silhouette landscapes, painting colourful backgrounds before adding skyline silhouettes. The results were striking, and the children enjoyed experimenting with colour and contrast. In Geography, we learned about human and physical features, identifying and comparing examples of each and linking this knowledge to places we know. In RE, we explored the different roles of deities within the Hindu religion. The children learned about the symbolism connected to several Hindu deities and produced thoughtful drawings that included the important symbols associated with each one. We would also like to say what a fantastic week it has been welcoming our Italian visitors. The children have loved spending time with them, proudly showing what St Olave’s and Year 3 life is like, while also learning about their visitors’ experiences, culture and daily life. It has been a truly special opportunity for everyone involved. As we reach the end of term, we would like to thank you for your continued support and wish all our families a happy, safe and relaxing break. We look forward to welcoming the children back for Summer 2 - the final term of Year 3 - and finishing the year together with plenty more exciting learning ahead.

Year 4

We cannot believe how quickly this term has passed and that we are already approaching the final term of Year 4. This has been a hugely important term for the children, particularly as they completed their first residential trip. We are incredibly proud of the maturity, resilience, and independence they demonstrated throughout the experience. They are continuing to grow into confident and capable learners who are well prepared for the challenges and opportunities ahead. 4 Sycamore have had the pleasure of hosting two Sardinian children, Carolina and Valentino, this week. We loved getting to know them and having them as part of our class. They were full of enthusiasm and joy in every lesson, always joining in and contributing so positively to each experience. Both children were warm, friendly and settled into class life seamlessly. We will very much miss their presence next term!  In English this week, we completed our work on the remarkable story of Shackleton and his crew. The children have produced some truly excellent work during this unit and were relieved to learn that every member of the expedition survived such an extraordinary ordeal. Inspired by the story, the children have researched an explorer of their choice and gathered notes ready to develop into a short biography. In maths, we have continued our learning on money, focusing on comparing amounts, estimating costs, and solving problems involving calculations with money. In science, the children learnt about animal adaptations and following on from our classification work, designed their own imaginary creatures complete with special adapted features suited to a particular habitat.  Year 4 have loved creating clay pinch pots in Art this week, transforming them into imaginative animals and monsters. The children used a range of techniques including pinching, shaping, smoothing, joining and adding texture to bring their unique creations to life. We were so impressed with their creativity and focus throughout the lesson!  On Friday, the children presented their debate homework to the class, speaking clearly and confidently to communicate their opinions and arguments. We may certainly have some future politicians amongst us in Year 4! We hope you all enjoy a restful and enjoyable half-term break and return refreshed for the final part of the year - we have lots to look forward to in the weeks ahead.

Year 5

How is it already half term?!? The children have all worked so hard since returning at Easter; we hope you all have a very well deserved break.  Maths this week has seen us revisiting pie charts and practising the various skills needed to extrapolate information from them accurately. From revising percentage knowledge to our understanding of angles; the children have applied themselves very well. We have also been testing ourselves with quick mental maths tests to improve both speed and accuracy. We also enjoyed an interesting LIVE lesson on National Numeracy Day with a selection of ‘would you rather…?’ questions linked to money. The children needed to think more about their understanding of money to consider questions such as ‘Would you rather spend £100 on trainers that everyone has, or save your money towards something you really want that costs £150?’ We have continued to work hard on our comprehension skills in English this week. We have had a focus on inference and feelings - can we figure out how someone is feeling from the words used? We had some excellent discussions around the meanings of different words. We also turned our attention to non-chronological reports with an opportunity to research something of interest before writing awesome reports: from Millwall Football Club to Ice Cream Flavours and the PlayStation 2 to Star Wars, we've covered everything!  In science this week, we focused on humans and the changes we can expect as we age. There were some great discussions on some of the changes we can expect to go through as we head from childhood to adolescence; before we considered aging - from grey hairs to deteriorating eyesight, we all agreed we have a lot to look forward to!  We also indulged in some art this week. Working in a group to create art from geometric patterns in the playground. It was wonderful to take our learning outside into the sunshine! The children will have brought home a holiday homework pack to complete over the half term. We realise that this may seem like a lot, but regular practice during the holidays helps children retain knowledge and prevents them from forgetting important skills. Even a small amount of daily study can make a big difference to their progress and exam preparation. Thank you for your support in completing these tasks.