From the Head
Dear Parents and Carers
As we wrap up another week, it’s been a busy one at school – the rainy weather may have made more appearances than we would have liked, but it hasn’t dampened the children's spirits! As always, there’s been a wonderful buzz as the children prepare for our upcoming Harvest Festival. They have been busy practicing songs, readings and performances and I am sure it will be a lovely event that brings us all together to reflect on the importance of gratitude and giving.
I would like to take a moment to thank you all in advance for your continued support, particularly in your contributions to our Harvest collection for the Greenwich Food Bank. The generosity of our school community never ceases to amaze me and it’s heartwarming to see families coming together to help those in need. Every donation, big or small, plays a vital role in supporting local families who are facing difficult times. Your kindness truly makes a difference and we are incredibly grateful for your contributions.
As always, there’s been lots of learning and creativity happening across the school, both inside and outside. From apple juicing to collaborative maths activities, the children continue to impress me with their enthusiasm and dedication. It’s a joy to see them grow and learn together, especially so when splashing in puddles and enjoying being outside!
Looking ahead, I’m excited to see the culmination of all the children’s hard work at the Harvest Festival, and I hope many of you will be able to join us for this special occasion.
Wishing you all a restful and hopefully sunnier weekend ahead!
Kind regards,
Miss Holloway
The week ahead...
Safeguarding Team
Community News
Harvest Festival
This week at St Olave's
Year 5 girls visit to Blackheath High
On Thursday, we were very lucky to be invited to Blackheath High to celebrate the European Day of Languages. We got to school very early and started to make our way there at 7:45am! Once we arrived, we had the chance to experience several different languages in the morning. These were: French, Spanish, German and Mandarin. We had lots of fun with many different activities, but our favourite has to be the Les Cornichons song - it is still stuck in our heads!
European Day of Languages
This week we have been celebrating languages to coincide with a National Event called the European Day of Languages which is held each year on 26th September. Every day we explored a different language by answering the register in languages such as Dutch, Turkish, Portuguese, Romanian and Croatian. We also had the opportunity to count up to five in all these languages, some were quite challenging but we all persevered and had fun! Each class was assigned a different language to research and we had to create posters which had the outline of the map of the country. Inside the map we wrote down greetings and common phrases translated to English. It was really fun to learn new words each day and hear how a multitude of languages are spoken! By Elsie and Aarna (Year 6)
Tag Rugby Tournament
This week saw Years 3 and 4 travel across to Merton Court Prep School to play against a wide range of different schools as we took part in a friendly tag rugby tournament. This was Year 3’s first tag rugby fixture and they grew into the games the more they took part. There were a few tries scored and lots of tags made, which put smiles on the faces of the children. As we play more and more fixtures with further games lessons, they will develop and grow in our understanding of the game. Thank you to Mrs O’Sullivan who helped and guided our Year 3’s, along with the help of Miss Foreman. Well done Year 3!
Year 4's competition was against Merton Court Prep, West Lodge, Benedict House, and Farringtons Prep. Our Year 4 were amazing and won lots of games, growing in confidence the more the tournament progressed. Only losing one fixture along the way, Year 4 were a credit to the school and they progressed really well, demonstrating good skill and control in their movements. Lots of tries scored by a variety of children across the whole tournament. Well done Year 4!
Tasting Table
We had our first 'Tasting Table' of the year on Thursday where the children were able to try delicious food made from the vegetables they have grown in the allotment. There was a fantastic spread including potato hummus, kale and pear smoothie and tomato focaccia. Thank you Chef Andy!
Pupil Achievements
Sophie P in 5 Hazel was awarded a merit in her initial piano exam. Well done Sophie!
Nursery
The Little Acorns have been busy in all kinds of ways this week.
We have been mark-making on the playground using chalks, on paper using pencils and even using the cars and buses to drive through paint! Another exciting way to mark-make is on our Clevertouch board and the children were thrilled to be able to use their fingers to draw wiggly worms like the ones we found at the allotment.
The children have been very busy during Explore Time when we split into three groups called the Hedgehogs, Foxes and Squirrels. Each group has had a turn to play some early phonics games, to do some Funky Finger Activities and even set off around the school completing a list of jobs. The children have had a great time meeting some members of staff doing different jobs around the school and we have been very impressed with their confidence when meeting new people.
Well done Little Acorns, mission accomplished!
Reception
Autumn has arrived and we are LOVING using nature to create artwork. The children in Reception went on a leaf walk round the allotment to collect fallen leaves. They then made beautiful pictures, using the leaf rubbing technique. We have also enjoyed creating pictures using the loose parts with our friends.
The children have really enjoyed playing with our new King and Queen buddies. They were so inspired, they created their own kings, queens and castles.
This week, we have been learning lots of different languages as it’s European Language week. We have learnt to say good morning, good afternoon and count to 5 in Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish, Romanian and Croatian.
Thank you to everyone who has brought in an all-in-one. The children have had a wonderful time playing in the mud kitchen and water in the outdoor area. Having an all-in-one to keep in school is so useful as we love to play outdoors regardless of the weather.
Have a lovely weekend.
Year 1
Year 1 has had another very busy fun week! We have been working hard to develop our maths skills, and this week learnt about the symbols used to represent a number that is less than, equal to or greater than another number.
We really enjoyed our new English study book, ‘Billy’s Bucket’, and the children loved writing their own predictions as to what happens to Billy’s bucket when it goes missing one day…
We have been learning about Autumn in science lessons and have been thinking carefully about hibernating animals and what they need to do to survive the winter.
Making Viking longboats was certainly a highlight of the week during our history of transport topic lesson!
Year 2
Where has another week gone?! Another jam packed week in Year 2 has seen us finish a maths topic, become authors, artists, nutritionists and linguists! Wow!
Taking our inspiration from Edward Lear’s ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’, we have planned and written our very own nonsense stories about another adventure for the owl - from space islands to chocolate land, and everything in between, we have aimed to use adjectives to add description. Although we have now completed our place value topic in maths with a focus on counting in 2s, 5s, 10s and even 3s, we would ask you to continue to support your child in consolidating their place value understanding of tens and ones, greater and less than and estimation.
As artists, we aimed to create texture in our work this week, using techniques including cross hatching, stippling and squiggling. We explored pencil, pastel and paint to create an image of a textured surface. Science had us exploring the 5 main food groups to identify food in each and considering why each food group is important for our health.
As the weather is becoming more and more autumnal, please ensure your child brings a coat to school every day and wellies for their outdoor learning lessons. Have a super weekend.
Year 3
Goedemorgen, Günaydın and Bon Dia! These are just 3 of the languages that Year 3 have said good morning in this week. Our International Languages Week has been a success and we have enjoyed learning about how different countries say hello as well as making posters for our focus country of Germany.
As for our other subjects, it has been full steam ahead learning new concepts and revising prior knowledge. In maths, we have been continuing our work on place value. This included looking at 3 digit numbers, partitioning them and then deciding which had the greater value. Whilst we did lots of work in our books on this, we most enjoyed a practical activity where we became a 3 digit number and had to sort ourselves from largest to smallest.
In Science we are continuing to ‘rock on’ with our Science topic of Rocks. Moving on from understanding types of rocks, we are now investigating the concept of weathering and now know that there are 3 types of weathering: biological, physical and chemical. Here you can see us testing rocks using vinegar which represents chemical weathering as acid rain!
In Art we have been exploring prehistoric art and Year 3 have created their own animal pictures using charcoal. They rubbed crushed charcoal over their paper first to create a textured background and then drew an animal with their charcoal, smudging and blending it with their fingers.
Finally, in English we have been extending our understanding of word class and in particular focusing on conjunctions. Conjunctions are words that join together clauses. We looked at the difference between subordinate and coordinating conjunctions. Although these were tricky, we found that using the acronyms FANBOYS and ISAWAWABUB helped us remember all the words we could use. These conjunctions will be added to our writing this week - another setting description, where this time we plan to make Mrs Cole’s house sound like the best place you could ever visit - with the exception of St Olaves of course!
Year 4
It’s been another busy week in Rowan and Birch! This week in English, we have been planning and writing our own fables, demonstrating how to correctly punctuate dialogue, use conjunctions of time, place and cause to extend our sentences and sequence a story. We are looking forward to sharing our fables with our friends and seeing if we can figure out the morals of the stories.
This week, in our history lesson, we read the story of Romulus and Remus - the mythical tale of how Rome was built. We then retold the story, making sure we could sequence the events correctly. The children have been working hard on their topic-based home learning this term, and we have seen some fantastic art work of The Colosseum and interesting fact files on Septimus Severus.
In maths, we have been consolidating our place value knowledge by ordering numbers up to 10,000. We enjoyed a practical lesson on Roman numerals, where we created our own numbers using matchsticks! We also reviewed rounding to the nearest 10, 100, and 1000. This week concludes our unit on place value, and next week we will move onto addition and subtraction.
In art we drew inspiration from Matisse and, using wax crayons, composed a background of different shapes, sizes and textures to create contrast. Our art topic this term has been particularly messy (which somehow seems to make it more fun!) In PSHE, we have been considering what our role is as part of the school community, and how we can take responsibility for this.
Please check that your child’s uniform, PE kit and accessories (gum shields etc.) are named so locating items after Games is easy for them.
Have a great weekend!
Year 5
In English, we have continued exploring The Jungle Book and developing our understanding of descriptions. Continuing our work on ‘Surprised’ by Henri Rousseau, we have looked at and created expanded noun phrases, inclusive of prepositional phrases; relative clauses and figurative language. This has all been building up to the children planning and structuring their ideas to create a more detailed and immersive setting description.
In maths, we have been continuing our place value work. Our main focus this week has been rounding. We started with a rounding recap to 10, 100, 1000 and 10 000 before moving up to rounding within 100 000 and 1 000 000. The children have learnt to identify the place value they are rounding to and to use their decider column to identify whether to round up or down.
In science, we have been applying our topic learning to create our own planets, some of which seem like potentially very scary places to inhabit! We have also been impressed by the many School Parliament Manifestos that were presented in school this week- some excellent ideas which definitely made voting very tricky.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Year 6
Dzień dobry and Bore da! Two of our greetings for this week to celebrate The European Day of Languages - Polish and Welsh. Aside from discovering new European languages this week, the children have been working hard both in the classroom and at home.
Many of the children created School Parliament Manifestos (at home) and then presented them to their peers. We were not only impressed with the children who spoke but equally with the intelligent questions from the listeners. All the children’s good ideas will be used once all the elections have taken place. We have also had many applications for Rights Respecting Ambassadors and Wellbeing Champions already - all of which are of a very high standard.
In English lessons this week, the highlight for all of us was certainly creating a fantasy setting inspired by our class text, Northern Lights. The children enjoyed using images to write descriptively and with a twist of their imagination. We have been focusing on presentation skills and use of imagery - including expanded noun phrases, smilies, metaphors and interesting and well chosen vocabulary. In Maths - the children have been consolidating their addition and subtraction skills beyond a million. Missing numbers seemed to be a challenge for some and ensuring the working out is neat and accurate has been our target.
In PSHE the children have been planning and creating their own vision boards to inspire them to develop goals and targets about their futures. We look forward to completing these next week and then showing them to other members of our school community. In Art, the children enjoyed observing a painting called ‘A Walk in the Sun’ by Dan Fenelon which was inspired by the Maya civilisation. This modern piece was full of bright colours, symbols and patterns. All the children were excited to plan and start their own tile - representing themselves!
Outdoor Learning
This week the children have been busy picking various fruits and vegetables for chef to create a tasting table on Thursday. They picked apples, pears, tomatoes, potatoes and kale. He created a delicious menu from these items and the children had fun tasting them at lunch. The children also planted the last of our flowers called Love Lies Bleeding around three of the fruit trees. The older children collected the French bean and runner bean seeds to use next year. We also sowed some beetroot, lettuce and chard which is already showing signs of growth in one of our heated greenhouses.
Languages
This week Nursery and Reception learnt how to answer “How are you?” in French and then we read together “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge”. Year 1 revised numbers from 1 to 10, learning their spelling and working on their folder. Year 2 has also carried on practising numbers up to 30 and started the months of the year.
Year 3 packed their suitcase to go on holiday to the seaside and learnt a catchy song to memorise the conjugation of aller; Year 4 consolidated their knowledge of places in town with a memory and translation activity. Upper School French classes have taken home their first piece of homework of the year, which is due on their carousel day next week.
Year 5 revised how to introduce themselves and ask questions in Spanish, and also started to work on numbers up to 15. Year 6 has improved their knowledge of the topic’s core vocabulary with more challenges and paired work. In Latin, Year 6 has made a birthday card using a real example found near Hadrian’s Wall. Have a great weekend!
Design & Technology
Year 3 Cardboard Castles
Pupils in Year 3 cut out and mounted the card nets for their main castle structure. They identified and took note of the difference between fold lines and cut lines and how to create neat folds.
Year 4 Torches
This week pupils took the opportunity to select the materials as well as start to create the cases for their torches.
Year 5 Pop Up Books
Pupils in Year 5 folded and cut the main structure for their pop up books. They also carefully measured and cut their first pop up feature.
Year 6 Playground Structures
Pupils in Year 6 explored scale modelling and how to turn their big ideas into small structures for playgrounds. They started their journey with a planning exercise on paper.
Music
We’ve had a great week in Music! The whole school has started to learn three songs in preparation for our Harvest Festival. The children will be bringing home the song lyrics this week as we will be learning these off by heart.The children in Early Years will be singing their own Harvest song and children in Years 1-6 will have a year group Harvest poem that they will perform. The children will also be bringing these home to learn over the next couple of weeks. Many thanks in advance for your support in helping your child prepare for the festival.
This week has been full of uplifting songs, which we enjoy singing as we lead in and lead out of our Friday celebration assemblies! We have been learning ‘I Am (Who I Wanna Be)’ so that we could sing it with gusto as we came together for our assembly this Friday. We’ve also been enjoying another song called, ‘Power In Me’ which makes us feel empowered and ready to start the day. Hopefully you’ve heard some of these being sung at home too!
Instrumental lessons are in full swing, we have harp, piano, guitar, violin and singing lessons taking place during the week with our specialist instrumental teachers. If you are interested in your child having instrumental lessons, please contact the School Office who will send you further information. Have a good weekend!