From the Head
What a spectacular evening we had at the O2 last night! Our talented children took part in the Young Voices 2025 performance, singing their hearts out to an audience of thousands. The energy, enthusiasm and joy they brought to the stage were simply incredible, and we couldn’t be prouder of their hard work and dedication. A huge thank you to Ms Tyler for her tireless efforts to prepare the children and for all the staff who accompanied the children and took such good care of them during such a long day and evening.
A heartfelt thank you to all the parents and families who supported this wonderful event. We hope you enjoyed the evening and that it’s a memory you and your children will treasure for years to come. Watching them perform with such confidence and passion truly was a moment to cherish.
This week in assemblies, we explored the life and legacy of Robert Burns, ahead of tomorrow night’s Burns Supper. A special thank you to Charles and Alba, who shared how their family celebrates this traditional evening with us. Their stories brought the celebration to life, and we all enjoyed discovering more about this important cultural event.
Today, the tasting table featured haggis - a traditional dish many of the children were excited (and a little curious) to try! It’s always wonderful to see our children embracing new experiences and learning about different traditions.
In Monday’s assembly, we delved into the magical world of fairy tales. We learned how these stories were collected and written down over centuries to ensure they were preserved and shared with future generations. From Mother Goose to Perrault, the Brothers Grimm to Hans Christian Andersen, and even the tales of Arabian Nights, the children were captivated by the rich history of these timeless stories.
It was lovely to see their surprise as they recognised so many tales, often thanks to Disney’s adaptations. These stories continue to enchant us all, proving that their messages and magic are truly timeless.
As always, thank you for your continued support. Here’s to another exciting week ahead at St Olave’s! Wishing everyone a relaxing and enjoyable weekend, I look forward to seeing you all next week.
Kind regards, Miss Holloway
The week ahead...
Lunch Menu
Safeguarding Team
This week at St Olave's
Young Voices at The O2
On Thursday, 88 of our Upper School children made the journey to The O2 to perform at the highly anticipated Young Voices 2025 Concert. They delivered a fantastic performance, singing alongside renowned artists such as MC Grammar, Strictly Come Dancing’s Tommy Blaize and 15 year old Souparnika Nair. After a busy afternoon of rehearsals, the excitement and energy in the arena at 7pm was palpable. As part of an 8000 strong choir, the children performed a variety of musical medleys, original songs and collaborations with the guest artists. A true highlight of the evening was when Andy Instone from Urban Strides led the entire arena in an all-dancing, all-bouncing ‘Garage Mash Up’!
I hope the children enjoyed it as much as I did and I am incredibly proud of them all. Be sure to check out our social media platforms for more photos and videos of the event.
Ms Tyler
Football Tournament
This week saw St Olave's host St David's on Wednesday afternoon at Footscray RFC. Our Year 4 children participated in some fun and friendly football matches. Lots of excited, engaged and determined children challenged themselves throughout the afternoon against St David's. I was really impressed with the children's attitude towards playing the games, as they were all positive and encouraging of each other, especially as it was quite a few of the children's first football fixture. Well done everyone for an excellent afternoon of sports!
Nursery
It has been busier than Santa’s workshop in Little Acorns this week. The children are loving turning empty boxes, tubes and packets into all manner of interesting models and props for their play. We have had a crane, a hoover, a steam train, a laptop and a complete outfit for a knight made out of recycled materials!! On that note, if you have any interesting boxes or tubes that you would otherwise throw away please send them in with your children and we will transform them into something wonderful!
In Special Group time we have continued to learn new letter sounds and are practising hearing the initial sounds in words. The children have practised writing letters with chalk on the playground, used their fine motor skills to make patterns with the pegs and have been grouping objects into 3’s.
Reception
This week, we took a trip down memory lane as we based our Drawing Club session on a Mr Benn story. We used the story line to create our own wetsuit, submarine and treasure the children might want to find in the ocean.
We have been LOVING learning about sea creatures and we have learnt about so many different species of fish. We have made our own creature in the creation station and written a fact about it. We have been blown away by the children’s independence and enthusiasm to write independently. We have noticed that they are including taught red words and lots of phonics sounds. We have read lots of stories this week about our ocean and a recurring theme of rubbish and waste in the ocean has been brought up. We will continue to learn more about this next week. The children are very keen to think about how we can stop this and make the oceans better for the sea life.
Next week, we look forward to learning about the Chinese New Year and visiting the library to have a story with Sally. We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Year 1
The children have been so busy this week, we are already a quarter of the way through the term and they have achieved so much!
In English, they have been learning to use conjunctions. We have used the book ‘This is the house that Jack built’ to inspire our writing. They started the week using the word ‘and’ to add description and to join two phrases to make one sentence. The children then moved on to using the word ‘because’ to add explanation and detail to sentences about characters from the story. We then moved on to using the word ‘but’ in the middle of a sentence. We were so impressed with the fantastic descriptions and explanations the children came up with!
We have continued our math topic ‘Place value to 20’ and have been looking at and completing number lines, thinking about which number may come ‘before’ or ‘after’. We then moved on to estimating where a number may come on different number lines starting from 0 and 10. The children finished the week comparing amounts using the more than and less than symbols. This may be something you want to continue to practise at home.
This week the children were excited to visit our new library. We had a browse of all the beautiful books available to read and shared some stories together. It allowed us to think about how much we love reading and how sharing stories can bring us together. The children have really enjoyed reading ‘The Enchanted Wood’ written by Enid Blyton in our faster read sessions and we know they love to come home and share this with you. We would love the children to bring in any books that they have particularly enjoyed reading at home to share with their peers throughout the year.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Year 2
We have become authors in Year 2 this week, first planning and then penning our own stories based on either ‘Not Now Bernard!’ or ‘There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon’. We have been so impressed with how creative the children have been and how hard they have been concentrating to ensure their sentences make sense.
Our money topic has come to an end in maths - we have worked hard this week to make amounts in different ways and to calculate change. Please continue to speak to your children about money so that coin recognition and familiarity continues to grow. Ask them to identify how much things cost in shops and how much change they might get. Next week we move onto multiplication and division, which we teach in stages to build confidence and understanding.
Art was fun this week as we have moved onto our new topic of ‘Sculpture and 3D’. Using our hands as tools, we explored clay and have a plan to make something new each week - look out at home as our art work will be coming home on a regular basis! Geography led us to a very current event, where we considered the wildfires currently raging in LA. Linking to our extreme weather topic, we were able to consider the cause of the fire and the impact on the area. In science we explored waterproofing and found out about Charles Macintosh!
Wow! Another whirlwind of a week! Have a fantastic weekend!
Year 3
Another fun filled week in Year 3 has been completed! This week we have been busy finishing off our multiplication and division topic and applying our knowledge to lots of different skills including solving combination and scaling problems. So, for example, if you want to know how many different outfits you can get out of 3 tops and 5 trousers or you need to know 3 times as many ingredients for your recipe the Year 3 children will be able to help you out.
Our story Fantastic Mr Fox continues this week as we were designing our own setting and characters inspired by the tale. We needed to ensure we had a similar setting (allotment, garden, woodland) and three villainous characters as well as a hero animal. Each class modelled the villains after teachers so if you hear one of us has been hunting a mouse - please do not be alarmed! We look forward to seeing how the children’s brilliant descriptions are used when we start writing our story in the next few weeks.
In Science this week Year 3 have been learning all about nutrition labels and discussing the traffic light systems shown on food packages. We understood that items high in sugar, salt and fat should be considered occasional treats and that we should seek foods that are high in energy but low in these areas. We are sure the children will be on the lookout now for nutritional information in all they eat at home and be making excellent healthy choices.
In RE we are continuing our Christianity topic and have been learning about miracles. This week we looked at the story of Jesus healing the blind. After understanding that miracles are 'extraordinary events believed to be completed by the divine’, we retold this story in our own words using images to support us.
Finally, we are heading towards the end of our current ‘Faster Read’ book - ‘The Land of Roar’. We have come to a significant build up in the storyline, as our main characters prepare and head towards the terrifying ‘Crowky’ for a final showdown. We can not wait to see how this book ends as well as to continue to develop our vocabulary and summarising skills whilst listening to it. Watch this space as we may be revealing the end before the end of half term!
Year 4
What a busy week we have had! In English, we finished off our persuasive letters to a character in one of our Scottish Folktale books. The children produced some excellent work using fronted adverbials, emotive language and rhetorical questions. As our next piece of extended writing is a newspaper report, we identified all of the features that we might find. The children particularly enjoyed learning about what a pun was! Next week, we will be planning a newspaper report and learning about direct and indirect speech.
In maths, we have focused on using our times tables knowledge to apply to related facts e.g. if we know 4 x 6 = 24, we can use this to work out 40 x 6. Any additional practice your child can do on their times tables would greatly benefit them all! We revised the column multiplication method as well and applied this to a variety of problems.
We had a chilly but fantastic games session on Wednesday. We had a large number of children take part in a football fixture, and we were so proud of their resilience and teamwork. Thank you to any parents who came and supported them. The swimming instructors have already commented on how well the children are doing, and the progress they have made since last year.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Year 5
This week, we continued to look at non-chronological reports with the children applying previously learnt cohesive devices to their writing. They have drafted, edited and published their own reports on a chosen animal, ensuring that their writing is engaging and has cohesion across the piece.
In maths, we have continued our success in written methods, applying the formal written method for multiplication to some rather tricky word problems before moving onto the written methods for division. We looked at both the bus stop method as well as the use of factor pairs to support efficient division.
We continued our exploration of Ancient Egypt, first we looked at some of the gods that the Egyptians believed in and the importance of them within their society. Taking inspiration from this, we created our own gods thinking about what they represented, symbols that they would have attributed to them and their characteristics. Finally, we discussed the importance and reasons behind why we still study this ancient civilisation today. We found out fascinating facts about their impact upon medical developments, architecture, trade and religion.
Year 6
Year 6 stepped into the world of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with gusto this week, embodying the roles of the three witches. The children have been perfecting their witchly cackles, creating a wonderfully eerie atmosphere in class! They worked on sequencing the story, using key quotes from the original play to deepen their understanding of Shakespeare’s language and themes. This dramatic exploration has ignited their imaginations and enhanced their confidence in performing and interpreting classic texts.
In science, the children tackled an important and sensitive topic: the effects of drugs and alcohol on the human body. They explored the uses of different drugs, learning how some are designed to support the circulatory system and other vital functions. Working collaboratively in pairs, they created informative posters categorising various drugs and presenting key facts about their impact on health. This activity not only expanded their knowledge but also encouraged critical thinking about how we can make healthy choices for our bodies.
In history, Year 6 learned about rationing during World War II and the impact it had on everyday life. They compared the limited food options of wartime Britain to the diverse choices we enjoy today, creating two contrasting menus: one reflecting the constraints of rationing and another showcasing a modern-day menu. This task deepened their understanding of the challenges faced by families during the war and sparked insightful discussions about resilience and creativity in difficult times.
The children also took part in a lively debate, with everyone having a turn to share their ideas and opinions. Their confidence and skills in presenting arguments have noticeably improved, and we are excited to continue developing these abilities in the coming weeks.
A highlight of the week was seeing many of our Year 6 children take part in the Young Voices Choir at the O2! It was a day and evening filled with music, excitement, and incredible performances. We are so proud of their dedication and the joy they brought to the stage.
Outdoor Learning
This week has been a mixture of outdoor work and groups carrying on with their projects. There was a huge delivery of bark chippings at the start of the week so the Year 3s and 6s got out the wheelbarrows, spades and forks and began moving them to the plot. In total, they moved 62 wheelbarrow loads in the two days! I was very impressed with their teamwork and willingness to work hard despite it being very tiring! The Year 4s continued to look at birds at the allotment and were very lucky to see a large variety of birds including a jay which we had not seen at the plot before. Year 2 were out looking at various plants to see if they were edible or not. Hopefully, it carries on being dry for the time being.
Languages
In Early Years, both Nursery and Reception carried on practising vocabulary for family and played games to reinforce the memory and use the words in context.
Year 1 has learnt the vocabulary for the extended family, and the children can now say which family members they have and how many. They have also worked on the difference between singular and plural in French.
In the Upper School, Year 3 children have revised the months and did some phonics work, and Year 4 also did phonics work. We had some very impressive scores in Year 3 and Year 4 for the game “Smash the avocado” and phonics sounds have been mastered brilliantly. In Spanish, Year 5 this week talked about family and counted up to 100.
In Latin, Year 6 children spent a day in Eboracum and bought pilulae (beads), ludus (games), stili et cerae (pens and vax tablets) amongst other objects. In grammar, the children reinforced the adjectival agreement and they worked on the difference between singular and plural.
Design & Technology
Year 3 Electronic Posters
This week Year 3 learned about the design cycle and they explored the process of generating initial design ideas for their informative posters.
Year 4 Slingshot cars
Year 4 pupils experimented with constructing custom body kits for their slingshot cars to add extra ‘muscle power’ to their final designs.
Year 5 Bridges
Pupils in Year 5 practiced accurate drawing by illustrating 3 different bridge types using rulers. They ensured that their bridges were drawn to specific dimensions with features found in arch, beam and truss bridges.
Year 6 Steady Hand Game
Year 6 pupils completed the circuits for their steady and games and they added the finishing touches to their final product designs.
Music
The children in Nursery and Reception have been focussing on rhythms this week. We rehearsed ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’ together with half of the children keeping the beat with the ‘ticking’ sound and the other half of the children singing the song (complete with sound effects!) It was tricky to ignore the other part but we did it!
Year 1 made comparisons between two pieces of music which were both about the sea, ‘By the River’ by Barrie Gledden and ‘Storm Interlude’ from Peter Grimes. The children discussed how the instruments in each piece depicted the sea environment differently, one stormy and the other calm. Year 2 created countryside soundscapes this week. In groups of 3, the children each created a countryside sound (bees, tractors, owls etc) and put their sounds together. We then created a larger soundscape by putting group sounds together. We continued our discussions about songs from the British Isles, focussing on the lyrics to ‘Lavender’s Blue’.
Year 3 applied their knowledge of the pentatonic scale from last week to compose and perform their own Chinese New Year themed pentatonic melodies. The children added further interest to their melodies by thinking about the dynamics, tempo and duration of the notes.
Year 4 created a body percussion composition to represent the forest floor and understorey creatures of the rainforest. In groups of four, the children created two body percussion rhythms to represent rainforest creatures, thinking carefully about whether the animals were slow, stompy, jumpy etc. They rehearsed and performed their rhythms together, listening carefully to each other to keep a steady beat.
Year 5 learnt to play a series of chord progressions along to the song they’ve been learning, ‘Shosholoza’. We worked in pairs and then came together as a class to perform as one bigger group. The children used xylophones, glockenspiels, keyboards and guitars to play their chords. Great team work Year 5! (Video below)
Year 6 recapped the differences between WW1 and WW2 music from last week. We then went on to learn the song, ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’. During our discussions, we focussed on what the lyrics might mean to both troops and families back at home. We looked at images of Dover’s white cliffs and discussed how they would have been a great defence. We also talked about what the ‘bluebirds’ in the song might represent. The children have taken the music score home to learn and sing along on their various instruments!
Postcards of Praise
Community News
Tooled Up Education Webinars
Tooled Up Education warmly invites you to register for their upcoming February 2025 webinars:
LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER
Everything Parents need to know about Roblox
January 27, 2025, 10:00-11:00 GMT
Former Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Howard, dives into the in-depth world of 'Roblox'; a popular online gaming platform. Lucy will be addressing all your questions about what Roblox is, its different features, potential risks, and how to protect your child. Don’t miss your last chance to register for this webinar!
Helping Children and Young People Accept Themselves and Their Autism Diagnosis
February 19, 2025, 12:30-13:30 GMT
Join us and Chris Bonnello, autistic advocate, speaker, author and former teacher, who will be talking to us about navigating the post-diagnosis world of autism. The webinar will help you understand how to talk to your child and help them build positive self-perception. It will also shed light on the factors that help an autistic young person grow into the best adult they can be.
A Parents' and Educators' Guide to Medication for Autism and Anxiety
February 24, 2025, 19:30-20:30 GMT
Join us for this webinar with leading Professor of Psychiatry Peter Hill, who can answer any and all parent and educators' questions, live or in advance of the session.
Chislehurst May Queen
Chislehurst May Queen is a longstanding tradition in our local community having existed for more than 100 years. Practice of the maypole dance is from February to End April every Monday, 4.30 to 5.45 except for school holidays , at the Methodist Church Hall in Chislehurst. The annual Crowning of the May Queen ceremony takes place at Chislehurst Common 1st Saturday in May.
We welcome any new enquiries to join our lovely friendly group of Maypole dancers. New registration is now open for children aged 5+. The first practice session is a Free Taster but we do need to register children initially beforehand.