Loading

Newsletter 8th March 2019

From the Head

This week Luisa Stevens from Marie Curie took an assembly to raise awareness of the wonderful work they are doing. She also introduced us to her bear, Henry. Thank you to everyone who has donated and bought a daffodil this week. It is always nice to know our fundraising goes towards such great causes. The daffodils will be outside school next week so there is still time to donate in the mornings if you have not done so.

As part of our campaign to become more eco aware, we would like to help you with your home recycling. If anyone has any 2 litre plastic drinks bottles that they are disposing of (hopefully recycling), please could you bring them in to school and give them to Mrs Farrell under the bridge. We are going to reuse these to grow some willow for some exciting upcoming projects; watch this space for more details! Mr Pradic is still collecting cardboard toilet roll inner tubes for the allotments; these can also be brought to Mrs Farrell and will be recycled. Thank you for your support.

Please do read the rest of the Newsletter carefully so that you don't miss out on any important news or announcements. Please follow us on Twitter to see all the exciting opportunities available to your children; see the links above for the main school page and above each class for the individual class pages.

Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you next week and hearing all about Year 5's residential visit to the Isle of Wight.

Kind regards, Miss Holloway

Headteacher

Parents’ Evenings

Parents’ Evenings take place on Wednesday 20th March 2019, 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm and Thursday 21st March 2019, 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm. We are using the online system to enable parents to make appointments to see the class teacher and any additional teachers. From Sunday 10th at 10:00 am you will be able to log on to https://stolavespreparatory.parentseveningsystem.co.uk

You will need to log on with your child’s forename and surname. Class teachers are available on both evenings. The availability of additional teachers will be made clear after logging on.

Please note that appointments with class teachers are 10 minutes each (your booking confirmation will show 15 minutes) and appointments with additional teachers are 5 minutes each (your booking confirmation will show 10 minutes). This is to allow sufficient time to get to your next appointment, if applicable.

After School Club will run as usual on Wednesday 20th March to 6pm and will also be available from 6-8pm for parents who require to use it during Parents’ Evening at £3.60 per child.

After School Club will run as usual on Thursday 21st March to 6pm and will also be available from 5-7pm for parents who require to use it during Parents’ Evening at £3.60 per child.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the School Office.

World Book Day 2019

On Thursday, the school came alive with children dressed as their favourite book characters and classroom doors decorated as favourite books! The day began with a costume parade on the playground. I was overwhelmed by the variety of book characters and the amount of effort and thought that had been put into each costume. Well done to the winners of our ‘best dressed’ competition; it was not an easy decision! We also welcomed Sally from New Eltham library who spoke to the children in assembly about everything on offer at our local library and encouraging the children to visit. Chloe in 6B, our library monitor, then took Sally on a tour of the school so that she could judge our ‘design a door’ competition. The winners were 4OS with their Doctor Who door and our Early Years team with The Three Little Pigs. It was a wonderful day celebrating books and reading. We look forward to the celebrations continuing next week when we welcome Sarah McIntyre, a children’s author and illustrator, to school.

Polite Reminder

Please can we remind all parents to let school know as soon as possible if someone other than yourselves is collecting your child after school. You can do this by informing Mrs Farrell on the gate, calling the school office or writing a message in the contact book.

Thank you

Year 6

What a fun-filled week Year 6 have had! We started the week by having Footscray Rugby Club to ourselves, as Year 5 have been in the Isle of Wight for the week. Despite a few rain showers and the wind, we enjoyed the activities, including a sports quiz, in our Carousel groups.

In maths, we have been learning how to multiply and divide fractions by integers. We found the use of the ‘KFC’ method for dividing particularly helpful. This is where we keep the first fraction, flip the last fraction and change the operation from division to multiplication. We revised how to use BIDMAS to solve a variety of fraction number sentences.

In English, we have continued to read our book, Varmints. ‘The others’ have taken over the land so much that the Varmints have stopped thinking for themselves. Representing various perspectives, we planned and took part in a debate about whether it is a good idea for the Varmints to embrace the changes ‘the others’ have brought with them. We’ll have to wait and see when we read more of our book if this a positive change.

On Wednesday, 6M shared their class assembly with the whole school and their parents. They shared work based on our book, Varmints, and our first ever Rights Respecting Day relating to air pollution. All of the children had learnt their lines perfectly and spoke their lines with clear voices - well done. They ended the assembly by singing ‘A Million Dreams’ from the Greatest Showman film; it was lovely how the whole school joined in.

On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day. We were very impressed by the variety of costumes and the effort all of the children had gone to. We took part in the BBC Live Lesson and the children were inspired by the authors they saw; some children said they wanted to read the books as a result of hearing extracts from them. We also had a visit from the librarian, Sally, from New Eltham library. She came to judge our class doors, which have been decorated in books voted for by the children.

Year 4

Another fabulous week in Year 4 with excitement building all week for World Book Day! Each class has chosen a book to decorate their door on and had lots of fun in the designing process. We were amazed, as always, by the effort put in to the children’s costumes -the BFG even came to visit, as you will see below. We took part in a BBC Live Lesson especially for World Book Day and enjoyed tasks linked to different authors.

In maths we are continued developing our understanding of division - we have used a variety of methods and a whole host of different resources to understand and visualise the process. Our home learning this week consolidates all of our learning so far on multiplication and division, so please encourage your children to explain to you the different methods we have been practising. If there are any questions they are unsure of, please encourage them to have a go, and reassure them that we will be going through the solutions together in class on Monday.

All of the children are making steady progress in their daily spelling lessons. Please can we ask for your support in encouraging the children to look at and use their spelling log books at home. These should come home every day and if your child can spend just 5 minutes re-capping the rule, practising their tricky words or explain to you their application of the rule, this would help greatly. Thank you very much.

As we are now in the Spring term, there is no longer any need for your child to wear a base layer or ‘skins’ for their PE and games lessons. Children should be wearing their school PE kit and bring their tracksuit with them in case of colder weather. Thank you for your support with this.

Year 3

Year 3 only seem to do busy weeks now. In addition to our normal activities such as swimming and games, this week we have also had the excitement of World Book Day and the intellectual stimulation of our trip to Kew Gardens!

Monday began with our visit to south west London and the world famous Kew Gardens. They had the experience of the Palm House, simulating a tropical rainforest. The children undertook a range of activities centred around the rainforest, such as taking measurements of soil and air temperature as well humidity levels to compare the rainforest climate to that of our own. We also discovered how many plants and animals in the rainforest have a symbiotic relationship and learnt a little about how important the rainforest is for us. It was a very interesting day and proved a great entry point for our next IPC topic ‘Saving the World’.

On World Book Day, the range and imagination which have characterised the costumes worn by the children was amazing. We would like to thank both the children and you, their parents, for entering into the spirit of the occasion so brilliantly.

Year 2

The children were thrilled to share their work with you on Monday afternoon. They had spent part of Monday morning collecting all of their books together and looking through their favourite pieces with their friends. It was nice to see the children reminisce on their learning experiences and to be confident about explaining what they had done in lessons. We hope that you enjoyed this time as much as the children did!

We worked hard on transforming our classroom doors for World book Day. 2DS made a beautiful tiger and lots of cakes to depict Judith Kerr’s much loved story, “The Tiger Who Came to Tea”, whilst 2R changed themselves into mini wizards on broomsticks to create a Harry Potter themed door! With a variety of amazing doors, from Mr Men and The BFG to each of the Three Little Pigs’ houses, Sally, the librarian certainly had a hard competition to judge within the EYFS and the Lower School!

On Tuesday, the children did a mini maths assessment to complete our multiplication topic and showed a real understanding of this area. They will revisit times tables in maths again later on in the term. Please continue to practise the 2, 5 and 10 times table facts at home so that these calculations come automatically to the children and they can start to use their knowledge in problem solving situations such as, “I have eight 5p coins and twelve 2p coins in my money box. How much money have I got altogether?” These more complex problems draw upon multiplication and addition knowledge at the same time and are certainly more challenging.

On Thursday we all enjoyed World Book Day. The children looked fantastic in their costumes and spoke enthusiastically about their book characters that they had chosen to become. Talking about story characters, recommending favourite books and reading everyday is the key to learning across the curriculum and the start of something special. ~ When children become lost in a book, it is a joy to see! Please model reading at home so that your children see you immersed in a good book (or even a newspaper). Young children are impressionable and will always copy their parents and family members. If children see you reading, they too will pick up a book. Being read to every day is also really important so please continue with bedtime stories!

In IPC, the children learnt more about Lord Nelson and his battles. Next week, having studied both Columbus and Nelson, we thought it would be nice to look at a lady at sea who was brave, caring and inspirational. She is the reason that we have the RNLI today. Can you guess who it is? We will tell you more about her next week. Have a great weekend!

Year 1

In preparation for our visit to The Museum of Childhood next Wednesday, we have been focusing on a new story called ‘Lost at the Toy Museum’ by David Lucas. The children loved the idea of the toys coming to life at night. They explored the main character the old toy cat and developed their questioning skills. The children learnt how to use question words and question marks to find out information about Bunting. Using the questions they thought of, the children used the hot seating technique to ask their questions and to role play the character of Bunting.

Thank you to all our parents/guardians for attending the Parents Sharing Afternoon on Tuesday. The children were thrilled to share all their learning with you. We hope you were impressed with your children’s progress.

On Thursday it was World Book Day and as part of the celebrations, the children took part in two exciting competitions. Each class had to design their own classroom door to celebrate their favourite books and a winner was chosen for the best dressed book character. We were very impressed with the thought and effort that had gone into each costume.

In maths, the children have been practising their subtraction skills. We have been using numicon, bar modelling, the part whole model, number stories and number lines to count back. The children now know to start with the biggest number when subtracting and are getting quicker at responding to mental maths questions. Please continue to help your child learn their number bonds to 10 at speed as this will help them as they move up the school.

For our IPC topic ‘The Magic Toymaker’ the children have started to create their own puppets. This week the children have all tried to make their own string puppet of Pinocchio. They have also started to make their own insect finger puppets to use for role play. If you have any puppets at home that you are happy to lend to the school for the rest of term we would be very grateful.

Reception

“I’ll huff and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow the house down...”

This week the children retold the story of the three little pigs. They used book creator to take pictures of the straw house, stick house and brick house on the iPads.

Our classroom doors looked amazing. Each door was a different house from the three little pigs. Can you spot the wolf?

We welcomed another parent this week. Thank you Ms Murray who came in and explained all about her job as a hairdresser. The children tried putting in rollers and dying hair green and purple. We also watched Ms Murray plait hair, we have been trying this ourselves in the classroom using ribbon. Reception enjoyed role playing trips to the hairdressers, they pretended to wash and dry each others hair, adding bows and flowers to finish off their looks.

Nursery

This week the children have been learning all about hairdressers. We were lucky to have Mrs Murray visit us with some of her equipment and teach us some of her skills. She showed us how to colour hair, plait it, curl it and explained about the different tools she uses. She brought in some amazing heads with real hair that we could practise on. All the children were keen to have a go and this extended into the outside area where an impromptu hair salon was quickly set up and all the appointment slots have already been filled!

A huge thank you to Mrs Murray for sparing her time.

The children then transferred some of these newly acquired skills to complete a new game on the IPads. They used their creative flair to wash, cut, colour and style various clients in the hair salon. This activity caused a lot of laughter, especially when viewing the finished products.

We have also planted some cress seeds this week to make cress heads. The children are eagerly waiting for them to grow so that they can give them a haircut and eat the cress.

On Thursday we took part in World Book Day. All the children and staff made a huge effort to come as a book character. Can you guess which characters we were?

Next week we will be learning about shopkeepers as well as taking part in a World Book Day workshop and Red Nose Day activities.

Have a lovely weekend.

Other

Red Nose Day

This year we are raising money for Red Nose Day by asking children to pay £2 to wear a funny face to school on Friday 15th March and come to the Talent Show in the afternoon. A “funny face” could include a red nose, a wig, or a painted face. They still need to wear their full school uniform.

The Red Nose Day Talent Spotting Team have been busy all week holding auditions. Congratulations to all the children who have auditioned, you were amazing! Year 5 children will have their auditions next week.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs Farrell

FRSC News

Quiz Night 29th March - tickets on sale - see flyer at the end of this Newsletter

Second hand uniform Sale 1st April 2.30 - 4.30pm - flyer attached

We will be accepting any donations of secondhand uniform from Monday 18th March. Please remove name labels. (No shirts or blouses thank you.)

FRSC Monthly Draw

February’s draw has been made. Congratulations to the following:

  • 1st James (5I)
  • 2nd James (5I)
  • 093rd Mrs Brame

Match Funding

Many large companies offer match funding benefits to employees - where they match a figure your chosen charity raises - up to £700 per time. We'd love to hear from anyone whose company offers this benefit, as we are a registered charity and could therefore increase the revenue from the events we run enormously. If just a handful of parents stepped forward it would make a massive difference. Your HR department will be able to confirm if your company participates in the scheme - most large banks do, as well as other sectors.

The Giving Machine

Remember, when you are shopping online you can generate a free cash donation for us just by clicking via www.TheGivingMachine.co.uk. You’ll find over 2,200 of the most popular stores, so it’s easy for you to make a difference without it costing you a penny more than the normal purchase price of your item. Your shopping has already raised over £100 for St Olave’s so please remember to shop through this link whenever you are shopping online!

St Olave’s School Trust on TheGivingMachine: https://www.thegivingmachine.co.uk/causes/st-olaves-school-trust-266085

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a copyright violation, please follow the DMCA section in the Terms of Use.