Friday 26th April

Happy Friday to all of our wonderful families!

As always, it has been a busy and exciting week here at Olive Hill.  We have been fortunate enough to welcome several visitors into school to support both our children and adults with their personal development.

DORCAS (a charity committed to protecting young people) have spent time in school this week supporting personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) lessons in year three and year four.  The children spent an afternoon working with DORCAS in an age-appropriate session called, ‘My Body Belongs to Me’. The children were extremely engaged and asked lots of sensible questions.  DORCAS were also able to offer us a parent/carer session at the start of the week to explain their work and answer any questions.

On Thursday, year two had a riveting afternoon taking part in a ‘Little Makers’ workshop which was delivered by the Black Country Museum. Our visitors brought a range of historical artefacts with them including tin baths, pewter mugs, enamel chamber pots, metal spoons, brushes and washboards. The children then used these to make a fantastic musical composition to depict a day in the life of a factory worker by experimenting with tempo, dynamics, pitch, timbre and beat.  The staff from the museum complimented the children on their excellent behaviour throughout the afternoon. Well done, year two!

At Olive Hill, we are committed to developing every person who walks through our doors and this week adults from across the school participated in a professional learning session led by Stephen Fessey. The session looked at neurodiversity and strategies to support all children to thrive in school environments.

Over the next three weeks our year six children have a very busy and important schedule. Next week (beginning 29th April) is MOCK SATs week. During this week, the children will sit practice SATs papers under test conditions that replicate the real SATs.  Our year six children will sit their real SATs on Monday 13th May, Tuesday 14th May, Wednesday 15th May and Thursday 16th May. It is imperative that all children are in school and on time every day. Every minute of learning counts!

Enriching the curriculum for our wonderful children is very important to us here at Olive Hill as we see the huge difference this can make to their learning, self-confidence and aspirations.

We love to make the most of all the opportunities around us, including you!

We are extremely fortunate to have had support from our parent community this year: delivering assemblies on various celebrations, supporting art and music enrichment sessions and bringing the curriculum to life. We are always grateful for the time people can give to our children and we welcome you to come and speak to a member of staff at school if there is something you would like to support us with. This could be volunteering to hear children read, coming in to share your occupation/career with a relevant class or supporting with an assembly.

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

Bethany Homer23/24