21 January 2025

Dear Parents/Carers,

As you all know our infant block was flooded in November, when a pipe burst in Nursery causing damage to five of our classrooms and four of our intervention spaces. We are pleased to report that the affected areas have been successfully dried out and remedial building work to refit the classrooms is well underway.

We have been informed, that we will be able to use the affected spaces after half term. In order to facilitate this, it will be necessary to close all of the classrooms in the infant block and the current Year 3 Pandas learning space on Monday 24^th February. This will enable large items such as furniture as well as all of the resources to be set up in readiness for the children. Our Local Authority have granted us this so that we can restore a sense or normality as quickly as possible following a term of disruption for our children.

It has been agreed, that we can close the entire infant block to facilitate the unloading of the storage containers on site, which have housed all of the items that were retained from the classrooms. This means that we cannot have children working within this block while this is undertaken. Additional support will be made available to school on Monday 24^th February to move the items from the storage containers, as well as from the hall and small hall which are currently being used as learning spaces, so that our classrooms can be fully restored and be ready for the children to use from Tuesday 25^th February.

Gibbons, Leopards, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 will be in school as normal on Monday 24^th February 2025.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the children, staff and yourselves for your support and patience, whilst we have navigated a unique situation which has affected so many aspects of school life. We are very much looking forward to resuming school life and activities as we had originally planned for them in the second half of the Spring Term.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Chamberlain                  Mrs Gray

Head Teacher                      Deputy Head Teacher

Dear Song Squad Parents/Carers,

Due to some of Song Squad attending Young Voices on Tuesday 14^th January, the Song Squad after school club will be cancelled on that day. 

Regards,

Miss Morgan and Miss Laishley

Office Manager

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please note there will be no girls football on Monday 20^th January because we have a staff meeting.  Girls football will be on as usual next week (Monday 13^th January).

Thank you.

Regards,

Miss Walton & Miss Turner

Dear Parents/Carers,

In the last couple of years, the children have very much enjoyed the pantomime coming to Olton and this year, once again, we will have the panto in-house again. A number of parents have asked about the children going to the theatre to watch the pantomime. Unfortunately, the cost of tickets and coaches can be prohibitive but we will continue to review this each year.

On Thursday 23^rd January 2025, M & M Theatre Productions will be in school delivering two performances of A Christmas Carol.  One for KS2 and one for KS1, Reception and Nursery.  The two performances will enable us to have a smaller number of children in the hall to allow more space. On this day, to facilitate the panto in the hall, our Reception classes and Pandas class will use the marquee as a base for the morning when they are not in the hall watching the panto.

We are requesting a £2.50 contribution per child to cover the cost.  We know from last year’s performance how much the children enjoyed and gained from the experience.  The children love the fun and laughter that comes with the Pantomime and very much look forward to such events.

The £2.50 contribution has been showing on ParentPay since September to give parents as much time to pay as possible. We ask that payments are made on or before 10^th January 2025.  As per the email at the end of last week, if you require a barcoded letter, please contact us so we can arrange to send this home in your child’s bag prior to the payment deadline.

As this is an event on school site during school time, all children will attend the pantomime. If you do not wish for your child to attend the panto, please let us know using the link.

https://forms.office.com/e/bupm4mqL1h

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Chamberlain                  Mrs Gray

Head Teacher                       Deputy Head Teacher

Good afternoon Parents/Carers

Happy New Year to you all.

This is a gentle reminder, the contribution of £2.50 for the pupils to attend the Panto is due no later than next Friday 10 January 2025.  At present, we have received 24% of contributions.

The payment item is set up on your ParentPay account.  If you require a barcode letter then please let us know by Tuesday 7 January and we will ensure your child brings this home with them.

Many thanks

Kind regards

Mrs T Chakmak
 

Finance Officer/Orchards Admin Officer

Good afternoon Parents/Carers,

This is a gentle reminder, the contribution payment of £5.00 for the above event is due on or before LUNCHTIME this Friday 20 December 2024 on ParentPay.

Please be aware, that should we need to cancel the event, anyone that has paid, will receive a full refund.

Many thanks

Kind Regards

Mrs T Chakmak

Finance Officer/Wraparound Admin Officer

Many thanks

Kind Regards

Mrs T Chakmak

Finance Officer/Wraparound Admin Officer

FOR THE ATTENTION OF CHILDREN IN SONG SQUAD CLUB

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please note that we will no Song Squad on Tuesday 17^th December 2024 even though they have one more visit to Mereside Care Home. 

The children in Song Squad have been amazing and sung beautifully at all the events they have attended.  I think they are all practiced out!

Song Squad will resume on Tuesday 7^th January 2025, 3-4pm.  Well done Song Squad.

Regards,

Miss Morgan and Miss Laishley

Song Squad Leaders

Olton Primary School

Dear Parents/Carers

Christmas Raffle to be held on Monday 16^th December 2024

We have been able to acquire some more fantastic prizes for our Christmas raffle. Tickets cost £1 each.

These include

• 2 x Aqua Sport Scuba Diving passes

• 2 x £100 Farm Foods voucher
• A family day pass for Flash Climbing
• £15 Entertainer Voucher
• 2 x Food Hampers
• £20 Morrison’s Voucher
• £25.00 Resorts World Voucher
• Notcutts Gift Hamper
• Family Pie - Eric Lyons
• Elemis Facial – Charlotte Elizabeth Beauty Luxury Facial
• Bottle of Prosecco
• 2 x £30 Wagamama Vouchers
• £25.00 Touchwood Voucher
• Acocks Green Bowling Voucher
• £10.00 Famfood Voucher
• Becketts Farm £20.00 Voucher
• Tap and Tandoor Solihull - £50.00 voucher
• Beech House Pizza for Two voucher
• Desco Lounge £50.00 Voucher
• Desco Lounge Meal for Two
• Twenty Pound Nail 4 u voucher

In addition received this week

£100.00 Restaurant Voucher

Children's Party Voucher (upto £250.00) Tudor Grange Everyone Active

1 Adult Free 1 month Fitness membership - Everyone Active

1 Adult 1 month Free swim membership - Everyone Active

7 day Free Guest Pass - Everyone Active

A further Hamper

       JVC – 40” Full HD TV

       1 Bottle/2 glasses of Laurent Perrier Champagne

       PS5 Call of Duty Game

       Stihl Shrub Shears set

       Dewalt 18v Cordless

       Milwauklee drill and impact driver

10 tickets with their duplicates were attached to the letter sent home with your child on 26 November 2024. If you wish to purchase all or any of these please return one of the raffle tickets to school, with your name and a contact number written on the back of each ticket and the correct money in a sealed envelope labelled ‘Raffle’ by Friday 13^th December. The envelope must be handed to class teachers.  Please note that admin staff will not be able to accept these. You will retain the other ticket for your own reference.

If you require extra tickets, please ask at reception and then repeat the above process to enter them into the draw.

If you win a prize you will be notified by Tuesday 17 December 2024.

Funds raised from this year’s Christmas events will help the school add to resources ruined in the flood and to design and install a mural on the junior playground wall.

Good luck everyone.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Neal

Olton PTA

Good afternoon Parents/Carers,

This is a gentle reminder, that if your child is having a Christmas Lunch this week, can you kindly ensure you have sufficient credit of £2.90 on your ParentPay account on the day before 8.30am.

Many thanks

Kind Regards

Mrs T Chakmak

Finance Officer/Wraparound Admin Officer

Dear Parents and Carers,

Hot Meals Update

It has been a week or so, since I last updated you all on how the remedial works are progressing in the damaged parts of our school building. The flood-damaged areas have been completely stripped of flooring and other water-affected items and the process of drying out the floor and sublayers is well underway. We anticipate that the drying process will take us up until Christmas, when hopefully the process of rebuilding the class spaces and pods will start promptly in the new year. I am sure many of you will have noticed the giant marquee which has been put up over the last few days and as you will know, this is an important part of the recovery plan to allow us to start reintroducing some hot food options at lunchtime. Once we are using the marquee space we will be able to consider whether we can use it for activities other than lunchtime.

I am very pleased to report that from Monday 2^nd December, we will be able to introduce jacket potatoes as a hot meal option alongside our existing cold options. The logistics of transporting food prepared in our kitchen safely to the marquee and keeping it warm has been quite a challenge - not to mention how we supply sufficient electricity and internet connectivity to power the catering till system. This is, I am pleased to report, all in hand and we hope that by starting with jacket potatoes, the catering team will be able to build upon this and start to offer a wider selection of hot food over time - not to forget Christmas lunch too! For the week beginning 2^nd December, the menu options will be either a cold lunch option; ham, tuna or cheese sandwich or a jacket potato with either cheese, cheese and beans, beans or tuna as a topping. A plain jacket potato will also be available. There will be a selection of desserts available daily too. This is a positive first step towards restoring a little bit of lunchtime normality for children in Years 1- 6 and the opportunity to eat their meal outside of their classroom. Pupils in Reception will continue to have their meal served in their learning spaces and will have the jacket potato option too, from next week. Nursery will continue to have a cold option available and eat in their classroom as they always do.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our colleagues at the Local Authority and also Solihull Catering for their support in enabling us to reach this stage in a relatively short amount of time. I hope that you too, feel this is a positive step forward and I will keep you updated with developments regarding the repairs and additions to the hot lunch menu as soon as more information is available.

Thank you again for the overwhelming support and kindness during this challenging time at Olton.

Kind regards,

Mr Chamberlain, Mrs Gray and the team at Olton

Olton Primary School