We just wanted to say a BIG thank you to everyone for making our first Christmas Bazaar such a success. It was wonderful to see the Mayor of Thurrock and so many people from the local community coming along to join the fun and support our staff and students. Well done to all our students who helped decorate the tree, came up with all the stall ideas (including ‘guess the weight of the cake’ and ‘guess the name of the elf!’). Our students also helped make the cake and soup which was served at the bazaar. Father Christmas was very busy meeting our younger guests (with Jet the elf by his side!) and the raffle winners left with some fantastic prizes. Thank you to all those who gave so generously and made it such a joyful occasion for the whole academy community. Happy Christmas everyone!
Congratulations to Ethan Renshaw whose intricate design and hand drawn artwork has been selected by a panel of judges to be the Olive Academies official Christmas card for 2019. His design has been professionally printed and sent out to all the academies across the Olive Academies’ network in London and East of England. We are so proud of Ethan and the beautiful work he produced. Runners-up prize was also awarded to Keigan Lloyd for his artistic designs.
Olive AP Academy – Thurrock had a great night at this year’s Thurrock Education Awards held on Friday 29th November 2019. The prestigious awards night brings together all schools, EYFS settings and colleges from across Thurrock. There were over 430 nominations for the awards this year and Olive Academies was delighted that Adam Guilbert, Teacher at Olive AP Academy – Thurrock, was a finalist in the “Excellence in English or science, technology, engineering or maths” category. Our very own Jackie Shepherd-Ashby went on to win the award for “Teaching and school support of the year”. Mark Vickers, Chief Executive of Olive Academies, joined the Thurrock academy team at the event and congratulated Jackie on her much deserved win which rightly recognised her expertise and commitment to supporting our academy students. Councillor James Halden, Cabinet Member for Education and Health at Thurrock Council, spoke at the event, “We have so much to celebrate in Thurrock schools; together reaching 19,000 children, serving our most vulnerable and seeing only 1.5% NEET. Tonight is important to showcase Thurrock to strengthen our values of ambition & inclusion” We know that awards aren’t everything but it was fantastic to see our highly skilled academy staff being recognised for their expertise by colleagues from other local schools and academies – and by the local community.
Here is a copy of the letter sent to all parents and carers about our Christmas Bazaar: Dear Parent/Carer Olive Academy Christmas Bazaar – Wednesday 11 December 4pm to 7pm We are very excited to let you know about our first ever Olive Academy Christmas Bazaar taking place on Wednesday 11 December from 4pm to 7pm, and we very much hope you and your family and friends can come along and join in with the festivities. We are inviting residents from the Thurrock area and the Bazaar is being opened by the Mayor of Thurrock. We are planning a variety of stalls, activities, entertainment and festive fun for all the family, including: Santa’s Grotto Free mulled wine and mince pies Indoor bouncy castle Aveley Brass Band Raffle Beauty treatments Sweet cart Tombola Bric a brac Turkey rolls Guest film director/actor And many more ……….. Our students are working with their coaches to set up and run a number of stalls during the Bazaar and we would very much welcome any donations you are able to make for any of the following: Bric a brac Nearly new clothes Raffle prizes Food and household items for a Christmas food bank Students will be finishing at 12.30pm on the day to give staff time to get the academy set up for the event. All students will be given the opportunity to order a take-away lunch and taxi arrangements will be amended as necessary. All money raised during the Bazaar will be used to purchase gym equipment for our academy. Please feel free to invite your friends and family as we would really like our first ever Bazaar to be enjoyed by all. Yours sincerely Collette Hunnisett Headteacher
We are delighted to announce the arrival of a new member of the Olive AP Academy – Thurrock team. Jet is an eight year old retired racing greyhound and joins the academy as our therapy dog. After finishing her racing career due to an injury she has been up and down the country winning rosettes and trophies including being shown at the biggest dog show in the world, Crufts. Jet is now a therapy dog for Canine Concern. Jet will be visiting our academy as part of Canine Concern’s Read to Dogs programme. The programme aims to support students who find it difficult to read, need to develop their reading confidence or want to improve their reading skills.
We were so excited to welcome author Ken Preston to the academy on Wednesday 11th September as part of our celebrations of International Literacy Day. Ken is an author who has written many books, mostly young adult fiction featuring tales of vampires, pirates, dinosaurs, ghosts and more. Ken worked with groups of our students in the academy and set them creative writing challenges. Our students were inspired by Ken and his advice. Ken said after his visit, “It was my absolute pleasure to visit you today. You’re doing amazing work and you have some quite frankly very talented creative writing students among you.” We couldn’t agree more!
The Orsett Show in Thurrock is one of the oldest country fairs in England. Last Sunday 8th September, our academy set up their own stand at the show to let the local community know about the academy and share the good work and homemade crafts created by our students. It was a fantastic opportunity for the academy to be part of a community event and let more people in Thurrock know about Olive AP Academy – Thurrock, our students and staff. We thought we would share a few photos of our stand…
