Key Dates
Wednesday 6th December
Year 2 Heather & Clover visit Cornerstone Church
Thursday 7th December
Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day
Year 2 Heather class assembly at 9:00 am
Year 2 Bracken visit Cornerstone Church
Friday 8th December
HOME LEARNING SHOWCASE for Years 1 - 6
PSA Festive Magic Show for Years 1 & 2 at 5:30 pm in the Large Hall
Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th December
PSA Christmas Tree sale outside school
Friday 15th December
Nursery & Reception Festive Concert at 9:00 am in the Large Hall
PSA Year 2 cake sale
PSA Festive Disco for Years 3 & 4 (5:45 pm) and 5 & 6 (7:30 pm) in the Large Hall
Monday 18th December
Year 1 Festive Concert at 9:00 am in the Large Hall
Christmas Lunch for children & staff
Year 2 Festive Concert at 2:30 pm in the Large Hall
Tuesday 19th December
Year 3 & 4 Festive Concert at All Saints Church, Kingston (10:15 - 11:00 am)
Year 5 & 6 Festive Concert at All Saints Church, Kingston (1:30 - 2:30 pm)
Wednesday 20th December
Class Christmas parties (mufti/party dress up day) and pantomime performances
Thursday 21st December - last day of term & mufti (non-uniform) day
SCHOOL CLOSES AT 1:30 PM
Friday 22nd December - Friday 5th January
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY
Key dates for this school year are published here. Some of these dates are provisional, and all dates are subject to change — please refer to this newsletter and communications via ParentPay for the latest information.
Click here for term dates including INSET days. Term dates for the 2024/2025 school year are now published.
Reminders
Home Learning Grids
This half-term's Home Learning Grids are posted on your Home Learning Google Classrooms. Work should be completed in time for the class Home Learning Showcases in school on Friday 8th December.
Childcare Vouchers
If you plan to use Childcare Vouchers or Tax-free Childcare (TFC) payments to pay for Tree Tops sessions next term, please ensure that you arrange for their transfer before Friday 8th December to ensure that they reach us and can be processed before the end of term. The school is closed over the holiday period and any vouchers or payments received during this time will not be processed until January, when school reopens.
This week was the last week for French, Spanish and Cine Film Club - these clubs will not run next week. The last session for Athletics will be held on Friday 8th December. All other clubs will end on Friday 15th December. You can find the term dates for clubs on the website here. Booking for spring term clubs will open during the week of 11th December. The schedule will remain the same as this term for most clubs except Cine Film Club, which will move to a Monday, and Start to Sing, which will move to a Tuesday.
School Photographs
School photographs have been sent out today with the children. If you ordered a photograph but have not received it, or have any other queries, please contact the photographer, Kans Bahara, directly on 07931 593 169. You can still order a photograph, but a £3.50 delivery charge will apply for all prints.
Festive Celebrations
Autumn end of term celebrations will begin at Fern Hill on Thursday 7th December with our Christmas Jumper Day. Children are invited to join in the festive fun and show their support for Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day by wearing a Christmas jumper instead of their school uniform jumper or cardigan. Please don't feel you have to buy your child a Christmas jumper if they don't already have one - a decorated school jumper is perfect! This is not a mufti day, so children should still wear their school polo shirt or shirt and tie and school skirt or trousers. We will be setting up a JustGiving page for any donations you would like to make to the Save the Children charity and further information will be sent out next week.
Friday 15th December is the first day of our Festive Concerts with Nursery and Reception children performing for their families. Please see the Key Dates section for details of each year group's concert.
If your child would like to give Christmas cards to their friends, please send them in by Monday 18th December. The children can post them in their class post boxes, and they will be handed out during the last week of term.
Our whole school Christmas Lunch for children and staff will be held on Monday 18th December. The menu is now available to view on ParentPay. If you have already ordered a meal for this day, you will need to log in to ParentPay and make a new meal selection. Orders should be placed by 8:00 am on the day as usual.
Wednesday 20th December is our Christmas Party Day. It is a mufti (non-uniform) day and the children may wear party clothes to school. Each class will have a party lunch in their classroom, and we will be asking all families to donate party food that will be shared by all the children. Please look out for further information next week.
Children in Reception through to Year 6 will also enjoy a very special performance of the pantomime Snow White and Nursery children will be entertained by Froggle the Magican. Thank you so much to the PSA for funding this.
Thursday 21st December is the last day of the autumn term. It’s a mufti (non-uniform) day and school will close at 1:30 pm. Tree Tops will run a full session from 1:30 – 4:30 pm only and must be booked in advance through ParentPay.
KCAH Christmas Appeal
This week, we welcomed Georgie Foreshaw from the Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness organisation into school. Georgie delivered an assembly to the children on homelessness and the work the organisation do to help people to secure a safe and stable home and start rebuilding their lives. KCAH are running a Christmas campaign to help raise funds to support this work, and are asking for our help to contribute to their Shoebox Appeal. You can read more about the campaign here.
Could you help your child to fill an empty shoebox with basic everyday essentials for a person who is sleeping rough? Hand sanitiser, warm socks, a hat and gloves, vitamins, heat pads or handwarmers, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant and baby wipes are all useful and practical items. Small toys for a child and a seasonal gift for a young person or adult family member would also be greatly appreciated. Filled shoeboxes should be dropped off at school by Monday 11th December, when KCAH will collect them to distribute to those in need.
Book Fair
Thank you all for your incredible support of the Book Fair this week; thanks also to the TKA students who helped children to choose books and did all the sums! We took £1504.13 in sales and have earned a fantastic £902.48 worth of rewards to buy lots of lovely new books for our school library! Happy reading...
A huge thank you to our school librarian, Mrs Rouillard, who made all this happen!
Book of the Week
'Koku Akanbi and the Heart of Midnight' by Maria Motunrayo Adebisi
When Kòkú is suspended from school for accidentally breaking a museum artefact, his uncle packs him off on a plane to Olori, the country where he was born, to learn about his roots. But when he arrives, he finds a strange country, simmering with magic and buckling under the strain of 23 hours of daylight. He learns that the ruling tribe are trying to destroy the mythic 'Night Stone' to eliminate the final hour of darkness and vanquish the night and all creatures of the night once and for all. Together with the resentful Mọremí and her magical hair, and the cheerful shapeshifting Ọ̀ṣọ́ọ̀sì, Kòkú must travel into Jujuland to save the night stone and restore the night.
Kòkú is a particularly engaging character. He has sickle-cell anaemia which has always prevented him from doing lots of things he has wanted to do, but when everyone is relying on him he has to learn to embrace everything about himself, including his own weakness, in order to save his friends and Olori. This is a thrilling, fast-paced and fun fantasy book, based on Nigerian mythology and culture, perfect for fans of the Percy Jackson series.
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is RICHMOND
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Kingston
290
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Coombe
316
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Richmond
322
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Hampton
291
PSA News & Events
Festive Hamper Raffle - tickets on sale
You can now buy tickets for the fantastic Festive Hamper Raffle! Thanks to the incredible generosity of our school community, we have an amazing array of beautiful hampers stuffed with festive goodies for you to win. We have over 50 prizes, including hampers, gift bags and boxes, beauty boxes and vouchers (including a £50 Amazon voucher, generously donated by Curchods).
Please click here to buy your £1 tickets and be in with a chance of winning! We are using the online raffle site Raffall, and you will need to sign up and answer an easy quiz question before buying tickets.
Christmas trees - available to order with free local delivery
Once again, Niki and her team are selling their lovely Christmas trees, with a percentage of the profits going to Fern Hill PSA! You can order for free local delivery on Saturday 9th or Sunday 10th December, and the team will also be selling trees outside school over that weekend.
If you would like to order, please email: andrewcochrane_1@hotmail.com with the following information:
- preferred delivery date (Saturday 9th or Sunday 10th December)
- size of tree you would like
- delivery address & contact number
They will confirm a delivery time, and payment can be made by either cash or card upon delivery.
There's a limited supply this year so get your order in as soon as possible!
Prices are: 4ft - £40; 5ft - £45; 6ft - £50; 7ft - £60; 8ft - £70
Uniform sale - thank you
Thank you to everyone who attended last week's sale, which raised over £185! A special thanks to Jen and her team for running it so brilliantly.
Year 1 & 2 Festive Party - last chance for tickets
Please follow this link to book your tickets for next Friday's party.
Inspiration 