Key Dates
Monday 5th - Friday 9th February - Wellness & Wellbeing Week
Tuesday 6th February
School Council meeting at 2:00 pm
Wednesday 7th February
Online Safety Workshop for parents and carers at 9:00 am
Year 6 Junior Citizenship visit
Thursday 8th February
Year 4 Yew class parent assembly at 9:00 am
Year 3 Ancient Egyptian Exploration workshop in school
Friday 9th February
'Express Yourself' mufti day
HOME LEARNING SHOWCASE for Years 1 - 6
Year 1 Toys workshop in school
PSA Nursery cake sale
Monday 12th February - Friday 16th February
HALF-TERM BREAK
Monday 19th February
CHILDREN RETURN TO SCHOOL
Thursday 22nd February
Year 3 Rowan class parent assembly at 9:00 am
Friday 23rd February
PSA Year 6 cake sale & second-hand uniform sale
Tuesday 27th February
Author visit from Robert Tregoning for Year 1 & 2
Wednesday 28th February
Inclusion Coffee Morning at 9:00 am
Thursday 29th February
Year 2 Bracken class parent assembly at 9:00 am
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.
Reminders
Home Learning
This half-term's Home Learning Grids for children in Years 1 to 6 are published on the Google Classroom. All work should be completed in time for the children's Home Learning Showcase on Friday 9th February.
Year group weekly news
Don't forget to read your year group weekly news, published every Friday afternoon on Google Classroom.
We were delighted to share Ofsted's Inspection Report with you this week. If you missed it, you can read it here. The report will be published on Ofsted's website next week. Thank you for all the wonderful messages of support and congratulations!
Nursery School Tours
If you, or someone you know, is interested in applying for a place in Nursery for September, we are running two nursery school tours in February. You can find further information, and a link to the registration form, on the website here. The deadline for applications is Friday 1st March.
Achieving for Children (AfC), who run children’s services for Kingston and Richmond, are asking for your input to help them plan wraparound childcare provision for September 2024, including prioritising locations and services. Wraparound care is before and after-school care for school-aged children and includes school-run provisions like Tree Tops, private or charity-run provisions, and childminders. If you would like to get involved, please complete this survey. They would be very grateful for your response, especially if you do not currently use any childcare provision but would like to, or your child/ren have special educational needs. Thank you.
Online Safety Workshop
Safer Internet Day takes place next week on Tuesday 6th February. This is an annual, global celebration, planned to raise awareness of a safer and better internet. In the UK, it is promoted by the UK Safer Internet Centre and their theme is ‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, Managing Influence and Navigating Change Online’.
We are supporting this in school with an Online Safety Workshop for parents and carers with children in Years 1 to 6. The workshop will be held in person on Wednesday 7th February.
It will start at 9:00 am with a short briefing in the Large Hall with Naomi Gale, EdTech Specialist at Eduthing. Naomi will cover a range of topics, including gaming, social media and cyberbullying. After the briefing, you are invited to join your child in their classroom to complete follow-up activities together. We ask that only one parent or carer joins their child in the classroom. However, all family members are welcome to attend the briefing. The workshop will end at 10:00 am.
To register for the workshop, please complete this linked registration form.
Wellness & Wellbeing Week
Next week is Children's Mental Health Week, an annual awareness week launched in 2015 by Place2Be to empower, equip and give a voice to every child in the UK. Their theme this year is 'My Voice Matters' and it's all about ensuring that children and young people have the tools they need to express themselves, be heard and make a difference, all contributing to their sense of community and self-esteem.
At Fern Hill, we will be marking Children's Mental Health Week with our own Wellness & Wellbeing Week. Throughout the week, there will be opportunities to practice yoga, play different sports and enjoy mindfulness sessions. The children will have an outdoor lesson and take part in a special assembly around the 'My Voice Matters' theme.
Friday 9th February will be an 'Express Yourself' mufti day and children are invited to celebrate what makes them unique by dressing up in a way that expresses themselves or their interests and hobbies. This could be wearing something to represent their favourite activity or favourite colour, or just dressing in the clothes that make them feel the most comfortable. For some ideas, click here.
Place2Be has an amazing set of resources for families to use to take part in Children's Mental Health Week, including top tips for parents and children and age-appropriate activities. You can access them here.
Eco Schools Committee Update
Delilah in Year 2, who is a member of our Eco Schools Committee, has made us very proud! After noticing that a local business was leaving their TV and window advertising screens on all day and overnight, Delilah spoke to them about the environmental impact of what they were doing. As a result, they now turn the screens off after hours. Well done Delilah, for making a difference in our local community!
Thank you to everyone who joined our local litter pick last Saturday. Families from Nursery all the way up to Year 6 came along, and we were shocked by how much rubbish we collected during a relatively short walk! We'll see you all again next month on Saturday 23rd March - and hope some new families too.
Jolie's eco tip of the week: To stop wasting water, you should time your showers, and make sure that they take less than 5 minutes!
Book of the Week
‘Out of the Blue’ by Robert Tregoning (Spark! Early Readers Shortlist)
In a world where blue is the only accepted colour by law, a young boy harbours a secret love for yellow. He carefully hides his collection of yellow items in a cupboard, afraid to reveal his true feelings even to his dad. The burden of keeping such an important secret becomes overwhelming for the boy. One night, his pent-up emotions burst forth in a glorious display of yellow. His dad's reaction is understanding and supportive and this positive response not only brings joy to the boy but also leads to a brighter and happier life for everyone in their blue-dominated world. This charming and emotive picture book highlights the power of acceptance and the beauty that comes from embracing diversity, even in a world painted in a single colour.
We’re very excited that the author, Robert Tregoning, will be visiting our Year 1 and 2 pupils after the half-term break; look out for a letter on Monday with information on how you can order a signed copy of his book!
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is RICHMOND
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Kingston
351
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Coombe
281
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Richmond
359
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Hampton
301
PSA News & Events
Fundraising update!
We are delighted to announce that, thanks to your help and support, we raised close to £10,000 last term, and have been able to buy some amazing new musical instruments for school. Thank you for your continued support as we aim to keep up this brilliant work and see how much we can raise over the next two terms...
Mums’ Breakfast (15th March) and Dads’ Breakfast (14th June) - Event Leads needed!
Each school year, the PSA hosts two before-school breakfast events for our families; one for our mums/female carers and one for the dads/male carers, with their Fern Hill children. They are really lovely community events and enjoyed by the children and parents alike!
We would love a couple of volunteers to be the Event Leads for these two breakfasts. The events are very straightforward to run, and we have excellent handover notes telling you exactly what to do. The main tasks are arranging shopping for breakfast items, bulk ordering the pastries and then organising your merry band of volunteers (we have three dads signed up for the Mums' Breakfast already!). You will also have plenty of support from the PSA Committee too.
Let us know if you are interested by posting on the PSA What's App group or through your Class Rep.
PSA Meeting
Thanks to everyone who attended our meeting yesterday, either in person or virtually. It was great to see some new faces as well as some old hands! We discussed the exciting events already planned for this year, as well as some new events put forward by parents, including a car boot sale which will hopefully take place at school after Easter. It is also possible that in September the circus will come to town! We will keep you posted.
Keeping us organised - thank you, Nina!
A shout-out to Nina (Daisy class parent) who has very kindly agreed to take on the role of organising the PSA cupboard and ensuring that the items we use regularly for our events are kept well stocked, alongside her cake sale duties. This will be hugely helpful to both the Committee and our Event Leads so thank you Nina!
Inspiration 