Key Dates
Monday 6th May
BANK HOLIDAY - children are not in school
Tuesday 7th May
Year 4 Yew class swimming lessons begin at the Kingfisher Centre
Tuesday 7th May
Year 5 leave for their residential trip to Kingswood's Grosvenor Hall (returning 10th May)
Tuesday 7th May
Year 3 Beech & Rowan classes visit Gatton Park
Thursday 9th May
Cornflower class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Thursday 9th May
Year 3 drama workshop in school
Friday 10th May
Nursery reading workshop with Story Storks - parents invited
Friday 10th May
Year 5 return from the School Journey at Grosvenor Hall
Monday 13th May
Year 6 SATs week (13th - 16th May)
Monday 13th May
Year 1 visit Hampton Court
Thursday 16th May
Mini-beast dress up day for Reception children
Thursday 16th May
PSA Committee meeting at 7.30 pm in the Small Hall
Friday 17th May
Year 6 visit the Guildford Spectrum
Friday 17th May
Parent Council meeting at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Friday 17th May
Year 1 cake sale at 3.00 pm
Monday 20th May
Active Week (20th - 24th May)
Monday 20th May
Sports Day for Daisy class children
Tuesday 21st May
Year 1 Lavender class visit Canbury Gardens
Wednesday 22nd May
Whole school sponsored run
Thursday 23rd May
Foxglove class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Friday 24th May
Sports Day at Dinton Fields
Friday 24th May
Nursery rhyme dress up day for Daisy class children
Monday 27th - Friday 31st May
HALF TERM HOLIDAY - children are not in school
Monday 3rd June
Children return to school - school starts at the usual time
Monday 3rd June - Friday 7th June
Year 5 Bikeability (morning & afternoon sessions)
Thursday 6th June
Foxglove class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Friday 7th June
MUFTI/non-uniform day in aid of the PSA Summer Fair tombola collection
Key dates for the summer term are available on the website here.
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
Fern Hill Sponsored Run 2019
Fern Hill Sports Day 2019
Cath Howe Book Launch Invitation
Year 5 Residential Trip
We wish our Year 5 children an adventurous and exciting few days next week at Kingswood's Grosvenor Hall. Children should arrive at school at 7.45 am on Tuesday 7th May and staff will be outside the external doors to the Large Hall to take the children’s bags which will be loaded directly onto the coaches. Please hand over any medication your child needs for the trip to Mrs Croxon and Mrs Solan who will be outside school reception under the canopy. The children should then go directly into the Large Hall, via the external doors, to register with their class teachers. Parents are very welcome to stay on the school site until the coaches leave but with 120 children to register, we would be very grateful if you would wait outside the school reception area and not come into the Large Hall with your child. The coaches will be leaving at approximately 8.15 am, and no later than 8.30 am, to ensure we arrive at Grosvenor Hall in good time for the first activity. Please don’t be late! Finally, don’t forget to pack a snack in your child’s day pack to eat on the journey and that they have taken travel sickness pills if needed.
We'll be keeping you updated throughout the week with a daily blog and photos on the website. We expect to arrive back at school at approximately 12.30 pm on Friday 10th May when the children will be dismissed by their class teachers. We’ll confirm their arrival time via ParentPay on Friday morning once they have left Grosvenor Hall so you can be at school to meet them when they arrive.
Sports News & Events
A quiet half term for competitions - but a busy one for in-school activity. Attached below is further information on our Sponsored Run being held on Wednesday 22nd May and Sports Day on Friday 24th May.
Last term the children were introduced to ‘Votes for Schools’ as part of their Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE) and Citizenship programme. They are encouraged to discuss a specific newsworthy topic in depth and then vote ‘for’ or ‘against’ a statement related to it, inspiring and challenging them to ‘think beyond the obvious’, justify their opinions and make a stand towards what they believe it right. You can find out more about the ‘Votes for Schools’ project here. We’ll be sharing the topics the children discuss and the result of their vote each week here in the newsletter.
This week the children have been discussing, and voted on, whether there should there be a
three day weekend. It’s no surprise that an overwhelming majority voted for the motion!
Into the Alligator's Mouth!
To mark World Book Day last term, we ran a competition called ‘Book in a Box’. Using a shoe box, the children were asked to create a model that represented their favourite book, showing the key themes of the story or depicting an event from it. We had some wonderful entries and the winners were announced by Mr Scott during our World Book Day assembly. Their prize was trip to the Alligator’s Mouth Bookshop in Richmond to meet the owners, Margaret and Tony, take part in a workshop and, best of all, choose the books that will be bought with the funds we raised though Bounce for Books.
‘On the 23rd April 2019, the winners from the ‘Book in a Box’ competition went to the Alligator’s Mouth in Richmond. We took the 65 bus there and after a while we arrived at the small bookshop. The owners welcomed us kindly as we entered. After being read to, we then got to choose some books for the school library. There were so many options! After that, we paid for the chosen books and left. It was a lovely atmosphere and I hope to return to the wonderful shop soon.’
- Alyssa, Elder
Let's Perform!
Fern Speak is Fern Hill’s annual festival of the performing arts run with Cath Howe, a teacher, author of children’s books including the highly acclaimed ‘Ella on the Outside’ and Fern Hill’s own Writer in Residence. Last year, over 150 children from Years 4 through to 6 participated in Fern Speak performing poetry, public speaking and acting and we were very excited to welcome Bloomsbury Publishing to watch and film some of the rehearsals. Bloomsbury Publishing created a short film to showcase Fern Speak to other schools across the UK. We are delighted to share the film with you which is now available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNfyRNxj9PU
Fern Speak will be back later this year and we’ve decided to run it over both the autumn and spring terms to make sure every child from Year 3 to Year 6 who wants to, will have the opportunity to work with Cath and participate in the festival. Look out for more information on Fern Speak at the start of the autumn term.
Cath will be also be working the children next term to share the experiences of family, forgiveness and finding out who you are from her new book ‘Not My Fault’ through an assembly and series of workshops. We are also planning a book signing event – more information to follow after the half term break.
If you’d like to join Cath and celebrate the launch of ‘Not My Fault’ at Waterstones in Richmond later this month, please see the poster attached below.
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is HAMPTON
-
Kingston
235
-
Coombe
216
-
Richmond
225
-
Hampton
241
PSA News and Events
Summer Fair news
This year’s Summer Fair will be on Saturday 15th June, from 12pm to 3pm and we look forward to seeing lots of Fern Hill families there. We’re always very grateful for all the help and support from parents in the run-up to the Fair. Please remember that if you, or anyone you know, would be able to provide us with great raffle prizes then we’d love to hear from you at fernhillpsa@gmail.com
To inspire those of you who are planning to enter our sunflower growing competition, we’ll be sharing a fun fact about sunflowers each week in the school newsletter between now and the Summer Fair. This week’s fact: there are about 70 different species of sunflower and not all of them are yellow – some even have striped petals!
PSA Committee Meeting
Our next meeting is on Thursday 16th May, from 7.30pm to 9.00pm in the Small Hall. Please come along to find out more about our planning for the Summer Fair and our other events.
PSA Summer Social
We’re looking for volunteers who would be interested in running this event, scheduled for Friday 5th July, from 7.30pm. If you have some great ideas and would like to get involved, please email fernhillpsa@gmail.com
Thanks for your support
Fern Hill PSA
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Year 2 who have the best year group attendance for this week.
The Attendance Cup is awarded to Bracken class for the best attendance with 100%.
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 98.0% | |
| Year 1 | 96.7% | |
| Year 2 | 98.9% | WELL DONE! |
| Year 3 | 96.9% | |
| Year 4 | 98.7% | |
| Year 5 | 98.1% | |
| Year 6 | 97.7% |
Inspiration 