Key Dates
Sunday 22nd November
Deadline for orders for school photographs
Wednesday 25th November
Fern Speak Finals for children in Years 4 & 6
Thursday 26th November
Parent Council meeting at 10:00 am via Zoom
Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Monday 7th December
Flu immunisation catch-up session in school
Thursday 10th December
Whole school Christmas lunch
Friday 11th December
Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children
Last day for Christmas cards to come into school (for handing out on Tuesday 15th)
Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Thursday 17th December
Class Christmas party day - mufti (non-uniform) day
Virtual pantomime performance in school
Friday 18th December - last day of term & mufti (non-uniform) day
SCHOOL CLOSES AT 1:30 PM
Saturday 19th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Monday 21st December - Friday 1st January
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY
Monday 4th January
INSET Day - children are not in school
Tuesday 5th January
Children return to school
Reminders
Admissions to Reception
If you have a child in Nursery, please don't forget to apply for their place in Reception - they will not automatically move up. The deadline for applications is Friday 15th January. You can find further information on the admissions process on the website here.
We usually hold a series of in-person school tours during the autumn and spring terms for families who are interested in finding out more about Fern Hill. As we are currently not able to welcome prospective families into school, we are running a series of virtual Meet the Headteacher events, hosted by Mr Scott. You can find out more about these on the website here.
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
ITP Product Guide
Telephone Calls
We would like to let you know that calls from school, by teachers or the school office, will now show in your caller display as 'Fern Hill' and not 'No caller ID'. Please don't worry if you miss a call from us, we will always leave a message.
School Photographs
Thank you to everyone who has already ordered their child's school photograph. The deadline for FREE DELIVERY to school, and in order to guarantee your order is delivered before the end of term, is this SUNDAY 22nd NOVEMBER. Orders placed after this date will be subject to a £3 delivery charge. A visual guide to the products and packages offered is attached below. Please refer to this guide if you are ordering your photographs on a smartphone or tablet as the website does not show all the details on mobile devices. Complete product information is available to view when ordering online on a desktop computer or laptop. Please note the new money saving, multi-pose packages, that allow you to order a variety of poses for your child’s photographs or a mixture of poses for sibling photographs. To order across galleries, add your selected photographs to your favourites gallery and choose the images from there when ordering your final products or packages. If you have not received your proof card or need the personal login details for your child's photographs, and for any other queries, please contact our school photographer directly by email at: info@inTime-Photography.com
Christmas Celebrations
Planning is underway and we are determined to run as many of the usual events that we can in the run up to Christmas!
Festivities begin next week when the children will be decorating pottery stars to take home. You can read more about this in the PSA News & Events section below - thank you to the PSA for making this happen.
Christmas lunch for children and staff will be held on Thursday 10th December. We’ll be sending out further information on this next week but please do note that you will need to place an order for the lunch on ParentPay by Sunday 29th November.
On Friday 11th December, children are invited to show their support for Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day by wearing a Christmas jumper instead of their school uniform jumper or cardigan.
Friday 11th will also be the last day that the children can bring Christmas cards into school to give to their friends. They can post them into their class post boxes where they will be left over the weekend and handed out from Tuesday 15th December.
We are delighted that our wonderful PSA will be funding a virtual pantomime for the children to enjoy on their class Christmas party day, Thursday 18th December. A very special performance of Sleeping Beauty is being personalised for us and will be streamed for the children to watch in their classrooms. This year, due to the COVID-19 control measures we have in place, we won’t be asking families to donate food for the children’s party lunch – we will instead ask for children to bring in their own packed lunch – but we are planning for some surprise treats! A school party packed lunch will be available for children who receive free school meals.
A huge thank you for all the donations to the BBC Children in Need charity. We raised an amazing £1,593 - that's 245% of our target! And to keep the momentum going we are planning our own 24 hour challenge next year...
"24 in 24!
Did you watch Joe Wicks finish his 24 hour Children In Need Challenge last week? Not only did he raise a HUGE amount of money, he also showed such amazing resilience and stamina to complete this.
Inspired to do the same? I know I am.
February is going to be your chance to take part in your own Fern Hill 24 hour sporting challenge. Can you complete 24 hours of sport and physical activity in 24 days? Can you get people to sponsor you to do it?
More details on this in the New Year, so watch this space..."
- Mrs Lawn, PE Lead
Tree Tops Wraparound Care
On Monday 23rd November, booking will open for new families (those with children who are not currently on the Tree Tops register) for the first half of the spring term which runs from Tuesday 5th January to Wednesday 31st March 2021.
If you would like to book a place at Tree Tops for next half term, please email treetops@fernhill.rbksch.org to let us know and we will send you a link to the online Tree Tops Booking Form. Please be aware that places at Tree Tops are very limited; unfortunately we cannot guarantee that we will be able to accommodate any booking requests.
You can find out more about Tree Tops on the website here.
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is COOMBE
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Kingston
194
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Coombe
221
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Richmond
194
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Hampton
213
PSA News & Events
Please don't forget to sign up to the two online shopping platforms that we are registered with – easyfundraising and AmazonSmile - before Black Friday. Friends and family can register too so spread the word!
Although we can’t run our usual Christmas events in school this year, we are organising a fun art project and funding a virtual pantomime. To help cover the cost of these festive events, we will be setting up a dedicated PSA JustGiving page for donations. Please look out for more information on this next week.
Pottery Star Decoration
Next week, the children will be painting their own pottery decoration. Emma from Studio 432 in Ham is providing the pottery stars and paint at cost for us and then glazing and firing them before they are returned to the children to take home in a couple of weeks time, ready to hang up or give as a gift.
Give your pre-loved Christmas jumpers a new home!
We’ll be supporting the school’s Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 11th December with a Christmas Jumper sale. Of course, this is dependent on the COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time but we are planning for the sale on Wednesday 9th December. It will be held at collection time, outside the school site, on the grass verge along the wall of The Kingston Academy car park. Donations of pre-loved jumpers will be collected by us on Monday 7th December. All the money raised will go towards our purchase of class digital cameras. We’ll send out further information nearer the time when we know if the sale can go ahead as planned.
Christmas Tree Sales – at the school
Niki and her team are back again to support us with the annual Christmas Tree sale, outside the school main entrance over the weekends of Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th, Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th and Saturday 19th December. They are offering families and friends of Fern Hill Primary School the opportunity to order a beautiful Nordman Fir tree in advance and have it delivered directly to their home on 28th & 29th November. Delivery is restricted to the local proximity of the school.
Orders should be placed by the end of day on Thursday 26th November by emailing Niki at: nikicochrane@hotmail.com
Please state the size of tree required, full name and address and a contact telephone number. An email confirmation will be sent along with a delivery time slot. Payment can be made by bank transfer prior to delivery or by cash or contactless card on delivery. If you have any queries, please contact Niki directly on 0788 458 9930.
The Nordman Fir trees are priced as follows: 3-4ft = £30; 4-5ft = £35; 5-6ft = £40; 6-7ft =£45; 7-8ft = £50
Sponsorship Boards
Thank you to the 50 families who signed up, raising £500 for PSA funds. The boards will be put up on Tuesday 1st December.
Cauliflower Cards
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this. We had 300 orders which have raised £440 for the school. The cards have arrived and will be sent home with the children next week. They look fantastic!
Inspiration 