Key Dates
Monday 7th January
INSET day - children are not in school
Tuesday 8th January
Children return to school
Wednesday 9th January
Year 6 Willow class visit the Churchill War Rooms
Wednesday 9th January
Year 4 dance workshop in school
Thursday 10th January
Year 6 Elder class visit the Churchill War Rooms
Friday 11th January
Year 6 Oak class visit the Churchill War Rooms
Friday 11th January
Reception cake sale
Monday 14th January
Year 6 Oak & Elder classes visit the Imperial War Museum
Wednesday 16th January
Year 1 visit the Kingston Mosque
Thursday 17th January
PSA Committee meeting, 7.30-9.00 pm in the Small Hall
Friday 18th January
Parent Council meeting, 9.00-10.30 am in the Small Hall
Monday 21st - Friday 25th January
Arts Week in school
Monday 21st January
Year 6 Oak & Elder classes visit the Kingston Magistrates' Court
Thursday 24th January
Heather class parent assembly at 9.00am in the Large Hall
Friday 25th January
Year 6 visit Tate Britain
Monday 28th January
Year 6 Willow class visit the Kingston Magistrates' Court
Thursday 31st January
Beech class parent assembly at 9.00am in the Large Hall
Thursday 31st January
Year 5 visit the Buddhist Temple
Key dates for the spring term are available on the website here.
Reminders
Lunches for the spring term
Lunches for the first half of the spring term are now available to book online via ParentPay. You can find the menu and information on how to book on our website here. The deadline for booking lunches for the first week back after the Christmas break, week commencing 7th January, has now passed so please send your child into school with a packed lunch if you have not booked a meal. Please don't miss the deadline for the second week back, week commencing 14th January, which is midnight this Sunday, 23rd December.
On Thursday 17th January, we will be serving a taster lunch for all children. If your child is in Years 3 – 6 and would usually pay for school lunches, this lunch is free of charge but you must book! The deadline for booking is midnight on Sunday 23rd December.
Attachments
PSA Autumn Term Newsletter
Photographic Images of Pupils – Consent Form
A message from our school photographer
Thank you for your orders of Christmas concert photographs. They are still available for purchase with free delivery back to school and the website link and password you were sent are still valid. If you do place an order over the Christmas break, your photographs will be delivered to the school in January at the start of the new term and your children will bring them home.
If you have any queries, please contact me, Mrs Bahara, directly at info@inTime-Photography.com or by telephone on 07931 593169.
Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
- Mrs Kans Bahara, School Photographer
Christmas Party Day
The children had a fantastic time yesterday. Thank you very much to all the parents and carers who contributed food and lent a helping hand at the party lunches!
Attendance update
We are delighted to tell you that during the Headteacher’s assembly today, 187 children celebrated having 100% attendance for the whole term. 372 children achieved 100% attendance for the first half of this term, and 295 for the second half. Well done!
A message from Mr Scott
As we come to the close of an extremely long, yet very rewarding autumn term, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of your children on the wonderful attitude they show towards school life at Fern Hill.
Many adults both in and out of school have commented on the children’s positive mind set, confidence, respectful manners and excellent behaviour. We should all be very proud of each and every one of our children.
I would like to say a huge well done to both the children and staff for their fabulous Christmas concert performances; such a fitting way to end a term that has provided so many opportunities for learning.
At the start of this term, the school organised its first overseas trip: Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Albert in Northern France for a one night stay. Over 150 children took part in FernSpeak, our unique festival of the performing arts, and we were delighted that Bloomsbury publishing house chose to film the rehearsals for a short documentary. We also took part in a photography project with the Tate, which will see portraits of our Year 3 classes join thousands of others in a major art installation on display at Tate Britain next year.
As a school, we have started our journey to becoming a UNICEF Rights Respecting School, achieved the Healthy School Mark and gold status as an All Together school from the Anti Bullying Alliance. We had an overwhelming response to our Healthy Hedge appeal and have now planted over 100 individual trees along the length of the playground fencing on the Richmond Road. All this along with the enormous number of wider curricular enrichment visits, trips and workshops for the children; it has been an amazing term.
I would like to express my gratitude to all our families for their continued support and, in particular, say well done and thank you to a tremendous PSA, for their dedication and energy in leading events that raise vital funds for our school.
I hope you are all able to have a well-deserved break and come back in January feeling reenergised and ready for what will certainly be a shorter but equally exciting spring term.
On behalf of all staff and governors, I would like to wish you a wonderful festive break and a very merry Christmas.
Photographic Consent for Pupils
On 4th December, you received, via ParentPay, a letter to explain that in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018, we need your permission to photograph or make any recording of your child. The letter included a table to shows the different ways your child's image and name could be used by school and requested your consent, or otherwise, for school to use images of your child. It is very important that we have a consent form for every child in the school, signed and dated by a parent or legal guardian. A copy of the letter is attached below. If you have not already returned your consent form, please do so as a matter of urgency. If you do not consent, you must still return a form. Please return the form to the school office, either via email or the post box in reception, by Friday 11th January. Thank you.
Outdoor learning in the Secret Garden
Next term, children in Reception will be taking part in a weekly outdoor learning class in the Secret Garden and Discovery Zone. These sessions will last around one hour and involve a team building activity, e.g. den building, and a focus activity, e.g. pond dipping, with time for free play and exploration. We would like to invite parents and carers from other year groups who have an interest in outdoor learning and forest school to volunteer to help with these classes. If you are ready to spend time outdoors, in all weathers, please get in touch via the school office!
The teaching staff would like to say thank you very much to all our families for the cards, gifts and good wishes. The school office too has been overwhelmed by your generosity and appreciation.
Thank you!
Team Points
At the end of term, the number of team points each House receives is allocated based on their position (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th) each week of the term.
The overall winner this term is KINGSTON!
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Kingston
36
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Coombe
29
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Richmond
18
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Hampton
30
PSA News & Events
Christmas Fair
We raised over £4,000 from our Christmas Fair, including the income from the Curchods boards and the Christmas tree sales. We’re delighted by this fantastic amount and would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved!
Together with our other autumn term events, this means that during this term we have raised a wonderful total of nearly £7,000.
A huge thank you must go to all the parents, children and staff who’ve helped make these events such a great success. None of our events would be possible without the time and effort of so many people. Thank you to everyone who has been involved with the PSA this term – and thank you as well to all the Fern Hill families who come along to our events and support our fundraising.
If you and your children enjoy these events, then the PSA needs your help to continue!
We love running all our fantastic events during the year and it’s great to see how much the children enjoy them, BUT all parents should be aware that it is, at the moment, a relatively small group of parents who give up their time to help organise PSA events and those parents cannot continue to shoulder the entire burden.
We will only be able to run all our future events if more parents are able to get involved in the organisation. For example, at the moment, no-one has committed to running Cinema Night in February or our Summer Fair. Please email fernhillpsa@gmail.com if you are able to help us.
No one person need run an entire event on their own, you can team up with other parents to make life easier. Please don’t wait and assume lots of other people will step forward – if you’re able to help then do speak up! We really value all your support and hope that we can rely on more parents to ensure all our events are able to take place.
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Fern Hill PSA
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Year 5 who have the best year group attendance for this week.
This week the Attendance Cup goes jointly to BEECH and BRACKEN for the best class attendance with 98.8%.
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 92.9% | |
| Year 1 | 94.0% | |
| Year 2 | 92.1% | |
| Year 3 | 94.3% | |
| Year 4 | 92.5% | |
| Year 5 | 95.2% | WELL DONE! |
| Year 6 | 92.0% |
Inspiration 