Key Dates
Monday 18th - Friday 22nd February
Half term holiday
Monday 25th February
Children return to school
Monday 25th February
RSE talk for Year 5 parents at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Tuesday 26th February
Height and weight check with the school nurse for Reception & Year 6
Wednesday 27th February
Year 6 Elder class visit the Houses of Parliament
Thursday 28th February
Swimming talk for Year 4 parents at 2.45 pm in the Small Hall
Friday 1st March
National Secondary School offers sent to parents
Friday 1st March
Reception classes visit the Kingston Fire Station
Friday 1st March
Year 4 cake sale at 3.00 pm
Friday 1st March
PSA Quiz Night at 7.30 pm in the Large Hall
Monday 4th March
RSE talk for Year 6 parents at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Tuesday 5th March
Year 2 drama workshop with the Rainbow Theatre
Thursday 7th March
World Book Day - children are invited to dress up as their favourite book character
Friday 8th March
PSA Bounce for Books in the Large Hall
Monday 11th - Friday 15th March
STEM Week
Tuesday 12th March
Mathematics Day
Wednesday 13th & Thursday 14th March
Science Days - Mother Nature Science workshops & assemblies
Friday 15th March
Comic Relief's Red Nose Day - children are invited to wear red (MUFTI day)
Friday 15th March
Parent Council meeting at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Friday 15th March
Year 3 cake sale at 3.00 pm
Key dates for the spring term are available on the website here.
Reminders
Term-time Absence
Please note that any requests for term-time absence must be addressed to Mr Scott in writing. Letters can be sent by email to office@fernhill.rbksch.org or handed in at the school office. A written request should also be made if you intend to collect your child early, before the school day ends, in order to go on holiday. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Lunches
Lunches for the second 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 week commencing 4th March is midnight on Sunday 24th February. Don't forget we'll be serving pancakes for dessert on 5th March, to mark Shrove Tuesday.
Tree Tops & Childcare Vouchers
If you are paying for your child’s Tree Tops sessions with childcare vouchers, please be aware that the Finance office is closed for the half term break and the team will not be able to credit you with amounts transferred over the break until week beginning 25th February. You may still make bookings of course! Please don’t forget to email us at treetops@fernhill.rbksch.org to let us know the value of the vouchers you have transferred and which sessions you would like them allocated to.
Gardening Club will be starting again after the half term break on Wednesday 27th February. It's all-weather gardening so don’t forget your wellies or old trainers and a waterproof coat in case of rain!
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
Bounce for Books Sponsorship Form
Breaking news....
As promised, an update on the Year 6 netball competition this morning.
After coming second in their pool, the girls went through to the Plate Final - which they won! A lovely new trophy to add to the collection. Well done.
Book Amnesty
The first week back after half term is Book Amnesty Week! Please have a look over the half term break for any school books you may have at home: reading scheme, library or classroom books, and return them on Monday 25th February. Thank you.
We would all like to say goodbye and best wishes to Mrs Herry as she embarks on a new and exciting venture as a Special Needs Consultant. As Inclusion Lead at Fern Hill, Mrs Herry has supported so many children and families, providing them with wonderful learning opportunities and experiences. Thank you Mrs Herry, we will miss you!
Half Term Activities
It's not too late to book one of the exciting activities taking place at school during the half term break next week: Pleiades and Mother Nature Science are running holiday camps every day, Monday to Friday, and Masquerade Theatre Arts have workshops on the Wednesday and Thursday. All the details are posted on our Holiday Activities page.
Thank you to everyone who visited our Arts Week exhibition last week. Well done to the children for their amazing creativity and to the staff for their hard work readying the displays around the school. We have had so many positive comments from families. If you didn’t get a chance to give your feedback, please do email the school office at office@fernhill.rbksch.org with your comments. The displays will remain up over the next half term so if you couldn’t make it to the exhibition last week, you’ll have another opportunity to take a look at the wonderful work when you are in for the parent consultations on 20th and 21st March.
A message from Mr Scott
As we come to the end of this half term, already more than half way through the year, I would like to say a huge well done to the children for their hard work, positive attitudes to learning and for the energy and enthusiasm they have shown. Thank you to all our staff for providing such fantastic learning opportunities and experiences throughout the term and thank you to all our families too for their endless support and encouragement.
I would also like to share the exciting news that Mr Waiting has been appointed Headteacher of Alexandra School from September 2019. This is a fantastic opportunity for Mr Waiting and very well deserved. Although he won’t be leaving us until the end of the summer term, please join me in congratulating him on such a great achievement and wishing him all the very best.
We are certainly all looking forward to a very busy half term ahead. World Book Day, Bounce for Books, a STEM focus week, fundraising for Red Nose Day, Easter celebrations and class performances are all coming up.
I hope you have a restful and relaxing half term break and look forward to seeing you all on Monday 25th February.
Parent Consultations
Parent consultations for all year groups from Nursery to Year 6 will be held on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st March. This is an opportunity for you to meet with your child's class teacher to discuss your child’s progress.
Consultations for children in Nursery through to Year 5 should be booked online at: https://fernhillprimary.parentseveningsystem.co.uk
Consultations for children in Year 6 are booked directly with the class teachers.
The booking system will go live this weekend, at 7.00 pm on Sunday 16th February, and will close at 12.00 pm on Friday 8th March.
You will be able to book a ten minute consultation with your child's class teacher during the following times:
Wednesday 20th March - 4.00 pm – 7.00 pm
Thursday 21st March - 2.30 pm – 6.00 pm
There is an extra consultation date available for Nursery children only, on Monday 18th March from 9.00 am – 2.30 pm.
Please note that school closes at 2.00 pm on Thursday 21st March.
After school clubs will run from 2.00 - 3.00 pm and Tree Tops will open from 2.00 - 6.00 pm.
The world's biggest short-story writing competition for children!
This week, in assembly and in the classroom, the children were told all about the BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition which, since its launch in 2011, more than 800,000 children have entered!
We have some incredibly talented writers at Fern Hill and we would love as many of you as possible to have a go!
500 Words is open to any child who is aged between 5 and 13 years old on 14th June 2019 and there are two age categories: 5-9 years old and 10-13 years old. The competition celebrates imagination and creativity - not spelling and grammar! - so all children of all abilities are invited to enter.
To enter, children should write an original story, no more than 500 words in length - and submit it online. The story can be about absolutely anything – spaceships, insects, microwaves…the list is as long as your imagination!
You can find out all about the competition on the BBC Radio 2 website. It’s packed full of helpful hints and tips to get you started. You can download a learning pack from the Learn section where you’ll also find some great guides in creative writing including an interactive programme to help you start your story. Have a look at this word palette too for extra inspiration!
Click here to submit your story. Don’t miss the deadline for entries at 7pm on Friday 8th March 2019!
World Book Day Competition
To mark World Book Day on Thursday 7th March, we are running a competition to design a 'Book in a Box'! Using a shoe box, we would like the children to create a model that represents their favourite book, showing the key themes of the story or depicting an event from the story. Children can bring these into their class from Monday 4th March. Judging will take place on World Book Day with prizes available for the winners! Here's some inspiration..
Year 4 & the Ancient Egyptians
"On Monday, Year 4 visited The British Museum. Despite a long journey, everyone was really excited to see the mummies. We were not disappointed as the displays were amazing and we even saw a mummified cat. The coffins were beautifully decorated and the wrapping of the linen was so precise. It was hard to believe that we were looking at bodies of people who lived thousands of years ago. The Ancient Egyptians really were very clever. We also saw the Rosetta Stone and were able to explain to the adults who accompanied us why this was so important in our understanding of hieroglyphics."
- Mrs Brechin, Year 4 class teacher
Tree Tops News
We’ve had a busy half term at Tree Tops, welcoming new staff members and getting to know them. Mrs Pantling has joined the team as our Deputy Manager, along with Noemi, Laura and Josh. Josh is a Year 9 student at The Kingston Academy school next door and is volunteering with us as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. He’s been helping us build on our team work skills through sport and games and we’ve enjoyed chatting with him about life at secondary school.
With the lighter evenings, we’ve been making the most of our outdoor space and are really looking forward to spending more time playing outside as Spring weather draws closer. Inside, we’ve loved playing with the board games Father Christmas gave us last term - Cluedo and Monopoly are becoming firm favourites!
In Breakfast Club, we marked the Chinese New Year by making lanterns and creating our own Year of the Pig designs and also enjoyed sewing butterflies and threading necklaces – brilliant activities to build the fine motor skills we need for great handwriting! We’ve also been crafty at After School Club making ladybird flap cards for Valentine’s Day. We had our own version of Cinema Night when we moved to the Nursery last Friday and, as part of Children’s Mental Health week, we did a spot of yoga too, a lovely relaxing way to end a busy school day!
All good things though come to an end, and we sadly say good-bye to Siobhan who is leaving us this week to concentrate on her studies. We would like to wish her all the best in her exams and University applications.
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is Hampton!
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Kingston
282
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Coombe
273
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Richmond
251
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Hampton
334
PSA News & Events
Fern Hill PSA Quiz Night - Friday 1st March
Tickets for Quiz Night have now sold out! A big thank you to everyone who has bought a ticket and we’re looking forward to seeing you on the night. Doors will open at 7.15pm, the quiz will start at 7.30pm, food will be served from 8.30pm and the evening will finish at 10.30pm.
Bounce For Books – Friday 8th March
In celebration of World Book Day, this year our annual Bounce for Books fundraising event will take place on Friday 8th March.
The children will literally be bouncing for books! There will be two bouncy castles in the Main Hall throughout the school day and, class by class, each child will have the opportunity to bounce as many times as they can in one minute. The event is well manned by parents and staff who will count each child’s jumps. The children will bring home a certificate recording how many bounces they have done. It’s a very popular event and the children have great fun!
This is a sponsored event, the idea being that each child is sponsored by family and friends. Your child should have come home this week with a sponsorship form. Just in case, another sponsorship form is attached to this newsletter. Sponsorship is entirely voluntary of course – all the children will get to take part and receive a certificate regardless – however all donations are gratefully received.
The money raised is used to buy new books for the school libraries and thanks to your generous sponsorship and donations we raised £3,500 last year!
Please return your sponsorship form and any money raised or your donation to main school reception in an envelope marked for the PSA by Monday 11th March.
If you would like to be a parent helper on the day (morning, afternoon or both) and help with counting the children’s bounces, please email Victoria Wilson at bounceforbooksvictoriawilson@gmail.com or let your Class Rep know.
Thank you so much for your support. Your help and enthusiasm make this event the great success it always is!
Dates for your diary
As well as Quiz Night and Bounce For Books, we’ve even more events lined up for the next half term. Please make a note of these dates for your diary and we’ll give you more information once we’re back at school.
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Second hand uniform sale – Friday 22nd March from 2.45 to 3.30pm
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Nursery & Reception Easter Celebration – Monday 25th March from 3.15 to 4.00pm
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Mothers’ Day Breakfast – Friday 29th March from 8.00 to 8.45am
Thank you for your support and have a lovely half term break!
Fern Hill PSA
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Year 6 who have had the best year group attendance for this week.
This week the Attendance Cup goes to Ash and Willow for the best class attendance with 100%.
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 87.6% | |
| Year 1 | 88.4% | |
| Year 2 | 91.7% | |
| Year 3 | 92.1% | |
| Year 4 | 89.0% | |
| Year 5 | 94.2% | |
| Year 6 | 94.4% |
Inspiration 