Key Dates
Tuesday 11th February
Year 5 visit the British Museum
Wednesday 12th February
Year 6 attend the Junior Citizenship Programme at Chessington
Thursday 13th February
Year 3 Beech class assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
School tour for prospective Nursery parents, 9.30 - 11.00 am
Year 3 Rowan class visit the Natural History Museum
Friday 14th February
Last day of the half term - school closes at the usual time
Year 6 Cake Sale at 3.00 pm
Monday 17th February - Friday 21st February
HALF TERM HOLIDAY
Monday 24th February
Children return to school
Wednesday 26th February
Year 6 Hawthorn class visit the Houses of Parliament
PSA Second-hand Dressing-up & Costume Sale at 3.00 pm
Monday 2nd & Tuesday 3rd March
The Book People Book Bus in school
Thursday 5th March
World Book Day - children may come to school dressed as their favourite book character
Child Anxiety Workshop at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Friday 6th March
PSA Bounce for Books in the Large Hall all day
Year 5 Cake Sale at 3.00 pm
Key dates for the 2019/2020 academic year are posted on the website here.
Reminders
Lunch Orders
Lunches for the second half of the spring term are now available to order via ParentPay. The deadline for ordering lunches for the first week back after the half term break (week commencing 24th February) is midnight on Sunday 9th February. All orders must be placed on ParentPay by this time. The lunch menu is available on ParentPay, on the website and attached here.
If your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2, they are entitled to a free school lunch through the Government’s Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) scheme. Please remember that you must still book their lunches via ParentPay and select a meal from the menu for each day.
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
Lunch Menu for Spring Term 2
Child Anxiety Workshop
Children's Wellbeing Service
The Climate Coalition Green Heart Action Pack
Inclusion Coffee Morning
Please join us for our second Inclusion Coffee Morning on Thursday 5th March at 9.00 am in the Large Hall. This session will be delivered by a Practitioner from the Children’s Wellbeing Service around understanding child anxiety and strategies to help children overcome worries and behavioural difficulties. Please see the two attachments below for further information about the Service and the workshop we are running. If you would like to join the workshop, or have any questions, please email us at: inclusion@fernhill.rbksch.org
After School Club Notices
Dance club is cancelled on Wednesday 12th February. There will be a catch up session on Wednesday 1st April.
The catch up session for Athletics club will be on Friday 3rd April. This is the last day of term and school closes at 1.30 pm so the session will run from 1.30 – 2.30 pm.
This week, the children have been raising money for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia Bushfire Emergency appeal to become Koala Protectors. Thank you for your generosity! We’ve already raised over £140 from your donations at the gates and we’ll let you know how much the cake sale raises next week.
Football at Fern Hill
This Saturday, 8th February, is the last Saturday football session of this half term. Mr Langridge and Mr Guyatt will be back next half term from Saturday 29th February at 1.00 pm. Players of all abilities are welcome and a session costs £5 on a pay as you go basis. Sessions are held on the astroturf in the juniors’ playground.
It's not too late to book one of the activities running at school over the half term break with Pleiades, Masquerade and Mother Nature Science.
You can find more information about these activities, including how to book, on our website here.
This February, The Climate Coalition are running a month long campaign to promote ways in which we can reduce our impact on climate change. We’re getting involved at school through assemblies and classroom activities and we’re also encouraging the children to think about a ‘pledge’ that they can make at home too, to reduce their own impact on climate change. If the children would like to, they can make a green heart with their pledge on for our whole school display. They can be as creative as they like – there are some fantastic ideas in the Green Heart Action pack attached below. Hearts can come into school all month.
Pledge ideas...
Safer Internet Day is designed to empower young people to take control of their digital lives. This year the theme is ‘Free to be’ – looking at identity online. It aims to inspire a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the celebration sees hundreds of organisations get involved to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.
Next week children in Years 2 – 6 will spend time during their computing lessons exploring online identity and considering whether they and their peers are truly free to be themselves online.
The UK Safer Internet Centre has a wealth of free resources to help parents and carers talk to their children about how to navigate the issue of online identity. The resources, which include activities and conversation starters, are available on their website here.
There have been a fw sports events this half term- Year 3 have been playing rugby, and Years 2 and 5 have been on the football pitch, girls and boys - and the children who have taken part have been great ambassadors for the school.
Alice J-C, Heather Class, one of the Year 2 footballers, reported back:
"A group of 7 girls went with 3 teachers. We went to Chessington School to play football with 8 other schools from Kingston. We worked really well as a team with everyone happy to have a go at everything letting each other have a turn. It was really fun. We were really happy that Grand Avenue got "Team of the Festival" - we know we tried really hard."
The teachers who took them praised the enthusiastic approach that the girls showed at the festival.
Year 5 boys were at Chessington School for the Borough Qualifiers.
"On Tuesday, 7 boys from Year 5 took part in a football tournament between local schools. The boys played 7 matches. They won 3 matches and lost 4. The boys played very well and soon decided to pass using the ball, as we were not allowed to kick over head height - we scored 9 goals in total."
- by Jacob, Ash Class
Well done, boys - it was commented on the team work and support you gave each other.
Year 6 footballers have continued through to the Quarter Finals in both the girls and the boys District Cup competitions, with the next round being played just before the half term break.
Spring term 2 sees hockey, more football, and basketball taking to the stage - with lots more opportunities for children to participate and represent the school. Please remind them to look out for when the trials will be taking place.
A few half term activities on offer - London Scottish have a multi-sport half term camp, there is tennis for the family, and Basketball continues on Saturday mornings at The Kingston Academy, run by Spartans, our after-school provider. In addition, there is a new football opportunity for boys in Years 3 and 4. All details for these are posted on the Events & Activities page of our Sporting News section of the website.
Finally, I am in talks with a couple of football clubs to provide additional specialist coaching, specifically for girls. One of these, Chelsea Women FC, have agreed to provide 4 free tickets to each of their home games at Kingsmeadow Stadium. If you would like to be offered these tickets, on a rota basis, please can you let the office know. As the tickets come in, you will be contacted and they will be available to collect.
More sports as and when they happen......
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is COOMBE
-
Kingston
297
-
Coombe
406
-
Richmond
319
-
Hampton
369
PSA News & Events
Cinema Night is tonight!
It’s our pyjama party themed Cinema Night tonight and children are welcome to wear their onesies or PJS if they wish. If your child is coming to Cinema Night, please remember their printed ticket, any extra cash and a refillable drinks bottle. Popcorn, sweets and drinks will be available to buy. Doors open at 5.25pm and collection is at 8.00pm. Please bear with us as we check the children in and out – it is for their safety and security.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and staff who have kindly volunteered their time to help at tonight’s KS2 Cinema Night. Without this support, the PSA would not be able to put on these events. Thank you to all our helpers and we’re sure the children will have a great evening!
Please donate your digital cameras at Cinema Night
Don’t forget that you can donate any spare or unwanted digital cameras, plus chargers, at Cinema Night. These can be handed in to the PSA team checking children in. Thank you for your donations – the cameras will be used in class and on school trips to record the children’s work and activities.
Second-hand costume and dressing-up clothes sale – Wednesday 26th February
The PSA are putting on a new type of second-hand sale after half term. Instead of school uniform, we’ll be selling any dressing-up clothes or costumes that your children may have grown out of. We’re holding this sale in the run-up to World Book Day in March to allow parents to buy reasonably priced outfits and to ensure any costumes no longer needed can go to new homes. The second-hand sale will take place after school on Wednesday 26th February. Donated items can be left in main school reception on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th February. All donations should be washed and ready to sell please. Our next second-hand uniform sale, scheduled for March 27th, will now take place in the summer term.
Bounce For Books – Friday 6th March
Are you free on Friday 6th March to help at this year’s Bounce For Books event?
To celebrate World Book Day the children, from Nursery through to Year 6, will literally be “bouncing for books” on bouncy castles set up in the Main Hall. Children are sponsored and all funds raised will be used to buy more books for our school. Last year, thanks to the generosity of Fern Hill families, we raised over £3,000.
We need lots of volunteers throughout the day to help with this event which, as always, promises to be great fun and one that the children really love!
The morning session runs from 9.00am to 11.30am and there are two time slots within that: 9.00am to 10.15am and 10.15am to 11.30am. The afternoon session runs from 1.15pm to 2.30pm. You can volunteer for a whole session, for one of the morning slots, a mix of am and pm, or even for the whole day. We appreciate people would ideally like to see their own child/children bounce but we don't often know the schedule until a day or two before due to last minute class swaps so the best way to guarantee you see your children is to help for the whole day!
Apologies but younger siblings can’t accompany volunteers due to health and safety.
If you’d like to volunteer, please either let your class rep know or email bounceforbooksvictoriawilson@gmail.com with your name, email, mobile number and preferred time slot. If you don't have a preference, please opt for an afternoon slot.
Thank you for your support.
Fern Hill PSA
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Reception who have the best year group attendance this week.
The Attendance Cup is awarded to Beech & Yew classes this week, both with 98.7% attendance - well done!
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 98.7% | ★ Star Year ★ |
| Year 1 | 97.7% | |
| Year 2 | 97.0% | |
| Year 3 | 98.1% | |
| Year 4 | 96.9% | |
| Year 5 | 95.7% | |
| Year 6 | 95.6% |
Inspiration 