Key Dates
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
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
Monday 9th March
Year 1 Lavender class local walk
Year 6 Willow class visit the Houses of Parliament
Tuesday 10th March
Year 1 Foxglove class local walk
Wednesday 11th March
Year 1 Cornflower class local walk
Thursday 12th March
Year 3 Elm class assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Year 2 visit the British Wildlife Centre
Fern Speak Finals for Years 3 & 5 at 1.30 pm in the Large Hall - families of children performing are invited to attend
Friday 13th March
Parent Council meeting at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Key dates for the 2019/2020 academic year are posted on the website here.
Reminder
Lunch Orders
Lunches for the second half of the spring term are now available to order via ParentPay. You can still book lunches for the first week back after the half term break (week commencing 24th February) until midnight on Sunday 16th February.
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
PSA Bounce for Books Letter
PSA Bounce for Books sponsorship form
Bookings are still open for 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 for helping us become Koala Protectors!
Last week, the School Council were raising money for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia Bushfire Emergency appeal to become Koala Protectors. Thank you to all the families who donated on the gates and supported the special cake sale after school on Friday. We are delighted to have raised £340 to help fund the care of injured koalas and restore their habitats.
After School Club Notices
Start to Sing for Years 1 & 2 will start after the half term break on Tuesday 25th February. Gardening club will also be starting again on Wednesday 26th February. It's all-weather gardening so don’t forget your wellies or old trainers and a waterproof coat in case of rain!
There is no Basketball club on Friday 13th March. A catch up session will be held on Tuesday 31st March.
Dance club will be running 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 so the session will run from 1.30 – 2.30 pm.
Inclusion Coffee Morning
Don't forget to register for our Inclusion Coffee Morning on Thursday 5th March at 9.00 am. The session will be around understanding child anxiety and strategies to help children overcome worries and behavioural difficulties. If you would like to join the workshop, or have any questions, please email us at: inclusion@fernhill.rbksch.org
The UK’s largest story writing competition for kids is back!
This week in assembly, the children were told all about the BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition which since its launch in 2011 has received nearly one million short stories!
We have some incredibly talented writers at Fern Hill and we would love as many of them as possible to have a go! 500 Words is open to any child who is aged between 5 and 13 years old on 12th June 2020 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 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 learning resources section where you’ll also find some great guides in creative writing for each age group.
Click here to submit your story. Don’t miss the deadline for entries at 8.00 pm on Friday 27th February!
Parent Consultations
Parent consultations for all year groups from Nursery to Year 6 will be held on Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th March. This is an opportunity for you to meet with your child's class teacher to discuss your child’s progress. The booking system will go live on Sunday 1st March and we’ll be sending out further information including a link after the half term break.
You will be able to book a ten minute consultation with your child's class teacher during the following times:
Wednesday 18th March - 4.00 pm – 7.00 pm
Thursday 19th March - 2.30 pm – 6.00 pm
Please note that school closes at 2.00 pm on Thursday 19th March. After school clubs will run from 2.00 - 3.00 pm and Tree Tops will open from 2.00 - 6.00 pm.
It’s Literacy Week after half term and on Thursday 5th we’ll be celebrating World Book Day. Children and staff are invited to come to school dressed up as their favourite book character. Unfortunately, The Book People’s Book Bus will not be with us as planned on Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd March. We are still hoping to have a pop-up book shop during the week, to keep that school-wide reading focus before and after school and build a buzz about books for the children. We’ll keep you posted! As usual, we’ll round off the week with the PSA’s wonderful Bounce for Books event – please see PSA’s news and events update below for all the details.
Arts Week
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 school for your parent consultation in March.
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is KINGSTON
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Kingston
303
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Coombe
273
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Richmond
200
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Hampton
271
PSA News & Events
Second-hand costume and dressing-up clothes sale – Wednesday 26th February
Over half term, please put aside any dressing-up clothes or costumes that your children may have grown out of so they can be donated to our second-hand sale. Donated items can be left in main school reception on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th February and the sale will be held after school on Wednesday 26th February. All donations should be washed and ready to sell please. Please be aware this is not a second-hand uniform sale. We’ll be holding two second-hand uniform sales 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.
A letter and sponsorship form for Bounce For Books came home with the children last week, but copies are also attached to this newsletter.
Cinema Night
We’re delighted to announce that this year’s KS2 Cinema Night made a fantastic profit of £824.55. We’re very grateful to all our parent and staff volunteers who helped make the event such a success.
New date for our Summer Fair
Please make a note in your diaries that the PSA Summer Fair will now take place on Saturday 13th June.
Could you be our new PSA treasurer?
We’re still very keen to hear from any parent who might be interested in becoming our new PSA treasurer. You don’t need to be a qualified accountant and you’d get a full handover from the existing treasurer. If you’re interested, please email us at fernhillpsa@gmail.com to find out more.
Thank you for your support and have a lovely half term,
Fern Hill PSA
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Year 4 who have the best year group attendance this week.
The Attendance Cup is awarded again to Beech & Yew classes this week, both with 98.3% attendance - well done!
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 93.8% | |
| Year 1 | 93.6% | |
| Year 2 | 96.8% | |
| Year 3 | 96.7% | |
| Year 4 | 97.7% | ★ Star Year ★ |
| Year 5 | 94.2% | |
| Year 6 | 93.5% |
Inspiration 