Key Dates
Wednesday 7th December
Year 1 visit to St Luke's Church
Year 2 (Heather & Bracken) visit to Cornerstone Church
Thursday 8th December
Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day
Year 2 (Clover) visit to Cornerstone Church
Year 1 workshop - Amazing Animals
Nursery Festive Concert at 2:45 pm in Daisy class
Friday 9th December
Home Learning Showcase for children in Year 1 - 6
Reception Festive Concert at 9:15 am in the Large Hall
PSA Year 2 Cake Sale at 3:15 pm
PSA Festive Discos for Year 3 & 4 at 5:30 - 6:45 pm and Year 5 & 6 at 7:15 - 8:30 pm
Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Monday 12th December
Year 1 Festive Concert at 9:15 am in the Large Hall
Year 2 Festive Concert at 2:45 pm in the Large Hall
Tuesday 13th December
Year 3 & 4 Festive Concert at All Saints Church, Kingston at 10:15 - 11:00 am
Year 5 & 6 Festive Concert at All Saints Church, Kingston at 1:30 - 2:30 pm
PSA Pre-loved Fashion Event at 7:00 pm in school
Wednesday 14th December
Christmas Lunch in school
Thursday 15th December
Class Christmas parties (MUFTI / dress up day) and pantomime performances
Friday 16th December - last day of term & MUFTI (non-uniform) day
SCHOOL CLOSES AT 1:30 PM
Saturday 17th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Monday 19th December - Tuesday 3rd January
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY
Tuesday 3rd January
INSET Day - children are not in school
Wednesday 4th January
Children return to school
Reminders
Booking for Tree Tops
Please note that Tuesdays and Thursdays are now fully booked for the remainder of this term.
Home Learning Grids
This half-term's Home Learning Grids are posted on your Home Learning Google Classrooms. Work should be completed in time for the class Home Learning Showcases in school on Friday 9th December.
Your year group weekly news is published every Friday afternoon on your child's Home Learning Google Classroom. Click here for information about how we use the Google Classroom.
Childcare Vouchers
If you plan to use Childcare Vouchers or Tax-free Childcare (TFC) payments to pay for Tree Tops sessions next term, please ensure you arrange for their transfer before Friday 9th December. This is to ensure that they reach us and can be processed before the end of term. The school is closed over the holiday period and any vouchers or payments received during this time will not be processed until January.
Pupil Photographs
Thank you to all the families who ordered their child's school photograph - they have been sent home this week. If you have any queries, please contact the photographer, Kans Bahara, directly on 07931 593 169.
Festive Celebrations
Autumn end of term celebrations will begin at Fern Hill on Thursday 9th December with our Christmas Jumper Day. Children are invited to join in the festive fun and show their support for Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day by wearing a Christmas jumper instead of their school uniform jumper or cardigan. Please don't feel you have to buy your child a Christmas jumper if they don't already have one - a school jumper decorated with tinsel is perfect! This is not a mufti day, so children should still wear their school polo shirt or shirt and tie and school skirt or trousers. We will be setting up a JustGiving page for any donations you would like to make to the Save the Children charity.
Thursday 9th December is also the first day of our Festive Concerts with Nursery children performing to their families. Please see the Key Dates section for details of each year group's concert.
If your child would like to give Christmas cards to their friends, please send them into school by Monday 12th December. The children can post them in their class post boxes, and they will be handed out during the week.
Our whole school Christmas Lunch for children and staff will be held on Wednesday 14th December. Information and details on how to order Christmas lunch was sent out via ParentPay on Wednesday. Remember to place your order for a MAIN or VEGETARIAN meal through ParentPay by midnight on Sunday 4th December and if you have ordered the main meal, complete the Christmas Lunch Order Form. No pasta pots or jacket potatoes will be served on this day.
Thursday 15th is the Christmas Party Day. It is a mufti (non-uniform day) and the children may wear party clothes to school. Each class will have a party lunch in their classroom, and we will be asking all families to donate party food that will be shared by all the children. Please look out for further information from your Class Reps who will be co-ordinating food donations with teachers. No hot lunches will be served on this day. If you have ordered a lunch through ParentPay, it will be cancelled and a credit applied to your ParentPay account if applicable.
Children in Reception through to Year 6 will also enjoy a very special performance of the pantomime Aladdin and our Nursery children will be entertained by Froggle the Magican. Thank you so much to the PSA for funding this.
Friday 16th is the last day of the autumn term. It’s a mufti (non-uniform) day and school will close at 1:30 pm. Tree Tops will run a full session from 1:30 – 4:30 pm only and must be booked in advance.
School Book Fair
Thank you all for your incredible support of the School Book Fair and thanks to the TKA Year 9 prefects and library assistants who helped to do all the sums! We took a fantastic £1,568.27 in book sales which means that we have earned £880.96 back to spend on books for the school! Happy reading...
A huge thank you to our librarian Mrs Rouillard, who made all this happen!
Spark! School Book Awards
Once again, Fern Hill is participating in the Spark! School Book Awards, now in its third year. Mrs Rouillard is chairing the Early Readers Shortlisting Panel and, together with her team, has read all the books submitted by publishers and selected a longlist of 12 books to go through to the next stage of judging.
The 12 longlisted books in each category are being announced daily from 1st December and you can follow the "12 Books of Christmas" on the Spark! Twitter and Facebook pages. The shortlisted books will be announced in January, and then it will be up to the pupils to vote for the winner in each category. You can watch the announcement here.
Book of the Week
'When Life Gives You Mangoes' by Kereen Getten
Clara lives in the small village of Sycamore in Jamaica where nothing ever happens. But that's not entirely true - something happened last summer, but Clara doesn't remember it. All she knows is that her best friend Gaynah doesn't believe her amnesia is real. But then a new girl arrives on the island from England and, as Clara shows her around, they delve into old family secrets and grudges and Clara's memories start to come back.
'When Life Gives You Mangoes' is a wonderfully atmospheric, voice-driven narrative, with a stunning twist at the end!
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is COOMBE
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Kingston
373
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Coombe
412
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Richmond
352
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Hampton
321
PSA News & Events
Festive Hamper Raffle - tickets now on sale!
A special thank you to all the families who donated today for our Festive Hampers - we hope the children enjoyed having an extra mufti day.
You can now buy tickets for the Hamper Raffle! Thanks to the generosity of local businesses and the school community, we have a stunning array of beautiful hampers stuffed with festive goodies for you to win, along with a few individual prizes including a £400 Thames Travel voucher, a £50 Amazon voucher and a designer watch!
Please click here to buy your tickets, and remember the more you buy, the greater your chance of winning! Once again we are using the online raffle site Raffall, and you will need to sign up and answer a very easy quiz question to buy your tickets.
A special thank you to all the families who donated today
Good luck!
Festive Events - important information
We have had a few parents ask if we are doing a Winter Fair this year. There will not be a Fair this year - with no PSA Chair and a very small committee we have not had the capacity to organise this. However, we are still running the Festive Hamper Raffle and of course the Festive Magic Show and Discos. And never fear, the Summer Fair will be back as usual in June!
Christmas trees for sale - reminder
We hope those of you that have pre-ordered your Christmas trees for delivery this weekend are excited about their arrival! Trees will also be on sale outside school over next weekend on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th December and, stock permitting, Saturday 17th December.
Fern Hill Pre-Loved Fashion Event
Calling all fashion lovers! We are hosting a pre-loved clothing sale on Tuesday 13th December between 7:00 - 8:30 pm, with support from Jigsaw who have kindly donated a large selection of womenswear & accessories samples to sell at the event. This is a perfect opportunity to stock up on Christmas presents for yourself and others!
We are also asking for donations of women’s, men’s and children’s clothing & accessories of all sizes. All donated items must be clean and in very good resalable condition and must be seasonally appropriate (no shorts or summer dresses please). The drop-off dates for donations are Thursday 8th and Friday 9th December. Please leave items in a bag on the trolley outside school reception. There is a limit of one bag per household.
Tickets will cost £2 each and are available to book here from Sunday 4th December at 8:00 pm. The Small Hall and Music Room will be transformed into a boutique shopping venue, so come along and enjoy a glass of fizz and a mince pie whilst you browse. Tickets are limited so book early to avoid disappointment!
On the evening of the event please bring your own carrier bags. Card and cash payments will be accepted. We look forward to seeing you there!
Inspiration 