Fern Hill Primary School - Newsletter 8 - Summer Term

Key Dates

Monday 3rd July
Year 6 transition day for Richmond borough schools

Tuesday 4th July
Year 3 Country Dancing Festival

Fern Speak Summer Festival Finals at 1:30 pm in the Large Hall

Wednesday 5th July
Proposed strike action - please refer to communications from ParentPay for updates

Year 6 transition day for Kingston borough schools

Thursday 6th July
PSA Annual General Meeting at 7:00 pm in school

Friday 7th July
Proposed strike action - please refer to communications from ParentPay for updates

Monday 10th July
Year 5 visit to Thames Young Mariners

Tuesday 11th July
Year 2 sale in aid of The Lunchbowl at 3:20 pm

Thursday 13th July
Year 6 Leavers' production at 6:00 pm in the Large Hall (ticket only)

Friday 14th July
HOME LEARNING SHOWCASE

Year 6 Leavers' production at 9:15 am in the Large Hall (ticket only)

Year 6 visit from Sarah Olney M.P.

Tuesday 18th July
Class changeover day - the children spend time with their new class teacher for September

New to Reception Meet the Teacher sessions & PSA Welcome Cafe

Wednesday 19th July
Open Afternoon from 3:15 - 4:00 pm

Year 6 Leavers' Party at 5:30 pm

Thursday 20th July
Year 6 Leavers' Assembly at 2:30 pm in the Large Hall

Friday 21st July
LAST DAY OF TERM - school closes at 1:30 pm

Reminders

Class photographs
Class photographs are still available to order, although the deadline for free delivery to school has now past. Delivery will be to your home address and charged at £3.50. Please use the class link and password sent via ParentPay to order.

School Uniform
Appointments with our school uniform supplier, PMG Schoolwear, are available to book now - please click here. The cut-off date for ordering uniform for the start of the autumn term is 12th August. Please see the school website here for further information on school uniform requirements at Fern Hill.

Don't forget the home learning activities for this half-term that are due by Friday 14th July for the Home Learning Showcase. Your child's Home Learning Grid and any supporting resources are published on their Home Learning Google Classroom.

This week's Times Tables Rock Stars class winners are ROWAN, YEW, LIME and OAK. Well done!

It’s not too late to book one of the exciting activities happening at Fern Hill over the summer break. Masquerade Theatre Arts and Mother Nature Science are both offering fantastic workshops. Just click through to their websites for further details.

Congratulations to our Daisies on their very first Fern Hill Sports Day this week. They all did incredibly well and received a special medal each for their hard work and effort - it was great preparation for them joining next year's whole school event at the Hawker Centre when they are in Reception. Thank you to the families who came to watch and cheer the children on too.

School Book Fair

Thank you to everyone who supported our Usborne Book Fair yesterday and thanks to Michelle from My Book Bug for running the Fair for us. We have earned just under £150 worth of rewards to buy lots of lovely new non-fiction for our school library!

KS2 Reading Shed

Some of our Year 6 pupils took the initiative to create a KS2 Reading Shed this week, including some fabulous books and magazines, comfortable cushions, drawing equipment and more. Well done team, this will be a very popular addition to the playground and a lovely legacy to leave us!

Cath Howe Author Visit

Last week, the children were excited to receive an author visit from Cath Howe, a former Fern Hill teacher and now a hugely successful author of contemporary children's fiction. Cath spoke to the children in Years 3 - 6 about her latest novel, 'My Life on Fire', the story of a girl who loses everything in a house fire and then begins to steal things from her classmates, and then Years 1 & 2 discovered some interesting facts about puffins from her new series for younger readers, 'Call the Puffins'. They also had a go at drawing a puffin! We're very lucky to have all Cath Howe's books in the school library and available for everyone to borrow.

Book of the Week

‘The Boy Who Made Monsters’ by Jenny Pearson

When Benji’s parents go missing at sea, he moves, with his older brother Stanley, to the Highlands of Scotland to live with their Uncle Hamish. Hamish runs a holiday resort on the shore of Loch Lochy but his business is not going well. Benji decides it is not enough just to pray to God, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, the goddess Guanyin, and Spiderman – he needs to come up with a plan to save Loch Lochy Holiday Lets. And what could be a bigger tourist attraction than a Loch Lochy Monster?

Benji is convinced the Loch Lochy monster is real, but unfortunately it is rather camera shy. Together with his new friend, Murdy Mei-Yin McGurdy, and Hamish’s dog, Mr Dog, he decides to create a monster so they will have photographic evidence to pull in the crowds. Unfortunately, their monster-making plans do not go smoothly.

Benji is a delightfully endearing character, full of hope, positivity, and inspired ideas. But although Benji is sunny on the surface, there are monsters lurking in the deep waters below and eventually he will have to face them.

Jenny Pearson is an author who will reliably make you laugh and cry. This is a book about bereavement and coping with grief, but it is also a hilarious, madcap monster-romp, and a warm-hearted story about family and friendship. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

~ Mrs Rouillard, School Librarian

TEAM POINTS

The overall winner this week is RICHMOND

Kingston

280
Coombe

338
Richmond

361
Hampton

358

PSA News & Events

Reminder! PSA AGM - Thursday 6th July at 7:00 pm

A reminder that we are holding our Annual General Meeting at 7:00 pm in school on Thursday 6th July. Please do come along if you can, to hear our review of this year and plans for next year. If you would like to be considered for a place on the Committee please email fernhillpsa@gmail.com.

Dragon Boat Race at Canbury Gardens - Sunday 16th July

A reminder that you can still donate to raise funds for the school and show your support for the Fern Hill parents and staff taking on the Dragon Boat Race challenge through our JustGiving page here.

Please do come along on the day to support the teams - it's a lovely event and the perfect excuse for a picnic by the river!

Fair volunteers fireworks tickets draw

All the brilliant parents, carers and staff who volunteered at the Summer Fair were entered into a draw to win those much-coveted tickets to our PSA Fireworks Night in November. And the winner is... Clare from Larch (thank you for your help on the tombola, Clare!). And huge thanks again to all our volunteers - don't forget to come forward again next year for another chance to win...

New Parents' Welcome Cafe - Tuesday 18th July - can you help?

Every year, the PSA runs a Welcome Cafe and a pre-loved uniform sale for the parents and carers of children joining us in Reception in September. We serve refreshments to the parents in the Small Hall while the children spend time in the Reception classrooms, getting to know their new teachers and friends. We need a few volunteers to help serve tea/coffee and chat to our new parents during the two sessions we run - one in the morning and another in the afternoon. If you are free from 9:15 - 11:00 am and/or 1:15 - 3:00 pm, please let us know via the PSA WhatsApp group, through your Class Rep, or by email at: fernhillpsa@gmail.com. Thank you!