Key Dates
Saturday 11th November
Gardening Day from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm - all welcome!
Monday 13th - Friday 17th November
Anti-Bullying & RESPECT Week
Monday 13th November
Anti-Bullying Alliance Odd Socks Day
The BIG Anti-Bullying Experience workshops
Tuesday 14th November
Year 4 Ancient Greece workshop in school
PSA Quiz Night at The Boaters Inn
Thursday 16th November
Year 5 Ash class parent assembly at 9:00 am
Friday 17th November
BBC Children in Need fundraising day
Year 5 Science Dome workshop in school
Thursday 23rd November
Year 4 Chestnut class parent assembly at 9:00 am
PSA Fireworks Night at 5:45 pm
Friday 24th November
PSA second-hand uniform sale at 3:00 pm
Tuesday 28th - Thursday 30th November
Scholastics Book Fair 3:30 - 4:30 pm in the junior library - all welcome
Thursday 30th November
Year 1 Amazing Animals workshop in school
Year 3 visit to London Southbank
Friday 1st December
Year 3 Beech class parent assembly at 9:00 am
Key dates for this school year are published here. Some of these dates are provisional, and all dates are subject to change — please refer to this newsletter and communications via ParentPay for the latest information.
Click here for term dates including INSET days.
Reminders
Gardening Day - Saturday 11th Nov
Join us for our first Gardening Day of the year to ready the school gardens for the winter. If you can spare an hour, or more, between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, we would love to see you there. Everyone is welcome and refreshments are provided. Please bring your own gardening tools if you have them – gloves, trowels, forks, spades, hedge clippers etc. Thank you!
Odd Socks Day - Monday 13th Nov
Don't forget Odd Socks Day on Monday! Children and staff are invited to wear their funkiest, oddest socks to celebrate their individuality. This is not a mufti day, so children should wear their school uniform – but with some fantastic socks!
Year group weekly news
Year group weekly news is published every Friday afternoon on the Home Learning Google Classroom. You will also find this half-term's Home Learning Grids on the Classroom. All work should be completed in time for our next Home Learning Showcase Day on Friday 8th December.
Wellbeing
Today, we held a whole school two minute silence ahead of Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday this weekend, to commemorate the service and sacrifices of the armed forces and many others in the World Wars and more recent conflicts. In light of the current situation in the Middle East and the extensive media reporting many children are exposed to, we would like to share a useful resource from unicef on how to talk to your children about conflict and war and provide them with support and comfort.
Thank you to Oak class for their fabulous assembly this week. Don't forget to check the Key Dates document linked above for the date of your child's assembly; all parent assemblies are held in the Large Hall and start at 9:00 am. Beech class assembly will now be held on Friday 1st December and not Thursday 30th November due to the Year 3 visit to London Southbank.
RESPECT Week - With Empathy and Respect, We Connect !
Poster competition
Launched as part of Respect Week, our Anti-Bullying Hero Poster Challenge will help us to raise awareness, foster creativity, and empower the children to be champions against bullying! We’d like the children to think about the qualities and characteristics that a hero would possess to put an end to bullying and design a poster to bring the hero to life. Will their hero have colossal feet to stomp out bullying or superhuman hearing powers to listen for unkind words? Some classes will be creating their posters in school but everyone can do this at home too. Don’t forget to put your name and class on the back of the poster and hand it to Miss Copland, Willow class teacher, or Mrs Roberts, Heather class teacher, by Wednesday 22nd November. All posters will be entered into a national competition run by Thrive, an organisation that works to support and improve the emotional health and mental well-being of children and young adults, and some will be selected for display across the school too.
The BIG Anti-Bullying Experience Workshop
Today and Monday, we are welcoming BigFoot Arts Education into school to help us mark the start of our RESPECT week. Children in Years 1 - 6 are taking part in the ‘BIG Anti-Bullying Experience’, an exciting and thought-provoking learning opportunity, led by two Bigfooters, that focusses on understanding how we maintain positive relationships and the importance of embracing each other’s differences. We’ll explore why some children may be bullied, why some may bully others, what unkind behaviour and discrimination looks like, as well as how we can work together to ensure everyone feels respected, no matter who they are. The cost of this experience is £2.60 per pupil, and we have set up a payment item on ParentPay for voluntary contributions; we would be very grateful for any contribution you could make to help us fund this.
England Rocks!
At Fern Hill, we are committed to making maths fun! Next week, we are taking part in a friendly national competition running on the Times Tables Rock Stars learning platform from 7:30 am on Tuesday 14th November to 7:30 pm on Thursday 16th November 2023.
Children can play in any game mode with every correct answer to a multiplication or division question, earning themselves, their class and the school a point. The Times Tables Rock Stars platform will calculate the class average - the number of correct answers per pupil in the class who play during the competition hours, subject to a daily 60-minute limit. Winning classes in the school and in the competition as a whole will be the ones with the highest average.
The daily time limit of 60-minutes per player is in place to support pupil wellbeing. Players will only earn competition points for up to one hour of play per day - once they go beyond this, they will still earn coins but will no longer earn any points towards the competition. In the spirit of the competition, please don't play on your child’s behalf, but please do encourage and support them to take part if they can!
Poppies
Thank you to all our families who donated to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal this week and bought a poppy or two; and to the Year 5 and 6 children who braved the cold, wet weather every morning and afternoon to sell them!
Save the date for our school Book Fair
We will be hosting a Scholastic Book Fair during the last week of November, just in time for your Christmas shopping! And, as usual, all purchases will earn rewards towards buying new books for our school. The fair will be open each day from Tuesday 28th November to Thursday 30th November from 3:30 - 4:30 pm in the Junior Library.
Gift vouchers for the Book Fair are available for pre-purchase here.
Book Fair Poster Competition
Children are invited to create a poster to advertise the Fair, with the theme of 'My Favourite Book'. Designs should be given to the class teachers, or left on Mrs Rouillard's desk and must be handed in by 9:00 am on Tuesday 21st November. There are vouchers for the Book Fair to be won by the illustrators of the best ones! Please remind your children to put their name and class on their poster - we had a few anonymous entries last year...
Book of the Week
'Peril on the Atlantic' by A.M. Howell
When Alice comes aboard the Queen Mary with her father, the Staff Captain, at Southampton docks for a voyage to New York, she doesn’t anticipate all the drama and intrigue that awaits her during the journey. She’s supposed to keep to her cabin and out of sight of the paying customers, but when she overhears an attempted murder and uncovers a sabotage plot, she knows she has to investigate in order to find proof and stop the criminals from carrying out their diabolical plans.
AM Howell does a fantastic job of sustaining the tension and keeping the plot ticking along at an engaging pace. There were lots of fun historical tidbits that added to the story and effectively created a sense of time and place. ‘Peril on the Atlantic’ is a thrilling, seafaring historical adventure – perfect for fans of Emma Carroll and the ‘Adventures on Trains’ series. Mystery books are very popular in the library, but I have plenty of requests for mysteries that are not about murder, so I think this type of story fills an important gap. I look forward to the next book in the Mysteries at Sea series.
~ Mrs Rouillard, School Librarian
PSA News & Events
Festive Magic Party - tickets on sale on Monday!
Our Year 1 and Year 2 children are invited to a fabulous Festive Magic Party with Captain Fantastic, in the Large Hall on Friday 8th December from 5:15 - 6:30 pm! Tickets cost £6 per child, and an email with a link to buy tickets will be sent out on Monday. Look out for details of Festive Discos for Years 3 - 6 to follow.
Pumpkin Trail Winners!
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Pumpkin Trail over half-term! We are excited to announce that the winners of the prize draw are Hannah (Lavender class) and Layla Curtis (Lime Class). Hannah & Layla, please collect your prize from the school office - well done! A huge thanks to Kim Johnston and her helpers for organising this fantastic event.
Children in Need cake sale - donations and volunteers needed!
We will be holding a special cake sale after school on Friday 17th November in aid of Children in Need. If you can help at the sale, please let us know via the PSA WhatsApp group or your Class Rep, and we will need your donations of cakes, biscuits and treats too, so that we can raise as much as possible for this worthy cause. Thank you!
Uniform Sale - Friday 24th November
A reminder that our next sale will be held after school on Friday 24th November. Details about when you can drop donations will be sent out next week.
Our fundraising goals!!
The PSA Committee has been working with staff to come up with our fundraising goals for this year, and here they are! The money we raise through events and activities brings in much-needed funds to enhance the wonderful experiences our children have at school! Thank you for your support so far and let's pull together to try and reach our goals for this year.
Inspiration 