Key Dates
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 Juniors' Library - all welcome
Thursday 30th November
Year 1 Amazing Animals workshop in school
Year 3 visit to London Southbank
Friday 1st December
PSA Festive Hamper Raffle donations and mufti day
Year 3 Beech class parent assembly at 9:00 am
PSA Year 3 cake sale
Thursday 7th December
Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day
Year 2 Heather class assembly at 9:00 am
Friday 8th December
HOME LEARNING SHOWCASE for Years 1 - 6
PSA Festive Magic Show for Years 1 & 2 at 5:15 pm in the Large Hall
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
School lunches
Please don't forget to place your child's order for lunch through ParentPay by 8:00 am on the day. To avoid missing the deadline, we recommend that you order your child’s lunches well in advance - you can cancel or amend your orders up until 8:00 am on the day too.
Absent or late for school?
If your child is ill or absent from school for any other reason, or if they are going to be late, please let the school office know by 8:30 am at the latest. The easiest way of doing this is by email at: office@fernhillprimary.org or telephone on 020 8247 0300. Please leave a message on the answerphone if no one answers your call – staff are there, but busy, and your message will be picked up.
Don't forget to check the year group weekly news published on your child's Home Learning Google Classroom. Home Learning Grids are also published here, and the work is due for the Home Learning Showcase on Friday 8th December.
The class winners of the TTRS England Rocks competition are: Year 3 Elm, Year 4 Yew, Year 5 Sycamore and Year 6 Oak. Well done!
School photographs
Thank you to all the families who have ordered a school photograph - the photographs will be delivered to school by the end of November, and we will send them home with the children. You can still order your child's photograph but print orders will be subject to a £3.50 delivery charge. Delivery charges do not apply to digital image orders. If you have any queries, or haven't received or have lost your login details, please contact the school photographer directly via email at: info@inTime-Photography.com or telephone on 07931593169.
Educational Visits
Thank you very much to all the families who make a contribution to the cost of trips and workshops. Unfortunately, this term we have a significant shortfall across all year groups and this will have an impact on our ability to run curriculum enrichment activities for the remainder of the school year. While contributions are voluntary, we do rely on them to help fund educational visits both out of and in school, so if you can make a contribution to your child's trip or workshop when asked, we would be very grateful. Thank you.
BBC Children in Need
Thank you so much to all the children who bought a pin badge or wristband or gave £1 for our Children in Need appeal today and to the families who have donated through our JustGiving page. It’s not too late to donate! We'll keep the JustGiving page open for now, and we'll let you know how much we have raised together next week.
A big thank you too for all your generous donations to our special Children In Need cake sale this afternoon - and to the PSA and Year 6 children running the sale.
Anti-Bullying & RESPECT Week
It's been a great week with lots of focussed activities in the classroom. We welcomed BigFoot Arts Education into school to help us mark the start of the week with the ‘BIG Anti-Bullying Experience’ workshop where the children learnt more about how to maintain positive relationships and the importance of embracing each other’s differences. If you can make a contribution to help us fund this workshop, the payment item of £2.60 is still available on ParentPay.
The children also took part in the NSPCC's Speak out. Stay safe. Programme with age-appropriate virtual assemblies and supporting classroom-based activities. The NSPCC offer a range of resources for families to help keep children safe: support for parents and carers; activities to extend learning at home; their online safety hub with a range of different safety topics around gaming and social media; and Childline's own accessible (and translatable) websites with advice, support, games and activities for the under 8s and under 12's.
The deadline for our Anti-Bullying Hero Poster Challenge is next Wednesday 22nd November with entries to be handed in to Miss Copland, Willow class teacher, or Mrs Roberts, Heather class teacher. We can't wait to see the heroes that the children create to put an end to bullying! Please remind your child to put their name and class on the back of their design. All posters will be entered into a national competition and some will be selected for display across the school too.
Book of the Week
'The Witchstone Ghosts' by Emily Randall-Jones
Autumn has always been able to see ghosts. For example, her friend Jack – a Victorian chimney sweep, but when her Dad tragically dies, there’s no sign of his ghost anywhere. And even worse, his will compels Autumn and her Mum to leave their home in London and move to a tiny, stormy Cornish island called Imber. Imber, unlike London, is surprisingly devoid of ghosts. Autumn enjoys the peace and quiet, and even makes her first real-life friend, but the island is hiding a sinister secret and time is running out for her to unravel the mystery of the witchstones.
‘The Witchstone Ghosts’ is a dark and captivating story, full of rich details and humorous quips. Autumn is an engaging heroine and I particularly enjoyed the relationships she has with her embarrassing mum and her cockney ghost buddy, Jack. It is perfect for fans of Catherine Doyle’s ‘The Storm Keeper’s Island’ and Victoria Schwab’s ‘City of Ghosts’ series.
~ Mrs Rouillard, School Librarian
School Book Fair
To encourage a lifelong love of reading, we will be holding 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 Juniors' Library. Books can be paid for with cash or card and gift vouchers 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...
Team Points
The overall winner this week is HAMPTON!
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Kingston
208
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Coombe
202
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Richmond
223
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Hampton
243
PSA News & Events
Second-hand Uniform and Christmas Jumper sale - Friday 25th November
We will be holding a second-hand uniform and Christmas jumper sale after school on Friday 25th November. Please drop off your donations of good quality, clean and ready to sell Christmas jumpers, Fern Hill ties and other items with the Fern Hill logo, including jumpers and cardigans on Wednesday or Thursday next week. Please, no white shirts or grey items. Trainers welcome! Thank you!
PSA Festive Hamper Raffle donations and mufti day - Friday 1st December
On Friday 1st December, we'll be holding a mufti (non-uniform) day - children may wear their own clothes to school (but no team sports kit, please!) in return for a donation of non-perishable luxury or festive items to fill the hampers we will be raffling. You could donate wine, chocolates, fancy biscuits, pickles, jams/chutneys/preserves, tea, coffee, or perhaps a candle or some lovely toiletries (for him or her!), new small toys or similar.
If you have any retail or business contacts who would kindly donate a luxury item to go in one of our hampers, it would be very much appreciated - in return, we would include their business in the advertising of the raffle promotion to the whole school community. Please let your Class Rep know if you can help.
We also need a team of helpers who would be happy to sort through donations and make up the hampers on Friday 1st December after drop off. Please let us know if you can help via the PSA WhatsApp group or your Class Rep.
And finally, if you have a large or small empty hamper that you can donate, please let us know - thank you!
KS2 Festive Discos - tickets on sale next week!
The PSA has organised two fabulous festive discos for Years 3 - 6 on Friday 15th December. There will be two separate discos: one for Years 3 & 4 running from 5:30 - 6:45 pm; and one for Years 5 & 6 running from 7:15 - 8:30 pm.
Tickets cost £6 and this includes UV face painting and a small treat to take home! This is a drop-off event, with parent volunteers supervising the disco. Tickets go on sale Monday 20th - a link will be sent out via ParentPay and your Class Reps.
Christmas Tree Sale - Curchods Sponsorship Boards response by Monday 20th November!
Once again, Christmas trees will be available for pre-order and will be on sale outside school on 9th & 10th December.
To support our festive fundraising, local estate agents Curchods will be advertising the sales on their branded boards and will donate £10 to Fern Hill for every board that goes up outside parents’/carers’ houses or flats. The more boards that go up, the more money we will raise! Please note these are NOT “for sale” signs – they just advertise our tree sales. Please follow this link and complete the form by Monday 20th November if you are happy to sign up to host a board outside your home over the sale period. Thank you!
Inspiration 