Key Dates
Saturday 25th January
Eco Schools Community Litter Pick at 10:00 am
Sunday 26th January
PSA Lunar New Year Fair 12:00–4:00 pm
Tuesday 28th January
Author visit with Farrah Riaz
Wednesday 29th January
Inclusion Coffee Morning at 9:00 am
Thursday 30th January
Elder class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Eco-Refill Shop at 3:00 pm
PSA meeting at 7:00 pm
Tuesday 4th February
Reading for Pleasure Parent Workshop at 9:00 am
Thursday 6th February
Yew class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Friday 7th February
NSPCC Number Day
PSA Year 6 cake sale after school
Tuesday 11th February
Safer Internet Day
Wednesday 12th February
Curriculum Evening at 6:30 pm
Thursday 13th February
Lime class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Friday 14th February
Home Learning Showcase for children in Years 1–6
PSA second-hand uniform sale
Monday 17th to Friday 21st February ~ HALF-TERM BREAK
Monday 24th February
Children return to school
Thursday 27th February
Rowan class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Reception visit to Kingston Fire Station
Eco-Refill Shop at 3:00 pm
Friday 28th February
Inclusion Coffee Morning at 9:00 am
PSA Year 5 cake sale after school
PSA Quiz Night at 7:30 pm
Saturday 1st March
Eco Schools Community Litter Pick at 10:00 am
Key dates have been updated for the spring term and 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 for the current and 2025/2026 school years, 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.
Starting Nursery in September
If your child was born between 1st September 2021 and 31st August 2022, they can join Fern Hill Nursery in September 2025. Applications for a place are made directly to the school using the online form. The closing date for applications is Friday 7th March 2025.
Home Learning Grids for this half-term are posted on your child's Google Home Learning Classroom. Work should be completed in time for our Home Learning Showcase on Friday 14th February.
Inclusion Coffee Morning
Our Coffee Morning on Wednesday 29th January will focus on strategies to support your child with their emotional regulation. Mrs Stephenson will share best practice on zones of regulation, routine and consistency. If you would like to join us, please let us know via this linked form.
Parent Election
Thank you to the parents who put themselves forward for the role of Trust Associate on our local governing body last term and to those of you who voted. We are pleased to announce that Natalie Jefferies was elected and all required checks having been completed, has now taken up the role and will be joining the Committee when it next meets in February.
Reading for Pleasure Parent Workshop
On Tuesday 4th February, Miss Bennett, our Reading subject lead, and Ms Rouillard, our School Librarian, will be hosting a parent workshop on Reading for Pleasure. The workshop will be held at school from 9:00 to 9:45 am and will focus on the benefits of reading for pleasure and how you can support this for your child at home.
Reading for pleasure opens up new worlds for children. It gives them the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. It also improves children’s well-being and empathy, helping them to understand their own identity, and giving them an insight into the world and the views of others.
We hope you will join us! If you would like to attend, please let us know by completing this linked form.
Eco-Committee Community Litter Pick
Please join us on Saturday 25th January for our monthly community litter pick with Miss Evans and the Eco-Committee. They will meet at the Nursery gates at 9:50 am. If you have a litter picker at home, please bring it with you!
Fern Hill Eco Refill Shop
Our Eco Refill Shop will run next Thursday 30th January after school and is open to all families. Run by our Eco-Committee, the shop sells a range of affordable, ethically sourced, cruelty-free and environmentally friendly cleaning and beauty products on a refill basis - don't forget to bring your own bottles for refilling!
Rotary Art Competition
Once again, Fern Hill is taking part in the borough wide Rotary Art Competition. The theme this year is 'I am alive, I have wings, I can fly'. We will be entering our artwork alongside other schools in the borough and judging will take place towards the end of this term, with a prize giving ceremony for the winners. It’s open to all children in Years 1-6. The artwork must be completed in school, and we are running special sessions over lunchtimes to facilitate this. Children are welcome to start their planning at home, so please do encourage your child if they wish to take part. They can use any medium (paint, crayon, chalk, collage, charcoal, pencil, pen and ink) and the artwork should be no bigger than A3, and no smaller than A5. The deadline for completed work is Monday 25th February.
Royal Academy of Arts Young Artists' Summer Show
Now in its seventh year, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is a free, open submission exhibition for students aged 4–19 studying in the UK.
Submitting artwork is completely free and is done online. Just follow this link and select Fern Hill Primary as your school. For children 12 or under, entry must be completed by a parent or guardian. Registration and submission is open until 5th March 2025.
Each student can submit one artwork and there is no theme. When you enter, you’ll be asked for an image of your child’s artwork plus some information about the piece such as title, size, and a little text about it. It will be seen by a panel of judges and arts professionals and the selected pieces will be displayed online and on-site at the Royal Academy of Arts when the exhibition opens in July.
Please let us know if you submit artwork on behalf of your child, so we can have our own exhibition at school too!
Book of the Week
‘The Twirly Wiggly Dance’ by Farrah Riaz, illustrated by Navya Raju
Intisar is excited when Auntie Mahira asks her to dance at her wedding, and she’s determined to practice until she can do all the moves perfectly like her cousin, Isla. But however hard she tries, there’s one part she can’t get right, and she ends up doing her own special move instead - a twirly wiggly dance.
By the time the big day arrives, Initsar has given up and decides to watch from the sidelines, until she realises that having fun and expressing yourself is more important than being exactly the same as everyone else - and soon Intisar’s twirly wiggly dance catches on and everyone is twirling and wiggling together.
This is a joyful and inclusive picture book with an empowering message and colourful and engaging illustrations. There’s also an informative section at the back explaining the different events and stages of a Muslim wedding.
Farrah Riaz will be reading her book and doing some twirly wiggly dancing with our Year 1 and 2 pupils on Tuesday next week.
David Barker Author Visit
On Tuesday, our KS2 pupils enjoyed an engaging visit from David Barker, author of the thrilling, dystopian 'London Falling' series. We learned about David's journey to becoming an author, received some tips on writing futuristic stories and explored how to use a map for inspiration. Here's what our Year 6 pupils had to say about the visit:
'Very good imaginative book.' Adam
'I loved the talk, David Barker was very engaging. He even told us about his journey of becoming an author. Because of him I might consider being an author as a future career.' Zoia
'His talk was very persuasive, I could be an author when I grow up one day. I would really like to read the book called PAX.' Zeynep
'I thought the speech was very inspiring and it made me want to write my own creative writing piece; I thought he was an excellent author!' Ezoza
Team Points
The overall winner this week is RICHMOND
-
Kingston
469
-
Coombe
390
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Richmond
472
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Hampton
418
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Reception and Year 1, both of whom have achieved our school target of 97%.
Special congratulations to Poppy class with 100% attendance!
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 97.9% | ★ |
| Year 1 | 97.3% | ★ |
| Year 2 | 93.4% | |
| Year 3 | 95.9% | |
| Year 4 | 96.6% | |
| Year 5 | 96.2% | |
| Year 6 | 95.9% |
Inspiration 