Key Dates
Monday 29th April
Year 4 Larch & Yew classes visit the Kingston Mosque
Monday 29th April
Year 4 Chestnut class swimming lessons begin at the Kingfisher Centre
Tuesday 30th April
Year 3 Elm class visit Gatton Park
Tuesday 30th April
Year 6 SATs Talk for parents at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Wednesday 1st May
Year 4 Larch class swimming lessons begin at the Kingfisher Centre
Wednesday 1st May
Year 5 secondary school transition assembly at 9.00 am - parents invited
Thursday 2nd May
Lavender class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Friday 3rd May
Year 2 drama workshop in school
Friday 3rd May
Year 2 cake sale at 3.00 pm
Monday 6th May
BANK HOLIDAY - children are not in school
Tuesday 7th May
Year 4 Yew class swimming lessons begin at the Kingfisher Centre
Tuesday 7th May
Year 5 leave for the School Journey at Grosvenor Hall (returning 10th May)
Tuesday 7th May
Year 3 Beech & Rowan classes visit Gatton Park
Thursday 9th May
Cornflower class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Thursday 9th May
Year 3 drama workshop in school
Friday 10th May
Nursery reading workshop with Story Storks - parents invited
Friday 10th May
Year 5 return from the School Journey at Grosvenor Hall
Monday 13th May
Year 6 SATs week (13th - 16th May)
Monday 13th May
Year 1 visit Hampton Court
Thursday 16th May
Mini-beast dress up day for Reception children
Thursday 16th May
PSA Committee meeting at 7.30 pm in the Small Hall
Friday 17th May
Year 6 visit the Guildford Spectrum
Friday 17th May
Parent Council meeting at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Friday 17th May
Year 1 cake sale at 3.00 pm
Monday 20th May
Active Week (20th - 24th May)
Monday 20th May
Sports Day for Daisy class children
Tuesday 21st May
Year 1 Lavender class visit Canbury Gardens
Wednesday 22nd May
Whole school sponsored run
Thursday 23rd May
Foxglove class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Friday 24th May
Sports Day at Dinton Fields
Friday 24th May
Nursery rhyme dress up day for Daisy class children
Monday 27th - Friday 31st May
HALF TERM HOLIDAY - children are not in school
Monday 3rd June
Children return to school - school starts at the usual time
Key dates for the summer term are available on the website here.
Reminders
Walking to and from school
If your child walks either to or from school on their own, even if it is just on the odd occasion, please ensure that you have informed the school office in writing. This can be done by sending an email to: office@fernhill.rbksch.org
Kingston Music Service Lessons
If your child has a music lesson with Kingston Music Service during the school day, please remember that lessons start next week, week of 29th April, and to send your child into school with their instrument. If you have any queries about your child's lesson, please contact their tutor at Kingston Music Service by email at: musicservice@kingston.gov.uk
Parent Helpers
If you help in school, remember to sign in and out on our inventory system in the reception area of school. You will be given a printed name badge which must be worn at all times. This is to ensure that we have an accurate record of who is on the school site, for your health and safety and for the safety of the children. Thank you.
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
We’d like to let you know about a few changes to our staff team this term. A very warm welcome to Mrs Figueiredo who is our new Inclusion Lead and Miss Hofbeck who has joined the school office team as an apprentice. An equally warm welcome back to Mrs Brooks, one of our Higher Level Teaching Assistants, and Mrs Tagg, who has returned from maternity leave.
Congratulations to Mrs Hibbard who is expecting her second child in the Autumn. Mrs Hibbard works with many of the children in KS1 who are very glad to have her for the rest of this term!
A message from Mr Scott
Welcome back to the new term and I hope you all enjoyed a fantastic Easter break.
Last term was action packed with creative teaching and fun learning. The spotlight was on both the arts and sciences during our Arts and STEM focus weeks and we celebrated our love of reading with a fantastic World Book Day and the hugely popular ‘Book in a Box’ competition.
The children enjoyed so many different wider enrichment opportunities with music, drama, and role play activities in school and, further afield, with trips to the local Fire Station, the Kingston Mosque and Buddhist Temple in Wimbledon, the British, Natural History and Imperial War Museums and Tate Britain, to name but a few! The Year 4 production, ‘A Glint of Gold’, was a huge success, as was our Curriculum Evening for parents which has had tremendously positive feedback. We continued our journey to becoming a UNICEF Rights Respecting School with all the children engaging in Children’s Mental Health Week, learning about democracy through our work with Votes for Schools and fundraising for Comic Relief and the local charity, 21 & Co.
Our sports curriculum continued to grow too, with fixtures in football, rugby, netball and hockey. We are extremely proud of our girls’ football team who represented the Borough at the London Youth Games.
Around the school we’ve focused on improving the children’s environment: the Secret Garden and Discovery Zone pond’s recent make-over has created additional recreational and learning space and enabled us to launch our own Forest School – Forest Fun.
Looking ahead to this next half term, our Year 5 children will soon be off on their School Journey, a four day residential adventure trip to Grosvenor Hall, and we wish our Year 2’s and Year 6’s the very best during the test weeks. ‘Active Week’ will be a welcome end to this busy half term with Sports Day, a whole school sponsored run and other activities to inspire a healthy lifestyle.
I would like to express my gratitude to our dedicated and energetic PSA who delivered another term’s worth of events for our families and who continue to focus on raising vital funds for our school. We are very much looking forward to the Summer Fair, a key date in the school calendar!
Finally, thank you to all our families for your continued support as we begin what will be an exciting and purposeful summer term.
Curriculum Information
Just a reminder that the Curriculum Learning Maps for the first half of this term are available on the website under the relevant Year Group page. Linked to a theme, they cover what your child will be learning across all subjects and outline any activities they will participate in, including trips and workshops.
Primary Maths Challenge
Earlier this month, three of our budding mathematicians from Year 5 took part in the Primary Schools’ Maths Challenge, an annual event run by The Mathematical Association and hosted by Grey Court School which aims to stimulate mathematical problem solving. There were 6 teams in total, from different primary schools, all working to solve a variety of challenging maths tasks under pressure. Our team, with Aashi, Jesse and Isabel, worked superbly together and didn’t crack! They came third with only one point between first, second and third place. Well done, we are very proud of you!
A visiting Member of Parliament for Year 6
Linking in to their trips to The Houses of Parliament last term, Year 6 were lucky to be visited by the local MP, Zac Goldsmith, today. Following a successful visit from Sarah Olney a couple of years ago, the children were keen to put their questions to him.
Zac was grilled on a range of topics - 'what was the hardest decision you've had to make?' (sometimes hard can be because it is a BIG matter, and sometimes hard is because it's a controversial subject); 'did you always want to be an MP?' (he's always been interested in making changes, and questioning things so it was a natural step); 'have you ever had a law changed/introduced?' (he was key in getting an area of the ocean to be protected from fishing and mining to protect Blue Whales); as well as more direct questioning about how can he put more money into the police force.
Zac emphasised the need to compromise and negotiate with all parties and politicians as this is how change would be most effective: a link to the school value of collaboration and the value of tolerance.
Thank you to him for coming in, and thank you to the children who asked some very sensible and relevant questions.
- Mrs Lawn, Year 6 Class Teacher
After School & Lunchtime Clubs News
All our after school and lunchtime clubs begin next week, Monday 29th April, and will run for 10 sessions. Any catch up classes will be run week beginning Monday 15th July. Please note that all clubs running on a Monday will have their last session on Monday 15th July, to make up the session lost on Monday 6th May, which is a bank holiday. You can view and download the session dates for this term here. Masquerade Theatre Arts run with slightly different dates which are posted here.
Don’t forget that if your child will be attending a Tree Tops session after their club, from 4.30 pm, this session MUST be booked using ParentPay at least three days in advance.
Places are still available on every internal, Fern Hill run, club except Year 5 & 6 Football which is now full. Places may be available on the external clubs run by outside providers so please enquire directly with them. The Busy Lizzy Pottery Club, which runs on a Friday after school, is looking for more potters! You can find the details of all the clubs on our website under the 'Extra Curricular Clubs & Activities' section.
Orchestra club are on the look-out for new players to join! At the moment, we don’t have enough applicants to run it effectively so if your child plays a musical instrument, other than the guitar, and would like some orchestral experience, please apply directly to Mrs Corinne Ingram, our Choir Leader, via the school by emailing clubs@fernhill.rbksch.org
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is Kingston
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Kingston
196
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Coombe
172
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Richmond
179
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Hampton
152
PSA News & Events
Summer Fair News
Our fantastic Summer Fair will be on Saturday 15th June, from 12.00 pm to 3.00 pm. Please make sure you’ve got the date in your diaries and we look forward to seeing lots of you there! We’ll be sending out plenty of information this term about the fair, from all the fantastic attractions and competitions you’ll find there on the day, to how you can get involved and help out at the fair. A great way parents can help now is to think if you, or anyone you know, could provide us with raffle prizes. Do you have good contacts with a local shop, restaurant, organisation or business who might offer a prize? If you do, please contact us at fernhillpsa@gmail.com
We were delighted that so many of you bought our sunflower growing kits at the end of the spring term! Remember there will be a prize at the fair for the tallest sunflower. Hopefully your sunflowers are growing well, but don’t worry if they’re not, as there’ll also be a prize for the best-decorated pot! Good luck!
PSA Committee Meeting
Our next meeting is on Thursday 16th May, from 7.30 pm to 9.00 pm in the Small Hall. Please come along to find out more about our planning for the Summer Fair and our other events.
PSA Summer Social
We’re looking for volunteers who would be interested in running this event, scheduled for Friday 5th July, from 7.30 pm. If you have some great ideas and would like to get involved, please email fernhillpsa@gmail.com
Thanks for your support
Fern Hill PSA
Calling all budding forest school creators! Don’t forget the deadline for entries for the ‘Design a Nature Zone’ competition is next Tuesday 30th April at 10.00 am. Entries can be handed in at the school office for the attention of FoLaR.
Friends of Latchmere Recreation Ground (FoLaR) are inviting all North Kingston children aged 5 - 11 years to enter their 'Design a Nature Zone' competition. They are looking for ideas on how to create a natural play and learning area within the wooded area on the north edge of the recreation ground. The winning designers will be invited to help FoLaR design a children's nature zone and will receive a special mention on a commemorative plaque! Entries must be no larger than A4 size and can be submitted in any form - drawings, collages, 3D models, even a story or a poem.
Please see the information poster on our Community page for further information.
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Year 3 who have had the best year group attendance for this week.
The Attendance Cup is awarded to Rowan class for the best attendance with 100%.
Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
---|---|---|
Reception | 97.1% | |
Year 1 | 94.9% | |
Year 2 | 96.9% | |
Year 3 | 99.2% | Well done! |
Year 4 | 96.4% | |
Year 5 | 96.0% | |
Year 6 | 96.7% |