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Key Dates
Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd December
Christmas trees on sale
Monday 3rd December
Year 6 trip to the Synagogue (Willow class & half of Oak class)
Wednesday 5th December
Year 6 trip to the Synagogue (Elder & half of Oak class)
Wednesday 5th December
Year 2 trip to Cornerstone (Clover class)
Thursday 6th December
Elm class parent assembly, 9.00 am
Thursday 6th December
Year 2 trip to Cornerstone (Heather class & Bracken class)
Thursday 6th December
FernSpeak Finals (parents of children taking part are invited to attend)
Friday 7th December
PSA Tombola Collection - Mufti day
Friday 7th December
Year 1 cake sale
Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th December
Christmas trees on sale
Monday 10th December
Christmas cards may come into school
Monday 10th December
Nursery (Daisy AM) Christmas Concert, 9.15 am in the Small Hall
Monday 10th December
Nursery (Daisy PM) Christmas Concert, 2.30 pm in the Small Hall
Monday 10th December
Year 1 trip to St Luke's Church
Tuesday 11th December
Reception Christmas Concert, 9.15 am in the Large Hall
Wednesday 12th December
Year 1 Christmas Concert, 9.15 am in the Large Hall
Wednesday 12th December
Whole school Christmas lunch
Wednesday 12th December
Daisy AM class closed
Nursery class Christmas party
Nursery & Reception pantomime performance in school
Thursday 13th December
Year 2 Christmas Concert, 9.15 am in the Large Hall
Thursday 13th December
Reception trip to Story Storks
Friday 14th December
Save the Children Christmas jumper Day
Friday 14th December
PSA Christmas Fair, 3.00 - 5.00 pm
Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th December
Christmas trees on sale
Tuesday 18th December
Year 3 & 4 Christmas Concert at All Saints Church, Kingston, 10.15 am
Year 5 & 6 Christmas Concert at All Saints Church, Kingston, 1.30 pm
Wednesday 19th December
Year 2, 3 & 4 trip to the Rose Theatre
Thursday 20th December
Reception to Year 6 class Christmas parties
Year 1 - 6 pantomime performance in school
Friday 21st December
Years 3 - 6 end of term Talent Show
School closes at 1.30 pm
Reminders
Christmas tree sale
Tomorrow is the first day of our Christmas tree sale! Trees will be available to buy outside school from 9.00am to 3.00pm every weekend this month until Sunday 16th December. This is an excellent opportunity to buy high-quality Christmas trees and also support our school. The trees are sold by a former Fern Hill parent and we've just heard that they will generously donate 50% of the money raised from the tree sales to Fern Hill!
Don't forget to order your Christmas lunch!
Our whole school Christmas Lunch for children and staff will be held on Wednesday 12th December. If you have booked a lunch for your child on Wednesday 12th December, please double check that you have selected either the main or vegetarian option. Pasta and jacket potatoes will not be served on 12th December. If you haven’t yet ordered Christmas lunch for your child and would like to do so, you can book via ParentPay up until midnight this Sunday 2nd December. You can also fill in the Christmas Lunch order form attached below - please remember to hand it in at the school office by Tuesday 4th December and pay either via ParentPay (by selecting ‘Christmas Lunch Dec 2018’ in your payment items) or by cash or cheque at the office.
Attachments
Year group newsletters
Christmas Lunch order form
PSA Christmas Fair Raffle 2018
Clubs Application Form Spring Term 2019
Christmas Around the World
During assemblies next week, the children will be exploring the theme of 'Christmas around the world' and we would love to hear more about how our families mark the Christmas holiday in different countries. If your child would like to share their experiences during Mr Scott’s assembly on Monday, please can they see Mr Scott first thing on Monday morning. They might like to prepare a short power point presentation or story or even share an object or photograph.
Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day
On Friday 14th December, children are invited to join in the festive fun and show their support for Save the Children by wearing a Christmas jumper over their school uniform. Please don't feel you have to buy your child a Christmas jumper if they don't already have one - a school jumper decorated with tinsel is perfect!
FernSpeak - Celebrating the Performing Arts
FernSpeak is Fern Hill’s annual festival of the performing arts run with Cath Howe, a teacher, author of children’s books and Fern Hill’s own writer in residence. This year, over 150 children from years 4 through to 6 have participated in FernSpeak and on Wednesday we were excited to welcome Bloomsbury Publishing to watch and film the rehearsals. Bloomsbury Publishing are creating a short film to showcase FernSpeak to schools across the UK as an example of how to run a performing arts festival. The children have all worked incredibly hard towards the Heats which were held on Thursday and Friday this week. The standard of performance in poetry, public speaking and acting just gets higher every year and we are looking forward to seeing the children celebrate their achievements at the FernSpeak Finals which will be held next Thursday.
Here’s what Cath Howe has to say about FernSpeak…
‘To all the children who have been involved in FernSpeak this year:
Looking back on FernSpeak, it has been an amazing year in so many ways. We all know the Finals next week are just a small percentage of the children who have taken part and volunteered in earlier rounds.
This year, I’ve had the excitement of seeing the book of drama scripts, “Let’s Perform!” published, so many of them inspired by this school. Earlier this week, the drama pieces were filmed here in school to motivate other schools to create festivals like ours.
Several things have struck me this year in FernSpeak: the quality and range of our Public Speakers, the numbers of year 6’s taking part in every area of the competition, their professional and helpful attitude and the creativity of so many of the children.
I love to see children giving others great feedback and support. The best thing about coming together as a school for a project like this is seeing pupils supporting each other.
I’ve worked with many exciting new faces. It’s also been wonderful to see pupils who have been in the competition for three years grow and develop their skills. It takes courage to perform on a public stage. Fern Hill children have lots of courage.
Your piece is your own. However you have been involved, I hope you have felt inspired to do more- that’s the idea. I’d like to thank all the children who have taken part in our festival and made it a special part of school life.’
- Cath Howe (Writer in Residence)
Christmas at Fern Hill
During the last three weeks of term, it will be all about Christmas at Fern Hill. In assemblies and class reflection time, the children will explore how Christmas is observed by different cultures around the world with stories and celebrations. Families are invited to watch the year group Christmas concerts and the children will round off the term with their own class Christmas parties and a pantomime performance from the Rainbow Theatre.
Each year group has their own Christmas concert, either at school in the Large Hall for the Nursery, Reception and Year 1 and 2 children or at the beautiful All Saints Church in Kingston for Years 3 through to 6. The date of your child’s concert is listed here under Key Dates and in the school calendar on the website. On Thursday 20th December, all year groups, except Nursery, will hold their class Christmas parties and children from Year 1 and up will watch a pantomime. Nursery will have their own special celebration on Wednesday 12th December when both Daisy classes will come together during the afternoon session for their Christmas party. Daisies will watch a pantomime performance too, joined by children in Reception.
Finally, a massive thank you to our wonderful PSA for all the hard work they do to plan and run the Christmas Fair which will be held on Friday 14th December. Along with the Christmas tree sale and raffle, the Fair raises a significant amount of money for school and, for the children and staff, really marks the start of the end of term festivities.
After School Club News
Next week is the last week of most clubs for this term. Please note that there is no Gymnastics lunchtime club on Friday 7th December and the following clubs will be running during catch up week:
Infant Football – Monday 10th December
Choir –Tuesday 11th December
Commercial Dance – Wednesday 12th December
Computer Club – Wednesday 12th December
Infant Gymnastics (lunchtime) – Friday 14th December
Orchestra – Friday 14th December (this will run in the ICT suite to make way for the Christmas Fair)
After school and lunchtime clubs are now available to book for the spring term.
Once again, there are a wide range of clubs on offer and we hope that there is something for everyone. Clubs will start week beginning 14th January 2019 and run for 10 sessions with the exception of Gardening club which starts after February half term. Please note that clubs are available to children in Year 1 – 6 only and are allocated on a first come first served basis. The deadline for booking is Monday 17th December. Further information and an application form are attached below and available on the website here.
Sports News
On Tuesday 20th November, our Year 6 boys' football team played...
‘Year 6 went to a football tournament in Chessington. They showed great sportsmanship and played amazingly. They came joint first and it went down to goal difference. They were super unlucky not to win. Well done!'
- Max S, Year 6
-------------------------------Breaking News!---------------------------------
We've just found out that the team have qualified for the tournament finals to be played on 17th December – well done boys!
The overall winner this week is KINGSTON
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Kingston
434
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Coombe
431
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Richmond
420
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Hampton
421
PSA News & Events
PSA Christmas Fair raffle tickets
The PSA is proud to announce our 2018 Christmas Raffle is underway!
The raffle is a key element of our fundraising efforts and we are very grateful to local businesses and individuals for the prizes that have been donated. Tickets are £1 each and every child in the school has been sent home with 5 tickets which we hope you will be able to buy yourselves or sell to friends and family. Please see the information attached to this newsletter for the full selection of our wonderful prizes, vouchers and hamper donations!
Mufti day and PSA Christmas Fair tombola collection on Friday 7th December
On Friday 7th December we’re asking for your donations for the tombola and hampers at our Christmas Fair. In return, the children can come to school that day dressed in mufti (no uniform)!
For the adults’ tombola, we would really appreciate your donations of wine, spirits, other bottled goods, toiletries, posh candles, chocolates and other festive fare! For the children’s tombola, please donate toys, books, games, puzzles (all in good condition please). We also welcome jam jars filled with little treats (Lego, stickers, mini toys) or wrapped sweets. Please remember that all items donated must be within their use by date and that we are a nut free school. Thank you!
This year, the tombolas have been given a makeover to speed them up and keep you coming back for more – so come along to try your luck and join in the festivities!
PSA Christmas Fair on Friday 14th December
The excitement is building and our Christmas Fair is now only two weeks away!
At the fair, you’ll find Santa in his grotto and our Elf Café will be serving hot and cold drinks including Santa’s Hot Chocolate and Mrs Claus’ Mulled Wine, with a 50p discount to those who are able to bring a reusable mug. Festive cakes and snacks will be available at the café – and we hope many of you will be able to donate Christmas themed cakes and biscuits. Items can be dropped off outside school reception on the day or brought directly to the Elf Café. Please remember, no nuts.
We’re pleased to announce we will be running a second hand toy and book stall at the fair this year. Please donate games, toys, books and DVDs that your children have outgrown so they can find a new home this Christmas. Donations can be brought to school between 8.15 and 9.00am on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th December – please drop items off with the PSA team selling raffle tickets by the KS1 gate.
During the fair there will be plenty of Christmas craft stalls, activities and games to play such as
- Pick ‘n’ Mix boxes with festive treats like Magic Sleigh Beans, Reindeer Noses and even Snowman Poop!
- Festive Selfie Booth
- Posting letters to Santa and making cracker and bookmark gifts for friends and family
- Glitter Tattoos and Glow Sticks
- Adopt an Elf
- Lob-a-Choc and guess the weight of the Christmas Cake
- Bigfoot Treasure Map and Festive Hook-a-duck
- Lucky Dip, Lucky Dice and Lucky Lolly Stick
- Guess the Teacher Challenge
- And – of course – our ever popular Kids and Adults Tombolas!
There will be plenty of options for children from Daisy Class up to Year 6 and most stalls are either 50p or £1. A map of the event will be sent out with the school newsletter on Friday 7th December to help you plan which stalls you’ll head to first. To make sure the children have a super time, many stalls with have prizes for everyone who plays! We’re looking forward to seeing you there and celebrating the end of term and the festive season together!
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Reception who have the best year group attendance for this week.
This week the Attendance Cup goes to Beech class for the best attendance with 99.3%.
Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
---|---|---|
Reception | 98.6% | WELL DONE! |
Year 1 | 96.6% | |
Year 2 | 97.4% | |
Year 3 | 98.1% | |
Year 4 | 96.6% | |
Year 5 | 97.6% | |
Year 6 | 94.1% |
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Nursery Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Reception Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Year 1 Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Year 2 Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Year 3 Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Year 4 Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Year 5 Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Year 6 Newsletter 30th November 2018
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Christmas Lunch order form
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PSA Christmas Fair Raffle 2018
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Fern Hill Clubs Application Form Spring Term 2019