Key Dates
Wednesday 4th December
Year 6's WWII day in school
Thursday 5th December
Reception visit the theatre
School tour for prospective Reception parents, 9.30 - 11.00 am
Fern Speak Finals for Years 4 & 6 at 1.30 pm in the Large Hall - families of children performing are invited to attend
Friday 6th December
Mufti Day for PSA Christmas events - £1 donation requested for not wearing school uniform
Year 2 visit to the Cornerstone Hub
Year 1 Cake Sale
Monday 9th December
Christmas cards may come into school
Nursery Winter Concerts at 9.00 am & 2.30 pm in the Small Hall
Tuesday 10th December
Reception Winter Concert, 9.15 am in the Large Hall
Year 1 visit to St. Luke's Church
Wednesday 11th December
Year 1 Winter Concert, 9.15 am in the Large Hall
Nursery's Christmas party day - Daisy class is closed in the morning
Thursday 12th December
Year 2 Winter Concert, 9.15 am in the Large Hall
School tour for prospective Reception parents, 9.30 - 11.00 am
Whole School Christmas Lunch
Friday 13th December
Christmas Jumper Day in support of Save the Children
PSA Family Present Stall for Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 children in school
PSA Festive Disco for Year 3 & 4 children at 4.15 pm in the Large Hall
PSA Festive Disco for Year 5 & 6 children at 6.00 pm in the Large Hall
Tuesday 17th December
Juniors' Winter Concert at All Saints Church, Kingston
Thursday 19th December
Class Christmas parties
Pantomime performance in school for Years 1 to 6
Friday 20th December - last day of term & mufti (non-uniform) day
School closes at 1.30 pm
Children return to school on Tuesday 7th January at the normal time
Key dates for the 2019/2020 academic year are posted on the website here.
Reminders
Bikes & Scooters
Please may we remind you that scooters and bikes must not be ridden anywhere on the school site, including the entrance pathway and car park, for safety reasons. Please dismount from them before entering the site on the Richmond Road and walk them out of the site. Scooters may not to left inside school during the day but can be locked to the bike and scooter racks we have available.
Safety walking to and from school
We’ve noticed a significant number of children using the car park as a walking route when arriving and leaving school. Please remind your child to be safe and to only use the pavement along the side of the school to walk to and from the junior playground gates. The car park belongs to The Kingston Academy and there are a number of cars and large delivery lorries that enter and leave at drop off and pick up times.
Flu Immunisations
The school nurses will be back at school on Thursday 5th December for a catch up session for children who did not have the flu nasal spray on 19th November. The session will be held first thing in the morning.
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
Christmas Lunch Order Form
Don’t forget that the deadline for ordering Christmas lunch on Thursday 12th December via ParentPay is midnight this Sunday 1st December. We will be serving a meat or vegetarian option only – there will be no pasta pots or jacket potatoes available on this day. You may also complete the Christmas Lunch order form attached below and return it to the school office, with payment if appropriate, by Monday 2nd December.
Please be aware that if you have already ordered a hot lunch on ParentPay for Thursday 12th December, the order has been cancelled and, if your child is in Years 3-6, your account credited with £2.30. If you would like your child to have Christmas lunch, please reorder on ParentPay or complete the order form. Your child can of course bring in a packed lunch from home – they will eat their lunch with everyone else and take part in the celebrations.
On Friday 13th December, children are invited to join in the festive fun and show their support for Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day by wearing a Christmas jumper instead of their school uniform jumper or cardigan. 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! This is not a mufti day so children should still wear their school polo shirt or shirt and tie and school skirt or trousers. We’ll be on the gates in the morning to collect any donations you’d like to give to Save the Children.
After School Club Notices
Next week is the last week for most after school clubs. Spanish Lunchtime club has now ended for the term. Clubs which run on a Monday or Tuesday will have a catch up session on Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th December. There will also be catch up sessions for Hockey Club on Wednesday 11th December and Pottery Club on Friday 13th December.
We’ll be sending out information on after school clubs for the Spring term next week – look out for details of new clubs including netball and music!
We are desperately short of tissues for children to use in the school office and classrooms. If you can spare a box, we would be very grateful. Please drop it off with your class teacher or at the office. Thank you.
This week in assembly, the children learned about ‘plogging’! Plogging is a mixture of walking and running whilst picking up rubbish at the same time. Plogolution was set up by two friends in response to the huge amount of plastic and rubbish blighting our rivers and oceans. Their first ‘plog’ started at Putney Bridge and collected over 30 bags of rubbish. Today they hold plogs across London, including Kingston upon Thames, making a difference to local communities by bringing people together for a common cause.
They are also passionate about educating children about the planet and the consequences of rubbish, especially single-use plastic. At Fern Hill we are looking at setting up our own school plogging club to get the children involved in cleaning up their local environment. Over 203 school plogs have been held so far, collecting nearly 3,000 plastic bottles, 3,500 tin cans and over 1,000 glass bottles.
You can find out more about plogging at Plogolution’s website here. You might even like to join the next Kingston Plog on Saturday 14th December, a 2K walk from Tudor Drive Library. For further information on this litter picking walk, follow this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/join-the-plogolution-kingston-tickets-80339147553
Fern Speak
The Fern Speak semi-finals were held on Thursday – a huge well done to all the children who took part, and congratulations to the thirty children selected to perform at the finals. The children through to the finals will be bringing home a letter today to invite their family to watch the performances on Thursday 5th December at school.
The children have all worked incredibly hard towards the semi-finals; 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 next week.
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 term, children in Year 4 and 6 have been participating – over 100 of them! Next term, Years 3 and 5 will be involved.
A message from Cath Howe:
Around a hundred children have been involved in Fern Speak in Years 4 and 6 this term. Next term we will celebrate Years 5 and 3. I've allowed children to learn and write poems in pairs and there have been some really entertaining and dramatic performances.
There's been a huge take-up in Year 4 for Public Speaking and it's been fascinating to help develop the speeches on such a wide range of subjects and see the children's pride in their work.
In Year 6, there was great interest in learning monologues. I allowed the children to choose which one they wanted to perform. The most popular one to learn was The Punishment Corridor, a new one I wrote during the summer. We had reached a point where the children all knew my monologues from years of Fern Speak so it was time to create more new ones so there would be more surprises. These Year 6's have put in a huge amount of work polishing their performances. There are some great comic performers in Year 6!
I'm looking forward to the finals next week where, for an afternoon, we will see a selection of the Fern Speak performances and medals will be awarded. Families and supporters of those selected to perform will be invited to attend.
To anyone who took part in Fern Speak at any stage, I would say well done for stepping up - many adults quake at the idea of publicly performing. I have enjoyed getting to know you all. And if you are lucky enough to be in the finals, keep a clear strong voice and enjoy your moment. You've worked hard to get here!
You can find out more about Fern Speak, on our website here. We’ve also put together some top tips for performers here.
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is Richmond
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Kingston
223
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Coombe
289
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Richmond
290
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Hampton
257
Sport has been a prominent feature of the Fern Hill Autumn term calendar, and there is still one more event to come before we break up for the Christmas holidays - good luck to the Year 3 boys in their football competition on 16th December.
Since half term in October, we have participated in a large number of competitions, including our inaugural entry in a borough Basketball tournament for Year 5 & 6. Footballers and rugby players from Year 2, Year 5 and Year 6 have also been out in force.
Yesterday we hosted two football matches on our astro turf for round two of the District Cup. Our boys’ team won 8-0 and the girls’ 6-0. Both teams were fantastic!
The weather has not always been kind: cold rain, wind, and frosty ground has been a little too frequent, but the children - and the staff - have coped well, playing through the conditions and enjoying themselves in spite of the difficulties.
The Spring term sees netball, hockey, rugby, and more football competitions and festivals, so look out for the news reports on these.
As ever, we really appreciate your support in ensuring sport plays a big part in school life at Fern Hill. If you would like to help by taking children to sports fixtures and events, and have a current DBS check, please let us know.
Finally, a small plea: if you have any Fern Hill sports kit that hasn't yet made it back to school, please can you return it as soon as possible. We are missing a few items from various coloured kits including socks.
PSA News and Events
Family Present Stall – please keep bringing your donations in!
We’re asking for the support of all Fern Hill parents to ensure our Family Present Stall is well stocked with gifts. Although the event is for KS1 children, we’re sure KS2 parents will also want to show their support and contribute donations in the festive spirit. Please bring your donations of new or re-gifted items of any size (but no alcohol) into school all next week and leave them in the box placed in main reception.
Gifts can be for either children or adults. Suggestions include toys, books, games, sweets, chocolates (no nuts please), socks, slippers, mugs, bath stuff and candles. We’d also love any donations of wrapping paper, labels and Sellotape. The more donations we receive, the better a selection for the children to choose from. Thank you for all the lovely donations we’ve already received.
The Family Present Stall will take place during school hours on Friday 13th December. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will visit the Small Hall with their class and each choose one special gift to wrap and take home for a family member. As this is a school fundraising event, we’re asking for a donation of £2 per child to use the Family Present Stall. Of course you’re very welcome to give more if you wish! Children should give their money in an envelope to their class teacher during the week beginning Monday 9th December. Regardless of individual donations, all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will be able to choose one gift.
KS2 Festive Disco – Friday 13th December – tickets go on sale this weekend
Tickets for our fabulous KS2 Festive Discos will go on sale online this Sunday 1st December at 9.00pm. Each ticket costs £5 and includes a pick ‘n’ mix bag of sweets. Please go to the following link to buy your tickets:
https://www.pta-events.co.uk/fernhillpsa/index.cfm
There are two separate discos during the evening: one for Years 3 and 4 from 4.15 to 5.15pm and one for Years 5 and 6 from 6.00pm to 7.00pm. Please ensure you buy a ticket for the correct disco. Parents may purchase up to four tickets per transaction. If you wish to buy a ticket but are unable to go online for the sale, please ask a friend to get your ticket instead. When booking tickets, please ensure you supply your child’s name plus your name and mobile number. If another adult is collecting your child, you must also supply their name and mobile number. This is vital to ensure the safe dismissal of all children.
Please note that all children must be signed in on arrival, and signed out when they are collected, by an appropriate adult aged over 16. Tree Tops staff will not be able to accompany children and sign them in or out. No mobile phones are allowed at this event – any phones found will be confiscated by staff. Children should bring water bottles with them.
The discos will feature a snow machine, neon face paint and games led by professional dance captains! This will be a great opportunity for the older children to celebrate with their friends and show off their festive dance moves. And special thanks to Thames Travel, a local travel agency run by parents at Fern Hill, who have kindly donated towards this event.
Parent volunteers for PSA Christmas events on Friday 13th Dec – we need your help please!
Are you able to help at either the KS1 Family Present Stall or the KS2 Festive Disco? We need lots of volunteers to help these events run smoothly.
- For the Festive Disco, we need helpers for the following time slots: 4.00 to 5.30pm for Disco 1 (Years 3 and 4) and 5.45 to 7.15pm for Disco 2 (Years 5 and 6).
- For the Family Present Stall, we need helpers throughout the day in the following slots: 9.00 to 10.30am, 10.15am to 12 noon, 12.45 to 2.15pm and 2.00 to 3.30pm (all these slots deliberately overlap). We’d also love early-bird helpers for set up between 7.00 and 9.00 am!
For both events, please email fernhillpsa@gmail.com to volunteer with details of when you can help. If you can help at either event, then please do get in touch. Any and all offers of help you can give are very welcome and much appreciated. Thank you so much.
Christmas trees for sale outside school this weekend!
The Christmas tree sales outside school start this weekend from 9.00am to 3.00pm on Sat and Sun. 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 who has generously agreed to donate 50% of the money raised from the tree sales to Fern Hill. Last year, we raised £630 from these tree sales, so please do get there early to buy a tree and support Fern Hill! The tree sales will continue over the following weekends: Sat 7th & Sun 8th Dec and Sat 14th & Sun 15th Dec.
Whole school mufti day – Friday 6th December
Please don’t forget that next Friday is a mufti day! In return for not having to wear uniform, we’re asking for a £1 donation from each child to support the PSA’s Christmas fundraising, or donation of a gift to the KS1 Family Present Stall. Our PSA team will be on the gates to collect your donations on the morning of Friday 6th December. Thanks in advance for your support.
Easy Fundraising
Thank you to all those parents who have signed up to support Fern Hill PSA via easyfundraising since last week. It’s a very simple and free way to raise extra money for our school while doing your online shopping. If you haven’t yet signed up, please register at the following link: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fernhillpsa
You can also download the handy easyfundraising app to remind you when shopping online.
Thank you for your support
Fern Hill PSA
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Year 3 who have the best year group attendance AGAIN this week - that's 3 weeks in a row!
The Attendance Cup is awarded to Rowan class AGAIN this week with 100% attendance.
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 97.8% | |
| Year 1 | 96.3% | |
| Year 2 | 97.3% | |
| Year 3 | 98.6% | ★ |
| Year 4 | 97.0% | |
| Year 5 | 98.0% | |
| Year 6 | 95.8% |
Inspiration 