Key Dates
Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Monday 7th December
Flu immunisation catch-up session in school
Thursday 10th December
Whole school Christmas lunch
Friday 11th December
Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children
Last day for Christmas cards to come into school (for handing out on Tuesday 15th)
Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Thursday 17th December
Class Christmas party day - mufti (non-uniform) day
Virtual pantomime performance in school
Friday 18th December - last day of term & mufti (non-uniform) day
SCHOOL CLOSES AT 1:30 PM
Saturday 19th December
Christmas tree sale outside school
Monday 21st December - Friday 1st January
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY
Monday 4th January
INSET Day - children are not in school
Tuesday 5th January
Children return to school
Monday 25th - Thursday 28th January
Parent Consultations by telephone
Thursday 28th January
SCHOOL CLOSES EARLY AT 2:00 PM
Reminders
End of Term Arrangements
Friday 18th December is the last day of term and school will close early at 1:30 pm. Collection times will be slightly staggered to minimise footfall on the school grounds – we will let you know the time for each year group next week. We have two mufti days at the end term, one on Thursday 17th (to celebrate the Christmas party day) and another on Friday 18th (the usual end of term mufti day). Children may wear their own clothes to school - but no football strips please! If your child is attending Tree Tops on Friday 18th December, don’t forget the session will run from 1:30 pm and will close promptly at 4:30 pm.
Attachments
Year Group Newsletters
Lunch Menu for Spring Term 1
Online Safety Five Top Tips
Parent Consultations will be held slightly earlier next term, from Monday 25th to Thursday 28th January. The meetings will be held by telephone once again, and will follow the same format as those we ran in October. You will be able to book your consultation when we return to school after the Christmas break. Please note that school will close at 2:00 pm on Thursday 28th January. We'll be sending out more information on this before the end of term.
Staying Safe Online
Keeping children safe online is a priority in school. If you would like further information on how to keep them safer when they are online at home, please see the leaflet below: Online Safety Five Top Tips. It provides useful QR codes to take you directly to instructions for setting up parental safeguards on your child’s kit, including Apple, Xbox, Nintendo, Kindle Fire and Playstation devices.
On Friday 11th December, we're taking part in Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day!
Children are invited to pull on their Christmassy knits and show their support for Save the Children 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’ve set up a special Save the Children JustGiving page for any donations you would like to make - please click here.
Every pound we raise will give children in the UK and around the world the chance to grow up healthy and happy, and change the future for good. Just £2 could pay for a bottle of hand sanitiser to help fight coronavirus in a Save the Children medical clinic, whilst £20 could pay for a back-to-school kit for a child in Indonesia. JustGiving sends your donation straight to Save the Children and automatically reclaims Gift Aid if you are a UK taxpayer, so your donation is worth even more. Thank you for your support!
Click here for more information on Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day.
Sadly, we won’t be welcoming families into school, or to All Saints Church, for the usual Winter Concerts this year but we will be sharing some Christmas joy! Next week, the children will be filmed, in their class bubbles, singing Christmas songs and we will be uploading the videos to Google Classroom and Tapestry for you to enjoy. Look out for further information in next week’s newsletter.
Most filming will take place next Friday 11th on Christmas Jumper Day when the children are looking extra festive! Filming for children in Year 5 and 6 will however be on Thursday 10th so they should bring their Christmas jumpers into school on this day too.
We are all very much looking forward to the whole school Christmas Lunch next Thursday. If you would like your child to have a Christmas lunch but haven’t yet ordered it via ParentPay, please email us at: lunches@fernhill.rbksch.org by 9:00 am on Monday 7th December.
School Lunches for the Spring Term
Lunches for the first half of the spring term are now available to book online via ParentPay.
The menu is attached below and is also available to view on ParentPay when you place your order.
The deadline for booking lunches for the first week of the spring term, week commencing 4th January, is slightly shorter than usual to allow us to order the food items before the Christmas break. Please place your order by midnight on Sunday 13th December. The deadline will revert back to normal for the second week back.
Lunches for 5th – 8th January - place your order by midnight Sunday 13th December
Lunches for 11th – 15th January - place your order by midnight Sunday 3rd January
You can find further information about school lunches on the website here.
TEAM POINTS
The overall winner this week is RICHMOND
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Kingston
189
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Coombe
216
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Richmond
224
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Hampton
176
PSA News & Events
We will be sending home the pottery stars that the children have decorated next week. Thank you to Studio 432 on Ham Parade for glazing and firing all their lovely creations! We are also very excited to be funding a Virtual Pantomime for the children to watch on Thursday 17th December, personalised just for Fern Hill.
Festive Donations
The PSA are funding both of the above activities and, given our very limited ability to fundraise this term, we would be very grateful for donations from families to cover the costs. We have set up a special JustGiving page for this. The suggested donation is £5 but please give what you can towards our target of £3,000. Any money raised in excess of this will be added to PSA funds for the school to use over the coming year. Thank you!
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/FernHillFestivities
Virtual Christmas Market
This December, the PSA is launching its first Virtual Christmas Market. Although we can’t recreate the smell of sweetly spiced nuts, the twinkling lights, the distant sound of familiar Christmas songs, the welcoming stalls and the hustle and bustle we all associate with Christmas markets, what we hope to bring you is a wonderful selection of handcrafted, unique gifts and a sense of shared community at this festive time of the year. To join in and browse the stalls please click on this link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/723783038250554/
If you would like to become a stall holder we are asking for a donation of £10 to post on the page. Please email the PSA at: fernhillpsa@gmail.com for more information.
Christmas Tree Sales – at the school
Don’t forget Niki and her team will be outside school THIS WEEKEND with our annual Christmas Tree sale. They will also be selling trees on Saturday 12th, Sunday 13th and Saturday 19th December.
Trees are priced as follows: 3-4ft = £30; 4-5ft = £35; 5-6ft = £40; 6-7ft =£45; 7-8ft = £50
Inspiration 