Key Dates
Sunday 22nd September
PSA Circus Pazaz at the YMCA Hawker Centre
Monday 23rd September
Pupil photographs (from Monday 23rd - Wednesday 25th September)
Tuesday 24th September
Author visit from Cath Howe
Wednesday 25th September
PSA Teddy Bears' Picnic for Reception at 3:15 pm
Friday 27th September
PSA Year 5 cake sale after school
Monday 30th September
Year 1 visit to Gatton Park (Foxglove & Lavender)
Year 2 visit to Kew Gardens
Tuesday 1st October
Year 1 visit to Gatton Park (Cornflower)
Thursday 3rd October
PSA meeting in school at 7:00 pm
Friday 4th October
PSA Macmillan Coffee Morning at 9:00 am in the Small Hall
PSA Macmillan cake sale after school
Wednesday 9th October
Year 4 visit to Thames Explorer Trust (Chestnut)
Friday 11th October
PSA Year 4 cake sale after school
Friday 18th October
Home Learning Showcase for children in Years 1–6
Saturday 19th October
PSA Pumpkin Hunt for children in Nursery - Year 2
Tuesday 22nd October
Parents' Evening from 4:00 to 7:00 pm
Wednesday 23rd October
Parents' Evening from 1:30 to 5:30 pm
SCHOOL CLOSES AT 1:00 PM ON WEDNESDAY 23RD OCTOBER
Thursday 24th & Friday 25th October
INSET DAYS - the children are not in school
Monday 28th October – Friday 1st November ~ HALF-TERM BREAK
Monday 4th November
Children return to school
Reminders
Pupil photographs
Next week, our school photographer will be taking individual pupil and sibling photographs. These will be available to purchase before the half-term break. Children should come to school next week looking smart and wearing the correct school uniform, including a school jumper or cardigan and, if they are in Years 3–6, a school tie.
Safety on site
For everyone's safety, please do not ride scooters or bikes anywhere on the school site - this includes the car park and pedestrian area running between Fern Hill and The Kingston Academy. Adults and children should dismount at the Richmond Road entrance. Thank you.
Year group weekly news
Your year group weekly news is published every Friday afternoon on the Home Learning Google Classroom. Click here for information about how we use the Classroom. Reception and Nursery will be sending their news through ParentPay for the next few weeks as they transition to the Classroom.
This half-term's Home Learning Grids for Years 1–6 are posted on your child's Home Learning Google Classroom, along with other home learning resources. Children will share their home learning pieces with their peers and teachers during the Home Learning Showcase on Friday 18th October.
Lost Property
The lost property boxes are located by the Nursery gates. Please check these boxes for lost items before contacting the school office. We will always endeavour to return items to their owner, so please make sure everything your child brings to school is clearly named (first name and surname), including water bottles and packed lunch containers. Items not collected by the end of every half-term are disposed of.
We’ve had a great start to the new school year. Welcome Week was all about settling in and celebrating the diversity of each class; children and teachers spent time focusing on activities that create a sense of belonging and togetherness, getting to know each other and remembering the expectations and routines of the day. We are all really looking forward to the busy term ahead!
A special welcome to all our new families joining us this term throughout the school and thank you to all the parents and carers who came to their year group Parents' Welcome Meetings; we hope you found them useful and informative. The information presented is available on the Google Classroom.
Punctuality
Please may we remind you of the importance of children being on time and settled in their classrooms before the start of the school day. Your child may go straight to class once their playground gates are opened at 8:40 am; class registers are taken at 8:50 am when the playground gates are locked. Children arriving after the gates are locked should go directly to school reception to be signed in. Arrivals after 8:55 am are marked as late. The first 10–15 minutes of the morning are used for revisiting key skills such as handwriting, spelling, reading, times tables and arithmetic, which pupils start before the registers are taken. Further information on the timing of the school day can be found here.
Cauliflower Cards
Cauliflower Cards is a fundraising project run by the PSA. Children can design their own Christmas cards which are then professionally printed and delivered back to school - a lovely way to welcome in the autumn and every order placed raises money for the school too!
Cauliflower cards don’t just offer cards; your child’s design can be printed on notebooks, mugs and even wrapping paper and gift labels! Their design doesn’t have to be festive either – they may like to create a thank you or birthday card.
The children will have brought home a Cauliflower Cards project pack this week that includes an order form and a sheet of plain, white A4 paper on which they create their design. Please follow the instructions on the order form regarding placing your order, payment and returning your child’s artwork. Orders and payment are made online, directly with Cauliflower Cards, before returning your order forms with artwork attached to your class teacher. Each order form has a unique code, so please do not photocopy it to use for a second design. If you need another order form, please email the school office. For some great design ideas using lots of different materials, have a look at the Cauliflower Cards gallery.
The deadline for placing an order and paying online AND returning your design artwork to your class teacher is Monday 30th September.
Library News
Summer Reading Challenge: Book Bingo
Congratulations to all the pupils who completed the Fern Hill Summer Reading Challenge. Those who have handed in their cards to Mrs Rouillard have received their certificates. If your child has completed the challenge but not handed the card in, please bring it in next week.
Book of the Week
'Time Tub Travellers and the Silk Thief' by Claire Linney
When Zula’s teacher marks her history project down for historical inaccuracy, she is determined to prove that there were Black people in Tudor England. A visit to her aunt’s antique shop leads to much more convincing proof than she could possibly have imagined when she and her best friend, Milo, are accidentally transported back in time to 1589 in a bathtub time machine. The first person they meet is a girl called Jane, daughter of the silk merchant, Reasonable Blackman, who was a real person who lived in Southwark in the late 16th century and is one of the earliest Black business owners on record. A thief has just stolen a bolt of silk from Jane that was intended to make costumes for the theatre. Zula and Milo must help Jane to trace the thief, get the silk back and find a way to get back home again.
‘Time Tub Travellers’ is an exciting and engaging adventure story, perfect for KS2, and it is the first book in a series intended to bring to light the relatively unknown and uncelebrated role of black people in British history. The story is also well-researched and packed with fascinating facts about Tudor London - highly recommended!
Team Points
The overall winner this week is Kingston
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Kingston
637
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Coombe
597
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Richmond
626
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Hampton
552
Fern Hill PSA News & Events
A warm welcome to all new parents and a reminder of our mission, along with how you can get involved!
Fern Hill PSA exists to build COMMUNITY amongst the parents, pupils and staff at the school, and to FUNDRAISE to give our children and staff the additional resources and learning environment they need to make the school experience even better for everyone!
We do this by organising fundraising events and activities, from big ticket events such as the fairs and fireworks night, to regular pre-loved uniform sales which give all our families access to good quality second-hand school uniform (and also raise money for the school).
All our families are already members of the PSA because your children attend the school! But we are really keen to recruit some more active members to help the core team run these events, and we would also love to hear from anyone who has an idea for an event or fundraiser and (crucially) is willing to take on its leadership. It’s a great way to get to know other parents and the school, and it benefits your children directly through the resources the PSA funds.
The best way to get involved is to join the PSA WhatsApp community group where we post general updates. Just click here to join the conversation - we’d love to hear from you!
Upcoming events
Circus Pazaz hosted by the PSA - this Sunday 22nd September
Thank you to everyone that is coming to our first ever Circus event. Tickets are sold out now and, unfortunately, there won’t be any available to buy at the event on the day. If you do have tickets, please double-check them to ensure you know which performance you have booked for. All ticket holders should have received an email this morning with further details and information about the event, so please do check your in-box!
Cauliflower Cards
The children will have brought home their Cauliflower Cards project pack. Don't forget that the deadline for placing an order online and returning artwork to your class teacher is Monday 30th September.
Reception Teddy Bears' Picnic - next Wednesday 25th September
There's still time to book tickets to the Teddy Bears' Picnic for our Reception children in the Large Hall on Wednesday 25th September. Please use this link.
Due to space restrictions and so that all Reception children have the opportunity to attend, we cannot accommodate siblings. We also ask that only one parent or carer attends. Thank you!
PSA Meeting - Thursday 3rd October
Please come and join us for our first meeting of the year at 7:00 pm in school. We will be planning some of our autumn term events, and we'd love to see lots of new faces!
Inspiration 