Key Dates
Tuesday 21st January
Author visit with David Barker
Thursday 23rd January
Heather class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Friday 24th January
PSA Nursery cake sale after school
Saturday 25th January
Eco Schools Community Litter Pick at 10:00 am
Sunday 26th January
PSA Lunar New Year Fair 12:00–4:00 pm
Tuesday 28th January
Author visit with Farrah Riaz
Wednesday 29th January
Inclusion Coffee Morning at 9:00 am
Thursday 30th January
Elder class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Eco-Refill Shop at 3:00 pm
PSA meeting at 7:00 pm
Tuesday 4th February
Reading for Pleasure Parent Workshop at 9:00 am
Thursday 6th February
Yew class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Friday 7th February
NSPCC Number Day
PSA Year 6 cake sale after school
Tuesday 11th February
Safer Internet Day
Wednesday 12th February
Curriculum Evening at 6:30 pm
Thursday 13th February
Lime class parent assembly 9:00–9:30 am
Friday 14th February
Home Learning Showcase for children in Years 1–6
Monday 17th to Friday 21st February ~ HALF-TERM BREAK
Key dates have been updated for the spring term and are published here. Some of these dates are provisional, and all dates are subject to change — please refer to this newsletter and communications via ParentPay for the latest information.
Click here for term dates for the current and 2025/2026 school years, including INSET days.
Reminders
School lunches
Please don't forget to place your child's order for lunch through ParentPay by 8:00 am on the day. There will be a Disney-themed day on Thursday 16th January and you can view the menu here.
Home Learning Grids for this half-term are posted on your child's Google Home Learning Classroom. Work should be completed in time for our Home Learning Showcase on Friday 14th February.
Inclusion Coffee Morning
Our Coffee Morning on Wednesday 29th January will focus on strategies to support your child with their emotional regulation. Mrs Stephenson will share best practice on zones of regulation, routine and consistency. If you would like to join us, please let us know via this linked form.
Your year group weekly news is published every Friday afternoon on your child's Home Learning Google Classroom. Please note that Google Classroom should not be used to contact your class teacher. If you would like to speak to a teacher, please email the school office who will forward your query. Thank you.
Reading for Pleasure Parent Workshop
On Tuesday 4th February, Miss Bennett, our Reading subject lead, and Ms Rouillard, our School Librarian, will be hosting a parent workshop on Reading for Pleasure. The workshop will be held at school from 9:00 to 9:45 am and will focus on the benefits of reading for pleasure and how you can support this for your child at home.
Reading for pleasure opens up new worlds for children. It gives them the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. It also improves children’s well-being and empathy, helping them to understand their own identity, and giving them an insight into the world and the views of others.
We hope you will join us! If you would like to attend, please let us know by completing this linked form.
Eco-Committee Community Litter Pick
Please join us on Saturday 25th January for our monthly community litter pick with Miss Evans and the Eco-Committee. They will meet at the Nursery gates at 9:50 am. If you have a litter picker at home, please bring it with you!
Book of the Week: ‘Pax and the Missing Head’ by David Barker
A 12-year-old orphan, Pax, works on the verti-farms of the walled city of New London, but his real passion is technology and engineering. But when the cruel Commandant tries to reassign him to the sewers permanently, he takes a desperate chance and attempts the entrance exam for the Scholastic Parliament - a leadership academy based in the Palace of Westminster. But being accepted is only the first obstacle. Once he arrives at his new school, Pax must face a brutal house system, an aggressive bully and a power-hungry mayor who is attempting to turn the school into a military training base. The only person who can stop him is the headteacher, but she is mysteriously missing.
‘Pax and the Missing Head’ is a fun, fast-paced adventure set in an intriguing dystopian version of the UK, segregated into urban and rural, young and old. I know that dystopian fiction is particularly popular in Year 6 at the moment and this story is a perfect bridge to the more complex YA dystopian series. Pax is a plucky and intrepid hero who finds new friends and learns how to use his skills to overcome the odds stacked against him since birth. I can’t wait to find out more about New London and the mysterious ‘Pinchers’ in Book 2.
David Barker will be visiting our KS2 pupils on Tuesday next week. If you missed the opportunity to pre-order a book, the author will be selling and signing books outside the school office after school.
Author Visit
On Tuesday 28th January, author Farrah Riaz will be visiting children in Years 1 and 2 to talk about her engaging and inspiring picture book, ‘The Twirly Wiggly Dance’. Farrah will then spend some time with Year 1 in their classrooms running a workshop.
If you would like to purchase a personalised signed copy, please make payment via ParentPay by Thursday 23rd January. If you miss the deadline, there will be a small number of books available to purchase on the day.
Parent Council Newsletter
The Senior Leadership Team is always looking to improve communication between home and school and to take the needs and thoughts of the Fern Hill community into account when making key strategic decisions. The Parent Council is a means by which the whole school parental voice can be heard, through termly Parent Council meetings with Mr Scott, and whole school surveys. The Parent Council shares the discussions and progress of key initiatives through their newsletters.
In the summer of 2024, we invited your feedback on the school's Sport & Exercise provision and the latest Parent Council newsletter linked here outlines the provision currently in place and what's planned following your feedback.
Keeping children safe online
To support you in keeping your children safe online, we would like to share the two parent guides linked below. We are aware that a number of children at school have watched Squid Game, either via a streaming service such as Netflix, or as clips on YouTube, and urge you to ensure that you are aware of the content that they may be viewing. This is also the case with TikTok, which has now become the most popular and watched social media platform amongst children and teenagers.
Team Points
The overall winner this week is RICHMOND
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Kingston
344
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Coombe
236
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Richmond
386
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Hampton
345
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Reception, Year 1, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5, all of whom have achieved our school target of 97%.
Special congratulations to Bluebell class with 100% attendance!
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 99.0% | ★ |
| Year 1 | 98.0% | ★ |
| Year 2 | 96.0% | |
| Year 3 | 98.6% | ★ |
| Year 4 | 97.9% | ★ |
| Year 5 | 98.5% | ★ |
| Year 6 | 96.9% |
Inspiration 