Fern Hill Primary School Newsletter

Newsletter 10 - Autumn Term - 13th December 2024

Key Dates

Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th December
PSA Christmas Tree Sale

Monday 16th December
Year 1 Festive Concert at 9:00 am in the Large Hall

Year 2 Festive Concert at 2:30 pm in the Large Hall

Wednesday 18th December
Year 3 & 4 Festive Concert at 9:15 am at The Kingston Academy

Year 5 & 6 Festive Concert at 2:30 pm at The Kingston Academy

Thursday 19th December
Class Christmas parties (mufti/party dress up day) and pantomime performances

Friday 20th December - last day of term & mufti (non-uniform) day

SCHOOL CLOSES AT 1:30 PM

Monday 23rd December – Monday 6th January
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY

Monday 6th January
INSET Day - children are not in school

Tuesday 7th January
Children return to school

Key dates for this school year 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.

Last day of term
Thursday 21st December is the last day of term. It is a mufti day and the children may wear their own clothes to school - but no football kits please! School will close early on this day, and we are staggering dismissal to ensure the children can be collected promptly. Nursery, Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 will be dismissed at 1:25 pm; Years 3–6 will be dismissed at 1:30 pm. Tree Tops will run just one full session from 1:30–4:30 pm and this can be booked through ParentPay.

Parent helpers
If you regularly help in the classroom, please check with your class teacher to confirm if you are needed at school next week. Timetables tend to change in the last week of term, especially at this festive time of year! Thank you for your continuing support – it is greatly appreciated by all the staff and the children you work with.

This was the last week for lunchtime and after-school clubs. There will be two catch-up sessions next week: Keyboard on Tuesday 17th December and Karate on Friday 20th December at 1:30 pm. There are a few places left on clubs running next term. School-run clubs are booked through ParentPay. Clubs run by external providers manage their own bookings, so please contact them directly regarding availability and payment. The full club timetable is published on our website.

School photographs have been sent home with the children. If you ordered a photograph but have not received it, or have any other queries, please contact the photographer, Kans Bahara, directly on 07931 593169. You can still order a photograph, but a £3.50 delivery charge will apply for all prints.

Together Thursdays

The Parent Carer Champions Network (PCCN) offers free advice and support on parenting matters, refreshments, and wellbeing and fitness classes for parents every Thursday from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm during term time only at the Kingsnympton Youth and Community Centre, Kingsnympton Park, Kingston KT2 7RP. Click here to view flyers.

Festive Fern Hill!

Festive Concerts

Today we held the first of our Festive Concerts. Well done to all the children in Nursery and Reception who performed to a packed audience in the Large Hall. It takes lots of courage to sing in front of so many people! We hope you will be able to join us next week for the Year 1 and Year 2 concerts at school on Monday and the concerts for Years 3–6 at The Kingston Academy on Wednesday.

Christmas Jumper Day

On Thursday, the children and staff looked absolutely fantastic in their Christmas jumpers! Thank you to everyone for showing your support for Save the Children, a charity working to improve the lives of children all over the world. There's still time to donate through our JustGiving page.

Class Christmas Party Day

The children will have their class Christmas parties next Thursday 19th December. It is a mufti (non-uniform) day and the children may wear party clothes to school. Thank you so much to all the Class Reps who are coordinating food donations and parent helpers for the party. Please may we remind you that we are a nut-free school and to be mindful of any food allergies or dietary requirements in your class. There will be NO school lunches served on this day – the kitchen will be providing sandwiches and buffet food and the children will have a party lunch together in their classrooms.

Children in Reception through to Year 6 will also enjoy a very special performance of the pantomime Cinderella and our Nursery children will be entertained by Froggle the Magican. Thank you so much to the PSA for funding this.

Don't forget, if your child would like to give Christmas cards to their friends, please send them to school by Monday 16th December.

Fern Hill Eco Refill Shop

Our first Eco Refill shop launched on Thursday for families. One of the objectives of the shop is to reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfill and we've already saved approximately 80 plastic bottles and reused another 60! If you shopped with us on Thursday, and you are able to bring back your water bottle with you, we can refill it for you at our next shop, on Thursday 30th January. Well done to the Year 6 Eco team for running such a successful first shop and thank you to all our families for their continuing support towards a sustainable environment!

Parental Controls to help keep your child safe online

Need to set up an Xbox for your children? Wondering how to use parental controls on iPhone? Want to know the best way to keep your children safe on social media?

Children increasingly rely on the internet for their studies and social life and this constant exposure is often a concern for parents or carers. Some children may already have devices, or have one on their Christmas list, whether that’s a tablet, phone, or games console. It is important to familiarise ourselves with how we can keep our children safe whilst using their devices, and establish ongoing conversations about their relationship with them. The NSPCC offers help and advice on setting up parental controls here.

Our next Coffee Morning is on 10th January and 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. We hope to see many of you there.

Maths Workshops

Thank you to all the parents who attended Mrs Lawn's workshops this week - it was great to see so many of you wanting to find out more about how we teach maths in Fern Hill. We hope you found the sessions useful. We will be sending out the presentation slides and links to the handouts next week.

Maths for Parents

Kingston Adult Education is running a FREE 6-week course designed to help you better support your children with the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 maths topics they learn at school. Their next course starts on Monday 6th January and will take place at the Hook Centre, Hook Road, Chessington KT9 1EJ from 7:00–9:00 pm. Further information is available here. If you are interested in registering for this course, please complete their enrolment form.

Book of the Week: ‘Do Sharks Like Ice Cream? The Surprising World of Statistics’ by Polly Owen & illustrated by Cristina Guitan

You might think a book about statistics would be boring, but this fascinating read is like ‘Freakonomics’ for kids - full of interesting ideas and practical applications for mathematical reasoning.

You will learn about breaking codes, curing diseases, catching criminals, and how we’re all linked by six degrees of separation. And if you’re wondering about the title, it refers to the correlation between eating ice cream and being attacked by a shark, which actually has more to do with the weather than with sharks having a sweet tooth. Highly recommended!

Fern Hill Primary School