Key Dates
Tuesday 23rd April
Children return to school for the summer term
Wednesday 24th April
Year 4 Chestnut class visit the Kingston Mosque
Thursday 25th April
Year 5 Football team compete in the Football Festival at Kew AFC
Friday 26th April
School Journey meeting for Year 5 parents at 2.15 pm
Monday 29th April
Year 4 Larch & Yew classes visit the Kingston Mosque
Monday 29th April
Year 4 Chestnut class swimming lessons begin at the Kingfisher Centre
Tuesday 30th April
Year 3 Elm class visits Gatton Park
Tuesday 30th April
Year 6 SATs Talk for parents at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Wednesday 1st May
Year 4 Larch class swimming lessons begin at the Kingfisher Centre
Wednesday 1st May
Year 5 secondary school transition assembly at 9.00 am - parents invited
Thursday 2nd May
Lavender class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Friday 3rd May
Year 2 drama workshop in school
Friday 3rd May
Year 2 cake sale at 3.00 pm
Monday 6th May
BANK HOLIDAY - children are not in school
Tuesday 7th May
Year 4 Yew class swimming lessons begin at the Kingfisher Centre
Tuesday 7th May
Year 5 leave for the School Journey at Grosvenor Hall (returning 10th May)
Tuesday 7th May
Year 3 Beech & Rowan classes visit Gatton Park
Thursday 9th May
Cornflower class parent assembly at 9.00 am in the Large Hall
Thursday 9th May
Year 3 drama workshop in school
Friday 10th May
Nursery reading workshop with Story Storks - parents invited
Friday 10th May
Year 5 return from the School Journey at Grosvenor Hall (afternoon)
Monday 13th May
Year 6 SATs week (13th - 16th May)
Monday 13th May
Year 1 visit Hampton Court
Thursday 16th May
Mini beast dress up day for Reception children
Thursday 16th May
PSA Committee meeting at 7.30 pm in the Small Hall
Friday 17th May
Year 6 visit the Guildford Spectrum
Friday 17th May
Parent Council meeting at 9.00 am in the Small Hall
Friday 17th May
Year 1 cake sale at 3.00 pm
Key dates for the summer term are available on the website here.
Reminders
Lunches
Please don’t forget to book your child’s lunches for the first half of the summer term. You can find the menu and information on how to book on our website here. The deadline for booking lunches for the first week back after the Easter break, week commencing 22nd April, has now passed so please send your child into school with a packed lunch if you have not booked a meal. The deadline for the second week back, week commencing 29th April, is midnight on Sunday 21st April.
Important notice for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2: children in these year groups are entitled to a free school lunch under the Universal Infant Free School Meal Scheme. Although you do not need to pay for the lunches, you MUST order them via ParentPay and make a selection from the menu.
After School & Lunchtime Clubs
After school and lunchtime clubs are now available to book for the summer term. They will start week beginning Monday 29th April and will run for 10 sessions. Clubs are available to children in Year 1 – 6 and are allocated on a first come first served basis. The deadline for booking varies from club to club so please check on our website here for further information and application forms. The last day for booking Fern Hill run clubs is Tuesday 23rd April. You can find the details of all the clubs on our website under 'Extra Curricular Clubs & Activities'.
Tree Tops & Childcare Vouchers
If you are paying for your child’s Tree Tops sessions with childcare vouchers, please be aware that the Finance office is closed for the Easter break and the team will not be able to credit you with amounts transferred over until week beginning 22nd April. You may still make bookings of course!
Bookings for Tree Tops sessions on Tuesday 23rd April must be made via ParentPay by Saturday 20th April.
Curriculum Evening
Thank you very much to all the parents and carers who attended our Curriculum Evening on Tuesday this week. This was an opportunity for parents and carers across all year groups to gain a greater insight into aspects of teaching and learning at Fern Hill, including maths, behaviour, home leaning platforms and the wider curriculum. The presentations used for each workshop are now available on the school website here and include a useful top tips document for making maths fun at home.
If you attended and would like to let us know what you thought of the event or have any suggestions for future Curriculum Evenings, you can access the feedback form here.
Curriculum Information
The Curriculum Learning Maps for the first half of next term are now all available on the website under your Year Group page. Linked to a theme, they cover what your child is learning across all subjects and any activities they will participate in, including trips and workshops.
Calling all budding forest school creators! Friends of Latchmere Recreation Ground (FoLaR) are inviting all North Kingston children aged 5 - 11 years to enter their 'Design a Nature Zone' competition. They are looking for ideas on how to create a natural play and learning area within the wooded area on the north edge of the recreation ground. Entries must be no larger than A4 size and can be submitted in any form - drawings, collages, 3D models, even a story or a poem. The deadline for entries is 10.00 am on Tuesday 30th April 2019. Please see the poster on our Community page for further details.
Easter Bonnet Parade
Today’s Easter Bonnet Parade was the best yet with some wonderfully inventive and beautifully crafted Spring themed hats which the children and staff have been making over the past couple of days. The whole school came together in the junior playground before lunch and shared their creations with a parade, year group by year group. It was a fantastic end to a very productive term!
We hope all our families have a restful break and look forward to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 23rd April, recharged and ready for another very busy term.
For the last few weeks, Fern Hill pupils have been engaged in deep discussion over a range of newsworthy topics. As part of our Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE) and Citizenship programme, questions posed by the ‘Votes for Schools’ company have inspired and challenged our children to ‘think beyond the obvious’. The exciting presentations and opportunity to make an active vote ‘for’ or ‘against’ a decision, has encouraged the children to justify their opinions and bravely make a stand towards what they believe is right.
Questions raised by ‘Votes for Schools’ have so far included:
- Should you always give someone a second chance?
- Should junk food advertisements be banned?
- Is speaking English enough?
Each week, the ‘Votes for Schools’ company produce powerpoint presentations suitable for all key stages. Where possible, every class within our school will access the presentations, teachers will raise the questions to the pupils and everyone will discuss the arguments for or against the issue. At the end of the presentation, each child is asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Votes are collected in and the results are displayed for individual classes in our school corridor. Our Rights Respecting Schools Ambassadors are responsible for updating the voting board so that a total school vote can be counted and entered into the national voting system operated by Votes for Schools. The children are thrilled to be part of this exciting project, particularly for the whole school approach that it offers. You can find out more about Votes for Schools here.
Home Learning Platforms
We subscribe to a number of different digital platforms at Fern Hill which are used by the children and teaching staff in class as a resource to support learning. Some of these can also be accessed by you and your child at home.
Mathletics
Further to the ParentPay message we sent you on Wednesday 3rd April, unfortunately some children have still been experiencing problems logging in to Mathletics. This has now been resolved so please try again! All usernames and passwords remain the same.
London Grid for Learning (LGFL)
London Grid for Learning is a community of schools and local authorities committed to using technology to enhance teaching & learning. The LGFL website hosts a huge number of educational resources which you can access by subject or key stage. ‘Busy Things’ is a favourite with both children and teachers and features hundreds of award winning curriculum linked games, activities and downloads. You can access LGFL via this link. You'll find your child’s LGFL log in at the front of their home school notebook.
Discovery Education Espresso
Discovery Education Espresso is an award-winning, cross curricular digital learning service which brings learning to life with a variety of engaging and accessible resources including short videos, interactive games, images, factfiles and printable resources, all designed to strengthen a pupil’s understanding of a curriculum topic. We have a whole school log in for this service. You can access the service via this link and the whole school log in is: username - student37712 and password - fernhill.
Maths on the Move!
Last week, Year 1 children took part in ‘Maths on the Move’ as part of their PE lessons. Maths on the Move is a programme that uses the concept of active learning to enhance children’s confidence and attainment in maths. The children were focusing on the learning objective 'Missing Numbers Problems' and worked in small groups using cones, balls and hoops to help find the missing numbers to calculations and answer true or false questions. All three classes thoroughly enjoyed it and collaborated brilliantly!
As part of our annual Active Week which runs from Monday 20th to Friday 24th May, Sports Day will be held on Friday 24th May at Dinton Fields. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will compete in the morning and children in Years 3 to 6 in the afternoon. Nursery children will be having their own Sports Day on the Monday 20th and the whole school will take part in a sponsored run on Wednesday 22nd. Look out for further information on all these events at the start of next term.
Team Points
At the end of term, the number of team points each House receives is allocated based on their position (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th) each week of the term.
The overall winner this term is KINGSTON!
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Kingston
36
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Coombe
32
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Richmond
23
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Hampton
26
PSA News & Events
The PSA would like to say a huge thank you to all those parents, children and staff who’ve supported our fundraising and events this term. We’re delighted to say that, together with your support, we’ve raised over £4,300 during the Spring term.
A large proportion of the money raised was spent on the newly developed Secret Garden area, complete with brand new Astroturf and picnic benches, allowing the children much more space to relax and enjoy being outdoors.
Looking ahead to the Summer Term
The PSA’s main event in the Summer Term will be our wonderful Summer Fair on Saturday 15th June. Please put the date in your diaries and we look forward to seeing you on the day!
Our school fairs are our biggest fundraising events and we can’t run them without the help of a large number of parents, so over the Easter break please consider when you may be able to lend a hand. We understand family lives are incredibly busy so all offers are really appreciated. Some ideas are: volunteering to be part of the planning team (meeting on Wednesday 24th April); donating prizes to the raffle or volunteering to sell extra tickets at the school gate; helping to set up for the fair on Friday June 14th from early afternoon until around 4.30 or on the morning of the 15th; receiving and sorting donations for the tombola; offering to oversee part of the event; donating baking or dishes to the café and International Food Stall, and of course coming along to enjoy the fair itself! Class reps will be sending out plenty of information nearer the time about how you can get involved.
After the Summer Fair, we have our Summer Social evening party for parents on Friday 5th July, plus our very popular Dads’ Breakfast for dads, grandads and children before school on Friday 12th July.
New volunteers needed for PSA Committee for 2019-20
A significant number of the current PSA committee including our chair will be stepping down from their current roles at the end of this academic year. This means we desperately need more parents to come forward and get involved with the PSA or it will become impossible to run all our future events.
If you would like to get involved, or find out more about what the roles can involve, please email fernhillpsa@gmail.com or come along to our next PSA meeting.
Please don’t wait and assume lots of other people will step forward – if you’re able to help then do speak up! We really value all your support and hope that we can rely on more parents to ensure our events are able to take place.
Finally, please have a look at our Spring Term newsletter – attached to this newsletter – for more information on everything we’ve been involved in this term – and our plans for next term!
Happy Easter and enjoy the holidays!
Fern Hill PSA
Weekly Attendance
Well done to Year 5 who have had the best year group attendance for this week.
The Attendance Cup is awarded to Oak class for the best attendance with 99.33%.
| Year | Attendance % | Star Year ★ |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 93.1% | |
| Year 1 | 89.9% | |
| Year 2 | 92.3% | |
| Year 3 | 95.0% | |
| Year 4 | 95.7% | |
| Year 5 | 96.7% | Well done! |
| Year 6 | 95.7% |
Inspiration 