Newsletter 1 - 3rd October 2025

Parents' Evening

Parents' Evening will be held on Monday 20th October from 4:00-7:00 pm and Tuesday 21st October from 2:00-6:00 pm. You can now book a 10-minute in-person appointment with your class teacher through our Parents’ Evening System. The booking window will close at midday on Monday 13th October. A parents’ guide on how to book an appointment is available here. If you are scheduling an appointment for more than one child, please leave a suitable time gap between appointments.

SEND reviews will be held in November. If your child has SEND, please book a Parents' Evening appointment and we will let you know the date and time of your review in due course.

On Tuesday 21st October, school will close for children in Reception through to Year 6. Tree Tops will run from this time until its usual finish. There are no after school clubs running on either Monday 20th or Tuesday 21st October.

For any questions regarding booking a Parents' Evening appointment, please contact the school office.

Punctuality & School Absence

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. 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.

Children 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. Further information on the timing of the school day can be found here.

All planned absences, including those for religious observance and holidays, should be requested in advance using this linked Request for Absence Form which is also available to download from the school website here. The school office can provide a paper copy on request. This form is reviewed by Mr Scott who can grant an authorised leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. 

For further information, please refer to our Attendance Policy.

Inclusion Coffee Morning

Ms MacDougall, our new SENCO and Inclusion Lead, will be holding a meet and greet coffee morning next Friday 10th October from 9:00 - 9:45 am. We hope many of you will be available to join us. If you plan to attend, please register using this linked form. 

Parent Council

To improve communication between home and school, and ensure that the needs of our community are taken into account when making key strategic decisions, the Senior Leadership Team works closely with the Parent Council. The Parent Council meets with Mr Scott twice every term to discuss different aspects of school life and they are currently recruiting new members for this school year, ideally two representatives from each class. If you would like to be the voice of your class, or would just like to find out more about what the Parent Council does, please get in touch with them via by email to parentcouncil@fernhillprimary.org or through the school office. You can read their last newsletter, which focuses on the arts provision at Fern Hill, here.