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Newsletter 3 - 6th February 2026

Key Dates

Monday 9th February
Chilldren's Mental Health Week starts

Thursday 12th February
Yew class parent assembly at 9:00 am

PSA Uniform Sale at 3:00 pm

Friday 13th February
Home Learning Showcase for Years 1 - 6

PSA Year 6 Cake Sale

Monday 16th - Friday 20th February
HALF-TERM BREAK

Monday 23rd February
Children return to school

Thursday 26th February
Rowan class parent assembly at 9:00 am

Eco Refill Shop at 3:00 pm

Friday 27th February
Online Safety Workshop for parents & carers at 9:00 am

PSA Nursery Cake Sale

Saturday 28th February
Eco School Community Litterpick

Monday 2nd March
Careers Week

Reception visit to the Fire Station

Tuesday 3rd March
Year 5 & 6 Careers Fair

Thursday 5th March
World Book Day

Friday 6th March
PSA Bounce for Books

Click here for term dates for the current and 2026/2027 school years, including INSET days.

Key dates for families for the spring and summer terms 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.

Reminders

Illness
The NHS provides useful guidance on common childhood illnesses and how to manage them, including when you should keep your child at home. Please note their advice that children with diarrhoea or vomiting should stay away from school until they have not been sick or had diarrhoea for at least two days (48 hours). This is also our school policy. If your child is absent because of illness, please remember to let us know by email or phone by 8:30 am on each day of their absence. Thank you.

School Lunches
Please don't forget to place your child's order for lunch through ParentPay by 8:00 am on the day. To avoid missing the deadline, we recommend that you order your child’s lunches well in advance - you can cancel or amend your orders up until 8:00 am on the day too. Lunches for the second half of this term are now available to order through ParentPay.

Year Group Weekly News
Year group weekly news is published every Friday afternoon on the Home Learning Google Classroom. You will also find this half-term's Home Learning Grids on the Classroom. All the work should be completed in time for our Home Learning Showcase on Friday 13th February.

Safety

Please do not ride scooters or bikes anywhere on the school site - adults and children should dismount before entering at the Richmond Road entrance. Please may we also remind you that there is no parking on site. Our car park is shared with The Kingston Academy and is for staff use only. Parking restrictions apply on surrounding roads from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Online Safety Workshop

On Friday 27th February, we will be running an Online Safety Workshop for parents and carers, hosted by Eduthing who provide IT and digital support to both Fern Hill and The Kingston Academy. It will be held in the Large Hall from 9:00 to 9:30 am.

This will be a practical and reassuring session designed to help families better understand the digital spaces children use every day. It will address the fast changing online world where children can interact with new apps, games, and platforms that appear so quickly, and explore the key online safety risks families should be aware of.

The workshop will offer guidance on setting up parental controls, and explain how artificial intelligence is increasingly built into the apps, games, and platforms children are using. It will also focus on the importance of open communication, sharing simple strategies for starting positive conversations at home and supporting children to make safe, informed choices online.

If you plan to attend, please let us know by completing this short registration form.

Eco-Committee Community Litter Pick

Thank you to all the families who joined our monthly community litter pick last weekend. Our youngest litter picker was just a year old! We hope to see more families next month on Saturday 21st March. We meet at the Nursery gates at around 9:50 am and set off at 10:00 am to collect litter from around the local roads. It's a fantastic opportunity to teach your children about taking care of their environment, protecting wildlife from injury and reducing plastic pollution, and a lovely way to meet and engage with other families at school.

Careers Fair

As part of National Careers Week in March, we are planning a Careers Fair for our Year 5 and 6 children. We hope to feature inspirational, diverse volunteers from both within and outside of our school community, who can talk to the children about their jobs and demonstrate just how what they are learning at school today can lead to an exciting future tomorrow. We would love to showcase a varied range of careers. If you can offer your time on Tuesday 3rd March from 1:30 - 3:15 pm, please let us know by completing this linked form. For further information, please see the letter sent from Mrs Davies.

Children’s Mental Health Week

Next week we will be taking part in Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week. Place2Be is the largest children’s mental health charity operating in schools across the UK and they have created the week to empower, equip and give a voice to every child. This year’s theme is ‘This Is My Place’ which explores how we can help everyone feel like they belong by learning from each other what makes us feel happy - at school, at home, during activities, in our community and within ourselves. The children will attend assemblies and spend time in the classroom talking about belonging and what it means to them. Children will Years 1 and 2 will also enjoy a visit from local author Nigel Grimes who will be sharing his book about children’s wellbeing and connecting with nature.

Place2Be offers a Families Pack to download with top tips for families, parents and carers, and activity ideas to do at home including an art project to create a personal map.

School Clubs

Clubs are now in full flow for the term, and will all run up to and including the week of 16th March - the final week of term will be for catch up sessions only. A few spaces are available for Year 5 & 6 Basketball and NFL Flag (both on Tuesdays) and also for Keyboard for Years 3-6 (Thursday lunchtime). Please email clubs@fernhillprimary.org if you would like to book a place for your child.

ROAR

Following their very successful holiday camps over Christmas, ROAR Kids Academy will be back with us over the half-term break from 19th - 20th February. Their camp runs on the Fern Hill school site and is available for children aged 4 - 11 years. It's open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, with an extended day from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm also available.

For further information and booking, please see their website or contact them directly on 07969 959754. Click here for their flyer.

Fern Hill Nursery

If your child was born between 1st September 2022 and 31st August 2023, they can start Fern Hill Nursery in September 2026. Our nursery has one intake per year in September only and your child must be three years old by 31st August 2026 to be considered.

Applications for a place in Fern Hill Nursery are made directly to us using this linked application form. The closing date for applications is 27th February 2026 and places will be offered by the end of April at the latest.

TikTok

TikTok is a free video-sharing and social media platform that lets users create content, share videos and watch short form content from people all over the world. The app is very popular for short-form content and offers a shop feature that allows businesses to sell items directly on the platform. Although the minimum age requirement is 13 years, according to TikTok's terms and conditions, the app is featured on the Google Play Store as requiring parental guidance only, and the Apple App Store as 12+. We are aware that many of the children access it. If you choose to allow your child to use it, please make sure you are familiar with the platform and what your child is watching. Internetmatters.org provide an excellent Safety Guide for Parents. Please make use of the TikTok’s parental controls, Family Pairing, and other privacy and safety settings to manage communication, screen time, and content - you can find out more about these here.

Book of the Week

‘People Like Stars’ by Patrice Lawrence

Three 13-year-olds team up to solve a mystery. Ayrton's mum has been overprotective since he was kidnapped as a baby. At his new school, he just wants the freedom to be able to go to school by himself or to hang out with friends after school, but she is having a difficult time letting him go. Stanley has a Forbidden Grandmother - he knows about the terrible thing that she did but he doesn't know why she did or why his mum won't talk about her at all. Sen has been homeless before, she and her mum have found a good place to stay but there are rules and they don't want to upset their reclusive host and end up back on the street again.

The setup of this story is strikingly unique and the mystery of Ayrton's kidnapping and how the three stories are connected kept me turning the pages. A poignant story about friendship and family secrets, perfect for upper KS2.

Team Points Update

The overall House winner this week is HAMPTON

KINGSTON

365

COOMBE

389

RICHMOND

340

HAMPTON

394

Attendance Update

Weekly Attendance Well done to Year 4 who had the highest year group attendance again this week with 98.1% - the winners of our Attendance Award, three weeks in a row! Congratulations to Cornflower class with 100% attendance!	Year	Attendance %	Star Year ★
	Reception	95.1%
	Year 1	96.5%
	Year 2	97.0%
	Year 3	96.6%
	Year 4	98.1%	★
	Year 5	95.2%
	Year 6	98.0%

PSA News & Events

Click here for Fern Hill PSA's latest newsletter.

Click here for Fern Hill PSA's Events Calender for the remainder of this school year.

2026 Calendar

Screenshot 2025 02 05 124108