Newsletter 5 - 27th February 2026

Key Dates


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

Eco-Refill Shop at 3:00 pm

Reception visit to Brooklands Museum

Friday 6th March
PSA Bounce for Books


Monday 9th March
Science Week

Thursday 12th March
Foxglove class parent assembly at 9:00 am

Friday 13th March
PSA Mums' Breakfast 

PSA Year 1 Cake Sale


Monday 16th March
Year 6 SATs & PGL Briefing at 8:50 am

Tuesday 17th March
iRock Parent Concert at 2:30 pm

Wednesday 18th March
Year 4 Yew visit to the Natural History Museum

Thursday 19th March
Willow class parent assembly at 9:00 am

Year 4 Chestnut visit to the Natural History Museum

Eco-Refill Shop at 3:00 pm

Friday 20th March
Comic Relief Red Nose Day

Year 4 Larch visit to the Natural History Museum

Saturday 21st March
Eco School Community Litterpick

PSA Easter Egg Hunt

 

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

School Lunches
Please don’t forget to place an order for school lunch through ParentPay by 8:00 am on the day. To avoid missing the deadline, we recommend that you order your child’s lunches for the full half-term in advance - you can cancel or amend those orders at any time up until 8:00 am on the day if anything changes. Thursday 5th March will be theme day and you can view the menu here.

Year Group Weekly News
Don't forget to check the Google Classroom for your year group's weekly update and any important reminders from your teachers for next week. 

Illness
If your child is unwell and will be absent from school, please inform us by 8:30 am on each day of absence. You can email the school office at office@fernhillprimary.org or call 020 8247 0300. If the office is busy, you may be put through to the answerphone but please do leave a message, telling us the nature of your child's illness and the symptoms they have. Thank you.


Parents' Evening

Parents’ Evening will be held on Wednesday 25th March from 4:00 - 7:00 pm and Thursday 26th March from 2:00 - 6:00 pm. School will close early on Thursday 26th March at 1:30 pm for children in Reception through to Year 6. Parents' Evening appointments will be available to book from 10th March and further information will be sent home next week.  This term, SEND Reviews will be held during Parents' Evening, with class teachers. If your child has a SEND Review, you will not need to book a Parents' Evening appointment; we will send you an email with the date and time of your appointment before the booking system goes live.


Parent CouncilParent Communications Survey

Throughout the school year, the Parent Council asks for your feedback on various aspects of school life. One of the ways we do this is through surveys to gather your thoughts on a specific topic that is chosen by parents along with the School Senior Leadership Team. 

The chosen Parent Voice topic for Spring Term 2026 is Parent Communications. We would be very grateful for your responses to this linked survey. Your feedback will help us streamline our approach and focus our energy on the communication lines that truly matter to our community.

The survey will close at midnight on Sunday 1st March. As an incentive to complete it, the year group with the most responses will receive a treat such as extra Diamond Time!


Stay Safe OnlineOnline Safety Workshop

Thank you to all the families who joined us today for our Online Safety Workshop, hosted by Tim Barette from Eduthing, the organisation who provide IT and digital support across the Trust. Information on supporting children in the digital age is available here - we encourage all parents and carers to read it. 

We would like to offer a follow-up session, or sessions, on any specific topics of interest or concern, e.g gaming. Please complete this very short google form to tell us what you would like to be covered. Thank you.


World Book Day 2026World Book Day

We will be celebrating World Book Day (the best day of the year!) on Thursday 5th March and children (and staff) are invited to dress up as their favourite book character on this day. We will also be sending home World Book Day tokens which you can use to get a brilliant read for free!

Pebble Characters Competition

This year, our World Book Day competition will be for the best pebble character. We hope to display the pebbles in the Secret Garden so, if possible, please use waterproof materials so the children’s lovely designs survive! Please make sure your pebbles are clearly named and bring them to the KS2 Library on the morning of 5th March. We can't wait to see your creations!


Eco Schools LogoEco Schools News

We're so sorry to have had to cancel the Eco-Refill Shop this week. The stock has now arrived and we look forward to seeing you next Thursday 5th March after school. Run by the children on our Eco-Committee, the shop sells a range of affordable, ethically sourced, cruelty-free and environmentally friendly cleaning and beauty products on a refill basis - don't forget to bring your ownbottles for refilling!

Eco-Committee Community Litter Pick

As part of our Eco Schools programme of events, Miss Evans runs a local litter pick on the last Saturday of every month. She meets families at the Nursery gates at around 9:50 am and sets off on the walk 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. There’s even tea and biscuits on arrival back to school! Our litter picks were very popular last year - and with the weather improving over the coming months, we hope many new families will join in. The next litterpick is tomorrow, Saturday 28th February - we hope to see you there!


Home Learning

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 Monday 23rd March (not the usual Friday!). If you have any issues uploading your child's work, please contact your class teacher in the first instance. 


Spring Sounds 2Spring Sounds: a day of music and dicovery

Join Spring Sounds – a free day of music fun on Sunday 22nd March from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm at Kingston University’s Town House, supported by Arts Council England and Kingston Music Service. Try instruments, join workshops like gamelan or video game composing, and enjoy talks and performances – all ages are welcome and no experience is needed. This is a relaxed, drop-in style event with family zones. Please register for free for entry and updates here

Careers FairCareers Fair

Next week, as part of National Careers Week, we are holding 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.


YASSYoung Artists' Summer Show

Now in its eight year, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is a free, open submission exhibition for students aged 4–18 studying in the UK.

Submitting artwork is completely free and done online. Just follow this link and select Fern Hill Primary as your school. For children 12 or under, entry must be completed by a parent or guardian. Registration and submission is open until 5:00 pm on 4th March 2026.

Each student can submit one artwork and there is no theme. When you enter, you’ll be asked for an image of your child’s artwork plus some information about the piece such as title, size, and a little text about it. It will be seen by a panel of judges and arts professionals and the selected pieces will be displayed online and on-site at the Royal Academy of Arts when the exhibition opens in July.

Please let us know if you submit artwork on behalf of your child, so we can have our own exhibition at school too!  


Book of the Week

Wood Where Magic Grows‘The Wood Where Magic Grows’ by Andy Shepherd, illustrated by Ellie Snowdon

When Iggy’s mum and Cal’s dad move into a new house together, Iggy has to get used to being a big brother for the first time. But the forest at the bottom of their new garden offers plenty of scope for adventures together. Along with their new friend, Mae, Iggy and Cal call themselves the Treetoppers and soon discover the magic of the wood. But the wood is in peril and the magic is failing - can the three children find a way to save Wildtop Wood?

 

This is a gentle and emotionally resonant story about found-family, friendship and living in harmony with nature. I particularly loved the way that the trees are personified in the language and in the beautiful illustrations - this is a restorative forest stroll of a book.

Here’s what the Year 5 Book Club said about it:

‘I like the book because it is full of adventure and magic and fantasy and nature. I would recommend this book to someone who loved the Faraway Tree.’

‘I liked the big tree. The book made me feel excited! My favourite character was Cal because of the tiger onesie. Or the big tree! Out of five stars I would give this book 7 stars!’

‘I liked the duck and the sticky deer. I enjoyed reading it - it had a feeling of suspense. My favourite character was Cal because I relate to him - we are chaotic!’

 

Zara KadirZara Kadir Author Visit to KS1

Many thanks to Zara Kadir, Beau's Mum, for sharing her beautiful picture book with KS1 this week. 'The Inside Voice' is a charming story about the power of discovering a strong inner voice to combat unkind words. The book is available to purchase on Amazon.

Team Points Update

The overall House winner this week is RICHMOND

KINGSTON

307

COOMBE

307

RICHMOND

342

HAMPTON

326


Attendance Update

Weekly Attendance

Well done to Reception who had the highest year group attendance again this week with 97.9%. 

Congratulations to Elm class with the highest attendance - 99%.

 

 

Year Attendance % Star Year  ★
Reception 97.9%
Year 1 96.1%  
Year 2 94.7%  
Year 3 96.5%  
Year 4 97.6%  
Year 5 95.7%  
Year 6 93.3%  
     

 

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

 

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