Fairfields Primary School

Dear Fairfields Community,

It has been an interesting week in school with rich activities taking place in the classrooms and on educational visits.  The changeable weather has not dampened the joy of seeing children engaged in learning outside. 

Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who help to make the activities possible.  If you are interested in volunteering, please do email the school and we will contact you when a position becomes available.

Congratulations to Mrs. Weatherhead who has been appointed as our School Librarian. She will be working to develop the use of the library alongside Mrs. Pretty, who volunteers each week.   Thank you also to Mrs. Huang for her help in the library over the years.  She is now leaving as her family have relocated. 

School Development Focus Sessions for Parents

We have organised sessions for parents to learn about our priorities for the year ahead. The following have been identified as areas we will focus on:

1: Parent Partnership: ensuring all adults in a child's life model a consistent attitude to school.

2: To Improve outcomes in mathematics through a mastery approach.

3: To precisely identify the barriers to learning for all pupils to improve outcomes in reading and phonics.

4: To ensure that all staff have a career pathway which maintains the highly effective workforce with consistent practice.

You are invited to attend one of the meetings:

Friday 29^th September 9-10am: in person – please come to the school office and sign in after dropping off your child.

Wednesday 4^th October 6-7pm: on Teams- virtual meeting.  Please email admin@fairfields.hants.sch.uk if you would like to attend this meeting and they will share the Teams invite with you.

Walking on the Wall

You may not have noticed, but the wall at the front of the school is collapsing in places.  We will need to repair the wall using funds from the school allocated budget.  The Local Authority have confirmed that it is not covered by our service level agreement and thus we want to avoid any future spending in this area.  Please can we ask that you do not let your child walk on the wall from now on. 

Further damage will incur a larger cost from the budget, which should be used on providing education for pupils in the school.

Learn English

English lessons for speakers of other languages have been organised in the Discovery Centre in town.  These are free of charge.  Please follow the link below for more information:   

https://ebsontrackprospect-hcc.tribal-ebs.com/Page/ProspectusList?search_TOPIC_operator=Equals&search_TOPIC_type=String&search_TOPIC_value=ESOL

New Communication Policy

At the end of last term, we held two meetings with parents to discuss communication between home and school.  Following the meetings, several actions were taken:

1. We now limit the number of messages sent out to parents – one main email will be sent on Friday with year group reminders on and dates for the following week.
2. The website is being redeveloped and will be launched after half term. This will have better access to information for parents.
3. The calendar is updated regularly and information about events will continue to be added to the details part.
4. Physical boards will be placed at the gates to help remind parents of dates for the week.
5. PE days are placed at the bottom of the newsletter each week.
6. There are less notices and emails sent out by individual teachers to ensure that parents do not miss information. The PTA also add to the newsletter as opposed to sending out their own separate emails.
7. Medical forms for educational visits will only be needed to be completed once each year. The Annual Declaration has been created and needs to be separately completed to confirm that you will let us know if anything changes and that you consent to various activities. So far, we have not received the form for 200 children.  This will mean that they may not be able to fully participate in all activities such as local walks and food tasting until this has been completed.  Here is the link to the form:  https://forms.gle/ZC2ohgiDrbqMyg2TA

We have created a policy to help clarify communication between home and school.  Please find the Policy attached to this email (not School Jotter).  It also explains what action the school will take when communication damages the reputation of members of staff or the school.  Please ensure that you read this and contact the office if you would like a copy printed.

PTA Updates

AGM - Wednesday 27 September 7:30pm

Meeting link: https://teams.live.com/meet/9474072509219?p=KUzPnmNaPUKbiPeD2s

Meeting ID: 947 407 250 921 9

Passcode: ZC4NRZ

Please add to your diary and come and join us on Teams next Wednesday for our AGM. This is your opportunity to hear about the successes of last year, including where much of the money raised is going to be spent, details of some new and repeat events for this school year and have an opportunity to vote for the committee members. 

Everyone is welcome, whether you're interested to hear more about us, want to get involved, or would like to put yourself forward to join the committee. It would be great to see some new parents this year as well as welcome back familiar faces and as always we'd love to hear about any new ideas that you have and we can support so feel free to bring suggestions along. We will definitely need volunteers too as we can't do everything without your help, so even if you aren't able to join the AGM we can always be contacted on fairfieldspta@gmail.com.

Harvest Festival – Monday 2^nd October 2:15 – 3pm

This year we have focused our harvest festival on the diversity of farming.  Children will learn about different types of farming and prepare a presentation for parents.  You are invited to attend our walkabout and presentations between 2:15 – 3pm on Monday 2^nd October. 

The year groups will focus on the following and we welcome anyone with knowledge in these areas as special guests and to support year groups in their learning.

Foundation Stage: Fruit and vegetable farming 

Year 1: Hay farming and arable farming including vehicles. 

Year 2: Dairy Farming 

Year 3: Fish Farming/ Aquaculture 

Year 4: Solar farming 

Year 5: Agroforestry 

Year 6: Wind farming- inland and offshore 

Please enter the school from under the main canopy.  The PTA will also be providing refreshments for the event.  Please bring cash if you would like to buy any drinks or cakes.

We will be collecting food donations for the Food Bank again this year.  This year they have theme the donations as ‘bring a tin’.  Please donate a tin by bringing it into school on Monday 2^nd October.  The donations will be on display in the school hall during the walkaround.

Top Tip for Parents - Digital Parenting

In a world where technology is continually advancing, we recognise the challenge of staying connected to both your child and the latest trends. 

The below link is a useful guide for parents in helping to keep up!

https://parentzone.org.uk/EverydayDigital

Please do be mindful that ideally your child should spend more time interacting face to face with friends and family than time meeting them online. 

Playing face to face will support them in learning play skills.  They need these when they are in the playground with approximately 200 children and no devices.  One hour in school playing face to face will not balance out 2-3 hours on devices at home each day.  Some children have disclosed to us that this is the case despite our advice to them. 

Updates from Year Groups

Dates for next week

Clubs start this week.

Wednesday 27 September 7:30pm- PTA AGM

Friday 29^th September 9-10am – Parent Forum on School Development.

Monday 2^nd October – Harvest Festival in school

For other key dates – please look at the calendar on the website or School Jotter.

PE days

Start and finishing times are as follows:

Foundation Stage, year 1 and Year 2: 8:40am – 3:10pm (Foundation Stage have a staggered start at the beginning of the year and so please collect at the times you have been given).

Years 3- 6: 8:45am – 3:15pm

Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Kelly Dillon

Headteacher