Fairfields Primary School

Dear Fairfields Community,

It has been a really productive week in school!  We are really pleased with the discussions we are having with children during their mathematics lessons.  They are now answering questions in full sentences more often and explaining their thinking.   

The Harvest Festival was also a success and the children enjoyed sharing their learning about farming with you.  Thank you for the generous donations to the Food Bank.  In total, 71kg of food was donated which equates to 169 meals. 

Black History Month

We have continued our focus on the diversity of the school and especially with Black History Month taking place in October.  During assembly time, the children learnt about the importance of filling in the gaps in our history and the reason why they were there in the first place.  I shared a personal example of how I was never taught about the famous black people and their impact on the world when I was at school and how that is improving with the work we do within our community.  We have invited our older children to create a fact file or information sheet around influential black people to share in assemblies over the next few weeks. 

We talked about why our curriculum is different as we include the achievements of everyone where this relates to the areas we study in school.  The children showed great insight into why Mary Seacole was made to care for soldiers externally in the battlefields and why Rosa Parks and the Bristol Bus Boycott were significant acts in the fight for equality. 

CCTV cameras in the corridor outside the toilets

From Monday morning, cameras will be in place outside the toilets in the main corridor.  These will have no views of the cubicles or hand washing areas  This is due to a number of floods which have taken place this week due to children filling the plug holes with tissue paper.  The full policy will be sent out separately to parents.  The images will only be reviewed when there is an incident. 

Where there is proven intentional damage to the toilets area, we will look to recover the cost from parents.  Please do speak to your child about their behaviour when using the toilet facilities. 

Pupils as Leaders

We were delighted to receive over 140 job applications from the children in years 1-6 who are keen to help around the school with various roles. The staff member who is responsible for each job advertised now had the relevant applications and the children will be contacted in due course about whether they have been successful with their application. Thank you to all the children who applied for their hard work and dedication to improving the school. 

English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Our EAL policy has been updated and a copy can be found attached. Please do have a read through to see how we support children with English as an additional language.

PTA Update

Harvest Festival

Thank you to everyone who came and supported the Harvest Festival this week. We raised over £100 for the school with the tea, coffee & doughnut sale which was really well done. Thank you to everyone that helped with the organisation of this.

Winter Fair - Thursday 14th December

Planning is well under way for this event and it isn't too late to put yourself forward if you can help in any way. The more parents we have helping the more activities we'll be able to include. We will also see the return of the PTA challenge at the event so we would like parent volunteers from each year group to see who can raise the most money from £20 provided by the PTA. The winning year group will receive a prize for their children. If you're interested in either this or generally just lending a hand then please send us a message at fairfieldspta@gmail.com. You can also find details on everything PTA related on the school website by following this link: Fairfields Primary School - PTA

Keyboard Lessons

We have two spaces available for any pupil in Year 3-6 who would like to have a weekly keyboard or violin lesson in school time.  The lessons are taught by a qualified instructor from Hampshire Music Service.  The cost for lessons is £80 per term (10 – 13 weeks) for a group 20 minute session.  Please take into consideration that the average minimum cost for private 1:1 music tuition is £40.50 per hour in the UK.   

If you would like your child to take part, they must sign up for a full year (although you can pay in installments = 3 x £80) and please email admin@fairfields.hants.sch.uk. 

Top Tip for Parents

We continue to research on the effects of helicopter parenting on children  This is an area we are interested in due to the increase in anxiety within our community since the pandemic.   The following web page may provide interesting insight into this; from a mental health perspective: https://www.choosingtherapy.com/helicopter-parenting/

During the meetings about the School Development plan, we explored how we can all see ourselves parenting in many different ways.  This does depend on the situation, our energy levels and also our past experiences. 

Updates from Year Groups

Dates for next week

Please come and join the Sunflower Café which starts next week.  Tracey will send out details, but please do come and have a cup of tea or coffee and meet other parents.

Thursday 12^th October 2:05pm- 2:50pm:  Year 1 Toy Museum.  Parents are invited to come and see the museum created by the children.  Please come to the school office and sign in. 

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