Fairfields Primary School

Dear Parents and carers,

It has been an interesting week in the school with a hive of activities taking place.  Thank you to all of the parents who have supported the trips to the Discovery Centre and to Queen Mary’s college- these could not go ahead with your support. 

Chinese New Year celebration – 1^st February – Food and Family

We are continuing to plan for Chinese New Year in the school.  To celebrate this,  we are planning to hold an informal street party in the playground between 3:30 – 4:30pm on Tuesday 1^st January.  This will include some activities for children to participate in in the playground.  Families are invited to take part but do not need to stay for the whole time. 

Year 4 pupils will also perform a Dragon dance for parents in the playground and we will also have some activities which can completed at home. 

We have organised for a local Chinese restaurant, Tang Chinese, to provide us with pre-ordered individual takeaway meals.  These will be available to book on our SCOPAY system on Monday afternoon and can be eaten during the party or taken away to enjoy at home. 

Meat Options:

• Main Course: Chicken Fried Rice (cost £5.50)
• Snack: Spring Roll with Meat (3 pieces) (cost £3.80)

Vegetarian Options:

• Main Course: Mixed Vegetable Noddle (cost £6.00)
• Snack: Vegetarian Spring Rolls (8 pieces) (cost £3.00)

For the full menu, see  http://tangrestaurant.co.uk/pdfs/Tang%20Takeaway%20menu.pdf

At 4pm on the 26^th January, we will place the orders on behalf of our parents and arrange for them to be kept warm.  We will also create a seating area under the canopy for parents to eat together if they wish. 

These will need to be ordered by parents before the 26^th January and will delivered for the party. 

Thank you to our wonderful Chinese community for helping to organise this event. 

Seat belts

We have received a number of worrying reports about a parent, with young children, not securing them in the car with seat belts or in a car seat.

Please note the law on this:

You must make sure that any children in the vehicle you’re driving are:

• in the correct car seat for their height or weight until they reach 135 centimetres tall or their 12th birthday, whichever is first
• wearing a seat belt if they’re 12 or 13 years old, or younger and over 135cm tall

You can be fined up to £500 if a child under 14 isn’t in the correct car seat or wearing a seat belt while you’re driving.

COVID Update

We have had a significant increase in cases in the school this week.  We have introduced bubbles for some year groups but as the week has gone on, the numbers have continued to rise.  Staff will be working hard to stay in bubbles and we will continue to wear masks until cases fall.  We have also installed automatic hand sanitisers outside every classroom and in communal areas. 

Please remember, COVID remains a mild illness in children and we have not experienced anything on the contrary to this.  The biggest impact for the school is to do with the staff becoming ill and having to isolate.

You will see from the numbers below that we are now having to rely on alternative staff for children who would normally have 1:1 provision.  We are also covering class teachers in some year groups where the teacher has tested positive including members of the leadership team. 

Please do be patient with all members of staff in the school and show kindness and understanding.   Everyone is working as hard as they can under the circumstances even when there is a national shortage of school staff.

We are unable to predict the staff we will have in each day and so are meeting each morning to allocate staff to SEND children, whilst trying to sustain some consistency in class teaching.  There may be times where your child’s class is covered using Zoom teaching from myself or a teacher who is isolating but well enough at home. 

I do foresee that this will settle down over the next few weeks and am positive that we will return to normal before the end of the half term.

To support with reporting of positive cases, we have set up a separate email address which can be used if your child is unwell:  pupilabsence@fairfields.hants.sch.uk

Parent Forum on Behaviour

A quick reminder that we will be meeting with parents and carers to share our ethos and gain feedback on the evolving Behaviour Policy in the school. 

This is an online event and will take place on Wednesday 26^th January 6pm – 7pm. 

Finally, we are looking forward to all the exciting things that are planned this term.  Look out for information on Mental Health Week, Internet Safety Day and also Book Week.  We will also begin Forest School sessions for all children in the school. 

Have a lovely weekend and stay warm.

Miss Kelly Dillon

Headteacher