Fairfields Primary School

Dear parents and carers, 

I hope that you have enjoyed the warm weather over the last week and have managed to spend as much time outdoors as possible. The children have really appreciated the time at the end of lunchtime to cool down before the afternoon lessons begin. Thank you to everyone for sending in water bottles and remembering sun cream on top of the normal things in the morning. 

Well done to the Year 1 parents for their Fairfest event on Friday – it is so good to see how engaged parents are in fundraising. Special thanks to Shannon Hinkle for her power of motivation, energy and enthusiasm in bringing the event together, alongside running her own company. Thank you also to everyone who attended the event to raise money for the school playground.  

Water Bottles 

We have unfortunately had to increase the price of the water bottles in school. We do not make any profit from selling the bottles. The cost has increased for supplying them. The water bottles are available to buy from the school office for £1.50 but we also call parents if children come to school without one as we do not have cups for them to use.  

Diversity Party – Monday 3rd July 3:10 – 4pm 

We have managed to secure respresentation from the following countries so far: 

Nigeria 

Brazil 

Portugal 

Croatia 

Korea 

Hungary 

We would love to see all of the countries in our school community represented. Please do let us know if you would like to have a table for the event.  

Staffing Update 

We are sad to say farewell to Mrs. Feasey who will be leaving us in September to work for Hampshire’s Primary Behaviour Service at their centre. We hope that Mrs. Feasey will return to Fairfields at some point in the future.  

We welcome Sweety Devikar to the school as a Learning Support Assistant. She joined us last term and is already having an impact with some of our key pupils.  

Communication Meeting 

We understand that a number of parents are becoming increasingly frustrated by the communication sent out about events. We have to apologise if there are confusions over events and we are working hard to resolve issues as they arise. We must also insist that parents check the school calendar regularly to keep themselves updated. Where communication has sometimes become confusing is when parents rely on unofficial Whatsapp groups as a way of knowing what is happening in school. To confirm, we have no control over the content on the groups and can only apologise where parents have become upset or anxious due to them.  

Please could we ask that parents come directly to a member of school staff to raise concerns (no matter how small you may feel they are) or complaints. There is always a member of staff on the playground in the morning and after school. Mrs. Hopkins and I also have drop-in sessions on Wednesday all day for parents to book onto via the office. We also have parents who email us directly so that we can help resolve any upset. Posting comments on unofficial groups does not help to solve a problem or clarify events as staff do not have access to them. Worst still, is that we always hear about parents being upset on group chats but are unable to respond as parents have not come to us directly.  

We have a parent session on the 21st June at 9am (under the canopy) to discuss ways to improve communication in the school and have added an additional date (following a request from a parent who is unable to come in to school).  This will be online on Wednesday 28th June at 1pm, using the following Zoom link: 

https://zoom.us/j/94699459889?pwd=NzdvcWlOUElYZVJmZU5DMn 

Meeting ID: 946 9945 9889 

Passcode: 473886 

Please do come along to share you views. 

Top Parenting Tip – modelling the behaviour you would like to see. 

“We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behaviour” Stephen Covey 

“Model the behaviour you wish more people would display. Lead first” Robin Sharma 

We have known for a long time that if we want to have the respect of a class, child, partner or colleague, we must reflect first what we hope to receive. For this reason, when we work with children who have been placed on behaviour plans , we always involve the parents and any key adults in the meeting to set targets.  

The importance of adults showing the same behaviour we are asking from a child can be overlooked at times. One historical example of this is where a child continued to swear in school and received a consequence as a result. Through discussion with the child who continued, despite being on a plan, we found out that they were confused as swearing was commonplace in their home. Parents knew that this was a target but had not connected that their swearing at home was being copied by their child in school.  

This is why we work hard to ensure that our own behaviour in school mirrors how we want children to behave. We recoginse that each family is unique and has its own set of values. In school, we focus on the Core Values of Love, Honesty, Respect and Celebration as a way of being and not just in our intentions. This includes the way adults treat each other in school. The OFSTED Inspection Team noted this on their visit in November and commended the school for bringing together the community with a common set of values. A question for you to consider is this, to what extent do you model the Core Values of the school in your interactions with your child, other parents and school staff? We recognise that everyone has good and bad days, but generally we try to model how we want our children to be when they eventually become adults.  

 Have a good rest of your weekend!

Miss Kelly Dillon

Headteacher