Weekly Update 22 23.2.2423 February 2024 (by admin) |
Dear Fairfields Community,
It has been a very wet week, but great to see our families back at school. We hope you had a wonderful half term break. This week we have been talking in assembly about ‘Filling your Invisible Bucket’. When we do kind things or say nice words to others, we ‘fill their buckets’ with happiness, and this in turn fills our own buckets as it makes us feel good. When people are unkind with their words or actions, this empties that person’s bucket and makes them feel sad, and it also empties our own bucket as, we feel bad for being unkind. Please do talk to your children about this more- they were great in assembly at coming up with all the ways that they could be ‘Bucket Fillers’ and not ‘Bucket Dippers’!
Spring Into Action- Monday 26th February- Sunday 3rd March
We are pleased to be supporting Hampshire’s Spring into Action 2024 event! The event runs from Monday 26th February to Sunday 3rd March 2024.
A Spring into Action Toolkit is available at: https://myjourneyhampshire.com/springintoaction
The toolkit provides families with a daily fun activity to enjoy. The activities can be tried during the daily walk, wheel, scoot or cycle to and from school, during an outdoor school activity or in your leisure time. You can follow the daily suggestions or mix them up to suit your family!
This year’s theme is the senses, with ideas to help us engage with nature and think about how we use our senses to keep us safe. With a fun human and animal fact each day, there is lots to learn and do throughout the week. The toolkit provides a fantastic opportunity for families to spend time talking and having fun together. We hope you enjoy it, and hopefully the sun will come out for it too!
Parents Evening
Thank you to all the parents who have already booked their parents evening slots for Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th February. Please do book in to come and speak to your child’s class teacher, and let us know if you are unable to make those dates so that we can talk to you at a more convenient time.
Clubs next week
There will be no teacher led clubs next week, including no netball, rugby or choir, due to parents evening. The only exceptions will be year 6 Mega Maths club and year 1 Fun Phonics club which will run as normal. Externally run clubs- drama, bootcamp and Singstar- will also continue as normal.
Book Week
The week beginning Monday 4th March is World Book, and we are excited to announce that on Friday, March 8th, we will be inviting the children to dress up as their favourite fictional characters in celebration of World Book Day! If your child prefers not to dress up, we would ask that they wear their school uniform as usual on this day. Additionally, we encourage your child to bring in their favourite book to share with the class during the day.
Eid Celebration
We are looking to organise an Eid al-Fitr celebration on Tuesday 16th April. This is because Eid falls over the Easter holidays this year. To enable us to organise something we are looking for parents who would be happy to help organise and lead the event. If you are interested please contact Miss Harper via the office.
Times tables- Key Stage 2
Exciting news for year 3 as they will be kicking off the next Top of the Rocks tournament next week on Tuesday. This is a weekly tournament lasting just half an hour each Tuesday where a number of schools answer as many questions as possible on TTRockstars. They can see live results and identify which school is getting the most points. The points are all averaged and totalled and the winning school gets a trophy. Children in year 3 could practise at home for this event to try to increase their speed. We will let you know next week how they get on. The week after, it is the turn of year 4!
Looking at the current leaderboards, Fairfields is in fourth place compared to other local schools. It takes our pupils 3.31 seconds on average to answer a times tables question!
The top three status positions are Rock Star, Rock Legend and Rock Hero. We need to aim to have all children at one of these stages by the end of year 4. Children reaching Rock Hero receive a special certificate and we have a little prize for year 3 children who reach the stage before - Headliner.
Currently, New Delhi are tied with Cairo with the most children at one of these levels, followed by Ottawa and then Nairobi.
Miss Warwick
Football club
My apologies but I have managed to organise our long-awaited football trials for year 5 on the same day as parents evening! Thank you for all the forms asking for your children to have an opportunity to attend. The dates will now be as follows:
Wednesday 6th March - Football trial for year 5 children only until 4.15.
Wednesday 13th March - Football training for year 5 and 6 squad
Wednesday 20th March - Football training for year 5 and 6 squad
Friday 22nd March - Afternoon football tournament for year 6 pupils
Wednesday 27th March - Football training for year 5 and 6 squad
Miss Warwick
Updates from year groups
FS
Foundation Stage have enjoyed starting their new story focus 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' this week. Ask them if they can remember which foods he eats and on which day for an extra challenge! They have been exploring healthy/unhealthy food choices and learnt about only eating sugary foods in moderation. They also enjoyed making their own caterpillars and butterflies using natural resources at Forest School! Well done for another great week, FS!
Year 1
It was an exciting start to the week for Year1 when they flew to Antarctica and saw penguins and polar bears. It was very cold but they are excited to be learning about animals in cold and hot places.
Another reminder to please return the Marwell trip forms by next Wednesday 29th February at the latest.
We would also like to invite you to a phonics meeting on Wednesday March 6th from 3.30 - 4 pm. This is to inform you about the phonics screening completed by all Year1 children in the Summer term. Please come through the school office to attend.
Year 2
Well done children on a great first week back in school. A reminder that London letters and payments (unless on a payment plan) are due in on Friday 8th March as we need to confirm numbers with the London Eye on this day. If your child is not attending the trip, please speak directly to your child's teacher as this trip is part of the curriculum and therefore attendance is expected by all children. We have our year 2 assembly coming up on Monday 11th March at 2.40pm. Some children will be bringing words home to practice in the next couple of weeks.
Year 3
Year 3 is really enjoying their new topic and have been busy learning about plants, exploring nature and tasting exotic fruits this week. This Friday children visited the allotment and planted vegetable seeds which they will have taken home today to look after. We can't wait to see how much the plants have grown! Please feel free to send us any photos. Next week year 3 is taking part in a TTRockstars competition with other local schools. Please encourage your child to login to TTRockstars and practise their timetables this weekend.
Year 4
Year 4 have had a great week this week. They enjoyed making and learning about orangutans, as well as describing the rainforest and reading our new descriptive narrative.
Thank you everyone for your interest in the residential and all the parents who asked questions. We are unfortunately now no longer able to accept any more trip forms as the time frame for final numbers has passed. If you would like to meeting to discuss anything about your child on the residential, please see one for the year 4 team and we can arrange this for you.
Thank you for the payments and if you are following the suggested payment plan, you have another payment coming up soon.
Year 5
We had a brilliant start of the term; we learnt about space, started reading War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and created our own 3D Martian tripods inspired by the story. We will have lots of DT and art lessons this term but unfortunately, we are in great need of art aprons. If you have any, please send in any unwanted, clean adult size shirts or t-shirts that the children can use in these lessons. Thank you.
Year 6
Year 6 have started back this week by learning all about living creatures, specifically: minibeasts! Pupils did a brilliant job, finding and studying a whole range of creepy-crawlies living out on the school field. A letter has been sent home this week with a booking reply slip attached, which offers your child a place on our Easter school. It will run for 2 days during the first week of the Easter holidays and will allow pupils some extra time to revise before their exams in May. Please return the slips to your child's teacher as soon as possible. Revision guides will be sent home during parents evenings next week to also aid revision.
Sunflower Café
The Mental Health Support Team, who work with children with anxiety, low mood, OCD, phobias, behaviour and trauma will be at the Sunflower café on Monday 26th February from 8.40-9.45pm. Please come along for an informal chat and a hot drink.
The café is open to come and meet other parents and to chat to our Home/School Link Worker, Tracey, every Monday from 8.40am, and on a Friday from 2.50pm until 3.10pm.
Other Information (attachments may not be able to be viewed on some devices through the Jotter app, but can be seen on Arbor)
Please see attached a calendar of dates for the academic year 2024-2025.
The Mental Health Support Team have a parent workshop on ‘Low Mood and Depression in children’- details can be found in the attached flyer.
Dates:
Monday 26th February: Mental Health Team parent drop in at the Sunflower Café (8.40am-9.45am)
Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th February: Parent Evening dates
Thursday 29th February: Nairobi class parents and carers school library visit (2.30pm- 3.00pm)
Wednesday March 6th: Year 1 phonics meeting for parents (3.30-4.00pm)
Friday 8th March: World Book Day dress up
Monday 11th March: Year 2 assembly- parents welcome to attend in the hall (2.40- 3.00pm)
Monday 25th March: ‘Understanding and Responding to Anxiety’ parent workshop with PBS in the school hall (6.00pm-8.00pm)
Friday 29th March: Bank holiday and start of the Easter holidays
For other key days, please look at the calendar on the website or the School Jotter.
PE Days are as follows:
FS: PE to start in summer term
Year 1: Tuesday (outdoor PE)
Year 2: Tuesday (indoor PE)
Year 3: Monday (outdoor) and Thursday (indoor PE)
Year 4: Thursday (outdoor PE)
Year 5: Wednesday (indoor PE)
Year 6: Monday (indoor) and Friday (outdoor PE)
Start and finish times are as follows:
Foundation Stage, Year 1 and 2: 8.40am- 3.10pm
Years 3- 6: 8.45am- 3.15pm
Enjoy the weekend and thank you for your continued support.
Mrs Vicky Hopkins
