Fairfields Primary School

Dear Fairfields Community,

We have had a busy but exciting week at school. The children are continuing to love the new play equipment, and thank you for your support before and after school in ensuring that your child does not use it. We were delighted to have so many parents attend the maths lessons, and maths workshop too, and we hope you found this enjoyable and informative.

We hope you have a lovely long weekend- Monday is a Bank Holiday so there is no school until Tuesday next week.

Respect Week

The House Captains are leading 'respect week' where every pupil in the school can earn extra tokens for showing our core value of respect. It will begin on Tuesday 7^th May until Friday 10^th May and the house with the most tokens will get 1000 additional house points! Please support this challenge by asking your child what they did to show respect each day. 

Class photos

On Friday 10^th May, children need to come smartly dressed in their school uniform for their class school photo. Please can parents let the class teacher or the school office know by Thursday 9^th May if you do not want your child included in the whole class photos, which will be available for parents to purchase.

Walk to School Week

Everyone should have received a Walk to School Week newsletter this week from your class teacher. Walk to School Week will be starting on Monday 20^th May until Friday 24^th May. This is an opportunity for you and your family to "STOP, LISTEN, LOOK and THINK", a chance for you and the family to walk to school and point out some of the potential hazards on the way, discuss the green cross code and suggest safe places to cross roads. You can even join in if you drive to school by parking a little further away and walking the rest of the journey, or by going for a walk after school! Please do get involved and give your child the chance to earn a certificate for their hard work on keeping safe! 

Please can we also politely remind parents and carers not to drop children off at school by parking cars on the zig-zag yellow lines outside the school gate. These lines indicate ‘no parking’.

Request for help

If anyone has any dressing up clothes they no longer want, we would be grateful if you could donate them to the school to use on the playground at lunch times. The children love to dress up in the summer term and the dressing up clothes we currently have are becoming a bit worn. We would also be grateful for any big construction kits you have at home which you no longer use as these are a great resource to put on the playground too. Thank you.

E-Safety at Fairfields 

We are currently refreshing the children’s memories about the important topic of e-safety. 

Over the next few weeks, we will be using the ‘Thinkuknow’ website to learn about safety. 

Foundation Stage and Key Stage One are using the following location: 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/4_7/ 

and watching the videos and playing the games appropriate to their age. Year 2 will study all the videos but younger children will do just the ones appropriate for their age. The full selection of videos cover: 

• Watching videos 
• Sharing pictures 
• Online gaming 
• Chatting online 

This web page provides information to parents of under 5s to help you support and guide your child: 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/keeping-your-under-five-safe-online/ 

These two links provide information for parents of children in the 4-7 range: 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/jessie-and-friends/ 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/jessie-and-friends-videos/ 

For our older children (including year 3) we are using the Bandrunner videos that can be found with this link: 

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/ 

The key principles covered in the 8–10 section are: 

• Play – Playing games online 
• Like – Being kind to others online 
• Share – Sharing videos and photos online 
• Chat – Talking to others online 
• Lock – Keeping information private 
• Explore – Exploring the internet 

So that you can support your children at home, here are links to two pages that provide advice to parents, linked with the work we will be doing. 

Band Runner for 8-10 year olds (thinkuknow.co.uk) 

Play Like Share (thinkuknow.co.uk) 

Times Tables

Very well done to year 4 for winning both their battles against St John's on Tuesday. In Canberra, Daniel came first, Alex was second and Funsho was third. The child who improved the most from the time before was Mehry. In New Delhi, Razvan was first, Ibrahim was second and Edward was third. The most pleasing improvement in this class came from Franek. Well done! Next week it is the turn of year 3.

Football Club

Many congratulations to Fairfields Football Club for the amazing entertainment they provided after school on Thursday in our matches against Rucstall. Our A team had two narrow defeats but their second match (2 - 3) was one of the most exciting, school football matches I have seen in a long time. The B team played their first matches of the season and won 2 - 1 and 1 - 0. Thank you also to the great support from parents. Next week is training as normal. Our next match is on Monday 20^th May against Park View.

Maths Groups in Year 6

Thank you to all my maths groups in year 6 for their hard work, particularly in completing extra homework tasks on Mathletics. I am still setting weekly homework but, if they finish early, I am adding more tasks! These extra tasks do not have to be finished by the following Wednesday but I am helping them to target what they need and build their points score. In the quest for prizes, Chandvi is still sitting in first place, Ameer is now second, Elif is third, Berin is fourth and Dmytro is fifth. Miss Warwick.

PTA Updates

We're delighted to confirm that the school disco will take place just before the half-term holidays and that tickets are now on-sale via the following link: https://fairfieldspta.uk/. Tickets are priced at £3 per child which includes a drink, snack and a small sweet to go home with, the event timings split between KS1 & KS2; full details can be seen by visiting the website. Hopefully you join our excitement at being able to host this at school - we look forward to seeing as many children there as possible for what promises to be a fun event. In addition, there will be a downtime room for those who need a break from the dancing and flashing lights. Finally thank you to all the parents that have volunteered to help - events like this cannot go ahead without the support of you so it is really appreciated. If you want to help but haven't signed up then please drop us an email at fairfieldspta@gmail.com.

Staffing Update

We are sad to let you know that Mr Mardell is leaving us at the end of the half term. Mr Mardell has been our amazing site manager for the last few years at Fairfields. He is moving house and has got a new job which is much closer to home for him.

We are also sad to say goodbye at the end of the half term to Miss Bifield who has worked for the school for the last 19 years, currently in Foundation Stage. Miss Bifield is moving on to work as EYFS Leader at a local nursery, and they are very lucky to have her expertise.

I know you will join me in wishing them all the best for the future. We will miss them both at Fairfields! I will keep you updated on how we are going to cover their roles in the upcoming weeks.

Updates from year groups

FS

FS have enjoyed learning about different types of vehicles and how they have changed over time.  We are also looking for a couple of large electrical cable reels for the area.  If you have one or know where we could get a couple, please let us know.  

Year 1

The children have been working hard in maths meetings this week and enjoyed showing their parents on Monday what they have been up to. They have also been busy in ICT learning how to use Word.

Year 2

Well done children on another fantastic week in school. You have worked hard on your standard task writing this week, we are very proud of you. Enjoy your additional weekend day! 

Year 3

Year 3 have been working hard this week on Olympic themed shape poems, and they are amazing! They really enjoyed welcoming parents into their maths meetings and impressing you with their knowledge. Kathmandu look forward to welcoming parents to read with them in the library on Thursday 9^th May and hope you can attend. Great work year 3! 

Year 4

The children have had a great week writing newspapers about John Hartman's disappearance from the book- Cogheart. They also enjoyed making electric circuits in science. On Wednesday 8^th at 5:00pm, we are going to be holding a zoom meeting to talk about the year 4 multiplication test check that is coming up in June. The zoom codes will follow in an email. 

Year 5

This week, we have been learning about the environmental impact the Industrial Revolution had on the UK - the children especially enjoyed learning about The Great Stink! It is our trip to Hampton Court Palace next Thursday and we cannot wait! Please may we ask that you send your child to school in school uniform and with a water bottle and packed lunch. If you've ordered school packed lunch, your child will still need to bring a water bottle on the day. Parent helpers for the trip, please don't forget your own packed lunch and drink for the day either. 

Year 6

Year 6 have been revising very hard in class and we can see they are also doing lots at home - thank you for your support in getting them ready for the SATs in two weeks. We are now starting to make arrangements for the end of year celebrations and we are also organising a trip to the Vue cinema on the morning of the Thursday 23^rd May. More information to follow, but we will need parent volunteers. Please let your child's teacher if you are available on this date. 

Sunflower Café

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 details of free events in the half term at Milestone and Beaulieu for families.

Dates:

Monday 6^th May: Bank Holiday (school closed)

Wednesday 8^th May: Year 4 Zoom meeting for the Multiplication Check (5.00pm)

Thursday 9th May: Kathmandu class parents and carers school library visit (2.30pm- 3.00pm)

Thursday 9^th May: Year 5 trip to Hampton Court Palace

Friday 10^th May: Whole class school photos

Monday 13^th May: Year 6 SATs week

Monday 20^th May: Walk to School Week

Friday 24^th May: Last day of the summer 1 half term

Monday 3^rd June: School closed for INSET day (staff training)

For other key days, please look at the calendar on the website or the School Jotter.

PE Days are as follows (please notes some changes for the summer term):

FS: Monday

Year 1: Wednesday (outdoor PE)

Year 2: Wednesday (outdoor PE)

Year 3: Thursday (indoor PE)

Year 4: Monday (outdoor PE)

Year 5: Monday (outdoor) Wednesday (indoor PE)

Year 6: Monday (indoor) and Wednesday (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

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.  

Mrs Vicky Hopkins