Keep up to date with all the news happening in the school at the moment. Articles are added during the week. Parents are encouraged to check regularly. Our weekly bulletin, emailed directly to parents, summarises content for the week.

• This week's Reading Celebrations and January Whole Class Reading Texts

  Fri 16 Dec 2022 Philippa Whaley

  ‘I think it’s the books that you read when you’re young that live with you forever.’ This is a well-known quote from JK Rowling. She is also known to have said, ‘The most important thing you can do is read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing, and it will enlarge your vocabulary.’ Year 5 are currently enjoying listening to their teachers read her first book aloud in Story time, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.’ They listen with awe and wonder, make predictions, summarise what has already happened and learn and apply new vocabulary in their speech and writing.

   

  Each week during Autumn term, it has been an absolute pleasure to meet all the pupils at Fielding who have received Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Reading certificates. These are awarded for reading books from the recommended reading lists and completing reading response activities in their pink book. The options for these activities can be found in your child's reading record or on their year group noticeboard on the website. Once they are completed, teachers read through them and reward their pupils with certificates during the year group weekly reward assemblies. We look forward to celebrating further reading achievements in the New Year!

   

  Whole Class Reading Texts for Spring term- Years 3-6

  Whole Class Reading at Fielding continues to go from strength to strength, ensuring no child is left behind. Once children have completed the Read Write Inc Phonics Scheme and their fluency has developed (usually from Year 2, Summer term) they begin Whole Class Reading. We ask that parents/carers provide a copy of the text below for their child to bring to school in January, which may of course be second-hand. If your child has a Pupil Premium passport, a copy of the text will be provided for them. Details of these books can also be found on your child's year group page.

   

  Year 3- DK Find out Ancient Egypt

  Year 4- DK Eyewitness Ancient Greece

  Year 5- The Incredible Ecosystems of Planet Earth, by Rachel Ignotofsky.

  Year 6- will continue with the Whole Class text which they are currently reading until February half-term.

   

   

   

   

   

   

  

• PTFA Next PTFA Meeting - Monday 9 January 2023

  Thu 15 Dec 2022 PTFA

  Do you want to know what the PTFA plans are for the next six months?  Do you have any ideas of activities that we can run?  Can you provide any feedback on the recent Christmas fundraising activities?  

  
  We'd love to hear from you by attending one of the PTFA's first termly meetings of 2023 which are taking place on Monday 9 January.  The two meetings will be held at 10am (with Mr Dunmall attending) and 8.30pm via online Zoom. Register for the morning meeting here (https://bit.ly/3BdX4c0) or the evening meeting here (https://bit.ly/3RBNWmP)
  
  Feel free to drop any questions or feedback to Nolan on fieldingPTFA@gmail.com

• PTFA Christmas Fair raises over £13,000

  Thu 15 Dec 2022 PTFA

  Thank you to everyone who got involved in the Fielding Christmas Fair earlier this month. It is always a mammoth effort for the PTFA, but the reward of seeing smiles on everyone's faces at the event is certainly worth it.

   

  The Treasurers teams are still processing expenses, but it looks like we will have raised over £13,000 - which is an astonishing amount given the squeeze on everyone's budgets.  Big winners were the Christmas Raffle (raising over £3,000) and Silent Auction (raising over £2,000).  A full breakdown will be available at the next PTFA on Monday 9 January.

   

  We'd like to thank RSK for sponsoring the event and raffle, alongside WMN Electricians who sponsored the Grotto.  Thank you to all businesses and parents who donated prizes to the raffle and silent auction.

   

  We'd also like to say a massive thank you to the PTFA reps team and to all the parents who helped run our Christmas events this year. Without your support, none of this would have been possible and it's so amazing to see what we've achieved together. We feel humbled to be part of this community. 

  
  For now, have a wonderful and relaxing break and we look forward to working together with you again on our 2022 events!

   

   

• Family Support Services in Ealing

  Wed 14 Dec 2022 Clare Haines

  Click here for Ealing's ➡ Guide to Family Support Services.

   

  In this document Ealing's Family Information Service (FIS) highlight key services, groups and organisations that may be useful for families living in Ealing. In it you will find a contents list for easy reference and each entry has a brief description of the service offered, information on how to access the service and contact details.

   

  Contents list

  Advice & Guidance

  Early Years & Children's Centres

  Schools

  Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)

  Support for Parents

  Support for Carers

  Services for Young People

  Health, Wellbeing & Social Care

  Leisure

  Housing, Jobs & Money

  Adult Education & Training

  Domestic Violence Support

  Relationship Support

   

  Also take a look at out article on cost of living support and advice here.

• Years 3-6, are you in the rockin' spirit for the next TTRS battle?

  Tue 13 Dec 2022 Reena Patel

  As we very quickly approach Christmas, it's not just the festive spirit our pupils are getting into...it's that time again to be in the rock star spirit for the next TTRS battle.
   

  Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) continues to be the greatest phenomenon of learning times tables at Fielding as it is fun and challenging for all of our pupils. Through its carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice, it ensures no child is left behind in practice and for those that are confident, over-practice is ensured to increase higher levels of automaticity.
  
  Pupils are excited, enthusiastic, motivated and highly competitive to battle one another, play different modes and earn 'coins' to tweak their personalised rock star avatars. This in addition to the rigorous teaching of times tables in-class has already shown a progression in pupils' recall and fluency of multiplication/division facts.

  What is a Battle of the Bands? 

  A Battle of the Bands is a fun way to get groups of pupils competing against each other and a great way to sustain pupils' enthusiasm in practicing times tables on TTRS. This battle will be between all classes in Years 3, 4 and all classes in Years 5 and 6. 

   

  When will it begin/end?

  The Fielding Battle of the Bands will being on Friday 16th December from 4pm and will end on Tuesday 3rd January at 8pm. Two battles will take place during these dates and times:

  • Lower KS2 (Years 3 & 4) 
  • Upper KS2 (Years 5 & 6)

   

  How to play:

  Pupils can login via their personalised username and passwords. If they are unsure of this, they can check with their class teacher. 

  Click here to access the site.

   

  How to earn points: 

  Every correct answer in any game type is worth 1 point towards the class team. Pupils can play in Garage, Rock Slam, Soundcheck, etc and earn 1 point per correct answer. 

   

  Pupils should not confuse Battle points with coins! Coins are separate. They will still earn 10 coins per correct answer in the Garage, 5 per correct Soundcheck and 1 coin per correct answer everywhere else. 

  Prizes

  The winning class will be announced on Wednesday 3rd January and will win: 

  • The TTRS Trophy to keep until the end of term
  • An inflatable guitar to keep until the of term 
  • TTRS Certificate
     

  From the winning class, the pupil who scores the most points for their class team will win: 

  • TTRS Keyring
  • TTRS Pencil 
  • TTRS Certificate 

   

  TTRS promotes the "little and often" technique which is why pupils only need to play between 3-10 minutes a day as part of their daily practice and whilst doing this over the half-term they will be earning those points for their class band! To promote this further, a daily minutes restriction has been set to '30 minutes' to stop children from excessive screen-time during the half-term.

   

  We look forward to see how this Battle of the Bands 'rocks' out and as the Maths Lead, I look forward to announcing the next winners.

   

  Currently the trophy is held by our previous winners:

  • 3H - LKS2 Winners
  • 6F - UKS2 Winners 
     

  The question is... who will be our next winners...?

• Chicken area makeover

  Tue 13 Dec 2022 Elise Laird

  Following a very wet and muddy autumn the chicken area of the Kitchen Garden has had some improvements this week. New chicken friendly (and shoe friendly) eco rubber chippings have been laid. This will (1) prevent the chickens wading around in so much mud, (2) allow children who forget outdoor shoes on the day of their gardening class to still visit our feathered friends, and (3) be much more shoe-friendly for all the kind volunteers that care for the chickens at the weekends and holidays. 

   

  The ground was too hard this week to lay the rubber chippings fully but before and after photos show the improvement already.   

   

  Thank you to the PTFA for their continued financial support of the garden, which made these improvements possible. Thank you also to Axel and Marc from 5S who very kindly gave up their break to help lay the flooring.   

  

• Staff update

  Mon 12 Dec 2022 Peter Dunmall

  As we approach the end of this school term, there are several staff changes:

  • Agnes Krawiec, Higher Level Teaching Assistant, leaves due to relocation and family needs. Agnes has worked at the school for 17 years. During this time she has supported and helped many of our most disadvantaged pupils and their families.
  • Andrew Osborn, temporary Music teacher, leaves because his contract to cover Miss Neil-Smith's maternity leave ends. Mr Osborne transferred from the secondary sector to work with us. We wish him well as he moves on to work in another primary school.
  • Maria Neil-Smith, Music teacher, returns to work.
  • Anton Lieggi, Caretaker, joins us from another Ealing school early in the new year. Anton fills the vacancy left by Piot Pykalo who has become a teaching assistant.

• Governing Board changes

  Mon 12 Dec 2022 Peter Dunmall

  Carl Pheasy & Alisa Voznaya were elected as Co-chairs of the Board at a full governing board meeting on Monday. Carl & Alisa are parent governors.

   

  The Governing Board also made the following appointments:

  • Cllr. Paul Driscoll, recommended by the Local Authority, Local Authority governor following Cllr. David Millican's resignation;
  • Frank Hardy, co-opted governor;
  • Reena Patel, co-opted governor drawn from the staff pool.

   

  Steve Crelly, co-opted governor was nominated and agreed to stand for a further term of office.

   

  Vacancies for Vice-chair and a co-opted governor remain.

   

  More details about governors:

  • Fielding, Our School, Governing Board

• and the winner is...Pegasus

  Fri 09 Dec 2022 Clare Haines

  ⭐Congratulations to Pegasus, winners with 972 points.⭐

  Chosen treat for Wednesday afternoon:  - Christmas movie in main hall with arts and crafts and/or sports on the artificial pitch or sports hall.

   

  Pegasus	972
  Hercules	949
  Orion	942
  Cygnus	893

• Winter weather risk

  Fri 09 Dec 2022 Peter Dunmall

  Snow and ice is forecast for early next week. Travel disruption may affect staff and pupils.

   

  It is highly unlikely that the school, Nursery and/or childcare will close:

  • staff are asked to make their best effort to get to work, including allowing longer for travel;
  • pupils and parents are encouraged to allow a little longer to travel to school, including taking care while on the school site of any untreated surfaces.

   

  If we are forced to close or partially close, perhaps as a result of burst pipes, no heating and/or too few staff, we will take the decision by 8am, posting information on Twitter and Latest News.