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.

• Fielding attend Year 3&4 Gymnastics Festival

  Tue 22 Mar 2022 Dan Thomas

  On Friday, Fielding took a team of 10 Year 3 and 4 gymnasts to Featherstone High School for this years gymnastics festival. The girls had to demonstrate their gymnastics abilities in balance, rolling, jumping, skills and flexibility activities and were scored for each of them. At the end of the festival our team scored a grand total of 213 points out of a maximum 250 points. This was an excellent score, although we are not sure how it stacked up against the scores of other schools as these were not announced. A huge well done to each of our gymnasts though for representing the school so well!

  

• Summer term specialist clubs 2022, booking opens next week

  Thu 17 Mar 2022 Karen Esprit

  Booking will open for summer 2022 clubs on the following dates and times.

  • Reception, – Monday 21st March 8pm.
  • YR1, YR2 – Tuesday 22nd March 8pm
  • YR3, YR4, YR5, YR6 Wednesday 23rd March 8pm
  • Summer term we introduce 7 new clubs to the programme and opens existing clubs up to wider year groups:

  • Spaghetti Maths
  • Building Blocks
  • Animation
  • Musical Theatre
  • Cricket
  • Athletics
  • Comic writing club

  The programme for summer term can be found here. 

  Key information:

  • Log into MCAS, pay all outstanding balances for the current term before the launch date. Voucher payments received to date will be added by Friday 18th March 2022

  • Make sure your login is working before the launch. 
  • Prioritise bookings, top choice first. Only book what you need, no refunds or swaps.
  • Check out promptly, bookings stay in the basket for only 5 minutes before being released. 
  • If a chosen club is full please add your child’s name to the waiting list to enable us to inform planning
  • When paying by vouchers pay whole amount, MCAS will not accept part payment. 

  • Once Specialist clubs are booked, check childcare needs for wrap-around care in Breakfast or After-school club. Childcare does not roll over term to term.

• PTFA Join the Fielding virtual balloon race 2022

  Thu 17 Mar 2022

   Join the Fielding virtual balloon race 2022

   

  We're delighted to share that Fielding is once again participating in a virtual balloon race over the Easter break. It's just like a real balloon race, but all done virtually so it's completely environmentally friendly and can be enjoyed from the comfort of your holiday spot.
  
  Log on now to buy your balloons, or gift one to someone else using the link below, and have fun decorating it and customising it with the amount of air and shape you think will take it the furthest. The race starts from Alice Springs, Australia on Easter Sunday 17 April at mid-day UK time and you'll be able to track it over 7 days until the race concludes on 24 April. Balloons cost £4 each and all profits go to the PTFA.

   

  https://ecoracing.co/user/page?id=2140

  
  The lucky top three winners from Fielding will receive:

  1st prize Apple Ipad
  2nd prize Apple Air pods
  3rd prize Lego set

   

  Please note that there will be many other balloons in the race and we’ll be competing against other charities and organisations from across the UK.  The top three national winners will also win prizes, including £500 cash and a 4th generation Amazon Alexa Echo Dot!

  The race simulates real weather conditions at that actual time and place, such as the prevailing wind speed and current temperature, so virtual balloons can pop just like latex ones if the balloon parameters are not suitable. This makes the race extra exciting and is a great way to teach the children about the weather and geography whilst raising vital funds for our school. Best of luck and happy floating!

   

   

• PTFA Get ready for the return of Fielding Quiz night

  Thu 17 Mar 2022 PTFA

  The PTFA are excited to announce that the hugely popular Fielding Quiz night is returning on 22 April. Ticket presales launch on Monday, 28 March at 8pm, so start pulling together your team of max 6 adults and mark your calendars to book your tickets as they sell out fast.

  This hugely entertaining evening sees 20 Fielding parent teams battling it out to be crowned quiz winners on the night and take home a prize. Tickets cost £15 per person, which includes a tasty chilli meal with both meat and vegetarian options available. You can bring your own drinks and all proceeds go to the PTFA. Get your babysitters booked!

   

  

• PTFA Bike vouchers available

  Thu 17 Mar 2022 PTFA

  Hopefully by now you’ve seen that the PTFA has launched a crowdfunding project to raise money towards a Second Hand Uniform & Bicycle Repair service that will be housed in a new shed on the school premises. But did you know that you can claim a voucher towards the purchase of a bike with every donation over £20? We’ve partnered up with J'aimeBike in Brentford to provide:

  -        £20 voucher off any Frog Bike in their shop for donations of £20 or more

  -        £50 off any eBike /Electric Bike in their shop for donations of £50 or more, or a £100 voucher for donations of £100 or more

  For further information on the campaign, please check out the crowdfunding page: https://bit.ly/3HUs1St 

  And if you or someone you knows works for Aviva, check out this article for more info on how you can support this campaign.

• Specialist clubs, changes based on parent survey feedback

  Thu 17 Mar 2022 Peter Dunmall

  In our annual survey, parents told us that we need to organise specialist clubs better. Our systems struggle with demand and getting a place for children in popular clubs can feel unfair or frustrating. We are going to try and improve things for parents:

  1. Further increase speed and capacity on launch days.
  2. Split launch nights into 3 age groups.
  3. Carry forward waiting lists from one term to the next.

   

  This term,  booking will be by 3 age ranges:

  • Reception, – Monday 21st March 8pm.
  • YR1, YR2 – Tuesday 22nd March 8pm
  • YR3, YR4, YR5, YR6 Wednesday 23rd March 8pm

  We cannot split the age ranges any further because our outside providers pitch and offer their clubs by these age groups. Behind the scenes, Bromcom, provider of MyChildatSchool (MCAS), will increase server bandwidth to match. Together, we hope these changes will speed up booking and improve reliability. 

   

  During the next school year, pupils on the waiting list from one round of specialist club bookings will be given priority for the following term. We hope this gives at least 2 benefits:

  • pupils who miss out in one term are more likely to get a place if the club repeats in the following term. We will offer parents the carry forward place and ask you to accept within a week.
  • we can better review demand, through waiting list spaces, and then where possible change our club offer to better match demand.

   

  We hope parents and children can help us too. Having a top 1, 2 or 3 clubs and settling for 2nd or 3rd choice from time to time will help us continue to offer a wide and varied menu of clubs each term. To keep our carefully chosen providers and keep fees as low as we can, we need to fill spaces across our whole menu of clubs.  If we only focus on the most popular clubs, we risk losing some of our providers, reducing opportunities and choice for all pupils.

   

  We will continue to

  • prioritise places for our disadvantaged pupils who receive the Pupil Premium grant and/or those pupils with special educational needs;
  • offer common prices for all clubs that are in-line with after-school childcare so that everyone has the lowest possible fee and no family has to make a choice of one club over another due to cost;
  • offer as much choice as we can through a varied menu of clubs that change during the year, using all available spaces. We are sometimes limited by suitable outdoor and indoor spaces for any extra clubs.

• Easter Holiday Club - Nursery

  Wed 16 Mar 2022

  We are very eggsited that Easter is just a hop around the corner, we are planning to have an eggcellent time together in nursery. We will be visiting our chickens to give them some eggsiting food and to see if they have laid any eggs for our Easter baking, we may even get to pet them for a while, we will enjoy the field with our egg and spoon races and will have fun on our Easter scavenger hunt. We have lots of Easter art and craft planned and will be planting some seeds to share with our families.

   

  To book your child’s place, please log into your Ziggi Systems nursery account https://fps.slsr.uk/  please remember to be careful when booking your holiday sessions, as once bookings are made and confirmed we are unable to refund or swap sessions.

  Bring a healthy packed lunch and snack for tea. You are welcome to provide food in a thermos if you would like your child to have a hot meal. Please support us by labelling the boxes and bags. Fruit will be freely available during the day. Please remember Fielding is a 'nut free' school and you should check ingredients in snack bars, breads, snack packs etc. as these can contain 'nut traces' or may have been prepared in an environment where other products containing nuts have been prepared. Any food containing any traces of nuts will be sent home. Thank you for taking time to check.

   

  To avoid late booking fees please ensure you book your spaces early, bookings made after 12pm on Fridays for the following week’s Holiday Club will be subject to an increased fees to cover the administration required to put in place adequate extra staffing at short notice.

  Session                            Hours             Cost

  Morning  Adhoc                 8am- 1pm       £33.00

  Afternoon Adhoc               1pm-6pm        £33.00

• Childcare and specialist clubs fee increase

  Wed 16 Mar 2022 Peter Dunmall

  2% increase in fees for childcare and specialist clubs from the start of the summer term. A session of childcare rises by 10p.

   

  Fees increase from Wednesday 20 April. New fees are:

  • Breakfast club, £6.35
  • After-school club (single session), £6.35
  • Ad-hoc after school club, £17.35
  • Specialist clubs, £6.35
  • Holiday club (day), £39.75
  • Ad-hoc holiday club, £45.90

   

  The Governing Board considered increase in staff and other running costs for our new financial year from April. They compared the increase in our costs to the government's measure of inflation (CPIH) at 4.9%.  We were mindful of the rising cost of living and financial pressure on working families, keeping fee increases as low as possible.

• Staff update

  Wed 16 Mar 2022 Peter Dunmall

  Changes to teachers over the next few weeks and months are:

  • Class 6F. Miss Stabler is due to start her maternity leave at the end of term. We welcome Sheila O'Neil to teach the class from Monday 28 March. Ms O'Neil is an experienced teacher.
  • Music. Miss Neil-Smith is due to start her maternity leave within the first few weeks of the summer term. We welcome Andrew Osborn to teach music across the school from the start of the summer term. Mr Osborn is an experienced, secondary school music teacher. During our selection process, he commented that our year 4 pupils were learning the same content as year 7 pupils! A reflection of our expectations and an ambitious music curriculum.
  • Class 1F. Miss Travis leaves mid-year. Teachers are able to resign at 3 points in the school year to leave at the end of each school term. Ms Zivile Makeviciene (also known as Ms M to pupils), an agency teacher, joins us until the end of the school year.
  • Nursery. Miss May moved on to work in an independent Nursery at half-term. Sam O'Neil became Nursery teacher. Mrs O'Neil worked in our Reception classes as an Early Years Practitioner. We were delighted to promote her.
  • Nursery. Mrs Kumar starts her maternity leave early in the summer term. Kashmiro Ram becomes Nursery teaching assistant.
  • Reception. Hiba Idris becomes permanent Early Years Practitioner to replace Mrs O'Neil. Miss Idris had been working on a temporary basis to cover Sonal Manani's maternity leave. We welcome Mrs Manani back to work for the start of the summer term.
  • Reception. Seshni Govender joins as a teaching assistant to support a pupil with special educational needs.
  • PE. Mr Thomas switches from specialist PE teaching to class teaching from September. Mr Thomas is keen to further develop his career. We are recruiting for a new PE specialist teacher to start in September.
  • ARP. Our new Additionally Resourced Provision for pupils with autism who have an education, health and care plan is due to open to pupils in January 2023. We are recruiting for an ARP teacher leader to start in September.
  • Special needs. Claire Chadwick, SENDCo, is promoted to Assistant Head teacher SENDCo, reflecting the growth in her responsibility with the ARP. Congratulations to Claire on her promotion.

• Is your child eligible for further funding?

  Tue 15 Mar 2022 Office

  
  Pupil Premium Grant, Free School Meals
   

  All pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 automatically receive a free school meal. However, if you receive any of the following benefits, your child may be entitled to the Pupil Premium Grant (including Fielding passport) and free school meals in Years 3 to Year 6:
   

  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
  • Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
  • Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
  • Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
  • Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

  or

  • if your child is adopted from care
     

  The passport gives you and your child access to additional funding and support in school.
   

  If you think you are eligible for this please contact Marsha Coppin-Payne in the school office who can complete the application for you. You will need your National Insurance number.
   

  • Find out more about our Pupil Premium Grant and Fielding Passport here.