It's all on display ... Open Evening October 2009

From looking at our blogs, we can see that our pupils have many relatives and friends living abroad who actively take an interest in what's happening at Fairlop Primary. Since July this year, we have over 1,400 followers in the UK, 25 in the USA & Canada, 7 in Australia, 15 across Europe and some as far as Kuwait and Panama!

There are some great displays around school in preparation for Open Evening, but if you can't visit our school as you are in some far flung destination, take a look at the slideshow below instead! If you are reading our blogs, please leave us some comments and share your thoughts with us, either on this main school or the class blogs.

Lunchtime fun ... and a competition to enter

ISS Caterhouse are working in partnership with the London Borough of Redbridge and Fairlop to provide fresh, healthy meals as our new school caterers. To find out more information or the menu options, pick up a leaflet in school or click on the Healthy Schools & Menus link on the home page of our website.

There's also a School Meals competition launch on 2nd October 2009 where KS2 pupils are taking part along with many other primary schools in the borough. During the morning, they will attend various workshops on healthy eating and discuss how to work with the School Council to increase the number of children enjoying school meals.

Watch the videos above to see some of the activities we do over lunchtimes! The younger children are enjoying all sorts of new equipment on the field, whilst the older students play football, netball and other outdoor games. The new dinner system is working well in the lunch hall and when the weather is good, packed lunches can be eaten at the picnic tables outside.

July at Fairlop - what a month!

As we slide into our final week here at Fairlop, and say goodbye to our Year Six students and wish them well in their new schools, here's a few reminders of a fantastic month. Events that we have been part of have included:

• Go Bonkers - Friends of Fairlop arranged a field full of huge inflatables for generally just going crazy on!


• Fairlop Museum - Gifted historians from Fairlop created their very own museum in the upper hall, where children researched objects and acted as guides throughout the two days. The museum was open after school and for parents and our students explained and demonstrated the many artefacts on display.


• O2 Arena - Fairlop participated in ‘The Long and Winding Road/Voices for a Better World’. This was a one-off concert at the 02 Arena on July 1st of 2009. The music consisted of exciting choral arrangements of Beatles songs with the support of a 20 piece live orchestra and very special celebrity guests.


• Redbridge Junior Citizens Project - this was organised and run by PC Tim Beaumont, Redbridge Police Schools Officers and School PCSOs at Hargreaves Scout Camp. They have been working in partnership with London Borough of Redbridge, Transport for London and other agencies to deliver safety scenarios to nearly 2,000 year 6 children. The project takes place just before Yr 6 move up to their secondary schools and is designed to try and prevent them becoming victims of crime and making them aware of the consequences of crime.


• Fairlop Factor - children from Yr 1-6 showcased their talents during an evening performance in front of 3 highly acclaimed judges! Their was a variety of acts from magic and dancing to classical instrumentalists, led by Miss Mavrou's dance company called 'Flame'. In spite of Mr Bettridge’s harsh comments all the acts were very well done!


• Shine Week - Shine Week was created in 2008 by the Department for Children Schools and Families to celebrate the talents of young people and thousands of children and young people from across England will be taking part in Shine Week (6-10 July). Fairlop held their own showcase in a series of Shine assemblies all week, and ex-students came back to show us their talents which included karate, musicians and dancers.


• Fairlop Film Festival - Redbridge ICT held a festival for all schools to submit a 3 minute film to this competition. Although we didn't win any borough prizes, all year groups made some fantastic films which were shown (alas without popcorn!) on our recent Open Day. Our Open Day also gave parents a chance to visit our D&T exhibition.


• Picnic on the Field - where the weather held beautifully for a wonderful evening together. Yr Six pupils had to submit business plans in order to run a stall, one of which was 'Water Bombs'! Samosas, Ice Creams, Fish and Chips -we had lots of variety of food and drinks as well as music, face painting and mendhi. It was an occasion to mark the official launch of Friends of Fairlop and congratulations go to our winner for the logo design - Francesca in Class 3B.


• Still to come this week - Nursery Teddy Bears Picnic, Year 6's fantastic performance of Fairlop Rocks - a special thank you to all the students who helped with such wonderful ICT presentations and videos for this, and finally the Year Six Ball on Thursday.
  
  

and the Fourth Plinth award winners are ..... FAIRLOP PRIMARY!

Recently, the Mayor of London invited all London primary schools to enter this new art competition. Children aged 7-12 could design a sculpture for the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. We had been working on quite a few sculptures over the last term, so Ms Rowbury decided to enter Fairlop into the competition.

We're delighted to say that 'Arachnid' by Class 4M has been awarded Borough Winner for Redbridge in the year 3 - 4 category, and 'Ellie 9000' by Ellie, Grace, Amen, Mariam, Chloe, Sean, Cherelle, Angelo and Scott has been awarded Borough Winner in the year 5 - 6 category! How good is that!

The photos below also show the prizewinners visiting City Hall on Friday 15th May for the awards ceremony.

Celebrating Easter

What a wonderful way to start our Easter holidays!

Students celebrated Easter together, firstly in our whole school assembly to learn about this important time of year, and sing songs and hymns. Take a look at our video below to hear us in full voice!

Later in the afternoon, the sun came out and we all had great fun on our Easter Egg hunt followed by the Easter Parade to show off our bonnets and hats!

‘Children are near, so don’t park here!’

School Councillors, Junior Road Safety Officers and children were so frustrated with the inconsiderate parking outside their school gates that they hosted their own demonstration complete with chanting, pom-poms and whistles! The ‘peaceful’ demonstration took place before school at 9:00am and at 3:20pm in hope that it would encourage drivers to park elsewhere. Children wore fluorescent jackets provided by Redbridge Road Safety Team so that they could be seen as well as heard and were supported by local residents, teachers, parents and Community Policemen. The School Council and Road Safety Officers even wrote to Boris Johnson expressing their views about inconsiderate drivers who put school children in danger everyday.

Parent Numeracy Courses - Spring Term

The Adult Institute of Education are holding a 10-week Family Numeracy course at Fairlop this term, for parents of Foundation Stage and Year 1 children. It's a really fun and social way of finding out more about how Maths is taught in school, update your skills and help make interesting and valuable resources to share with your child, and practice activities together. We also provide creche facilities within school.

Watch the video below to hear Letitia explain more about the course, meet Delores Matthews (the new Parent Support Advisor for Fairlop Primary, Mossford Green Primary and Ilford County High School) and see how the parents are enjoying resource-making activities!

Fairlop Book Week - Feb 2nd-6th 2009

It's that wonderful time of year again - not that we need a special week to get that feelgood factor that comes from opening up a book! The Travelling Bookfair will be in school from Friday 30th Jan until Thursday 5th Feb, using the Green Room to display their wares, from 8.45 - 9.15 and again from 3.30-4.00pm every day.

You will have received a leaflet by now of some of the wonderful titles available, with many more on display next week, so make sure you come in to take a look - armed with pocket money! You'll also get an extra chance to browse in your Library session too.

There's a competition too for KS1 children - win a bumper art pack by designing a Mother's Day card for Little Bear, by using paint, crayons, pens or collage! The entry form was with the Book Fair letter, but ask in the School Office if you need another copy.

Don't forget too, that on Friday 6th February, you can dress up as your favourite book character - who will you choose?

The Christmas Story

Fairlop enjoyed our Christmas Assembly today, bringing together all the children and staff in the school. The school orchestra were fantastic and played beautifully, and we sang many carols and Christmas songs, whilst the KS1 children gathered together as Mary, Joseph, Kings, Shepherds and Angel to remember Jesus' birthday story. Here's Year Six's presentation - which was wonderfully animated in powerpoint - but assembled hastily this evening in Movie Maker to share with you!

Our good wishes for a peaceful Christmas and New Year to our readers - wherever you are in the world. Enjoy!

Heritage Day

Heritage Day at Fairlop



On Friday 7th November Fairlop held their Heritage Day. This was a wonderful event which started with a visit from Peggy Oliver, 'Pearly Queen of Redbridge'. Peggy joined school councillors for lunch and after answered some of their questions.

At 1.45 we held a whole school parade in the school grounds, where parents came along to cheer the children on as they walked passed wearing colours of their chosen countries. We had two very talented drummers leading the parade.

Performances then began with some excellent dance troupes from around the world. We had a performance from High School Musical, our very own Asian dance group, Fairlop's Rockers and an Irish Dance from Year 6. There was also a solo artist performing a wonderful tap routine and a cornet player from Fairlop.

After all the fun and excitement, food from lots of different countries was served up in the hall, ranging from fish and chips, sausage and mash through to curries, samosas and fried chicken. It all looked and smelt wonderful! Some even braved the cold to run a 1940's cake stall outside!There were also side stalls which included face painting, hair braiding, henna hand painting and sari wrapping.

This was a wonderful day at Fairlop. We had a fantastic turn out of parents and would like to thank everybody involved. Take a look at some of our pictures of the days events.