Half Term already?

After a busy Open Evening, half term is already upon us after eight weeks back at school.

We've packed plenty in this month, as Year 2 visited the London Aquarium, and had a wonderful day out.  

See more photos of their exciting time on their Fronter year group room!





Friends of Fairlop held their annual AGM - you can read their Annual Report on the Fronter Parents Room (username:  FPSParents and password:  fairlop).

Are you coming along to their Halloween Disco on Saturday 27th October?  A spooky night in store for all!




We celebrated Harvest Festival at St. Francis of Assisi church, and appreciated the many kind gestures of food and other donations that we took to the church.

Here's our Cake Sale on behalf on Great Ormond Street hospital - just look at the fantastic array of cakes and biscuits that our parents and friends donated:

 

We also celebrated Maths Week with the aim of raising the profile of Maths and making sure students know that Maths can be fun!  We had a special focus on using calculators in our work.

 

 

And a group of students were lucky enough to visit Oaks Park High School and listen to the writer Anthony Horowitz.  They had lots of time to chat to him about his life, his writing, and those fantastic books!

Welcome back to our new School Term!
Please continue to check out our Blogs and also the Parents room in Fronter which is where we try to keep you up to date with what's happening here at Fairlop! If your child is going to Glasbury next week Fronter Parents room is where all you photos will be.
Fronter Username: FPSParents    Password: fairlop
 
We have started the term, yet again,  with some really exciting activities.  On Monday 17th September KS1 had a visit from 'The Smart Brothers' who helped us with some really great fun tips on how to stay safe when crossing the road. They used unicyles and lots of juggling to explain to us that when crossing the road you must always "Stop, Look, Listen and Think" before crossing.
 

 





On Wednesday 19th September Mrs Ball (our librarian) took a group of 9 Year 5 Students to Oaks Park School. Anthony McGowan the author of the Bare Bum Gang book was there to do a Live Video Link with three other schools. It was a fantastic afternoon with lots of fun Questions and Answers!
All of our Children had many questions to ask Anthony as they have read his books at school and they found him to be a really funny and clever man!
At the end of the afternoon Anthony had books to sell to the children which he signed for them. He also very kindly signed and donated a few of his Bare Bum Gang and Donut Diaries books to our school library.
These books are available if you would like to read them. They are very interesting and funny!

                        

 

 

End of Term - Year 6 Leavers .... emotions running high!

A whirlwind of a term has passed us by, and we haven't had a chance to blog about it
:( 


Recent events include Shine Week, Fairlop's Got Talent, Year 6 leavers performance, Bike Display, various school trips, Inflatable Day, Redbridge book awards, Youth Games, Sports Days .....


More information can always be found on our Fronter Parents Room page and our school website, which is updated every day.

Good luck to our Year 6 leavers, and a special mention from the ICT staff to our ICT prefects - they have been a wonderful team and helped us immensely this year.  Thank you!


We wish all our students and their families a wonderful summer break, we hope the sun shines soon and look forward to seeing you in September. 

Fairlop students train with Olympic athlete

Two of our students had the fantastic opportunity to train with Jeanette Kwayke earlier this week.

Jeanette Kwayke is a sprinter and at the moment she is ranked the sixth fastest woman in the world. She is training to compete in the 2012 Olympics. She's always been an amazing runner but she hasn't always been that dedicated. As a teenager she was chosen to run for Great Britain, but went to Ayia Napa with her friends instead!


Along with students from other local schools, our two Year 5 competitors - Mohammed and Melody - made the best of this Masterclass event at the Lea Valley Athletics Centre.  The day covered many activities including sprinting, relay, javelin and long jump, with the chance of spending time with Jeanette after the training was over and receiving a goodie bag too!   See how they got on .....

Fairlop students attend Diamond Jubilee visit

Students from Redbridge schools made the most of the opportunity of visiting Valentines Mansion last Thursday, lining the route within Valentines Park to get a glimpse of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Twenty excited and enthusiastic students from Fairlop attended, waiting for the royal cars to come into view and most of them got some great photographs of the royal couple!  One Year 6 student, Wai-Hong, was one of the lucky few allowed into the invitation-only area at Valentines Mansion to greet the royal party.   Wai-Hong commented on what a privilege it had been and an experience that will stay with him forever!



Fairlop students meet Eoin Colfer & Simon Mayo

Over the last few weeks, some of our students have been lucky enough to visit Ilford County High School and meet two authors - Eoin Colfer and Simon Mayo.

Eoin Colfer has written many blockbusters, including the Artemis Fowl series.  He gave a really interesting talk and students from many Redbridge schools asked lots of questions about him and his work.

They also met Simon Mayo, who chatted about writing his new book Itch.  He is one of Britain's best-loved and well-known radio presenters, working on BBC radio since 1981.  ITCH is his first novel.  Listen to his podcast below:

Simon Mayo and his new book Itch!
 
(Acknowledgement:  The Guardian Newspaper podcast)

Cystic Fibrosis & Asthma fundraising day - March 2012

As we have students who are affected by both conditions in school, a wonderful fundraising day was held last week, raising over £800!

Firstly, a Tea & Coffee morning sold home-made cakes, biscuits and items from a Bric-a-Brac stall.  After school, another Sumptous Feast took place - savoury Indian food was on sale, with lots going to our staff for their take-away suppers!

Our thanks to all involved with Friends of Fairlop in arranging such a successful day.

Our new school sign

Kat Hall, a local artist has been helping our students to design and make a new sign using mosaics.  It will be located above the new entrance area to the school and reflect the arch shape.

Children from every year group assisted in creating the sign, which incorporates lots of red, green and mirror tiles.  They also have made additional interior arch shaped mosaics to be installed along the upper and lower corridors at Fairlop.

You may have seen our photo in this week's Ilford Recorder, showing how the sign incorporates the ethos of Fairlop along with links to this year's London 2012 Olympic Games.  It has taken over six days to make, but finally we have finished and hope it takes pride of place very soon.

Olympic Torch visits Fairlop!

Last week, our KS2 students had an unexpected treat!   Eric Stuart, a parent of two children who used to attend Fairlop, is responsible as a Met Police Officer for getting the original Olympic flame from Athens to London. 

He gave a wonderful talk to our students about many aspects of the Olympics - including the history of the torch.  Some interesting facts we learned were:

• The Olympic flame will go to within an hour's travel of 95 per cent of the population.
• Six islands will be visited: the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Shetland, Orkney and the Isle of Lewis.
• 8,000 Torchbearers will carry the flame and can keep their torches!
• The total distance the flame will travel (including to the islands) is estimated to be 8,000 miles.
• The relay will start at Land's End in Cornwall on May 19, 2012.
• It will take 70 days to complete.
• The Olympic flame will travel for 12 hours each day, and on most days ending in an evening celebration event.
• The arrival of the Olympic Flame at the opening ceremony in London on July 27 2012 will signify the start of the Games.

Near the end of the presentation, two teachers carried in Mr Stuart's Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic torch (he was a torch bearer there) and a gold 2012 torch for this year's games.  All of our classes had our photographs taken with the torches!


It was really exciting to learn more about this event that is taking place only a few miles away from our school, and to take a sneak preview of the torch.  Mrs Frost has placed all the photos on our Fronter pages, but here a few below:

Festive Fun at Fairlop

That's it, tomorrow we finish for our Christmas break. 

It has been a hectic term, with loads of activities in every Key Stage.  Many parents attended the Christmas Productions performed by Early Years and Year One. 

Parents had a wonderful morning making mince pies which were sold at last week's Christmas Concert.  We have also recorded two CD's - Christmas Cracker (24 tracks) each track sang by a different year group and the Year 5 Carol CD - both are on sale in our School Office and all funds contribute towards the Activity Trail equipment we would like to buy for our KS2 playground.

Our Film Night last week was a great success!  Year 3-6 enjoyed their popcorn & soft drinks watching an old classic - Home Alone. 

Some sad news too - we said goodbye to a favourite Midday Assistant -Mrs Fardell.  She supervises the 5-a-side teams at lunchtime, and lots of Year 6 students were upset yesterday at her special leaving assembly.  We wish her well with her plans for spending a little more time to herself after 18 years at Fairlop.

Thanks to you all for your ongoing support with all our fundraising over the year, and our very best wishes to all our students & parents for an enjoyable break.