Farewell Year 6 and July activities ....

Year 6 - have a great summer break and we wish you well in your new school. Make sure you come and visit us occasionally!

Tai-Chi Week - Fairlop’s Chinese themed week started with a fantastic Tai Chi lesson delivered by two professional Tai Chi teachers who own their very successful Tai Chi school in London. All of Key Stage 2 learnt the fundamentals of Tai Chi and took part in a whole school Tai Chi display on Friday 5th July 2010 in the playground. Representatives from Key Stage 1 learnt a traditional Chinese lion dance and even got to wear the ancient Chinese costume as well as play traditional Chinese instruments!

Chinese Picnic - on Friday 2nd July, Fairlop hosted its very first Chinese themed picnic. Year 6 stall holders rose to the occasion by submitting very well thought out business plans which enabled them to receive a loan from Ms Brannan to run their businesses. Children and parents visited the 'Chubby Panda' food stall and feasted on traditional Chinese foods. The event really did bring the whole community together which was clearly evident as parents and friends set up their picnics on our school field.

Shine Week 2010 - parents kindly gave up their time to talk to our children about their chosen profession and career paths. What life is like as a Solicitor, an Engineer, a Police Officer, an Accountant or a Clinical Nutritionist were just some of the professions that children had an opportunity to ask questions about, and I am sure many were inspired by the speakers' presentations. Overall, the assembly was a huge success and left children with the idea that everyone has a unique gift or talent and that all dreams are possible.

Go Bonkers - our annual event which took place on Saturday 10th July 2010 and was another roaring success for Friends of Fairlop! Children jumped, bounced and tumbled on an array of brightly coloured inflatables while parents ate beautifully barbequed burgers and queued for ice-creams! A number of very dedicated parents and helpers worked tirelessly all day to ensure the event was enjoyed by all. Mrs Allen and Mrs Chipperfield organised the whole day which as I am sure you can imagine is not an easy task.

So, on behalf of Fairlop staff and pupils I would like to say a huge thank you to all parent helpers, staff and friends who once again gave the children a day to remember!

The Big Dance - Big Dance 2010 invited everyone to do 20 minutes of extra dance or physical activity each day in Big Dance week and to participate in a Guinness World Record attempt at 1pm on Friday 9 July by taking part in a 30 minute dance lesson on their school site. Over 650 schools signed up to take part including schools in The Lebanon, India and Sri Lanka as part of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms programme. Fairlop were proud to do their bit and our students took part in the World Record attempt!

As well as Sports Days, Recycling Robots and many other activities in school, it's been a really busy end to this term. Have a great summer break, we hope the sun continues to shine and children will start their new year groups on Monday 6th September.

Sports Week

For Sports Week, children were chosen to go to Ashton Playing Fields and competed against other schools in Redbridge. Fairlop students came third in Y3 and Y4 came second!

The sun was shining for our KS2 Sports Day and everyone enjoyed it. Overall, the results were 1st - Red Team, 2nd - Yellow Team, 3rd - Blue Team and 4th - Green Team.

NEW!!!!! WEBSITE AND FRONTER

NEXT WEEK OUR NEW FAIRLOP WEBSITE IS GOING LIVE!

The new address is www.fairlop.redbridge.sch.uk and we hope you enjoy browsing the revised layout, information and features it offers. If there is anything you would like included - please let us know.

You can access Fronter directly from our website - why not make it your home page!

FRONTER - Our students have been excitedly logging on to our Fronter MLE for the past few weeks, and participating in the online activities for their year groups. They have also had fun creating avatars (using http://www.myavatareditor.com/), uploading them and using their Visual Mail accounts to communicate with each other.

If your child doesn't have their Fronter logon & password details and you have signed and returned the student & parent User Agreement forms, please let Mrs Skinner/Mrs Frost (ICT Team) know.

Fairlop grows their own & food tasting days

This month, Fairlop and ISS Caterhouse (our school meal provider) have held two taster sessions for children and parents to try a selection of dishes that are new to our menu. Tasters sampled the food and gave each dish either a 'smiley' :) or a sad :( face! Parents welcomed the opportunity to try their school dinner experience.

Fresh produce grown by students in our Environmental Area was on sale too ......

Celebrating Easter in all sorts of ways ....

On Maundy Thursday, we had hoped to have an Easter Hunt throughout the morning for all the children in Nursery through to Year 6 - unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our side. Later, when it had brightened up a little, we were able to begin the Easter Parade, though parents had to shelter in our school hall for a bit! It was a noisy and enjoyable start to the Easter break.

Our film below shows some of our wonderful Easter Bonnet creations. This year too, we had the opportunity of watching and waiting for our chicks to hatch in the Nursery. By carefully planting our webcam, we can see them emerging from the eggs, becoming warm and fluffy before they were reunited in their new home for a few days. The pecking sound is one very inquisitive chick who took a shine to the webcam lens!

Fairlop fundraises for Haiti earthquake

The Ilford Recorder reported how children across Redbridge raised thousands of pounds after being spurred to help those whose lives have been torn apart by the Haiti earthquake. Hearing the heartbreaking stories of the victims of the January 12th disaster gave youngsters the desire to do their bit to help.

At Fairlop we asked our pupils to donate old toys which could be sold in a ‘bring and buy’ sale which was a fantastic success. The School Council and Friends of Fairlop sold pancakes with ice cream and syrup after school - an amazing 120 pancakes in total! Parents and friends made onion bhajis and other delectable goodies on site which were snapped up, as were the wonderful array of cakes donated by parents.

Children and staff came to school dressed in jeans if they contributed £1:00 to the appeal. In total, we raised a fantastic amount of £1,200 and our thanks to everyone who helped, donated and contributed in some way.

The day really highlighted how well the children of Fairlop and the community work together to help make a difference to those who are suffering. The generosity of everyone involved was truly phenomenal.

It's snow joke ....

Happy New Year to all our Fairlop blog readers around the world! Although we've just returned to school, the snow has fallen thick and fast around IG6 and children are leaving early today. Our school field looks like a winter wonderland and most classes got the opportunity earlier to have a run around and build a few cool snow sculptures. Keep looking at our website to find out if the school will be open over the 7th/8th January 2010. We'll post updates daily.

Having fun in the snow is below!

Anti-Bullying Week at Fairlop

Lots of activity centered around Anti-Bullying week here at Fairlop. We learned the really important message that bullying is not acceptable here in school or in our surrounding communities.

This year's campaign was 'Stay Safe in Cyberspace' with a focus on Cyberbullying. This is when new technology such as mobile phones, e-mails and social networking sites are used to deliberately upset another person. Mrs Skinner, our ICT Curriculum Support Teacher, gave a talk to parents about the importance of E-Safety and tips on how to keep our students safe online. If you would like more information about E-Safety, please let her know.

We had assemblies, class talks and acted out bullying scenarios and in ICT we made some fantastic Anti-Bullying and Cyberbullying posters which are on the display boards in the ICT room. We also entered a Cybermentors widget competition where we drew and named our widget, and thought of a suitable slogan. We will find out the winners next week - wish us luck!

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.