Dear Parent/Carer

The children have really hit the ground running this September – we've had a great start to the term. Thank you for preparing your child so well. 

I hope many of you can attend the Meet The Teacher sessions next week (more details below) as it's a good opportunity to see where your child will spend their time, what we have planned and other details like what they need for PE!

Over the summer we have had lots of work done (thank you to Mrs Mahesh and the site team for co-ordinating all of it!). This has included new fencing around the garden and quiet areas, new fencing for our Nursery and Year 2 classes and the refurbishment of one of our classes to become a Nursery Class (and installation of play equipment).  

We still plan to refurbish our garden area; a lot of the raised beds are rotting and we're having a losing battle with brambles.  We will be looking at how we can do this over the next term or so.  Our Theatre area is a much bigger project; the seating area is crumbling, and it will take significant investment to either have it removed or bring it back to life. 

As you will see our first ever Nursery Class has opened! It's been wonderful to see so many happy (much smaller) faces enjoying their experience.  Our Reception classes have also started, and the children are settling in well. 

Nuala Husband

This week, children were able to engage with democracy at Firs Farm by voting for House Captains (KS2 only voted), school council and Unicef ambassadors.  All of these groups are really important at our school and contribute to the life of Firs Farm.

Well done to everyone that took part and stood for election.  Congratulations to those that were voted for. Please see the lists below (Year 6 will be voting for their Unicef and School Council reps next week)

For their first week back in school children spent time getting to know their teachers and their friends.  As part of this we ran an Art Week. Each year group studied an important artist and produced some work based on what they had studied. We had some amazing results. Here is just a flavour of what we did from 2 year groups

In Year 1:

Year 1 have been learning all about Pablo Picasso who wanted to experiment with his painting style. He began painting faces from all different directions and used colour as a way of expressing emotion. This style of painting is called cubism.  The children had great fun using collage, pencils and crayons to create faces in a cubist style. Here are some of 1SM's creations.

In Year 3:

For art week, Year 3 explored the abstract work of the artist Wassily Kandinsky. Based on his famous piece 'Concentric Circles', children chose either pastels, paint or coloured pencils to create their own masterpieces. Some children even added concentric hearts and squares!

As always, we remind families to be considerate when parking around the school. Blocking driveways or obstructing pavements is very dangerous. 

Please be aware that over the summer new regulations concerning parking and parking fines came into force across London. These are:

• Increased Fines: London parking fines have risen to £160 in central areas and £140 in outer boroughs to deter dangerous parking.
• Zero Pavement Parking: Parking even partially on the pavement or kerb is illegal and will result in an immediate penalty.
• Neighbour Reporting: Local residents can actively report blocked pavements to the council and police, which triggers targeted warden patrols and police fines.
• School Zigzags: Stopping or dropping off on the yellow or white zigzag lines outside the school is strictly prohibited.
• Junction Obstructions: Parking within 10 metres of a junction reduces visibility for children crossing and is heavily penalised.
• Double Yellow Lines: Drivers cannot stop on double yellow lines or active loading zones, even briefly with hazard lights on.
• Camera Enforcement: Local councils are actively using cameras and enforcement officers around school zones to issue automatic fines.