FAIRLOP PRIMARY SCHOOL

Our new school sign

2012-02-03T09:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2012-01-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Remembrance Day 2011

2011-11-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

We learned about Remembrance Day today, as Class 4T gave their assembly. It helped us understand why we wear a red poppy and also why we hold a 2 minute silence at 11 minutes past 11.00 am, on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.

Remembrance Day is on 11 November. It is a special day set aside to remember all those men and women who were killed during the two World Wars and other conflicts. It used to be called Armistice Day, but was renamed in WWII.

Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is usually the Sunday nearest to 11 November. Special services are held at war memorials and churches all over Britain.

AUTUMN TERM - OCTOBER 2011

2011-10-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Students have settled into their new year groups, and amazingly next week it is half-term and Parents Evening already! Lots of exciting activities are already taking place - Year 4 swimming, Yr 5 & 6 Bikeability sessions, Year 2 trips to the London Aquarium, Redbridge Sports Centre day and of course, Glasbury.

A fantastic start to the term too, for the Cross Country team who have completed 2 out of 4 challenging races, our Fairlop football team - winning 6 out of 7 games at the Chigwell Football festival and our Chess Club (managed by Richard Harding, our Chair of Governors) who have been recognised by the English Chess Federation as a chess centre of excellence. Well done to all!

Our EID celebration last month was a great success, raising over £350 for the school. If you would like to organise a new event, please contact the Friends of Fairlop team as they are always searching for new ideas.

End of another busy 'Fairlop Year'

2011-07-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Another year has come to an end here at Fairlop! We have all worked extremely hard at achieving our goals, but there has also been a lot of fun along the way.
With a great deal of help from our friends of Fairlop, school councillors and parents we have had many successful events this year. We would like to say a 'big thank you' to everyone involved.
Also we wish our year six children the very best of luck as they go off to their new scondary schools. We hope you have an enjoyable and successful future ahead of you.

Let's go fly a kite!

2011-07-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

On Friday 1st July we had a kite flying day for the 2012 Olympics.
In July 2012 the Olympic and Paralympic flags will fly high, and so will all the flags of nations joining in the games.
Our school was invited to join in too: in just 20 minutes and 12 seconds…let’s go fly a kite.
We all had just 20 minutes and 12 seconds to make and then fly our very own kites. This was a great event and everybody joined in. We had to make our kites from just paper and string and then we all went out onto the playing fields and flew our kites to music!
Please take a look at us flying our kites below:

Fairlop's got Talent!

2011-06-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

On Thursday 16th June Fairlop held their very own 'Fairlop's got Talent' show!

Here at Fairlop we have some very talented children ranging from singers, dancers, musicians even hoola hoopers and basket ball players.

We had a panel of Judges to comment on the childrens act, Ms. Brannan, Ms. Taylor, Mrs Ireland and our very own Simon Cowell (Mr. Bettridge). This was a fantastic evening enjoyed by staff, parents and the pupils. Make sure you don't miss out on next years you have plenty of time to practise your acts!

Our Blogs!

2011-05-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

Did you know that people from all over the world are looking at our Fairlop School Blog?

From 11th July 2010 to 21st April 2011 we have had 4,806 people visit. The countries these visits are from are marked in red on the map:

The statistics below show just which countries our visitors are from - wow quite a few from the USA seem to be interested in what's happening at Fairlop!

Do you have family living abroad? Grandparents, Aunties or Friends! If so they can just log on to our website www.fairlop.redbridge.sch.uk and then go to the media tab at the top and then onto our blog page, and take a look at what you have been doing in school this term. How wonderful for them to be able to stay in touch with your daily routine!!

Also don't forget you can access lots of homework and activities by logging into your fronter account - and for the parents you can log into fronter using:
Username: FPSParents
Password: fairlop

HEALTHY TUCK SHOP TIME!

2011-03-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

Another new initiative from our School Council - our Tuck Shop opened on Thursday 3rd March. It is open every Tuesday and Thursday during our morning break time - 10.45 to 11.00 am.

We have been amazed at how many packets of 'Nakd Amazin' raisins we are selling in less than 15 minutes! We are already disappointing many students by selling out of our raisin stock so quickly, and are negotiating with the company to order more stock urgently.

Cherry flavour lead the field as the most popular choice, with lemon & lime and orange flavours close behind. From 15th March, we will offer pineapple flavoured raisins too.

If you can think of any other healthy snacks we can sell in school, let your School Councillor know and they can discuss at the next meeting.

Book Fair

2011-02-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again - The Travelling Book Fair is back at Fairlop!
The book fair will be in school from Friday 28th Jan until Thursday 3rd Feb in the Library to display their books and stationary, from 8.50 -9.15am and again after school from 3.30 - 4.00pm every day.

Your child will have brought home a leaflet of some of the wonderful titles that are available, with many more on display throughout the week, so make sure you pop in to take a look - don't forget your pocket money! You will also get the chance to browse in your library session too.

Our Librarian Mrs Ball says: "This years book fair is proving to be another great success, with books flying off the cases. We are looking forward to receiving lots of new books with all our commission."

TRAID - Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development

2011-01-21T05:13:00.000-08:00

TRAID is a charity working to make the nations unwanted clothes matter. They divert clothes from landfill at textile recycling banks, and after hand sorting, they resell the best in TRAID shops. The profits raised support projects in some of the world's poorest communities.

This month saw a clothing bank installed in school. As well as supporting this fantastic charity, Fairlop reap some benefits too:

A free traditional crafts session run by TRAID for our pupils
30 pence per kg (£300 per tonne) for all clothes/pairs of shoes collected through our clothing bank
Access to TRAID's educational resources, and they are presenting an assembly soon to help launch the scheme
Accreditation towards our 'Eco-Schools' status
Marketing materials to raise awareness of textile recycling in general
Regular updates informing Fairlop of how much we have diverted from landfill and the amount of CO2 we have helped save
Free editions of the TRAID newspaper

So if you are having a tidy up/clear out at home PLEASE DONATE ANY UNWANTED CLOTHES AND SHOES to this good cause.

Festive Greetings Advent Calendar

2010-12-03T04:33:00.000-08:00

Try out our festive greeting advent calendar! You can learn a different daily festive phrase thanks to the videos from Radio Lingua. Learn to wish people around the world a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year or Happy Holidays in 24 different languages.

This initiative is primarily aimed at school children across the country and each episode of our video podcast will provide some background information about the language concerned including the number of speakers and where the language is spoken.

The festive fun begins on 1st December with Norwegian. Each day visitors to the site can ‘open the door of the Advent Calendar’ and access a new video.

Our website also keeps you up to date with weather condition alerts, newsletters and latest events happening in and around school.

Never seen snow before .... ?

2010-11-30T06:02:00.000-08:00

Bad news - school's open (but closing at 2:00 pm)
Good news - a chance to play on our school field with the snow

Fun and laughter was had by all when pupils enjoyed some break and lunchtime fun in the snow. Masses of snowballs, snowpeople and other sculptures were being created before the snow disappears.

Some new students to Fairlop had never seen snow before, so it was a wonderful moment to capture on film of their new experience and an upside to our English weather conditions!

Keep checking our website for latest updates on weather conditions daily - it's the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years .....

Fairlop's own 'Paralympic' Team!

2010-10-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

In early October, Fairlop students with special educational needs visited Redbridge Sports Centre to participate in a very special day, as you can see from the photos below.

They had great fun with many sports - hockey, curling, skittles, athletics and boccia to name but a few. As well as enjoying a great day together, they were also able to spot London's Mayor Boris Johnson and have their photos taken with past Olympic Gold Medallist and the current London 2012 Olympics Committee chair, Lord Sebastian Coe!

Redbridge Sports Centre was the first venue to be signed up to provide state-of-the-art training facilities for 2012 competitors.

Thames Festival - Animation by Fairlop Primary

2010-09-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of last term, some of our ‘now’ Yr 6 students worked with Miss Gibbons to make some designs for the waterwheel project. Their artwork was entirely created by the children in response to the concept of the water-cycle.
James Ormiston, Fairlop Primary and a school in Muswell Hill have worked together to create the animation below – all part of the Thames Festival 2010. We think it’s excellent – click on the link to see for yourself!

Our Animation!

Farewell Year 6 and July activities ....

2010-07-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

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 ....

2010-04-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-28T06:52:00.000-08:00

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 ....

2010-01-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-28T08:21:00.001-07:00

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.

July at Fairlop - what a month!

2009-07-13T02:10:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

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!’

2009-03-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-11T02:12:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T03:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-17T02:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Fairlop gains the ICT Mark!

2008-11-04T04:28:00.000-08:00

Our Head, Gail Brannan, announces how delighted we are to be awarded the ICT Mark. She states how it recognises our positive approach to ICT and the benefits it brings to our children, and how we believe that ICT can be used in every aspect of learning to ensure our students are equipped for the modern world.

The award recognises the school's success in developing the strategic use of ICT in both administration and across the curriculum. Parents will have proof that their children are attending a school at the forefront of modern technology. The award was granted following an extensive external assessment by Becta, the British Education Communications & Technology Agency, which is the government funded body responsible for promoting the use of ICT in Britain's schools and colleges.

Artist Kat Hall visits Fairlop!

2008-10-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

Kat Hall came to Fairlop in early October and our Year 4 classes had a great time working with her, creating minibeast sculptures. The photos below show how they used a range of images and books for inspiration, after visiting our Environmental Area to look at real-life minibeasts. From producing skeletons, they used tissue paper and coloured cellophane to make the outer shells in vivid colours. The three Year 4 classes made a spider, a grasshopper and two ladybirds.

The sculptures now adorn the lower corridor where a fantastic art display is on show detailing this project. If you're visiting soon, make time to take a look!

Welcome back!

2008-09-19T08:04:00.001-07:00

Summer's over and time to look forward to some exciting events taking place in Fairlop during Autumn. The class blogs have been updated, so all our news will be recorded over the term.

Year Six made an early visit to Glasbury House and have written up their daily activities on the separate Glasbury blog. They have improved their photographic skills with some wonderful videos and photos, and recorded podcasts too. Listen by clicking on the Podcast tab on our website. Thank you to the parents who have kept in touch by commenting on the blog.

Over the term, we'll be using the Asus PCs that are on loan from Redbridge - and find out how Year Six enjoyed taking them to Glasbury.

Meanwhile, here's a panoramic view of Fairlop on one of the few summer days we've had this term!

Yellow Pages Challenge

2008-07-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

On Thursday 17th July, two of our children, Charlotte in Year 3 and Zain in Year 6, were chosen to represent us at Parkhill Infant School to see how we got on in the recycling of our Yellow
Pages.Fairlop collected nearly 700 Yellow Pages which put us third overall. We were presented our Yellow Woods Bronze Beech award by Jo Smallman (Redbridge Environmental Officer. Thank you for your effort in bringing the Yellow Pages to our school for recycling.

Year 5 Space Conference

2008-07-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

YEAR 5 PROJECT

Year 5 took part in something really exciting last week. Thanks to some high-spec cracking laptops and wireless technology, (and the webcam supplied by Gary Jelks' team at Redbridge) they had a fantastic afternoon using the live simulation link/video conference to the National Space Centre.

Working in small teams they had to take care of a fair bit of research from the NASA website, finding out what it is like to be OUT THERE IN SPACE!!

Check out www.spacecentre.co.uk for yourselves.

Picnic on the Field.

2008-07-08T02:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday 4th July we held our first ever 'Picnic on the Field'. We had a fantastic turn out of people - more than we had expected. The weather was really kind to use and families turned up with their picnic blankets and chairs to enjoy a relaxing, sociable afternoon. Children enjoyed being able to run around and play, whilst parents sat back and enjoyed the sunshine. There were plenty of food stalls including cakes and samosas, and game stalls, pin the tail on the donkey, splat the year 6 and of course face painting and henna hand painting.
Take a look at these photos to see what a good time everybody had!!

My School is Great!

2008-06-17T03:52:00.000-07:00

MY SCHOOL IS GREAT – competition winners from Fairlop

Fairlop lucky winners of the My School is Great competition are Louis B in Year 3 and Chloe O’S from Year 4. They both wrote fantastic descriptions of why they thought attending Fairlop Primary was great.

Louis said “I was spurred on by the fantastic prizes that were on offer, especially the Ipod Nano, which I won! It was really great to go the London Aquarium for our prizewinning event. We received a goodie bag and the presentation was fun in front of all the other schools taking part.”

Chloe said “The lunch was lovely, and I was really pleased to win. I take part in lots of competitions, and also thought the prizes were great! I was really shocked to see I was in the short listed entries and absolutely astounded to find I’d won!”

Both of their winning entries were shown in the Ilford Recorder. Click on the link to see them on the London 24 site. Take a look!

http://www.london24.com/l24/pages/myschoolisgreat.aspx

Year Two show some cool ICT!

2008-05-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

On Monday 19th May, A & N from Year Two represented Fairlop at the annual ICT conference. They really enjoyed showing and chatting about how they have learned to podcast using Podium, and made a special podcast about the seaside, which is linked to their Literacy lessons. A & N also demonstrated to various interested parties the delights of using 2Publish (fantastic clown photos - see the Yr Two blogs) and Kartouche Creative Writing.

Although the day was fairly hectic, the ICT teaching staff found time to enjoy the presentations by Ewan McIntosh & Karl Hopwood, before the workshops took place. Fantastic Redbridge ICT was on display, and the Fairlop pupils loved using both the Nintendo & Robosapien model!

April Fool - Truth or Fiction?

2008-04-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

How did April Fool's day begin? Well, thanks to Yahoo, their explanations are:

"The first of April, some do say,

Is set apart for All Fools' Day.

But why the people call it so, Nor I, nor they themselves do know.

But on this day are people sent On purpose for pure merriment."
--Poor Robin's Almanac (1790)

Many believe that up until the mid-sixteenth century, France celebrated the new year on April 1. But in 1562, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar to the Christian world, which changed the date of the new year to January 1. Of course, they didn't have email back then, so word traveled slowly and some people continued to celebrate on April 1. These poor, misinformed souls were referred to as "April Fools" and had tricks played on them.

According to another version, Charles IX introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1564, changing the date of the new year. The "April Fools" tradition was then passed on to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century and eventually made its way to the American colonies.

Take a look at some of these April Fool stories - do you think they are fact or fiction?

Is there a spaghetti tree?

Did Pluto move behind Jupiter in 1976 causing gravitational alignment that would lesson the Earth's gravity?

In 1998, did Burger King REALLy invent a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans.

Is it true that Google's search results are created by a vast batteries of trained pigeons?

Around School - what can you blog about?

2008-02-29T03:43:00.000-08:00

New to Blogs .....?

2008-02-24T04:42:00.000-08:00

A blog is short for weblog, which is a journal, diary or newsletter that is available for public viewing on the internet.

We hope the Fairlop blogs act as a diary or journal where our staff and pupils will write their observations on what's happening around our school. Using blogs provides our own personal writing space, helping both literacy and ICT skills and is a fun way of working. We hope it encourages children to take more interest in their schoolwork and helps their communication skills, as other children interact by entering comments against posts thereby working in a collaborative environment.