Newsletter
Friday 23rd November 2023
DIARY DATES
AUTUMN TERM
Wednesday 29th November
Choir Performance - Hook Library
Thursday 30th November
Choir Performance - Chessington Garden Centre
Friday 1st December
Non-Uniform / Mufti Day - Chocolates
Year 3 trip - Hook Library
Thursday 7th November
Christmas Fair - children only in school
Friday 8th December
Christmas Fair - children only in school
Christmas Whole School Carol Performance pm
Tuesday 12th December
Choir Performance - The Star and Garter
Wednesday 13th December
Rec and KS1 Christmas Performance 9.15 am
Christmas Singing to Nursery Parents - 11 am
Thursday 14th December
Choir Performance - Chessington Garden Centre
Friday 15th December
Year 1 Visit - Amy Woodgate Care Home
Monday 18th December
Christmas Pantomime
Wednesday 20th December
ABM Christmas Lunch
Christmas Jumper Day
Thursday 21st December
Last day of term (early finish)
Friday 22nd December to Friday 5th January
Christmas Holidays
Monday 8th January
INSET day
Tuesday 9th January
Children return
Tuesday 16th January
Year 6 Trip - Natural History Museum
Friday 9th February
Last day of half-term
Monday 12th to Friday 16th February
Half-Term
Monday 19th February
Children Return
REMINDERS
Choir in the Community
The KS2 choir will be at:
Hook Library on Wednesday, 29th November at 11 am
Chessington Garden Centre, 10am, Thursday, 30th November and 10 am, Thursday, 14th December.
Please do come along to see them perform.
Friday 1st December - Mufti/Non-uniform
It's non-uniform / Mufti Day on Friday. FOE will be collecting donations of chocolates for the Christmas Fair, which will be held in school for children only.
Please remember no nuts.
Friday 1st December - Year 3 Library Trip
Due to it being a mufti day on the day of the Year 3 trip, we ask that you please send your child to school in their full PE kit and a school jumper.
Parent/Carer Survey
We strive to continually improve the school and your views are essential to achieving this. We would be grateful if you could complete the survey if you haven't done so already: https://forms.gle/AZUQrPxzJnb25QND9
DON'T FORGET
Check the diary dates for our Christmas Celebrations.
ELLINGHAM SCHOOL NEWS
Book Fair - Thank You
To celebrate the Book Fair this week, children created posters about their favourite book and entered the Scholastic competition. The amazing winners won a £5 book voucher to spend at the Book Fair.
Sadly there could only be 5 winners but all of the children spent so much time on their designs, they will be put up in the library to celebrate the range of books that children enjoy. The winners were Tosia, Pelayo, Lexie, Romeo and Natalie. Well done to our winners and to everyone who participated! It was lovely to see so many different books.
Thank you for your engagement in the Book Fair - this has earned the school more than £700.
Friends of Ellingham - Class Reps for Oak & 4S
Currently Oak and 4S do not have a class representative and we would love to have some volunteers for this important role. Primarily it involves communicating upcoming events to the other parents and carers via the class WhatsApp group so that no-one misses out on the fun! The information is provided and sent out to all class reps by Nicole McDonald, the FoE chair, so that it can be shared.
If you think you can help, please let the school office know as soon as possible.
SPORTING EXCELLENCE
Ellingham families have done a fantastic job on fundraising for the Kelly Grimes visit. The total is £2471.47 and some of this will be used to invest in sports in our school.
Tokens for Christmas Fair on Sale Now
We will be running the School Christmas Fair after lunch on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th December. It will be for children only - they will to the hall and library with their teachers to have a go on the Christmas-themed stalls. For £3 the children can try their luck on the games and tombolas.
You can purchase £3 tokens in the playground on Friday 1st December after school or, put £3 in the envelope for your child to bring to school and post in the FoE post box - don't forget to write their name and class on it.
Tokens will be given to the children on the day of the fair. If you would like to help the children have fun on this day by running a stall, setting up or taking down, please let FoE know.
LEARNING TOGETHER
Safer Schools' Officer Visit
This week, we had a visit from our Safer Schools' Officer, PC Lucie Smith. She came to introduce introduce herself and led an assembly where she talked about how the children can keep themselves safe in winter time. She focused on road safety, particularly 'stop, look, listen' when crossing roads and buckling up seat belts in the car.
After the assembly, as they had made great choices this week, Reception and Nursery got to sit in the police car, climb through and get out again!
Reception - Gross Motor Fun!
In the Reception class this week we have been having lots of fun climbing along our traversing wall and manoeuvring heavy bikes and scooters.
These gross motor activities build strength across our shoulders and core, and strengthen our hands to ultimately to help us hold our pens properly to produce neat handwriting!
Year 2 - Materials Three Little Pigs
We investigated which materials would design a suitable shelter for the Three Little Pigs. We used a range of materials to build a house in groups then tested our designs using a hairdryer as ‘The Wolf’
Year 2 Fire! Fire!
Year 2 were lucky enough to have a visit from the local fire brigade this week as part of their learning around The Great Fire of London. The children have compared how fires were fought in 1666 to how we fight them now. They had a chance to go inside the truck, see lots of the tools, hear the sirens in action and equipment and squirt the hoses, one of which got Miss Peart very wet!
A huge thank you to the fire fighters.
Year 2 - Christmas has come early
Year 2 visited The King’s Centre this week for their Christmas journey. They saw the Christmas story in action and learnt all about what Christmas means to Christians.
Year 6 WWII and the Battle of Britain
Year 6 enjoyed an interactive History lesson this week where they learnt all about the beginning of WWII and the build up to the Battle of Britain.
Ellen in 6H brought in a real artefact from WW2- her great-grandfather's identity card! The children loved looking closely under the visualiser at such a special artefact and learning where he was evacuated to during the war.
SAFEGUARDING, HEALTH AND SUPPORT
Your Views Wanted: Parent Coffee Mornings
We have been running some very successful coffee mornings for parents led by Miranda from the Mental Health Support Team. They have focused on helping parents to support their children through such things as anxiety, resilience in friendship and also for tips on behaviour management.
It would be great to hear from parents and carers about the sort of topics that they would like to see offered and the best timings for these events. Please complete the link for you feedback. https://forms.gle/rmc93Mai3cLFyMns5



This is the full safeguarding team in school. They are all trained to Level 3 and everyone in the school received the annual update of Safeguarding Level 2 training at INSET.
Contact details: 020 8397 3864 or email: office@elp.rbksch.org to request a safeguarding call back. For pupil support, contact 020 8397 3864 or email: pupilsupport@elp.rbksch.org