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Friday 7th November 2025

ELLINGHAM SCHOOL NEWS

DIARY DATES

AUTUMN TERM

Half term

Monday 27th October - Friday 31st October

Inset Day

Monday 3rd November

Children return

Tuesday 4th November

Author visit

Monday 10th November

Scholastic Book Fair

Monday 17th- Friday 21st November

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to all our families following the half-term break. We hope you all managed to have a rest and recharge! This second half of the term is full of exciting events, including trips, the return of our popular Book Fair, and our many school Christmas events. The Friends of Ellingham are also busy planning our Winter Fair on the 29th November! Please check out the diary dates for more information.

Next week is Anti-Bullying week. The theme this year is "Power for Good"! The week will kick off on Monday 10th with "Odd Socks Day". Adults and children are all encouraged to wear odd socks to celebrate what makes us all unique.

The theme "Power for Good" has come about from the desire to "empower children and young people to use their Power for Good to speak out, support others, and build a world where kindness wins" (Anti-Bullying Alliance). So to kick off this very important week, please come to school on Monday wearing odd socks!

Finally, as you head into the weekend, if you are out enjoying fireworks over the weekend please do keep yourselves safe.

I wish you all the most wonderful weekend.

Warm regards,

Margaret

Margaret Johonnett

Headteacher

Reminders for next week

Early Bird interventions start on Monday 10th.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 2.30pm - 3.00pm, are the Reception Phonics and Maths workshops.

Friday 14th the Friends of Ellingham are collecting donations of sweets for the Winter Fair

Save the date

Donation days for the fair

Friday 14th November 2025 will not be a non-uniform day but we would be grateful for donations of individually wrapped sweets or chocolates. Please remember:

Individually wrapped
NO nuts

Donations can be handed in at the school gates or to the office on the morning of the 14th.

Your generosity really helps make the fair such a special event for the children - Thank you

🎄 Winter Wonderland Christmas Fair -Saturday 29th November

🕛 12:00 – 3:00 pm
📍 Ellingham School

Expect seasonal stalls, tasty treats, games, music, and a sprinkle of holiday magic for the whole family.

Keep an eye out for more details and volunteer opportunities in the coming weeks. For now, just save the date and get ready to celebrate with us!

Double Your Impact! Can you access Matched Funding for the Friends of Ellingham

Did you know there's a fantastic way to potentially double the funds we raise for our school, simply by tapping into resources many of us already have access to? It's called matched funding, and it's a game-changer for PTAs like ours!

Please read the letter here for further information.

This weeks recipe box is for Mini Veggie Cottage Pies. We are looking forward to seeing photos from our Year 4 Chefs. If you would like to cook this dish you can find the recipe here

Scholastic Book Fair

We are excited to announce that our Scholastic Book Fair is coming soon!

The fair will run from Tuesday 18th November to Friday 21st November afterschool in the library.

It's a fantastic chance for your children to browse and buy a wide range of new and exciting books. Books will be available for purchase in the school library after school throughout the week.

Buying books at the fair is a wonderful way to encourage reading at home, and it also helps our school, as a portion of the sales goes directly toward buying new books for our school library and classrooms.

We look forward to seeing you at the fair and thank you for your support!

Celebration Certificates

This weeks value is Respect. Our Monday assembly was about being respectful when we are moving around the school and other adults and children are working. This means walking sensibly and quietly. Our Year 6 monitors help to remind us in the corridors when we go out to break or to assembly. At Celebration Assembly on Friday we gave out certificates for the children who were nominated by their teachers for being excellent in showing respect during the week.

Artist of the Month

This months artist was Mary Blair. She was an immensely influential American artist, animator, and designer best known for bringing a vibrant, modernist aesthetic to The Walt Disney Company. As a concept artist and colour stylist, her bold use of primary colours, stylized figures, and graphic shapes helped define the visual look of classic films like Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953).

LEARNING TOGETHER

Nursery - Pear Class

On 5th November, Nursery celebrated the fact that it was bonfire night by making some splatter firework pictures and cooking and eating jacket potatoes.

Reception - Cherry Class

In Reception, the children have been learning about good oral hygiene during their daily tooth brushing session! Please do ask them about what they learned as they brush their teeth to see what they can tell you!

Year 1 - Maple

Year 1 had a special visit from Insight this week for their RE lesson. They learnt about parables from the Bible and acted out the parable 'The Prodigal Son'. The children then discussed what the story taught Christians about God. It was lovely to see the children so respectful.

Year 2 - Oak

Year 2 have started our Great Fire of London topic. In English we looked ta what life was like in London in 1666 and then acted out various roles, such as building houses, riding a horse and cart and being part of a family. We learnt that life was smelly, dirty and crowded!

Year 3

This week, Year 3 have started reading their new key text 'The True Story of the Three Little Pigs', which tells the story from the 'good' wolf's perspective. We explored this through drama as the children become journalists and asked questions to the wolf (their partner in role).

Year 5

In PSHE, Year 5 have been thinking about their cultures. We discussed the type of music, food and clothes that we like. We thought that although we are all different, we have some similarities.

Year 6

Electrical Board Games Project

Last term, our year 6 children impressively applied their science skills to a practical DT project. They undertook the full design process to create, build and evaluate their own working electrical board games. This challenge required them to demonstrate their technical understanding of electrical circuits while fostering valuable skills in creativity, perseverance and teamwork!

Drama

This week in English, year 6 began studying their new class text, 'Rose Blanche'. This book has been chosen to link closely with their current history topic on World War II. The children have already enjoyed using their drama skills to thoughtfully infer and explore the characters' potential thoughts and feelings as they begin this powerful story.

SAFEGUARDING, HEALTH & WELLBEING

2025_26 - Helping children series flier.docx.pdf

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is an early intervention and prevention service that helps children and young people aged 5 to 18 in Kingston and Richmond schools with mild to moderate mental health difficulties like anxiety, low mood, and common behavioural issues.

The team consists of psychological professionals, including clinical leads, creative therapists, mental health practitioners, and education wellbeing practitioners.

Autumn 2 25_26 Parent information leaflet.pptx.pdf

Left to their own devices OMFH Dec.docx - Google Docs.pdf

Parenting Workshops OMFH 2025.docx - Google Docs(1).pdf

Understanding autism seminar flyer November 25.pdf

The Safeguarding Team

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. If you are worried about a child, please let one of the team know.

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