Please click here to read Ferndale's risk assessment updated for March full re-opening 2021
Please click here to read Ferndale's Catch-Up Strategic Plan 2020 - 2021
Safeguarding During Lockdown
If you have a safeguarding concern whilst we are under the national lockdown please contact school on 01793 332425 and ask to speak to Miss Horrobin (Headteacher and DSL) or contact:
- E-mail: Swindonmash@swindon.gov.uk
- Telephone: 01793 466903 (during normal office hours which are 8.30am to 4.40pm Monday to Thursday, and 8.30am to 4.00pm Friday)
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The Emergency Duty Service (EDS) is available outside office hours on 01793 436699
During the current lockdown (2021) please refer to work set for your child on the class pages under the children tab.
Is the reason your child is off school linked to COVID-19?
We will provide your child with a home learning pack, click here to read a letter with further information.
YouTube Video Lessons
Link to YouTube where you can find videos for maths and literacy for each year group by the year group teachers. Each video contains 5 lessons (one for each day) and teaching input. Please click here for a parents' guidance sheet on tips to protect your child whilst using Youtube and click here for a guidance sheet on YouTube Kids.
And...
Don't forget your child has access to the following sites:
If your child has forgotton their password please email the school and we can let you know their password or set a new one.
As well as what your child has been provided from school if you want to further engage your child please look at the following websites:
In mathematics we follow the White Rose scheme. They have their own home learning lessons which are broken down into year groups and will link into what the children are/would be learning at school. Each lesson also comes with a short video clip which will help with your child's understanding.
Stem learning (science, technology, engineering and mathematics): To support parents and carers their subject experts have put together a selection of activities and materials all of which are completely free for anyone to access
Click here to download the letter regarding the changes to the start and end of the school day from Monday 14th September.
Please click here to read our Operational Risk Assessment for School Reopening in September 2020
Please click here for a letter from Gary Evans CEO of the Blue Kite Trust about the children's return to school.
Please click here for guidance to share with your child/ren about their return to school.
Please click here for the letter that was shared at the end of the summer term which has important information about where to drop off and pick your child/ren up from.
Back to School Support:
Government Information
Click here for guidance from the government on what parents and carers need to know about schools during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Click here for guidance from Public Health England about what parents need to know about their children returning to school.
Well Being
Click here for the Young Minds website which has a parent helpline where experts share their tips for supporting a child in their transition back to school.
Click here for the Mental Health website which has support for helping your child return to school.
Click here for the Winston's Wish website which guides you through how to support your child returning to school.
Swindon Borough Information
Click here for an update from Swindon Borough's Director of Public Health
Click here for support and guidance from Swindon's Healthy Schools
Please see the latest letters and guidance on the phased reopening of Ferndale:
Dear the Ferndale Family, from everyone here at Ferndale have a wonderful, safe summer holiday. We can't wait to welome you all back to school in September!
Summer Support
Click here for Swindon Borough's website for their Local Offer. The aim of the Swindon Local Offer is to provide a 'go to' website for SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) in Swindon and a way for children, young people and families to access information to support their SEND jorney. The website provides information on the services and provision available to you.
Your child will have been given a reading log for the summer holidays, where they are able to collect Warm and Fuzzies. If you need a new one please click here.
Click here for the Literacy Trust's summer activity offer to primary aged children in partnership with Bloomsbury.
Click here for summer holiday activities for nursery aged children, which has been put together by Swindon Borough Early Years Team.
Click here for an online safety guide to help increase children's awareness around screen addiction, especially with increased device usage during lockdown and as we move into the summer holidays.
Letters
Letter from school, regarding September
Letter from Gary Evans, CEO of the Blue Kite Trust, regarding September
Letter from school regarding new to Nursery in September children's 'Hello' sessions
Letter from school regarding new to school in September FS2 children's 'Hello' sessions
Letter from school regarding Year 6 'End of Year Celebration'
Letter from school regarding 'Goodbye and Hello' sessions for all children
Letter with new and updated pick up and drop off information for Monday 29th June
Letter from school regarding increasing provision from Monday 29th June
Latest letter from school regarding returning to school
Letter from the Blue Kite Trust about returning to school
Letter from Ferndale about returning to school
Booklet to share with children to support their return to school
Trust guidance for parents and pupils
YouTube Video Lessons
Link to YouTube where you can find a video for maths and literacy for each year group by the year group teachers. Each video (posted every Monday morning) contains 5 lessons (one for each day) and teaching input. Please click here for a parents' guidance sheet on tips to protect your child whilst using Youtube and click here for a guidance sheet on YouTube Kids.
Wellbeing Support
The Barnardo's Swindon Trailblazer team have been supporting children and young people experiencing mental health difficulties in their school. During the past few months, due to the Corona Virus pandemic, we have all experienced great change as we continue with the uncertainty of daily life. It is normal for children and young people to feel anxious or worried. For some, it might mean that the current situation has worsened the difficulties that they were already struggling with before. If you are concerned about your child's mental health, please contact the school office in the first instance on 01793 332425 and ask for Miss Horrobin. Together we will be able to discuss a referral to access the Trailblazer service.
Letters to the Children
The week begining Monday 20th This week please find a letter to each class from their new teachers and teaching assistants. Please click on your child's class for the new academic year.
Loch Ness, Tintagel, Olympus, Northern Lights, Eiffel, Colosseum, Madagascar, Kalahari, Zambezi, Amazon, Andes, Barrier Reef and Uluru
Letters to the children week beginning 13th July 2020
FS2, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6
Newsletters
Click here for the latest newsetter, written by the children.
Newsletter for May
Junior Good Citizen
The Junior Good Citizen scheme gives children the opportunity to learn a variety of skills to help them deal with a wide range of emergency and non emergency situations.
During the summer term, Year 6 children from across Wiltshire and Swindon attend the scheme for a day to work with the police, fire and rescue service and the road safety team as well as many other organisations that help people to keep safe.
Throughout the day children will have gone through go through a range of different life - like scenarios such as: personal safety, how to avoid dangers on the roads and trains, as well as in our parks and homes.
JGC encourage children to think through the problems they are confronted with and to resolve them successfully, both individually and as a team. Children become a Junior Good Citizen as they learn how to keep themselves safe and to pass on their new safety skills to friends and family.
Unfortunately due to Coronavirus, this year's Junior Good Citizen has been cancelled, however we don't want any children to miss the opportunity to learn these important skills so the JGC Partnership have come together with some useful links and tips to help children stay safe and be a Good Citizen. Please click on the titles here for the support sheets: Junior Good Citizen useful links and Junior Good Citizen useful links for parents .
Ferndale Video
A very special video, which we hope you all enjoy - you made need tissues near by!
Thank you very much to Mr Truman who put the video together.
Stay Safe Keep Smiling Be Kind We Are In This Together
Enjoy... #TeamFerndale #FerndaleFamily
Blue Kite Learning Platform
Don't forget the weekly competitions and learning ideas that are posted on the Blue Kite Learning Platform. Click here to access this platform
Coronavirus Support Book for Children
Click here for a really helpful book to share with your children about Coronavirus, explaining what it is and why everyone is talking about it.
Ferndale Primary School Curriculum
Here at Ferndale we believe that the curriculum taught through a thematic approach should promote a love of learning and willingness to explore.
We are proud to use the National Curriculum as a starting point for a wide and varied learning experience for our children, but enrich it by our strong ethos that there should be time and space in the school day and in each week, term and year to range beyond the national curriculum specifications. The national curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers develop exciting and stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupils' knowledge, understanding and skills as part of the wider school curriculum.
Our children will have the opportunity to be creative, to be physically active and to be academically challenged.
We are continually reviewing and improving the curriculum we offer to our children, evolving it according to the needs of our children and to the aspirations of the staff and community.
Curriculum 2018
The working definition of the curriculum according to Ofsted is "The curriculum is a framework for setting out the aims of a programme of education, including the knowledge and skills to be gained at each stage (intent); for translating that framework over time into a structure and narrative, within an institutional context (implementation) and for evaluating what knowledge and skills pupils have gained against expectations (impact/achievment)." You will find intent, implementation and impact at the heart and throughout our curriculum.
At the beginning of the 2018 academic year we reviewed our curriculum to ensure that it was representative of the community, skills and interests of teacher, the local area and current affairs. We asked the children what they wanted to learn about, we involved governors, teaching assistants and teachers when we began the planning and ideas stage. As a school we set out to ensure that across the whole school there was progression across subjects and topics.
The national curriculum is just one element in the education of every child.
Staff and pupils come together for school assemblies. These are delivered in a variety of ways and provide the children with opportunities to celebrate, sing, reflect and thank. Topics covered include values, honesty, local and world (Home and Away) news, how we would like to be treated and how we should treat those around us.
Programmes of Study for each subject can be found on the left hand side. Please click on the subject to view it's content.
Click here for the National Curriculum - The national curriculum primary programmes of study and attainment targets for key stages 1 and 2.
Click here for the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (EYFS) - The standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5.
2018 -2019 Topics
Please click on a topic title to view the planning for that term.
Nursery
Autumn Term - This is My Life and Snap, Crackle and Pop - with evaluated summary
FS2
Autumn Term - This is My life and Snap, Crackle, Pop
Spring Term - KPOW Superheroes and Digging Deep
Summer Term - Go Wild
Year 1
Autumn Term - Bright Lights, Big City
Spring Term - Long, Long Ago
Summer Term - Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Year 2
Autumn Term - Ready, Aim, Fire!
Spring Term - The Secret Garden
Summer Term - Explorers
Year 3
Autumn Term - World War 2
Spring Term - Yabba, Dabba Doo
Summer Term - As We Live and Breathe
Year 4
Autumn Term - What Lies Beneath?
Spring Term - Poles Apart
Summer Term - Empire Strikes Back
Year 5
Autumn Term - Intergalactic Invaders
Spring Term - Vicious Vikings
Summer Term - Extreme Earth
Year 6
Autumn Term - Call of the Wild
Spring Term - Myths and Magic
Summer Term - Thrill Seekers
Our Local Area
Find out where you can visit and more information on our local area below:
Visit Swindon - click here for further information
(Taken from their website) Swindon and its surrounding area has a stunning array of beautiful green spaces to rival any town in the UK. From beautiful Victorian parks in and around the town to the Ridgeway, Britain’s oldest road. Add to that our stately home gardens, wildlife reserves and areas of outstanding natural beauty – this really is a place to explore.
The town boasts an extremely rich history but it was the Great Western Railway which put Swindon firmly on the map in 1841. Scratch beneath the surface and Swindon is one of the South West’s most stimulating destinations for culture vultures.
Whether it’s amazing green spaces for energetic young tree climbers, cultural excursions for curious teenagers or indoor adventures for both the young and the young at heart, Swindon has an impressive array of family friendly activities.
Things to do in Wiltshire - click here for further information
(Taken from their website) History and heritage in Wiltshire is not just ancient. Here you can wander through time. The Romans, Normans and Saxons have all left their mark.
On the ‘must see’ list alongside the medieval city of Salisbury are Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, Longleat and the National Trust’s gardens at Stourhead. There a numerous attractions to suit everyone's taste.
You can explore our industrial heritage at Wadworth Brewery, Crofton Beam Engines and Wilton Windmill, STEAM Museum or Swindon & Cricklade Railway; discover butterflies and farmyard favourites; or uncover Wiltshire’s unparalleled archaeology in our fascinating museums. Wiltshire is bursting at the seams with arts and culture and has numerous award- winning theatres, art galleries and exhibition venues.
There are eight White Horse chalk figures on display on our hillsides, old settlements like Old Sarum, a National Trust village at Lacock and some stunning historic houses and gardens including Bowood and Wilton House.