Newsletter 1 - 5th September 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you have all had a restful summer, and the chance to spend quality time with your families and create fond memories.  I would like to wish you all a very warm welcome, whether your child is returning to school in Year 1 or Year 2 or joining us for their first school year in Early Years.  It is lovely to watch as the children in Key Stage 1 have settled into their classes over the past two days.  I am very much looking forward to meeting the children in Early Years on their first day at school next Tuesday.

We have a lot of exciting learning planned for your children over the course of the term, as well as some opportunities for families to find out more about different aspects of school, starting with our online parent information session on The Empowerment Approach on 22nd September.  (Please see flyer below).   Following its launch last year,  the FISHES will once again be hosting the highly successful Hedge End Illuminations in October, Christmas Bazzaar and shopping event, along with a wealth of other extra-curricular opportunities for children and their families to enjoy.

Staff have been busy over the summer preparing classrooms and learning for the start of term.  We are also very excited to be kick starting our outdoor learning project, with the installation of an outdoor classroom, kindly funded by the FISHES, which will be installed in a couple of weeks time.  This marks the start of a longer term project to transform our grounds to support greater opportunities for learning outdoors.

Teachers in Early Years have been very excited to visit the children starting in their new classes at home.  This provides a valuable opportunity for families to ask any questions or share any information they feel would support their child's transition to school.    At Freegrounds Infants we very much value our home-school working partnership with you and therefore as always if there is anything you need support with and the school can help, please do come into school and let us know.

As I start my fifteenth academic year as the Headteacher at Freegrounds Infants, as always it is a pleasure to work with your children and a privilege to be part of the Freegrounds community.

Kind regards

Ms Riches

Key Stage One

We are very excited to be holding an online session with families about the Empowerment Approach, which we have been implementing in school for a year. We hope to see lots of you join in the meeting to learn more about the approach, and how it can be used both in school and at home to support our children.

Welcome back to all our families and welcome to the new families joining us. We always have a lot going on in the Autumn term so make a note of the dates in your diaries. 

FISHES AGM - September 16th 6.30pm

Everyone is welcome to this meeting. You will hear about our incredibly successful year last year, what we have planned for this year and what we will be spending the money on. If you want to find out more about FISHES and how to get involved then please come along. Our Treasurer will be stepping down, if this is something you may be interested in, again come along or get in touch beforehand to find out more.

Bags2School - 9th October

If you managed to have a good clear out over the summer please bring along your donations by 9am to the wooden gazebo in the playground. Bags2School pay us for your donations based on the weight so the more items we have the more money we will receive. We can take items such as clothes, paired shoes, handbags, hats, bags, scarves and ties, bras, jewellery, socks and belts. 

Laser Show 18th October

We are so excited about our upcoming show. It was a massive success last year and set to be even better this year. There will be a bouncy castle, food stalls, ice cream van, stall holders, glow items, mascots and a fabulous laser show. We have a different company doing the lasers this year and it is set to be amazing with some new surprises. Tickets are selling well, don't miss out on the early bird price which will be ending on Sunday 14th October. Please share the link far and wide with your friends and family https://www.laser-illuminations.com/

We are looking for households that would be happy to display a sign from White & Guard at their property for about 4 weeks before the event. If you would be happy to do this please can you complete the following form: https://forms.gle/46XXFiBKXfXgYAhi6 White & Guard put sponsorship towards the event in exchange for 20 boards being displayed and we currently need another 7!!!

If you own or know of a company that would be interested in sponsoring this event there are a number of packages available, please do get in contact with us. Sponsorship shows that your company likes to support local events and is good advertising and it will support us by allowing us to maximise our fundraising. 

What YOU must do:

Try to telephone the school before 8.30am each day of your child’s absence.

Tell the school in advance, of any medical appointments and bring in appointment cards/letters.

If you are not sure whether your child is well enough to attend school, send them in anyway as they often perk up on arrival.

If you and your child are experiencing difficulties with school attendance then talk to us as a first step so we can help!

What WE will do:

Check your child’s attendance every day.

Phone home to discuss your child’s attendance with you.

Invite you into school for attendance meetings if we are concerned.

If we cannot establish a reason for absence, then we may make a welfare home visit.