It has been an incredibly vibrant and busy week as we celebrated National Storytelling Week, with activities across the school bringing the magic of narratives to life. The week kicked off on a heartwarming note on Monday, when our Learning Ambassadors visited a local care home. This intergenerational bridge allowed students to share stories and read alongside the residents, fostering a wonderful sense of community. Mid-week, the energy shifted to innovation as the school hall hosted a dynamic DT Fair, showcasing the students' design and technical creativity.

The excitement reached new heights on Thursday as a group of Year 6 pupils, accompanied by Miss Thorndycraft, departed for Singapore. This incredible journey is part of the Turing Scheme, marking the beginning of a global educational adventure for our children. Meanwhile, back on campus, Friday has been a whirlwind of activity, starting with the NSPCC Number Day. The school was filled with creative, math-inspired outfits, while our EYFS students finally enjoyed their rescheduled (and much-anticipated) visit from the Falcons.

To round out the week, the school’s competitive spirit and community support are on full display. Students are currently participating in the LEO Sports Dodgeball Tournament, and the day will conclude with two fantastic PTA events: a delicious cake sale followed by the Quiz Night this evening. It has been a week defined by exploration, charity, and school spirit.

Coming soon! 

Train to teach with LEO Academy Trust!

Applications for Primary Initial Teacher Training (ITT) for September 2026 are OPEN.

LEO Academy Trust works in partnership with the National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) to deliver our school-centred ITT programme.

Be in the classroom from day one: Our programme offers fully immersive training.

Highly Supportive: You will be fully supported with weekly central training and dedicated mentoring.

High-Quality Programme: Benefit from the NIoT's educational excellence right here, locally.

Express your interest here and we will send you further details on this exciting opportunity.

PTA Quiz Night - Friday 6th February

Children's Mental Health Week - W/C Monday 9th February 

Year 4 Bikeability -  W/C Monday 9th February

Internet Safety Day - Tuesday 10th February

Pancake Day Menu - Thursday 12th February

PTA Break the Rules Day - Friday 13th February 

HALF TERM (16th February to 20th February)

Return to school - Monday 23rd February 

Chance to Shine Cricket sessions start - 24th February 

Year 6 Open Morning - 24th February 9 am

Year 1 Open Afternoon - 24th February 2.35 pm 

Year 3 Swimming stats - 25th February 

Year 5 Young Voices at O2 - 25th February 

PTA Year 2  Cake Sale -  27th February 

London Careers Festival - 2nd March 

International Women's Day at Fulham FC - 2nd March 

Year 3 Open Morning - 3rd March 9 am 

Year 5 Open Morning - 4th March 9 am 

Year 4 Open Morning - 4th March 2.35 pm 

Year 2 Open Afternoon - 4th March 2.35 pm 

World  Book Day - 5th March 

Boys Chelsea Finals - 9th March 

Year 6 Ski trip - 10th March 

Reception Open afternoon -10th March 2.35 pm

Parent Consultations - week commencing 16th March 

Year 5 Devon residential - week commencing 23rd March 

Last  Day of term - 27th March (Finish at 1.30 pm)

Power Hour 

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our Power Hour last Friday afternoon! For one hour, we collectively switched off lights, unplugged unused devices, and powered down our Chromebooks and smartboards.

Data from our SIMBLE meter showed that these simple actions led to a 14% decrease in our energy usage. Although this reduction wasn't quite as large as last year’s, it is a brilliant start and a powerful reminder of how our daily habits affect the planet. We have shared slides with every class so students can see the real-time impact they made on both energy costs and carbon savings. Let’s keep up the great work and continue to minimize our energy use both at school and at home!

OPAL resources 

Thank you for thinking of us! However, please note that we are not currently accepting any book donations. We are only seeking the following OPAL items at this time:

• Small World Play: Wow toys, Happy Land toys, and Dinosaurs.

• Loose Parts: Old Christmas decorations (baubles only—no glass please!).

• Kitchen/Outdoor Play: Sauce pans (no glass lids) and Ground Sheets or Tarpaulins.

Wrap Around Care Staff Member Vacancy

We are currently seeking an enthusiastic and reliable member of staff to join the Hurst Park Wrap Around Care team! This is a great opportunity for anyone looking to top up their hours and make a real difference in the lives of our children.

The role involves supervising activities, assisting with the service of breakfast and tea, and ensuring the safety and well-being of the children.

The available fixed hours are:

-Breakfast Club (Tuesday to Thursday): 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM

-After School Club (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday): 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

How to Apply

If you, or anyone you know, who would be perfect for this role, please share/apply via the official application link: [Link Here]

Celebrating achievements 

If your child has celebrated a sporting achievement and you would like them to be included in the newsletter, please let us know by completing this form. There is an option to attach photos/certificates if you would like but this is optional. 

Hurst Park Primary Academy is looking for volunteers to enhance children's learning. Volunteers are highly valued and appreciated by children and staff. In the past, volunteers have helped children with reading and maintaining the Library. Volunteers must complete a comprehensive induction programme, including a DBS check, and adhere to our Safeguarding procedures. Volunteering hours are flexible.  If you are interested in making a difference, please complete the Volunteer Registration form  to apply. Please note that volunteers will not be placed in their child's class.

Healthy Learners 

Peony (2T), Willow (4SM) and Karina (5B)

3S achieved the highest attendance for last week.  Well done!

EYFS Falcon Visit 

This week, our EYFS explorers had a truly "owl-tastic" encounter with some magnificent birds of prey! We were thrilled to welcome a tiny owl and a laughing kookaburra (those Australian birds have a tricky name to spell!) to the classroom. The children blew us away by recalling everything they’ve learned about nocturnal animals, and they listened beautifully as they were introduced to these wonderful feathered friends. A huge thank you to Jason from Falconry UK for such a memorable and educational visit!

National Storytelling Week 

To celebrate national storytelling week, Year 2 participated in a virtual workshop with an author! The author was Annemarie Anang who taught us how to build stories through sound. They loved acting out the different animals in the book and it gave them inspiration to role play the characters in their focus text of Ossiri and the Bala Mengro! 

Year 2 Forest School 

Year 2 learnt a brand new skill this week: whittling! We practised how to whittle safely, used careful hands, and turned simple sticks into the cutest bird characters.

Year 1 Safari Pete 

Year One enjoyed a visit from Safari Pete this week as part of our Science topic. We have been learning about animals and senses in this topic and enjoyed the opportunity to ask a real life expert about how his amazing animals see, hear, smell, taste and feel. Safari Pete had a collection of very well behaved animals to share with us, including a beautiful owl, a cheeky meerkat, a colourful lizard, a slithering snake and a rather large tarantula! We really enjoyed the opportunity to touch some of these animals and Pete was very impressed with our sensible behaviour, as we knew how important it was for the animals to not feel frightened.

Year 5 

Year 5 loved their Now>Press>Play experience on climate change  learning about global heating, carbon emissions, renewable energy, the role of government—and how we can all help solve climate change! 

NSPCC Number Day

What a hive of mathematical activity we have had today! Across the school, children took part in various, fun, engaging, curriculum-based maths activities/investigations which took inspiration from game shows, current trends and teamwork. It was a great opportunity for children to apply their maths skills to everyday scenarios. 

Learning Ambassadors 

Our Learning Ambassadors visited the local care home to share the joy of reading with the residents. Kindness, connection, and great books—the perfect afternoon. Seeing the smiles on both the children’s and residents' faces was the highlight. 

DT Fair

Our DT Fair is officially here! From our youngest creators to our oldest innovators, every single year group has worked tirelessly through the design process—from initial sketches and prototyping to the final finished products. 

OPAL Playtime update 

As our OPAL project continues to expand, we’re thrilled to be introducing new "loose parts" to our play repertoire. This week, the playground was full of energy as children took to sack racing! It was wonderful to see them staying active, developing their coordination, and—most importantly—having a total blast. 

Sporting Fixtures

Well done to our Under 11 football teams Pokémon Cup County Finals. What a great day they all had at Meadowbank in Dorking last Friday.

North Surrey Against Domestic Abuse 

Young Carers 

At Hurst Park, we are aware that some of our pupils are young carers. A young carer is someone under 18 who is caring unpaid for someone at home who has an illness, a disability, or is affected by mental ill-health or alcohol/substance misuse.  They could also be a child who has a sibling with a disability. They often take on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult or miss out on things due to their siblings' needs. There are at least 800,000 young carers in the UK but many young people do not realise they are a young carer.

We know that young carers may need a little extra support to enjoy and do well at school. At Hurst Park, we are committed to ensuring that all pupils who are young carers are identified, and supported effectively. The school has a Family Support Worker and Emotional Literacy Support Assistants who can offer reassurance and emotional support and help engage with external services.

Surrey Young Carers are a fantastic organisation and support young carers through activities such as holiday clubs, youth clubs, 1:1 mentoring etc. For more information visit their website and register a young carer using this form. 

If you think your child might be a young carer, please let us know by filling in this google form.

If you do not feel comfortable doing this, or have any further questions, please contact Melissa Bailey (Family Support Worker) directly. Any information that is given will be treated sensitively and no information will be shared without your knowledge.

Online Safety 

Set Up Safe Guide

Internet Matters have put together a brilliant new resource for parents and carers. This time it's a Set Up Safe guide which simplifies all the confusing tech/device settings advising that online safety works best when it's shaped around how children actually use their devices, it's all about 'layering'.
Download and read the Internet Matters Layer Up for Online Safety Guide.

Understand why social media can be problematic using the following links:  Social media isn’t social! and How to help your child think before they post!

Lemon8 App

Lemon8 is an app which seems to be growing in popularity. Calling itself a 'lifestyle community' app the terms and conditions, as per most social media, is 13+. The company which owns Lemon8 is ByteDance, who also own TikTok and it's essentially a mix between Instagram and TikTok. Reviews generally seem to be quite positive but one of the big downfalls is that parental features are a little lacking.

It's worth checking if your child is using Lemon8 and if so have a look at this in-depth Lemon8 review.
 

New Parental Control Videos

A couple of days ago Internet Matters uploaded 3 new short videos onto YouTube, each focussing on parental controls for YouTube, Roblox and TikTok, the links are:
 

• YouTube parental controls top features.

• The top 3 parental controls to use on Roblox.

• The top 3 parental controls to use on TikTok.

Support programmes for parents and carers of children with autism

On behalf of Surrey County Council’s All Age Autism Strategy, the Autism Outreach Service is coordinating a series of support programmes for parents and carers of children with autism or suspected autism in Surrey.

Each programme includes six sessions of 2½ hours, delivered by experienced professionals through a mix of in-person and online formats. To book, parents must either live in Surrey or have a child who attends a Surrey-based setting. The programmes running include:

The National Autistic Society Early Bird Programme for parents of children aged 5 years and under which covers:

• Understanding autism 

• Communication 

• Understanding autistic experiences 

• Supporting daily living 

• Health and wellbeing 

• Connections
  
  

Barnardo’s Cygnet Programme for parents of children aged 5-18 years old which covers:

• Introductory session 

• Overview of autism with parent and carer experience 

• Thinking & sensory 

• Social interaction & communication 

• Understanding & supporting behaviour 

• Analysing behaviour
  
  

The National Autistic Society Teen life Programme for parents of children aged 10-16 years old which covers:

• Understanding autism 

• Understanding autistic identity 

• Stress, anxiety and understanding behaviour 

• Health and well being 

• Puberty 

• Education and transitioning into adulthood

To book on one of these programmes, parents can register their interest here to sign up to the mailing list. They will then be emailed each time a new set of courses are added and available for booking. If you have any questions please email parenttraining@freemantles.surrey.sch.uk.