Eleanor Palmer Primary School

This month, ask your child:

• What is your new topic? Is it science-, history-, or geography- led? What have you found out already? What do you want to find out?!
• What can you spot in the natural world this April? Things to look out for include: swallows heralding warmer weather and carpets of blue and purple blue-bells.

          Message from the Heads

Dear Parents and Carers,

The term has begun with a brilliant buzz across the school - from Bikeability lessons to Waitrose Cookery workshops! Next week Year 6 are singing at the Royal Albert Hall, while a few days later we have a team competing at Camden’s swimming gala. We expect nothing less when our whole teaching team plans such wonderful opportunities and topics to deepen learning and build lifelong memories.

This term's topics

Our summer topics are:

We’ve been reflecting as a team on what helps children make the most progress and have the most success across the entire curriculum at primary school.

Our top 4 are all things that you can help with!

• 1) Reading, reading, reading…this develops empathy as well as vocabulary. A little and often, with, to and together is the key to flourishing! Please support us with this, especially in the Juniors when the children’s reading can sometimes dip and they can so easily get behind their peers with stamina and skills.
• 2) Speaking, listening and connecting - conversations, modelling the back and forth of real engagement is so crucial for your children’s development. Chitchat cannot be underestimated! A good tip is to ask them about something they’re already doing for pleasure e.g. riding their bike or watching a cartoon…what do they like about it? Have they always liked it? Why is it interesting?
• 3) Resilience - Teach them how struggling with something means they’re showing real grit… it means they’re learning and this is brilliant! It shouldn’t feel too comfy and that’s ok. Talk about what you found hard or still find hard and why you persevere.
• 4) Interrupt forgetting - We are all wired to forget and it is the struggle to remember that forges our memories and our learning. The simple act of asking them about what they learnt this week will really help them to remember - this is why we include prompts in all our class newsletters.

 PTA

For decades, we have watched successive teams of wonderful parents and carers leading and evolving the school events we rely on so much for our sense of community as well as much needed and well-used fundraising. You are all the PTA and the school needs you! At our recent PTA AGM, the ideas and discussion really brought home how much we need to keep you informed about the schools’ finances and priorities, and how much you all have to offer.

Our current PTA Chairs - Andrea, Francis and Ben - and our treasurer, Lucy, have given us so much of their time and energy and continue to do so. At the AGM we discussed how teams of parents work so well to lead the PTA and we talked about succession planning.

Are you interested in being a PTA Chair to help take the lead in organising our school events? Do you have the skills to become our next PTA treasurer? Our current team would be more than happy to talk about what this involves, as would we, so please do come and talk to us if you are interested in supporting all our children in this way.

This term's events

A busy summer term ahead

We started the term with a whole school assembly in which we summarised all the events coming up this term - and there are a lot! It would’ve made you smile to see the excitement on children’s faces, so we want to flag these special events now so they’re firmly in your diaries.

Run Kids Run! 

We had a fantastic turnout for this event last year -such fun and a great fundraiser - we’re doing it again on Sunday 18 May.

Register to run here

We expect our community to turn out in force!

This is the sponsorship link- please pass it on to friends, family and colleagues - every donation makes a real difference to our school and we’re never disappointed by how generous people can be for such a good cause.

CBC Night

This is on Thursday 22 May, our celebration of Black culture. This is another very special event in our calendar and it promises to be a wonderful evening, with more details to follow soon. Please sign up to help and of course come along on the night to join the party!

2025 Summer concert

The Juniors, Years 3-6, have been invited to apply to perform in our annual Summer Concert on 12th June, 4-7pm - another brilliant EP tradition and such a great opportunity for children to build their confidence and entertain us all with their talents! Application forms will come home on Monday.

Summer Fair

Finally, a summer favourite — this is on Saturday 28 June, 12–3pm. It’s a brilliant social event and a vital fundraiser for EP. It takes a whole community to pull it off, so we’ll be asking everyone to pitch in as the date approaches. The silent auction is a particularly important part of the fair, so please start thinking about donations you might be able to make, or donations you could organise from family, friends, neighbours and beyond!

Thank you — your support at these events is essential, especially in times of tighter budgets and rising costs. More than that, they bring us together and celebrate the EP value of belonging.

Best wishes,

Natalie Stevenson and Sally Hill

Key Information and dates for your diary

  Sports Clubs

A reminder that the fee for attending these clubs is £20 per term (regardless of how many sessions or how many clubs attended). Please make payment if your child is attending any sports clubs this term through Scopay https://www.scopay.com/login (or cash to the office). There is no cost for children eligible for Free School Meals.

 Summer Term dates

• Monday 5 May - Bank Holiday
• Friday 9 May - Stay & Play
• May 12-15 Year 6 SATs tests
• Sunday 18th May Run Kids Run
• Thursday May 22nd CBC Night 6-8pm
• Half term Monday 26 May - Friday 30 May
• Monday 2 June - INSET day
• Wednesday 4 June - school photos
• Thursday 12th June - Junior Summer Concert, 4-7pm (no gym club or Club EP)
• Thursday 19 -Friday 20 June - Year 3 to The Mill
• Friday 20 June - no Club EP due to staff event
• Thursday 26 - Friday 27 June Year 4 camping
• Friday 27 June - Stay & Play
• Saturday 28 June - Summer Fair
• Wednesday 2 July - Nursery ends at midday (new Nursery visit)
• Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 July Parent Progress Meetings
• Friday 4 July - Nursery Sports Day
• Tuesday 8 July Sports Day Rec -Year 6
• Friday 18 July - Last day of term ending 1:30pm

Friday Snack Sales this term

• Year 6 - 2nd May
• Year 5 - 9th May
• Everyone - 16th May to support Run Kids Run
• Year 4 - 23rd May
• Year 3 - 6th June
• Year 2 - 13th June
• Year 1 - 20th June
• Reception - 4th July
• Nursery - 11th July