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Friday 18th July 2025

Dear Families,

We’ve reached the end of what has been a truly momentous year at JKPS—and what a year it’s been! Our children have excelled in every area of school life, and we couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of them. A heartfelt thank you to all our incredible staff who have supported them on their individual journeys throughout the year.

Community has been a key theme for us, and I want to say a huge thank you to our amazing ACC, the Friends of Judith Kerr, and every single volunteer who has stepped in or stepped up. Your contributions are deeply valued and have made a real difference. We’re especially grateful for all your help this week—with Y6 paddle boarding, Sports Day, Fun Day, and last night’s fantastic Y6 graduation.

Looking ahead, we have two exciting projects in the pipeline. First, a Trust-led Belonging Project exploring what it truly means to be an inclusive community—and how every family at JKPS can feel a genuine sense of belonging. Second, we’ll be partnering with a Brixton-based organisation to strengthen our commitment to becoming a fully anti-racist school. More on both when we return in the autumn. 

Until then, have a safe, relaxing, and joyful summer. We look forward to welcoming you back in September. And to our wonderful Year 6s—good luck in Year 7! We know you’ll shine, and we hope to see you again soon.

Schönes Wochenende!

Patrick 

Key messages:

Autumn term - Monday 1st September and Tuesday 2nd September will be INSET days. Teachers will be in but school will be closed. 

Wednesday 3rd September - Years 1 to 6 start back. Gates open at 8:40am

Reception and Nursery stay and plays start from Thursday, 4th September. 

A huge congratulations to the Mog Chronicle journalists who have been hard at work this term reporting on all the goings on around JKPS and the world. We wanted to say a huge thank you and goodbye to the departing Year 6 journos. They have been a joy to work with. Keep being curious and we expect to see their bylines in national newspapers in years to come. 

In September, we welcome any aspiring journalists and writers in Year 5 & 6 to come and get stuck in. Read all about how to do that and check out our most recent articles at www.mogchronicle.com

Thank you to Christina and John for doing such an incredible job of facilitating this. 

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Thank you and farewell

As always at this time of year, whilst we excitedly look ahead to the next school year, we also have to say farewell to some of our staff members. Thank you so much to the following teachers and support staff who are heading off on new ventures after today -  Ms Georgia, Ms Rebecca, Ms Chloe, Ms Jess, Mr Rhys, Ms Alicia, Ms Olivia, and Ms Lily. You have been absolutely incredible in your roles and we can't thank you enough for what you have done for the children. We wish you all the best wishes for your next chapters and hope we'll see you back at JKPS for a visit soon. Auf Wiedersehen und viel Glück!

We just can't stop reading

As a special reward for completing 300 reads, a group of enthusiastic readers from across the school took a trip to Paper Cat Bookshop. Each child had the opportunity to choose a book they felt would make a great addition to our school library.

The children were full of excitement and chose a wonderful variety of books. These books will be labelled with the names of the children who selected them and will be added to the library in time for the new academic year in September.

A huge thank you to Anja at Paper Cat for making the visit so welcoming and memorable!

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Friends Corner

☀️🌻⛱️😎🧴First and most importantly - thank you to every single parent and carer who has contributed this year. We have be grateful for readers, library volunteers, waffle makers, gingerbread architects, set-ups and take-downs, camp organisers, newspaper editors, face painters, trip escorters, sports enthusiasts, beer and cake sellers and the list goes on. We know children benefit when their parents and carers are engaged in their school, and the children at JKPS absolutely have that.

We hope everyone has a well deserved break, and comes back ready for an amazing Autumn Term ready to welcome more parents, carers and kids into our community. As ever - we welcome more people getting involved. And if you have an idea of an event you'd love to run - please shout!

🧑‍🎤 Masked Teachers and Summer Picnic

A huge thank you to the staff who got up on stage and sang for the Masked Teacher, and we loved every minute of it. We raised well over £2,000 towards the sensory room. And over £2,000 was also raised at the Summer Picnic for the EY outdoor space.

🎭 Sensory Room – Installation Starts Monday 21 July!

The sensory room installation begins next Monday! It’ll be a fantastic addition—sensory rooms support children’s focus, calm, and emotional well-being. After a year of fundraising, with our final event being The Masked Teacher, we’re excited to see the finished room in September!

🛠️ EY Playground – Outdoor Classroom and New Reading Huts!
Exciting changes are coming to our Early Years playground! The current reading hut and outdoor play hut will be replaced by two brand-new huts, funded by Anthem. In addition, Friends of JKPS (FoJKPS) will be funding three more huts, along with additional outdoor learning resources and equipment to help make the most of the new spaces, which together will create an open-plan classroom and multifunctional outdoor learning space.

This new setup will enhance both play and learning opportunities for our youngest pupils, supporting creativity, collaboration, and exploration in a great outdoor environment.

🏅 JKPS Sports Day

Sports Day was a great success with the weather holding but not too hot! The Friends have been pleased to support this year’s Fishing Net Medals—Our Ocean Tokens—are made from discarded fishing nets, recycled by Plastix, a company committed to protecting our oceans through sustainable solutions.

To help reduce waste and the number of medals needed each year, families who do not wish to keep their medals are kindly asked to return them for reuse. A collection box will be available at the reception desk from 17 July to 30 September.

📚 Library Revamp
Some parents dodged sports day and spent it in the library instead. Tidying and clearing books so that there can be some changes over the summer with new book shelves coming in. We were also pleased to add some new books from donations, and also funded by an outside organisation. Please don't forget to return read books to the library - there is a box with Ms Jodie.

There are bigger plans for next year - making sure that the library is accessible to all, as a quiet space as well as a source of books.

🍻 Oktoberfest Merch and Competition

T-Shirts and Hoodies for Oktoberfest 2025 are on sale now - please snap yourself in Oktoberfest gear and share your pictures on instragram, The furthest travelled top and most fun photo will each win a limited edition Oktoberfest Steins. Make sure you follow us on instagram: hernehill_oktoberfest and use the #mysausageshirt

🍂🍂 Autumn Term Forward Look - The Friends are already planning for the Autumn Term. We are planning to do Christmas Cards and Tea Towels ready in plenty of time for Christmas (sorry to mention in the middle of a heat wave). And dates for the diary are:

  • 👋 Wednesday 10th September - welcome (back) to JKPS drinks at West 16th
  • 🍻 Saturday 20th September - Oktoberfest - the biggest fundraiser for the school, please share the date on local notice boards and whatsapp groups
  • 🏮Friday 14th November - St Martin's Lantern Festival
  • 🎄Friday 5th December - Wreath Making
  • 🧑‍🎄Saturday 6th December - St Nikolas and the Winter Fair

 

Key Dates

Click here for dates for Academic Year 2025-26 

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