Holly Bear
Holly Bear has had a fabulous summer visiting all kinds of places including The Amazon River, Peru, Brazil, sun flower fields, Thailand, Japan, Mauritius, Canada and Rioja in Spain, Odessa and the Eastern Pyrenees on a motorbike tour! If you have any pictures of Holly Bear from the summer – please email them to Mrs Pelham or to the school office.
Sensory Tactile Games
We are asking parents and carers for any donations of sensory mats, boards, games or books that could be useful at school for our SEND children with sensory needs. If you have anything like the pictures below and no longer need them we would be very grateful for them.
Barnet Street Tag Scheme
Holly Park is taking part in a Barnet initiative called Street Tag. Street Tag encourgaes schools to compete against each other while encouraging pupils, families, and staff to be more active through everyday walking, cycling, wheeling, and other forms of physical activity.
What is Street Tag? Street Tag is a free app-based activity program that rewards participants for being physically active. Users earn points by walking, cycling, wheeling, and collecting virtual tags, helping schools climb the leaderboard while promoting healthier and more active lifestyles within the school community. Each participating school can have up to 250 members on its team. This can include pupils, parents and carers, teachers and school staff, grandparents, other family members or individuals with a close connection to the school. There will be prizes for both school teams and individuals. The Barnet Schools Leader board will run from 22nd Sept to 17th Nov 2026 (ending at 1 pm)
*This is NOT encouraging children to have their own phones – parents can log the street tag info on their phone
Please help Holly Park to get first place: 1st Place School: £150 plus a second-hand bike market delivered by PedalUK, where all proceeds raised will go to the school 2nd Place School: £100 3rd Place School: £75 4th & 5th Place Schools: £50
How to add a child account: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hrJeACF4kA8
If you have any questions – please speak to Mrs Thomas.
Special Lunch Day – Thursday 1st October
Olive Dining will be offering a special Favourites Menu for Census Day, featuring some of the students’ most-loved dishes. Alongside this, they are also running a fun pupil engagement activity, giving children who eat a school lunch on that day the chance to win one of three prizes.
Three lucky children who have lunch that day will be selected completely at random. The prizes include: • Cinema vouchers • Book vouchers
Here are the menus: 1st October
RE Meeting (CHANGE OF DATE)
There will be a meeting for parents about the new RE curriculum on Monday 5th October at 9am in the school hall. The meeting will be led by Ms Sampson (Assistant Head for Curriculum) and Ms Nichols (RE Lead). Please do come along if you would like to find out more or have questions.
Reception Phonics Meeting
There will be a meeting for Reception parents on Friday 25th September at 9am in the school hall. This will cover how we teach phonics and how parents can support at home. This will be led by Mrs Moore (Phonics Lead)
PHSE & RSHE Meeting
There will be a meeting for parents about PHSE at Holly Park on Friday 2nd October at 9am in the school hall. The meeting will be led by Mrs Pelham (Headteacher) and Mrs Mehtar (Assistant Head for Personal Development). Please do come along if you would like to find out more or have questions.
Oracy in the Curriculum Meeting (CHANGE OF DATE)
This will be on Monday 9th November at 9am in the hall. Miss Sampson (Assistant Head for Curriculum) will explain why Oracy is so important for learning and will share strategies that we use at school.
ADHD Coffee Morning
As part of our ongoing engagement with parents of carers we will be holding an ADHD Workshop on Thursday 8th October at 9am delivered by Lucy Baker (Lead Advisory Teacher for the Inclusion Advisory Team) and Mrs Kelly (Assistant Head for Inclusion)
Year 1 Phonics Meeting
There will be a meeting for Year 1 parents on Friday 16th October at 9am in the school hall. This will cover how we teach phonics, the upcoming national phonics check for all Year 1 children and how parents can support at home. This will be led by Mrs Moore (Phonics Lead)
Year 6 National Assessment Meeting
On Monday 19th October there will be a meeting for Year 6 parents at 9am in the school hall to share information about what is involved in the Year 6 National tests. This will be led by Mrs Pelham (Headteacher) and the Year 6 class teachers.
School Journey Meeting – (Year 4 parents)
There will be a meeting on Wednesday 21st October at 9am in the hall for current Year 4 parents. This meeting will be about the upcoming residential trip to Cuffley Camp – for September 2027 when the children will be in Year 5. The meeting will share important information and also cover deposits and payment plans. The meeting will be led by Mrs Kelly (Assistant head for Inclusion)
Maisy
On Tuesday Maisy our school dog was 10 years old! She received a soft balloon toy and a bag of my favourite dog treats. She went to the KS1 assembly and all the children sang her happy birthday (quietly so she wouldn’t get a fright).
Looking for a Reception Place for September 2027?
If you or any of your family, friends or neighbours are looking for their child to start school in September 2027 then please come and join us on a tour to find out more.
Call the school office to book your place Thursday 24th September 1.30pm Friday 9th October 10.45am Wednesday 4th November 10.45am Monday 16th November 1.30pm Thursday 3rd December 1.30pm Monday 11th January 10.45am
Harvest Festival
Advance notice that we will be holding our Harvest assembly on Tuesday 13th October for Food Bank Aid. The theme for this term’s Food Bank Aid school collections is ‘Breakfast’, encouraging pupils to help everyone in our North London community to start their day with energy and focus. They are asking schools to concentrate on collecting oats, porridge, cereal and cereal bars.
Attendance
Whole school attendance for last week was 98% Well done to Y1 Chestnut Class with the best attendance at 100%.
Dates
- Wednesday 23rd September Y5 to Cuffley Camp
- Friday 25th September Reception phonics meeting for parents 9am
- Monday 28th September Y6 to Norfolk Lakes
- Monday 5th October Meeting for all parents: Curriculum
- Monday 5th October NSPCC workshops for Y6,5 and 2
- Thursday 8th October Coffee Morning 9am
- Monday 12th October Walk to school week
- Tuesday 13th October Harvest Festival
- Friday 16th October Y1 phonics meeting for parents at 9am
- Friday 16th October Just One Tree Day
- Monday 19th October Y6 National Assessment meeting for parents at 9am
- Wednesday 21st October Meeting for Y4 parents about Cuffley camp 2027
- Thursday 22nd October Y1 Little City workshops
- Thursday 22nd October Y6 to Imperial War Museum
- Friday 23rd October Be Bright Be Seen Day
There is a facility to translate this newsletter and the whole school website at the bottom of the website home page.
Introduction letter – September 2026