Furze Platt Infant School
Newsletter - 20th July 2022
Summer Holidays are here!
What a wonderful year we have had in our school! It has been great to see how well our children have progressed during what has, for the most-part been a 'normal' school year. They have grown in so many ways and we are all very proud of what they have achieved this year. This is in no small measure due to the incredible support we have had from our parents and families of course. We are really very fortunate to be part of such a fantastic community! Thank you all for helping us to make this year so successful. Many thanks also for the many kind words, cards and gifts we have received over the past few days. They are very much appreciated by us all :)
On a peresonal note, I cannot thank our hard working and dedicated staff team enough for all their efforts. Once again, they have all gone above and beyond to make sure every child in our school has the best possible start to their learning journey, filled with so many exciting and engaging experiences. I am proud to have such a brilliant team to work alongside!
As you will know, we have said goodbye to Mrs Magan today. It has been a pleasure to have Mrs Magan as part of our Year 1 team and we all wish her the very best for the future.
As this year comes to an end, it is food for thought for us all, perhaps, as we think of the reasons behind our school closures this year. Windy weather - and of course the recent heatwave are signs that we all need to be doing much more to look after our planet. Learning about climate change and what we can do to help is very much part of our curriculum and our ethos here at FPIS and moving forward into next year this will, quite rightly, become an even bigger focus. As you will read below, we are very pleased to have submitted our evidence towards achieving our Eco Schools Green Flag award and we will look forward to sharing more news on our progress with this next year.
Despite the heatwave, we have celebrated the end of our academic year with some amazing events in school... as you will see from the many articles in this edition of our newsletter!
I am sure that we are all very much looking forward to the summer break - whatever the weather may bring! Thank you once again for your continued support. I would like to wish you all a very happy, safe and restful summer holiday! :)
Jane Indge
Head of School
A message from our
Chair of Governors
At the end of every school year as governors, we take time to reflect on what the schools have achieved and what we could have done to make things even better, both collectively and through our individual efforts. We look at our goals from the previous year and reflect on what we have achieved.
It has been great to have been in school for a whole year after the previous two years of lockdowns and remote learning. During our school visits it has been really inspiring to see a real hunger and enthusiasm to learn. It is infectious and in no small part down to our great team of teachers. Seeing them in action, witnessing the skill and dedication they bring into the classroom on ‘just another day at the office’ is truly inspiring for the future generation of learners.
FPPF is a family, and the work of the support staff is equally important in making the school what it is. We are, as governors consistently impressed by how well the schools are run. At the time of writing, I’m looking forward to attending all the events which the end of the academic year brings, performances, assemblies and so on.
Our continued thanks must also go to FPSA who provide that extra amount of funding to provide the pupils with the best environment possible within the school.
Can I also on behalf of you all thank Mr. Wallace and the whole staff for another amazing year, we hope that everyone enjoys their summer break and we look forward to the new academic year with great hopes and plans to continue the great work of our schools.
Derek Moss
Chair of the FPPF Governing Body
Diary dates - coming up in 2022/23!
Here is a brief look at what's going to be happening in school in the new academic year...
Thursday 1st September : INSET day (school closed)
Friday 2nd September: Term starts (Year 1 and 2 ONLY)
Friday 2nd September: School visits for Early Years children and families
Monday 5th September: School visits for Early Years children and families
Tuesday 6th September: School visits for Early Years children and families
Wednesday 7th September: Early Years children start school - morning session
Friday 23rd September: Early Years Information session for Parents and Busy Learning Afternoon
Early Years News
Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have had a busy last few weeks in Early Years. To finish our project on Journeys we took part in an art workshop, 'Our Town Map' where we were able to create a whole class masterpiece using shapes, pattern and colour. Following this we had our Busy Learning afternoon where we challenged the children and their grown ups to create a London landmark using reclaimed materials. The children were thrilled to have this afternoon with their parents and we were extremely impressed with all of the fantastic models. We shared this at our Early Years Exhibition at the end of the week. Thank you to everyone that attended this fabulous event.
Last week the children visited their new classes and the Year 1 Team. They we able to meet their new teachers, have a go at some activities and ask lots of questions. They all came back full of excitement and eager to return!
Yesterday we celebrated our Early Years Graduation with parents and the Early Years Team. They came in dancing and took turns to receive their graduation certificates from Mrs Indge. The children performed their songs brilliantly and made us all extremely proud. Well done Early Years, you have been an absolute pleasure this year and we wish you all a fantastic Summer break.
Stop Motion Workshop
On Monday 4th July the children in Year 2 enjoyed a Stop Motion Workshop provided by Farm out Funding from Norden Farm. We had to create our own characters associated with sport and really concentrate to make sure that we could cut each body part out individually to help it move during the animation process. We then used iPads to create a mini animation including our character. We had an amazing time and made some fantastic animations.
Year 1 Excellent Ending
Year 1 did a superb job of performing the songs they have learnt and showcasing their over-flowing scrapbooks at their Excellent Ending on Tuesday. It was wonderful to see just how much they have learnt about different climates, cultures and explorers over the 'We're Going On An Adventure' project and we know their new found love of the environment will hold fast for years to come. Thank you to everyone who came to support us!
FPJS Lunch visit for Year 2 children
On Wednesday 6th July the Year 2 children visited FPJS for lunch. We ate our lunch in the hall and learnt the routines we will be following in September and then got to play on the Year 3 playground. We had a great time!
Family Boat Building Fun
Thank you so much to those Year 2 parents who came and supported us with our Family Boat Building Fun after school on Tuesday 5th July! We had a fantastic time designing and building a range of exciting boats and then took part in a competition to see whose boats could float! We then had three winners who were chosen by Miss Aggarwal, Miss Dexter and Miss Edmondson. The winners were chosen for their effort and interesting design. Everyone went home a winner though, with a prize for taking part. Well done everyone involved!
Commonwealth Baton Relay
Two of our Year 2 children were nominated for showing outstanding attributes throughout Year 2 to participate in the Windsor and Maidenhead Commonwealth Games Baton Relay. To begin with they were invited to welcome the actual baton into Maidenhead and form a Guard of Honour with other baton bearers within the borough. Then on Tuesday 12th July the Year 2 children lined the school driveway ready to cheer the school Commonwealth Baton arriving from Alwyn Primary School. Then Benj and Aaman collected the baton and ran it to Courthouse Junior School where they presented the baton and shared their Commonwealth message written by Holly Class. They did an amazing job and were fantastic role models for FPIS. Huge thanks to Miss Thompson for helping with the baton transportation too!
Simon Mole Poetry Visit: Year 2
We were once again very excited to take part in Simon Mole's poetry workshop. We were fortunate enough to be some of the first children in the world to hear Simon read his brand new story, I Love My CAT based on his childhood cat Tom. He then guided us through how to write our own cat themed poem by playing around with words and phrases in a fun and inspirational way, even turning us into cats (as you can see from the pictures)! We then listened to children from other schools who shared their poems and shared our own poems with our friends. We had lots of fun and it inspired us to be creative writers!
Year 2 Disco
On Friday 15th the Year 2 children enjoyed their leavers disco organised by the FPSA. We all had a great time dancing, playing musical statues and LOUDLY singing into the microphone. DJ Dexter was on hand to play some music and the Year 2 staff showed off their dance moves too. We all enjoyed the much needed snack break (dancing and singing is thirsty work!!) Jumpstart Jonny even made an appearance too!
Huge thanks to the FPSA for organising a great event!
Eddie the Penguin Saves the World!
What do you get when you have a DJ, Prime Minister, a polar bear called Peggy and a penguin called Eddie?! A FANTASTIC show! Year 2 ended their 'Wonderful Water' project in style with their end of year production. They worked extremely hard learning songs and lines, lots of rehearsals and behind the scenes set preparation. The children put on three fantastic shows to their parents and shared some very important messages they have learnt throughout the year. Thank you to all of you who came and supported us!
FPPF logo competition!
As mentioned by Mr Wallace in his feedback regarding our recent School Uniform Survey, some parents raised the point of having to buy new uniform between Year 2 and 3. This is due, as you know, to the fact that although we are a Federation, we are still two schools and we have two logos. Whilst this has always been the case, it is an area that we would like to look at.
So, this is where we would like your help. Are you creative? Do have you amazing ideas? Then see below for a way in which you can help our schools.
FPPF logo competition details:
We would like ideas for a Federation (FPPF) logo.
Suggestions:
It can link to our values of Passion – Wellbeing – Respect
It can link to our school heritage and history (the original logo was the plant, furze (another name for gorse), plaited
It can link to our community and local area
It can just be a nice symbol which represents our children; some schools use trees or such items which grow and flourish
The competition is open to all FPIS and FPJS children and families. You can draw and colour or you can use a computer to design - it is up to you.
Please can you stick to 2 colours plus a background (white, red or blue).
We would like any ideas on or before Friday 2nd September. Drawn ideas can be brought into school on the 2nd or photographed and emailed, alongside any electronically created ideas to: mikewallace@fpjs.org.uk
Thank you!
FPSA Update
The FPSA would like to say a huge thank you to all parents, carers, teaching staff, governors and children for supporting our fund-raising events in 2022. It's been a busy year so far with events including the summer fair, 2nd uniform sales, happy bags, quiz night, year 2 quiz, Friday ice-cream sales, junior discos, year 2 leavers disco, sports day t-shirt & cap sales, sports day refreshments, year 6 play refreshments and most recently the summer camp. See you in September for more fundraising fun!
Don't forget to encourage your child to keep reading over the holidays. We can't wait to hear how well our children have got on with the Summer Reading Challenge too!
Olive Room News
What a fantastic end to our first year in Olive Room. All of the children have worked extremely hard and are starting to overcome their individual obstacles. All the staff in Olive are so proud of how far they have come. We hope the children have a wonderful summer and start September refreshed for another brilliant year.
Eco Club
We have now applied for our Eco Schools Green Flag award! We would like to thank our wonderful Eco council for their wonderful support this year. They have worked incredibly hard to spread the news about the affects of climate change as well as make our school even more environmentally friendly. We are so proud of each one of you!
Nurture Group News
Last week, Nurture group spent a lovely afternoon in early years exploring their outside play equipment, Poddely. We worked as a team to plan and build lots of different things including a castle, a house and a bus.
We ended our term by decorating gingerbread, we used different colour icing and sprinkles.
Over the past term we have pictured regular updates in the newsletter showing progress of our growing plot in the front playground. You can imagine our excitement when we came in this morning to see one of our beautiful sunflowers has flowered, all the watering and nurturing has paid off .
The Nurture team would like to wish our year 2s lots of success on moving into year 3 and look forward to seeing our current year 1s in September as they move up to year 2.
House Points
House points 2021-22.1st July.pptx
Phoenix win the House Cup!
Well done to Phoenix, our red house team, for earning this most house points overall this term - an impressive 449 in total!
Awesome achievements!
We are so happy to have been able to share some of our children's fantastic achievements outside of school during our Celebration Assemblies.
Isla is really proud of her swimming certificate. She explained that she got this for completing Stage 2. "I got this for trying to swim backwards and I can jump in the pool" Well done Isla!
Max wanted to share his swimming certificate. He told everyone very confidently that he received his certificate because "I can swim 5 metres." Well done Max!
Oona was very proud to share her amazing gold medal that the got from her gymnastics class. She said "I got this for trying really hard" Well done Oona!
Amy talked about becoming a Brownie. "I made my Brownie Promise and I got my Berkshire badge, Badger group badge and my Brownie badge." Well done Amy we are very proud of you!
Jamie is extremely proud of his swimming award that he achieved. "I got it for good swimming!" Jamie has been sharing some swimming 'top tips' with his class! Super job Jamie!
Josefine received a magic set for her birthday. She worked super hard on perfecting her tricks and put on a show! We are so proud of how brave she was in front of the whole class!
Amber was part of a ballet show at the Wycombe Swan Theatre last Saturday. She performed in front of more than 100 people! She was incredibly brave and we are so proud of her! Well done Amber!
Sebby is very proud to have received 2 certificates in swimming. He has passed level 1 and said he enjoys kicking and splashing. Well done Sebby!
George is very proud of his swimming certificate and badge. He got it for swimming for "10 minutes" and also for diving under the water! Well done George!
Jasleen proudly shared her new Green Belt which has been awarded to her during her kickboxing sessions. She said "I had to do 5 side kicks without failing and had to do my stretches too. Also for showing respect to my kickboxing teacher and everyone else around me." Amazing achievement Jasleen, well done!
Elijah has received a medal from his football club. He said "I got my medal for being a good sportsman. Even when my team lost I cheered them up and I said kind words to the team that won". Great work superstar!
Megan participated in a dance show at The Wycombe Swan Theatre. She said "I had to acrobatic dancing where I have to do gymnastics and dancing together, I had to do cartwheels and make a pyramid." Well done Megan!
Rayyan is proudly displaying a keyring presented to him at the after school football club. "I got this keyring because they said that I was great at teamwork in football!" Well done Rayyan!
Skye was very fortunate to attend the National Working & Pastoral Breeds Society Semi-Finals 2022 on Saturday 16th July. She participated in Junior Handling and won lots of awards for her great effort. Well done Skye, we are very proud of you!
Harveer participates in Karate outside of school and is proudly sharing his certificate and Purple Tag he received. Well done Harveer, you have worked really hard!
Kemal proudly shared his medal for already completing the Summer Reading Challenge! He said "I had to read 9 books and one of them had 99 pages!" Well done Kemal, what a great reader you are!
Cooper was excited to share his latest swimming certificate. He was awarded it for swimming underwater for a long time and always trying his best! Well done Cooper!
Daisy proudly shared her swimming certificate. She was excited to tell us that she can now swim to the bottom of the pool and can swim for 10 minutes! Well done Daisy!
Bodie was proud to receive this medal when playing football. He was being a responsible player and helped his team when they needed it! Well done Bohdi!
Adya has been presented with a trophy for her Indian Dancing Club. She said "I have got this trophy for being the top three in my club." Well done dancing superstar!
Head of School Awards
Head of School Awards 2021-22.20th July 2022.pdfSuper-PoWeRs!
Super-PoWeR Awards 2020-21.20thJuly2022.pptx
Quick Links
Summer online safety.pdfForest Fun Holiday Club August 2022.pdfSummer events word doc.pdf
