Newsletter - 26th January 2024

Furze Platt Infant School

Brilliant Beginnings for 2024!

Wow! We've certainly had a great start to 2024 and the Spring Term! Our children have settled back into school after the holidays and have been busy learning - with some Brilliant Beginnings to our projects for the Spring Term, as you will see if you read on below.

The launch of our after school library sessions has been very exciting as well - with lots of children and families enjoying visiting and borrowing books to read and share at home. We are currently in the process of compiling a new wish list of books to make sure our library has a good variety of non-fiction (particularly those topics relating to our projects in school), as well as fiction texts - including upcoming and new releases. Equally, we would be very grateful for donations of books for the library - particularly information/non-fiction titles, in good condition. If you do have any books which would be suitable, please send in via the school office. Thank you :)

Following on from the message sent by Mr Wallace earlier this week, thank you to those parents and families who are helping to keep our children safe on their way into school by adhering to our expectations regarding road/footpath safety. Unfortunately, issues with traffic and parking at drop off and pick up times continue to be causing concerns for many within our school and local community on a regular basis. Nothing can be more important than ensuring our children have a safe and happy journey to and from school each day. RBWM have provided further guidance and information on this subject which we have added towards the end of this newsletter. Thank you in advance for your co-operation and support.

The Department For Education have launched a new toolkit for schools aimed at improving children's' attendance in school. The campaign strapline is “moments matter, attendance counts”. We will be sharing some of the key points, resources and expectations from this over this academic year. For now, please do remember that it is not only the academic learning that children lose not being in school, it is also the enrichment days and activities as well as the social interactions and development of friendships that are so key to a child's time at school. On average, if a child misses the equivalent of half a day a week that leaves their attendance at 90% (our school target is 97% and our current average is 96%). A child with 90% attendance over the year would miss the equivalent to 19 days of school being missed, nearly 4 full weeks! It is clear that "moments matter".

I am very pleased to let you know that we have added a new date to the diary for our Jump Start Jonny visit which was postponed due to injury. JSJ will now be coming to FPIS on Tuesday 26th March - meaning we have a few more weeks to practise and perfect our routines! Other upcoming diary dates are below, including our next Busy Learning sessions and Early Years Mastering Number parent workshops. We hope you can join us!

Have a lovely weekend.

With very best wishes

Jane Indge

Head of School

Staffing Update

We are very pleased to have welcomed Mrs Sam, our new Lunchtime Controller and Teaching Assistant to our FPIS team this term. Mrs Sam will be working in Year 2 :)

Emergency School Closure Procedure

We seem to be in slightly better and less worrying weather right now but we all know that can change quickly. Closing the school is always the last resort but, in the event of the school needing to close, we will send out an App message as well as displaying a scroll message on our website to inform everyone that the school is closed. In line with the borough's procedures, we will also notify the borough and they will list our school as closed on their website and through their communication channels.

Quick Links

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Curriculum

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Term Dates

Well-being

Calendar

Diary dates - coming up soon!

Here is a look at what's going to be happening in school during the next few weeks...

Wednesday 31st January - Year 2 Busy Learning Afternoon: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Thursday 1st February - Year 1 Busy Learning Afternoon: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Friday 2nd February - NSPCC Number Day

Friday 2nd February - Early Years Busy Learning Afternoon: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Thursday 8th February - Primary dance Festival (Beech Class): 9:00 am - 2:30 pm

Friday 9th February - Term ends

Friday 9th February - FPSA Adult Disco: 8pm - 11pm

Monday 12th - Friday 16th February - Half term holiday (school closed)

Monday 19th February - Term starts

Tuesday 20th February - Early Years Mastering Number Parent Workshop: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Thursday 22nd February - Early Years Mastering Number Parent Workshop: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Friday 8th March - World Book Day

Monday 11th March - Parents' Evening booking system opens @ 8:00 am

Friday 15th March - Red Nose Day for Comic Relief

Friday 15th March - Parents' Evening bookings close @ 4:00 pm

Monday 18th March - Parents' Evening: 3:40 - 7:00 pm

Wednesday 20th March - Parents' Evening: 3:40 - 7:00 pm

Friday 22nd March - FPSA Happy School Bags Collection

Friday 22nd March - FPSA Quiz Night @ 8:00 pm

Tuesday 26th March - Jump Start Jonny visit!

Wednesday 27th March - FPSA AGM

Thursday 28th March - Year 1 Marketplace event @ 9:15 am

Thursday 28th March - Term ends

School Attendance

SAM - our School Attendance Mascot, is our FPIS teddy bear who helps our children think about why it is so important to attend school every day.

Our children are busy learning right from the start of the day, so being in class on time each morning matters just as much too. Registration begins at 8:50am and we expect all children to be in class by 9:00am.

Each week, during our Celebration Assembly, the attendance figures are shared. The class with the best attendance overall gets to look after SAM until the following week.

This week, SAM will be visiting Holly Class as they had the best attendance overall with an impressive 98.3%. Well done!

Our latest school attendance figures for each class are shown in the table. Our school attendance target is: 97%

You can read our full Attendance Policy here.

Holly 98.3%

Hazel 98.0%

Dragonfly 97.4%

Willow 97.0%

Silver Birch 95.3%

Bumblebee 94.7%

Caterpillar 94.3%

Beech 93.3%

Oak 91.3%

To register your interest please see flyer on the school's website: https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/furze-platt-infant-school/UploadedDocument/ef3df236-7a1d-4263-a1c9-009e65aba14e/wm-inclusion-summit-19-dec-23-1.pdf

FPIS SEND Signpost

FPPF Well-Being Warriors

Our two schools have combined together to create a team of Well-Being Warriors with the aim to focus on well-being for the children, staff and our families.

The staff team has representatives from different roles across the schools - Mrs Barker, Mrs Singh, Mr Wallace, Mrs B and Mr Lutteman (FPJS) and they are joined by five year 6 pupils who have recently completed Royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Well-Being Champions training.

We will be sharing our plans in newsletters but we wanted to let you know a few of our upcoming events and ideas aimed at supporting our children’s’ Mental Health and Well-Being.

Firstly, we will be organising a special day during National Children’s Mental Week (5th-11th February) for the children to take part in sessions such as Mindfulness and Yoga. The theme this year is ‘My Voice Matters’ and assemblies and sessions will be focused on this theme. More information to follow.

We will also be launching our new FPPF Well-Being Challenges, based around the main six pillars of well-being; Take Notice, Give, Learn, Active, Care and Connect. More information will follow on how you and your child can take part in challenges through the year to not only gain rewards in school but also help support each and everyone’s well-being.

For families, we want to draw your attention to our websites where we have some information that may be of use to you. We will be adding to this as the year progresses so please do send in any links or information that you feel may be useful to other families.

Finally, please do remember that there is always someone here if you need to talk to someone or need someone’s help. Mrs B, our Family Support worker, is always happy to meet with families to help them through challenges in their lives, especially at this time of year. The festive season can be difficult for some families so please do seek support if you need it.

Our library is now OPEN after school!

It has been wonderful to see so many children and families visiting our school library during our new after school sessions. The books have literally been flying off the shelves!

Thanks to the support of our volunteer librarians - Mrs Green; Mrs Johns and Mr Thompson our library will be open after school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays until 3:30 pm.

If you would like to get involved with our school library and help to run our after school sessions, please get in touch via the school office for more information.

Super Swimmers!

The Lions Club Swimarathon 2024 took place on Sunday 14th January. Seven teams from the Infant and Junior schools took part, swimming in relay for 50 minutes. The teams swam a whopping 320 laps, which is 16km!!!

At the time of writing, these swimmers have raised over £1800 which will be split between local charities and our schools. Our congratulations to everyone involved on such a fantastic achievement!

A massive thank you to Mrs Parkinson for organising such a fabulous federation wide event. We were delighted to welcome Mrs Parkinson to our Celebration Assembly this afternoon, when she presented the children with their certificates.

Early Years

We were excited to welcome back our Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly to some super cold weather which fitted in perfectly with our project on 'Winter!' The children explored lots of changes that they could notice during our winter walk around the school. They spotted; spider webs, ice and lots of bare trees, along with lots more winter observations! Our Early Years children were eager to carry out an ice experiment where they recorded if the water was 'solid, ice' or 'liquid, water' through a tally chart.

Last week the children begun their new project 'All About Animals'! They have explored the story of 'Dear Zoo' through props and actions. The children re-told the story together as a class in sequence using actions and words. Following this, the Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly children have created their very own story map of 'Dear Zoo' over three days, concentrating on the beginning, middle and end.

In Early Years this week we have been discovering more about different animal characteristics. The children have impressed us with their brilliant descriptive language when creating their own What am I? puzzles. They have enjoyed sharing their clues and guessing each others chosen animals.

Our marvellous maths Mondays have been setting our children up for a fun week of exploring maths in a variety of creative ways! Over the past few weeks our children have been exploring ABAB patterns through copying patterns with objects or sounds. We have had a focus on using mathematical language to describe pattern and shape in our environment. The children have had fun looking out for Tiny's mistakes and using their words to explain how they know it is a mistake!

Early Years - Brilliant Beginning!

Our Bumblebee's, Caterpillar's, Dragonfly's and Early Years staff all arrived at school last Friday dressed up as their favourite animal to launch our Brilliant Beginning 'All about Animals'! The children enjoyed exploring their chosen animal by creating their own observational drawings, reading the non-fiction animal books and by trying to move their body in the way their animal moves. They created a class 'animal movement video' where they acted like their chosen animal, thinking about the movements, body posture and the noises that they make! We are looking forward to lots more animal fun during our project!

Early Years - Balaceability!

Our Bumblebee's, Caterpillar's and Dragonfly's have started their Balanceability lessons this term. They have been practising their balance and coordination skills through games, obstacles and riding the balance bikes. Two trained coaches are delivering the sessions throughout this term on our new bike track. Our Early Years children are having lots of fun and we can already see great progress in their knowledge and skills.

Year 1

We launched our new project, Emergency! during the week of our Brilliant Beginning where we dressed up as all different kinds of emergency workers. The children had great fun dressing up as police officers, fire fighters, nurses, paramedics, doctors, vets, a lifeguard and an Environment Agency Worker. So far they have looked at the vital role of paramedics and also the importance of the RNLI and the Coastguard.

In computing they have been learning how to debug an algorithm, beginning by making jam sandwiches! They discovered how important it is to follow the instructions in the correct order. This new skill was then applied to debugging an algorithm in order to program a Bee-Bot to move from one location on a map to another. In DT they have been exploring how wheels move on an axle and designing their own emergency vehicle.

This term in maths we have been busy applying our knowledge of numbers to 10 to numbers up to 20, counting forwards and backwards. They have explored many different ways these numbers can be represented in classroom equipment, pictures, numerals and words.

Year 1 Paramedic Visit

Last week Year 1 received a special visit from Paramedics John and Dani. They began by quizing us about which type of accidents you would call an ambulance for called, 'Big or Little Accident?' Next they demonstrated how they use their special equipment, such as a heart rate monitor, a neck brace, a box splint, a hi-vis jacket and helmet. In preparation for the visit Year 1 had worked really hard thinking about and writing appropriate questions to ask them. John and Dani very patiently answered all of their brilliant questions. We are very grateful for their time and for all of the awe-inspiring work that they do. Thank you also to Miss Pocock for arranging this visit.

Year 1 RNLI Visit

On Tuesday Mary from the RNLI came to talk to the Year 1 children about the invaluable work that they do all year round. We learnt that the busiest lifeboat station is at Tower on the River Thames in London. We also found out that the type of boat that is launched is dependent upon the water and weather conditions. Mary also talked about the importance of staying safe around water. She showed us all of the different flags and warning signs that can be found at the beach or near a river. We have been busy writing about the work of the RNLI and the HM Coastguard. A big "thank you" to Mary for telling us all about the amazing work that the RNLI do!

Wayne Dixon visits Year 1

This term our key question in RE is 'Was it always easy for Jesus to show friendship?' Wayne visited us last week to tell us the story of Zacchaeus from The Bible. After telling us the story he told it again through rap, which the children enjoyed joining in with. Many thanks to Wayne for helping us to think about our key question and for visitiing us. We look forward to his next visit!

Year 2

Wow! What a Brilliant Beginning the Year 2 children have had with their Spring project: Fire, Fire!

We had an exciting start as we went outside onto the playground and discovered that there were lots of unusual markings and signs that a dragon had visited our playground! We became dragon detectives examining all of the clues left behind and imagined what sort of dragon it might have been. We have been busy designing our own dragons, thinking carefully about their features and sharing some of the ideas that people have had about dragons in the past and the stories told about them.

We have thought about the many purposes of fire and what fire needs to burn. We have also explored warm and cool colours by creating our own colour wheels and relating this sticky knowledge to thinking about the ingredients for a stew fit for a dragon!

We also had an exciting Outdoor Learning session and what better way to launch our 'Fire, Fire!' project than toasting crumpets on a camp fire?! We had a great time toasting the crumpets and having a tea party with butter and jam. As well as toasting crumpets we built different habitats for a dragon and created our own muddy dragon stew.

As part of our computing curriculum we have also been retrieving knowledge we learnt in Year 1 about alogirthms and using this to complete a range of challenges with our Blue-Bots.

Focusing on our music sticky knowledge we have been learning how to perform a song thinking carefully about how to use our voices correctly and play the correct notes on a glockenspiel.

Finally, we have been busy transforming into authors planning and writing our own stories about a dragon coming into our school.

The Great Big Dinosaur Show!

On the first day of term, Poet Simon Mole came to visit year 2, along with musician Gecko. They showed the group a sneak preview of The Great Big Dinosaur Show, and the children gave feedback and ideas that will help shape the development of the show – what an exciting opportunity to be involved in professional creative process!

The final production will be on at Norden Farm during February half-term (Tuesday 13th) and you can get tickets here: https://norden.farm/events/the-great-big-dinosaur-show

Nurture Group

In nurture, the children have had a great start to 2024 and have been very busy over the last 3 weeks, starting with an ice cube experiment. We placed ice in different items like sugar, salt, foil or tissue and in different areas such as by a radiator or outside to see which would melt the quickest and slowest. Next, we talked about friendships and what qualities you might look for in a friend. This included talking about what makes a good friend and how a friend makes you feel good. Finally, we finished with a fun winter scavenger hunt in the woodlands on a chilly Friday afternoon.

We have been focusing on the year 1 topic 'Emergency', including making a paramedic and some emergency vehicles, and the year 2 topic 'Fire! Fire!', making fire-breathing dragons and labelled parts of a dragon.

Eco Team

January is a time for Eco council to think about how we can save energy as all need to keep warm so we have been thinking about how we can reduce our use of energy. During our meeting the council had some super ideas.

We are going to make sure that lights are turned off when they are not needed, doors are closed to keep the classrooms warm. We also need to make sure that we wear suitable clothing and wrap up warm when we are outside.

Our challenge to everyone is to see if we can all reduce our use of energy this week!

Well done to all the children who brought in batteries to recycle after the Christmas period, do keep bringing them in. During our next meeting we will be counting them again and will let you know the good news!

Awesome achievements!

We love finding out about and celebrating our children's achievements outside of school!

If your child has an achievement that they are very proud of and would like to share with us all, they will get the opportunity to do so during our Celebration Assembly on a Friday.

Congratulations to Sienna who completed her tennis Winter challenge consisting of forehand, backhand and volleying skills. Well done!

Well done to Matthew who has been awarded not one but two medals in Football! "I got them because I did some great behaviour." Great job Matthew!

Well done to Sienna for swimming 400 metres freestyle in nine minutes! Congratulations we are very proud of you!

Oona was awarded a purple belt in Kickboxing and had to break boards and a variety of punches and kicks for her achievement- great job!

Isla passed her grading to be awarded a green tag by performing the kickboxing skills she has been busy learning. Well done Isla!

Isla-Rose took part in the Swimarathon to raise money for charity. She swam an amazing 400m!

Barney received a medal for working hard and concentration when learning to ski. What an awesome athlete!

Jairaaj completed a grading at kickboxing and was awarded a red tag. Keep up the hard work, Jairaaj!

Congratulations to Ben for receiving a football medal for all of his hard work! Well done Ben, keep it up!

Well done to Lucy for completing her sewing club! What a brilliant skill to have. We are very proud of you!

Well done to Kara who has been awarded her first certificate in gymnastics. "I did good cartwheels and I did good listening!" Well done Kara.

Well done to Gigi who has received a certificate in gymnastics. "I got this for completing my first gymnastics lesson and for doing good cartwheels, handstands and bridges!" Great work, we are very proud of you!

Well done to Lucy who has been given a gymnastics certificate. "I got this for doing good handstands and cartwheels on the beam." Great job Lucy!

Lillie is proudly sharing her gymnastics certificate. "I got this for doing really good cartwheels." Well done Lillie!

Well done to Mariam for receiving her red belt in Kickboxing. "I had to hold myself properly, do my one and two moves and do some high kicks." Well done superstar!

Congratulations to Freya who was awarded her red and yellow tags at the recent kickboxing grading. Well done we are very proud of you!

Nicole is proudly sharing her three medals! "I got one for doing good swimming, the next one I got for listening to my teachers and the last one was for making new friends." Well done Nicole we are really proud of you!

Well done to Freya who received a Star of the Week certificate for her amazing handstands at her gymnastics club! Congratulations, keep up the hard work!

Jack achieved his level 1 certificate and badge in his swimming class last week. He was over the moon to show it off during assembly using his big, brave voice! Well done Jack.

Well done to Asees who achieved two certificates! One was for 'Poppet of the week' and the other was a level 4 super swimming certificate! Keep it up Asees!

Alexandra received the Star of the Week in gymnastics. She has been working really hard and is able to do some amazing handstands. Well done!

Well done to Kara who has been awarded another certificate in gymnastics. "I got this for doing good handstands." She has also been awarded two badges from Scouts "One for doing creativity and the other for teamwork." You have been busy Kara, great job!

Well done to Florence for receiving a merit in her recent ballet class examination! She has been trying really hard to learn new skills. Congratulations, we are very proud of you!

Congratulations Harriet for completing 11 park runs, which is equivalent to half a marathon. "I'm going towards a marathon now!" Well done, we are very proud of you!

Congratulations Florence for receiving Star of the Week in gymnastics. "I did good listening." Well done!

Olivia concentrated hard, performed wonderful barre work and passed her ballet exam with flying colours to achieve distinction! What an awesome athlete!

Well done to Maisie for receiving Star of the Week in gymnastics! Maisie impressed her coaches with her one-handed cartwheel and excellent listening. Well done superstar!

Well done Sara for taking part in a Swimarathon for charity! What an amazing achievement and a brilliant effort!

Well done Bella-Rose for receiving a certificate in gymnastics for your amazing cartwheels! What an excellent achievement!

Congratulations to Indra for passing his grading and being promoted to Red Tag in kickboxing. Well done, Indra!

Congratulations Frances for your amazing teamwork and also for projecting your voice in drama club. Well done we are very proud of you!

Well done Sarayu for being Star of the Week in gymnastics! "I did good cartwheels." Congratulations we are very proud of you!

Well done Frances for completing level 1 in swimming! You have been working on learning lots of new skills. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Isla for being given a medal to reward her great team work in rugby!

House Points

Head of School Awards

Every Friday, during our whole school Celebration Assembly, Head of School awards are given out to a child or children in each class. The certificates are presented by Mrs Indge to those children who have consistently demonstrated excellent behaviours for learning.

Head of School Awards 26th January 2024.pdf

SuperPoWeR Awards

Miss Dexter pops on her Superhero cape each week during Celebration Assembly to present our SuperPoWeR awards. The awards are given to children who have been demonstrating excellent behaviour through our school values of Passion, Well being and Respect.

Book Bingo

Every week, during our Head of School Assembly, a bingo ball is selected from our special red bag. The bingo balls are numbered 1 - 30. Each child in Year 1 and 2 with the corresponding register number to the ball chosen will have the opportunity to bring their Maths book and Project scrapbook to share with Mrs Indge and Miss Dexter later that week. During the Book Bingo session, the children spend time looking through the books together with the adults, whilst discussing and explaining what they have been busy learning about.

FPSA update

A happy new year to all parents and carers at both schools from the FPSA! We look forward to seeing you at our different events in 2024.

Foreign Currency Collection

The FPSA (and their little helpers) have been collecting unwanted currency (notes and coins) during 2 days this week. Many thanks to those of you that have donated. The collection buckets are now in both school receptions until after February half term and you can make donations at any time during that period.

Dates for your diary

Disco Night - Friday 9th February (8pm - 11pm)

It's disco time for the grown ups! Join us at the Junior School as DJs Sawle and King bang out some 80s, 90s and 00s classic hits! There will be a licensed bar. Doors open at 7.15pm. It promises to be a fun night!

Book tickets (£10pp) at www.pta-events.co.uk/fpsa

Happy School Bags Collection - Friday 22nd March (drop off)

Bring your bags filled with unwanted clean clothes to help raise funds for both schools. You can leave bags at the Infants gates between 8.30am and 9am.

Mr T's Quiz Night - Friday 22nd March (8pm - 10.30pm)

The FPSA quiz night is back! Join us at the Junior School hall for a fun evening as we raise money for both schools whilst testing our general knowledge and having a drink or two. The quiz includes 4 picture rounds, a music round, a connections round and another mystery round. Book tickets at www.pta-events.co.uk/fpsa. Enter as a full team of 6 or come along as an individual/pair and we will join you with another friendly team on the night. Tickets include lovely food from Palmieri's. A licensed bar will be available.

Look out for further details soon on how you can help raise £500 for both schools simply be having a board outside your house advertising the quiz night. We have teamed up again with Oakwood Estates and you don't even need to be attending the quiz night to help out.

FPSA AGM - Wednesday 27th March (8pm - 9pm)

Come and find out about our fundraising in 2023 and hear from the school heads about what they have spent FPSA money on and what is on their wish list for 2024. Everyone is welcome. We would love to have new members join the team so this is a perfect opportunity to meet us, find out more and hopefully join us!

Summer Fair - Saturday 22nd June (11.30am - 2.30pm)

Fun for all the family at our biggest fund-raising event of the year.

Useful Information for Parents and Families

Springbucks Gymnastics Feb & Easter Camp 2024.pdf

P4S_topic_list_Jan2024.pdf

Saturday Rainbows with Girlguiding Maidenhead has space for your daughter

Rainbows - a fun and exciting programme for girls aged four to seven, it is all about developing self-confidence, building friendships, learning new things and having fun. Girls get their hands dirty with arts and crafts, get in touch with nature and play games - it's all about learning by doing. Rainbows follow a diverse and engaging programme and take part in lots of different activities with girls their own age.

We run on a Saturday morning from 9:30 to 12:00, every three weeks in term time and look forward to hearing from you.

Find out more: Rainbows (4-7) | Girlguiding

Regards, Angela

Snowy, Sky, Minnie Mouse, Eagle & Sunshine

1st Furze Platt Rainbows Leadership Team
07484 701507

GEMS Autism parentcarer online support session - 2024 (1).pdf

poster 2.pdf

Sheet Street Surgery Commuity Health Initiative -Healtheir Together October 2023 .pdf

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