Last Friday our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies performed their Christmas concert to their parents, carers and lots of grandparents too! They looked adorable dressed as Christmas trees, Snowmen and Reindeers which they had created for the show. The children entertained us all with their big, brave singing voices and lovely dances! It was so lovely to see how confident our Early Years  children have become already!

Well done Early Years, you put on a fabulous show and we are all incredibly proud of you!

On the 28th of November we were excited to welcome our Early Years parents and carers to our Christmas Workshop and Busy Learning afternoon. Following an 'Early Reading, Writing and Phonics' presentation in the hall our parents joined their children in their classrooms to make Christmas decorations. Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies threaded beads onto pipe cleaners to make candy cane decoration for the school Christmas tree and they decorated a bauble too! Thank you to all that attended, it was a great start to our Christmas celebrations.  

Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have been super busy having lots of fun with their learning linked to their project, 'Me and My Family.'  

Following our visit from Dr Irvine who talked to the children about staying healthy and why we might visit the doctors, the children have explored the question, How do we keep our bodies healthy? They learnt about the importance of sleep, rest, exercise, drinking plenty of water and eating healthy food. They helped to sort real food that we should eat regularly and food that we should have occasionally as well as creating some tasty fruit/vegetable kebabs. Some children even challenged themselves to make an ABC/ABAB pattern using the fruit and vegetables.

The children have been illustrators, writing story maps of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. First they explored the props linked to the story such as dry/wet oats, small, middle and big spoons/bowls and chairs! The children used language linked to this story and then had a go at writing their own story maps which had arrows showing the beginning, middle and end.

The children had the opportunity to decorate the school Christmas tree with the decorations they made during their busy learning session. We encouraged the children to space the decorations out evenly across the tree. They have loved admiring the Christmas tree when going into the hall and are proud of their efforts. In addition, each class had a go at creating paperchains for our class Christmas trees. The children had great fun!

We are looking forward to starting our new project 'All About Animals' next year! To launch our next  Project we are asking our Early Years children to dress up as their favourite animal on Monday 20th January! We will send a reminder sooner to the time. 

Year 1 were extremely lucky to have a visit from GDSM Indge! George is a Grenadier Guard and knew Year 1 had been learning all about the role of a guard, so he decided to pop in to FPIS and speak to us about his duties! He brought in his spectacular uniform for us to look at and even his super shiny boots (which he told us he cleans for up to 2 hours to give them that shine!). GDSM Indge told us all about his role and how he trained to have such an important job. We were all so fascinated by his stories and he answered lots of our questions so we could learn even more! Thank you GDSM Indge, we loved having you visit us!

The children had a lovely Christmas Lunch with their friends this week. As a very special treat, all the staff helped to serve the children - and everyone enjoyed a jolly sing-a-long to the Christmas songs that were playing! 

On Thursday morning, we were able to join a live broadcast from the North Pole and listen to Santa read a festive tale: 'Twas the Night before Christmas'. We had to shout really loud as he was fast asleep in the North Pole. He is obviously so tired after all it is his busiest time of the year! We also got to sing some songs to him too.

We were very pleased to welcome back Wayne Dixon and Beth Gomm from Christian Connections in Schools (CCiS) for a special assembly on Thursday. We talked about the things that help us have a perfect Christmas and also learnt about the importance of Christmas for Christians.

During our Whole School Assembly on Wednesday everyone was surprised and thrilled to see Father Christmas, who arrived with presents for all of the children. He also had his 'good' list to hand - which he revealed had a number of staff names on it (much to their delight/relief!!) After praising our children for all their hard work this term, Father Christmas was also keen to check that there would be carrots left out on Christmas Eve for Rudolph (as well as something nice to eat for himself as well!) Just before he left, the children delighted Father Christmas by singing 'A Miracle in Town' and 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' from their recent performances. What a very special moment for all!

Our thanks to Mr Wratten (husband of Mrs Wratten, our FPPF Business Manager), the FPSA and both Mr Dearnaley and Mr Dearnaley for their help with this event.

It was a pleasure, as always, to welcome Mr Hastings and the FPJS guitarists for a very special festive concert last Friday. The junior school children played a wonderful selection of Christmassy tunes and we all thoroughly enjoyed their performance.

We were very proud to wear our festive jumpers last Friday to support Save the Children once again. Our Christmas Jumper Day 2024 has already raised £511 across both schools!

A huge thank you to all those who have helped us to raise this impressive amount - and if you haven't had a chance to make a donation yet, our fundraising page is still available:

https://christmas.savethechildren.org.uk/fundraising/cjd240001135

The Royal British Legion have recently been in touch to let us know how much we raised for the Poppy Appeal last month - and the grand total was a tremendous £301.31!

Thank you to everyone who help raised this sum of money. We are extremely proud to support this charity each year which will help them continue their vital welfare and benevolent work.

The children have enjoyed our Forest School sessions this term as we have continued to establish our FS responsibilities and explore the environment all around. 

The children have had the opportunity to make their own Christmas Tree using natural materials found in the woodland area. As the weather has become colder recently, hot chocolate whilst sitting around Base Camp has been very much appreciated too! 

It was Pegasus house team who earned the most house points for the Autumn Term - 645 in total! 

Well done to everyone for a fantastic effort :)

Christmas Fair

Our annual Christmas Fair was back on Saturday the 30th November and both schools were busy with lots of families attending. Entertainment was provided from the Junior School choir singing carols in the Infants shelter before the fair opened and from St Sebastian Wokingham brass band who played carols next to the Infants hall.

The FPSA would like to thank all of the wonderful volunteers who helped set up the fair, ran a stall for 1 hour (or more!) and cleared up at the end. Overall the fair has raised around £7,500 profit which is fantastic.

The giant doggy (called Terry!) was won by Alex from year 2 and the 100 Board was won by Mohsin in year 5.

We hope all parents are very happy with their Secrets Room gifts!

Happy Bags

The recent Happy Bags collection raised an impressive £150 for both schools. Thank you to everyone who dropped off a bag or two.

Junior Discos

The Junior Discos were back yesterday with DJs King and Sawle on good form once again. There was plenty of great dancing in the hall at both discos, we hope all the children enjoyed themselves. A big thanks to all the Juniors staff who stayed behind to help.

Personalised name label stickers

We have an updated discount code for buying school uniform labels and labels for water bottles etc. from the 'Easy2Name' company. Simply order from the following site: https://www.easy2name.com/stickeasy, quote code 'FR-FPIS-72' and not only will you will get free delivery, the FPSA will receive 20% of the order value. These labels will help the schools return mislaid uniform and will help cut down on the lost property.

Windsor & Maidenhead Community Lottery

This is a weekly lottery that raises money for good causes in the Royal Borough including the FPSA. Tickets for the lottery cost just £1 and from that 60p goes to good causes including 50p to the FPSA. Each ticket has a 1 in 50 chance to win a prize each week with a top prize of £25,000! So please sign up and buy a weekly ticket or two using the following link: https://www.windsorandmaidenheadcommunitylottery.co.uk/support/furze-platt-schools-association 

One of our supporters won £250 recently on the lottery!

Copas Farm Shop

Copas Farms have a PTA cashback scheme. Please visit www.copasfarmshop.co.uk and they will donate 5% of the order value to the FPSA. Ideal for your Christmas turkey!

Please use the following code: FPJS24PTA.

Dates for your Diary in 2025:

• Adult Disco Night - Friday 28th February

• Mr T's Quiz Night - Friday 21st March

• FPSA AGM - Wednesday 2nd April (TBC)