Furze Platt Infant School

Newsletter - 27th September 2024

Welcome back!

Wow! What a brilliant start to the new academic year we have had!

Welcome to our very first edition of our newsletter for 2024-25! We hope that the features and photos shared with you in our regular newsletters give you an insight into life here at FPIS. We are always busy learning!

We have been impressed how well our children have settled back into school following the summer break. Our Year 1 and 2 children have been busy familiarising themselves with their new environments, classmates and routines. It has also been wonderful to welcome our new Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies into our school. We are so pleased at how beautifully they have settled and how well they are doing! Well done everyone - keep up the good work! :)

At the start of this new academic year, we have been spending time reminding ourselves of our FPPF Values of Passion, Well being and Respect. We have also introduced three simple statements to our children and staff team which reflect the shared responsibilites we have at FPIS:

Look after yourself

Look after each other

Look after our school

Our school responsibilities help us to make sure our school a happy and safe place for all.

Over the summer holiday we began to redevelop our wonderful woodland - returning as much of the area as we can back to a more natural environment. This project was undertaken as part of developing our own FPIS Forest School programme - which we have been excited to launch last week. For the initial pilot project we will be running one afternoon session each week for a small group of our Year 1 children. However, our aim is that our Forest School provision will grow and grow and grow (sorry!) Take a look below to find out more...

We will also be developing our lunch time play provision in KS1 this term. We have already added a number of tyres, planks and crates to the Log Park area for the children to use to create and build with. We will be adding a 'bubble station' and role play resources over the next few weeks - and have plans to create an area with a stage and music for performances too! Our thanks to the team at Mercedes Benz, Reading for their kind donation of tyres :)

We are very proud of our ambitious and enaging curriculum here at FPIS which reflects both our children's interests and our school community. Please take a look below for more information about our exciting projects planned for the Autumn Term.

We are very much looking forward to working with our parents and families in the year ahead - and helping our children to be the best they can be! Our staff team are always very happy to help should you have any questions about school procedures or concerns about your child in any way. Please feel free to speak to your child's class teacher directly - or contact them via the school office: office@fpis.org

Have a lovely weekend :)

Jane Indge

Head of School

Drop Offs and Pick Ups on Oaken Grove- Important Reminders

We have noticed an increased number of parents who are driving their children to school and dropping off/picking up along Oaken Grove. Please could we kindly ask parents to consider encouraging children to walk/cycle/scooter to school if at all possible to ease the congestion along the road. If this is not possible, please help us further by parking along other roads nearby school and walking a little bit further with your child. Not only does this help with congestion, it helps with safety and it encourages your child to develop a more healthy attitude to walking to school.

Parents should not be driving down the school drive unless an agreement has been made with the school- e.g. due to a disability. This includes all before and after-school clubs.

Please note, we have been monitoring the situation carefully and we will be passing details to the police of any vehicles which are seen to be breaking laws (such as parking on zig-zag lines) or undertaking dangerous manoeuvres (such as attempting 3 point turns) on the school entrance. Please do your part in keeping our children safe.

Many thanks for your support in this important matter.

Quick Links

Website

Curriculum

Lunch menu

Term Dates

Well-being

Calendar

Diary dates - coming up soon!

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

Saturday 28th September - FPSA Early Years Tea Party: 2:30 - 4:00 pm

Tuesday 1st October - Early Years 'My First Class' photos

Thursday 3rd October - Census Day - menu swap

Friday 4th October - KS1 Superhero Dress-up Day

Tuesday 8th October - SEND parents coffee morning with GEMS: 9:15 - 10:15 am

Wednesday 9th October - Year 2 Busy Learning Afternoon: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Thursday 10th October - Year 1 Busy Learning Afternoon: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Monday 14th October - Individual School Photos

Friday 18th October - FPSA Quiz Night: 8:00 - 11:00 pm

Thursday 24th October - Term Ends

Monday 28th October - Friday 1st November - Half term holiday

Monday 4th November - Term Starts

School Attendance

For those who don't already know, 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 8:45am 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 going to Beech Class who had a perfect attendance figure of 100%! 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.

Beech 100.0%

Caterpillar 99.6%

Dragonfly 99.3%

Silver Birch 99.0%

Bumblebee 98.7%

Willow 98.3%

Oak 97.9%

Hazel 97.3%

Holly 96.0%

Meet the teachers 2024-25

Say hello to our fabulous teaching teams!

Our Early Years Teachers

Mrs Wytchard

Team Leader - Early Years

Bumblebee Class

Miss Evmorfopoulos

Caterpillar Class

Miss Midaoui

Dragonfly Class

Our Year 1 Teachers

Miss Aggarwal

Team Leader - Year 1

Beech Class

Miss Edmondson

Oak Class

Miss Reike

Silver Birch Class

Our Year 2 Teachers

Mrs Connell

Hazel Class

Miss Dexter

Assistant Headteacher

Holly Class

Miss Mahoney

Holly Class

Mrs Presencer

Willow Class

Miss Roberts

Willow Class

Our Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs)

Mrs Barry

HLTA - Early Years

Mrs Akhter

HLTA - KS1

Mrs Swaffield

HLTA - KS1

Wear blue for Mr Vogel - fundraising update...

Following the very tragic loss of Mr Vogel at the end of July to Motor Neurone Disease, we were very proud to wear blue (his favourite colour) to remember and celebrate his life on 13th September.

Donations via our fundraising page have so far reached a staggering £4380.25 which will help fund vital research into combating MND.

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mickvogel.muchloved.com/&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1726907688652016&usg=AOvVaw1pGcl9jEb89t-lWwixCLA8

We would like to say a heartfelt thank you for your most generous support.

FPIS SEND Signpost

CASHPOT for SCHOOLS

Between 2nd September and 30th November 2024, every time customers shop with Asda using their Rewards app, they can choose a primary school to receive a percentage of their spend. And that’s not all — every time a customer chooses FPIS, Asda will donate £1 to our school’s Cashpot, plus a further £50 when the first customer shops.

Early Years

What a super start to school our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have had over the past few weeks! We have been so impressed with how brilliantly they have settled into the school routine, utilising their new environments and forming new friendships with their peers and all of the teachers.

The children have been exploring the different areas in their own classroom and investigating our outdoor areas. They have been learning and applying some new skills such as, pouring, mixing and sieving in the mud kitchen, putting their pictures and belongings in their new drawers and learning how to be independent at school by changing their own shoes to wellies for the woodlands. The children are embracing the responsibility of hanging up their coat, putting away their bags and looking after their water bottles too! As the Autumn weather begins to show, keep practicing those self-help skills of putting on coat and doing them up!

We have been incredibly impressed with all of the 'Me and My Family' posters that you took your time to do over the summer holidays. These posters have gone up on the wall in the children's 'special space' and they have felt comforted and excited to share them with their new friends and teachers. These creative posters have given us a chance to learn more about the children and their families and bond over things that are important to them so that they feel valued in our classrooms.

Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have shown great enthusiasm towards learning at school and they were extremely excited to take home their first phonics reading book last week! The children have impressed us with their 'fast eyes' in maths when subitising and they have been creating ABAB patterns in the woodlands and classroom using natural objects such as conkers, stones, sticks and leaves as well as paint!

The children have been really interested in our first project 'Me and My Family'. We have been reading The Colour Monster and using our school Zones of Regulation to support the children to understand their emotions and how we look, feel and act when we experience these different feelings. The children loved designing their own Colour Monster as well as acting out the different expressions represented by the colours! We have displayed a picture of the children acting out these emotions in our classrooms, so that the children can show us how they are feeling each day!

We have been learning more about our amazing bodies and what they can do through our circle times and our project books, such as 'Your Body is Awesome!' This has inspired the children to challenge themselves to use their bodies in different ways such as balancing, hopping and risk taking in the woodlands!

The children have been using mirrors to notice their own features in their reflections. After creating a giant self-portrait as a class and discussing the different facial features we have, the children were eager to get busy with designing their own self-portrait using a mirror to help them along the way.

We are beyond proud of how our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have settled into school and it is exciting to see them learn and explore in their new indoor and outdoors environment with so much passion!

Our Early Years Curriculum

At FPIS we have used the EYFS framework and Development Matters as a starting point when designing an ambitious, inclusive curriculum which reflects our school community and provides no limits or barriers to children’s achievements. Throughout the year this enhanced through three projects, starting with 'Me and My Family!'

Here is our project overview for this term. It includes key language and questions that the children will be covering each week, key project texts and some helpful tips for supporting your child at home. Our overviews will be shared with families via Seesaw at the start of each project.

Thank you to all those who came along to our Busy Learning afternoon today. If you were unable to join us, we will be sharing information via Seesaw and well as signposting the relevant links on our school website.

Simon Mole visits KS1

Our Key Stage 1 children have been busy learning all about our School Promises and Values. To help us think about these in a fun and creative way we have been visited by Simon Mole, a well known person in our local community who is a Poet and an Author. Simon ran a workshop with each class focusing on rhymes and raps. In Year 2 he focused on the kennings style of poetry. We then had the time to mind map our ideas associated with each promise and value. Year 2 focused on our Values and Year 1 focused on our School Promises. A creative writing team was chosen from each class to work closely with Simon to come up with some imaginative and exciting raps and poems all about our School Promises and Values and what they mean to us.

Next week KS1 will come together to share their poems and raps they have been busy practising. Look out for these on Seesaw...coming soon! :-)

National Fitness Day

On Wednesday 18th September our KS1 children took part in the National Fitness Day activity called 10@10. The initiative set up by the Chief Medical Officer recommends that children should get 60 active minutes every day. To promote this there is the 10@10 campaign, where they encourage as many children across the country to take part in 10 minutes of physical activity at 10am. Hundreds of schools took part in a zoom run by Leisure Focus where we completed lots of different warm up activities and exercises.

Year 1

Our Year 1 children have enjoyed exploring their new classrooms and Outdoor Learning space, making the transition into Key Stage 1 brilliantly!

They have been exploring the different resources and equipment available in their new learning environments as well as learning about Lanyard Challenges. They have become Explorers, Designers, Discoverers and Investigators, learning how to demonstrate these key skills during their Busy Learning sessions. They have had lots of fun playing in the Log Park, learning the new rules and exploring the various pieces of outdoor equipment.

In maths they have been demonstrating what amazing mathematicians they are! They have used the resources to demonstrate how they can count forwards and backwards to 10 thinking about, ‘Three ways is a clever day!’ (the opportunity to show their learning in different ways). They have also been working on writing the numerals and number names to 10 correctly.

In their Outdoor Learning space, it has been fantastic to see the children building homes for bugs as well as collecting and identifying them and making observations and drawings around the pond area. Alongside their investigative activities, they have been using the outdoor area to practise their side-stepping and galloping skills that they have been working on during their PE sessions.

Wow! We have been busy! It has been wonderful to welcome the children into Year 1 and we hope to see many of you at our Busy Learning afternoon session on Thursday 10th October at 2.00pm!

Year 2

We have had an amazing start to the new school year! We have been getting to know one another, learning where everything is in our new classrooms as well as investigating the resources in our continuous provision areas. We have enjoyed examining and using the resources in our Maths shape, space, and measure area by making patterns and measuring objects in different ways.

In Maths we have started a new year of 'mastering number' and have been looking at a large variety of number lines from 0-100 trying to place numbers in the correct places.

During our Establishment Phase we have transformed into poets, after enjoying not one but two sessions with Simon Mole, exploring different poems, the kennings style poem and writing and performing our own, we felt inspired and during our Busy Learning Sessions were busy creating our own poems about things we loved. Everyone has been so impressed with how imaginative, creative, and brave they have been with their creative writing!

We have also been busy reminding ourselves of our School Promises and Values and thinking about how we can best model these to others. Thinking carefully about our Values: Passion, Well-being and Respect we had a lanyard challenge to complete which was thinking about how we could model our values to the new Year 1 children. We decided that a good way to do this would be to think of some team games we could teach them thinking carefully about how we could model the values too. We did a fantastic job and the Year 1 children really enjoyed learning more about how we can use the big playground responsibly and safely.

We are very proud of how the Year 2 children have settled in and are looking forward to an exciting year ahead!

We are also looking forward to welcoming you to our Busy Learning Afternoon session on Wednesday 9th October at 2.00pm, where you will learn more about Year 2.

Our KS1 Curriculum

Our exciting Key Stage 1 has been developed over the last few years to be a purposeful, exciting and engaging curriculum which reflects our school community and the interests of our children. We have three exciting projects which begin at the start of each term. Our Autumn project for both Year 1 and Year 2 is called 'Super-Duper Heroes'. We plan our projects carefully and our motto is that everything in our curriculum has to earn its place!

As well as the focus on our core subjects; Maths and English we have been evolving our Foundation Subjects to make them even better than they were before! For each project we will have the core subject focuses and our 'Sticky Knowledge'. This term refers to all of the important facts that we want our children to be continually exposed to and reflect on this learning at the end of each project. Today you will be receiving our Autumn Project Overviews via Seesaw which will include our core subjects, RE, PE, PSHE and events focuses, the 'Sticky Knowledge' for the term and as always our Brilliant Beginning, Magnificent Middle and Excellent Ending events which are at the heart of each project we teach. Our Project Overviews have been shared via Seesaw.

Please do come along to our Busy Learning Afternoon to find out more and visit our learning environments.

Year 1: Thursday 10th October 2.00-3.00pm

Year 2: Wednesday 9th October 2.00-3.00pm

Nurture Group

In nurture we have had a super start to the new school year. The children have been busy making portraits of themselves to put up on the wall. We have also been creating autumn-themed paperchains, to decorate the walls in our room.

This week we had fun removing lavender seeds from dried flower heads (great for fine motor skills!) followed by placing them in small mesh bags to create lovely scent bags. All of the children agreed that the bags had a very strong smell!

We have been learning about the new 3 school responsibilities and our 3 important values, in addition to our nurture golden rules. The children have talked about lots of different scenarios in which we can demonstrate and show our understanding of these.

FPIS Forest School - our Autumn and Spring 2024/25 programme begins!

Our first two Forest School sessions have been spent getting to know each other and familiarising ourselves with the responsibilities of using our woodland area to play and learn.

So far, the children have worked together to create 'Base Camp', which is the place where we gather together at the start and end of the session. The children have also enjoyed playing nature games and exploring the environment. We have started to make wooden name logs, which has provided an opportunity to introduce some basic woodworking skills. The children have been learning how to use a palm drill safely and effectively to make holes in their name log disc.

We are incredibly grateful to have the FPSA supporting our Forest School project. Thanks to FPSA funding we have purchased a basic Forest School kit including woodworking tools and resources, tarps and ropes, a hammock, fire lighting equipment and a storm kettle. Thank you!

As well as publishing regular Forest School updates in our newsletters, we will also be adding lots of information about our FS programme on our website too: https://www.furzeplattinfantschool.co.uk/forest-school/

Awesome achievements!

Congratulations to Orla who received her medal for, "Good listening and football skills." Well done Orla what a fantastic achievement!

Well done to Henry for completing his Level 1 Water Skills qualification for swimming! We are super proud of you, what a superstar!

Congratulations to Olive for completing the Summer Reading Challenge and reading a total of six books during the holidays!

Well done Hannah for participating in the Summer Reading Challenge and finishing six books during your summer break! What a superstar!

Congratulations to Flora who completed the Summer Reading Challenge! What a super achievement! We are very proud of you Flora!

Well done to Joseph who competed the Summer Reading Challenge! What a super effort! Congratulations for your hard work Joseph!

Maisie was awarded a medal for her excellent work at gymnastics. Well done for listening carefully, working hard and showing determination!

Isabelle has been a very busy athlete. She was awarded a certificate for her swimming and a band for taking part in a half marathon! Keep up the hard work!

Poppy has worked extremely hard in gymnastics and was awarded a certificate for her amazing concentration, using the beam and doing bridges. Super work, Poppy!

Florence successfully completed the Summer Reading Challenge and received a certificate for her efforts. What a SUPER READER!

Bonnie went to the Isle of Wight and got a fantastic medal at The Needles for being super brave. Well done!

Isla received a certificate thanking her for donating her hair to Little Princess Trust after her haircut. What a kind and generous act!

Congratulations to Emmy who has been awarded her stage 1 swimming certificate. Well done, what a brilliant achievement Emmy!

Well done to Sienna for completing the Summer Reading Challenge! What an amazing effort! Congratulations Sienna!

Congratulations to Lewis who has completed the Summer Reading Challenge! What a fantastic effort! Well done Lewis!

Well done to Theo who received his medal for, "Good football." Congratulations Theo, a wonderful achievement!

Congratulations to Jack who is proudly wearing his football medal! Well done for your excellent listening and team work!

Well done to Sophie who is proudly sharing her Summer Reading Challenge award. "I had to read 6 books and I did it really fast!"

Well done to Sienna who is sharing her Summer Reading challenge award. "I had to read 6 reading books".

Bella-Rose is proudly sharing her gymnastics award. "I got it for doing a straight handstand." Well done!

Congratulations to Frances who is proudly sharing her gymnastics award. "I got this for doing a handstand flat back."

Lydia is proudly sharing her Summer Reading Challenge award. "I got this by reading 6 books and it was fun!" Well done to Lydia!

Sienna is proudly sharing her swimming certificate. "I got this for doing 1500 metres freestyle in 32 minutes." What a super swimmer you are! Well done!

Congratulations to Effie who is proudly sharing her gymnastics medal. "I got it for doing a performance and doing straight handstands."

Well done to Effie who has been awarded a medal from her art class. "I got this for doing some amazing pictures during the club." Well done Effie!

Well done to Som who has completed the Summer Reading Challenge! What a brilliant effort! Congratulations Som!

Bella-Rose is proudly sharing her gymnastics award. "I got this for doing a straight handstand bridge." Well done Bella!

Congratulations to Delilah who received 'Star fencer' at Fencing club! What a fantastic achievement, we are so proud of you!

Congratulations to Henry for completing his Level 1 qualification in Swimming! We are so proud of you, well done!

Well done to Sebbie for completing his Level 4 in Swimming and receiving a medal for his wonderful efforts in Football. Congratulations!

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 27th September.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 Miss Dexter, Miss Edmondson and Mrs Indge 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

The Furze Platt Schools Association (FPSA) would like to welcome back everyone to a new school year and a huge welcome to our new Early Years children and families. We have a busy autumn of fundraising events, please see below for more details.

A warm welcome to our new member Mindy who joined the FPSA this month. The FPSA is currently a team of 12 people but always on the lookout for more. Contact us at fpsa.ebox@gmail.com.

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

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:

EY tea party - Saturday 28th September (2.30pm - 4pm)

The tea party is back for those families whose child has started in reception in September (younger/older siblings welcome too!). This is a great opportunity for you to meet other families as well as meet members of the FPSA. We will be selling cakes (free tea, coffee or squash) as well as 2nd hand uniform to raise money for FPIS.

Tickets are available at www.pta-events.co.uk/fpsa

Mr T's Quiz Night - Friday 18th October

The quiz night returns in October with an added 'Play your cards right, higher or lower' bonus game as well as the usual 4 picture rounds, music round, connection round and much more!

Book the babysitter, get your team together and start brushing up on your general knowledge. Tickets include food from Palmieri's.

Tickets are available at www.pta-events.co.uk/fpsa

Christmas Fair - Saturday 30th November (11.30am - 2.30pm)

The Christmas Fair is back at the very end of November. Please pop this date in your diary. This is our second biggest fundraising event on the year.

Useful Information for Parents and Families

tips-for-creating-family-rules-for-using-devices.pdf

instagram.pdf

supporting-children-to-manage-conflict-effectively.pdf

Smartphone Free Childhood- do you want to join the revolution?

When children first started getting smartphones a decade ago, there was no research about their impact. Now there is, and it’s overwhelming. Exposing children to things their brains aren’t yet developed enough to deal with can cause a whole host of problems, from triggering anxiety and eating disorders, to opening the door to cyberbullying or sexual predators, according to the latest research.

When we give our children access to the whole world in their pocket, we give the whole world access to our children, and this includes access to harmful content.

Underpinning many harms is one that is potentially the most significant of all. For the first time in human history, children are spending more time on devices than they are playing – an activity crucial to our healthy development. Smartphones are experience blockers, distracting children from engaging in the real world. The average UK 12-year-old now spends 29 hours a week – equivalent to a part-time job – on their smartphone. This leaves little time for the real world activities and relationships that enable us to learn the essential life skills we need to transition into adulthood. The average daily time that teens spend with friends has plummeted by 65% since 2010.

Parents have been put in an impossible position- do we give our children access to an adult product that opens the door to harmful content, addictive algorithms and the anxiety machine that is social media or do we risk alienating them from their peers at a crucial stage of their development? It’s a lose-lose; for parents, children and society. However, there is a growing mission to change this.

If you want to be part of a revolution, and pledge to change this so that your child can experience a play-based childhood rather than a screen-based childhood, click on the link below to find out more:

https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/about

Yellow Days for parents.pdf

Boundary Walk Poster 2024_lr.pdf

ADC Understanding Dyslexia November 2024.pdf

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