Newsletter - 10th February 2023
Supporting our children's mental health and well-being has never felt more important than it does right now. This week, as part of Place2Be's Children's Mental Health Week, we have been focusing upon what we can do to help our young children - and exploring what they can do to help themselves too. This years theme, 'Let’s Connect' is about making meaningful connections for all, during Children’s Mental Health Week – and beyond. We know that people thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing. You can read more about what we have been doing in school this week below.
Safer Internet Day has also given us an opportunity to think about how we might make connections within the digital world - and how important it is to know who is there to talk to if things don't seem quite right. Just as in real life, in school and at home, we want our children to know how to keep themselves safe and be happy within their digital lives too.
This week also saw our children in Silver Birch Class, Year 1, represent our school in the Ascot and Maidenhead School Sport Partnership Primary Dance Festival 2023 - and what a brilliant job they did! With more than a dozen schools participating at the event on Thursday, it was wonderful for our children to have the opportuntiy to perform in front of a live audience in the Baylis Theatre at Braywick Leisure Centre. Well done everyone! Read on for more about the children's Dance Festival performance below!
As a very busy and happy half term comes to an end, I would like to thank our incredible team at FPIS for all their dedication and hard work. My thanks also to all our parernts and families for your continued help and support.
I hope you all have a safe and happy half term break and look forward to welcoming everyone back into school on Monday 20th February :)
With very best wishes
Jane Indge
Head of School
Here is a brief look at what's going to be happening in school over the next few weeks...
Friday 10th February - Term ends
Monday 13th - Friday 17th February - Half term holiday (school closed)
Monday 20th February - Term starts
Monday 20th February - Early Years Mastering Number at Home Project - Parent Workshop @ 2:00 pm
Monday 20th February - Willow Class - trip to London
Tuesday 21st February - Early Years Mastering Number at Home Project - Parent Workshop @ 2:00 pm
Tuesday 21st February - Hazel Class - trip to London
Wednesday 22nd February - Early Years Mastering Number at Home Project - Parent Workshop @ 2:00 pm
Thursday 23rd February - Holly Class - trip to London
Friday 25th February - Year 2 1666 Dress-up Day
Wednesday 1st March - Dan The Skipping Man sessions for Year 1 and 2
Friday 3rd March - World Book Day 2023: dress up as a character from a book (or a hint of!)
Friday 10th March - Farm visiting Early Years
Friday 17th March - Comic Relief: Red Nose Day 2023
Monday 20th March - Parents' Evening
Wednesday 21st March - Parents' Evening
SAM - our School Attendance Mascot, is off to spend time in Holly Class for the half term holiday. With an attendance figure of 99.7% overall, congratulations to Holly Class!
Our latest school attendance figures for each class are shown in the table. Our school attendance target is: 97%
Holly 99.7%
Oak 97.1%
Silver Birch 97.0%
Beech 96.6%
Willow 95.5%
Bumble Bee 94.3%
Caterpillar 93.5%
Hazel 90.3%
Dragonfly 82.1%
As part of Children's Mental Health Week, we have been exploring some of the BBC MoodBooster videos in school.
There are also 10 Moodbooster videos to use at home as a family that will help to encourage a sense of fun in your living room.
By taking part with everyone in your home, you can both promote a sense of wellbeing, and offer everyone in the family some basic skills to feel good.
We particularly liked Dr Ranj's Self-Belief Warriors!
During our assembly on Monday, we launched Children's Mental Health Week by thinking about how we can come together to help one another. We talked about how having healthy connections – to family, friends and others - can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing.
We also shared the story of 'Room on the Broom' by Julia Donaldson as a way of helping us to think about how wonderful things can happen when we connect together to help each other.
Today, we held a special assembly where we all came together to talk about the work we have been doing in school linked to Children's Mental Health Week. Each class also shared the very special garland of hands they had created together. We connected each garland to make the most beautiful display to show the many meaningful connections we all have to one another at FPIS :)
Finally, we used one of the BBC Moodbooster videos to help us connect together as a whole school!
More information about Children's Mental Health Week and resources for families can be found at: https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/families/
During our Safer Internet Assembly, we began by recognising all the exciting and amazing things we can do online. and the children shared some of the things that they love to do in school and at home on their devices. We also talked about how the internet isn’t perfect and sometimes people use it in ways that are unkind or unsafe.
Safer Internet Day is a good chance to think about online issues, and what we can all do to make the internet a safer place.
As this years Safer Internet Day theme is 'Want to talk about it?' we shared the story of Hanni and the Magic Window - a rhyming story about speaking out and getting help. We also listened to 'The funny tummy song' taken from the Jessie and Friends: CEOP online safety education series for 4 - 7 year olds. Please see below for both of these resources.
For more details about Safer Internet Day and further guidance, please visit: https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2023
Additional information about Online Safety is also available via our school website: https://www.furzeplattinfantschool.co.uk/online-safety/
Below, you will also find a copy of the 4 Top Tips posters that we use and refer to in school as well as National Online Safety guides with tips for encouraging open discussions about digital lives and tips for supporting mental health through gaming.
Inspired by Mrs Indge's Safer Internet Day assembly, children throughout the school thought about what they would like to find behind the curtains of their own window. We spoke about the story Hanni and the Magic Window and then created our own windows. It helped us think about our Four Top Tips and how we can keep ourselves safe online.
On Friday 3rd February, we were proud to be part of NSPCC Number Day. There were numbers (and number blocks!) everywhere as we all Dressed-Up for Digits to show our support. Everyone had lots of fun with numbers and lots of maths activities and games too!
Before the day itself, we had a special assembly to find out about some of the ways in which the NSPCC supports children and families, so that every child can have a safe and happy childhood. We also talked about Childline, the service provided by the NSPCC which will listen to children and young people, whatever their worry, whenever they need help. We practiced actions to help us remember the phone number for Childline: 0800 11 11
Thank you to everyone who donated via our JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/furze-platt-infant-school-number-day-2023
Our school raised a fantastic £412.00 - thank you :)
Our Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly children have been continuing our project 'All About Animals'. Last week we learnt about the wildlife that we can find in Maidenhead and the surrounding areas. Mr Vogel shared his experiences of wildlife photography and showed the children his camera equipment. He then taught them how to take a good wildlife shot in our woodland area. The children were lucky to see some red kites, sparrows and squirrels in our school grounds. They impressed us with their enthusiasm and thought of some great questions for Mr Vogel when he visited the classrooms. The Early Years children were excited to create their own hedgehog house outside and also made bird feeders to encourage more and new birds to our school.
We started this week with the launch of Mental Health Week. The children created a class handprint collection to help them understand how we are all connected to each other at school. We also continued learning about fiction and non fiction books and used the internet to find out information about our favourite animals. This gave us an opportunity to reinforce our top tips for staying safe online.
Our Early Years children were excited to share their maths learning with parents and grandparents on Number day last week. The children had spent the day taking part in maths activities including Numicon printing, dice games, creating Numberblock numbers and number posters. In the afternoon they enjoyed creating 5 little aliens, ducks, frogs or monkey puppets with their parents and carers that they able to take home to play some number games with. We hope that you found the presentation helpful. Please attend our parent and child Mastering Number workshop next term for more ways to support your child with maths at home.
As artists, we have loved learning about the work of the artist Laurie Hastings and have been creating our own work inspired by her including some printing on Styrofoam. As mathematicians, we have been comparing the mass of objects using weighing scales in the maths area and looking at the capacity of different sized containers in the water area. We have also been working as designers and over the last two weeks have finished designing and building our very own moving emergency vehicles. We can’t wait to show these off at our Year 1 Marketplace next term!
During Outdoor learning, we have been scientists by searching for different animal habitats and observing the creatures we find as well as being musicians and working on creating a rhythm and changing the dynamics when using untuned instruments. We were inspired to be a little more creative in making instruments out of sticks, pine cones, wood and other objects we found in our Outdoor Learning area.
We were very lucky to have a visit from some Community Support Officers who spoke to the children all about the jobs Police do. They showed us some of their different uniforms and talked about how important it is to wear a helmet when out cycling or scooting. We were even more delighted to see the police van and were even allowed to go inside to look around, see the lights and hear the sirens!
This years Dance Festival theme of 'Kings and Queens' provided the inspiration for 'Disney Queen' - performed by Silver Birch Class. The children danced with real enthusiasm to the song Lavender's Blue Dilly Dilly taken from the 2015 Cinderella film. We were so proud of them all for giving such a polished performance. Our thanks to Mrs Presencer, Mrs Akther, Mr Thompson and Mrs Barnby for all their hard work on the day and for helping the children with the many practise sessions over the past few weeks :)
Thank you to all of the parents, grandparents and family members who joined us for our Maths focused Busy Learning afternoon a couple of weeks ago. The children always love sharing their learning with their grown-ups! As you are aware we have been working really hard on creating a positive mindset towards maths and the children love being thought of as mathematicians and using technical vocabulary. It was wonderful to see so many different maths interactions going on and the atmosphere was buzzing! We hope you found the presentation helpful and the reminder about using Numbots at home. Just three minutes five days per week can really give a boost to your child's confidence. Please remember that your child's class teacher is there to help you any enquiries that you might have.
We have been busy making our own delicious dragon stew! After thinking about the types of vegetables that might be suitable and reflecting on the fact that we wanted to include warm coloured vegetables, we wrote a recipe that we could follow. We carefully washed and weighed our vegetables before cutting them into small pieces. Next we went outside to cook our stew. We all had a chance to stir it and observe the changes in the vegetables as they cooked. Finally we got the opportunity to taste it and declared it very tasty and firey looking!
Using our new artistic sticky knowledge about warm and cool colours we have created fire and ice collages. We have also been planning, editing and writing our second dragon story of the term using a variety of descriptive vocabulary. This story has focused on a magic portal into a magical dragon world where there is a problem that needs to be resolved.
In maths we have continued to look at multiplication and division, examining how the multiplication of two numbers can be done in any order but division of one number by another cannot. In Mastering Number we have been focusing on finding near doubles from known doubles facts.
We have had a busy few weeks in nurture, we have been looking at sharing and taking turn by playing board games and group games like bingo. We have been talking about how we feel when playing the game and how we feel if we win or lose.
Earlier this week we went outside on a sunny afternoon, with clipboards and checklists for a scavenger hunt. We also made either ham or jam sandwiches. This is one of the childrens and grown-ups favourite activities.
Finally as a lovely finish to this half term, a couple of film afternoons with some healthy snacks to enjoy.
We searched the Woodland area to find the best spots for us to hang up our bird feeders. We then enjoyed looking for the birds as they discovered our treats for them! We will continue to monitor the different species of birds in our school environment and we hope that over half term you will also enjoy getting involved in birdwatch. Eco Club are looking forward to heading outside after half-term.
The Long-tailed Tit is easily recognisable with its distinctive colouring and long tail. Gregarious and noisy residents, Long-tailed Tits are most usually noticed in small, excitable flocks of about 20 birds. They eat insects - and sometimes seeds in autumn and winter.
Did you know? True to its name, this bird has a tail that is longer than its body!
Arthur took part in a Swimarathon to raise money for charity. His team completed a total of 53 laps of the pool and Arthur was one of the youngest members to join in. Well done Arthur!
Barney proudly showed us his certificate from his swimming lessons. He has been working really hard and has been an awesome athlete in the pool. Great job Barney!
Lilly was excited to share her gymnastics star of the week certificate. She achieved the award for a brilliant tuck and for learning to do the splits! Well done Lilly!
Congratulations to Abby who shared her graduation certificate from Stagecoach. "I got it for going from one class to the next one". Well done Abby!
Kayna has shared her football medal. "I was playing with the team and when one of the teams lost I said you can try next time." Well done for being a great sports superstar!
Jackson proudly shared his football medal. "It was the last day of football so the Orange Team got to choose who got the medal and they chose me." Well done Jackson!
Liliana got a certificate for doing backflips and front flips in gymnastics. Well done Liliana!
Well done to Edith who has been awarded a certificate and badge for trying really hard and swimming 10 metres all by herself!
Huge congratulations to Erin who has been awarded two swimming awards. What a fantastic swimmer you are!
Maya has been an awesome athlete in her kickboxing club. She had to listen carefully, practise a lot and pass a test to get her first belt. Keep up the hard work Maya!
Congratulations to everyone in Monoceros house team. Together they have received the most house points during this half term - a very impressive 502 in total! Well done!
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.
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.
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, Miss Dexter and Miss Edmondson 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.
Coin & note collection - 21st & 22nd February
On Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd of February, the FPSA will be collecting coins and bank notes (both sterling and foreign currency) which may be clogging up your drawers. You can give us ANY currency including current or out of date UK currency and current or out of date foreign currency. We will be outside the Infants gates between 08.35 and 09.05 so please dig deep and get rid of that holiday and old change.
FPSA AGM - 29th March
Congratulations - between us in 2022 alone, we raised a huge £29K through the FPSA to support our children in our schools. Thank you!
Do you want to know how the money has been spent, what the future plans are and to have your say suggesting other ways to spend it? If you have around an hour to spare on Wednesday 29th March from 7.45pm, come the FPSA AGM in the Infants school hall to find out more.
We want to celebrate our success together, so for those who come in person there will be a glass of wine and an opportunity to chat with current FPSA members and both heads of schools who will explain their plans for the money raised and how funds were spent in 2022 for the benefit of our children. We recognise that not everyone can make it in person though, so you're also welcome to join us virtually by Zoom (details to follow...but you'll have to find your own wine).
If you are interested in joining the FPSA, now is a great time as we are looking for new team members in particular a secretary - but don't worry, there is no pressure to join if you come to the meeting to simply find out more. If you can't make it and are interested in getting involved, please do reach out, we'd love to talk to you (fpsa.ebox@gmail.com)