Newsletter - 13th January 2023
It has been wonderful to welcome our children and families back to school as we begin the Spring Term. With the launch of our new projects over the coming weeks, we are certain to have an exciting and busy time ahead!
As we have lots of events already in our diary for 2023, please do make sure you are keeping up to date with messages and information sent via our SchoolApp. As communicated earlier today, unfortunately there have been some issues with notifications which we hope will be resolved soon. In the meantime, messages are getting through so please check your app to make sure you haven't missed anything. Thank you!
We are really looking forward to our Busy Learning Afternoon sessions, focusing upon Maths, for all three year groups coming up in the next few weeks. We are very much hoping that parents and carers are able to join us on these occasions to experience our classrooms 'in action' alongside their children.
With the weather still feeling very wet and wintery, please make sure your child wears a coat to school - along with gloves and a hat if they have them. Our children will spend time outside every day - whatever the weather!
Have a lovely weekend :)
With very best wishes
Jane Indge
Head of School
We are delighted to let you know that Mrs Lizzy Murphy has joined our staff team on a part-time basis as Caterpillar Class Teacher. Mrs Murphy is a very experienced Early Years teacher who brings with her a wealth of knowledge and expertise. We know that she will be a real asset, not only within Early Years, but the wider school also and hope that you will join us in making her feel welcome in her new role.
Here is a brief look at what's going to be happening in school in the New Year...
Monday 16th - Friday 20th January: 8:50 - 9:00 am - Early Years parents and families sharing 'Me and My Family' project books in class
Wednesday 18th January - Early Years dress up day: Animal theme
Tuesday 24th January - RNLI to visit Year 1
Friday 20th January: 2:00 - 3:00 pm - Year 1 Busy Learning Afternoon
Friday 27th January: 2:00 - 3:00 pm - Year 2 Busy Learning Afternoon
Wednesday 1st February - Police Community Support Officer visiting Year 1
Friday 3rd February - NSPCC Number Day 2023 (non-uniform: Dress up for Digits!)
Friday 3rd February: 2:00 - 3:00 pm - Early Years Busy Learning Afternoon
Tuesday 7th February - Safer Internet Day
Thursday 9th February - Primary Dance Festival - Silver Birch Class
Friday 10th February - Term ends
Monday 13th - Friday 17th February - Half term holiday (school closed)
As new devices, such a tablets and games consoles, have been popular Christmas gifts for many, our children have had a timely reminder about how to keep safe online this week in assembly. We discussed the 4 key messages our children need to remember, as displayed on our Top Tips Posters throughout the school:
Top Tip 1 : People online may not be who they say they are.
Top Tip 2 : Be nice to people online.
Top Tip 3 : Do not share private information.
Top Tip 4 : If you are worried tell an adult
A guide to staying safe on new devices for children and parents can also be found below.
As VR headsets are becoming more widely used by our young children, you can find further details about other risks to be aware of here:
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/virtual-reality-headsets/
The NSPCC website has also has other useful information:
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
The online safety page on our school website also contains a wide number of helpful tips and resources to guide and support parents and families:
https://www.furzeplattinfantschool.co.uk/online-safety/
Safer Internet Day is on 7th February - more information to follow...
SAM - our School Attendance Mascot, was presented to Holly Class this week for their 98.9% attendance overall. Well done!
Our latest school attendance figures for each class are shown in the table. Our school attendance target is: 97%
Holly 98.9%
Dragonfly 98.8%
Hazel 98.4%
Oak 98.2%
Willow 97.7%
Bumblebee 96.5%
Silver Birch 93.9%
Caterpillar 90.9%
Beech 85.1%
We have enjoyed welcoming back our Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly children after the Christmas holidays! All of the children were very excited to share their busy holiday news with their friends and teachers. The children have settled back into the school routine brilliantly and have been busy exploring the season of Winter through an ice diary experiment, learning about hibernating animals and we have even been on a winter walk with a delicious hot chocolate to keep us warm!
We have been reading the story of Alfie's Weather. The children discussed the beautiful illustrations in the story and made links to their own experiences. Following their discussions, the children created their own winter scenes using watercolour paints. They designed their painting by observing our outdoor environment, looking at the shape of trees, clouds and the colour of the sky. We were extremely impressed with their focus, creative and artistic skills!
In maths this week we have been continuing to practise our subitising skills. We used cards to play matching games and used our fast fingers and fast eyes to check we were right. The children also enjoyed helping Tiny the Tortoise (our maths mascot) to remember to go slow and keep trying even when he had made a mistake!
Today we had an artistic afternoon in Early Years. The children learnt about different artists and their methods and then were able to choose the tools and resources they wanted to use to create their own fantastic piece of art. Many of the children choose to display their creations on their 'Special Spaces' around the classroom. Please take a look if you join us on one of our open morning sessions next week when you can join your child in the classroom to share their super 'Me and My Family' project books.
We have had a busy start to the new year as we have begun our new project 'Emergency!'. To launch our project the children made a fantastic effort to dress up as a range of different emergency workers today for our Brilliant Beginning. It was great to see such an amazing array of costumes. Thank you for your continued support!
We had great fun this week during Outdoor Learning as we donned our raincoats and wellies and went to the Woodlands to explore. Consolidating the Sticky Knowledge we had learnt last term, we discovered and explored art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, we made an algorithm which we followed to make our own piece of art using the natural resources found outdoors. We had to find a green leaf, a brown leaf and a stick then in the mud draw a circular shape with a variety of lines radiating off it. We have also started looking at the work of Laurie Hastings, an artist whose medium is printing. She uses various types of lines and pattern in her work and we have been inspired to create our own artwork using mark making tools.
A polite reminder to please ensure that your child brings their wellies into school every Tuesday ready for their weekly Outdoor Learning session.
We have also been inventors this week as we begin to explore the process to building our own emergency themed vehicle. We have been exploring how an axle and a chassis work and have been building our own.
Finally, we have also been Digital e-Cadets and have been exploring how to debug an algorithm. We made jam sandwiches and correctly sequenced the instructions to make an algorithm. We then looked at incorrect sequences for jam sandwich making and debugged the algorithms to make them correct.
This week we had an exciting start to our new project, Fire! Fire! with our Brilliant Beginning! 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 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.
In maths we have sorted 2D and 3D shapes and reasoned why we had sorted them in particular ways. We also explored the properties of 3D shapes by completing a printing activity to see what 2D shapes we could find hiding in the faces of the 3D shapes. This week we have started to think about how we can make equal groups of objects and finding lots of different ways to do this.
Fieldfares are large, colourful birds that belong to the Thrush family. Sadly, Fieldfares are on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern Red List because they are in critical decline.
Did you know? Fieldfares are very social birds, spending the winter in flocks of anything from a dozen or two to several hundred strong!
Our nurture children have had a great start to 2023.
We started with news from our Christmas break and replaced the Christmas paperchains with new winter themed coloured ones.
At the beginning of the week, we looked at how ice melts and experimented by putting ice cubes in different places and in different things like salt, sugar and water.
As part of the year 1 topic of 'Emergency', we have started to make a fire fighter, the children drew round a child and they are using tissue paper to make a collage effect.
We are very excited to have some of the Year 6 librarians from FPJS helping us to look after our school library. The children will be visiting regularly to assist with managing the library system, sorting books and maintaining displays as well as making sure the library area itself is kept tidy and well-organised. Our thanks to Mrs Clark, Head of School at FPJS, for helping to organise this - and to our very first librarians, Zoe, Richard and Izzy who visited for the first time this week.
Lillie has achieved her Level 4 certificate in swimming. She was worked super hard and has done a great job. Well done!
Olivia has officially completed her first ballet exam. She is an awesome athlete and had to concentrate and work really hard. Great work!
Myles was awarded a medal at the end of football club for, "Showing my teamates what to do and for being good." Well done Myles we are very proud of you!
Maisie was extremely proud to share her swimming certificate. She had to jump in, put her head under the water and do some swimming too! Well done Maisie!
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.
Tuesday 17th January - Happy School Bags
The FPSA will be collecting Happy School Bags from 8.35am until 9.05am on Tuesday 17th January.
Filled bags are to be dropped by the fence near the gates of the Infants School playground. Please do not leave them there the night before.
Your bags can be filled with: clean adults' and children's clothing, paired shoes and trainers, console games, souvenirs, handbags, belts, hats, accessories, jewellery, toiletries, perfumes, bed linen, towels and soft toys.
Happy School Bags can't take: bric-a-brac, single shoes, mats, carpets, pillows, blankets, curtains, books, school uniforms. dirty, damaged or wet clothes.
Please note all items must be clean especially clothing, bed linen, towels and footwear.
If you have more than one bag, you can use any large bag (e.g. bin bag or swing-bin bag) to fill more stuff. Thank you for your support.