Thank you for your generous donations for Children in Need this year. At the time of writing our fundraising page has received £476 of donations, which is absolutely incredible. If you haven't had a chance to donate as yet, you can do so via: https://www.justgiving.com/FPIS-children-in-need-2022

Thank you also to all those who have posted a photo via Seesaw for our 'Get spotted in your spots!' challenge - we have really enjoyed sharing these in school today :)

Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have been super busy having lots of fun learning linked to their project, 'Me and My Family.' They begun the term learning about celebrations and sharing their own experiences about Diwali and Bonfire Night. They created Rangoli patterns, Diva lamps and colourful pictures to represent lights and fireworks. The children discussed how to stay safe over bonfire weekend and performed their own firework dance. We all shared the story 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy and had the opportunity to retell the story with props.

Last week the Early years children explored the question, How do we keep our bodies healthy? They were excited to meet a nurse called Harriet who talked to the children about staying healthy. She let them have a go with her tools and equipment and demonstrated bandaging some of the children! Our role play basket at the moment is a doctors surgery. The children have loved being doctors, nurses and patients and our class dolls are now covered in plasters and bandages!

This week we have been celebrating National Nursery Rhyme Week. Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies and Early Years staff all dressed up for our Magnificent Middle as nursery rhyme characters. We were so impressed with all of the fantastic outfits and would like to thank you for your support. The children have learnt, shared and performed new rhymes and have taken part in lots of fun activities that have supported their learning across the curriculum.

Since half term we have been busy learning about real life superheroes. We have thought about the significance of Remembrance Day and why it is commemorated every year.  Our children have written an acrostic poem based on the word 'Hero'.  They have also been thinking about symbols such as the different kinds of poppies that we see during November.  This has led us onto thinking about how we might represent our School Values through symbols or other pictures.  We have investigated the properties of clay as as step towards creating our own model to represent how we are real life superheroes at school following our school values: Passion, Well being and Respect.

We have also learnt about Sir Nicholas Winton and the amazing story of his part in the Kindertransport mission to bring children safely to England before the start of the Second World War.  In the block area the children have been designing their own vehicles that were used to transport the children as well as their own memorial garden in the Lego construction area.  We have also examined the vital role that animals have played during conflicts, such as horses, dogs and carrier pigeons in the First World War. 

We were very lucky to have some special visitors come to show us some Kathak and Bharatanatyam dancing as they explained various aspects of Hinduism with a focus on the story of Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Inspired by our visitors, we made our own Diya lamps and tried our best to perform some of the dancing we had been shown. We used the dance moves for various animals including deer, pigs, lions, elephants and peacocks.

On Friday 11th November, Key Stage 1 had a special assembly thinking all about why Remembrance Day is so important and learning about the significance of poppy wearing. 

We also learnt about the importance of a two minute silence to show our respect (one of our school values). Mr Thompson explained the different instruments that could be used to play the Last Post. We then heard Mr Thompson play the Last Post on his bugle and held our own two minutes silence together.

Following our recent harvest celebrations and appeal for food donations, we have received a letter from Foodshare Maidenhead:

Dear Furze Platt Infant School

Thank you for collecting food items for the Foodshare charity at your harvest festival.   Once again it was a very generous collection.

These donations are very helpful to us as we prepare for the demanding winter months ahead.   Foodshare is seeing more people as a consequence of the rising cost-of-living, and we expect to be helping over 500 people each week by Christmas.

These are difficult times for many people so we really appreciate the kind support of everyone who donated,

Best regards,

Lester Tanner                                                                                                  Trustee,  Foodshare Maidenhead

We have been busy in the growing area planting spring bulbs so that we can attract lots of bees and butterflies and help to protect the precious habitats in our school environment.  We are now thinking about 'Switch Off Fortnight' and how we can encourage everyone to use less energy. 

Our School Councillors have been super helpful helping to sell poppies over the past couple of weeks. They were excellent at making sure everyone knew there were 'POPPIES FOR SALE!' and helping to raise money for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. 

The ring-necked, or rose-ringed, parakeet is the UK's most abundant naturalised parrot, roosting communally in large flocks. 

Despite their tropical origin, parakeets are able to cope with the cold British winters, especially in suburban parks, large gardens, and orchards, where food supply is more reliable. They feed on a wide variety of fruit, berries, nuts, seeds, grain and household scraps.

Did you know? The ring-necked parakeet became established in the wild in the 1970s after captive birds escaped or were released.

The FPSA Quiz Night (tonight!) is sold out.

Dates for your diary:

• Saturday 3rd December - Christmas Fair, 11.30am - 2.30pm

Your child came home with an important letter about the fair last week along with some raffle tickets and 2 empty cups. The cups are for the popular kids tombola stall and should be filled with sweets, trading cards, stickers, small toys, stationary etc. Filled cups should be returned on Friday 25th November (non-uniform day). We have asked for 2 tombola cups this time as the stall ran out early at the summer fair so we're hoping all families that want to have a go at this tombola get the opportunity to do so. This stall will be Holly classroom.

We are hoping parents & carers can give up 1 hour (or more!) of their time at the fair to help out on a stall. Please sign up using the following link: https://volunteersignup.org/LJQHB 

There are some nice prizes in the raffle, so please sell as many tickets as you can, returning stubs and money/cheques to the FPSA boxes (one in the main playground outside the Infants office and one outside Bumblebee class). In addition, there will be also a silent auction at the fair. Here you make a bid for an item and the highest bid at the end of the fair wins it!

Donations of gifts for the Secrets Room (Dragonfly classroom), or nearly new toys, books and games are very welcome as are cakes for the popular cake stall. Please see the letter for further information.

• Friday 9th November - Junior School Discos 

Years 3 & 4 disco is 4-5pm and Years 5 & 6 disco is 5.15pm-6.30pm.  More comms on this coming soon.