Newsletter - 18th November 2022
There were spots of every colour and size throughout our school today as everyone, children and grown-ups alike, dressed up to show their support for BBC Children in Need. Thank you so much for all your donations - read on below to find out how much our school has raised so far...
We were delighted to have the opportunity to catch up with so many during our Parent's Evening Meetings last week. Over 94% of families made appointments to meet with their child's Class Teacher and we received some very positive feedback - particularly around how well our children have settled into school and their new classes this year. We very much value the time to have these discussions with parents and as ever your support is greatly appreciated.
Our Remebrance Day assembly last week, led by Miss Dexter, was a very special moment for us to think about the importance of this day and why we remember those who have, and continue to, serve our country. Our thanks also to Mr Thompson for providing some very useful insight into the music and instruments often used to mark this occasion. Please take a look below at the video of his live performance.
With the festive season fast approaching, we have added more dates to the diary for events in school. Further information will be sent next week via TheSchoolApp.
Have a lovely weekend ;)
Jane Indge
Head of School
Here is a brief look at what's going to be happening in school during the next few weeks...
Friday 18th November: 8:00 pm - 10:30 pm - FPSA Quiz Night
Monday 21st November - Year 1 visit to Windsor Castle
Monday 21st November - Early Years Dental Awareness Talk
Monday 28th November - Christmas post boxes open
Monday 28th November - Pantomime 'Aladdin' at FPJS
Tuesday 29th November: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm - Early Years Busy Learning Afternoon
Saturday 3rd December: 11:30 am - 2:30 pm - FPSA Christmas Fair
Monday 5th December - Christmas Assembly with Emma, Children's Minister, St Peters Church
Friday 9th December - Christmas Jumper Day (Save the Children)
Friday 9th December - Reindeer visit in school
Friday 9th December @ 2:00 pm - Early Years Christmas Performance (all welcome)
Monday 12th December @ 9:30 am and 2:00 pm - KS1 Christmas Performance (Please note: younger children and babies are very welcome to attend the 9:30 am performance. The 2:00 pm performance is for adults ONLY)
Tuesday 13th December @ 9:30 am and 2:00 pm - KS1 Christmas Performance (Please note: both the 9:30 am and 2:00 pm performances are for adults ONLY)
Wednesday 14th December - Children's Christmas Lunch
Wednesday 14th December - Christmas post boxes close
Thursday 15th December - FPJS Christmas Guitar Concert
Friday 16th December - Children's Christmas Parties (Non-uniform)
Friday 16th December - Term ends
Mrs Endacott
Inclusion Manager
Mrs Singh
SENCo
Mrs B
Family Support Worker
Mrs Endacott is the Inclusion Manager across the Federation of Furze Platt schools. Her role is to work closely with Mrs Singh, Miss Thompson and Mrs B with the strategic direction of the schools, helping to set the vision and ethos for all aspects of school life relating to children with SEND.
The Inclusion Team plays a major role in contributing to the raising of standards for all children with SEND ensuring inclusive practice and equality of opportunity for all. The Inclusion Team liaise with all agencies including educational psychologists, school health service, social services, speech therapists, E.W.O., Specialist Teachers, well-being team, counsellors, EMAS, CAHMS and arrange support for pupils with behaviour needs. They also enable strong and effective partnerships with parents, keeping them well informed of targets and achievement.
Meet our Nurture Team
Mrs Barker
Nurture Practitioner
Mrs Din
Nurture Practitioner
Mrs Middleton
Nurture Practitioner
Mr Thompson
Nurture Practitioner
What is Nurture?
The concept of nurture highlights the importance of social environments and its significant influence on social emotional skills, wellbeing and behaviour. The nurturing approach offers a range of opportunities for children and young people to engage with early nurturing experiences, giving them the social and emotional skills to do well at school and with peers, develop their resilience and their capacity to deal more confidently with the trials and tribulations of life, for life.
Everything we do in nurture is guided by the six principles of nurture:
Safety - the classroom offers a safe base
Wellbeing - the importance of nurture for the development of wellbeing
Language - language is a vital means of communication
Behaviour - all behaviour is communication
Learning - children's learning is understood developmentally
Transitions - the importance of transitions in children's lives
At FPIS we have a full-time nurture group which is lead by our four nurture practitioners, Mrs Barker, Mrs Middleton, Mr Thompson and Mrs Din, and supported by Mrs Singh (SENCo). We use the Boxall Profile (assessment tool) to identify children who are likely to benefit from nurture and most children will attend either every morning or every afternoon for a period of time. When it is time for children to leave nurture we have a gradual reintegration to their class over a few weeks. If you have any questions please email the school office for the attention of Mrs Singh.
Meet our Resource Base Team
What is the Resource Base?
Within Olive Room, we work with children on the Autistic spectrum to provide a calm, quiet space in the school. This allows the children to better access their learning. Here we work closely with the mainstream class teachers to provide a personalised curriculum for each pupil. They all require different adjustments to meet their needs. Reasonable adjustments that support our pupils include visual timetables, sensory supports, social skills interventions and movements breaks. We very much enjoy figuring out each pupil's individual personality and tailoring learning to their needs.
Miss Thompson
Resource Base Manager
Mrs Hussain
Teaching Assistant
Mrs Millward
Teaching Assistant
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 :)
This week was Anti-Bulling Week - and we have been thinking about how this relates to our school promise of 'Be kind'. We have been talking with our children about how important it is that they are happy and feel safe in school. As this years Anti-Bullying theme is 'Reach Out', we discussed what our children can do if they have any worries at all - and who they can talk to, in school and at home, to get help and support if they need to.
SAM, our School Attendance Mascot, was presented to Beech Class this week for their impressive 99.3% attendance overall. Well done!
Please refer to the table shown for the latest school attendance figures for each class. Our school attendance target is: 97%
Beech - 99.3%
Caterpillar - 98.7%
Oak - 98.3%
Holly - 97.7%
Bumblebee - 97.5%
Willow - 96.9 %
Silver Birch - 96.7%
Hazel - 92.9%
Dragonfly - 91.7%
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.
In Year 1 we have been very busy! After half term we explored the festival of Diwali, making our own Diya Lamps which we lit together in the hall whilst also participating in some traditional dancing which we had learnt from our workshop. The Diya Lamps all lit together looked very beautiful!
As we prepare for our trip to Windsor castle, we have been looking at the various roles that the guards perform. The children practised standing still and keeping a neutral expression while the others tried to get them to smile. They also practised marching around the classroom keeping guard to make sure all was safe.
In our Outdoor Learning sessions we have also been exploring the features of a castle through den making and acting out some key scenarios we might find at Windsor Castle.
We have been using our designer skills and have designed and made a replica of Windsor Castle using recycled materials. We then made our own Bearskin hats and guarded the castle. The teachers were so funny trying to make us laugh while we stood still and tried not to laugh. We also did our own Changing of the Guard and had a marching parade around our Castle. We then got to take our castle outside and had lots of fun using our role-play skills as we seized the castle. We are really looking forward to our trip on Monday to see the real Windsor Castle!
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.
On Wednesday in glorious sunshine (phew!!) we visited Oaken Grove Park. We visited the Sir Nicholas Winton Memorial Garden, reflecting on his story and relevance to Maidenhead. The children enjoyed being transported on a journey to learn about each part of the Kindertransport mission.
Year 2 also became litter picking superheroes after discovering that the picnic area was covered in litter! We eagerly put on our gloves and cleared it up! As we walked around the park we looked out for signs of Autumn too.
Great fun was had by all!
Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have enjoyed been excited to get going with their Balanceability sessions this term. They will all have a weekly session up until Christmas led by trained coaches to support their physical development. During the sessions they have the opportunity to practise and develop their balance and control. The children also work on social skills including turn taking, following instructions and working as part of a team. They are thoroughly enjoying the sessions and all making great progress!
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.
from Maidenhead Foodshare
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.
What a brilliant few weeks for Olive. Everyone in Olive loves numbers. wWe like to listen to counting songs, use the number blocks and practise our number sentences. Two of our pupils built a den this week. They used great team work skills, talking and helping each other throughout. We also liked getting in the den afterwards!
In nurture, we have been very busy doing various gardening jobs. First we weeded the growing beds and large plant pots in the main playground. Next, we swept up very large amount of leaves.
The children have begun a brand new display around the "Don't hog the hedge" book which is a lovely autumn story all about animals preparing to hibernate.
Finally we made used some Oreo biscuits to make some Halloween spiders.
Elvis is happily showing his trophy. "I scored my first goal at football!" Congratulations Elvis we are very proud of you!
Niamh received her medal for doing lots of different sports. "I had a lot of fun doing this." she said. Congratulations to you Niamh!
"I got my football trophy for doing good passing!" Kyle was also player of the match. Well done Kyle this is a fantastic achievement!
Farrin was very proud to share two achievements! One '5 Metres' swimming certificate and the other her horse riding rosette!
"I got my medal for being a good defender!" said Monty proudly showing off his football medal. Congratulations Monty!
Chloe received her two medals for kickboxing. "I got one for being third in a tournament and the other one for doing really well." Congratulations Chloe!
"I drew a koala, it's my Mum's favourite animal and I wanted it to get published." She sent it into the Natural History Museum magazine and it was published in the most recent edition. Congratulations Sofia, you are now a published illustrator!
Arthur proudly shared two kickboxing medals. "I got one for breaking boards with my hands and feet and one for taking part in the competition." Great work Arthur!
Jack proudly shared his medal he had been awarded at Rugby Club. "I got it for good rugby tackles and I support Maidenhead Rugby". Well done superstar!
Amelia has shared her swimming certificate! "I had to swim up to the lifeguard chair and swim 2 metres." Well done superstar!
Sebbie had proudly shared his kick boxing medal. "I got it for breaking boards, I couldn't break the orange board but I could break the red board with my feet." Well done Sebbie!
Abi was awarded a medal as a prize at a trip to Legoland. She had to be very brave and put her hand into sludgy water and sand and concentrate hard to find the treasure.
Deekshana got a medal for being very brave at a check up appointment. She listened carefully and was super sensible. Well done Deekshana!
Eva earned a Bronze Award at Rainbows for all her hard work and effort earning badges. We are so proud of Eva- great job!
Isla has been doing superb listening at kickboxing in her afterschool sessions. She has worked so hard that she has been awarded with a white belt. Excellent work Isla!
Oona received her medal for taking part in a Kick boxing tournament. She had to demonstrate different techniques and a high kick. Great job Oona!
Emilia received her 'Walk with Joe' certificate for jogging and walking 5km during Maidenhead Park Run. Joe Wickes and Pudsey visited to say hello to everyone. Well done!
Maya received her certificate for swimming 10 metres! She also was awarded a medal in football club for great listening and passing the ball. We are very proud of you Maya, well done!
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.