Furze Platt Infant School

Newsletter - 23rd June 2023

Super Sports at FPIS!

Wow! The summer term is whizzing by - and we certainly seem to have managed to fill these last few weeks with lots of exciting and inspiring events for the children to enjoy. Please see below for more information about everything that's been happening in - and out - of school!

Of course, our Sports Day is a key event the calendar in the Summer Term - and this year it certainly was a hot one! As the deadline for publishing our newsletter was very close to this event, we will be sharing photos in our next edition. Read on below, to find out more...

As per our communication earlier today, we are extremely fortunate to be retaining our absolutely brilliant teaching team for 2023 - 24. We will also be welcoming Miss Reike, who will join our Year 1 team as Silver Birch Class Teacher. Whilst I am pleased to say there are not many staffing changes for next year, as ever, as we head towards the end of the Summer Term, we have taken the opportunity to look at our staffing structure in order to allow us to focus on our key priorities and make our school the best it can be. We are really confident that with such a passionate and skilled team in place, 2023-24 is going to be another really great year for our school!

As we head into our final few weeks of this academic year we will be celebrating and acknowledging the many achievements and successes that the children have had this year, as well as preparing them to move on to the next stage of their education. Please make sure you book an appointment to meet with your child's current Class Teacher at our upcoming Parents' Meetings as I know they have lots to share with you!

We are all looking forward to what will be a very busy, but exciting end to the year! Have a lovely weekend :)

Jane Indge

Head of School

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Diary dates - coming up soon!

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

Monday 26th June - Parents Meetings: Online booking opens @ 8:00 am

Friday 30th June - End of Year Reports to parents

Friday 30th June - Parents Meetings: Online booking closes @ 4:00 pm

Wednesday 5th July - Early Years and Year 1 Parents Meetings: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Thursday 6th July - Year 2 Parents Meetings: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Tuesday 11th July - Year 1 Excellent Ending: 9:30 am - 10:30 am

Thursday 13th July - Year 2 End of Year Performances: 9:30 am and 2:30 pm

Friday 14th July - Year 2 End of Year Performance: 9:30 am

Friday 14th July - FPSA Year 2 Leavers Disco: 4:00 - 5:15 pm

Tuesday 18th July - Early Years Graduation: 9:15 am

Wednesday 19th July - Term ends: school finishes @ 1:30 pm

Thursday 20th and Friday 21st July - INSET days (school closed)

School Attendance

This week, SAM - our School Attendance Mascot, is off to Year 1 as Silver Birch Class has had the best attendance overall, with an incredible 100%! Well done to all!

Our latest school attendance figures for each class are shown in the table. Our school attendance target is: 97%

Silver Birch 100.0%

Hazel 99.3%

Oak 99.0%

Holly 98.0%

Willow 98.0%

Caterpillar 97.7%

Beech 97.3%

Dragonfly 97.0%

Bumblebee 87.7%

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FPIS Sports Day 2023

Our Sports Day event today gave everyone the opportunity to participate in an afternoon of sporty fun and games.

Working together in mixed house teams, the children all thoroughly enjoyed cheering on their friends throughout. As ever, there was a mix of traditional and also some of our firm favourite Sports Day events, including the baton relay, dressing up and space hopper race! The tunnel, as pictured, was a new addition to our obstacle course this year - and was certainly lots of fun!

We will be awarding our special Sports Day certificates during our Head of School Assembly on Monday,

Thank you to all those who were able to come along and watch - we hope you enjoyed it!

A very special thank you also to Mrs Swaffield for planning and organising our Sports Day event this year.

Look out for more photos in our next newsletter!

National School Sports Week 2023

National School Sports Week was perfectly timed for lots of additional physical activity this week as we prepared ourselves for our Sports Day event.

The key message for this year was 'Play for Fun, Play for 60'. which supports the Chief Medical Officers' recommendation by suggesting that children are active within school for 30 minutes a day, and then outside of school for at least another 30 minutes in order to reach the minimum amount of 60 active minutes. For disabled young people, the recommendation is for a minimum of 20 minutes of physical activity every day, including strength and balance activity three times a week.

In our assembly on Monday, the children thought about the ways in which they are physically active in school and also shared the many different and exciting sports, clubs and activities that help them stay active out of school.

Scooter - still missing!

As recently communicated, a child's scooter (similar to the one pictured) has gone missing from school. Unfortunately, as yet, the scooter has not been returned which is very upsetting for its young owner. If you haven't already done so, please can you help by checking that your child has the correct scooter at home. Thank you!

Just as a reminder, if you are leaving your child's bike or scooter on our school site, we would advise that you use one of the storage pods by Bumblebee Class entrance where it will be secure during the school day.

Also, we suggest that you make your child's scooter or bike easily identifiable by naming it or adding stickers/motifs.

Early Years

Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have been having a fantastic time at school in the sunshine this term! To continue our project on 'Journeys' we have been reading Paddington Bear and talking about the exciting journeys that he has been on! Having learnt that Paddington Bear always has a marmalade sandwich kept under his hat for emergencies, the children were all delighted to find out that they were going to 'have a go' at making their own sandwich just like Paddington! The children made one marmalade sandwich and one jam sandwich. Before they tasted it, the children predicted which sandwich they thought that they would prefer. Following this we recorded their favourite on a class tally chart. Jam was the winner for both Caterpillar and Bumblebee whereas in Dragonfly class marmalade was the most popular! This week the children have been using and applying their mathematics skills acting as a bakers and customers in our role play bakery. They have been using pretend money to pay for the different breads/cakes, using language that they have heard from their own experiences in shops and talking about the Ingredient that they need to bake bread.

The children have been learning about some famous explorers such as David Attenborough and Ellen MacArthur. Having felt inspired, the children became explorers too! The Our Bumblebees, Caterpillar and Dragonflies have been reading maps, building boats, using binoculars and they even worked as a team with Miss Parsons to build a real camping tent. This was a real challenge but great fun and the children showed such great collaboration! This led to some wonderful conversations and the children were all so proud that they built the tent together!

We were very lucky to have the arrival of our caterpillars this week. The children have been learning about the life-cycle of a butterfly so they can't wait to see the next stage of the life-cycle take place! They have been using some super vocabulary to describe what the caterpillars currently look like such as 'spikey and wriggily'. They have also been investigating other bugs such as snails, worms and ants! Some of the children have planned to create their own little bug hotel in the woodland next week!

London Landmark Busy Learning and Exhibition

Our Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonflies were excited to welcome their parents last week on Monday and Friday! On Monday the children built their Landmarks with their parents or teachers using a range of techniques. We were very impressed with both the children and their parents creative ideas and skills. Throughout the week they refined their models ready to display on Friday at the Early Years London Landmark Exhibition. Thank you so much for all your support. Both events were a huge success and a wonderful opportunity to work together and celebrate the children's learning.

Year 1

We have been learning about the explorer Amelia Earhart as part of our project ‘We’re Going on an Adventure’. We have had so much fun researching Amelia’s achievements and making our own information sheets to share with our friends. Edith brought in her grandfather’s flying hat and goggles to show the class what Amelia wore when she was flying.

During our Outdoor Learning sessions, we have been continuing to explore our vegetables and plants that we have been working hard on looking after all year. We are hoping to use them soon to make our own salad!

We have also had a special visit from Lucy the Potter who shared her knowledge of how to make objects out of clay. She brought her different tools with her and some examples of her work. We were really inspired to begin making our own models out of clay.

As we continue to learn about animal habitats and adaptations we have been using a range of skills to design and begin making our own animal habitats.

Active 60 Festival: Beech Class

Beech class was given the opportunity to attend a multi-sports based skills challenge festival. The aim is to get all young people active whilst enjoying being active and hitting the Chief Medical Officers recommendation of 60 active minutes for all children every day, of which 30 minutes should be at school.

This was an excellent introduction to appropriate, friendly competitive physical activity in a non-threatening environment. The key aim was for the children to have fun and have a positive experience.

We travelled around the different stations which had been named after different countries. We raced each other in teams as we passed the beanbag down the line using tennis rackets, played score a goal, rock paper scissors hops, archery, catch the flag, cricket and a form of dodgeball. We had a lot of fun and were brilliant representatives of our school!

Zoolab visit Year 1!

What an exciting visitor we had this week! Zoolab came to visit and brought a variety of animals from all around the world. We talked about their classification and how they have adapted to their environment. The animals were very friendly and we were even allowed to touch and hold some of them. We saw a baby tortoise, an African snail, a corn snake, a gerbil and even a rose-coloured tarantula. This experience really supported our learning of different animals found in different continents and animal adaptations.

Year 2 visit to Maidenhead Mosque

On Monday morning we had an exciting opportunity to visit Maidenhead Mosque. We had a very warm welcome and the chance to consolidate what we have been learning about in RE - the importance of prayer in Islam. We felt privileged to go into the main prayer hall and see and hear for ourselves how Muslims pray and its significance. We also had the opportunity to put our learning into practice and complete a written activity, before returning to school. Many thanks to Mrs Akhter for helping us to arrange this visit.

Year 2

Last week we held our Wonderful Water! Magnificant Middle, focusing on science. Following on from all that we have been learning about the layers of the ocean we researched and designed our own food chains and reflected on how each plant or animal in the chain is necessary for the health of our oceans.

Next we considered a range of animals, plants and objects in order to group them into those that are alive, dead or have never been alive. We had some interesting discussions and used the acronym 'MRS GREN' to help us think about the seven life processes.

Finally we conducted a fair test experiment to determine which material would help ice to melt the fastest. We made our predictions and then timed how long each one took using felt, a plastic bag, tin foil, paper and cotton wool to wrap the ice in.

On the 8th June we celebrated World Oceans Day with a special Zoom. We learnt that we are all part of one family, with responsibility for the oceans. We even learnt how to surf!

In maths we have been busy investigating the mass of different objects and the capacity and volume of a range of containers. We have been talking about the standard measures of grams, kilograms, mililitres and litres as well as describing containers as full, half full and empty. We have had a lot of fun and have discovered that it is not easy to get the measurements just right!

Healthy Eating Week

12th -16th June 2023

Our focus for Healthy Eating Week this year was 'Stay Hydrated' - which could not have been better, given our recent very hot weather!

The key message was 'Stay hydrated - fill up from the tap.' The advice is to have about 6-8 drinks a day – more if the weather is warm or you are being active. Ideally, choose reusable or recyclable drinks containers.

In assembly, we talked about why it is so important to keep hydrated - and the Top 3 healthier drink choices were revealed:

Water - drink as much as you like!
Milk - some is good to drink
Juice - just 1 drink a day

In our classrooms, the trays of water bottles have been transformed into 'Hydration stations' to encourage the children to regularly drink plenty of water throughout the day.

Nurture Group

In nurture, we have had a great start to the summer term. We began by making summer-themed crafts for our room and seasons board. This included making flower paper chains, ladybirds, bees and sunflowers, and we decorated the door with stained glass window effect pictures.

In line with the year 1 topic, 'My World', we have been looking at countries around the world. Firstly we made some small flags to colour in and secondly we chose some different landmarks to draw including the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and Buckingham Palace. Both flags and landmark pictures have been attached to our world map.

We have been enjoying observing our plants growing out in the main playground and we have even sampled some of the delicious peas! Due to the recent hot and dry weather, we have given the plants a good watering to keep them going.

Eco Team

The children have been participating in the Big Battery Hunt this is a nationwide programme to help educate and inspire young people to recycle more used batteries. Thank you to all the parents and children who have been busy saving and collecting. We have collected a total of 50 to date. Please keep collecting and handing these to your class teachers.

Due to all the hot weather we have been having recently the children have been busy keeping all our vegetable patches watered. We are looking forward to tasting all the produce soon.

500 Words - the children's story writing competition - is back!

BBC's 500 Words is the UK's largest children's story writing competition for 5-11 year-olds. Opens Tuesday 26 September - Friday 10 November.

More information to follow...

Wonderful Wildlife!

Mr Vogel has been out and about capturing some wonderful wildlife in our local area again recently.
In this edition, he shares some more photos of breathtakingly beautiful butterflies.

Wonderful Wildlife#14 More about butterflies

Did you know? Butterflies need heat to be able to move. When you see them resting in the sunshine, they are warming up their wings so they can fly.

The biggest butterfly...

The largest butterfly in the world is the female Queen Alexandra’s birdwing with a wingspan of over 25cm!

And the smallest...

is the Western Blue Pigmy, which is only 2cm across.

Awesome achievements!

Josh received his trophy for his fabulous football skills! Well done Josh for working hard to improve your skills. We are very proud of you! :)

Maya's swimming certificate and badge were for swimming 15 metres. She also received a football medal for creating chances and controlling the ball. Well done Maya we are very proud of you! :)

Mariam received a wrist band for participating during gymnastic. She listened carefully and tried her very best.

Abi completed a Race At Your Pace challenge and walked 25 miles in under a month. What an awesome athlete you are!

Rocco received this for golf which he goes to with his Dad at Castle Royal. For this medal Rocco had to hit the golf ball 100 yards. Well done!

Lillie received a Star of the week certificate in gymnastics for doing a cartwheel, handstand and the splits. Keep it up Lillie!

Rocco proudly shared Wycombe Wanderers football medal which he received for trying his hardest in the club sessions.

Cooper received a Rainbow Swimming certificate for swimming across the pool. Keep up the great work Cooper!

Lily received her Artist badge at Rainbows for completing lots of drawings. You are an amazing artist Lily, keep it up!

Liliana received Star of the Week certificate for gymnastics as she managed to master doing a one-handed cartwheel.

Freddie received a medal for soccer as he listened carefully to his coach and scored lots of goals. He also received the weekly trophy at scouts for participating in all activities and showing resilience when getting hurt.

Alice has been a super sporty footballer and got Player Of The Week at her Maidenhead team. Great job Alice!

Ethan has been a working hard at home as a marvellous mathematician and was awarded a certificate and badge for completing the DoodleMaths Spring Challenge.

Bryony is proudly sharing her DoodleMaths Spring Challenge award as she has been working so hard on her maths at home. Well done Bryony!

Jaiven was extremely proud to share his super certificate that he received for completing 'Go Ape'. He had to take risks, persevere and challenged himself! Well done Jaiven!

Lilly was proud to share her gymnastics award that she received for doing the splits! Well done Lilly, that's amazing!

Sophie was excited to share two certificates! She received a gymnastics award for mastering straight cartwheels and a swimming award for swimming 10 metres! Amazing work Sophie!

Noah proudly shared his certificate that he recieved for really good swimming. Well done Noah!

Luke is proudly sharing his medal he received at his after-school football club. "I got it for getting changed really quickly and having good sportsmanship and being stuck to my team in the matches." Well done Luke!

Sebby was proud to share his medal that he received from football club for having a positive attitude and trying really hard

Maisie was super excited to share her gymnastics award for a great start, showing talent and enthusiasm. Well done Maisie!

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 23rd June 2023.pdf

Super-PoWeRs!

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 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.

FPSA update

The Summer Fair was back last Saturday and what a great day it was. We had near perfect weather (not too hot) and were not put off by a couple of minutes of light rain during set up at 9am on Saturday nor the overnight sabotage of the hay bales by some unknown avian creatures!

We seemed to have a very good turn out at the fair which is marvellous and we hope everyone who attended had a good time. The aims of the fair were to have lots of fun and raise money for both Furze Platt Infant School and Furze Platt Junior School. Overall we have raised over £9,700 which is a personal best!

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who helped the fair whether they donated a prize, cake, soft toys or nearly new items, bought raffle tickets, had an estate agents board outside their house, helped set up on the Friday after school and/or Saturday morning, helped on a stall during the fair or assisted the clear up at the end.

Date for your diary.....

Year 2 Leavers Disco - Friday 14th July (4 -5.15pm)

Year 2 children are invited to a fun-filled hour of music and dancing in the Infants Hall with 'DJ Dexter' playing the tunes! Note, a slight change to the timing.