We are delighted to be introducing a new feature to our Newsletter! Each edition, our FPIS SEND Signpost article will share a website or other resource selected by our Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo), Mrs Singh, which we hope will be useful to parents and families.

To launch our feature, we would like to signpost our dedicated website page, where you will find lots of information about SEND - including our SEND policy, support services and groups which may be a useful if you have a child with a special educational need or disability. 

https://www.furzeplattinfantschool.co.uk/send/

Equally, should you have any concerns or worries about how your child is developing and their progress, please speak to their class teacher in the first instance who will be very happy to help and advise.

Our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have impressed us with how brilliantly they have settled into school. They have been busy making friends and having fun in our indoor and outdoor environments. The Early Years children have quickly learnt new routines and have enjoyed exploring their new classrooms. 

This week they have started phonics and maths and will bring home their first school reading book to share at home today. The children were very excited to share their Me and My Family posters and enjoyed talking about who is special to them. 

Well done to all of our Early Years children for settling into school so well. We are very proud of you!

Our Key Stage 1 children have been busy learning all about our School Promises and Values. To help us think about these in a fun and creative way we have been visited by Simon Mole, a well known person in our local community who is a Poet and an Author. Simon ran a workshop with each class focusing on rhymes and raps. We then had the time to mind map our ideas associated with each promise and value. Year 2 focused on our Values and Year 1 focused on our School Promises. We then had a creative writing team from each class work closely with Simon to come up with some imaginative and exciting raps all about our School Promises and Values and what they mean to us.

Following on from our Simon Mole visits, our Key Stage 1 finished their Establishment Phase on a high! We turned into Rap Stars and performed our newly written raps to two very special guests; Mrs Indge and Mr Wallace. The Year 1 children shared their raps about the School Promises, with each class focusing on two each and the Year 2 children performed their raps all about our School Values with each class focusing on one each. Our special guests were impressed with our raps and we were extremely proud of our amazing transformation into rap stars! 

Our Year 1 children have transitioned into Key Stage 1 so well and have enjoyed exploring their new classrooms and Outdoor Learning areas. 

They have been learning all about our Lanyard Challenge system and have been exploring the different resources available in their new learning environments. They have become Explorers, Designers, Discoverers and Investigators, learning how to demonstrate these key skills during their Busy Learning sessions. 

We have had an amazing start to the new school year!  We have been getting to know one another, learning where everything is in our new classrooms as well as investigating the resources in our continuous provision areas.  In our block areas we have been busy making castles whilst reflecting and talking about the duty and service of Queen Elizabeth II.  We have also enjoyed examining and using the resources in our Maths shape, space and measure area by making patterns and measuring objects in different ways.  

In Maths we have started a new year of 'mastering number' and have been looking at a large variety of number lines from 0-100 trying to place numbers in the correct places.

A visitor to our school grounds during the summer holidays, the hummingbird hawk-moth is a small, day-flying hawk-moth. It can be seen here hovering over buddleia flowers, feeding with its long proboscis. Take a look at Mr Vogel's slo-mo video below!

Did you know? Its wings move so quickly that it 'hums'. 

The FPSA would like to welcome everyone back to Furze Platt Infant School and say a very warm welcome to the new early years children and their families. We have some great fundraising events coming up, so please make a note in your diaries for the following:

• Saturday 1st October - Early Years Tea Party, 2.30pm - 4pm

• Friday 18th November - Quiz Night, 8pm-10.30pm

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

In addition, please look out for more information on Christmas cards which your children will soon be creating in class!

Finally, we have a new secretary on the FPSA team - a warm welcome to Kate Galley who has recently joined.