Furze Platt Infant School

At FPIS, we recognise reading as an invaluable life skill, essential if our children are to reach their potential. Supporting the development of early reading skills, teaching our children to become fluent, confident readers and encouraging a passion for books and a love of reading is a huge part of what we do throughout our school every day.

The World Book Day mission is to promote reading for pleasure - the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. At FPIS, World Book Day gives us the opportunity to celebrate together books and reading - and this year our WBD events across the week have provided many memorable moments for everyone. Read on for lots more details about what's been happening in school as well as further information, activities and advice to help parents enjoy sharing stories together as a family not just on World Book Day but every day of the year!

Have a lovely weekend - and happy reading!

Jane Indge

Head of School

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Term Dates

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Calendar

Diary dates - coming up soon!

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

Tuesday 7th March - Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole workshop - Year 1

Friday 10th March - Farm visiting Early Years

Friday 10th March - End of KS1 assessment information session for Year 2 parents @ 2:15 pm

Monday 13th March - Hatching eggs in Early Years

Friday 17th March - Comic Relief: Red Nose Day 2023

Monday 20th March - Parents' Evening: 3:40 - 7:00 pm

Tuesday 21st March - World Poetry Day

Tuesday 21st March - Thursday 23rd March - Early Years Health Screening Checks

Wednesday 22nd March - Parents' Evening: 3:40 - 7:00 pm

Friday 24th March - FPSA Quiz Night

Wednesday 29th March - FPSA AGM

Wednesday 29th March - Year 1 Marketplace

Thursday 30th March - Year 2 Marketplace

Friday 31st March - End of Term

Monday 3rd April - Friday 14th April - Easter Holidays

Monday 17th April - Term begins

Tuesday 25th April - Information Advisory Service (IAS) Coffee Morning

Friday 28th April - FPSA Year 2 School Quiz

School Attendance

With an attendance figure of 99.3%, Dragonfly Class had the best attendance overall this week, so will be taking care of SAM - our School Attendance Mascot. Well done everyone!

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

Dragonfly 99.3%

Willow 98.3%

Hazel 96.8%

Oak 96.4%

Silver Birch 95.9%

Beech 95.8%

Caterpillar 95.3%

Holly 95.0%

Bumble Bee 93.8%

FPIS SEND Signpost

World Book Day 2023

Our WBD dress up event today began with a parade in the school hall. The whole school joined together in a very colourful show - with the grown ups taking part too, of course.

We've had a very busy and exciting week - as you can see from the articles below. World Book Day ideas for families can be found at: https://www.worldbookday.com/families/

The Words for Life site is also packed with ideas for fun, family activities that support children's reading, writing and speaking at home.

https://wordsforlife.org.uk/themes/celebrate-world-book-day-at-home/

FPJS Year 6 reading buddies visit Early Years for World Book Day

Our Early Years children thoroughly enjoyed sharing books and listening to stories with our Year 6 FPJS children today. We are hoping to continue with regular Year 6 reader buddy sessions soon!

Storytelling sessions for Year 1 - with some VERY special guests!

The year 1 children had not one but THREE special guests visit their classrooms today to read them a story. Mr Wallace, Mr Dearnaley and Mrs Indge visited each of the year one classrooms and shared one of their favourite story books with the children. The children loved listening to the different stories. Thank you to our special guests!

World Book Day - our Year 2's visit Year 3 at FPJS!

The year 2 children loved going to visit the year 3 children at FPJS today. They shared their books with the other children who then read some of their books back to them. It was a lovely morning and the children did a great job at showing other children what brilliant readers they are!

'Get caught reading' challenge!

Just for fun, as part of our World Book Day celebrations, our children have been sharing their ‘get caught reading’ photos via Seesaw. We have been amazed at the very funny and imaginative places that our children have found to read their favourite book in (and it seems some of our grown ups have been caught with a book in a few interesting places too!) Thank you to all who have shared their photos - we've added our favourites here for everyone to see!

Wish List - updated!

We have already received a number of donations of books from our Amazon Wish List - thank you!

We have updated our list for World Book Day - and have added a number of new recommended titles about human bodies and health to support the children's learning in Science and PSHE .

If you would like to purchase an individual book to donate to school, including a personalised book plate with your child’s name you can access our Amazon wish list via the link below:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/DT5RNWLOW12D?ref_=wl_share

Once purchased through Amazon, the book will come off the list. If you purchase a book elsewhere then please let the School Office know so that the list can be updated online.

The Great World Book Day Draw-a-long!

Our KS1 children had the opportunity to join a special WBD event this week. Author/illustrator duo Swapna Haddow and Sheena Dempsey were the hosts for this event which centred upon the WBD title - Dave Pigeon: Bookshop Mayhem. The children heard about where Swapna and Sheena get their ideas and inspiration from, they shared their top tips for creating your own stories, and everyone got the chance to give it a go in class with a 'draw-a-long!'

Our Early Years children go on an 'Everyday Adventure!'

In this special WBD online event, our Early Years children shared rhymes and songs and they explored poems and books with Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children’s Laureate. The children also joined Sophy Henn - author of Lifesize Creepy Crawlies on a creepy crawly bug hunt!

Let's talk PANTS

What is Talk PANTS?

Talk Pants is a simple conversation to help keep children safe.

Talking PANTS is one of the things we regularly do in school - with the help of the friendly NSPCC dinosaur, Pantosaurus, who helps children understand that their body belongs to them, and they should tell someone they trust if anything makes them feel upset or worried.

Designed specifically for children aged between 4 and 8-years-old, the NSPCC have lots of advice, tips and guidance to help your family talk PANTS. There are games, guides, a Pantosaurus storybook, and even a song to sing along to.

To help start the conversation with their child, parents can also sign up to receive helpful tips, advice and materials by email.

For further information, please use the link below:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

Early Years Mastering Number Parent Project Workshop

Last week we launched our Early Years Mastering Number Parent Project. This exciting project shares some of the resources and learning that we will be doing in school and provides parents with some fun games that they can use to support their child at home. We have also provided every child with six coloured counters to use at home during the project. It was great to see the children working with their parents and having fun with maths! We look forward to seeing how your child progresses through your Seesaw logs.

Early Years

Our Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly children have been continuing our project 'All About Animals'. Last week we explored the question, What is a pet? The children enjoyed talking about their own, friends and their families pets. The children used their investigation skills to find out more about their teachers pets and created beautiful pictures. The Early Years children also learnt about how to care for pets and explored our vet role play resources. This has inspired some of our children to want to work with animals in the future.

This week we began story telling the traditional tale, The Little Red Hen. The children have impressed us with their fabulous story maps and oral story telling. They have explored the word sequence during story telling and maths this week. We looked at number sequences from 20 to 30 and making sure that we count on just one at a time and in the right order. They loved it when the teachers got it wrong and helped them to count on slowly and in order!

The children began exploring different types of bread this week in preparation for making their own next week! This term in RE we are learning about Spring, new life and the Easter celebration. On Thursday, our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies discovered the first signs of spring when they went outside to explore our school grounds.

Year 1

We have started this term by being historians and learning all about Florence Nightingale, who she was and what she did for modern nursing. We have been absolutely fascinated with this project and have been building hospitals out of lego, role playing her life and writing fact booklets with all of the facts we have learnt so far.

We have also been Geographers and learnt all about the different countries and capital cities in the UK. We have been particularly intrigued by the different flags and traditional music we have discovered. To help celebrate St. David's Day we had a wonderful time cooking Welsh Cakes - yummy!

In Outdoor Learning we used our observational skills as Scientists to notice a very exciting addition to the pond- frogspawn! We will continue to observe it over the following weeks and hopefully see it turn into frogs as the weather gets warmer.

As Scientists we have also been learning all about the different parts of a plant like the roots, leaves, flowers and stem. We have also thought about our body parts and what amazing shapes we can make using our arms and legs!

Ray Mill Island Teacher Trail for Year 1

It was great to see so many of our families met the Year 1 team at Ray Mill Island for an exciting trail! Lots of fun was had by all including; playing pooh sticks, exploring the different wildlife found in our local area, learning more about water safety and producing some beautiful bark rubbing. Thank you to those families who came to support us, despite the chilly and slightly damp weather! :-)

Year 2

As well as our terrific class trips to London we have been extremely busy using our creative skills in lots of different ways to support our learning about The Great Fire of London. We have created a skyline of London, inspired by the artist Wassily Kandinsky. We also created individual houses to make Pudding Lane and watched in disbelief as it burnt to the ground (on the playground) in about five minutes!!

We have also been scientists, investigating which materials are waterproof and which are not. In recent years we have all become more aware of the importance of washing our hands. We took part in an experiment to prove this by using environmentally friendly, biodegradable glitter to show how germs are passed on by touch. We discussed the fact that we have both good and bad germs but that by washing our hands we can get rid of most germs.

We have also been busy exploring our History Sticky Knowledge thinking all about chronology. To help us explore this further the teachers brought in baby photos of themselves, their first toys and books and the children had to explore the primary sources carefully for evidence to help them order the items chronologically.

In Maths we have imagained ourselves fleeing from The Great Fire crossing The River Thames in boats, using our knowledge of arrays and multiplication facts to help us. We have also been investigating how to measure length and height in centimetres accurately. We have learnt that it is very important to start measuring the object from the start point by ensuring that the 0 on the ruler is placed there.

Year 2 trips to London!

Last week each of our Year 2 classes spent an exciting day in London! We travelled up to London by coach, looking at famous landmarks along the way out of the window. First, we explored Sir Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral. We listened to our guide as they explained what happened to the cathedral during The Great Fire of London, what survived and how it was rebuilt after the fire. We walked around the cathedral looking at the amazing sculptures, memorials and mosaics. We had a chance to role-play how the fire was fought and sat down right under the dome on the floor looking upwards. We also got to lie down looking up at the ceiling, focusing on the incredible artworks. It was a really special experience.

After lunch we walked through the city to Monument Square where The Monument to The Great Fire is situated and the site of where historians believe the fire started in Pudding Lane. Willow and Hazel were able to climb the 311 steps to the top of The Monument and wonder at the spectacular view over the city. We saw The Shard (the current tallest building in London), HMS Belfast, The Tower of London, The Walkie Talkie, St Paul’s Cathedral and Tower Bridge.

Unfortunately for Holly Class, The Monument was unexpectedly closed. However, as ever, Miss Dexter had a genius back up plan in place and after looking at The Monument and Pudding Lane, they all walked down to Tower Bridge. They climbed 211 steps, stopping at various points along the way, until they reached the viewing platform where they stood on top of a glass floor, looking down to The River Thames below! They also saw amazing views of London.

All of the children were exemplary role models for our school and we are extremely proud of them!

Despite each day being very long and tiring the children had a wonderful and unforgettable day, which will live long in their memories.

Dan the Skipping Man Day for KS1

On Wednesday, our KS1 children enjoyed a range of challenges and activities all involving skipping. They played games including charge and double dutch, as well as learning how to use a skipping rope properly (we must remember to tuck our elbows in!). We also enjoyed a brilliant assembly at the end of the day with Milly (our skipping coach) who showed us lots of tricks and different ways we can use our brand new skipping ropes!

Nurture Group

Over the last few weeks in nurture, we have been very busy in our group activity times. We started by making pancakes, using paper plates and lolly sticks as frying pans, string and pancake pictures. The children really enjoyed trying to flip their pancakes out in the playground. We have started to make chicks, lambs, daffodils and paperchains for our new spring display in the nurture room. In addition, we have been exploring our 5 senses starting with hearing. This included a discussion about sign language and everyone including the nurture staff spelt out their name using sign language. We also had to guess the name of the animal, simply by listening to the noise it makes - some were definitely easier than others!

A big thank you to Mrs Middleton for creating some lovely new aprons for our kitchen area which makes role play even more fun! we have also enjoyed using the farm side of our new play mat, with the new farm animals.

Eco Team

Now that we are getting towards Spring we have started to think about our outside environment and how we can improve it. We spent sometime in the pond area tidying it up and removing unwanted rubbish. We were excited to see that already some frog spawn has begun to form. Also we noticed that the primroses that were planted are now flowering and the shoots on our bulbs that we planted a few weeks ago are growing.

School Council

Over the past week we have been busy practising and learning our new actions for our School Promises! We are now experts and have been trying to teach the rest of our classes to learn them too. Hopefully our new actions will help everybody around the school to remember and follow our School Promises even better.

Healthy Me!

This term, the theme for our Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) lessons is 'Healthy Me.' Over the next few weeks, the children will be learning about the difference between being healthy and unhealthy. The children will also begin to understand that their bodies need to stay healthy and learn about some ways to keep healthy too.

As part of this, we will be discussing healthy eating. If you would like to get involved at home too, please take a look below.

For more information about healthier food swaps visit: https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/food-facts/healthier-food-swaps/

Be a Swap Rockstar! You can also find healthier swaps for the whole family by downloading the FREE NHS Food Scanner App.

And for advice specifically about sugar, please use the link below:

https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/food-facts/sugar/

Please also see below for some useful guidance on 'sugar swaps' for families.

Wonderful Wildlife!

Now March is here, Spring must surely not be too far away! In fact, Mr Vogel has already spotted a few signs around our school this week...

Wonderful Wildlife#10 Frog spawn

Common frogs are often seen in and around our pond area in school. If you take a close when you next walk by, you will see that we have lots of frog spawn in the pond just below the surface of the water. Once the frog spawn hatches it will take about 14 weeks for the tadpoles to turn into frogs.

Did you know? Frogs lay a cluster of jelly-like eggs, whereas toad spawn comes in long ribbons.

Awesome achievements!

Congratulations to Maya who received her medal at our after school football club for, "Being a good leader and helping other kids score goals." A fantastic effort Maya, we are very proud of you! :)

We are very proud of Henry who was awarded the Man of the Match award at his football club. He ran into good positions and scored goals. Congratulations Henry, a brilliant effort! :)

Well done to Alice who skipped 100 times forwards and backwards and was awarded this fantastic medal! We are very proud of you Alice! :)

Ben worked hard to gain his first ever swimming certificate and badge. He had to listen carefully and be super brave in the water. Great work Ben!

Hanvitha has been working hard on her swimming skills and has a swimming certificate to commend her efforts. She said she had to do so much swimming practise so well done Hanvitha!

Well done to Emily in Hazel Class who received star of the week for her Gymnastics! Super work Emily!

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 10th March 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

Coin collection

A huge thank you to everyone who donated some coins (and notes!) last month, we had an amazing range of different currencies and some very generous donations too. In total we raised £425, a superb amount!

A big thank you goes to the children that helped out with the collections both before and after school (please see pictures). Some future PTA members there no doubt!

Dates for your diary...

Mr T's Quiz Night - Friday 24th March (8pm-10.30pm)

The FPSA Quiz Night is back! Come and join in the fun at the Juniors school hall as we raise money for both schools whilst testing our general knowledge and having a drink or two. Enter as a full team of 6 or come as a pair or individual and we will help you get into a team on the evening. Doors open at 7pm with the quiz starting at 8pm. The quiz includes 4 picture rounds, a connections round, a music round and much more. Book tickets at www.pta-events.co.uk/fpsa

FPSA AGM - Wednesday 29th March (8pm-9pm)

Come along to the FPSA AGM in the Infants school hall on Wednesday 29th March (8-9pm) to find out how money raised by the FPSA has been spent by both schools as well as hear from both heads of school on what their plans are for future spending.

If you are interested in joining the FPSA, now is a great time as we are looking for new team members in particular a secretary - but don't worry, there is no pressure to join if you come to the meeting to simply find out more. If you can't make it and are interested in getting involved, please do reach out, we'd love to talk to you (fpsa.ebox@gmail.com)

Year 2 School Quiz - Friday 28th April (3.15-5pm)

After a successful event last year, we will be running another quiz for the year 2 children in the hall. Mr Thompson is quiz master and will be testing the children (in teams of up to 6) on their general knowledge and the quiz includes some fun picture rounds. More details including how to get tickets will be out soon.

Useful Information for Parents and Families

What Parents Need To Know About Spotify.pdf

sugar-swaps-leaflet.pdf

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