Newsletter - 26th June 2026

Furze Platt Infant School

Sunshine, Sunflowers, and a Super Sports Day at FPIS! (plus some scorchingly hot weather too...)

Our Sports Day last week was certainly action-packed and lots of fun. We were so impressed with how well our children joined in with the events - demonstrating LOTS of passion and showing respect towards their team mates and friends. Thank you to all those parents, family members and friends who came along to watch. Please look below for some action shots!

The extreme temperatures this week have given us more than a few challenges in school, but we have been really pleased to see how well the children have adapted to the changes we have made in order to keep everyone safe, happy and as cool as possible. Our classrooms with air-conditioning have been invaluable during the hot weather, providing a chilled indoor space for the children to use during lunchtimes as well as in the heat of the afternoon when we have had smaller numbers in school. That said, I think we are all looking forward to the slightly cooler temperatures next week - and a return to our normal routines!

Well done and thank you to our Eco Team for organising our Sunflower growing competition - the plant sales have taken our overall fundraising total for Thames Hospice to £1,184.00 - well within reach of our £1,300 target! Thank you to all for your support - and good luck! You can find out more about the sunflower competition in our Eco Team news section below. Our School Council are in the process of organising our final Trunks Across the Thames fundraising event of the year... more details to follow. We will also be revealing where along the TATT art trail Blossom, our FPIS baby elephant, will be located very soon!

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! Our online booking system opens on Monday at 8:00 am.

I am delighted to confirm that we have retained our brilliant team of teachers here at FPIS as we move into the new academic year, meaning that when we return to school in September, the Class Teachers and Year Group Teams will remain as they are currently. This will allow us to continue to build upon the strengths and successes of this year as we collectively work to ensure every child has the best possible start to their educational journey and be the best they can be. One small change, however, will be that from September, Early Years will be known as Reception in order to align more with the systems and materials we are using in school. We were very pleased to welcome our new Reception cohort at our Induction Mornings for Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonfly Classes this week and are looking forward to them joining us in September. Please see below for Classes and Teaching Teams 2026-27...

We are all looking forward to what will be a very busy, but exciting end to the year! Please check diary dates and reminders carefully as there will be lots going on.

Have a lovely weekend - we hope to see you at the Summer Fair tomorrow.

With very best wishes

Jane Indge

Head of School

Quick Links

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Calendar

Diary dates - coming up soon!

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

Thursday 2nd July - SEND Coffee Afternoon: 2:30 - 3:15 pm

Friday 3rd July - End of Year Reports to parents

Monday 29th June - Parent Meetings; booking opens @ 8:00 am

Monday 29th June- Year 1 African drumming workshop

Wednesday 1st July - Year 2 lunch @ FPJS

Friday 3rd July - End of Year Reports to parents

Monday 6th July - Parent Meetings: booking closes @ 4:00 pm

Tuesday 7th July - Early Years Parent Meetings

Wednesday 8th July - Year 2 Parent Meetings

Thursday 9th July - Year 1 Parent Meetings

Wednesday 16th July - Transition afternoon - all year groups

Thursday 16th July - Year 2 End of Year Performances @ 9:30 am and 2:00 pm

Friday 17th July - Year 2 End of Year Performance @ 9:30 am

Friday 17th July - FPSA Year 2 Leavers Disco

Saturday 18th July and Sunday 19th July - FPSA Summer Camp

Monday 20th July - Year 1 Excellent Ending: 'Look What We've Discovered!' @ 9:15 am

Tuesday 21st July - Early Years Graduation @ 9:15 am

Wednesday 22nd July - Term ends: school finishes at 1:30 pm

Classes and teaching staff 2026-27.pdf

School Attendance

SAM - our School Attendance Mascot, is our FPIS teddy bear who helps our children think about why it is so important to attend school every day.

Our children are busy learning right from the start of the day, so being in class on time each morning matters just as much too. Registration begins at 8:45am and we expect all children to be in class by 9:00am.

Each week, during our Celebration Assembly, the attendance figures are shared. The class with the best attendance overall gets to look after SAM until the following week. SAM will be spending half of the week in Caterpillar Class and the other half in BeechClass as they both had perfect attendance figures of 100%! Very well done indeed!

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

You can read our full Attendance Policy here.

Our latest attendance figures

Caterpillar 100.0%

Beech 100.0%

Silver Birch 98.3%

Oak 97.3%

Holly 97.3%

Dragonfly 97.1%

Hazel 92.9%

Willow 92.4%

Bumblebee 91.5%

FPIS SEND Signpost

https://rbwmtogether.rbwm.gov.uk/autism-strategy-consultation

Sports Day 2026

Well done to everyone for a fantastic effort during a very warm, but wonderful Sports Day event. There were a number of different activities for the children to complete in their teams - from a traditional egg and spoon race to a more challenging football course, which really gave the children an opportunity to demonstrate their ball skills! Thank you to all who came to watch and cheer along!

Early Years

Wow, what a fun packed few weeks our Bumblebees, Caterpillars and Dragonflies have had! We have been continuing our project on 'Journeys' this term and have been reading the story Paddington Bear, 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, talking through the steps they needed to go through to make the perfect sandwich! Before the children tasted it, they predicted which sandwich they thought they might prefer. Following this, we recorded their favourite on a class tally chart. Jam was the winner for all three classes although many of the children have said that they now liked marmalade after trying it with their friends!

We were very lucky to have the arrival of our caterpillars a couple of weeks ago. The children have been learning all about the life-cycle of a butterfly and many saw the butterflies hatch out of their cocoons which was fascinating! The children have been butterfly spotting in the woodland and also observing and discussing other insects that they can see using magnifying glasses and non-fiction books. The children came up with some fitting names for our class butterflies and we waved each one goodbye as we let them free into the world!

This week our Early Years children have been learning all about the coast. The children were enthusiastic to share and discuss their own experiences of visits to the coast some beautiful watercolour paintings using techniques they have learnt such as pointillism. It is wonderful to see the children taking good care as they paint with accuracy and creativity. We also had a listen to coastal sounds and imagined we were by the sea! We then used our previous leaning about vehicles to discuss how we might travel to the coast by land, sea and air.

Early Years London Landmark Exhibition!

Our Bumblebee, Caterpillar and Dragonflies were excited to welcome their grown up's in to the classroom on Monday 8th and Friday 12th June. The children have been learning all about London as part of their project and their challenge was to create their very own London Landmark. On the Monday afternoon the children built their Landmarks with their grown up's and/or teachers using a range of techniques and materials. We were SO impressed with the thought, teamwork and creativity that went into designing and assembling the Landmarks. Throughout the week the children refined, painted and decorated their models ready to display them on Friday 12th at the Early Years London Landmark Exhibition. Both events were a huge success and a wonderful opportunity to work together and celebrate the children's learning throughout their project on 'Journeys'. The London Landmarks looked truly AMAZING so thank you to everyone that was involved!

Early Years Forest School

In Forest School, the children have been learning how to handle tools safely. After practising with pretend tools throughout the year, it was wonderful to give them the real-life experience of using tools effectively and responsibly. The children had a go at hammering nails into tins to create drainage holes. They then filled their tins with soil and planted seeds. Since then, they have enjoyed observing and caring for their plants, watching them grow day by day. This activity helped to develop their confidence, coordination, and understanding of tool safety, while also encouraging responsibility and an appreciation of nature!

Year 1

This term, we have been enjoying our focus on the world, exploring different places, habitats and explorers. So far, we have learned about Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Karen Darke and have recently started studying Ibn Battuta. We have also focused on The Gambia, looking at the similarities and differences between life there and in the UK, including how water is used in each country. We have also been learning and retelling the story of Meerkat Mail. We then adapted the story to write our own exciting tales about an animal travelling around the world.

In Science, we have continued our investigations into animals. We have been studying the different groups of animals based on what they eat: carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. We have particularly enjoyed learning about how animals have adapted to find, catch and eat different types of food.

As part of our lanyards, we have been exploring murals and have found it fascinating to look at different artwork from around the world. Working in groups, we have started creating our own murals inspired by the seven continents. We have also been experimenting with paper mâché and have thoroughly enjoyed getting messy while exploring its texture and discovering what happens as it dries. We are now beginning to choose a habitat to create using paper mâché. These wonderful creations will be on display at our end of year performance, so be sure to keep an eye out for them!

In Maths, we have been focusing on numbers to 100 by applying what we already know about numbers to 10. We have been investigating how to partition two-digit numbers into tens and ones and placing numbers from 1 to 100 on a number line by creating our own. We have had lots of fun being creative and using classroom resources to demonstrate our learning.

In Outdoor Learning, we have loved making the most of the sunshine. It has been exciting to watch our tomato plants grow, and we have already spotted some tomatoes beginning to develop! We have also been very lucky to receive some fantastic new outdoor learning resources, which we have started to use. We have particularly enjoyed exploring the water investigation area and the large construction area. We are looking forward to using these even more over the coming weeks.

Year 2

After half term we held our Wonderful Water! Magnificent Middle, focusing on science. Following on from all that we have learnt 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 - read more about this further on.

In maths we have been busy learning how to use a range of positional language to describe directions and the positions of objects.

Over the last few weeks, we have been focusing on our Inventor Sticky Knowledge and exploring different ways to join materials together to support us in our design, make and testing boats activity. This included the flange, L brace, split pins, tape, glue, tabs and many more!

In conjunction with being busy boat builders we have been learning about how boats have been used throughout history. We started by learning about HMS Titanic and how it now provides a great habitat for marine life in the North Atlantic Ocean and also how boats were used to help rescue troops from Dunkirk during World War Two.

Next week we are planning to test our boats on the English Channel (a.k.a a paddling pool!!) and evaluate how well our designs, use of joins and waterproof materials have worked. To be continued... :-)

We have also been creating our own pieces of water themed paintings using our newly learnt watercolour painting skills.

Finally, we were very excited to welcome Simon Mole back to year 2. He ran a workshop with each class focusing on conjunctions games and how this can be used to improve your writing skills. As always everyone had a fantastic time. Ask your child to talk about the 'For Door'!! :-)

Year 2 go to Mudeford!

Well Year 2 FINALLY made it to the beach and what a brilliant, sunny day we all had (well mostly!!)! It started with an exciting ferry trip from Mudeford Quay to Mudeford Sandbanks. We loved exploring the sea from the ferry! Then when we arrived at the beach we set up our Base Camp and enjoyed eating our lunch sitting on the sand and watching the sea! It was then time for the real fun to begin! We had a carousel of six exciting activities to do. These included; rock pooling, making sandcastles, playing beach games, beach combing, sand dune exploration and arguably the most popular activity, dipping our toes into the sea!! We weren’t very lucky and didn’t find many animals during our rock pooling sessions BUT we did find lots of limpets and a dead crab which was just as exciting!

It was such a brilliant way to bring all of our learning about the oceans and the habitats surrounding our oceans to life!

When we arrived back at Mudeford Quay we were able to look at the RNLI Lifeboat station which was a great opportunity for us to think about the facts we had learnt when we were in year 1.

The day was a huge success and the children were exemplary! So many people visiting Mudeford came out of their way to say how impressed they were with the children’s behaviour and we couldn’t agree more!

Thank you to the wonderful staff team and the amazing parent volunteers who made this a roaring success!

Year 2 celebrate World Oceans Day!

On Monday 8th June our Year 2 children celebrated World Oceans Day participating in an online event run by the Marine Conservation Society. We joined the online event with thousands of people from all around the world to celebrate all the wonderful things our ocean brings to Planet Earth. The Zoom was held in Portugal as a Marine Biologist spoke to us about the importance of sustainability and how resilient our oceans really are! The Year 2 children have learnt so much about our oceans that it was great for them to feel part of this global event!

To continue our World Oceans Day celebrations, we also joined an online assembly organised by WWF which Steve Backshall presented. He dived into an aquarium to help us get up close and personal to an array of UK marine animals who call the Atlantic Ocean their home.

Eco Team

A huge thank you to everyone who purchased a sunflower as part of our Eco Team fundraiser - we have raised a fantastic £198! We can't wait to hear how your sunflowers grow over the coming weeks and months and we would love to know how tall they get!

The Eco Team has also given one sunflower to each class, so there will be a friendly competition across the school to see which class can grow the tallest sunflower. We are excited to follow everyone's progress and announce the winners later in the year.

Thank you once again for supporting the Eco Team and helping us make a difference! We are aiming to raise £1,300 for Thames Hospice by the end of the year, so please give generously if you can using the link below:

Just giving fundraising page

School Council

School Council have enjoyed creating posters to advertise our upcoming Summer Fair. We have loved sharing information about the different stalls that will be there and displaying our posters around the school and in each classroom. We are looking forward to the event and hope everyone enjoys joining in with the fun!

Nurture Group

In nurture, we have been busy decorating our seasons board, by making summer themed crafts like... beautiful sunflowers, buzzy bees and pretty tissue flowers. Our outside door has also be decorated with colourful, fish pictures, carefully painted to look like an under water scene.

In line with the Key Stage 1 projects on water, we have started our own 'under the sea' collage. We have started with seaweed and shells, but will be adding lots more over the coming weeks.

Finally, we are delighted with our recently planted raised beds. The courgette plants are gigantic with lots of tiny courgettes forming, our peas are climbing up the canes and nearly ready to pick. The tomato plants are also climbing well and flowers are staring to appear. We are having to spend a lot of time keeping them watered, but its worth it.

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 26th June 2026.pdf

SuperPoWeR Awards

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.

Super-PoWeR Awards 26th June 2026.pptx

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 Miss Dexter, Miss Edmondson, Miss Aggarwal and Mrs Indge 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 updates

Summer Fair tomorrow!

We look forward to seeing you at our World Cup Summer Fair tomorrow. Kick off is 11.30am and full time is 3pm. Please bring change with you as not every stall has a card reader. Due to the hot forecast, you are advised to bring a hat, suntan cream and water.

Thank you to those people who have signed up to help on a stall for one hour or more, much appreciated. We still have a few slots to fill, here is the link to sign up: https://volunteersignup.org/8HRYW

Food options include a BBQ, tuck shop, cake stall, delicious samosas and cookies in the Juniors hall.

Summer Fair Silent Auction

The online Silent Auction is up and running and finishes on Friday July 3rd. We have lots of fabulous prizes on offer so please take a look and get bidding!

https://fpsa.charityhive.co.uk/auction

Summer Fair Raffle - top prize of £250, 2nd prize of £100

Get your raffle tickets now as you could be in with a chance of winning cash prizes with a top prize of £250! Link is here: https://fpsa.charityhive.co.uk/raffles

Cheese & Wine Evening II

On Friday 12th June, we ran our second Cheese & Wine evening and once again, it was hosted by Matt Mawtus. A fun evening was had by just under 50 people. Winners in the evening included Dean who won the top prize on the 100 Board (lunch for two at Michelin-starred restaurant, Hide in London), Ralf who won the second prize (a bottle of wine) and Jemma who guessed the mystery wine from South Africa. The 2 Cheese & Wine evenings have raised over £2,000 for both schools which is fantastic.

Early Years only - Sports Day T-shirts & Caps

Thank you to everyone who bought a Sports Day t-shirt & cap for Early Years children, this has helped raise £170 for Furze Platt Infant School.

Personalised name label stickers for clothes/water bottles etc.

There are 2 easy options for buying personalised labels. Simply order your labels below whilst also raising funds for our schools. These labels will help the schools return mislaid uniform and will help cut down on the lost property including water bottles and lunchboxes as well as uniform.

1 Easy2Name

Simply order from the following site: https://www.easy2name.com/stickeasy, quote code 'FR-FPIS-72' and not only will you will get free delivery, the FPSA will receive 20% of the order value.

2 MyNameTags

Simply order from the following site: https://www.mynametags.com and use fundraising code 19450. A donation is made to the FPSA per order.

Windsor & Maidenhead Community Lottery

This is a weekly lottery that raises money for good causes in the Royal Borough including the FPSA. Tickets for the lottery cost just £1 and from that 60p goes to good causes including 50p to the FPSA. Each ticket has a 1 in 50 chance to win a prize each week with a top prize of £25,000! So please sign up and buy a weekly ticket or two using the link: https://www.windsorandmaidenheadcommunitylottery.co.uk/support/furze-platt-schools-association

Dates for your Diary:

Summer Fair - Saturday 27th June (11.30am-3pm)

It's tomorrow! Kick off is 11.30am and full time is 3pm.

Year 2 Leavers' Disco - Friday 17th July (4.15pm-5.30pm)

Calling all year 2 children, DJ Dexter and DJ Dee will be in the house (hall) playing some top tunes! Tickets will include a special FPIS leavers keyring. Tickets go on sale very soon.

Summer Camp - Saturday 18th - Sunday 19th July

Summer Camp is back! Join us on the Juniors field for some fun with a BBQ, Bouncy Castle, Bar, Tuck shop and games.

Useful Information for Parents and Families

Mad Science Camps _ENG (NEW)_compressed.pdf

Does your child want to learn to ride a bike this summer A5.pdf

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