Furze Platt Juniors 2025-26 Newsletter

What a joyful few weeks we have all had at FPJS! It began with the superb Year 3 nativity performances (see photos below), which really got us into the festive spirit. Year 4 had a great time at St Peter's church, learning more about the Christmas story. Back at school, we continued our celebration of the season with many events: our annual Carol Concert—where the staff took the nativity parts (much to the delight of the children!) while all the children sang their hearts out—the inter-house tree decorating and Christmas singing competitions, a Christmas lunch, and Christmas discos!

We passionately believe children should enjoy such fun experiences as much as formal learning; it is what makes FPJS such a special place, especially at this time of year!

Thanks to all parents and carers for your support this term—especially if you helped your children with the wonderful homework creations. We have never seen so many fantastic 'Gift-O-Matic' machines and Wallace and Gromit cakes!

We wish all of our families a wonderful Christmas - may your holidays be filled with much fun and laughter!

See you all back next year- we return on Tuesday 6th January.

Anna Clark

Head of School

p.s. If you want to take a sneak at our staff Christmas dance off today- take a look here- Headstudents judged and awarded the Roman staff the winners!

The Furze Platt Primary Federation's Epic Countdown to Christmas

WOW! What a spectacular close to the term!

We didn't just meander up to the holidays, we had our very own, completely epic feast of events and celebrations across our two schools.

Just look at what we packed in:

An incredible Christmas Fair (a huge shout-out to the FPSA and all our amazing volunteers!)
Three dazzling pantos!
Seven super festive, funny and heart-melting Nativities!
Six fabulously decorated trees!
Two guitar concerts by our talented guitarists!
Two delicious Christmas lunches!
90 Early Years children singing their little hearts out!
Countless festive assemblies, carols on the playground, a visit to St Peter's Church, a Carol Concert and a performance by FPJS choir.
Plus, Christmas Jumper Day, a special visit from Father Christmas to our FPIS children, and adornments galore!

Honestly, I'm not sure even the real Father Christmas has as much festive fun as we do!

This has been another truly action-packed term, with the children enjoying so many wonderful trips, activities, and events. Looking back over the past two terms fills me with incredible joy and pride! The passion our students show is shining through in the amazing work and enthusiasm they bring every single day.

Finally, I have to take a moment to say a massive, heartfelt thank you to all of our staff! They are the engine that makes FPJS and FPIS such special places to be. Their dedication ensures that our children have a wonderful experience—a brilliant mix of academic excellence and the nurturing support they need to truly flourish.

That just leaves me to wish you all a relaxing, enjoyable, and safe break!

Thank you all for your incredible support this year. Merry Christmas, everyone! We can’t wait to see you all in the New Year

Mike Wallace

Executive Headteacher

Diary Dates:

Key dates for 2026 Terms 3 and 4

Mon 5th January is an Inset day
Tues 6th Jan: Term 3 begins
Thurs 5th Feb- 25th Feb: Topic homework set
Mon 9th Feb: Well-being week: Focusing on culture and charity
Mon 9th Feb: Y3 trip to British Museum
Weds 11th Feb: Y5 parents meeting about Rhos-Y-Gwaliau Y6 residential trip 6-7pm
Fri 13th Feb: Stomp for Trunks- sponsored stomp day (dress down)
Fri 13th Feb: End of term 3
Half term break Monday 16th Feb- Friday 20th Feb
Mon 23rd Feb: Term 4 begins
Weds 25th Feb: Young Voices Concert at the O2
Fri 6th March: World Book Day celebrations (dress down)
Fri 20th March: Comic Relief Day (dress down)
Mon 23rd March: Parents consultations 3.30-6.30pm
Weds 25rd March: Parents consultations 3.30-6.30pm
Fri 27th March: TT Rock Star Day (dress as a rock star!)
Fri 27th March: End of term- school finishes at 1.30pm

Quick Links

Curriculum

Lunch Menu- Winter 25-26

Term Dates 25-26

Calendar

Who's who at FPJS

Website including housepoints update

FPJS School News

Christmas Lunch fun

On Wednesday, our traditional Christmas lunch day not only involved a yummy Christmas dinner, but also with all the staff serving lunch and entertaining the children throughout!

Y4 Christmas Unwrapped at St Peter's Church

The children had a wonderful time at their 'Christmas Unwrapped' session at St Peter's Church. Throughout the morning, they were encouraged to explore the deeper meaning of the festive season through a series of activities. They moved between different 'stations' that brought the Nativity story to life: completing a fact scavenger hunt, working together to solve Christmas card puzzles, debunking common myths about the Christmas story, and getting creative with biscuit decorating.

Y3 Nativity Plays- "Baubles!"

A huge well done to all our Year 3 performers for their brilliant Nativity plays last week! Each class presented its own unique and wonderful rendition, showcasing lots of solo, group, and whole-class singing, dancing, and truly memorable performances. It was fantastic to see the children participate with such confidence and infectious enthusiasm, bringing the special story of the Nativity to life. Our thanks also go to the Year 3 staff for their hard work in ensuring the children were word-perfect for these special performances."

Inter-house singing competition

Well done to all of our children who sang their hearts out in our final assembly of the year- each house had a randomly allocated song to sing and the house captains were in charge of choreographing the performance. The winning performance was by Y5/6 Danes but followed closely by Romans 5/6 whose performance can be viewed here. The judges (Mr Sawle, Miss Morales, Mrs Barry and Mrs Batchelor) were wowed by all of the children who made such a fantastic effort with this fun competition!.

The Danes won overall this year but every song was performed with enthusisiam- it was a joy to watch!

Inter-house tree decorating competition

On Friday 12th December, all of the children took part on our annual tree decorating competition. Organised this year by Mr King and the House captains, each house had a strategy to make their tree look the best! The winning house was Danes, with Normans second, Vikings third and Romans in last place but it was a close call!

FPJS Carol Concert

As part of our Christmas celebrations, FPJS held the annual Christmas Carol concert on Monday afternoon this week. During the concert, the staff took on the nativity roles to narrate the Christmas story, and the children and choir sang songs to accompany, ranging from the traditional carols of Once in Royal and We three Kings to the more modern songs including Shepherds' song, and Sing up It's Christmas! Notable moments included a very west country accent Joseph played by Mr King, a very annoyed Innkeeper played by Mrs Sweatman and the sheep dressed up as penguins played by Mr Wallace and Mrs Clark! Well done to Skye in Y6 who sang a solo at the start of the traditional, "Once in Royal" and to the Headstudents who were the narrators for the concert. Much fun was had by all, but also a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

Staff Choir

We hope you enjoyed our staff "choir" on Wednesday this week during pick up time. Thanks to Mr King for leading this and to all our brilliant staff who were keen to spread some festive cheer!

Christmas Guitar concert and Brass peformances

Well done to all our guitarists who played a fantastic Christmas concert for the whole school on Thursday afternoon! As usual, we were treated to many Christmas classic tunes, guitar style accompanied by Mr Hastings, our resident guitar teacher.

Also well done to our Brass players who treated the whole school to some of their festive tunes during our Friday Celebration assembly!

FPJS Christmas Homework Competition- winners...

Well done to everyone who put efforts into the annual Christmas homework competition which this year was themed on the Wallace and Gromit Barbour advert. We were so impressed with the efforts of all the children and it was incredibly hard to judge the winners with so many baked goodies, clever gift-o-matic machine creations and wonderful stop-frame animations. We celebrated the top 3 winners from each class in assembly, who are be pictured below.

We totted up the scores and the winning house overall was the Romans with 900 points, followed by the Danes, Normans and Vikings. You can see below our winning entries from each year group below:

Well done to:

Year 3 overall winner, Matthew with his excellent dancing stop animation film

Year 4 overall winner, Max with his gift-o-matic moving machine (filmed here)

Year 5 overall winner, Edwin with his robot gift-o-matic (pictured here)

Year 6 overall winner, Tommy with his brilliant flippa-clip mince pie-o-matic drawing animation featuring 500 drawn frames

Stars of the week - Class Stars & PE Stars

Star of the week Newsletter 4: 19th December

Well done to all our stars over the last few weeks:

Our stars are chosen from following the values of the school: Passion, Well-being and respect.

We also chose children who have made exceptional effort in their work or attitude to learning.

TT Rock stars- Top Ten Leaderboard Top Ten progress for accuracy and Top Ten for minutes played this term

Well done to all our children who are using TT rock stars regularly to practise times tables!

Keep up the daily practise everyone- it is scientifically proven that practising a little and often will ensure you master those times tables as soon as possible until they are automatically recalled from memory.

Here are our Top 10 children for speed in each year group, the best progress for accuracy and the Top 10 children who have played the MOST this whole term (Sept to Dec)

Bedrock Learning

Well done to all our children who are regularly completing their homework tasks to improve their vocabulary! Here are our top 10 children who have spent the most time on their bedrock learning for this whole term (Sept-Dec):

Sports Update

PE News

Well done to all the children who have represented Furze Platt in sporting events this academic year, and for all the hard work they have put in. All students have done really well in PE this term!

Swan Class will be taking part in the Dance Festival this year. Their dance is based on technology and shows the change in phones and communication through time.

Have a wonderful Christmas and we look forward to more sporting events in 2026!

Miss Gill

Well done to...

We are thrilled to announce a fantastic achievement by Isla in Kingfisher!

Isla has been recognized for her outstanding performance in Girls' cricket. Through her sheer commitment and exceptional skills, she has already progressed to playing for teams with Berkshire with much older children—a remarkable feat that highlights her dedication to the sport.

She is a wonderful example of how hard work pays off

Well done, Isla!

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

This term has been a very exciting one indeed and we are so incredibly proud of how well every single child did in our nativity play 'Baubles'. The children sang, danced, acted and learned lines - what super stars they all are!

In maths this term we have been focusing on multiplication and division. The children have been learning the difference between sharing and grouping as well as ensuring they were able to use their 3, 4 and 8 times table facts. We used a variety of resources to help support this.

In English the children have been writing setting descriptions as well as creating their own settings which included a beach, forest, park or even a farm. We learned how to use 2a sentences as well as preposition sentence starters.

In DT the children have thoroughly enjoyed making their own Christmas pop-up books. They have learned the beak fold, V fold, Step fold, leavers and sliders. They then created their own plans and made each page using these learned folds and mechanisms. They all look wonderful!

In RE we have discussed the story of Christmas and how this is celebrated by Christians. We also looked at how all people spend time with family and friends over this time.

This truly has been the most fantastic term and the children really have settled so well into Junior school life. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Well done Yr 3!

Mrs Barry- Y3 Team Leader

Year 3- What are we learning?

Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt over the last few weeks!:

What is the difference between grouping and sharing?

What is a 2A sentence? Give an example.

Who visited Joseph to tell him about the baby?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Planet Omar - Zanib Mian

The Twits - Roald Dahl

The Worst Witch - Jill Murphy

Year 4 News

Wow! What an excellent end to the term we have had! We have been so impressed by the children's energy and resilience—they have worked tirelessly in every subject, consistently going above and beyond.

In English, the children have enjoyed writing Christmas and winter poems for you all to enjoy. Their goal was to make their writing descriptive through the use of expanded noun phrases and similes to evoke emotion. We hope you enjoy reading them!

In Maths, the children's times table skills have really come along! We have been so impressed by their commitment to practice; they have enjoyed singing songs and creating games to help them remember each fact.

In DT, the children have been honing their sewing skills by making Christmas tree and celebration ornaments. They have shown so much resilience and patience, particularly when threading their needles!

In Geography, the children have been researching rivers from around the world and looking at the many ways they are used. They have also been exploring the causes and effects of flooding and how to respond in a weather emergency.

Thank you for sharing all of your fantastic Christmas homework with us! It was incredibly hard for us to choose a winner.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas break and a fantastic New Year!

Mrs Batchelor – Year 4 Team Leader

Year 4- What are we learning?

Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt over the last few weeks:

What part of your body can you use to help you remember the 9 times table?
Name a famous river from around the world.
What does the word 'incarnation' mean?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4...

Apes to Zebras: An A-Z of Shape Poems

By Liz Brownlee, Sue Hardy-Dawson and Roger Stevens

The Night We Got Stuck in a Story

By Ben Miller

Sky

By Holly Webb

Year 5 News

In year 5, our wonderful pupils have been so busy with their learning alongside having lots of Christmassy fun!

In English, they have been writing an informative text about how to go about creating the most perfect Christmas (or for some, another festival of their choice.) They have been using a less formal tone, including using contractions.

In Maths, the children have been revising various areas of learning, such as calculating related number facts; for example 20 x 800 and 2500 / 50 where multiplying and dividing by multiples of ten is necessary.

They have enjoyed the learning about mountains in Geography and forces in Science, completing many hand-on activities thanks to Mrs Bracey, such as using playdough to create a fold mountain and using a variety of resources to test various forces.

In Art, the children have shown incredible skills, using one point perspective and a vanishing point to draw the Elisabeth Tower in 3D.

In Music, all classes have done really well with Mrs Dean to perform their final song, playing the ukelele and singing along. Great job everyone!

In Computing, children have finalised their videos with Mr Sawle and had a lot of fun doing so.

In French, they have learned how to construct a multi-clause sentence - using the conjunctions 'and' and 'but' - to answer the question 'as tu un animal?' They have been practising answering with sentences such as: 'J'ai un chat qui s'appelle Felix et un chien qui s'appelle Fido mais je n'ai pas de poisson rouge.' for example. Hopefully, they will be able to translate this!

In other news, the year 5s have sent or brought in some fabulous Christmas homework for the competition and enjoyed all sorts of Christmas fun.

We hope you all have a wonderful break and enjoy time spent with family and friends. Thank you for all your continued support and for encouraging your children to be the best that they can be. We are very proud of all their hard work and determination this term and look forward to seeing everyone in January 2026!

Miss Scott and Mr Sawle, Year 5 Team Leaders

Year 5- What are we learning?

Art: What is a vanishing point?

Maths: How can you calculate 40 x 30? How can you calculate 600 divided by 30?

English: Can you turn these word pairs into contractions? Eg: Can not = can't. Would not, would have, I have, could not, he will...

How many modal verbs can you recall?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5.

Asha and the Spirit Bird

Jasbinder Bilan

India Incredible India

Jasbinder Bilan

Year 6 News

Year 6 Term Update

What a busy and productive term Year 6 have had! The children have been brilliant, settling fully into their roles as leaders at the top of the school.

In English, the children wrote formal letters to our Chair of Governors to argue against the proposed idea of ‘lengthening the school day.’ Using a range of persuasive techniques and formal language, their arguments were incredibly compelling. In fact, they were so persuasive that the Governors have agreed not to move forward with the proposal!

In Maths, we have been exploring the world of decimals. After the break, we will continue this work by diving deeper into the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages.

This week, we completed our DT topic: creating automatas fit for a toy shop window. The children have mastered the technical skills of creating joints and using cams to build functional moving mechanisms.

In Science, we finished our study of Carl Linnaeus and the classification system. The children now have a strong understanding of why it is vital to classify living things.

We would also like to say a massive well done for the Christmas homework submissions. The quality this year was truly exceptional; it is clear the children put a great deal of time and effort into their creative projects!

We hope you all have a joyful, relaxing, and magical Christmas break. We look forward to continuing the fun and hard work in 2026!

Miss Morales - Y6 Team Leader

Year 6- What are we learning?

Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt over the last few weeks!:

What techniques could you use in persuasive language? Name three.
What are the different shapes of a CAM and how does this impact the movement of the follower?
What are the main industries in the UK?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

School Council Updates

SEND updates

FPSA Update

Junior Discos (11th December)

The Junior Discos were back last Thursday and over 250 children attended across both of them. A massive thank you to Mr Sawle and Mr King (aka DJ’s King & Sawle) for playing the tunes and providing the entertainment along with the other Juniors staff who stayed behind to help out. Both discos finished with Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin’ Stevens, a fabulous song (some say the greatest Christmas song) that is 40 years old this year! However, the song that had the biggest response was surely ‘Golden’ by Huntrix. Incredible scenes on the dance floor!

The event has raised nearly £2,000 for Furze Platt Junior School, thank you for your support.

Christmas Fair (6th December)

The Christmas Fair was back at the beginning of December. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who donated something for the fair, whether that was cakes, tombola gifts, 2nd hand uniform, secrets room gifts or nearly new books, toys & games. We are especially grateful to everyone who donated an hour of their time (or more!) to help out on a stall. That includes new Willow class teacher, Miss Blackall who did all 3 hours at the fair on 3 different stalls, incredible!

Well done to Fergus from Beech class who won the giant doggy who whose name was....Fergus! Beech did the double as George won the £100 by successfully choosing Bingo (#40) on the 100 Board. Kinlow from Willow class won the Speed Stacking Infants trophy.

The fair has raised ~£7,500 profit, money that will be shared between the Infants and the Juniors.

Tesco Stronger Starts - Every Little Blue Token Helps!

Next time you shop at Tesco, please don't forget to ask for a blue token or two and pop them in the middle box (FPSA). We could win £1,500!

Please take a look at the following video involving none other than British Olympic Champion, Jessica Ennis-Hill.

https://strongerstarts.tesco.com/video/a0434bce-c535-4b59-a8f6-237cb13eab6d

The following stores have voting boxes for you to place the blue tokens into:

Tesco Express, Furze Platt (closest to FPIS & FPJS)
Tesco Express, Maidenhead Bath Road (next to Majestic Wine)
Tesco Express, Maidenhead High Street
Tesco Superstore, Taplow (Bishops Centre)
Tesco Express, Slough
Tesco Express, Burnham

Personalised name label stickers

We have an updated discount code for buying school uniform labels and labels for water bottles etc. from the 'Easy2Name' company. 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. 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.

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

Copas Farms - Turkey Cashback Scheme

Copas Farms based locally in Cookham, are once again supporting the FPSA. For every order placed with them using the code FPJS24PTA, we will receive 5% of the order value.

Date for your Diary:

Murder Mystery Event - Friday 27th February 2026

Tickets are now on sale for our very first ever 'Murder Mystery' event which takes place at the end of February next year. The Juniors hall will be turned into an old library in a 'Death at Dinner Club' performance from Moonstone Murder Mysteries company.

Tickets available at https://fpsa.charityhive.co.uk/tickets/1/murder-mystery-evening.

Useful Information For Parents

Space to Thrive Orchestra leaflet (1).pdf

Piano Lessons with Mr Browne

Private Piano Lessons – Local Teacher

Joseph Browne, who works at the school, offers private piano lessons for children and beginners outside of school hours. Lessons are tailored to each pupil, focusing on technique, confidence, and enjoyment, and can support pupils who are new to piano or working towards music exams.

Lessons are held at his home in Maidenhead or online.

For enquiries, please contact:
[maidenheadpianolessons@gmail.com]

Maidenhead's Big Read December Issue:

https://mailchi.mp/87bb27ac1156/mbr-newsletter-18097992

Programme of events for March can be found here:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGYgrmfieg/HY61pMCPm8qfjg39FU9msA/edit

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