Sunny (mostly!) summer term of fun...

Wow! What an amazing start we have had to the final term at Furze Platt Junior School! Not only has the weather been mostly fantastic, we have already enjoyed many events as you will see in this edition of our Newsletter. The Year 3's have enjoyed an excellent Egyptian day, Year 4's have had a 2-day amazing activity and team building trip to Longridge, the Year 6's have becoming budding entrepreneurs, making and investing money in their business projects and the entire school has enjoyed a dance roadshow and a euro day. Yesterday we enjoyed the most epic Sports Day (minus parents- sorry!) and were lucky enough to squeeze this in around the forecasted rain. We did manage to take a vast amount of photos though for parents to enjoy- see the link later in the newsletter. Who said anything about the summer term being a wind-down? Not at FPJS!

We have also been waiting on tenderhooks for government advice on what we can do in line with the extended restrictions and although this unfortunately has meant we were unable to invite parents to sports day, we have managed to organise the Y6 play and Leavers' ceremony to take place outdoors in a marquee, with parents in attendance. We were also thrilled to finally find out that the Y6 Rhos-y-Gwaliau residential can go ahead next week.

We look forward to the final 3 weeks of term, with many other exciting things in store for our children including the transition morning to meet their new class and teacher which is planned for Weds 14th July.

Mrs Clark - Head of school

Mr Foreshew

Mrs Willett

Staffing update- changes for September

We have a number of changes of staff for September this year. As we have previously reported, Mrs Fitzgibbon is leaving to take up a Deputy Headship post in Bracknell. We have also two other members of staff who are leaving us this year:

-Mr Jamie Foreshew has decided after spending his whole career at FPJS so far, it is time to try different avenues. Mr Foreshew will be leaving us in July to take up a post of a 1:1 tutor. Mr Forshew has been an enormously popular teacher in his time at FPJS and will no doubt be sorely missed by us all. Mr Foreshew has always put children's well-being at the forefront of everything he does at the school, and leading the school in PSHE.

-Mrs Willett, who has been a TA with us for 6 years, has decided it is time to retire. She has worked across both FPJS and FPIS for many years and has simply loved her job, working with children with SEN needs. I know that she has not made the decision to retire lightly and we will miss her enthusiasm for everything we do at the school.

New staff recruits:

We have recently welcomed Mrs Jodie Lovegrove to our school as a Year 3 TA. She has quickly settled into her new role, mostly with class JF and it already feels like she has been here for years! We are very lucky to have her onboard!

From September, we welcome three new teachers to FPJS:

Mrs Laura-Jane Barbosa, who will be our New Year 4 Team Leader. Mrs Barbosa has recently relocated from London, and has a wealth of experience teaching in a variety of schools in and around London. She is very excited to be joining the FPJS team!

Mr Bryn Bowen will be joining our Year 3 team. Mr Bowen may be familiar to some of you as he has worked for Berkshire Maestros for a number of years teaching percussion. He will no doubt be bringing his musical expertise to FPJS and we are very excited to welcome him to our school!

Mr Alex King will be joining our Year 5 team. Mr King has taught in a number of schools in and around Windsor. Mr King also has an interest in music, drama and Rugby. We are thrilled that Mr King will also be joining the FPJS team from September.

We will be finalising our staffing structure in the next few weeks and your child will find out which class they will be in on the transition morning of Wednesday 14th July.

Mrs Barbosa, New Y4 Team Leader

Mr Bowen, New Y3 Teacher

Mr King, New Y5 Teacher

Mrs Lovegrove, new Teaching Assistant

Wedding bells for Miss Lawrence!

We are very pleased to announce that Miss Lawrence will return to FPJS in September as Mrs Lawrence-Davis. Miss Lawrence is due to marry her partner, Steven on July 31st. We are delighted that the government have lifted restrictions on weddings so that her big day can finally go ahead! We wish her a wonderful wedding day and future life as Mrs Lawrence-Davis!

Miss Lawrence will also be moving to Year 3 next year, as Team Leader, with Mrs Sweatman and Mr Bowen joining her teaching team.

New Class Names for FPJS from September 2021

Since the juniors have federated with the infant school, we have been learning much from each other! One thing we will be changing at the juniors is the naming of the classrooms. At the infant school, as I am sure you know, the classes are named after minibeasts in EYFS, and trees in Years 1-2. To continue with this tradition, we have decided to name our junior classes after British birds. After much deliberation over the bird choices, the final naming of the classrooms from September will be as follows below. You will see that the birds get bigger as the children do too! We will also be swapping the Y4 and Y5 classrooms over next year, so that the children will move across the school in a more logical way than is currently mapped!

Sports day 2021

Yesterday, the whole school enjoyed a fantastic sports day at FPJS. Mrs Tisshaw was the mastermind behind the entire event, where all children participated in a whopping 131 races. Every child took part in a variety of track and field events, earning points for their houses. This year the Normans took the trophy with a convincing lead above the other houses. Well done to all children who participated so well in the event; we were incredibly proud of every child who took part and cheered on their teams throughout the 3 hour event.

The Y6 Sprints results were as follows:

1st: Harry in RTSS and Elizabeth in HJ

2nd: Cormack in HJ and Anna in RTSS

3rd: James in HJ and Elisa in RTSS

More details of school records broken below in our sports section!

Click on the link below to access all photos from the day. Please ensure that you do not share these on social media if they contain images of other children.

Huge thanks to all staff for making this event a brilliant success- but particularly to Mrs Tisshaw who spent hours arranging all the logistics for a smooth running event!

Sports day photos 2021

Y3 Egyptian day

On Friday 11th June, Year 3 were transported back in time to Ancient Egypt. Children and staff dressed up to get into character and had a full day of production and activities and help them fully experience life in Ancient Egypt.

The day was led by Fresh Water Theatre company who performed a 90 minute show. The children were engaged and interested throughout. After lunch, the children took part in 2 workshops, one of which was about story telling and the other gave children the opportunity to explore Ancient Egyptian artefacts. It was a brilliant day; every body learnt a lot and the children's behaviour and learning attitudes were absolutely outstanding.

"I enjoyed the play as it was very funny and in the afternoon we made a hierarchy pyramid. I was a priest. We were also told loads of stories." Albert

"I liked the afternoon workshop because everyone danced when the music came on and we pretended we had the dancing curse from inside the tomb." Aidan

See year 3 news for more photos.

Y4 trip to Longridge

Last week, year 4 had two full days of outdoor fun at Longridge Activity Centre. Activities included paddle-boarding, kayaking, climbing, raft building and leap of faith. We were treated to a hot sunny day on the first day...and a rainy, damp one on the second - but this did not dampen the fun!

It was so great to see everyone pushing themselves out of their comfort zones to try new things and we do hope that you are all feeling as proud of yourselves as the staff are of you. Few remained dry (staff included!) but that only added to our enjoyment of the day.

The children who remained at school were also treated to a wide range of exciting opportunities including wheel-barrow proficiency, gardening and baking. What a brilliant way to celebrate coming to the end of Year 4!

A big thank you goes to the parents who provided all the necessary kit and to those who came along to support the children and staff on the days themselves. More photos to follow soon!

Y6 Business Project

Pet rocks, unique jewellery and interesting food - just a few of the things that the year 6's have made this year to try to be the best team in the year 6 "Apprentice" challenge. With a £10 seed fund each team had to try to turn this into as many goods as possible to sell to the rest of the school. This year, they had to be even more inventive as some items sold in previous years are now banned on environmental grounds - this meant we saw a lot more home-made goods and innovation in the products sold. The teams that did best were definitely the ones who listened and worked together as a team. At the time of writing we don't have the final figures for who won or how much was raised but all will be revealed soon!

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Stars of the week

Star of the week newsletter 25th June

Well done to all our stars this week!

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.

Our stars are in a downloadable format if you want to print to keep!

TT Rock stars Update

Take a look at our Top Ten boards this week for each year group and our top progress children in each year group!

Well done to everyone who is moving up the TT rockstars charts! Particular thanks to Mrs Scothern who has organised a tournament for all the teams which has proved a huge success! Currently class JSF and HJ are battling for the top position!

Keep up the great work FPJS- we have moved up to 6th on the Nearby School Chart- overtaking our nearest rivals! Well done!

Sports Update

PE Lessons

Good Afternoon everyone! What a brilliant few weeks it has been with the glorious sun shining over FPJS for more than just one day.

It's been a very frantic and busy schedule with Sports Day being held on June 24th! What a magnificent school effort from everyone involved, from every staff member to all the pupils participating. We managed to get through a whole morning with over 100 events taking place. During some of the morning, we even had 4 sports day events running at once which included track and field. This is a first for FPJS and it really had that Olympic feel to the morning!

Mr Kemp and Mrs Winter would just like to say a big thank you to ALL STAFF members for there sublime efforts. Whether they were on the start line, marshalling equipment, organising children in houses, running field events, being on the finish line, supervising on the bus or even in the scoring tent calculating results! This was truly a marvellous team display and it made this day a special one to remember. Last but not least a huge well done to Mrs Tisshaw for her expertise on organisation and for always demanding more of us staff, so that the children have the amazing day we thoroughly provide.

WELL DONE to every pupil taking part on such a big event, but a special mention has to go to the NORMANS on a sensational sports day display, winning by over 50 points!!

By Mr Kemp/Mrs Winter

PE Stars

Year 3

Class JF: Jimmy & Charlie

Class NH: Thomas M & Lily S

Class KJS: Jessica & Megan

Year 4

Class JSF: Yazan & Alexandros

Class RL: Darcey

Class KE: Leo & Alice G

Year 5

Class KM: Daniel & Maryam

Class CHJS: Isabella & James

Class FK: George & Pieush

Year 6

Class PM: Tobi & Calvin

Class HJ: Emily & James B

Class RTSS: Alfie & Joel

This week every class were awarded with the sports star award for a truly inspiring sports day performance!!

Furze platt Football matches

The Last Wednesday and Friday of term 5 saw our year 6 teams in action against a usually competitive Courthouse side. The Blue team made the short trip down the road to play against our local rivals, in what was a very close and intense game of football. FPJS were leading at half time 1-0 by a wonderful goal scored by Yvan (HJ). However at the restart of the second half, Courthouse had other plans to ruin our afternoon by taking a 2-1 lead within 5 minutes of the half. The Blues were some what on the back foot with just 10 minutes remaining. Mr Kemp was very happy and proud how his players handled the pressure of going behind so quickly, but to then come out on top as 3-2 winners with only the 10 minutes to play, was thoroughly deserved. Cormack (HJ) had a sensational 2nd half , scoring a brace! The first goal was an exceptional and well worked team goal with a wonderful passing move to lay off Cormack with a thunderous strike. Then with just moments to play a corner was whipped into the box at perfect height for FPJS to head home the winner.

Not only this, but the Burgundy team also had to visit Courthouse for the 2nd match in the same week. The game started very lively and FP soon used this to their advantage and took a brilliant 2-0 lead early on, with goals from Benidict (HJ) and Ethan H (HJ). Soon after this another 3 goals were scored to make the half time score 5-0 to FP. A dominant first half display meant we could take our foot off the gas and enjoy our football in the 2nd half. Mr Foreshew decided to make a few changes during the second half, the main one being James B(HJ) c oming out of goal to have a run up front. A tactical decision that paid off as James managed to get himself on the score sheet. With this phenomenal team display in the 2nd half, we managed to come out on top as 10-0 winners! What a stunning elegant performance from the burgundy team, and a special thank you to Harry W (RTSS) and Thomas W (RTSS) for sharing the 2nd half out of position in goal. A clean sheet was more than we deserved as a team. Mr Foreshew was more than impressed on his teams dominant performance and praised the boys for all their hard work and determination.

Sports Day Records

On Thursday 24th June, during our school sports day, a numerous amount of school records were broken for both track and field events. Here is the full list of all the children that managed to show their amazing sporting talents and hard work.

Track Records:

Year 6 Boys Sprint (80m) - Harry (RTSS)

Year 5 Boys Sprint (80m) - Nikko (CHJS)

Year 4 Girls Sprint (60m) - Alice G (KE)

Year 3 Girls Sprint (60m) - Sienna (NH)

Year 5 Boys Long Distance (750m) - Archie (CHJS)

Year 4 Girls Egg and Spoon (40m) - Scarlett (JSF)

Year 6 Girls Relay (80m) - DANES

Evie (PM), Alissia (PM), Lilianna (HJ), Elisabeth (HJ)

Field Records:

Year 6 Girls Chest Push - Ella Rose (RTSS) - 7.75 metres

Year 6 Girls Standing Long Jump - Ciara (RTSS) - 2.22 metres

Year 6 Boys Standing Long Jump - Cormack (HJ) - Equalled the record

Dance Active Roadshow

On Monday 21st June the whole school was meant to participate in a Dance Roadshow ran by the schools sport partnership team. A day of physical activity involving Dane and Skipping. Unfortunately due to covid19 regulations and due to the terrible British weather, not all year groups were able to take part in this wonderful event. However the year 4's were very lucky and managed to fully participate for 20 minutes of Dancing, with Jane Douglas, as well as having a 10 minute skipping session.

Class JSF and KE had bundles of energy and lots of fun as they danced the afternoon away to Elton Johns - "I'm Still Standing" and jumped enthusiastically with Dan the skipping man to a very fast upbeat track. Not only this, at the end of the workshop, Dan and his colleague Nathan performed a high intensity skipping show to all year 4 classes in the hall. Unbelievable skipping tricks and jumps were used and some of our year 4 pupils even got the chance to show their class mates some empathic skipping skills. Lastly during the end of the show Dan the Skipping Man had several pupils jumping over a Double Dutch rope!! Mr Kemp would like to thank all of year 4 for being involved in a very productive and busy afternoon. Well done to all the year 4 team also for participating with great interest and showing the children how it was done.

Condolences to all other year groups who sadly couldn't take part, but the Schools Sport Partnership are hoping to return again in 2022 for an even bigger and better roadshow event.

Click on the link below to see the videos of the dance roadshow!

Dance roadshow

Euro Day in pictures

Thanks to the generosity of parents, we raised a fantastic £826 towards new playground equipment for our school by holding a Euro Day. Children were invited to come to school dressed in their favourite sports kits to mark the start of the England campaign to win the UEFA Euro 2020.

Here are some of our best dressed children from the day!

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

Year 3 have been working very hard so far this term but as usual, we've managed to have fun too.

In English, we've been focusing on fiction writing and applying all the many many skills that have learnt this year. For the first time, the children wrote a full 5 part adventure story and we were extremely proud of them.

In maths, we have revisited some of the work on measurement that we covered during school closures to ensure everyone is confident. We've also been focusing on reasoning so that children have the opportunity to really show their understanding through explanation and diagrams e.g. bar models.

In science, we continued to learn about plants and found out all about seed dispersal and photosynthesis. We've also continued to learn more about Ancient Egypt and enjoyed Egypt Day. In D&T we have started to design and make pop up books.

There is lots to look forward to this term as we get the children ready for year 4. I'm sure they will have a fabulous final 3 weeks in year 3.

By Mrs Fitzgibbon

Year 3- What are we learning?

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

What different types of seed dispersal do you know and why is it so important?

Can you show and make some of the folds you've learnt to create pop ups?

How many mm are in a cm? How many cm are in a m? How many ml are in a l?

Year 4 News

What a busy and exciting few weeks we've had in year 4!

As well as our amazing trip to Longridge, we've been reading Charlotte's Web and learning about the features of a diary entry. We are working towards choosing a character from the story and writing a diary entry from their perspective; thinking about how the character is feeling and how we can change the way we write to reflect this.

In maths, we have been learning about metric measure and converting between millimetres, centimetres, metres, grams and kilograms. We really enjoyed getting out onto the field to get a sense of how far different measurements of length are and measuring one another's heights too.

Our topic learning has seen the children play teacher delivering their own 'mini lessons' on the Tudors. The staff have been amazed by how well organised and prepared groups have been and we definitely learnt new facts from these lessons. In addition to all of this, we've also been preparing our frames for gluing and decoration next week, learning about Sikhism and the 5 K's in RE and concluding our learning on the water cycle in science.

We can't wait for our trip to Hampton Court Palace next week and the rest of the fun that the summer term brings!

By Miss Lawrence

Year 4- What are we learning?

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

How many mm are there in a cm? How many m in a km? How many g in a kg?

Tell me the 5 K's of Sikhism and what they represent.

Tell me about how you measured and cut the wood for your frame.

Year 5 News

Our past few weeks have been all about cushions in Year 5! The children have been doing a wonderful job of carefully analysing dragonflies and then drawing them out onto a piece of material. Following this, they used the tie dye technique to add eye catching colour to the back of their design before delicately painting dye onto the front. The final step was to backstitch the edges of their cushion before stuffing it and adding the final few stitches. The children are rightly proud of their work, so look forward to adding a new piece of soft furnishing to your home soon!

In Maths we have now moved on to learning about measure. We have been discussing different sorts of measurements including the terms "metric" and imperial". The children have been learning about the different systems and practising converting between the two.

For English, we have been focusing on Alfred Noyes' poem, The Highwayman. The children have been exploring the rich language and using it to inspire their own descriptive writing. We are going to continue our work on this and will be exploring the way he presents character in the coming weeks.

We are really looking forward to our trip to Kidzania next week where the children will get the opportunity to try their hand at a range of different career options. They will even be able to earn "Kidzos" which they will be able to spend in the shop during the day.

By Miss Moakes

Year 5 What are we learning?

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

What are the different ways of measuring length using both metric and imperial?

What causes a tsunami and where in the world are they most likely to occur?

What is the difference between a metaphor and a simile?

Year 6 News

Messy modroc was the order of the day last week as all the year 6's took themselves outside to create their own Giacometti sculptures- a renowned artist with a very distinct style and his bronze thin figures sell for millions. Their small versions may be less expensive but were no less impressive in their construction involving wire work and delicate application of the plaster strips to give smooth lines. Before starting the sculptures, the year 6's studied his work and looked at drawing in proportion with mannequins with some very interesting results.

The play rehearsals are coming along nicely and we are now using props and sounds effects - the stage will be going up soon so we can begin to get the lighting working. The children are really beginning to get the timing on many of the jokes and the directors are beginning to sit back and enjoy some of the scenes - but there is also still much to work on.

Our RE day gave us some brilliant takes on various creation stories. We explored the similarities and differences between many religions and even explored a Chinese legend through the medium of drama with some entertaining outcomes. The pupils also had a go at creating their own wheels of creation where they were given a free choice of their own interpretation of their ideas of creation.

We are now beginning the very exciting Oscar project where children will write, film and edit their own short movie - hopefully before the end of the year we will complete a screening and have our own Oscar ceremony complete with red carpet!

By Miss Johnson

Year 6 What are we learning?

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

Who was Giacometti?

How did their group try to make a profit in the year 6 maths project?

Who is Pan Ku ?

Book Reviews- What can my child read next?

Y3 Book Review

By Sam, Class KJS

Beast Quest - Ferno the Fire Dragon by Adam Blade.

This is a story of a dragon called Ferno the Fire Dragon and a boy called Tom. Tom is sent on a quest by Aduro the wizard to fight Ferno. On the way Tom has lots of exciting adventures.

This is a chapter book that ages 7 to 10 would enjoy because of the exciting challenges Tom has to face.

This book made me want to read more Beast Quest books because there were lots of exciting beasts to fight. Luckily, there are 220 books in the beast quest series!

Y4 Book Review

By Dylan, Class RL

Crackin' Castles by Terry Deary

I enjoyed this book because it contains legends and tales as well as questions for the reader. There are many stories and facts about lots of different castles and what happened in them in the past. There is lots of information but it is given in a really funny way.

I would definitely suggest this book to children years 3-6 who love to learn and want to be knowledgeable about castles and what happened in them as well as kings and queens. I wouldn't recommend this book to people who don't like blood as some parts are a bit gory.

I would give this book 4 stars because it is funny and has quality jokes.

Y5 Book Review

By Katelyn, Class CHJS

The Ice Monster by David Walliams

This is a funny book that has many great characters and situations which will make the whole family laugh out loud! One of my favourite parts is where woolly mammoths are frozen in blocks of ice before being brought back to life.

I would recommend this book to children between the ages of 6 and 12 years old who like adventure stories. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I would have given it 5 stars if it had more description.

Y6 Book Review

By Ed, Class RTSS

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Characters: An angry god called Cresis and his golds and small tribes such as Attanta who are full of reds (the common people) forced to work as slaves.

Plot: The story is set on a future planet Mars. The plot is to try and earn food and water by mining, although some of the characters find secret places to plan to take over the golds. If a tribe does not win they do not get good food and can only eat scraps. It is the first book in the series.

Opinion: I like the book as it flies you into a new galaxy where all mythology comes to life and you can picture it inside your head. My favourite part is when they are in a secret room with a beautiful tree towering up into the nights sky as it is such a majestic scene.

Recommend: I would recommend this book if you like increasing drama that can take you in the way you imagine it. I might not recommend for young children as it could confuse them with all the action in it! I would rate this book 9.5 out of 10.

Housepoints Update 25/6/21

Summer Reading Challenge

schools intro letter SRC teacher JK parent 2021.doc

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