Happy Christmas FPJS!

We all made it to the end of term! Although we have navigated our way through the covid restrictions and absences, I can honestly say how proud I am of everyone at FPJS for their sheer passion and hard work throughout this term; our pupils have continued to amaze us with their creativity, kindness and resilience every day in their learning and our staff are such a brilliant, passionate and hard-working bunch of humans who continually go over and above to make every day count for the pupils.

The newsletter really is a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase all the brilliant things that happen at FPJS- in the last two weeks we have enjoyed the Y3 plays (2 out of 3, but Robin class WILL perform in January!), Christmas singing aplenty (both from staff and pupils!), soup making, poetry slam and lots of learning about the true meaning of Christmas. We were absolutely thrilled with the entries to the Christmas Homework competitions- you will see some truly outstanding efforts in this newsletter showcasing such talented children in all aspects of the curriculum.

I wish everyone the best that Christmas has to offer- despite the worries in the news- keep safe and enjoy special family time together and we will look forward to seeing everyone in January 2022!

Anna Clark, Head of School

P.S. If you click on the links, you will see a snippet of what happened in the last assemblies of term- Y3/4 staff performing a version of Twelve days of Christmas, Mr King singing "Blue Christmas", Mr Kemp leading Y5/6 with a singing and dancing celebration, Mr Bowen performing an exclusive version of "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" complete with handbells and below, a film created by Mr Lutteman based on "Stay now...". Enjoy!

FPJS "Stay another day"

Diary Dates... Coming Up in January 2022

Tuesday 4th January- Inset day
Wednesday 5th January- Term 3 begins
Friday 7th January- Robin Class Play 9.15am (rescheduled from December!)

Christmas Jumper Day for Daisy's Dream

Thanks so much for all your kind donations to Daisy's dream following our Christmas Jumper Appeal! It was lovely to see all the children in such a dazzling array of sparkling jumpers. It certainly added to the Christmassy feel at FPJS! As it stands, we have raised a fantastic £481 towards our chosen charity this year.

Y3 Christmas Performances

Just wow! We have been absolutely blown away by the performances given by Wren and Finch class this week. The singing was sensational, the acting amazing and the dance moves of certain members of the cast had us in stitches.

Well done to each and every child for standing on stage and delivering their lines so eloquently. You certainly gave Y6 a run for their money!

We are so sorry that Robin class were not able to perform with Finch and Wren but we look forward to seeing their performance as a new year treat!

Y6 Soup Making

You would be forgiven to think you had entered a Michelin starred restaurant this week if you walked down the year 6 corridors as the smell of soup wafted through the air. This fragrant delight was all the work of the year 6 pupils who had fun chopping, grating and stirring their way to a delicious pot of home-made soup. Mrs Tisshaw even brought in her bread-maker to add to the tasty treats available. Now all year 6 children can make a low-cost, high nutrition, easy to make meal. Maybe you can take one day off the cooking in the holidays ?

Y5 Poetry Slam!

Following several highly creative weeks of writing, Year 5 completed their poetry writing unit with our first Poetry Slam! The children spent some time identifying what makes a great performance before rehearsing and refining their piece. We were thrilled with how many of them felt confident enough to perform on the stage in front of the whole year group. We had some fabulous poems detailing the children's best and worst experiences with some fantastic metaphors. Particular favourites included equating playing football to winning the lottery and doing homework to being sent to prison! Congratulations to Karina D (Best Performance), Sophia S (Best Poem), Aaradhya K (People's Choice) and Toby Mastrilli (Best Use of Figurative Language) for their prize winning pieces!

Y4 Christmas Unwrapped

On Thursday 9th December, year 4 visited St Peter’s Church for Christmas Unwrapped.

It was a fun workshop, which was also really informative!

The children learnt lots about how the Christmas Story has been embellished over the years. Emma, who ran the workshop, told us that it was unlikely that Jesus was actually born in a stable and was probably born in a cave! It is even unlikely that Mary rode to Bethlehem on a donkey!

After hearing all about the Christmas Story, all the children got to ice biscuits to take home - yummy!

It was so nice to be able to go on a school visit after such a long time and our Year 4 children represented FPJS beautifully.

Poppy Appeal Total!

A huge thank you to all children who donated to the poppy appeal back in November. We raised a fantastic £510.86! Local organiser, Jilly Rothwell was wowed by the total and said "FPJS is fantastic! Without your help, we would be unable to continue our vital welfare and benevolent work. Thank you to everyone for their generosity."

Inter-House Singing Competition

Our annual inter-house competition resumed again this year with Y4, 5 and 6 taking part. All of the Y6 House captains were given the responsibility to organise their houses to perform a christmas song of their choosing. Judges then voted on the best singing, choreography and overall performance. This year the Romans won overall with the Normans coming second, Vikings third and Danes fourth. Well done to all of our children for taking part with enthusiasm and especially to the House captains for showing great leadership and organisational skills!

Guitar Concert

Well done to all our brilliant guitarists who played in a festive concert for parents on Thursday. It was clear to see how much the children have been practising and they performed with perfection! Thanks to Mr Hastings who organised and runs guitar lessons at FPJS!

Christmas Homework Competitions

Well done to all of our super-star pupils who entered the Christmas homework competitions and produced some amazing results (you can see a selection in the photos!). The overall winners for each class were as follows:

Finch

Priyah (1st), Megan (2nd), Henry (3rd)

Wren

Ilyana (1st), Alyssa (2nd), Ronnie (3rd)

Robin

Joselyn (1st), Lexi (2nd), Selin (3rd)

Swift

Hugo (1st), Max (2nd), Dylan (3rd)

Kingfisher

Nate (1st), Duncan (2nd), Bronwyn (3rd)

Skylark

Samaira (1st), Jamie-Jon (2nd), Jessica (3rd)

Eagle

Nancy (1st), Max (2nd), Issy (3rd)

Kestrel

Katie (1st), Scarlett (2nd), Tijana (3rd)

Kite

Karina (1st), Evie (2nd), Henry (4th)

Cormorant

Flynt (1st), James (2nd), Erin (3rd)

Swan

Ellie and Leticia (1st), Jude (2nd), Lily (3rd)

Heron

Ellen (1st), Hadar (2nd), Oliver L (3rd)

Romans Won the overall competition, followed by Danes, Normans and Vikings

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Stars of the week

Star of the week newsletter 6 2021

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 Rockstars Update

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

The photos in this edition show the top 3 in each year group and the top 3 children who have made the most progress since September this year!

Well done to Lilly and Isabel (pictured) , Rushil and Josh (not pictured) in Y4 for passing their mastery of times tables award! Well done!

Sports Update

PE News!

Just a very quick note from myself and Mrs Winter to say "Merry Christmas!". It has been a great term of sport and it has been an absolute pleasure to run all the PE lessons, clubs and competitions throughout the year. We are very much looking forward to 2022 in the hope that we can continue with all the great sporting events as normal! Have a safe, active and enjoyable Christmas FPJS and see you in January!

By Mr Kemp/Mrs Winter

PE Stars of the Week

Class Swan - Leticia

Class Heron - Jessica

Class Comorant -Erin

Class Kite - Zaki

Class Eagle - Alice Y

Class Kestrel - Darcey

Class Swift - Freddie F

Class Kingfisher - Zoe

Class Skylark - Samuel

Class Wren - Holly

Class Robin - Joselyn

Class Finch - Kyron

Well done to all the PE stars last week!

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

The end of term has been as busy as ever and we are so proud with how well Y3 have coped with change over the last 2 weeks. The Christmas performances blew our socks off and the showmanship of our students was evident! We can't wait to see Robin's play in the new year.

In our English lessons, we have been reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to really help us get into the festive spirit and in maths, we've been solving worded multiplication and division problems too. The children have written their own versions of the sound collector by making note of all the exciting different sounds that can be heard around school. More on that can be found on seesaw!

In topic, we've been concluding our learning on mapwork and in DT we've been making marvellous Christmas pop up books that will be coming home to you as a special festive treat.

Well done for all your hard work this year year 3 - we are immensely proud. Thank you also to parents for their support this term!

Mrs Lawrence-Davis Y3 Team Leader

Year 3- What are we learning?

Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt:

Tell me what 'Twas the Night Before Christmas is about.

What does division mean?

Show me some of the folds you used for making pop up books.

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Below are some of the texts that Year 3 have been enjoying as part of their comprehension lessons and for pleasure:

Year 4 News

What a wonderful end to the term we have had in Year 4!

We have thoroughly enjoyed watching the year 3 play; visiting St Peter's Church for Christmas Unwrapped; having a tasty Christmas lunch; and wearing our Christmas jumpers!

In English, we have written some amazing Christmas themed poetry using similes, metaphors, alliteration and personification.

We finished off the term by completing out unit on measurement, area and perimeter in maths.

Our science work on the digestive system finished off with looking at food labels and finding out about the vitamins and minerals that are in our foods. Some children even went home and carried out an investigation to find out how much iron was in their food!

The year 4 team wish you all a very safe and merry Christmas. Enjoy a well deserved break and we will see you all in January!

Mrs Barbosa Y4 Team Leader

Year 4- What are we learning?

Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt:

Explain the difference between area and perimeter.

What different types of poetry do you know?

Explain how to find out how nutritional your food is.

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4...

Below are some of the books that Year 4 have been enjoying, as part of their book talk lessons and for pleasure!

Year 5 News

Wow! What a jam packed term it has been!

In English we have been using the Christmassy film, An Unexpected Guest, to learn about modal verbs and create a voice over to give the characters thoughts and feelings. The final versions looked and sounded brilliant with lots of expression and amazing vocabulary choices!

In Maths, the children have been working on their understanding of perimeter and area. Having started calculating these for rectangles, we then moved on to calculating the area of compound shapes and estimating the area of more complex, abstract shapes.

We have now completed our DT project to build a bridge using pulleys, gears and levers and they look very effective! We have also finished reading the Boy in the Tower which we have all thoroughly enjoyed.

The Year 5 team would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are looking forward to welcoming the children back in January!

Miss Moakes Y5 Team Leader

Year 5- What are we learning?

Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt:

Can you give me an example of two different modal verbs and put them in a sentence?

Thinking about The Boy in the Tower, what do you think caused the bluchers to appear and why?

How might you calculate the area of an irregular shape and how is this different to calculating the area of a regular shape?

our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

The Year 5 children would like to recommend the following books:

Year 6 News

Well this week the update isn't by me it is actually our head students who asked if they could do a bit of a review of year 6 so far ( their version of the Queen's speech). I hope they are kind as I am not allowed to see it !

"What a year 2021 has been! In November we were delighted to have so many students donating to such a wonderful charity : The Royal British Legion. Later that month , Year 6 visited Rhos where we embarked on some unforgettable adventures.

This month we loved the food tech project where we cooked our own vegetable soup from scratch and learnt life skills for the future.

And now we are in the countdown to Christmas and loving the Christmas jumper day .

Shout outs to the staff in year 6 who have gone above and beyond this term:

Mrs Tisshaw: for all the Rhos organisation

Miss Howard: for all her help in reading

Mrs Slyfield : for the great Rhos at school week.

Miss Johnson : for her memorable comma splice lesson

Miss Kent : for becoming an amazing year 6 teacher

Miss Thorne : for being a supportive teacher

and Miss Sherwin, Miss Last and Mrs Simmonds for being there when we needed them

Have a great holiday and roll on 2022 - we can't wait for the rest of year 6."

Zach, Jess and Shreya !

(Miss Johnson Y6 Team Leader)

Year 6- What are we learning?

What is a stock cube ? Why is it used?

Explain what the 4 quadrants are?

What are some of the different groups used to classify animals?

our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

We are loving the reading advent calendar we were sent a link for with ideas for Christmas books : We loved A Visit From St Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore - otherwise known as "Twas the night before Christmas" and The Miracle on Ebenezer Street by Catherine Doyle. And our recommendation for a new read is The Lion Above the Door by Onjali Q Rauf.

Housepoints:

Useful Information For Parents

1e20a3cc385c234c955791c09b9cb367.pdf

Open roles.pdf

Open morning Flyer - 11th January.pdf