HAPPY HALF TERM FPJS!

Well what an end of term this has turned out to be! After a rather turbulent few weeks of covid related absences for staff and pupils, we then experienced the storm of the century on the last day of term too which unfortunately meant we had to close the school for the safety of everyone. Our staff have continued to work to provide remote learning opportunities but due to a significant staff absence, we have been unable to host any live learning sessions. Nevertheless our staff who are well have been working hard from their laptops today to respond to children as needed despite some of them being unwell.

I am sure everyone is ready for the half break from school due to so much disruption, but on the positive side, we have managed to keep most things normal in school, which has included regular whole school assemblies and singing which both myself and Mr Wallace enjoy! Seeing the whole community together always makes us proud - our children and staff have worked incredibly hard this term and it is always brilliant to be able to say well done to those who have gone over and above in their learning and have shown our core values of Passion, Well-being and Respect. Our Newsletter this week showcases once again some amazing opportunities our pupils have had in the last two weeks!

We look forward to some really exciting events in the next term: World Book Day (info below and letter sent) and Comic Relief (info below) are soon approaching and we hope to celebrate these events in true Furze Platt Style! We also have some big sporting events coming up with the Windsor & Maidenhead Dance Show and Sports Hall Athletics so plenty of things to look forward to in the second part of the spring term.

Enjoy a lovely half term, after the storm the sunshine always comes out...we hope!

Anna Clark, Head of School

Coming up soon: Dates for your diary

Monday 28th Feb: Term 4 begins
Tuesday 1st March: 6pm Y6 Parent Meeting re. SATS (letter sent 14/2)
Thurs 3rd March: Norden Farm in for Y4 (letter sent 16/2)
Fri 4th March: World Book Day Celebrations (see below and letter sent 17/2)
Weds 9th March: Primary Dance Festival @ Braywick- Eagle Class
Thurs 10th March: Primary Dance Festival @ Braywick- Heron Class

Y5 Visit Furze Platt Senior School

Y5 were treated to an afternoon at the theatre on Monday 14th February, as they were invited to watch the dress rehearsal of "Matilda" at Furze Platt Senior School. It has been a while since we have visited our senior school partners, due to covid of course, and we were incredibly amazed by the fantastic new theatre and the high quality production. The set was fantastic, the lighting, special effects and choreography were also top class and we forgot we were only visiting a secondary school show- we could have been in the West End! It was also brilliant to see some familiar faces taking part from our ex-students. Hopefully, the visit will have given our Y5's a great insight to all that the senior school has to offer when they move on from the juniors.

Y6 Debate Experience

"This house believes cats are better than dogs" - What I can hear some of you cry or maybe you agree ? This was the topic for our debate in year 6 on Tuesday as the semi-finals of the debate house competition took place. Each team of 2 had to prepare both sides of the debate and a toss of a coin decided who would debate who and the order. Some fantastic speeches followed and the winning houses will now go on to debate in the final early next term.

Y5 Ancient Greek Day

Ancient Greek Day has been a huge success! The children came to school looking excellent in their ancient Greek outfits and got involved in lots of hands on activities. These included tasting a variety of Greek foods and learning more about the food the ancient Greeks would have eaten. Particular favourites included the figs and feta cheese. Some of the children were less fond of the olives!

We also explored a variety of ancient Greek artefacts including vases, plates, coins and masks. The children studied these and researched what they could be and who might have used them. This included determining if the artefacts were primary or secondary sources. Following this they then created an evidence file to explain the importance of each of the artefacts.

Finally, the children learnt that the Olympic games are thought to have started in 776BC in Olympia as a religious festival in honour of the king of the gods, Zeus. They then took part in some of the events that would have taken place during the time of the ancient Greeks. These included shot put, sprints, discuss and javelin.

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our history unit and have leant a lot about the skills needed to become a historian. We are looking forward to revisiting these skills when we start our unit on the Mayans in the summer term.

Y4 Talk

On Wednesday 9th February, year 4 had a visit from Al Sylvester. Al spent years in the RAF mountain rescue service and has also visited Mt Aconcagua, Mt Everest and even ventured across the South Pole. Listening to Al was a fascinating experience for us all. He told us about his 3 visits to Everest base camp in 2003, 2012 and 2017. He showed us the facilities that are available in different places on Everest and how he sometimes had to go to the toilet in a hole on the floor! We were able to make strong comparisons to Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s climb in 1953 and saw how difficult this must have been without the modern day equipment that Al Sylvester has been able to use.

Al told us how important religion is to the Nepalese people and how Mount Everest is a ‘messiah’ to them and is even called Mother Goddess of the Earth.

We were shown pictures of Al's arrival in Lukla on a small plane and his landing on the scariest runway in the world! It was amazing to see how scary the expedition can be before even setting foot on Mount Everest.

It was so interesting to hear about how important it is to acclimatise when climbing the mountain in order to avoid altitude sickness and Al explained very clearly how this acclimatisation process is the reason that it takes approximately 2 months to climb Mount Everest as a climber has to make so many stops along the way and spend time getting used to the lack of oxygen.

It really was a great talk from a really inspirational individual!

Half Term World Book Day Competition

As part of World Book Day, our teaching teams have planned a range of book related activities throughout the day to enjoy. Children may dress up on world book day or wear something of a “hint” of a character e.g. a hat, glasses or prop, but this is entirely optional and there is no expectation to do so.

We would also like to encourage children to take part in our half term inter-house competition linked to World Book Day. This year we would like children to get really creative with a potato and turn it into a book character! Please bring any entries to school clearly labelled with the child’s name and class and the book character and hand to the class teacher. Each teacher will choose the top 3 from each class who will win house points for the inter-house competition. There will also be a special prize for the overall winners of each year group. Entries need to come into school by Thursday 3rd March.

School Council Update

The FPJS School council are working towards the Eco Schools Green flag - an internationally recognised accreditation that celebrates the ecological achievements of young people. We have had to survey the school on 10 different criteria including litter, energy usage, how we care for our school grounds and healthy living. Once the School Council have analysed the results we will be forming an action plan and hope to share this with you early next term. In the meantime we have been looking at top tips to help you save energy saving and recycling tips you might want to try at home:

Remembering to turn your appliances off standby mode can help you save electricity!
From drink bottles, to food bottles and even beauty product bottles – they can all go into your recycling bin! You can also recycle tubs and pots that are plastic as well.

Coming Soon-Comic Relief Talent Show

Should your child be on the next series of Britain's Got Talent? Have they been entertaining your family with witty jokes, angelic singing or have a dance that would put Strictly to shame? Then encourage them to enter the FPJS Comic Relief talent show. This year we are inviting all children to audition in their year groups with any talent they like: singing, dancing, magic, music and comedy are all welcome or you might have something even more interesting in mind? 9 acts from each year group will be chosen to go forward to a performance at school on Comic Relief day the 18th March .Pupils can enter solo, in pairs or in groups and they can be across classes but must be within their year group only. Performances should be no longer than 1min 30secs

When: Acts must be ready to audition w/c 7th March - each year group will be told the exact day.

We look forward to some great entertainment!

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Stars of the week

Star of the week newsletter 9 2022

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 & Cracking TT

Well done to all our children who are back on to practising regularly with their times tables. We really need ALL of our children to play to help us beat local schools. We are still residing in 19th position and we can do better!

The photos in this edition show the top 12 children in each year group and the children who have made the most progress in the last 2 weeks.

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

It's been busy, busy. busy in year 3!

Our English lessons have seen us finishing our stories on Tarragon the Dragon Slayer and moving onto fables. First, we practiced our ability to re-tell the story of The Lion and the Mouse from memory before moving on to write our own version of the 3 Little Rain Drops.

In maths, we have been learning about measurement, length and perimeter. We've learnt that perimeter is the distance all the way around the outside and have been using cm and mm to measure items inside and outside the classroom.

We have been learning more about the similarities and differences between the UK and Italy in topic, thinking about how the topology and temperature are different and what our life might be like if we lived there.

Our afternoons have also been filled with learning on magnets and pulleys as well as investigating friction and seeing how far a toy car can travel in science as well as creating our own spectacular Georgia O'Keeffe inspired watercolour paintings.

Everyone in year 3 has given 100% this term and we are so proud of them all. Enjoy a well deserved rest and we'll see you back and re-energised after the holidays!

Mrs Lawrence-Davis Y3 Team Leader

Year 3- What are we learning?

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

Show me how to use a ruler/tape measure to measure in cm.

What does temperature mean? What differences did you notice in the temperature map of Italy and the UK?

Tell me about the fable you wrote. What was the moral of the story?

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:

Accidental Trouble Magnet - Zanib Mian

King Kong - Anthony Browne

The Abominables - Eva Ibbotson

Year 4 News

It has been another jam packed few weeks in year 4!

We have enjoyed a visit from Al Sylvester MBE (a mountaineering expert), we have created our own lands in English, completed scientific investigations to find out the best materials to muffle sound and learnt about climates in different mountain ranges!

Our persuasive writing unit has been a really enjoyable one. Based upon the book 'Weslandia' by Paul Fleischman, each child has created their own 'Landia' and written persuasively to encourage people to visit. Some of them sound incredible!

We have learnt lots about improper fractions as well as adding and subtracting fractions in maths. Using dominoes, we learnt to convert between mixed numbers and improper fractions.

In science, we have been carrying out a range of fun investigations to look at how sound travels through solids, liquids and gases as well as how to muffle sound in order to protect our ears.

The children in year 4 have worked so hard this half term. We hope they enjoy a well deserved break, in preparation for a fun-filled term 4!

Mrs Barbosa Y4 Team Leader

Year 4- What are we learning?

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

How do you add and subtract fractions?

Can you explain why it is important to protect your ears from loud sounds?

What can you tell me about the Himalayas?

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!

The Matchbox Diary - Paul Fleischman

The Legend of Sally Jones - Jakob Wegelius

Cinnamon - Neil Gaiman

Year 5 News

With such a jam-packed few weeks, it's hard to know where to start! What with musical writing, decimals in maths, internet safety in computing and re-creating famous pieces of artwork, it's been amazing that we've been able to fit in our trip to the senior school to see Matilda and Ancient Greek Day! So, as we have been focusing on summarising in our reading lessons, here is my summary of two of the "best bits" of the last few weeks.

We've had a fantastic term of science experiments which have all been focused on discovering the properties of materials. This has been rounded off with each of the children making their own scented and colourful bath bomb to take home. We have very much enjoyed the Seesaw photos and videos showing the irreversible, chemical change taking place when the bath bomb was placed in water.

We are also now coming to the end of our history unit on the Ancient Greeks. The children have been developing both their historical research and presentation skills by going on a fact finding mission about Alexander the Great before presenting their research using the app of their choice. Greek Day was also a huge success, more about this elsewhere in the newsletter. Thankfully, the children still have the opportunity to explore and enjoy the Greeks further by completing their homework during the half term holidays!

Wishing you all a relaxing half term break.

Miss Moakes, Y5 Team Leader

Year 5- What are we learning?

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

What is the same and what is different about the Olympics in comparison to those held in the times of the ancient Greeks?

How can you help yourselves and others to stay safe online?

How are decimals used in everyday life?

our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

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

Holes by Louis Sachar

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Unicorne Files: A Dark Inheritance by Chris D'Lacey

Year 6 News

Do you remember your green cross code ? Well Year 6 had a timely reminder last week as Imogen Leonard from RBWM came in to talk about how important road safety is - particularly as our year 6's are more likely to be walking independently in the near future. Did you know more road traffic accidents happen to children aged 11-14 than any other group? Put the phones away, concentrate and wear a helmet when cycling.

Winter Olympic fever struck Year 6 - as well as tuning into the curling and bobsleigh from time to time - they have been taking part in the virtual Winter Games including their own version of a biathlon involving cones and beanbags. We are awaiting the results but are hopeful we have done well.

Our evolution topic in science took an interesting turn last week as we researched Charles Darwin for a biography piece. However, to make it more exciting the children researched in pairs and then traded facts with virtual money. The most facts traded and the most fascinating facts won the pairs money and a prize for the winners! In addition, the children have learnt an incredible amount of facts about the great scientist!

Miss Johnson- Y6 Team Leader

Year 6- What are we learning?

Why was Darwin so important ?

How can you strengthen joints in woodwork?

What items of clothing can you remember in French?

our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

Tom Palmer - After The War

Gabriela Huston- The Wind Child

Anne Rooney - The Story of Planet Earth

Sports Update

PE News!

What a fabulous end to what has truly been a rollercoaster of a term! So much has been happening in PE lessons over the last few weeks such as Benchball, Basketball, Gymnastics, Sports Hall Athletics and plenty of team building exercises. So a BIG well done to all the classes in school for all their excellent efforts.

A big mention and amazing praise for Class Heron and Class Eagle, who have been working extremely hard on the dance festival pieces that have been choreographed over the past few weeks. Both dances are looking brilliant thanks to the help from dance teacher Jane Douglass. However Mrs Tisshaw and Miss Morales also deserve huge credit and praise for their outstanding commitment and help to make the class dances even better! We look forward to potentially showing the rest of the school when we return after half term.

Have a great week off everyone, just remember to stay safe and most importantly stay ACTIVE!

By Mr Kemp/Mrs Winter

Year 6 Netball Team

Well, the month of February has been the final month of Netball.

On Wednesday 16th February, 15 girls made the short trip to FPSS to play in the annual ‘Stingers’ netball tournament. This tournament allows the girls to rotate their positions on court which is an excellent way for the girls to play many different positions and learn more about the game.

There were 9 other schools taking part, which made this tournament a fiercely competitive competition. Both our teams played really well, with one team playing together for the first time on the day. There were a number of very close games but our final standings were 7th and 10th respectively. Well done girls, it was a pleasure to see you all participating and having fun!

On to our final game of the season, it was another away fixture at Holyport school. This was by far the best and toughest game of the season. From the first whistle, both teams were ready for action and it was a fast paced start for both teams. With excellent shooting from Eve, at the half way point we were one goal down. With a few team changes at half time, saw us continue with super team play and great positional play. In the final quarter, Holyport had the edge and ended the game 14-11 winners. Well done everyone, it was an excellent team performance to end a cracking season of netball.

A big thank you to all our parents who have supported the team at all of our matches. It has been so nice to see so much support! Lastly a special mention to Katelyn's mum for all the cake she has provided the team throughout the season.

Mrs Winter

PE Stars of the Week

Class Swan -Caitlin, Pieush

Class Heron -Basil, Omayma

Class Comorant - Erin, Josh

Class Kite - Archie

Class Eagle - Grace

Class Kestrel - Darcey,

Class Swift - Max, Chloe

Class Kingfisher -Duncan, Freddie

Class Skylark -Farhan, Rushil

Class Wren -Lorenzo, Rosie

Class Robin - Lexi, Imogen

Class Finch - Evie, Henry

Well done to all the PE stars last week!

Year 5/6 Football Match

On Friday 4th Feb, FPJS hosted Waltham St Laurence in our 3rd game of the season. With a brilliant quick paced start, FP took the lead in no time. This then seemed to continue for the rest of the 1st half as FP led at the break 3 goals to nil. A few changes were made at half time but this certainly didn't stop the cracking free flowing football the boys were playing. Another 2 goals were added to our tally, resulting in a marvelous and comfortable 5-0 victory. Goals from Patryck x3, Remy and James M.

Well done team, we go again after half term with more fixtures still to be played.

Housepoints update 18.2.22

Useful Information For Parents

MBR 2022 oceans weekend poster.pdf

MBR 2022 weekend event programme_Final.pdf

2d403536f4c5c3eb088b13a4186153e3.pdf