Well it has been a whirlwind here at FPJS in the last two weeks of term! We love Christmas and wanted to share the fun and excitement of the season- there have been so many brilliant activities going on which are designed help children to learn about the traditional Christmas story, alongside the enjoyment of the season and learning about how we can show kindness to others at this time of the year. We've had Christmas plays, Christmas lunch, lots and lots of singing: the choir sang beautifully in our carol concert and outside to parents, the children sang their heart out in our Christmas singing competition and the staff enjoyed several singing moments too! You can see our end of term Christmas video, created by Mr Luttemen here: https://youtu.be/f1JtT8ednOg

Thank you parents for all your support so far this academic year! We look forward to January 2023, a new term with lots more exciting opportunities to look forward to.

Have a wonderful Christmas holiday and we will look forward to welcoming the children back on Wednesday 4th January.

Anna Clark

Head of School

Website including housepoints update

Curriculum

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Term Dates 22-23

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Coming up soon:

Tuesday 3rd January- Inset day
Wednesday 4th January- Term 3 begins

FPJS NEWS

Year 3 christmas Plays

Well done to all our Year 3 classes for their fantastic performances last week of "A midlife crisis". Every child performed so confidently and the singing was also excellent! I am sure year 3 parents will agree they really did the school proud, despite a few technical hitches and last minute changes for some. We can't wait to see how this year group progresses- watch out for when they are in the Y6 play- it will soon come around! Well done to the brilliant Y3 team for putting on such a great show and making us all feel very festive!

Wren Class

Robin Class

Finch Class

Christmas JUmper Day

Well done to everyone who donated so generously for our annual Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children. If you didn't have a chance to donate- it isn't too late! Click on the link below to add your donation to our grand total so far of £431. As part of our Christmas jumper day, all of our children took part in a house competition to design and make decorations for our FPJS house trees which was run by the Y6 house captains. They really did an excellent job, and showed such brilliant organisation, communication and team working skills. The winning house was the Normans, followed by the Romans, Vikings and Danes.

Our Friday Christmas Jumper day was finished by a fantastic disco run by the FPSA and of course our star DJ's Mr Sawle and Mr King!

Save the children donation

Poppy Appeal

Thank you to everyone who donated generously for the annual Poppy Appeal. We raised a fantastic £497.67!

FPJS Christmas Homework Competition Results

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 in the table below.

All of the points were added together and the winners overall this year were the Danes.

FPJS Christmas singing House Competitions

Our annual inter-house competition resumed again this year with Y3, 4, 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, enthusiasm and overall performance. This year, the Normans were the winning house overall, with the highest score going to the Y5/6 Normans performance.

Our children performed so well this year! The passion and enthusiasm really shone through as you can see with the photos of the rehearsals!

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! What a great show of passion for learning a musical instrument!

Year 4 Christmas Unwrapped

On Thursday 8th 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 wonderful to be able to go on a school visit and our Year 4 children represented FPJS beautifully.

Stars Of The Week

Star of the week newsletter 16th Dec

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.

TT Rock stars Update and our spelling shed top 10!

We've taken a break with TT rock stars in the last week due to all the exciting Christmas things that have been happening!

Instead, we have included the final winners of our weekly Battle of the Bands competition and our top spellers on spelling shed. Well done to all of the children who have made a great effort with this!

Well done to Riddhi, Cleo, Alisa and Adya in Robin class for mastering all their times tables!

Year Group Updates

New Teacher For Eagle Class

We are pleased to welcome a new member of staff to FPJS in January. Mr Fergus Crean will take over as Eagle class teacher and is very excited to be joining our teaching team. Mr Crean has worked in a number of schools in Wokingham and Reading and is passionate about many sports including street dance! We are looking forward to him joining the Y5 team. There will a gradual handover from Mrs Pierron/Miss Howard in the first instance.

Baby news...

We are thrilled to announce that Mrs Pierron is expecting her first child. Many eager eyed parents may have noticed an ever-growing bump over the last few weeks and Mrs Pierron would like to point out that this not due to her eating one to many mince pies!

Mrs Pierron will be continuing to work alongside Y5 and Y6 until she commences her maternity leave, in March.

Year 3 News

We have had another couple of fantastic weeks in Year 3!

First of all, the children made us all so proud with their Christmas play 'A Midwife Crisis'. They were all wonderful actors, singers and some producers and each and every child made a difference so well done to every class!

In English we have been completing our work using 'The Iron Man' story and the children have enjoyed looking at vocabulary as well as predicting how the story might end.

In maths, we have been continuing to practice our times table knowledge and the children have enjoyed using the manipulatives as well as working out word problems based on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

In DT the children have been creating their own Christmas pop up books and these all look amazing so well done Year 3.

We all hope you have a wonderful Christmas break with family and friends and wish you all a Happy New Year! See you in January 2023.

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!:

How did the Iron Man defeat the Space Bat Angel Dragon?

What times tables facts could you use to help when multiplying by 6?

What folds did you use for your pop up books?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Fantastic Mr Fox - Roald Dahl

T'was the night before Christmas - Clement Clarke Moore

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 have learnt about Roman numerals in maths and have also been very busy continuing our times tables practice.

We finished off the term with a science experiment to find out about the effects of different liquids on our teeth. Remember not to eat too much sugar this Christmas!!

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 over the last few weeks:

What is the difference between a simile and metaphor?

Can you explain some of the different ways that people use rivers?

How many numbers between 1 and 100 can you make using Roman Numerals?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4...

Pull out all the stops - Geraldine McCaughrean

Daisy and the Trouble with Giants - Kes Gray

The Diamond Brothers - Anthony Horowitz

Year 5 News

It's been a busy but fun end of the term!

We have enjoyed the Y3 Christmas plays, Christmas disco and much more festive fun along the way.

In writing, we have been looking at mysterious events such as alien encounters and ghosts! We have had fun using modal verbs to discuss the likelihood of these events happening.

We have learnt about calculating the area and perimeter of 2D shapes and irregular shapes in maths.

In DT, our lever and pulley prototypes have been finished and we are pleased with how well they have turned out. Well done Y5 for persevering with them - they were quite fiddly!

The Y5 team want to wish all our FPJS families a safe, happy and fun-filled Christmas break.
Have a wonderful New Year and we will see you back in school in January.

Miss Edwards, Y5 Team Leader

Year 5 - What are we learning?

What are modal verbs and how do we use them in everyday life?

How do you find the perimeter of a regular 2D shape?

Explain how a gear works.

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

Malamander - Thomas Taylor

Who Let the Gods Out - Maz Evans

The Violet Veil Mysteries - Sophie Cleverly

Year 6 News

We have had a fantastic couple of weeks leading up to the Christmas holidays! It has been lovely to see Year 6 getting into the Christmas spirit.

In maths, we have taken a break from fractions and we have been working on our position and direction of co-ordinates. We have learnt to plot, translate and reflect shapes.

In English, we have finished typing up our persuasive formal letters to our Chair of Governors to convince them that extending the school day is not a good idea.

In design and technology, we made our seasonal soup that tasted delicious. The children were in charge of designing their recipe and cooking as a team - including working on their chopping skills. They also had some marketing challenges to complete for the perfect soup!

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you all in 2023!

Miss Morales, Y6 Team Leader

Year 6- What are we learning?

What conditions grow the most bacteria?
What does translating shapes mean?
What jobs would children do in the Victorian era? (Wolves of Willoughby Chase)

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6..

The Nowhere Emporium - Ross Mackenzie

The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

Skellig - David Almond

Sports Update

PE Update from Mr Manez & Mr Thorne

Firstly, I would like to just quickly introduce myself. I am Mr Manez, a qualified sports coach and have a huge passion for teaching sports to young children. I am massively into sports myself too; I currently play football for a Spanish Semi-Professional team in London called FC Deportivo Galicia. I have been there for 4 seasons now. Other sports I love to play or watch are; Athletics, Badminton, Tennis, Rugby and Basketball.

Having been here for a term now, I would like to thank everyone at the school from the head teachers all the way to the children for making me feel so welcome and already giving me so many memories that I will cherish.

I have been leading the PE sessions for the last term across all year groups and have loved every minute of it. Every year group has something special about them that makes them different. I have also been taking the after school clubs too which have all proven to be fun!

I have also taken the opportunity to attend school fixtures to watch the football and netball teams in action and have been really impressed with the quality we have to offer. I am thoroughly looking forward to the rest of the season to see what we can go on to achieve.

Lastly, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Mr Manez

I'm Mr Thorne, I am part of the sport and TA team at FPJS.

In my career I have jumped for England 3 times in athletics and competed in other countries too. I have been helping out with the sport and every student has been taking part and I've been able to teach them new skills and I've really enjoyed my new role so far! Happy Christmas FPJS!

Mr Thorne

Kickboxing champions!

Well done to all our Kick boxing champions, pictured who have been working hard this term to gain their next belt grading. All of the children attend Apollo Martial Arts club which runs early in the morning before school, run by Kickboxing Michael. Well done for their commitment, passion and achievement!

Football - A team

What a busy time for the A team before the Christmas break. The A team played three fixtures in three days against Courthouse, Cookham Rise and Holy Trinity respectively.

The first game saw the A team travel to very local rivals Courthouse, FP played very well throughout but a lapse in whole team concentration led to Courthouse snatching a goal against the run of play. However this woke something deep within the soul of Furze Platt and within a minute a wicked strike from Patryk got FP back to 1-1. FP kept the pressure high but courthouse stayed strong defensively. The match ended 1 -1 but a great match for Furze Platt’s confidence.

The second match was a freezing cold home fixture against Cookham Rise. This match was a tough one for Furze Platt as going into it we knew that Cookham Rise was a good team. Unfortunately that showed as Cookham Rise were very well drilled and scored some great footballing goals. The final score was 3-0 to Cookham Rise. However, I couldn’t be prouder of this team during the match, the resilience and determination they had shown was amazing and really did Furze Platt proud.

The third match really showed the improvements the team had made from the previous two games. FP went to Holy Trinity and played some excellent football. Holy Trinity had a very defensively strong team but FP kept the high pressure throughout. The first of our 3 goals came from an unbelievable show of individual skill from Toby, cutting inside and whipping the ball straight int the top corner, Holy Trinity were stunned. Two more goals came in incredible fashion, both by Adam and both directly from corner. Unbelievable scenes! The game ended 3 – 1 to FP, which was fully deserved.

A great 3 game for the A team, in which every player contributed, grew and became a strong team. More fixtures to come after the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Thank you for the support!

Mr Sawle

Football update

The B Team faced Courthouse in a very tight encounter. Both sides created dangerous chances and looked like scoring. It wasn’t until the second half when Rishaan broke the deadlock and managed to squeeze the ball between the keepers legs to make it 1 - 0. Courthouse did make a comeback late in the second half but were kept out every time by Max in goal finishing 1 - 0 to Furze Platt. Archie (C) grabbed the Man of the Match award.

The B Team have also played Oldfield away. Furze Platt didn’t start as well as we had done in previous games and quickly found ourselves pinned back in our own half for the first 5 minutes after some very dangerous chances created by Oldfield. We started to get a foothold in the game however and started to create some chances of our own. It wasn’t long until, once again, Rishaan found the back of the net following a great passing move by Furze Platt. Oldfield continued to create some extremely dangerous chances and would have definitely found the back of the net several times of it was not for some inspired goal keeping from Max - making a double save and reacting to a deflection which was on its was into the bottom corner. It is also worth mentioning that Max is currently in Y5 and playing against boys a year older than him and still managing to stop them from scoring! In the second half Furze Platt took the driving seat and managed to grab another two goals. One from Archie (C) and the other once again from Rishaan, earning himself a Man of the Match performance.

We still have a couple of matches to play in the new year so watch out for the reports from those games.

Mr King

Useful Information For Parents

CFAD invitation 2023.pdf

RBFRS_Ice_Safety_December_2022.pdf

setting-up-apps.pdf