First Half Term Completed!

We have made it to the end of the first half term of the year! It has been a busy start to the year, with lots of exciting learning opportunites and events happening. Our pupil leadership team has also made a great start to the year with suggestion boxes around the school, supporting in assemblies, leading eco groups, cultural diversity and emotional well-being warriors. We look forward to seeing how these aspects of school will develop further this year. We have already had one author visiting and we have another booked for after half term!

I hope all of our FPJS families stay well over the half term and enjoy the break! We have included some top tips for both Halloween and Bonfire Night which may be useful reminders for parents- these can be found near the end of the newsletter.

We look forward to welcoming the children back to school for term 2 on Monday 31st October.

Anna Clark

Head of School

Website including housepoints update

Curriculum

Lunch Menu

Term Dates 22-23

Well-being

Calendar

Quick Links

Coming up soon:

Fri 21st Oct: Inset day- school closed for pupils
24th-28th October Half term break
Mon 31st October: TERM 2 BEGINS
Tues 1st Nov: Y6 Heron Bentley Priory School Trip
Weds 2nd Nov: Fantastic Fred assemblies- these are to support children's mental health well-being. More information can be found here: https://www.thefantasticfredexperience.com/for-parents-guardians
Thurs 3rd Nov: Y6 Cormorant and Y6 Swan Bentley Priory School Trip
Fri 4th Nov: Y2 parents Talk n Tour
Mon 7th Nov: Y2 parents Talk n Tour
Weds 9th Nov: Adisa the Verbaliser performance poet- whole school performance and Y5 workshops

Jodie Garnish Visit to FPJS

We were very lucky at FPJS to have a real-life author visit the school last week. On Wednesday 12th October, Jodie Garnish entertained the children with her love of the theatre and read some extracts from her book, The Spectaculars. She gave the children some excellent advice for creating characters based on their mannerisms, voice and body language and some top tips for becoming a writer.

Thank you to Jodie and for Chiltern Bookshops for providing this excellent visit for free!

Buy the book here!

Homework survey

Homework update!

Many thanks to parents who have filled in our homework survey. This has already given us some food for thought! We will wait until the survey closes before publishing results. If you did not have a chance to complete the survey, please click on the link above and complete by 31st October. Over half term, we will be pausing our regular homework and instead asking the children to complete a whole school project on the theme of The World Cup. More details can be found on Seesaw.

We would also like to invite children to take part in an exciting poetry competition....

NATIONAL POETRY DAY COMPETITION

Inspired by 5 years of The Lost Words book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris we are inviting children to write an acrostic poem about their favourite plant or animal. Take a look outside what can they see? What would they like to protect for the future?

Please see the poster below for details of how to enter this fabulous competition. In order to send entries off on time, your teacher will need to receive your poem either on paper or via Seesaw by Wednesday 2nd November.

As well as sending the entries off, we will also be choosing the best 3 per year group to earn some extra house points!

Good Luck!

FPJS Library is open!

We are currently updating our library with new titles and are very excited to announce that the library will be open after school on Monday and Thursday for children and parents to browse books and take out titles.

All children at FPJS also have weekly opportunities to visit the library as part of their lesson times, as well as optional lunch times to read and take out books. We have a brilliant bunch of Y6 librarians who have been very busy making the library a wonderful place to get lost in a book!

We will shortly be investing further in our library and ordering new books- we can't wait to share these with the children!

Harvest Assembly 2022

Thank you so much to the wonderful generosity of parents for all the donations for Foodshare to celebration our Harvest assembly. Our assembly was led by Emma from St. Peter's who talked about being us all having gratitude for the things we have in our lives, including our food! Our children sang a new song "Let's Harvest" which such enthusiasm and passion- it almost brought a tear to our eyes!

Stars of the week - Class Stars & PE Stars

Star of the week newsletter 21st Oct

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

Well done to all our children who have started using TT rock stars regularly to practise times tables! Here are our top 10 for each year group and those who have made the most progress in the last 2 weeks.

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.

Congratulations to Sirhan and Sulaiman from Y3 who have already mastered their times tables! Well done!

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

Year 3 have had the most amazing start to FPJS and we are so proud of how well they have all settled and shown passion for learning.

Over this past two weeks, we have been writing instructions on how to make a jam sandwich which was then edited to the children's favourite fillings. This week we have used all of the things we have learned, to create our own instructions on 'How to cook a teacher' which has been so fun!

In maths we have been focusing on addition and subtraction using the coulumn method. The children still used the manipulatives to help support exchanging when crossing 10's and 100's and represented this is many ways.

In science we concluded our forces topic by investigating how friction works on a variety of different surfaces. The children predicted which surfaces they thought would have more and less friction and then recorded their results once tested. This was a great lesson as the children went outside and worked as a team as well as using tape measures for the distance a ball travelled.

In French we learned the song 'Deux Petits Chatons visitant Paris' and made our own puppets. The children thoroughly enjoyed doing this and taking them home.

I hope you all have a wonderful half term, and we look forward to seeing the children after a well-deserved break.

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 friction and how does it work?

Sing the French song we have learned this week.

What are imperative verbs and can you name some?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Romeo and Juliet -A Shakespeare Story - Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross

Kaspar -Prince of cats - Michael Morpurgo

Year 4 News

What a wonderful first half term it has been for year 4!
Our children have completed another wonderful piece of writing this week showing off their descriptive skills and ability to build suspense.

In art, the children's Anglo Saxon pots have been fired in the kiln and glazed. They are now awaiting their second firing and will soon be finished - how exciting!

Written methods for addition and subtraction were taught in maths over the last few weeks. The children are showing a good understanding of how to use place value to support these methods and have also been estimating answers using rounding.

It has been wonderful to see the children settle so well into their new classes over the last 7 weeks. They have shown such an increase in their independence and motivation. We hope this continues into the next term.

Enjoy a well deserved break, year 4!

Mrs Barbosa Y4 Team Leader

Year 4- What are we learning?

Can you explain some of the ways that the Anglo Saxons punished crimes?

Explain how you would use rounding to estimate the answer to 7651+2120

In what ways do Jewish people show their special relationship with God?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4...

The Lost Spells - Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris

The Undefeated - Kwame Alexander & Kadir Nelson

Viking Voyages - Jack Tite

Year 5 News

Well done Year 5 for completing your first half term. It has been great to see you all settle so maturely into your classes with your peers and teachers. Well done!

In English, we have been busy creating our own planets using scientific vocabulary and are beginning to write our non-chronological reports. We will be finishing and publishing them after half term. We can't wait to see your finished pieces.

We have come to end of Boy in the Tower story and the children really enjoyed it. Thank goodness Ade and his family were saved and it ended happily!

Written methods in addition and subtraction were covered over the last two weeks and the children have a good understanding with larger numbers. We have also been busy solving maths problems using these methods. The children have showed good resilience when faced with these word problems.

In history, we have learned about how Maidenhead looked in Victorian times and the impact of the railway being built. We have been thinking about what life would have been like in our home town.

Our next term is just as full of lots of new and exciting things and we can't wait to get started again after a well deserved half term.

Have a restful break, everyone!

Miss Edwards, Y5 Team Leader

Year 5- What are we learning?

Can you explain the writing techniques needed in a non-chronological report?

What is the big bang theory?

Summarise the Boy in the Tower story.

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

Dial A Ghost - Eva Ibbotson

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe - Penelope Lively

How to Avoid Witches - Roald Dahl

Year 6 News

How time flies when you are having fun! We have had a busy first half term in Year 6 and all the children have worked really hard across the subjects. It has been wonderful to see them being amazing role models to the rest of the school.

In English, we have been writing an extract of a story based on the book Holes by Louis Sachar. In particular, we have been focusing on using speech for effect to show character and move the story forward. Our fantastic pieces of writing were then recorded on seesaw alongside pictures from the film so check them out!

In maths, we have tackled short and long division. We have also been busy cracking codes by using our BODMAS skills.

In topic, we have been putting ourselves in the shoes of the people who were on the home front during World War 2. We have been thinking about the impact of the Blitz and rationing during this time and we have also explored real life stories of evacuees.

We are looking forward to all of the exciting things we have in store after half term! Enjoy the break and make sure you have a well-deserved rest.

Miss Morales, Y6 Team Leader

Year 6- What are we learning?

What was life like for women during World War 2?

What does BODMAS stand for?

What punctuation is needed when writing speech?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank

The Girl of Ink and Stars - Kiran Hargrave

Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian

Sports Update

Netball REPORT

On Thursday 13 th October FP played their first away fixture of the season against another local rival Riverside Primary School. Furze Platt started the game very quickly and within the first couple of minutes scored the first goal of the game, courtesy of Liam G. Furze Platt had to get use to the smaller riverside pitch, but nonetheless finished the quarter 0 – 1 to Furze Platt. The second quarter got underway with FP a complete new 7, with all players being changed. However, as it seems to be with this FP team, there teamwork, passion and commitment didn’t waiver and some great play between Rosie H and Will C led to more opportunities in the attacking third. Will C managed to get into two great scoring chances and didn’t miss with either, taking FP into a half time lead of 0 – 3. The third quarter was a different tale with the original 7 back on for FP, as even though FP had the majority of the possession and played some great passing netball, there was no way through the improved riverside defence. The fourth and final quarter quickly came around, and as the FP was rotated for the last time, the team still kept controlled, resolute and played some excellent netball. The constant pressure during this second half led to a fabulously taken shot by Grace S, giving FP their final goal and ending the match 0 –4 to FP. Player of the match decided unanimously by Riverside was Liam G for scoring, assisting and all round play throughout.

An excellent team performance in what was Mr Kemp’s last sporting outing for Furze Platt, and the whole squad did him, and the school so proud. 2 from 2 for FP netball, couldn’t have asked for a better start to the netball season!!

Congratulations to you all!

Mr Sawle

GIRLS' FOOTBALL REPORT

On Wednesday 19th October, 9 year 6 girls: Katie, Eliza, Alexa, Zoe, Muntaha, Rosie, Emily, Alice and Varsha, took part in the SSP girl's football competition at Cox Green School. For some girls it was their first ever football event. However, it seems we have quite a number of Lionesses in year 6 who are already in community teams and have played for over a year! Our play started out strong and the first match was 1-0 to FPJ with Katie scoring early on. But the next two matches were 1-0 to our oppositions - though both games were very close. Next we showed gritty and determined teamwork which resulted in a 0-0 draw against our rivals, Courthouse. Our final opposition was a B team and the girls focused hard to get as many goals as possible in a 4-0 win with Eliza and Katie scoring. Sadly, as we were in a very challenging pool, we missed out on being in the semi final by one goal. Teamwork really was dreamwork through the morning as all players supported each other with huge encouragement and a great sense of unity. Katie was voted Lioness of the match for her goal scoring and speed of interception, and most improved player was unanimously Emily for her amazing development.

Special mention goes to Varsha too as she was an excellent goalkeeper throughout, saving many attempts at goal from general play, corners and a penalty!

We look forward to future matches when our girl footballers venture out with Mr Sawle. Well done to all the girls as they stuck together and supported each other so well.

Useful Information For Parents

Parents workshop- save the date!

On Tuesday 1st November, Mrs Singh will be holding a Parents' Workshop entitled 'Managing Behaviour - providing consistency between home and school'. This will be at 9.15am in FPIS school hall.

This is a repeat of the workshops held in May 2022, which outlined FPPF's Behaviour and Relationships Policy and how it is implemented in school.

Some positive comments from parents who attended in May are:

"I want to congratulate and thank you on building this workshop which is going to touch and make many lives better."

"It is a great initiative as its not just going to help kids for their future but parents too, helping establish emotional connection with their children."

"The workshop was well thought out and extremely positive."

Please sign up here if you plan on attending:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc7ErXl7zfKGWwfuSfCQGsDi0jyvWFczu17a3mAcpDV-pXplg/viewform?usp=sf_link

maidenhead's big read newsletter

Please see link below to the latest news from Maidenhead Big Read:

Maidenhead's Big Read Newsletter

Magpies Flyer COURTHOUSE.pdf

RBWM information regarding buses

Bus changes poster.pdf

Safety Information: Halloween & Bonfire Night

Halloween - If you see this poster please do not trick or treat.pdf

Halloween 2022.pdf

t-lf-1663881056-bonfire-night-safety-ks2-powerpoint_ver_1.pptx

67b307b1c93c7bbd354ad7ba907e2d2f (1).pdf