Furze Platt Junior School

Newsletter 15- 23rd June 2023

Romans win after 26 years!

What a busy few weeks it has been, and with the such wonderful weather, FPJS has enjoyed lots of wonderful outdoor activities. Today we have had a fantastic sports day and I am sure you will agree it was a incredibly organised and successful event- probably the best one we have ever don!. I would like to thank Becky Tisshaw (Y6 teacher) for all her passion, dedication and hard-work that she has put into the organisation and logistics of this event- which does take hours to co-ordinate! It is no mean feat ensuring that all 365 children have races of their choice, get to the events and take part. Well done to the Romans for winning this year- FINALLY! Romans last won in 1997! 2nd were Vikings, Normans 3rd and Danes 4th. Also well done to all of the Y6 house captains who continued to cheer on their teams and support each other throughout the event- what a brilliant community FPJS is! How wonderful our sports day ended with pupils, teachers and parents dancing to YMCA! Our next edition will feature more details and photos from the day, including our record breaking results- 22 children broke our FPJS records this year!

Our FPSA, run by Paul Thomson organised a brilliant summer fair last week- thank you so much to everyone who supported in any way! The money we raise from the fair provides both schools with wonderful extra items that really do make a difference to your children. I am sure we raised a huge sum of money! Well done all FPSA members who volunteered hours of their time- you are awesome!

As we enter our final few weeks of term, we have been busy organising our staffing structure for September. We have a few members of staff who have come to the end of their contracts with us and a few who are moving on to pastures new... read all about this in the staff update section below. I am sure you have read in the press that there is a recruitment crisis in teaching, particularly in this area, and whilst this is certainly true, we are very lucky to have recruited two excellent teachers for September and are fully staffed with support assistants too.

We have a few more very busy weeks coming up at FPJS, with more trips, concerts, shows, transition days and of course the Y6 leavers' assembly on the final day. Reports will also be coming home by Friday 7th July via Seesaw.

Anna Clark

Head of School

Dates for your diary- Summer term

Please note- there have been some slight changes due to potential strike action from the NEU- these have been highlighted in yellow.

Tues 27th June- Choir performing at The Hexagon, Reading "The Show Must Go On!" 7pm
Weds 28th June- Y5 trip to Cadbury World
Mon 3rd July- Y3 history “off the page” workshop
Tues/Weds 4th/5th July- Y6 transition day to secondary schools
Weds 5th July- Possible NEU strike action- more info to follow
Fri 7th July- Possible NEU strike action- more info to follow
Mon 10th July- Parents "Book Look" session 3.30-5.30pm
Thurs 6th July- Pupil reports sent home (via Seesaw)
Tues 11th July 9.20am Purple Cast performance- day / Orange Cast evening 6.30pm
Tues 11th July- Y3 visit to Copas Farm
Weds 12th July- Transition afternoon to new classes (Y3-5).
Thurs 13th July- Y4 Norden Farm Kite Making Workshop
Thurs 13th July- 9.20am Orange Cast performance- day / Purple Cast evening 6.30pm
Tues 18th July- Y6 Leavers’ party- more details to follow
Weds 19th July- Y6 Leavers' assembly and final day of the term- School finishes at 1.30pm

Mitch Johnson, author visit

On Tuesday 20th June, FPJS were treated to a brilliant visiting author, Mitch Johnson. Mitch Johnson spoke about his latest book ‘POP’ where an adventurous character called Quinnie goes on the run after finding the secret recipe of the best selling fizzy drink. After discovering this leading brand has caused detrimental effects on the environment, she does everything she can to keep this recipe from being discovered and faces some big challenges along the way.

Mitch brought this story to life by comparing this drink to the leading drink brand around the world highlighting the impact plastic has on our environment. We also discovered just how much sugar these drinks actually contain. It was an informative session that really highlighted the impacts these leading brands have on the planet and to our health.

We hope this will inspire children to read even more!

Miss Morales, Y6 team leader

Staff Update

This year we sadly say goodbye to a three of our established members of staff:

Mrs Hazel Bryant, HLTA has worked at FPJS for 5 years and has been in Year 3 throughout her time here. She has been a fantastic, devoted member of staff who has always gone above and beyond in everything she does- always putting the children to the forefront. Mrs Bryant is moving to the USA to relocate due to her husband's job and begin a different adventure! She has loved FPJS as much as we love her and we truely wish her all the best- she will be missed!

Mrs Saika Hassanuddin joined FPJS in 2018 and worked for 4 years as a teaching assistant before taking the plunge into becoming a fully qualified teacher during this academic year. We have been fortunate to have Mrs Hassanuddin training with us this year, supporting Kestrel class and Wren class and she is now ready to fly the FPJS nest and begin in pastures new as a brand new teacher. Mrs Hassanduddin has been an excellent, caring and passionate member of staff who will clearly go on to do well as a teacher. We thank her for all of her hard work at FPJS and wish her all the best for the future!

Mrs Diane Simmonds is currently our longest- serving member of staff! Mrs Simmonds joined the team in 1997 and has never left- until now! Mrs Simmonds has worked across the school over her incredible 26 years at the school, in many different roles. She has always been incredibly talented and creative- she has put up many of wonderful displays around the school and loves making props and scenery for plays. She has also been excellent at supporting the the older children prepare for SATs- she is a brilliant mathematician too! Mrs Simmonds has decided now is the time to retire from her role as teaching and assistant and to enjoy a more peaceful life with her family! We would like to thank Mrs Simmonds for everything she has done at FPJS- she is a dedicated member of staff and we wish her all the best for the future.

We are also saying goodbye to some of our newer members of staff who joined us on a temporary basis:

Mr Manez, our PE coach, is leaving to fulful his dream to become a full qualified teacher. His original plan was to go into secondary teaching, but he loved FPJS so much, he is embarking on a primary trainee teacher course from September. We wish Mr Manez every success, and hope to see him back in the not too distant future!

We would like to thank Mrs Cosser and Mr Crean for their hard work with Kingfisher and Eagle class and wish them good luck with their next roles. In addition, we thank Mr Thorne and Mrs Aftab for their TA roles this year and wish them all the best for the future.

Classes for September

We welcome two new teachers to FPJS from September:

Miss McGillicuddy is an experienced teacher from Bracknell. She is thrilled to be joining our Y3 team having taught the same age group at her previous school.

Miss Thomas is already known to many of our children as she has completed some of her teacher training at the school. She has worked in Finch and Skylark class this year and knows the school very well. We are delighted that she has joined our Y4 team!

Mrs Barbosa will become our full time Assistant Head from September who will oversee teaching and learning and curriculum development across the school, and Miss Edwards and Miss Keating-Bell will become acting Team Leaders.

Our new teaching team from September is as follows. Children will find out which class they will be in on the transition day, 12th July and there will be a chance to come along to a "Meet the teacher" evening in September.

PE staff for september

With Mr Manez leaving us to pursue his dream of being a fully qualified primary teacher, we are delighted to introduce our new sports coach for September:

Miss Hollie Gill will be joining us as our full-time PE coach. Miss Gill is an experienced coach having worked at several schools over RBWM and Slough. She enjoys athletics and used to be part of TVAC competing in long jump and track. Miss Gill also plays for a local netball team and senjoy dance and gymnastics, having competed when she was young. In her spare time she enjoys travelling, walking her family dog and attending her local gym.

Mrs Winter (also pictured) will also resume her role as PE coach next year and will be teaching classes and supporting clubs after school. We are thrilled with our PE team and look forward to Miss Gill joining the team in September.

Miss Gill, our new PE coach

Mrs Winter will resume her PE teaching next year

Well done to...

Jimmy in Finch class who ran a 3k obstacle race at "The Little Welly" event in 34 minutes! Awesome work Jimmy!

Quick Links

Curriculum

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Term Dates 22-23

Term Dates 23-24

Well-being

Calendar

Website including housepoints update

Stars Of The Week

Star of the week Newsletter 15 23rd 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.

TT Rock stars Update & Spelling Shed Top 10

Well done to the following children who are in our top 10 for attainment OR top ten for progress in their TT rock stars...

Well done to our current Spelling shed pupils who top the charts with their scores!

Cracking times tables awards

Well done to the following children for completing their times tables to level 10! Fantastic achievement!

Eco Council update

Our Eco Warriors have been very busy in school over the last three weeks. We have been very fortunate to have worked with Clare Hagerty from the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust who is running an exciting project called Engaging with Nature.
In their first introductory week to the project, the children planted seeds in a pot and then painted the outside of the pots. The children enjoyed talking to Clare about their eco vision for the school.
The second week, they were pleased to be out of the heat in the cool of the woodland where they made bee houses and learned about the different species of bees.
In their last session this week, they made butterfly feeders. The children have thoroughly enjoyed the project so far and we look forward to continuing this exciting work with Clare in the autumn term.

Did you spot our posters at the summer fair? We are hoping to make our school events more sustainable and recycle as much as we can.

Miss Edwards

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

We have had another fun-filled few weeks in Year 3 this term!

In maths, we have been focusing on shape. This has included recognising, naming and describing both 2D and 3D shapes. We have also been making 3D shapes using a variety of materials and then labelling their features. The children thoroughly enjoyed doing this and it helped them to identify all of the edges and vertices.

In English, we have been looking at play scripts. The children have been reading a variety of play scripts including 'Oliver' and 'London's burning'. We then used drama to act out key parts of the script with a focus on expression and following stage directions.

Our history topic this term is 'Romans' and the children have been learning all about how the Romans lived as well as creating a time-line of events. We are learning as much as we can to prepare for our upcoming Roman day event.

In French, we have been learning about instruments and the children have been matching pictures to the names as well as playing bingo games around this theme.

As part of our design and technology topic, we have been looking at local fruits and fruits from around the world. The children then tasted some of these fruits and described them as well as deciding which ones they liked and disliked.

In music, the children have been learning particular songs and then performing these as well as learning to use instruments to play notes C, D and E. The children have focused on rhythm, beat and notes.

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 many edges and vertices does a cuboid have?

What do words in brackets mean on a playscript?

What year did the Romans first invade Britain?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Escape from Pompeii - Christina Balit

The boy at the back of the class - Onjali Q Rauf

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

Year 4 News

What a busy and warm start to the final term it has been! The children have enjoyed working outside in the shaded woodland area to keep cool during science, completed their multiplication check and carried out their final assessments in Year 4! The children have shown great determination and resilience to achieve all of the above and should be incredibly proud of themselves.

In D&T the children have been looking at creating structures with efficient joins and materials. To do this they are creating wooden photo frames to display a memory of their choice. The past two weeks have involved the children researching and analysing a variety of frames to deduct the best material to use for their own. They then designed their own frame and annotated it to show what join materials and resources would be used, before finally working carefully to saw and compose their frame! The next stage will involve them decorating it and evaluating the effectiveness of the final product. We look forward to completing and sending these home at the end of term.

This week the children started their Lego Wedo unit. This involved the children using the Lego pieces to create a 'Spy Robot' and 'Milo the Science Rover'. It was a tricky process that involved a lot of resilience, patience and step by step guides, but the children worked so well and created some fantastic pieces. They then used their computing skills to create a set of algorithms for Milo the Science Rover to follow.

Keep up the hard work as we continue onto the final push before the summer holidays!

Miss Keating-Bell Yr 4 Class Teacher

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 an algorithm and what does it do?

Can you name three types of angle?

What is air pollution and how can we consciously make an effort to contribute less to it?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4...

Eddie and the Box of Flits

Kate Wilkinson

Rainforest Warrior

Anita Ganeri and Margaux Carpentier

The Explorer

Katherine Rundell

Year 5 News

Can you believe that we are half way through the final summer term already? It has gone so quickly and time has flown.

In maths, we have been focusing on shape which includes recognising and measuring angles. We have also moved on to the position and direction of shape where we are looking at coordinates, plotting them and the translation of shapes on a grid. The children have benefitted from taking a break from number.

In writing, the children have been writing newspaper reports and specifically writing one on the FPJS summer fair. Next week, the children will be publishing their reports which we will be sending to the Maidenhead Advertiser for their journalistic approval. We can't wait to see if any of them get chosen to be published!

In the wider curriculum, we have been "travelling" to Europe with a focus on the Mediterranean and finding out why it such a fantastic holiday destination. In science, we have been learning about gestation in mammals and foetal development. Thank you to all the parents who provided us a photo of your child as a baby, the "Guess Who?" game was a lot of fun!

It was great to see all the children so team spirited in today's sports day. We hope that they are just as proud of their efforts as we are. Well done to all!

We are very much looking forward to our trip to Cadbury World next week.

Miss Edwards, Y5 Team Leader

Year 5 - What are we learning?

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

Ask your child what the gestation period is of a mammal.
Can you name some breads from around the world?
Explain how to plot coordinates on a grid.

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

Spark - Mitch Johnson

Factopia - Kate Hale

Action In Replay - Adam Skinner

Year 6 News

Year 6 have been working incredibly hard over the last two weeks. Despite the soaring temperatures, they have all kept up their work ethic and have worked really hard towards their final projects of the year.

In maths, we have been learning about job salaries and dipped into the world of business and tax. The children worked out what the annual, monthly and hourly wage would be of their dream jobs. This was the beginning of the Year 6 business project. Already, the teams are working incredibly well together and have some fantastic ideas that I am sure will help to raise lots of money for charity.

In English, the children have been replicating the work of Drew Daywalt's popular children's book, 'The Day the Crayons Quit'. They have enjoyed experimenting with different tones and formalities - particularly writing in slang!

Rehearsals for the end of year production are still in full swing and props and scenery are starting to appear.

Keep working hard Year 6. Summer is just round the corner!

Miss Morales, Y6 Team Leader

Year 6- What are we learning?

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

What is tax and when do you pay it?
Summarise the plot of the Year 6 play 'Porridge'
What inspiration did you take from 'The day the Crayons Quit' in your English writing?

Sports Updates

Kurling competition

A super afternoon was had by 2 teams representing our school at the New Age Kurling competition held at Braywick Leisure Centre on Monday 19th June.

There were 4 rounds of games which were xtremely competitive but played in good spirit with each of our teams improving on each round.

Super, tactical play by Luke D helped the A team to a few good wins.

Well done to both teams for showing all of the FPJS values and enjoying the occasion.

Mrs Winter

Footgolf Festival

On Thursday 22nd June, pupils from year 4 and year 6 took part in 2 Footgolf competitions at Courthouse school.

This exciting new sport is an interesting mix of football and golf. There were a number of other school teams from the Borough taking part in this festival, which was a combination of skills and games.

The children were able to work together to earn points with 6 skills-based games to begin with. This set them up really well for the main competition.

Each game involved getting the football to a pole with a hula hoop which acted as the hole. Some holes had extra obstacles which the children had to navigate to reach the pole. Just like golf, the aim was to kick the football to the hole in the lowest amount of kicks.

Mason (Swift class) won the closest to the pin game, with a super shot for the year 4 team.

Varsha, Nicola and Viren were the year 6 closest to the pin winners.

In the afternoon, 30 pupils from year 6 took part in the second session of Foot golf at Courthouse school.

There were 3 teams all competing with 3 teams from Courthouse for a place at the County finals. This was an extremely competitive but exciting afternoon filled with excellent performances from everyone. After 2 hours of competition, one of our Furze Platt teams won the event and will be representing the Borough in the County finals next week at Braywick Leisure Centre.

Well done to everyone who took part in this competition today, I was so proud of how everyone showed the Furze Platt Junior School values,(Passion, Well-being & Respect) throughout the day.

Mrs Winter

Girls' Cricket tournament

Furze Platt Year 6 Girls took part in the Year 6 Cricket Festival hosted by St Pirans School. There were 15 girls split into a team of 8 supported by Mr Sawle (Team 1) and team of 7 supported by Mrs Winter and Mr Thorne (Team 2). The team participated again various other schools in a dynamos cricket format and managed to play 3 games each throughout the afternoon.

Team 1 played three games against Dolphin, Chesham Prep and one of the St Pirans Teams. The first game was a very competitive game, and the girls had some anxieties as they hadn’t played much cricket. Nonetheless they battled really hard and played some really good cricket shots scoring a few boundaries throughout the match. This match made the girls realise how important it is to run immediately after the ball is hit if possible. As they got into the game, each pair were getting better and better.

The second game saw their confidence grow once again against Chesham Prep. The girls concentrated really hard on bowling and were rewarded with their first wicket. The cheer from the girls was a clear indication that more success was coming! The girls during their bowling part of the game managed to get another 3 wickets and stopped a lot of possible boundaries after some good shots played by Chesham. The batting in this game was excellent; the girls were able to hit boundaries in every over and managed to score a run a ball in this game, an incredible achievement already.

They took this momentum into the third game against St Pirans B, the standout figures in this game was Furze Platt managed to get 8 wickets including 4 catches from the outfield fielders. The bowling of St Pirans was very strong and the total to reach was going to be hard to get, nonetheless the girls battled hard and in the last 3 overs hit 8 boundaries including 2 sixes. Both the batting and bowling performances from this team were incredible, getting a well-deserved two victories out of three.

This was a great time and opportunity for all 15 girls; the best part of the day was at the end when the girls were talking about how they enjoyed cricket and wanted to do more in the future. Well done to all the girls who represented Furze Platt amazingly.

Mr Sawle, Y6 teacher

Quadkids

Three teams to the County Finals!!! Year 3/4 Cricket, Year 5/6 Footgolf and Year 5/6 Quadkids.

Following their qualifying at the FPJS Quakids event a few weeks ago, two teams of athletes (32 pupils in total) from year 5 and 6 took part in our area Quadkids. The event was against 8 other schools and held at Newlands Girls School. Quadkids has been a very popular event for FPJS over the years and this was no exception. It was the first time that the event has been able to run since 2019 and it was a welcome landmark in time. There were many new PB's set, despite the scorching heat, which made the long distance hard work. Our 2 teams did brilliantly. Once scores were added up for the 4 events, there was a prize-giving. Individual top three places were awarded to girls and boys: Katie E was top girl, Alice G 2nd, and Megan J 7th, Max B was 4th, Thomas L 5th and William B 7th. It was no surprise that with these scores, the team came first overall. We have also been lucky enough to take two smaller FPJ teams to the finals at Braywick Leisure Centre on June 29th. The best of luck to all those taking part!

Mrs Tisshaw, PE lead & Y6 teacher

FPSA Update

The Summer Fair was back last Saturday and what a great day it was. We had near perfect weather (not too hot) and were not put off by a couple of minutes of light rain during set up at 9am on Saturday nor the overnight sabotage of the hay bales by some unknown avian creatures!

We seemed to have a very good turn out at the fair which is marvellous and we hope everyone who attended had a good time. The aims of the fair were to have lots of fun and raise money for both Furze Platt Infant School and Furze Platt Junior School. Overall we have raised over £9,700 which is a personal best!

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who helped the fair whether they donated a prize, cake, soft toys or nearly new items, bought raffle tickets, had an estate agents board outside their house, helped set up on the Friday after school and/or Saturday morning, helped on a stall during the fair or assisted the clear up at the end. A great team effort!

Useful Information For Parents

Rugby girls taster flyer - Years 6 & 7.pdf

Maidenhead's Big Read:

Read the latest addition here: https://mailchi.mp/af022165260f/mbr-newsletter-16714680

Activity Week Flyer 2023 .pdf

Flyer Summer Camps (2).pdf

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