Furze Platt Juniors 2023-24 Newsletter
Newsletter 10: 24th May 2024
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Half term already!
Half term already!
It is hard to believe we have reached the end of another term already and are heading towards the busiest and probably the most exciting term of the year! It has been wonderful to finally have some sunshine grace its presence on us, and see the children able to make the most of our wonderful field and outside areas. Thanks to continued support from the FPSA, breaktimes and lunchtimes are such happy times at FPJS, with the children having so many different areas and equipment to explore!
I have been so proud of our Year 6 children in the last few weeks. You may be aware that there were some reports about how difficult the maths test was this year- and how children around the UK were in tears due to the demanding paper. I can honestly say that all of our Y6 children approached their SATS tests with a calm confidence, took things in their stride and did us proud- there were no tears at all! The summer term is filled with so many fun things for our Y6 children- from their Silverstone Trip to the Y6 play and all of the transition work we do before they move to their new secondary schools.
Well done to all of classes this term- I have really enjoyed meeting some of the children in our "Book Bingo" sessions where they share all the things they have been doing and they are always enthusiastic about the things they are learning. Parents will get the opportunity to see books toward the end of next term with our "Book Look" date in the diary. Diary dates have been updated below with all dates for the remainder of this academic year- you will see how busy things get right up until the last day!
Enjoy a wonderful half term holiday- I hope our FPJS families enjoy some quality family time in the sunshine- do consider joining in with the Street Tag scheme (more info below)- this is an excellent, free way to get some exercise and have fun together as a family!
Anna Clark, Head of School
Staff news- baby updates!
Staff news- baby updates!
I am pleased to announce the arrival of two of our staff babies!
Mrs Dean's baby girl, Freya Ann Aline Dean, arrive on 7th May, weighing 8lbs.
Mrs Barbosa gave birth on 22nd May to a baby boy, Jordi Miguel Barbosa. Jordi was a whopping 10lbs!!
We would like to congratulate both Mrs Dean and Mrs Barbosa and we wish them well for the sleepless nights to come!
Quick Links
Quick Links
Job opportunities at FPJS
Job opportunities at FPJS
We are hiring! We are looking to appoint teaching assistants from September to join our highly effective and dedicated staff. Good literacy and numeracy skills are essential. If you have a passion for supporting children in their learning and a desire to make a difference, see below for more details.
https://furze-platt-junior-school.secure-primarysite.net/vacancies/
Diary Dates:
Diary Dates:
Monday 3rd June - Term 6 starts
Monday 3rd June - Friday 21st June - Y4 Multiplication Tables Check
Tuesday 4th June - Y6 trip to Silverstone
Monday 10th June- 6th August: Street Tag begins (see end of newsletter to sign up your family)
Monday 10th June - Y3 Roman Day
Tuesday 11th June - Y3 and Y5 road safety workshops (rearranged from February)
Wednesday 12th June - Y4 road safety workshops (rearranged from February)
Thursday 13th June - Y6 road safety workshops (rearranged from February)
Friday 14th June- Dress down day for FPSA summer fair- bring in donations for the adult tombola to the playground.
Tuesday 18th June - GEMS coffee morning at FPIS 9.30
Wednesday 19th June- Y2 transition parent meeting 6.30pm
Saturday 22nd June - FPSA Summer Fair
Tuesday 25th June- Y2 visiting FPJS to join in singing and break times
Friday 28th June - Sports Day (morning only)
Tuesday 2nd July/Weds 3rd July: Y6 FPSS taster days (for September starters)
Wednesday 3rd July- Y2 visiting FPJS for lunch
Thursday 4th July- Reserve sports day
Friday 5th July - Y5 trip to Cadbury World
Friday 12th July- School reports sent home
Monday 15th July- 3.30-5pm- "Book Look" for parents in classrooms
Wednesday 17th July - 9.20am Y6 Orange cast performance of "Pirates of the Curry Bean"
Wednesday 17th July- Transition afternoon- children to new classes
Thursday 19th July- 9.20am Y6 Purple cast performance of "Pirates of the Curry Bean"
Thursday 19th July- 6.30pm Y6 Orange cast performance of "Pirates of the Curry Bean"
Friday 20th July- 6.30pm Y6 Purple cast performance of "Pirates of the Curry Bean"
Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd July - Y4 trip to Longridge
Wednesday 24th July - Term 6 Ends- PLEASE NOTE SCHOOL WILL END AT 1.30PM
GO FOR IT! 60 MINS OF EXERCISE PER DAY CHALLENGE FOR HALF TERM!
GO FOR IT! 60 MINS OF EXERCISE PER DAY CHALLENGE FOR HALF TERM!
Well done to all of our children (and adults!) who made a special effort to walk or cycle to school this week, even if your walk was just a short part of your journey. This would have helped you (children and parents!) achieve towards the NHS target of all adults and children reaching 60 mins a day of exercise
Mrs Endacott led the on Tuesday all about why walking to school is so beneficial to our mental and physical health.
The class that had totalled up the most active walks to school was Wren class in Y3! Well done Wren!
Over half term why not challenge your children to take part in the Street Tag competition to get in those all important exercise minutes?
The NHS recommendation for all aged children aged 5-18 is to complete an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week and for adults, it recommends:
do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week
spread exercise evenly over 4 to 5 days a week, or every day
Y4 VR experiences
Y4 VR experiences
Year 4 had a brilliant virtual reality workshop experience that came into school last week. They had the pleasure of experiencing two different locations to supplement our learning this year.
Children were taken on a journey to the summit of Mount Everest (as once taken by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary). They were able to see the conditions climbers face while on the mountain and look in awe at the breath taking views. This was to support the children's book talk lessons on Everest.
Alongside this, they took part in a second workshop which explored the Amazon rainforest. The children had the opportunity to "get up close and personal" with some for the animals native to the rainforest and see a birds-eye view of the dense forest. I am super impressed with the children who bravely experienced seeing the tarantula which enriched their learning about the rainforest.
It was a brilliant opportunity for all and I am sure they will remember this amazing experience!
Coming up: Street Tag! The competition begins on 10th June
Coming up: Street Tag! The competition begins on 10th June
We are excited to announce we have joined with a local RBWM project called Street Tag.
Street Tag is a FREE innovative, app-based physical activity program designed to motivate families to lead more active lives.
By transforming the world around them into a virtual playground, users earn points by walking, running, or cycling to virtual tags strategically placed throughout their local community and Prizes are available too!
What are the benefits?
• Gamified approach to physical activity and mental wellbeing.
• Participation is completely FREE.
• A fun way to achieve the recommended daily minutes to be active.
• Reconnects families with local parks, green spaces and places to safely explore.
• Fosters teamwork and a healthy competitive spirit among participants.
• Offers an opportunity for schools to win prizes!
Schools Leaderboard and Prizes
Teams can have up to 250 participants, including children, parents, carers, and staff, who will all collectively compete against other teams on the Schools Leaderboard which will regularly update, culminating in prizes available for out PTA.
When does it start?
Windsor & Maidenhead Schools Leaderboard Schedule:
Season 1: June 10th to August 6th, 2024
Season 2: September 16th to October 7th, 2024
How do I sign up to join in the fun?
Everything you need to know about how to join our FPJS team is included in the attached RBWM toolkit which can be found in the button below:
Stars of the week - Class Stars & PE Stars
Stars of the week - Class Stars & PE Stars
Well done to..
Well done to..
Beatrice, Archie, Henry B, Jack J,Damon, Jamie and Tom S (pictured) for all of their success with a weekend of rugby at Brean. I hear the children were a credit to our school, playing so well and winning so many matches! Well done everyone!
Congratulations to Priyah!
Congratulations to Priyah!
Priyah's aunt entered her into the Young Writers competition and her poem was published in a book called 'Once Upon a Dream- In The Land of Dream'
Here is the poem and a picture of Priyah with her certificate. The book will be out on 28th of June. Well done Priyah! What fabulous writing! We hope school is not THIS terrible and that you have just used hyperbole and powerful imagery to exaggerate!
Congratulations to Damon!
Congratulations to Damon!
Damon and his team won the cup final for under 10s Maidenhead Football team. Superstars!
TT Rock stars- Top Ten most played this week
TT Rock stars- Top Ten most played this week
Well done to all our children who use TT rock stars regularly to practise times tables! In this edition we have published the children who have played the most this week as well as the overall top 10 players in Y3,4,5 and 6.
Top Ten at FPJS
Top Ten at FPJS
Bedrock Learning- Top Ten this week
Bedrock Learning- Top Ten this week
Sports Update
Sports Update
PE News!
PE News!
What a fantastic end of summer term 1! The children have finished doing their tennis and cricket lessons and have started doing their athletics lesson for the last 2 weeks. In these lessons they have been doing sprints (60m/80m), relay, long distance (600m), standing long jump, howler and chest push. They will be continuing this after half term in preparation for sports day on Friday 28th June.
Miss Gill
Super 6 Touch Rugby Tournament
Super 6 Touch Rugby Tournament
On the 9th May, Mr King and Miss Gill took 3 teams (28 children) across to Desborough College for an afternoon of Touch Rugby. The session was filled with skills based activities to help those who may not have played a form of rugby, before heading into some games against other schools from the borough in a new form of Touch Rugby called Super 6. Whilst the tournament was participation based, the 3 teams that we took with us all did really well with some fabulous team tries being scored.
We were asked to pick a player from each team that demonstrated some of Desborough College's school values. The winning players were; Archie C T, Aadhira V and Charlie D.
Well done to all those that took part in the tournament!
Mr King/Miss Gill
Tri-Golf
Tri-Golf
Year 3/4 Tri-Golf Festival
On Monday 20th May, 30 Furze Platt Junior pupils arrived at Winter Hill Golf Club to take part in the sports partnership first tri-golf skills event to be held at a local family-friendly specialist golf facility. Three mixed teams were made from our year 3 and 4 pupils.The teams made their way around a variety different challenge stations designed to develop skills, score points and ultimately, inspire future golfers. It was also great fun and one of our teams were third and received a bronze medal each! Well done to all children who took part. You definitely achieved your '60 Active Minutes'.
Miss Gill
Quad kids
Quad kids
On Tuesday 21st May, two teams of 10 pupils from year 5 and 6 went to Newlands Girls School to sprint 75m, run 600m, perform a standing long jump and howler-throw their way to success. Due to the rain, the ground was slippery and it was impossible to beat PB's in the conditions. Nevertheless, all our pupils pushed on and completed every event, some managing to be in the top 3 of each, with Bea winning the girls 600m and Kimberley, the girls long jump. Out of the 8 teams taking part, FPJ 1st team won the competition overall with 1,503 points - second place went to St Edmund Campion with 1451 points. FPJ 2nd team were 5th. Huge congratulations go to Kimberley P Y6, who achieved the highest overall girls score, and also to Aidan C Y6 who was the 3rd highest boy. Both teams deserve to feel very proud of their achievements and showed the best FPJ values in their efforts. The 1st team look forward to taking part in County Finals in July.
It was lovely to see year 11 ex-FPJ students, helping Kelly White organise the event. They both remembered taking part in Quadkids many years ago!
Mrs Tisshaw
Year Group Updates
Year Group Updates
Year 3 News
Year 3 News
What another fantastic term we have had in Year 3! This academic year has flown by so far, and we are all so proud of how much the children have achieved.
In English, we have been writing our own adventure stories and these have really helped the children to focus on the 5 parts of a story as well as the use of word classes and punctuation. The children have enjoyed sharing these with the class and being creative.
In maths we have focused on time which the children have found tricky in some areas. We have worked hard on the nearest minute as well as duration, am and pm and digital time. We also looked at money including pounds and pence, adding and subtracting money and giving change.
In geography, we have come to the end of our South American topic where the children discussed imports and exports as well as why they may want to visit Brazil.
In science, the children have looked at the different types of soil and annotated what they found in the samples. The children also looked at how fossils are formed and why Mary Anning was a key part of fossil discovery.
In French, we have been learning the story of Little Red Riding Hood and some tricky archaic words such as 'loup' and 'bucheron'.
Mrs Barry- Y3 Team Leader
Year 3- What are we learning?
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 1p coins make a pound? What about 2p coins?
How are fossils formed?
What good are exported from Brazil?
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...
George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
Danny champion of the world - Roald Dahl
Gangsta granny - David Walliams
Year 4 News
Year 4 News
I cannot believe Summer term 1 has now drawn to a close. This has been a jam packed term with workshops, class assemblies, swimming and MTC preparation. The teachers have been really impressed with the resilience shown from the children and the effort in learning their lines for class assemblies.
Our English unit finished with the children writing as a piece of dialogue to go alongside the Pixar animation 'La Luna'. This unit was a more challenging piece of work as the children had to remember the punctuation rules of speech, using reporting clauses and new line, new speaker. Despite the challenge, their work was brilliant and we hope you had a chance to take a look at it on Seesaw.
Our Tudors topic this term has been incredibly interesting. The children have learnt about 3 significant monarchs, Henry VIII's relationship with religion and the church, and created timelines of events for the monarch's life events. The children have used their historical enquiry skills to create opinions and deduce information about how monarchy lived during this time and the way they wanted to be seen by the public eye.
Lastly, the children have been using their computing skills to work towards their final piece in their Pop Art unit. They have edited some photos of themselves to show the zones of regulations emotions and linked their art knowledge to show the style of Andy Warhol. They look great!
Have a lovely half term break ready for the final term coming up in Year 4!
Miss Keating-Bell Y4 Team Leader
Year 4- What are we learning?
Year 4- What are we learning?
Ask your child the following questions:
Why does evaporation occur?
What are some of the steps to success for working with pictograms?
Can you explain the Art style of Andy Warhol?
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4..
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4..
Year 5 News
Year 5 News
It has been a jam packed few weeks in Year 5! We finished writing our own Greek myth stories and loved having a real life audience of Year 4 children to read our stories to - see pictures. We have just finished writing a balanced argument about the very topical subject of mobile phone use in school.
In Maths, we have been learning about decimals, including adding and subtracting, and multiplying and dividing by 10 , 100 and 1000.
Also, we have finished our history topic on the Maya civilisation. The children really enjoyed creating their own Mayan temples and worry dolls. In addition to this, they investigated why the Spanish wanted to invade Maya and what the Maya people left behind as their legacy.
In French, we have concluded our work on the weather by creating our own weather forecasts and in Music we completed our Hip hop tracks using Garageband.
We hope you have enjoyed all the work we have shared with you on Seesaw this term.
We are excited about all the exciting events coming up next term!
Mrs Slyfield & Y5 Team
Year 5 - What are we learning?
Year 5 - What are we learning?
Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt over the last few weeks:
What is 1.832 x 100?
Why did the Spanish want to invade Maya?
How do you write a balanced argument?
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...
Year 6 News
Year 6 News
The last couple of weeks have been all about the SATs! We couldn't be prouder of all of the children in Year 6. Throughout the week they showed positivity, resilience and ended each day with big smiles. We know that every child did their absolute best and that is all we could ever ask for. Well done Year 6! We ended the week with a year group rounders tournament in the sunshine and some meditation on the Friday afternoon.
And so the show begins.... we have begun to learn the songs and dances to our end of year production 'The Pirates of the Curry Bean'. Auditions have drawn to a close and children will soon be learning their lines for the play. After half term, the stage is going up as we work towards show time!
In history, our unit of Black and British has drawn to a close. We have looked into the lives of an array of time periods from Romans, Tudors to Windrush. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this topic and have been very reflective throughout class discussions.
In art, we have been fusing the work of Frida Kahlo and Andy Goldsworthy to create self portraits. The children have not only been exploring the proportion of facial features but also experimenting with patterns in nature.
In maths, children have started some project work on owning a bakery which has required skills such as ratio and proportion. In English, we are writing humorous informal letters based on the book 'The Day the Crayons Quit'.
We are extremely excited for our summer term - we have a lot to look forward to: the Oscars, the business project, Silverstone trip and the Year 6 production to name a few!
Miss Morales, Y6 Team Leader
Year 6- What are we learning?
Year 6- What are we learning?
Ask your child the following questions to see what they have learnt over the last few weeks!:
What was the Windrush and can you tell me about the life of someone who was impacted by this movement?
How would you summarise the characters of 'Scuttle and Slack' in the production?
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...
Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...
FPSA Updates
FPSA Updates
Summer Fair - Oakwood Estates board sponsorship
Thank you to everybody who signed up to have an Oakwood Estates board up outside their house, we had 84 households sign up in total which has resulted in us raising £620! Oaken Grove won the prize for the most boards followed by Alwyn Road and Beverley Gardens. Boards will go up after half term.
Ice-cream Fridays
Our Friday driveway ice-cream sales started recently, thank you to all of the volunteers (many non-FPSA members) that are helping out with these.
Windsor & Maidenhead Community Lottery
This is a weekly lottery that raises money for good causes in the Royal Borough including the FPSA. Tickets for the lottery cost just £1 and from that 60p goes to good causes including 50p to the FPSA. Each ticket has a 1 in 50 chance to win a prize each week with a top prize of £25,000! So please sign up and buy a weekly ticket or two using the following link: https://www.windsorandmaidenheadcommunitylottery.co.uk/support/furze-platt-schools-association
Dates for your Diary:
Summer Fair - Saturday 22nd June (11.30am - 2.30pm)
Fun for all the family at our biggest fund-raising event of the year and a wonderful school community event. Please save the date! We have a 'Euro 2024' theme this year. We need lots of volunteers to help run the fair so please sign up using the following link: https://volunteersignup.org/7F477. Some stalls are suitable for your child or children to be with you to help out.
Summer Camp - Saturday 13th July/Sunday 14th July
Please save the date as Summer Camp is back in 2024! There will be options to include either an overnight family camping ticket or a day ticket. The camp includes a BBQ, bouncy castle, a bar and tuck shop.
Junior Discos
The Junior School discos returned last Friday with over 230 pupils dancing the night away in the hall. The FPSA are extremely grateful to Mr Sawle and Mr King (aka DJ's Sawle and King) for playing the music and providing a huge amount of entertainment. In addition, we'd like to thank the teachers that stayed behind to join in and ensure the disco goers had a fun time. The 2 discos have raised around £1,700 for Furze Platt Junior School which is fantastic!
SEND Updates
SEND Updates
school-avoidance.pdfSVRBWM A4 LEAFLET Feb2024 (1).pdfDisability Register poster (1).pdfOther Useful Information For Parents
Other Useful Information For Parents
GRoW Programme Flyer (JuneJuly).pdfPage updated
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