Furze Platt Juniors 2023-24 Newsletter

What a busy few weeks it has been, and with now improved 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! Well done to Romans or winning, for the second year in a row with the final scores being:

Romans 207, Normans 183, Danes, Vikings 179

I would like to thank Mrs Tisshaw and Miss Gill for all their passion, dedication and hard-work that they have 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. Also well done to ther rest of the staff for all the effort and enthusiasm they put in to making the day so much fun for everyone- what a brilliant community FPJS is!

Our next edition will feature more details and photos from the day, including our record breaking results.

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.

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. End of Year school reports will also be coming home by Friday 12th July via email

Anna Clark, Head of School

Staff update

Staff Leavers:

Miss Keating-Bell (Y4 teacher )will be leaving us at the end of the term for pastures new. Miss Keating-Bell has only been at the school for 2 years, but has most definitely made an impact with her kind and caring nature, her excellent teaching skills as well as her fantastic singing voice! We wish Miss Keating-Bell well as she takes a break from education to pursue other adventures.

Mrs Scullion and Mrs Ridley, who have both worked at the school for a number of years as brilliant teaching assistants and nurture leads, will sadly be leaving us at the end of the term as they have been offered a new promotion using their fantastic nurture skills working with children in a local alternate provision. We are sad to be losing two dedicated and excellent practitioners at FPJS, but feel incredibly proud of Mrs Scullion and Mrs Ridley and the new adventures that await them. We do wish them every success in their new roles.

Mr Lutteman (Y5 TA) will be leaving FPJS at the end of this year as he is now embarking on becoming a fully qualified teacher. Mr Lutteman has remained a popular teaching assistant at his time at the school and we will miss his creativity and passion for staff quizzes and making end of year films for the staff! We wish him every success in his training!

We would also like to say thank you to Mr Sones for covering Kestrel class for us this term, and to Mrs O'Neill for her hard work supporting the Everest unit and with lunches.

Our new staffing for September:

We have a few changes for September. Mrs Batchelor has secured the role of Acting Team Leader for Year 4, and Mrs Slyfield and Miss Scott have jointly secured the Acting Team Leader role for Year 5.

We are pleased to introduce Mr Wilson as a new addition to our Y5 teaching team from September. Mr Wilson has previously been both a parent and a governor to the school for many years and is very excited to be joining FPJS as a teacher, having previously taught in Slough schools for 5 years.

Miss Howard together with Mrs Bicker will be covering Skylark class whilst Mrs Dean remains on maternity leave. Miss Howard will teach Skylark class each morning, and will be the main point of contact for the class. Mrs Bicker will cover most of the afternoons to teach the wider curriculum. We anticipate that Mrs Dean will return to her full-time teacher role later in the year.

Our Year 3 and Year 6 teaching teams will remain the same as this year.

We have been busy recruiting teaching assistants, after a high number of applications for the roles and have been lucky enough to secure very experienced staff- we will be introducing you to our brilliant new team by the end of this term.

Quick Links

Curriculum

Lunch Menu

Term Dates 23-24

Term Dates 24-25

Calendar

Website including housepoints update

Diary Dates:

Tuesday 2nd July/Weds 3rd July: Y6 FPSS taster days (for September starters)
Wednesday 3rd July- Y2 visiting FPJS for lunch
Thursday 4th July- FPJS Election Day!
Thursday 4th July- 2.30pm Guitar assembly (parents invited from Mr Hastings)
Friday 5th July - Y5 trip to Cadbury World
W/b Monday 8th July- Y6 Business Project- selling to other year groups- children bring in up to £2 to spend
Tuesday 9th July - Y3 trip to Copas' Farm
Friday 12th July- School reports sent home via email
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

Y6 Trip to Silverstone

Year 6 recently went on their final school trip of the year to Silverstone to support their learning in STEM. Each group had a workshop where they looked at how formula one cars are able to go so fast and how the drivers are kept safe. This included handling and exploring lightweight materials (carbon fibre) for cars, aerodynamic features and the variety of tyres.

They also spent some time in the museum where they had a chance to race on the Scalextric and explore some of the interactive exhibitions. We also had the opportunity to go on a tour of the Silverstone track and learn about the history and technicalities of the track.

Y3 Roman Day

On Monday 10th June, the Year 3 children were extremely lucky to have a visit from 'History off the page' who helped to deliver a Roman Day workshop based on our topic. The children thoroughly enjoyed the whole day and were immersed in many hands on activities such as mosaic making, jewellery making, using wax tablets and creating games. In the afternoon the children split into groups to practice some playscripts, become soldiers and learn a dance. They then performed these to the whole year and had a magnificent feast of Ribena wine, cheese and apricots. During the day they learned how the Roman army defeated Boudicca and how which the children were fascinated by. We had the best day and the children were fantastic! Well done Year 3.

Road Safety workshops

Last week, Mrs Cairney, from the road safety team at RBWM, visited FPJS to provide a variety of workshops to our pupils. Each year group had a varied workshops where they learnt such skills as the importance of keeping safe on the road whilst in a car, on a bike and whilst walking. The children explored how long a car takes to stop when going at different speeds as well as human reaction time. Pupils also learnt about a boy named Alfie whose story highlighted the importance of wearing a helmet on your bike no matter how familiar or short the journey was. The sessions reminded everyone to look out for each other and made the pupils think carefully about some of the distractions that may divert their attention from crossing roads safely such as using phones, walking in large groups and listening to music.

Y5 Farm visit

On Tuesday the 18th of June, Year 5 pupils were lucky to experience a fun and educational visit.

Farms2ewe came to set up on our school field so that the children could spend time in groups with a variety of animals and their offspring.

There was a pony, a calf, lambs, pygmy goats and their young, chicks, ducklings, guinea pigs and mice.

The visit complemented our science learning about animals and their environment this year with a specific focus on life cycles, looking at the differences between them and how different species are born and develop in their lifetime.

The children really enjoyed spending time with these gorgeous animals and learned lots in the process!

Stars of the week - Class Stars & PE Stars

Newsletter Star of the week June 28th

Well done to all our stars over the last few weeks:

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- 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

Bedrock Learning- Top Ten this week

Well done to...

Pippa B (Y6) who is climbing Mount Snowden (tomorrow!) to raise funds to go towards the re-development of our aged log park, which will include new equipment and surfacing. It's not too late to donate if you would like to contribute! Click on the link below and help Pippa reach her £500 target!

Donate to help Pippa reach her £500 target!

Well done to our amazing Y4 mathematicians- Tommy, Sulaiman and Adya who took part in the Mathletics competition at Cookham Dean School on Wednesday 5th June. They did a fantastic job and out of 10 schools came 2nd- winning a £10 book voucher each for the Cookham book shop and a £30 one for the school library.

Miss Keating-Bell was incredibly impressed with their speed and accuracy, as they worked through two rounds of 20 minute quick fire questions. Not only did they come second but they were the quickest team in both heats.

A great success!

Well done to Kayna (Finch Class) for completing a 5km race for life run. This is a fantastic achievement for a Y3 child, who also was proud to raise money for a worthy charity. Well done Kayna!

Well done to Elijah C, Rylee G, Frankie B, Ernie M, Fred S, Morgan J who all play together in the Maidenhead Warriors. They won the Under 9's league! Fantastic result boys!

Well done to Isaac S in Y3 who has worked hard in his football and proudly received a medal from his team!

Sports Update

PE News!

In P.E. the children have been practising all the events that will be happening on sports day and have been working really hard on their throwing, jumping and running skills!

Tennis skills Festival Yr3

On Thursday 13th June, 10 year 3 students went to Newlands Girls School to represent Furze Platt Junior School at the tennis skills festival. The tennis festival included many activities for the children to develop their racket and ball skills. There were 10 different stations with lots of different drills for them to do. All the students that took part did really well representing Furze Platt and developing their tennis skills.

Well done!

Miss Gill

Girls Cricket Year 5/6

On Tuesday 11th June, 20 year 5&6 students went to Pinkneys Green Cricket Club to represent their school in the girls cricket tournament. Our two teams played four matches against other schools- both teams did play incredibly well as a team. At the end, all of the points were added up and we were very happy that the first team came 2nd, making it through to the county finals! We are now looking forward to the finals on 11th July!

Well done girls- I am so proud of you all!

Miss Gill

Mixed Y5/6 Cricket

Well done to all Y5/6 boys and girls that participated in the cricket tournament at Pinkneys Green. This was a county competition where first and second place would go forward to county finals. Unfortunately both teams came up against some very good cricket schools with Mr Sawle's team narrowly missing out, finishing in third place.

Mr King & Mr Sawle

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

What a wonderful and exciting start to the term the Year 3 children have had. This started with a magnificent Roman day.

In maths the children have been looking at shapes including 2D and 3D shapes as well as angels and parallel and perpendicular lines. We especially enjoyed making 3D shapes.

In English we have been writing our own memoirs. These are based on an event that the children remember from their lives such as a holiday, learning a new skill or starting school. We have used some fantastic language and the children have enjoyed sharing these as a class.

In science our topic is light and the children have been experimenting with how light travels through a variety of materials. The children decided if the material was transparent, translucent or opaque as well as drawing shadows and how these change through the day.

In DT the children have been practising their cutting skills by cutting carrots and looking at where food comes from around the world. The children then took part in some fruit tasting and discussed which ones they want to use in their fruit salads.

As part of our French topic, the children have been learning the phrase 'Je peux' which means 'I can' and the children have looked at the verbs for singing, cooking, riding a bike, skipping and dancing.

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 Roman army beat the celts?

What does the French sentence 'Je Peux chanter' mean?

What materials in your home would be transparent to light?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Podkin by Kieran Larwood

Danny champion of the world by Roald Dahl

Meet the ancient romans by James Davies

Year 4 News

Wow! What a busy start to the final half of the Summer term. The children have been busy completing MTC checks, finishing off Art projects and completing some tests during assessment week. The whole team have been impressed with the children's resilience and attitude to all of these tasks. Hopefully the children can look forward to some slightly lighter weeks now, as we focus on core learning in our subjects, exciting DT and some Science projects.

In Maths, the children have been working on their geometry unit and have been learning all about different angles and triangles. They have been exploring the way angles are all around us and can now identify different angles and shapes based on their properties.

Within English, the children have been publishing their narrative pieces on 'The Explorer'. In preparation for this, they have been looking at a range of writing features and the way in which they can use them to add variety and detail to their writing. They then used their plan to write a resolution and ending as to the story.

The children have been really excited to be doing D&T this term. They have already had a brilliant research lesson in which they tasted a range of scones (all cooked by Mr Wallace!) in order to understand the importance of following a recipe. They then decided what they would like to add to their own recipe when they bake there own in the coming weeks.

As we move forward to the final weeks of the Summer term, I know the children are going to have a lovely time baking, taking part in sports and finishing the year on a high with their Longridge trip.

Miss Keating-Bell Y4 Team Leader

Year 4- What are we learning?

Ask your child the following questions:

Can you name the three types of angles?
What is the difference between sweet and savoury?
Can you give an example of show not tell for an emotion such as happy, sad or angry?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4..

Earth is Big

Steve Tomecek

The Secret Wild

Alex Evelyn

The Girl Who Stole and Elephant

Nizrana Farook

Year 5 News

In Year 5 we have had a challenging first few weeks of term with lots of assesments taking place along with some lessons that have required the children to be very grown up.

In maths, Year 5 have been looking into negative numbers: filling in missing numbers in a sequence, ordering negative numbers and finding the difference between negative and positive numbers. We have recently been learning about the idfferent types of measurements - both imperial and metric.

In writing lessons, we have been writing reports about the FPSA summer fair. Within this piece of writing, we have been looking into the grammar tools of parenthesis, passive voice and direct reported speech.

Our new class book is 'Clockwork' by Phillip Pullman. The children have already been working through the different reading skills and have started to practise their fluency, explaining and predicition skills.

In science, we have been learning about the life cycle of humans and have been looking at the different stages in more detail. These have been mature lessons and all children have behaved really well.

In design and technology, the children have started to now make tote bags from their own plain t-shirts and have started to enhance their own sewing skills.

We have an exciting couple of weeks coming up starting off with Sports Day on Friday and Cadbury World next week.

Mr King & Y5 Team

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 1832g in kg?
Why does the human body grow hair?
What is the purpose of using parenthesis in your writing?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

Clockwork - Phillip Pullman

Night of the Gargoyles - Eve Bunting

Amazing Evolution - Anna Claybourne

Year 6 News

What a great start to the final term of Year 6!

In maths, we have been looking at how mortgages and bills work in real life. Children have been researching their dream jobs and calculating annual salaries and working out their tax deductions. We have also began our theme park maths project where the Year 6 children have been designing their own rollercoaster park and working out the profit and loss from the ticket holders. This business unit is in preparation for our soon to start business project.

In English, the children have been writing an explanation text on a topic of their choosing. These range from: "How to survive year 6", "Earthquakes", "Gymnastics" to "How planes were detected during World War 2". They have enjoyed having the freedom of choice in their writing and have all been really engaged in the unit.

In science, we have carried out an experiment to observe how bacteria grows and what conditions affect its growth rate. This has meant we have had lots of mouldy bread around our classroom which has sparked lots of discussion.

In art, we have finalised our self portraits which are a fantastic final end piece to Year 6 that combine lots of techniques that the children have learnt throughout FPJS.

We have an exciting few weeks coming up ahead of us. Bring on the Oscars and the Business project next, followed by the end of Year production!

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!:

How does tax impact your annual salary?
Tell me three points from your explanation text
What impacts the growth of bacteria?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

FPSA Updates

Summer Fair

The annual summer fair returned last Saturday and what a fabulous day it was with good crowds and thankfully dry weather. There were fabulous live performances from Furze Platt Junior School choir and Street Dance from both the Infants and Juniors. Popular stalls included the lucky dip, beat the goalie, the giant slide and a tricky golf game. The fair ended with the traditional tug of war followed by a water fight.

The 'Guess the name of the giant doggy' was won by Libby who guessed the correct name, 'Eddie'. The Euro2024 100 Board was won by year 3 teacher Mrs Sweatman who went with captain marvel himself, Bryan Robson.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the fair whether that was donating a tombola prize, volunteering on a stall or simply turning up and enjoying the day. We were helped this time round by a number of year 6 children who helped run some of the stalls.

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 Camp - Saturday 13th July/Sunday 14th July

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. Tickets go on sale next week!