Furze Platt Juniors 2023-24 Newsletter

As we now reach the end of another action packed term at FPJS, I want to take this moment to thank all of our wonderful staff. Every day they go above and beyond and I cannot thank them enough for the work that they do in school.

The term ended with our children singing, so enthusiastically, ‘when I grow up’ from the musical Matilda. A personal favourite of mine and a reminder that, not only should children be able to be children, but we must recognise our role in helping them be the best that they can be.

This was evident when watching our year 5 class assemblies this week and hearing the children speak so passionately and warmly about their learning, it filled me with so much pride. I cannot wait to all the fun that summer term brings us.

I wish you all a safe and relaxing Spring break. I leave with you an extract from a poem written by one of our office staff, Jo Tanner.

Enjoy the longer lasting days and the promise of that warming haze.

We won't wait long once Easter's done to breathe and bathe in Summer's sun.

Quick Links

Curriculum

Lunch Menu

Term Dates 23-24

Term Dates 24-25

Calendar

Website including housepoints update

Diary Dates:

Monday 15th April - Term 5 begins
Friday 19th April - Fire and Rescue Service in for Y5
Friday 26th April - Brazilian Dance workshop for Y3
Thursday 2nd May - Multiplication Tables Check information evening for Y4 parents via Zoom 6pm
Monday 6th May - School Closed (Bank Holiday Monday)
Monday 13th May - Thursday 16th May - KS2 SATs Week
Week Beginning 20th May - Y4 class assemblies. Dates TBC
Friday 24th May - Term 5 ends
Monday 3rd June - Term 6 starts
Monday 3rd June - Friday 21st June - Y4 Multiplication Tables Checks
Tuesday 4th June - Y6 trip to Silverstone
Monday 10th June - Y3 Roman Day
Tuesday 11th June - Y3 and Y6 road safety workshops (rearranged from February)
Wednesday 12th June - Y4 road safety workshops (rearranged from February)
Thursday 13th June - Y5 road safety workshops (rearranged from February)
Tuesday 18th June - GEMS coffee morning at FPIS 9.30
Saturday 22nd June - FPSA Summer Fair
Friday 28th June - Sports Day
Friday 5th July - Y5 trip to Cadbury World
Tuesday 16th July & Thursday 18th July - Y6 play performances. Times TBC
Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd July - Y4 trip to Longridge
Wednesday 24th July - Term 6 Ends

Staffing update

Teacher updates:

We are very excited to announce that we have secured three experienced teachers to join our fabulous team next term:

Firstly, we are looking forward to welcoming Mrs Annie Batchelor who will be taking over the reins full-time in Swift Class after Easter as a permanent teacher at FPJS. Mrs Batchelor has been teaching for 5 years in Marlow and is very excited to be joining our Y4 team. We would like to thank Mrs Oddy for all her hard work with Swift class in the interim period since Mrs Brewerton's departure.

We also welcome Mrs Dawn Bicker to FPJS who will join us after Easter. Mrs Bicker is a highly experienced teacher and leader who has worked across several schools in Maidenhead. Mrs Bicker, who will be working on a part-time basis, will be working across the school to cover different classes for planned PPA sessions. We are looking forward to Mrs Bicker joining our team!

As you may be aware, Mrs Dean, will shortly be leaving us (temporarily!) after the spring break to have her first baby! Mrs Dean will (hopefully!) return after Easter for a few weeks before she begins her maternity leave. We are delighted to welcome Mr Peter Sones to the school who will take over Kestrel class, Monday to Wednesday with Miss Howard who will teach Thursdays and Fridays. Mr Sones, an experienced teacher who particularly enjoys teaching PE, is excited to be joining the Y5 team. We would also like to wish Mrs Dean all the best with her new arrival! We will of course update you when we have baby news!

Sadly we do have some staff who are leaving us this term:

Mrs Pierron, who left us last year to have a baby, has made the difficult decision to leave FPJS due to her long commute to the school! Mrs Pierron, who was previously acting Assistant Head and Year 5/6 phase lead, joined FPJS in 2015 and made a significant contribution to the development of the school curriculum as well as being an excellent teacher/leader! We are incredibly sad to have to say goodbye to Mrs Pierron, but we are excited for her future opportunities as she has accepted a new role in a school closer to her home in Chichester. We would like to thank Mrs Pierron for all her hard work at the school.

Finally, I am sure if you happen to pass the gate in the morning, you cannot fail to notice that Mrs Barbosa is also about to have a baby! Mrs Barbosa, our Assistant Head, will be temporarily leaving us and is set to commence her maternity leave in May. We would like to wish Mrs Barbosa well for the birth of her second child.

Mrs Clark is set to begin a phased return after Easter, and is very much looking forward to returning to school to support Mr Wallace and Mrs Endacott.

Teaching Assistants

After a successful recruitment for additional support for our children, we have secured several new teaching assistants who are set to join us shortly after our return from the Spring break. In our next newsletter, we will update you with more information.

We sadly say goodbye to:

Mrs Konrad, who is currently working as a teaching assistant in our Y3 team. Mrs Konrad joined the team last year and has been an excellent support to the children in Y3. Mrs Konrad is leaving us as she is moving with her family to Singapore! We would like to thank Mrs Konrad for her hard work in class and at lunchtimes and wish her all the best in her relocation.

Y6 trip - Easter Cracked

Year 6 visited out local church (St Peter's) to learn all about the Easter story as a part of their RE curriculum. The children took part in a fun quiz that looked at the meanings behind the Easter symbols and explored the traditions of Christianity during this festivity. They also had a task of summarising small sections of the Easter story. The church gave the children a little chocolate egg as a kind gesture towards their Easter celebrations.

Y5 Class Assemblies

This week, the Year 5 classes showcased some of their learning in a class assembly to parents and a class from each year group. Have you ever been stuck on a desert island before? The children have and they know how to survive. Move over Bear Grylls!
The children made us incredibly proud with how they practised their lines and worked as a class to deliver an assembly.
We do hope you enjoyed seeing your child perform and are proud of all their learning.

Y4 trip to The Living Rainforest

Year 4 had a fabulous time visiting The Living Rainforest last week. They got to learn and see a range of animals and plant species living in the rainforest and had a chance to ask questions to the experts about them. They were then given time to complete a worksheet based on the learning of the day and a 10 house point prize was up for grabs for a child from each class for successfully completing this and to a good standard. I am pleased to say the three winners where: Vanni, Bianka and Cleo. Why don't you ask your child to tell you their favourite fact they have learnt from our whole rainforest topic this term!

19th March - James Campbell Author Visit

On Tuesday 19th March, our children had a very funny and very enjoyable visit from author James Campbell. James is the author of the 'The Funny Life of...' series as well as his new book Don't Panic: We Can Save the Planet! The children really enjoyed hearing James read extracts from his book - particularly 'The Funny Life of Teachers'!

James' books are on sale at the link below and will be signed and personalised with dedications from James.

https://www.jamescampbellauthor.com/bookshop

On May 31st, James will be performing his show at Norden Farm Arts Centre. He will be tlaking about how to save the planet and would love some children to come up on stage with him to talk about what they are doing for the environment. If you are interested in purchasing tickets, please visit the Norden Farm website. https://norden.farm/events/james-campbell-don-t-panic-we-can-save-the-planet

Comic Relief Red Nose Day 2024

Thank you to everyone that supported our Red Nose Day fundraising.

We set ourselves a fundraising target of £500 and we smashed it, raising £622!

So, not only an enjoyable day but also an amazing amount of money raised for worthy causes.

Stars of the week - Class Stars & PE Stars

Newsletter Star of the Week 28th March

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 & Top Ten progress children this term

Well done to all our children who use TT rock stars regularly to practise times tables! In this edition we have an updated top ten and the top ten children who have made the most progress this term.

Top Ten Progress in TT Rock stars

Spelling Shed- Top Ten

Well done to our top ten spelling pupils this week!

Bedrock Top 10 by Year Group

Congratulations to the top 10 in each year group who have scored the most points on Bedrock!

Sports Update

PE News!

Over spring term 2, the children have been doing their fitness lessons and their OAA lessons. They have increased their skills in how to work in teams using different ways to communicate, learning how to trust each other in tasks like directing their partner around blindfolded. Working in their teams doing team building, the year 5 have been creating marshmallow spaghetti towers and year 6 have been doing the egg drop. The year 3s and 4s have been problem solving working in their teams and doing challenges that they need to resolve. Within their fitness lessons, the children have been developing their stamina, speed, skills, coordination, agility, balance and strength. In the lessons, they have been doing circuits (jumping jacks, sit ups, mountain climbers, rope climbs, press up, step up, squats, lunges, burpees and many more). They have been increasing their stamina and speed by doing the bleep test and seeing how they are progressing by keeping track of which level they drop out on each week.

Going into summer term 1 the children will be doing tennis and cricket.

Miss Gill

Invictus Festival

On Tuesday 21st March, 12 students from year 6 and 8 students from year 4 went to represent the school at Altwood school for the Invictus Festival. The events the children were doing included New Age Kurling, Danger Ball and Target Run. they all did very well learning new sporting activities and really enjoyed Danger Ball the most.

Miss Gill

Mini Basketball

On Tuesday 26th March, 10 year 6 students went to Desborough College to represent Furze Platt. The event held different basketball drills such as dribbling, shooting and defending skills. After doing these drills, the children got to play little mini matches against the other school that attended the event. The children were very lucky to have been picked as it was the first basketball festival being held and they all really enjoyed it and learnt lots of basketball skills. Amber got the medal for the best team work and for showing respect to everyone.

Miss Gill

Sportshall Athletics

On Friday 8th March, the FPJ year 5/6 Sportshall Athletics team, who won the local SHA competition last November, took part in a Berkshire County Finals. The team had trained relentlessly during break and lunch times for 6 weeks and really deserved to do the best. However, county level is much stronger competition than local and we had to prepare to up our game. Every centimetre and second counted and this is how the team won! With 272 points, Furze Platt came first, beating Lynch Hill (who took gold from us last year) by 22 points. This may sound a big win, but is only 11 places difference over 24 events. There was nothing easy about our win for any team members and it was brilliant to watch their efforts, showing our school values of passion, with their efforts, we’ll being, with their incredible support for each other, and respect for all those around them - although it has to be said there were some very loud cheers and tears when we realised what had been achieved.

A huge well done goes to all pupils who took part. Furze Platt Junior take gold again!

Mrs Tisshaw - team manager

Well done, Konga

A huge congratulations to Konga S in Eagle class, who won a trophy last weekend for her progress in ballet.

We are very proud of your achievement, Konga!

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

Year 3 have had another wonderful term which has included a visit from Norden Farm, a live science lesson, a visit from John Willis and a fun filled World Book Day!

In English, we have been focusing on Non-Chronological reports where the children have been given a mixture of 2 different animals with fabricated names. The children have thoroughly enjoyed discussing what their animal looks like, what it eats and where it lives.

In maths we have been working on mass. The children have been converting between grams and kilograms and weighing objects using scales in the classroom.

As part of our science topic, the children have been creating their own arms using cardboard and this has involved them using key words such as joint, tendons and muscles.

The children have been creating mummies using Modroc in art and then painting these. The children enjoyed using a variety of colours to make them look like real sarcophaguses.

In Geography we have been comparing Maidenhead to New York and were very lucky to have a visit from Mr Clark who now lives in New York! He answered all of the children's questions and enjoyed coming back for the day to visit Year 3.

We hope you all have a fantastic Easter holiday and will see you all in the new term.

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 grams are in a kilogram?
How do some animals adapt to their environment?
What are some of the differences between New York and Maidenhead?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Wonka - Sibeal Pounder

Heidi - Johanna Spyry

Charlie and the chocolate factory - Roald Dahl

Year 4 News

What an end to the term! When Year 4 reflect back we can remember OFSTED, parents evenings, a fabulous rainforest trip and badge making. This is only a fraction of the events that have gone on and the children have had such a great time experiencing it all.

The children concluded their English topic on spooky stories this week and have written some beautiful narrative pieces. Not only have they generated purposeful vocabulary that engages the reader and creates suspense- they have been working on including speech and prepositions in their writing to make it more exciting. Look out on Seesaw for your child's work but be prepared to be SPOOKED!

In D&T the children finished creating their 'Save the rainforest' badge. It was brilliant to see them so enthused about the whole process behind designing, making and evaluating these. They had specific criteria to think about to make the badge effective, specifically thinking about the campaign and message behind the badge.

In Music this term the children have been exploring fanfares. They have discovered what they are, how they can be composed effectively and have specifically thought about the timbre and dynamics of the pieces they have created. The children enjoyed getting the percussion instruments out and experimenting with rhythm, timbre and general composition.

We hope that all the children have a lovely Spring break and spend some time focussing on their own passions and hobbies as they have some more free time to do this.

Miss Keating-Bell 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:

Can you name some percussion instruments you have used this term?
Give me a sentence using a preposition. Can you make it spooky?
Can you name 4 top tips for creating a successful badge?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4..

Dork Diaries - Rachel Renee Russell

The Famous Five - Enid Blyton

Rashford -Matt and Tom Oldfield

Year 5 News

We can't believe that the spring term has come to an end! We are very impressed with how much work the children have produced in the 6 weeks.

In DT, we designed and made soups. The design brief was to make a winter soup made from British produce that is nutritious and tasty for our families. The children were put into small groups and they got to pick ingredients from a "shopping list" to design their soups. The following week we then made our soups in classrooms using chopping boards and knives, mini cooking hobs and hand blenders. All children worked so well together and produced a soup that met the design brief. However, whether they liked the taste of their design was another thing!

In writing, the children researched an earthquake or volcano of their choosing and wrote a case study detailing where and when it happened, what happened and the aftermath. This learning linked with their geography on earthquakes and volcanoes where they were able to use this knowledge to inform some of their research.

In science, we have now finished our topics on properties and changes of materials. Through various experiments, the children understand the reversible and irreversible changes and how to recover a substance from a solution.

The Year 5 team want to wish our families a happy and healthy Easter break and we look forward to seeing the children in the summer term.

Mrs Dean, 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:

What 3 things are needed in the fire triangle?
List all the factors of 12.
Ask your child for 2 facts about their chosen earthquake or volcano they wrote about in thier case study.

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

Alex vs Axel The Impossible Quests - Sam Copeland

The Recue of Ravenwood - Natasha Farrant

Which Way to Anywhere - Cressida Cowell

Year 6 News

What a brilliant end to the Summer term we have had. In the last few weeks, the children have worked incredibly hard and they thoroughly deserve a well rested Easter break!

In English, we have been writing some very impressive Hotel Advertisements using superlatives, modal verbs and persuasive language. The children got to completely design their dream hotel themselves. We have also begun some work on some very humorous customer reviews ranging from a 5 star review to a 1 review.

In maths, we have been looking at shape in particular angles and 3D shapes.

In science, we have 'made' blood and looked into the different components that make up our blood stream and explored how nutrients travels around the body. We concluded our topic with an experiment to explore how exercise affects our heart rate.

In DT, we have started our unit looking at food tolerances and healthy choices. After half term, children will be designing and making their own pizzas.

We hope you all have a lovely Easter break and we look forward to Summer Term and all the fun it brings.

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 exercise affect your heart rate?
What is a noun phrase?
What is the sum of angles in a quadrilateral or a triangle?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

A Boy Called Hope - Lara Williamson

Finding Wonders - Jeannine Atkins

FPSA Updates

Foreign currency collection

Thank you to everyone who gave their unwanted coins and notes, this has helped us raise a whopping £511. We had notes from 25 countries, coins from 37 countries and plenty of Euros too which helped us collect a fantastic amount.

Happy Bags collection

The recent Happy Bags collection last week raised £324 for both schools. Thank you for your bags!

Quiz Night

Mr T's quiz night was back last Friday! Just over 100 people formed into 22 teams joined in the fun. Congratulations went to team x who were the clear winners with team y runners-up. The 3rd place team had to get through a tie-breaker question and came away with the bronze trophy and some pot noodles. The most controversial moment of the night is when half a point was given to teams that wrote 'Like a Virgin' when asked what was the ultimate Madonna song as voted by Radio 2 listeners (the correct answer was 'Like a Prayer'). The music round ended with an incredible live performance from The Backstreet Boys who sang two numbers - 'I want it that way' and then after a delayed encore, they finished with 'Everybody'. Before the band left to go back to the Maidenhead Premier Inn, band member Brian Littrell said it was the best gig they had done this tour!

FPSA AGM

The AGM was held at the Infants on Wednesday evening. The FPSA raised £29,000 last year which is fabulous. Sadly we had to say goodbye to some long standing members - Rachel, Katarina, Anna and Libuse. Thank you to you all for your hard work and friendship.

Dates for your Diary:

Year 2 School Quiz - Friday 19th April (3.15 - 5pm)

The year 2 school quiz is back. Children from Hazel, Holly and Willow classes will be tested on their general knowledge in a fun quiz run by Mr Thompson. Tickets are available here: www.pta-events.co.uk/fpsa

Junior School Discos - Friday 17th May (4-5pm and 5.15-6.30pm)

DJs King and Sawle will once again be banging out the music for the Juniors at 2 separate discos. Tickets are available next month.

Summer Fair - Saturday 22nd June (11.30am - 2.30pm)

Fun for all the family at our biggest fund-raising event of the year. Please save the date

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