Furze Platt Juniors 2024-25 Newsletter

As I write, we have had much excitement at FPJS this week: Our newest residents, Poppy and Lilly—the pygmy goats—have arrived at the school and are happily settling into their new home just off the main playground( see below for more details!) AND we have enjoyed a fantastic assembly this mornining with M.G Leonard, a very famous children's author (see below) who had the children (and adults) absolutley spell-bound with her talk about her new book.

Term 4 has been fantastic so far, with plenty of warm(ish) spring sunshine and a vibrant energy throughout the school. From our World Book Day trails to talent show auditions—and countless other exciting year-group activities—you can read all about the fun below!

Did you know we also have a weather station at our school now? You can track our weather data here!

Our children are incredibly lucky to have all these wonderful opportunities and we look forward to more events this term!

Anna Clark

Head of School

Diary Dates:

Fri 21st March- Comic relief day- dress down and talent show (for pupils)
Tues 25th March- Kite Class Assembly 9am
Weds 26th March- Eagle Class Assembly 9am
Thurs 27th March- Kestrel Class Assembly 9am
Mon 31st March- Parent consultations 3.30-6.30pm
Tues 1st April- School council & Competition winners visit to Parliament (see poster below)
Thurs 3rd April- Parent consultations 3.30-6.30pm
Fri 4th April- End of term 4
Tues 22nd April- Start of term 5
Fri 25th April- Skipping workshops for Y3/4
Fri 25th April- Y4 Swimming starts (weekly)
W/B 12th May- Y6 SATS
Thurs 15th May- FPSA School discos
Weds 21st May- Class photos
Fri 23rd May- End of term 5

Quick Links

Curriculum

Lunch Menu

Term Dates 24-25

Calendar

Who's who at FPJS

Website including housepoints update

FPJS School News

Staffing Update

We look forward to welcoming back Mrs Dean on 24th March after her maternity leave. Mrs Dean has been coming into school over the last few weeks in order to get to know Skylark class to enable a smooth handover from Mrs Bicker and Miss Howard. We also look forward to the return of Mr King, following his operation- he will be returning on a phased basis with Mrs Belfrage continuing to support Kite class.

Miss Howard and Mrs Bicker will move to covering classes and providing intervention groups for the rest of this academic year.

World Book Day

On Friday, 7th March, we celebrated all things book-related at FPJS and our children all had a chance to complete out outdoor trail too. Y2 and Y3 enjoyed sharing books together and some of our Y6 children enjoyed reading to EYFS at our infant school. In our celebration assembly, all the teachers shared extracts from their favourite books. Well done to all of the children (and parents!) for their efforts with dressing up- our staff did a great job too as you can see from some of the pictures!

Meet our new additions to the FPJS family... our goats!

You may have heard the exciting news from your child but Furze Platt Primary Federation has got two new starters!

Lily and Poppy are twin sister pygmy goats and we have leased them from the Bucks Goat Centre. Both goats have settled in incredibly well and they are already feeding from hand and wanting attention!

The Bucks Goat Centre works closely with schools and other establishments/events and our two new arrivals are both experienced at being around a new environment, children and adults alike. The staff from the centre have worked with us to set up suitable pens and provided training for on how to care for the goats. During the summer holiday and selective other holidays, the goats will be going back to the centre to ensure that they have the interaction and care they need when school is closed for a long time.

As a federation of schools, we look for ways in which we can enrich our children’s lives. Animals can be a calming influence on humans but they also can be an important life lesson; learning how to care for an animal and provide all it needs to be happy and safe.

Our previous farm visits have showed us how many of children love handling, caring for, feeding and being around animals. Goats are a perfect addition to our school family because they love attention and they are great around children.

To allow all children to see the goats, the goats will live in two areas. Their night time home will be in a pen off of the Junior School playground where the goats will be from 3:15pm until the next morning every day.

The goats play pen or enrichment area will be between the two schools (on the mound, inside FPIS silver gate) where the goats will play and explore between 10:30am and 3:00pm.

When the goats have fully settled in to their new home we will be looking at times when groups of children can interact with the goats and learn more about caring for them. Until then, year 6 will take lead in feeding, grooming, mucking out and moving the goats around, with a staff member supervising.

You can find out more about our goats https://furze-platt-junior-school.secure-primarysite.net/our-goats/

Author Visit- M.G. Leonard

On Wednesday, we were incredibly lucky to receive a visit from M.G. Leonard, which was organised by Maidenhead's Big Read. Our children were absolutely spell-bound by Maya's talk to the whole school about her love for beetles, and her quest to find a secret door in Egypt when writing her new book "The Hunt for the Golden Scarab". Maya vividly described, through words, video, and sound, how entering Tutankhamun's tomb and discovering a new theory about a secret chamber—possibly holding Queen Nefertiti's tomb—inspired her to write her latest book. M.G. Leonard was incredibly impressed with our children's knowledge of Ancient Egypt and their thoughtful questions asked at the end of the talk.

Thank you Maidenhead's big read for providing such a fantastic author to not only inspire our children for the love of books, but also teaching us all so many interesting facts about Ancient Egypt!

Choir to perform at Hexagon in June- last chance to sign up for "A night at the Movies"

(this information has previously been sent via the school app)

Our school will be performing in the joint schools Hexagon Concert which takes place on Wednesday 25th June 2025. This is a great opportunity for primary schools from RBWM to get together and perform to a large audience of enthusiastic parents and friends. The theme of the concert is “A night at the Movies" featuring lots of well known movie songs- including songs from Oliver, Matilda and the Muppet Movie amongst many others!

We have been invited to pupils to perform in the concert from Year 3-6. If you would like your child to be considered for a place in the concert, they will need to:

-Be an enthusiastic singer

- Attend regular lunchtime rehearsals at school during the summer term (Thursdays)

- Be able to commit to learning the words from memory for songs (all the music and words will be provided to download to practice at home)

- Cope with an afternoon of rehearsal on the day of the concert (see below)

There will be some area group rehearsals but these will all be during the school day- TBC the location and timings.

Additionally, the children will be required to be transported to the Hexagon Theatre on Wednesday 25th June during the school day to attend a rehearsal from 2pm-5pm (You will need to pick up your child at 12.30pm from school)

The concert starts at 7pm and should end by 8.30pm and therefore you will need to collect your child after the performance (but hopefully you will be in the audience watching!). Tickets will be on sale at a later date (we will let you know when!) and parents will be able to buy tickets directly from the Hexagon.

If you and your child can commit to the above points and would like to take part, please fill out the form below by Monday 17th March at 5pm. The link for the form will close at this time. At this time, we are unsure on the maximum number of pupils we can take. However, should we have too many children who would like to take part, we will prioritise the older children as there will be opportunities in the future for the younger children to participate.

We look forward to this exciting opportunity for all our children who love to sing!

https://forms.gle/nBjTgXhnWActRG5R7

There is no need to sign up again if you have already done so!

Stars of the week - Class Stars & PE Stars and Well dones!

Star of the week Newsletter 7: 14th March 2025

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 and Bedrock Learning

TT Rockstars- Fastest speed

Well done to our superstars below who are the fastest in their year group this week

TT Rockstars- Most Progress

Well done to the following children for the most progress since the last Newsletter:

Bedrock Learning- Most Progress

Well done the following children who have made the most progress since the previous Newsletter:

Bedrock Learning- Most Time dedicated

Well done the following children who have devoted the most time to practising their bedrock learning skills since the previous Newsletter:

Sports Update

Sportshall Athletics

On Friday 7th March, the FPJS year 5/6 Sportshall Athletics team, who won the local SHA competition in January, took part in a Berkshire County Finals. The team had trained relentlessly during break and lunch times and really deserved to do the best. However, the county level is much stronger than local competition and we had to prepare to up our game. The Girls and Boys worked extremely hard in every track and field event they did what was shown by them betting their own personal best scores. They competed against 6 other schools and came 2nd place overall! 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!

Mrs Tisshaw, Miss Gill

Invictus Games

On Thursday 6th March, we had the pleasure of taking a group of 8 children to take part in the annual Invictus games, held at Altwood school . The children had the chance to try some new games such as : Danger Ball, Penguin Polo and New Age Kurling. They all represented the school fantastically and had a great time in this non competitive festival. Well done!

Let Girls' Play Football festival

Ten of our Year 4 girls had an unforgettable experience at the #LetGirlsPlay football festival, an inspiring event aimed at encouraging more girls to get involved in football. The festival, hosted by Maidenhead United, gave the girls the opportunity to develop their skills through a variety of fun and engaging drills, including Goalkeeping, Passing and Shooting, and Long Passing Accuracy. They also had the chance to put their skills into action in exciting 5v5 mini matches!

A special highlight of the day was learning from the professionals—two Maidenhead Women FC players and the Maidenhead Women's manager were on hand to coach, encourage, and inspire our young footballers. The girls were thrilled to meet them, and to top it all off, they even got pictures with Yorkie, the club’s beloved mascot!

It was a fantastic day filled with teamwork, skill-building, and plenty of smiles. A huge thank you to Maidenhead United, Magpies in the Community, Leisure Focus and the Ascot and Maidenhead sports partnership for hosting such a brilliant event and giving our girls the chance to experience the joy of football.

#LetGirlsPlay

Mr Sawle, Miss Gill

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

We have had a great start to the new term in Year 3!

In English the children have been looking at non-chronological reports and have used a fictional animal to help support their use of adjectives, conjunctions and extension of sentences.

In maths, the children have been focusing on perimeter as well as beginning to look at fractions. We have looked at the denominator and numerator as well as how to make a whole.

In science our topic is Animals including Humans. The children have looked at the healthy eating plate and how this is made up as well as what we need to do to keep our bodies healthy. They have also looked at the skeleton and the bones in our bodies.

In geography our topic is 'North America' and the children are looking forward to learning all about countries in North America and specifically New York as we have links to a school in Harlem.

In French we have been looking at fruits in French and how to say which ones we like and dislike.

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 are the main areas on the healthy eating plate?

How do we calculate the perimeter of a shape?

What does BOBS stand for when used in our writing?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Earth shattering events - Robin Jacobs

Matilda - Roald Dahl

Kids voyage to North America - Judy Winters

Year 4 News

What an excellent start back the children have had!

In English, the children have written brilliant balanced arguments, challenging the misconceptions they have learned about the Vikings. They have developed their understanding of subordinating conjunctions and used them to extend their sentences.

In maths, we have been tackling fractions. The children have enjoyed using online tools to support their understanding of converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa.

Our geography lessons have had us exploring rainforests this half term. We have been using the mnemonic 'Everyone Can Understand Forests' to help us remember the layers of the rainforest. The children have also enjoyed learning about all the different animals that live in the rainforest and the importance of this biodiversity.

During our R.E. lessons, we have been learning about forgiveness and debating, 'Is forgiveness always possible for Christians?'.

The children are really looking forward to their Virtual Reality experience next week where they will be learning all about the Amazon Rainforest.

Mrs Batchelor - Year 4 Team Leader

Year 4 - What are we learning?

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

What is a subordinating conjunction? Can you give me an example of one?
What is a mixed number fraction?
What mnemonic can be used to remember the layers of a rainforest?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4...

Riddle of the Runes

By Janina Ramirez

The Highland Falcon Thief

By M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

By Nizrana Farook

Year 5 News

Wow - what a great few weeks in Year 5!

In English, we have been writing a diary entry as if we were stranded on a desert island – like the character Michael in our reading book Kensuke’s Kingdom.

In Maths, we have been learning all about decimals; including ordering and comparing and converting between fractions and decimals.

For Science, we have been exploring changing materials – including investigating reversible and irreversible changes.

In Geography we have been learning all about earthquakes and volcanoes. We are looking forward to our VR experience next week where we can immerse ourselves in the world of volcanoes.

For RE, we are discussing the Christian festival of Easter and whether God intended for Jesus to die.

In French we have been learning how to answer the question 'quel temps fait-il?' (what is the weather?)- learning phrases like 'il fait beau' and 'il y a un oragee.'

For Computing we have been learning about selection in quizzes. The children used conditions in programming - using if, then and else statements.

We have had a SOUPer time in DT planning and then making our soup. The children were fantastic with improving their cutting and grating skills and produced some delicious smelling soups! Well done all.

We are looking forward to the rest of the term – including the Year 5 class assemblies which are coming up soon!

Miss Scott & Mrs Slyfield, Y5 Team Leaders

Year 5- What are we learning?

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

How would you write 3/4 as a decimal?
Do you think that Michael and Kensuke will become friends in the end?
Is rusting a reversible or irreversible change?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

Year 6 News

Year 6 have had a really good start to Spring term. They have been working hard on their new units and have got back into the swing of learning.

In English, we have started a new topic of persuasive writing. The children have designed their own luxury hotels and will be writing brochures using persuasive devices.

In science, we have been learning about the circulatory system. The children have been exploring the functions of the heart as well as how blood and nutrients are transported through the body.

In geography, children have been learning about the trade routes of some of their everyday objects. They have been looking at the economic and environmental advantages and disadvantages of global transportation.

In art, we have been looking at two new artists: Frida Kahlo and Andy Goldsworthy. We have been looking at the proportion of the human face and applying these skills in self portraits.

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!:

Name the four components of blood
What is a trade route?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

Celebrating Art at FPJS

Dotty for dots in year 4

Well done to year 4 Classes, who have been working hard in Art, learning about a variety of artists who liked to use different brushstokes.

From impressionist Claude Monet, to pointillist George Seurat and 'mad about dots' Yayoi Kusama, the children have been inspired and have composed their own dotty landscapes.

School Council/Eco at FPJS

Eco Club and the School Council have been busy planting pear, apple, and plum trees on the school field! We hope that these trees will not only provide delicious fruit in the future but will also help support local wildlife and improve air quality. We can’t wait to watch them grow over the coming years!

Over the next week we are helping to raise money for Comic Relief by selling red noses for £2.50 each. Get yours while stocks last and help support a fantastic cause!

We were really impressed by the creativity and passion shown in the competition to win a trip to Parliament. Some fantastic new law ideas were suggested, including making solar panels a legal requirement and tackling the issue of sewage being pumped into our rivers and oceans. What brilliant ideas for a greener future! You can see a few of these great ideas below.

Recycling Tip of the Month:

Remember to recycle your paper and plastic containers! Flatten cardboard boxes before putting them in your recycling bin to create more space. When recycling plastic bottles, keep the lids on to make sure they get processed properly. Don’t forget that items like shampoo bottles and even toothpaste tubes can also be recycled—every little bit helps!

FPSA Update

Disco Night (28th Feb)

The Junior School hall turned into a dance floor on Friday 28th February as 70 revellers turned up to dance the night away. A huge thank you to DJ Dee for providing the tunes (along with guest DJ, DJ Indy). The event has raised ~£1,000 for both schools, thank you to everyone who came along, we hope you had a great time.

Happy Bags collection (14th Feb)

Thank you for all of your donated Happy Bags back on the 14th February, this particular collection raised a wonderful £143.

Quiz Night - Friday 21st March (8pm-11pm)

Mr T's Quiz Night is back again! At the time of press, this event is close to being sold out! The quiz starts at 8pm but doors open at 7pm. There is a licensed bar serving real ale, wine, Prosecco and soft drinks. Tickets include lovely food from Palmieri's.

Thank you to everyone who signed up to have an Oakwood Estates board up outside their house, this has raised extra funds for both schools.

Bingo Night - Oakwood Estates sponsorship

As with last year's summer and Christmas fairs (and the upcoming quiz night), Oakwood Estates are kindly sponsoring our very first Bingo Night which is on Friday 9th May (see details below). We receive up to £10 per board and you don't even need to be going to the Bingo Night!

If you would like to sign up to have a board outisde your house advertising this event, then simply fill in the details using the following link: https://forms.gle/RN143PmUpc9sW16x7

AGM - Wednesday 2nd April

Come along to our annual AGM to hear how much money was raised in 2024 from our fundraising events. Both heads of school will be present to update how money was spent over the last 12 months as well as share their wish lists for the next year. A great chance to meet the FPSA team and talk to Mrs Indge, Mrs Clark and Mr Wallace directly.

Bingo Night - Friday 9th May

Eyes down for a full house! Our very first bingo night for the grown ups will take place in May at the Juniors hall. As well as traditional bingo games there will be some music bingo games too with lots of prizes to be won. A licensed bar will be available. It should be a fun night!

Summer Fair - Saturday 28th June

The summer fair is back! Lots of fun for all the family. Please save the date for our biggest event of the year.

Davies Caravans for hire/rent

Davies Caravans are a local, family run business who have 3 modern caravans available to rent. One is based on the Isle of Wight on Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park and has use of a private beach. The other two are based in Dorset, on Oakdene Forest Park.

If you choose to book with them, they will give the FPSA £10 for each weekend break and £20 for longer breaks. Please see the following Facebook link: www.facebook.com/daviescaravans

Personalised name label stickers

We have an updated discount code for buying school uniform labels and labels for water bottles etc. from the 'Easy2Name' company. Simply order from the following site: https://www.easy2name.com/stickeasy, quote code 'FR-FPIS-72' and not only will you will get free delivery, the FPSA will receive 20% of the order value. These labels will help the schools return mislaid uniform and will help cut down on the lost property.

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