Furze Platt Juniors 2024-25 Newsletter

What a fun day we had today celebrating and promoting times tables at FPJS! You can see from our photos below, children (and parents!) put in lots of effort to dress up as their TT rockstar avitar! We do love our theme days at FPJS and hopefully this has encouraged our children to put in lots of effort to learn their times tables to "Rock Legend" status- which means our children are super speedy in their recall. Knowing times tables fluently really is the bedrock to so many fundementals of maths learning and we cannot emphasis how important it is to learn them!

If your child struggles with times tables or any aspect of maths, I do recommend you come along to our maths workshop next week (Thurs 30th January) as Miss Morales (our maths lead in school) has lots of great ideas to support parents further. Please book ahead to this in-person meeting as there will be hands-on opportunities to explore how we teach maths and how you can help your child at home. You can book your space here.

There are lots of other great events coming up soon at FPJS- we are particularly excited about our first ever "Enrichment and Well-being week" where all classes will be "off" their normal timetable, taking part in a wide variety of workshops and events, including breakdancing and beatboxing, circus skills, first aid, skipping, team-building activities as well as a chance to complete a series of well-being challenges.

Anna Clark

Head of School

Coming up shortly- Well-being Challenges

Wellbeing is not only one of our values, it is an on-going priority at FPJS to ensure we also look for new ways to support the wellbeing of our children and staff.

At FPJS, we will be launching two new initiatives that we hope will not only raise the profile of mental health and wellbeing but will also give the children, staff and even our wider community of families some tips to help support healthy life choices.

To start with, we are running our first ever wellbeing week. This will be the week of the 10th February and the children will take part in a variety of off timetable activities that all link to our 6 pillars of wellbeing. The activities will include, first aid lessons, team challenges, yoga and mindfulness, right through to break dance and beatbox and circus skills!

After half term, at the start of term 4, FPIS and FPJS will be launching wellbeing challenges. These are challenges that focus on one pillar at a time and can be completed in school or at home with family. We are still finalising the finer points but we have some draft information available on our website, which is subject to minor changes, for you to read https://www.furzeplattjuniorschool.co.uk/well-being-at-fppf/.

A letter will be sent out before half term with more information and children will also be made aware of this new 'Rainbow Challenge' through assemblies.

Diary Dates:

Mon 27th January- Y4 Talk by Al Sylvester- "Everest Dreams"
Mon 27th January- Y5 Greek Day
Thurs 30th January- Maths workshops for parents- 6pm in the school hall
Tues 4th February- Kingfisher Class Assembly 9.10am
Weda 5th February- Swift Class Assembly 9.10am
Thurs 6th February- Swift Class Assembly 9.10am
Thurs 6th February- Y5 parent information evening - Rhos-y-Gwaliau trip November 2025
Fri 7th February- Swift Class Assembly 9.10am
Monday 10th February- Friday 14th February- Enrichment & Well-being week for all classes
Thurs 13th Feb- Primary Dance Festival- Eagle class
Fri 14th Feb- End of term 3
Mon 17th-Fri 21st Feb- Half term holiday
Mon 24th Feb- Term 4 begins
Weds 5th March- Fri 7th March- Scholastic book fair in hall (3.15pm)
Weds 5th March- Parent workshop- writing TBC
Fri 7th March- World Book Day- dress as a character or a hint of a character
Weds 12th March- Author visit- M.G. Leonard
Fri 21st March- Comic relief day- dress down
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
Thurs 3rd April- Parent consultations 3.30-6.30pm
Fri 4th April- End of term 4

Quick Links

Curriculum

Lunch Menu

Term Dates 24-25

Calendar

Who's who at FPJS

Website including housepoints update

FPJS School News

TT Rock Stars Day

Over the course of the week, children have been building up to TTRS day with fun times table assemblies. We have learnt some different strategies to remember our 3s, 8s and 9s that we can use in lessons and put in practise for today. Make sure to ask them what they have been up to this week in assembly!

Our day was kicked off with all the pupils and staff wearing fantastic rockstar outfits. Throughout the morning and afternoon the children had battles against other classes in the school. All classes also took part in an outdoor scavenger hunt where they had to run round the school answering times table questions and following clues.

We finished off the day with an assembly which included: singing lots of rock anthems, celebrated lots of achievements and progress for TTRS and a live student vs fastest players in the school battle!

It was great to see the children have so much fun with maths and times tables this week. We would also like to thank everyone who has contributed to our fundraiser for maths equipment. If you haven't but would like to - there is still time!

Don't forget you can still add to the contributions for TTrock star day through scopay- any donations will help us to improve our maths resources in school!

Inter-house Football competition Y5/6

On Friday 17th January, children from Year 5 and 6 took part in an inter-house football competition for the first time in over 6 years! It was great to see children that had put their name forward for a sport that they might not usually play and getting stuck right into the action. From the very start there were goals flying in from everywhere with an especially amazing opening goal from Frankie B in Year 5, who scored from virtually next to the corner flag, lobbing the keeper and nestling into the side netting.

The Year 5 tournament was won convincingly by Romans, who won all their games and even managed a 5-0 victory in the final game of the afternoon against the Normans!

The Year 6 tournament was a lot tighter. Going into the final game both Normans and Romans were both on 4 points, Vikings on 2 and Danes yet to claim some points. This meant that a win for either Normans or Romans would see them victorious. Normans came out on top, scraping a 2-1 victory over the Romans, and with a Viking win over on the other pitch meant that Romans slipped down into 3rd, Vikings claiming 2nd and the Normans snatched the top spot, winning the Year 6 tournament.

However, this is a joint competition with both the points from the Year 5 and 6 tournament being added together to create the final standings. This meant that the ROMANS came out on top and won the Year 5 and 6 tournament.

This was a great afternoon of football and we look forward to rearranging the Year 3 and 4 tournament some time soon as well as the house Netball and Rounders competitions, both taking place in the spring/summer term.

Mr King & Mr Sawle

Road Safety Workshops

Over the last week, Tamasine Cairney from RBWM has been delivering road safety workshops for our lower key stage 2 children. Year 4 had separate sessions in their classrooms where they learned all about road safety where they learned how to be aware of dangers when walking near roads, the safest ways to cross, and the importance of wearing bright clothing in the darker months. Tamasine demonstrated the importance of wearing a helmet when riding our bikes and scooters, and what could happen if we do not.

Year 3 children learnt the Green Cross Code and identified various safe places to cross the road. Each child was gifted a luminous reflective rucksack and slap band to help them stay visible in the dark. They also received a workbook to practise their new skills, which should be completed and returned before half term to earn a certificate. At the end of the workshop the person able to follow the green cross code actions the quickest was crowned king or queen of road safety. Stay safe and visible!

Swimarathon!

On 12th January the 40th Lions Swimarathon took place and we had 7 teams from Furze Platt Junior and Infant school take part. It was a tremendous day with lots of fun had by all. We had over 50 students take part, swimming overt 640 lengths, raising over £2500 which will be divided between the Maidenhead Lions and our schools.

A big thank you again to all that took part and their amazing efforts in swimming and fundraising.

Written by Sally Brown, parent organiser

Staff news

We are delighted that Mrs Dean and Mrs Sherwin will both be returning to school shortly after their maternity leave. Mrs Dean will be returning to her full-time teaching role from 24th March and will take over as class teacher of Skylark class. Mrs Bicker and Miss Howard will continue to work at school, covering classes across the school.

Mrs Sherwin will be returning to school from mid March to support our Everest children.

We would like to wish Mr King good luck with his operation on his ruptured ACL knee injury which is planned to take place next week. Mr King will be off school for a few weeks to recover- we wish him well! Mrs Belfrage will be covering Kite class whilst he is off.

Sadly, we will be saying goodbye to Mrs Ayton (Y5 TA) at the end of this term as she leaves for pastures new. Mrs Ayton has been a supportive, kind and hard-working TA and she will most definitely be missed!

We are currently recruiting for a new full-time teaching assistant at FPJS- full details can be found here.

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

Well done to...

Well done to Mollie H in Skylark for gaining a Bronze award with her team at the British Ice Skating Championships in Nottingham. Fantastic news!

Star of the week Newsletter 5: 24th January 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- Top Ten!

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- Top scorers so far this term

Sports Update

PE update

What a great start to the year getting back into P.E.! Year 3 are participating dance and fitness in their lessons the year 3’s are also linking their dance to Egyptians relating back to this history lessons.

Year 4 are participating in dance and basketball sessions. With their dance lessons they are linking it to mountains as they are learning about Mount Everest in their comprehension lessons. Year 5 are doing Outdoor Adventurous Activities and Gymnastics. Year 6 are practising their Netball and Gymnastics skills

Miss Gill

Dance Festival (Eagle Class)

Eagle class have been selected to do the dance festival this year. This will be happening on Thursday 13th February. The theme this year is the number 20. Eagle class are linking the theme 20 to the 1920's, creating a Charleston dance to "You give a little love" from Bugsy Malone.

Miss Gill

10@10

On Wednesday 22nd January all classes took part in 10 minutes of exercise. This event was run by Leisure Focus in partnership with local primary schools. In total, 21 Schools and over 4,583 pupils from the Royal Borough of Maidenhead and Windsor had signed up to take part in this event. The 10@10 is a perfect way to help achieve the children's 60 minutes of activity a day.

Miss Gill

Sports Hall Athletics Yr 3/4

On Thursday 23rd January, 18 students from year 4 represented Furze Platt in the annual Sportshall Competition at Braywick Leisure.

The teams competed against twelve other teams in the Borough. The events were split between the track and field, with each child able to compete in 2 track and 2 field events. These events ranged from long distance and short distance relays, obstacle races to standing long jump, speed bounce, chest push, javelin, 5 stride and vertical jump.

They all were fantastic and really pushed themselves and had great sportsmanship cheering and encouraging each other. The score was really close at the end and our year 4 team came 2nd out of the 12 teams with only 5 points off being 1st.

Well done everyone you smashed it!

Well done to everyone who participated in this wonderful sporting competition and a big thank you to all the parents for your continued help and support ensuring our Furze Platt children are able to attend these sporting occasions.

Miss Gill

Sports Hall Athletics Yr 5/6

On our 10th year of entering a year 5/6 team to this event, I secretly thought it would be brilliant to keep our record of winning every year - a decade of wins. Our team strategy...do your best but win or not as a team. The team support from the 18 children was phenomenal - members were hugged and congratulated after every event for their amazing efforts. There were storming wins in the opening races where we won both boys and girls obstacle, but also hidden wins in field events where our children jumped and threw further than their peers or, better still beat their PB's. The Furze Platt team were delighted to win with 504 points, 30 points clear of second place Holyport and now are hopefully to county finals on March 7th.

We would like to thank Mrs Francis and Mrs Thomas for their support with the team, which was invaluable.

Mrs Tisshaw

Year Group Updates

Year 3 News

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are so pleased with how well the children have settled back into routines at school.

In English the children have been working on describing settings using a variety of adjectives and sentence starters. In book talk we have been reading poems from the book 'I am the seed that grew the tree' and the children have been reading some of these fluently and acting these out.

In maths, the children have been multiplying and dividing a 2 digit and 1 digit number with exchanges and remainders. They have used the place value counters to help support this as well as base 10 resources, charts and cocktail sticks.

In science our topic is plants and the children have discussed what a plant needs to grow and why. We created posters on this.

In French we have been learning how to say and spell a variety of musical instruments including guitar, trumpet and piano.

Our new history topic is 'Ancient Egyptians'. The children have looked at the timeline for this in comparison to other significant events and discussed what can be found at the British Museum which we are due to visit at the end of 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!:

What instruments can you remember from French?

What adjectives would you use to describe a desert setting?

What manipulatives could you use to solve multiplication problems?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y3...

Matilda - Roald Dahl

Iron Man - Ted Hughes

I am the seed that grew the tree - Fiona Waters

Year 4 News

Happy New Year!

The children have settled back into school life extremely well (especially with the excitement of a flurry of snow) and have loved telling us about their new year resolutions.

In English, they have been creating some fantastic, informative posters all about how to look after your teeth. We have been learning about how to organise our ideas based on a topic and ensure our paragraphs are cohesive.

The children have loved reading all about Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and their successful expedition up Everest. They are very excited to perform to you all and share with you the explorers' story.

In maths, we have been multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000. By using place value charts, they have been able to explain the process and evidence their understanding of this.

In our history lessons, we have been investigating whether or not the Vikings really were violent raiders. We have explored where they came from and their reasons for raiding Lindisfarne. Additionally, we have discussed the stereotypical views many people have of the Vikings and busting myths such as wearing horns on their helmets.

Mrs Batchelor - Year 4 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 give me an example of a possessive pronoun?
What are the dangers of climbing Mount Everest?
What did the Vikings actually wear on their heads to protect them?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y4...

Everest: The Remarkable Story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay

By Alexandra Stewart and Joe Todd-Stanton

How to Train Your Dragon

Cressida Cowell

Brand New Boy

David Almond

Year 5 News

Wow – what a fantastic start we have made to 2025!!

In English, we have been reading lots of gory Greek myths and working on how to use dialogue in our narrative writing.

In Maths, we have continued to work hard on fractions and we have also been practising methods for multiplication and division.

For Science, we have been exploring different materials and comparing materials based on properties such as transparency, response to magnets, hardness and conductivity.

In History we have been learning all about life in Ancient Greece.

For RE, we discussed why some stories are important to us and we have listened to some Sikh stories.

For French we have been learning the days of the week, the months of the year and numbers 1 to 31.

We have been busy in Art learning about the artists Stephen Wiltshire and Vincent Van Gogh and practising skills and techniques that will help when creating our final piece.

We are looking forward to Greek day next week!

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:

What does it mean if a material is a good thermal insulator?
How do we know so much about life in Ancient Greece?
What can you tell us about the artist Stephen Wiltshire?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y5...

Year 6 News

Year 6 have had a really good start to the new year and all children have been showing great passion for learning within their new topics.

In History, we have started comparing the Ancient Civilisations (Greek, Maya and Egyptians). So far, we have looked at the hierarchy in each and which one had the most advanced systems in writing and number.

In science, we have been exploring evolution. We have used Mr Men and Little Miss to look at how genes and inheritance work. The children really enjoyed creating their offspring based on genetics.

In maths, we have been tackling percentages which is the final part of arithmetic that we cover in Year 6 and we have started our new unit on conversion.

In English, we have been writing diary entries based on a short story called 'Boo!'. We have been focusing on the use of punctuation and accurate use of tenses. In art, we are working towards creating our Modroc sculptures. These will be inspired by two artists: Giacometti and Degas.

We look forward to the next few weeks of this short term and discovering more within these units.

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 would you find 50%, 10% and 1% of 450?
Can you tell me three things that are inherited by parents?
What is the difference between the sluptors Degas and Giacometti?

Our current reads we are enjoying in Y6...

Celebrating Art at FPJS

In year 5, the children have been busy learning about two Artists - Stephen Wiltshire and VIncent Van Gogh. After learning some new skills and techniques inspired by these artists, the pupils will eventually be producing their own cityscapes.

Here are some lovely examples of pen and pencil work to create different shades and some excellent examples of using one point perspective to create the illusion of three dimensional shapes.We will be looking at some colour theory in the next lesson.

SEND updates

New workshop from GEMS.pdf

FPSA Update

The FPSA would like to wish a Happy New Year to all of our wonderful parents and carers. We have a busy few months coming up so please save the dates in your diaries.

Happy School Bags - Friday 14th February

Happy School Bags raises money for our schools by turning unwanted clothes etc. into money. The more you clear out, the more money we get! Please deposit all bags (bin bags are fine) to the left of the Infants school gates at drop off.

Disco Night - Friday 28th February (8pm-11pm)

Calling all parents to the dancefloor, the adult disco night is back and tickets are on sale now! DJ Dee will be playing the music at our second disco night at the Juniors. Tickets are just £10.

Buy your tickets here: www.pta-events.co.uk/fpsa

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

Mr T's Quiz Night is back again! Get your team together, book the babysitter and start brushing up on your general knowledge. There will be picture rounds, a music round, a brand new round and more including 'Play your cards right' bonus game. Prizes for top 3 teams as well as a prize for best team name.

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.

Look out soon for how you can help raise even more money for this event by signing up to have an Oakwood Estates board outside your house advertising the quiz night.

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.

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

One of our supporters won £250 recently on the lottery!

Useful Information For Parents

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