Dear Parents/Carers, 

It has been a busy but truly wonderful week here at Forest Academy.

On Monday, we marked the start of Anti-Bullying Week by taking part in Odd Socks Day. This simple but powerful event reminds us all that it's good to be different and reinforces our ethos that "we all belong". The children proudly wore their odd socks to celebrate individuality, kindness and respect for others.

Throughout the week, we’ve continued to promote the message of “Power for Good”, encouraging children to recognise how their words and actions can have a positive impact. At Forest, anti-bullying is not just something we focus on for one week; it is a key part of our daily ethos, rooted in our values of respect, inclusion and kindness.

On Tuesday, the whole school gathered on the playground, at 11 o'clock, to observe a two-minute silence in recognition of Remembrance Day. The children showed great respect and understanding, marking this important occasion with maturity and thoughtfulness.

We also welcomed Year 5 and Year 6 parents to our Residential Trip Information Meeting. It was great to see so many of you attending and showing interest in the exciting opportunities ahead for your children.

On Wednesday, Year 5 led their class assembly, where they showcased their brilliant history learning on the Tudors. The children spoke confidently and clearly, and we were incredibly proud of their effort and presentation.

You may have noticed on Thursday morning that we had many visitors on site. We were delighted to welcome over 20 school leaders from across London, along with a representative from the Department for Education (DfE), for the official launch of Forest Academy as a DfE Rise Attendance and Behaviour Hub. This national programme sees us working in partnership with other schools to strengthen attendance and behaviour systems across the country. We were proud to showcase the strong practice we have here at Forest—and this is only possible because of your ongoing support and partnership. Together, we ensure that children are in school, on time, and ready to learn. Members of our Junior Leadership Team (JLT) led school tours for our guests, who were full of praise for our children, particularly noting how articulate, confident, and proud they were to represent their school. A huge well done to all involved.

Thank you for continuing to make Forest Academy such a strong, caring, and aspirational community.

Mrs Lloyd & the Forest Academy Team

After hearing and seeing fireworks at night, the children have been making fireworks out of playdough. They also created some colourful fireworks pictures. Best of all, the children enjoyed making fireworks crackers out of rolled-up card and sparkling pipe cleaners. 

In maths, the children have been making comparisons between objects. They were comparing big and small, light and heavy as well as more or less. Repeating patterns have also been a focus in maths. The children had to identify the pattern, continue the pattern and then make their own patterns for their partner to continue.

In literacy, the children have been using their phonics knowledge to start writing words. They have been focusing on writing the initial sounds of the words. The 'Squirrels Who Squabbled' text has been the focus book for this half term. How the characters interact has led to many discussions about how we get along with other people.

When creating pictures of autumn trees, the children have been focusing on colour mixing to create the autumn colours of the leaves as they change colours. They went outside to collect autumn objects such as acorns, autumn leaves and sticks to create a collage of a hedgehog.

As part of Remembrance Day, the children painted poppies and discussed what they mean. They watched a video to help them understand the concept. 

Elm class took part in a two-minute silence on Tuesday to commemorate Remembrance Day, and I was immensely proud of how amazing and respectful they were throughout. Well done year 2!

In English, we came up with some amazing adjectives to describe the dragon within our core text 'Drawn Together', we then used these wow words to form fantastic expanded noun phrases to make descriptions, which led us on to creating some strong character descriptions of the 'fiery, terrifying dragon'.

In maths, we have been subtracting across 10, using ten frames and cubes to help us understand the concept of using 10 as a bridge to subtract from larger numbers as well as recalling our number bonds knowledge.

We explored and took last week's investigation deeper this week, by looking at what happened to the toy car and why we think the concrete was the best surface to travel along. We looked at the qualities that made the material suitable and justified our answers with evidence from our investigation.

In Year 4, the children worked collaboratively to sum up all their learning for autumn term one on a giant display board next to the classroom to exhibit their learning journey so far. The display board shows written pieces about climate change and how that impacts all living things on our extraordinary planet and beyond. The learning in year 4 was carefully linked our core texts, 'The accidental Prime Minister and Greta', both outlined strong arguments against activities that promote climate change. 

The learning was also linked to the work of Jill Pelto, a climate change artist and science communicator, who showed overwhelming evidence of the devastating effects of climate change on humans, animals and the environment. 

In science, the children learned about the three states of matter and identified this to be: gas, liquid and solid. We discussed the properties of each state of matter and generated scientific questions about each state of matter to investigate. We discussed the meaning of matter and understood that matter is anything that has mass and takes up space or volume. We went further and discussed that matter is the physical substance or material that makes up everything in the universe. We identified that water, which is an example of one the states of matter (liquid) can change from its state into gas (steam) by heating or boiling and solid by freezing (ice) and change back into liquid by cooling (condensation) and melting. The children experimented with different materials to understand the properties of the different states of matter.

It has been an absolute joy to welcome the children back into the classroom for the new term. We have had a truly wonderful first two weeks, and we are already so impressed with the energy, enthusiasm, and maturity the children have shown. They have settled back in beautifully and dived straight into a timetable packed full of fun and challenging learning. As we start the new term, our global theme of Human Rights is being encompassed in all we do. This links perfectly with our English text and our new History topic, where we are beginning to look at the Civil Rights Movement. It’s providing a powerful context for our learning and sparking some incredibly thoughtful discussions.

We’ve jumped straight into the tricky but exciting world of fractions! The children have shown incredible resilience and curiosity. We began by demystifying them, looking at how to simplify fractions using equivalence. We’ve used number lines to visualise where they sit and spent time comparing and ordering them by carefully looking at both the numerator and denominator. We have now moved on to adding and subtracting fractions—it’s complex work, but their ‘can-do’ attitude has been brilliant to see.

In our writing sessions, we have delved into our powerful new core text, Stella by Starlight. The children have been exploring the rich atmosphere of the story to write their own detailed setting descriptions. We’ve been focusing on how to vary our grammatical structures to make our writing more engaging for the reader. This week, they have taken it a step further by planning and writing contrasting setting descriptions, enhancing their pieces with wonderful examples of figurative language, including metaphors, personification, and similes.

In Science, we have also begun a fascinating new topic: Classification, and the children are already enjoying learning how to categorise the world around them.

Finally, we just have to say how exceptionally proud we are of the entire class. The children have also tackled their assessments this week. It can be a daunting task, but they approached it with such great maturity and a calm, focused attitude. They gave their best effort, and that is all we can ever ask.

School Photographs Now Available

Vancols Photographers have confirmed that school photographs are now ready to view. You can access your child’s photograph by scanning the QR code on the proof card that were sent home with your child on Friday 7th November 2025.

If you have already scanned the QR code and registered, you should receive an automatic email letting you know the images are ready. If you have not yet done so, you can still view the photographs by scanning the QR code and following the instructions.

If you have not received your proof card or it has been misplaced, please contact the Vancols Parent Line on 01206 273711. Families who have not ordered photographs before will need to request the website photo code from the school office.

The deadline for orders to qualify for free delivery back to school is 22 November 2025.

School Lunch - Menu swap

Due to delivery issues and supplies, the school lunch menu next week will have a small change affecting Tuesday & Wednesday next week. Therefore on Tuesday it will be Roast Turkey and on Wednesday it will be chicken meatballs. Please click here for the current menu. 

If you have concerns about a child (or their families) welfare, contact Croydon Council’s Single Point of Contact (SPOC) 

Telephone: 020 8726 6400 

Out of hours: 020 8726 6400 (ask for out of hours team) 

Email: childreferrals@croydon.gov.uk 

Office Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00 – 16:00 

If you think a child is at risk of immediate harm telephone 999