Dear Parents/Carers, 

We’ve had another proud and purposeful week at Forest Academy.

Our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils returned from their two-night residential trip to YHA Canterbury full smiles and a sense of achievement. The children represented Forest brilliantly - showing independence, teamwork, and resilience throughout. A huge thank you to the staff team who supported the trip and helped create such a memorable experience.

This week, we were also pleased to welcome Inspire Partnership leaders and headteachers to Forest. During the day, they toured the school, visited all classrooms, and spoke with pupils. They commented on the excellent behaviour and the high levels of pupil engagement in learning. We are always proud to showcase our school, and our visitors were clearly impressed by the warmth, ambition, and focus across every classroom.

As we move into the colder months, we kindly encourage parents to ensure children are dressed warmly, with coats, hats and gloves as needed. This is also the time of year when we start to see a rise in colds and flu, so we are reminding children to wash their hands regularly and practise good hygiene to help reduce the spread of illness.

A reminder that next Friday, 28th November, is an INSET Day. School will be closed to all pupils as staff take part in professional development.

Thank you for your continued support in keeping our school community healthy, safe, and thriving.

Warm regards,

Mrs Lloyd & the Forest Academy Team

What an impressive week it has been in Year 1! The children have shown remarkable progress and enthusiasm across all areas of learning. Their handwriting has taken a real leap forward — they are forming letters with greater care, confidence and pride, and the improvement in their written work is clear to see.

In English, children have loved working on Little Red Riding Hood. They have been retelling the story in their own words and even replacing Little Red Riding Hood with their own imaginative characters! Their creativity and storytelling skills have been wonderful to watch.

In maths, they have been mastering number bonds to 10 through hands-on tasks, games and problem-solving activities, helping them build quick recall and strong foundations for future learning.

Geography has also been a highlight. The children have enjoyed exploring maps of England and confidently identifying human and physical features such as cities, rivers, coasts and mountains. Their curiosity and growing geographical knowledge have shone through in class discussions and activities.

It has truly been a week filled with focus, creativity, progress and excitement and we could not be prouder of what they have achieved!

It's been another busy and productive week in Year 3 as we continue our explorations across the curriculum. The children have shown great focus and creativity! 

Building on our core English text, 'Until I Met Dudley,' the children have taken on a new challenge as Machine Detectives: explaining how a dishwasher works! Using their fantastic imaginations, they have begun planning and writing their own explanation texts. We've heard some wonderfully creative theories involving invisible cleaning goblins and sophisticated sponge robots!

This week in maths, we have begun our work on multiplication. The children have begun by exploring the concept of equal groups. We are learning that multiplication is simply a quick way of adding the same number many times (repeated addition). Understanding and creating equal groups is the foundation for mastering their times tables and formal multiplication methods.

In French, the children have been learning the basics of counting to 10 and were having loads of fun practicing the sounds. Ask your child to count to ten for you!

In geography, we were exploring the life cycle and key features of a river. We have looked at where a river starts (the source), how it flows through the middle course, and where it ends (the mouth), examining features like meanders and tributaries along the way.

This week, Year 5 have been busy learning skills needed to write a narrative based on their core text 'The Boy in the Tower'. The children developed their use of descriptive language through generating similes to describe Ade's feelings. They then used Show Not Tell to convey Ade's thoughts and feelings through his actions and words. In whole class reading, the children have focused on non-fiction texts. They identified new vocabulary, such as fossil fuel and atmosphere and collaborated in groups to define the words by rereading the sentence and discussing the context.

In maths, the children have started a new unit on fractions. They began the week by finding equivalent fractions using bar models and number lines. The children then moved on to using a fraction wall and their times tables to find equivalent fractions. In science, the children learnt about the three states of matter: solids, liquids and gases. They identified the properties and then sorted different objects into their state. In computing, the children continued to learn how to create vector drawings using a range of tools. This week, the children learnt how to use the zoom tool and the alignment tool to draw a penguin and a parrot.

Next week, we look forward to our visit to the Globe Theatre in London, where the children will take part in a workshop based on Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and tour the theatre. Please sign your child up via Arbor as soon as possible if you have not already done so.

• The morning times can be very busy in the school office. If you telephone and we are not able to answer your call, please leave a message. You can also message us via Arbor and email. 

• Please remember to check Arbor for messages regarding your child and events/trips that are going on, this is a very busy term.

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