Forest Academy Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to the final newsletter for this half term.  This week has been another very busy and productive one. On Wednesday, our Year 2 class embarked on a local area trip to the local woods. They thoroughly enjoyed the adventure - especially the mud and puddles! The children and staff have also been extremely busy publishing the outcomes from this half term's curriculum to showcase their learning. 

Today we have been supporting the 'Show Racism The Red Card' campaign by asking children to wear something red. 'Show Racism The Red Card' is an anti-racism educational charity which aims to combat racism through enabling role models, who are predominately but not exclusively footballers, to present an anti-racist message to young people and others. Anti-racism ties in with our current core value of 'respect'.  We are very proud of our diverse community and through our global curriculum aim to prepare our children to be informed, respectful citizens of the 21st century and agents of change for the future.  

Parents Evening
Thank you to those of you who were able to attend the parents evenings this week.  It is really important for you to know how well your child is doing and what they need to do next to meet their targets.  If you have not had a meeting with your child's class teacher yet, please arrange to do so as soon as possible.

Looking ahead to autumn 2, we have a busy schedule with more school trips, class assemblies and festive celebrations. We will keep you updated with all of the key dates so please keep a look out.

Lastly, a reminder that the autumn term will resume on Monday, 28th October. We hope our pupils and you, their families, have a restful and enjoyable half-term break.

Thank you for your continued support in making our school a wonderful place for our children to learn and grow.

Mrs. Lloyd and Mrs. Dennis 

This week in literacy, the children enjoyed reading traditional tales like 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears' and 'The Gingerbread Man'. They used Talk for Writing actions to support language when joining in with repeated phrases. The children also engaged in activities including drawing story maps and using puppets to act out a narrative. In addition, they have built on their oracy skills to describe themselves and their friends. They used sentence stems like' I have...', 'My friend has...' and 'I like...'

In maths, the children have focused on naming common 2D shapes and identifying the properties of each shape. They enjoyed using the shapes to create pictures of rockets, trains, and flowers. They have also been introduced to comparative language; bigger and smaller and how to sort concrete objects by size. They engaged in our maths activity, matching the characters with the correct-sized porridge bowls. 

In phonics, the children were introduced to new phonemes h, b, f and they identified objects that begin with these phonemes. The children practised blending the phonemes to read three-letter words (CVC words) including dog, dig, pin, and mat.

This week in year 1, the children finalised their writing about the core text titled, 'My Shadow is Pink'. The story is about a boy whose shadow is pink as opposed to the family shadow of blue. The pink shadow likes to wear dresses and play with toys boys don't usually play with. He was worried and anxious he might not fit in when he started school because his shadow made him stand out. He was conscious of himself and knew he was different from everyone else. The story taught the children how to embrace identity and diversity, we are all different in many ways, but the same in other ways, and it is worth celebrating our differences, identities and diversity.  

In maths, the children learnt about ordering objects and numbers starting with the smallest number to the largest number and vice versa. First, we built numbers as towers with interlocking cubes and put them side by side to order them starting with the smallest numbers to the largest and vice versa. When the children were confident, they moved on to compare and order numbers abstractly.

In PE, the children learnt how to jump over obstacles and land safely on both legs without falling. The lesson helped them to develop balance, agility and safety. They had a lot of fun practising these important skills.

It has been another fantastic week in Year 2. The children have been busy looking at prepositions such as 'in', 'on', 'beside' and 'below'. They identified them in a sentence and then cleverly wrote their sentences using them. They have also focused on past tense and identified verbs that end with 'ed'  such as cook-cooked. Later, they learnt further rules for the past tense verbs that do not use 'ed'. Words such as 'swim' become 'swam' and 'make' became 'made' in the past tense.

Elm class took an exciting walk to Spring Park Woods to enhance their geography knowledge of human and physical features. They had their explorer hats on and spied houses, roads, fences and benches.

In computing, they used Purple Mash Art to draw portraits of Izzy Gizmo and used the correct hair colour and eye colour as well as the clothes she wore to get perfect replicas. 

In art, they have completed the clay tiles using imprints of screws and cogs, just like Izzy Gizmo from our core text. The children used their designs, followed them closely and produced some fabulous work.

In English, Lime class have been writing up their final character profiles and developing their grammar through revising the uses of conjunctions. Pupils have been applying conjunctions to extend their sentences to develop the quality of their writing. 

In maths, pupils have been adding and subtracting, ones, tens and hundreds and identifying patterns using their knowledge of place value. In addition, they have been developing their skills to add and subtract using different strategies. They have used place value counters, dienes and column methods to check their calculations and support their reasoning. This week pupils have also further developed their abilities to tackle simple but lengthy multi-step problems and investigations in maths. 

In history, pupils made links to their whole class reading book, developing their knowledge and vocabulary related to the Ancient Egyptians. They learnt about how the Ancient Egyptians used the River Nile to create canals to support farming, and early Egyptian inventions such as the 'shaduf' which allowed them to collect water. Pupils developed their vocabulary through clarification, reading the text and discussing the meaning of unknown words to deepen their understanding of the text.

In computing, pupils further explored the functions of input, process and output, which they applied to their homework. Furthermore, pupils made models inspired by their homework menu and loved entertaining the class with more puppet shows to celebrate their home learning.

During PE, the class showcased their gymnastic skills and demonstrated amazing progress with their balance, coordination and agility. This included a sequence of rolls, jumps and handstands. The class have completed their Jill Pelto-inspired artwork that reflects different aspects of climate change. Using shading techniques, they added light, shade and texture to their animal sketches.

Throughout this term, the children have taken part in a series of workshops run by Palace for Life called Protect the Planet. They have looked at the importance of nature, how people can travel without harming the planet, the importance of using sustainable energy sources and how to grow our food. The children presented their learning journey as a poster.

In maths, the children have been applying their knowledge of place value to add and subtract four-digit numbers with exchanging. In English, they have also published their manifestos and character descriptions and have remembered to use neat cursive handwriting.

Pine class have been working hard completing their short story based on our core text 'The Boy and the Globe'. They introduced a problem for their main characters to face and then created a resolution to solve it. Using the inverse operations for addition and subtraction was the focus of our maths lessons this week. The children solved different calculations and then used the inverse operations to check the accuracy of their calculations. 

Understanding why Muslims consider it important to care for others and the environment was the focus of our R.E. lesson this week. The children identified key teachings of the Quran which emphasised the role of humans as stewards and guardians of the Earth. They then discussed what responsibilities we have as individuals in caring for the environment and what we can do more to take care of our planet. 

In history, the children reflected on their trip to Hampton Court Palace and what they learnt from their visit. They discussed daily life in the court of Henry VIII and what it must have been like living there as a king in comparison to a servant or a maid. Finding out if all seeds germinate at the same rate was the focus of our science lesson this week. After discussing this, the children then planned and carried out a fair test to investigate the germination periods of different vegetables. They then evaluated their findings and discussed why some plants may germinate quicker than others and what factors may contribute to their growth.

This week, Year 6 have been busy publishing their newspaper report and dilemma narrative for display. Added to the display will be their final art outcome of a sketched anatomical heart with collaged watercoloured flowers. The children have worked extremely hard on their outcome and have deservedly produced outstanding pieces of art.

In maths, the children learnt how to use short division using the formal written method before learning how to divide mentally using factors. They then used these strategies to solve a range of multi-step word problems. In computing, the children learnt how to report bullying and inappropriate content they might come across online.

In geography, the children created a double-page spread to answer the question 'Is Shirley a good place to live?' They analysed evidence they have collected this half term and wrote paragraphs on housing, services, transport and green spaces. In science, the children created a double-page spread to answer the question 'How are blood, oxygen and nutrients transported around the body?' The children included learning about the circulatory system, the components of blood and the function of the heart to demonstrate their new knowledge. 

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