Wishing you all a very happy Friday! The weeks are certainly flying by here at Rockliffe Manor and as we approach our last two weeks of the Autumn term the children are hard at work writing their final outcomes, ready for the publishing process to begin. We very much look forward to seeing their fantastic displays at the end of term, remember that these will be shared on our Twitter, so do keep a look out!

As we welcomed December this week, Miss Roper led an assembly on Thursday where the children discussed what they had done over the past 11 months that they were proud of, Josiah said that he was proud that he has been coming to school every day! Mitchell shared that he was proud that his teacher was proud of him and Elaina beamed with pride as she shared her accomplishments from across the year.

Whilst our classrooms and corridors are always buzzing with excitement, we noticed it was a little quieter than usual throughout this week, as so many children were out and about on their class trips, some local and some further afield. Reception and Year 3 visited the library, Year 1 and 2 enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Woolwich Market and Year 4 showed their sporting abilities as they joined Woodhill children at Lee Valley Hockey centre. Mr O’Regan came along to run their sporting activities, and the children’s sportsmanship shone through. Alongside this, staff have been busy meeting this week to plan the Spring 1 curriculum for the term ahead. There are a range of exciting hooks, topics and trips to look forward to next term.

If we were not busy enough – our rehearsals for the Nativity and Carol Concert are well under way and it has been wonderful to hear all the beautiful singing filling up the classrooms, as the children from Nursery up to Year six prepare for the Christmas festivities. The children have been very busy practising the words to their songs and learning their lines for the Christmas performances. Some children from Year 3 were very keen to take their words out to play to schedule in some extra singing practice with their friends. We hope that many of you will be able to join us for these celebrations in the coming weeks.

We are all looking forward to our Christmas Lunch and Christmas Hat competitions next week. It is always a really enjoyable event for the children and lovely to watch the buzz of excitement, as the festive celebrations begin.

We very much look forward to seeing everyone back to school on Monday and hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

With very best wishes, Mrs Cook and the Rockliffe Manor team

Let’s take a look at some of the learning that has happened this week…

This week Nursery have enjoyed learning all about the concept of weight in their maths sessions. To support their learning they have been exploring a variety of equipment used to measure weight and comparing items saying if they were heavy or light. They have taken what they have learnt and implemented it into their play, the children have been collecting items from inside and outside the classroom to compare weights. The children can now identify if their item is heavy or if it's light.

Tiwa said ' I prefer to use the libra scales, it shows me what is heavy and what is light'.

Saxon said 'If it is heavy the scale goes down and the light item goes up’.

During their literacy learning the children have been developing their understanding of what a food bank is and what we can do to help others. During their discussions the children highlighted the importance of helping others and what we would like to buy during our trip to Tesco Supermarket to donate to our local food bank.

Tom said 'I would like to donate some of my toys to a charity'.

Henna said 'I will buy cake to donate, cake is my favourite'.

Now a sneak peak at what has been happening in Year 1... In English, the children have written some wonderful setting descriptions using a range of adjectives and similes to help engage the reader. Jack wrote, 'All around, there were gigantic palm trees that were as tall as a tower.' Layla on the other hand described the dancing dolphins as 'ballerinas'. In maths, the children have been exploring the relationship between addition and subtraction by creating fact families. Although the concept was challenging at first, the children showed great resilience. Emma said, 'I know that the whole number goes in front of the subtraction sign because we need to take away from the whole. We can't take away from a part.'

Lastly, the children had a great time visiting Woolwich town centre where they looked at historical landmarks that they had learned about in their history lessons. Ronnie said, 'I have never been to Woolwich market before. Can we go on the Ferry, please?' Overall, this has been a week filled full of exciting learning opportunities and the children have been really engaged and eager to learn more.

And in year 6 … This week, year 6 have been busy learning about metric units of measures. They did really well identifying which units should be most appropriate for either capacity, mass or length. In English, they have made a great start in learning about a narrative and its different features. They are continuing their good attendance as well, and have one Yogi the attendance bear yet again! A lot of year 6 have been very kind in volunteering for the Rockliffe winter fair on Saturday 10th December. And finally, they are very much looking forward to their science-linked tri to the Natural History Museum on the last day of term.

'I can't wait to go on the trip, I've loved learning about Charles Darwin.' Archie

'I've enjoyed using a range of punctuation in English to make short impact sentences for our chase sequence.' Isaac

'I was very pleased to get my merit for improving my writing this half term.' Chloe.

Winter Class Parties

We are excited for the Class Winter Parties that will be taking place on Thursday 15th December.

Children can bring their party clothes to school in a separate bag to change into.

Please may we ask you to send in some party food for the class to share (A polite reminder that we are a nut-free school)

Winter Disco

The annual winter discos are back and we are very excited.

This year, the disco for Years 1, 2 and 3 will be from 5.00 – 6.15pm and the disco for Years 4, 5 and 6 will be from 6.30 - 8pm.

Everyone is invited to party the evening away to their favourite party songs and a variety of games.

If your child would like to come, the cost will be £3.00. To sign up, please log in to Arbor, details for the Disco can be found under ‘trips’.

Juice and snacks will be included in the cost.

Please ensure that your child is brought to school and picked up by an adult. If you would like your child to be picked up by anyone other than their usual adult, then please inform the school in the same way as you would at the end of a normal school day.

The children in Reception will be hosting their own disco during class time from 2 - 3pm with a collection time as normal, and are welcome to bring a change of clothes for the disco.