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Welcome back to the second half of Autumn Term! We hope this newsletter finds you well, and that you and your children had a wonderful and restful half-term break, making the most of the time together. As we dive into the term, the school is buzzing with activity and we have so much exciting learning ahead of us. It has been a busy but brilliant first week back! The children across the school have immediately immersed themselves in their new core texts, and the teachers have delivered fantastic ‘hook’ lessons to spark excitement and curiosity about the topics ahead.

Not only are the children excited to be getting into their new core texts, but their afternoons have been dedicated to learning linked to our ‘Food Fortnight’. Food Fortnight is one of the most highly anticipated themed weeks here at Rockliffe Manor.  Throughout this time our children will be doing Design and Technology (DT) focused lessons, where they will work toward creating a delicious dish inspired by a chosen culture. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about and celebrate what makes the children and adults in our school community unique. The fortnight will culminate in Rockliffe’s infamous World Café! This year, the World Café will take place on Monday 17th November. We warmly invite all parents to join us after school for this celebration. Please consider donating a dish that represents your family's culture or heritage. It is always a fantastic opportunity to come together and celebrate our diverse community, so we truly hope to see you there!

As we begin the new half term, we are delighted to introduce our value focus for Autumn 2: Respect. We spent the beginning of the week exploring exactly what this looks like within the Rockliffe community and discussed the vital importance of showing our values, even when no one is looking! When we asked the children about why demonstrating our values is so important, they had some wonderful and insightful answers. We also explored how all our values interlink. While we focus on one value each half term, we remind the children that they should always try their best to demonstrate all of our core values, both at school and in their everyday life.

On Wednesday, we welcomed representatives from the Greenwich Mental Health in Schools Team (GMHST) to host a coffee morning. This session served as a great introduction to their service. It was also an opportunity for the GMHST to understand what kind of topics and support you, our parents, would find most useful for future coffee morning sessions. We are thrilled to have this fantastic connection to help support the mental health and well-being of our community. For parents who were unable to make the meeting the powerpoint can be found here: https://www.rockliffemanor.co.uk/attachments/download.asp?file=663&type=pptx

This includes details on how you can contact the service. 

In addition to the coffee morning, the GMHST also delivered a Year 5 workshop titled “Confident Me (Self-Esteem)”. During the session, children explored a range of important ideas about self-worth and confidence. They learned that self-esteem is how we think and feel about ourselves—shaped by our appearance, personality, emotions, and behaviours. Together, they discussed what can influence self-esteem, the power of positive self-talk, and ways to build confidence through affirmations. One particularly meaningful activity invited the children to practise positive self-talk in front of a mirror, helping them recognise their own strengths and uniqueness. It was a truly valuable session, supporting pupils’ emotional wellbeing and encouraging them to believe in themselves.

As the week draws to a close, we, like many of you are very excited by the first ever ‘ROCKLIFFE GLOW FEST’, The friends of Rockliffe have been busy planning this unique event, described as "Where Bonfire Night meets Diwali," it is a wonderful opportunity for our entire community to come together and celebrate as we head into the darker evenings. It’s a chance to build on the strong sense of community we value so much, connecting families and lighting up the night together.

We look forward to a successful and happy half term ahead and hope to see you at the Glow Fest!

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

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

Our Nursery children have enjoyed learning all about the festival of Diwali this week! The children began the week exploring the story of Rama and Sita, before sharing their thoughts and opinions with their peers. Leading on from that, Nursery really enjoyed creating beautiful Rangoli patterns and putting them on display to be celebrated. The children finished off the week by looking at different foods that are traditionally eaten during this festival for food fortnight. The children are very excited about making biscuits!

In Reception this week, the children have been busy learning about circles and triangles during their maths sessions. They really enjoyed engaging with the shapes in the environment and exploring the properties of these shapes. The children then went on a learning walk around the school looking for any circles and triangles that they could identify, pointing out a range of objects. Also, during their DT sessions, Reception have been learning about how to follow a recipe. To support their learning, the children enjoyed turning the malleable area into a kitchen where they made each other jam sandwiches following a recipe—delicious!

Year 1 have kicked off the term with lots of new and exciting learning. They have explored and read their new core text ‘Islandborn’ where they learned about Lola who is from the Dominican Republic but can’t remember anything about her country because they moved when she was young. They have also been looking at the difference between fruit and vegetables for food fortnight. It’s been great to see what the children have learned. Arthur S was excited to share that he knew vegetables didn’t have seeds in them and that most fruits have seeds in them.

Year 2 has had a fantastic start to Autumn 2! When the children arrived, they discovered a mysterious bear and a suitcase in their classrooms. After investigating, they found a note from Aunt Lucy asking the class to take care of Paddington Bear. Along with the note was a recipe for Paddington’s favourite treat — a marmalade sandwich! The children loved making (and eating) their own, even though a few were quite sure they didn’t like marmalade. In DT, the children were thrilled to taste a variety of biscuits and are already looking forward to baking their own creations for World Café.

Year 3 have also enjoyed a brilliant first week back. In DT, they explored what makes a nutritious diet and researched foods from around the world — with a special interest in brownies! In English, the children began reading their new core text, ‘The Wilderness War’, and have been discussing the important issue of deforestation. During reading sessions, they had a lively discussion about vocabulary from the book, particularly the word tremble. Isabel shared that rollercoasters make her tremble!

In Year 4 this week, the children have shown great enthusiasm for their DT learning. The children were excited to be making their own hummus and pitta bread. They were excited to tell Mrs Aliaj about all the cooking they already do at home. Henry and Uliana said that their mums make their own breads and it is delicious. The children created posters for their recipe ready to be displayed for families when they come.

Year 5 have enjoyed immersing themselves into their core text ‘Where the River Runs Gold’. The children had to discuss some of the positives and negatives of living near a river that truly runs gold. There were so many discussions about how wonderful it would be for people living there. However, Riley said that if other countries find out about the river they might start going to war with each other. Ayomide reinforced Riley’s message by making links to real events such as Africa being colonised for its resources—fantastic critical thinking!

The Year 6 children have worked really hard in maths this week whilst adding and subtracting mixed fractions. The children found the concept challenging at first but with high quality modelling and repeated practice, they managed to overcome the challenge and now they have achieved a greater level of fluency. They also had a fantastic library trip where they explored a range of books and chose stories that they like.

• Monday 10th November 2025 - Reception 2026 visit - Open Afternoon 3.45pm

• Monday 17th November 2025 - World Café Day 

• Tuesday 18th November 2025 - Phonics Workshop

• Thursday 20th November 2025 - Reception Open Day 2026 

• Tuesday 25th November 2025 - Year 1 Cinema Trip

• Wednesday 26th November 2025 - Reception - Year 6 Reading morning

• Wednesday 26th November 2025 - Year 5 & Year 6 Cinema Trip

• Thursday 27th November 2025 - Year 2 Trip London Eye 

• Friday 28th November 2025 - Inset Day - School Closed to Children