What a lovely, albeit chilly, week we’ve had! It has been amazing to see the school buzzing with the excitement of learning and to witness the enthusiasm and joy of children sharing their curiosity and creativity across the curriculum. 

We certainly started the week in style, as on Monday we held our annual world cafe celebrations.The children looked wonderful coming into school dressed in their own clothing that linked to their community and identity and it fostered great conversations about culture and community. It was so lovely to welcome you all into the hall to taste the amazing food each class made as well as the food that was so kindly donated by our families. Thank you to all of those who donated and helped support celebrating the diversity of the communities at Rockliffe Manor.

It was also great to welcome so many families to our Stay and Learn on Tuesday. We had an amazing turnout, with families from Year 1 to Year 6 coming into classes to see phonics and reading in action. The event beautifully highlighted the crucial connection between home and school. When we work together, we create the strongest foundation for our children's learning and success. Your participation is a vital part of this partnership, and we sincerely believe that this collaborative effort is what truly makes a difference in their educational journey. We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who was able to attend and share in the learning experience. 

If that wasn’t enough reading excitement, Miss Lambert happily presented our first set of highly anticipated certificates for the children who have completed their Bronze Reading Challenge! The reading challenge is designed to foster a lifelong love of reading, broaden their vocabulary, and enhance their comprehension skills. We want to see as many children as possible achieving these certificates—and moving on to the Silver and Gold challenges! So let's keep reading together!

Next week will be a short, four-day week as Friday is an INSET day. During this time, our dedicated teachers will be working closely with colleagues from our Trust partner schools to reflect on and celebrate the incredible progress our children are making. This collaboration helps us to continuously improve and ensure the very best learning experiences for all our pupils.

Before we wish you well, just a couple of parent reminders; firstly please can we ensure that children are not bringing their own footballs into school, we understand that this has been well intended but this is causing some conflict during break times. As a school, we are ordering new items so the children have adequate play equipment to enjoy their break times safely and constructively. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in ensuring a positive playtime environment for everyone.

In addition, we would like to ask all parents to be mindful of their social media posting and filming around the school perimeter. We need to ensure we are respecting the privacy of other families in our community. Whilst we cannot directly police activity outside of our school gates, we kindly ask for your cooperation in this matter.

We 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 this week …

In Nursery this week, the children have been thoroughly enjoying their phonics sessions. They confidently recalled the sounds s (snake) and a (astronaut) through a variety of blending and listening games, and this week's focus was the sound t (tiger). In English carpet sessions, they also had lovely discussions where the children talked about their families, sharing who they live with at home and celebrating the people special to them.

Our Reception class had a fantastic time creating their vegetarian pizzas for the World Café event. They were incredibly proud of the end results and couldn't wait to share their culinary creations with their families. In Maths, the children have been introduced to new resources, such as Rekenreks and counting beads, as they worked on confidently representing the number 10.

This week in Year 1, the children made wonderful connections between their own lives and our core text by thinking about what makes the place they were born so special. It was fantastic to see them showcase their digital literacy skills using 2Paint on Purple Mash, where they illustrated local features like post offices, parks, and flats, along with different weather types. Later in the week, the focus shifted to creating descriptive, expanded noun phrases to describe places like London and England. We loved Remi May's observation that London has 'Black taxis'!

Year 2 has had a wonderfully busy week! They were excited to finish preparing their delicious alfajores, which were a great hit at the World Café. In English, the children have been exploring the various relationships Paddington forms in both the book and the movie, using positive, interesting, and negative stickers to compare how these connections develop. Alongside their academic work, they have also begun getting stuck into rehearsals for their Nativity Production, which they are very excited to share with families at the end of the term!

Year 3 has really immersed themselves in their core text this week, focusing on the powerful emotions surrounding the news of the land being sold. The children showed great empathy as they identified how this significant event might make the character, Noah, feel. They skillfully used show-not-tell techniques in their writing to bring those emotions to life, thoughtfully considering what it would be like for Noah to face the possibility of the Wilderness being destroyed.

Year 4 had a wonderful Food Fortnight experience, where they were busy making parts of a Greek Meze. They enjoyed planning how they could film parts of the cooking process to create their own instructional video—Jack and Ashwin were excited to be YouTube stars! They also showed great resilience and determination this week as they applied themselves fully while completing their assessments.

Year 5 really enjoyed making their Basbousa Cake on Monday, with many children sharing ideas for different ingredients to make the recipe even more unique. In addition, this week marked the start of their Carol Concert song practices, and they are excited about the opportunity to show off their singing skills to the wider community soon.

Year 6 also enjoyed making their 'Brazilian Brigadeiro Chocolate' on Monday, which proved to be a very popular treat during the World Café. In English, the children are continuing to enjoy their core text, The Giver, and they have been analytically looking at the author's word choices to examine the key features of a dystopian society. In Maths, they have continued to show excellent effort and determination in tackling and understanding fractions in all their forms.

Please be reminded that we are a No Nut School - We have children with severe allergies to Nut products. 

If you would like to show your interest please contact the office where we can give you further information. 

We would like to increase our resources and maybe have a Lego/Duplo station at playtime. If any of our parents have Lego or Duplo that your child no longer plays with we would appreciate any donations. 

PE Kits - can we please remind you that all children should bring their PE Kits in to School. The children will need a pair of shorts, T-shirt and socks.

Due to incidents in playground with scooters, can parents please ensure that your child does not ride on the playground and other areas of the school. Children to not to be riding passed the school gates, Many thanks.

School Uniform - can we please remind you that all children are requested to wear school colours - Not Hoodies. Also now that the colder weather has begun your child should come dressed accordingly - Coats,Jumpers or Cardigans and appropriate footwear. 

We have a uniform rail outside the office, If you have any preloved uniform that could help fill our rail we would greatly appreciate this. 

All of our school policies can be found on our school website  School Policies 

Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy 

SEND Policy 

Complaints Policy