Welcome back to school everyone, wishing you all a very Happy New Year! We hope that you all had a wonderful winter break and were able to spend some quality time with friends and family. We anticipate that the new year will bring lots of positivity for us all as a school community, as well as lots of opportunities to learn, laugh and share the wonderful things that will be happening within the classrooms. A new year filled with many moments together to make memories and celebrate! 

It has certainly been a chilly start to the term, but that has not dampened the children’s week. We began the week by channelling our imagination, as Miss Nelson led the first assembly of 2024. The children were really excited to share what they would like to accomplish in 2024, what learning they wanted to experience and what skills they wanted to learn. It was so lovely to hear what the children’s new year resolutions are with one child even wanting to learn ballet! 

With a new term, comes a new value to focus on and today during our celebration assembly we really began looking at our value of effort. Elaina shared that effort means, “trying your best and not giving up!”. This core value embodies the spirit of hard work, determination, and perseverance, and we believe it plays a crucial role in shaping not only academic success but also the character of our children. The value of effort really does drive achievement, the commitment to giving our best in everything we do is what sets the foundation for growth and accomplishment. Today the children reflected on a time where they had shown effort and had felt proud of themselves.. 

“In year 1 doing deep sea diver and I needed help with my publishing, I didn’t give up” - Jacob 

“I have tried really hard in maths with my times table even when I have found it really hard” - Albie 

“I have been practising my gymnastics and haven’t given up” - Celine 

“I have been practising my art because I want to be an artist when I grow up” - Hazel 

The children also then looked to the future and thought about how they want to show effort in the term ahead..

“I want to improve on my handwriting in English” - Doug 

“I really want to work on my times tables, I want to focus on my 6’s timetables” - Lucia

“I want to work on multiplying and dividing fractions, I will keep on studying and use examples to help me” - Ope 

“I want to get better at science so I can get more information and knowledge and I will not give up” - Ketchi

The children shared that effort encourages a growth mindset, where challenges are viewed as opportunities to learn and improve and for building resilience, acknowledging the importance of trying again and learning from mistakes, we empower our children to navigate challenges with courage and perseverance.

So with that in mind let’s take a little look at what has been happening in the classrooms this week. 

Nursery have started the year strong by revisiting their class rules and expectations. They have been reminding each other of the rules using visuals around the classroom. They are also excited to further explore a range of fairy tales in their English learning! 

Reception are completely immersed in their new global theme and topic about animals. They were excited to learn about habitats this week and have been sharing their prior knowledge with one another during independent play and class discussions. Raphael knew that penguins didn’t live in the ocean because ‘they can’t breathe for that long, they live on ice and swim in the water’. 

Year 1 have also been loving their core text and have shown great empathy towards the characters in the story ‘Grandad’s secret giant’. When everyone runs away from the giant, he feels upset because people don’t like the fact that he’s different. But Celine said that if the giant came to our school, I would say thank you for helping the community. “He can come and live in our school.”

In Year 2, the children have been learning about the basic needs of human beings and did so in the context of what humans would need to take with them if they travelled to Mars. The children reflected on the difference between needs and wants and concluded that food, water, air and shelter are essential necessities for survival. 

The children in Year 3 are so immersed in their new core text for this half term, ‘The Invisible’. The children have enjoyed asking questions and making connections to the story and Tyrone has enjoyed reading the story with the adults in class. The children have started their Design and Technology learning all about constellations and zodiac signs and are looking forward to creating their own constellation cushions.

Year 4 have been mathematicians this week and have been superstars in finding factors of a number and used resources such as factor bugs to support them. The children were amazing coaches to their peers and helped create a step by step guide on how to find all of the factors of a number. In English, the children are really enjoying their new core text, Wonder and they showed off their oracy skills by participating in a class debate as to whether they think the main character, Auggie should go to school or not. 

In Year 5, the children have also had an amazing first week back and they have been enthralled by their new core text and have been making lots of connections with the events and themes in the story so far. This has then sparked great interest and discussion in class and engagement from all. 

And last but not least Year 6 have started the new term with a bang and have enjoyed participating in lots of engaging activities for their maths learning. They took to the hall and travelled around answering different questions using their amazing knowledge. 

What an amazing start to the term! We can’t wait to see how the learning continues to develop. Shortly you will receive this term's newsletter that details what your children will be learning and exploring over the next 4 weeks. These are a great opportunity to further support your child in their learning. We know that children learn best when they are immersed in their curriculum and by talking to your children at home about their topics they will deepen and further their knowledge. 

And like that, the first week of Spring 1 is done! 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