We hope that you have had a wonderful half term break with your children and that you were able to enjoy some quality time with each other. As we begin the second half of the Autumn term, we have so much to look forward to. It’s been a very wet first week back at school, but one full of amazing learning opportunities! The children across the school have been immersing themselves in their new core texts and the teachers have provided ‘hook’ lessons to get the children excited. 

As a new half term is upon us, we introduce our value of the half term, in Autumn 2 we will focus on our value of RESPECT. We began the week exploring what this would look like at Rockliffe Manor and the importance of showing our values, when no one is looking! When asking the children about why showing respect is important, Elaina said ‘Respect and Kindness go together, by showing respect you are being kind, not only to people but to things as well’. Zechariah agreed and shared "Respect isn’t shown by doing big things, it is the little things that count’. Ketchie added ‘If respect is not shown it is disappointing, if we do not respect things in our classroom we won’t have nice things’. What a wonderful start, we look forward to hearing more from the children as the term goes on. 

On Monday we were excited to launch Food Fortnight, following the success of this last year. Over this week and next the children will have DT (Design and Technology) focused lessons where they will work towards creating a dish inspired by a chosen culture. In doing this, we want to celebrate what makes the adults and children in our school community unique. At the end of the two weeks, the children will showcase their learning by contributing to Rockliffe’s infamous World Café.  This year our World Café will take place on Monday 13th November 2023 and parents are invited to the World Café after school and to donate a dish! It is a fantastic opportunity to come together and celebrate our community, so we hope to see you there. Please take a look at twitter to see how this learning is unfolding. 

Although it seems a little while off yet, our Friends of Rockliffe have begun to plan our Winter Fair. This year we are trying a different approach of holding this after school on Friday 8th December - more information about this and our other winter festivities will be shared soon. 

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 

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… 

Nursery this week have started their phonics learning through Little Wandle. They have been looking at initial sounds focusing on the ‘s’ sound. Jasper enjoyed one of the games so much that he applied his learning to his independent play. Sienna identified that she has the s sound in her name when practising her name writing this week with Mr Harracksingh.l It has also been great to hear all of the children beginning to talk about their families and identifying who has siblings in the class. Oyinlola said that ‘I have a baby brother and no sisters’. 

Reception has had the best start to the new term this week. They went out on their first trip to Pizza Express in Bexleyheath and were immersed into their new topic and food fortnight. We are so proud of how well the children showcased our values of kindness, respect and effort when travelling and taking part in the activities. The children were able to build on their fine motor skills through kneading dough, spreading tomato sauce and sprinkling on some cheese before their pizzas were cooked, ready to be eaten at school. Alfie couldn’t believe that he was having a pizza that he made for his school dinner and said it was ‘the best day ever!’ Saxon already told his mum leading up to the trip that she could ‘throw away all of the pizzas at home because he was going to be making them from now on’.  

Year 1 has had a great first week back and has had lots of great learning experiences. In English, the children have been exploring their new core text; Island Born. This is a story about a girl who wants to know more about the country her family is from. The class then went on to create their own diaries written as the main character, they discussed her thoughts and feelings. Daisy-Mae shared ‘I think the little girl is feeling a bit sad because her family had to move countries.’ The class also had a lovely trip to the library this week and had so much fun looking at all of the books on offer! 

Year 2 have been busy this week starting off their new half term and have loved getting stuck into their learning. In English the children have been using their prediction skills based on the front cover of their new core text. Eni shared ‘In English we looked at our new book and it is about a girl and a bird. I predict the little girl wants to fly with the bird but she can’t.’ The children have been mathematicians this week by showing off their skills of number knowledge. They used their previous learning of number bonds to 10 and have started applying it to 100, the class have also started counting in 3’s, they have shown such a growth mindset in this and are continuing to try hard even if they find it difficult. Reuben showed such a growth mindset when he said ‘I found it in the middle, both tricky and hard but I didn't give up!’

Year 3 have jumped headfirst into their Food Fortnight, exploring the Ukrainian dish Pierogies. They researched other dumplings from around the world and the whole class agreed that their favourite would be chocolate momo’s from Nepal, the adults in class also shared the same idea! Anayah beamed with pride when she shared ‘I eat momos at home with my family!’ In English, the class has started a new core text about Greta Thungberg and the whole of Year 3 now wants to save the world from climate change by taking action! Leo shared ‘I want to be just like Greta Thunberg and change the world!’ 

Year 4 this week were transported to Greece in their Food Fortnight. The class tried different Greek cuisines such as; kalamata olives, feta cheese, tzatziki and hummus. The classroom was such a joyful place to be with lots of laughter and smiles. While there was some food the children enjoyed and could not get enough of, there was also food that did not make it high on the children’s list of favourite food! Tochi shared ‘I did not like the feta cheese at all, but I did like the pita bread!’ River said ‘I loved all of them because they had all different tastes, my favourite was the olives’ The whole class are excited to begin making their Greek salads ready to display alongside our posters at World Cafe. 

Year 5 have begun learning about the states of matter in science and they had a great first lesson by seeing the three states occur using ice and a kettle. They held the ice and understood the heat from their bodies was causing the ice to turn from a solid to a liquid. They then role played being the particles around the room in different states. 

In year 6 this week, they have been really excited and enthusiastically learning about the origins of Ukrainian foods - mainly potatoes and pancakes. They were particularly interested in Sweden's own "blood pancakes" in which pig's blood was added to the savoury snack. 

Save the Date for our Winter Fair!

The annual Rockliffe Manor Winter Fair will be taking place after school on Friday 8th December from 3:30. 

A letter will be shared with you all next week detailing how to purchase a stall and further communication around the event. The school and Friends of Rockliffe would appreciate any help you are able to extend.

We are also looking for donations towards raffle prizes, teddy tombola, bottles of various drinks and if any families are happy to cook or bake food for the event.