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Message from Mrs Cook

Welcome back to school everyone, we hope you all had a restful half term and were able to spend some quality time with friends and family. This first week of the half term has seen some fantastic lessons designed to hook and excite the children in their learning, and we can’t wait to see where the learning journeys take us over the next 5 weeks! 

In an exciting hook into their English lesson, Year 4 embarked on a culinary adventure to explore the flavours of India, inspired by their new core text, "Tamarind and the Star of Ishta." With lots of excitement, they sampled a variety of Indian dishes, allowing their taste buds to experience the vibrant spices and rich aromas. As they savoured each bite, the children wrote mouth watering sentences. 

Zechariah wrote ‘The samosa was heavenly, its spicy taste awoke me from a little doze. The samosa was so fragrant it made my nose hairs dance!’ 

Zuzia wrote ‘the aromatic onion bhaji was exquisite, its crispy and rich taste made my taste buds dance’.

This immersive activity not only deepened their understanding of Indian culture but also sparked their creativity and language skills as they delved into the world of Tamarind and her adventures. 

As we begin the second half of our spring term, we turn our focus to a new value; the value of Responsibility. Within our exploration of the value of Responsibility, we aim to instil in our children the importance of accountability, reliability, and the understanding of one's actions and their consequences. Throughout this half term, we will be exploring various aspects of responsibility through classroom activities and discussions, helping our children understand the importance of taking ownership of their actions and decisions. 

We're thrilled to announce that our Book Fair was successfully delivered on Thursday! The Book Fair is not only a fantastic opportunity for our children to explore new worlds through literature but also a platform that promotes the love of reading. We believe that fostering a love for reading from a young age is essential, as it not only enriches vocabulary and language skills but also stimulates imagination and creativity. 

After school, the book fair opened to adults and children and wow was the hall busy! It was so amazing to see so many of you come together and get excited about reading with your children. The book fair will be up and running until Wednesday 28th February so do come and have a look. This year, adults also have the option to pay by card. Thank you to everyone who supported this initiative so far, and those who will be joining us next week. 

Sticking with the theme of reading, despite the rain, on Thursday our Year 3 children enjoyed a visit to the library. Their spirits remained high while they searched for their new books to read. We commend their enthusiasm and eagerness to learn, even in less-than-ideal weather conditions. Thank you to those parents who also joined us. 

Year 3 was not the only class out and about this week. Year 1 and 2 children had an extraordinary experience at the London Philharmonic Orchestra for our Key Stage 1 BrightSparks concert. The concert, featuring the story of Stan and Mabel, based on the book by Jason Chapman and with music by Paul Rissmann, was a delightful blend of storytelling and musical enchantment. Presenter Polly Ives and conductor Luis Castillo-Briceño, along with the LPO, brought the tale of these music-loving pets to life, captivating our children with fun songs, audience interaction, and orchestral treats. It was truly an unforgettable first concert experience for our Key Stage 1 children. Let’s hear from the children:

 "I liked that we got to sing the songs from Stan and Mabel and we got to listen to the story while the music was playing. My favourite part was when the animals went to Italy to perform with their orchestra." Layla 

"My favourite part was when the animals followed their neighbour to Italy because they wanted to be the best orchestra in the world. I loved singing along and doing the actions for the words. It was sad when the audience booed the animals when they performed but then at the end everyone cheered for them." Ashwin 

"I liked the trip because I have never seen an orchestra before. I saw a violin, drums and flutes. It was fun getting on the bus and then on the train.  And I liked having lunch there with my friends.” Daisie- Mae

Thank you to all Year 6 parents who joined us for the RHE meeting this week. Miss Roper, who led the session, shared that it was truly wonderful to connect and engage in meaningful discussions about the Year 6 curriculum. Your active participation and open dialogue was invaluable as we continue to work together to support the holistic development of our children. During Spring 2, there will be an additional meeting for families of children in Year 1 to Year 5 to discuss the curriculum. Details of this meeting will be shared shortly and we hope we will have lots of families attend. 

We're excited to announce that parent evenings are just around the corner! These invaluable sessions are scheduled for the week beginning March 18th. Parent evenings provide a fantastic opportunity for you to meet with your child's teachers, discuss their progress, and gain insight into their academic and personal development. We'll be sending out communication soon with more details about scheduling appointments. We encourage all parents to take advantage of this opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations about your child's education.

And lastly, we are overjoyed to share with you that Ms. Gallagher and her partner welcomed their baby boy into the world! Both mum and baby are doing well, and we are sure the parent community will join us in sending love and warm wishes to the growing family.

As always, we encourage open communication between parents and teachers. If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas you'd like to share, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

And like that, the first week of Spring 2 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 





Learning this week

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


Nursery this week have been working hard on conflict and resolution. They have been looking at and applying turn taking strategies in building relationships across the class. Rujta has been working particularly hard with this and has loved including others in her play more. 


Children in Reception this week loved beginning their literacy learning journey focused around bees. The children enjoyed having our local bee keeper come to visit and share their expert knowledge about bees. The children experienced a range of activities such as tasting honey, trying on beekeeping suits and learning how to care for bees. 


Children in Year 1 loved their art lesson this week where they researched facts about an inspirational artist. The children learnt that Clark Reynolds is partially blind and the art that he creates is suitable for people who have limited vision or who are blind. By looking at the artist’s work the children were able to talk about the shapes, colours and textures they could see and they created a mood board. 


Year 2 are excited about their science learning journey as they identify similarities and differences between life cycles of different animals. The children learnt key vocabulary such as, offspring and metamorphosis to describe and compare the different life cycles. 


Year 3 has had a great start to Spring 2 this week! The children have dived into their new maths learning of fractions. The whole class has consistently shown a growth mindset and despite some finding it difficult, they have not given up. Year 3 are amazing coaches and wear their coloured lanyards with pride as they support each other. 


Year 4 had a mouthwatering English lesson this week for their hook to their new core text! The children enjoyed trying different Indian foods, spinning an adjective wheel before writing rich and exciting sentences to describe their experience. Using words such as aromatic, flavourful and delectable we discussed the meaning of new words and applied them to our writing. 


In year 5 this week, they have been really enjoying their new core text, Windrush Child - they really enjoyed independently researching facts about the Windrush generation and creating a chronological timeline of this subject. They also had their first experiment with Picohs (programmable robots) in computing. 


In year 6 they have been enjoying The Other side of Truth, making predictions and empathising with a character. And in maths they have been learning about area and perimeter of rectilinear shapes

Twitter

Here are some of the tweets that can be found on our Rockliffe Manor Twitter page this week


Birthdays, Merits & Attendance

Kristina - Year 4





Reception - 96.6%

Year 1 - 88.2%

Year 2 - 91.4%

Year 3 - 92.8%

Year 4 - 91.7%

Year 5 - 91.9%

Year 6 - 94.6%

Total - 92.4%

Reception - All & Ms Attridge 

Year 1 -  Harley

Year 2 - Mateus

Year 3 - Meryem

Year 4 - Jawad

Year 5 - Khadijat

Year 6 - Charlie R

Dates for your diary

Special Notice

Messages from the office

Lego/ Duplo




PE Kits



Scooters in Playground



Uniform reminder



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. 



Community Information