Although this week was a short four-day week, it has been absolutely bursting with energy and memorable trips for our children! We believe these real-world experiences greatly enhance their learning, and we’re so proud of how brilliantly they all represented the school.

Year 1 had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy a cinema trip as part of the ‘Into Film Festival’. This festival offers free screenings, providing a valuable cultural experience for our children. ‘The Sloth Lane’ film offered some great talking points back in the classroom. The story follows Laura, the pre-teen daughter of a family of Mexican sloths who move to Sanctuary City. They must adapt to life in the 'fast lane' while cherishing their familial and cultural practices. The plot highlights important themes of resilience and family as the sloths are devastated when a storm destroys their family restaurant. They bravely start a food truck with generations-old recipes, only to face further challenges from a deceiving entrepreneur. This lovely trip provided the children with a fantastic cinema experience and encouraged discussions around culture, family values, and perseverance—all while enjoying a fun, animated adventure!

Year 5 and 6 also enjoyed the film festival, watching the action-packed movie ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ at the O2. The film follows Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles as they face a formidable new adversary, Shadow, who is driven by deep-rooted pain and a desire for revenge. Beyond the fun and action, this movie ties into important, age-appropriate themes that are valuable for our older children, including: 

• Teamwork and Loyalty: Seeing the heroes rely on each other to overcome overwhelming challenges.

• Consequences of Choices: The film highlights how both Sonic and Shadow face the consequences of their actions and how they choose to respond to trauma.

• The Power of Forgiveness: Discussing the importance of not letting anger and a desire for revenge lead to destructive choices.

It was wonderful to see so many children engaged in such a popular and relevant piece of cinema, providing a fun talking point about good decision-making and friendship!

And last but not least, our Year 2 children had a fantastic adventure this week, travelling into the capital for a memorable trip to the London Eye! This trip perfectly complemented their Geography Learning, where they are exploring why so many tourists visit London each year, offering a unique opportunity to see key aspects of London's geography and history from a unique perspective. During their rotation, the children were able to spot several significant landmarks along the River Thames, including: Big Ben, The Shard and Houses of Parliament. This experience gave the children a valuable sense of scale and location, bringing their lessons on landmarks to life. They showed wonderful enthusiasm and were excellent ambassadors for the school throughout their day!

Just like that, another week has flown by, there is only so much we can capture within the newsletter, so please do look at our Twitter page to see all the other wonderful things that have happened this week and beyond. Your likes, comments and retweets really do make a difference in spreading the joy and celebrating the fantastic achievements of our children and staff. It’s a wonderful way to stay connected and share in the vibrant life of our Rockliffe community.

Next week, we’re looking forward to hosting the first of our festive activities: our Winter Discos! We are excited to welcome back an old friend, John Padmore, to once again take on the role of DJ! John always brings incredible energy and a fantastic playlist, ensuring the children have a brilliant time dancing and celebrating the start of the holiday season. We can't wait to see all the festive outfits and fantastic dance moves! you haven’t got your tickets, please do hurry, they are still on sale via Arbor. 

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, the children were excited to explore their food based provision activities. The water area had turned to jelly and it really engaged the children in their play while stimulating their senses. They also made thank you notes to someone special. Jerry did one for her big cousin because she picked her up. Bora did them for her mum, teachers and her friends for playing with her. Fantastic learning this week Nursery! 

Children In Reception this week have really enjoyed their singing practice for the key stage 1 Nativity. The children have enjoyed listening and rehearsing the different songs and can’t wait to learn actions. It has also been great to see the high level of mark making going on around the classroom from all children! 

Year 1 this week really enjoyed their trip to the cinema. It was great listening to the children share what they enjoyed with their parents and friends.  

Year 2 have been busy this week! They began their global learning outcome creating a welcome booklet and video for new starters at Rockliffe Manor. The children thought about what welcoming means and linked this to their core text Paddington. They then took part in an opinion continuum where they listened to scenarios and applied their critical thinking skills to decide whether they agree or disagree. 

Year 3 had a lovely trip to the library this week, the children were so excited to choose a new book to take back to school. Divine explained that he was excited to read his book at lunchtime and couldn’t decide which genre of book he wanted to find. Laziya was so excited to tell Miss Roper that he borrowed a minecraft book! In arithmetic, the class have been busy learning their 3 times tables, despite finding it hard at the beginning, the children have shown a great mindset. Isabel also shared that she is loving her core text in English and doesn’t want it to end. 

This week year 4 loved exploring maps of Greece and using 4-point grid references to locate cities and landmarks. They made great connections with their history learning from the last half term by sharing facts about Athens and Mount Olympus. In maths, they’ve been using multiplication and division to solve problems. There were lots of opportunities for discussion and reasoning as they explained how to find the answer.

Year 5 and 6 had a fantastic time on their cinema trip to the O2, where they watched Sonic the Hedgehog. From the moment the film began, everyone was completely immersed.  The  excitement, laughter, and suspense filled the room. It was wonderful to see the children so engaged and enjoying the experience together. Overall, it was a lovely day and a memory they’ll treasure.

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