Manor Park Primary Academy

This is the first half-termly Celebration Newsletter of the new academic year, and I would like to extend a warm Manor Park welcome to our new children and their families who have joined us recently. All the children have settled nicely into their new classes and over the next half term we look forward to welcoming more of our parents and carers into school to meet with teachers at the forthcoming parent/teacher meetings which start after half term. We also look forward to Christmas performances and celebrations which we will share with you in December and will provide you with dates in the Notices and Reminders sheet on our return to school. 

It has been a busy and successful half term and Year 4 and 6 have shared their learning  with their parents and carers at their Express and Share Assemblies. Year 3 enjoyed a visit to High Ashurst Outdoor Learning Centre, near Box Hill, where they took part in a variety of activities to encourage their communication and team building skills. Earlier this week, a number of Year 6 children attended the Kingswood Activity Centre in Staffordshire, for their annual residential visit, returning to school on Wednesday evening,  very tired but very happy! This is a popular trip with the pupils, and the staff who accompanied them worked hard to ensure that they gained the most that they could from this experience; a special thanks must go to  Miss Harding, Ms Hasan, Miss Satchell, Ms Campion, Mrs Starmore, Mr Batt, Mr Ed and Mrs Webb. Children across the school have enjoyed a number of workshops to complement their Learning Projects and may we thank you again for your financial support for these invaluable activities-the children love taking part and gain so much from them.  F.O.M.P also held a Halloween-themed Mufti Day and we had some amazing witches, ghouls and monsters roaming through the corridors!!

Mrs McCormick is starting her maternity leave this half term and we  hope she manages to have a well-earned rest before the baby arrives. We thank her for all of her hard work and dedication to the school and wish her much happiness in the coming weeks.

Thank you again for all your support, and have a wonderful Autumn break.  We look forward to welcoming the children back on Tuesday 31st October 2023, with Monday 30th October being an Inset day.

This half term in Year 1, the children have enjoyed a range of new mini-projects. During Engage week, they explored an Art mini-project where they were introduced to the concept of art through at a book called ‘Mix It Up’ by Hervé Tullet. The children developed their knowledge of colour by identifying primary and secondary colours and had lots of different opportunities to mix colours to create secondary colours, as well as looking at artists such as Kandinsky and Mondrian. 

The children worked on our driver History project ‘Childhood’ where they learned about 'Childhood in the 1950's'. They completed a range of activities such as ordering a timeline of the stages of life and drawing pictures of toys of the past. Towards the end of this half term, Year 1 then created their own knowledge organisers of all the information they had learnt about Childhood to share to the older children in the school. 

In Writing, the children have completed lots of different writing tasks such as lists and captions using the book ‘Lottie’s Letter’ by Gordon Snell. They practised role playing as characters from the story and did their first hot seating session. They then sequenced the story using illustrations so they could identify the beginning, middle and end of the story.  At the end of this half term, the children were able to write descriptive sentences using nouns and adjectives. 

In Year 1, the children started their Yoga classes with our specialist Yoga teacher! The children have really enjoyed these weekly sessions and it has allowed them to explore different breathing techniques. They have learned Yoga Bear’s rhyme and learning some simple poses.

One of the highlights of their half term was our from Mrs O’s History Workshop which linked to our History topic ‘Childhood’. The children absolutely loved being able to physically touch and play with the toys of the past that were brought in. They were able to recognise some of the toys from our previous lessons and even discovered some new ones!

During Engage this half term, Year 2 explored their new learning project, 'Movers and Shakers'. The children were able to explore significant people from the past and decide whether they were activists, explorers, scientists or artists. We looked at each significant individual and thought about how they have made an impact on the world, either now, in the present or in the past. The children had the chance to order these significant individuals on timelines and complete research on specific individuals, for example, Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus.

Year 2 had the chance to take part in a Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus workshop this half term. They had the chance to learn about and act out the different events both famous explorers took part in during their lifetime. They placed the key events on a timeline by looking at the years the explorers were born to see who was born a long time ago and who was born in more recent years. They took a voyage on a ship whilst pretending to be Christopher Columbus and took a trip in a rocket ship whilst pretending to be Neil Armstrong.

In PE this half term, Year 2 have been taking part in Real Gym. They have been learning how to make different shapes with their bodies and different methods of travel. They learnt shapes such as tuck, straight and arch. Using the low apparatus, they practised their balancing skills to perform the different shapes they had learnt. The children worked in groups and partners to sequence shapes with methods of travel to create a sequence. They played games such as 'follow the leader' and 'mirror,  mirror' to practise performing their body shapes.

As part of our Mini Project - Mix it Up this half term, the children have been learning about primary and secondary colours. They revisited their learning from year 1 on how to use the primary colours to mix secondary colours and progressed their knowledge and skills by exploring hues and how to add additional primary colours to create different types of secondary colours.  They studied the work of Kandinsky and used their hues to paint a piece of art which replicated his artwork.  

In History, Year 3 children have been learning all about the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. They have learned all about the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic ages and the everyday lives of the people at the time. They have learned about the Bronze age and how wealth and power affected the relationships between different tribes, acting out a drama based on this topic. They have also learned about the different tools created and used during the Bronze Age. 

As part of their Science learning, the children learned about the importance of a healthy diet, the musculoskeletal system and how to compare the diets of different animals. The children enjoyed drawing a life size skeleton and naming all the bones. They also used Jamboard to name different muscles in the body. 

In Geography, the children used atlases to discover different countries and used grid references to find both human and physical features. They learnt about climate zones, how to locate European countries using a map and how to use the eight points of a compass to locate a geographical feature . They were fascinated when learning about the layers of the earth and discussing the movements of the tectonic plates. 

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their team development day at High Ashurst. The children spent the day participating in activities such as woodland skills, orienteering and  team building. They had to use their excellent communication skills as well as encouraging each other to successfully complete each activity. Their favourite part was having popcorn around the campfire!

We have started the year with an exciting array of sports fixtures and opportunities. Children in year 5/6 attended the Canoe World Championship at Lee Valley. Here, they were able to watch the top athletes in the field competing, see a water safety demonstration by the police, and then participate in their own kayaking session.  The football season has started positively, with both a boys and girls LEO tournament as well as league and cup fixtures. Children in year 3/4 have enjoyed taking part in a skipping festival and year 5 have learnt new skills at a multi skills festival and a tennis event. Year 5/6 have experienced playing netball at Sutton High School as part of their festival and training has been taking place for the upcoming LEO tag rugby tournament. 

In addition, we have also been fortunate to take part in some cycling sessions at Rose Hill, working on road safety and cycling skills. Some of our year 6 children have taken part in Junior Supremo training, where they learnt leadership skills to support the younger children with physical activity. They are looking forward to supporting at lunchtimes and at events within school.  Finally, we have had Surrey cricket in school, working with children across KS2 to develop their teamwork, communication and basic cricket skills.

The class with the highest attendance in Reception and Key Stage 1  for week ending 13th October was Amethyst Class and Quartz Class with 99.33% closely followed by Agate class with 98%.

The class with the highest attendance in Key Stage 2 for week ending 13th October was Jade Class and Onyx Class with 99.38% closely followed by Opal Class and Pearl Class with 98.13%.

Well done, everyone.

Click here to see this week's certificate winners. 

Well done to you all!