Atwood Newsletter 2nd October 2026

This week, children across the school have been reading poems for National Poetry Day, thinking about being kind, visiting Crystal Palace Park and enjoying the ongoing sunshine as well as all the usual learning taking place.

A reminder that if you haven’t booked in for a parents’ evening meeting next week, please book up or speak to the class teacher.

This week in Nursery, the children have continued enjoying Owl Babies, focusing on the theme of families. The children had lovely conversations about their loved ones before painting their very own family trees. They also went on an exciting bird hunt around the school field and spotted pigeons, magpies, robins, and even parakeets!

Outdoors, the children created a fantastic new music wall using the pots and pans kindly donated by our Nursery parents. The children have loved banging them and exploring all the different sounds they make. In maths, they have been focusing on the number 2, using fun actions and songs to help represent the number 2

In Reception this week, the children have been talking about their families and building their number knowledge. You can read more here:

https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/atw-reception-families-and-composition-of-numbers-23-and-4

In English, Year 1 have been reading Jon Klassen’s ‘I want my hat back’ and using it to generate sentences. They were shown the hat from the book and made predictions about what might have happened to it. After reading the story, they thought of how the bear might feel and explored a variety of words for ‘happy’, ‘sad’ and ‘cross’. In maths, Year One have started to partition numbers into two parts and investigated how many different ways they could make the same number. In Geography, they looked at the four parts of the United Kingdom and their capital cities. Finally in art, they selected paint that matched their skin tones and painted their self portraits with the appropriate shade.

This week in Year 2, the children have been exploring commutativity in maths and learning that amounts can be added either way round and the total will be the same. In English, the children have begun learning a new text called ‘The Bear and the Piano’. A lovely story about friendship and being proud of your achievements written by David Lichfield. It has also been lovely to see the amazing thematic homework that the children are proudly beginning to bring in. Their enthusiasm for the Tudor topic is lovely to see!

Year 3 had the excitement of a trip to Crystal Palace Park this week bringing their history and science learning to life in the autumn air! Year 3 kicked off their day at the Crystal Palace Museum, where the children learned all about the magnificent glass structure designed by Joseph Paxton. They were fascinated to discover how it was built, the strange and wonderful memorabilia sold during the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the dramatic story of the great fire that sadly destroyed it in 1936. They also learned about the giant water towers that once stood on the site and how they were eventually dismantled. One of the highlight discoveries in the museum was learning about real historical letters that were found hidden inside the famous dinosaur sculptures during restoration work! As part of their explorations, the children walked up to the upper terrace to explore the historic statues, paying special attention to the statue of the Turkish man. To grasp the scale of the original Palace, the children paced out the perimeter themselves—they couldn’t believe just how vast the building really was!

Finally, the children made their way down to the tidal lake to see the famous Victorian Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. The children loved standing right where famous scientists actually dined inside the mold of the Iguanodon back in 1853, just before the display opened to the public! The children were wonderfully curious, asked thoughtful questions, and represented our school brilliantly throughout the day.

A huge thank you to all of our parent helpers who joined us and helped make the trip such a success!

Through the rest of the week, Year 3 have continued their learning in other subjects.

In Mathematics, the children deepened their understanding of place value up to 1,000 by partitioning three-digit numbers into hundreds, tens, and ones using base-10 equipment. In English, they launched their exciting new topic on dinosaurs by practising past tense and possessive apostrophes (e.g. the Tyrannosaurus rex’s sharp teeth) to prepare for writing a detailed non-chronological report. In Science, pupils learned to identify and compare structural support systems across the animal kingdom, applying key scientific terms like vertebrate, invertebrate, endoskeleton, exoskeleton, and hydrostatic skeleton. Finally, during Whole Class Reading, the children explored The Dinosaurium, investigating how modern museums curate and display prehistoric fossils.

This week, Year 4 have been reading about when the Romans invaded Britain and the life of Boudicca in their English lessons. In maths, the children have been recapping their understanding of place value in 4 digit numbers and in Geography the children have been comparing the physical and human features of London and Rome. As part of National Poetry Day, the children learnt and performed a poem about Boudicca and in their whole class reading the children learnt about the life of Olaudah Equiano when reading the book ‘Black and British’ by David Olusoga.

This week Year 5 have been introduced to their new writing unit ‘Alma’. The children have been thinking about what makes a good suspense story and also started to develop their own openers using ISPACE (-ing, simile, preposition, adverbs, conjunctions and -ed) to improve their descriptions. In maths, they have started to subtract 2 4-digit numbers working hard to identify where they might need to exchange when working out a question in the column method. In reading this week Year 5have been focusing on Rosa Parks and learning about segregation and the ongoing fight for equality. In thematic this week the children have started to think about sketching, looking at tone and shade in preparation for our Viking sketches next week. Finally, in science, the children put friction to the test by measuring the resistance of different surfaces using Newton meters!

In English, in line with National Poetry Day, Year 6 have been reading Cloud Busting by Malorie Blackman, a powerful story about friendship, bullying and the importance of being yourself. The children have explored the poetry used in the book and have written their own haikus about school, following the traditional Japanese 5–7–5 syllable pattern. They have also enjoyed bringing the story to life through role-play, acting out key scenes and exploring the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

In Maths, the children have begun their fractions unit. The children have been developing their understanding of equivalent fractions and learning how to simplify fractions, before applying their knowledge to a range of reasoning and problem-solving questions.

In PE, Year 6 have continued their energetic and vibrant Street Dance unit. The children have been developing their rhythm, coordination and confidence while learning different street-dance moves and routines. There has also been plenty of excitement with dance-offs and face-offs, giving the children the opportunity to perform against each other in true street-dance style!

Sports News

Congratulations to our 37 cross country runners who competed at Royal Russell School on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We had a contrast in conditions with blazing sunshine for the year 3 and 4 team whilst year 5 and 6 had to deal with torrential downpours! Nevertheless, every single child took the challenging woodland course in their stride and everyone finished their races in superb style.

A special mention must go to members of the Year 5 boys’ team who had 4 children score in the top 15 runners- well done Zac (1st), Michael (2nd) Lucas (10th) and Woody (13th).

Up next is the South London Harriers cross country Saturday series. A letter will be sent out with the dates for these shortly.

Fantastic Fundraising.

I am delighted to share the news of a wonderful fundraising effort by an Atwood pupil.

One of our pupils, Theo, has been fundraising for East Surrey Hospital (SASH charity) to enable them to revamp the three oncology rooms within the children’s ward. Having spent too much time in these rooms himself, Theo knows how difficult it is to be stuck in a room with very little to do. He therefore wanted to make the rooms a nicer place for other children who use them by putting some fun interactive things on the walls, pretty lights, VR headsets, toys etc.

To mark Theo’s 2 years in remission this September, SASH charity supported us with setting up the Theo the Hero Children’s appeal. The page is linked directly to SASH charity but the money he raises will go directly to the oncology rooms.

Since setting this up (in July this year) Theo’s raised an amazing £8000! This has been an incredible start and will already help so much. However, Theo’s aim is to get this to £10,000 by Xmas! We have some further events set up, such as a quiz night, which parents can find out about on his instagram page (theosjourneywith.all) and if anyone would like to read more about our fundraising and/or donate they can do so here:

https://sashcharity.enthuse.com/pf/theosappeal?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&utm_id=97760_v0_s00_e0_tv3