 Sherwood Foundation School
Weekly Newsletter
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News from Leadership Team
It has been a great week at the Hill Campus. The students celebrated World Vegetarian Day this week exploring vegetarian recipes. The primary students had an assembly exploring different fruits and vegetables. We also explored National Poetry Day in our secondary assembly, as well as another successful week of choir.
Sherwood Hill Autumn Term Events
Please note School Photos will be taking place on Thursday 22nd October at the Hill Campus
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Lower School News
 Mint Class had great fun exploring poetry this week and investigating autumn colours through tuff trays, assembly and seasonal exploration in the outside area. Everyone worked really hard during Maths and enjoyed making early attempts at writing the number 1. In Music, the children explored the different sounds made by bells when shaken. Students also enjoyed dancing and clapping along to ‘Pat-a-Cake’, holding hands for ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ and hiding under scarves for ‘Peekaboo!’
Olive Class enjoyed exploring the seasons of summer and winter this week. The students particularly enjoyed the summer beach sensory tuff tray, developing their hand-eye coordination as they scooped sand into buckets with spades and poured water into watering cans. During a creative session, the students created fantastic snowman masterpieces using a range of shapes and patterns, including stripes for their snowmen’s scarves.
Lime Class has had a fantastic week! They enjoyed Dance and Stop games, developing their listening, attention and awareness as they moved and froze to music. The class also explored a winter sensory experience inspired by 'The Little Match Girl', investigating ice and other cold materials. In Early Numeracy, students explored the positional concepts of ‘in’ and ‘out’ using weather-themed objects.
Teal Class enjoyed a lovely swimming session on Monday. In Literacy, the class began making their own houses for The Three Little Pigs. They also enjoyed exploring sand and the desert as part of their ‘Weird Weather’ topic.
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Middle School News
 Indigo Class had a sporty week, focusing on racket sports. The class practised their forehand technique and basic racket grip, as well as making lots of attempts to bounce and hit the ball. Students also enjoyed a walk to Stanley Park and making the most of the warm weather in the playground.
Capri Class had another fun week in Numeracy, with a focus on counting up to five. Students took part in a hands-on sorting challenge, where they sorted numbers and matched quantities and colours to the correct boxes. In PE the main focus was active listening, where students had to pay close attention to the ‘Jumping Kangaroo’ music, jumping into their hula hoops at the right time. They also enjoyed working together with the parachute to explore the positional words ‘up’ and ‘down’.
Sapphire Class have been exploring the season of autumn through sensory trays, stories and a range of creative art activities. Students developed their fine motor skills through pointillism, finger painting and wreath making, creating beautiful and personalised pieces of work. They also demonstrated our school value of respect by sharing resources, taking turns and helping to tidy up between activities. We are very proud of the enthusiasm and care they have shown throughout the week.
Ocean Class have been exploring puberty and learning about the different changes that happen to our bodies as we grow and develop. They have also expanded their relaxation and wellbeing activities, exploring a range of tools and strategies to support emotional wellbeing. It has been a valuable week of learning, discovery and personal development.
Iris Class have had a great week exploring a range of different concepts. In Literacy, the class looked at the characters in ‘Supertato!’ and focused on the initial sounds in their names. In Numeracy, students practised adding and taking away one from groups of objects and explored numbers using favourite characters, including Hey Duggee. The class also enjoyed a creative art session, painting and using lots of colourful glitter to make cards.
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Upper School News
 Thistle Class continued exploring their fictional story, ‘The Pirates Next Door’, and created pirate maps to go alongside the flags they made last week. In Literacy, the class focused on making lists and writing a list of the ingredients and measurements needed to make pizzas from scratch during their cooking session. The students thoroughly enjoyed sitting together afterwards and sharing their pizzas with friends! Students have also been enjoying Sports Club on Fridays and practising the skills they have been learning throughout the week.
Lilac Class enjoyed a range of colourful sensory and creative activities this week, inspired by World Vegetarian Day. Students explored a variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables, investigating different colours, textures, smells and tastes. They then put their learning into practice by working together to make a delicious vegetable salad. It was wonderful to see everyone getting involved and exploring the ingredients in their own way!
Violet Class have had a fantastic week, with students completing excellent work and making great progress with self-regulation. In Science students learnt about the different parts of plants, their names and the fruits they produce. The class also set up a tuck shop, where each student bought their morning snack, developing their understanding of money and enterprise while building on their earlier Numeracy work.
In their Independence lesson Lavender Class took part in stop-and-go activities, focusing on transitioning to a less familiar places. In RSE, students explored different emotions and identified regulation strategies that help them to feel happy. In Literacy, the class sequenced daily routines using ‘now’, ‘next’ and ‘then’. To celebrate World Vegetarian Day, students washed, cut and explored a variety of fruits and vegetables.
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*Stars of the Week*
Mint: Roman for fantastic participation in Dance and Movement, throwing, catching and waving scarves along to the music.
Olive: Jace for amazing engagement in new activities, including exploring puzzles and enthusiastically pushing the different coloured pieces up and down.
Teal: Isabela for successfully transitioning to the park twice during her first community outings.
Lime: Keshvi for engaging in a wide range of activities and working with a range of staff.
Indigo: Jackson for demonstrating excellent racket skills during PE and staying regulated during an outing to the park.
Iris: Sultan for building relationships with new staff and using his PODD book during role-playing games such as doctors.
Sapphire: Sofia for showing fantastic enthusiasm during physical activities, particularly swimming and sensory circuits, while using her communication skills to express enjoyment and make choices.
Capri: Dylan for fantastic engagement in Numeracy, working hard to build a tower up to five, and for successfully transitioning into the classroom and engaging in lessons for longer periods.
Ocean: R’tzay for adapting brilliantly to her new class and routine, participating positively in lessons and activities with a communicative smile and positive attitude.
Thistle: Eugene for working hard on his communication and expanding his use of AAC, confidently working through multiple cards using both his verbal language and AAC.
Violet: Summer for making wonderful progress with her transitions and developing her ability to communicate using her electronic AAC.
Lilac: Reuben for excellent engagement in learning and activities and for developing his independence by communicating his needs, including when he needs help or a break.
Lavender: Saahil for showing great independence during daily routines.
Wellbeing: Yusif for his great progress in developing regulation strategies.
Therapy: Benjamin for wonderful interactions with others, showing growing confidence in communication by responding to and sustaining a fun game through multiple circles of communication.
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News from the Leadership Team
It has been another busy and positive week at the Park Campus, with lots to celebrate across the school. It’s been particularly lovely to see students becoming increasingly confident in their classes and building strong relationships with the staff around them. Across the campus, we have seen some fantastic learning taking place, alongside plenty of moments of laughter and achievement.
As we move further into the term, routines are becoming more established and it is great to see students engaging with the opportunities available to them and making progress in so many different ways. A big thank you, as always, to our staff team for the energy, patience and care they bring to Park each day, and to our families for their continued support.
We hope everyone has a lovely weekend!
Please note School Photos will be taking place on Tuesday 13th October at the Park Campus
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Lower School News
 It has been an exciting and productive week across the Lower School, with pupils working from physical fitness to cooking and poetry. Every class took part in their weekly swimming lessons, with a special shout-out to Ian, Seb, and Theo from Orchid Class, who had an absolutely fantastic time building confidence in the pool. Alongside swimming, Dance sessions brought high energy and big smiles to both Bluebell and Orchid Classes. To maintain our energy, classes have been busy in the kitchen linking food to their learning. Bluebell Class baked delicious cheese and onion pastries, followed by a Maths lesson focused on buying and selling as part of their Medieval Market theme. Hebe Class started Wednesday morning by blending healthy smoothies, and Sunflower Class will be wrapping up the week this Friday by baking apple cakes as part of their Keeping Healthy sessions.
Thursday marked Poetry Day, inspiring brilliant creativity across the classrooms. Bluebell Class explored the rhythm and rhyme of the "Brave Knight Poem", using objects and interactive props to bring the story to life. On Wednesday and Thursday, Sunflower Class dived into the hilarious poem "Freddy’s Spaghetti" exploring all the creative things you can do with spaghetti.
Taking advantage of Thursday’s beautiful morning weather, Sunflower Class took their Maths lesson outdoors, where pupils engaged in building castles with bricks and wooden blocks, matching colours, and solving puzzles. Finally, Orchid Class wrapped up their week by working incredibly hard on developing their switching skills, showing wonderful focus while exploring cause-and-effect toys and interactive games.
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Middle School News
 It has been a very busy week in Middle School! Tulip Class have been learning about the Harvest Festival. They have started a new story called 'Traction Man'. Students have loved hearing about how Traction Man saves toys around the house. Daffodil Class have focused on their core words fast and slow, through song and actions. Students also continued to practise fine motor movements and sequences through the class healthy eating food preparation session. Lily Class have been exploring their specialist spaces and working at the different sensory stations. In Literacy this week, students have started a sensory story writing module and have begun to match different textures to the characters in the sensory story, as well as explored what makes a sensory story so engaging for the audience. Poppy Class have enjoyed using blocks and bricks to build and design homes. They have also enjoyed making carrot cake muffins, taking photographs of ingredients and creating a photo montage to write a poem.
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Upper School News
 Daisy Class have had another busy and exciting week! They started with a fantastic work experience session exploring the role of a vet, caring for stuffed animals and using bandages to help them ‘heal’. In Geography, the class explored different environments, with the rainforest being a firm favourite. They had great fun creating their own rainforest experience, including spraying each other with ‘rain’. The class also enjoyed making delicious fruit smoothies and fruit kebabs. The kebabs may have been a little smaller than planned, as the fruit proved too tempting to resist!
Peony Class have had a fantastic week, beginning their weekly visits to Wallington Library. A group travelled by bus and enjoyed the whole experience, from catching the bus and browsing the shelves to choosing books about their favourite topics and using the self-service scanners to check them out. The rest of the class will have the opportunity to visit next week, giving everyone a chance to explore the library and choose books that interest them. Ella also visited Waddon for the first time, enjoying a trip to the café where she used her money to buy a drink.
Marigold Class continued exploring their letters of the week, revisiting A and B before focusing on C and D. They also continued their work on shapes, focusing on triangles and squares. Some pupils enjoyed a walk to Beddington Park, where they looked for shapes in the environment. Their story about a walk in the woods introduced different animals and was followed by a related art activity. The class also completed their volcano artwork, adding rich, vibrant colours to create a realistic lava display. They enjoyed music using a range of instruments, dance sessions and games throughout the week.
The highlight of the week for Dahlia Class was a midweek sports session at the local bowling alley. Students had a great time bowling with friends and used their communication devices confidently while out in the community. They also enjoyed joint therapy sessions exploring likes and dislikes, continued their cultural studies of Brazil and made good use of Sam’s Space.
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*Stars of the Week*
Orchid: Emmanuel for making fantastic progress with his MyWay walker, taking lots of steps this week and showing how proud he was of himself.
Hebe: Anishka for making clear choices about the songs she wanted to sing and dance to and using her switch purposefully to advance each verse.
Bluebell: Connor for fantastic engagement in music therapy, exploring the instruments and playing the piano and guitar, as well as managing his transitions so smoothly this week.
Sunflower: Jesse for engaging in turn-taking during swimming, sharing a ball game with staff and developing his shared attention during Maths while building castles and exploring colours.
Marigold: Nicole for using her PODD book so well throughout the week, showing excellent focus and concentration while making choices and pointing to different animals in her story.
Tulip: Daniel for being such a caring friend, helping to set the table and fill water for his classmates at lunchtime each day.
Lily: Leland for working hard towards his Literacy goal and consistently demonstrating shared attention across a range of emergent literacy activities.
Daffodil: George for showing excellent focus and patience, as well as developing joint attention with his classmates during group activities.
Poppy: Tiger for working hard on transitioning between different learning environments, trying out new play ideas and beginning to imitate staff during play modelling.
Daisy: Lucy for fantastic engagement throughout the week, particularly using her PODD book and yes/no symbols to communicate, as well as beginning to copy actions by nodding and shaking her head.
Peony: Ty for fantastic participation in his annual review, confidently sharing his learning, photos and videos and communicating so well throughout.
Dahlia: Deyar for using his communication skills so confidently in the community, ordering his own drinks and paying for his shopping.
Therapy: Alex for fantastic engagement during his joint OT and SaLT session, using spontaneous BSL signs and intentional communication to request and refuse, showing wonderful progress in communication and connection.
Wellbeing: Leland for fantastic intentional communication during his Wellbeing, OT and SaLT session and for trying new regulation strategies so positively.
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News from the Leadership Team
 At Sherwood Manor this week we have continued to learn about planet Earth. A number of classes went to the park to identify different types of trees by their leaves, bark, and seeds. Some students developed their engineering and fine motor skills by creating giant towers made of dry spaghetti and marshmallows—one of them rivalled the Eiffel Tower! In Science, students have been learning about different materials and how they are made. Hawk Class were surprised to find out that glass is made from sand and that metal is developed from rocks in the earth. Students composed their own silly limericks for World Poetry Day. In music, students tested out their rhythmic abilities as they tried some body percussion. Students have also been learning more about Australian history and made their own delicious fairy bread, which none of us had tried before!
Please note School Photos will be taking place on Friday 23rd October at the Manor Campus
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*Stars of the Week*
Albatross: Kaya for working incredibly hard, showing fantastic engagement in every task and taking pride in his work in Numeracy and Literacy.
Robin: Levi for settling brilliantly into the new classroom, making extra effort to communicate using his device and engaging so well during Literacy.
Cardinal: Dharun for brilliant attending to water colour and problem-solving when it got too wet.
Kingfisher: Hope for her fantastic learning and hard work in maths.
Kite: Benj for walking to and from Sherwood Park Campus – something he had not done before.
Hawk: Oliver for brilliant communication, using signs, his device to answer questions in science and singing along to songs in the morning.
Kestrel: Alex for showing excellent waiting skills at the poolside.
Falcon: Samuel for consistently showing respect towards his classmates and staff, following instructions and giving his best effort in every lesson.
Goshawk: Adrian for his excellent effort and engagement in Literacy and Numeracy, listening carefully to instructions and responding positively to feedback.
Therapy: Harvey for using his iPad to demonstrate his learning in class and showing fantastic knowledge of his symbols.
Wellbeing: Joe for showing kindness and understanding towards his friends while also making fantastic progress in his self-regulation and confidently seeking support when needed.
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Reminder: Annual Consent Form 2026/27
Many thanks to all the families who have already completed the annual consent form for the 2026/27 school year.
It is important that this form is completed each year so that we can ensure the contact and medical information we hold for the students is accurate and up to date.
If you have not yet completed the form, we kindly ask that you do so as soon as possible.
If you are experiencing any difficulties completing the form or have any questions, please contact the school on enquiries@sherwoodfoundationschool.org.uk
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Sutton Mencap Parent Carer Forum
Sutton Mencap is seeking parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-25 with SEND to help establish Sutton's new independent SEND Parent Carer Forum by joining its steering group.
To submit your application for membership of the steering group, please click here. Please note that applications close on 11th October 2026.
If you are a parent or carer who may be interested, or if you work with SEND families, please take a moment to read the information in the original email below and share this opportunity with anyone who may wish to get involved.
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More information and bookings can be found Events & Bookings | Sutton Libraries and searching ‘Preparation for Adulthood’.
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