Issue 8 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 8

Friday 26th October 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

I would like to start the newsletter this week by thanking all of you for your support in ensuring that our first half term of the year has been successful. I personally feel that the atmosphere in school is the best it has ever been, teaching and learning is the best it has ever been and parental support is the best it has ever been. All ingredients to make sure our children are as happy and successful as they can be – and isn’t that just the point?!

PTA

A reminder that the PTA Autumn disco will take place on Wednesday November 7^th. Please see posters around school for times. Thanks to Mrs Secretan, who has sourced a huge amount of Halloween themed goodies for the occasion! The Xmas Fayre plans are well underway. We are requiring unwanted gifts to sell at the Fayre, such as boxes of smellies, mugs, wine, beer, chocolates and good quality teddy bears. Also, if you work for a large company, it would be great if we could receive any good quality donations. It’s always worth an ask, I say! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our PTA for their incredible work in organising two brilliant events in the first term alone. You are doing an amazing job!!

House Points

The Yellow team (our house point winning team for this half term) enjoyed their Disco Time yesterday with Disco Rich, who whipped up a storm on the dance floor! Richard will be providing the PTA Autumn Disco. If you would like to use him for your own children’s party, you can contact him on 07530882355.

Robin Hood Resident’s Association

I am an advocate for bringing the community together in a positive way and so would like to promote the Robin Hood Resident’s Association, who will be holding at least 4 key events each year. The next event will be held on 1^st December 2012 between 4:30p.m and 6:00p.m when they will hold a celebration to turn on the lights of the first ever Christmas tree in Robin Hood. The winner of our logo design competition will be selected to turn the lights on and we hope to involve the Choir in singing some Christmas songs at the event. The event will take place in Robin Hood’s community garden opposite the Post Office.

Governing Body

I am pleased to announce the results of the Governing Body re- elections, which took place this week. Councillor Lisa Mulherin was re- elected as the Chair and we welcome Julie Newell into the role of Vice Chair. I look forward to working closely with Lisa, Julie and the rest of the Governing Body.

Construction Site

I would like to ask everyone to take extra care when walking up the path on Leeds road, past the turn in leading to the Persimmon Homes construction site. It has been brought to our attention that there has been some vehicle movement during school drop off and pick up times. A parent, Cllr Mulherin and I have made the site manager aware and are ensuring that there are contractual agreements which state that there can be no deliveries to or from the site during those times. The safety of our children is of paramount importance.

James Driver

I have some wonderful news. James informed me this week that he has received a date for his operation. He wanted me to let everyone know that he will going into hospital in time for his operation on 29^th November. I am sure you will all join with me in sharing my very best wishes with the Driver family.

Lost property

We have a large amount of lost property on display outside the Year 1 classroom including a brand new coat. Please call in and have a look if you have lost anything.

Poppies

Poppies will be on sale from Monday 5^th November so please remember to buy one so that we can raise the most money and retain the shield again.

Don’t forget to put your clocks back this weekend. With a two year old who likes to rise very early indeed, looks like I’ll be in for an extra early wake-up call on Sunday morning!!

Enjoy your break and I look forward to another fantastic half term as we lead up to Christmas.

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

First of all I would like to say a huge well done to all the Nursery children for their amazing progress this half term! They have made excellent progress which no doubt you will have seen for yourselves at the parent drop in sessions. We would also like to say a big thank you to all the parents for all your support and encouragement over the last half term, the children’s amazing progress is down to your efforts too!

We finished off the half term in true style with a colour party just like Elmer’s. The children were dressed in lots of different colours and they enjoyed eating lots of different coloured food! It was certainly an interesting experience for our taste buds. 

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been playing ‘copy me do’ with rhythms and sounds; the children are becoming increasingly more confident with this so please try and play this game with your child at any opportunity. In numeracy we have been focusing on the numbers 4, 5 and 6 using the Numtums as well as thinking about repeating patterns like Elmer’s and sharing. The children loved the Smarties we were sharing. In topic this week the children made big Elmers and some lovely friendship bracelets.

FIRST WEEK OF NEXT HALF TERM

Our topic next half term is Celebrations which we are all very excited about! In the first week back we will be concentrating on Bonfire Night. We will be thinking about how we can describe fireworks - how they look and what they sound like. We will be reading the Story of Guy Fawkes and making our own firework music. In numeracy we will be focusing on ordering numbers and quantities. In topic we will be making an amazing firework display using syringes, teabags and pipettes to splatter our paint, we will then skilfully make our very own fireworks. For both groups on the Wednesday (7^th November) we will be hosting a bonfire party. The children will make tasty treats and sing songs around a pretend bonfire. If possible please can you ensure they have a coat, scarf, hat and gloves and send them in with some traditional bonfire food for them to share with their friends?

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

It is important for the children to keep learning over the holidays so please encourage them.

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please feel free to drop in and change their books when you pick them up.

·         Please practice counting to 10 and beyond with your child at any opportunity. Please also practise writing and recognising the numbers 1-6 with them.

·         Please practise writing the first letter of your Child’s name and if they can do this try going even further with them.

·       Please send in any cardboard tubes e.g. kitchen roll for rockets.

Finally I hope you all have an amazing half term and I hope you all go on many adventures.

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

First of all I would like to say a huge well done to all the Reception children for their amazing progress this half term! They have made excellent progress which no doubt you will have seen for yourselves at the parent consultations. During the parent consultations it was mentioned that parents would appreciate the home learning a little earlier on in the week so we will be sending it home on Wednesday after half term. Also it was apparent that the majority of parents were unsure about how we teach the children to read and phonics (as it has changed since we were at school) so we thought it would be a good idea for us to organise an evening next half term whereby you can come and see how we do it and have a go yourselves with the resources we use. So we will organise a date for next half term and confirm it in the next newsletter. We really value all your comments and suggestions so please do not hesitate to come to us with them.

THIS WEEK

We finished off the half term in true style with a colour party just like Elmer’s. The children were dressed in lots of different colours and they enjoyed eating lots of different coloured food! It was certainly an interesting experience for all of our taste buds.  In phonics this week we have been practising saying and writing the sound; ss and writing all of our key words. In numeracy we have been focusing on repeated patterns using 3 shapes and sharing sweets evenly between our friends. In topic this week the children made big Elmers and some lovely friendship bracelets.

FIRST WEEK OF NEXT HALF TERM

In the first week back we will be learning about Bonfire Night. We will be thinking about how we can describe fireworks, how they look and what they sound like and learning the story of Guy Fawkes. In numeracy we will be focusing on ordering numbers, quantities and adding or taking away one. In topic we will be making an amazing firework display using syringes, teabags and pipettes to splatter our paint, we will then skilfully make our very own fireworks. The sounds of the week will be; j, v, w and x and the words are; will, that, this, then, them and with. Let’s see if we can get some more certificates! On the Friday (9^th November) we will be hosting a bonfire party. If possible please can you ensure they have a coat, scarf, hat and gloves and send them in with some traditional bonfire food for them to share with their friends.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

It is important for the children to keep learning over the holidays so please encourage them.

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record.

·         Please help your child to write their second name and perfect their first name.

·         Please practise counting, recognising and writing numbers to 20 with your child.

·         Please re-cap reading and writing all their sounds, key words and tricky words.

·         Please send in any cardboard tubes or other potential fireworks e.g. kitchen rolls.

Finally we would like to say a big thank you to all the parents for all your support and encouragement over the last half term, the children’s amazing progress is also down to your efforts. I hope you and your child have an amazing half term.

Key Stage 1

Home Learning This half term in Numeracy the children have been counting lots and understanding the place value of numbers.  Over the holidays please support your child in completing the Numeracy booklet on place value and word problems.  This is designed to support the learning which has already taken place this half term in school.

News

Parents Consultations

Thank you for taking the time this week to come and speak to us. It has been a pleasure to share with you all the amazing things your child has achieved so far. We expect a lot from all the children and they are really flourishing. It’s thanks to your continued support from home that we are able to continue to challenge them to develop and meet their potential. It was great to celebrate their successes with you!

Assessment Week

It might be the week before half term – but there’s no rest for the wicked! KS1 have had a very busy week with assessments. We’ve carried out assessments in Numeracy, Writing, Phonics and Reading – we all agree that the children have blown us away with their commitment and focus this week. They have really applied themselves and it’s rewarding to see how much progress they have made this half term – well done everyone!

Next half term

Topic

Our topic next half term is ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and we have lots of exciting things planned! Here’s a glimpse of what’s to come:

·    Make your own ICT story book on Smart Notebook

·    Sew a hand puppet of one of the characters

·    Conduct a science investigation into different materials to produce the optimum coat for a character!

We’ll also be exploring the British Isles in Geography and putting our creative skills to the test with lots of creative artwork.

Literacy

Our focus in Literacy is ‘narrative’ and we’ll be exploring 3 different stories:

·    Where the Wild Things are

·    We’re going on a Bear Hunt

·    Gorilla

We’ll be re-telling and tweaking these stories in different ways, building on our knowledge of the structure of narrative and further developing our creative writing.

Numeracy

In numeracy we’re moving on to addition and subtraction. There will be big focus on rapid recall of number facts. To prepare you children for this topic it would be useful to spend a few minutes practising quick fire, simple addition and subtraction facts. Try the number bonds to 10 challenge – if you say ‘6’ your child says ‘4’. How many can you do in 1 minute? Then move onto number bonds to 20!

Have a fantastic half term everyone, we look forward to seeing you in November!

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

We have had an incredible week in LKS2 and have been extremely proud of the children’s sensible and mature attitudes towards their assessments. It’s been a great opportunity for the children to show off all of their amazing learning from across the half term, well done. We would like to congratulate our amazing achievers of the week from Mrs Moore’s class. Freya Reid and Lily Higgins were chosen for their great team work during ICT this half term. They successfully retold the beginning of the story of Oliver Twist, using animation, written narration and sound effects and Mrs Moore was so impressed with their patience and perseverance, well done girls!

Home Learning

For the children’s holiday home learning, we would like the children to do some research about a Victorian Invention. How they choose to present their information is entirely up to them. It could be a PowerPoint presentation, poster, video or a model! We look forward to the children blowing us away with their creativity in our first topic session after the break. Also next half term we will be sending our weekly writes home with the children every Friday. This gives you a great opportunity to look at and discuss with them how they have hit their weekly target. We would like the children to look at the teacher’s feedback and either re-write the piece or simply add another paragraph incorporating their new target. 

Literacy

We were blown away when marking the children’s fabulous ‘Big Writes’ last week and were so proud that the children worked extremely hard to incorporate lots of audience engaging features, detailed paragraphs and amazing compound and complex sentences. Next half term we are learning how to write a variety of persuasive texts and how to argue opinions effectively. We will be writing letters to persuade Prince Albert to let us exhibit our inventions at ‘The Great Exhibition, adverts for our own inventions and a persuasive pitch to put across to the dragons persuading them to create our inventions.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy the children have carried out assessments covering the different units we have looked at over the last 7 weeks. The children managed to tackle a variety of question types, ranging from level 2 to level 4. We were very pleased to see the huge improvement in the children’s mental maths scores and the ability to answer a question within a time limitation. We can see children in year 3/4 have been busy learning their times tables, well done. Next half term we will be learning both written and mental strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems.

Next half term

Next half term, our topic will be ‘Incredible Inventions’.  We will be learning all about the incredible inventions of the Victorian era, as well as designing our own inventions and holding our very own Great Exhibition in the hall!

Spellings to be tested on Monday 12^th November (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Group One	Group Two
sigh	force
sight	friction
high	invention
light	persuade
night	exaggerate
tight	exhibition
fight	momentum
fright	weight
slight	resistance
right	movement

Reminders

·    PE kits need to come in on a Monday and be taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday

·    Those children who have ‘home learning packs’ please ensure they are brought into school every Monday morning.

UKS2 News Roundup

·    Our Achievers of the week goes to: Becca Bowes, Eleanor Brown, Jay Higgins, Luke Trueman and Lewis Hagan, for their amazing Tudor outcome. The children created a full-sized set of Tudor stocks to give us all a taster of what it was like to receive a Tudor punishment! They worked together so incredibly well – well done guys!

·    Year 6 have been given their next Splat the SATs pack. Mrs Dale and Miss Darroch will be going through the papers with the children during the weekly Splat the SATs session, which is on Tuesday. Please ensure that papers have been completed by the following dates at the latest:

6th November	Numeracy Paper A
13th  November	Numeracy Paper B
20th November	Mental Maths
26th November	Reading

Thank you!

·    Year 5 home learning – in preparation for next half term’s topic, we would like children in Year 5 to choose one country from South America and produce an information poster about it. You may want to include information about food, language, local attractions, homes, climate, sports and festivals; as well as any other information that you feel is useful. Please ensure punctuation is accurate and that you are applying your sentence level skills from this half term.

·    Thank you to those who have supported Laura in the final stages of the Leeds Children’s Mayor Programme. Voting closes on November 5^th so there’s just over a week to vote if you’ve not already done so! Simply visit our blog http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ and click on the link on the first post, which will take you to the page with voting information. Thank you for your support.

Reminders:

·    After the half term holiday, the focus for PE will be gymnastics. 5/6G and 5/6B will have their lesson on Monday and 5/6M on Tuesday. Please ensure that you have a white T-shirt and black or blue shorts. Pumps can be worn though trainers are not suitable.

·    Don’t forget to bring in your planners every day, especially on Monday when they will be stamped and signed – try to aim for at least 4 entries per week of reading and remember, stickers are up for grabs!

·    Please continue to keep track of your daily steps for the Global Children’s Challenge. We have reached Africa and are progressing well!

Numeracy:

• Our focus this week has been written methods for multiplication and division.
• PRACTISE! Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/maths/games?page=3 to practise the grid method for multiplication and bus stop for division.
• A link to these is also on the blog. Visit http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ and click on Numeracy! There’s also a link to practise for the next Times Tables Challenge using the Bingo Machine.

Literacy:

• The focus this week has been writing paragraphs for a horror story as well as ensuring apostrophes for possession and omission are accurate.
• The Apostrophe Song App is a fun way of learning apostrophes to your favourite style of music (pop, rock, hip hop or acoustic!) There are even quizzes too! It can be downloaded from the app store for 69p.
• You can also practise using apostrophes by playing the Who Owns What? Game at http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en29punc-game-who-owns-what. Again, there’s a link to this on our blog by clicking Literacy.

Other areas of the curriculum:

• The afternoon curriculum this week has focused on Science. We have been discussing the various stages of a scientific investigation and looking closely at the different variables that are involved. We have also practised our data handling techniques by analysing the type of data before choosing which chart/graph to use. Next half term, we will be looking at the theories of evolution and inheritance.
• In PE this week, the children have been applying all of the football skills learnt over the half term to a longer mini-tournament, called ‘Four Corners’. It was really clear that lots of progress had been made with the development of these skills as every match was so close!
• This week in Spanish, the children have been applying all of their skills from this half term to write and perform their own conversations about their food likes and dislikes. Fantasico!
• In Music, 5/6B have completed their percussion sessions looking at Samba compositions. They have conducted their own small groups incorporating changes in the dynamics.   5/6G have been applying all of their learning from this half term to a complex song which included notes B, A, G, C, and E on the recorder.  5/6M have been finalising their Garageband outcomes on the iPad – some fantastic learning all round!

Issue 7 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 7

Friday 19th October 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

Well, Autumn is well and truly in the air, the nights are drawing in and the dark mornings are ever more a struggle so it’s a good job I am the Headteacher at Robin Hood Primary School to keep my spirits lifted throughout the working week. It’s been a wonderful week with Key Stage 1 and Years 5 and 6 engaging in the exciting “Risk- It” days, exploring wonderful and innovative new ICT Software (Do you know that children in Year 5/6 used technology which allowed them to become King Henry VIII?- Incredible!). Then of course there was the wonderful Harvest Festival this morning led by Year 3/4 with their amazing singing, acting and Victorian outcomes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who came out in the cold weather to support this key school event. I think it is invaluable that children feel part of a caring and safe community.

Christmas Fayre

The Christmas Fayre will take place on Saturday December 1^st. We are seeking donations for the stalls so if you have any good quality toys and books that you would like to donate then please see Mrs Mistry. If you would like to put yourself forward to help in any way then please do approach Mrs Mistry at school or Clare Perry- we need all the help we can get.

House Points

All children will now be aware of the house point winning team. The house point system has been a fantastic way of using positive praise to reward our children for their efforts and achievements. There has been a real sense of excitement surrounding news of the winning team. Well done to all of the children right across school, who have worked in collaboration with their house team to receive as many points of possible. Mrs Wathen has had to put in yet another order for Gold stickers- I wouldn’t want it any other way! All children in the winning team will enjoy some “Disco Time” next Thursday afternoon.

Laura Paul

I mentioned last week that Laura has been shortlisted in a city wide competition to become The Children’s Mayor for Leeds. Her manifesto is absolutely exemplary and to win, she needs as many votes as she can possibly get. Please, please vote for Laura. You can do this in a number of ways- either by visiting www.breezeleeds.org, or by e mailing leedschildrensmayor.leeds.gov.uk. You can also vote via our Year 5/6 blog at www.robinhood56.blogspot.com. Good Luck to Laura.

Parent Consultations

Parent Consultations will take place next week. This is a necessary and valuable meeting with your child’s class teacher to talk about how they have settled into the new school year and to give you a chance to talk about how we can best support your child to make the most progress possible this year. As usual, we ask that you are punctual and stick to the 10 minute time slot so that every parent’s consultation can run smoothly. Thank you.

School Photographs

Individual school photographs will be taken next Wednesday 24^th October. Siblings in school/nursery will be photographed together. If you wish baby brothers or sisters to be photographed please come to the hall at 8:30 a.m.

Reception Christmas Production

Last week I informed you of some key Christmas dates. Please note that the Reception Production for parents will take place between 11 a.m. – 12 p.m on Thursday 20^th December. The Nursery and Reception Christmas parties will take place during the afternoon of Friday 21^st December.

Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone next week for the final week of our first half term of the year- I know, I can’t believe it either!!!

Have a fabulous weekend.

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

This week we have been smelling, touching, tasting, looking at and listening to many different weird and wonderful things including chilli jam, lemon and popcorn. The children have really enjoyed this week’s topic and now know all about their five senses.

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been practising copying sound and rhythms as well as practising recognising instrumental sounds. In numeracy we have been focusing on recognising numbers 1-3 and the children are becoming much more confident. In topic this week the children have had the opportunity to taste different things and touch different textures.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be reading the story Elmer and learning about friendships and why we are special. In numeracy we will be carrying on with number recognition of the numbers 4-6 as well as sharing things equally between 2 groups and decorating Elmer in beautiful repeating patterns. Next week in phonics we will continue to play copy me games of rhythms and sounds. On Wednesday/Friday we will be celebrating the end of the half term with a colour party! If possible please can you send some coloured food in with your child to share with everyone at the party.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·    Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please feel free to drop in and change their books when you pick them up.

·    Please practice counting to 10 and beyond with your child at any opportunity. Please also practise writing and recognising the numbers 1-6 with them.

·    Please practise writing the first letter of your Child’s name and if they can do this try going even further with them.

·    Please have a look on the Robin Hood foundation stage blog to see what exciting activities your child has been doing.

·    Next half term our topic is celebrations. For Bonfire night we will be making fireworks so please can you collect and send in any cardboard tubes you have from tinfoil and kitchen rolls etc. Please do not send in toilet rolls. For Christmas we will be making an advent calendar using really small boxes so we would appreciate any of these being saved and sent in as well.

Have a lovely weekend and once again thank you for all your support and encouragement.

 

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

This week we have been smelling, touching, tasting, looking at and listening to many different weird and wonderful things including chilli jam, lemon and popcorn. The children have really enjoyed this week’s topic and now know all about their five senses. Last week 19 children got 100% when reading their sounds of the week and tricky words. The number of certificates just keeps on increasing so please keep it up! 

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been practising saying and writing the sounds; l, ll, f and ff and reading all the key words from this half term. Their writing is improving and the children are doing really well at writing the first sounds in words. The next step is for the children to write the other sounds that they can hear in words so please encourage this during the home learning this week. In numeracy we have been focusing on number recognition particularly teen numbers and the children are becoming much more confident with this. In topic this week the children had the opportunity to make some really funky glasses that they looked amazing in and went on a listening walk to identify sounds around our amazing school.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be reading the story Elmer and learning about friendships and why we are special. In numeracy we will be decorating Elmer using beautiful repeating patterns of 3 different colours. We will also be learning about sharing things equally between groups. Next week we are learning the sound ss as well as recapping all of the sounds that we have learnt this half term. Next week we are going that step further with our key words and we will be practising writing them so that the children can write them in their writing. The sounds and key words can be found on the home learning sheet. On Friday (26^th October) we will be celebrating the end of the half term with a colour party just like in the story Elmer! On this day the children will be allowed to come to school in brightly coloured clothes. Please try and get them to wear as many bright colours as you can find but also please remember it is P.E. on Friday so make sure they can take them off themselves. If possible please can you send in some brightly coloured food so we can all share it at the party.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·    Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record.

·    Please help your child practise writing their name.

·    Please practise counting, recognising and writing numbers to 20 with your child.

·    Next half term our topic is celebrations. For Bonfire night we will be making fireworks so please can you collect and send in any cardboard tubes you have from tinfoil and kitchen rolls etc. Please do not send in toilet rolls. For Christmas we will be making an advent calendar using really small boxes so we would appreciate any of these being saved and sent in as well.

Have a lovely weekend and once again thank you for all your support and encouragement

.

Key Stage 1

Home Learning: This week an assembly was held about the new housing estate that has started being built near school. The children learnt about how to be safe on and near a building site and were introduced to a competition that is being held in school. Next week the children will be designing and creating a poster in school about being safe on a building site and the lucky winner from Key Stage One will win a fantastic prize of book vouchers! Please support your child by researching and writing some facts about: “The Do’s and Don’ts of being safe on a building site” The more the children find out, the more this will help them with their learning next week! We look forward to reading the interesting facts that your children find out.

News

Risk-IT Day

On Monday the children took part in an ICT ‘Risk IT’ Day. The children were given new ICT software to use and explore. The children spent the day learning how to use a computer program called “Scratch” and also used an Apple Mac Application on the iPads called ‘Book Creator’. The outcomes of the day were extremely successful. The children made the following:

1.   A robot computer racing track game using ‘Scratch’. The children programmed the robot to move up, down, left and right. If the robot went off the track the children were able to program it to blow up.

2.   A story about ‘Hand-me Town’.  The children used the iPads to take photos, make voice recordings, write sentences and change fonts, colours and sizes.

The children had a fantastic day of learning and our thanks go to Mrs Moore for her involvement and help with this amazing experience.

Scratch is a free download off the internet so if you want to have a play at home this is the link:

http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Scratch_1.4_Download

If you have an iPad at home get your children to show you what they have learnt on the ‘Book Creator’. It makes writing stories lots of fun!

Parents Consultations

Next week is Parent Consultations, which will take place on Monday and Tuesday with your class teacher. Each appointment will last ten minutes, this will be an ideal opportunity for you to hear and see the fantastic learning your child has been doing in their classes. It is also an important time to share their next steps and continue to ensure great successes. We look forward to sharing lots of amazing learning with you!

Assessment Week

Next week the children will be taking part in assessment week. The children will spend time in class revisiting what they have learnt across the half term in Numeracy, Literacy, Reading and Phonics. It is an opportunity to see what the children have learnt, any misconceptions in learning and what the next steps will be. It is always a very rewarding week as the children always show how fantastic they are!

Reading Records and Home Learning

Please can you ensure that your child brings their reading record in on a Monday and their Home Learning on a Wednesday. Home Learning is on the newsletter and if for any reason this newsletter doesn’t make it home the newsletter is also available to read on the Key Stage One Blog. The Blog is a great way to see what the children have been learning and our thanks to Mrs Mistry for regularly updating the blog with your children’s super learning!

Literacy

The children have continued to build on their knowledge of ‘Africa’s Big Five’ and have produced interesting leaflets about two different animals of their choice. The children have shown great enthusiasm on this unit of writing and we are extremely impressed with their outcomes. The children have become great at using their targets to progress in their writing, so ask them at home what it is!

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy the children have been learning about estimating and rounding. We have been making ‘sensible’ guesses about amounts of objects and explaining our reasons why. We have also been rounding numbers up and down to the nearest ten. The children have learnt songs to help them to remember how to round. 5, 6, 7, 8,9 I like rounding all of the time, 4, 3, 2, 1, rounding down is so much fun!

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

We have had another fabulous week of learning in LKS2 this week. The children have made us all feel really proud with their superb performance in their Harvest Festival. I’m sure those of you who were lucky enough to attend, will agree it was absolutely brilliant!!! Well done to everyone for putting 100% effort into their singing and for giving a fantastic performance. We would like to congratulate our amazing achiever of the week Lewis Godwin. Lewis was chosen for his amazing attitude towards his learning and for setting a fantastic example to the rest of the key stage.

Home Learning

Every week, the home learning is for the children to practice their spellings ahead of our weekly test on Monday morning. We would also like the children to continue reading as often as possible at home. Please ensure you are noting in the children’s reading records when they are reading at home- if we can see they have read every day they will earn five house points for their team.

Literacy

In Literacy this week your children have had the chance to show off their fabulous learning by writing a full chronological report, all about the Victorians. The children have WOWED us with their amazing use of audience engaging features, detailed paragraphs and amazing compound and complex sentences. We will be photocopying these reports to send home with the children next week so you can see how amazing the standard of writing is in LKS2.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy we have been learning how to interpret data from a range of different sources such as pictograms, bar charts and tally charts. We have also been trying really hard to construct our own bar charts. The children have impressed us with their great attention to detail and remembered to use all of the key features of a bar chart. Why don’t you make a tally chart at home and have a go at turning it into a bar chart? Can you write some questions about the data you’ve collected?

Next Week

Next week in 3/4 we will have the chance to show off our fabulous learning from over the half term. Your child will carry out both numeracy and reading assessments. This is nothing for your child to be worried about; it is just an opportunity to show off how much amazing progress they have made over the course of this half term.

Spellings to be tested on Monday 5^th November (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Group One	Group Two
pie	accident
flies	complete
tie	experiment
five	recognise
slide	equipment
smile	separate
bike	comparison
prize	suppose
sky	surprise
spy	whose

Reminders

·    PE kits need to come in on a Monday and be taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday

·    Those children who have ‘home learning packs’ please ensure they are brought into school every Monday morning.

UKS2 News Roundup – it’s been a busy week in 5/6!

·    Our Achiever of the week goes to Joe Clark, Jack Kreczmer, Max Ellis, Caison Davey and Thomas Caldicott in 5/6B. These boys have produced a fantastic presentation for the rest of the class all about Tudor warfare. Their explanations about weapons, armour and famous battles were truly wonderful and a clear indication of the time and effort they have put into their research. The quality of their outcomes was also exemplary. Well done boys.

·    Congratulations to Ellis Smithson and Billy Gates, both from 5/6M, for winning the first Times Table Challenge of the year! They answered 20 random times table questions so quickly and with such confidence! Well done, boys! We would love to see someone from 5/6B or 5/6G give these boys a run for their money at Christmas, so get practising! Visit www.teachingtables.co.uk and select the ‘Bingo Machine’ to practise!

·    This week, we welcomed Michael, Paul and Graham from the Persimmon Homes Rowans Development, which is being built next to school. During a special whole school assembly, our visitors spoke about the dangers that exist on building sites and they also launched a competition to design a poster to promote safety on building sites. We are therefore inviting the children to design a high quality poster for the competition by Friday 26th October. The winning poster, chosen by Persimmon Homes, will be produced and displayed around the development for all visitors and new homeowners to see!

·    Please, please, please help us to get as many votes as we can for Laura Paul to become Leeds Children’s Mayor! Her amazing manifesto is online and ready to be voted for. Voting is easy – simply visit our phase blog http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ to access the link or visit www.breezeleeds.org  Voting finishes November 5^th, so let us show our support and spend a few moments voting for our lovely Laura to win!

·    On Thursday, Year 5/6 took part in a national event called RISK IT. We spent the whole day discovering and trialling new IT software that could potentially be used in the curriculum. The children enjoyed using Scratch (a programming package that is free to download to both macs and pcs) and Morpho, which is an iPad app that allows you to bring still images to life. They also had a go at designing icons for a new school app.

·    A really big thank you to all parents and carers who attended our Celebration Friday today. It was lovely to have the opportunity for the children to show off all of their amazing learning from the last half term – they really should be proud of all they have achieved so far!

Reminders:

·    PE kit should be a plain white T-shirt, black or blue shorts and outdoor trainers (weather permitting). No jewellery should be worn. Please can all the children ensure that they are come into school with the correct PE kit on Monday (5/6G & 5/6B) and Tuesday (5/6M).

·    Don’t forget to bring in your planners every day, especially on Monday when they will be stamped and signed – try to aim for at least 4 entries per week of reading and remember, stickers are up for grabs!

·    Please ensure that step booklets for the Global Children’s Challenge are in school for our ICT lessons (5/6M and 5/6B Monday; 5/6G Tuesday).

Numeracy:

• This week, the children have been applying their learning to their end of half term Numeracy assessments. The children completed a non-calculator paper, a calculator paper and a mental maths test and all children put in lots of effort… confidence and perseverance really is the key – well done Year 5/6!
• Next week, we will be learning how to multiply using the grid method and divide using the bus stop and chunking method.
• Visit www.mathszone.co.uk for some really useful resources which can help you with these methods!

Literacy:

• This week, the children have written a guide to explain how to care for a mythical creature called a Miptor. The children had to imagine that they had owned one of these creatures and as a result, were experts in looking after one. They had to include information and advice about how to train a Miptor, how to feed it and even highlight any strange habits it may have. The children also applied all of their comprehension skills to a reading assessment.
• Next week, we will be writing narrative paragraphs with a horror theme. We will be focussing on the use of apostrophes for contractions and possession and will be applying all of our sentence level skills so far.
• This week’s spellings to be tested on Friday are: definitely, factory, generous, jewellery, television, description, dictionary, easily, hospital, similar

Other areas of the curriculum:

• In Topic, the children finally presented their learning all about their chosen aspect of Tudor times. The children spoke in a clear and engaging manner whilst using their amazing props to support their explanations. The children demonstrated some outstanding collaboration skills and evaluated each other’s presentations critically, yet constructively too! A big well done and congratulations to all groups for their dedication and enthusiasm! Check out our phase blog to see some of the final outcomes!.
• In PE this week, the children have been developing their football techniques even further by using the drag push skill to manoeuvre the ball around their opponent. We have been really proud of how successful the children have been, when applying all the football skills learnt over the last half term when playing a mini tournament called ‘Four Corners’.
• In Music, 5/6B have added the finishing touches to their fruit salad samba using percussion instruments and have begun learning a new piece.  5/6G have been learning about the semi-breve and dotted minim, we have also developed our recorder playing skills even further by playing some complex duets! 5/6M have been playing traditional nursery rhymes on the iPads using garageband.