Friday 20 December 2013

Issue 15 2013-14


Newsletter Issue 15

Friday 20th December 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

Well, Christmas is finally upon us and we have had a wonderful week of exciting parties and outstanding performances. It has been wonderful to see every child from Nursery to Year 4 involved in a Christmas Production; the comments from parents have been overwhelmingly positive and it means an awful lot to us that the shows are appreciated. We are very proud of all of the children for the effort they put into their roles and we must thank you for supporting children to learn lines and songs at home as well as coming along to support and watch the performances.

We were also very proud of our choir who sang beautifully at Rothwell Church on Thursday night. Thank you to Miss Thackeray for coordinating the choir and ensuring we could be part of this lovely event and to Miss Hinton and Miss McSorley, who hot-footed it from the KS1 evening performance to support Miss Thackeray and the children.

We have had a visit this week from Miss Darroch and the gorgeous William; it was lovely to see them and whilst on the subject of babies, I would like to wish Mrs Moore and Miss Snowden all the very best for their up and coming births as they commence their maternity leave and join the world of motherhood.

Mrs Philips
Mrs Philips, one of our brilliant Communication Support Workers, is leaving us this week. Mrs Philips joined us in November 2012, as an employee of the Deaf and Hearing Inclusion Team at Leeds and has worked mainly 1:1 with one of our deaf pupils currently in Year 6. It has been a joy to work with Mrs Philips, who has been a fabulous and brilliant source of support in ensuring our deaf pupils are getting the very best provision in school. Mrs Philips’ lovely, positive and hardworking attitude will be very much missed as she moves onto pastures new in January. Best wishes from all of us!

Work in grounds
There will be some preliminary grounds tests taking place on 7th January in preparation for the expansion. The area at the back of the school where some children come through with bikes and scooters will be closed off so we ask that children do not come to school on a bike or scooter on this particular day. Thanks.

Rodillian’s July finish date
A quick notice for Year 6 parents; you will already be aware that the children start their transition to Rodillian earlier than usual this year. Please be aware that Rodillian Academy will close to children for the summer break on Friday 17th July 2014. This is earlier than our school, which is Tuesday 23rd July.

PE kits for next half term
Please be reminded that we will be starting an additional outdoor P.E session each week for all children from Year 1 to Year 6 from January. The children will need a warm hooded top, warm jogging bottoms, a white t- shirt and outdoor trainers.

The Life Channel
We will be showcasing children’s learning on our Life Channel screen at the school’s entrance from January. This will give parents a chance to see what is happening inside, outside. You will be able to view the videos at drop off and pick up times but we are also hoping to stream the channel to our website so that parents can view the contents at home or work. We also plan to include up to date notices and contents from the Newsletter each week. The teachers will update the contents on a half termly basis so that you are kept up to date on some of the fantastic learning and events that take place in our brilliant school.

I would like to end my newsletter this week by thanking all of you for your continued support throughout 2013. We look forward to working together with you in 2014 and hope that it will be the best year yet for all of our pupils.

Enjoy your time with loved ones; enjoy the magic of Christmas with your little ones and we’ll see you all in the new year. Don’t forget that the children start back on Tuesday 7th January due to a teacher training day

Have a wonderful and very merry Christmas!

Mrs Dale

Don’t forget!

Our next parents coffee morning will be on Monday 10th February 2014 between 9 am and 10 am with Miss Thackeray in Friendly Faces. You are invited to come along with positive suggestions which are relevant to the agendas that we set. Any other issues can come directly to me. It is important that we use the limited time that we have together to best effect. The agendas for next time will be:

·          Home learning- Do you think the children get too much/too little? Is it purposeful? Any ideas for improvement.

·          Holiday projects- what do you and your child think of them?

·          Just a question for discussion- what would we think of a shorter summer holiday but longer half terms?
If you cannot make it, we value your views so you can email me at gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk

Friday 13 December 2013

Issue 14 2013-14


Newsletter Issue 14

Friday 13th December 2013

 Dear Parent/Carer,
Our Christmas celebrations started this week; the tree is up, a delicious Christmas dinner was served up on Wednesday, Christmas cards are being delivered and rehearsals for the festive performances are underway. Year 1 enjoyed a trip to the theatre to see The Jungle Book this week, which I heard was incredibly enjoyable and Miss Mees shared with me the multiple comments which came from members of the public at the theatre that (once more!) the children of Robin Hood Primary School have excellent manners and are very well behaved. One person even commented that it is clear that the children go to a lovely school; couldn’t agree more!

Road Safety Pantomime
We combined festive fun with road safety awareness this week. The children enjoyed a pantomime visit to school for the Monday assembly, which focused on how to stay safe when crossing roads and how to be aware of drivers. It was delivered in a light hearted and fun way with plenty of opportunities to make some noise! Hopefully, this will have helped our children to be more aware and to empower them with the knowledge of what it also means to be a safe and responsible driver.

Books for sale
Eli in Year 1 is very proud of his two sisters, Matilda and Tallulah and has asked me to share something with you. They have won a writing competition in their school, which has resulted in their festive story being published as a real book. If anybody would like to make a £2 donation to buy one of these books entitled, “Is it bedtime yet?” please go to the ladies in the office who will be able pass one on to you. All proceeds will go to Children In Need.

Reminder- Leeds Golden Owls
If your child would like to be a movie star for the evening and join a star studded cast at an awards ceremony at Leeds Town Hall in April then please remember to submit video entries for the Golden Owls Awards by 20th December.

Here is a reminder of the rules 1. The film must be a maximum of 10 minutes, including credits. Films can be of any length up to 10 minutes. Even one minute films will be considered – longer is not necessarily better. 2. Only films made since January 2013 can be entered. 3. Previous submissions will not be accepted.

School will select a maximum of 3 entries and submit the videos to the judging panel.  You can submit your entry either by handing in a CD to your class teacher or via email to Mrs Dale. Thanks.

Milk
As from January we will only be supplying free milk to Nursery children. Due to the 3 fold increase in price for milk supplied to KS1 children and the large amount of milk thrown away, we are no longer going to offer milk to KS1 children. If parents would like to continue milk for their child they can obtain a form from the office to order & pay direct to the dairy. Thanks.

Public Drop In Consultation For Expansion
A reminder that this will be held on Monday 16th December from 3pm – 6pm to give people an opportunity to speak to a representative from Leeds City Council regarding the building work and for them to provide an update.

Next Parents Coffee Morning agenda
Our next parents coffee morning will be on Monday 10th February 2014 between 9 am and 10 am with Miss Thackeray in Friendly Faces. You are invited to come along with positive suggestions which are relevant to the agendas that we set. Any other issues can come directly to me. It is important that we use the limited time that we have together to best effect. The agendas for next time will be:

·         Home learning- Do you think the children get too much/too little? Is it purposeful?- ideas for improvement.

·         Holiday projects- what do you and your child think of them?

·         Just a question for discussion- what would we think of a shorter summer holiday but longer half terms?

If you cannot make it, we value your views so you can email me at gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk
Have a great weekend!  

Mrs Dale

Nursery Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
This week has been very busy and we are now all feeling very festive. Our classroom is fabulously shiny and sparkly because it is covered in glitter from all of our creative activities.  The children have made lots more wonderful Christmas gifts for our Christmas shop which will be open for you to visit after our nativity performances.
THIS WEEK
We have practised our nativity every day and the children are getting more and more confident by the minute. They look really cute in their costumes and the children are really getting into their roles. Please keep practising the songs (which can be found on our foundation stage blog) with your child as much as you can and practise their lines with them if they have them. The children’s calendars are looking beautiful and will be available to buy from our Christmas shop. We are hoping to use the money raised from the children’s shop to pay for an animal workshop, so the children will get a hands on experience to meet some exciting animals to kick off our topic of “Animals in their Habitats” next half term. In numeracy we have been using our maths skills to play bingo and a whole range of collaborative games.
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be finishing off our Christmas goodies for our shop and practising our nativity so that it will be amazing when you come to watch. Please make sure your child has their book bag every day next week because we will be reading with the children as and when we can. We have a big surprise for the children next Monday as we will be getting Skyped from a very special person who lives in the North Pole!
CAROLS AROUND THE TREE AND THE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Next Friday (20th December) we will be singing carols around the tree in the hall at 11.30 until 12 noon, so please feel free to come and join in with the festivities. Our parties will be held Wednesday and Friday mornings (straight after the nativity performances)
CHRISTMAS NATIVITY DATES
Our productions for the parents to watch will be on Wednesday December 18th (for Monday – Wednesday children) and Friday December 20th (for Wednesday to Friday children) the hall doors will open at 9.15am and it will start at 9.30 and end at 10am. Our Christmas shop will open at 10am where you will be able to buy some of the wonderful things your child has been making.  
Have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Steel, Miss Fox, Mrs Chin and Mrs Beckwith.
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
This week has been very busy and we are now all feeling very festive. Our classroom is very shiny and sparkly because it is covered in glitter from all of the creative activities we have been doing. The children have made lots more wonderful Christmas gifts for our Christmas shop which will be open for you to visit after our nativity performance.
THIS WEEK
We have practised our nativity every day this week and the children are getting more and more confident by the minute. They looked really cute in their costumes on Monday and the children are really getting into their characters role. Please keep practising the songs (which can be found on our foundation stage blog) with your child as much as you can and practise their lines with them if they have them. In literacy the children have made beautiful glittery Christmas cards. The children’s calendars are looking beautiful and will be available to buy from our Christmas shop. We are hoping to use the money raised from the children’s shop to pay for an animal workshop so the children will get a hands on experience to meet some exciting animals to kick off our topic of “animals in their habitats” next half term. In numeracy we have been learning all about money and the value of coins and how different coins can still add up to the same value. So the children will be fully prepared to serve you at our Christmas shop. In phonics they have learnt to read the Phase 3 sounds ur (turn), oi (coin) and ow (cow).
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be finishing off all of our Christmas goodies for our shop and practising our nativity so that it will be amazing when you come to watch. We will be continuing to learn about money in maths and the children will be learning how to add up coins and give change. Please make sure your child has their book bag every day next week because we will be reading with the children as and when we can. We have a big surprise for the children next week as we will be getting Skyped from a very special person who lives in the North Pole.
CAROLS AROUND THE TREE AND THE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Next Friday (20th December) we will be singing carols around the tree in the hall at 11.30am until 12pm so please feel free to come and join in with the festivities. We will then be having our Christmas party, so please can your child bring in some food to share with their friends on the last day. Please could the girls bring in savoury treats and the boys bring in sweet treats. Friday will be a non-uniform day for the Reception children, so please send them in in their best party clothes ready for our party. The children will also have time in the morning to play with toys from home so if they would like to do this they can bring in 1 toy clearly named but it must be able to fit in their locker.
CHRISTMAS NATIVITY DATES
Our production for the parents to watch will be on Thursday 19th December at 9.30am. The hall doors will open from 9am where refreshments will be served by the PTA until 9.30am. The Christmas shop will open after the nativity has finished where you will be able to buy some of the wonderful things your child has been making.  
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception team.
Key Stage 1
Home learning
With Christmas just around the corner it is only fitting that home learning should have a festive theme. I’m sure you are very excited about our Christmas Production ‘Prickly Hay.’ This week please can the children design a leaflet or a poster to advertise the performance. It should tell us what the play is called, where it will be held and when (next Wednesday 18th December at 2pm and Thursday 19th December at 6pm.) Make your posters bright and engaging. The best ones will be displayed around school.

Please help us make Santa’s workshop!
Continuing our theme of instructions we are going to set the children the challenge of present wrapping next week. If you have any empty boxes, containers or cartons (clean!) they would be very much appreciated. Hopefully the children will then be able to help you with any last minute wrapping at home!

Costumes
Thank you so much for bringing in your costumes. The children look beautiful. If anyone still needs to bring theirs please can you ensure they are in school no later than Monday for our dress rehearsal.

Christmas party
Our Christmas party is going to be held next Wednesday 18th December. Here is a reminder of the details. Party clothes can be brought in a labelled, separate carrier bag. We kindly ask if your child is a boy to bring in some savoury food and if your child is a girl, sweets or chocolate. If anyone would like to provide any juice (not fizzy), then this would be gratefully received.

Toy day!
One more festive reminder… the last day of term is ‘toy day’. Children can bring in toys and games to play with in class. If there is anything electrical please make sure it is fully charged and labelled. It is the responsibility of your child to look after anything they bring in.

Fantastic Seasonal Calendars
You will be pleased to hear that you do not need to buy a calendar for 2014! The children have been busy little elves this week producing some beautiful season calendars. They followed instructions step by step and experimented with lots of fun materials like colourful felt, crepe paper, fluff and ribbon. I’m sure you will agree that the final outcomes are amazing. You will receive a pack containing some of the things your child has been making. These will be sent home this week.

Geography learning
To help the children understand what their seasonal calendars were all about we have started to learn about the seasons. This learning will continue into next week. Firstly we discussed what the seasons are, then looked at the difference between seasons and months. It’s tricky to remember which months fall in which season! We considered different events that happen in different seasons and talked about how the weather and the world around us changes. Next week there will be a competition for the best seasons poster. There will be a prize for each class and an overall winner for KS1.

We look forward to seeing you all at our production next week.

Have a lovely weekend.

The KS1 Team

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
What another fabulous week we’ve had in year 3/4. We are really getting into the festive spirit with our rehearsals for the production.  This year’s show is absolutely fantastic and we strongly recommend that you come along to see all of our amazing, talented children in 3/4. Our performances are on Tuesday 17th December 2:00pm – 3:00pm and Wednesday 18th December 6:00pm – 7:00pm. Doors will open 10 minutes before the show is due to start. Seats are available as well as standing space at the back of the hall. Could we please ask that parents and carers only attend ONE of the shows as we have limited space and would like everybody to have the opportunity to see their children perform? Parents and carers will be permitted to take photographs, but we ask that these are not shared via any form of social media. If you have any queries, please do contact us.

We would like to thank all parents and carers who came along to our showcase assembly on Friday. We were treated to a fabulous show of fantastic learning from the children this half term and were particularly impressed with the quality of design and finish given to the customised trainers. The whole assembly really did reflect the hard work and enthusiasm shown by the children over the half term and we are incredibly proud of them. Well done everyone.
Next week we will be holding our Christmas Party on Thursday afternoon. Children will be invited to bring in their party clothes to change into for the afternoon celebrations. They will also be asked to bring in a selection of snacks and drinks as they have done in previous years. On Friday we will also be having our usual toy day. The children will be able to bring in their own games and toys but MUST ensure they are clearly labelled with their name. Mobile phones are not permitted.

Home Learning
As well as the children reading daily and practicing their weekly spellings, we would like everyone to be learning their Times Tables. We will now be testing the children weekly on a different times table as this will help us all greatly when solving multiplication and division problems. Links to any on line games to support your child with this will be on our phase blog. The times table we will be testing next week is the 12 Times Table.

Numeracy
This week in numeracy the children have been applying their knowledge of times tables and problem solving skills to tackle some tricky Christmas-themed questions. From secret codes to Christmas dinner budgets, we have all had fun putting our mathematical minds to the test.   

Literacy
This week in literacy, the children have redrafted and rewritten their letters to Gary Barlow trying to persuade him to come and visit Robin Hood Primary School. These letters will be sent to Mr Barlow himself in the hope that he will pop in for a visit. Watch this space to see if we get a reply. We have also written a shared story entitled The Nightmare Just Before Christmas. The children discussed their ideas in pairs and wrote the rest of the story together. We were really impressed with the quality and attention to detail as well as the variation in sentence types to add effect to the stories.

Topic
This week the children have been working super hard to finish their customised design for their pumps. They have also been adding the finishing touches to their adverts to promote our products using lots of different persuasive techniques.

Spellings
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 16th December. For this week’s spellings we are giving the children some of the trickier words from this half term.

Group 1: locking, sucking, rocking, ticking, picking, checking, shocking, ringing, banging, mixing

Group 2: thief, thieves, leaf, leaves, half, halves, wolf, wolves, knife, knives

Reminders

·     Please ensure your child has an art shirt in school at all times.

·     Now that the weather is turning colder, we ask that your child must bring a coat to school every day.

·     Just a gentle reminder to ensure all of your child’s belongings (especially PE kits, hats and gloves and school jumpers) are clearly labelled with your child’s full name. Children will be required to have an indoor and outdoor kit after the holidays.
Don’t forget to check out our blog where you will find lots more information about this week’s learning as well as important reminders and dates for forthcoming event. http://year34rhps.blogspot.co.uk/

Have a superb weekend!
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter Week 6 Autumn 2 2013
News Roundup:
Another reminder about our Celebration Assembly:
As many of you may be aware the format for our Friday assemblies has now changed. We will now hold Phase Assemblies on a rota basis. These will continue to be celebratory and will help give parents who cannot attend every Friday, the chance to come along when it is their child’s turn to be involved. The forthcoming upper key stage 2 celebration assemblies have been scheduled for: Friday 10th January, 2.30- 3.00pm followed by Friday 7th February… we look forward to seeing you there!
Year 6 Parent Consultations:
All year 6 children have received a letter about Parent Consultations for these children only to discuss your child’s progress and targets, well ahead of the formal end of year externally-marked assessments. Miss Hinton’s class appointments are on Monday January 13th, Miss Gascoigne’s class appointments are Tuesday January 14th and Mr Malley’s class appointments are Wednesday January 15th. Each parent will be allocated a 15 minute time slot, therefore we ask parents/carers to specify a time on the letter which is most suitable and hand it into your child’s class teacher, or to the office. We will try our very best to accommodate all parents/carers, so do not hesitate to contact us should there be any major concerns regarding this.
Times Tables Challenge:
Next Wednesday sees the return of our termly times tables championship. We encourage all children to practice and we look forward to seeing their dazzling times tables skills! A fantastic resource for pupils to practice is www.teachningtimestables.co.uk.
Christmas Party:
Next Thursday each class will hold a class party. Children will be able to bring in their own clothes for the party and will be allowed to get changed into these in the afternoon. Pupils will spend some time in class having party food (a contribution to this would be greatly appreciated). For the remainder of the afternoon pupils will be playing party games in the hall.
Core Subjects:
Numeracy:
In Numeracy this week pupils have been calculating discounts for a Harry Potter shopping spree! Pupils have applied a range of different strategies to solve multi step problems involving finding percentages and fractions of amounts. For the remainder of the week pupils have been solving a variety of Christmas based numeracy problems.
Literacy:
In Literacy this week pupils have looked at the key features of a travel guide. Pupils have applied these features into their own Lapland travel guide. Pupils have written some wonderful guides which have used fantastic description and audience engaging features. 
SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: unashamed, unemployed, unfortunate, unavailable, replace, reinvent, recycle, enable, entangle, enlarge. Your child has received a copy of these spellings which have been glued into their planner. They will be tested on these words on Friday January 10th.
Other areas of the curriculum:
PE:
This week pupils have performed their own sequence routines by applying a range of key criteria including; rolls, balances, canon, flight and travelling. Pupils also combined their sequences with the use of the vault and trampette. All routines showed superb imagination, control and variation. Well done to all!
Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week. 5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are on now on Wednesdays. As the PE unit this half term is Gymnastics, the children only need their plain white PE t-shirt and black shorts.
Spanish:
This week in Spanish, pupils have been getting in the festive spirit by learning traditional Christmas carols. Pupils have also been putting their knowledge of los objetos de la classe (classroom objects) by helping to design a fantastic classroom display.
ICT:
During our ICT sessions, the children have been challenging themselves this week to program their robot to perform a tricky procedure which was to go forward in a rectangle, and reverse backwards into a circle.

Friday 6 December 2013

Issue 13 2013-14


Newsletter Issue 13

Friday 6th December 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,
Thank you first of all to everyone who contributed to the Operation Christmas Child Shoebox appeal. The shoeboxes were collected on Monday and we had between 50 and 60 boxes to send overseas. I was also fortunate enough to hold an assembly on Monday where Vaughan and Alan from the British Legion presented the School Captains with the Poppy Appeal shield as Robin Hood was once more, the school who raised the most money for the appeal in the local Family of Schools. And as if that wasn’t enough, a huge amount of money was raised by our fabulous PTA on Saturday at the Christmas Fayre and I know that everyone who attended had an absolutely brilliant time.

Finally, thanks to those parents who attended the Parent Coffee Morning on Monday. There were some useful discussions to take forward around our chosen school agendas.

Assemblies
Thank you so much to all the parents who have turned up for the new-style Friday assemblies so far. We have had such wonderful positive praise and feedback for the new format and I am really glad that you feel that the assemblies are a more positive experience for you and your child. It’s also really wonderful to see more parents in school, who may otherwise have found it difficult to attend. Change is necessary in a forward thinking school and where safety is the issue; decisive action must always be taken.

Tournaments
As mentioned last week, a group of our children visited Rodillian on Monday to take part in a Netball tournament. This was a fabulous opportunity to get involved in a local sporting event. But that’s not all, because our Girl’s Football Team also attended a tournament on Wednesday evening at Garforth Academy. Although we did not win any of the tournaments, all children entered into the spirit of the events with real commitment and enthusiasm and we are all really proud of what they achieved. It has been a while since Robin Hood has had such involvement with the community sporting events so I am so grateful to Miss Mees, Mr Malley and Miss Pensom who are doing a great job of facilitating our involvement but also to the children and parents for their support.

Monies
If you need to hand money into school, please could you ensure that money is placed in a labelled envelope and posted into the secure silver post box at the front of the office please. Thank you.

2Build a Profile
In Reception, we have started to use a fantastic iPad app courtesy of 2simple, which allows us to securely capture moments of learning and match them up with the Early Years Framework objectives. It is used not only to evidence coverage, but to assess children’s attainment and crucially, to be able to share the learning with parents. These then form the children’s profiles. The 2simple film crew have been in school this week to film children and interview staff about the benefits of the app. This will be made into a promotional film to be used on the 2simple website, showing that Robin Hood is once more at the forefront of innovative practice.

A notice from Councillor Mulherin
Do not miss Robin Hood Residents Association’s annual Christmas Carol event tomorrow night!  RHRA’s fabulous volunteers from the local community have organised another great event to get Robin Hood in the Christmas spirit with well-loved carols played by Tingley Brass Band, hot soup and rolls to keep us warm, activities for children, the switching on of the lights on Robin Hood’s Christmas Tree and of course a visit from Santa!  The fun starts at 4pm on Saturday 7th December at the Community Garden on Copley Lane (opposite Robin Hood Post Office).  We hope to see you there.  Best wishes, Cllr Lisa Mulherin.

Celebration Friday
Next Friday, you are invited into school at pick up time to come in and look at your child’s learning from this half term. Everyone is welcome.

PTA News

We hope you enjoyed the Xmas Fayre last week, we certainly did.  I will have a final figure of monies raised by next week.  Thank you so much to all those that helped out before, during and after the event along with everyone who attended, making it a very special day.  The raffle has been drawn and Clare has made attempts to contact the winners.  On each classroom door there is a list of all the winning names and numbers so if you would like to check the list you never know......  We will be arranging a PTA meeting early in the New Year to discuss the Fayre and decide on our next event, details to follow.  Should anyone want to contact us please do so at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children’s brains must be tired out this week as it has been assessment week! They have been showing us all the fantastic learning they have been doing over the past 5 weeks; the children have made lots of progress in phonics, reading, writing and numeracy and we are all very proud of their excellent achievements. Well done Nursery!

THIS WEEK
The children have been very giddy in literacy this week as they have been writing their Christmas lists to Santa. There were lots of exciting conversations taking place on Monday when they rifled through the catalogues choosing their favourite toys and showing their friends what they were going to ask Santa for. The writing the children produced was super and we are delighted to share their fabulous writing with the other teachers in our school. In topic the children have made some amazing wintry snow globes which look fabulous and will look great in your house. They will be available to buy from our shop at the nativity. In numeracy, the children have been spotting shapes in and out of context as well as playing shape bingo! 
NEXT WEEK
We will be learning all about the nativity story and we will be practising our Nativity performance, so please keep practising the songs at home. We will be making and writing our Christmas cards in literacy and preparing our calendars and making salt dough Christmas decorations. The Christmas decorations will be available to buy at our Christmas nativity shop. In numeracy we will be consolidating our maths learning and using our skills to play collaborative maths games.

CHRISTMAS NATIVITY DATES
Please help your child learn the nativity songs which can be found on the blog and help them learn their lines if they have them. Our dress rehearsals will be week commencing 9th December so please ensure that their costume is in nursery by then. Our productions for the parents to watch will be on Wednesday 18th December (Mon – Wed children) 9.30-10.00 and Friday 20th December (Wed – Fri children) 9.30 – 10 am. Our Christmas shop will open at 10am where you will be able to buy some of the wonderful things your child has been making.  
Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Steel and the Nursery team.
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children’s brains must be aching this week as it has been assessment week, so they have been showing us all the fantastic learning they have been doing over the past 5 weeks. The children have made lots of progress in phonics, reading, writing and numeracy and we are all very proud of their excellent achievements. Well done Reception!
THIS WEEK
The children have been very excited in literacy this week as they have been writing their Christmas lists to Santa. There were lots of exciting conversations taking place on Monday when they rifled through the catalogues choosing their favourite toys and showing their friends what they were going to ask Santa for. The writing the children produced was great and we are very excited to share their fabulous writing with the other teachers in our school. In topic the children have made some amazing wintery snow globes which look fabulous and will look great in your house. They will be available to buy from our shop at the nativity. Thank you so much for providing your child with a jar. In numeracy the children have made some beautiful wrapping paper with a repeated pattern on. We will use the paper to wrap up all the lovely presents your child will be bringing you home for Christmas. In phonics they have learnt to read the Phase 3 sounds oo (book), oo (hoop), ar (car) and or (corn) and have learnt to read the tricky words; you, all, are, her, they and my. 
NEXT WEEK
We will be learning all about the nativity story and we will be practising our nativity so please keep practising the songs at home. We will be making and writing our glitzy Christmas cards in literacy. We will also be preparing our calendars and making our salt dough Christmas decorations. The Christmas decorations will be available to buy at our Christmas nativity shop. In numeracy we will be learning about money and the children will open their very own Christmas shops and they will use coins to buy the presents. In phonics we will be learning to read the sounds; ur (turn), oi (coin) and ow (cow). There are no specific words for the children to read this week but please ensure your child can read all the phase 3 words which are attached to the home learning.  
CHRISTMAS NATIVITY DATES
Please help your child learn the nativity songs which can be found on the blog and help them learn their lines if they have them. Our Dress rehearsal will be on Monday the 9th of December so please ensure that their costume is in their locker by then. Our production for the parents to watch will be on Thursday 19th December. The hall doors will open at 9.15am and it will start at 9.30 and end at 10am. Our Christmas shop will open at 10am where you will be able to buy some of the wonderful things your child has been making.  
Have a lovely weekend!
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception team.
Key Stage 1

Home Learning:

This week please use the sheet/s provided to practice adding and subtracting. The children can either put the biggest number in their head and count forward (adding) or put the biggest number in their head and count back (subtracting). Please feel free to allow your children to also count on their fingers to help them solve the problems. You could do this as a game to see how many they can do against the clock!
KS1’s first Celebration Assembly:
Thank you to all parents and carers who attended our first Key Stage One assembly. We hope you enjoyed our showcase of learning and have been able to see much more of how many wonderful and rich learning experiences your children have at school.
The Jungle Book, Yorkshire Playhouse
Next week the children will be enjoying a trip to the theatre to watch the Jungle Book.
All Year Two children from Miss McSorley’s and Miss Pensom’s will be going on Tuesday 10th December.
All Year One children from Miss Pensom’s and Miss Mees’s will be going on Wednesday 11th December. Thank you to all parents who have paid for the cost of this trip. If any payments need to be made please do this at the front office with Mrs Smith or Mrs Holland.
PE Uniform
Earlier this week your child brought home a detailed letter on the new PE arrangements at Robin Hood. We are really looking forward to having two hours of PE a week! It is extremely important that the uniform stated is adhered too.
Monday: All classes outdoor.
Warm hooded top, warm jogging bottoms, white t-shirt and outdoor trainers.
Wednesday: All classes indoor.
White t-shirt, black or dark plain shorts.
PE uniform can be kept in school in your child’s locker for the duration of the half term if you so wish. If uniform is not brought in or worn your child will miss out on a play time. We thank you for your support in this matter and look forward to having more Physical Education within the curriculum. We know your children will enjoy it too.
Assessment Week:
This week the children have worked extremely hard to show off all of their fantastic learning since entering their new classes in September. The children have really shown how much they have already progressed in their new classes and these assessments will be used to inform teaching for the new year of 2014. Your children are amazing; it really is as simple as that!
Next week:
In Literacy your children will begin a unit of learning on instructions where they will be making a seasonal calendar and unique Christmas card. In Numeracy the children will also be continuing to develop their mental maths skills with lots of fun Christmas number games. They will continue to develop adding and subtracting quickly, doubling numbers and learning skills to add or subtract 9 and 11 from a number. In Topic the children will also be learning about the different seasons, the equator and why different animals are suited to different parts of the world.
Carols around the tree
This year our annual carols around the tree will take place in separate key stages. Key Stage One’s will take place on Friday 20th December at the new time of 11.30am until 12pm. We hope to see lots of faces there to sing along with us and get you in the mood for a merry and enjoyable Christmas!
Important dates for your diary to do with parties and toys!
On Thursday 19th December will be Key Stage One’s Christmas party. On this day your child will be able to bring in a separate labelled carrier bag their own party clothes to wear whilst partying. We would kindly appreciate any donations of savoury or sweet foods, drink (Squash or juice) plastic plates and cups.
On the last day of term, Friday 20th December the children will take part in their annual toy day where they will be able to bring in a toy or game of their choice. Please make sure that all items are labelled with your child’s name and class. If your child chooses to bring in anything electrical please ensure this is fully charged at home.
Ten school days left until the Christmas holidays, time most certainly flies when you are having fun!
Have a lovely relaxed weekend.
The Key Stage One Team
LKS 2 Newsletter 
 
We have had another fun filled week of exciting learning in 3/4! The children have blown us away with their amazing attitudes towards their assessments and we are very proud of the great progress everyone is making. We have also been busy with rehearsals for our Christmas production and are very impressed with the children’s superb acting, singing and dancing. This year’s show is absolutely fantastic and we strongly recommend that you come along to see all of our amazing, talented children in 3/4. Our performances are on Tuesday 17th December 2:00pm – 3:00pm and Wednesday 18th December 6:00pm – 7:00pm.
Costumes for the show
The children in 3/4T will be dressed as elves, 3/4B dressed as fairies or in Christmas attire (jumpers, hats, scarves, etc.) and 3/4S dressed in Christmas attire or as reindeer. If you require any further details of costumes, etc. please do not hesitate to contact us.
Home Learning
As well as the children reading daily and practicing their weekly spellings, we would like everyone to be learning their Times Tables. We will now be testing the children weekly on a different times table as this will help us all greatly when solving multiplication and division problems. Links to any on line games to support your child with this will be on our phase blog. The times table we will be testing next week is the 11 Times Table.
Numeracy
This week in numeracy the children have been applying their written and mental strategies involving the four operations whilst tackling our numeracy assessment papers. We are really pleased with the children’s improvement in their mental maths scores and can already see how the children’s times tables knowledge is helping them to solve problems more quickly.
Literacy
This week in literacy, the children have continued to apply their persuasive skills to write a letter to Santa, trying to persuade him to visit by explaining why they deserve lots of presents this year. We have been impressed with how the children are developing their fantastic ideas into both compound and even complex sentences and how they are using lots of different adjectives to make their writing more interesting.  
Topic
This week the children have been working super hard designing and customising their own pumps. They have tried really hard to ensure they are copying their detail from their designs onto the final product. We have also been creating our own adverts to promote our products using lots of different persuasive techniques.
Spellings
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 9th December. For this week’s spellings we are giving the children some of the trickier words from this half term.
Group 1: slightly, lightly, useful, truthful, doubtful, powerful, spiteful, skilful, lovely, nicely
Group 2: passed, jumped, shouted, tried, cried, travelled, explored, discovered, explained, funded
Reminders
       ·         Our last swimming session for this half term will be Friday 13th December.
·         Please ensure your child has an art shirt in school at all times.
 
·         Now that the weather is turning colder, we ask that your child must bring a coat to school every day.
 
·         Just a gentle reminder to ensure all of your child’s belongings (especially PE kits, hats and gloves and school jumpers) are clearly labelled with your child’s full name.
Don’t forget to check out our blog where you will find lots more information about this week’s learning as well as important reminders and dates for forthcoming event. http://year34rhps.blogspot.co.uk/
Have a superb weekend!
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
 
News Roundup:
 
Another reminder about our Celebration Assembly:
As many of you may be aware the format for our Friday assemblies has now changed. We will now hold Phase Assemblies on a rota basis. These will continue to be celebratory and will help give parents who cannot attend every Friday, the chance to come along when it is their child’s turn to be involved. The forthcoming upper key stage 2 celebration assemblies have been scheduled for: Friday 10th January, 2.30- 3.00pm followed by Friday 8th February… we look forward to seeing you there!
End of term assessments:
A huge ‘well done’ to all the children in Year 5 and 6 for giving 110% to their end of term assessments. The children tackled the papers with confidence and have achieved some excellent results! Keep up the amazing effort to your learning everyone!
Year 6 Parent Consultations:
All year 6 children have received a letter about Parent Consultations for these children only to discuss your child’s progress and targets, well ahead of the formal end of year externally-marked assessments. Miss Hinton’s class appointments are on Monday January 13th, Miss Gascoigne’s class appointments are Tuesday January 14th and Mr Malley’s class appointments are Wednesday January 15th. Each parent will be allocated a 15 minute time slot, therefore we ask parents/carers to specify a time on the letter which is most suitable and hand it into your child’s class teacher, or to the office. We will try our very best to accommodate all parents/carers, so do not hesitate to contact us should there be any major concerns regarding this.
Core Subjects:

Numeracy:
In Numeracy this week the children have been applying the 4 operations to create their very own ‘I’m a Celebrity’ camp by using compound shapes. The children have found the area of their shapes, including using Next week we will continue to apply the 4 operations to some multi-step Christmas problems!
 
Literacy:
In Literacy this week pupils have been finalising their letters of complaint to Alton Towers. The children have been busy including engaging and firm features to stress their anger at being turned away from Alton Towers, whilst stating what compensation would be suitable and recommendations that the park should take on board in order to improve customer service. We clearly have some strong-minded children who are not afraid to say their piece! Well done, everyone!
 
Next week pupils will be looking at the key features of a travel guide. They will then apply these features into their own Lapland travel guide. This festive topic will no doubt motivate children and help them in writing a very appealing and descriptive guide of what Lapland has to offer.
 
SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: prepay, prehistoric, premolar, precaution, prevent, adherence
adverb, although, almost, altogether. Your child has received a copy of these spellings which have been glued into their planner. They will be tested on these words on Friday December 13th.
 
Other areas of the curriculum:
 
PE: This week pupils have continued to develop their own sequence routines by applying a range of key criteria including; rolls, balances, canon, flight and travelling. Each group has also learnt and refined the key skills needed to mount and dismount using the vault using the trampette.
 
Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week.
5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are on now on Wednesdays. As the PE unit this half term is Gymnastics, the children only need their plain white PE t-shirt and black shorts.
 
 
Spanish:
This week in Spanish, pupils have continued to embed their pronunciation and spelling of the days of the week and months of the year.  Pupils have been putting their knowledge of los objetos de la classe (classroom objects) into sentences using the sentence starter ‘Tengo…’ (I have) and ‘No Tengo…’ (I don’t have).  Check out the Year 5/6 blog for photos of the amazing team work and the Spanish classroom objects made.
ICT:
During our ICT sessions, the children have been challenging themselves this week to program their robot to perform a tricky procedure which was to reverse in the shape of a square and then drive forward into an equilateral triangle.