Issue 36 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 36

Friday 28th June 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

As I write this I am looking out of the window, desperately hoping and praying that the weather is not going to get any worse! It’s a really important weekend for the PTA, given all the hard work they have put into ensuring that our Summer Fayre on Saturday can be as successful as possible. Whatever the weather is like, I ask that you all come along and support in any way you can. In true Robin Hood spirit, whatever the weather, we’ll make the best of it anyway!

We have had a number of helpful volunteer visitors this week; Richard Major has joined us in Miss Snowden’s class as a pathway to his training to become a teacher. We have also welcomed back ex-pupil Amber Walton who has joined us in Reception this week as part of her Year 10 work experience. Year 5/6 also welcomed back local ex- miner, Tony Banks, who kindly comes in every two years to offer his first hand experiences of life as a miner to the children, as part of the Yorkshire topic. Thank you to all.

Love School for Sport – A unique experience

I know I mentioned this last week but I must just reflect on the great experience that the children had this week, working alongside the Love School for Sport representatives. The children carried out some fabulous athletic training on the top field as well as being presented with an inspirational assembly. I even had a go at the training myself; not the easiest thing to do in a dress (that’s my excuse for being outshone by the children anyway!). The children really welcomed the opportunity that we gave them to train alongside professionals and the feedback I got was that there are some incredible and genuinely gifted athletics amongst us. My thanks to Miss Mees, who led the days, with support from Miss Pensom and Mr Malley.

Year 6 Captains

Well it has been an exciting week for our Year 5s who have this week auditioned for their place as the Year 6 captains next year. To give more children a chance of taking up the role, next year we will be having different school captains each term. I am pleased to announce that following a process which involved the children’s very own votes, the school captains will be as follows: Autumn term- Evan Hawksworth and Macy Wood; Spring term- Eddie Marshall and Ella Brook; Summer term- Danika Sturdy and Caison Davey. Well done to all of the children who presented; the competition was fierce.

Miss Snowden

I have some lovely news once more. Miss Snowden would like me to announce the exciting news that she and her partner Rob are expecting their first baby in January. I am sure that you will all join me in congratulating Miss Snowden at this very exciting time.

Drums workshop

We welcomed several students and teachers from Royds Specialist Language College this week. They joined us to work with the Year 3/ 4 children in the hall delivering a drumming workshop. I visited to see how the children were getting on and was amazed to see how engaged the children were in developing their new drumming skills; a fantastic creative and musical skills based experience.

Transition Day

We are all excited about the transition day next Tuesday, which will give all children a fantastic opportunity to meet their new teacher and spend a day with their new classmates. It’s always a really positive day and really prepares the children for what they will experience in September. It can be a nerve- wracking time for some children so we approach the day very sensitively and ensure that any questions or queries amongst the children (or parents) are very much answered in order to minimize any anxieties. Our Year 6s who will be moving on to Rodillian or Royds will spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at their new High School. I know they will all thrive in their new environment.

PTA NEWS

Well this week has been extremely busy in the run up to our Fayre on Saturday. Lots of parents and grandparents have been helping wrapping, buying and letting us know when they can help out. A massive thank you to everyone who has donated things, or their time; it is appreciated. Clare hasn't slept for the past 3 nights trying to ensure all the stalls are covered for the day but I think she has managed it so a big thank you to her as well. All we need now is fine weather and everyone to come along and enjoy themselves (bringing lots of pennies to spend of course). See you all on Saturday.

Training Day

Please do not forget that next Friday (5thJuly) is a training day. Thanks.

Have a great week end and I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow at the fayre (hint hint!)

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

What a great week we have had to finish off our minibeasts topic. We started the week off with a fun filled day of athletics. The children really enjoyed meeting the athletes and racing against them. They saw them as role models and they learnt a lot of really positive values from them. By the end of the day the children were saying things like “We should never give up” “We should always try our hardest”. The athletes also told us that we definitely have some future athletics champions in our class!

THIS WEEK

In literacy the children have really enjoyed watching “a bug’s life” and have produced some fabulous writing about and pictures of the characters in the film. In topic the children have made some more large scale minibeasts and our minibeast area is getting larger and larger. In numeracy the children have done really well at counting to 20 and are becoming much more confident at working out one more and one less than sums. In phonics they have done very well at learning this week’s sounds of the week ‘b’ and ‘f’.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be starting our topic of summer sun. In literacy the children will be completing their report front covers. In topic we will be introducing our new areas to the children and playing with them to help spark their creativity. In maths we will continue to count, match, order and write numbers up to 20. In phonics we will be learning the digraph (2 letters that make 1 sound) found at the ends of words ff (huff and puff). Please remember that next Tuesday (2^nd July) it is transition day so your child will need to go straight to their new class on this day.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD WITH THEIR LOVELY LEARNING

·        Please read with your child for 5 minutes every day.

·        Challenge them to show you how well they can write their name.

·        Please practise recognising all the letters they have learnt so far with your child.

·        Please feel free to encourage and let your child bring in things to show the class related to our topic.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin & Miss Fox

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

What a great week we have had to finish off our minibeasts topic. We started the week off with a fun filled day of athletics. The children really enjoyed meeting the athletes and racing against them. They saw them as role models and they learnt a lot of positive values from them. By the end of the day the children were saying things like; “We should never give up” and “We should always try our hardest”. The athletes also told us that we definitely have some future athletics champions in our class!

THIS WEEK

In literacy the children have really enjoyed watching “a bug’s life” and have produced some fabulous writing about the characters in the film. On Tuesday they had a great time with Mrs Friar creating a spider’s web and they were pretending to be trapped flies. In topic the children have made some more large scale minibeasts and our minibeast area is getting larger and larger. In numeracy they have done really well at writing addition number sentences and are trying really hard to make sure that all their numbers are correctly formed. In phonics we have learnt to read the words; stop, must, red, door, right and sea and we have learnt to read and write the oo or u sounds ew (blew, new, crew) and ue (blue, glue).

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be starting our next topic which is summer sun. In literacy the children will be completing their report front covers. Following the writing moderation we are now really focusing on the children’s handwriting and letter formation, so we will be practising our handwriting next week. In topic we will be introducing our new areas to the children and playing with them to really spark their creativity. In maths we will be focusing on naming and describing 3D shapes. In phonics we will be learning to read the words; these, began, animals, never, next and boy and we will be learning the split digraph that makes the oo or u sound u_e (June, flute, cute). Please remember that next Tuesday (2^nd July) is transition day so your child will need to go straight to their new class on this day.

SCHOOL TRIP

Next Thursday (4^th July) we will be going on our eagerly anticipated trip to Meanwood Valley farm. Please bring your child to the classroom at 9am as normal. Please make sure they bring a packed lunch. Please also make sure they are wearing their school jumper but they can wear comfortable trousers. We will be outside all day so please make sure they have a coat, appropriate footwear, suncream and a sunhat (if it is sunny).

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD

·        Help your child practise their letter and number formation.

Have a great weekend.

Miss Pyatt, Miss Lambert and the Reception Team.

Key Stage 1

Home Learning: It has nearly come to the end of another fantastic and action packed school year. How time flies when you are having fun! For home learning this week we would like the children to write a reflective report of their year. This could include: ·         What has been your favourite lesson in the year and why? (Numeracy, Phonics, Literacy, PE, Music or Topic?) ·         What are you looking forward to next year and why? (A new teacher, making new friends, more challenges?) ·         What do you think you have most improved on and why? (Maths skills, handwriting, sharing?) ·         What are you most proud of and why? (Learning from your mistakes, challenging yourself, being kind, looking after others? In your sentences please give a reason why. You may want to use the conjunctions: and, because, so, with You could also draw a picture to accompany your report of something you have really enjoyed this year. E.g. My favourite lesson this year has been PE because I have enjoyed learning how to jump over hurdles.

News:

Love Sport

What a fantastic experience the children had on Monday! The athletes gave the children an afternoon to remember which included learning about how much an Olympian trains, what they have to eat and how determined they have to be all of the time. All the children can also say that they have sprinted and tried to beat Umar Hameed, an Olympic athlete who was super-fast. The children were enthusiastic and extremely well behaved so well done to you all. We all can’t wait for Sports Day now!

Summer Fare

This Saturday will be our annual Summer Fair kindly organised by the PTA. If any children from Key Stage One want to take part in a football tournament this will take place at 11.30am, so please feel free to come and join in…the more the merrier! There are also rumours that Miss Mees will be in the stocks from 11:00 am – 12:00pm so come and splash water to help raise money for the school!

Transition Day

On Tuesday 2^nd July the children will be moving classrooms for the day. It is our annual transition day where ahead of the next school year the children experience a day with their new class. Reception children will visit Year 1, the Year 1 children will spend a day in either the mixed Year 1/2 class or Year 2 Class. The Year 2 children will be making a longer journey to Key Stage 2 to join their Year 3 Teacher. Lots of super activities have been planned so we are sure the children will enjoy their day with their new class and have lots of fun. On this day please use the entry and exit as if they were in this class for the day. You will be able to pick your child up from their new classroom at the end of the day, where we know the children will be excited to share stories of their day. For the Year 2 children who are spending the day in Year 3 this will be the later time of 3.15pm.

Circus Day

The children are also in for a treat as the PTA have kindly organised a Circus Day for the children. This will take place on Wednesday 3^rd July where the children will be visited by a circus instructor and taught circus skills. From 3:10pm parents or carers are invited to a Parent Workshop on the playground. Parents will need to join their children during the workshop. We are sure it will be lots of fun!

Topic:

This week the children have started practising their sewing skills and making their stuffed animals. The children have made some fabulous animals and should be really proud of what they have produced. Next week the children will be starting their final unit within the animal’s topic which is a focus on ICT. The children will be spending the week drawing and painting a backdrop to accompany a stop-motion animation film that they will be learning how to make. The children will be choosing a habitat, and then designing a new animal which they will make out of play-dough. The children will then be using these to make a stop-motion animation film. Watch out David Attenborough!

Have a fabulous weekend and let’s hope the sun stays shining!

The Key Stage One Team

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

What an exciting week we have had! On Tuesday the children enjoyed a day of sports with some professional athletes. They were put through their paces on the field, training like they were preparing for the Olympics. The children learned how to start races in a good position to take the lead, and then took part in a sprint against the athletes themselves! We would like to say a big thank you to the Active Team for organising such a great day!

Literacy

This week in Literacy the children have been reading traditional tales such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood. The children have been bringing these stories to life through drama, showing confidence when performing to the class. The children have also been looking at alternative endings for these traditional tales, and thoroughly enjoyed thinking of their own ending for Goldilocks and the Three Bears! Keep up the good work guys!

Numeracy

In numeracy this week, the children have been using written strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We are so impressed with how confident the children are at using these strategies now! We have also been applying these strategies when solving 2 step worded problems. The children have been using the ‘RUCSAC’ method when solving these worded problems, which has really helped them with the accuracy of their answers. Why don’t you ask your child to explain the ‘RUCSAC’ method to you at home?

Topic

This week in topic the children have been painting their African drums. The children carefully looked at their designs from last week, and chose the best one to replicate. We were blown away with their painting skills, and were really impressed with how neat and well-presented they have turned out. Next week the children will be putting their finishing touched onto the drums using marker pens, so make sure all of the detail really stands out! Keep up the good work guys!

Spellings to be tested on Monday 8th July (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.

Group One	Group Two
Taught	Explosion
Caught	Corrosion
Straight	Profession
Weight	Session
Eight	Discussion
Tough	Passion
Cough	Mission
Rough	Contribution
Enough	Information
Through	Straight

Reminders

·         Please ensure your child’s PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week. As it is the summer term, all P.E sessions will be outdoors.

·         Please ensure all reading records are brought to school on Monday mornings. This is very important so we can monitor how much reading your children are doing during the week. Thanks for your support.

Have a lovely weekend!

Team 3/4

UKS2 News Roundup:

·         This week’s achiever is given to all of our new school captains. Year 5 children voted for their favourite candidates last week and we are happy to announce the following captains for year 6; Evan and Macy, Ella and Eddie, Danika and Caison. We would like to thank all the candidates for preparing fantastic speeches and their dedication and passion for the school captaincy role has been wonderful to see.

·         Please can all year 6 pupils bring in any old photos of themselves into school? These photos will be used for the year 6 leaver’s assembly at the end of term.

·         Well done to all children for their enthusiasm and efforts during our National Sports Week celebration on Tuesday. It was great to see our children compete on track with some aspiring Olympic athletes.

·         During transition day this coming Tuesday, your child will receive a letter and homework pack which will detail the home learning for the summer holidays.

Dates for your diary:

·         27^th June – Tea Party at Rodillian for Year 6 pupils. (4:00-6:00pm).

·         1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd July- Year 6 induction day for prospective Rodillian and Royds pupils (8.20- 14.30). Please can all pupils wear their Robin Hood school uniform?

·         4^th July- Residential meeting for year 5 parents.

·         4^th July – Year 6/7 disco at Rodillian – Hawaiian theme! (6:30-8:30pm).

·         10^th July- Growing and changing video preview for parents. (4.30- 5.15pm).

·         12^th July- Sports day.

·         16^th July- Year 6 leaver’s production, performance for parents (2.00- 3.15pm).

·         17^th July- Year 6 leaver’s production evening performance for parents (6.00-7.15pm).

·         22^nd July- Year 6 leaver’s prom, Glitz & Glamour theme. (5.30- 7.30pm).

·         23^rd July- Year 6 leavers’ assembly.

Numeracy:

·         This week year 5 pupils have been looking at sequences including Pascal’s Triangle, square numbers, triangular numbers and the Fibonacci sequence. Year 5 children have also taken part in the Leeds Junior School Maths Challenge. Let’s hope we have some fantastic representatives to compete with other schools across Leeds.

·         Next week pupils will be learning about decimal sequences, including ordering and comparing decimals.

Literacy:

·         This week pupils have been working collaboratively to plan and write an opening and build up to their own narrative story to the funfair.

·         Next week pupils will be continuing to develop their narrative stories focusing on their problem and resolution. Pupils will then use a range of ICT resources to present their outcomes effectively.

·         Spellings: Pupils will be tested on the following spellings; additional, individual, digital, fictional, traditional, apologetically, actually, physically, accidentally, gradually.

Other areas of the curriculum:

·         In PE this week pupils have been developing their hurdling skills. Pupils have been focusing on their stride pattern and posture to help them hurdle with great technique. Year 5/6 pupils definitely have some great hurdling potential.

·         This week in ICT, pupils have learnt how to record their own voices and input sound effects using garage band and I movie.

·         In Spanish this week pupils have been reading a text about world rivers and translating this back into English using bilingual dictionaries. 

·         In Music this week, 5/6M have continued to explore playing triads and shorter sections of twinkle twinkle using several percussion instruments with our music specialist Mr Bache. 5/6B have continued to learn the key notes of Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. 5/6G have started to select appropriate loops to give their silent movie compositions piece a beat with rhythm.

Visit our blog: http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Issue 35 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 35

Friday 21st June 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

Another busy week has just whizzed by at Robin Hood. Well done to our super learners in Year 1 who carried out their Phonics checks this week. They all did brilliantly and as ever we are so proud of our brilliant pupils. Many of our Year 6 pupils were involved in the Bikeability assessments this week. This is a great initiative which teaches our older pupils the importance of staying safe when out on their bikes.

Appointments

This week I am very pleased to say that we have made several excellent appointments. Earlier in the week, Miss Thackeray and Miss Lambert carried out an assessment which resulted in both teachers securing their posts as Assistant Headteachers. Both ladies have added great value to the School Leadership Team this year so I am delighted that they will be continuing their roles next year. Our school continues to go from strength to strength with exemplary teachers helping us to achieve our goals.

Additionally from September, we will be welcoming Anna Sutcliffe to our team. Miss Sutcliffe will join us an additional Communication Support Worker and will work closely with our existing valued team of CSWs to provide high quality support to our deaf pupils.

Love School for Sport – A unique experience

On Monday 24^th June and Tuesday 25^th June, the school will be having some very special visitors through our collaboration with Love School for Sport. With the monies raised from the Speedmark Challenge, it has been organised for each key stage to spend a day with two amazing athletes. We will welcome Umar Hameed, who is a Pakistani international sprinter. He has previously achieved first place in the UK 150m running event and has a ranking of 2nd fastest Pakistani in the world. He has trained with Usain Bolt, and is currently preparing for the Asian championships in July. We will also welcome Great Britain international 400m hurdler, Sophie Wood. Sophie represented Great Britain at the European junior championships, and at her best has been ranked as high as 18th within Europe for her event. The athletes will be sharing their stories of their achievements and give the children an “Olympic style” lesson. On Monday, children in Foundation and Key Stage One will be allowed to wear any sporting clothes they want! They will need to be appropriately dressed to take part in physical activity but if this is your favourite Leeds United kit then please wear this. On Tuesday, Key Stage Two will be allowed to wear their own sport kit for the day. Alternatively, a school P.E kit can be worn. We really are excited about the event and we are sure the children will love it too!

Parentview

I have been encouraging you to complete the Parentview survey throughout this year and thank you to the 13 parents who have given their responses. To get a really accurate view of parent’s thoughts about the school, we would benefit from a few more responses (quite a few more!!). The school has received some wonderful feedback from parents across the year and we have worked hard to build a culture of trust and collaboration with parents which I hope will continue to improve next year. To have your views on what we do would be a great way to see how happy our valued parents are. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Your opinion matters to us. http://www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/.

School dates

Please keep up to date with our end of term events by visiting the Calendar section of our website. We hope you are finding this new resource useful. We aim to keep you updated with events as best we can. Also please remember that you can ask a quick question by posting on the Message Board.

PTA NEWS

Summer Fayre – we are holding a meeting after school on Monday to discuss any outstanding items that need to be completed before the Summer Fayre, next Saturday. Please come along and support this event even if it just means helping out at some point next week, wrapping or labelling things, all help is appreciated. Feel free to bring the children. We still require the loan of gazebos for the day and donations of teddy bear and packets of sweets. If anyone is able to bake some buns or a cake for our cake stall please would you contact Clare Perry on 07834600343 or robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com. Don’t forget to hunt around for the most unusual shaped vegetable you can find when doing your weekly shop and children, come dressed in your fanciest fancy dress outfit to win an exciting prize. Mr Malley is taking names for the football games he has kindly agreed to arrange for us and will even be stepping in as goalie for a penalty shoot out, so if you fancy a game see Mr Malley and he will make sure your name is down.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

We are bubbling SO proud in Nursery this week! We have been assessing the children to look at how much progress they have made in numeracy, writing and phonics and the progress they have made is outstanding. So well done Nursery children, you should be really proud of yourselves, we certainly are!

THIS WEEK

In literacy the children have enjoyed looking at non-fiction books about minibeasts. They have learnt lots of interesting facts about minibeasts and I am sure they will be keen to share their new knowledge with you. They are developing their knowledge about the features of non-fiction books including; contents page, index and glossary. In topic, the children drew some wonderful pictures of minibeasts and their drawings are really maturing. Much fun was had hunting for minibeasts who were willing to stay still long enough to be drawn! The children have done very well at learning this week’s sounds of the week ‘r’ and ‘h’ and they are continuing to get better and better at reading the words in our guided reading books.

NEXT HALF TERM

Next week is the last week of our topic of Minibeasts. Our topic and literacy activities will be based around the Disney Pixar film A Bug’s life. We will watch some of the film and then retell the story using speaking and listening and then drawing a picture and writing a caption underneath. In topic, the children will be making a giant papier-mâché spider and making spider webs using string. In numeracy we will be consolidating our counting and one more/one less skills and in phonics we will be learning the sounds “b” and “f”.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD WITH THEIR LOVELY LEARNING

·        Please read with your child for 5 minutes every day.

·        Challenge them to show you how well they can write their name.

·        Please practise recognising all the letters they have learnt so far with your child.

·        Please feel free to encourage and let your child bring in things to show the class related to our topic.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin & Miss Fox

 

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The whole of the Reception team are bubbling with pride this week as the children have performed amazingly well in their assessments. They all tried extremely hard and approached the activities with smiles and enthusiasm. Their attitude to their learning is incredible and makes our job an absolute pleasure.

THIS WEEK

In literacy the children have really enjoyed looking at non-fiction books about minibeasts. They have learnt lots of interesting facts about them and I am sure they will be keen to share their new knowledge with you. They are becoming more confident at knowing which books are fiction and which are non-fiction and are developing their knowledge about the features of non-fiction books including; contents page, index and glossary. The children have made some super salt-dough sculptures of their favourite minibeasts with Mrs Friar which look fantastic. The children have made a fantastic bug hotel outside and fingers crossed we will have minibeasts moving themselves in to our hotel over the weekend. In numeracy the children have been doing really well at solving subtraction problems by using the counting back method. In phonics we have learnt to read the words; other, food, fox, through, way and been and tree and we have learnt to read and write the long o sound oe (toe, Joe) and o (so, go).

NEXT WEEK

Next week is the last week of our topic of Minibeasts. Our topic and literacy activities will be based around the Disney Pixar film A Bug’s life. We will watch some of the film and then retell the story through speaking and listening and then a picture caption. In topic the children will be making a giant papier-mâché spider and making spider webs using string. In numeracy we will be concentrating on the name of 3D shapes and their properties so please point them out when you see them in the environment. In our main input we will be moving onto the formal written method of addition and subtraction. In phonics we will be learning to read the words; stop, must, red, door, right and sea and we will be learning to read and write the oo sound ew (blew, new, crew) and ue (blue, glue).

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD

·        Please read at least 5 minutes every day with your child (don’t forget to use Bug club too!) 

·        Please encourage them to practise their lovely hand writing. Please check the sheet attached on the home learning for correct formation.

·        Please make sure your child has trainers for P.E. on Friday as we are now doing it outside.

We hope you have an amazing weekend from Miss Pyatt, Miss Lambert and the Reception Team.

Key Stage 1

Home Learning: This week we have started a new unit of Design and Technology in which we are designing, sewing and stuffing our own toy animal. An important skill that we have focussed on is the children’s cutting skills; cutting carefully around their template on paper and then card before transferring this template onto either felt or silk and cutting it out. For this week’s home learning, please support your child in developing their precision and strength when using scissors. They could draw an animal on paper or card and then cut it out, print a picture with curves and corners off the internet or even use a template to cut an old piece of fabric. Please support your child in turning the paper as they cut as opposed to rotating the scissors right around the outline. The children can then stick this in their home learning books.

News:

Love Sport’s Day

We are really excited to report that on Monday 24^th June (this Monday!) we will be welcoming two Olympic athletes to school for a day of inspiration, excellence and sporting fun! Our timetable will kick off with an assembly led by the athletes all about what it takes to become an Olympic great before each year group is taken for their own ‘Olympic style’ training session! With Umar Hameed, a Pakistani sprinter who has trained alongside Usain Bolt, and Sophie Wood, a British 400m hurdler who competed in the European Junior Championships, running this it promises to be challenging, inspirational and exhausting! To get the children even more in the mood for this we are allowing them to come into school in their favourite (and most professional looking!) sports clothing. Trainers are an absolute must!

Topic:

As stated above, we have embarked on our D&T unit for our Animals topic, which will continue throughout next week. After the children chose the animal they wanted to make, they each practised drawing a realistic and well-proportioned outline of their animal on a piece of paper that would act as their template for their final design. We really encouraged the children to think back to our Art learning during this and there was lots of questioning about the shapes and size of their template. This was totally child led learning; after each template was drawn and cut out the children peer and self-assessed the piece before trying again! The next step was to transfer this template onto card and then onto fabric. As you can see from the home learning task, improving the children’s cutting skills was a big focus throughout this process. Next week we will be teaching running stitches, attaching extra features to the bodies to achieve that detail we have been talking about and finally stuffing them with wool…fingers crossed everyone remembers to leave a hole in their stitching to do this through!

Literacy:

Our week began with two days on our final assessed write of the year. This is what we call a ‘cold write’, meaning that the children had no teaching around the subject or genre and were given minimal input during the process. The stimulus was a picture of a small, wooden hut by a lake. From this the children were tasked with writing a narrative story for which they could choose their character and events. On Monday we verbalised some ideas before mapping the journey our character would take out onto a story mountain plan (opening, build-up – where the adventure or problem is introduced, climax, resolution and ending). The children took charge of this planning process, deciding whether they would prefer to draw each section or bullet point ideas. Tuesday saw our 45 minute star write, which produced some fantastic pieces of work. Everyone did a wonderful job at recalling the different literary features that we have taught this year and tried their best to include these purposefully and with maturity. Great learning all round!

The rest of the week brought us back to normal timetable and onto poetry again. We have swapped books between classes from week 1; Year 1 are studying rhyming couplets in Each Peach Pear Plum, Year 1-2 are studying where the rhyming patterns lie within each verse of Peepo and Year 2 are delving into the wonderful world of Dr Seuss!

Numeracy:

We started our final unit of the year this week in Numeracy: Time. The children produced some amazing home learning around this subject, and every teacher has commented on how well this set them up for understanding what we’re covering in lessons. We started the week by assessing the different time words the children knew already and checking their understanding of how these words fit together, i.e. 60 seconds is 1 minute, 60 minutes is 1 hour, up to 100 years is 1 century. We then looked at how long 1 minute actually is by running on the spot for this duration and used this to estimate how long daily routines such as walking to school or brushing our teeth takes. This moved onto using hand held clocks to make the time, first o’clock, then half past and moving into quarter past/to towards the end of the week. Telling the time is a huge concept to grasp (I certainly remember really struggling when I was young!) but the children have done fabulously. We took this learning and applied it by drawing the hands on a clock template. A big part of our teach has been centred around the length of the hour and minute hand and the placement of the hour hand in the middle of two hours when we draw half past.

We will continue to look at telling the time using both analogue and digital clocks and drawing it next week as well as looking in more depth at days, weeks and years within worded problems.

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

The children have shown a wonderfully mature and sensible attitude towards their assessments this week, which has seen them make great steps forward in their learning. We are always so proud with how the children tackle their assessments, demonstrating that they really care about showing off their own learning. On Tuesday 25^th June, the children will be taking part in a sporting day therefore are asked to come into school in sports clothes for the entire day.

Literacy

This week in Literacy the children have completed their assessed write to show off their amazing learning from the year. It was great to see a range of audience engaging features within all children’s stories, as well as accurate compound and complex sentences. We were blown away with the children’s use of adjective, powerful verbs and adverbs within their writing. Well done guys, you all should be very proud of yourself.

Numeracy

This week the children have completed their numeracy assessments which involved a mental maths test as well as a written paper. The children thought carefully about which strategies they could use in order to solve different problems, and demonstrated great mental skills on their mental maths test. In addition to their assessments, the children have also been learning about symmetry. The children have been practicing reflecting different patterns and images into a mirror line, ensuring it is an identical match to the first image.

Topic

This week in topic the children have been learning all about the African tribal culture, including their passion for music and dance. The children have been looking at a range of African drums, and then designed their own before making it using papier mache. Next week the children will begin painting and decorating their designs to look like a real African drum. All children have put 100% effort into this DT activity, and so far the drums look like they are going to be a real success. Well done guys for taking such care and attention! 

Spellings to be tested on Monday 1^st July (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.

Group One	Group Two
Because	Bought
First	Brought
Again	Sought
Please	Optician
Little	Magician
Single	Politician
Babies	Electrician
Parties	Extension
Cried	Confusion
Waited	Exclusion

Reminders

·         Please ensure your child’s PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week.

·         Please ensure that your child’s reading record is sent in every Monday morning.

Have a lovely weekend!

Team 3/4

UKS2 News Roundup:

·        This week’s achiever is all of year 5. The application of our year 5’s during their assessments this week has been fantastic. We are really proud of their efforts and they should have great confidence going into year 6!

·        Please can all year 6 pupils bring any old photos of themselves into school. These photos will be used for the year 6 leaver’s assembly at the end of term.

·        We would like to congratulate all of the year 6’s for their fantastic efforts during their Bikeability cycle training this week. This training has been crucial in helping children identify safe cycle practices.

·        Can we remind all year 5/6 pupils to come dressed in appropriate sports clothing on Tuesday 25^th June. On this day pupils will be taught a PE lesson by several aspiring Olympians as well as completing other sports based activities in class.

Dates for your diary:

·        25^th June- National Sports Week- Year 5/6 pupils to come dressed in appropriate sports clothing for the day.

·        27^th June – Tea Party at Rodillian for Year 6 pupils. (4:00-6:00pm)

·        1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd July- Year 6 induction day for prospective Rodillian and Royds pupils (8.20- 14.30). Please can all pupils wear their Robin Hood school uniform.

·        4^th July- Residential meeting for Year 5 parents (4:00pm)

·        4^th July – Year 6/7 disco at Rodillian – Hawaiian theme! (6:30-8:30pm)

·        22^nd July- Year 6 leaver’s prom, Glitz & Glamour theme. (5.30- 7.30pm)

·        23^rd July- Year 6 leavers’ assembly.

Numeracy:

·        This week year 5 pupils have been completing their numeracy assessments.

·        Next week pupils will looking at sequences including Pascal’s Triangle, square numbers, triangular numbers and the Fibonacci sequence. Year 5 children will also be taking part in the Leeds Junior School Maths Challenge. This is a short test and the top 4 children from year 5 will compete with other schools across Leeds.

Literacy:

·        This week pupils have been reflecting upon their year in school and drafting and writing their own report front cover.

·        Next week pupils will be planning and writing an opening and build up to their own narrative story to the funfair.

·        Spellings: Pupils will be tested on the following spellings; granddaughter, yoghurt, straightened, fraught, caught, laughter, mighty, lightening, ghastly, ghoulish.

Other areas of the curriculum:

·        In PE this week pupils have been developing their skipping skills. Pupils have been focusing on footwork, timing and coordination in preparation for sports day.

·        This week in ICT, pupils have learnt how to record their own voices and input sound effects using garage band and I movie.

·        In Spanish this week pupils have been learning the names of continents and world rivers.

·        In Music this week, 5/6M have explored playing triads and shorter sections of twinkle twinkle using several percussion instruments with our music specialist Mr Bache. 5/6B have continued to learn the key notes of Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. 5/6G have started to select appropriate loops to give their silent movie compositions piece a beat with rhythm.

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