Newsletter Issue 1
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Friday 6th September 2013
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Dear Parent/Carer,
A very warm welcome back to school for the new academic year. I hope everybody had a wonderful summer break and that the children had the down time needed to face the coming year with sufficient gusto!
Our short week has been one of
great success and the children have settled into their classes fantastically.
New
staff
I would like to welcome Leanne
Bailey, who has joined us as a newly qualified teacher in Year 3/ 4. She joins
us after successfully completing her teaching qualification at Leeds
Metropolitan University. Anna Sutcliffe joins our fabulous team of
communication support workers and will be based mostly in Reception. Samina
Ahmed will also join the CSW team on a Monday and a Friday. We also welcome
Hannah Holmes, who will be supporting in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 as
part of Leeds City College apprenticeship programme. Ashley Bell, a former
pupil, will be supporting in Year 5/ 6 on a Friday and Helen Young, a parent,
will be based in Nursery on a Monday and Tuesday. We look forward to working
with you all.
Communication
We aim to continue to improve
communication with parents. This includes giving sufficient notice for key
events and making sure that the School Calendar is updated and populated with
the dates and times of key events. We have already added many onto the calendar
for this year and will continue to update this regularly. I urge you to use the
website resource as a reference point when you are unsure of dates and times of
events. Please do remember that past school and phase newsletters can also be
accessed on the school website via the Newsletter Blog.
Parent voice is important to us
and this year, we will be holding half termly coffee mornings in the Friendly
Faces annexe, where you can come along and discuss school priorities with Miss
Thackeray. As part of the development of the school, I feel it is important
that both parents and pupils positively contribute ideas and thoughts to the
areas that we would like to develop. Therefore, we will set the agendas for
discussion and these will fit in with School Council discussions with the
children. So that parents who cannot attend get a chance to have their say on
these subjects if they wish, I will let you know in advance of the coffee
mornings what will be discussed so that you have a chance to email me your
contribution if necessary. Again, these dates are on the website but for your
information, they will take place as follows:
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Monday 7th Oct
9 a.m.- 10 a.m.
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Monday 2nd Dec
9 a.m.- 10 a.m.
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Monday 10th Feb
9 a.m.- 10 a.m.
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Monday 17th March
9 a.m.- 10 a.m.
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Monday 19th May
9 a.m.- 10 a.m.
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We will be showing children’s
out of school achievements through a “show reel” from now on in assembly. The
children will be photographed with their medal, trophy or certificates and
celebrated in our Friday assembly. Because of this, we ask that children bring
related items in by Thursday each week so that our school captains can manage
the photographing and uploading of images ready for Friday’s assemblies. Thanks
in advance.
Any children taking up either Guitar
or Keyboard club this year, please be aware that classes start as follows; Thursday
12th September for Guitar and Monday 16th September for
Keyboard, both starting at 3:15. There are still a number of places available
in each of these classes. Please let Sue or Liz in the office know if you are
interested in your child signing up to attend. The cost is a very reasonable
£85 a term, which works out at about £7 per hour lesson.
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PTA NEWS
Hello and welcome back after a glorious
summer. Just to remind everyone, and to let all the new parents and carers
know, this is who we are and where you can contact us;
Chair - Clare Perry, Vice Chair -
Rebecca Elsworth, Treasurer - Jane Wardell, Secretary - Stephanie Findlay.
Email - Robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com. If anyone would like any more information on
what we do and how you could help us please feel free to email or speak to us
before and after school where we can be found most days.
We are holding our AGM on 4 October at
3:15pm. If you would like to attend please meet us outside the school office
after school. We hope to see as many parents and carers as possible to ensure
that this year is as much of a success as the last.
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Have a great weekend!
Doesn’t
time fly when you are having fun! The six week holidays have passed in the
blink of an eye! We hope you all had a fantastic summer. The KS1 team are
refreshed and raring to go after our six week break and we are so excited to
get to know our new classes. We hope the children have settled in well. Their
attitude and behaviour has been exemplary and we’re very proud of how well they
have adapted to their new routines.
KS1
Leader – Miss Hinton
Year
1 Teacher – Miss Mees with Mrs Mistry supporting
Year
1/2 – Miss Pensom with Mrs Beckwith supporting
Year
2 – Miss McSorley with Miss Parker and Miss Holmes supporting
Please
ensure your child brings a water bottle to school. It’s so important that they
drink enough every day.
Year
1 – Tuesday
Year
1/2 – Wednesday
Year
2 – Thursday
Please
ensure your child has their PE kit with them on the right day – it’s normally
advised that the children leave their PE kit in their locker at all times to
avoid them forgetting it.
Each
child will receive a new reading record. The best way to help your child
progress is to read with them as much as possible. To develop fluency and
confidence in reading will equip the children with the skills to develop in all
areas of the curriculum. When you have read together please write a note in the
section for that day, nothing detailed just a brief description of what you
read and how your child found it. We will read and sign the reading record
weekly. If your child reads at least three times in a week they will get a
sticker.
New
spellings will be stuck into the reading record every Monday and will be tested
the following Monday.
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Home
Learning:
Home learning will
be given out every Friday and it is due back by the Wednesday of the
following week. Home learning is a really useful way for us to work together
to embed the important things covered in school. We carefully choose home
learning tasks in line with the areas children most need to focus on in order
to make progress. The tasks should only take about 20 minutes. There is no
pressure to complete the whole task if you find it is taking too long – it
can be the case that less is more in order to consolidate key learning.
Unlike previous
years we will not be using home learning books. Each child has a home
learning folder which will be kept in school and any learning they bring in
will be kept in here. If you require any paper, just ask and we’ll be more
than happy to provide that for you.
This week we have
been practising counting. To secure these skills it would be useful for the
children to count as much as possible at home both forwards and backwards
(especially backwards – that’s much harder!) The learning journey for
counting is as follows:
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Count forwards and backwards in 1s up to 20, then 50,
then 100 (and beyond!)
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Count in 10s, 2s and 5s
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Count in 10s from any number (e.g. 31, 41, 51…)
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Count in 100s
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Count in 3s and 4s
Practise will be so
useful in building the children’s confidence with number in preparation for
the year ahead.
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The
KS1 team
Lower
Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We have had an amazing and
exciting start to the new year in year 3/4 and we are extremely proud of all of
the children for their sensible and mature attitudes towards their
learning. We are very excited for the
year ahead and would like to welcome the fabulous Mrs Brook, Miss Bailey and
Mrs Henshall to the happy 3/4 team.
We have been blown away by
the amount of holiday home learning we have received so far. The children have
worked super hard to research an aspect of Viking life which they have presented
in many different ways such as: pictures, ICT presentations, fact files, models
and lots more. There is still time for your child to bring in some home
learning around our new topic Vikings that we can display in our classroom.
Home
Learning
As part of the children’s
home learning in 3/4, we ask that the children read as often as they can across
the week. All of the children have now picked a new reading book and have
received a brand new reading record. This is where they can evidence all of the
amazing reading they are doing at home. Please continue to encourage your child
to read on a regular basis and fill in the reading record. We ask that your
child hands their record in on a Monday so we can reward them for each day they
have read. If a child reads every day they will be rewarded with a sticker. We
will also be giving spellings out every Monday that will be written in their
reading records.
Literacy
During our literacy sessions,
this half term, we will be learning how to write a non-chronological report,
diary entries and letters. The children will be developing their ideas into
both compound and complex sentences using a range of powerful adjectives that
they will have banked in their new Magpie books to make their writing more interesting.
Numeracy
This half term your child
will be looking and Counting, Numbers and the Number System. They will learn to
develop their independence around choosing appropriate strategies for solving
mental maths questions, as well as develop their confidence in their times
tables.
Trip
to Danelaw Viking Village
On Monday 9th
September Year 4 children will be visiting Danelaw Viking village and on Friday
13th September Year 3 children will be going. We will leave school
at 9:00 am and return at approximately 3:45 pm.
As we have our year 4 trip on
Monday these spellings will be tested on Tuesday
10th September. Please support your child in practicing their
spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every
week.
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Group One
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Group Two
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face
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plant
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ace
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month
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cake
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bulb
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case
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length
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gate
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strength
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wave
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insect
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grapes
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hundred
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flame
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village
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whale
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success
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snake
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present
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Reminders
·
Year 4 swimming will start next Friday 13th
September. Please can all children remember to bring their swimming kit and
goggles if needed. They may also bring a snack to eat on the coach on the way
back to school. This can be a biscuit or a piece of fruit.
·
Please ensure your child’s PE kit is kept in
school from Monday-Friday every week.
Have a lovely weekend!
Team 3/4
UKS2 News Roundup:
First of all, we must say. ‘Welcome back everyone’;
Team 5/6 hope you have had a fantastic summer and feel ready for another
exciting year ahead!
A big welcome to Mrs Moore, Miss Hinton, Mrs Brooks
and Miss Morris to the Year 5/6 team! Miss Hinton will be supporting Mrs Moore
during the morning sessions and Mrs Moore will teach her class during afternoon
sessions; we will be sure to inform you should this change. Mrs Brooks is based
in Mr Malley’s class and Miss Morris is based in Miss Gascoigne’s class. Mr
Bell, a former pupil, will also be joining Mr Malley’s class each Friday to
support children’s learning.
Achiever of the Week:
A huge well done to all the children in the phase
for their amazing efforts with their home learning all about America! We have
been enthralled with the high quality and wide variety of home learning we have
seen so far, therefore our Achiever of the Week simply must go to the whole
phase for their exceptional dedication to this! Check out our blog to see a
selection of home learning we have had the pleasure of seeing this week!
Splat the SATs (Year 6 children only).
All year 6 children received a ‘Splat the SAT’s’
pack before the summer holidays. Splat the SATs will begin 17th
September, these sessions will run between 9am and 10am with Mrs Dale,
initially every other week for the Autumn 1 half term (as this is a longer than
usual half term). Splat the SATs will then continue every week from Autumn 2. Please
ensure your child has their completed papers in school ready for these
sessions.
Planners / Reading:
This week, your child has received a planner, where
the children should record any entries for reading they have done at home; for
every four entries recorded, your child will receive a bookmark sticker and for
every ten bookmark stickers collected, they will receive a delicious hot
chocolate with squirty cream and marshmallows to enjoy in class over a good
book! We do however, ask that parents/carers acknowledge the entries the
children or parents/carers have entered into the planner on a weekly basis by simply
initialling the planner at the end of each week; the entries will be stamped
and signed by the class teacher every Monday. We ask that the children bring
their planner to school every day in case anything else needs to be recorded.
Numeracy:
In Numeracy this week, we have been learning how to
use mental skills quickly to add, this includes finding the missing number to
make 100, 1000 and decimals added to make 1; we have taken part in some
exciting learning around the summer movie blockbuster ‘Despicable Me 2’, which
the children seem to have thoroughly enjoyed!
Next week we will be extending our addition and
subtraction skills to some multi-step problems, involving problems around
Universal Studios to link in with our America unit.
Literacy:
In Literacy this week, we have been looking at the
features of non-chronological reports and have started to write our own
non-chronological report about Florida. Next week, we will be continuing to
write our reports, making sure we include ambitious use of capital letters,
full stops and connectives within our paragraphs.
SPELLINGS: This week, the
spellings are: improbable, important,
impossible, impress, imbalance, indistinct, inspire, inspect, inadequate,
incorrect. Your child has received a copy of these spelling which have been
glued into their planner. They will be tested on these words on Friday
September 13th.
PE:
Mr Malley’s class and Mrs Moore’s class will have PE
on a Monday afternoon, Miss Gascoigne’s class will have PE on a Tuesday morning
and therefore ask that all children bring their PE kit in for these sessions. Children
are required to change into their PE kit
every session. This half term we will be studying various American dances,
therefore indoor PE kit is needed: black shorts, white t-shirt, bare feet or
indoor pumps (Miss Gascoigne’s class may wear leggings or trousers as we will
be doing street dance and may need to use our knees).
Music:
This year, the children in Year 5/6 will be given an
exceptional opportunity to develop skills using a musical instrument. The year
5 children will receive a 30 minute guitar lesson every week for the academic
year and the year 6 children will all receive a 30 minute violin lesson every
week for the academic year. These sessions will commence next week and your
child will be provided with an instrument to use during these sessions – how
exciting!
Topic:
In Topic this week, the children have been learning
about the landmarks, geographical features and states of America using atlases
to help them. Next week we will be learning about iconic American artists and
we will be creating our own pop art in the style of Andy Warhol. Please
could your child bring in an old t-shirt to wear when painting, if you have one
handy!
Visit our blog: http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/
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