Friday 25 October 2013

Issue 8 2013-14

Newsletter Issue 8

Friday 25th October 2013
Dear Parent/Carer,
How time flies when you are having fun! What a great first half term we have had. I am very proud of all that the children have achieved this term so far and what we have achieved together. The PTA put on another amazing event this week; the Halloween Disco was in full swing on Wednesday night and the children had a fabulous time. The outfits were brilliant and I have to say, I must give huge credit to all of you parents and carers who sent your children back into school on Thursday as clean and shiny as ever! I am sure bath time wasn’t an easy task on Wednesday!
Thank you to all of you for attending the Parent Consultations this week. The teachers felt as though the meetings were very positive, productive and supportive. We feel strongly that communication with regards to your child’s learning should be a number one priority.
 
Family Arts events
I would like to share some exciting half term events that are taking place at Middleton Library. Opera North is excited to present a series of fun, creative workshops for the whole family. The workshops are designed for 4-7 year olds but the whole family, young and old, are welcome to join in the fun! Monday 28th October, 2.00pm Story Telling Workshop – explore stories, drama and movement. Tuesday 29th October, 2.00pm Music Workshop – creative music making with instruments and voices. Wednesday 30th October, 2.00pm Arts & Crafts Workshop – visual design and mask making. Sessions cost £2 per child (parents FREE) or £5 for all three workshops. Booking is recommended. For more information, or to book your place, please contact Marc Dunleavy (Opera North): education@operanorth.co.uk or call 0113 223 3557.
 
Scooters
Due to a very unfortunate incident of theft in the school grounds on Tuesday, we ask that children do not bring scooters or bikes to school until further notice. Thanks.
 
Christmas dates for your diary
Christmas dates are now ready and on the calendar on the school website. For your information:
17th December Year 3/ 4 production 2:00- 3:00
18th December (a.m.) Nursery 1 Christmas production 9:30- 10:30 (drinks from 9:00), Nursery 1 Xmas Party
18th December (p.m.) Key Stage 1 Xmas production 2:00- 3:00, Year 3/ 4 Xmas production 6:00- 7:00
19th December (a.m.) Reception Xmas production 9:30- 10:30 (drinks from 9:00), Key Stage 1 Xmas party
19th December (p.m.) Year 3/ 4 Xmas party, Y 5/6 Xmas party Key Stage 1 Xmas production (6:00- 7:00)
20th December (a.m.) Nursery 2 Christmas production 9:30- 10:30 (drinks from 9:00), Nursery 2 Xmas Party, Reception Xmas party
20th December (p.m.) Year 5/6 Xmas assembly and Carols around the tree
 
Parking
Many of you will be aware of some of the difficulties some families are experiencing with inconsiderate parents driving and parking irresponsibly at drop off time on a morning. Shortly, we will be hanging banners up at the gates to try and ensure that everybody gets the message about safety loud and clear. I will be holding an assembly on the first Monday of the half term to raise awareness of road safety and I will be asking children if they would like to create a design to get the message across from their perspective to use on the banners. It is indeed, the children we should be thinking about first and foremost.
 
PTA News
A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Halloween Disco last night, we hope you had a wonderful time, we certainly did! We managed to raise a whopping £692.06, this is absolutely amazing and has only happened due to the massive support you all give the school. If Emma managed to speak to you last night and sign you up to "The Giving Machine", then next time you shop online (for all those Christmas presents) if you go to www.thegivingmachine.co.uk and login using your email and password "shopping", you can start raising even more money for your children's school. If Emma didn't get the opportunity to speak with you and you would like to raise money for the school without having to get off the sofa, then contact us at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com and we will arrange to register you. Many of the children and parents were commenting on our brilliant DJ, DJ Rich, if you wish to book Rich for your children's birthday party or any other event his contact details are 07530882355.  Just one more thing..... THANK YOU to Tesco’s and all those who donated the yummy buns, and to everyone who helped make the disco a massive success, parents, grandparents, carers and teachers (yes Miss Hinton, your dance moves did not go unnoticed). Next half term we will be organising the Christmas Fayre, which this year includes an outdoor Christmas Market and there will be an opportunity for you to have a good clear out and donate all your good quality unwanted items.
 
Have a great half term everybody!
Mrs Dale
 
Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children had an amazing time today at our Rainbow Fish parties and they all looked fantastic. We played party games and tucked into all the wonderful food the children had brought in to share with their friends. Thank you so much for providing the children with their party food.
THIS WEEK
The children have learnt all about the story The Rainbow Fish. They really enjoyed the story and managed to empathise well with how the Rainbow Fish felt at different points in the story. The children really thought about how to share and you could see them putting their sharing skills into practise during their free learning time. In maths the children have learnt about repeating patterns using two colours. They put their learning into practise by painting a Rainbow Fish with a repeated pattern using paint.
NEXT HALF TERM
Next half term our topic is “Celebrations”. We will be learning about lots of different celebrations including Bonfire night, Hanukah and Christmas. We will start our celebrations topic off with bonfire night and we have lots of exciting activities planned for the children. In literacy they will be learning about the gunpowder plot and sequencing the story. They will also be thinking about lots of different adjectives to describe their favourite firework before making a colourful firework model to go on display. On the Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon we will be having a Bonfire Party (please see attached home learning). In maths we will be counting and introducing the skill of estimating to the children.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·         Over the holidays please can you continue to share reading books with your child and spot numbers as well as counting at every opportunity.
 
·         Please send your child into school in a colourful outfit for our Bonfire party and we would also appreciate it if they could bring in one item of party food.
We hope you have a great half term and that the children have a well-earned rest.
Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin and Miss Fox
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children had an amazing time today at our Rainbow Fish party and they all looked fantastic. We played party games and tucked into all the wonderful food the children had brought in to share with their friends. Thank you so much for providing the children with their party food, we certainly had some full tummies by the end of the party.
THIS WEEK
The children have learnt all about the story The Rainbow Fish. They really enjoyed the story and managed to empathise well with how the Rainbow Fish felt at different points in the story. The children really thought about how to share and you could see them putting their sharing skills into practise during their free learning time. In topic the children have made an amazing display about the Rainbow Fish. They all made one scale each and some 3D models of sea animals too. The display will be put up in the main mall so that the whole school can appreciate the wonderful learning our Reception children have been doing. In maths the children have learnt all about repeating patterns, first we started on two colours and then we moved onto 3. They put their learning into practise by painting a Rainbow Fish with a repeated pattern using sparkly paints. The fish were so neatly painted and we are so proud of them that we are going to put them on display. We would just like to quickly mention how amazing Gracie’s fish was, it was so neat and she spent so much time on it that we thought it was the example Miss Abbey had done. In phonics we have learnt the diagraph ss which is usually found at the end of words. We have reviewed all the Phase 2 sounds we have learnt so far and practised the Phase 2 words.
NEXT HALF TERM
Next half term our topic is “Let’s celebrate”. We will be learning about lots of different celebrations including Bonfire night, Hanukkah and Christmas. We will start our celebrations topic off with bonfire night and we have lots of exciting activities planned for the children. In literacy they will be learning about the gunpowder plot and sequencing the story. They will also be thinking about lots of different adjectives to describe their favourite firework and making their very own bonfire safety poster. In topic we have many exciting activities planned including; splat painting, making their own bonfire chocolate apple and chocolate sparkler whilst thinking about the process of melting and making their very own firework. Outside they will be making their own life size fire engine from  Quadro and rushing to the scene of the fire where they will get buckets of water to try and put the fire out. In numeracy we will be thinking about ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and concentrating on simple addition (adding 2 small numbers). In phonics we are now moving on to Phase 3 so our new sounds for the first week back are; j, v, w and x and the words of the week are; will, that, this, them, then and with.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·         Please work on your child’s individual targets over the holidays that you were given at parent’s evening
·         Please send your child into school in a colourful outfit on Friday (8th November) and we would also appreciate it if they could bring in one item of party food.
We hope you have a great half term and that the children have a well-earned rest.
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception team.
Key Stage 1

This half term has gone so quick with lots of amazing learning taking place. 

Parents Consultations

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

Assessment Week

It might be the week before half term – but we still don’t rest! KS1 have had a very busy week with assessments. We’ve carried out assessments in Numeracy, Writing, Phonics and Reading – we all agree that the children have blown us away with their commitment and focus this week. They have really applied themselves and it’s rewarding to see how much progress they have made this half term – well done everyone!  You all deserve to have a rest next week…

Next half term:

Literacy

Next half term the children will be starting a unit on story writing (Narrative) using the Julia Donaldson books, Gruffalo, Room on the Broom and The Smartest Giant in Town, as a stimulus.  Across the half term the children will be reading the books, creating drama sequences and writing their own version of the books changing either the character, setting or plot.  The key skills the children will be focusing on are: 

-       Using a story opening (Once upon a time, Once there lived, One stormy night)

-       Developing their ideas using conjunctions such as: and, but, because, so, if, when, also

-       Spelling key words correctly

-       Uses capital letters and full stops

-       Adjectives (Describing words)

-       Verbs (Doing/Action words)

-       Spoken language with speech marks

-       Paragraphs
Home learning

Over the half term please support your child in writing a short story using some of the above features.  We look forward to reading these and showing them off to the rest of the school on a display…don’t forget to draw an illustration to accompany your writing!

 
Numeracy

In numeracy we will be looking at how to solve Addition and Subtraction sums. This half term we will be having a big focus on rapid recall of number facts.  Such as:

-       Number bonds to 10 (two numbers which have a total of 10 when added together)

-       Number bonds to 20 (two numbers which have a total of 20 when added together)

-       Double numbers (1+1=2, 2+2=4, 3+3=………20+20=40)

Additional Home Learning

To prepare you children for this topic it would be useful to spend time practising quick fire, simple addition and subtraction facts. Try the number bonds to 10 challenge – if you say ‘6’ your child says ‘4’. How many can you do in 1 minute? Then move onto number bonds to 20!

 
Topic

The children will be moving onto the topic themed ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.  This half term the children will be:

-       Using Smart Notebook to create a fact file all about Jack and the Beanstalk

-       Creating a stage in Design and Technology, the children will then make puppets of the characters within Art.  Our Science unit will focus on circuits, looking at how to make a light bulb light-up.  This will then be attached to the stage to create lighting for their performance of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Have a lovely half term, see you in November.

 
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

Wow, what a busy, action packed half term we have had in LKS2. It has been full of lots of exciting learning and we are extremely proud of all of the children for their amazing mature attitudes and fabulous start to the year. All the teachers were extremely impressed with the children’s determined attitudes towards their assessments last week. We know they all gave their absolute best so well done to everyone.

Next half term our topic is, Multimedia Madness where we will be looking at how we communicated in the past, to how we do now in the present day. We will also be learning about the powers of persuasion and be using this during literacy to write persuasive letters, adverts and radio broadcasts. For the children’s holiday home learning, we would like them to design a product, this might be a fashion accessory, something to play with or any other wonderful invention you can think of. They must then create an advert in order to persuade us to buy it. This could be in the form of a TV advert, radio advert, a leaflet / flyer or any other form they’d like to use.

Home Learning

As well as the topic activity we would still like to see the children reading daily and practicing their spellings and time tables. As part of the children’s home learning in 3/4, we ask that your child is reading every day of the week. We expect all children to hand in their signed reading record on a Monday morning so we can reward them for each day they have read. If a child reads every day they will be rewarded with a sticker. Your child would have brought home a list of comprehension questions that can be used when listening to them read. This will help to embed the children’s comprehension skills and deepen their understanding of the text they are reading.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy the children have been collecting and interpreting lots of different data. This has been in many different forms such as; bar charts, scatter graphs, pie charts, pictograms and line graphs. They have also been sorting different multiples of numbers into Carroll diagrams. After half term we will be learning both written and mental strategies to solve multiplication and division problems. Please can we ask all children to practice their times tables as this will help them enormously when solving both multiplication and division problems.

Literacy

This week in literacy, the children have been reviewing their understanding of basic punctuation, conjunctions and the four main word groups (adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs). They have applied these skills when editing and improving their assessed writes from last week.

 
Spellings

These Spellings will be tested on Monday 4th November.

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

Reminders

·         Please can all Year 4 children remember to bring their swimming kit and goggles if needed every Friday. 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.

·         Now that the weather is wet and windy, we ask that your child must bring a coat to school every day. Unfortunately, we are still seeing children coming into school dripping wet and cold. We insist that the children should wear their coat to school daily, as well as every break and lunch time.
Have a fabulous weekend!
      Team 3/4

UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup:
We would like to congratulate all pupils for their hard work and efforts during the first half term back. We have been particularly impressed with the attitude and application of all pupils in year 5/6 and look forward to another fantastic term after the Autumn break.
Leeds Children’s Mayor
Voting for this year’s Leeds Children’s Mayor is now open! This year 28 primary schools entered candidates and Georgia from year 6 is one of the 10 finalists! All ten finalists have now had their manifestos uploaded to the Breeze websites for children, young people and families to vote for their favourites. Please show your support for Georgia by reading her manifesto and placing your all important vote at www.breezeleeds.org/pg/228/Leeds_Children's_Mayor.
SATS packs (year 6).
Year 6 pupils have been given a SATs pack as an added resource over the half term. This pack is another added layer of support for children in their understanding heading into the summer. Please can pupils complete each paper as thoroughly as possible ready for the Splat the SATs session in our next half term.
Year 5 home learning.
For the half term break year 5 pupils will be given a piece of home learning linked to our next topic of inventions.  Pupils will be asked to create their own genius inventions with a transport related theme. Pupils may want to design and make their own mode of transport, (including how it is powered, design, special features). Other ideas include creating an item which could be used on a specific mode of transport to help you whilst travelling. We are looking forward to seeing these fabulous creations on Thursday November 7th. This piece of home learning is compulsory for year 5 pupils, however year 6 pupils are also welcome to engage with this learning!  
Times tables challenge.
Last week we held our termly times tables challenge. Here pupils from across years 5 and 6 battled hard to show off their times tables skills! We are pleased to report that this year’s competition was as fierce as ever, with finalists pushing each other hard! However there had to be only one winner from each key stage. Shiksha from year 6 was cool, calm and collected to win the year 6 trophy. In year 5 Chitua was faultless and his composed style deservedly earned him the year 5 title! Well done to all children who competed, your times tables knowledge is breath-taking!
Core Subjects:
Numeracy:
This week we have been learning how to use the grid method to multiply decimals when finding the area of compound shapes. We have also been learning how to divide by using the Bus Stop method and then Chunking method. After half term pupils will be learning multiplication and division facts including; multiples, common multiples, factors, common factors, prime numbers and the use of brackets.
Literacy:
This week, pupils have been learning about the key features of narrative stories and applying these skills into their own section of a mystery story all about the Titanic. After the half term break pupils will be learning how to write an effective review based on modern day inventions.
SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: encircle, enforce, endanger, engage, encourage, export, exclude, extend, exhibit, express.
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 November 8th.
Other areas of the curriculum:
Topic:
This week in Topic, the children have been creating their very own American skyline pieces using silhouettes and washed water colours. They have also produced some Titanic based outcomes using different chalks and pastels.
Music:
The Year 5/6 children have had another great week of Music lessons. The Year 6 children have continued to develop their skills in playing the notes D, G, A and E to some simple songs on the violin. Year 5 children have continued to develop playing sections of Firework by Katy Perry on the guitar.
PE:
This week all classes have completed their final performances in a range of different dance genres. All the final performances have now been filmed and the children should be extremely proud of what they have achieved this half term!
ICT:
This week pupils have been finalising their American montages using smart notebook. Pupils have added an appropriate backing track to complement their movie outcome using I-movie.
Spanish:
This week pupils have continued to write sentences using adjectives about places and objects around the school.
 
 




Friday 18 October 2013

Issue 7 2013-14


Newsletter Issue 7

Friday 18th October 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,
We enjoyed our Harvest Festival this morning; Key Stage 1 impressed us with their brilliant harvest themed learning and led the proceedings just brilliantly. Thank you to all who attended.

The Big Draw
We had a fantastic time on Monday, creating marvellous art work as part of our Big Draw celebrations. This year, we have Mrs Chin and Mrs Mistry to thank as they were the creative brains behind our fabulous outcomes, which were all linked to “Outside”. A wealth of fabulous drawing skills were developed across school and it was a joy to visit each classroom to see the work in progress. Nothing was more impressive though, than the finished, collective result which was displayed in the hall at the end of Tuesday. The children’s artwork looked absolutely fantastic and it was great to see so many parents and friends in our hall appreciating the fabulous efforts of the children. Look out for our article in the Rothwell Record soon.

Leeds Children’s Mayor
We are very proud of Georgia in Year 6, who has been shortlisted to take up the prestigious role of Children’s Mayor of Leeds 2013-14. Please show your support for Georgia by reading her manifesto and placing your all important vote by visiting www.breezeleeds.org/pg/228/Leeds_Children's_Mayor.

School uniform
We have noticed that there have been a number of children who have not been abiding by the school dress code. Please do refer to the school website in the “Our School” section, where you will find details of our uniform. I must remind everyone that nail varnish is not allowed. Also, there are many boys seen wearing black trainers. Please be reminded that all children must wear black shoes. Failure to dress your child in the appropriate, smart manner will be challenged. Thanks.

Leeds United
Children in Key Stage 2 are currently being given the opportunity to attend a Leeds United football after school club. My thanks to Mr Malley for facilitating this wonderful extracurricular activity. The club is being run by a UEFA B qualified coach who is focusing on technical skill development, communication skills and spatial awareness. Pupils have been incredibly excited to attend this club and the quality of the sessions have been outstanding. This is the first of many very exciting plans that our Active Team; Miss Mees, Miss Pensom and Mr Malley are developing over the course of this year. Watch this space!

School website
Please remember that our informative school website is available at http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk
Amongst a huge range of information, here you will find a Message Board to ask quick questions which we will try our hardest to answer. The School Calendar is updated to include key events for your reference; please look out for Christmas events in the next few days. You will also find a range of fantastic blogs, including a Newsletter blog, which means you will be able to find out any information you may have missed or misplaced. We work very hard to keep these available for your reference so that you feel suitably informed so please make the most of them!

 PTA News
Thank you to all those who attended last week’s meeting, it was fantastic to see some more new faces. This week the tickets for the Halloween disco have gone out, Friendly Faces are making a witch and a wart and I'm busy making lots of jelly just to make sure that this event is as brilliant as all the others!?!?!? If anyone is able to spare any time to help at the disco please contact us at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com. Have a great week-end.

We hope that we see as many of you as possible at the Halloween Discos next week. The PTA are continuing to work very hard in ensuring that our children have some exciting events to look forward to and that we can raise some extra funds which will have a sustainable impact on aspects of our school provision.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Dale
Next Parent’s Coffee Morning: Monday 2nd December 2013- 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.
Agendas for discussion

·         Do you know how well your child is achieving? What manageable ways could we improve that knowledge?

·         What knowledge do parents have of age related expectations?

·         Celebration Assembly- what could we do differently/better?

If you cannot attend, please feel free to email your views to gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk
Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
The children had a fantastic day on Monday when we all took part in the Big Draw ( a whole day of art based activities!)  They were so excited to be able to draw all over the floor in the hall and drew some fantastic drawings of minibeasts, fish and people. Together the children made a collaborative caterpillar using recycled materials which was displayed proudly in the hall. We also added our own hand shapes to the tree in the hall, created some lovely butterflies and decorated cupcakes to look like mini beasts!
THIS WEEK
This week we have continued learning about our senses and the children have enjoyed exploring our Opticians role-play area in the classroom. Thank you to Mr Chin (Optician) who gave up his time to come and talk to the children about what we can see with our eyes and how to look after them. I have been very busy completing the half termly assessments and have had the opportunity to read and write with all the children as well as encouraging them to show me just how fabulous they are at counting, spotting shapes and listening!

NEXT WEEK
Next week is the final week of Autumn 1 and our topic is ‘feelings and sharing’. We will be reading the story of the Rainbow Fish and will be talking about why it is good to share and how it makes us feel when people won’t share. The children will undertake lots of practical activities around the theme of the Rainbow Fish and to finish off the half term we will be hosting a colour party on Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon. For home learning can you please send your child in with a small amount of coloured party food to share with their friends and dressed in something lovely and colourful. Thank you.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·        Please keep reading with your child and encouraging them to hold the book, turn the pages and talk about the story!

·        Please continue to encourage your child to have a go at putting on their own coat – we have seen a huge improvement in the number of children who are willing to have a go at showing us how grown up they are at coat time so it really does help.

·        Make sure that your letter requesting an appointment for our parent consultations is returned to Mrs Holland in the office as soon as possible.
Have a great weekend and thank you for your continuing support.

Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children had a fantastic day on Monday when we all took part in the big draw. They were so excited to get to draw all over the floor in the hall and drew some fantastic drawings including; a shark in the pond (Oliver), 8 spiders (James) and a very scary garden monster (Evan). Together the children made a collaborative butterfly which was inspired by the butterfly from The Hungry Caterpillar. They then made their own individual butterflies that they could bring home for you. The hall looked fabulous on Tuesday and it was great to see so many of you coming to have a look at all the fabulous drawing and art work the children had been doing.

THIS WEEK
The Reception team have been brimming with pride this week as we are so proud with how well the children have done in their assessments. It is great to see how much progress they have made and we are so proud and pleased to see how enthusiastic the children were to show us their amazing learning. We will share the children’s assessment results with you at parents evening and will let you know how your child is performing in relation to the governments age related expectations. We will also provide you with their next steps in phonics, reading, writing and numeracy.  On Tuesday we were very lucky to have a visit from Mr Chin an optician who told the children all about how to keep their eyes healthy. We set up our very own opticians in our classroom and the children have really enjoyed pretending they are opticians by testing each other’s eyes and wearing the glasses Mr Chin kindly gave us. The children now know all about our 5 senses as they took part in lots of immersive learning experiences including working with a partner to negotiate the bark trail with a blindfold on and making their very own perfumes in our perfume lab. In numeracy the children impressed us with how confident they were at ordering their daily routines.
NEXT WEEK
Next week is the final week of Autumn 1 and our topic is feelings and sharing. We will be reading the story The Rainbow fish and will be talking about why it is good to share and how it makes us feel when people won’t share. In topic we will be making a collaborative Rainbow Fish display. The children will make their own scale for our Rainbow fish as a promise that they will always try their hardest to share. They will also use lots of different materials to make other underwater sea creatures. To finish off the half term we will be hosting a colour party, so on Friday please send your child dressed in colourful clothing so that we are all as colourful as the Rainbow Fish. In numeracy our short challenge warm ups will be based around missing numbers up to 20.They will also be learning about repeated patterns and will paint fish using repeated patterns of 2 and then we will move on to 3. The fish will be displayed on our Rainbow Fish display.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·         Please listen to your child read for at least 5 minutes every day. Help them spot the sounds we have been learning and help them sound out and blend simple words. Don’t forget bug club!

·         Please help your child practise recognising all the Phase 2 sounds and words.

·         Please send your child into school in a colourful outfit on Friday and we would also appreciate it if they could bring in one item of party food.
Have a great weekend Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt & the rest of the Reception team

Key Stage 1

Home Learning:
Following on from our trip to Morrisons, next week as part of our topic learning we will be using Microsoft Word to write a letter to the store to thank them for an excellent day out. In preparation for this, please talk to your child about their favourite part of the trip: did they like watching the pizza being made, tasting the fruits, learning how bread is made or was the check-out the main feature?

For the home learning we would like the children to put together a recount of their trip. This can be a poster with just their favourite part or a diagram of their journey from start to finish with pictures used as labels for each part. Please can you encourage your child to write a paragraph about which part of the trip they most enjoyed and why they liked it so much.

News:

Beep, beep, beep…please wait for assistance:
You guessed it, our trip to Morrison’s was so much fun and full of brilliant learning opportunities. The children were so excited about the trip (leading on from our Smoothie making, I think that some children thought they were going to see their beverage for sale!) and none of it disappointed. The children’s behaviour was exemplary as we arrived at Morrisons and were directed from the Fish Mongers to the Bakery to the checkout.

The Big Draw:
Monday saw us donning our old t-shirts and rolling our sleeves up with one mission: to make sure no one in our classes ever says, “I’m not good at art!” again. Our stimulus kick-started the day as we watched a clip of ‘The Animals of Farthing Wood’ and told them about the animals’ problem: human beings destroying their habitat to build houses! Our task was to draw fish, birds and frogs to add to the hall display to show humans how wonderful these creatures are in the hope of saving their land. We started by doing some observational drawings considering size, scale and proportions before bringing each creation to life with abstract patterns using collage, chalks, felt tips and textured paint. Every child had a really fun day and when asked if they thought their art skills had improved, not one hand was left down. We hope you had the chance to have a look at the final display in the hall, if you didn’t make sure you look at our blog to see the incredible learning produced in just one day! Unbelievable!

Harvest Festival:
Thank you to everyone who made it to our Harvest Festival performance. The children really loved practising and performing their parts and it is so wonderful and fortunate that we have so many parents who want to support such events. We hope you enjoyed it and felt pride in your child…we certainly did!

Literacy
Despite having had such a busy week with our extra-curricular pursuits the children still managed to squeeze in time to complete our unit on Exercise with a fantastic Star Write. Having spent 6 weeks learning all about non-chronological reports (factual posters, brochure, leaflets and booklets) we handed control over to the children to design their own layout on an A4 page using different coloured and shaped templates. Should any of you want to start your New Year’s resolution to get fit early make sure you read your child’s poster all about why exercise is important, how it affects your body, drill sergeant-style instructions on the movements you can try (all of which were ordered using time connectives) and what your child’s favourite sport is and why!

Next week sees this unit of learning come to an end with our final assessed ‘cold write’ – a piece of writing that has minimal input and scaffolding from the teacher to see what each child has retained from the half term’s learning. We’ll be looking for headings, sub-headings, labels, pictures and loads of interesting information developed using conjunctions (and, because, so, but, if) and adjectives.

Numeracy
We have had a lovely week in numeracy in which we have learned all about rounding to the nearest 10 or 100. This follows on from our learning last week around estimation – if you’re estimating life is easier if you estimate to a nice round number! We have used an online tutorial to structure the children’s learning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMdck80SHnw) which teaches 4 rules for rounding: 1) find the two tens a number lies between, 2) find the halfway point between those two tens, which will always end in 5, 3) look at whether your number lies beyond or before the halfway point, 4) round it up or down. As well as this we have been singing songs to consolidate the facts.

Next week will see the Year 2s sitting a SAT paper which will test their numeracy knowledge in all areas, including some that haven’t yet been covered, whilst the Year 1s will show us what they can do around their new learning from the year so far: place value, partitioning, number sequences and finding 1 or 10 more/less. From our experience the children relish these tests and are un-intimidated by the prospect of it…unlike adults!

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We have had such a super week in LKS2 and we were really impressed with everyone’s attitudes towards their assessment. Don’t forget today is celebration Friday, so feel free to come into the class and look at your child’s wonderful learning from across the half term.

Home Learning
As part of the children’s home learning in 3/4, we ask that your child is reading every day of the week. We expect all children to hand in their signed reading record on a Monday morning so we can reward them for each day they have read. If a child reads every day they will be rewarded with a sticker.

Your child will continue to receive numeracy home learning on a weekly basis, which we ask all children to engage with. The home learning will be handed out in their blue home learning books every Friday, and your child will have until the following Friday to hand their home learning back to their teacher. As mentioned above, we are so impressed with the engagement in their home learning so far! Your child will also be receiving a booklet of mental maths questions, which we urge you to practice at home at your own pace.

Numeracy
This week in numeracy the children have been showing off all of the skills they have learnt so far over this half term. We were really impressed with the children’s attitudes towards their assessments. Every child tried their best, even when finding some sections a little bit tricky. We will be allowing children to look back at their assessment papers to see if, with a partner, they can correct any errors and make even more progress with their numeracy learning. In year 3/4, the mental maths section of the paper is extremely important and can have a big effect on the level given at the end of the test. It would be great to practice mental maths at home with your child by working through the booklets we will be sending out at the end of the term.

Literacy
This week in literacy, the children have written a diary entry as though they were a Viking for a day! We were blown away with the wonderful ideas each child had and were happy to see all of the children using a range of engaging features throughout their diary entries. We were particularly impressed with the children’s use of adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions within their writing and were even more impressed with some of the complex sentences we read! We are looking forward to giving your child a level and sharing these with you in parent consultations next week.

Spellings
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 21st October.

Group One
Group Two
Pie
Accident
Flies
Complete
Tie
Experiment
Five
Recognise
Slide
Equipment
Smile
Separate
Bike
Comparison
Prize
Suppose
Sky
Surprise
Spy
Whose
Reminders

·        Please can all Year 4 children remember to bring their swimming kit and goggles if needed every Friday. 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.

·        Now that the weather is wet and windy, we ask that your child must bring a coat to school every day. Unfortunately, we are still seeing children coming into school dripping wet and cold. We insist that the children should wear their coat to school daily, as well as every break and lunch time.
Have a fabulous weekend!

Team 3/4

UKS2 Newsletter

News Roundup:
A really big well done and congratulations to all the Year 5/6 children this week for completing their half termly assessments with maturity and dedication. All the children gave their assessments 110%; they should be very proud of themselves!

Big Draw 2013.
The children had a fabulous day on Monday! Year 5/6 looked at graffiti as their theme for the Big Draw this year. We used neon paints to blow, print, paint and flick to create different techniques onto black paper, we then cut out giant letters which spelt the quote, “Large streams from little fountains flow, tall oaks from little acorns grow”. This looked so impressive in the hall! The children also created their own graffiti ‘tag’ of an environmentally friendly word which was arranged in the branches of the Robin Hood tree, which was painted on the wall in the hall. The children and teachers had a great time and produced some impressive outcomes!

Year 5/6 PE clothing:
The children in Year 5/6 are welcome to bring in some clothing for their final dancing session next week.
·         Mr Malley’s class - Line Dancing clothing on Monday.

·         Miss Gascoigne’s class - Street Dance clothing on Tuesday.

·         Mrs Moore’s class - Rock and Roll on Monday.

Core Subjects:


Numeracy:
Next week we will be learning how to use the grid method to multiply decimals when finding the area of compound shapes which make up the rides in the theme park, Flamingo Land. We will also be learning how to divide by using the Bus Stop method and then Chunking method. For some support ahead of these sessions with these methods, visit our year 5/6 blog, which you can access via our school website, for some interactive games.

Literacy:
Next week, we will be learning about the key features of narrative stories and applying these skills into their own section of a mystery story all about the Titanic.

SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: literature, lecturer, fracture, gesture, futuristic, manufacture, preacher, stretcher, century, judgement.

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 October 25th.

Other areas of the curriculum:
Topic:
This week in Topic, the children have been learning about the Titanic disaster. We have looked at some footage, eye witness accounts and timelines of the tragedy and have written our very own newspaper articles based on the disaster.

Music:
The Year 5/6 children have had another great week of Music lessons. The Year 6 children can now hold the bow and play the notes D, G, A and E to some simple songs on the violin and the Year 5 children can now play Firework by Katy Perry on the guitar.