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:

17^th December Year 3/ 4 production 2:00- 3:00

18^th December (a.m.) Nursery 1 Christmas production 9:30- 10:30 (drinks from 9:00), Nursery 1 Xmas Party

18^th December (p.m.) Key Stage 1 Xmas production 2:00- 3:00, Year 3/ 4 Xmas production 6:00- 7:00

19^th December (a.m.) Reception Xmas production 9:30- 10:30 (drinks from 9:00), Key Stage 1 Xmas party

19^th December (p.m.) Year 3/ 4 Xmas party, Y 5/6 Xmas party Key Stage 1 Xmas production (6:00- 7:00)

20^th December (a.m.) Nursery 2 Christmas production 9:30- 10:30 (drinks from 9:00), Nursery 2 Xmas Party, Reception Xmas party

20^th 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 (1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd) 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 (8^th 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 4^th 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 7^th. 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 8^th.

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.