Newsletter
Issue 19
|
Friday 31st January 2014
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
I hope you have all had a good
week. We’ve had a great week here in school, with my observations in each class
continuing. The quality of teaching and learning is by and large outstanding
and I know that teachers will continue to improve and develop their practice to
ensure that we sustain and build upon our excellent standards. I have shown an
Executive Headteacher and her colleagues from another area of Leeds around the
school this week. They went away inspired with many ideas based on general
outstanding practice and our use of technology in the classroom.
Website developments
We have some exciting
developments to our website that I must share with you. Not only can you now
see our staff’s cheerful faces in the Members of Staff section but you will
also see that there is a section dedicated to helping you support your child at
home. Inside the “Parents and Carers” tab, there is a section entitled “Information
to help you support your child at home”. Here you will find a wealth of helpful
information to support Reading and Numeracy- Writing will be developed shortly.
You will also find a section which explains Levels and Grades and what is
deemed to be typical achievement for your child’s age.The Life Channel
You may be aware that our “Life Channel” screen in the playground as you enter the gates by Key Stage 1, has now been updated so that the content reflects what is happening in school. My rationale for the installation of the Life Channel was to replace our Robin Hood TV with a better system which could be shared with parents, carers and visitors to the school. I also intend to stream The Life Channel to our school website so that parents who are not able to collect their children from school, get to see what is happening in their child’s classroom. As a full time working mum myself, I find this a challenge so I am striving to make the learning as accessible to all as I possibly can.
James Driver
I must give a special
mention this week to James Driver who gave us all a lump in the throat moment
this week. James has been receiving some intensive physiotherapy following his
major spinal operation over a year ago and this week we have had the absolute
pleasure of watching James walk all the way down the mall and back with the
support of his sticks and only a tiny bit of support from the physiotherapist.
An absolute joy to see!
PTA News
Have
a lovely weekend everyone.
Don’t forget!
Our next parents coffee morning will be on Monday 10th February 2014 between 9 am and 10 am with Miss Thackeray in Friendly Faces. You are invited to come along with positive suggestions which are relevant to the agendas that we set. Any other issues can come directly to me. It is important that we use the limited time that we have together to best effect. The agendas for next time will be:
· Home learning-
Do you think the children get too much/too little? Is it purposeful? Any ideas
for improvement.
· Holiday
projects- what do you and your child think of them?
· Just a question
for discussion- what would we think of a shorter summer holiday but longer half
terms?
If you cannot make it, we
value your views so you can email me at gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.ukNursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have had a very busy
Chinese kitchen this week! The area was decorated beautifully and now we have
displayed their amazing home learning it looks brilliant and has really
enthused and inspired the children for the week ahead. The children have been
practising their chopstick skills and love showing off!
THIS WEEK
This week our topic has been
Chinese New Year. We have found out all about Chinese New Year and the children
enjoyed role-playing their celebrations. We also learnt about the story of
Chinese New Year and all the different animals which represent each Chinese
Year. We found out that most children in our class are either an ox or a tiger
(unlike Mrs Steel who is a dragon!). In topic we constructed a real Chinese
dragon using box modelling and tie dyeing skills. Thanks to Mrs Chin and Miss
Fox for being brilliantly creative! During our PE sessions, the children made up
their very own Chinese dance which was wonderful.
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be learning all about the deep
dark jungle. For home learning please can your child create a Jungle animal mask or
model that we can use to enhance our classroom? Our literacy sessions
will be focused around the book ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ and we will become
jungle explorers. We will be focusing particularly on rhyming words, so any
extra practice you can do on that would be great. There is a clip of the book
on You Tube and the link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRplFz5SGz0 In
numeracy we will be playing hide and seek with the animals, making sure we give
our clues using positional language (behind, between, next to etc.)
ANIMAL WORKSHOPNext Friday (7th February) we will be having a real life rainforest experience and we will get a chance to meet some real animals from the rainforest. I have attached a letter to this newsletter about it. Please complete the reply slip and hand it in to your child’s teacher if your child attends Wednesday to Friday.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·
Next week I will be assessing the children’s
reading so please can you spend some time practising reading together and
writing a comment in their books.
·
Keep practising writing the first letter in
your child’s name and beyond as soon as they are ready (some children are now writing their first name independently – which
is amazing!)
·
Please complete the home learning task with your
child (see above) to give them a head start for our new learning next
week
Thank you for your continued
support and we hope that you have a great weekend!
Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin, Miss
Fox and Mrs Beckwith.
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP - We have had
a very busy Chinese restaurant this week! The restaurant was decorated
beautifully and we were amazed at how much effort the children had put into
their home learning. This super effort really enthused and inspired the
children for the week ahead. The children have been practising their chopstick
skills and have eaten lots of noodles and rice.
THIS WEEK
This week our topic has been
Chinese New Year. On Monday we took a trip to China with Barnaby bear and
learnt lots of interesting facts about the country. Then we learnt all about
Chinese New Year and the children celebrated with Mrs Friar in our Chinese
restaurant. The children even got to eat a fortune cookie thanks to Katie who brought
her party food in early. We also learnt about the story of Chinese New Year and
learnt about all the different animals which represent each Chinese Year. We
found out that most children in our class are either a rat or an ox. In topic
the children made some beautiful Chinese lanterns and when they have dried we
will be hanging them in the windows so you can appreciate them. At the
beginning of the week we constructed a real Chinese dragon and in PE today the
children made their very own Chinese dance which was wonderful. I was very
shocked to find a cooked pizza in my classroom on Monday but it all became
clear when I realised we were learning about halves. The children have had a
really practical and hands on learning experience this week so they are now all
confident with the concept. This week the children learnt to read the phase 3
sounds or, ur, ow and oi and wrote the Phase 3 tricky words he, she, we, me, be and was.
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be
learning all about the deep dark jungle. Our literacy sessions will be focused
around the book Rumble in the Jungle and we will become jungle explorers. In
topic the children are going to have an amazing experience which has been
planned by our very own artist Mrs Chin. The children will be making animal
prints using the method of printing. In numeracy they will be learning about
length and by the end of the week we hope that the children will be able to
successfully measure using rulers! In phonics we will be learning the phase 3
sounds ear, air, ure and er and writing the Phase 3 tricky words
you, they, all, are, my and her. Next week is assessment week so
please ensure that your child knows all the phase 2 and 3 sounds and words. The
lists of these can be found on the home learning.
ANIMAL WORKSHOP –
Next Friday (7th
February) we will be having a real life rainforest experience and we will get a
chance to meet some real animals from the rainforest. I have attached a letter
to this newsletter about it. Please complete the reply slip and hand it in to
your child’s teacher.
Kung Hei Fat Choy!
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and
the Reception team.
Key Stage 1
Home learning
It
is extremely important that your child is reading daily or as much as possible
across each week. Even if this is for ten minutes a day this is so much more
worthwhile than once a week for an hour. This week your child’s home learning
is simply: extra reading! BUT, with a catch…..It must be for at least 30
minutes across the weekend and recorded in the reading record. Any child who
reads over the weekend and this is recorded in their reading records will
receive a sticker on Monday. If teachers notice that some children have gone
above and beyond with their reading across the weekend this may equate to two
stickers and maybe even a Head Teacher sticker as soon as your child walks in
on Monday! Any reading on Bug Club will also count so please record this too.
Happy reading!
Thank you
Thank
you for all the parents and carers who attended our second Key Stage One
Showcase assembly. We hope you are enjoying the new style assemblies and
getting to see much more of what fantastic learning your children do at school.
If your children receive any medals, trophies or certificates across the coming
weeks then please save them and bring them in nearer to the time of our next
assembly and we will make sure they all get mentioned.
Numeracy
This
week the children have been learning about positions, directions and movements.
The children have been using language such as: next to, underneath, above, left, right, forwards, backwards, clockwise
and anti-clockwise. The children
have also been learning about rotation and the difference between a whole turn, half a turn and a quarter
turn. The children have enjoyed using the electronic Bee Bots around
different mazes and using co-ordinates to explain where an object may be. If
you have an iPad at home have a go at downloading the free application called Bee-bot. There is also a more difficult
one called Bee-Bot Pyramid which
costs 69p which your child may also enjoy. The application is a really fun way
in getting your child to think about different types of directions. Next week
the children will be beginning a new unit of learning on fractions. They will look at what a half of a fraction is with an
object (half of a pizza), with shapes (circle, rectangle, triangles and squares)
and quantities (what is half of 10?). The children will also progress their
learning in to thirds and possibly tenths! Fractions are a difficult concept to
understand and throughout the week the children will use lots of visual prompts
to help them understand the different types of fractions. Any sharing or
cutting of food at home will also help this learning at school.
Literacy
Writing
super sentences has been the focus this week! The children have been giving
attention to what makes a fantastic sentence and most importantly checking if a
sentence makes sense. The children have been using one sentence and then seeing
how they can add adjectives, information at the beginning or end, changing the
whole sentence, using a simile or alliteration. This gives them at least
another five sentences just out of one! They really have wowed us with their
knowledge of what to do to write interesting sentences! The children have also enjoyed
playing sentences games with a selection of mixed up words and checking if the sentences
they have made make sense. A useful way at home to help your child write
sentences that make sense is by listening to how your child speaks a sentence.
Would it make sense if it is written down? If not, ask them how they could
change it. Such sentence activities are being used to help the children before
they plan and write their next invitation. This will be a letter to you to
invite you to our up and coming Key Stage One Print Workshop! Expect something
in the post next weekend!
Topic
One
word for art this week has been: PAINT! The children have begun their fantastic
three week project learning how to use paint to print and replicate images. The
children have been using the theme of the rainforest and started the week by
finger painting and making patterns with different colours. We saw lots of
beautiful flowers and colourful leaves! After this, the children were given the
opportunity to experiment using paint with rollers and different types of
textures. They added paint on top of paint on top of paint and so on and made
lots of wonderful printed images! The children ended the week with using
gelatine in tin trays to continue exploring other ways they can print images. We
would like to thank Mrs Chin with her creative and talented mind around the
project as the children are learning so many new skills and we know the final
results are going to be fantastic!
Have
a relaxing weekend.
The
KS1 Team
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We
have had another busy week in Year 3/4 this week. We have been acting out
scenes from the Blitz in literacy, baking wonderful rock cakes in numeracy,
investigating the changes in electrical circuits during science and hopping
over obstacles out in the playground during our outdoor PE sessions. On Friday
we hosted our second Showcase assembly and we were thrilled to see so many
parents and carers attending once again. We really do value your support in
these types of events and the children were really pleased to be able to show
off so much of their amazing learning. Well done to our 3 achievers of the half
term, Ben, Lauren and Matthew, who have proved themselves to be incredible
learners for so many different reasons. We can’t wait to see who will be our
achievers next half term.
Home Learning
As
well as the children reading daily and practicing their weekly spellings, we
would like everyone to be learning their Times
Tables. We will now be testing the children weekly on a different times
table as this will help us all greatly when solving multiplication and division
problems. Links to any on line games to support your child with this will be on
our phase blog as well as the Times Table Wall of Fame (a list of everybody who
managed to score 12 out of 12 on their weekly test). The times table we will be
testing next week is the 6 Times Table.
Numeracy
This
week in numeracy the children have been looking at word problems based on
weights. We have been using our list of problem solving criteria to help us
understand the problem, solve it and check our answers with much success. One we were finding a little tricky was the
conversion of weights (1000g in every Kg) so any practise around this at home
will be much appreciated. On Thursday we all got the opportunity to help weigh
out and measure ingredients for some tasty rock cakes which were then handed
out in our celebration assembly. Next week, we will be continuing to develop
our measuring skills by looking at how to measure liquids (ml, l) and we will
be applying these skills to making our own cocktails.
Literacy
This
week in literacy, the children have been writing about what happened in the
inner cities during the Blitz. They have written a diary entry as though they
were a child who has travelled back to the city for the day to visit their
mother. Next week, we will be continuing
to write our diary entries to document even more of the highs and lows of World
War 2. The completed diaries will be on display at the end of the half term.
Topic
Our
topic sessions this week have focussed on the Blitz and what happened to the
major cities when they were plunged into darkness during the blackout. The
children created their own comic strip to retell the story of a Blitz survivor.
We have also looked at how people carried on during these tough times using the
power of ‘Blitz Spirit’.
Spellings
These
Spellings will be tested on Monday 3rd
February.
Group 1: born,
fork, short, morning, forget, park, shark, yard, parcel, garden
Group 2: quicker,
quickest, colder, coldest, taller, tallest, closer, closest, bigger, biggest
Reminders
· Please ensure your child has an art shirt in
school at all times.
· The current weather is very changeable and so
we ask that your child brings a suitable coat to school every day.
· Just a gentle reminder to ensure all of your
child’s belongings (especially PE kits, hats and gloves and school jumpers) are
clearly labelled with your child’s full name.
· As the weather is that little bit cooler at
the moment, we would like to remind children to ensure they have an appropriate
PE kit for our outdoor sessions on a Wednesday.
Unless the weather is so severe, we will still be taking part in our outdoor
activities, therefore we ask that all children have the following kit with
them:
o
suitable footwear (trainers)
o
t-shirt/long-sleeved top
o
Full-length jogging trousers/leggings
o
Warm socks
o
Warm jumper (not their school sweatshirt)
o
Hat and gloves (optional).
o
Inhalers for those who need them.
These exciting sessions have been well
received by everyone taking part and we would like to ensure that everyone is
warm and safe whilst doing so.
Don’t
forget to check out our blog where you will find lots more information about
this week’s learning as well as important reminders and dates for forthcoming
events. http://year34rhps.blogspot.co.uk/
Have a wonderful weekend!
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
Reminders:
Times Table Challenge will be on Tuesday 11th
February, so get practising! Visit www.teachingtables.co.uk and
select the bingo machine for the game we use in school.
Next half term we will be creating something very
special in our art sessions. Therefore each child will need a plain
pillow case if possible. It will be painted and cut up so unfortunately it
won’t be retuned in the same condition. If any parents/carers are able to spare
any more pillow cases, this would be fantastic! Thank you in advance!
Our next Celebration Assembly is on Friday 7th
February, we have lots more learning to share so we really hope you can
make it!
As part of our celebration assembly, the children
will be dressing up in togas. Therefore we are hoping that all the children
would be able to come to school with a white sheet and some safety pins to use
to make a toga over their school uniform. The sheet shouldn’t be damaged so
will hopefully be returned in the same condition!
Core Subjects:
Numeracy:
This week in Numeracy the children have been
handling data, which will including reading and interpreting various graphs and
databases, we even created our own graphs to illustrate our own results. Next
week the children will be learning about mean, median, mode and range and will
also be looking at probability!
Literacy:
This week in literacy pupils have enjoyed
researching all about Alexander the Great for their own biography. After some
thorough research about his life, pupils have written an introduction to their
biography, which has included the 5 W’s. Next week pupils will continue to use
their research to write further biography paragraph; which look at Alexander’s
early life, conquests and legacy.
SPELLINGS: This week, the
spellings are: impress – impression, progress – progression, discuss
– discussion, permit – permission, compare – comparison, conclude
– conclusion, decide – decision, collide - collision, divide –
division, extend – extension. Your child has received a copy of these
spelling and they will be tested on Friday 7th February.
PE:
During
PE this week pupils have continued to build on their skill development in
rugby. This week pupils have been practicing how to beat an opponent using the
side step. It was really great to see this applied into small sided games- and
as a result some exciting tries were scored!
The
timetable for PE sessions is as follows; 5/6M and 5/6MO PE
sessions are on Monday afternoon and 5/6G PE sessions are on a Tuesday morning.
The outdoor sessions will be held on a Thursday afternoon for all classes.
Outdoor kit includes; a warm hooded top or jumper, warm jogging bottoms, a
white t-shirt and outdoor trainers.
Please ensure that your child has the appropriate
kit in school for each session. Thank you in advance.
ICT:
This week, the children have been continuing to
learn about E-Safety. They have begun to compile the images and text needed for
their own promotional video to raise awareness of cyber bullying.
Science:
We took Science outside this week to observe the
effects of mixing materials to create an irreversible change. Firstly, we mixed
mints and cola, and then we mixed bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Both of
these experiments, while being very messy, created the gas C02!
Topic:
This week the children have been creating their
presentations for the topic of Ancient Greece. The children have done a superb
job in bringing their ideas and research to life, either using a written, ICT
or art focus.
Visit our blog: http://year56rhps.blogspot.co.uk
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