Issue 21 2013-14

Newsletter Issue 21

Friday 14th February 2014

Dear Parent/Carer,

We reach the end of our Spring 1 half term and I am very glad that the weather situation this year seems to have been very much more favourable than that of this time last year! Let’s hope that it if it is going to snow at all, that it will be during this coming week so that the children can have fun and enjoy it!

First of all, my sincere thanks to the PTA and all parents who supported and gave up their time to organise and attend the Valentines Disco on Wednesday. You all did a great job in hosting another fantastic event for the benefit of our school and pupils. The evening was a huge success and I know that all who attended had a great time.

Coffee Morning

Thank you very much to all of the parents who came along to the Coffee Morning with Miss Thackeray on Monday morning. Once again, we have had some brilliant and useful feedback which I feel will help us to inform our future developments and changes to Home Learning. Thanks to those parents who could not make it but did put their thoughts down in an email. As usual, you will be receiving a report shortly after the half term break.

The next Coffee Morning will take place on Monday 17^th March at 9 a.m.- 10 a.m. The agendas for discussion will be:

·         How could we improve our school environment?

·         What could make playtimes better/more enjoyable?

·         How well are the children looked after in school?

I look forward to hearing both parent and pupil views on this one.

Spring 2 assemblies
A few weeks ago I informed you of the assembly timetable for next half term. Here is a reminder and please note the change to the Year 3/ 4 assembly which will now be incorporated into the Easter Service at Lofthouse Church and NOT at school on 7^th March as previously stated. The assemblies for Spring 2 will run as follows:
Friday 28^th February- Key Stage 1, Friday 14^th March- Training day, Friday 21^st March- Year 5/ 6, Friday 28^th March- Reception, Weds 2^nd and Friday 4^th April- Nursery, Friday 4^th April (10 am)- Year 3/4 (Easter Service- Lofthouse).

Green Team

Well done to the Green Team who won the treat this week for receiving the most team points in Spring 1. All children were treated to a creative play session in the hall on Tuesday afternoon with drinks and snacks.

World Book Day

You will have received information regarding our World Book Day on Thursday 6^th March. We will be asking all the children to dress up as their favourite book character.  We will be starting the day with a reading breakfast which will feature book exchange stalls where the children can bring in a book that they have read and swap it with another book from the stall. Many fun reading- based activities will be planned for the day. If anyone has any unwanted books that they would like to donate to our book exchange stall please hand them into Mrs Holland at the front desk the week after half term. Thanks.

Website

You may or may not have noticed recently that our website has been down. This is due to complications with schools moving from Leeds Learning Network. Our technicians are aware of the situation and are making progress towards resolving this but please be aware that until this happens, the Message Board/ Calendar updates will not be possible. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

PTA News

What a fantastic night everyone had who attended the valentines disco. Thank you to the KS2 parents/cares and teachers who were very supportive in arranging the collection of the children earlier than originally planned due to the terrible weather.  A huge thank you to everyone who came and helped out on the night, setting up, clearing away and ensuring the children had as much fun as possible.  I don't have a final figure at the moment for the amount raised, however it looks like it could be a record breaking amount for the fourth disco running.

Hopefully you are all aware that due to our chair, Clare Perry, resigning we are holding an EGM on  28 February at 3:15 at school.  At this meeting, to ensure the PTA continues to support the school as much as possible we need to elect a new chair and also a vice chair.  If this cannot be done then unfortunately the PTA will no longer be able to support the school in the way it has over the last 18 months.  For anyone who is thinking about this role please be assured that you will be fully supported by the existing committee members and Clare has assured me that she will not be disappearing and will be available to help and advise where necessary.  If you wish to nominate yourself for a role on the committee please contact us in the usual way robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.   We look forward to seeing and meeting as many parents/carers as possible at the the meeting.  If you are unable to attend the meeting and are interested in helping the PTA with their valuable work, again please contact us. Have a lovely half term, after which we will be in touch with more fund raising ideas.

I hope that whatever you are doing this Valentines evening, that you have fun and a rosy glow in your heart!

Have a great half term everybody.

Mrs Dale

 

 

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

We would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who encouraged their child to complete this week’s home learning, especially for allowing them to have a really good go themselves. If your child isn’t confident yet at holding their pencil or writing their first name, just work on their pencil control and then the first letter of their name. Any support you provide will really help them towards being ‘Reception ready’ before the summer.  Have a look at our blog at: http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/ to this week’s super home learning.

THIS WEEK

This week we continued with our Jungle animal theme and shared the story of ‘Giraffes can’t Dance’ by Giles Andreae. It is a great book with lots of rhyme and alliteration and the children loved sharing it. There is a copy on YouTube if your child would like to listen to it again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G745TRClOVo We have also played listening games to identify the different jungle animals by the sounds they make and come up with amazing alliterative words to go with each animal – such as Loud Lion and Terrible Tiger. Why don’t you challenge your child and see what they come up with?

NEXT HALF TERM

Next week is half term and the children will all be ready for a well-earned rest! School closes at 3.15 this Friday (February 14^th) and reopens at 8.45 on Monday February 24^th. When we return we will be starting our new topic of Traditional Tales and next week we will be sharing the story of Little Red Riding Hood. (The British Council website has a version you can share if you don’t have the story at home) Our focus throughout the term will be very much around retelling stories in our own words, comparing alternative versions and using fabulous story language. For home learning over half term please can you make us something RED RIDING HOOD related to decorate our classroom? Thank you.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·        Keep reading for 5 minutes every day if you possibly can.

·        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) and bring it in on their first day back.

Thank you for your continued support and enjoy the half term break (we will!)

Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin, Miss Fox and Mrs Beckwith.

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The children have been practising their assembly all week and have really enjoyed showing off all the wonderful learning they have done this half term. We hope you enjoyed the assembly today and were as proud as we were of the children.

THIS WEEK

We started off the week by boarding a flight to Kenya. On the flight we prepared the airplane and made sure all the required safety procedures had been carried out. The wonderful air hostesses showed the children inflight entertainment and offered a variety of meals. During our time in Kenya throughout the week we went on a safari and visited children from the Masai tribe, Nairobi and a little girl who lived in the countryside. The children really enjoyed learning about a different culture and how other children around the world live. Our continuous provision has been based around the Masai tribe and the children have made some shields and spears and have been role playing with them in our outside area. There was some great imaginative play being produced by the children. In numeracy this week the children have been learning number bonds to 10 and they are becoming really confident and are able to mentally recall them.  In phonics this week we have revisited all the phase 3 sounds and words. We are truly impressed with how confident the children are with their phonics and the progress they have made.

NEXT HALF TERM
Next half term when the children come back to school our classroom will have been transformed into a magical land, a land where fairy tales were made. If you haven’t already guessed our topic for next half term will be traditional tales. In literacy we will be reading the story Little Red Riding Hood and we will be acting it out during our literacy sessions. In topic we will be making Little Red Riding Hood a large scale house with pretty flowers outside like in the story. We will also be feeling pretty sorry for poor old Grandma so we have decided that to make her feel better we will bake her some scrumptious biscuits and make her a beautiful clay basket full of yummy fruit. In numeracy we will be focusing on the concept of sharing using the “one for me one for you” strategy. First we will share between 2 people, then 3 people and then 4 people. In phonics next half term we will be moving on to Phase 4. During phase 4 we will be reviewing all the sounds we have learnt do far but the emphasis will be on writing the sounds within words. So the sounds the children will need to be able to write are; ai, ee, igh and oa and the words the children will need to be able to read are; don’t, old, I’m, time, by and house. Unfortunately Miss Pyatt’s Jury Service may be up to 4 weeks long now so it is unlikely that she will be back in school during the first week back.

Have a fantastic half term!

Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception team.

 

Key Stage 1

Home Learning:   Over half term please support your child in completing a few tasks: firstly they have a fractions sheet around halving and quartering. You may want to use counters to help them share.  Next we would like every child to find out one fact about London for our new topic. If they want to write it down or put it into a poster they can but please don’t feel you have to do this, as long as they can share their fact verbally that is enough. Finally, we have been overwhelmed by the children’s engagement in reading this half term and the amount of people receiving stickers for reading three times has increased significantly. We cannot stress enough the importance of reading regularly at home. Read as much and as many different genres as possible and this will help your child to develop in all areas of the curriculum.

Our printing workshop:
We hope that everyone enjoyed our first ever printing workshop and that you were blown away by all of your child’s fantastic and diverse learning around printing techniques. As always it was wonderful to see such support from you all around our in school activities and was really something special to see the children teaching you how to make beautiful prints in various ways. The whole process has seen some incredible and totally active learning being enjoyed by all children. All of the taught techniques were new to the children (and to us as teachers!) and seeing the delight when a print was revealed was wonderful. We hope that the portfolios take pride of place in your home and can enjoyed for years to come!

London Topic Reminder:

Don’t forget that our first day back after half term is a dedicated history day all about London, The Great Fire of 1666 and The Plague led by a historical specialist. The day’s plans have now been finalised and we are all in for a treat! Make sure that your child comes to school in their historical, period dress (remember you can get inspiration by Google searching ‘Oliver’ images for attire) so that they can be even further immersed in the theme for the day. Can your child find out some interesting facts all about London to share with the class?

Literacy:

Our invitations unit came to an end this week when we wrote a letter to a chosen celebrity! The excitement buzzed around the room when this task was announced and the letters that followed really did exemplify the impetus every child felt to write the very best letter they could. The children then marked their own learning against their personalised success criteria, correcting mistakes that they spotted and creating their own new writing targets. This self-assessment and engagement in the marking schemes in school is something that we are going to continue to promote next half term when we commence our recounts topic.

Numeracy:

Our 2 weeks on fractions has drawn to an end, with every child gaining a great understanding of what half means (in preparation for our division unit next half term) and some children even venturing into 1/4 s, 1/3s, 1/5s and 1/10s. The use of counters and blocks has featured heavily in this unit to allow the children to visualise what half means as well as using the Malteser system to share a number equally within a sharing circle. Why don’t you half or quarter some food or toys or books and see how well your child can share fairly between 2 or 4?

Happy half term everyone!

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

Wow, we have had an amazing half term in LKS2 and all the children have had a great time learning all about World War Two. Thank you to everyone who attended our phase assembly last Friday. I think you will agree, the children’s learning was of an extremely high standard and everyone really looked the part in their WW2 costumes. We would like to take this opportunity to celebrate all of the effort and dedication the children have shown towards their reading this half term. All of the additional reading they are doing at home is having a huge impact in supporting the children at school. Thank you for your continued support with this, we really do appreciate it and look forward to another fun filled exciting half term after the short break.
Home Learning
This week we would like the children to practice their sentence structure when using a variety of conjunctions, to extend their ideas, in their writing. As well as the children reading daily and practicing their weekly spellings, we would also like everyone to be learning their Times Tables. The times table we will be testing next week is the 8 Times Table. We are really impressed with the children’s continued effort with learning their times tables and all the children who are getting 12 out of 12 are celebrated on our phase blog, on a weekly basis.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy the children have been consolidating their calculation skills when using the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). We have then been applying all of these skills to answer a variety of problems and investigations. Next half term we will be continuing to practice our multiplication and division skills and will be applying them, when working with fractions.  If you would like some support on helping your child at home with fractions, Miss Thackeray and Miss Gascoigne will be holding a parent workshop on Monday 10^th March.

Literacy

This week in literacy, the children have been writing up all of their magnificent diary entries into one final diary that they can keep to document all of their highs and lows of World War 2, as an evacuee. These completed diaries will be on display at the end of term so please come in and have a look at how truly brilliant they are. Next half term we are all becoming journalists and writing our own newspaper articles all about our new topic ‘World Mysteries’.
Topic
Next half term our topic is ‘Our Mysterious World’. We will be uncovering the secrets of the world’s greatest mysteries including Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, Stonehenge, UFO’S and many more unsolved phenomena.

Science

The children have had a great time this half term learning all about circuits and conductors. It was fantastic to see the children put their new learning to the test when creating their own electrical quiz board. Next half term we will be learning about helping plants to grow. We will be growing our own plants and learning best conditions and care required for these to grow.

RE

Next half term LKS2 are really excited to be hosting this year’s Easter service on Friday 4^th April at 10:00 am at Lofthouse church. During our RE lessons we will be learning all about the Easter story and painting various scenes from the story onto canvas that we will be sharing at our service.

Spellings

These Spellings will be tested on Monday 24^th February.
Group 1: which, but, with, where, who, then, once, because, than, that.
Group 2: pretty, prettiness, lazy, laziness, forgive, forgivable, enjoy, enjoyable, value, valuable.
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.

·    Please 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.

·    Remember the children have two PE units a week now, one indoor and one outdoor so please ensure they are bringing the correct kit each week.

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

Times Table Challenge:

This week we held our termly times tables challenge. Well done to all children for/ taking part, their enthusiasm for the competition was really fantastic to see! We are happy to announce that Shiksha from 56M came out victorious in a very tense year 6 final, which went to an instant knock out. Similarly, new finalist Oliver from 5/6H showed his composure under pressure to secure his first trophy. Congratulations to all finalists who provided fantastic competition!

Next half term:

Japan home learning: Over the holidays we would like pupils to research an element of Japan. Some suggestions include; Japanese culture and traditions, Japanese food, Japanese clothing, education, history and local geography. Ideas for outcomes include; an artefact, poster or leaflet, a PowerPoint presentation, handwritten outcomes, drawings or illustrations. This home learning is directed to year 5 pupils however, the year 6 pupils are very more than welcome to if they wish to do so.

SPLAT THE SATS: Year 6 pupils have been given their Splat the SATs pack this half term for the sessions which will run in Spring 2. The timetable for completing these papers is as follows.

·         Week 1- Numeracy paper A and mental maths.

·         Week 2- Numeracy paper B.

·         Week 3- reading paper.

This breakdown will hopefully enable pupils and parents to prioritise which papers to complete ahead of next term’s Splat the SATs sessions.

 Art: We will be creating something very special in our art sessions. Therefore each child will need to bring in 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!

Literacy: Next half term pupils will be planning and writing poetry based on their favourite food. We therefore invite pupils to bring a small taster of their favourite food if they wish to do so on Monday 24^th February, so they can generate ideas and vocabulary in the literacy lesson. The year 5/6 team will ensure there are some foods for children to taste if they are unable to bring their own.

World Book Day: Next half term we are celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 6^th March. The children are invited to dress up as their favourite book character.  We will be starting the day with a reading breakfast which will feature book exchange stalls where the children can bring in a book that they have read and swap it with another book from the stall. All the information about World Book Day can be found on http://www.worldbookday.com/. The timings of the day will be: 8:15 – 8:45a.m Book Exchange and Reading Breakfast, followed by an assembly lead by Miss Hinton at 9:00am - 9:20a.m.  

Wagamama trip: As part of our Japan topic next half term, pupils will be lucky enough to experience a trip to the Japanese restaurant, Wagamama. Here pupils will take part in some food tasting and experience some traditional Japanese dishes. The class timetable for the trip is as follows: 5/6H - Tuesday, 5/6G - Wednesday, 5/6M - Thursday. Each class will leave school at 9:00a.m and return at 12:15 for their lunch as normal.

Literacy:

In literacy this week pupils have been recapping on their grammar and punctuation skills. We have concentrated on word classes, subordinate clauses, prefixes, articles and determiners, and, phrases and clauses. Next half term pupils will be writing their own poetry all about their favourite food. We will be using Michael Rosen’s poems as a fantastic stimulus which will help to inspire pupils.

SPELLINGS: The next set of spellings are: abstract, absent, abnormal, absolute, abdicate, postnatal, postboy, postgraduate, postpone, postscript. Your child has received a copy of these spellings and will be tested on Friday 28^th February.

PE:

In PE this week pupils have recapped on all the skills that we have learnt over the half term. To finish the unit, pupils had a mini tournament and displayed all their fantastic learning through great teamwork and communication. The tournament was played in a fantastic spirit and credit to all classes this half term!

Please ensure that your child has the appropriate kit in school for each session. Thank you in advance.

ICT:

This week the children have completed their videos to raise awareness of cyberbullying using Photostory, Movie Maker, iMovie and iPhoto. The children have produced some fantastic outcomes and have selected appropriate images and music to convey the serious tone of this issue!

Science:

This week in Science pupils were presented with a problem. Key stage 1 children have been learning all about the rainforest and they wanted to send a teddy on their journey. Teddy needed suitable protection that was lightweight, waterproof, insulated and transparent. Pupils designed their own solution to this problem using their understanding of appropriate materials and their properties. 

Topic:
In topic this week the children have completed their Ancient Greek outcomes. There have been a variety of outstanding ICT, art and written outcomes. Small teams have come together to present their outcomes in creative, visual and imaginative presentations. Congratulations to all, it has been fantastic to see you take control of your own learning!