Friday 9 May 2014

Issue 30 2013-14


Dear Parent/Carer,
It has been lovely to see Mr Malley back this week, albeit in a slightly less mobile way to what we are used to from our sporty teacher! He is managing to build up his strength and carry out a mixture of leading and co- teaching his lessons.
Year 4 Residential
It has been lovely to read the messages on the Year 4 Resi Message Board between the children and parents. I think it is wonderful that so many of you are supportive of the residential visits as we believe that the children get an invaluable experience that exposes them to such fabulous and enriching activities. It also gives the children the chance to feel that real sense of independence away from home, whilst receiving the best care and support from our teachers and support staff. I have been receiving regular updates from Miss Thackeray over the last three days and it sounds like a fantastic time has been had by all; I am SURE parents of our Year 4s will be getting a quiet weekend!!
WHISE project
The week started wonderfully with a visit from our Swedish colleagues, who enjoyed observing our approaches to teaching and learning as well as hearing about how we use 2buildaprofile as an assessment tool; how we engage our parents and keep you informed and how we provide an excellent inclusive learning environment for our children with SEN. We also shared the systems we use as teachers, to self-evaluate, reflect on our approaches to teaching and learning and share best practice across school. It is always a joy to articulate how we do things here at Robin Hood as we are very proud of our brilliant school!
Labels on clothes
It has been brought to my attention that some items of children’s clothing are going home with the wrong child. Please ensure that your child’s clothes are labelled with their names and check that your child has not come home with the wrong item. Thank you.
Year 6 SATs
Next week is a very important week for our Year 6s as they carry out their SATs tests. We are proud of each and every one of our pupils for all of the effort and hard work they put into achieving in their learning. We will have a very strong and consistent message for our Year 6s next week and it will be that as long as everyone gives 100%, everyone will be extremely proud no matter what the outcome brings.
Best of luck, ALL of you……not that you need it; you are all amazing!
PTA News
 
Thank you to those who attended and also sent their apologies for last week’s meeting.  The number of parents wanting to get involved in helping raise money for the children is growing, which is very good news.  The minutes of the meeting will be going out on Parentmail in the next few days.  We have booked a disco into the diary, "Shorts and Shades" to be held on 18th June and have a PTA meeting on the 22nd May at 8pm at The Gardner’s Arms to discuss the details.  Please if at all possible try and attend this meeting as we will be asking people to help out with a few things that need organising before the disco takes place (nothing too time consuming I promise).  We have had a meeting with Miss Mees today to discuss details around a sponsored Bikeathon to coincide with the Tour de France.  IF ANYONE CAN HELP WITH OBTAINING SOME CHILD SIZED EXERCISE BIKES FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS, or something like then please either contact Miss Mees (Yr 1) or robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.
Have a great weekend.

Mrs Dale

Don’t forget:

The next parent coffee morning will take place on Monday 19th May with Miss Thackeray in Friendly Faces. The agendas for discussion will be:

·    Website and blogs- how well used are they? How could we make them more engaging/useful for your children?

·    How do you rate our improved parental engagement this year?

       If you are unable to come, please do not hesitate to share your views with me at    gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk


Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Yet again you have impressed us with your super Dinosaur home learning, not to mention the time you have clearly put in to supporting your children with their reading – THANK YOU! It has ensured the children are all very excited for this week’s learning. Please keep looking on our blog for the latest information and to see what has been happening in Nursery at http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/

THIS WEEK
We have switched our focus to Dinosaurs and the children have been thinking about what they know about where dinosaurs came from and how we know! We have been learning about Mary Anning who was the very first fossil hunter. If you didn’t manage to look at the clip with your child this week, please do try to have a look as it is fascinating (see link below).In our numeracy sessions this week we will continue with our number spotting as well as practising writing numbers using the correct sequence of movements.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/mary_anning/

NEXT WEEK
We will be sharing the book ‘Harry and the Dinosaurs say Raah’ and talking about the story. We will also be looking at the differences between the types of dinosaurs such as herbivores and carnivores. Ahead of this for home learning, please can you support your child to find out some facts about herbivores and carnivores and present this information in a way of your choice. This will give the children a real head start on their learning for next week. In numeracy we will be counting objects or actions that cannot be moved – for example listening to musical beats or counting cubes dropped into a tin, to ensure that children realise that we can count everything, not only the items we can move from place to place. Next week we will also begin asking your child to write their own name for self-registration rather than finding a name card from a selection.
PLEASE NOTE the following diary dates:
Nursery will be CLOSED on Wednesday 2nd July 2014
We will be holding Garden Parties/Graduations for the Nursery children on Wed 16th July times to be confirmed.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·       Please complete the home learning task with your child (see above) and bring it in on their first day back.

·       Keep practising writing names (first and then second) and encourage your child to read to you for five minutes every day.
Thank you for your continued support, it really is making a difference to your child!

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

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
It was lovely to see the children’s faces when they stepped into our Jurassic world on Tuesday after the long bank holiday weekend. They loved searching for fossils and chipping away at our Plaster of Paris fossils. As I mention every week please keep looking on our blog for the latest information and to see what has been happening in Reception at http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/

THIS WEEK
We thought the children were amazing in our assembly today and they all really look forward to performing for you. Their singing was beautiful and they were really confident. The children are really enjoying our topic of dinosaurs and they were so excited when they came in on Tuesday morning. In literacy we have been learning all about Mary Annings who discovered fossils and have written some facts about what we have learnt about her. We have also been concentrating on full stops and capital letters and where we put them when we are writing. Please encourage them to use punctuation when they are writing at home with you. In topic the children have made fossils using salt dough. In numeracy we have been learning about doubling and halving. In phonics the children have learnt the alternative long a sounds; eigh (eight), ey (grey) and ei (vein) and they have learnt to read the words; here, saw, very, oh, their  and people.
NEXT WEEK
We will be reading the story Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs. We will be thinking about the different features of dinosaurs and we will be sorting them into different groups. We will be pretending that we are a dinosaur scientist and we will collect information from books and use it to write our very own dinosaur fact file. In numeracy we will be learning all about sharing and continuing to practise addition by counting on using the number line. In phonics the children will be learning the long e sounds; ea (eat) and the split digraph e_e (Pete) and they will be learning to spell and write the words; Mr, Mrs, called, asked, looked and could.

PLEASE NOTE:
Our next class assembly will be the first week after the half term on Friday 6th of June at 2.30pm in the hall.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·         Please engage with the home learning and the learning logs.

·         Please read for 5 minutes daily and help your child learn their spellings.

·         Please practise the counting on addition method with the number lines enclosed with the home learning.

·         If you have any spare boxes please bring them in for our D.T. area.

Thank you!

Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception Team


Key Stage 1

Home learning
In addition to reading and spelling practise please can you practise fast subtraction to help your child become really speedy at counting back. Start by just counting back from any number in ones, (some children might be able to do this in tens too!) and then ask them to solve take away sums. Try to use lots of different words that mean take away: subtract, minus, less. It may be that you want to start this process by using counters, grapes or sweets (always a winner!) to demonstrate the concept of subtraction. Then move on to mental arithmetic - Stick to smaller numbers and focus on speed. How many unit-unit sums can the children work out in 1 minute (for example 7 – 3 =)? Before moving onto teen numbers take away a unit and then see if your child can go beyond this mentally. Try to build up speed so the children are ultimately able to answer the questions without counting, they are simply able to recall the facts. This will really help them when they come to calculating more complex subtraction sums.
Water bottles
There are still a large number of children coming to school without water bottles. Now that the weather is getting hotter it’s more important than ever that the children stay hydrated. It’s imperative that each child brings their own water bottle into the classroom every day.
Celebration assembly
We’re very much looking forward to our next key stage assembly which will take place next Friday 16th May at 14:30 in the hall. We hope you will be able to come along to see some of the children’s fabulous learning for the half term. 
Literacy
Now that we have spent two weeks learning all about the complexities of different characters, we are moving onto writing an exciting plot for our own stories. Over the next two weeks we will be developing an exciting ‘build up’ whereby the characters will visit a setting in search of something they really want. One of our main areas of focus is capital letters and full stops. When creating an exciting adventure story, it’s very easy to forget where one idea ends and the next begins. We plan to reiterate exactly what makes up one idea and how to build this into an exciting sentence using time connectives (next, then, after, before, suddenly..), conjunctions (so, if, but, because, when), and purposeful description through the use of adjectives and similes. We hope to turn the final stories into a book for the children to bring home so you can see the results of their incredible work this half term.
Numeracy
We’re continuing with the topic of measure and have rotated so that each class is now focussing on a different area. Year 1 are looking at length. This week the children familiarised themselves with the different units of measure (cm and m) and estimated the length of lots of different things. Year 1/2 are working on weight and will be looking closely at reading scales. If you have any scales at home it would be great to have a look at them together to see if your child can read the weight of different items – chances are they will all be digital, but this will still be useful to help them become confident with the concept of weight and what the different units of measure are. Perhaps you could see if they can find the difference between the weights of different items. Finally Year 2 are working on capacity. This week we have made cocktails and calculating what proportion of different juices might make a cocktail of 100ml or 1 litre. It was great fun (and very messy!)

Topic
The children have now completed their mod rock Disney characters. They worked so hard to ensure their mod rock was neat and precise before painting their characters beautifully. We are so proud of the children for their persistence and teamwork. They really pulled together to help one another and their final outcomes are truly incredible. Next week we will be continuing to develop our creativity by building our very own Disney cars!

Have a lovely weekend.

The KS1 Team
 
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
Wow what a busy action packed week we have had in LKS2! The year 4 children have had a wonderful time on their residential, where they have been busy; making shelters in the woods, rock climbing, dry ski slope sledging, exploring Whitby and Whitby Abbey, coastal walking and studying various sea creatures in rock pools on the beach. We were extremely proud of all the children for working together as a team and challenging themselves in overcoming their fears across the different activities. It was great to see so many smiles at the top of the climbing wall and children sledging from the top of the dry ski slope. All the staff are very proud of every single child as they represented Robin Hood School remarkably. Well done year 4 - you should be extremely proud of yourselves. All of the children completed a booklet detailing all of the adventures they have had during residential which they keep as a reminder of the fantastic time they have had. We look forward to sharing lots of pictures and videos from our residential with you during our showcase assembly on Friday 23rd May at 2.30pm.
The children who stayed at school have also had a jam packed week full of exciting new learning. The children have been busy writing fantastic stories, practising the BIG Dance routine, learning how to find fractions of shape and number, singing lots of new songs (as part of our new singing curriculum) and creating detailed leaflets during topic, all about key land marks to visit in and around our magnificent city Leeds. Miss Bailey and Mrs Wathen have had a lovely week and were blown away with all of the children’s great attitudes towards their learning and sensible attitudes.
Home Learning
Please ensure your child is reading every day and recording this in their reading records for their teachers to reward them with lots of super stickers for their hard efforts. The children must also practise their weekly spellings ready for our test on Monday. This weeks’ times table that we would like the children to also practice is the 6 times table. We would like to stress the importance of the children learning their tables as it helps them in all aspects of their numeracy particularly multiplication and division. We have been overwhelmed with how much additional home learning the children are choosing to do in their new learning logs and have celebrated this with lots of stickers for their efforts and have photographed their learning for our phase blog: http://year34rhps.blogspot.co.uk/
Numeracy
This week the children have been revisiting fractions and learning how to find fractions of different numbers and amounts. The children have tried super hard to use their knowledge of fractions to solve various SATs style problems and to find different fractions of shapes and number. It’s great to see the children using their times table knowledge in order to support them with their learning. Next week we will be continuing to look at fractions and moving onto mixed and equivalent fractions.  
Literacy
This week in literacy we have continued looking at how to write a successful story using a balance of description, action and dialogue. We have been learning how to use adverbs in our writing to describe how characters move and speak, such as; quietly, rapidly, anxiously. We have also been practising using a sophisticated choice of adjectives in our writing in order to describe and lots of verbs to describe characters actions. We have also been looking at how to extend our amazing ideas into both compound and complex sentences. Various games the children have been accessing in school are also available for the children to use at home via our phase blog. If the children would like to practice their learning we will reward them with lots of stickers for their efforts. Next week we will be learning how to write a successful resolution to our stories.
Spellings
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 12th May.
Group 1: they’ll, you’ll, you’re, it’s, it’ll, I’m, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Group 2: knowledge, knock, knee, knight, knit, knew, knife, know, known, knuckle
Topic
This week the children have been finding out lots of facts about various landmarks in and around Leeds and used these to create a leaflet all about places to visit in our magnificent city. After studying the layout and design of different leaflets the children used this to make sure when publishing their leaflets the information was presented in many different forms such as; bullet points, picture, fact boxes and tables. These amazing leaflets will be on display in our LKS2 corridor so please come and have a look.
PE
This week in PE the children have continued to learn this year’s BIG DANCE routine. We are really proud of the children for trying super hard to remember all of the moves and count in their heads in order for them to ensure they are in time to the music and with each other. During our outdoor PE session the children have been developing the multi skills (agility, balance, coordination and speed). The children have had a great time working as a team to score lots of points whilst getting fit and exercising.
Philosophy
We have started to learn all about philosophy is LKS2 where the children have enjoyed delving into different questions in order to force them to think deeper and more critically about the possible answers. The children really enjoyed our first session and it was great to see them all developing their skills at listening to each other, thinking deeply and sharing ideas. This is something we aim to continue to develop in 3/4 as philosophy is now part of our curriculum.
Reminders
·    Showcase Assembly on Friday 23rd May at 2.30pm
·    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 school jumpers) are clearly labelled with your child’s full name.
·    Remember the children have two PE units a week now, one outdoor (Wednesday) and one indoor (Thursday) so please ensure they are bringing the correct kit each week.
·    As the weather is getting warmer, can all children please be provided with a named water bottle, especially on PE days?
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 lovely weekend!
Team 3/4
Upper Key Stage 2 Newsletter
SATs Week
As we are sure many of you will be aware, next week is SAT week for the Year 6 pupils. Assessments will run in the mornings from Monday through to Thursday. We really encourage all the Year 6 children to try and get a good night’s sleep the night before and come to school having eaten a good breakfast so they feel energised and ready for the morning ahead. Please see the reverse of this newsletter for a timetable of the week.
Core Subjects:
Numeracy:
In Numeracy this week, the Year 5 children have been learning how to find percentages of amounts. This has included dividing the amount by 100 to find 1% and dividing the amount by 10 to find 10%; then using these to find more complex percentages.
Next week, the Year 5 children will be learning about fractions. This will include finding fractions of amounts, simplifying fractions and ordering fractions.  
Literacy:
In Literacy this week, the children have been writing paragraphs to describe the setting and character of the story of Mercedes, the Elf Queen and the Curse of the Black Mage. The children were able to successfully include many high level features in order to create imagery – well done, guys!
Next week, the Year 5 children will be working on an on-going weeklong project in the hall. The children will be doing lots of fun activities to remember their time in Year 5.
ICT:
In ICT we have been learning how to use the software ‘iMovie’. This week we have practiced refining our iMovie’s by including transitions, trimming and cropping the duration of a clip and placing a ‘theme’ into the iMovie. The children will use these skills to begin creating an iMovie on the topic of ‘Leeds’ which will require the children to record audio and select images.
Topic:
‘Leeds’ and how it has evolved into the thriving city it is today is our Topic theme for this half term. We have looked at key places in Leeds and have chosen one particular place to study in detail in order to write a leaflet or page of a travel brochure.
Science:
This week, the children have been learning about the effects of exercise on pulse rate. We carried out activities which increased our pulse rate, we then counted our pulse rate for 30 seconds and then doubled it to find out our pulse rate per minute.  We then interpreted our results into a line graph.
 
 
 
 
 

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