Friday 16 May 2014

Issue 31 2013-14


Dear Parent/Carer,
Well done to all of our Year 6 pupils for their totally amazing attitudes to learning this week! I started the week with an assembly about optimism and turning negative thoughts into positive ones; I really feel that the children took this on board. The Year 6 SATs are now over and our oldest pupils really did a magnificent job of staying upbeat and positive. Each morning, they came in with smiles on their faces but I do think the biggest smiles were seen this morning!! We are proud of each and every one of our children and would like to thank parents in supporting us to keep the children calm and confident.

Big Dance
What a lovely day for a dance. The whole school carried out The Big Dance this afternoon on the playground. All working together in unison, the performance was again, stunning. This is our 3rd consecutive year being involved in this national event and each year the children really do themselves proud.

Mrs Moore
It was lovely to receive a visit in school from Mrs Moore this week. She is looking radiant and loving life with her little boy, Charlie. She visited the classrooms briefly and caught up with many of the children who were very excited to see her.

Reports
Teachers are starting to get busy writing end of year reports for your children. You will receive your child’s report on Friday 11th July, unless your child is in Year 6 in which case you will receive the report on Wednesday 9th July due to their earlier than normal leaving date.

Loom bands
Please can I ask that children remove their “Loom Bands” before they come to school. I understand that they are the latest craze and everyone wants to wear them (my son included!) but they are not suitable for school and some children seem to be in competition with each other as to how many they can wear at once! If seen, children will be asked to take them off and leave them in their tray. Thank you.

Parent Coffee Morning
Don’t forget:
The next parent coffee morning will take place this 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

Home learning logs
I have had many visits to my office from children who have engaged so well with their learning logs at home. Thanks very much to those who have encouraged their children to record their learning and bring it in to be celebrated; it’s wonderful to see so many children making the choice to carry out some extra learning.

PTA News


We will be having a meeting next Thursday, 22nd, from 8pm at the Gardeners Arms.  We will be discussing the forthcoming shorts and shades disco and welcome as much support as possible.  If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to be involved please let us know at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.


Have a great weekend.

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for your fabulous home learning and time spent reading with your children. It was lovely to see so many of our children being positive about self-registering in Nursery by writing their own name and delighting in showing off their skills! Well done everybody.

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 are continuing to learn about dinosaurs and have been sharing some of the ‘Harry and the Dinosaur’ stories. The children have really enjoyed these as well as drawing a picture of their favourite dinosaur and having a go at writing its name underneath. As you know we have started to introduce some letters and sounds ahead of Reception and I was delighted to see how many children were having a go at forming letter shapes!

NEXT WEEK
It is assessment week again! I have to say they do come round quickly and I am looking forward to seeing how fabulous our little learners are. Ahead of this for Home Learning, it would be great if you could ask your child to read to you and then write me a comment in their reading record book letting us know what they can do easily and what they find a bit tricky. In numeracy next week we will be starting to think about each child’s individual next steps. This week we have been completing dot to dot puzzles to check they are secure with their sequencing and this has shown where we need to focus. Please can you have a look at your child’s with them (attached) and have some discussions around number sequencing with them? Thank you.
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 tasks with your child (see above) ahead of 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
Thank you for your fabulous home learning and time spent reading with your children. It was lovely to see so many of our children bouncing into class with their fantastic posters about herbivores and carnivores. We also loved the videos that Harvey, Evie and Hayden had produced - they were fabulous! Well done everybody.
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 are continuing to learn about dinosaurs and have been sharing some of the ‘Harry and the Dinosaur’ stories. The children have written their very own fact file about dinosaurs for the museum, so that other children can know as much about dinosaurs as they do by reading their fact files. In topic they have used marbling ink to create wonderful and mystical dinosaur eggs - hopefully none of them will hatch over the weekend!

NEXT WEEK
It is assessment week again! I have to say they do come round quickly and I am looking forward to seeing how fabulous our wonderful learners are. Ahead of this for Home Learning, it would be great if you could read with your child for 5 minutes every day, ensure they can read and spell all of their phase 5 words and practise any number concepts they are unsure of. There is more detail in the home learning that was sent out on Thursday. Next week in literacy we will be reading the story Dinosaurs Love Underpants and writing about a mysterious dinosaur egg that we have found in our classroom. In numeracy we will be designing some underpants using repeated patterns and we will be talking about the properties and names of 2d and 3d shape.

PLEASE NOTE the following diary dates:
We will be hosting a Reception Seaside Party on the 20th of June from 11am-12pm. The children will be selling all of the wonderful summer items they have made and then we will all be going for a picnic together on the field.
Finally to celebrate the children finishing Reception, we will be holding graduation parties. Miss Lambert’s graduation will be in the hall from 9am-10am on the 15th July. Miss Pyatt’s graduation will be held from 2pm-3pm on the 15th of July.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·       Please complete the home learning tasks with your child (see above and the home learning)

·       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!

Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception Team.


Key Stage 1

Home learning
In addition to reading and spelling practise please can you practise adding three or four small numbers together with your child. For example: 4 + 2 + 6 = 12 or a more difficult option might be 11 + 12 + 14 + 16 = 53

There are different ways your child could solve these types of problems:

·    Count using their fingers.

·    Look for number bonds to ten (4 + 6 make 10) to make the sum easier and then add on the extra units.

·    Draw what the sum looks like with the malteser system. (This is where one unit equals one malteser and a packet equals 10 maltesers. If you would like any further support on this method please speak to your class teacher).

·    Adding all the tens together and then seeing what units are left.

If your child finds it difficult to spot patterns or to solve number problems in their head then it is always best to draw or work with objects so your child can visualise the numbers

Year 1 Phonics Test
At the end of Year One all the children are required to take a Phonics test. This is a selection of 40 words that your child has to show they are able to read. The children will be tested in their reading of real and pseudo words (in child speak this is the name of alien creatures!). When reading with your child please continue to support them through:

·         Recognising different sounds (e.g. short vowel sounds and long vowel sounds)

·         Breaking up words then putting the word back together.

·         Trying to break up the word in their head and then saying the word in full.

If you would like to receive any more words or information on this test please speak to Miss Mees or Miss Pensom who will be happy to provide with more words or answer any questions. Also, feel free to make up some of your own alien creature names! There are so many you can choose from: ulf, fot, lub, zeb, quorg, farl you could go on forever!

Celebration assembly
Thank you very much for attending the celebration assembly. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! The year has gone so fast and each half term the children really do amaze us with all of the learning they do and the outcomes they achieve. We are very proud of all of the children!

Literacy
So far the children have learnt about the importance of a juicy “opening” (which describes a character) and a “build up” (that creates a description of a setting). Next week the children will be finishing their learning of a story mountain by spending time working on the “climax” and “resolution” of a story. The climax is where the character meets something or someone and a problem may occur! If you do any learning around stories at home useful words the children can use are time connectives (First, next, then, after that and finally). Also any development of a sentence through using conjunction such as “and, because, so, but” all help to create interesting and developed stories. For example:

It was beautiful and sunny. I felt so happy because I could see the treasure! I heard a noise so I went to look outside. The birds outside were really noisy but I was enjoying watching them fly through the air.

Numeracy
Next week the children will be finishing their unit on measure! All the children have enjoyed learning about length, weight and capacity. Next half term the first week back will involve the children in each class focusing on different areas to support them before their final assessment of the school year. After this the children will then be learning all about time. Any language spoken around this area will benefit your child greatly! O’clock, half past, quarter past, quarter to, am, pm are a few of the words your children will be using next half term.

Topic
The children have been really enjoying the Disney topic! This week’s learning involved designing and making a car for a Disney character. The children have loved learning about the different parts of a car (wheels, axel and chassis). Next week the children will be using the cars they have made to take part in some interesting science investigations!

Have a fantastic weekend and let’s hope the sun is shining!

The KS1 Team

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
It’s been another busy week in Year 3/4 this week. We have been busy putting the finishing touches to our performance for the Big Dance which we performed on the playground on Friday. Fingers crossed we will have contributed to breaking a world record – watch this space!  
We have also been practising our performances for next Friday’s showcase assembly where we will be sharing so many of our outcomes from the last half term.  The assembly will start at 2.30pm and will be open for all parents and carers of children in Year 3/4 – we look forward to seeing you there.
Home Learning
Once again, we have been inundated with learning logs jam packed full of extra home learning. It has been wonderful to see so many children taking a lead in their own learning and completing such a variety of tasks during their own time. Many examples of these fantastic outcomes will be shared on our blog as well as at our Showcase Assembly next week.  Just a gentle reminder that we are no longer sending home photocopied resources for home learning. We have saved many resources onto the phase blog for you to download at home along with links to games and activities that we have been using in class. There are also paper copies of resources from in class often available daily for the children to take home. We would also like the children to continue to read daily and ensure they are recording this in their reading records so we can reward their efforts with stickers! In addition to this, the children should be practising and learning their spellings and Times Tables as this was the key skill that has let many children down when trying to calculate multiplications, divisions and fractions this half term. The times table we will be testing next week is the 7 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  blog ‘Wall of Fame’ on a weekly basis. Next Friday will also be our penultimate Times Table Challenge. We can’t wait to see who will get through to the final and who manages to beat their score from last half term.
Numeracy
This week the children have been continuing with their learning about fractions. We have been finding fractions of numbers and have been identifying equivalent fractions. Some of us have even been looking at converting improper fractions into mixed number fractions. Please see the website for extra information and examples of our learning to use at home. Next week we will be looking at time. We will be looking at analogue and digital time and will be learning about days of the week and months of the year. Please help your child to practise these skills at home over the weekend. 
Literacy
This week in literacy we have finally got to the end of our adventure stories. The children have been doing their best to include adjectives, adverbs and powerful verbs as well as super sentence openers. Some of them have also been trying super hard to include embedded clauses and adverbial clauses. Next week we will be analysing our stories and will be finding ways of improving them to make them even better.
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 19th May.
Group 1: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, May, June, July, August, September, October, November
Group 2: wrong, wrinkle, wrist, wreck, wrapper, wright, wrote, wrap, necessary, especially
Topic
This week we have been writing letters. The Year 4s have been writing thank you letters to the wonderful staff at East Barnby to thank them for such a fantastic time and for taking care of us so well. The year 3s have been writing to Mrs Dale to persuade her to let them go on the same trip next year. Examples of these letters will be read out in our showcase assembly next Friday.
Science
In science this week the children have been writing up their friction investigations from last week and have been analysing the results to form a conclusion. Some of us have begun to look at magnets and have sorted materials depending upon whether they are magnetic or not. Next week we will be carrying our further investigations into magnets and their properties.
PE
This week in PE we have been extremely busy practising our section of the Big Dance routine. Our final performance was fantastic! The children worked so hard and remembered every single step. We are very proud of you!
Reminders
·    Please could any children who have received merits and awards outside of school please bring these in by Thursday next week to be photographed in time for our showcase assembly on Friday? Thank you.
·    Showcase Assembly on Friday 23rd May at 2.30pm
·    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 indoor and one outdoor 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 fabulous weekend!
Team 3/4
Upper Key Stage 2 Newsletter
Year 6 SATS
Congratulations to our year 6 pupils who are finally across the SATs finishing line. The positive attitude and application to the assessments was wonderful to see. We are so proud of the efforts of all our year 6 pupils and I’m sure they can now breathe a huge sigh of relief. The final half term now looms and we’re sure that our year 6 pupils will continue to impress us in their final few weeks. 
Water bottles:  
As the weather is getting warmer, can we please ask that children have water bottles available in school. Also please remember that fruit juices and fizzy drinks are not allowed in school. Thank you.
Year 5’s
The Year 5’s have had a fantastic week in the hall. As usual the children have shown fantastic attitudes to learning. We spent our week creating different outcomes to exemplify the Year 5 cohort and to remember our time in Year 5. Firstly, we made some self-portraits inspired by Andy Warhol and Van Gogh. Also children enjoyed working in their teams to create their own sports. We had a chance to try out our sports and then created a detailed guide of how to play! Finally, each child created a page for a scrap book highlighting memorable moments of the year.
Numeracy:
In Numeracy the Year 5 children have been learning about fractions, including simplifying fractions, converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and ordering fractions. This has included using their knowledge of times tables to when multiplying and dividing. Next week pupils will be applying a range of mathematical skills to solve some murder mystery problems.
Times Tables Challenge:
Speaking about time tables, it is that time again! Times Table Challenge will take place on Friday 23rd May. To practise visit www.teachingtables.co.uk and click on the Bingo Machine for the interactive game that we use in school. Remember we play at 1 and 0 seconds- so you need to be quick!
Literacy:
Next week in literacy pupils will be developing their own horror story. Lessons will focus on developing setting, character and building tension. I’m sure pupils will have the teachers trembling from their chilling story lines! The spellings for next week are; cough, enough, plough, although, dough, thought, ought, brought, through, sought. You child has received a copy of these spelling and will be tested on Friday 23rd May.
Topic:
The children have collected all their research about the topic of Leeds and are beginning to create their outcomes. This will involve creating a factual piece about a building or place in Leeds.
ICT:
The children will also be presenting their topic work through an i-Movie. They have previously learnt the different skills to create an i-Movie and are now putting these into practise. The children have spent this week selecting appropriate high quality images to accompany their audio and text.

Science:
This week in science, pupils have continued their work on the human body.  The children have looked at the purpose of muscles and discussed how these help support the bones.  We even investigated which muscles were used during different exercises. The children were very creative when playing charades to learn the names of the different muscles within the body.

 

 
 

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