Issue 4 2014-15

Newsletter Issue 4

Friday 26th September 2014

Dear Parent/Carer,

I was pleased to welcome two of our governors to our new lunchtime experience, this week. Mrs Findlay and Mrs Millson joined our Year 6 and Year 2 pupils to tuck into a roast dinner on Thursday and commented that the feedback from children was very positive indeed. I am delighted with how Mrs Nash and the kitchen supervisors have worked so effectively with Miss Hinton and I to ensure that the lunchtime experience runs smoothly and enjoyably.

SEND

Thanks to all parents who joined their child’s class teacher and Mrs Cookson earlier this week to talk through the provision for their children who are on the SEND register. We felt that these meetings were very positive and helped to strengthen the partnership between us and you. The school offer for children with SEND is available to view on the school website.

Assemblies

We are looking forward to our first phase assembly of the year, next Friday. Year 3/ 4 will be kicking off the proceedings next Friday 3^rd October 2:30 pm- 3:00 pm
Further assemblies will take place this half term, as follows:
Friday 10^th October 2:30 pm- 3:00 pm – Year 5/6
Friday 17^th October 10:00 am- 10:30 am – KS1 (Harvest Festival at Lofthouse Church)
Friday 23^rd October 2:30 pm- 3:00 pm – Reception

PTA lottery

Please do join the school lottery, set up by the PTA. We are guaranteed to make a significant amount of money from this, with minimum output. Already the school is guaranteed a massive £1,000 this academic year.  If you haven't joined yet, click on the link in the flyer sent on Parentmail or enter www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/robinhoodprimary/ in your browser. Funds are being saved to develop our outside area; we are patiently waiting for the building work to subside so that we can plan exactly how these funds can be used to best effect.

The Big Draw

….is coming soon! We will be holding our annual Big Draw event on Monday 13^th October. The children will be able to spend the whole day engaging in inspirational drawing activities which will then be added to a huge, whole school display in the hall for all to see. You will be invited to come into school from 3:00p.m on Tuesday 14^th October to see our Big Draw gallery in the hall. My thanks to Mrs Mistry and Mrs Chin for designing some fantastic ideas around the theme of “Parts of the World”. Please ensure that your child brings in an old shirt or t-shirt to protect their clothing on Monday 13^th October.

Parking on Goldsmiths

I have been asked by residents on Goldsmiths to ensure that your parking is considerate at drop off and pick up times. The residents have been very accommodating in understanding that their road is going to be very busy for a period of time, but at times inconsiderate parking has meant that they have been unable to get in and out of their drives. I must remind everyone that the Gardeners Arms car park is available to use at a cost of 5 extra minutes to your journey.

Individual School Photographs

The children will be having their individual photographs taken on Wednesday 1^st October. Siblings in school will also be photographed together. If you have younger children who are not at school they can have their photographs taken with their siblings from 8:30a.m. – 8:45a.m.

Best Wishes to Miss Thackeray

Miss Thackeray leaves us today to go on her maternity leave. I am sure you will all join us in wishing her all the best as she awaits the arrival of her bundle of joy.

PTA news

Lots of news to get through this week. Firstly can we say a huge thank you to everyone who turned up for our first meeting of this school year.  We had a few new people turn up to support us which was fantastic to see.  If anyone else would like to come along and see what the PTA is about, our next meeting will be held on 15^th October 2014, 8pm at the Gardeners Arms.  If you are unable to attend this meeting but would still like to get involved you can contact us at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.

We will be holding our annual Halloween Disco for the children on 22^nd October.  Foundation and KS1 disco will run from 3:30 until 4:30 and KS2 disco will run from 4:45 until 6:00.  If anyone is available to help at either or both discos please contact us as above.  Please remember without generous volunteers like yourselves these events would not be able to run and the children really do enjoy them.  We are hoping to sell buns and biscuits at the disco so if anyone is willing and able to bake a few buns please get in touch.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

Mrs Dale

 

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

We hope that you are all getting glowing reports of our new Nursery classroom from the children and that they are enjoying their learning at Robin Hood. We have to say that they are all settling into the routines and lunchtimes have been a huge success. Can I just remind you that the children are encouraged to bring a water bottle to school which they can drink at any time of the day; however this must only contain water. Please look 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 continued to build on the skills we were developing last week and the special objects that the children brought in from home have given them the opportunity to tell us all about themselves. Using our stimuli of Charlie and Lola the children have been talking about their favourite things and finding out more about each other. We have used our Numeracy sessions to see just how fabulous the children are at counting and number recognition. The children have also been listening to the sounds in the environment and thinking about the sounds that they can hear.

NEXT WEEK

We will be reading the story ‘Where’s My Teddy’ by Jez Alborough. This is a lovely story which will encourage the children to share their special teddies, think about what we would do if we lost our favourite teddy and then re-enact the story outside. The home learning task has been planned especially to support this, so please make sure all home learning comes into school on Monday morning for beginning of week children and Wednesday afternoon for the end of the week children- clearly named

HOW YOU CAN HELP US 

·       Home learning is sent out weekly and will prepare your child for the learning that will happen the following week.

·       Learning logs need to come into school every Monday am/Wednesday pm

·       Please engage with the home learning.

·       Please read for 5 minutes daily and talk about the story.

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

Thank you!

Mrs Harley and the Nursery Team

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

Well done to our fabulous learners who continue to greet us with smiles, lots of questions and huge energy and enthusiasm for their learning.  Last week the children had their photographs taken by the YEP and will feature in a ‘September Starters supplement. We will let you know the date of publication as soon as we hear from the newspaper. Please look on our blog for the latest information and to see what has been happening in Reception at http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/

THIS WEEK

In our literacy sessions this week, we have shared the story of ‘Where’s My Teddy’ by the fabulous author Jez Alborough. The children brought their favourite teddies to school and they have joined in with lots of fabulous literacy and other activities designed to develop the children’s speaking and listening skills. In numeracy we have continued to assess the children’s knowledge of mathematical concepts and have played lots of games involving prepositions. In our phonics sessions we have been practising reading the sounds i, m, d, n and the words is, it, of, off, on, can.

NEXT WEEK

We will be reading the story ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister. This is a story about friendships and supports our activities which are planned to encourage the children to find out more about each other and develop new friendships by being kind, considerate and caring. Again, the home learning task has been planned especially to support this, so please make sure all home learning comes into school on Monday morning - clearly named. Thank you. In phonics we will be practising reading and writing the sounds g, o, c, k and words dad, had, back, and, get, big. Please make sure you are giving your child lots of opportunities to practice reading the sounds and words each week as we have a different set introduced on a weekly basis. In Numeracy we will be working on continuing and creating our own repeating patterns, so we are expecting some amazingly colourful Rainbow Fish to put on display in the classroom!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·       Home learning is sent out weekly and will prepare your child for the learning that will happen the following week.

·       Learning logs need to come into school every Monday along with reading bags

·       Please engage with the home learning and ensure you read for 5 minutes daily and help your child learn their spellings.  

·       Please make sure that your child has a PE kit in school; it can stay in their locker and come home every half term holiday.

·       Please support your child to write their full name and give them lots of praise and encouragement.

Thank you!

Miss Lambert, Mrs Steel and the Reception Team

 

Key Stage 1 Newsletter

Home learning

Again, it has been lovely to see so many learning logs full of learning this week ! We thank you for sharing this with us. You will find this week’s spellings in your child’s reading record.

For this week’s number facts please could you support your child in the following

·       Breaking numbers in to tens and units or hundreds, tens and units. E.g. If you have the number 46. It has 4 tens and 6 units. The children can do this with pictures or with a number sentence 40 + 6 = 46.

Your children have been doing this across the week so should be familiar with the words ‘tens’ and ‘units’. You can do this with numbers up to 20, 50, 100 or 1000. Please feel free to ask your class teacher if you are unsure on what numbers your child would be best practising this skill with.

All your children should now have their Bug Club log ins in their reading records. If you have any problems logging on at home please speak to a  member of the Key Stage One team so we can get this changed if necessary.

Numeracy

This week Key Stage 1 have been building on their learning from last week and delving further into the world of place value. The children have been continuing to use the words ‘hundreds’, ‘tens’ and ‘units. Some have also been using the word ‘thousands’. It is not only important for your child to be familiar with these words but what they actually mean.

A Unit = One object                                                   A Ten = Ten units                  

A Hundred = Ten lots or one hundred units.             A Thousand = Ten lots of one hundred or one thousand units.

 There is a useful song on Youtube if you follow the link below which shows the difference

 between hundreds, tens and units. Please feel free to play this link at home.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W47G-h7myY

Across the coming weeks we will be adding useful links to songs or games that we use in Numeracy to our Key Stage One Blog. Any practice at home to understand the difference between hundreds, tens and units will really help your child solve a range of different numerical problems.

Literacy

This week the children have finished their learning all about Africa’s big 5; Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhinoceros and Leopard. The children wrote their own Non – Chronological report about these animals and we have been so impressed with the outcomes! This unit has really helped the children develop their use of adjectives (describing words) and use of high level conjunctions such as ‘even though’, ‘because’ ‘so’ and ‘whilst’. Next week the children will be turning their focus to the world of butterflies. The children will be writing down all that they have found out about the life of a caterpillar and interesting facts about butterflies. We currently have our own caterpillars in the classroom and we have been eagerly waiting for each of them to turn in to a chrysalis. We are looking forward to when they turn into butterflies so we can release them into the wild!

Topic

This week the children have been learning all about animals habitats and why different animals are suited to different parts of the world. The children are really enjoying this topic and have asked so many interesting questions about what they are learning. Next week the children will begin their design and technology unit on sewing. We will be making animal bookmarks that the children will be able to use during their own reading.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Key Stage One Team

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

What an amazing week we have had in Year 3/4. The children have really impressed us with their hard work and the extremely mature attitudes they have shown towards their learning. We have been really impressed with the children’s efforts in bringing in their reading records and it’s been a real joy to reward them all for the impressive amount they are reading at home. Keep it up!

Come Dressed as a Super Hero!!

This week in Literacy we have continued to develop our writing of non-chronological reports. Our reports have been all about our fantastic school and the children have been working extremely hard to meet their targets. Next week the children will have the opportunity to create their own super hero before writing a non-chronological report giving information all about their special powers, costume and background information. To help us all generate lots of fantastic ideas for our writing, we would like to invite all children in the phase to come dressed as a super hero on Tuesday 30^th September however this is not compulsory.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy we have been learning how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 as well as the nearest whole number. Next week we will be learning how to apply our rounding skills to estimating money and measures.  We will be testing the children on the 6 times tables on Thursday. The following link is a really useful game which will support the children. Another reminder that all of the learning that takes place in class is made available for the children to take home and can also be downloaded from the blog. Children that show their class teachers any additional home learning will be rewarded with lots of stickers.

School Council

Next week, two children in each Year 3/4 class will be selected to be part of the school council. This is an extremely important job as the children will be responsible for sharing ideas and raising issues on behalf of their class. In order to ensure we get the right people for the job, we would like to invite children who wish to be considered, to create a short presentation outlining why they should be chosen. There will be a vote which will take place in class and the winners will be announced next Friday. Good Luck!

Miss Thackeray’s Last Day

Today we have said our goodbyes to Miss Thackeray who will begin her maternity leave. We are extremely sad to see her go but are sure she will thoroughly enjoy being a new mum.  I’m sure you will join us in wishing Miss Thackeray all the very best and we look forward to her return.

Spellings

These Spellings will be tested on Monday 29th September. Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.

Group 1: bee, feet, knee, tree, sheep, queen, teeth, cheese, wheel

Group2: worry, absorbent, sorry, several, coffee, yesterday, thousand, character, understand, similar

Other areas of the curriculum:

In PE we have continued to develop our throwing and catching skills indoors and apply these skills in game situations during our outdoor lessons.  

In Topic the children have been researching one specific area of the Iron Age that interests them and this week we began to present our research findings in a poster. On Monday will be visited by an Iron Age historian from Manchester University who will be showing the children some amazing artefacts and telling us all about the Iron Age.

In music, 3/4B have begun to compose their own musical masterpieces using the instruments available on the ipads. 3/4T have been practising their recorder skills when learning to play a new song and 3/4M have begun their percussion sessions using a variety of instruments.

In Science we have continued to develop our knowledge of scientific experiments by looking at all of the different ways in which results and data can be presented.

In ICT we have started animating our jokes by creating the background and characters and next week we will begin to programme these characters. The jokes are looking really fantastic so far and we can’t wait to share some of the children’s jokes with you on the 3/4 blog.

Reminders

·     Individual photos will be next Wednesday 1st October.

·     Our first Showcase Assembly of the year will be next Friday 3^rd October at 2.30 –  3.00pm – we look forward to seeing you there.

·     Please ensure your child’s PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week

·     Now the weather is turning please can we ask that ALL children wear a coat to school.

Have a happy weekend!

3/4 Team

 

Upper Key Stage 2 Newsletter

SATS reminder

We can now officially confirm that the SAT tests for the Year 6 children will take place during the week commencing the 11^th of May, 2015, so please avoid booking any holidays during that week. Thank you.

School Photographer

Our school photographers will be in school this coming Wednesday 1^st October. Photographers will be taking photographs of individuals and siblings. Pupils will receive a copy of their photographs as well as details of how to order the full resolutions in the near future.

Numeracy Parent Workshop

It was lovely to see parents and carers come along to learn about our numeracy strategies on Tuesday evening. If anyone was unable to make it, don’t worry; feel free to ask your child’s class teacher for a copy of the hand outs and the addition help sheet from the session. We will have any hand outs and help sheets available to access on the website and Key Stage 2 blogs soon... watch this space for further details. The next workshop will be about subtraction and will be held on Tuesday November 18^th at 3:30pm in Miss Gascoigne’s classroom.

Year 6 Numeracy SAT Workbooks

All of the Year 6 children have been given a Numeracy Study Guide and a workbook. The Year 5/6 teachers just wanted to remind all children that if they wish to bring this in to school to share what they have completed, then they will be rewarded with a Headteacher’s sticker after every five pages they complete. The children are more than welcome to bring this in to school to practice during quiet reading sessions at registration time, however class teachers will stamp them and reward stickers on a Monday morning when planners are also checked.

Numeracy

In Numeracy this week the children have been learning how to add quickly using mental skills, including rounding and then adjusting to add a series of numbers fast. Next week the children will be learning how to subtract larger numbers quickly and accurately before applying these skills to some Harry Potter themed problems.

Literacy

This week in Literacy, pupils have been looking at the key features of a non-chronological report. After identifying successful features, pupils began researching Mount Everest in preparation for writing their own non-chronological report next week! The spellings for next week are; guidance, environment, knight, thistle, conscience, gnat, wreckage, knife, rhythm, conscious. Your child has received a copy of these spellings and will be tested on Friday 3^rd October.

Topic

During our Geography sessions this week, the children have been researching one of the biomes from: aquatic, tundra, desert, grassland and forest. They have created a super poster which illustrates and explains what each biome entails; including the plants and animals that live and how they have adapted to survive in this biome.

ICT:

In ICT, the children have been learning all about creating common and copyright laws when choosing to use images from the internet. The children have a stronger appreciation for these laws and understand the implications of copyright issues when used for commercial purposes.

Science:

In science this week we have been identifying classifying and organising living things, according to their characteristics. The children have learnt if a living thing is a vertebrate or invertebrate and if they are a mollusc, annelid, insect or arachnid – all fascinating stuff!

PE

In PE this week, pupils have been learning how to throw accurately. Pupils have learnt the key techniques for the under arm throw; including using the correct footwork and implementing a guide with their non-throwing arm. It has been fantastic to see how quickly pupils have improved their throwing accuracy and their passing, movement and teamwork skills are improving week on week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Issue 3 2014-15

Dear Parent/Carer,

This week we have welcomed our youngest learners in Nursery. Having visited earlier in the week, I am sure all Nursery parents will agree that Mrs Harley, Mrs Chin and Miss Abbey have created a very welcoming and stimulating learning environment for the children.

Moving forward and learning together

Continuing from our successful Parent Coffee mornings last year, we would like to continue with opportunities to gather parent voice this year. You should have received this week, a letter from Miss Hinton to explain that we are rebranding our Parent Coffee Mornings to be called “Moving forward and learning together” meetings. They will be at the earlier time of 8:15 a.m. to hopefully fit in better with parent’s availability. Miss Hinton will lead the meetings and as Miss Thackeray, will feed back to me points raised so that we can take on board good and useful suggestions. The first one will take place at 8:15 on Monday 6^th October.

School website

Last week, I drew your attention to the Blogs on the school website. I would also like to encourage you all to visit the school website to see the updates and added tabs of information, including our School offer for children with SEND, updated curriculum information, class timetables and information about the impact of the Sport Premium funding. The calendar is being updated on a constant basis and Miss Darroch is regularly checking the Message Board to answer school based queries. Please visit: http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/

Vacancy for a kitchen assistant

Catering Leeds have asked me to bring to your attention a vacancy to within the authority:
We are currently recruiting for General Kitchen Assistants. 11.30-13.30pm, Monday to Friday, Term Time only contract. If you are interested please contact Helen Collins on: 0113 3782323, or Helen.Collins@leeds.gov.uk

Dogs on site

I must ask politely once more that dogs are not brought onto the school site. This includes tying them up on the gate within the school grounds. Thank you for all those who respectfully observe the rules around bringing dogs onto the grounds.

Sickness bug

Unfortunately, it appears that the dreaded sickness bug may have already reared its ugly head. The official guidelines state that children must be off for 48 hours following any bouts of sickness or diarrhoea. We ask you kindly to adhere to this advice for the benefit of other pupils. Thanks.

PTA news

Everyone should have received an invitation to our first meeting of the year, Wednesday 24th September, 8p.m. until 9:30p.m., at the newly refurbished Gardeners Arms.  We will be discussing, amongst other things, the Halloween disco which will be held on the 22 October. 

Kay has also booked the next bags to school so if you can start saving up all your unwanted clothing, textiles, bags, shoes etc. I will post a date when you can bring it all to school and help to raise.  As usual if you have any comments or would like to get involved please then contact us at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

 

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The Nursery team would like to welcome all the new children that have just joined Robin Hood Nursery and the children that are returning. We hope you have had a fabulous summer! We have been very busy organising our classroom and we are really pleased to see the children exploring the areas and enjoying themselves – especially at the birthday party in the home corner. Please look on our blog for the latest information and to see what has been happening in Nursery at http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/

THIS WEEK

The children are settling in brilliantly and we have even had a chance to share the story ‘Little by Little’. It is about learning new skills, building confidence and persevering – exactly what the children will be encouraged to do throughout the year.

NEXT WEEK

We will be reading the story ‘I am absolutely too small for school’. We will be talking about our feelings, building confidence and making new friends in Nursery. The home learning task has been planned to support this story so we can get to know all about your child and what it is important to them. In literacy we will be talking about our special objects. In numeracy we will be looking at counting and number recognition.

PLEASE NOTE

This is the Nursery team 2014/2015

·         Mrs Harley –Nursery teacher

·         Mrs Chin and Miss Abbey the Nursery team.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

•            Please engage with the home learning and the learning logs - these are the green books that have been sent home. These are for the children’s own use if they want to share anything with their friends. If you have been on a special trip, they might like to stick in a postcard, photograph or train ticket. Please make sure they are brought in every Monday for beginning of week children and every Wednesday for end of week children. We will make time for the children to show us the amazing things they have done at home.

•             Please read for 5 minutes daily and talk about what you are reading. 

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

                       

Have a nice weekend.

Mrs Harley and the Nursery Team.

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

We hope that you are all getting glowing reports of our new Reception classroom from the children and that they are enjoying their learning at Robin Hood. We have to say that they all look fabulous in their new uniforms and PE kits! If your child did not have a PE kit last week can I remind you that PE is every Friday and the kits can stay in the children’s lockers. Please look 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 have continued to build on the skills we were developing last week and the things the children brought in from home have given them the opportunity to tell us all about themselves. Using our stimuli of Charlie and Lola the children have been talking about their favourite things, making puppets of their new friends and finding out more about each other. We have used our Numeracy sessions to see just how fabulous the children are at counting, number recognition and other mathematical skills. In phonics we have been practising reading the sounds s, a, t, p and the words at, an, in, a, as, if.

NEXT WEEK

We will be reading the story ‘Where’s My Teddy’ by Jez Alborough. This is a lovely story which will encourage the children to share their special teddies, think about what we would do if we lost our favourite teddy and then create our own forest using a variety of media. The home learning task has been planned especially to support this, so please make sure all home learning comes into school on Monday morning - clearly named. Thank you. In phonics we will be practising reading and writing the sounds i, n, m, d and words is, it, of, off, on, can. Please make sure you are giving your child lots of opportunities to practice reading the sounds and words each week as we have a different set introduced on a weekly basis. In Numeracy we will be using our teddies to play some games which involve prepositions so the teddies may be hiding behind the chair, on top of the cupboard or under the table.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·       To complete Home Learning which is sent out weekly and will prepare your child for the learning that will happen the following week.

·       To engage with the Learning logs which can be handed to the teacher every Monday.

·       To bring book bags to school daily especially on the children’s reading day (this can be found at the front of the reading records).

·        By reading for 5 minutes daily and writing a comment in their reading records.

·       To spend 5 minutes daily helping your child learn their sounds and weekly key words.

·        Please remember to write in the spelling books and hand them in on Thursday.

·       Please make sure that your child has a PE kit in school; it can stay in their locker and come home every half term holiday. This must be named.

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

Thank you!

Miss Lambert, Mrs Steel and the Reception Team

 

Key Stage 1

We have had a super week in key stage one. We were all very impressed with the number of children who got full marks in their spelling test, you must have been practicing lots over the week! Well done!

Home learning

As stated in last week’s newsletter, the compulsory home learning each week is:

·         10 spellings per week (5 mins X 3 times a week)

·         Recall of number facts (5 mins X 3 times a week)

·         Reading and/or using Bug Club. (10 mins X 3 times a week)

You will find this week’s spellings in your child’s reading record. Those children who have achieved 10/10 and those who have tried exceptionally hard will receive one of our brand new certificates. It has been lovely to see so many learning logs being brought into school this week and the children have come in beaming with pride. We cannot emphasise enough how important your input is and it will have an incredibly positive influence on your child’s progress. Have fun! Please make sure you write in the reading record at least 3 times per week. Your child will receive a sticker in their reading record the following week for any documented learning. Thank you.

Numeracy

Key Stage 1 have been learning all about place value this week. The children have been partitioning numbers into thousands, hundreds, tens and units, using the malteser system as a learning prompt. In addition to this, the children have been learning to recognise numerals in their worded form, and have been learning how to spell numbers from zero to beyond one hundred. Please practise your child’s place value and partitioning with them at home. Possible ideas could be to read a number for your children to write under the correct place value heading, or you could give your child a number for them to partition into thousands, hundreds, tens, and units. You could also practice the spellings of the words one to twenty.

Literacy

This week the children have been learning all about Africa’s big 5; Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhinoceros and Leopard. The children have been learning how to write compound sentences which include adjectives. We have been really impressed with the sophisticated adjectives the children have been using within their writing such as ‘fierce’ ‘retractable’ ‘dangerous’ and ‘huge’. Next week the children will be writing a fact file all about Africa’s big 5. Why don’t you practice your amazing sentences or paragraphs over the weekend? Please help your child practise their handwriting and ask them if they think their handwriting deserves a love heart.

Topic

This week in topic the children have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. They have presented their learning in the form of a poster, with pictures and information carefully describing the different stages of the cycle. Why don’t you ask your children to explain the life cycle of a butterfly to you?

Have a lovely weekend.

The Key Stage One Team

 

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

What another wonderful week! Everyone has settled into their new routines marvellously and our classes are running like clockwork. Thank you to the year 4 children who are acting as amazing role models and well done to everyone in year 3 who has adapted so sensibly to their new phase. It’s lovely to see the children making new friends and learning together in such a mature and responsible way. You should all feel very proud of yourselves!

Home Learning

The support you provide at home goes a long way to embed all the learning we do in school so thank you very much for engaging so well with home learning. We have been very impressed with how much reading the children have been doing. Keep it up! All the children have now been provided with a little notebook containing the key word spellings they need to practise. Please can you chip away at these spellings over the next few weeks as it will really help your child to progress with their writing if they can secure these key words. You can also use this book to practise class spellings. From time to time we might send home some maths learning to help consolidate the work we do in class. If your child is eager for more there are always lots of sheets to spare so they are of course more than welcome to pick one up at the end of the day! Some children have been making the most of the activities on our blog which is updated weekly with relevant tasks and games. http://year34rhps.blogspot.co.uk/

Literacy

We are lucky to be displaying some incredible non-chronological reports in our classrooms! The children took so much pride in the presentation of their writing and we are so proud of their efforts. Next week we will be further developing our report writing skills with a non-chronological report all about our school. Our grammar focus will be around how to use a range of different conjunctions effectively in order to develop a sentence. We will also be revisiting planning; learning how to produce a clear, logical plan and then to use it purposefully in order to write developed paragraphs that flow.

Numeracy – meeting this week

After a week of sequencing and negative numbers, we are moving onto rounding; firstly to ten, then 100, then potentially even 1000. In preparation for this week it would be very useful to practise counting forwards and backwards in tens from a range of two and three digit numbers, then in hundreds. We’ll also be working on the five times table. The ‘hit the button’ game on our blog is a brilliant way to learn to recall the answers quickly. This week we are holding a parent meeting for numeracy to demonstrate how we teach partitioning and addition. We thought it would be useful to share our strategies so that you can use consistent methods at home. If you would like to come along it will be in Miss Gascoigne’s classroom from 3:30pm on Tuesday 23^rd September. Just head to the main office and someone will direct you.

Spellings

These Spellings will be tested on Monday 22nd September.

Group 1: hay, clay, tray, play, pray, say, hooray, runway, crayons, holiday

Group 2: familiar, choose, forward, forget, explain, captain, elbow, empty, sugar, pattern

Reminders

·    Our first Showcase Assembly is on Friday 3^rd October at 2.30pm

·    Please ensure your child’s indoor and outdoor PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week. They can take it home on a Friday to be washed but please make sure they are brought back into school every Monday.

·    Year 4s will be swimming every Thursday so please remember to bring your kit, a towel and a piece of fruit.

 Have a lovely weekend!

Team 3/4

 

Upper Key Stage 2 Newsletter

SATS reminder

We can now officially confirm that the SAT tests for the Year 6 children will take place during the week commencing the 11^th of May 2015, so please avoid booking any holidays during that week. Thank you.

Numeracy Parent Workshop

Just a reminder that our first Numeracy Workshop will be on Tuesday 23^rd September at 3:30pm in the Year 5/6 blue classroom (5/6G). This is an opportunity for parents and carers to come along to learn about the strategies the children are taught when adding so they can be further supported at home. We will ensure that any hand-outs are available on the website for anyone who is unable to attend.... We look forward to seeing you!

Numeracy

In numeracy this week, pupils have used their knowledge of partitioning decimal numbers and sequencing from last week to round numbers to 1 and 2 decimal places. We have also looked at rounding whole numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. We have applied our knowledge of rounding numbers to the real life context of mass and capacity, where pupils will use this knowledge to read and interpret scales. Children will also be investigating more complex sequences such as square and triangular number sequences. Children will be given opportunities to apply all these skills into real life contexts.

Literacy

Pupils started this week by publishing their fantastic book reviews (thank you to all those who completed their home learning and contributed towards this success!) For the remainder of the week, pupils have worked hard to improve their SPAG- spelling, punctuation and grammar. Here pupils have explored; homophones, contractions, tense and commas. Next week, pupils will be looking at the key features of a non-chronological report. After identifying successful features, pupils will begin researching Mount Everest in preparation for writing their own non-chronological report! The spellings for next week are; uniform, bicycle, biannual, Wednesday, quadrilateral, pentagonal, September, octopus, November, decimal. Your child has received a copy of these spellings and will be tested on Friday 26^th September.

Topic

What an action-packed week we have had in our Geography sessions this week. Pupils have really enjoyed learning about the world’s different biomes. We have discovered that biomes are regions of the world that have similar climates, animals and plants.  They investigated the plants, animals and climate of a given biome such as aquatic, desert, forest, grassland and tundra. They have worked as a group to create a presentation to show all that they have learnt about their chosen biome.

ICT:

In ICT, the children have been learning how to ‘touch type’ using a fantastic website in order to become proficient at typing when we will begin to add posts to a blog next week. The children had lots of fun with this and some children even managed to master 3 levels!

Science:

In science this week we have been identifying invertebrates to find their key characteristics and classify them accordingly. They have added these definitions to their science dictionary in their books and have answered difficult questions such as reasoning ‘why is a spider not an insect?’

PE

In PE this week pupils have continued to develop their catching skills. Pupils have worked in small group challenges to develop their catching skills under pressure. It was great to then see these catching skills applied into small sided invasion games. In the coming weeks, we will start to look at movement off the ball and basic attacking and defending principals.