Friday 19 September 2014

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 6th 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 23rd 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 3rd 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 11th 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 23rd 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 26th 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.
 
 

 
 



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