Newsletter
Issue 8
|
Friday 24th October 2014
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
We come to the end of a busy
and brilliant half term. It has been one which has seen many changes, namely
the introduction of a new National Curriculum, the implementation of Universal
Free School Meals, the changes made to our pupil’s lunchtime experience, new
systems in light of a new Code of Practice for children with SEND, and all of
this whilst dealing with the challenges which come from being situated in the
middle of the building work. I would like to thank all staff and parents who
have embraced the changes and to our amazing pupils who continue to thrive.
I would like to extend a
personal thank you to all parents who either helped out at or attended our
Halloween Disco. Once more, our brilliant PTA did a stunning job of creating a
fun and brilliant event for our children.
Congrats
to Miss Thackeray
As many of you will now be
aware, Miss Thackeray gave birth to a bouncing baby girl last Sunday. Both she
and her partner Mike are loving spending time with their daughter, Summer
Grace. A huge congratulations from all of us.
Scooters
Children are welcome to come to
school on their scooters; it’s great to see so many being so active. We do ask
however that the children hop off their scooters once they are in the school
grounds near to the main building. It is quite crowded whilst the building work
is continuing and we want to ensure that all children are safe. Thanks.
Assemblies
Well done to all of our
children who have performed such fantastic assemblies this half term. They have
been a pleasure to watch. Please note when next half term’s assemblies will
take place:
Weds 12th November-
Nursery (1) 11:00- 11:30 Friday 14th November- Nursery
(2) 2:30- 3:00
Friday 21st
November- Lower Key Stage 2 2:30- 3:00 Friday 28th November- Upper
Key Stage 2 2:30- 3:00
Friday 5th December-
Key
Stage 1 2:30- 3:00 Friday 12th
December- Reception 2:30- 3:00
Confirmation of Christmas event
dates will follow shortly after half term.
After
School Clubs
If your child is attending an
After School Club, please ensure that they attend from the first Thursday after
half term (6th November). We can’t wait to provide some fantastic extra-curricular
opportunities to our pupils.
Cleaner needed
We are seeking to appoint a cleaner to join our
team as soon as possible. Please approach Mrs Smith in the office for an
application form if you are interested in this post.
Good bye Mrs
Mistry
As everyone now knows, Mrs Mistry is leaving us
today. I would like to express my sincere thanks for all that she has
contributed to our school during the last 4 years. We all wish her the very
best.
PTA news
What a
brilliant disco we had last night. A huge thank you to all the children,
who’s behaviour and costumes were amazing. A massive thank you also to
the parent helpers and the teachers ensuring that everyone had enough food and
fun.
This
week we unfortunately say goodbye to our Treasurer, Jane Wardell, who is moving
onto pastures new. Jane has been the Robin Hood PTA Treasurer for a few
years now and will be sorely missed!! Thank you for all your input Jane!
Huge thanks to Jason Firth who has very kindly agreed to step in
as Treasurer until our AGM in the New Year when we will hold a meeting to
re-elect committee members. We hope you have a well-earned rest next week, not
forgetting to have a good clear out for the Skycycle scheme who will be coming
to collect your unwanted clothes, linen, bric-a-brac on Monday 10
November. If you need to contact us you can at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.
Have a fantastic break,
everyone!
Mrs Dale
REMEMBER!
Moving forward and learning together
Monday 1st December at 8:15 a.m. and
will be focussed around the agendas of:
· Our website-
what isn’t there that should be?
· The use of Twitter – ways to take this forward and engage more
parents
· Our blogs-
How we can get even more use out of blogs? What blogs should we keep/not keep?
If you are unable to come
along but have some points you would like us to consider then please contact
either myself or Miss Hinton as everyone’s opinion is valuable. gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk claire.hinton@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk
Nursery newsletter
NEWS
ROUND UP
We
would like to start by saying a HUGE thank you to all of the Parents and Carers
that attended our Parent Consultation evenings this week. It was brilliant to
meet everybody and we hope you are all as happy as we are with the way that the
children have settled in Nursery! Please keep up with your reading, writing and
counting over the half term holidays and continue to add lovely pictures and
other exciting things to your child’s learning logs – the children are really
proud and extremely enthusiastic to share what they have done. Please have a look at our blog for the latest
information and to see what has been happening in Nursery at: http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/
THIS WEEK
In
our literacy sessions this week, we have shared the fabulous story ‘We’re Going
on a Bear Hunt’. We have focused on verbally retelling the story
using props and we have even been outside and retold the story- the children
really enjoyed this activity. In numeracy we have focussed on counting a group
of objects and matching. We have also used tongs and spoons outside to develop
our finger muscles in preparation for mark making.
NEXT HALF TERM
We
will be having our first Nursery ‘Celebration Assembly’! Our assembly will
celebrate the children’s hard work and achievement in Nursery. We will be
showcasing our learning about ‘Bonfires’. During the assembly they will have
lots of amazing things to show you and some wonderful things to tell you! We
cannot wait! This will take place the
second week back after half term. There will be two assemblies, one for the
beginning of week children and one for the end of week children. We hope to see
lots of you there. Thank you.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Assembly
Wednesday 12th November 11.00am (Beginning of week children) All
welcome.
Assembly
Friday 14th November 2.30 pm (End of week children) All welcome
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please continue to engage with the learning
logs – we really appreciate the time and effort that is put into them.
· Please send in a water bottle (no juice) and
a coat every day.
· It would be really helpful if over the half
term you could practice taking coats on and off and putting shoes and socks on
with your child.
Thank
you for your continued support.
Mrs
Harley and the Nursery Team
Reception newsletter week
NEWS
ROUND UP
It
has been lovely to see so many of you at our parents’ consultations this week
and celebrate the children’s fabulous achievements. We finished off our week
with an amazing assembly and we are so proud of all our lovely learners. Please
keep up with your reading, writing and counting over the half term holidays and
make sure you encourage your child to add lovely pictures and other exciting
things in their learning logs so they can tell us about their holidays! Have a
look at 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 fabulous story ‘Peace at
Last’ by Jill Murphy. We have focused on verbally retelling the story
using drama and we have had some really amazing performances form the children.
In numeracy we have focused on sequencing a day in the life of Mr Bear and
comparing it to our own days and thinking about the order in which things take
place. In
our phonics sessions we have been practising reading the sounds ff, l, ll and ss and the
tricky words we have been learning this half term.
NEXT
HALF TERM
Monday 3rd
November will be a Reading Day. We will begin the day with a reading breakfast
starting at 8.15am – all welcome in the hall. This will be followed by an
assembly with the author Eamon Reilly who will be talking to the children and
firing their enthusiasm for reading. The children will then have a day of
activities and you are invited into the classroom from 3pm that afternoon once
all the children have been collected to look at the fabulous outcomes. During
the rest of the week we will be focusing on the Bonfire story and finishing off
the week with a Bonfire Party! Our numeracy sessions will focus on addition and
in phonics we will be learning the letters j,
v and w and the words will,
that, this, then, them, with
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Reading
breakfast Monday 3rd November 8.15am – all welcome.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Learning logs need to come into school every
Monday along with reading bags and home learning. 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 send in a water bottle (no juice) and
a coat every day
· Please support your child to write their full
name and give them lots of praise and encouragement.
· If you have time to do some extra practice on
phonics, have a look at Mr Thorne http://www.mrthorne.com/ and
Phonics Play http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm
For some fun activities
which will support the teaching and learning in school.
Thank
you
Miss
Lambert, Mrs Steel and the Reception Team
Key Stage 1
This
week we have had a very active week in Key Stage One as we have been learning
all about leading a healthy lifestyle. We are now all feeling very fit and healthy,
ready for the school holidays. We have learnt about the food pyramid, balanced
diets and different types of exercise. We made our very own videos about how to
lead a healthy lifestyle. In Topic we have drawn and painted amazing pictures
of animals with an aboriginal art theme. In numeracy we have continued to learn
about rounding numbers and we have been completing some mental maths. Our
brains are becoming super-fast!
Home learning
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).
If
you would like any extra learning or have any questions to help support your
child in learning at home please speak to your class teacher. In preparation
for next half term it would be useful to continue to practice addition facts to
10 and 20.
E.g.
6 +4 = 10 8 + 2 =
10 15 + 5 = 20 19 + 1 = 20
Parents evening
We
would like to say a huge thank you for attending parents evening this week. It
was lovely to see you all and to be able to share with you how well your child
has settled into their new class and all the excellent progress they are
making.
Spellings – The
challenge words
During
parent’s evening we have received useful feedback in regards to the challenge
words your children are also being sent home as part of their spellings to
learn. Although your children are given the opportunity to spell these after
their spelling test on a Monday, they are not classed as part of the spelling
test. The words used are a ‘one step ahead’ for the next week so the children
are hearing or seeing these words before they are used as part of a week’s
learning. If you feel more comfortable just reading or speaking these words to
your children throughout the week this will be just as useful as practising
spelling them.
Autumn 2 Overview
Next
half term in Literacy we will be reading 3 different stories; Where The Wild
Things Are, We’re Going On a Bear Hunt and Gorilla. We will be describing the
settings and the characters and we will be thinking about the plot of the
story. Towards the end of the half term the children will be writing their own
story. The last 2 weeks of the half term we will focus on understanding and writing
instructions.
In
Numeracy next half term we will be focusing on addition and subtraction. The
children will be taught how to mentally recall number bonds up to 10 and then
20. We will be focusing on helping the children to understand the two concepts.
They will be taught different methods to help them solve the problems
including; counting forwards and backwards using their heads and fingers, using
a number line, a number square and objects.
Our
topic next half term will be The Theatre! We will be learning about the play
Snow White and The Seven Dwarves. We will be learning about the history of the
theatre and constructing our very own stages using wood. We can’t wait to turn
the classroom in to a builders workshop!
Please Help
Due
to our topic being The Theatre next half term we would greatly appreciate any
old dressing up clothes that your child may not want any more or any old
puppets that your child no longer plays with. They will be used to enhance our
role play area. Any empty cardboard boxes (all shapes and sizes) would also be
greatly appreciated for our Design and Technology areas.
Have
a lovely week off school! You deserve it!
The
Key Stage One Team
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
What a fantastic final week of our
first half term. We have been busy adding the finishing touches to our Iron Age
artefacts and wait with anticipation as to where and when they will be
displayed at Leeds City Museum. We have also been tackling some pretty tricky
mental maths questions in numeracy as well as investigating various number
problems.
Miss Thackeray
We are delighted to inform you that
Miss Thackeray delivered a very healthy bouncing baby on Sunday morning,
weighing 7lb 1 oz. We cannot wait to meet little Summer Grace after half term
and wish Miss Thackeray and her partner Mike all the best as they embark on a
new life with their delightful bundle of joy.
Mrs Mistry
It is with great sadness that we have
said farewell to the fantastic Mrs Mistry today who has been an absolute rock
of support for children right across the phase this half term. We wish Mrs
Mistry the best of luck as she moves onto pastures new and hope that she will
still come in to visit us from time to time.
Numeracy
This week we have been pulling apart
mental maths tests and tackling the really tricky questions in order to improve
our weekly scores. We have been learning new tips and tricks to help us halve
odd numbers, convert measures and use inverse operations. Examples of these
tests have been sent home with your child to practise over the holidays (we
have included the answers too). After the holidays we will continue to work on
mental strategies for all 4 operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division) as well as the written strategies. Please also continue to
support your child’s learning of ALL
the times tables. Thank you.
Literacy
This week
the children have been applying all of their writing skills to write a
non-chronological report all about a subject of their choice. From football to
food, dogs to dancing, we’ve seen everything. After the holidays we will be
looking at persuasive writing and will be producing some fantastic posters,
adverts and letters of persuasion.
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 3rd November. Please
support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve
10/10 in their spelling test every week.
Group 1: sigh, sight, high, light, night, tight, fight, fright, slight, right
Group2: force, friction, invention, persuade, exaggerate, exhibition,
momentum, weight, resistance, movement
Other areas of the curriculum:
· In PE we have applied all of our throwing and catching
skills during a series of team games including dodge ball. The children have
thoroughly enjoyed this unit and have clearly improved in all areas. Next half
term we will be taking part in lots of outdoor team games, where trust will
play a big factor!
· In Topic this week the children have added their
finishing touches to their artefacts. Amongst the paint and the glue, we have
seen swords and shields, roundhouses and hill forts and pots and jewellery
emerging, ready to be placed on show at Leeds City Museum – watch this space!
Next half term we will be studying the British Monarchy - past and present. We
will be looking at how the key monarchs changed the lives of British people
during the Tudor and Victorian times and will be having a ‘Victorian school
day’ where the children will be encouraged to dress up in traditional costumes.
Why not take a trip to the Royal Armouries or Thackray Medical Museum over the
half term holidays to find out more about life during these key eras?
· In ICT we have completed our scratch animations using
programming techniques. Some of the completed outcomes will be uploaded to the
school website and blog very soon.
Reminders
· Please ensure your child’s labelled PE kit is kept in school from
Monday-Friday every week
· Now the weather is turning cooler, please can we ask that ALL children
wear a warm coat to school and that it is labelled clearly with their name?
We hope you have a wonderful half term break.
Team 3/4.
Upper
Key Stage 2 Newsletter
PE
kits
Many pupils are still not
bringing in correct PE kits. Please can all pupils bring in a full indoor and
outdoor PE kit. Unfortunately many pupils are missing out on important learning
due to incorrect kit. PE kits need to be brought in on a Monday and taken home
on a Friday. The kit lists are as follows:
Indoor
kit Outdoor kit
- Socks -
Socks
- Pumps or trainers
with laces - Warm
tracksuit pants or leggings
- Black shorts or
leggings -
A jumper or hooded top
- A plain white
t-shirt -
A plain white t-shirt
-
Trainers with laces
Coats
As the weather is now
turning much colder, please can we ask that all pupils come to school in a
winter coat. Pupils will be unable to go outside for their playtimes if they do
not have an appropriate, warm coat during the Autumn and Winter months. Thank
you.
Literacy
Day
On Monday 3rd November, we
are having one of our reading breakfasts and we are having a visit from the
children's author Eamonn Reilly. He will be coming into school to lead the assembly
and after we will be inviting parents and carers to come and celebrate the
wonderful outcomes that the children have produced from a reading and writing
inspired day!
Mental
maths resources
Many pupils have been given
mental maths resources to assist their learning. These resources are aimed at
helping to support children’s learning and develop their confidence. We hope
that these resources can help in supporting your child’s learning as we
progress in year 5/6.
Numeracy
In Numeracy this week the
children have been learning about multiplication and division facts, such as;
common multiples, common factors, prime numbers and brackets. In our first week
back we will be focusing on division. Strategies that will be covered will
include; multiplying decimals, bus-stop method (for single digit division) and
chunking (for double digit division).
Literacy
This week in Literacy, pupils
have published a wonderful persuasive piece encouraging the reader to visit the
Great Barrier Reef. These pieces have been such a high quality including
features such as; emotive language and powerful verbs. After half term in
literacy we will focus on writing newspaper reports. The next batch of
spellings to be learnt are: awkward, bargain, bruise, category, cemetery,
committee, communicate, community, competition, controversy. Your child has
received a copy of these spellings and will be tested on Friday 7th November.
Topic
During Topic this week, the
children have been publishing a beautiful informational outcome all about one
of the natural wonders of the world: Victoria Falls, The Great Barrier Reef and
Mount Everest to name but a few. Stunning outcomes which have been a joy to
read! Well done! Next half term our topic is all about Climate Change and
Global warming.
