Newsletter
Issue 9
|
Friday 7th November 2014
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
I hope everyone had a good half
term. It was lovely hearing what the children had been up to and to hear about
spooky adventures. Then there was Bonfire Night of course and with all that we
have been doing this week at Robin Hood, I think it’s safe to say it’s been a
busy week. Amongst all else, extra-curricular clubs have started again this
week. We are very lucky to have staff who are so willing to give of their time
to provide these fantastic opportunities for our pupils. We are equally as
fortunate to have such motivated learners who are so keen to attend!
Our
Reading Day
The week got off to a fabulous
start with a Reading Breakfast and a visit from author, Eamonn Reilly who
introduced the children to some of his fantastic work. The children really
enjoyed the visit and were left feeling inspired to find out more about him
through his books. A big thanks to all parents who came in early to share a
story with their child.Health and Safety posters
Sue from Bermar joined me on Monday afternoon to judge the winners of the Health and Safety posters designed and created by all children across school. We were delighted that the posters showed very effectively how well the children had listened to the site safety talk before half term. The winners will be revealed at Monday’s assembly!
Children
in Need
Next Friday (14th)
is Children in Need day. We have always supported Children in Need at Robin
Hood and once more I would like to give the children an opportunity to raise
some money for children less fortunate. Children can come into school dressed
either in non- uniform or as a super hero. We ask that a voluntary £1 is
brought in for the privilege!
Choir
at Westerton
This week, Miss McSorley and Mrs
Comstive accompanied members of our choir to a rehearsal for a singing
performance that will take place at Leeds Town Hall on 2nd December.
Along with other schools, the children went to Westerton Primary School in
Tingley to prepare for the Christmas concert. This is a fabulous opportunity
for some of our pupils and builds upon the fantastic singing developments
following our partnership with the Voices Foundation.
Website
Thanks for your patience
regarding the technical issues with the website over the past week or so. I am
delighted to say that it is now up and running and working fine and dandy!
PTA news
Many thanks for all those who helped & supported our
Halloween Disco, we raised around £440! Huge thanks to all helpers & staff!
You should by now have your recycling bag for any unused
clothes, shoes, bags, bedding, etc. The bags have been recycled, please
be assured that all money raised is for Robin Hood PTA. Collection date by 9am
Monday 10th. If you have a number of bags to bring and would
prefer to do so the evening before, you are welcome to. Please leave all
bags near the playground entrance as close to the wooden fence as possible,
obviously access will still be needed until the bags have been collected.
Please email robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com if you have any problems
getting your bags to school.
Hope you like your child's artwork in creating their
Christmas Cards? These can also be reproduced onto T-towels, mugs, etc. just
indicate on your order form and return to school with payment by end of school
day Tuesday 11th November. Finally, there is a PTA meeting to discuss the
Christmas Craft Fayre on Wednesday 12th November, 8pm at the Gardener's Arms.
Have a fantastic weekend,
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
Welcome back everybody. We
are very proud and pleased with the way the children have just settled back in
to the nursery routine. They have been excited to explore our new areas of
provision and have enjoyed our bonfire celebrations. 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/
LAST HALF TERM
We focused on settling in to
our new class and building relationships. We shared lots of stories and engaged
in many activities that helped to develop the children’s confidence, independence
and friendships. We had fun in the outdoor area and we have been to the ‘big
school’ hall for PE (the children are improving every week putting their socks
and shoes on – thank you). The children
have enjoyed learning new songs in music and listened carefully during circle
time activities. Well done everyone!
NEXT WEEK
We will be learning about Diwali; sharing the story
of Rama and Sita and retelling it using lots of puppets, props and role-play. We will be looking at Rangoli patterns and
talking about what we know about shapes.
The children will be celebrating with a Diwali party, this will be on
Tuesday afternoon for the beginning of the week children and Friday morning for
the end of week children.
DATES TO REMEMBER
Celebration assemblies.
Wednesday 12th November 11.00 –
beginning of the week children. Everybody welcome.
Friday 14th November 14.30 – end of week
children. Everybody welcome.
HOW YOU
CAN HELP US
· Please
continue to engage with the learning logs – the children thoroughly enjoy
sharing these.
· Please
engage with the home learning and ensure you listen to your child read for 5
minutes every day.
· Please send in a water bottle (no juice) and a coat every day.
· Continue to talk about shape, colour and
number during everyday activities.
Thank you
Mrs Harley and the Nursery
Team
Reception
newsletter
NEWS
ROUND UP
Welcome
back to our second half term of the Reception year! We hope that you are all
feeling rested and refreshed and no doubt very excited about Bonfire Night! We
started our week off with a reading day and it was great to see so many of you
enjoying juice, toast and a good book in the school hall. We then had a visit
from the author Eamonn Reilly who showed the children how much they can gain
from the world of books and reading. 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/
LAST
HALF TERM
We
focused on settling in to our new class and sharing lots of stories and
activities that helped to develop the children’s confidence, independence and
friendships. We explored the outdoor area, took part in PE, music and PSED
sessions and made really brilliant progress in our reading and writing – so
well done everyone! The children should now be secure with the words and sounds
we learned last half term – packs were sent home over half term if your child
needed any extra practice. If you feel that you need any further help or
support, please ask Miss Lambert or Mrs Steel. This week we have been focusing
on the sounds j, v, w and the words will, that, this, then, them and with.
NEXT
WEEK
We will
be learning about Diwali; sharing the story of Rama and Sita and retelling it
using lots of puppets, props and role-play. The children will be celebrating on
Friday with a Diwali party and we have a special guest coming in to show us
real Indian drumming as well as our own Miss Fox who will be creating Mendhi
patterns on hands using washable face paint. Following on from our introduction
to addition in week 1, we will be looking at simple subtraction and teaching
the children that these are inverse operations. In our phonics sessions we will
be learning the letters x, y, z, and zz and the words see,
for, now, down, look, too.
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 listen to your child read for 5 minutes every day and
help your child learn their spellings.
· Please make sure that all clothing is clearly
named and if your child comes home in spare clothes, please could you wash and
return them as soon as possible.
· PE kits need to be in school every Friday.
· 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
Welcome
back
We would like to wish all the children,
parents and carers a warm welcome back to school. We hope you have had a
refreshing holiday and are now raring to go for another fantastic half term. We
would like to give you a polite reminder that should you want your child to
come on our school trip to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, you will need
to have given in the permission slip and paid by Friday 21st
November. Thank you in advance.
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) – This week we have been adding
numbers that make 5, 10 and 20.
· Reading
and/or using Bug Club. (10 mins X 3 times a week).
· 2
times tables (for a test at the end of the week. We will give the children a
new times table to learn each 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.
Numeracy
Key Stage 1 have been learning all about
addition. We have been introducing new language for addition such as add, total, sum, altogether and more. We
have been learning many different strategies for addition so the children can
pick and choose the most appropriate strategy for the sum. These strategies
include putting the biggest number in
their head and counting on using fingers(U+U and TU + U), circling the biggest
number on the 100 square and then counting on (TU+U), and partitioning numbers
so children can add the tens together and then the units (TU+TU). Why don’t
you try some of these strategies at home with your child? This week we have
also tested the children on the 2 times table. Next week we will be learning
the 5 times table and testing the children during Friday’s lesson.
Literacy
In Literacy this week the children have been
reading a class book (Year 1 – Where the wild things are. Year 1/2 - We’re
going on a bear hunt. Year 2 – Gorilla). The children have been using drama to
retell parts of the story to deepen their understanding of the plot, character
motives and feelings. All children have been learning about adjectives, and
know how to use adjectives within sentences to improve them. Why don’t you ask
your child to write a sentence about their favourite character from their class
story using wonderful adjectives? Next week the children will be learning to
recognise verbs and learn how to use them within their writing.
Topic
Our topic this half term will be The Theatre.
We have started our new topic by learning all about the history of theatre. We
have been looking closely at the theatres in our local area and we have been
making our own theatres out of Lego and other materials. In addition to this,
the children have really enjoyed reading different stories and acting sections
of them out.
Bug Club
Bug club is a great online resource
for reading, and helps massively with reading comprehension. We would like to
encourage you all to use Bug Club at home. Your child should know their
individual log in, at the school ID is QA6k.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Key Stage One Team
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We have had a wonderful first week
back in Year 3/4 after the half term break. On Monday the children were
immersed in a full day of reading tasks based around a traditional folk tale
from Brazil. They worked with a partner to identify various techniques used by
the author to help paint a terrifying picture of the Whistling Monster. Take a look at our blog for examples of the
outcomes created; they really are spectacular. On Tuesday we began our new
topic all about the British monarchy and what it means to be the King or Queen
of a country.
Numeracy
This week we have been tackling addition problems using mental and
written strategies. We have used column addition to add larger numbers,
including decimals. Next week we will be looking at the mental and written
strategies for subtraction and will apply these skills to solving a variety of
problems. Next week we will be testing the children on their 11 times tables
however we would appreciate your time and support in helping your child to
learn ALL of their tables. Thank you.
For those of you
who were interested in the Parent
Workshop based on Subtraction, the meeting will now be held in Miss
Gascoigne’s room on Tuesday November 18th at 4.15 – 5.00pm instead
of 3.30pm.
Literacy
This week we
have begun looking at the strategies used in persuasive writing,
including flattery, emotional blackmail and the use of facts and evidence to
back up an argument. We have written a letter of persuasion to a celebrity of
our choice in order to persuade them to visit our school making sure that we
have used all of the above techniques.
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 10th 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: coat, boat, coach, goat, toes, goes, home, rose, hose, rope
Group2: describe, creature, immediately, escape, telephone, investigate,
furniture, texture, figure, sculpture
Other areas of the curriculum:
· In PE we have begun our outdoor sessions with a variety
of team games and challenges to keep us active in this cold weather. Can we
please ask that your child brings a warm tracksuit and trainers for every
outdoor session? We will be going outside every week unless the weather is too
severe.
· In Topic this week the children have begun studying key
monarchs from British history. As part of our learning, we have studied various
portraits of British monarchs and have tried to create our own portraits of
ourselves…as a King or Queen. These outcomes will be displayed on our blog very
soon.
· In ICT we have begun looking at what jobs are involved
in filming a TV programme, and in particular, sport. We have identified the
various roles of the camera man, the editor, the sound recorder and the
producer and will apply some of these skills when making our own films over the
next few weeks.
· In science we have begun our
new topic all about light, how we see things and how reflective materials can
be really useful.
Reminders
· Please ensure your child’s labelled PE kit (indoor and outdoor) is kept
in school from Monday-Friday every week
· The weather has certainly turned much colder and so we ask that you
ensure your child has an appropriate coat to wear that is fully labelled. Thank
you.
· Our next Showcase Assembly
will take place on Friday 21st November at 2.30pm. We hope you will
be able to join us as we share some of the children’s amazing learning.
· Christmas is fast approaching and that can only mean one
thing…production time! The parts have been cast, the songs are being rehearsed
and we can finally let you know the dates of our Christmas shows:
Tuesday 16th
Dec – Afternoon Performance – 2.00 – 3.00pm
Wednesday 17th
Dec – Evening performance – 5.00 – 6.00pm
Thursday 18th
Dec – Morning performance – 9.30 – 10.30
More details will be shared with you
shortly in terms of acquiring tickets, etc. so watch this space!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Team 3/4.
Upper
Key Stage 2 Newsletter
Numeracy
Parent Workshop - Subtraction
Just a reminder that the
next Numeracy Parent Workshop will be on Tuesday
November 18th at 4:15pm
in Miss Gascoigne’s class. This is open to any parents wishing to learn more
about the strategies the children learn when using multiplication. If you
cannot make the workshop, please ask your child’s class teacher for a copy of
the hand-outs from the session. We look forward to seeing you there!
Reading
and Writing Day
On Monday, we enjoyed
meeting a famous author and hearing him explain about his range of books that
have been published. We had the chance to ask him a range of questions regarding
his books and his work as a writer. During the day, we read a story called ‘As
busy as a Bee’ all about climate change and the effect it can have on the
world. We enjoyed re-telling this story in our own words and publishing it on a
bee template.
Numeracy
In Numeracy this week pupils
have been learning how to multiply decimals using the grid method accurately.
They have then applied this to finding the area of a range of compound shapes.
We have learnt the bus stop method and chunking method for division and applied
this to some real life problems. Visit www.mathszone.co.uk and
select pencil and paper division methods for interactive games which will
support your child even further with this strategy.
Next week, we will be
learning all about fractions. This includes simplifying fractions, finding
fractions of amounts, equivalent fractions, ordering fractions by finding the
common denominator and converting fractions into percentages.
Literacy
In literacy this week we
have started our new topic: Newspaper reporting! We have enjoyed reading a
range of newspaper articles and identifying the key features of these:
Headlines, By-line, introduction, paragraphs (Body of text), quotations, facts
and opinions, past tense, details of events and conclusion/ summary. The
children have magpie key features to use in their own learning. They
highlighted the use of powerful verbs, high level adjectives, good use of
openers and adverbs too. They have also focused on the use of reported speech
and direct speech. Children have enjoyed the opportunity to change direct
speech to reported speech and reported speech to direct speech and they have
discussed the difference between the two.
Topic
Our new Geography topic is
climate change. We have created our amazing topic covers and discussed the meaning
of climate change and global warming. We discussed how we impact on climate
change and what we can do to prevent this build in temperature and we watched
educational videos on climate change and noted down the causes and effects of
climate change.
ICT:
This week the children have
been introduced to the concept of animation. We have explored successful and
unsuccessful animations that currently exist on the internet and have had a
brief introduction to the software ‘Scratch’, which we will be using to create
our very own animations over the next few weeks. The children have been
thinking of good, detailed jokes which will form their animations… feel free to
share any good jokes with your children that might help them with this.
Science:
In Science this week we have
been introduced to our exciting new topic: Space! We have shared our present
knowledge of space and have noted down our own known facts about the moon, the
sun and the earth. We have also enjoyed creating our space topic page and
decorating it with enormous planets and shooting stars. We have learnt the
order of the planets from the sun and created our own mnemonic to help us
remember the order. Here’s mine: My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets. The children then discussed the definition of a planet and
then learnt the actual definition. Finally, we gave reasons why Pluto is no
longer considered a planet.
PE
In PE this week pupils have
been developing their static balance skills. Pupils have challenged themselves
in a variety of static balances and have enjoyed creating ways to beat their
opponents during games of sit down volleyball. Next week pupils will continue
to challenge themselves in small sided games and static balance techniques.
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