Issue 6 2013-14

Newsletter Issue 6

Friday 11th October 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

Thank you to all who either attended the coffee morning on Monday or gave their thoughts via email. We gathered some really useful information which will be able to inform some of the future decisions we make as a school. The next Parent Coffee Morning will take place on Monday 2^nd December again at 9:00a.m. Please see the bottom of this newsletter for agendas to discuss.

The Bookworm Trust

Have you any children’s books that you would be happy to part with? We would like to support The Bookworm Trust which will take donations of books, which will be used to set up libraries in communities in Africa. I think this is a great opportunity for a clear out, knowing that we will be adding great value to towns and villages where such resources are non-existent. If you have any books (suitable to age 14) which you would like to donate, please bring them into Liz or Sue in the office. Thanks.

The Big Draw

We will be celebrating The Big Draw on Monday with a whole day of fabulous drawing activities. Our theme is “Outside” so we are hoping to bring the outdoors inside through our drawing experiences. Please send your child into school with an old t-shirt so that we can minimise any damage to school uniforms. It promises to be a really fantastic day and we welcome you all to come in and have a look at the outcomes in the hall on Tuesday afternoon from 3 p.m., when our hall will transform into a gallery.

Parent Consultations

You will have received a slip from your child informing you about the forthcoming Parent Consultations. This 10 minute appointment will give an opportunity to hear how your child has settled into their new year group and to ensure that you are aware of how your child is achieving in Numeracy, Writing, Reading and Phonics (where applicable) in relation to age related expectations. We will be able to give an indication of how we expect your child to achieve by the end of the year and what this means in terms of the support that we ask for at home. It is so important that everybody attends these meetings so if you have not received a slip for any reason, please let us know.

A visit from our friends overseas

This week, we have welcomed 6 colleagues from Finland as part of the Comenius project (Developing Outstanding Schools), many who were visiting Robin Hood (and Leeds) for the first time. They left commenting on how they felt overwhelmed by the quality of our education. They commented on how motivated the children are in lessons, the wealth of incredible resources we have to enable and engage learners and (like so many) they also commented on how warm and welcoming the school is. I look forward to having the opportunity to visit their schools later in the academic year.

 PTA News

Thank you to all those who attended the AGM last Friday, your support is very much appreciated. To find the minutes from the meeting along with the Chair's and Treasurer's report please visit the school website under the PTA tab on the Parent and Carer section.
By now you should have all received the invitation to the Halloween Disco on 23 October. Please hand your reply slip and money to the office in an envelope marked "Halloween Disco". PLEASE NOTE THE FOUNDATION STAGE AND KS1 DISCO STARTS AT 3:45pm.
We still require donations of buns to sell at the disco and also parents, grandparents and carers to help out on the night. If you are able to help at either, or both discos, please contact us at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.

Have a great week-end.

Mrs Dale

Next Parent’s Coffee Morning: Monday 2^nd December 2013- 9 a.m.- 10 a.m.

Agendas for discussion

·          Do you know how well your child is achieving? What manageable ways could we improve that knowledge?

·          What knowledge do parents have of age related expectations?

·          Celebration Assembly- what could we do differently/better?

If you cannot attend, please feel free to email your views to gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
I think it is now safe to say that if you ask your child any question about their body they will be able to answer. The children have learnt so much this week about their bodies including; the parts of their body, what their body can do and how to keep their body healthy. We have welcomed special parent visitors Mr Reid and Mr & Mrs Butterfield to talk to the children about keeping their teeth and their bodies healthy. This gave the children the chance to really immerse themselves in their learning and we would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to our parent visitors.

THIS WEEK

In order to see how much the children know about our bodies we have been enjoying lots of quizzes and role-play activities as well as drawing round and labelling Mrs Steel! The children really enjoyed the visits from our special visitors and they got really excited when someone was chosen to have a bandage put on them. In topic the children have had a very messy time using papier-mâché to make models of the parts of our body that we use for our senses. These models will be hung up in our classroom in preparation for our topic next week. In phonics we have been tuning into environmental sounds and in numeracy we have created a pictogram of the most popular eye colour.

NEXT WEEK
Next week is assessment week, where the children will get the chance to show off all the amazing things they have learnt this term. They will get to show us their fantastic reading, writing and numeracy skills. We can’t wait to see how much progress the children have made and we know that they will make us and you very proud of them. Our topic next week is Senses. In literacy we will be completing a picture caption entitled ‘ What I can see with my eyes’ and in our numeracy sessions we will be encouraging the children to work on their problem solving skills and show us how to complete a range of puzzles.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·         Please listen to your child read for at least 5 minutes every day. Encourage them to hold the books and turn the pages by themselves and if you can ask lots of questions to support their comprehension skills that would be fabulous.

·         Please bring books and reading records into Nursery every week so that we can change the books and let you know how your child is getting on in Nursery.

·         Please continue to encourage your child to put on and take off their own coats, shoes and socks (I know this is time consuming but we would really appreciate your support!)

Have a great weekend from the Nursery Team

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

It is now safe to say that if you ask your child any question about their body they will be able to answer. The children have learnt so much this week about their bodies including; the parts of their body, what their body can do and how to keep their body healthy. We have welcomed special parent visitors Mr Reid (the dentist) and Mr and Mrs Butterworth (Paramedics) to talk to the children about keeping their teeth and their bodies healthy. This gave the children the chance to really immerse themselves in their learning and we would like to say a huge thank you to our parent visitors.

THIS WEEK

On Monday in literacy we started our topic of bodies off on a large scale in the hall. The children had to pretend they were doctors and put Amelia’s body back together and then label the different parts of the body. On Tuesday we moved it on to thinking about what is underneath our skin and set up our very own X-ray room in our classroom. The children really enjoyed the visits from our special visitors and they got really excited when someone was chosen to have a bandage put on them. In topic the children have had a very messy time using papier-mâché to make models of the parts of our body that we use for our senses. These models will be hung up in our classroom in preparation for our topic next week. In phonics the children have learnt to read the sounds; h, r, b and f and have learnt to read the tricky words; I, no, go, to, the and into. In numeracy the children have really enjoyed making pictograms to find out which is the most and least popular eye and hair colour in our class.

NEXT WEEK

Next week is assessment week where the children will get the chance to show off all the amazing things they have learnt this half term. They will get to show us their fantastic reading, writing and numeracy skills. They will also get to show us all the different Phase 2 sounds and Phase 2 words they have learnt to recognise and read. We can’t wait to see how much progress the children have made and we know that they will make us and you very proud of them. Our topic next week is senses. In literacy we will be writing repeated sentences e.g. I can smell…, I can taste….. In topic the children will be going on a senses journey with Sydney the Snail and they will get to make their very own funky glasses. In Phonics next week we will be learning the sounds; ff, l and ll and we will be practising reading all of our Phase 2 words which can be found on the sheet attached to the home learning. In numeracy we will be sequencing our daily routines and discussing what we do every day and the order that we do them in.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·         Please listen to your child read for at least 5 minutes every day. Help them spot the sounds we have been learning and help them sound out and blend simple words. Don’t forget bug club!

·         Please help your child practise recognising all the Phase 2 sounds.

·         Please help your child become a confident reader of all the Phase 2 words.

Have a great weekend Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt & the rest of the Reception team

Key Stage 1

Home learning

In numeracy this week we have been learning how to work out 1 more and less and 10 more and 10 less. To consolidate this learning please can you practise a few sums with your child. Start with 1 digit numbers, progressing to 2 then 3 if you feel they are ready for it. Focus your discussions around place value and which column is going to change; will it be the tens column or the units column – or in some cases both? For a really tough challenge you could have a look at some numbers that bridge into a new ten or a new hundred – for example ‘What is 1 less than 60?’ or ‘What is 10 less than 200?’ You could even give 100 more or less a try. How far can you go?

Trip

We are so excited about our forthcoming trip to Morrisons! Year 1 are going on Tuesday, Year 1/2 on Wednesday and Year 2 on Thursday. The children will have the opportunity to visit lots of different sections of the store, sample some food and even have a go at scanning items at the checkout! I wonder if any of them will land themselves a job?! In addition to our trip around the store we will be taking a walk around Rothwell to learn a little more about the local area.

Spellings

We recognise that the children’s weekly spellings have been a little tricky at times. We choose the spellings in line with the phonic sound we are teaching this week. To help your child learn the words try asking them to explain to you which ‘mister’ they can see in the word (Mr Middle, End, Split, or Sometimes). If you would like any additional information about the way we teach phonics, feel free to have a chat with any one of us about it and we will be more than happy to talk you through the system we use.

Big draw

On Monday our day will be spent getting creative with paint, pens, chalk and collage materials. This will be great fun for everyone – and naturally things are likely to get a little messy! As the whole school is participating in this event, aprons are a little thin on the ground! It would be very helpful if your child could bring an old shirt or T-shirt to wear over the top of their uniform to protect their clothes. You will be able to visit the hall after school on Tuesday.  The hall doors will be open from 3:00 pm.

Boxes

Next half term we will be turning our hands to set design and building our own stage. If you have any spare boxes (approximately cereal box size) please can you start collecting them and bringing them in? Thank you.

Disco

Earlier this week you will have received a letter about our Halloween disco. Apparently the times on some of these letters were conflicting. To clarify – it will start at 3:45 pm and finish at 5:00 pm.

Numeracy

In addition to learning about more and less, we started to look at estimation this week. The children have learnt lots of vocabulary to describe what estimation means and they have practised making sensible guesses to approximate how many items are in a group. They have learnt to apply skills like counting in groups of 2, 5 or 10 to make a sensible estimate. Some children have also looked into finding the difference between their guess and the actual amount. There are some great estimation games which you can access via our KS1 blog. Next week we will start learning how to round a number to the nearest ten or hundred. One great way to prepare the children for this would be to practise counting in tens so that the children can recognise that a multiple of ten ends in a zero.

Literacy

Following on from our learning around healthy eating, we have progressed onto the theme of exercise. The children have been working on posters which include information about the benefits of exercise, their own exercise regime and some facts about the exercise that they like best. Our focus has predominantly been time connectives (first, next, then, after that, finally) alongside exciting verbs and suitable adverbs to make our writing more lively and interesting. Next week we will continue to work on our posters before the Star Write challenge towards the end of the week. The children are engaging so well with their personal targets – see if your child knows can tell you their individual target.

Topic

This week in Geography we have explored the difference between a town and a city, found all kinds of different places in atlases and online and last but by no means least, enjoyed some role play pretending to be purchasers at a house auction. The children have learnt about the different styles of houses in Rothwell and considered why so many more houses are being built. We have discussed what ‘bird’s eye view’ means and produced some posters advertising our own houses for sale (some of them are going for a mere £500!) Next week, to support our learning on the trip we will be exploring the history of the local area – how Rothwell came to be and what the lives of the people living in Rothwell used to be like.

Have a lovely weekend.

 

Lower Key Stage 2

We have had a fabulous time in LKS2 this week. Next Monday sees the arrival of Big Draw. Please send your child in to school with an art shirt, in order to avoid any school uniforms getting dirty. Parents and Carers are invited into school to look at the amazing Big Draw outcomes on Tuesday at 3:00pm, where you are welcome to take any pieces of art work home.

Home Learning

This week’s home learning is for children to practice their column subtraction. All week the children have been learning to borrow ten from next door, in order to solve a variety of different subtraction problems. It will be great for children to practice these skills at home by applying these to test style problems, ahead of assessment week next week.

In addition to this, we would like the children to continue reading daily at home, and record this in their reading records in order to receive a sticker.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy the children have been learning how to use column subtraction. They have learnt how to carefully set their calculations out in the correct columns, and know to begin their working out from the units column. The children are also confident when borrowing ten from next door; a tricky concept to get. In order to challenge the children, we have been asking them to apply their knowledge of subtraction to different problems, both investigative and test style questions. Next week is assessment week and all children will get a chance to show off their mathematical skills learnt over this half term. We aim to make assessment week as calm as possible, and always explain to the children thoroughly that assessments are not something to worry about.

Literacy

This week in literacy the children have been writing diary entries from the point of view of a Viking Raider. All children remembered to write in first person, use important features like capital letters and full stops and tried really hard with their paragraphing. We were blown away by their amazing use of compound and complex sentences, as well as their super adverbs and adjectives to describe the vicious raids.  Next week the children will write their final diary entry, about their time as a Viking on a Viking Long Ship. We will be assessing these writes and will be giving your child a new level for their writing. We look forward to spotting all of the amazing conjunctions, adverbs and adjectives throughout their diaries.

Topic

This week in topic the children have been continuing with their Viking moving mechanisms.  Some children have finished these and we were blown away by the quality of their colouring, cutting and over all attention to detail. The children have also been continuing with their Viking weaving, Viking Kartouche’s and have been conducting independent research into Alfred the Great.

Spellings

These Spellings will be tested on Monday 14^th October.

Group One	Group Two
Bravely	Candle
Clearly	Ankle
Cheerfully	Rectangle
Carefully	Symbol
Madly	Single
Neatly	Difficult
Nearly	Signal
Really	Athletics
Weekly	Animal
Weakly	Christmas

Reminders

 

·        Please can all Year 4 children remember to bring their swimming kit and goggles if needed every Friday. They may also bring a snack to eat on the coach on the way back to school. This can be a biscuit or a piece of fruit.

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

·        As the weather begins to turn that little bit cooler and wetter, please ensure your child has a suitable outdoor coat/jacket.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Team 3/4

UKS2 Newsletter

News Roundup:

Leeds Children’s Mayor

We would like to wish everyone who submitted an entry for Leeds Children’s Mayor a big well done! We were blown away with the quality of the entries and choosing a winner to submit for the competition (as we could only select one) was a very difficult task indeed! Congratulations to Georgia in Mrs Moore’s class, whose entry was chosen! We wish you the best of luck for the competition!

Leeds Junior Maths Challenge

Izzy, John, Evan and Bethan from year 6 were fortunate enough to go to Leeds Grammar School with Miss Gascoigne on Monday to take part in the Leeds Junior Maths Challenge. They participated in four rounds: logic, mental arithmetic, puzzles and a maths challenge round. They had lots of fun competing against other schools in Leeds and as a result of their super maths skills; they are now through to the finals, which will take place in November! Watch this space!

Big Draw and Harvest Festival

This Monday (14^th October) we will be partaking in our annual ‘Big Draw’ event. We have some creative and fun activities planned for year 5/6 and suggest that all children come into school with an art shirt for this day. There will be lots of paint and other art materials being used and we don’t want any stained uniforms! Also next week, we will be partaking in our Harvest Festival at Lofthouse church. This will be happening on Friday (18^th) October and will commence at the church at 10am if you can join us.

Achiever of the Week:

Achiever of the week goes to Katie in Mrs Moore’s class. Katie has displayed an incredible attitude towards her learning since coming in to year five. If she hasn’t got her nose in a reading book, she can be found practicing her sums or writing diary entries and stories! To add to this, she always comes into school with a smile on her face and is a friend to everyone! Well done, Katie! Keep it up!

Core Subjects:

Numeracy: In Numeracy this week, we have been learning about multiplication. The children have been using the grid method to multiply numbers, including those with 3 and 4 digits as well as decimals. We have been very impressed with their attitude towards this learning; some of the numbers we were dealing with were huge! Why not ask your child to show you how they can use the grid method to solve a sum? Next week is assessment week so the children will be undertaking some numeracy papers. On Thursday, we will be holding the first times table challenge of the year!

Literacy: This week in Literacy, we have been continuing with our diary writing. The children have really enjoyed learning about the Titanic and we have been thoroughly impressed with the figurative language they have been using. The diary entry focussed on their thoughts and feelings as a passenger/worker on the ship after it had first set sail. It was great to see a difference between the language being used depending on whether their character was an upper class or lower class passenger. Next week, the children will undertake reading and writing assessments as part of assessment week.

SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: literature, lecturer, fracture, gesture, futuristic, manufacture, preacher, stretcher, century, judgement.

Your child has received a copy of these spellings which have been glued into their planner. They will be tested on these words on Friday October 18^th.

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE:

This week, 5/6G have been continuing to develop their street dance performances. 5/6MO have been choreographing their own small rock and roll performances and competing against other performances in the class. 5/6M have practiced their achy breaky heart routine.

Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week. PE this half term is indoors; therefore the children will need to wear black shorts and a white t-shirt, indoor pumps or bare feet too. Miss Gascoigne’s class may wear long tracksuit bottoms or leggings for our street dance sessions as we may need to use our knees at times.

5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are on Tuesdays.

Spanish:

In Spanish, the children have been enjoying continuing to learn about different objects and places in the school. This week, they practiced their conversational Spanish to describe where objects were using the sentence starter‘ Alli esta’. Why not see if your child can remember what that means?

 

 

 

 

 
 

Issue 5 2013-14

Newsletter Issue 5

Friday 4th October 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

I have visited every classroom this week, as part of my monitoring of the standard of teaching and learning in school. Our learners are incredible; every class has a very positive climate for success and learning behaviours are exemplary. The children are incredibly happy in their (relatively) new classes and our teachers have all got an incredibly in depth knowledge of the needs of each and every child.

Harvest celebrations

Please remember that our harvest celebration will take place on Friday 18^th October at 10 a.m. with the Key Stage 1 children taking the lead at Lofthouse Church. Please be aware that there will be NO Celebration Assembly that day.

At present, our collection of food to take to the local Residential Home is fairly small. There is still plenty of time to donate something to the community by sending in non- perishables and we will take all goods to our local elderly residents on behalf of the school community.

Artsmark Gold

I am absolutely delighted to announce that following the submission of a lengthy application and a moderator visit last week, we have been awarded Artsmark Gold for the second time. This is a very significant award, which validates and recognises a commitment to and quality provision of the arts in schools across the country. We first received Artsmark in 2007 and this improved to Artsmark Gold in 2010. I am thrilled that (as a huge advocate for the arts), our arts provision has been judged as outstanding once more in 2013. My thanks to Miss Thackeray for leading our Arts provision and ensuring we go from strength to strength.

Sign2Sing promotional video

Miss Thackeray has also been busy liaising with organisers of the Sign2Sing events. We have had a request that the video we submitted, which evidenced our involvement earlier this year, can be used to promote the event to other schools. It is great that Robin Hood Primary School is continuing to gain recognition nationally for our commitment to an inclusive education for all.

Coffee morning

Please don’t forget that you are welcome to join us on Monday morning (7^th) for our Parent’s Coffee morning with Miss Thackeray and parent governor, Stephanie Findlay from 9 am- 10 am. If you can’t make it, I am welcoming your emailed views on parent communication and how you feel about the current systems that are in place; Spanish exchanges for the children and Residential trips abroad for Year 6. Thanks.

 Celebration Fridays

We warmly invite parents to come in to school and see children’s learning during our Celebration Friday events. These take place straight after school on selected Fridays across the year as follows:

Friday 18th Oct

Friday 13th Dec

Friday 7th Feb

Friday 28th Mar

Friday 16th May

Friday 27th June

These are on the school calendar on the website for your reference.

PTA News This week, plans have been getting underway for our next event, the Halloween disco, to be held on Wednesday 23 October. We have already booked the DJ and Mrs Mistry has designed the fantastic poster advertising the event, so keep your eyes peeled on the classroom doors for information. Now for where you, the parents and carers, can help. We are looking for donations of buns/cakes for the event, so if anyone fancies whisking a few ingredients together or alternatively having a look to see what Mr Morrisons (or any other supermarket) has on offer all donations would be gratefully appreciated. Also on the night itself, to make things special for the children, we need lots more volunteers to serve food, drink and help with the games we have planned. If you are able to help with any of the above please speak to anyone of us at school drop off and pick up time or alternatively email robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com. Please remember without the generosity of the whole community events such as this could not go ahead, so go on drop us a line, even if you can only help for half an hour.

Have a great week-end.

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP

We have had another fantastic week in Nursery as we have been learning all about our families and it was really lovely to hear all the wonderful things the children had to say about the people they love.

THIS WEEK

In literacy we learnt about our families by using the clips of The Incredibles as a stimulus. It was amazing how many of our mums can do back flips and dads can drive very fast! The children then created a superhero mum or dad puppet which we have put up on display in the classroom. In our topic sessions the children have been decorating a special treat for their mum or dad which they will be bringing home to say ‘thank you’ for all the amazing things you do to help them. In numeracy this week, we have been talking about size comparisons and sorting family members into size order as well as sharing sweets between Mr Incredible and Elastigirl and deciding who had most.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we are learning all about our bodies and we have some special visitors to help us! We have Mr Reid, the dentist, who will come and talk to the children about the importance of keeping their teeth clean. On Thursday Mr and Mrs Butterfield (a paramedic and a nurse) will come and talk to the children about their jobs and explain to the children how to keep themselves safe. In topic we will be making large scale papier-mâché models of our 5 senses; nose, mouth, eyes, hands and ears and talking about what we use each sense for. Our maths focus will be on data handling and we will be working together to make a pictorial chart of the most popular eye colour.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·       Please encourage your child to complete their home learning and bring it back Monday morning/Wednesday afternoon. It shouldn’t take long and is a great way of bridging the gap on days when they do not attend our Nursery.

·       Encourage your child to hold any pencils, crayons or chalks using the tripod (three fingered) grip.

·        Continue to read every day with your child and write a note in their reading record letting us know how impressed you are!

·         Please keep practising taking off and putting on shoes and socks as well as encouraging the children to try and put their own coats on.

Thank you for your continuing support

The Nursery Team

 

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

We have had another fantastic week in Reception! We have been learning all about our families and it was really lovely to hear all the wonderful things the children had to say about their families and the people they love.

THIS WEEK

In literacy we learnt about our families by using the example of The Incredibles which the children really enjoyed! We watched some clips of the family and by the end of the week the children had produced some amazing sentences about all the amazing things people they care about can do. In phonics this week we have been practising recognising and writing the sounds; ck, e and u and reading our key words of the week which were; him, his, not, mum, up and got. A lot of children are now managing to achieve 100% as they are becoming much more confident at recognising their sounds and then blending them to read the word. It is clear how much support they are getting at home, we really do appreciate it and it has an enormous impact on how much progress your child makes. In topic the children made some lovely baskets for people in their family and then they made some scrumptious peppermint creams which you will hopefully be tucking into tonight. All this week The Incredibles have been leaving us special treats in our secret chest. On Monday they left us a plate of food and the children drew their own plates of food which illustrated their families’ favourite meal. Jessie-Anne told us her mum’s favourite food is banana and custard! On Tuesday they left us wrapping paper, cards and wool so that they could write you cards and send you presents. On Wednesday they brought us their favourite board games and finally on Thursday they transformed our water area into their favourite holiday destination where the children wrote you postcards. By the end of the week in maths the children were confident at ordering The Incredibles in size order.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we are learning all about our bodies and on Wednesday and Thursday we have some special visitors. We have Mr Reid the dentist who will come and talk to the children about the importance of keeping their teeth clean. Then on Thursday Mr and Mrs Butterfield who are paramedics will come and talk to the children about their job and explain to the children how to keep themselves safe. In topic we will be making large scale papier-mâché models of our 5 senses; nose, mouth, eyes, hands and ears. Next week we will be learning to read and write the sounds; h, r, b and f and we will be learning to read the tricky words (Words which can’t be sounded out); I, no, go, to, the and into. In numeracy we will be learning about data handling and we will be making charts to show the different hair colours and eye colours we have in our class.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·       Please listen to your child read for at least 5 minutes every day. Help them spot the sounds we have been learning and help them sound out and blend simple words. Don’t forget bug club!

·       Please have a look at your child’s name writing book and practise their target with them.

·       Please encourage your child to show you their wonderful learning at home and engage with the home learning that is been sent.

·       Have a go at the ICT games we have been playing in class.

Have a great weekend Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt & the rest of the Reception team

Key Stage 1

Home learning

Next week our topic lessons are focused on developing geographical skills. Your child will be learning about the difference between a town and a city. They will also be looking at the similarities between Leeds and Rothwell. As part of their learning your child will also be learning how to use Google maps and Google earth. Please spend some time helping your child to write down their address and if possible using the internet to see if they can find their house.

You can do this by visiting the website:  https://maps.google.co.uk/ Then type in your postcode, click search and it will bring up a view of your area. If you click on the person and drag it to their arrow it will show a street view of where you live.Please get your child to write their address down on the provided piece of paper and decorate as they wish. Your child will then use this in class to show us how they have searched for this at home. You can also use Google maps to find Robin Hood School, football stadiums, famous places such as the London Eye and wherever you want to in the world.

Numeracy

In Numeracy this week the children have been learning all about the meaning of the words ‘more, less and between’. They have been using numbers up to at least 100 and using the malteser system to help them with deciding which amount is more or less and what numbers will come in between. The children have also been ordering numbers and enjoying playing ‘Play your card’s right’ guessing if the next number is going to be higher or lower.

A useful ordering game that you can access at home is

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/gordon/Higher%20And%20Lower%20-%20Reveal%20and%20Order%20v6.swf

It can be used for numbers up to 20, 100, 1000 or you can even input your own numbers. Play this game with your child against a timer and see how quickly they can put the numbers in to order from smallest to largest.

Next week the children will be continuing to develop their understanding of one more and one less, ten more and ten less and a hundred more and a hundred less. They will also be developing their understanding of estimating an amount of objects and a number on a number line.

Literacy

This week the children have written and finished making their own healthy eating booklet. The children have used capital letters, full stops, key words, adjectives (describing words), verbs (doing words) and conjunctions (and, because, but and so). The outcomes are fantastic and we can’t wait for you to come in and see them during parent consultation week. Your child’s Literacy books are full of outstanding learning and really show how fantastically they have begun the new school year. We are very proud of all of the children’s efforts.

Topic

This week in topic the children have been enjoying tasting different fruits (blind folded I might add!) to help them decide on what they would like to use when making their own fruit smoothie. They have had lots of fun and their smoothies have been delicious! Thank you to all parents who have provided drinks bottles and smoothie packaging for your children to use in their learning this week.

Water bottles

This has been mentioned before this half term but if your child brings in a packed lunch it is extremely important for them to have a water bottle for the classroom and a separate drink in their lunch box. Please ensure your child has two drinks for school so they can drink as much as they need to in the classroom and have a separate drink if they have a packed lunch to help wash down their dinner. If your child has school dinners it is important for them to have a water bottle readily available to them in the classroom. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

Trip

Thank you for all of your returned permission slips for the up and coming trip to Morrisons and the local area. We have only received a small amount of replies. Your child has been given an extra letter but if you still need one Mrs Holland will be happy to print one off for you at the office.

Have a lovely weekend.

The KS1 Team

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

Well, it’s been another busy week in Year 3/4. We have seen lots of wonderful learning taking place and have been really impressed with the enthusiasm the children have shown towards each and every lesson - even when things have a got a little bit tricky!

Thank you to all parents and carers who attended this week’s meeting about the Year 4 residential in May 2014. We shared details of the trip, dates, times, kit lists and itineraries. If you would like your child to take part in the exciting trip, please can we ask that a non-refundable deposit of £50 is returned to school by half term?

There have been a few questions about changing books and whether there are set days for children to do this. The children can get a new book to take home whenever and as often as they like. There is no set day and we encourage the children to take responsibility for changing their own books whenever they have finished one, as well as recording their daily reading in their reading records. Reading at home will be rewarded in school with stickers and, as we have all seen, the competition for team point champions this half term has been extremely tight. It could be your sticker that wins it for your team!

Our Achiever this week is Lucas in 3/4B. Lucas has approached every lesson with enthusiasm this week and has applied every target given to him. His Star Write was jam-packed full of adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions too – there’s no stopping him! Well done Lucas. 

Numeracy

This week we have been looking at how to add using column addition. We have applied these skills in many ways including solving some pretty tricky word problems.  Next week we will be moving onto looking at column subtraction.  Home learning: your child will have received a selection of questions and problems from this week’s learning as a means of embedding and securing the learning that has taken place. Please also continue to support your child with their learning of their times tables and basic number bonds to 10 and 100. These basic number facts underpin almost everything that we cover during numeracy lessons. Thank you. Next week’s times table focus will be the 5 X tables…get practising!

Literacy

This week, we have been writing in the style of a diary, documenting the life of a Viking child. We have been focussing our attentions on the use of adverbs to describe the many actions as well as writing in the past tense and first person. Next week we will be continuing to look at how diaries are written and will be finding out more information about what life was like for Viking thralls (slaves).

Spellings

These spellings will be tested on Monday 14^th October. Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.

Group One	Group Two
bravely	candle
clearly	ankle
cheerfully	rectangle
carefully	symbol
madly	single
neatly	difficult
nearly	signal
really	athletics
weekly	animal
weakly	Christmas

Other areas of the curriculum:

In PE we have once again taken inspiration from Olympic gymnast video footage and have been continuing our gymnastics by practising our rolls and balances and putting them into sequences in larger groups.

In Topic we have been very busy with our weaving of wool on hessian. These will form the backdrops for our moving mechanisms that will be started next week.

In music, 3/4B have begun composing their own musical masterpieces using the instruments available on the iads. 3/4T have been refining their recorder skills when learning to play a new song and 3/4S have continued with their percussion sessions using a variety of instruments.

In Science we have developed our graphing skills by presenting our collected data neatly and accurately in a bar chart.

In ICT we have continued to create our own information documentary about Vikings, complete with sounds, using the Kar2ouche software.

Reminders

 

·    Please can all Year 4 children remember to bring their swimming kit and goggles if needed every Friday in a bag large enough to fit their entire uniforms and shoes in – we don’t want to lose any belongings. Children may also bring a snack to eat on the coach on the way back to school. This can be a cereal bar or a piece of fruit – no crisps.

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

·    As the weather begins to turn that little bit cooler and wetter, please ensure your child has a suitable outdoor coat/jacket.

Have a wonderful weekend! Don’t forget to check out our blog: http://robinhoodprimaryyear34.blogspot.co.uk/

Team 3/4

 UKS2 Newsletter

News Roundup:

Leeds Children’s Mayor

We would like to congratulate all the children who have worked so hard to complete their manifestos, posters and slogans for the Leeds Children’s Mayor. We have been impressed with the dedication and fantastic ideas that these pupils have shown. The teachers will now be reading all of the manifestos carefully and selecting a pupil to be put forward to represent the school. www.breezeleeds.org.

Achiever of the Week:

Our Achiever of the Week goes to Lewis B in 5/6M. Lewis’ desire to succeed and better himself has been a pleasure to see this term! His hard work is without doubt paying off!

Numeracy parent workshop:

A numeracy parent workshop will be taking place on Wednesday 16^th October from 4.30- 5.15pm. The focus of this workshop will address column addition strategies.

Core Subjects:

Numeracy:

This week pupils have been learning how to add and subtract using written methods to support calculations; including increasing and decreasing fractions and percentages of amounts. Next week pupils will be learning how to use the grid method to multiply a variety of numbers, including decimals. A fantastic website resource for pupils to practice these strategies ahead of the sessions is: www.mathszone.co.uk (calculating x ÷, grid method and long multiplication by Mark Weddell).

Literacy:

This week pupils have been identifying the key features of a good diary entry and applying their skills from the perspective of different individuals on board the Titanic.  Next week pupils will continue their diary writing skills and write an extract based on their thoughts and emotions on the day of departure.

SPELLINGS: Next week, the spellings are words with the same spelling but different pronunciation; heather- heat, please- pleasant, woman- women,mean- meant, fried- friend, common- money, senior- region, honour- hourly, crow- crowd, fluid- fruit.

Your child has received a copy of these spellings which have been glued into their planner. They will be tested on these words on Friday October 11^th.

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE:

This week, 5/6G have been performing their street dance moves… the children came dressed in a street dance theme and their performance was fantastic. 5/6M worked in small groups to perform achy breaky heart. Pupils are nearing the end of the unit where they will practice the whole dance dressed in character.  5/6MO have revisited the key rock & roll moves from previous learning. Pupils are continuing to choreograph their own whole class rock & roll performance.

Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week. PE this half term is indoors; therefore the children will need to wear black shorts and a white t-shirt, indoor pumps or bare feet too. Miss Gascoigne’s class may wear long tracksuit bottoms or leggings for our street dance sessions as we may need to use our knees at times.

5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are on Tuesdays.

Spanish: - This week children have enjoyed learning about the days of week and common directions. Muy bien!

Science:

This week in Science, children have re-capped on scientific terms and vocabulary. The use of conclusions in science was discussed and pupils collected their own data on alien creatures from planet Xena. Pupils were then given the opportunity to write their own conclusions based on a specific statement.

ICT:

In ICT this week, the children have been continuing to develop their smart notebook montages based on American themes. Pupils have been experimenting and combining motion techniques to create very effective outcomes!

BLOG

As you know, we have re-launched our blog this year. However, we are currently awaiting the link to replace the old link on the school website. In the meantime, you can find it at the web address below. We plan on building this up over the year so the children can show off their learning in school, as well as it being a place for parents to find the newsletter, spellings and information about the achievers.

Visit our blog: http://year56rhps.blogspot.co.uk