Issue 6 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 6

Friday 12th October 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

It seems like we are approaching the end of our first half term of the year at break neck speed. We continue to engage in fantastic learning for a purpose and I got to indulge my creative passions this week as we contributed to the national event, The Big Draw.

The Big Draw

On Monday, we lined the entire hall with paper and got creating collaboratively, in teams and on various scales and with a variety of media. In the classroom, children engaged in fantastic drawing for all kinds of purposes. There was a definite feeling of satisfaction as the outcomes were displayed in our onsite interactive gallery, aka the hall! I am truly grateful for all who supported the community event. Valuing the children’s artwork is a hugely important contributing factor to the children feeling like real life artists and creators. My absolute thanks to all of the teachers and support staff who made the event run so smoothly and so successfully.

Autumn Disco

Reminder- Autumn Disco -Wednesday 7^th November. Key Stage 1 will be able to attend between 4p.m and 5 p.m. The Key Stage 2 disco will take place between 5:30p.m and 7p.m. If you would like your child to attend, please bring your £1 in a named envelope so that Mrs Mistry can distribute the tickets.

Christmas Fayre

The Christmas Fayre will take place on Saturday December 1^st. Our fantastic PTA are already well on the way to making preparations for that. If anyone can offer their assistance, donate goods for sale at the fayre or would like to set up a stall, please approach Ush Mistry, Clare Perry or any other member of the PTA. Thanks.

Christmas Dates

It may seem a long way off but it will creep up on us in no time so here are the important dates that you need to have in your diary for the Christmas events in school:

Saturday 1^st December, Christmas Fayre

Tuesday 18^th December, 2:00p.m – 3:00p.m- Lower Key Stage 2 Christmas Production

Wednesday 19^th December, 10:00a.m Nursery Christmas Production

Wednesday 19^th December, 2:00p.m- 3:00p.m KS1 Christmas Production

Wednesday 19^th December, 6:00p.m- 7:00p.m LKS2 Christmas Production

Thursday 20^th December, KS1 and UKS2 Christmas Parties

Thursday 20^th December, 6:00p.m- 7:00p.m KS1 Christmas Production

Thursday 20^th December, 7:00p.m- 8:00p.m Choir Concert at Rothwell Church

Friday 21st December, 10:00a.m Nursery Christmas Production

Friday 21st December, LKS2 Christmas Party

Friday 21st December, 2:30- Carols round the tree

Please be reminded that the Harvest Festival will be held at 10:00 a.m. next Friday (19^th October) at Lofthouse Church.

Amazing pupils

Congratulations to Lyla Barker in Year 1/ 2, who won a national competition designed and run by Judy Murray (Mother of Andy Murray!) and her Set 4 Sport scheme. The winning video she sent in of her very own Bears on the Stairs game means that Judy herself will come into Robin Hood School and teach sports skills to a group of children. More details to follow. Well done Lyla and thanks to her family for this great opportunity.

A huge Well Done to Laura Paul in Year 6 whose entry to become Children’s Mayor of Leeds has reached the finals. The winner will be chosen through a voting system. As soon as we have details of how to vote, I will pass them on. This is an amazing achievement and we will all be rooting for you, Laura!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The start of Nursery this week started with a lick of paint and a bit of glitter as Monday was The Big Draw. The children became artists and had a great deal of fun in the process. They were given the opportunity to draw all over the hall in the morning and then together we created a class photo using collage, pastels, glitter, paint and cotton wool. The result was brilliant! You can see all the Big Draw pictures on the foundation stage blog.

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been practising tuning into instrumental sounds. In literacy we have been learning about our houses, the children thought carefully about the different shapes they know to draw their house on a postcard. In numeracy we have been focusing on positional language and the children were fantastic at following positional instructions on the bark trail in the big playground. In topic this week we used Google Earth to have a look at where we all live which the children found amazing and really enjoyed the experience. Independently the children have made some box houses which are superb!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning all about our 5 senses (hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting). In numeracy we will be practising our number recognition from 1-6 using the Numtums once we have cracked this, the children will be even better mathematicians than they already are. In phonics we will be continuing learning instrumental sounds.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

On Wednesday the 24^th of October and Thursday the 25^th of October there will be a nursery open evening where you can drop in anytime between 3pm and 5pm. This will give you the opportunity to come and look at our lovely learning, your child’s individual profiles and to speak to Mrs Steel about your child’s amazing progress since the start of nursery.

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please feel free to drop in and change their books when you pick them up.

·         Please practice counting to 10 and beyond with your child at any opportunity. Please also practise writing and recognising the numbers 1-6 with them.

·         Please have a look on the Robin Hood foundation stage blog to see what exciting activities your child has been doing.

Once again thank you for all your support! Have a lovely weekend.

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

This week started with a lick of paint and a bit of glitter as Monday was The Big Draw. The children became artists and had a great deal of fun in the process. They were given the opportunity to draw all over the hall in the morning and then together we created a class photo using collage, pastels, glitter, paint and cotton wool. The result was brilliant! You can see all the Big Draw pictures on the foundation stage blog.

Last week 18 children managed to get their sounds and words of the week certificates! Wow! This is fantastic and a good reflection of the progress the children are making. Please keep supporting and encouraging your child in their learning as it does have a huge impact on their progress.

THIS WEEK

In phonics this week we have been practising saying and writing the sounds; r, h and b and reading our tricky words which are I, no go, to, the and into. In literacy we have been learning about our houses and the children have made some fantastic postcards. They are really progressing in writing down their first sounds. In numeracy we have been focusing on positional language and the use of the terms more and less. We followed positional instructions on the trim trail and compared Pepper Pig and the Simpsons houses using the terms more and less. In topic this week we used Google Earth to have a look at where we all live which the children found amazing and really enjoyed the experience. Independently the children have made some box houses which are superb!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning all about our 5 senses (hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting). In numeracy we will be practising our number recognition from 1-20, once we have cracked this the children will be even better mathematicians than they already are. Next week’s sounds are; f, ff, l, ll. Next week we are making sure the children are confident at reading all the key words from this half term which I have attached to the home learning.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·         Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Please concentrate on asking your child to say what the sounds are in a word and then blending them to read the word.

·         Please help your child practise writing their name. If they can write their full name then please ensure that the formation of their letters is perfect.

·         Please ensure your child has their reading book and name book on their designated day.

·         Please practise counting, recognising and writing numbers to 20 with your child.

·         Please ensure your child brings their home learning in on Monday morning.

·         Please have a look on the Robin Hood foundation stage blog to see what exciting activities your child has been doing.

Once again thank you for all your support! Have a lovely weekend.

Key Stage 1

Home Learning: KS1 are having a CAPITAL LETTER, full stop and adjectives overhaul! Using capital letters and full stops are fundamental to your children becoming accomplished writers but it is not a natural skill. Leading on from our theme from the Big Draw - ‘Hand-Me Town’ we would like the children to write us an imaginative short story all about it. The content can go wherever their imagination takes them, but please support your child in remembering to use capital letters at the start of every sentence and for people or place names, always finishing their sentences with a full stop and making their writing really exciting by using adjectives (a word that describes a noun, for example “The fierce, fire-breathing dragon”).

News

Big Draw

The Big Draw was a huge success throughout KS1 and the entire school. Our mission for the morning was to help the people and creatures from the fictional land of ‘Hand-Me Town’ by rebuilding their town, which had been destroyed by a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon. As the name suggests, everything from the sea to the sky in ‘Hand-Me Town’ is made out of hands – buildings, people, fish, birds, trees. We experimented with different ways of drawing around our hands to create people and objects before Year 1 headed up the sea team making sparkling hand-mermaids and shimmering fish. Year 1-2 took charge of rebuilding the land, becoming hand architects and designing hand-hotels as well as people, trees and a few scary monsters and Year 2 completed the scene with some incredible looking hand-birds and bees. These three sections have been combined to make a fantastic display within the key stage thanks to Mrs Mistry. The ‘Hand-Me Town’ animals have all moved in and, thanks to our afternoon task of designing a Golden Ticket using colour, shape and pattern to visit ‘Hand-Me Town’, we can go and see how they’re settling in!

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating the children’s artistic achievements in our pop-up gallery on Tuesday evening. Check our blog for pictures of the day and a stimulus to help complete their Home Learning.

Risk-It Day

Feeding off the successful learning from last week’s topic using the software, 2DIY where the children created their own game.  On Monday the children will take part in a ‘Risk-It Day’. We will spend the day looking at how we can use software on our PCs and iPads to create our own platform games and even write and publish our own books. ICT will form a huge part in your child’s future and it is the opportunities that we provide that truly makes Robin Hood a unique and comprehensive environment in which to learn. Read next week’s newsletter to find out how it goes!

Literacy

This week in literacy we have been finding out all about Africa’s Big Five: elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards and rhinos. We have studied clips that show the animals’ mannerisms and characteristics which have acted as starters for group discussions about these animals. Reading has been a major focus within this topic. We have modelled sentences that echo our writing goals to the children, which they have fed in to their own learning by writing interesting, developed sentences that include exciting adjectives. The combination of using our speaking and listening skills and reading exemplar sentences have stimulated some very sophisticated writing and conversations.

This theme will continue through to next week leading up to the children taking part in the Star Write challenge in which they will refer to and apply their own individual target to their piece of writing. Capital letters and full stops are an on-going focus for all children. 

Numeracy

This week in Numeracy the children have been thinking about ordering numbers correctly and finding 1, 10, 20, 30 and 100 more and less than a given number using a hundred square as an aid. The language of bigger/smaller, more/less, counting forwards/backwards as well as asking the children to explain the methods of how they found their answers has been a real focus. By explaining their strategies and discoveries the children all help one another to see the clues within the answers and are starting to see numbers with more clarity. The numbers we have been using have again spanned into the thousands, which is testament to the powerful learning that continues to take place within KS1.

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

We have had a very exciting, action packed week in Lower Key Stage Two. On Monday the children enjoyed taking part in the fabulous ‘Big Draw’ event. In 3/4 we learnt all about space and all the children created their own stars and journeys around space. On Wednesday we took part in an ICT day; where the children developed their ICT skills by creating their very own iBooks all about the Victorians. We also learnt about computer programming and made our very own video games.

Home Learning

Every week, the home learning is for the children to practice their spellings ahead of our weekly test on Monday morning. We would also like the children to continue reading as often as possible at home. Please ensure you are noting in the children’s reading records when they are reading at home- if we can see they have read every day they will earn five house points for their team.

Literacy

In Literacy this week we have been writing our very own poems about Harvest and Autumn time. The children wrote both acrostic and rhyming poems and we were very impressed by everyone’s beautiful attention to detail when decorating these. We will be performing a selection of these poems during our harvest celebration on Friday 19^th October at Lofthouse Church. Next week is our assessed write, where the children will be applying all of the fantastic learning from the last seven weeks and writing a non – chronological report all about the Victorians.

Numeracy

This week, we have been learning how to make sensible estimations of groups of objects by grouping them into smaller sections. We have also been learning how to estimate the length of various classroom objects, and check how close our estimations were by measuring. Next week we will be learning how to interpret data from pictograms, bar charts, tally charts and Carroll diagrams. Why don’t you try making a tally chart at home about your families favourite food?

Next Week

Next Friday 3/4 will be holding their Harvest Festival celebration at Lofthouse Church. The children have written some amazing Autumn time and Harvest poems. We have been learning a short play and Mrs Moores’ class have been busy practicing a new song on the recorder. To link this year’s celebration with our current topic of the Victorians, we will also be performing a scene from the Victorian novel Oliver Twist. We would like the children to dress as poor Victorian orphans, not only to look the part but we will also be having a Victorian classroom experience when we get back to school. Please don’t rush out and buy anything; grey trousers or shorts, an old top and flat cap will be perfect.

Spellings to be tested on 22nd October (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

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

·    PE kits need to come in on a Monday and be taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday.

UKS2 News Roundup

·         Congratulations to our achiever of the week who is Bethany Crane for her engaged and enthused attitude towards her writing and has focussed intently on the structure and content of her sentences this week. Well done Bethany, keep up the fabulous work.

·         On Monday we took part in the BIG Draw. The children took part in some fantastic activities where they produced some collaborative abstract portraits of famous British celebrities. They also created their own unique image of a celebrity. Visit the blog to find out more.

·         Very BIG congratulations to Laura Paul whose manifesto for the Leeds Children’s Mayor has been shortlisted to the last 10. Laura’s entry was very detailed and explained her vision very clearly. Voting for the winner will begin on Monday Visit the following link to read Laura’s entry, along with the other 9 finalists. http://www.breezeleeds.org/pg/228/Leeds_Children's_Mayor

·         The Year 5/6 blog has been updated! Please visit http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ to find out what we’ve been up to this week.

Reminders:

·         PE kit should be a plain white T-shirt, black or blue shorts and outdoor trainers (weather permitting). No jewellery should be worn. Please can all the children ensure that they are come into school with the correct PE kit on Monday (5/6G & 5/6B) and Tuesday (5/6M).

·         Don’t forget to bring in your planners every day, especially on a Monday when they will be stamped and signed – try to aim for at least 4 entries per week of reading and remember, stickers are up for grabs!

·         Please ensure that step booklets for the Global Children’s Challenge are in school for our ICT lessons (5/6M and 5/6B Monday; 5/6G Tuesday)

Numeracy:

• This week, the children have been adding several numbers mentally by rounding then adjusting. Next week the children will be applying all of their skills when we undertake our first assessments of the year. Show us what you can do!
• A link to some games which are being used in class is available on Miss Gascoigne’s blog http://robinhood56g.blogspot.co.uk/p/mental-maths-2012-13.html
• Times Tables challenge will be next Wednesday, so get practising!

Literacy:

• This week, the children have been using adverbs and adjectives to develop their ideas and give more in depth information about their visit to the Royal Armouries when writing a letter of thanks to the museum.
• Next week we will be applying all of our skills so far when we undertake our writing and reading assessments.
• Spellings – we will be testing the children on 20 random words from this last half term’s spelling lists. These spellings should in their planners.

Please make sure you try hard to learn all of your spellings each week as they are a fundamental Literacy skill.

Other areas of the curriculum:

• In Topic, pupils have been adding the finishing touches to their topic outcomes for their Tudor presentations next week. We have some excellent artefacts already including a chopping block, a hangman’s noose, a set of stocks, a Tudor helmet and some fabulous life-sized painting of some rather famous Tudors. These will all be displayed in the mall very soon.
• In Music, 5/6B have been continuing to learn about crotchets, quavers and dynamics. They have been using percussion instruments to play a samba piece using agogo bells, tambourims and shakers. 5/6G have been learning about the dotted minim and playing duets including all of the musical notations they have been learning about so far.
• In ICT, the children have been using  their data to find out which team have taken the most amount of steps and then organising this data into a graph using Microsoft excel. 5/6B and 5/6M are currently in the Brazilian rainforest. 5/6G need to catch up…so get stepping!