Newsletter Issue 15
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Friday 21st December 2012
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Dear Parent/Carer,
The end of the year is a good time to reflect. For staff, it has been a busy and interesting term for all of us, whether it has been adapting to a new role in school or settling into a new profession. I can say though, that it has been a fantastic and successful term. We are surrounded by incredible, spirited and motivated children, who are supported by great parents who want the best for them. I believe that this term we have successfully continued to strive for excellence in all that we do and this has reflected in the attitudes and behaviour of our brilliant learners.
Performances
My job is full of brilliant perks, but a highlight for me this term has to be my attendance at the Christmas productions. Not only was I overwhelmed by the quality of the performances and the efforts made by each and every one of our children, but I was also blown away by the support from parents, grandparents and friends. The presence of family and friends at the performances means such a lot to the children and helps to make this time of year exactly what it should be for all of them- magical. We greatly appreciate your support and seeing so many parents having to stand, it has made me assess my list to Santa….. We really do need a bigger hall!
PTA
My continuing thanks to our brilliant PTA, who provided refreshments before the performances. That was a great idea, a lovely touch and your time is greatly appreciated.
My sincere thanks to Miss Thackeray and Mrs Moore for enabling our choir and recorder players to perform at Rothwell Parish Church
Shirley McGrail
Shirley McGrail will be leaving the cleaning team this term and we all want to say a huge thanks for the very brilliant job that she has done in making sure our school is as shiny as a new pin, day in, day out. Fortunately, we are not saying Goodbye for good because Shirley will remain with us as one of our highly valued Lunchtime Supervisors.
Training Day
Please do remember that Monday 7th January is a training day so school will not be open to children. Please do note also, that Friendly Faces will NOT be open on that day. Both school and Friendly Faces will re open on Tuesday 8th January.
And on that note, I would like to say to each and every one of you…..
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Mrs Dale
NEWS ROUND UP
We would like to say a big well done to the children for the wonderful Nativity. They made us very proud and it brought a tear to our eyes and no doubt yours. We finished our topic of ‘Celebrations’ off with a party! We feasted on scrumptious food and played lots of exciting party games. Thank you very much for all the yummy party food you sent in, we really enjoyed eating it all up.
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support over the last term. The first term has been very exciting for all the staff and the children. We are very impressed by the progress the children have made over the last term! They couldn’t have done it without all of your support.
THE FIRST WEEK OF NEXT HALF TERM
Please remember that the first Monday back (7th January) is a teacher training day. Next half term our topic will be…… Superheroes! Our setting will be transformed into a Superhero city hideout and a gadget making workshop. In literacy we will be taking a very experiential approach, we will be doing lots of role play and drama as our superheroes, making our superheroes, labelling their super powers and making our very own comic strips on the computer. On the first Tuesday (8th January) and the first Friday back (11th January) we will all be dressing up as our favourite book character, this could be linked to our superheroes topic so please send the children in dressed up on Tuesday and Friday.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· 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. If your child can do both of these then please help them go even further.
· Please practise writing the first letter of your child’s name and if they can do this try going even further with them.
· If you have any Superhero costumes that you would like to donate to us they would be much appreciated.
We hope you have an amazing Christmas and a very happy new year!
Mrs Steel and the Nursery Team.
NEWS ROUND UP
We would like to say a big well done to the children this week for their wonderful Nativity. They made us very proud and it certainly brought a tear to our eyes and no doubt yours. We finished our topic of ‘Celebrations’ off with a party! We feasted on scrumptious food and played lots of exciting party games. Thank you very much for all the yummy party food you sent in, the children really enjoyed eating it all up.
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support over the last term. The first term has been very exciting for all the staff and the children. We are very impressed by the progress the children have made over the last term and some children have ALREADY achieved their end of year target which is just outstanding! They couldn’t have done it without all of your support.
THE FIRST WEEK OF NEXT HALF TERM
Please remember that the first Monday back (7th January) is a teacher training day so we will see you all on Tuesday 8th January. Next half term our topic will be…… Superheroes! Our classroom will be transformed into a Superhero city hideout and a gadget making workshop. In literacy we will be taking a very experiential approach, we will be doing lots of role play and drama as our superheroes, making our superheroes, labelling their super powers and making our very own comic strips on the computer. The first Friday back we will all be dressing up as our favourite book character; this could be linked to our superheroes topic so please send them dressed up on Friday. The key words for the first week back are; went, it’s, from, children, just and help, your child needs to practise reading these words. They are not tricky words so they can sound them out and then blend them. Next half term we are doing all the sounds we have learnt from this half term again, to help the children feel more confident when reading and writing them. The sounds for the first week back are ch, sh, th and ng.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record.
· Please practise counting to 100 and counting in 10’s, 5’s and 2’s. We have concentrated on adding two small numbers together so please practise this with them, encouraging them to use their fingers to help them. We have even had a little go of subtracting too so please ask your child to show you what they have learnt.
· Please practise and recap the sounds we have already learnt:-
(a to z, ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur
· Please help your child practise their letter formation. Please remember that hairy letters is fantastic.
· Please support your child in accessing the bug club website.
· If you have any Superhero costumes that you would like to donate to us they would be much appreciated.
We hope you have an amazing Christmas and a very happy new year!
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception Team
Key Stage 1
Home Learning:
You will notice that your child has brought home a copy of their last Star Write with a breakdown of the level they are currently working at and the next steps they need to be taking. We would like the children to engage with this over the holidays and therefore are asking that they write a recount of their Christmas day, using time connectives (first, then after that, eventually, finally), compound sentences (so, if, but, because, when, also), full stops and capital letters. This will serve as good preparation for our literacy focus after the holidays where we will be looking at recounts.
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The Fairytale Land
This week we performed our Christmas performance three times and all agree that it got better each day! The children were all so excited about putting on the performance of their lives for friends and family and because of this enthusiasm our shows did not disappoint. Thank you so much for supporting the Key Stage and all the children, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we all did and that you got a few autographs afterwards!
Key Stage 1 Christmas Party:
Thursday afternoon saw us don our glad rags and have a real-festive knees up in the hall to welcome Christmas (and Santa) with a bang! There was dancing a plenty (from teachers and children!) and the perfect way to see the end of the term off. Thank you to all of you who made contributions to this event, whether it’s around the children’s learning or extra-curricular activities your support is always much appreciated.
Star Write Challenges with Level progression:
You will find that each child has brought home with them a photocopy of their Star Write challenges from assessment week with an attached sheet of paper describing the level they achieved and the next steps in their writing learning journey. We hope that you find this informative and helpful in knowing how to support your child at home when they write and in so doing help them to achieve those next steps in term 2.
Calendars and Christmas Cards:
We have been so crafty in KS1 this week. We hope that all of the fabulous etched cards that the children have made will take prime spot on your mantelpieces and are sure that you will never miss a beat now that you are prepared for 2013 with your amazing collaged/newspaper moulded Jack and the Beanstalk calendar.
Bug Club Certificates:
Well done to all those children who secured their Bug Club Certificate by reading 3 books in their account for their home learning last week. We can’t reiterate enough what a powerful and fun tool this is to encourage and progress reading. Books will be replenished once read so keep up with this fantastic learning throughout the holidays!
Classroom decoration challenge!
Wednesday was JUDGEMENT DAY! Mrs Dale and Miss Hinton entered our classrooms at 11:50AM as the Simon Cowell and Louie Walsh of Robin Hood (we’ll let you decide who played which role!). Year 1 followed the detailed instructions put together by Year 2 on how to make an ordinary piece of tin foil into a dazzling bird to adorn a tree. Year 1-2 followed a class booklet made up by everyone in Year 1 on how to build what seemed like an army of glittery and googly-eyed chained snowmen, whilst Year 2 cut, twisted, turned and stuck brown paper until it resembled Rudolph ready to pull Santa’s sleigh. Needless to say the competition was tight but the winning class was
Literacy:
When we return from the holidays we will be focussing on recounts. The children will start by recounting their news from the Christmas holidays using the same focuses we have asked for in the home learning. It should be a unit that the children will all enjoy and will see us taking a walk to a mystery destination at the bottom of the playground for inspiration!
Numeracy:
Our numeracy focus will be shape, measure and space over the next half term, moving into fractions towards the end. Any conversations you can have with your children around shape, symmetry and patterns in shape would be great preparation for this unit of study. Our mental maths will continue to focus on addition and subtraction problems.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
All that is left to add is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Get the mince pies, brandy, carrots and milk ready for Santa and Rudolph and have a great holiday together with your family. We look forward to seeing you all in 2013!
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
What an incredible Christmas week we have had! The children have been very excited about next week and it has been a pleasure to share in the excitement with them all. Our Christmas production was a resounding success and we hope you enjoyed it if you managed to catch one of the shows! We were blown away by the children’s performances and are just so proud of them! Thank you for your support with helping children to learn their lines and for also sourcing such great costumes- I’m sure you’ll agree that they all looked fabulous!
Home Learning
This half term, we have been really pleased with the progress we are seeing from the children and we are sure that your support with their home learning really is the key in securing this, so thank you. Over the Christmas holidays, the children will have their spellings to learn as usual. We are also asking that you continue to read with your child and encourage them to access their Bug Club account online if they are part of the scheme. In addition to this, we have also sent home the children’s assessed writes from two weeks ago. This will have your child’s current writing level on as well as a target on the following side to show you what their next steps are. Please do encourage your child to read their letter, the teacher’s comments and targets and then improve it in their green home learning book.
Topic
The children are very excited about our topic for next half term, which is ‘Ancient Egypt’. A part of this topic, we’ll be learning about the people of Egypt
Literacy
After Christmas, our focus in Literacy will be on story writing. The children will be learning how to write their own mystery and adventure stories, making sure they include a balance of action, description and dialogue between characters. We look forward to seeing what imaginative tales they will come up with!
Numeracy
In numeracy after Christmas, we will be focussing on measuring and how to apply measuring skills to real life contexts. The children will be converting different measures and we will also be continuing our focus with the four main operations. Please encourage your child to learn their times tables by rote. We are very proud of the two times table champions this half term; Mia Thompson and Chitua Hani-Okoroafor were the first children to take home our brand new trophies, well done!
Spellings to be tested on Monday 14th January (the children already have their spellings for the first Tuesday back)
Group One
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Group Two
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popping
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woman
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hopping
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women
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shopping
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tooth
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running
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teeth
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sitting
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child
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nipping
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children
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chopping
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person
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shutting
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people
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getting
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mouse
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winning
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mice
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Reminders
· We do not return to school until Tuesday 8th January as the Monday is a staff training day
· Swimming will re-start on the second Friday back (Friday 18th January)
We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Team 3/4
UKS2
Autumn 2 Roundup:
Well, we’ve had a very busy half term! The main focus of our afternoon curriculum has been the South America topic in which the children learnt about different countries in this continent, compared and contrasted Rio de Janeiro
The children have also welcomed visitors to school to help with their learning during the last few weeks. Chokga spent an afternoon with Year 5/6 talking about her life as a Buddhist and Dr Murphy visited each class to support learning during our focus on Evolution and Inheritance in Science. 5/6G also had their weekly music lesson with Mr Major, which has focused on developing their skills when playing percussion instruments.
After the Christmas holidays…
There will be a focus on reading during the first week of the new school term and the children are invited to dress as their favourite superhero character on Friday 11th January. We look forward to seeing who you come as!
The new Topic will be Charity. During this, the children will be finding out about the work of charities. They will also be taking part in an enterprise project to raise money for chosen charities. Look out for further information about the fundraising event in the next few weeks! In Literacy, the children will be writing letters as well as adverts and reviews of products and in ICT the focus is on developing research and presentation techniques using Prezi (http://prezi.com/) The children will continue to develop their understanding of world religions, with a particular focus on Judaism.
Home Learning:
· All children have received a mental maths question resource pack to practise at home, this does not have to be returned to school, however, we do encourage children to engage with this resource as it really will support and enhance your child’s mental maths skills.
· Every child has also been given their most recent piece of writing, which has some feedback to make improvements. Please return the improved writing to school by Tuesday, January 8th.
· Year 6 children have each been given their Splats the SATs packs to complete during the holidays. Please can these be in school on Tuesday 8th January. Thank you.
· Year 5 Home Learning (optional for Year 6): For our new Topic on Charities, we would like the children to think about which charities they or family members have helped or charities which have helped them or someone they know. The information can be presented in any way (e.g. fact file; interview; poster) and should include details such as the name of the charity, what the charity does, how and why the charity has been helped/ helped you etc. Your child will be sharing their home learning with their peers so it’s important they can speak confidently about the information they are presenting.
Reminders:
· The children will be developing their basketball skills in PE so please make sure that trainers or pumps are in school for lessons along with shorts (black) and a white t-shirt.
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