Newsletter Issue 22
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Friday 1st March 2013
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Dear Parent/Carer,
At last! It is March! I don’t know about everybody else, but I instantly feel better once January and February are behind me. Winter is officially over….. I hope!
A trip to Finland
Next week, we will be waving goodbye to Miss Hinton and Miss Lambert for a few days, as they fly out to Finland Finland Finland
Trainees
At Robin Hood, we like to offer the future teachers of our city the opportunity to gain experience in a highly professional and exemplary setting so this week we welcome three trainees for Leeds Trinity University College Jordan
PTA
Mother’s Day is on its way and the PTA will be holding a 'Daffies for Mummies' event in the hall at 3:30pm on Friday 8th March. You will have received a leaflet this week, which indicated that for £1.50, children will receive a bunch of daffodils tied with ribbon and a blank tag which they can decorate themselves in the hall for their Mum/carer. Children who have paid by today (1st March) will benefit from this lovely, personalised gift for their Mums. Again, my thanks to the PTA for their innovative fund raising ideas.
Comic Relief 2013
Comic Relief takes place on March 15th this year. As usual we will be supporting the charity which transforms and saves lives across Africa . Jessie J is shaving her head to raise money so we thought we would keep with the hair theme. We invite all children and teachers to wear non uniform and be as creative with their hair as possible. The Robin Hood theme will be a “crazy hair day”. We ask that you bring in £1 for the privilege in support of Comic Relief 2013.
Amazing children
I marvel every week at the amazing opportunities that are given to our pupils outside of school. Whether it be Macy Wood’s martial arts national championship awards; Steph Lund’s diving competitions; Ellis Smithson, Jack Kreczmer and Somtochi Hani-Okoroafor’s football achievements, Grace Allen’s mammoth amount of dance awards or Josh Lunn achieving Man of the Match every single week! These are just a few of the exemplary students who achieve highly both in and out of school. Another superstar brought to my attention this week is Amisha Teeluck, who has made it through to the Regional Finals of TeenStar, a talent competition for teens and pre-teens. She will be performing at Sheffield City Hall on Sunday 31st March so if anyone would like to go and watch and support Amisha along with other talented young people, you can find out more details at www.teenstarcompetition.co.uk . If successful, Amisha could reach the National final and perform at the O2 in London
Parentview
If you have not already done so, please do access the Parentview survey at http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/. As a school we pride ourselves on working together in partnership with parents and putting the wellbeing of the children as the very first thought in everything we do. We would really value some feedback as to how you feel we support you and your child. Thanks.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Mrs Dale
Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have had a fantastic start to this half term and our topic of food. The children have had an amazing time making their yummy fruit salads and they enjoyed tasting our fruit of the week this week which was pineapple. They are accessing our new areas and they are really enjoying playing in our baker’s shop where they are baking all sorts of wonderful treats.
THIS WEEK
This week we have read the story of the Hungry Caterpillar. We have learnt all about the days of the week and have thought about which foods are healthy and which are not so healthy. We have been doing a counting conga each day this week and the children are now becoming more confident at counting to 20. We have painted the correct number of fruit for each day and these have been displayed on our Hungry caterpillar display which you can have a look at when you pick your child up.
NEXT WEEK
We have another exciting week planned for next week and our story is the Gingerbread Man. We will be retelling the story, drawing what happens and discussing the story. In maths we will be moving on to matching numbers 5-10 to the correct number of objects. In topic we will be baking some scrummy gingerbread men and decorating them. In phonics we are still thinking about voice sounds and will be playing the games Metal Mike and the chain game, which involves us making a long sound like wheee and passing it on around the circle. We will be reading the book Chicken Licken and putting in the voice sounds to support our phonics.
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 20 and beyond with your child at any opportunity. Please also practise writing and recognising the numbers 1-10 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.
Have a fantastic weekend.
Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin & Miss Fox
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have had a fantastic start to this half term introducing our new topic which is food.. The children have had an amazing time making their yummy fruit salads and they are now expert peelers and choppers, so you will have an extra chef in your kitchen. They have also enjoyed tasting our fruit of the week this week which was pineapple. They are accessing our new areas and they are really enjoying playing in our baker’s shop, where they are baking all sorts of wonderful treats.
THIS WEEK
This week we have read the story of the Hungry Caterpillar. We have learnt all about the days of the week and have thought about which foods are healthy and which are not so healthy. We have finally solved the case of the missing caterpillar like expert detectives and as a result we have learnt the lifecycle of a butterfly. We have been doing a counting conga each day this week and the children are now becoming more confident at counting in 10’s. We now have maths pairs in maths to encourage team working and collaborative learning. The children are working really well in these pairs and as a result they have really understood the concept of sharing and addition.
NEXT HALF TERM
We have another exciting week planned for next week and our story is the Gingerbread Man. We will be retelling the story using masks and role play and we will be re-writing the story using the correct story language such as once upon a time. In maths our mental maths focus is counting to 100 so we will be doing some counting congas around the classroom and using our counting bugs. Our main maths focus will be around measuring and to support our learning we will be baking yummy gingerbread men and decorating them. In phonics we will be revisiting the sounds; oo (moon), oo (book), ar and or and we will be reading the words; house, about, your, day, made and came.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please read with your child as often as possible and comment in their reading record to let us know how they are doing at home. (The children have moved onto yellow band guided reading books so if your child is still reading pink or red band books please ensure you read with them every day).
· Please make sure all children have their book bag every day so if we have spare time we can read with them.
· Please support your child in accessing the ‘Bugclub’ website we will be putting yellow books onto ‘Bugclub’ for the children to access as these consolidate all the sounds we have learnt so far.
· Please support your child in learning how to zip up their coat.
· Please support your child in writing their surname in their name writing books. Please let us know if your child needs a new name writing book.
Have a lovely weekend.
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception Team
Key Stage 1
Home Learning:
As you will read below, we are learning all about division in numeracy over the next two weeks. The children are learning to divide numbers by both sharing equally between 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 and by grouping (either by counting in 2s, 3s,4s, 5s and 10s or looking at pictures of objects and organising them into groups). For this week’s home learning we have sent an investigation sheet home with your child with division problems on. Please support them to work these sums out and encourage them to show you how to write these as number problems using the correct symbol. The way that we are working sharing equally out in class is by looking at our starting number, seeing how many we are sharing that number between, drawing that many circles and then sharing the total starting number out equally between each circle. We then count up how many there are in each circle. For larger 2 digit numbers we are using packets of Maltesers to help us count in 10s before counting on in units. It is vital that the children are able to EXPLAIN the strategy they are using and apply this strategy to solve the problems – don’t accept the answer without this! This will ensure they understand what each part of the sum represents and can break the numbers down appropriately for when they are faced with a harder equation that number facts can’t be used for.
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News:
Roman home learning:
We were absolutely blown away by the home learning from over the half term. The commitment and effort that you and all the children invested was incredible: trips to York
PE kits:
Just a quick reminder again around PE days so that all children are equipped for their lesson:
Year 1 (Miss Mees) – Tuesday.
Year 1-2 (Miss Pensom) – Wednesday
Year 2 (Miss McSorley) – Thursday.
This half term we are continuing with our gymnastics unit looking at sequencing travelling, balance, rolling and jumping with the added excitement of using wall and floor apparatus including horses and spring boards. It’s going to be fun a fun 4 weeks before in week 5 we take part in the nationwide Big Dance!
Reading Records:
Just a quick note to ask that you continue to record any reading that you and your child do at home. Let’s keep up this communication and support of the truly fantastic reading that is happening throughout the Key Stage.
Literacy:
Our invitations unit has begun with a bang! Each class have been focussing on a different traditional tale in order to investigate all we can about the characters within these books, so that we can write really persuasive invitations to them to attend our parties. Miss Mees’ class have been reading all about Goldilocks and the Three Bears to make sure their invitations are just right, Miss Pensom’s class are huffing and puffing with ideas to entice The Three Little Pigs, whilst Miss McSorley’s class are taking their writing to greener pastures with the Billy Goats Gruff. This unit of works sees us revisiting all the features that we have been practising throughout the year (adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions formerly known within school as connectives and time connectives) in order to make sure we are all forming precise and exciting compound sentences. On top of this we have introduced a wider range of textual features to the children that they can use to add to their persuasive writing, including rhetorical questions (questions that you already know the answer to), superlatives (the most amazing, the very smallest), exaggeration (it will be the best party in the world ever) and humour to appeal directly to the reader. The key words that we are pushing the children to spell correctly include ‘please’ and ‘dear’. This unit will help the children with their reading comprehension because they are being asked to think about their own reader whilst they are writing.
Numeracy:
As we mentioned above our numeracy focus will be on division for these first two weeks of Spring 2. This week’s mental maths has been a revisit of rote counting in 2s, 5s and 10s as well as in 3s and 4s to help enable the children to divide by grouping by using the fingers to count, for example, how many 10s there are in 80. The week has been split in half, looking at first at dividing by sharing equally. We did this by drawing sharing circles and dividing the total amount equally between each circle to find the answer. The end of the week saw us looking at dividing by grouping a total amount of objects into groups of 2/3/4/5/10. Throughout this entire unit of work we are stressing to the children that it is not the answer we are interested in, it is HOW they have got that answer. This is an imperative step so that the children know the process in order to tackle more complex problems and so that the strategy comes naturally to them – we noticed in assessment week that they often don’t draw on the methods we have learnt in class when working independently. Embedding this skill is our next step in all aspects of numeracy.
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We have had a lovely first week back after the half term holiday. We were really excited to see the children’s super home learning about the Egyptian Gods and were very impressed with the facts and information they had learned. This week also saw us start a new unit in PE which focuses on team work and collaboration when undertaking tasks such as orienteering, which the children are really enjoying.
Literacy
This half term in Literacy we are learning how to write recounts. This week, we have been looking at both formal and informal letter writing and the different language used in them. We wrote an informal postcard to a friend or family member about a trip to the pyramids in Giza
Numeracy
In numeracy, the children have been learning how to double and halve both 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers. We have looked at different strategies to use when doing this and have even tackled decimal numbers too! Please test your children on doubling and halving odd and even numbers mentally. Next week we will focus on solving written strategies for solving multiplication and division.
Topic
This week in our topic sessions we have been learning all about the Great Pyramids of Giza, why they were built, how long they took to build and exactly how big they were. The children have enjoyed note taking from videos and were able to use this new knowledge to create fantastic Photostory videos which will be on our you tube channel soon, so watch this space! Next week, we will be learning all about mummification and the afterlife.
Spellings to be tested on Monday 11th March (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)
Group One
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Group Two
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seen
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break
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been
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breakable
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night
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reverse
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down
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reversible
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first
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straight
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next
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straighten
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after
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strength
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again
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strengthen
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new
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tight
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now
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tighten
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Reminders
· Can we remind you that children need a full PE kit in school, clearly labelled, from Monday-Friday. Please ensure this consists of a plain white t-shirt as well as shorts or jogging bottoms.
Have a lovely weekend!
Team 3/4
UKS2 News Roundup:
· Our achiever of the week is….Thomas in 5/6B. Thomas has come back after half term with a real ‘fire in his belly’ and wants to succeed. His attitude towards his learning has been impeccable this week – long may it continue!
· We received an email from Sandra from Hearing Dogs for Deaf People after she, Anne and Baz attended the Celebration Assembly before half term….
‘Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all the children and staff for their amazing commitment to raising such a fantastic amount for us and to you all for embracing our charity. I hope that you have seen through Baz and Anne the life changing difference a hearing dog makes to a deaf person and that you fully appreciate the difference you have made by raising such a wonderful amount.
Your cheque will be 'officially' acknowledged by Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and thank you all again for all you have done and for the wonderful welcome Robin Hood School gave Anne, Baz and I. I have really enjoyed meeting you all.’
Your cheque will be 'officially' acknowledged by Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and thank you all again for all you have done and for the wonderful welcome Robin Hood School gave Anne, Baz and I. I have really enjoyed meeting you all.’
Well done everyone!
Numeracy:
· This week, the children have been learning about angles and co-ordinates. We have been busy measuring angles, finding missing angles and plotting missing co-ordinates. For further help with angles, visit: http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/shapes/angles.html#Angles
· Next week we will be learning how to reflect, rotate and translate shapes into all four quadrants. We will also be learning about all the properties of 2D and 3D shapes, including nets!
· In mental maths, we have again been focusing on our 6 times tables. We really would like all of the children to try as hard as they possibly can to get super-fast and accurate with all of their times tables as this is a fundamental skill in Numeracy and really will help to improve the accuracy of their mental maths skills. If you would like any further practise, visit http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/ and click on Numeracy. There is a link to Hit the Button which is being used to practise all times tables. There are also lots of free iPad apps to help with times tables – Multiple Wipeout is a particular favourite of ours.
Literacy:
· This week, the children have been learning about the features of a newspaper report and have been applying these skills to their very own newspaper report all about the flooding last summer. The children have tried really hard to use a formal and sophisticated tone and have been using embedded quotes and formal language in order to convey the news.
· Next week we will be writing collaboratively to produce a news report about extreme weather for television. Each member of the group will take on a different role and will contribute towards the final outcomes which will be filmed on Friday.
· SPELLINGS - double consonants: difficult, million, parallel, committee, opposite, passenger, slippery, transferred, indifferent, appreciate.
Other areas of the curriculum:
· In ICT, the children have been exploring the app Puppet Pals and how this can be used to create animations. We have looked at how we can create our own objects to animate using photos and pictures. Over the next few weeks, the children will be using Puppet Pals and other iPad apps to produce an animation about climate change.
· This week in Spanish, we have been learning about the four seasons and the months of the year.
· In PE pupils have had their very first session of Outdoor Adventure, which is new to the phase! The children took part in trust and team-building activities, such as ‘Falling Trust’, where the children had to catch each other and ‘Mine Field’, where the children were blindfolded and guided around an assault course by their partner. The children learnt the value of trust and the importance of giving clear instructions.
· We have begun our new unit for this half term which is ‘Climate Change’. We have been looking at the cause and effect of the greenhouse effect and the effect carbon emissions created by humans is having on our environment. The children have brought home a short booklet which involves answering a few questions about household items. We would be very grateful if the children could bring the completed questionnaire back to school by Monday March 4th, so we can input the data into a website in order to calculate our carbon footprint.
Visit our blog: http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/
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