Newsletter Issue 24
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Friday 15th March 2013
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Dear Parent/Carer,
It’s been a busy week in school with a Year 5/6 trip to Sinai synagogue, a visit from a Mad Scientist and the Speedmark event not to mention our Comic Relief creative hair day. The children have today enjoyed their time with Andy Holdsworth from Speedmark. Andy is an ex-professional football player who has played for Huddersfield Town
“Developing Outstanding Schools” project
I listened with fascination to Miss Lambert and Miss Hinton as they shared their observations of educational practice in Finland
Dogs
As much as I love our four legged friends, I must remind you all that dogs are not permitted in the grounds of the school. There are children who become quite anxious around dogs and we must respect that at all times.
Proposal to expand
Thank you to all who came out on Tuesday evening to support the proposal to expand Robin Hood to a two form entry school. The comments and questions were thought provoking and all will now be considered in preparation for the next part of the process. In the meantime, if you have any further questions or comments, you can make them known by emailing educ.school.organisation@leeds.gov.uk. It is very much our aim to keep you informed every step of the way.
Communication
Effective communication between school and home is vital. Let me clarify a way to find out information should you lose, or for some reason, not receive a newsletter. We have a newsletter blog, which can be accessed via the school website www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk. The blogs link can be accessed on the home page of the site. Once you click on the “Our Blogs” link, you will find the newsletter blog at the top. Alternatively visit the blogspot directly- http://rhnewsletter.blogspot.co.uk/. School newsletters as well as phase group newsletters can be found here. The phase newsletters always contain the homework for your child that particular week too. Please do take full advantage of this great resource. You can also see what is happening in classes via the phase blogs. We are always looking at ways to improve communication and the PTA and school are currently looking at efficient and appropriate ways to get PTA information out to parents.
Key Stage 1 Easter assembly
We break up for Easter on Thursday 28th March. Although there will not be our traditional Celebration Assembly that week, we would like to invite you to join us in school for our Easter celebration led by the Key Stage 1 children. The assembly takes place between 10:00a.m and 11:00a.m.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Mrs Dale
Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children have really enjoyed learning about the story of Oliver’s Vegetables this week and have produced some amazing still life drawings of vegetables. The children now have a great understanding of halves and quarters and really enjoyed applying their knowledge practically when we cut up fairy cakes into halves and quarters and shared them with our friends.
THIS WEEK
This week the children have really impressed us with their ability to retell stories and we are really seeing the progress they have made since September. In mathematics our main focus was halves and quarters. The children made their own vegetable pizzas which they really enjoyed and allowed them to further consolidate their knowledge. Each group this week has also produced a fantastic Fimo garden with mini vegetables in. The gardens look fantastic and the children are really pleased with them. We have planted some seeds so hopefully we will have grown our very own vegetables just like Oliver’s Granddad soon.
NEXT WEEK
Next week our story of the week is Handa’s Surprise, so we will be reading and acting it out during our literacy sessions. We will then be drawing a picture about what happens in the story and writing underneath what our picture shows. Yet again this week we have a lot of exciting activities planned for topic. We will be locating Africa on a globe and thinking about what we might see if we went to Africa and we will also be making clay baskets. In Mathematics we will be thinking about sharing, so we will be sharing fruit between ourselves and making sure that it is fair.
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
The children have really enjoyed learning about the story of Oliver’s Vegetables this week and have produced some amazing still life drawings of vegetables which have been displayed in our brand new Art Gallery
THIS WEEK
This week the children have produced some wonderful writing about the vegetables Oliver tried in the story. They have used their new knowledge about adjectives and have included these in their writing which has meant the writing they have produced is incredible, so well done Reception children! In mathematics our main focus was halves and quarters. The children made their own vegetable pizzas which the children really enjoyed and allowed them to further consolidate their knowledge. The children found counting in 5’s challenging this week, so if possible please help the children by practising this at home with them. In topic the children found out where their food came from and located the countries on a globe. They were fascinated by the different countries and it was lovely to see their enthusiasm. Each group this week has also produced a fantastic Fimo garden with mini vegetables in. The gardens look fantastic and the children are really pleased with them. In phonics we revisited the sounds; ur
NEXT WEEK
Next week is assessment week so the children will get the chance to show us what amazing learners they are. In literacy our story of the week is Handa’s Surprise, so we will be reading and acting it out during our literacy sessions. We are continuing with our focus on adjectives this week and we will be tasting fruits and thinking of adjectives to describe them e.g. juicy oranges and velvety peaches. In topic we will be making Archimboldo pictures and clay baskets. Independently the children will have the opportunity to make their very own animal masks and paint some fantastic paintings of fruit. In Mathematics we will be opening our very own smoothie bar and will be thinking about the volumes of liquid we will mix together to make our smoothies. In phonics we will be revisiting the sounds ure (pure), er (letter) and air (hair) and we will be reading the tricky words; their, people, oh, Mr and Mrs. In addition, as it is assessment week the children should now be able to recognise and read all the phase 3 sounds. I have included a phase 3 sound mat in the home learning so you can practise them with your child.
QUICK REMINDER
Next Friday (22nd March) we are hosting a Teddy Bears Picnic at 11.30-12.30. Your child will be able to bring their favourite teddies to share their packed lunch with. You are also invited so please feel free to bring a picnic blanket and a delicious picnic hamper for you and your child to share.
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 will be taking part in reading interviews next week to check their progress and if they are on the correct reading band, which means they will be changing their books as and when it is their turn to read, so please bring book bags and reading records everyday so we can let you know of your child’s progress via the children's reading record.
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception Team
Key Stage 1
As part of our literacy topic the children will be writing an invitation home to you inviting you to our Roman Exhibition. As well as including all the written features that we have been focussing on the children will also add a border to their page, which must be in keeping with the Roman theme. For this week’s home learning please help your child by encouraging them to search for images of Roman borders on the internet or in books and then draw at least 3 different patterned designs.
The Home Learning task is designed to take 20 minutes to complete, but if your child wants to spend additional time adding extra detail please let us know!
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Speed marks challenge:
Our Speedmarks Challenge day was a huge success! As we have said, the main focus of this day was to promote health, fitness and well-being from physical exercise in a fun way using equipment that the children would otherwise not have the opportunity to use. We’re sure that you will hear all about the individual successes and teacher football failures from your child! Just as a reminder, if your child hasn’t brought their sponsorship form and money in, the deadline in Thursday the 21st to ensure they receive their prizes.
Our trip up the road…
I’m sure that you were informed by your children that unfortunately our trip to Lofthouse church had to be cancelled on Monday. Although this is a great shame, we are working on reorganising this trip. After the disappointment had passed I think that everyone was quite relieved to not have to leave the school in the random blizzard that came down that day!
Red Nose Day:
Let it be said that the children in Key Stage One had some of the craziest and most unusual hair dos we have seen for quite some time! Thanks for your support around this, Comic Relief is such a worthy charity day around which the children can learn lots about different countries, different demographics, what charity means and why people help.
Extreme Reading
Well we have had a couple of entries into our Extreme Reading Competition launched by Miss Hinton’s Reading Club and supported by The Hoodie but not nearly enough! Our children’s reading is SO great that we can surely lead the way with finding the most unusual places to Extreme Read! Check out some examples by clicking on The Hoodie blog through our school website and then email your pictures to misshinton@robinhood.sch.leeds.uk. Please bear in mind that we can’t put pictures of children’s faces on our blog though!
Literacy:
Well as predicted in last week’s newsletter the star write invitations to our fairy tale characters were hugely successful! The children have really engaged with this topic; it is possible that the promise of a star appearance from the characters to our party acted as an incentive mind! Now that our knowledge of the structure and information required within invitations is solid we are moving on to a new topic: writing invitations home to loved ones inviting them to our Roman Exhibition. The buzz on Monday when the children found this out was incredible! Our teaching remains focussed around using persuasive language, like bossy verbs and begging words, adjectives coupled with superlatives to make our writing even more exciting and of course the good old classic: conjunctions! We are feeding the use of more interesting punctuation marks into our group learning so that the children learn about when and why exclamation marks and question marks are used and how they add a new level to the quality of their learning. Layered on top of this are conversations around personalising the wording of individual invitations for the reader, i.e. “I am inviting you (and only you because you’re the best mum in the world!).
Numeracy:
Following on from our 2 weeks on division we will, for the next 2 weeks, focus our learning on unpicking methods and strategies for solving multiplication problems. This begins with the language around multiplication so the children understand what it is all about: times, multiplied by, lots of, product of. We started the week by looking at solving multiplication problems through counting in groups of 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s before teaching around repeated addition (i.e. 6X3 = 6+6+6) and using arrays and pictures with for example 3 separate lines of 6 to visualise what 3 lots of 6 actually look like before totalling the amount up. Our learning also revisited doubling before moving onto harder TU numbers for which we used our old friend the Malteser system. Our aim is to secure each of these strategies with every child so that they can be independently deployed when tackling numerical and written multiplication problems. Next week we will move onto word problems. Why don’t you let your child wow you with a quick fire doubling or multiplication round?
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
We were delighted on Monday to receive all the children’s fantastic home learning and have been blown away with the children’s amazing efforts to solve multiplication problems using the grid method. We have had an exciting day for Comic Relief and have enjoyed showing off all of our creative hairstyles with each other. We also had a ball at our speed mark challenge in the hall!
Home Learning
This week, we would again like the children to practice all of their timetables, all the way up to 12 times 12, in order to support their learning in numeracy. We have sent every child home with a list of multiplication questions for them to answer, as quickly as they can, mentally. We have also sent home some division questions which the children can solve using the written strategy of the bus stop method, which we have been learning across the week. We encourage the children to tackle as many of the calculations as they feel confident with and will reward them for their efforts on Monday.
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have been learning how to write a successful holiday review, stating both positive and negative opinions about their holiday. The children have been using a wide variety of sophisticated adjectives to describe and have been extending their super sentences into both compound and complex sentences using a range of conjunctions. Next week we will be learning how to write a diary all about our time on a tropical island.
Numeracy
In numeracy, the children have been learning how to solve division problems using the written bus stop method. The children have had to work out how many times a number will fit equally inside another number and then carefully carry the remaining numbers across (remainders). The children have been solving problems involving numbers all the way up to HTU. Next week we are using our written strategies for both multiplication and division to solve worded problems.
Topic
This week in topic the children have been learning about the process of mummification. The children have been gathering notes from different sources such as videos, songs and books in order to gain a thorough understanding of how people where mummified, why they went through this process and whose job it was to mummify people! Using this knowledge, the children teamed up and devised a short play/song/rap which detailed the main steps of mummification. We all found it very amusing to watch each other being mummified using toilet paper!
Spellings to be tested on Monday 25th March (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)
Group One
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Group Two
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rushed
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kindly
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skipped
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friendly
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kissed
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weekly
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showed
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homely
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played
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lonely
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tried
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nearly
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cried
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freely
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waited
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quickly
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hoped
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quietly
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giggle
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loudly
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Reminders
· We are currently finalising the time table for the year 4 residential and we will have this and the kit list to give to you before the Easter break. We will also be holding a parent meeting in the hall on Tuesday 16th April at 3:15 for those who wish to speak to a member of staff with any queries regarding the residential.
Have a lovely weekend!
Team 3/4
UKS2 News Roundup:
· Our achiever of the week is Ella in 5/6G as she went over and above to go out of her way in her own spare time to write her very own story and produce a poster about Climate Change. It is wonderful to see children so inspired by their learning in school and Miss Gascoigne is really proud of the extra time and effort that went into this additional and voluntary home learning! Well done, Ella!
· This week, 5/6B visited the Sinai Synagogue in Leeds to further their learning on diversity in our community as well as symbolism in religion. 5/6M and 5/6G will be visiting the synagogue on the following dates:
Wednesday 20th March- 5/6M
Wednesday 27th March- 5/6G
Each class will leave promptly at 9am from school to travel to the synagogue on the public bus and return after lunch therefore a packed lunch will be required for every child.
Numeracy:
· This week, the children have been learning about length, mass, capacity, area and perimeter. Skills have been developed in converting measurements as well as reading scales on measuring equipment.
· Next week, we are learning about time, positive and negative numbers and written division methods known as the ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘Chunking’ methods. For additional help with these methods, visit www.mathszone.co.uk and click on the ‘calculating multiplication and division’ section for some interactive and helpful games around division.
· In mental maths, we have again been focusing on our 8 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 focus has been on adventure stories. The children have been planning their story, with a particular focus on the opening, build up and problem as well as using effective descriptions to develop the setting and characters. The punctuation focus has been on using speech marks or inverted commas to mark direct speech as well as identifying adverbial clauses.
· Next week, we will be turning our attentions to writing the climax and resolution to our adventure stories. The children will be looking at how to include figurative language to enhance their stories.
· SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are irregular plurals. person – people, goose – geese, tooth – teeth, foot – feet, ox – oxen, child – children, woman – women, life – lives, mouse – mice, sheep - sheep
Other areas of the curriculum:
· In ICT, the children have been using their plans to begin creating an animation which shares information about climate change.
· This week in Spanish, we have continued to look at the different types of weather and have used a miming game to practise the phrases.
· In PE this week we have been continuing our outdoor and adventure activities unit. We have focused on teamwork and cooperation this week. Pupils have needed to apply their trust and communication skills from our previous sessions to support each other through a range of problem solving exercises in small and large groups.
· In our Topic session this week, we have been looking at the impacts of sending our rubbish to the landfill site. We have identified ways in which we can reduce the amount of waste we produce and have devised a recycling campaign with a partner, creating characters, slogans and easy to follow rules.
· In Music, 5/6G have been continuing to play Yellow Submarine on the recorder. We have managed to play the first verse of the song and although some of us have struggled a little when playing the middle C note, we are making some super improvements. 5/6B have been practising their triad chords when playing tuned instruments. 5/6M have continued to experiment with garage band on the apple mac computers to compose a soundtrack for a silent action movie. Pupils have previously focused on the introduction to their silent movie. This week, pupils have developed music to reflect tension and build-up in our silent movie
Visit our blog: http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/
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