Issue 11 2013-14

Newsletter Issue 11

Friday 22nd November 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

Well the cold weather has well and truly set in. Please make sure that you send your children into school wrapped up snug and warm. Let’s pray that the snow stays away until the Christmas Holidays!!

Assemblies
You will have received the letter regarding the change to our Friday assemblies, by now. I have to say that we are all very much looking forward to the new arrangements and must stress that we would love to see more of you attending, now that the assemblies will be focused on a specific phase each time. As a reminder, the most immediate assemblies will run as follows:

Autumn 2 Reception: Friday 29th November; Key Stage 1: Friday 6^th December; Year 3/ 4: Friday 13^th December; Carols around the tree- Foundation/KS1- 11:30 pm- 12:00 pm; KS2- 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm Friday 20^th December.

Year 5/6: Friday 10^th January; Nursery: Wednesday 15^th and Friday 17^th January; Key Stage 1: Friday 24^th January; Spring 1 Year 3/ 4: Friday 31^st January; Year 5/6: Friday 7^th February; Reception: Friday 14^th February

Unless specified differently, all with a 2:30 start time. Thanks.

PLEASE COME ALONG!

Philippines Appeal and Children in Need

It would be impossible not to have been touched by the news reports regarding Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines so on behalf of the school community, we have donated £100 to the Christian Aid Philippines Typhoon Appeal, which has been set up to support families in the most dire of situations.

As a caring community, we also managed to raise £535.25 for the Children in Needs appeal last week as a result of our non-uniform pyjama day and through the sale of the wristbands. Thank you so much everybody for your hugely kind donations.

Arts opportunities

Walking around school this week, it has continued to strike me how many fabulous arts opportunities our children experience. I was able to “listen in” on the wonderful sounds being created by the children in Years 5 and 6 during their weekly Guitar and Violin lessons. Our Key Stage 1 children were treated to a traditional brass band workshop this week as the Lofthouse Brass band 2000 joined us to show the children a performance and give them in an insight into the possibilities of taking up a brass instrument as a hobby. In addition to this, I am thrilled by the continuing work of Mrs Chin and Mrs Mistry, who took a group of our children up to Rodillian Academy this week, as part of their After School Club, to learn some new and exciting art techniques with the support of a specialist Secondary art teacher.

PTA News

As the Xmas Fayre is getting nearer, all the PTA volunteers are getting very busy, almost as busy as the big man himself!  We still need lots of donations to ensure that our tombolas and tuck shop are fully stocked so if you have any of the following you are happy to donate, please drop them off at the school office:
BOTTLES/CANS/TINS - GOOD QUALITY UNWANTED TEDDIES - GOOD QUALITY UNWANTED GIFTS - SWEETS/CHOCOLATE.  Again, we are hoping to sell some of your wonderful buns and cakes in our tuck shop so if you have the time to make (or buy) some buns could you let us know at:  robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com

Thank you very much to all those who have, or who intend to, donate.

Please keep checking the calendar on the school website for details of days and times of school events; I have added the new phase assemblies, for your reference.

Have a great weekend!

 Mrs Dale

Don’t forget!

Parent’s Coffee Morning- Monday 2^nd December- 9 am until 10 am with Miss Thackeray in Friendly Faces

Agendas for discussion:

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

·         What would make our end of year reports better?

·         What knowledge do parents have of age related expectations?

If you cannot come along, please feel free to send your views to gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

This week we have learnt all about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. We shared some fictional books and some non-fiction books with the children and they have loved finding out about the Jewish celebrations and more about Judaism.

THIS WEEK
The children have written some beautiful Happy Hanukkah cards to their mums and dads and are talking about why it is a kind thing to send cards. We used our hands to make painted Menorahs and these looked beautiful. In topic they have made some beautiful stained glass Menorahs and these are now displayed on the windows in our classroom so that you can see your child’s wonderful learning. The children really enjoyed Gwynneth’s visit and learnt a lot about the Jewish faith from her. This week in numeracy the children have been playing games in the outdoor area such as ten pin bowling and have been counting and recording their scores!

NEXT WEEK
Ho ho ho! It’s time to start our Christmas celebrations. In literacy and topic we will be learning about advent and what we do to prepare for Christmas. We will be talking about our favourite thing that we do to prepare for Christmas and completing a picture and caption (such as ‘I like decorating the tree because it is fun’).  In topic we will be making our own advent calendar so that from the 1^st of December each child will get a chance to see themself on our calendar and enjoy a chocolate treat!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·     Please help your child learn the nativity songs which can be found on the blog and help them learn their lines if they have them.

·     Please organise your child’s nativity costume. We are asking that the children’s costumes are in school by December 9^th

·      Please keep going with coats, socks and shoes – we really have seen an improvement and your help is so appreciated!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin. Miss Fox and Mrs Beckwith.

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
This week we have learnt all about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The children have loved our brand new Synagogue in the home corner and the children have engaged in some super role-play. They have played beautifully together and have taken turns to wear the Kippah on their heads. Our week was yet again finished off with a fabulous celebration and the children had an amazing time eating the Jewish food, eating our yummy biscuits and performing some wonderful Jewish dancing.

THIS WEEK
The children have written some beautiful Happy Hanukkah cards to their mums and dads and the children can now confidently tell you the format of a card. The children’s writing is really improving and they are becoming much more confident, so please keep practising writing with them as much as possible and get writing those Christmas lists to Santa! In topic they have made some beautiful stain glass Menorahs and these are now displayed on the windows in our classroom so that you can see your child’s wonderful learning. The children really enjoyed Gwynneth’s visit and learnt a lot about the Jewish faith from her, it was a highly immersive learning experience for the children. This week in numeracy the children have been like mini detectives deciding whether they need to add or subtract to solve the problems.  In phonics they have learnt to read the Phase 3 sounds ch, sh, th and ng and have learnt to read the tricky words; he, she, we, me, be and was.

NEXT WEEK
Ho ho ho! It’s time to start our Christmas celebrations. In literacy and topic we will be learning about advent and what we do to prepare for Christmas. We will be talking about our favourite thing that we do to prepare for Christmas and writing the sentence I like…… because… (E.g. I like decorating the tree because it is fun). In topic we will be making our own advent calendar so that from the 1^st of December each child will get a chance to open one of the doors each day. In numeracy we will be learning the names of 2D and 3D shapes and we will be thinking about their properties. We will be building our very own 3D worlds and using different 2D shapes to decorate the tree. In phonics we will be learning the sounds; ch, sh, th and ng and the words of the week which the children need to be able to write are I, no, go, to, the, into.  

PROFILE EVENING
Next Wednesday (27^th November) we will be holding an open evening from 3pm to 3.30pm where you can come into the classroom and view your child’s learning profile. The profiles have observations of your child from Autumn 1. We look forward to seeing you then!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

·      If you have any unwanted small cardboard boxes at home (e.g. the size of an Oxo box) we would really appreciate it if you could send them in with your child to use for our advent calendar.

·     Please help your child learn the nativity songs which can be found on the blog and help them learn their lines if they have them.

·     Please organise your child’s nativity costume. We are asking that the children’s costumes are in school by week commencing Monday the 9^th of December.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and the Reception team.

Key Stage 1

Home learning

Our phonics learning this term has centred largely on consolidation of the long vowel sounds. In year 2 we have also started to learn the rules for adding the suffix ‘ing’. This week we would like the children to use their knowledge to speed write some words. We have been using lots of timers to help the children write as many words as possible in a short space of time. Please can you practise writing words containing the ‘Mr Middle’ vowel sounds. Tell your child which sound you are going to do, then say some words containing that sound and see if they can apply their knowledge to spell the word. Year 2 children may also benefit from practising adding ‘ing’ to words. Can your child explain the rules to you? Here are some examples to help you. The words containing digraphs (2 consonants side by side like ‘sl’ and ‘fr’) tend to be trickier.

Mr Middle A = ai (rain, Spain, plain, train, explain, fail, tail, pain, drain)

Mr Middle E = ea/ee (meet, sea, see, treat, seat, meat, sweets, greet, feet)

Mr Middle I = igh (high, might, flight, tight, delight, slight, fright)

Mr Middle O = oa (boat, goat, float, coat, throat, bloat, goal, moan)

Mr Middle U = oo (moon, hoot, fool, spoon, room, balloon, soon, bedroom, school)

Rules for ‘ing’ – If the vowel is long, stick it on. If the vowel is short, the root word must have a double consonant before adding ‘ing’. If the word ends in ‘e’ drop the ‘e’ to add ‘ing’.

Word examples – rain, play, stay, pat, pull, push, hoot, hit, hop, jump, meet, get, fly, tip, phone, smile, care,

Trip

Our forthcoming trip to see ‘The Jungle Book’ at the West Yorkshire Playhouse is fast approaching. Please can you return your confirmation letter to the office as soon as possible. If you need another letter, Mrs Holland in the office can provide you with one.

PE kit

On the back of our message last week around PE kits, please note it’s absolutely fine for the children to wear jogging bottoms outside in the cold weather. Shorts are more appropriate for indoor sessions as they allow more freedom of movement.

Assemblies

Hopefully you received the announcement regarding our new approach to assemblies. We’re excited about the new format as it means KS1 can come together to showcase more of our learning on a monthly basis. Our first assembly will be held on Friday 6^th December. The children will have lots to share with you so hopefully you’ll be able to come along to celebrate with us.

Christmas play

You will shortly be receiving information about your child’s part in the Christmas play (hard to believe we’re planning for Christmas already!) Year 2 children all have a speaking part so it would be very helpful if you could practise their lines at home. If you have any questions/queries about costumes don’t hesitate to ask. So that we can practise in costume please can you aim to bring them in by Friday 6^th December in a bag clearly labelled with your child’s name.

Numeracy

This week we have been learning lots of strategies for subtraction – focussing largely on counting back in 1s and 10s. The best way to support your child with this at home is to rote count backwards as much as possible. Start with lower numbers (up to 20) – then see how far your child can go! Next week the children will be applying their skills by looking at worded problems, learning that subtraction can’t be done in any order and touching on subtraction as the inverse of addition – tough, but we’ve been blown away with the children’s subtraction talents!

Literacy

This week the children have been continuing to develop their knowledge of stories and using their imaginations to create their own based on a Julia Donaldson book. The stimulus for Year 1 is the Smartest Giant in Town, Year1/2 are working on The Gruffalo and Year 2 are looking at Room on the Broom. All classes are becoming incredibly skilled at building developed sentences using creative features like adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

Topic

Last but by no means least we must tell you about the amazing stages the children have designed and made in D&T. They have worked collaboratively to cut out a stage, paint a backdrop and decorate the set with beautiful collage jungle themed decorations. Next week they will be learning how to rig some lights for their stage. Maybe the Playhouse will want to employ them!

Have a lovely weekend.

 

The KS1 Team

 

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

This year’s fantastic Christmas production is called Sulky Santa and the Year 4 children will, by now, have received their lines and scripts. We would encourage all children with speaking parts to practise as much as possible so that we can begin rehearsals without scripts very soon. For children who do not have a speaking role, they will most certainly be involved in the singing and dancing that takes place throughout the show. The main characters will have been informed of their required costumes, however we do ask that everybody gets into the festive spirit and dresses up for the occasion. Therefore, all of 3/4T will be dressed as elves, 3/4B dressed as fairies or in Christmas attire (jumpers, hats, scarves, etc) and 3/4S dressed in Christmas attire or as reindeer. If you require any further details of costumes, etc. please don’t to hesitate to contact us. The production will be staged in school on Tuesday 17^th December at 2:00pm and Wednesday 18^th December at 6:00pm. Further details of available seats will be sent out nearer the dates.

Due to the new changes in our Friday afternoon assemblies, Year 3/4 will be holding their first celebration assembly on Friday 13^th December. We look forward to welcoming parents and carers to share all of the wonderful things we have been doing this half term.

Home Learning

As well as the children reading daily and practicing their weekly spellings, we would like everyone to be learning their Times Tables. We will now be testing the children weekly on a different times table as this will help us all greatly when solving multiplication and division problems. Links to any on-line games, to support your child with this, will be on our phase blog. The times table we will be testing next week is the 9 Times Table. The numeracy home learning for this week is a revisit of our learning in class about dividing and multiplying numbers by 10 and 100. In addition to this, we have sent everybody home with a reading comprehension activity, again, replicating one of our activities from in class. This reading comprehension has a set of questions related to the text for the children to discuss and answer with parents, carers or older siblings. These activities have proved very popular in class and we hope they will be just as stimulating at home. We understand time is precious at home, so we are more than happy for this activity to replace the normal weekend reading. Please ensure home learning is returned to school before Friday, so we have time to mark it, and hand out new home learning before the weekend.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy the children have been learning how to multiply and divide numbers by 10 and 100, and then applied their knowledge to solving real life problems. This has proved to be a little tricky for some children and so we have sent a few examples home for the children to practise with. Next week, we will be recapping the 4 operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and will revisit the written strategies used for each one. We will then apply all of our problem solving skills to try and solve some tricky real life problems.

Literacy

This week in literacy, the children have continued to apply their persuasive skills to write a letter to the one and only Gary Barlow, in the hope that he will come and visit our amazing school. The children have used lots of persuasive techniques and have really tried to appeal to Gary’s good nature in order to convince him that a visit to Robin Hood would simply be a life-changing experience- for him and for us! We shall wait with baited breath to see if he will accept our invitation. Watch this space! Next week we will be looking at writing developed openings and conclusions to a persuasive letter and looking at the use of compound and complex sentences to develop our ideas.

Spellings

These Spellings will be tested on Monday 25^th November.

Group 1: zoo, food, boots, moon, roots, broom, spoon, shampoo, tooth, balloon

Group 2: happened, suggested, whispered, manufactured, exclaimed, stated, questioned, explained, identified, recalled.

Other areas of the curriculum:

In ICT, we have been creating our very own photo show reel about our school and friends using Photostory 3. This is a free piece of software that can be downloaded at home. Why not have a go?

In topic we have been looking at the written and electronic media. The children have practised their text messaging and emailing and have even looked at the earliest form of communication…cave drawings. They have also studied hieroglyphics as well as Morse Code to try and decipher secret messages. Why not have a go at creating your own secret codes at home?

In science we have been looking at how sound travels and how we hear. We have also studied how deaf people are able to hear using hearing aids and radio waves.

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 healthy cereal bar or a piece of fruit.

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

·        Now that the weather is turning colder, we ask that your child must bring a coat to school every day.

·        Just a gentle reminder to ensure all of your child’s belongings (especially PE kits, hats and gloves and school jumpers) are clearly labelled with your child’s full name.

Don’t forget to check out our blog where you will find lots more information about this week’s learning as well as important reminders and dates for forthcoming event. http://year34rhps.blogspot.co.uk/

Have a fabulous weekend!    

Team 3/4

UKS2 Newsletter

News Roundup:

Friday Celebration Assemblies:

As many of you may be aware the format for our Friday assemblies has now changed. We will now hold Phase Assemblies on a rota basis. These will continue to be celebratory and will help give parents who cannot attend every Friday, the chance to come along when it is their child’s turn to be involved. The forthcoming upper key stage 2 celebration assemblies have been scheduled for: Friday 10^th January, 2.30- 3.00pm followed by Friday 7^th February.

Core Subjects:

Numeracy:

In Numeracy this week the children have learnt how to increase and decrease amounts by various percentages. They then applied these skills by increasing and decreasing the cost of food at Shrek’s birthday party!

Next week, we will be applying all four operations to some multi-step problems involving money and area, with an I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here theme!

Literacy:

In Literacy this week pupils have generated key vocabulary relating to a transport invention. They have then written their own advert promoting this transport invention using persuasive language and other advertising features.

Next week pupils will turn their hand to letter writing. We will be discussing the key features used in a letter of complaint and pupils will apply this into their own letter which discusses a bad experience with a transport invention they have experienced.

SPELLINGS: This week, the spellings are: average, jury, danger, injure, journey, legend, hygiene, hedge, prodigy, jealous. 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 November 29^th.

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE: This week pupils have been learning different balance techniques. Pupils then applied a variety of different balances into a small routine that involved partner balances, canon and levels.  

Once again, please ensure that your child comes to school with the appropriate PE kit each week.

5/6M and 5/6MO PE sessions are on Mondays and 5/6G PE sessions are now on Wednesdays. As the PE unit this half term is Gymnastics, the children only need their plain white PE t-shirt and black shorts.

Spanish:
This week in Spanish the children have been learning to spell the months of the year (enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre).  If you are unsure of the pronunciation, please ask your child….they are all fantastic!   The children have also been introduced to the sentence starter ‘Tengo…’ (I have) and ‘No Tengo…’ (I don’t have).  They have been using the words learnt last week about objects in the classroom to write sentences.

Science:
This week, the children have continued learning about forces in action. We have learnt about air resistance and how this force impacts positively and negatively in our daily lives! The children are now using excellent scientific vocabulary when explaining their findings!

ICT:
During our ICT sessions, the children have been programming their robots to detect sound, touch and light using the Lego Mindstorms software. Very technical stuff!