Newsletter
Issue 23
|
Friday 7th March 2014
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
Thank you
First of all I would like to thank everybody for their understanding and patience with some tricky staff management situations this week. With Miss Thackeray and Miss Lambert in Finland and Miss Pyatt involved in Jury service, not to mention some staff illness, we have had to be very efficient with our staffing. We insist on rigorous consistency in these situations and ensure that any changes do not affect the quality of teaching and learning or our systems.
Home School agreement
You will have received
your Home School agreement booklet. By returning these, we are gaining
confirmation that you are happy to work in partnership with us for the benefit
of your child. It will give us new and updated contact details and clarify your
wishes on the use of images and videos which may involve your child.
Fractions workshop
As part of our continuing
partnership with parents, Miss Thackeray and Miss Gascoigne will be delivering
a further Numeracy workshop to demonstrate how we teach fractions to Key Stage
2. This will take place on Monday 10th March from 4:30- 5:15. All
welcome!
Sport Relief Day
March 21st
is SPORT RELIEF DAY! We are going all out on the physical activities this day
so the children will need to wear a red top (in keeping with the theme), sport
clothes and trainers. We are asking for a £1 optional donation to support the
British Heart Foundation. There will also be Sport Relief wrist bands that the
children can buy if they want to but this is purely optional.
Due to Sport Relief,
the Upper Key Stage 2 assembly has been rescheduled for Friday 25th
April. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Reminder of training day
Please be reminded that
next Friday (14th March) is a staff training day so school will be
closed to the children.
PTA News
After last Friday's EGM Kay Millson was appointed as Chair of
the PTA after Clare Perry stepped down. I'm sure you will all agree that Clare
has done a fabulous job over the past year and a half and the PTA has raised a
fantastic amount of money for the benefit of our children during that
time. More from Kay will follow..... Bags to school will be
collecting at 9am next Tuesday morning. As the bags cannot be stored in
school, if you are having trouble dropping them off before 9am on Tuesday
please contact us via robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com and Kay has very kindly
offered to collect your bags and deliver them to school.
I would like to personally extend
my sincere thanks to Clare Perry who effectively re-established our PTA after a
period of disintegration and offer my congratulations to Kay Millson, who I
know will continue to drive the marvellous work of our PTA. Without the support
of so many of you, our great events simply could not take place so thanks
everyone and I look forward to this new phase.
Have a great weekend everybody.
Mrs Dale
Don’t forget! Next Coffee Morning
The next Coffee Morning
will take place on Monday 17th March at 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. The agendas
for discussion will be:
·
How could we improve our
school environment?
·
What could make playtimes
better/more enjoyable?
·
How well are the children
looked after in school?
I look forward to hearing
both parent and pupil views on this one.
If you are unable to
attend but would like your views to be known, as usual you may email me: gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.ukNursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for all your
fabulous home learning and the brilliant amount of reading you are doing at
home with your child. We are delighted to see the children’s enthusiasm for
sharing stories and have been really impressed with their verbal retelling over
the last couple of weeks of traditional tales. Don’t forget to check on our
blog to see what we have been doing in Nursery and Reception this week! http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/
THIS WEEKWe are sharing the story of The Three Little Pigs (my favourite tale) and encouraging the children to develop their sequencing and storytelling language using puppets, props, books and audio CDs. The children are becoming much more confident at talking about the characters and settings and we love the way they are acting out the stories using fabulous voices for the characters! In Numeracy we have been continuing learning about division and have had races in the outdoor area deciding who has come first, second and third. Ask your child if they can tell you about ordinal numbers at home – but beware as you might have to do some running!
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be sharing the story of Goldilocks
and the Three Bears and continuing to develop our storytelling skills; using
the correct phrasing for the opening and closing of the story, talking about
characters and settings and developing our acting skills. The children will be
discussing their ideas about Goldilocks and her actions and even making a
‘wanted’ poster to display on the window. In numeracy the children will be
practising ordering by size and talking about all the different words we can besides
small, middle sized and big. For home learning this week can you watch/read the story of Goldilocks and make us a
Goldilocks to display in our forest. http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/goldilocks-and-the-three-bears OR http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/tweenies/stories/tweenies-goldilocks/
PLEASE NOTE the following
diary dates: Nursery will be CLOSED on
Wednesday 2nd July 2014
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·
Keep reading for 5 minutes every day if you
possibly can.
·
Keep practising writing the first letter in
your child’s name and beyond as soon as they are ready (some children are now writing their first name independently – which
is amazing!)
·
Please complete the home learning task with your
child (see above) and bring it in on their first day back.
Thank you for your continued
support and enjoy your weekend – let’s hope the suns shines!
Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin, Miss
Fox and Mrs Beckwith.
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for all your
fabulous home learning and the brilliant amount of reading you are doing at
home with your child. We are delighted to see the children’s enthusiasm for
reading stories and have been really impressed with their verbal retelling over
the last couple of weeks of traditional tales. Don’t forget to check on our
blog to see what we have been doing in Nursery and Reception this week! http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/
THIS WEEK
We are sharing the story of The
Three Little Pigs and encouraging the children to develop their sequencing and
storytelling language using puppets, props, books and audio CDs. The children
are becoming much more confident at talking about the characters and settings
and we love the way they are acting out the stories using fabulous voices for
the characters! In Numeracy we have been continuing learning about division and
the children have been amazing at writing the division number sentences as well
as working out the answers to division number sentences. The children were
amazing at counting in 2’s, ask them to show you their amazing counting skills,
but beware you may be blown away! In phonics we learnt to read the sounds; oo (look), oo (moon), ar (car) and
to read the words; about, your, day,
made, came and make.
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be sharing the story of Goldilocks
and the Three Bears and continuing to develop our storytelling skills; using
the correct phrasing for the opening and closing of the story, talking about
characters and settings and developing our acting skills. The children will be
discussing their ideas about Goldilocks and her actions and even making a
‘wanted’ poster to display on the window. In numeracy the children will be
practising ordering by size and talking about all the different words we can use
besides small, middle sized and big. Our mental starter will be counting in 5’s
this week. In topic we will be making 3 different porridges for the three
bears. The children will use different ingredients and then discuss the
consistency and how the different porridges taste. They will also be pretending
that they are Goldilocks and will make and write a sorry card to The Three
Bears to apologise. In phonics we will be learning to read the sounds; or (corn), ur (turn), ow (cow), oi (coin) and to read the words; here, saw, very and put.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·
Keep reading for 5 minutes every day and
don’t forget to access bug club too.
·
Please support your child in writing their
full name.
·
Please help your child count to as far as 100
if they can and write their numbers to 20.
Thank you for your continued
support and enjoy your weekend – let’s hope the suns shines!
Miss Lambert, Miss Pyatt and
the rest of the Reception team.
Key Stage 1
Home
learning
We hope you all received and digested the new
Home Learning policy. Our new, simplified approach ensures that we can focus on
the key areas of spelling, reading and number facts. Your time at home will be
best spent helping your child to become confident in these areas. The
compulsory weekly home learning is as follows:
·
10
spellings 5 mins x 3 times/week
·
Rapid
recall of number facts 5 mins x 3 times/week
·
Reading/Bug
Club 10 mins x3 times/week
Please make a brief record of the learning
you do together in your child’s reading record. To support our learning around
multiplication, please can you practise the 10, 5 and 2 times table with your
child (the times tables get progressively harder in that order – so if you only
manage 10s that’s absolutely fine). If your child is already confident with
these times tables, please move onto 3s and 4s.
Water
bottles
Please can we ask that your child brings a
water bottle into class every day. It is so important that the children drink
regularly, particularly now that the weather is getting warmer. This is in
addition to any drink your child might bring for lunch time. We will remind the
children to take their water bottles home at the end of the day.
Reading
Focus Day
Thank you very much for your support with
Reading Focus Day this week. The children looked amazing in their costumes. We
used the story of Cinderella to explore the theme of bullying. The day was jam
packed with lots of different drama activities to help the children empathise
and see things from someone else’s point of view. The children were excellent
at reflecting and considering the feelings of others. It was very interesting
to see how deep you can delve into what appears on the surface to be a very
simple story.
Literacy
Our two week unit on the Great Fire of London
culminated in a big write in the style of a diary. The children stepped back in
time to imagine they were actually there when the great fire happened. The
children explored feelings and emotions through lots of drama activities. This
enabled them to actually experience life in someone else’s shoes and worked
well to improve the quality of the children’s writing. Our focus has been
around choosing interesting, powerful verbs, adverbs and in some cases even
similes! Once again, the children have blown us away with their unbelievable
learning. Next week we will continue our
focus on recounts by writing some informative pieces about protecting ourselves
from the spreading of germs!.. Lovely! We’ll be looking into the use of more
interesting time connectives to make our writing appeal to the reader and flow.
For example, instead of simply saying ‘next’, ‘after’, ‘then’, ‘first,’ – try
to add more detail with phrases like, ‘at that very moment…’ or ‘a few moments
later’.
Numeracy
This
week we continued learning about division. The children have used physical
resources, drawings and metal strategies to solve a variety of division
problems. The children have explored the methods of ‘grouping’ and ‘sharing’ to
find answers to problems, investigated to make up their own sums and started to
use multiplication as the inverse of division to quickly work out answers. Next
week we will move into multiplication – starting initially by explaining
multiplication as repeated addition (5 x 3 is the same as 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3).
We will then move into using arrays. This simply means representing
multiplication with pictures – such as showing 5 groups of 3 apples to
represent 5 x 3. The next step from this will be to multiply two digit numbers
by one digit numbers then applying methods by tackling worded problems.
Topic
This
week has been spent exploring how germs spread and learning how to prevent the
spread of infection. The children thoroughly enjoyed using UV light boxes to
see the germs on their hands. It was interesting to see how thoroughly hands
need to be washed in order to get rid of all the germs! Next week we will be
starting our Geography unit learning all about the many famous landmarks in
London.
Have
a lovely weekend.
The
KS1 Team
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
What
an exciting week we have had in 3/4 this week! It was fantastic to see the
children dressed as their favourite characters on World Book Day – and what a
selection it was! We had great fun looking more closely at the story of
Cinderella, making character profiles and of course doing lots of reading!
Aside from this, we have learnt about and made a salt dough model of the Loch
Ness Monster and started an investigation in science to find out what will
happen to plants if they don’t have everything they need to grow. Next Friday 14th March is a staff
training day, so please remember there is no school for the children!
Home Learning
For
home learning all we ask is that children are reading daily, practising their
spellings and learning their times tables. The children should be able to
recall their times tables quickly and out of sequence to ensure that they are
embedded in their memory! Any pockets of time could be used for this, such as
car journeys or waiting in a queue. The times tables we will be testing next
week is the 10 Times Tables. Don’t
forget that those who are achieving 12 out of 12 are celebrated on our blog
‘Wall of Fame’ on a weekly basis.
Numeracy
This
week the children have been practising their multiplication skills through use
of the grid method. We have been partitioning numbers before multiplying a
variety of 1, 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers and using column addition to find the
final answer. We then applied these
skills and completed some questions that are worded in a similar way to the
assessments. We were confident using the grid method, however some stumbled
when the sum required a times table they weren’t confident with. Next week we
will be looking closely at the use of the bus stop method for division,
examples of which can be found on our phase blog. If you would like some support on helping your
child at home with fractions, (which we will be covering in two weeks’ time)
Miss Thackeray and Miss Gascoigne will be holding a parent workshop on Monday 10th March. If you
are unable to attend, hand-outs are available to download via the school
website.
Literacy
This
week in literacy, the children have continued to explore journalistic writing.
We have been recapping the structure of a news report and using a report to
answer some questions about the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. This week,
the children have written their own news article about the moment our old head
teacher, Mr Wilson, caught sight of the mysterious creature on a family trip to
Scotland. Next week we will be looking to the skies to write another newspaper
article to inform our readers about a UFO sighting- the truth is out there!
Spellings
These
Spellings will be tested on Monday 10th
March.
Group 1: many, very, house,
three, tree, sister, brother, another, please, come.
Group 2: loose, loosen,
simple, simplify, pure, purify, class, classify, solid, solidify.
Topic
This
term we are delving into the world of mysterious and curious phenomena. This
week we have written a fact file about the mysterious creature that is the Loch
Ness Monster and have made a 3D model out of salt dough, showing what we think
the ‘Nessie’ looks like. Next week we will be searching the skies as we discuss
UFO sightings! Have you or anyone you know seen a UFO?
Science
This
week we continued our topic all about plants. We reminded ourselves about what
a plant needs to live and grow; light, warmth, water and nutrients. We have set
up investigations to see what will happen to the cress if we change the variables. Next week we will be
discovering how water is transported through plants and we will also be
checking in on our cress investigations and recording any changes.
RE
We
continued to learn about the Easter story this week, focussing on Maundy
Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. We talked of Jesus’
crucifixion and His resurrection and what these actions meant to Christians and
His followers. We will continue to study the story over the next few weeks on
the lead up to this year’s Easter service on Friday 4th April at 10:00 a.m. at Lofthouse church,
which Year 3/4 will be hosting. We look forward to seeing you there.
Reminders
· Next
Friday 14th March is a Staff Training Day so there is no school for
the children.
· Year 3/4 will be hosting this year’s Easter
service on Friday 4th April
at 10:00 a.m. at Lofthouse church therefore there will be no showcase assembly
this half term.
· Please ensure your child has an art shirt in
school at all times.
· The current weather is very changeable and so
we ask that your child brings a suitable coat to school every day.
· Please 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.
· Remember the children have two PE units a
week now, one indoor and one outdoor so please ensure they are bringing the
correct kit each week.
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
events. http://year34rhps.blogspot.co.uk/
Have
a wonderful weekend!
Team
3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup:
We would like to congratulate all of year 5/6
for being a credit to the school. Our trip to Wagamama last week was a great
success. Pupils learnt a great deal from the trip and enjoyed tasting Japanese
foods, experimenting making smoothies and even tried their hand at using chop
sticks! We were particularly impressed with the level of food knowledge that
our children already have! Some future master chef stars are inevitable!
Friday Celebration Assemblies:
A date for your diary, our next phase assembly
will on Friday 25th April. We
look forward to seeing you there to show off the amazing learning from this
half term.
Year 6 Numeracy Book
The children in Year 6 have been given a
‘study guide’ and a ‘question book’ to work through ahead of the SAT’s. Last
week in Numeracy the children learnt about angles and coordinates. In order to develop their understanding, children
can complete pages: 27- 28 on angles and then page 35 on coordinates.
This week we have been learning about symmetry
(p33), reflection (p34) and rotation (p36).
If your child would like to complete these pages at home and bring the
book back into school they will be rewarded for their hard work.
Although completing the pages is not
compulsory, we do want to reward your child’s effort. You can support your child by marking the questions;
you will find the answers in the back of the book. Alternatively, your child can mark their own
learning and make any amendments to their answers in pen so we can see the
changes made. Your child can also bring
the ‘study guide’ book into school each day and even use it to support them in
their Numeracy session.
Child Line
Year 5/6 will be having a visit from ‘The
Child Line Team’ on Wednesday 12th March and Wednesday 19th
March during the afternoon. Your child will have brought a letter home
regarding this, if you have any concerns over this, please contact either Mrs
Wathen or Mrs Cookson.
Core Subjects:
Numeracy:
This week in Numeracy the children have been
learning how to reflect, translate and rotate shapes, using the co—ordinates to
help them with accuracy. Next week, the children will be learning about
measures, including length, mass and capacity!
For further support and quizzes on this week’s
Numeracy focus, visit the KS2 bite size website which is full of amazing
resources and further explanations: www.ks2bitesize.com
Literacy:
This week pupils have learnt the key features of a
formal letter of thanks. We have compared informal and formal letter writing
styles and generated ideas around our trip to Wagamama. Pupils have then
written an opening to their letter.
Next week pupils will continue to write their
letters of thanks. Pupils will be grouping their ideas into paragraphs which
focus on their favourite activities during the trip. Sessions will provide
emphasis on the use of formal language and pupils’ thoughts, feelings and
emotions.
SPELLINGS: This week, the
spellings are: catch - caught, hear - heard, find - found, fight - fought,
choose - chose, bring - brought, see - saw, creep - crept, wear - wore, shake -
shook.
Other areas of the curriculum:
PE: This week pupils have learnt a side break fall (Yoko
ukemi). In addition pupils have also learnt a second throw (Tiatoshi). All
pupils have enjoyed combining these fantastic new moves and have also recapped
on the previous weeks learning.
Spanish: This week in Spanish the children
have been learning the Spanish vocabulary for objects related to the
seaside. So far the children have learnt
how to pronounce: en la playa (at the beach), las aletas (flippers), el alga
(seaweed), la arena (sand), el traje de bano (swimsuit), la crema bronceadora
(sun cream). If your child would like to
learn additional Spanish at home, the following website will help with their
pronunciation: www.studyspanish.com
No comments:
Post a Comment