Friday, 26 September 2014

Issue 4 2014-15


Newsletter Issue 4

Friday 26th September 2014

Dear Parent/Carer,
I was pleased to welcome two of our governors to our new lunchtime experience, this week. Mrs Findlay and Mrs Millson joined our Year 6 and Year 2 pupils to tuck into a roast dinner on Thursday and commented that the feedback from children was very positive indeed. I am delighted with how Mrs Nash and the kitchen supervisors have worked so effectively with Miss Hinton and I to ensure that the lunchtime experience runs smoothly and enjoyably.

SEND
Thanks to all parents who joined their child’s class teacher and Mrs Cookson earlier this week to talk through the provision for their children who are on the SEND register. We felt that these meetings were very positive and helped to strengthen the partnership between us and you. The school offer for children with SEND is available to view on the school website.

Assemblies
We are looking forward to our first phase assembly of the year, next Friday. Year 3/ 4 will be kicking off the proceedings next Friday 3rd October 2:30 pm- 3:00 pm
Further assemblies will take place this half term, as follows:
Friday 10th October 2:30 pm- 3:00 pm – Year 5/6
Friday 17th October 10:00 am- 10:30 am – KS1 (Harvest Festival at Lofthouse Church)
Friday 23rd October 2:30 pm- 3:00 pm – Reception

PTA lottery
Please do join the school lottery, set up by the PTA. We are guaranteed to make a significant amount of money from this, with minimum output. Already the school is guaranteed a massive £1,000 this academic year.  If you haven't joined yet, click on the link in the flyer sent on Parentmail or enter www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/robinhoodprimary/ in your browser. Funds are being saved to develop our outside area; we are patiently waiting for the building work to subside so that we can plan exactly how these funds can be used to best effect.

The Big Draw
….is coming soon! We will be holding our annual Big Draw event on Monday 13th October. The children will be able to spend the whole day engaging in inspirational drawing activities which will then be added to a huge, whole school display in the hall for all to see. You will be invited to come into school from 3:00p.m on Tuesday 14th October to see our Big Draw gallery in the hall. My thanks to Mrs Mistry and Mrs Chin for designing some fantastic ideas around the theme of “Parts of the World”. Please ensure that your child brings in an old shirt or t-shirt to protect their clothing on Monday 13th October.

Parking on Goldsmiths
I have been asked by residents on Goldsmiths to ensure that your parking is considerate at drop off and pick up times. The residents have been very accommodating in understanding that their road is going to be very busy for a period of time, but at times inconsiderate parking has meant that they have been unable to get in and out of their drives. I must remind everyone that the Gardeners Arms car park is available to use at a cost of 5 extra minutes to your journey.

Individual School Photographs
The children will be having their individual photographs taken on Wednesday 1st October. Siblings in school will also be photographed together. If you have younger children who are not at school they can have their photographs taken with their siblings from 8:30a.m. – 8:45a.m.

Best Wishes to Miss Thackeray
Miss Thackeray leaves us today to go on her maternity leave. I am sure you will all join us in wishing her all the best as she awaits the arrival of her bundle of joy.
PTA news

Lots of news to get through this week. Firstly can we say a huge thank you to everyone who turned up for our first meeting of this school year.  We had a few new people turn up to support us which was fantastic to see.  If anyone else would like to come along and see what the PTA is about, our next meeting will be held on 15th October 2014, 8pm at the Gardeners Arms.  If you are unable to attend this meeting but would still like to get involved you can contact us at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.

We will be holding our annual Halloween Disco for the children on 22nd October.  Foundation and KS1 disco will run from 3:30 until 4:30 and KS2 disco will run from 4:45 until 6:00.  If anyone is available to help at either or both discos please contact us as above.  Please remember without generous volunteers like yourselves these events would not be able to run and the children really do enjoy them.  We are hoping to sell buns and biscuits at the disco so if anyone is willing and able to bake a few buns please get in touch.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

Mrs Dale
 
Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We hope that you are all getting glowing reports of our new Nursery classroom from the children and that they are enjoying their learning at Robin Hood. We have to say that they are all settling into the routines and lunchtimes have been a huge success. Can I just remind you that the children are encouraged to bring a water bottle to school which they can drink at any time of the day; however this must only contain water. Please look on our blog for the latest information and to see what has been happening in Nursery at http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/
THIS WEEK
We have continued to build on the skills we were developing last week and the special objects that the children brought in from home have given them the opportunity to tell us all about themselves. Using our stimuli of Charlie and Lola the children have been talking about their favourite things and finding out more about each other. We have used our Numeracy sessions to see just how fabulous the children are at counting and number recognition. The children have also been listening to the sounds in the environment and thinking about the sounds that they can hear.
NEXT WEEK
We will be reading the story ‘Where’s My Teddy’ by Jez Alborough. This is a lovely story which will encourage the children to share their special teddies, think about what we would do if we lost our favourite teddy and then re-enact the story outside. The home learning task has been planned especially to support this, so please make sure all home learning comes into school on Monday morning for beginning of week children and Wednesday afternoon for the end of the week children- clearly named
HOW YOU CAN HELP US 
·       Home learning is sent out weekly and will prepare your child for the learning that will happen the following week.
·       Learning logs need to come into school every Monday am/Wednesday pm
·       Please engage with the home learning.
·       Please read for 5 minutes daily and talk about the story.
·       If you have any spare boxes or plastic containers please bring them in for our D.T. area.
Thank you!
Mrs Harley and the Nursery Team
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Well done to our fabulous learners who continue to greet us with smiles, lots of questions and huge energy and enthusiasm for their learning.  Last week the children had their photographs taken by the YEP and will feature in a ‘September Starters supplement. We will let you know the date of publication as soon as we hear from the newspaper. Please look on our blog for the latest information and to see what has been happening in Reception at http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/
THIS WEEK
In our literacy sessions this week, we have shared the story of ‘Where’s My Teddy’ by the fabulous author Jez Alborough. The children brought their favourite teddies to school and they have joined in with lots of fabulous literacy and other activities designed to develop the children’s speaking and listening skills. In numeracy we have continued to assess the children’s knowledge of mathematical concepts and have played lots of games involving prepositions. In our phonics sessions we have been practising reading the sounds i, m, d, n and the words is, it, of, off, on, can.
NEXT WEEK
We will be reading the story ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister. This is a story about friendships and supports our activities which are planned to encourage the children to find out more about each other and develop new friendships by being kind, considerate and caring. Again, the home learning task has been planned especially to support this, so please make sure all home learning comes into school on Monday morning - clearly named. Thank you. In phonics we will be practising reading and writing the sounds g, o, c, k and words dad, had, back, and, get, big. Please make sure you are giving your child lots of opportunities to practice reading the sounds and words each week as we have a different set introduced on a weekly basis. In Numeracy we will be working on continuing and creating our own repeating patterns, so we are expecting some amazingly colourful Rainbow Fish to put on display in the classroom!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·       Home learning is sent out weekly and will prepare your child for the learning that will happen the following week.
·       Learning logs need to come into school every Monday along with reading bags
·       Please engage with the home learning and ensure you read for 5 minutes daily and help your child learn their spellings.  
·       Please make sure that your child has a PE kit in school; it can stay in their locker and come home every half term holiday.
·       Please support your child to write their full name and give them lots of praise and encouragement.
Thank you!
Miss Lambert, Mrs Steel and the Reception Team
 
Key Stage 1 Newsletter
Home learning
Again, it has been lovely to see so many learning logs full of learning this week ! We thank you for sharing this with us. You will find this week’s spellings in your child’s reading record.
For this week’s number facts please could you support your child in the following
·       Breaking numbers in to tens and units or hundreds, tens and units. E.g. If you have the number 46. It has 4 tens and 6 units. The children can do this with pictures or with a number sentence 40 + 6 = 46.
Your children have been doing this across the week so should be familiar with the words ‘tens’ and ‘units’. You can do this with numbers up to 20, 50, 100 or 1000. Please feel free to ask your class teacher if you are unsure on what numbers your child would be best practising this skill with.
All your children should now have their Bug Club log ins in their reading records. If you have any problems logging on at home please speak to a  member of the Key Stage One team so we can get this changed if necessary.
Numeracy
This week Key Stage 1 have been building on their learning from last week and delving further into the world of place value. The children have been continuing to use the words ‘hundreds’, ‘tens’ and ‘units. Some have also been using the word ‘thousands’. It is not only important for your child to be familiar with these words but what they actually mean.
A Unit = One object                                                   A Ten = Ten units                  
A Hundred = Ten lots or one hundred units.             A Thousand = Ten lots of one hundred or one thousand units.
 There is a useful song on Youtube if you follow the link below which shows the difference
 between hundreds, tens and units. Please feel free to play this link at home.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W47G-h7myY
Across the coming weeks we will be adding useful links to songs or games that we use in Numeracy to our Key Stage One Blog. Any practice at home to understand the difference between hundreds, tens and units will really help your child solve a range of different numerical problems.
Literacy
This week the children have finished their learning all about Africa’s big 5; Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhinoceros and Leopard. The children wrote their own Non – Chronological report about these animals and we have been so impressed with the outcomes! This unit has really helped the children develop their use of adjectives (describing words) and use of high level conjunctions such as ‘even though’, ‘because’ ‘so’ and ‘whilst’. Next week the children will be turning their focus to the world of butterflies. The children will be writing down all that they have found out about the life of a caterpillar and interesting facts about butterflies. We currently have our own caterpillars in the classroom and we have been eagerly waiting for each of them to turn in to a chrysalis. We are looking forward to when they turn into butterflies so we can release them into the wild!
Topic
This week the children have been learning all about animals habitats and why different animals are suited to different parts of the world. The children are really enjoying this topic and have asked so many interesting questions about what they are learning. Next week the children will begin their design and technology unit on sewing. We will be making animal bookmarks that the children will be able to use during their own reading.
Have a lovely weekend.
The Key Stage One Team

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
What an amazing week we have had in Year 3/4. The children have really impressed us with their hard work and the extremely mature attitudes they have shown towards their learning. We have been really impressed with the children’s efforts in bringing in their reading records and it’s been a real joy to reward them all for the impressive amount they are reading at home. Keep it up!
Come Dressed as a Super Hero!!
This week in Literacy we have continued to develop our writing of non-chronological reports. Our reports have been all about our fantastic school and the children have been working extremely hard to meet their targets. Next week the children will have the opportunity to create their own super hero before writing a non-chronological report giving information all about their special powers, costume and background information. To help us all generate lots of fantastic ideas for our writing, we would like to invite all children in the phase to come dressed as a super hero on Tuesday 30th September however this is not compulsory.
Numeracy
This week in numeracy we have been learning how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 as well as the nearest whole number. Next week we will be learning how to apply our rounding skills to estimating money and measures.  We will be testing the children on the 6 times tables on Thursday. The following link is a really useful game which will support the children. Another reminder that all of the learning that takes place in class is made available for the children to take home and can also be downloaded from the blog. Children that show their class teachers any additional home learning will be rewarded with lots of stickers.
School Council
Next week, two children in each Year 3/4 class will be selected to be part of the school council. This is an extremely important job as the children will be responsible for sharing ideas and raising issues on behalf of their class. In order to ensure we get the right people for the job, we would like to invite children who wish to be considered, to create a short presentation outlining why they should be chosen. There will be a vote which will take place in class and the winners will be announced next Friday. Good Luck!
Miss Thackeray’s Last Day
Today we have said our goodbyes to Miss Thackeray who will begin her maternity leave. We are extremely sad to see her go but are sure she will thoroughly enjoy being a new mum.  I’m sure you will join us in wishing Miss Thackeray all the very best and we look forward to her return.
Spellings
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 29th September. Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.
Group 1: bee, feet, knee, tree, sheep, queen, teeth, cheese, wheel
Group2: worry, absorbent, sorry, several, coffee, yesterday, thousand, character, understand, similar
Other areas of the curriculum:
In PE we have continued to develop our throwing and catching skills indoors and apply these skills in game situations during our outdoor lessons.  
In Topic the children have been researching one specific area of the Iron Age that interests them and this week we began to present our research findings in a poster. On Monday will be visited by an Iron Age historian from Manchester University who will be showing the children some amazing artefacts and telling us all about the Iron Age.
In music, 3/4B have begun to compose their own musical masterpieces using the instruments available on the ipads. 3/4T have been practising their recorder skills when learning to play a new song and 3/4M have begun their percussion sessions using a variety of instruments.
In Science we have continued to develop our knowledge of scientific experiments by looking at all of the different ways in which results and data can be presented.
In ICT we have started animating our jokes by creating the background and characters and next week we will begin to programme these characters. The jokes are looking really fantastic so far and we can’t wait to share some of the children’s jokes with you on the 3/4 blog.
Reminders
·     Individual photos will be next Wednesday 1st October.
·     Our first Showcase Assembly of the year will be next Friday 3rd October at 2.30 –  3.00pm – we look forward to seeing you there.
·     Please ensure your child’s PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week
·     Now the weather is turning please can we ask that ALL children wear a coat to school.
Have a happy weekend!
3/4 Team
 
Upper Key Stage 2 Newsletter
SATS reminder
We can now officially confirm that the SAT tests for the Year 6 children will take place during the week commencing the 11th of May, 2015, so please avoid booking any holidays during that week. Thank you.
School Photographer
Our school photographers will be in school this coming Wednesday 1st October. Photographers will be taking photographs of individuals and siblings. Pupils will receive a copy of their photographs as well as details of how to order the full resolutions in the near future.
Numeracy Parent Workshop
It was lovely to see parents and carers come along to learn about our numeracy strategies on Tuesday evening. If anyone was unable to make it, don’t worry; feel free to ask your child’s class teacher for a copy of the hand outs and the addition help sheet from the session. We will have any hand outs and help sheets available to access on the website and Key Stage 2 blogs soon... watch this space for further details. The next workshop will be about subtraction and will be held on Tuesday November 18th at 3:30pm in Miss Gascoigne’s classroom.
Year 6 Numeracy SAT Workbooks
All of the Year 6 children have been given a Numeracy Study Guide and a workbook. The Year 5/6 teachers just wanted to remind all children that if they wish to bring this in to school to share what they have completed, then they will be rewarded with a Headteacher’s sticker after every five pages they complete. The children are more than welcome to bring this in to school to practice during quiet reading sessions at registration time, however class teachers will stamp them and reward stickers on a Monday morning when planners are also checked.
Numeracy
In Numeracy this week the children have been learning how to add quickly using mental skills, including rounding and then adjusting to add a series of numbers fast. Next week the children will be learning how to subtract larger numbers quickly and accurately before applying these skills to some Harry Potter themed problems.
Literacy
This week in Literacy, pupils have been looking at the key features of a non-chronological report. After identifying successful features, pupils began researching Mount Everest in preparation for writing their own non-chronological report next week! The spellings for next week are; guidance, environment, knight, thistle, conscience, gnat, wreckage, knife, rhythm, conscious. Your child has received a copy of these spellings and will be tested on Friday 3rd October.
Topic
During our Geography sessions this week, the children have been researching one of the biomes from: aquatic, tundra, desert, grassland and forest. They have created a super poster which illustrates and explains what each biome entails; including the plants and animals that live and how they have adapted to survive in this biome.
ICT:
In ICT, the children have been learning all about creating common and copyright laws when choosing to use images from the internet. The children have a stronger appreciation for these laws and understand the implications of copyright issues when used for commercial purposes.
Science:
In science this week we have been identifying classifying and organising living things, according to their characteristics. The children have learnt if a living thing is a vertebrate or invertebrate and if they are a mollusc, annelid, insect or arachnid – all fascinating stuff!
PE
In PE this week, pupils have been learning how to throw accurately. Pupils have learnt the key techniques for the under arm throw; including using the correct footwork and implementing a guide with their non-throwing arm. It has been fantastic to see how quickly pupils have improved their throwing accuracy and their passing, movement and teamwork skills are improving week on week!
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment