Friday, 24 October 2014

Issue 8 2014-15


Newsletter Issue 8

Friday 24th October 2014

Dear Parent/Carer,

We come to the end of a busy and brilliant half term. It has been one which has seen many changes, namely the introduction of a new National Curriculum, the implementation of Universal Free School Meals, the changes made to our pupil’s lunchtime experience, new systems in light of a new Code of Practice for children with SEND, and all of this whilst dealing with the challenges which come from being situated in the middle of the building work. I would like to thank all staff and parents who have embraced the changes and to our amazing pupils who continue to thrive.

I would like to extend a personal thank you to all parents who either helped out at or attended our Halloween Disco. Once more, our brilliant PTA did a stunning job of creating a fun and brilliant event for our children.

Congrats to Miss Thackeray
As many of you will now be aware, Miss Thackeray gave birth to a bouncing baby girl last Sunday. Both she and her partner Mike are loving spending time with their daughter, Summer Grace. A huge congratulations from all of us.

Scooters
Children are welcome to come to school on their scooters; it’s great to see so many being so active. We do ask however that the children hop off their scooters once they are in the school grounds near to the main building. It is quite crowded whilst the building work is continuing and we want to ensure that all children are safe. Thanks.

Assemblies
Well done to all of our children who have performed such fantastic assemblies this half term. They have been a pleasure to watch. Please note when next half term’s assemblies will take place:

Weds 12th November- Nursery (1) 11:00- 11:30 Friday 14th November- Nursery (2) 2:30- 3:00

Friday 21st November- Lower Key Stage 2 2:30- 3:00 Friday 28th November- Upper Key Stage 2 2:30- 3:00 

Friday 5th December- Key Stage 1 2:30- 3:00   Friday 12th December- Reception 2:30- 3:00 

Confirmation of Christmas event dates will follow shortly after half term.

After School Clubs
If your child is attending an After School Club, please ensure that they attend from the first Thursday after half term (6th November). We can’t wait to provide some fantastic extra-curricular opportunities to our pupils.

Cleaner needed
We are seeking to appoint a cleaner to join our team as soon as possible. Please approach Mrs Smith in the office for an application form if you are interested in this post.

Good bye Mrs Mistry
As everyone now knows, Mrs Mistry is leaving us today. I would like to express my sincere thanks for all that she has contributed to our school during the last 4 years. We all wish her the very best.

 
PTA news

What a brilliant disco we had last night.  A huge thank you to all the children, who’s behaviour and costumes were amazing.  A massive thank you also to the parent helpers and the teachers ensuring that everyone had enough food and fun.

This week we unfortunately say goodbye to our Treasurer, Jane Wardell, who is moving onto pastures new.  Jane has been the Robin Hood PTA Treasurer for a few years now and will be sorely missed!! Thank you for all your input Jane!  Huge thanks to   Jason Firth who has very kindly agreed to step in as Treasurer until our AGM in the New Year when we will hold a meeting to re-elect committee members. We hope you have a well-earned rest next week, not forgetting to have a good clear out for the Skycycle scheme who will be coming to collect your unwanted clothes, linen, bric-a-brac on Monday 10 November.  If you need to contact us you can at robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.

Have a fantastic break, everyone!

Mrs Dale

REMEMBER! Moving forward and learning together

Monday 1st December at 8:15 a.m. and will be focussed around the agendas of:

·     Our website- what isn’t there that should be?

·     The use of Twitter – ways to take this forward and engage more parents

·    Our blogs- How we can get even more use out of blogs? What blogs should we keep/not keep?

If you are unable to come along but have some points you would like us to consider then please contact either myself or Miss Hinton as everyone’s opinion is valuable. gaynor.dale@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk     claire.hinton@robinhood.leeds.sch.uk
 
Nursery newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We would like to start by saying a HUGE thank you to all of the Parents and Carers that attended our Parent Consultation evenings this week. It was brilliant to meet everybody and we hope you are all as happy as we are with the way that the children have settled in Nursery! Please keep up with your reading, writing and counting over the half term holidays and continue to add lovely pictures and other exciting things to your child’s learning logs – the children are really proud and extremely enthusiastic to share what they have done.  Please have a look at our blog for the latest information and to see what has been happening in Nursery at: http://foundationstagenewsatrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk/
THIS WEEK
In our literacy sessions this week, we have shared the fabulous story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. We have focused on verbally retelling the story using props and we have even been outside and retold the story- the children really enjoyed this activity. In numeracy we have focussed on counting a group of objects and matching. We have also used tongs and spoons outside to develop our finger muscles in preparation for mark making.
NEXT HALF TERM
We will be having our first Nursery ‘Celebration Assembly’! Our assembly will celebrate the children’s hard work and achievement in Nursery. We will be showcasing our learning about ‘Bonfires’. During the assembly they will have lots of amazing things to show you and some wonderful things to tell you! We cannot wait!  This will take place the second week back after half term. There will be two assemblies, one for the beginning of week children and one for the end of week children. We hope to see lots of you there. Thank you.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Assembly Wednesday 12th November 11.00am (Beginning of week children) All welcome.
Assembly Friday 14th November 2.30 pm (End of week children) All welcome
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·       Please continue to engage with the learning logs – we really appreciate the time and effort that is put into them.
·       Please send in a water bottle (no juice) and a coat every day.
·       It would be really helpful if over the half term you could practice taking coats on and off and putting shoes and socks on with your child.
Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs Harley and the Nursery Team
 
 
Reception newsletter week
NEWS ROUND UP
It has been lovely to see so many of you at our parents’ consultations this week and celebrate the children’s fabulous achievements. We finished off our week with an amazing assembly and we are so proud of all our lovely learners. Please keep up with your reading, writing and counting over the half term holidays and make sure you encourage your child to add lovely pictures and other exciting things in their learning logs so they can tell us about their holidays! Have a look at 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 fabulous story ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy. We have focused on verbally retelling the story using drama and we have had some really amazing performances form the children. In numeracy we have focused on sequencing a day in the life of Mr Bear and comparing it to our own days and thinking about the order in which things take place. In our phonics sessions we have been practising reading the sounds ff, l, ll and ss and the tricky words we have been learning this half term.
NEXT HALF TERM
Monday 3rd November will be a Reading Day. We will begin the day with a reading breakfast starting at 8.15am – all welcome in the hall. This will be followed by an assembly with the author Eamon Reilly who will be talking to the children and firing their enthusiasm for reading. The children will then have a day of activities and you are invited into the classroom from 3pm that afternoon once all the children have been collected to look at the fabulous outcomes. During the rest of the week we will be focusing on the Bonfire story and finishing off the week with a Bonfire Party! Our numeracy sessions will focus on addition and in phonics we will be learning the letters j, v and w and the words will, that, this, then, them, with
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Reading breakfast Monday 3rd November 8.15am – all welcome.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·       Learning logs need to come into school every Monday along with reading bags and home learning. 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 send in a water bottle (no juice) and a coat every day
·       Please support your child to write their full name and give them lots of praise and encouragement.
·       If you have time to do some extra practice on phonics, have a look at Mr Thorne http://www.mrthorne.com/ and Phonics Play http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm
For some fun activities which will support the teaching and learning in school.
Thank you
Miss Lambert, Mrs Steel and the Reception Team
Key Stage 1
This week we have had a very active week in Key Stage One as we have been learning all about leading a healthy lifestyle. We are now all feeling very fit and healthy, ready for the school holidays. We have learnt about the food pyramid, balanced diets and different types of exercise. We made our very own videos about how to lead a healthy lifestyle. In Topic we have drawn and painted amazing pictures of animals with an aboriginal art theme. In numeracy we have continued to learn about rounding numbers and we have been completing some mental maths. Our brains are becoming super-fast!
Home learning
The compulsory home learning each week is:
·         10 spellings per week (5 mins X 3 times a week)
·         Recall of number facts (5 mins X 3 times a week)
·         Reading and/or using Bug Club. (10 mins X 3 times a week).
If you would like any extra learning or have any questions to help support your child in learning at home please speak to your class teacher. In preparation for next half term it would be useful to continue to practice addition facts to 10 and 20.
E.g. 6 +4 = 10                         8 + 2 = 10                    15 + 5 = 20                  19 + 1 = 20
Parents evening
We would like to say a huge thank you for attending parents evening this week. It was lovely to see you all and to be able to share with you how well your child has settled into their new class and all the excellent progress they are making.
Spellings – The challenge words
During parent’s evening we have received useful feedback in regards to the challenge words your children are also being sent home as part of their spellings to learn. Although your children are given the opportunity to spell these after their spelling test on a Monday, they are not classed as part of the spelling test. The words used are a ‘one step ahead’ for the next week so the children are hearing or seeing these words before they are used as part of a week’s learning. If you feel more comfortable just reading or speaking these words to your children throughout the week this will be just as useful as practising spelling them.
Autumn 2 Overview
Next half term in Literacy we will be reading 3 different stories; Where The Wild Things Are, We’re Going On a Bear Hunt and Gorilla. We will be describing the settings and the characters and we will be thinking about the plot of the story. Towards the end of the half term the children will be writing their own story. The last 2 weeks of the half term we will focus on understanding and writing instructions.
In Numeracy next half term we will be focusing on addition and subtraction. The children will be taught how to mentally recall number bonds up to 10 and then 20. We will be focusing on helping the children to understand the two concepts. They will be taught different methods to help them solve the problems including; counting forwards and backwards using their heads and fingers, using a number line, a number square and objects.
Our topic next half term will be The Theatre! We will be learning about the play Snow White and The Seven Dwarves. We will be learning about the history of the theatre and constructing our very own stages using wood. We can’t wait to turn the classroom in to a builders workshop!
Please Help
Due to our topic being The Theatre next half term we would greatly appreciate any old dressing up clothes that your child may not want any more or any old puppets that your child no longer plays with. They will be used to enhance our role play area. Any empty cardboard boxes (all shapes and sizes) would also be greatly appreciated for our Design and Technology areas.
Have a lovely week off school! You deserve it!
The Key Stage One Team
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
What a fantastic final week of our first half term. We have been busy adding the finishing touches to our Iron Age artefacts and wait with anticipation as to where and when they will be displayed at Leeds City Museum. We have also been tackling some pretty tricky mental maths questions in numeracy as well as investigating various number problems.
Miss Thackeray
We are delighted to inform you that Miss Thackeray delivered a very healthy bouncing baby on Sunday morning, weighing 7lb 1 oz. We cannot wait to meet little Summer Grace after half term and wish Miss Thackeray and her partner Mike all the best as they embark on a new life with their delightful bundle of joy.
Mrs Mistry
It is with great sadness that we have said farewell to the fantastic Mrs Mistry today who has been an absolute rock of support for children right across the phase this half term. We wish Mrs Mistry the best of luck as she moves onto pastures new and hope that she will still come in to visit us from time to time.
Numeracy
This week we have been pulling apart mental maths tests and tackling the really tricky questions in order to improve our weekly scores. We have been learning new tips and tricks to help us halve odd numbers, convert measures and use inverse operations. Examples of these tests have been sent home with your child to practise over the holidays (we have included the answers too). After the holidays we will continue to work on mental strategies for all 4 operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) as well as the written strategies. Please also continue to support your child’s learning of ALL the times tables. Thank you.
Literacy
This week the children have been applying all of their writing skills to write a non-chronological report all about a subject of their choice. From football to food, dogs to dancing, we’ve seen everything. After the holidays we will be looking at persuasive writing and will be producing some fantastic posters, adverts and letters of persuasion.
These Spellings will be tested on Monday 3rd November. Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.
Group 1: sigh, sight, high, light, night, tight, fight, fright, slight, right
Group2: force, friction, invention, persuade, exaggerate, exhibition, momentum, weight, resistance, movement
Other areas of the curriculum:
·     In PE we have applied all of our throwing and catching skills during a series of team games including dodge ball. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this unit and have clearly improved in all areas. Next half term we will be taking part in lots of outdoor team games, where trust will play a big factor!   
·      In Topic this week the children have added their finishing touches to their artefacts. Amongst the paint and the glue, we have seen swords and shields, roundhouses and hill forts and pots and jewellery emerging, ready to be placed on show at Leeds City Museum – watch this space! Next half term we will be studying the British Monarchy - past and present. We will be looking at how the key monarchs changed the lives of British people during the Tudor and Victorian times and will be having a ‘Victorian school day’ where the children will be encouraged to dress up in traditional costumes. Why not take a trip to the Royal Armouries or Thackray Medical Museum over the half term holidays to find out more about life during these key eras?
·     In ICT we have completed our scratch animations using programming techniques. Some of the completed outcomes will be uploaded to the school website and blog very soon.
Reminders
 
·    Please ensure your child’s labelled PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week
·    Now the weather is turning cooler, please can we ask that ALL children wear a warm coat to school and that it is labelled clearly with their name?
We hope you have a wonderful half term break.
Team 3/4.
Upper Key Stage 2 Newsletter
PE kits
Many pupils are still not bringing in correct PE kits. Please can all pupils bring in a full indoor and outdoor PE kit. Unfortunately many pupils are missing out on important learning due to incorrect kit. PE kits need to be brought in on a Monday and taken home on a Friday. The kit lists are as follows:
Indoor kit                                                        Outdoor kit
- Socks                                                              - Socks
- Pumps or trainers with laces                          - Warm tracksuit pants or leggings
- Black shorts or leggings                                - A jumper or hooded top
- A plain white t-shirt                                        - A plain white t-shirt
                                                                        - Trainers with laces
Coats
As the weather is now turning much colder, please can we ask that all pupils come to school in a winter coat. Pupils will be unable to go outside for their playtimes if they do not have an appropriate, warm coat during the Autumn and Winter months. Thank you.
Literacy Day
On Monday 3rd November, we are having one of our reading breakfasts and we are having a visit from the children's author Eamonn Reilly. He will be coming into school to lead the assembly and after we will be inviting parents and carers to come and celebrate the wonderful outcomes that the children have produced from a reading and writing inspired day!
Mental maths resources
Many pupils have been given mental maths resources to assist their learning. These resources are aimed at helping to support children’s learning and develop their confidence. We hope that these resources can help in supporting your child’s learning as we progress in year 5/6.
Numeracy
In Numeracy this week the children have been learning about multiplication and division facts, such as; common multiples, common factors, prime numbers and brackets. In our first week back we will be focusing on division. Strategies that will be covered will include; multiplying decimals, bus-stop method (for single digit division) and chunking (for double digit division).
Literacy
This week in Literacy, pupils have published a wonderful persuasive piece encouraging the reader to visit the Great Barrier Reef. These pieces have been such a high quality including features such as; emotive language and powerful verbs. After half term in literacy we will focus on writing newspaper reports. The next batch of spellings to be learnt are: awkward, bargain, bruise, category, cemetery, committee, communicate, community, competition, controversy. Your child has received a copy of these spellings and will be tested on Friday 7th November.
Topic
During Topic this week, the children have been publishing a beautiful informational outcome all about one of the natural wonders of the world: Victoria Falls, The Great Barrier Reef and Mount Everest to name but a few. Stunning outcomes which have been a joy to read! Well done! Next half term our topic is all about Climate Change and Global warming.
 
 
 
 

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