Issue 34 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 34

Friday 14th June 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

It was great to speak to our Year 6s on their return to school on Monday following the Residential. They were brimming with enthusiasm and pride in what they had achieved. Again, I received reports of exemplary behaviour, positive attitudes to overcoming challenges and spirited participation in everything that the children did. The staff who accompanied the children were extremely proud of the children. My thanks to Mrs Brook, Mrs Comstive, Mrs Wathen and Mr Malley for showing again that the staff at Robin Hood are willing to give an astonishing amount of their time for the benefit of our children.

Photo orders

If you would like to order a class photo, please send your money in as soon as you can. Thanks.

Trainees

This week we have said “farewell for now” to our first year trainees from Leeds Trinity University. Kelsey Campey, Anna Slater and Kara Jordan have had a very rewarding training experience and it is our pleasure to be supporting the future teachers of our city. Thanks to Mrs Moore and Mrs Cookson, Mrs Steel and Miss Gascoigne for accommodating the students and making them feel part of the Robin Hood team. We will welcome the ladies back in November when they continue their second year studies.

Year 2 Sats

Well done to all of our little troopers in Year 2 who have carried out their Sats tests this week. They did brilliantly and shone like the stars that they are. Our children show spirit and resilience in the face of these assessments and we are all really proud of each and every one of them.

Visitors to enrich our Curriculum

We have had several visitors to our school this week to add value to our curriculum. Philippa Ranger, a professional coach, joined Year 6 to enhance children’s P.E skills and enrich the physical learning. She will continue to join us each week of this half term. We were delighted to welcome Mrs Shahzad to join Year 3/4 to talk to the children about dental hygiene as part of the phase’s Science topic and Mr Reid kindly shared a video resource of his dental practice. Whilst we have highly qualified and brilliant teachers, it is always really brilliant for the children to experience visits from experts in their field who can bring a whole new dimension to the learning.

I also enjoyed a visit from Vanessa Huws- Jones, the 0-11 Lead for teaching and learning in Leeds. She was mightily impressed by our ethos and the vision that I have for the future of the school and will be coming back in the next few weeks to see the learning in action.

Arts week- Discover

During the week beginning 8^th July, our Key Stage 2 children will be engaging in an Arts week, which will involve visits from local professionals linked to the Arts. The children will enjoy visits from local musicians, actors and singers and have the chance to study key artists in history. The purpose of this series of days is to further celebrate the joy that the Arts can bring, give children the opportunity to recognise their passions but also to see how normal, everyday people from our city have gone on to be highly successful in their field. We want our children to know that a career in the Arts is entirely within reach. The “Discover” arts week will be part 1 of a two part study opportunity. Part 2 “Explore”, will take place next academic year after which the children will receive UCAS points which will count towards modules that they can use at University! This is an incredible opportunity for our children and I would like to thank the PTA from the bottom of my heart, for making this event possible with their extremely generous donation towards the funding of the project. Thanks also to Miss Thackeray who has driven and led the project.

PTA NEWS

Hello everyone. Only two weeks to go until our Summer Fayre is here. We are almost there with the organisation thanks to many helpful parents and teachers. We still require empty bottles of wine (with the cap attached), jam jars and newspapers. We will be happy to collect them from you at the front of school each morning. If anyone is able to display a poster advertising the fayre at their place of work, please collect one from the front of school where one of the PTA committee members will be waiting each morning. One last request...we do have volunteers willing to help out before, during or after the day of the fayre, but as we all know you can never have enough help. If anyone is able to help on the day, even if it’s just for half an hour please contact Clare Perry on 07834600343 or email Robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com.

Please visit our blogs via the website to see more learning that has taken place in school.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The children have really enjoyed the story of Norman the silly slug this week. They were delighted when we told them that they would be making their own donut shell for Norman and enjoyed the activity even more when they were allowed to eat them. The children are trying really hard with their learning and 5 children got to go see Miss Hinton for a Deputy Head’s Silver sticker this week. You can see the children are really maturing and showing us that they are definitely ready to go into Reception.

THIS WEEK

In literacy they drew super pictures of Norman and used their alphabet mats really well to help them find the sounds they could hear in the words they were trying to write. The children have continued to make minibeasts for our display and our classroom is now looking like a bug hunter’s paradise. We are also watching the seeds we have planted and they are growing nicely. The children are becoming really confident at being able to work out one less than calculations practically. This learning can be supported in everyday life by saying things like “you have 2 sweets now you have eaten one so you have one less how many have you got left?” They have done very well at learning this week’s sounds of the week ‘e’ and ‘u’ and they are continuing to get better and better at reading the words in our guided reading books.

NEXT HALF TERM

Next week we will be looking at non-fiction books about minibeasts. In literacy we will be concentrating on the features of non-fiction books and we will be doing a lot of speaking and listening activities using the non-fiction books. We will be thinking about the different features they have compared to fiction books. In topic the children be doing an observational drawing of a minibeast and underneath they will write a sentence about it. Outside the children will have the opportunity to contribute and design our very own Robin Hood Nursery bug hotel which will hopefully attract lots of different minibeasts to come and visit. In numeracy we will be continuing with one less than. Those children who have already secured this skill will be doing their learning with Mrs Chin and will practise writing their numbers to 10 with perfect formation. In our phonics sessions we will be learning the sounds “r” and “h”.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD WITH THEIR LOVELY LEARNING

·        Please read with your child for 5 minutes every day.

·        Challenge them to show you how well they can write their name.

·        Please practise recognising all the letters they have learnt so far with your child.

·        Please feel free to encourage and let your child bring in things to show the class related to our topic.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin & Miss Fox

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The children have really enjoyed the story of Norman the Silly Slug this week. They were delighted when we told them that they would be making their own donut shell for Norman and enjoyed the activity even more when they were allowed to eat them! The children are doing incredibly well at achieving their sound and words of the week certificates and nearly the whole class got to go and see Mrs Dale for a head teacher’s sticker. Well done everyone!

THIS WEEK

In literacy the children had some really creative ideas about what they could use for Norman’s shell and they tried really hard to include conjunctions other than ‘and’ in their sentences. The quality of their writing is really impressing us too so keep it up Reception. We know you can reach your end of year targets. In topic as well as decorating the donuts they have made and decorated a clay snail’s shell. Over the year their design skills have really developed and the snail shells they made were beautiful. The children have continued to make large scale minibeasts for our display and our classroom is now looking like a bug hunter’s paradise. We are also watching the seeds we have planted and they are growing nicely. In mathematics we have been concentrating on doubling for the starter activity. The main focus has been on simple addition and the children really enjoyed adding up all the minibeasts they could find in their miniature gardens. In phonics we have learnt to read the words; round, magic, shouted, I’ll, us and tree and we have learnt to read and write the long o sounds ow (flow, snow) and o_e (bone, pole).

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be looking at non-fiction books about minibeasts. In literacy we will be doing lots of speaking and listening activities around non-fiction books and their different features,  concentrating on the features of non-fiction books and we will create our very own fact file about minibeasts. We will also be learning about question marks and the children will be writing questions that they would like answering about minibeasts. Yet again the children will be taking part in some immersive and exciting topic activities. We will start off the week by making some wonderful salt dough sculptures of their favourite minibeast which they will decorate and then we will be making our very own Robin Hood Reception bug hotel. In numeracy we will be focusing on simple subtraction and we will also be having a competition each day to see which class can order the numbers 1-20 fastest. We will also revisit sharing fairly between groups so please bring this into your everyday conversations with your child. In phonics we will be learning to read the words; other, food, fox, through, way and been and tree and we will be learning to read and write the long o sound oe (toe, Joe) and o (so, go).

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD

·        Please read at least 5 minutes every day with your child (don’t forget to use Bug club too!) 

·        Please encourage them to practise their lovely writing.

·        Please feel free to let your child bring in things to show the class relating to our topic. We have all had a lovely time looking at Rowan’s snails this week. Thank you Rowan. One snail even escaped and Miss Lambert found it reading a book about caterpillars!

·        Please make sure your child has trainers for P.E. on Friday as we are now doing it outside.

We hope you have an amazing weekend from Miss Pyatt, Miss Lambert and the Reception Team.

Key Stage 1

Home Learning Next week we will be learning all about time. In preparation for this please can you and your child have a look at some digital and analogue clocks around your home. First steps are simply to look at o’clock and half past. To get to grips with am, pm and what happens when, please can you choose 4 or 5 key events on a typical day (waking up, having breakfast, walking the dog etc.), then draw a little picture of these events with the time next to them – ideally digital and analogue as we teach these things side by side.

News:

SATS

We would like to say massive congratulations to all the children who have been completing their SATs this week. Their attitude to these assessments has been truly exemplary. They concentrated so beautifully, checked their answers carefully and approached the whole week with a really positive attitude. Every single child tried their very best and their results are testament to how much effort they have put in all year. We could not be prouder of them – they have definitely earned their weekend this week!

Trip to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park

I hope the children are as excited as we are about our forthcoming trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park! If you haven’t already done so, please can you return your consent form and a £10 contribution in an envelope to the office by next Friday 21^st June.

Amazing Art

This week in topic we have been focussing on our observational drawing skills. We began by drawing an animal with no stimulus at all – this was really challenging! Next we investigated with different shading techniques and how to use our pencil in different ways. After that the children followed some very challenging step by step animal drawing templates to shade and colour a range of wild animals. The detail on these drawings was outstanding and the children were so proud of their outcomes. Finally the children used all the knowledge they had gained about size, proportions and shading to produce their own observational drawing with no scaffold. Once again, these pictures were incredible – the children took so much pride in them and included such a lot of detail. I urge you to have a look at some of the fantastic pictures on the KS1 blog.

Literacy

Next week in literacy we will be continuing to build on our knowledge of poetry. It will be lovely to share some of the poems the children brought in for their home learning. Thank you so much for taking the time to put these together, they look lovely. The children’s performance skills are really developing well! They read and perform poems with so much confidence and expression! We’re looking forward to sharing them. Each class will be looking at a different book as inspiration for their own writing. We’ll be learning and reciting poetry, producing our own rhyming strings and following a set structure to create our own verses. 

Numeracy:

As outlined above, the next couple of weeks will be all about telling the time. We’ll learn about digital and analogue clocks at the same time so the children become confident with both methods. Initially we want to secure the children’s concept of time. To do this we will start by familiarising the children with lots of time vocabulary (second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, decade century) and practice ordering time durations. We’ll then use clocks to read and draw o’clock and half past, before progressing onto trickier times like quarter past and quarter to – and maybe even harder ones! Later in the week we’ll be tackling some time based word problems so children can apply their new understanding. Also, we want to make sure the children are all confident with the days of the week and the months of the year. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks!

Have a lovely weekend.

The KS1 team

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

What an exciting week we have had! This week, the children have had the pleasure of learning all about how to keep teeth healthy. A local dentist, Mr Reid, kindly sent LKS2 a film clip, explaining the importance of why we should keep our teeth healthy and how to do so. Mrs Shahzad helped the 3/4 children to brush their teeth correctly, ensuring everybody was using the correct techniques.

Literacy

This week the children have been learning how to extend their ideas using a range of conjunctions such as: and, but, because, so, however, therefore and although. In addition to this, the children have also been learning to construct complex sentences. We were really impressed with the children’s ability to identify the main clause from the subordinate clause, which is a tricky concept to understand! Next week the children will be showing off their learning from the whole of the year, and completing an assessed write. We aim to make this a positive experience for all children, ensure that they understand that as long as they try their best, that’s all we could ask for!

Numeracy

In numeracy this week, the children have been learning about direction and positioning. The children become familiar with the different compass points, and started to learn that there are 360 degrees within a circle. The children have been practicing turning around a circle different by degrees, both clockwise and anticlockwise. In addition to this, the children have been learning about coordinates. We have taught the children to go along the corridor and then up the stairs to locate different coordinates. The children have applied this skill by having a fun game of Battleships!

Topic

This week in topic the children have been learning all about the African wildlife, especially the big 5! We all enjoyed watching clips from Lion King, as well as Lewis’s home learning, to help us learn more about the wildlife found in Africa. The children have produced their own Safari Brochures, which share details of the different animals found in different African countries like Kenya and Tanzania. These brochures are so beautifully presented that a selection of these will be going up on the blog for the world to see! Well done guys, you have blown us away!

Spellings to be tested on Monday 24^th June (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Please support your child in practicing their spellings every day to help them achieve 10/10 in their spelling test every week.

Group One	Group Two
Than	Famous
That	Various
Them	Dangerous
Then	Curious
Tree	Furious
Those	Cough
These	Enough
Tried	Rough
Their	Dough
There	Though

Reminders

·    Please ensure your child’s PE kit is kept in school from Monday-Friday every week. As it is the summer term, all P.E sessions will be outdoors.

·    Please ensure all reading records are brought to school on Monday mornings. This is very important so we can monitor how much reading your children are doing during the week. Thanks for your support.

Have a lovely weekend!

Team 3/4

UKS2 News Roundup:

·        This week’s achiever is all of year 6. During last week’s residential trip our year 6 children truly impressed with their determined attitude, superb teamwork and excellent manners. Well done year 6, every member of staff at Robin Wood commented on how amazing you all are!

·        The school council elections for our new year 6 captains will be held on the 20^th June. The format has changed from last year and we will now be selecting new captains to represent throughout the year. This gives more children the opportunity to experience these leadership roles. Pupils will be required to produce a small presentation on why they think they should be school captain along with what qualities and skills they can bring to the role. An equal number of class representatives will be selected before the final candidates are decided.

·        Can we remind all pupils that they require a PE kit in school all week. The timetable is often subject to change, so it is important that children have their kit available at all times. Suitable footwear is vital, as pupils may be outside for PE. Additionally please can parents ensure that relevant hay fever medicines are given to children to ensure that they are able to participate in sessions. 

Dates for your diary:

·        20^th June- Elections for our new year 6 captains.

·        17^th- 21^st June- Year 6 Bikeability training. 

·        27^th June – Tea Party at Rodillian for Year 6 pupils. (4:00-6:00pm)

·        1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd July- Year 6 induction day for prospective Rodillian and Royds pupils (8.20- 14.30). Please can all pupils wear their Robin Hood school uniform.

·        4^th July – Year 6/7 disco at Rodillian – Hawaiian theme! (6:30-8:30pm)

·        22^nd July- Year 6 leaver’s prom.

Numeracy:

·        This week pupils have been recapping on their knowledge of number. During lessons pupils have developed their understanding of prime numbers, multiples, common multiples, factors and common denominators.

·       Next week pupils will be applying their times tables skills to a series of numerical challenges with the opportunity to win prizes!

Literacy:

·        This week pupils have been introduced to some popular poems by Roger McGough and have written some of their own poetry in a similar style.

·        Next week pupils will be reflecting upon their year in school and writing their own report front cover. This will consist of a review of their year in school and what they have particularly enjoyed.

·        Spellings: Pupils will be tested on the following spellings; additional, individual, digital, fictional, traditional, apologetically, actually, physically, accidentally, gradually.

Other areas of the curriculum:

·        In PE this week pupils have been developing their speed, agility and quickness through a variety of activities that pupils will compete in this sports day.

·        This week in ICT pupils have been experimenting recording their own poetry, using a variety of devices, concentrating on expression, intonation and projection.

·        In Spanish this week pupils have been learning the names of continents and world rivers.

·        In Music this week, 5/6M have continued to explore several percussion instruments with our music specialist Mr Bache. 5/6B have continued to learn the key notes of Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. 5/6G have continued to experiment with different samples to change the mood and emotion of their silent movie compositions using garage band.

Visit our blog: http://robinhood56.blogspot.co.uk/

Issue 33 2012-13

Newsletter Issue 33

Friday 7th June 2013

Dear Parent/Carer,

We’ve had a great week back to welcome in the new and final half term of the school year. Summer has definitely arrived and it has been a joy to spend some time on the school field at lunchtimes, enjoying the open space and feeling the sun on our faces. Please continue to put sun cream on your child(ren) before coming to school, make sure they bring in a water bottle to stay hydrated and if possible provide a sun hat. I even had some little flowers picked for me when I went on to the field on Thursday; it made my day!

Home learning

I have continued to be amazed at the quality of the home learning coming in this week. I have been particularly impressed by some of the “Africa” outcomes coming in from Year 3/ 4. We are consistently impressed by the level at which our children engage with our topics before we have even taught them! I think this is an excellent sign that the children find the topics stimulating and exciting but we know that the high standards of the outcomes are endorsed by the parents so once again, thank you to all who put the time and energy into these wonderful pieces of work.

Y6 Residential

Our Year 6 children will, as you read this, be making their way back from the Residential trip. They will have had a fantastic time, tackling their fears, facing challenges, building new skills and gaining confidence when being away from home. We are very proud of our Year 6 children and how they approach difficult situations with such spirit. I look forward to hearing about how they all got on.

Young Advisors event

I would like to draw your attention to an event happening in our city on Saturday 15^th June between 1pm and 4pm for children aged 8 and above. Held at the Leeds City Museum, it will give children the opportunity to sign up to be a “Young Advisor”. This event is for children and young people in the city who would like to become Young Advisors and volunteer their time to gain skills and experience working on a variety of projects over the summer and beyond, such as leading steering groups, being part of recruitment and selection panels for staff and the planning committee for Child Friendly Leeds awards, to name but a few. The afternoon will follow a “drop in” format so that children, young people and families can visit, take part in fun activities, influence opportunities and hopefully sign up to get further involved! The reason I advocate this event so much is because I feel it gives the children of our city a stake in what we can achieve in the future and shows them how their skills can be transferred to really make a difference in a real life, relevant and important context; an approach we strive to achieve through the curriculum here at Robin Hood.

Life Channel

We will shortly be installing the Life Channel at school. This will involve the installation of a large information screen in the grounds of the school, which will provide a wealth of information to you and the community about what we are doing in school and what key events are happening or coming up. We are setting up our involvement with the Life Channel to achieve better links with parents and keep them fully informed about what is happening in school. We will stream the channel with our website so that parents who do not pick up their children can still benefit from this resource. The benefits extend beyond parental engagement as the School TV network also provides children with educational resources which can be tailored to the needs of the school. Children will be encouraged to film their content and upload it to the Life Channel for the public to see. For more information about how the Life Channel will be able to benefit our school, please visit. www.thelifechannel.com

PTA NEWS

Well summer is finally here, let’s hope it stays for at least another few weeks so we can have a cracking Fayre. Over the half term holidays our helpful volunteers have been sourcing all things good from food and drink to fun and games. We still need your help however so..... please could you donate any empty wine bottles (with tops still attached), jam jars, newspapers and good quality unwanted teddies? We also require the loan of a few gazebos for the day itself so if you are willing to lend your gazebo for the day please could you either speak with one of us or email robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com. The raffle tickets have gone out today in your child's book bag. The first prize is a whopping £100 with lots of other prizes to be won from family days out to yummy goodies. Please return the stubs with your greatly appreciated money to the office in an envelope. If you require more tickets please contact the school office who will gladly give you more. Have a lovely sunny weekend.

Please do remember that we have a school calendar on the front page of the school website that will include all key dates for your diary.  I have recently updated the calendar with some dates regarding the school year 2013-14.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Dale

Nursery newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

What a lovely first week back and we have had wonderful weather to top it off. The children came back with a spring in their step on Monday and they were all really excited to tell us about the adventures they had had over the holidays which we loved hearing about. They were really eager to start playing in our new areas on Monday. They love our new garden shed inside and they have been hunting for bugs using our brand new bug hunting equipment all week outside.

THIS WEEK

The children have really enjoyed our story of the week “I Love bugs”. They have done some wonderful drawings of their favourite bugs and have written the name of the bug underneath it. The children are doing really well at writing the sounds they can hear in the words and using alphabet mats. We have been making a large scale bug display in topic this week and the children have really enjoyed making some large-scale papier-mâché mini beasts. With the lovely weather this week the children have really made use of the outdoor area and they have been playing really nicely with each other in the water area. In numeracy the children have done really well at counting to 20. They are enjoying working out what is one more than numbers under 10 and have enjoyed the practical nature of our activities. In phonics they have coped really well with the introduction of books with words in and are really showing that they are ready to go into Reception.

NEXT HALF TERM

Next week we will be learning about the story of ‘Norman the slug with the silly shell’ in literacy. We will be drawing Norman in literacy and we will be writing a sentence underneath the picture. In topic we will be decorating a donut for Norman to use as his shell and we will be making a clay snail and decorating it. We will continue with all our exciting outdoor activities collecting bugs and planting lots of different things to grow. In numeracy we will be moving onto one less than and again we will be taking a very practical approach to our learning. In phonics we will be learning to read simple cvc words and we will be matching them to the correct pictures. We will be learning the sounds “e” and “u”.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD WITH THEIR LOVELY LEARNING

·        Please read with your child for 5 minutes every day.

·        Challenge them to show you how well they can write their name.

·        Please practise recognising all the letters they have learnt so far with your child.

We hope you have a lovely weekend and fingers crossed that the weather remains beautiful.

Mrs Steel, Mrs Chin & Miss Fox

Reception newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

What a lovely first week back and we have had wonderful weather to top it off. The children came back with a spring in their step on Monday and they were all really excited to tell us about the adventures they had had over the holidays, which we loved hearing about. They were all really eager to start playing in our new areas on Monday. They love our new indoor pond and they have been hunting for bugs using our brand new bug hunting equipment all week.

THIS WEEK

In literacy the children have made some fantastic books all about bugs and the children really took the time to draw beautiful illustrations. They are so good that we have proudly displayed them in the library so that they can be enjoyed by everyone at Robin Hood. The quality of the children’s writing has really improved and they are trying so hard to meet all their targets, so please keep practising at home with them to help build their confidence. We have been making a large scale bug display in topic this week and the children have really enjoyed making some large-scale papier-mâché mini beasts. We had a fantastic time on Tuesday planting runner beans and discussing what plants need to be able to grow. We will be monitoring and watching the plants grow over the next few weeks and hopefully we will have some yummy runner beans in the next few weeks. In mathematics we have been learning our number bonds to 10 and we have used numicon to help us work it out. The children were really confident at using the numicon by the end of the week and it has definitely helped to increase their confidence. In phonics we have learnt to read the words; take, thought, dog, well, find and more and we have learnt to read and write the long I sounds; y (by, fly) and i (find, kind).

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning about the story of Norman the slug with the silly shell in literacy. We will be designing a shell for Norman in literacy and we will be writing sentences about why the shell is a good shell for Norman. In topic we will be decorating a donut for Norman to use as his shell and towards the end of the week we will be making Norman a clay shell and decorating it. We will continue with all our exciting outdoor activities collecting bugs and planting lots of different things to grow. In numeracy we will be focusing on simple addition and subtraction using the method of counting on and backwards using their fingers and number lines. In phonics we will be learning to read the words; round, magic, shouted, I’ll, us and tree and we will be learning to read and write the long o sounds ow (flow, snow) and o_e (bone, pole).

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD

·        Please read at least 5 minutes every day with your child either on bug club or their reading books. We have updated the books on bug club so they are now the correct colour.

·        Please encourage them to write things when the opportunity arises and make sure they think about their own personal literacy targets.

·        Please make sure your child has trainers for P.E. on Friday as we are now doing it outside.

Have a lovely weekend and fingers crossed for some more lovely weather.

Miss Pyatt, Miss Lambert and the Reception Team

Key Stage 1

Home Learning: The children have started their new literacy topic on poetry this week and it has been so great to share some of their favourite rhyming books with the class. For this week’s home learning we are asking for your child to select their favourite poem or rhyming story, read it out loud to you with expression and then copy it up into their home learning books. As they do this, question your child on the features of the poem, getting them to find the rhyming words and spot any alliteration (when two words that are next to one another start with the same letter). They can add pictures too!

News:

Welcome back!

We hope you had a lovely half term break with your children and were able to enjoy the sunshine. We’ve had many tales of seaside and caravanning fun recounted to us this week so it’s clear the children relished the time off school and being outdoors! As always, they have all settled back into the school life and timetable beautifully and have been accessing some great learning.

PE

The Key Stage 1 children are in training for the Summer Olympics aka Sports Day! This week we practised our sprinting skills before learning about relay races with a baton. We practised passing the baton to our team securely to ensure no time was lost in the changeover. The children loved the competitive nature of this lesson as well as relishing the chance to galvanise their team spirit! All of our lessons will take place on the school field and will involve exercises like running and jumping. It is really important that the children have sturdy, comfortable trainers with good grips on the soles to be able to access this learning appropriately and make sure they don’t slip. It’s also really important that every child has a full PE kit. This unit is very physical and hopefully the sun will keep on shining meaning they need to be in clothes that can get hot and sweaty and not be worn for the rest of the day. Thank you for your support with these points.

Topic:

We introduced our new topic this week to the delight and enthusiasm of the children: Animals. Our learning has centred around science and geography, looking at features of different habitats and the kind of animals that are able to live there as well as discussing the concept of adaptation and how creatures have changed their bodies to suit their environment. We looked at giraffes’ long necks and tough tongues, penguins’ long eye lashes and blubber and zebras stripes. From this the children chose a habitat and created a Super Animal to live in that place. There were some amazing creations that saw many characteristics of different animals amalgamate to make the ultimate survivor!

Literacy:

We began a fabulously fun new unit this week for the half term on poetry. Each class has had their own poetry book through which we have introduced different poetic language and devices to them. Year 1 have enjoyed the rhyme in Dr Seuss’s Hop on Pop, Year 1-2 have gone nursery character spotting through rhyming couplets in Each Peach Pear Plum and Year 2 have looked through baby’s peep hole in the book Peepo. We have focussed on the performance of these poems; memorising lines, changing the tone of our voices, adding facial expressions and body movements to build the performance. We have gone hunting for rhyme, recognising that this feature is often place at the end of each line and also alliteration hunting. We have discussed how these devices add interest and fun to the poems. Why don’t you share a poem or limerick with your child and see if they can hear the rhyme?

Numeracy:

The children all showed great excitement when they were told that next week will be our final assessment week of the year, where they will sit their SATs in numeracy as well as reading. They love the challenge of these weeks and demonstrate determination and strength. Our focus in preparation for this week has been to surround the children with as many different styles of questions as possible so they have become even more familiar and comfortable with the language of numeracy, what this language means and recalled lots of different strategies for solving these written questions. We have looked closely at the four main functions, doubling and halving, money problems as well as revisiting shapes and fractions. It’s been a wonderful experience revisiting the learning from the year and seeing concepts that they found difficult initially sinking in. One particular concept that the children have found tricky this week is that of getting change from money. This is a ‘find the difference’ style question, which is simply  a take away; if you go to the shops this weekend, let your child hand the money over and count the change.

Next week:

We’re looking forward to next week and feel as confident as the children do in their abilities after a year of lovely learning. Normal lessons will commence again in week 3 where we will continue to learn about poetry in literacy and introduce a new topic of time in numeracy.

 

Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter

We have had a lovely first week back after the half term holiday. We were really excited to see the children’s super home learning about Africa and were very impressed with the variety we received, from cooking videos, to documentaries, posters and powerpoints, which showed off all of the skills the children learnt last half term. We were simply blown away! This week also saw us start a new unit in PE; athletics. This will prepare the children for sports day, which will take place Friday 12^th July.

Literacy

This half term in Literacy the children will be learning about poetry and play scripts. This exciting unit allows children to be creative, understand deeper knowledge of different poetry styles and develop their performance skills. This week in Literacy, children have been practicing using accurate punctuation in their writing. Next week we will be focusing on extending our ideas into compound and complex sentences.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy, the children have been revisiting their skills for addition and subtraction. We were really impressed with the children’s increased confidence when using strategies like column addition and column subtraction, and were pleased with the children’s independence around using these to solve worded problems involving money. Next week we will be learning about position and direction and using compass skills to navigate each other to different places. We will be learning how to plot and read co – ordinates on a grid and using these to design our own treasure island.

Topic

To kick off the first week of our new topic, Africa, the children have been learning about all of the different countries that are situated within this continent. The children have conducted their own research on a given country, and carefully gathered notes to form a detailed paragraph. The children have also drawn and coloured in their countries flag, which has made a great display. During our art sessions the children have been experimenting with pastels to create different images of the African skyline at various times of the day. We will be building upon these skills each week to create an African landscape scene with various African animals in the full front.

Spellings to be tested on Monday 17^th June (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)

Group One	Group Two
Which	Healthy
With	Squash
Where	Minute
White	Imagine
When	Opposite
Was	Damage
Whenever	Purpose
Whereas	Police
Will	Promise
would	Whereas

Reminders

·         Can we remind you that children need a full PE kit in school, clearly labelled, from Monday-Friday. Please ensure this consists of a plain white t-shirt as well as shorts or jogging bottoms.

·         As the weather is a lot warmer now please ensure your child has a water bottle at school with them every day.

Have a lovely weekend!

Team 3/4

UKS2 News Roundup:

·         This week’s achiever is Amber in 5/6G for her beautiful and imaginative use of verbs, adverbs and adjectives to create specific details about her own imaginary character, ‘The Zebhump’ during Miss Hinton’s creative writing session this week! Well done, Amber – you’re a star!

·         Due to the Rodillian disco on the 4^th July our Year 6 Leavers Prom has been rearranged to Monday the 22^nd July 5.30- 7.30pm. More details to follow. 

·         The school council elections for our new Year 6 captains will be held on the 20^th June. The format has changed from last year and we will now be selecting new captains to represent throughout the year. This gives more children the opportunity to experience these leadership roles. Soon pupils will be required to produce a small presentation on why they think they should be school captain along with what qualities and skills they can bring to the role. An equal number of class representatives will be selected before the final candidates are decided.

·         Please can all year 6 pupils ensure that their Bikeability consent forms are completed and returned to school as soon as possible?

·         Any year 6 pupils, who have been given a rising stars grammar and punctuation book or a mental maths memory stick, please return this as soon as possible.

Dates for your diary:

·         12^th June- Multiplication Parent Workshop (4:30- 5:15pm) in Miss Gascoigne’s room.

·         13^th June– Year 6 Information Evening for prospective Rodillian pupils (4:30- 7:30pm).

·         20^th June- Elections for our new Year 6 captains.

·         17^th- 21^st June- Year 6 Bikeability training. 

·         27^th June – Tea Party at Rodillian for Year 6 pupils. (4:00-6:00pm)

·         1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd July- Year 6 induction day for prospective Rodillian and Royds pupils (8.20am- 14.30pm).

(Pupils need to wear their Robin Hood school uniform).

·         4^th July – Year 6/7 disco at Rodillian – Hawaiian theme! (6:30-8:30pm)

·         22^nd July- Year 6 leavers prom.

Numeracy:

·         This week pupils have been readdressing their addition and subtraction strategies. Pupils have been developing their rapid recall strategies to help them when mentally calculating addition and subtraction problems.

·         Next week pupils will be recapping on their knowledge of number. Lessons will address prime numbers, multiples, common multiples, factors and common denominators.

Literacy:

·         This week pupils have been getting creative and writing poetry. Pupils have been using a variety of descriptive techniques through figurative language. 

·         Next week pupils will be introduced to some popular poems by Roger McGough and writing some of their own poetry in a similar style.

·         Spellings: Pupils will be tested on the following spellings; impression, progress, discussion, permission, comparison, conclusion, decision, collision, division, extension.

Other areas of the curriculum:

·         In PE this week pupils have been developing their sprinting technique in preparation for sports day later this term. 

·         This week in ICT pupils will be introduced to aural broadcasts and will be identifying the key features within a successful broadcast.

·         In Spanish this week pupils have been learning the names of continents and world rivers.

·         In Music this week, 5/6M have started to explore several percussion instruments with a music specialist. 5/6B have started to learn the key notes of Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. 5/6G have started to experiment with a variety of loops and samples for their silent movie compositions using garage band.

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