Newsletter Issue 2
|
Friday 14th September 2012
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
We’ve had a fantastic first full week back at school. As I write this week’s newsletter, up the corridor I can hear a Key Stage One class chanting their two times tables up to 100 with incredible gusto! Down the corridor, I can hear Year 5/6 singing with enthusiasm and experimenting with percussion instruments. Learning is in full flow and the smile on the children’s faces when I have visited classes is a true indication that there is exciting and engaging learning taking place in every class.
Royal Armouries Trip
This week, the Year 5/6 children enjoyed a trip to the Royal Armouries, which acted as a stimulating starting point for the Tudors topic. They engaged in workshops and had a chance to tour the museum. The children had a fantastic time and Charlie Senior, Max Ellis and Robert Mitchell enjoyed telling me all about it when I saw them in the playground the next day.
Parents Meetings
Thank you to those parents who were able to attend the “Meet your Teacher” sessions, this week. It is very useful to get an overview of the systems in place in class and find out a little more about how we can work together to support your child. As is often the case, there will have been parents that could not make the meetings but it is important for you to know that you can approach your teacher regarding support at home for your child, at any time and make appointments for longer conversations, where necessary.
Newsletter
You will notice that the newsletter this week is in paper form. Having had a period of trialling the newsletter in electronic form, we now recognise that there are cases where parents find it difficult to access the newsletter online. This can potentially have a knock on effect with the engagement with home learning- an aspect of our provision that we value very highly indeed. For that reason, we have decided to return to paper based newsletters but please be aware that they will still be available via the newsletter blog on the school website.
The Rodillian Academy and Royds High School
holding their Open Evenings next week for the parents of
Year 6 children.
Royds- Weds 19th September- 5:00 p.m onwards.
Rodillian- Thurs 20th September- 4:30- 8 p.m
Have a fabulous weekend!
Mrs Dale
Nursery newsletter - NEWS ROUND UP
The first few days in Nursery have been fantastic! It has been lovely to meet the children and to start to get to know them. The children have settled in well and made lots of new friends. The whole team are looking forward to accompanying your child on the exciting learning journey that lies ahead of them over the next year.
THIS WEEK
In phonics this week we have been on a listening walk to help the children develop their listening skills which are getting better and better. We have also had lots of fun practising making environmental sounds and asking questions such as what sound does a bell make? What sound does the wind make? Literacy has been amazing this week! We just want to say a big thank you for helping your child decorate and choose what to put in their special bag. They were decorated beautifully and the children were all very excited to tell us about the special things they had brought in to share with us. In numeracy we have been making sure that all the children can count to five confidently and we have started counting to 10 using lots of different songs like 10 little monkeys.
NEXT WEEK
We have another exciting week ahead of us next week. We will be talking and learning about our bodies and all of the amazing things they can do. The children will become artists and will create their own self-portraits. In numeracy we will be learning about data handling and we will be collecting information about our bodies and putting it onto a bar chart. In our phonics sessions we will be playing some sound games and in guided reading we will be sharing books together and discussing what is happening in the pictures
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please look at the books that have been sent home with your child once every day and comment in their reading record. Their reading is already fantastic but with your support and encouragement the children will make rapid progress and become even more superb!
· We have noticed that lots of the children don’t have bags for their reading books. Book bags or any other bags are a good idea so that the children can transport their books and letters easily to and from school. There are Robin Hood book bags available which can be purchased from The Uniform Shop.
· Please feel free to change reading books whenever your child is in Nursery. We will be setting up a basket for you to drop off books and reading records in a morning and collect them at the end of the day, allowing us to look at all the wonderful reading you have been doing together. We will be reading with every child during the week.
· Please practice counting to 10 with your child and ask them about what noises different things in the environment make.
Thank you for your support and have a fabulous weekend.
Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
The children have continued to amaze us this week! We have been so impressed by how independent the children are becoming and how quickly they have all picked up all of the daily routines. They are all enjoying taking part in the activities and showing us their brilliant learning.
THIS WEEK
In phonics this week we have been practising saying and writing the sounds; s, a, t and p and reading our key words of the week which were a, as, an, at, if and in. Literacy has been fabulous this week! We just want to say a big thank you to you for helping your child decorate and choose what to put in their special bag. They were decorated beautifully and the children were all very excited to tell us about the special things they had brought in to share with us. In numeracy we have been making sure that all the children can count to ten confidently and we have started counting to 20 using lots of different songs and games.
NEXT WEEK
We have another exciting week ahead of us next week. We will be talking and learning about our bodies and all of the amazing things they can do. The children will become artists and will create their own self-portraits. In numeracy we will be learning about data handling and we will be collecting information about our bodies and putting it onto a bar chart. We will even be making our own bar chart on the computer. Next week’s sounds are; i, n, m, d and our words of the week are; is, it, of, off, on and can. Please help your child to practice saying the sounds of the letters, writing the letters with fabulous formation and reading the words.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please listen to your child’s fabulous reading once a day and comment in their reading record. Their reading is already fantastic but with your support and encouragement the children will make rapid progress and become even more superb!
· We have noticed that lots of the children don’t have bags for their reading books. Book bags or any other bags are a good idea so that the children can transport their books and letters easily to and from school. There are Robin Hood book bags available which can be purchased from The Uniform Shop.
· Your child has a designated reading day (which you will find on the first page of their reading record) where they will read one to one. Please ensure that your child has their book bag on this day.
· P.E. is on Friday so please make sure they bring their kit. Their kits can be left in their lockers.
· Please practice counting to 10 and 20 with your child and practice writing their full name with them.
Thank you once again for your support and have a fabulous weekend.
Home Learning
Please support your child in creating their own sequences in 2’s, 5’s or 10’s, this can be extended to 3’s and 4’s for the Year 2’s. Try to encourage your child to start from larger numbers too.
For example
Counting in 5’s starting from 9, or counting backward in 10’s starting from 200.
You may also want to provide your child with sequences for them to complete, always ask your child how they worked out the next number in the sequence…
|
News
What a fantastic week Key Stage 1 has had! The phase has been busy making robots and decorating them with foil. Please check out the Key Stage 1 blog for pictures of the brilliant creations.
Thank you to everyone who attended the Parent Meeting on Wednesday. Please be assured your child reads on a regular basis at school with their class teacher and other adults in the room. We do not write comments in your child’s reading record after reading sessions as we spend this time reading with additional children. The time it takes for the children to get out their reading records and an adult to fill in an individual comment for a group of eight children, can be spent reading with another group of children. We do, however, write comments into the Reading Record every Monday and answer any questions you may have. We provide you with a more detailed account of your child’s next steps at the end of each half term when your child is assessed. If you have any more questions regarding reading please feel free to make an appointment and speak with Miss Hinton.
PE
A reminder that every child needs to bring in their PE kit either on the day or it can be left in their locker for the half term. At times the children will be using different apparatus and need to be dressed in safe and appropriate clothing. Year 1 will have PE every Tuesday, Year 1/2 is on a Wednesday and Year 2 is on a Thursday. If your child does not have their PE kit they will not be able to take part in the fun and exciting activities.
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have been busy writing a poster of facts all about themselves, including a paragraph on their family, friends and hobbies. The children have looked at the features of a poster (non-chronological report) including the title, sub-headings and ‘Did you know…..?’ fact. The children have tried hard to use CAPITAL letters and full stops in their writing and develop their ideas using: so, if, but, because and when. Next week you will receive the writing your child has completed along with a target sheet which sets out the next steps. We ask that every time your child writes at home you encourage them to use the features on the target sheet. In order for your child to be secure at a certain level they need to be using the features as an embedded skill.
Next week the children will be writing instructions on how to make a robot. The children will be using time connectives such as: first, then, next, after that, finally. Please support your child in learning to spell these words which they can then apply within their writing.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to develop their counting skills. Counting in 2’s beyond 20 (100 for Year 2), 5’s beyond 50 (100 for Year 2) and 10’s beyond 100 (1000 for Year 2). Please continue to count in the above sequences, starting from any number to develop their skills, e.g. Counting in 2’s starting from 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 or counting in 2’s starting from 3, 5, 7, 9, 11….
The children have also been continuing written sequences, ensuring that they verbally explain the process they have been through. For example continue the sequence 4, 8, 10, 12….. the sequence is counting in 2’s or 3, 8, 13, 18…..counting in 5’s starting from an odd number.
Next week the children will continue their counting and continuing sequences but will start looking at odd and even numbers. The children will learn songs to help them remember which numbers are odd and which are even and why.
Lower Key Stage 2 Newsletter
What a wonderful first full week we’ve had in year 3/4! The children have been blowing us away with their fabulous attitude towards their learning!
Home Learning
This week, we have been looking at some of the fabulous home learning the children did over the summer in preparation for our Victorians topic this half term. We have been so impressed with the effort and care that has been taken with this so thank you for your support. This week’s home learning is to continue with reading regularly at home. All children have now been given two reading books to take home- one which is their book band, and another that is a ‘free choice’. Please ensure you are noting in the children’s reading records when they are reading at home- if we can see they have read every day they will earn five house points for their team! We expect the children to bring their reading records in every Monday morning so we can mark them and ensure we are communicating with you.
Literacy
In Literacy this week we have been finding out all about working class Victorian children. The children have been reading books and watching videos to gather information. We have also been practicing writing compound sentences using connectives and writing paragraphs with audience engaging features, such as questions to the reader, alliteration, and brackets for further information.
Numeracy
This week, we have been recognising and extending number sequences. The children have developed their skills to be able to include negative numbers in their sequences. Why don’t you create a number sequence, going up in equal intervals for your child to solve? Next week, we will be looking at place value and partitioning of 2, 3, 4 and 5 digit numbers.
Topic
Our Victorians topic has got off to a flying start this week! The children have been enjoying watching ‘Oliver!’ to find out more about the life of the poor children. They have begun retelling the story using pictures from the film and have done some lovely drawings to depict what clothes poor children wore.
Spellings to be tested on 24th September (the children already have their spellings for this Monday)
Group One
|
Group Two
|
rain
|
pretty
|
jail
|
listen
|
tail
|
large
|
snail
|
college
|
daisy
|
rigid
|
made
|
family
|
train
|
conduct
|
paint
|
river
|
rainbow
|
nothing
|
column
|
Reminders
· Please ensure your child has an art shirt, which stays in their locker throughout the year.
· PE kits need to come in on a Monday and be taken home on a Friday. Miss Thackeray’s and Mrs Moore’s class will now have PE on Tuesdays. Miss Snowden’s will have PE on Thursday.
· Please ensure your child brings in an old sock as they will be making sock puppets on Thursday in Spanish class.
UKS2 News Roundup
· A big well done to all the children for their excellent behaviour and enthusiasm whilst on our Tudor trip to the Royal Armouries. We all had a fantastic time and really enjoyed looking closely at real Tudor artefacts and having a go at embossing copper!
· Congratulations to Elliott Madeley for his enthusiastic and dedicated approach to his learning since the start of the new term. He has proved to the rest of the class that he is ready for a challenge and is determined to succeed in everything that he does – Keep it up, Elliott!
Numeracy:
- This week, the children have been focusing on mental strategies for adding several numbers, including decimals. Next week, the children will be learning how to order and compare numbers, including decimal and negative numbers. A link to some games which are being used in class is available on Miss Gascoigne’s blog http://robinhood56g.blogspot.co.uk/p/mental-maths-2012-13.html
Literacy:
- The children have been exploring the use of higher level connectives in writing this week, these include: however, despite, and although. There are games available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic/connectives to practise using connectives. The children have also been watching interesting videos as a stimulus for their writing and have been very busy writing paragraphs all about Tudor laws, school and currency in preparation for their independent writing. The children have written some excellent non-chronological reports all about the Tudors and the handwriting is particularly exceptional already – we can’t wait to see how the writing blossoms as the year unfolds
- Spellings for this week, which will be tested on Friday are:
Immense, immature, immediate, imagine, immortal, immune, imply.
Please make sure you try hard to learn all of your spellings each week as they are a fundamental Literacy skill.
Other areas of the curriculum:
- In Topic, the children have been gathering information about their family background to create their own family tree – a big thank you to all parents, carers and extended family for all your efforts to make this possible – we were really impressed with the response!
- In PE this week, we have been improving and practising our dribbling skills to help us play football in small-sided game situations.
- In Spanish this week, the children have been learning how to express their food likes and dislikes with Mrs Brook – Muy bien Year 5/6!
- In Music this week, the children in 5/6G have been learning how to read music by understanding the musical notation: treble clef, stave, crochet, quaver, crochet rest and double bar line. The children have also learnt how to read the notes on the stave as well as learning how to play a duet with the recorder using the notes B, A and G.
The children in 5/6B have been given an introduction to percussion instruments by an expert called Mr Major – we can’t wait to get started on our Samba compositions!
The children in 5/6M the children have been creating compositions using Garageband on the iPad.
Reminders:
Please can all the children ensure that they are come into school with the correct PE kit on a Monday (5/6G & 5/6B) and a Tuesday (5/6M). PE kit should be a plain white T-shirt, black or blue shorts and outdoor trainers (weather permitting). No jewellery should be worn.
Don’t forget to bring in your planners every day, especially on a Monday when they will be stamped and signed – try to aim for at least 4 entries per week of reading and remember, stickers are up for grabs!
