Friday, 20 July 2012

Issue 39 2011-12


Newsletter Issue 39

Friday 20th July 2012


Dear Parent/Carer,

James - Wish To Walk
The school community has raised a staggering £6795.77 towards James’ Wish To Walk Appeal.  This magnificent effort shows the power of a community to mobilise around a cause that is dear to its heart and to make a difference together.

100% Attendance
We have twenty children in school who have achieved 100% attendance this year.  This is a magnificent achievement for this 6% of our school population.  Letters of congratulations have been sent in the post to: Laura Bond, Millie Booth, Jessica Charlesworth, Evan Dale, Lauren Dawson, Eleanor Dobson, Jack Gillings, Owen Godwin, Daisy Hutchinson, Harry Hutchinson, Jack Kreczmer, Lilly Mahon-Ingoldby, Amber Sharp, Jodi Smith, Charlie Thompson, Matthew Trueman, Videet Vadalia, Finlay Wade, Kian Wade, Emily Young.

Merit Prize Winners
Congratulations to Oban Padgett (Reception), Ben Brook (Key Stage One), Josh Driscoll (Year 3/4) and Phoebe Millard (Year 5/6), our Merit Prize Winners this year.  Our Merit Prize is awarded to those children who have earned the most merits throughout the year, so it is a long-distance race.  We paid a visit to Toys ‘R’ Us this week and the children all spent their £50 on toys of their choice.

Term 3 Merit Winners
Daniel Akintolu (Nursery), Ewan Molyneaux, Ellis Mason (Reception), Lauren Durkan, Taylor Davies, Ella Spence (Key Stage One), Stephi Lund, Amber Sharp, Josh Driscoll (Year 3/4), Laura Bond, Bethany Plews and Josh Lunn (Year 5/6) were this terms Merit Rosette winners.  The Merit Rosettes are awarded to the child who earned most merits that term.  Congratulations to them all for their magnificent effort.

Poetry Competition Winners
Congratulations to Alex Hopes, Maisie Kime, Jessica Siddons, Jessica Boak, Maddison Evans and Grace Allen – our Poetry Competition winners. 

TES Awards
A team from Robin Hood attended the Headteacher of the Year Awards at the Park Lane Hilton, London, a couple of weeks ago.  A photograph of some of our teachers meeting the host Rob Brydon is online at: http://www.tesawards.co.uk/tessa2012/gallery

A personal message and thank you to all families
I am privileged to have worked at Robin Hood since January 2003.  On arriving as Deputy Headteacher I felt that the school had a magic about it, and that is a feeling I have carried with me ever since.  I leave the school one term short of my tenth anniversary at what I believe is a fitting time, one at which the school is thriving and is looking confidently forward towards the future.

I can reflect upon my period as Headteacher with great pride.  During that time the school has gained a stronger and stronger reputation, further and further afield - to the point where I have recently been invited to Australia to talk to School Principal colleagues there about how we teach at Robin Hood (!)  I have had the privilege of working with wonderful colleagues, children and families, have formed deep and lasting friendships and will carry many happy memories away with me.  It is fair to say that there have been many, many changes at the school over the years.  Great schools are dynamic places where exciting things happen.

I have been involved in three Ofsted inspections at Robin Hood, two HMI Subject Inspections, a visit from the President of Iceland, a visit to an assembly by the then Secretary of State for Education, and much more.  Seeing Gordon Brown - the then Prime Minister - walk on stage at a World Education Conference in Westminster with a film of children from Robin Hood playing as the backdrop to his entry will remain in my memory for a long time.  Our children have appeared on a Jonathan Ross BBC TV show, on Calendar News, on local radio and in print.

Children have always been, and are, at the core of what we do.  They are our moral purpose.  They are what drive us to be our best and to push beyond it.

My thanks to Mrs Smith, Mrs Wathen, Mrs Cookson, Mrs Comstive, Mr Reynolds, Mrs Holland,  Mrs Beckwith, Mrs Friar, Miss Abbey, Mrs Hick, Mrs McGrail, Mrs Turpin, Mrs Mates and Mrs Whyman who have all been at Robin Hood throughout my time here.  They are a very special group of people, the core of this outstanding school.  And a very special thanks to Mrs June Wood.  June recruited me as Deputy Head in 2002, appointed me as Headteacher in 2005 and was Chair of Governors for much of my Headship.  I have much to thank June for.  Without her support, advice and good old-fashioned common sense, very little of what we have achieved would have been possible and I am certain that my stay at Robin Hood would have been much shorter than it has been.  I owe June an enormous and permanent debt of gratitude.

My best wishes for the future to every member of the school team, to Mrs Dale and to Miss Hinton who will be taking over as Acting Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher respectively, to the Governing Body and to you, the parents and community of Robin Hood. 

My sincere thanks to those children and families who have been kind enough to take the time to wish me well, write cards and give gifts.  I am very touched and very honoured, and very, very lucky.  It is everything for an educator to know that you have influenced a life, inspired an idea or an attitude, and made a difference.

Have a fantastic weekend.

As we are in school for only one day next week, there will not be a further newsletter.  What I would have been saying at the end of that newsletter, were there one, is: 

Have a brilliant summer, and…. Kids… have fantastic futures.  You can do anything that you want to do.  You can be anything that you want to be.  The only price is continuing to believe in yourself and in your infinite potential.  You will always be able to say with great pride and with many happy memories that you went to Robin Hood Primary School. 

If I don’t see you on Monday to say it in person… Goodbye and my very best wishes for the future,
Mark Wilson

Monday, 16 July 2012

Foundation & KS1 Sports Day

Monday 16th July
Apologies to everyone re: the cancellation of the Foundation/ KS1 Sports Day today.  Unfortunately, the weekend showers and overnight rain, along with the dank conditions this morning rendered the field unusable.  Rain was also forecast from 9.00am.  In the end, the rain arrived slightly later - but there had been no warmth in the air to offer any drying out for the field.
In order to support everyone's arrangements as best we could, we had to make the call as early in the day as was possible.
It will not be possible to re-arrange the Sports due to the end of year calendar.... and the weather forecast for the remainder of the week remains bleak.  Using the playground for Sports events is not a safe enough option.
It is an enormous source of frustration that we have had to cancel F/KS1 Sports Day this year.  Let's hope
a. for an Indian Summer - perhaps the Sports Day could be held in September/ October (!)
b. a summer next year.

Best wishes to all,
M.Wilson

Friday, 13 July 2012

Issue 38 2011-12


Newsletter Issue 38

Friday 13th July 2012


Dear Parent/Carer,

Sports Day
It was, of course, a huge frustration that we had to postpone our Sports Day on Monday due to the weather. The Key Stage Two Sports Day went well yesterday afternoon.  Thanks to all those parents and families who were able to attend.  Our Foundation and Key Stage One Sports Day is planned to take place on Monday morning.

Teacher visits
We have welcomed teacher colleagues from Oulton Primary, Cottingley Primary and Fairlawn Primary schools to Robin Hood this week.  They have all been looking in particular at our Early Years (Nursery and Reception)… which are absolutely fabulous.  It is great that colleagues from other schools feel that they can learn from our practice.

Key Dates
Mon 16 – Y6 Afternoon Performance 2.00pm
Tue 17 – Y6 Evening Performance 6.00pm
Wed 18 – Y6 Fish ‘n’ Chips (lunch), Merit Prize winners to Toys ‘R’ Us
Thu 19 – Poetry Final 2.15pm, Merit Prize Winners prize giving
Fri 20 – Golden Day (no Celebration Assembly, pm)
Mon 23 – Leaver’s Assembly, 2.00pm

Next year
3, 4, 5 Sep – Training Days
6 Sep – Children return to school
19 Oct – Harvest Celebration, Lofthouse Church, 10.00am
7 Jan – Training Day
5 Jul – Training Day
Mrs Dale will doubtless be providing you with a full list of dates early in the next school year.

Reports
All children have been given their end of year reports today.  I hope that you enjoy reading your child’s report as much as I have.  Reading the reports has given me a real feeling of satisfaction and pride.  Our children really do achieve and strive to be the best that they can be – a crucial skill for life.  We welcome any feedback that you have from the reports.

Leavers and New Arrivals
Just to remind everyone that Miss Nicholls and Miss Bradshaw will be leaving us next week for exotic pastures new.  Miss Nicholls is moving away to sunny Dubai and Miss Bradshaw will be taking up a new post in (almost as sunny) Wakefield.  We wish them both the very best of luck and success in their new jobs.  Miss Pyatt, Miss Pensom, Miss McSorley and Mr Malley will be joining us as Newly Qualified Teachers – continuing our strong tradition of growing our own outstanding teachers.

Pom-Pom Sheep
We took delivery of our Mrs Chin’s Incredible Pom-Pom Sheep on Monday this week.  The sheep was constructed using the pom-poms that were made by children, parents and grandparents in school some weeks ago and is a companion to the pom-pom sheep displayed at the Armley Mills Museum.  It is fantastic that we have our very own pom-pom sheep and it is fantastic that we have the ultra-talented and brilliant Mrs Chin on our staff to come up with such ingenuity.  The film of the making of the sheep… a brilliant piece of film… is available for viewing on our Art In The Community Blog http://robinhoodartinthecommunity.blogspot.co.uk/  As it is so wonderful, our sheep will be on display all next week in the school office.  Do come in and have a look.

Media Star
James Driver has been telling me all about his recent media engagements.  He was interviewed on BBC Look North twice last week and he also did a radio interview with Real Radio.  James is doing brilliant work to publicise his appeal.  His engaging personality, bravery, and the compelling nature of his appeal, has certainly captured the popular imagination and the attention of broadcasters.  We have always said that James is very, very special…

Art In The Community
Our Year 3 pupils have been drawing pictures for display in Rothwell Library on the subject of the Olympics.  The pictures promote the Summer Reading Challenge which takes place throughout the Summer holidays at the library.  Please do make a visit Rothwell Library to see the fabulous pictures and to get involved in their summer activities.

Lost Property
We have some remaining Lost Property from this year.  We are unable to store it into next year.  Please have a look in the Lost Property if you are missing items.

Dinner Money and residentials
A reminder that all dinner monies need to be paid by Wednesday 18th July at the very latest and all Y6 & Y4 residential deposits need to be paid by Thursday 19th July at the latest.

For the last but one time from me… Have a fantastic weekend,
Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
Well, despite sports day being postponed due to the weather on Monday, the children enjoyed a mini version together in the hall! They had lots of fun cheering for each other and competing in the mini games!
We only have one more full week together, (and a Monday!) so we are doing everything we can to make those days count! The children have been a delight to spend time with and we look forward to enjoying our last few days together!

THIS WEEK
The children have continued learning about travel and journeys and we have been sharing stories about our holidays! We have thought about the different kinds of holidays we can go on and have been sharing stories about Peppa Pig, who went camping and Barnaby Bear who has been to Paris and Australia!
In literacy the children have been thinking about what they would pack in their holiday suitcases and writing their very own checklists.... they had some very interesting ideas!!

NEXT WEEK
Will be our last full week together. (Boo, hoo.... be prepared... I may shed a tear!) We will be thinking about what our favourite things have been in Nursery and celebrating our time together by having a Nursery Graduation Party! The parties will happen on Tuesday pm for those children who attend Nursery at the beginning of the week, and Friday afternoon for those children who attend Nursery at the end of the week.

How you can help us
·         Talk to your child about starting big school positively, reinforcing that it is an exciting time and there is lots to look forward to.
·         Support your child’s writing development by adding labels or simple sentences to pictures that they draw.
·         Encourage your child to recognise numbers up to 20 by counting objects, pointing to numbers in the environment, playing games that involve number recognition and counting out.
·         Continue enjoying stories together, pointing to the words, encouraging your child to hold the book and talk through the events, pictures and characters and making predictions about what might happen next.

Many thanks for your continued support

Have a super weekend!
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team

Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have had another fabulous and exciting week in Reception and every day the children impress us with their enthusiasm for learning. We had a fantastic day on Thursday at the seaside (in our classroom) and the children have had a great time learning to tell the time and discussing their holidays.
THIS WEEK
We have continued with our exciting topic “Journeys” this week and have discussed all the different holidays that we have been on. The children have made their own passports so no doubt they will all be jetting off to lots of different exotic destinations shortly. The children have made us feel very proud by writing their reception words correctly. In numeracy the children have enjoyed learning about time and are all confident at telling o’clock and half past times and they are very keen to show off their new skills. On Thursday we transformed our classroom into the seaside. The children enjoyed ice cream, strawberries, ice lollies and watching the hilarious Punch and Judy puppet show. Today the children performed their amazing poems and two superstars were picked to enter the poetry final next week. We were disappointed that sports day wasn’t held on Monday but it will now be held on Monday 16th July at 9:00 a.m. (weather permitting).
NEXT WEEK
Next week is the last full week in school before the summer holidays so as usual will be busy, busy, busy doing our exciting learning. The poetry final will be held on Thursday and the 2 finalists will perform their poems. Friday will be an incredibly exciting day because it is Golden Day so hopefully the weather will be kind to us as we have ordered bouncy castles and the ice cream van.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·         By ensuring you listen to your child’s fabulous reading every day and writing a comment in their book. We have some BRILLIANT reading in Reception so please keep it up!
·         By ensuring your child can write their full name and the numbers up to 20 with super formation.
·         Please encourage your children to tell the time for o’clock and half past, next week we will be moving onto quarter to and quarter past to challenge them even further.
Thank you for your continued support and enjoy your weekend (fingers crossed for sunshine).

Key Stage One Newsletter
We have had a busy week in KS1 this week, and it was a great shame that Sports day could not go ahead. We are hoping to have sports day on Monday morning, if the unpredictable English weather remains nice over the weekend. Please send your child to school with the appropriate coloured top and trainers. It will take place between 9:00 – 11:00.
Golden Day
We are looking forward to celebrating the end of the year with Golden Day, which will take place on Friday 20th July. Your child will be able to enjoy the blow up bouncy castles, as well as bring in their own toy from home.
Numeracy
This week in numeracy your child has been developing their knowledge of money. We have been learning how to add different amounts of money, find change, and calculate how much more is needed to make a certain amount. We have been blown away by the attitude towards their numeracy learning this week, and all children have developed their understanding of money. Please continue to support your child in their numeracy learning by allowing them to handle money on a regular basis. This will strengthen their understanding of different coin values.
Literacy
This week in literacy, your child has been learning the rules of performance, in preparation for our poetry competition next week. Your child has been experimenting with percussion instruments, using them to enhance their performances. All the children have been developing their confidence in speaking aloud in large groups, trying hard to speak in a loud and clear voice with expression and emphasis. The children have been fantastic at practising and have learnt some lovely poems! We are looking forward to perfecting our poems, and going through the heats, in preparation for the poetry final on the last day of term. Keep checking the blog to see who gets through the first round of the competition and most importantly to the final!
Topic
This week in topic your child has been developing their skills on a programme called Photo Story. This allows children to combine pictures, music and voice recordings to create a movie. Next week your child will use our gorgeous Scarborough pictures to create their own Photo Story about their trip, detailing their favourite moments.
Scarborough
The children had a fantastic time at Scarborough! They enjoyed learning about the seaside and represented the school in a beautiful way! Keep a look out in the post for a unique and individual made post card about our trip.
Next week
Numeracy
In Numeracy the children will end the year by using all of the skills that they have learnt this year with some fun and interesting investigations. We will be using our problem solving skills with dice and dominoes and cutting up pictures and seeing if we can put them back together again! Using two dice how many ways can you make six? How many dominoes have an odd total of spots?
Literacy
In Literacy the children will be finishing their unit of performance poetry by making and performing a poem all about their Year in school. How time flies when you’re having fun! We look forward to a lovely week with your fantastic children!
Have a lovely weekend!
The Key Stage One Team
LKS2 Newsletter
This week has been so fabulous in year 3/4 that even the rain decided to stay away for a little while and the children actually got to enjoy the sunshine during their playtime and lunch time! We have been blown away with the children’s fabulous attitude towards their learning this week. Their learning outcomes from our ‘Spectacular Sport’ topic have been super. If you were in Celebration Assembly this week, you’d have seen a video of their amazing biographies, mind maps, artwork and medals which they have created. If you didn’t make it, don’t worry, it is also up on our blog!
Poetry competition
This week, we have had our class heats of the poetry competition and we have all been amazed by the fabulous quality of everybody’s performances! It was great to see so much confidence among our poets, some of whom had clearly spent a lot of time writing their own poems! Some children have tried very hard to learn poems which already existed, but were very long, and remembered them off by heart! It was also amazing to see such great actions and expression in their voices! Our finalists will be competing against finalists from other year groups in the assembly on Thursday 19th July, so please do come and watch if you can! Well done to everybody!
Literacy
This week we have been learning all about boxing sensation Amir Khan. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about his childhood in Bolton and how he became such a successful boxer. After thorough reading and research online, the children successfully grouped their ideas and displayed their information in fantastic mind maps. The next step involved them becoming publishers once again, to produce a detailed biography about his life, career and successes to date. Next week, the children will be writing autobiographies about themselves and their lives so far. To help them with this, it would be great if you can discuss with your child the things they have done so far in life and what they are proud of or have enjoyed. They are welcome to bring in any family photographs to include in their autobiographies.
Numeracy
In numeracy this week, we have been learning all about symmetry. The children have enjoyed reflecting shapes and patterns in horizontal, vertical and diagonal mirror lines to create fabulous patterns. They have also used mirrors to identify lines of symmetry in famous logos and symbols too. Next week, the children will be creating original numeracy board games, which need to use all of the four operations. We are looking forward to them producing fantastic games to show off the skills they have learned this year.
Spellings

Group 1
Group 2
  1. light
  1. autobiography
  2. fight
  2. automatic
  3. night
  3. automobile
  4. bright
  4. minibus
  5. slight
  5. mini-beasts
  6. fright
  6. minimum
  7. bought
  7. circumference
  8. sought
  8. circus
  9. sigh
  9. circulate
10. though



We hope you have a lovely weekend,
The 3/4 Team
UKS2 News Roundup

  • Our Achiever of the Week is Corey for his super Spanish home learning. Corey created his own film using a puppet to help others learn Spanish vocabulary. Brilliant, Corey!
  • Robinwood Residential: If you would like your child to attend the 2013 residential, please send a non-refundable deposit of £50 to school by Thursday 19th July. Thank you.
  • Thank you to the parents and carers who watched the fashion show and attended the Celebration Friday after school. It was wonderful to see so many of you sharing your child’s wonderful learning from this half term.
  • As Year 6’s last day approaches, we are beginning preparations for the Leaver’s assembly next Monday. We would like to create a show reel of photographs of the children through their school years. Anybody wishing to contribute photographs for the show reel, please bring up to 3 pictures into school in a labelled envelope before Thursday. We will scan them in and return them immediately. Thank you.
  • We will be holding our Growing and Changing sessions on Tuesday 17th July where the children will be finding out more about how their bodies will change as they approach puberty. We will also be showing videos related to these subjects. If there are any parents who were unable to attend the previewing of these videos last Wednesday, and would still like to see them before their child does, please let us know on Monday and we can send home a copy of the videos on a memory stick. Thank you.
Dates for your diary:
  • Monday 16th July- Year 6 performance of Hoodwinked at 2pm
  • Tuesday 17th July- Year 6 performance of Hoodwinked at 6pm. Please come to school for 5:45pm
  • Wednesday 18th July- Year 6 fish and chip lunch
  • Thursday 19th July- Times Tables Challenge; Poetry Competition Final at 2:15pm
  • Monday 23rd July- Leavers' Assembly at 2pm

Numeracy:
  • This week, Year 5 have been learning all about division strategies, including the Bus Stop method and Chunking. For more help and practice with these strategies, visit the following websites:
  • Next week we will be applying all of the skills we have learnt this year to some problem solving activities, which involves following clues to solve a mystery!
  • Home Learning: Next week, our mental maths focus will be on all of the times tables we have been learning about this half term as Times Table Challenge is on Thursday 19th July…. We are looking forward to hopefully seeing some new faces in the final, so get practising!
  • Visit http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/bingo/caller/caller.html for the official times table generator used in class to find our winners!
Literacy:
  • This week, Year 5 have been writing their own narrative poem about their last year at school. They have tried to include figurative language to convey emotions and feelings and have stuck to strict rhyming patterns using rhyming couplets.
  • Next week the children will be looking at famous examples of nonsense poetry from Spike Milligan. They will then be putting their poetry skills to the test by writing their own nonsense poems. We will also be ensuring that we apply all of our sentence level skills to our writing.
  • This week's sentence level focus has been on the correct use of connectives to join ideas together. The children have made sensible choices in their own writing and have suggested alternatives when certain connectives simply haven’t worked.
  • Next week we will also be testing the children on their key word spellings from this half term.
Other areas of the curriculum:
  • In Topic, the children have been finalising the designs for their own customised PE kits ahead of the fashion show. The stage direction teams have been finalising the soundtracks and backdrops.
  • In Science, the children have been focusing on the effects of exercise on the body by carrying out an investigation involving lots of exercise and taking our pulse. They have also been identifying muscles in the body and labelling these on a picture of themselves. Next week we will be analysing the results from this week’s investigation and making conclusions.
Visit our blogs!

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Issue 37 2011-12


Newsletter Issue 37

Thursday 5th July 2012


Dear Parent/Carer,

Date Reminders
Tomorrow is the final Training Day of the school year.
Our Sports Day is due to take place on Monday 9th July.  If the Sports Day cannot go ahead due to the weather, we will notify you via text and via the Noticeboard on the school website.

Arts Review
We held the Arts Review on Wednesday afternoon in school.  Well done to all of our performers and to Miss Thackeray, Miss Bradshaw, Miss Nicholls and Mrs Comstive for their work in preparing the show.  A further showing for the parents of the Drama Club members is being held tonight.

Meet Your New Teacher Day
Our Meet Your New Teacher Day on Tuesday went very well.  Our new teaching staff were present to meet their classes and the after school parent meetings were all well attended.  I hope that you feel re-assured about next year and are speaking positively with your child about the exciting next year ahead of them.  Certainly on Wednesday all the children were buzzing and couldn’t wait to tell me who their new teacher and classmates were.  Our Year 6 children enjoyed a positive Transition day at Rodillian.  They too are all looking forward eagerly to their next steps.  We will be sad to see them go.

Reports
I have been delighted to be reading through end of year reports for the last week or so.  Our reports are wonderfully positive and are a real reflection of the individual child.  I have been pleased to add my own personal comment to each report.

Pret-a-portrait
The Pret-a-portrait class photographs are displayed on the external doors around school.  They can also be viewed on the Pret-a-portrait website.  Our school ID number is RHOE230512P.

Dinner Money
All dinner monies need to be paid up to date by Monday 16th July to allow for all the money to be banked before we finish for the summer holidays, please.
  
James Wish To Walk
An incredible £2697 has so far been raised for James’ appeal through the various fund raising events at the school.  James and his family thank you very much for your kind donations.  I look forward to bumping into James at
Elland Road
in a few years time as he’s walking down to the hill to the ground..

Celebration Assembly
Friday 13th July will be my final Celebration Assembly at Robin Hood. We have no Assembly the following Friday due to Golden Day and the final, final Assembly on Monday 23rd July is our Leavers’ Assembly.

My Thanks to the parents and families who have supported our Assemblies over the past seven years. They have been part of what makes Robin Hood unique and have been, for me, important school and community events that have celebrated the distinctive ethos of our school.

It would be great to see you if you could make it to the Assembly. It is our last chance to celebrate all of the children’s achievements this year before celebrating our Year 6 leavers on their final day.

Have a great weekend,
Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
It feels like we’ve had a very short week in Nursery this week between transition day and the training day, but as always we’ve made the most of our time together! I would just like to say a big “well done” to those boys and girls who spent the day in their new classes at “big school”. They settled incredibly quickly and incredibly well as they had a taster session of what their new school life is going to be like! As much as I missed them, it was lovely to hear what a fabulous time they had!

THIS WEEK
We have moved into a new phase in our topic and have been sharing our experiences of different journeys we’ve been on. The children have been thinking of different ways of travelling and made their own vehicles in the box modelling. We have also shared the story The Train Ride, and made a large scale painting of the different things we saw along the way!

NEXT WEEK
We will be continuing with our journeys topic and moving onto holidays! The children will be taking turns to make bookings in the travel agents and sending postcards from their chosen destinations!

How you can help us
·         Continue sharing stories, following the words with your fingers.
·         Practice drawing simple pictures and adding detail, and labels.
·         Play games outside that help develop your child’s throwing and catching.

REMINDER
·         Nursery is closed Friday 6th July for teacher Training day.
·         Sports day is Monday 9th July. Children who attend nursery on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday a.m. will be taking part all day and need to wear the specified coloured top, tracksuit bottoms / shorts and trainers Parents are welcome to watch. Wednesday p.m. Thursday and Friday children will get their own fun day on Golden Day.
Many thanks for your continued support

Have a fabulous weekend!
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team

Reception newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have had another great week in Reception and the children continue to amaze us with their knowledge and enthusiasm. They all seem to have had a fabulous time in their new classes and it was lovely to see them step into year 1 with confidence and a real belief in themselves.
THIS WEEK
We have started our new topic of ‘Journeys’ and have been learning about what a journey is, where we might go and how we could get there. We have shared the story of the Train Ride with the children and have looked at a clip of Rosie and Jim on their narrow boat. We have talked about what types of transport we could use to travel across England and even how we would get to another country. In numeracy we have been talking about the days of the week, night and day and then sequencing events in the order they happen. We have introduced the concept of ‘time’ and have been looking at the o’clock times together.
NEXT WEEK
Next week will be another very busy week in school. On Monday we have our sports day (weather permitting) so your child will need their sports kit and trainers including a coloured T shirt. All children have had a slip sent home to inform you of this. In the event of bad weather, please check the notice board on the school website for further information. During the rest of the week we will be improving our knowledge of time by looking at o’clock and half past as well as practising the split digraphs o-e, a-e and i-e. In literacy we will be doing a keyword assessment of the 45 reception words so please practice reading and writing the words ahead of this (the full list will be on our blog).
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
·         By ensuring you listen to your child’s fabulous reading every day and writing a comment in their book. We have some BRILLIANT reading in Reception so please keep it up!
·         By ensuring your child has chosen a poem to learn and is rehearsing it ahead of our auditions in class NEXT week.
·         By ensuring your child can write their full name and the numbers up to 20 with super formation.
Thank you for your continued support and enjoy your weekend.
KS1 Newsletter

We have had another super week in KS1, and we are all very proud of how sensible and brave the children were on transition day. Well done!
Don’t forget that it is sports day on Monday, so please send your child to school with the appropriate colour top. We look forward to seeing you there.

Numeracy
In numeracy this week, your child has been using their knowledge about time to make estimations. Your child has been making estimations in a lot of fun contexts, for example, estimating how many star jumps they can do in one minute. In addition to this, your child has been developing their strategies for solving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. Next week in numeracy, your child will further develop these strategies, alongside learning more about money. This will involve children adding up different coins, and finding change.

Literacy
Your child has been learning to recognise the key features of a poem this week, and then applying this knowledge to write their own poem. We have seen some fabulous similes, alliteration and rhyming strings, and we look forward to developing these further over the next two weeks. Feel free to look on the blog to listen to some of our amazing rhymes. Next week in Literacy, your child will be learning how to successfully perform a poem, and take part in the poetry competition at the end of the week.

Topic
This week in topic, children have been learning how to accompany a piece of music with different backing beats. We have been learning very sophisticated beats, and how to keep a variety of different beats going at the same time. We have also produced our very own radio show, which will be uploaded onto the blog. Next week in topic, children will be visiting Scarborough to enhance their learning about the seaside, and then be using the pictures taken there, to create a Photo Story of their visit. 

LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a brilliant week in 3/4, full of fantastic and exciting learning. Tuesday was our transition day and our year 4 children had a great time meeting their new teachers. All of the 5/6 staff were blown away by the children’s mature and sensible attitudes towards their learning and are very excited for September. Our year 3 children also did us proud in welcoming our new children into the phase and setting a brilliant example with their mature behaviour.
We would like to congratulate all of the children who took part in our Arts show on Wednesday afternoon. The keyboard and guitar club, cheerleaders, choir and drama were absolutely brilliant! It was a fantastic opportunity to see the incredible talent we have at Robin Hood and to share this with all of the children.
Our Sport’s Day is being held on Monday and would like to welcome you to come along and join us for the events. Your children have now all be given their colour for the day which determines which group they will be in.  At 10:00 until 12:00 our fantastic cheerleaders will be opening the events followed by a round robin of activities. At 1:30 until 2:30 you are invited back to come and watch all the children compete in the running races. 
Poetry competition
The children have been set the task, as part of their home learning, to read and recite a poem for our annual competition. The poem must be no less than 7 lines and we are looking forward to seeing the children perform these with the fluency and expression we have been practicing in our Guided Reading sessions. We will be picking two children from both year 3 and 4 to go into the final on Thursday 19th July.
Literacy
We have been very busy in literacy, learning all about our chosen sports personality of the week, Andy Murray. The children have used a variety of sources to create a detailed mind map all about his life. The children worked extremely hard to group the information they found and used this to write a detailed biography about his childhood, sporting achievements and family. We are so proud of the children’s beautiful presentation and are looking forward to displaying their biographies in our 3/4 corridor.
Next week we are learning all about Amir Khan and again using all of the information we find out about him to create more fantastic biographies. We are looking forward to using all of the information we have collected about different sports people to vote for whom we think should win sports personality of the year!
Spellings
Group 1
  1. taught
  2. caught
  3. straight
  4. weight
  5. eight
  6. tough
  7. cough
  8. rough
  9. enough
10. through

Group 2
1. explosion
2. corrosion
3. profession
4. session
5. discussion
6. passion
7. mission
8. contribution
9. information

We hope you have a lovely weekend,
The 3/4 Team

UKS2 News Roundup:

  • We would like to say a big thank you to all parents and carers of Year 5 children who attended our short meeting after school on Transition Day.  It was also lovely to see so many children sharing their learning from the day. Your child will have brought home an information leaflet with more details about next year. They will have also brought a list of high frequency and Key Stage 2 spellings. These are simply for your reference as well as a resource for helping your child with spelling practise over the holidays and into next half term. Please take some time to digest all of the important information on these letters.
  • A quick reminder to parents of Year 5 children. If you would like your child to go on the Robinwood residential next year, could we please ask that a non-refundable deposit of £50 is sent to school by 16th July to secure the booking. Thank you.
  • Year 6 have received details of the costumes required for the end of year performance. It is not essential to go out and buy brand new outfits; many of the costumes can be created with everyday clothes that you have at home. If you are unsure or need a little bit of inspiration, please get in touch. Please bring any costumes to school in a labelled bag.
  • All children will be taking part in our Sports Day on Monday 9th July and the children know the colour of the t-shirt they need to wear. They need to ensure they also have suitable footwear and a water bottle. Sunhats and sun cream may also be needed. Keep a check on the weather over the weekend. Our morning events will be held between 9:30 and 12:00, and the afternoon activities will begin at approximately 1:30. Parents and carers are welcome to come and watch.
  • On Monday, we will be holding the class heats for the Poetry Competition. 3 winners from each class will go through to the Year 5/6 final which will be held on Thursday. There will be 4 children chosen from this to go through to the Poetry Competition final on Thursday 19th July.
  • Reminder! Year 5s who wish to be considered for the role of School Captain need to prepare a presentation outlining why they wish to stand for this position. As well as this, consider the qualities that you can bring to the role. We are looking for presentations which are really engaging and have that extra little something that makes them stand out from the rest!

Dates for your diary:
·        Monday 9th July- Sports Day
·        Wednesday 11th July- preview for parents and carers of the Changing and Growing film at 4:30pm
·        Thursday 12th July- School Captain elections
·        Friday 13th July- Year 6 Fashion Show and new school captains announced in assembly at 2:30pm; Celebration Friday after school
·        Monday 16th July- Year 6 performance of Hoodwinked at 2pm
·        Tuesday 17th July- Year 6 performance of Hoodwinked at 6pm
·        Thursday 19th July- Times Tables Challenge; Poetry Competition Final
·        Monday 23rd July- Leavers' Assembly at 2pm


Numeracy:

  • This week, Year 5 have been continuing their focus on decimal numbers by applying their addition and subtraction strategies. The children have used both mental and written strategies to add and subtract various numbers including whole numbers and decimals and have then applied their learning to solving problems around handling money. Well done Year 5. Your skills are really improving - keep up the fantastic work! 
  • Next week we will be learning about division methods, including bus stop and chunking methods.
  • Home Learning: Next week, our mental maths focus will be on all of the times tables we have been learning about this half term. 
  • Visit http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/index.html and http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/interactive.htm for interactive games to practise times tables
  • Year 6s, in teams, have been continuing to develop their Numeracy help sheets for a number of concepts including 2D and 3D shape, time and angles. We're planning to make these available for classrooms around school and on the school website.

Literacy:
  • This week, Year 5 have been learning all about narrative poetry. We have used the opening scenes from the Pixar movie 'UP' to help us tell the life story of Carl. This character experiences many highs and lows throughout his life, and the children have used their poetry skills to help tell the story using rhyming couplets and emotive language.
  • Next week the children will be applying their poetry skills to write a narrative poem about their time at school over the last year.
  • This week's sentence level focus has been around the correct use of nouns and pronouns to make sure our sentences make perfect sense. (For example: 'Jack were going to the shops. becomes 'Jack was going to the shop.'
  • Year 6 have been practising their lines for the production. By now, the children should know most of their lines and their focus over the next week will be to begin rehearsals without scripts and to start adding actions and stage directions. You are doing a fantastic job, year 6. Keep up the enthusiasm and effort - we're all looking forward to a fabulous show!
  • Home Learning: Year 5s have been revisiting key words this week and any that need practice have been recorded in planners. There are videos and games to practise spelling rules and patterns at http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic-group/spelling

Other areas of the curriculum:
  • In TOPIC, the children have been customizing their own PE kits using a variety of customizing techniques. We have seen painting, cutting, stitching, appliqué, buttons, zips and ribbon being applied to the various garments that the children have brought in. These items will be showcased in next week's assembly, along with the backdrops and soundtracks created by the Stage Direction teams.
  • In PE we have continued to practise all of the events for sports day including sprinting, skipping and relays, and trying to beat our own times and distances.

Visit our blogs!