Newsletter Issue 38
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Friday 13th July 2012
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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.
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.
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
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Group 2
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1. light
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1. autobiography
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2. fight
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2. automatic
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3. night
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3. automobile
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4. bright
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4. minibus
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5. slight
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5. mini-beasts
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6. fright
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6. minimum
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7. bought
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7. circumference
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8. sought
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8. circus
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9. sigh
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9. circulate
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10. though
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We hope you have a lovely weekend,
The 3/4 Team
- 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.
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