Newsletter Issue 7 Friday 21st October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
Newsletter
Just a reminder to our community; our newsletter is available to you in the following formats:
- Collect a paper copy from the office (arrange with Mrs Holland)
- give your email address to Mrs Holland to receive it direct to your email
- subscribe to the newsletter blog
- read the newsletter on our Noticeboards
Fantastic Staff
I would like this week to highlight Mrs Mates’s contribution to our school. Mrs Mates has stepped into the Lunchtime Supervisory role for us for the last three weeks during Mrs Hick’s absence. Mrs Mates has done an absolutely fabulous job for us. She is a highly valued and long-serving member of our Lunchtime Team.
PTA
The PTA AGM took place at school on Thursday 13th October, 6.00pm. The PTA is struggling to survive due to lack of support and lack of donations. As you will be aware, the PTA have been unable to run the Magic Show this year, there was no Summer Fayre, no Easter Egg Tombola, no Mothers Day Flowers… all activities and events that had become part of the life of the school. The PTA have very few funds left. We don’t have a Christmas Pantomime booked this year and the Christmas Fair – which ran at a very reduced level last year, as some of you will remember – is in serious jeopardy of not running at all this year. The PTA will be announcing a meeting to discuss the prospects for a Christmas Fair shortly.
The PTA need not only support in terms of attendance at the events, they need support in terms of the commitment of time to prepare and organise events. A very committed group of parents have taken the brunt of the workload for quite some years now. My thanks on behalf of our children to those people who have given their time, energy and commitment to our PTA.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a gorgeous week in Nursery this week learning all about Elmer the patchwork elephant. The children started the week full of excitement after producing yet another stunning array of homemade Elmers!! They really are a creative bunch! The home learning is having such a fantastic impact on the learning we achieve in Nursery so please do continue to support your child.
THIS WEEK
We have shared stories about Elmer that have been adored by the children. We have used images from the stories to think about colours, we then had a go at mixing our very own colours to paint Elmer! The children have also made 2 fabulous paper mache elephants to represent Elmer and his cousin Wilbur, which we hope to be able to display in main school! In number we have taken the idea of the repeating pattern on Elmers coat and then designed a new version. We have continued to use the theme to help with counting in order and also size ordering.
NEXT HALF TERM
We will be starting a new topic looking at Celebrations! We come back to Nursery on the 31st October with a Halloween spectacular, and then we will be moving on to the preparations for Bonfire Night! We will be counting using songs and rhymes and making our very own fireworks and using them in an investigation to see which travels the furthest!
During the holidays please do continue to support your child at home by sharing stories together, singing songs and rhymes, counting and playing games that involve turn taking. We will also be developing our writing skills, so please encourage your child to “write” at home too. Making it fun and natural is the best way, for example, ask them to take drinks orders, write a shopping list to help you at the supermarket, use chalks outside on the path, use paintbrushes and water – add glitter for an extra sparkle to practice writing the letters in their name.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· By ensuring your child can put their own coat on and that they bring a coat to Nursery every day.
· By practising putting on and taking off their own shoes and socks.
DIARY DATE
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Nursery (and Reception) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However, we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate.
Thank you for your support. Have a great half term!
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you to all the parents who attended our parent consultations this week. It was lovely to see you and share the fabulous news about how your children have settled and the super progress they are making.
Thank you too for all the amazing home learning. Miss Abbey has uploaded them onto our blog at: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
Look out for the half term homework to be returned on Monday 31st October.
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic,focusing on Elmer the elephant. The children have been discussing why Elmer is different and what qualities Elmer has that makes him a special friend to the other animals. The children have written some lovely letters to Elmer and invited him to a party as well as creating a large scale collaborative Elmer with Mrs Chin, to display in our classroom. Your home learning will be going up on this display too.
NEXT HALF TERM
We will be starting our new topic of 'Celebrations'. The first week back, we will look at the traditional Halloween and Bonfire Night celebrations and we will be creating some super artwork for a display. We are hoping to have a visit from a Fire Safety Officer to talk to the children about how to keep themselves safe.
In our numeracy sessions we will continue with our counting and number formation but we will also be moving on to estimation (then counting to check) followed by rounding numbers to the nearest 10.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should be ready to move onto PINK band books by the end of this half term. Some children have made such super progress that they will be working on RED band books after their reading assessment . Please put extra support around your child if they are still on Lilac books. Thank you
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: will, them, then, that, this, with. Sounds are v, w and y
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.
DIARY DATES
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Reception (and Nursery) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
Have a lovely half term.
KS1 News
How quickly the first half term has gone! The Key Stage One team would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and carers who attended Parent Consultations this week. The children have started the year with exceptional attitudes to their learning. It has been fantastic to share their achievements and their next steps in their learning journey! We would also like to say a thank you for the feedback regarding the new reading records and how they are being used effectively.
Numeracy
This week the children have been showing what they have learnt across the half term with a series of short tasks to show off their learning. We have been very impressed with the childrens understanding of number! Next half term the children will be starting to learn all about addition. They will begin the term learning number facts such as number bonds to 10 (6 + 4) and number bonds to 20 (18 + 2). Please support your child through half term by counting objects and using their fingers to add numbers together.It can be adding as much as you want together!
Literacy
This week the children have written a non chronological report all about Robin Hood Primary School. The children have produced fantastic outcomes and should be very proud of their achievements! The children have been using their targets successfully and have consistently applied their learning of new literacy skills in their writing. Next half term the children will be starting a unit of work on 'Narrative' writing. Across the half term the children will be reading books by the Author Julia Donaldson, 'The Smartest Giant in Town', A Room on the Broom' and 'The Gruffalo'. We are looking forward to reading the stories that the children have been asked to produce for the home learning task over half term.
Topic
This week the children have been learning all about the Harvest Festival, what is for and why people celebrate at this time of year. We would like to thank all parents who came to school to see Key Stage One perform a super assembly! Next half term the children will be learning all about Beauty and The Beast. So why not enjoy watching this over half term and get to learn a few of the songs!
All the Key Stage One team hope you have a fantastic half term! Enjoy and relax!
LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a fun and eventful week in year 3/4. We have thoroughly enjoyed sharing the learning that has been taking place with parents and carers within this weeks parent consultations. The children had a fantastic experience at Danelaw Viking Village this week, where our learning this term really came to life!
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have shown us the wonderful learning they have developed within their Data Handling. We have been looking at venn diagrams, pictograms and bar charts, allowing the children to read and interpret data from them. On Friday we completed our first Times Table Challenge - please ensure your child continues to practise their times tables at home.
Literacy
This week we have been completing our final write about the ‘Vicious Vikings’. The children have chosen their information from the topics covered this half term, including rainbow paragraphs, super compound and complex sentences within their writing, as well as many audience engaging features that we have enjoyed reading! Well done year 3/4!
Topic
Over the course of this week the children have been continuing to make their moving mechanisms, weaving and Kar2ouche animations. They look fabulous!
RE
The children have also completed their stained glass windows, including Christian symbols. They are certainly brightening up our classrooms.
Reminders
Our Topic next half term is ‘Amazing Adverts’. As part of our learning, we would like the children to bring their favourite pair of trainers in to school on the first day back after half term. Details of our holiday homework have been given to your child, we would really appreciate your support.
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations to our Starbooks readers, who are our Achievers of the Week. These children have shown a great deal of dedication and a regular commitment to reading at home and in school and have demonstrated a positive attitude towards making progress. Well done guys, you really have deserved those hot chocolates.
• Thank you to all parents and carers who attended parent consultations this week. It was a great opportunity for us to share with you some of the great progress your child has made so far this year. We are really grateful for all of your support and we are sure that further progress will be made with a continued input both at home and in school.
• Congratulations to Erin Surtees who is our Times Table Champion for this half term. It was a very close battle for the top spot and we hope that we see just as much enthusiasm next half term.
• Out topic next half term will be about inventions. We have asked the children to create an invention of their own and present it in whatever form they wish. We would like to see all creations back in school for the start of the second week back.
• Year sixes should have brought home a SAT pack containing examples of past papers. These are for the children to complete at their own pace over the holidays. We hope that this will help to support them in the run up to the SATs next year. Please ensure your child engages with these papers over the holidays and brings them back into school during the first week.
Numeracy: after half term the children will be focussing on multiplication and division strategies as well as data handling with a Mario Kart theme. To get you started, why not have a look on the I Am Learning platform where you will find lots of games to help you. Also, there are help videos on the school website to show you the methods we will be using.
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
After half term we will be looking at persuasion. We will be applying our persuasive techniques to letter writing as well as writing balanced arguments.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our topic next half term: invention, television, telephone, bicycle, design, creation, technology, genius, convenience, appliance.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Art we have been creating our own city skylines based on an inspirational video clip and a selection of photographs. We have created a colourful sunset and then added silhouettes of buildings using black paper.
In PE we have completed our line dances, rock and roll and street dance performances. We have showcased these to the whole of Year 5/6 so that we can all see what each of the classes have been doing and we are very proud of what we have managed to achieve.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Friday 21 October 2011
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Issue 6 2011-12
Apologies for the delay in putting the newsletters onto the blog but this is due to short-term problems with the internet.
Newsletter Issue 6 Friday 14th October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
As I write, I can hear a beautiful rendition of ‘California Dreaming’ by The Beach Boys coming from our Year 6 class. Magical! I also had the pleasure of watching the same class do their Line Dancing routine – part of their America Topic – in the School Hall.
As many of you will have seen, our Big Draw last week attracted press coverage from the Yorkshire Evening Post as well as Calendar News. We are looking forward to another couple of news articles on the interesting things that our children have been doing recently in the forthcoming Rothwell Record.
Parent Consultations
By now you should have received your appointment time for our Parent Consultations next week. We have provided everyone with an appointment time. These are important meetings, please contact Mrs Smith if for any reason you are unable to attend your appointment time and we will agree an alternate meeting time. Please remember, consultations are of ten minutes maximum duration – we do ask you to respect this as we want all appointments to run to time. The quality of appointments is compromised if parents have been kept waiting and everyone is under time pressure.
Clubs
There are no Clubs, except the paid-for Clubs, next week. Information has already gone out about this to parents. This is been due to Parent Consultations. Clubs begin again as normal after the Half Term.
After the Half Term we will be extending our Clubs offer by launching a Spanish Club from 3.15pm-4.00pm. More details of this exciting opportunity will be announced soon.
Holiday Clubs at Friendly Faces
Holiday Club places are available at Friendly Faces both this Half Term and for the first week of the school Christmas Holidays, up until 23rd December. Full days are charged at £27.50 and half days £14.00. We have an Early Bird rate of £22.50 and £11.50, if booked a Half Term in advance. For Friendly Faces places, please contact Louise Parker on 07810071148.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. During that time, we have trained fabulous teachers like Mrs Steel, Miss Mees, Mrs Moore and Mrs Brook who have all then gone on to join our permanent staff. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
Mrs Smith certainly deserves to be this week’s star. Mrs Smith celebrated her twentieth anniversary at Robin Hood yesterday. For all of those years, Mrs Smith has been a fabulous servant to our school. ‘Front of house’ can sometimes be a difficult and challenging job but it is one that Mrs Smith always does with a smile and a brilliantly positive attitude. Parents and visitors often comment to me on how fantastic our Mrs Smith is. This was typified when a family that recently left our school saved their very special praise for Mrs Smith and all that she had done for them over the years.
Comenius Visit
We have had a number of staff out of school this week who have been meeting with European partner schools and visiting schools in the Czech Republic as part of the Comenius project. Comenius is fully funded by the European Union. Involvement in the project brings addition funds, resources and links to our school and provides new learning opportunities for children. It is our aim to build strong and lasting partnerships with our European partners and to build staff expertise and confidence that will enable us to offer future Comenius visit to pupils.
Unnamed Clothing
A final call on unnamed clothing for this Half Term. We have two cardigans, 1 size 28" and 1 size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8 and a brown leather H & M jacket age 5-6. Please help us to help you – ensure that all items are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a fabulous week in Nursery, despite the unfortunate weather and the children should be very proud of their achievements. They have produced some beautiful artwork to decorate our outdoor area and some beautiful gifts for special people in class and at home! Can I also say a huge thank you for the incredible home learning that has been produced again this week. Please do take a moment to look at the display by the snack table in Nursery, it is stunning and definitely makes me feel happy!!
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, and have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been sharing stories and looking at photos, to encourage us to think and talk about different emotions, and how best to deal with tricky situations. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 10 and counting up to 20! We have also been learning our number names, what numbers look like and how we count objects! Please continue to play games and sing songs with numbers at home too.
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer outside and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· By reading daily with your child, encouraging your child to be involved in the book as much as possible.
· By practising counting at every opportunity e.g climbing stairs, fastening buttons etc.
· By ensuring your child can put their own coat on
· By practising putting on and taking off their own shoes and socks
DIARY DATES
Celebration afternoons are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Nursery (and Reception) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
Home Learning!
To make your own Elmer the Elephant! (Images available on Google) You can be as creative as you like – make Elmer from card, 3D, using paints, create your own coloured pattern (spots, stripes, rainbow, hearts etc). A template is available should you need one please see the Nursery staff.
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Well done to all of you for working so hard all week! We are really impressed with the children who have not only learned their keywords, but are spotting them in their reading.
Thank you too for all the fabulous home learning. Miss Abbey has uploaded them onto our blog at: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, but have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been creating artwork for a super display and we will be including the children's home learning outcomes too. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 20 to zero which has proved a bit tricky(!) as well as learning how to write numbers correctly and thinking about the place value and how many tens and units are included in numbers. (eg 14 is one ten and four units)
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer in the hall and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should be ready to move onto PINK band books by the end of this half term
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: but, put, the, to, I, no, go, into. New sounds are: f, h and u
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names
By practising writing the numbers to 10 with the correct formation
DIARY DATES
Parent consultations are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Reception (and Nursery) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
KS1 Newsletter
What a busy week Key Stage 1 have had! On Tuesday morning we waved good bye to Miss Oxley and Miss Mees who left on a Comenius visit to Prague. They were very excited at the thought of teaching in a different country and sharing their experiences of Robin Hood. We can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures.
Parent Consultations
Thank you to Mrs Smith for organising the parent consultations, every parent now has an appointment to see their child's class teacher. We look forward to seeing you all at the parent consultations to share the experiences your child has had and our aims and aspirations for the year ahead!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have continued to develop their knowledge of having a Healthy Lifestyle. The children have been learning about 'Exercise and Keeping Fit' and have created a fact file poster to promote the importance of exercise. They have tried hard to include developed paragraphs, sub-headings, Did you know.....fact, CAPITAL Letters, full stops and text effects. The children added colour and detail to their fact file posters in order to make them eye-catching to the readers. You will find the fact files around school during the Parent Consultation week, so please make sure you have a read and see if you are leading a healthy lifestyle!!
Next week in Literacy the children will be concluding their block on Non-Chronological Report writing and will be writing about Robin Hood School. They will be including lots of information about school life which could include: their friends, favourite subject/lesson, classroom/playground and any other information they wish to include. Please support your child at home by discussing the things they have learnt since being in their new class.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to deepen and test their knowledge of Place Value and Numbers and the Number system. The children have been partitioning numbers using the malteser system but also using numbers:
e.g 367
is made up of: 300 60 7
The children then progressed onto finding missing numbers:
e.g 67 = ........+ 7
The children partitioned the number first, then filled in the missing number. Why not support your child at home and ask them to partition 2,3 and even 4 digit numbers.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be showing off all their learning from this half term and explaining the progress they went through in order to get the answer.
Topic
In topic the children have drawn a self-portrait of themselves, looking closely at the shape of the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. They used mirrors to closely inspect the colour of their eyes and skin tone before using paints to add detail to their pencil drawing of themselves.
Next week the children will be learning about the Harvest Festival and what the celebration signifies. On Friday the children will be presenting their knowledge and understanding at Lofthouse Church on Friday at 10 o'clock. Hope to see you there!!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Well done to all the children on yet another fantastic week in year 3/4! We have been very impressed with the level of effort they have all been putting in to their learning. We are looking forward to seeing you at the parent consultations next week to discuss your child's progress so far this year.
Numeracy
In numeracy, the children have been doing some fabulous learning. We have been looking at venn diagrams, pictograms and bar charts, and learning how to read and interpret data from them. Not only this, but we have also had a go at constructing our own pictograms and bar charts. Why don't you ask your child to show you what they can do? Please ensure your child is practising their times tables with you at home as this will help them in their numeracy learning.
Literacy
As you know, we are learning all about the 'Vicious Vikings'. This week's learning has been focused around Viking battles, Viking weapons and King Alfred the Great. The children have been improving their note taking skills in order to gain some quality information to write detailed rainbow paragraphs. They have been including some super compound and complex sentences within their writing, as well as many audience engaging features that we have enjoyed reading! Well done year 3/4!
Topic
Over the course of this week the children have been continuing to make their moving mechanisms, weaving and Kar2ouche animations. We are so pleased with their super progress and we all think that they are going to be looking fabulous by the end of next week.
Reminders
Our school trip to Danelaw Viking Village in York is happening next week. Year 3s are going on Tuesday, year 4s on Thursday. Please ensure you refer to the letter sent home as this details what the children need to bring. As we are outside for most of the day it is vital the children have suitable clothing which will keep them warm and dry if it rains. A pair of wellingtons as well as trainers is advisable. It is a fantastic day and we are sure the children will really enjoy living like Vikings for the day!
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
Congratulations to Shannon K, our Achiever of the Week, for the great effort and thought which she put into her mathematical explanations about our recent practical activity in Numeracy. Shannon expertly included mathematical language in her explanations. Shannon's depiction of an American icon in the style of Andy Warhol was also really impressive. Well done.
The first Times Tables Challenge will be held on Friday 21st October so keep practising your times tables.
Next week is Parent Consultations, for which appointments for all the children have been made. We look forward to updating you about your child's start to the academic year, our aims and ambitions for the year and your child's progress and targets.
Numeracy: This week, we have been finding fractions of shapes as well as focusing on mixed numbers and improper fractions. Finding common denominators is also a focus. These websites provide useful information and games to practise fractions- http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Numeracy Home learning:
Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables ahead of the Times Tables Challenge on Friday.
There is a fraction activity on I Am Learning ( via the Learning Platform) for the children to access at home.
Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units.
Literacy
In Literacy, we have been looking at newspaper reports and 'stealing' WOW words and phrases to use in our own reports about the recent Big Draw at school. There's a continuing focus on including our star criteria which include the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Literacy Home Learning:
This week’s spellings are recorded in your child's planner. Please practise these regularly at home!
Please read the next chapter of Stormbreaker. There are questions about the text which are also available on I Am Learning.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Art, we have been representing iconic images of America in the style of Andy Warhol.
In PE, we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE, we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage to Lourdes. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs!
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Newsletter Issue 6 Friday 14th October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
As I write, I can hear a beautiful rendition of ‘California Dreaming’ by The Beach Boys coming from our Year 6 class. Magical! I also had the pleasure of watching the same class do their Line Dancing routine – part of their America Topic – in the School Hall.
As many of you will have seen, our Big Draw last week attracted press coverage from the Yorkshire Evening Post as well as Calendar News. We are looking forward to another couple of news articles on the interesting things that our children have been doing recently in the forthcoming Rothwell Record.
Parent Consultations
By now you should have received your appointment time for our Parent Consultations next week. We have provided everyone with an appointment time. These are important meetings, please contact Mrs Smith if for any reason you are unable to attend your appointment time and we will agree an alternate meeting time. Please remember, consultations are of ten minutes maximum duration – we do ask you to respect this as we want all appointments to run to time. The quality of appointments is compromised if parents have been kept waiting and everyone is under time pressure.
Clubs
There are no Clubs, except the paid-for Clubs, next week. Information has already gone out about this to parents. This is been due to Parent Consultations. Clubs begin again as normal after the Half Term.
After the Half Term we will be extending our Clubs offer by launching a Spanish Club from 3.15pm-4.00pm. More details of this exciting opportunity will be announced soon.
Holiday Clubs at Friendly Faces
Holiday Club places are available at Friendly Faces both this Half Term and for the first week of the school Christmas Holidays, up until 23rd December. Full days are charged at £27.50 and half days £14.00. We have an Early Bird rate of £22.50 and £11.50, if booked a Half Term in advance. For Friendly Faces places, please contact Louise Parker on 07810071148.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. During that time, we have trained fabulous teachers like Mrs Steel, Miss Mees, Mrs Moore and Mrs Brook who have all then gone on to join our permanent staff. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
Mrs Smith certainly deserves to be this week’s star. Mrs Smith celebrated her twentieth anniversary at Robin Hood yesterday. For all of those years, Mrs Smith has been a fabulous servant to our school. ‘Front of house’ can sometimes be a difficult and challenging job but it is one that Mrs Smith always does with a smile and a brilliantly positive attitude. Parents and visitors often comment to me on how fantastic our Mrs Smith is. This was typified when a family that recently left our school saved their very special praise for Mrs Smith and all that she had done for them over the years.
Comenius Visit
We have had a number of staff out of school this week who have been meeting with European partner schools and visiting schools in the Czech Republic as part of the Comenius project. Comenius is fully funded by the European Union. Involvement in the project brings addition funds, resources and links to our school and provides new learning opportunities for children. It is our aim to build strong and lasting partnerships with our European partners and to build staff expertise and confidence that will enable us to offer future Comenius visit to pupils.
Unnamed Clothing
A final call on unnamed clothing for this Half Term. We have two cardigans, 1 size 28" and 1 size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8 and a brown leather H & M jacket age 5-6. Please help us to help you – ensure that all items are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a fabulous week in Nursery, despite the unfortunate weather and the children should be very proud of their achievements. They have produced some beautiful artwork to decorate our outdoor area and some beautiful gifts for special people in class and at home! Can I also say a huge thank you for the incredible home learning that has been produced again this week. Please do take a moment to look at the display by the snack table in Nursery, it is stunning and definitely makes me feel happy!!
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, and have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been sharing stories and looking at photos, to encourage us to think and talk about different emotions, and how best to deal with tricky situations. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 10 and counting up to 20! We have also been learning our number names, what numbers look like and how we count objects! Please continue to play games and sing songs with numbers at home too.
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer outside and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· By reading daily with your child, encouraging your child to be involved in the book as much as possible.
· By practising counting at every opportunity e.g climbing stairs, fastening buttons etc.
· By ensuring your child can put their own coat on
· By practising putting on and taking off their own shoes and socks
DIARY DATES
Celebration afternoons are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Nursery (and Reception) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
Home Learning!
To make your own Elmer the Elephant! (Images available on Google) You can be as creative as you like – make Elmer from card, 3D, using paints, create your own coloured pattern (spots, stripes, rainbow, hearts etc). A template is available should you need one please see the Nursery staff.
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Well done to all of you for working so hard all week! We are really impressed with the children who have not only learned their keywords, but are spotting them in their reading.
Thank you too for all the fabulous home learning. Miss Abbey has uploaded them onto our blog at: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, but have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been creating artwork for a super display and we will be including the children's home learning outcomes too. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 20 to zero which has proved a bit tricky(!) as well as learning how to write numbers correctly and thinking about the place value and how many tens and units are included in numbers. (eg 14 is one ten and four units)
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer in the hall and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should be ready to move onto PINK band books by the end of this half term
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: but, put, the, to, I, no, go, into. New sounds are: f, h and u
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names
By practising writing the numbers to 10 with the correct formation
DIARY DATES
Parent consultations are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Reception (and Nursery) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
KS1 Newsletter
What a busy week Key Stage 1 have had! On Tuesday morning we waved good bye to Miss Oxley and Miss Mees who left on a Comenius visit to Prague. They were very excited at the thought of teaching in a different country and sharing their experiences of Robin Hood. We can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures.
Parent Consultations
Thank you to Mrs Smith for organising the parent consultations, every parent now has an appointment to see their child's class teacher. We look forward to seeing you all at the parent consultations to share the experiences your child has had and our aims and aspirations for the year ahead!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have continued to develop their knowledge of having a Healthy Lifestyle. The children have been learning about 'Exercise and Keeping Fit' and have created a fact file poster to promote the importance of exercise. They have tried hard to include developed paragraphs, sub-headings, Did you know.....fact, CAPITAL Letters, full stops and text effects. The children added colour and detail to their fact file posters in order to make them eye-catching to the readers. You will find the fact files around school during the Parent Consultation week, so please make sure you have a read and see if you are leading a healthy lifestyle!!
Next week in Literacy the children will be concluding their block on Non-Chronological Report writing and will be writing about Robin Hood School. They will be including lots of information about school life which could include: their friends, favourite subject/lesson, classroom/playground and any other information they wish to include. Please support your child at home by discussing the things they have learnt since being in their new class.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to deepen and test their knowledge of Place Value and Numbers and the Number system. The children have been partitioning numbers using the malteser system but also using numbers:
e.g 367
is made up of: 300 60 7
The children then progressed onto finding missing numbers:
e.g 67 = ........+ 7
The children partitioned the number first, then filled in the missing number. Why not support your child at home and ask them to partition 2,3 and even 4 digit numbers.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be showing off all their learning from this half term and explaining the progress they went through in order to get the answer.
Topic
In topic the children have drawn a self-portrait of themselves, looking closely at the shape of the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. They used mirrors to closely inspect the colour of their eyes and skin tone before using paints to add detail to their pencil drawing of themselves.
Next week the children will be learning about the Harvest Festival and what the celebration signifies. On Friday the children will be presenting their knowledge and understanding at Lofthouse Church on Friday at 10 o'clock. Hope to see you there!!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Well done to all the children on yet another fantastic week in year 3/4! We have been very impressed with the level of effort they have all been putting in to their learning. We are looking forward to seeing you at the parent consultations next week to discuss your child's progress so far this year.
Numeracy
In numeracy, the children have been doing some fabulous learning. We have been looking at venn diagrams, pictograms and bar charts, and learning how to read and interpret data from them. Not only this, but we have also had a go at constructing our own pictograms and bar charts. Why don't you ask your child to show you what they can do? Please ensure your child is practising their times tables with you at home as this will help them in their numeracy learning.
Literacy
As you know, we are learning all about the 'Vicious Vikings'. This week's learning has been focused around Viking battles, Viking weapons and King Alfred the Great. The children have been improving their note taking skills in order to gain some quality information to write detailed rainbow paragraphs. They have been including some super compound and complex sentences within their writing, as well as many audience engaging features that we have enjoyed reading! Well done year 3/4!
Topic
Over the course of this week the children have been continuing to make their moving mechanisms, weaving and Kar2ouche animations. We are so pleased with their super progress and we all think that they are going to be looking fabulous by the end of next week.
Reminders
Our school trip to Danelaw Viking Village in York is happening next week. Year 3s are going on Tuesday, year 4s on Thursday. Please ensure you refer to the letter sent home as this details what the children need to bring. As we are outside for most of the day it is vital the children have suitable clothing which will keep them warm and dry if it rains. A pair of wellingtons as well as trainers is advisable. It is a fantastic day and we are sure the children will really enjoy living like Vikings for the day!
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
Congratulations to Shannon K, our Achiever of the Week, for the great effort and thought which she put into her mathematical explanations about our recent practical activity in Numeracy. Shannon expertly included mathematical language in her explanations. Shannon's depiction of an American icon in the style of Andy Warhol was also really impressive. Well done.
The first Times Tables Challenge will be held on Friday 21st October so keep practising your times tables.
Next week is Parent Consultations, for which appointments for all the children have been made. We look forward to updating you about your child's start to the academic year, our aims and ambitions for the year and your child's progress and targets.
Numeracy: This week, we have been finding fractions of shapes as well as focusing on mixed numbers and improper fractions. Finding common denominators is also a focus. These websites provide useful information and games to practise fractions- http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Numeracy Home learning:
Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables ahead of the Times Tables Challenge on Friday.
There is a fraction activity on I Am Learning ( via the Learning Platform) for the children to access at home.
Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units.
Literacy
In Literacy, we have been looking at newspaper reports and 'stealing' WOW words and phrases to use in our own reports about the recent Big Draw at school. There's a continuing focus on including our star criteria which include the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Literacy Home Learning:
This week’s spellings are recorded in your child's planner. Please practise these regularly at home!
Please read the next chapter of Stormbreaker. There are questions about the text which are also available on I Am Learning.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Art, we have been representing iconic images of America in the style of Andy Warhol.
In PE, we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE, we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage to Lourdes. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs!
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Harvest Festival
Harvest Festival Friday 21st October
The children will be walking up to church at 9.30 (weather permitting), and any support walking with the children from parents or members of the community will be very welcome.
The service starts at 10.00am.
The children will be walking up to church at 9.30 (weather permitting), and any support walking with the children from parents or members of the community will be very welcome.
The service starts at 10.00am.
Thursday 6 October 2011
Issue 5 2011 - 12
Newsletter Issue 5 Friday 6th October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
Apologies to those families who received a slightly earlier edit of last week’s newsletter via email and paper. The couple of unfinished sentences that did go out via those sources have been amended on the online newsletter…
The Big Draw
We had a brilliant Big Draw Day on Monday, during which we received visits from Calendar TV, the Yorkshire Evening Post and Councillor Lisa Mulherin, our Chair of Governors. Children from every class, Nursery to Year 6, contributed to the vast artwork in our Hall and produced works of art in their classrooms, all of which were displayed on Tuesday at our Robin Hood Art Gallery Open Exhibition for parents and families. Thanks to everyone who attended that event in support of our fabulous artists. A group of Year 5 and 6 pupils created a permanent work at the rear of the school – our Friendly Faces Graffiti Wall. Robin Hood is, of course, well known for the quality of its Arts provision. We are the proud holder of ArtsMark Gold and have featured in national publications on Art by ofsted and The Campaign for Drawing. The Big Draw at Robin Hood featured on Calendar News on Wednesday this week.
Feedback
We do want to hear from you about your ease of access to the newsletters. We made the change to mainly an electronic system in order to
a. reduce paper, photocopying and administration costs
b. ensure that the newsletters get to those who do want to see them as Pupil Post was not always 100% reliable.
When the newsletter was paper-based, we were often told by parents that they did not receive the newsletter – which is why we added the blog version to our distribution process.
Parents are now able to access the newsletter – at school on the Noticeboards, via the blog, via email or in paper form from the office. We are currently looking at whether the newsletter can be distributed via facebook to make access even easier. Our newsletters contain important information about school. Please ensure that you have a method of accessing them.
Feedback on the different methods of accessing the newsletter could form part of the discussion at our Parents Forum, to be held in Friendly Faces, 9.00am 4th November. Mrs Ann Parker (Governor) and Mrs Dale (Deputy Headteacher) will be there to share a coffee and a chat about any aspect of school life. Please do speak with Mrs Dale about your child’s experiences of The Big Draw… she would be delighted to hear from you.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
It is a regular feature of our newsletters that I spotlight the contribution made by key members of staff to our fabulous school. I would like this week to pay my particular thanks to Mrs Holland. Mrs Holland’s full time move to the office last year has been a blessing for Mrs Smith, the staff and I as her ultra-efficiency and fabulous photocopier skills have helped us all greatly.
Unnamed Clothing
Mrs Holland has three school-badged jade green cardigans; one age 5-6, one size 28" and one size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8, a two-tone green Mothercare coat age 3-4 and a brown leather H & M jacket age5/6 – all unnamed. Anyone missing these items… please claim them from Mrs Holland… and write child’s name in them. We do not have the space in school to hold a stock of unnamed clothing. Any items not claimed by the Half Term will be donated to charity. Please help us to help you by ensuring that all items that your child brings to school are clearly named.
Holiday Absence
During their inspection in April, ofsted noted the number of school days at Robin Hood that are lost to family holidays during term time – both authorised and unauthorised. Our policy on Holiday Absence is clear, is available from our website (http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/parents/policies.php), is consistent with the other Rothwell schools and is consistently applied when requests are received. While I fully recognise the issues for families surrounding the taking of holidays in term time I am also aware of the impact that absence from school has upon learning.
PTA Annual General Meeting
The PTA AGM will take place at school on Thursday 13th October, 6.00pm. Parents of our Nursery and Reception children, as well as the parents of children throughout the school, are very much encouraged and welcomed to join us.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery newsletter Autumn 1 week 5
News Round Up
We have enjoyed another great week in Nursery as Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event. The children had a fabulous time going on a bear hunt and then produced a montage to represent the environments where we found our bears! Many thanks to the parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have concentrated on counting to ten and introduced counting backwards from 10. Please encourage your child to count objects at home too, e.g. how many lego blocks they have used to build a tower, how many teddies have they got lined up on their bed etc.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers and using number rhymes and games to help build on their skills.
How you can help us
Please ensure your child completes the home learning task and brings into Nursery as we do use the finished outcomes to support our activities in school.
Thank you so much to those parents who have engaged with the reading records and guidance notes to help your child with early reading skills. Please could I ask that Wednesday becomes the day that we hand in reading records and I will then return them to you.
Thank you.
Reception Newsletter
News round up
We have enjoyed another great week in Reception. Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event and thank you to all parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
As the weather has turned colder please can you make sure your child brings a coat every day. We have also had some polo shirts going missing, particularly after PE. Can you please check that all clothing (including shoes) is clearly named and if your child comes home wearing something that isn't theirs, please can you wash and return to school to allow us to return to the rightful owner!
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have looked at numbers above 10 and have continued with working on our number formation.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers above ten, talking about the way they are made up from tens and units and practising writing them. All children need to be able to read, recognise and write the numbers to twenty during their time in Reception.
New Sounds and Keywords
the new sounds for next week will be: 'b', 'd' and 'i'
the keywords will be: him, his, not, got, up, mum
KS1 Newsletter
What an amazing week it has been in Key Stage 1....check out the blog for photos of this weeks events!! http://robinhoodkeystage1.blogspot.com/
Home Learning
A huge THANK YOU to all parents and children for their outstanding home learning projects which were handed in on Monday. The Key Stage 1 staff were very impressed with the time, effort and creativeness the children showed. All projects handed in can be seen of the KS1 blog......
The Big Draw
On Monday the children took part in The Big Draw, where they were involved in art based activities across the day. The day started with a whole school assembly led by Mrs Dale who shared the vision for the day and the project which would take place in the hall.
The children went on an Autumn walk to collect leaves from the playground which then fed into the children's art work of leaf printing and observational drawings of leaves. When using the leaves to print, they first investigated the different ways to create a leaf print using primary colours and then teamed up with up to 3 other people to create amazing pictures of leaves. The children then continued to add detail to the pictures using coloured pens and pencils.
During the afternoon the children went outside to create observational drawings of leaves using charcoal and coloured pastels. The children spent time looking at how to create an effective outlines of the leaves (without drawing around the leaf itself) and then adding on the vines.
We hope you were able to join the celebration of this art work on Tuesday and even purchased some from the amazing artists Robin Hood have!!!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have tried so hard with their learning, creating a booklet all about being healthy and having a healthy lifestyle. The children continued to look at having a balanced diet and the effects this has on the body. They watched video clips to enhance their listening skills and knowledge of the subject. The children have completed their own Healthy Eating booklet including sub-heading, CAPITAL LETTERS, full stops, developed ideas (using: so, if, but, because, when), Did you know facts..... and text effects.
Next week the children will be learning with a partner and creating a poster on Exercise. They will be participating in different exercise videos, discussing the effects these have on they body while reading information texts about the benefits of exercise and the possible side effects of being unhealthy. The children will look at how to set out an effective poster using different colours to present different ideas.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to develop their understanding of Numbers and the Number System and using the Malteser system to partition two and three digit numbers. The children have been ordering the numbers and discussing which is the Biggest/Smallest and why. Please continue to support your child at home by asking them to write three and four digit numbers at home and label up the columns.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be developing their understanding of the 100 square and where the numbers are in relation to the columns and rows. They will continue to develop their understanding of 1 more/1 less and 10 more/10 less, using the hundred square but also doing this mentally. To really test the children's understanding and knowledge of the 100 square they will be given a small section to fill in and complete which will require them to use all the skills taught across the week.
Topic
This week has seen another taste testing session.....tasting different smoothies and trying to identify the fruit used. The children then continued to design, make and evaluate their own fruit smoothie, using a selection of fruit. The children really enjoyed the hands on sessions and even created their own labels which would be used for their bottles. I am sure in years to come we will see some of these on the shelves in Morrisons!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Our week kicked off with the fantastic 'Big Draw' on Monday, where we had lots of fun creating sky lines of the words most famous landmarks. We would like to congratulate all the children for their amazing enthusiasm and superb effort shown throughout the day. We would like to thank everyone who came along to support the event in the hall on Tuesday and who purchased our amazing pictures. I'm sure you'll agree 3/4 are very talented artists! Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls class have produced an amazing video of instructions on how to play a fun playtime game this week. This video is for the schools in our comenius project to use and learn from. Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls will take this with them next week when they are going to Prague to observe and teach in one of our Comenius partner's schools.
Literacy
This week we have continued to research what life was like for women and children. The children have introduced their report with an engaging opening paragraph and have continued to group ideas into paragraphs. We have been very impressed with the children's descriptions and attempts at complex sentences. Next week the children will be researching the battles that the Vikings and the Saxons took part in and the impact Alfred the Great had on the Vikings' reign over England.
Numeracy
This week we have been sorting and carrying out investigations around odd and even numbers. We also have had a lot of fun sorting multiples of different numbers into venn and carol diagrams. Next week we will be collecting data and representing this in pictograms and bar charts.
Topic
We have been continuing our weaving, moving pictures and Kar2ouche animations all about different aspects of Viking life. We are looking forward to sharing these with you at the end of our topic.
Reminders
All year four children who are going on residential have received the itinerary, equipment list and a medical form. Please can all medical forms be completed and returned to school as soon as possible.
Our trip to Danelaw Viking Village at Murton Park is fast approaching, please can you ensure we have everyone's payment in before we go. As the weather has turned quite cold please can all children make sure they come to school on that day in warm clothes and a waterproof coat.
Thank you,
Year 3/4 Team
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations Laura Bond, who is our Achiever of the Week, for her AMAZING paragraph about an American Film icon. She wowed us with her use of ALL the star Criteria. Well done Laura.
• Well done to everyone who took part in the Big Draw event on Monday. We were so impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity demonstrated by Year 56 as well as the quality of the outcomes. Some pieces of work are still available if pupils wish to take them home.
• Thank you to everyone who attended our Celebration afternoon on Friday. We were delighted to share the children’s work with parents and carers and we sincerely hope you enjoyed the biscuits that were on offer.
Numeracy: this week we have been looking at the relationship between fractions and decimals. We have found fractions of given amounts and applied it to the decorating of our biscuits. Next week we will continue to look at fractions. However, we will be focussing on mixed number and improper fractions as well as finding common denominators. The following websites are useful to get you started:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts facts are fundamental when working with fractions. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
Next week in Literacy we will be moving on to look at newspaper reports and the stylistic devices needed to write like a journalist. We will be using the Big Draw event as a stimulus and will be looking to include ALL of our Star Criteria in our writing. These include: the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our art unit: Scissors, Sculpture, Texture, Picture, Prepare, Create, Pastel, Material, Mixture, Build. You can practise these spellings via the Learning Platform.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have been finding out about how we hear and how sound travels. We have carried out investigations around changing the pitch and volume of musical instruments and have then had a go at making our own ‘unique’ sounds.
In PE we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Dear Parent/Carer,
Apologies to those families who received a slightly earlier edit of last week’s newsletter via email and paper. The couple of unfinished sentences that did go out via those sources have been amended on the online newsletter…
The Big Draw
We had a brilliant Big Draw Day on Monday, during which we received visits from Calendar TV, the Yorkshire Evening Post and Councillor Lisa Mulherin, our Chair of Governors. Children from every class, Nursery to Year 6, contributed to the vast artwork in our Hall and produced works of art in their classrooms, all of which were displayed on Tuesday at our Robin Hood Art Gallery Open Exhibition for parents and families. Thanks to everyone who attended that event in support of our fabulous artists. A group of Year 5 and 6 pupils created a permanent work at the rear of the school – our Friendly Faces Graffiti Wall. Robin Hood is, of course, well known for the quality of its Arts provision. We are the proud holder of ArtsMark Gold and have featured in national publications on Art by ofsted and The Campaign for Drawing. The Big Draw at Robin Hood featured on Calendar News on Wednesday this week.
Feedback
We do want to hear from you about your ease of access to the newsletters. We made the change to mainly an electronic system in order to
a. reduce paper, photocopying and administration costs
b. ensure that the newsletters get to those who do want to see them as Pupil Post was not always 100% reliable.
When the newsletter was paper-based, we were often told by parents that they did not receive the newsletter – which is why we added the blog version to our distribution process.
Parents are now able to access the newsletter – at school on the Noticeboards, via the blog, via email or in paper form from the office. We are currently looking at whether the newsletter can be distributed via facebook to make access even easier. Our newsletters contain important information about school. Please ensure that you have a method of accessing them.
Feedback on the different methods of accessing the newsletter could form part of the discussion at our Parents Forum, to be held in Friendly Faces, 9.00am 4th November. Mrs Ann Parker (Governor) and Mrs Dale (Deputy Headteacher) will be there to share a coffee and a chat about any aspect of school life. Please do speak with Mrs Dale about your child’s experiences of The Big Draw… she would be delighted to hear from you.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
It is a regular feature of our newsletters that I spotlight the contribution made by key members of staff to our fabulous school. I would like this week to pay my particular thanks to Mrs Holland. Mrs Holland’s full time move to the office last year has been a blessing for Mrs Smith, the staff and I as her ultra-efficiency and fabulous photocopier skills have helped us all greatly.
Unnamed Clothing
Mrs Holland has three school-badged jade green cardigans; one age 5-6, one size 28" and one size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8, a two-tone green Mothercare coat age 3-4 and a brown leather H & M jacket age5/6 – all unnamed. Anyone missing these items… please claim them from Mrs Holland… and write child’s name in them. We do not have the space in school to hold a stock of unnamed clothing. Any items not claimed by the Half Term will be donated to charity. Please help us to help you by ensuring that all items that your child brings to school are clearly named.
Holiday Absence
During their inspection in April, ofsted noted the number of school days at Robin Hood that are lost to family holidays during term time – both authorised and unauthorised. Our policy on Holiday Absence is clear, is available from our website (http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/parents/policies.php), is consistent with the other Rothwell schools and is consistently applied when requests are received. While I fully recognise the issues for families surrounding the taking of holidays in term time I am also aware of the impact that absence from school has upon learning.
PTA Annual General Meeting
The PTA AGM will take place at school on Thursday 13th October, 6.00pm. Parents of our Nursery and Reception children, as well as the parents of children throughout the school, are very much encouraged and welcomed to join us.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery newsletter Autumn 1 week 5
News Round Up
We have enjoyed another great week in Nursery as Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event. The children had a fabulous time going on a bear hunt and then produced a montage to represent the environments where we found our bears! Many thanks to the parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have concentrated on counting to ten and introduced counting backwards from 10. Please encourage your child to count objects at home too, e.g. how many lego blocks they have used to build a tower, how many teddies have they got lined up on their bed etc.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers and using number rhymes and games to help build on their skills.
How you can help us
Please ensure your child completes the home learning task and brings into Nursery as we do use the finished outcomes to support our activities in school.
Thank you so much to those parents who have engaged with the reading records and guidance notes to help your child with early reading skills. Please could I ask that Wednesday becomes the day that we hand in reading records and I will then return them to you.
Thank you.
Reception Newsletter
News round up
We have enjoyed another great week in Reception. Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event and thank you to all parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
As the weather has turned colder please can you make sure your child brings a coat every day. We have also had some polo shirts going missing, particularly after PE. Can you please check that all clothing (including shoes) is clearly named and if your child comes home wearing something that isn't theirs, please can you wash and return to school to allow us to return to the rightful owner!
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have looked at numbers above 10 and have continued with working on our number formation.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers above ten, talking about the way they are made up from tens and units and practising writing them. All children need to be able to read, recognise and write the numbers to twenty during their time in Reception.
New Sounds and Keywords
the new sounds for next week will be: 'b', 'd' and 'i'
the keywords will be: him, his, not, got, up, mum
KS1 Newsletter
What an amazing week it has been in Key Stage 1....check out the blog for photos of this weeks events!! http://robinhoodkeystage1.blogspot.com/
Home Learning
A huge THANK YOU to all parents and children for their outstanding home learning projects which were handed in on Monday. The Key Stage 1 staff were very impressed with the time, effort and creativeness the children showed. All projects handed in can be seen of the KS1 blog......
The Big Draw
On Monday the children took part in The Big Draw, where they were involved in art based activities across the day. The day started with a whole school assembly led by Mrs Dale who shared the vision for the day and the project which would take place in the hall.
The children went on an Autumn walk to collect leaves from the playground which then fed into the children's art work of leaf printing and observational drawings of leaves. When using the leaves to print, they first investigated the different ways to create a leaf print using primary colours and then teamed up with up to 3 other people to create amazing pictures of leaves. The children then continued to add detail to the pictures using coloured pens and pencils.
During the afternoon the children went outside to create observational drawings of leaves using charcoal and coloured pastels. The children spent time looking at how to create an effective outlines of the leaves (without drawing around the leaf itself) and then adding on the vines.
We hope you were able to join the celebration of this art work on Tuesday and even purchased some from the amazing artists Robin Hood have!!!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have tried so hard with their learning, creating a booklet all about being healthy and having a healthy lifestyle. The children continued to look at having a balanced diet and the effects this has on the body. They watched video clips to enhance their listening skills and knowledge of the subject. The children have completed their own Healthy Eating booklet including sub-heading, CAPITAL LETTERS, full stops, developed ideas (using: so, if, but, because, when), Did you know facts..... and text effects.
Next week the children will be learning with a partner and creating a poster on Exercise. They will be participating in different exercise videos, discussing the effects these have on they body while reading information texts about the benefits of exercise and the possible side effects of being unhealthy. The children will look at how to set out an effective poster using different colours to present different ideas.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to develop their understanding of Numbers and the Number System and using the Malteser system to partition two and three digit numbers. The children have been ordering the numbers and discussing which is the Biggest/Smallest and why. Please continue to support your child at home by asking them to write three and four digit numbers at home and label up the columns.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be developing their understanding of the 100 square and where the numbers are in relation to the columns and rows. They will continue to develop their understanding of 1 more/1 less and 10 more/10 less, using the hundred square but also doing this mentally. To really test the children's understanding and knowledge of the 100 square they will be given a small section to fill in and complete which will require them to use all the skills taught across the week.
Topic
This week has seen another taste testing session.....tasting different smoothies and trying to identify the fruit used. The children then continued to design, make and evaluate their own fruit smoothie, using a selection of fruit. The children really enjoyed the hands on sessions and even created their own labels which would be used for their bottles. I am sure in years to come we will see some of these on the shelves in Morrisons!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Our week kicked off with the fantastic 'Big Draw' on Monday, where we had lots of fun creating sky lines of the words most famous landmarks. We would like to congratulate all the children for their amazing enthusiasm and superb effort shown throughout the day. We would like to thank everyone who came along to support the event in the hall on Tuesday and who purchased our amazing pictures. I'm sure you'll agree 3/4 are very talented artists! Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls class have produced an amazing video of instructions on how to play a fun playtime game this week. This video is for the schools in our comenius project to use and learn from. Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls will take this with them next week when they are going to Prague to observe and teach in one of our Comenius partner's schools.
Literacy
This week we have continued to research what life was like for women and children. The children have introduced their report with an engaging opening paragraph and have continued to group ideas into paragraphs. We have been very impressed with the children's descriptions and attempts at complex sentences. Next week the children will be researching the battles that the Vikings and the Saxons took part in and the impact Alfred the Great had on the Vikings' reign over England.
Numeracy
This week we have been sorting and carrying out investigations around odd and even numbers. We also have had a lot of fun sorting multiples of different numbers into venn and carol diagrams. Next week we will be collecting data and representing this in pictograms and bar charts.
Topic
We have been continuing our weaving, moving pictures and Kar2ouche animations all about different aspects of Viking life. We are looking forward to sharing these with you at the end of our topic.
Reminders
All year four children who are going on residential have received the itinerary, equipment list and a medical form. Please can all medical forms be completed and returned to school as soon as possible.
Our trip to Danelaw Viking Village at Murton Park is fast approaching, please can you ensure we have everyone's payment in before we go. As the weather has turned quite cold please can all children make sure they come to school on that day in warm clothes and a waterproof coat.
Thank you,
Year 3/4 Team
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations Laura Bond, who is our Achiever of the Week, for her AMAZING paragraph about an American Film icon. She wowed us with her use of ALL the star Criteria. Well done Laura.
• Well done to everyone who took part in the Big Draw event on Monday. We were so impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity demonstrated by Year 56 as well as the quality of the outcomes. Some pieces of work are still available if pupils wish to take them home.
• Thank you to everyone who attended our Celebration afternoon on Friday. We were delighted to share the children’s work with parents and carers and we sincerely hope you enjoyed the biscuits that were on offer.
Numeracy: this week we have been looking at the relationship between fractions and decimals. We have found fractions of given amounts and applied it to the decorating of our biscuits. Next week we will continue to look at fractions. However, we will be focussing on mixed number and improper fractions as well as finding common denominators. The following websites are useful to get you started:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts facts are fundamental when working with fractions. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
Next week in Literacy we will be moving on to look at newspaper reports and the stylistic devices needed to write like a journalist. We will be using the Big Draw event as a stimulus and will be looking to include ALL of our Star Criteria in our writing. These include: the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our art unit: Scissors, Sculpture, Texture, Picture, Prepare, Create, Pastel, Material, Mixture, Build. You can practise these spellings via the Learning Platform.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have been finding out about how we hear and how sound travels. We have carried out investigations around changing the pitch and volume of musical instruments and have then had a go at making our own ‘unique’ sounds.
In PE we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
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