Newsletter Issue 10 Friday 18th November 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
As you are aware, our school is recognised nationally for it’s effective use of twenty first century technologies. We are using those technologies as powerfully as we can to keep you up to date with school news and information on your child’s learning.
Robin Hood Newsletters on Facebook
Our weekly newsletter is now available on Facebook. If you search for robinhoodpri@hotmail.co.uk in the Facebook Search and make a Friend Request you will be added to the friendship group. This means that you will be able to access the newsletter via all Facebook media… including Smartphone. The newsletters will be posted onto the Facebook page on a Saturday morning.
Blogs
The newsletter blog has been updated to include an email subscription option. Subscribing to the blog will mean that updates appear direct in your email Inbox. If you receive your emails on your phone… the updated blogs will be pushed direct to your phone. Some class blogs have also been updated to include this feature.
Parent Mail
We also, of course, send out text messages via Parent Mail, eg; this week’s text to Year 4 parents letting them know that the children had arrived safely at East Barnby. Please do not reply to text messages sent through Parentmail.
Strike
As I am sure you will know, a day of mass strike action is planned for 30th November. This situation is still unfolding as some unions are still to announce the results of their ballots and advice from some unions is still emerging. All Headteachers are required to complete a Risk Assessment on the likely impact of the strike action on their school and plan accordingly. It is likely that some action will affect the school. It is prudent at this time for families to make alternative childcare arrangements for the 30th in the event of the strike affecting classes. I am gathering all of the information that I can and will keep you informed as best I can, however, some information – and thus decisions on the opening of some classes – may only be available at short notice.
Christmas Fair
Due to the re-organisation of our PTA, the Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December has been postponed. As you will be aware, the PTA has been able to put on fewer and fewer activities in recent times due to a dwindling of donations, support and help. It is hoped that the newly developing PTA will be hosting a Christmas Disco for children, details out soon. Now is a great time to get involved with the future of our PTA, who also now have a facebook page at: www.facebook.com/robinhoodprimaryschoolpta
School Dinners
I enjoyed a lovely homemade Chicken Hot Pot in the Dining Hall with our children this week. My thanks to Mrs Nash and her team for their fantastic developing efforts to provide healthy, fresh meals for our children and my thanks also to Mrs Hick and the team, who are working very hard together to make our lunchtime experience as enjoyable and as exciting as possible.
A reminder to all parents of children taking a School Lunch; lunch money should be paid on a Monday, please.
Operation Christmas Child
Our Operation Christmas Child Appeal has brought in approximately fifty boxes so far. We have some way to go to improve upon last year’s fabulous effort that brought in over 120 donations of gift boxes for children who otherwise would not have been receiving a gift at Christmas. Our boxes are being taken on Tuesday for transportation to Somalia… So this is the last chance to make a donation this year.
Money
All monies for trips, etc should be posted in the silver post box outside the school office in an envelope with your name and the purpose of the payment written on, and not handed to members of staff or left with your child to be handed to a member of staff. Thank you.
Carlton Athletic Giants Under 8’s
Carlton Athletic Giants Under 8’s are looking for both girls and boys for their teams. Contact www.carltonathleticgiants.co.uk
Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal
Out of a total of £1147.88 collected by the Royal British Legion for this year’s Poppy Appeal, Robin Hood contributed £208.31. Thank you to everyone for their kind donations.
Copley Lane Orchard
Copley Lane Orchard is a local initiative to create a wildlife haven in the community. Leeds Wildlife Volunteers will be on site at an Open Day this Sunday to demonstrate orchard care and to Bug Hunt. Children are encouraged to bring their own Bug hunting kits.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
Many thanks for the wonderful home learning that came into Nursery this week. The children’s creative skills are continuing to amaze us! Please please do visit the Nursery blog to see the outcomes! The blog is a great way to keep up to date with our achievements and the key learning objectives we are covering so please do make yourself a follower!!
THIS WEEK
The children have been thinking about different celebrations. Our focus this week was the celebration of Eid. We used video clips to gain an insight into the preparations and family traditions of Muslim families. The children then made their own decorations and held their very own parties outside in our Nursery garden. The children also tasted some different Asian foods and recorded which they liked and disliked!
NEXT WEEK
We will be continuing our topic on festivals and celebrations and the children will be learning about Hanukkah. The children will be learning all about the festival of lights and the traditions of the celebrations.
In number the children will be continuing to develop their counting out skills and ability to recognise numbers. Please support your child to develop their knowledge and confidence with numbers, by playing number games at home. The children have really enjoyed playing games like dominoes and board games that involve rolling a dice, so please foster this at home too.
As ever we will continue to work with the children to develop their writing in lots of fun and creative ways. The children will build their gross motor skills using ribbons to make patterns in the air, and move to music making large scale movements with pom poms. We will also continue to develop their fine motor skills, using playdough to build muscle strength and practice a pincer grip with tweezers.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
•Please encourage your child to put on their own shoes and socks... in PE the children are asked to take them off and independently put them back on!
•Bring your child’s reading record into Nursery on a Wednesday.
Requests!
If you have any old pots and pans, spoons or Tupperware that you no longer require, please could you donate it to Nursery for our musical junk yard!
Have a fabulous weekend.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP
Well done for another great week in Reception. We are really proud of how hard the children are working and of the super progress they are making in their reading and writing. Have a look at our blog and see what has been happening this week http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
THIS WEEK
We have been finding out about other celebrations and have focused on the Muslim celebration of Eid al- Fitr. The children wrote shopping lists and then decorated the classroom and prepared for their very own Eid party on Wednesday. We have also had a go at creating Mendhi patterns on drawings of our hands and have tasted some traditional foods that Muslims enjoy during their Eid celebrations. In numeracy we have been estimating and checking our guesses, working on improving our knowledge of numbers above ten.
NEXT WEEK
We will continue to find out about other celebrations and will start from the children's own experiences. Our home learning is to create a poster about a celebration that your child has enjoyed. We will collate these into a talking book and the children will be able to add their own narrative. We will be learning about weddings and christenings and discussing the important traditions that are involved. We will also be sharing some Diwali stories and creating some amazing artwork, displaying our learning journey.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
• Please continue to read every day for five minutes and write a comment in your child's reading record. All children should be reading PINK or RED books now. If they are still bringing home LILAC and you need advice and tips to support your child, please do make an appointment to see one of us.
• Please engage with our blog, try out our CVC and maths games and keep practising our Nativity songs
• Please practice writing the tricky words -he, she, we, me, be, was and reading the tricky words - you, they, all, are, my and her
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Our production will be on Friday 9th December at 10.00am (so please help us to get practising!!)
Key Stage 1 Newsletter
It is unbelievable how quick this half term is going! The children have been very busy this week and are becoming really excited about our trip to see Beauty and the Beast on Tuesday 6th December. Thank you to those parents who have already paid for the trip.
Home Learning and Reading Records
We would like to say Thank You to all parents who continue to share their child's addition learning they are doing at home. This is extremely important and is celebrated in school, please continue to share with us any extra learning your child does. The reading records are looked at each week where we continue to celebrate the successes your child has had at home! A busy reading record is something we absolutely LOVE seeing!
This Weeks Learning
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have begun a unit of learning on subtraction.
The children have been using strategies such as; counting backwards on their fingers, using the hundred square or partitioning the numbers. The children have been taking units from units (8 - 6 = 2) progressing onto subtracting tens and units from a single digit number (14 - 3 = 11) and concluding the week taking away 2 two-digit numbers (42 - 11 = 31).
This will continue next week by looking at the hundreds, tens and units! The children will apply their knowledge of addition and subtraction into word problems. Any numeracy learning you do at home, please share in the reading record or feel free to put in to your child's home learning book.
Literacy
In Literacy the children have started to look at the next book in the story writing unit. The children have been enjoying reading with expression and sharing their own ideas on how they could change the story or make it better. The children have learnt how to change their voice when reading exclamation marks (!), question marks (?), bold text, CAPITALIZATION and discussing how ellipsis.................. can add suspense within the story. The children have begun the preparation of retelling their class story (Gruffalo Year 2, Room on the Broom Year 1/2 and Smartest Giant in Town Year 1). They have designed their own characters to feature in their class story.
We are looking forward to reading the stories that they produce next week!
Topic
In Topic this week the children have been learning all about castles. We would like to say Thank You to the parents who have provided their children with books about Castles. The children have been keen to share these with the class and have showed fantastic engagement in this area of their learning. The children have been learning about how castles have changed over time, the features of a castle and have looked at different people who live in castles. The children have been busy creating and designing their own coats of arms, Please come in and see these in the classroom at any point....they are up on the wall for all to see!!
LKS2 Newsletter
WOW! What another fantastic week we have had in Y3/4! The children in year four have had an AMAZING time on residential at East Barnby and we can't wait to hear more of their stories and see their photographs on Monday! Back in school, the rest of us have also had a superb time...
Literacy
We have been continuing with our persuasive writing this week, which has seen us tasting doughnuts and thinking of superlatives, comparatives similes and metaphors to describe them. Following on from this, the children read some character profiles and designed a doughnut for a specific person to encourage them to write for different audiences. Our Topic learning tied in with this theme and has resulted in some brilliant persuasive displays for their products! Next week, the children will be designing their own theme parks and producing persuasive literature about them.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been exploring column addition and realising they can add very big numbers once they have grasped the principle of place value and carrying tens over. The Moshi Monster theme for our addition proved very popular, with the children having to complete specific addition challenges at the end of the week! We have been blown away with their learning and perseverance! Next week, we will be continuing with column addition and moving on to subtraction.
Reminders
We would like to remind you about our very special fashion show during celebration assembly on Friday 25th November! The children have all worked incredibly hard on these and have produced some great designs which they can't wait to show off! Please ensure your child brings some shorts and bright coloured socks to wear for this, to make sure we can show their pumps off to their full potential.
Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Thank you to all parents and carers who have helped their children to create some wonderful inventions for the topic home learning; we have thoroughly enjoyed hearing all about these marvellous creations and have been stunned with the effort and creativity that has been put into this... definitely some ‘Dragon’s Den’ potential within Robin Hood!
Numeracy: This week we have been learning all about multiplication and division, using chunking, grid method and bus stop methods to support calculations, applying these skills to an Alton Towers theme. Next week we will continue to apply our high level strategies to calculate speed, distance and time taken for a rollercoaster to travel around its track... we will even be creating our very own rollercoaster, ensuring that we take the safety and thrill of the ride into consideration.
Visit the following websites for a step by step demonstration of some of the methods we will be using: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/maths/games?page=3
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/school_booster/busstopdivision.html
Home learning: Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables, 7’s, 8’s and 9’s in particular. These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy, especially during the current unit. 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
This week we have written a short letter to David Cameron in order to stress our views regarding SATs tests. The children have written some fantastic letters, containing many level 5 features, a formal tone and balanced arguments!
Next week, we will be writing a persuasive letter of invitation to a celebrity to invite them to our Christmas Fair; we will be using emotive language and superlatives in an attempt to persuade them to come to our fantastic annual event!
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our Literacy unit: extraordinary, fashionable, successful, essential, assure, appreciate, consideration, significantly, reputation, appearance.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Topic we have been looking at famous and convenient inventions; paying particular attention to communication... we are looking forward to learning more about the famous inventions and inventors next week!
In PE we have been using the apparatus to create sequences using and developing the core skills.
In our Reading sessions we have continued to read our class novel, Room13. We have reached the most dramatic part of the story...we even read in the dark by torchlight whilst listening to eerie music to really get into the spirit of the book.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
