Newsletter Issue 9 Friday 11th November 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
It is one of the many great privileges of my job that I have the opportunity to wander around the classrooms at Robin Hood and take in the wonderful learning that’s going on, all the time.
A visit to our Nursery this week allowed me to reflect on what a wonderful learning environment Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team have created, indoors and out. We have constant outdoor music, lots of great activities and learning resources and a truly fantastic environment for learning.
This is reflected equally in our Reception provision. It is a particular delight to me to see children thoroughly enjoying learning, and enjoying being challenged to take their learning even further. We have a wonderfully gifted team in our Reception, Nursery and Early Years that are ensuring a brilliant start to our youngest learner’s careers in education.
Key Stage One pupils have been busily engaged in lots of powerful learning. I’ve seen some incredible handwriting, amazing drawing and fabulous spellings in Key Stage One this week.
Our Year 34 pupils have been working incredibly hard on their trainer designs, art work, posters, movies and promotional literature. Again, the enthusiasm for learning and the sheer fun that children are having while learning is a delight to see.
Year 56 have been pushing the boundaries of their mathematical understanding, controlling their movements in PE, creative imaginative works of art and much, much, much more.
We began our week with a Key Stage Two Assembly on Mary Anning. Mary overcame many challenges in her life to become recognised as one of the most important female scientists. We held a Remembrance Day Assembly today to understand why poppies are an important symbol in our country and to reflect upon the fallen and the folly of war. We also marked the fact today that 11.11.11…. and at 11.11am was a very historical moment that we’d all remember together.
Robin Hood Newsletters on Facebook
Our 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 email address is not used for anything else, so please don’t try to contact us via it. Some staff may befriend our Facebook page. I have instructed staff not to accept friend requests that come via this connection. There is very strong advice from the Professional Associations that, for very sensible reasons, school staff maintain separate personal, professional, and public, lives. The newsletters will be posted onto the Facebook page on a Saturday morning.
Children In Need
We will again be supporting the Children In Need Appeal on Friday 18th November. This will be a Non-uniform Day. We ask that all children bring a Non-Uniform donation – all proceeds from the donations will be forwarded on to the Charity. The theme for Children In Need dressing up this year is spots. Pupils Jenny Hepworth and Shannon Keeble will be holding a Bake Sale on the day. Again, all proceeds will be going to Children In Need.
School Dinners
Since September, our kitchen has taken up the Food for Life initiative. The Food for Life initiative requires a daily fresh food menu. Meals are made from fresh, rather than being made centrally, distributed and then re-heated in kitchens for service at lunchtime. Produce is locally sourced, meat is local and outdoor reared. All meals are nutritionally balanced, children are encouraged to take a vegetable daily, and there is a self-service daily Salad Bar. Menus are on a three week rota, with a roast dinner option every Wednesday. Even the Fun Day menus… like pizza… are fully homemade. Children use plates and have metal cutlery… rather than the airliner trays and plastic cutlery that we had in the past.
Blogs
Our blogs are brilliant! I looked at the Reception blog again this week…. Which has changed out of all recognition even from how it was last week! The Reception blog is receiving an incredible amount of traffic. Yesterday there were 169 hits in just the one day. Today, there have been 17 hits by 8.00am. The blogs are just one of the many, many ways that we engage families in their children’s learning at Robin Hood. Our school website itself received a staggering 6794 hits in just one day last week.
Christmas Fair
The Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December will be taking place between 12.00pm to 3.00pm. In order to make the Fair a success, our PTA require your donations of chocolates, cakes, buns, bottles and tombola prize donations. Any donations, support and/or offers of help: please contact Jenny Curgenven, PTA Chair either direct or leave a note for Jenny with Mrs Smith or Mrs Holland at the School Office.
Cash Handling
For security reasons could all payments for dinner money, trips etc be placed in an envelope with your child’s name, class and what the payment is for, and then posted in the silver box outside the office.
Have a fabulous weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
The children have had lots of fun this week as we shared our experiences of Bonfire Night and learnt the history behind the tradition. Thank you so much for the home learning that was produced to support the children’s learning. Please do take a look at the display and the Nursery blog, to see the outcomes of this week’s activities!
THIS WEEK
The children sequenced the story of the gunpowder plot, used active drawing as a way to recount their very own experiences of Bonfire Night, and we also found time to carry out an investigation to see which of our very own fireworks travelled the furthest!! The children have also been continuing to develop their counting skills, as we counted how many fireworks were glistening in the sky!
Our focus in phonics has been rhyme and the children have been using ICT games to develop their awareness of rhyming words and phrases.
NEXT WEEK
We will be continuing our topic on festivals and celebrations and the children will be learning about Eid. We will be using video clips made by other children about the traditions and preparations their families take part in during the celebration.
In number the children will be concentrating on matching numbers to quantities. Please continue to support your child with this at home, playing number games, pointing out numbers on the phone, counting objects or items, getting 3 spoons etc, to help build your child’s confidence and knowledge of numbers. We will also be learning to count in 2’s!
In literacy we will be supporting your child to develop an awareness of the letters in the alphabet, as we write shopping lists in preparation for our food tasting activity. Please could we ask that you help your child develop their mark making skills at home too, by practising the letters in your child’s name as often as possible. Please also refer to the letter to parents sent last week, detailing the next steps in writing.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please continue to read stories with your child every day, pointing out the key features of the story and modelling how to hold the book carefully, and allowing your child to turn the page. Encourage your child to follow the words with your finger.
· Please could you provide your child with a change of clothing and leave it in their bag and on their peg, so they are available should we need to change them.
Thank you for your support.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for the amazing response to our Bonfire home learning..... WOW!! Miss Abbey has made a short video which you can see on our blog http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/ Please do have a look and see what has been going on this week!
THIS WEEK
We have continued with our Celebrations topic and have been finding out more about the history of Bonfire Night and just who Guy Fawkes was and his significance to our celebrations today. The children have worked collaboratively to make our very own Guy Fawkes and at the end of the week we will be remodelling him into a scarecrow for our Foundation stage garden! The children have made their own rockets and have estimated and then measured how far they can travel
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be finding out about the important history behind Poppy Day and the children will be using their home learning to kick start our session on Monday. Later in the week we will be finding out more about the Muslim religion and the celebration of Eid. we will be finding out about their celebrations and will be preparing for and holding our own celebration in the setting. Children will be able to taste a variety of authentic traditional foods and then write descriptive words to tell their friends what they have found out. In our numeracy sessions we will continue with our estimating and will be using some simple Sudoko grids to count and order numbers correctly.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By continuing to read every day with your child for five minutes. Hopefully your child will be bringing home Pink or Red books to read to you. If your child is bringing a Lilac and a Pink, please try to read both offering lots of praise and encouragement. Pink books are the target for all children at this stage.
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: he/she/we/me/be/was. Sounds are n k and e
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names independently
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.These should be written across the page and with a space between them. The children should also be using the correct sequence of movements .
If you have any concerns or need any support, please let one of us know. Thank you.
KS1 Newsletter
What another amazing week KS1 have had. Please check out our blog and take a look at the brilliant learning which is happening at Robin Hood....
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have continued to read their class book (Room on the Broom -Year 2, Smartest Giant in Town - Year 1/2 and Gruffalo - Year 1). The children have been busy creating their own characters to feature in their version of the class story. Within the writing the children have ensured they used CAPITAL letters, full stops, clear finger spaces, developing their ideas using:- so, if, but, because, and, when, adjectives (describing words) and verbs (doing words).
The children have written fantastic stories and have continued to show off all their learning thus far.
Next week the children will continue with their Narrative unit and will focus on a different book written by Julia Donaldson (Gruffalo - Year 2, Room on the Broom - Year 1/2 and Room on the Broom - Year 1). The children will read the stories, developing their fluency and expression. They will answer questions about the book to develop their understanding, along with dramatising the books in the correct sequence.
Numeracy
What an amazing week in Numeracy, the children have been busy adding numbers together using the related vocabulary: addition, sum, total, altogether, more than.
The Year 1's have been adding a single digit number to a 2 digit number by putting the biggest number in their head and then counting on. They have used their fingers to count on the smaller number but then progressed onto using the hundred square, circling the biggest number then counting on the smallest number. Please use the 100 square in the front of your Home Learning books and provide your child with some addition sums to complete and show off their learning.
The Year 2's have continued to use the mantra that we put the biggest number in our head and then count on using mental strategies, by applying their knowledge of the Malteaser system from last half term.
e.g
58 + 25 =
68 79
78 80
81
82
83
The children then progressed onto using the 'Column addition' method to support their learning, by adding the unit and then adding the ten.
e.g.
58
+ 25
--
83
Carry the 1
Please support your child in using either method and provide them with two 2-digit numbers to add together so they can show off their learning from this week.
Next week the children will spend the first part of the week using their knowledge of addition and apply this learning to word problems and investigations. The children will conclude the week developing their understanding of subtraction and using the related vocabulary: take away, less than, subtract. The children will investigate what happens to the numbers within a take away (the total is smaller then the biggest number in the sum, a take way can not be done in any order unlike an addition).
Topic
This week in topic the children have been busy with their Art unit, drawing and colouring in characters from Beauty and the Beast. The children have developed the skill of 'tickLing' the paper to create the outline of the image before adding detail to add to the overall effect. The children have developed their colouring in skills, colouring in the same direction and using contrasting colour to develop the look of the image.
Please check out the KS1 blog for the pictures the children have created!
LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a fantastic, creative, fun filled week in 3/4. The children have been busy carefully following their plimsoll designs to customise their own pumps. We were very pleased by the children's effort and attention to detail whilst carefully painting the different areas of the plimsoll. Next week we will be further enhancing these by adding the finer details. We can't wait to show these off during our fashion show in the celebration assembly on Friday 25th November.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been further developing their mental strategies for addition. They have been adding multiples of ten and adjusting, looking for number bonds and partitioning the numbers into tens and units to add. The children then applied all of these strategies when adding up different coin values to solve problems involving the Simpsons. Next week we are looking at written strategies to add using column addition.
Literacy
This week we have been writing a letter to Mr Lewis (The chief buyer for Nike) persuading him to make our own trainer designs. The children have described their own designs in detail and included lots of persuasive features in order to influence Mr Lewis. Next week we will be designing our own delicious doughnuts to persuade people to purchase them! The children will be carrying out their own market research by tasting all different types of doughnut and focusing on their target audience.
Home learning
We would like to say a HUGE well done to all the children for the amount of reading everyone is doing at home. We are so pleased to be handing out so many stickers for all the fabulous reading. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all parents / carers for all the fantastic support around reading at home and the informative comments in the children's reading records.
Reminders
We would like to congratulate all the children who auditioned for the Christmas production, we were blown away by the children's fantastic confidence and enthusiasm towards the production, we are sure it will be a memorable performance. All the children who auditioned have received a speaking part. The lines have been given out today so please get busy practising.
Please can we ask that all children bring an Art shirt into school and leave it in their lockers for whenever we are doing Art and DT.
Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations to Jessica Siddons, who is our achiever of the week, as she WOWED us with her incredible writing skills this week!
• Once again, a BIG thank you to all parents and carers who have helped their children to create some wonderful inventions for the topic home learning. We have been blown away with creativity and thought that has gone into these inventions and really wish some of them were real. Any children who have not yet brought in their work still have time as we expect all creations in by Monday.
Numeracy: This week we have been looking at finding the area of squares, rectangles and compound shapes. We have also created our own Mario Kart race tracks ensuring we stuck to a specific set of criteria. This required our use of multiplication skills using times tables and the grid method! Visit this website for a step by step demonstration: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/maths/games?page=3
Next week we will be focusing on division using the bus stop and chunking method with an Alton Towers theme to make links with our Science unit ‘Forces’ The children will be applying their multiplication and division skills to calculate the speed of particular rides... we will even be designing our very own roller coaster track, making sure we calculate the perimeter and area needed to build it safely.
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
This week we have been developing our ideas in order to convince Mr Wilson not to change the school hall. We have included very specific persuasive language as well as literary features to help our points of view REALLY stand out. Next week we will be writing to David Cameron outlining our views about SATs. We will be putting our persuasive techniques into practise ensuring we consider both sides of the argument.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our Literacy unit: practise, practice, government, assessment, education, questions, campaign, eradicate, experience.
Please gather reasons at home ‘for’ and ‘against’ SATS. These will be shared on Monday during our Literacy lesson.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have come to the end of our unit looking at forces in action. We have investigated the effects of air resistance and have made conclusions about how surface area affects this.
In PE we have continued to look at the core skills of gymnastics and have begun to put these into sequences.
In our Reading sessions we have continued to read out class novel, Room13. We have now got to the ‘climax’ of the story and are beginning to make predictions about what will happen next.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
