Newsletter Issue 13 Friday 9th December 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
Only one school week left before Christmas! Over two hundred children joined us for the cooked Christmas Dinner this year… served by Mrs Dale and I, alongside our lunchtime staff. With the tree in the Hall, turkey and stuffing and Jingle Bells playing over the speaker system, it certainly felt very Christmassy. My thanks to Mrs Dale, Mrs Smith, Mrs Holland, Mrs Hick, our lunchtime staff and everyone who made our Christmas Dinner enjoyable for the children.
I must say I have never known a term go by quite as quickly as this one. Proof, surely, of the old adage ‘time flies when your having fun!’
The Robins
Just a reminder to everyone that we will be hosting The Robins Awards Ceremony this year on Thursday evening, 22nd March. The Robins will be a celebration of films that have been made this year and of some of our spectacular curriculum creations. We will also be sharing our submissions to the Golden Owls Film Competition. The Golden Owls are a new film competition for children launched by Leeds City Council celebrating the best of young people’s film making across the city. Deadline for entries is 10th February. Robin Hood, of course, intends to submit a number of entries. Children can make films at home and submit their entries via the school.
Christmas Week
I look forward to seeing many parents, families and members of our community at our Christmas events next week. Full details appear on our newsletter blog and Facebook page.
Training Day
In the New Year we have a Training Day on the first day back, Tuesday 3rd January. Children return to school on Wednesday 4th January.
Christmas Disco
Many thanks to everyone who got involved for the PTA Christmas Disco last week. The Hall was certainly rocking and rolling and we had a great many of our children involved. Our newly re-formed PTA needs your help and support. It has real potential to become a very vibrant social and community group that adds real value to our school. The more supporters, helpers, advocates and interest it has… the more effective it can be, the more value it can add to the life of our school and the more important it can become in supporting additional things for our children to enjoy in school than would otherwise be the case. Please get involved in the conversation. Please support our PTA.
Graduate Teacher Trainees
The applications round for the Graduate Teacher Trainee Programme 2012-13 is now open. Robin Hood works in partnership with Teach Leeds – a consortium of nine Primary Schools in Leeds - to provide high quality teacher training. If you know of anyone interested in Teacher Training, please refer them to our website where they should click on the Apply for GTP 2012 button.
Friendly Faces
As of the New Year Friendly Faces will be operating as a Term Time Only Club. This means that we will no longer be offering Holiday Clubs or childcare on school Training Days.
Have a fantastic Christmas Shopping weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have had a very busy and exciting week in Nursery that began with the snow storm on Monday morning!! After the excitement of the winter weather the children were set well on their way to embark on their Christmas preparations! We also had our second celebration afternoon of the school year and would like to say a huge thank you to those parents who came along to share in the children’s successes so far!!
THIS WEEK
The children have been retelling the Nativity story as well as preparing for our very own Nativity performance. We have been busy making gifts, and using our cutting skills to make our very own wish lists for Christmas! The children have also been showcasing their fabulous writing skills as we replied to our very own letter from Santa!!
NEXT WEEK
Will be our last week together before Christmas is here! The children will be involved in a whole heap of festive cheer including our Nativity Performances and our Christmas Parties!
DATES FOR THE DIARY
The TipToe Nativity (Mon, Tues, Wed chn): Tuesday 13th December 10am school hall
Group 1 Christmas Party: Tuesday 13th December 1.45 -2.45
The TipToe Nativity (Wed, Thurs, Fri chn): Thursday 15th December 10am school hall
Group 2 Christmas Party: Thursday 15th December 1.45 -2.45
Please make sure your child’s costume for the Nativity is given to the Nursery staff the day before the performance.
On the day of the Christmas party please provide just a small packed lunch for your child as there will be food including sandwiches available.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
•Sharing stories and reading regularly
•Playing games (board games, dominoes, I spy etc) to support turn taking, counting etc.
•Spotting numbers, letters and words in the environment
•Practising writing our own names
•Practising putting on our own coats, shoes and socks.
Thank you for your continued support, have a wonderful weekend.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team.
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you all for the amazing home learning we received on Monday. Miss Abbey has put them on the blog and our ladies have displayed them in the classroom. Thank you too for all the fabulous costumes you have supplied for our Nativity performance.
THIS WEEK
We have had another super week in Reception with high levels of excitement on Monday morning when the snow arrived! We have had to stay inside during the early part of the week as it was very icy, but there have been lots of fabulous activities going on and the children have kept themselves very busy! The children have been working very hard on their performances and we hope you have lots of wonderful memories of your child's part in the nativity.
NEXT WEEK
Will be another really busy one! On Monday we will be watching the dress rehearsal of the Nursery Christmas production and on Tuesday we will be having a sneaky peak at Santa at his home, getting ready for Christmas! We will be having our Christmas party on Thursday afternoon and have asked for your help in providing food (see this week's home learning). The children will be having lunch as normal that day. If you want to send in party clothes for your child, please can you send them in a named carrier bag and we will help them get changed after lunch. Thank you.
Dates for your diary
Thursday 15th December - Reception Party (pm)
Friday 16th December - Carols round the tree 2.30 pm
Friday 16th December - break up day
Tuesday 4th January - staff training day
Wednesday 5th January - children return to school
How you can help us
Please continue to listen to your child's reading for a few minutes every day over the next few weeks to ensure they retain their confidence and enthusiasm.
Please also spend some time reading and writing the tricky words and keywords that were sent home for last week's home learning - we will be moving on to our new words in January.
Thank you for your continued support.
Key Stage 1 Newsletter
How quickly the week has gone! The children all thoroughly enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast Performance. It was a fantastic show for them to watch and we would like to say a massive thank you to all of the children for their outstanding representation of Robin Hood School!
Christmas Production
The time is nearly upon us!
We ask all costumes to be in no later than Monday 12th December.
In case you weren't sure on the times:
Wednesday 14th December 2pm -3pm
Thursday 15th December 6pm - 7pm.
Home Learning
We would also like to say thank you to all of the parents and carers in their support with the children's home learning. We have seen a vast range of super castles, interesting stories about castles, trips out to castles, using ICT to show off learning about castles and even our very own Castle cake which Year 1/2 had the pleasure of eating! It is absolutely fantastic how much support goes in to the home learning and we appreciate your feedback on how you have found the tasks that have been set.
Reading Records
It is really important to continue to log in your child's reading record any reading or other learning your children do at home. Over the Christmas period the children will take home books to read but also any other learning you feel you would like to share with us, please let us know! Your communication is extremely important to us and we want to know about any fantastic learning!
Next week
The final week of term is here and how quickly time flys when you’re having fun! The week will have a Religious Education focus where the children will learn about Christmas around the world. The children will be using a range of skills to make Christmas cards and calendars. We are sure you will like them!
Key Stage One Party
The Key Stage One Party will take place on Thursday 15th December during the afternoon in the hall. MEAL ARRANGEMENTS ARE AS NORMAL. Please supply your children with party clothes and where possible some food or drink for the party. This could be anything from sausage rolls, crisps and dip, cakes and squash. No fizzy drinks or nuts. Thank you!
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
The Key Stage One Team
LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a fantastic week in 3/4 full of lots of exciting fun filled learning! During ICT the children have been continuing with their amazing trainer video adverts and we can't wait to see the finished outcomes next week. During RE we have finished publishing the Christmas nativity story in the style of a comic strip!
Literacy
This week the children have been writing a persuasive letter to Santa outlining all the reasons as to why he should not strike this Christmas. The children have used lots of persuasive features such as rhetorical questions, quotations and statistics to support their writing. They have also grouped their fantastic ideas and summarised these in a concluding paragraph.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been practising their mental strategies for subtraction by taking away multiples of ten and adjusting. We then used all of our mental and written strategies for addition and subtraction to plan a party for the 'I'm A Celebrity' contestants as they left the jungle.
Reminders
Christmas Party
Our Christmas party is on Thursday 15th December so please can all children bring some party clothes to get changed in to. As our party is after dinner (MEAL ARRANGEMENTS ARE AS NORMAL), please could all children bring a small food or drink contribution such as crisps, buns, biscuits etc.
Production
Our dress rehearsal for our Christmas Production ‘Santa’s on Strike’ is on Monday 12th December at 1:30 pm. Please can everyone bring their costumes in to school on Monday ready to get changed into after lunch. If your child has not been given a speaking part, they will all be participating in the production through singing and dancing. Each class will be performing their own dance.
Mrs Moore’s class = ‘Reindeers’. Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-aliceband’ headpiece.
Miss Thackeray’s class =‘Carol singers’. Please wear Christmas clothes, hats, scarf’s and gloves. Lanterns are optional.
Miss Nicholls’ class = Domestic jobbers. Please wear Christmas clothes, an apron, rubber gloves, hairnets and have a duster or feather duster at hand.
Rudolph = Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-aliceband’ headpiece and a red nose.
The elves = Colourful tunics/tabards, tights, pointed cloth hats and shoes, aprons etc are a good start, but feel free to experiment.
People playing the part of family members = Pyjamas, dressing gowns, coats and normal casual garments are all that is required. A bit of tailoring or borrowing from parents may be required for those playing adults.
To remind you our production dates are: Tuesday 13th December 2:00pm and Wednesday 14th December - 6:00pm. Both productions will be taking place in the school hall. No tickets are required.
Look forward to seeing you there,
3/4 Team
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup:
•Congratulations to Phoebe Millard, Megan Spafford, Millie Reynolds and Chloe Jackson who are our Achievers of the Week. They have worked collaboratively this week to design, plan and build a prototype for a new seat in the school playground. Their design was well thought out, cleverly designed and beautifully presented -a very purposeful design. Well done girls.
•The Year 5/6 Christmas Party will be held on Thursday 15th December.MEAL ARRANGEMENTS ARE AS NORMAL. The children should come to school that day in uniform but bring party clothes to change into in the afternoon. For the party, we would appreciate contributions on the day of crisps, biscuits and buns as well as sugar free drinks.
•Year 5/6 will be leading the Christmas service at church on Friday 16th December at 10am. We hope to see you there!
•Reminder: Payment is due by Friday 16th December for the Year 5/6 trip to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, which will take place during the first week back after Christmas. Thank you.
Numeracy:
•The focus this week has been interpreting the data collected from Mario Kart on the Wii and DS. We collated Yoshi, Mario, Donkey Kong's and Toad's trial times to establish the overall winner and have then calculated average lap times as well as modal positions.
•Home Learning: The Times Tables Challenge will take place on Thursday 15th December. Ahead of this, please practise ALL times tables! Useful websites include http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/bingo/caller/caller.html as well as http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/interactive.htm
Literacy:
•'Christmas in Leeds MUST be cancelled' was the message we received from the Lord Mayor this week! We've considered the points he made but have gathered reasons to persuade him to change his mind. In our letters, our focus has been on developing links between paragraphs.
Other areas of the curriculum:
•In DT, we've been designing and making kites, including diamond kites, box kites and sail kites. We've been learning about the different parts of a kite and are using this technical vocabulary with super accuracy.
•In Music, Mrs Brook’s class have continued to practise Silent Night on the recorders ahead of the service at church next week. Miss Darroch's class have been continuing to learn the words to Little Donkey in sign language. Miss Gascoigne’s class have been continuing to create mash-ups of popular Christmas songs using Garageband.
•In ICT, we've been navigating robots around our Mario Kart themed tracks, with a particular focus on including a sensor in procedures.
Visit our blogs!
•5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
•5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
•5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
