Newsletter Issue 18 |
Friday 27th January 2012
|
Dear Parent/Carer,
We have had another super week in school. I have enjoyed a full week of classroom observations alongside my Senior Leadership Team colleagues and we have been privileged to see some fantastic stuff. At their best, learning and teaching at Robin Hood really are things of great beauty. There is brilliant learning going on at Robin Hood!
Topics
Our Foundation Stage pupils have been making dragons, lanterns and much more this week to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Year 1/2 have been preparing for their fundraising event to raise money to help save endangered animals – more of this next. Year 3/4 children have been evacuated, bombed, sheltered and goodness knows what else as part of their World War II topic. This week they were visited by Chris Woofenden, a Second World war re-enactor, who brought lots of interesting artefacts and weapons from the war to share with the children. Meanwhile, our Year 5/6 pupils are spending their afternoons researching, painting, making, writing and rehearsing for an Ancient Greek theatre performance. We pride ourselves on making our topics and our curriculum as exciting, as fun and as stimulating as we can for our children. Ofsted, of course, recognised our curriculum as ‘exceptional’ last year. We are keen to take it to ever new heights as the more enthused our children are to learn, the deeper and more lasting their learning will be.
Year 1/2 Fundraising Event
Year 1/2 will be inviting you to their fundraising event to help save endangered animals on Thursday 2nd February, 2.15pm. This is an incredible project that the children have themselves developed and led on. We hope that you are able to join us on the day.
New year – new challenge
The National Literacy Trust and Oxford University Press are kicking off 2012 by launching the Reading Miles Global Challenge, a new competition for all UK schools. Pupils are rewarded with 500 reading miles for every 10 minutes spent reading. Children collect these reading miles in their Reading Record for every signed reading session completed.
Please record any reading you are doing with your child and any reading that they are doing independently. Not only will they collect Merits, but they’ll collect Reading Miles too. Teachers will calculate how many reading miles children have accumulated and we will be celebrating successes during a special assembly on World Book Day on Thursday 1st March.
We encourage every child in school to see how far they can read around the world during the next five weeks, leading up to World Book Day. Any children completing the reading world tour - a whopping 33,000 miles (or 11 reading hours) will be entered into a National Competition, where prizes include £50 worth of books and a family ticket to their closest attraction for the winning pupil and £500 worth of books for their school.
Wool required
We are seeking donations of wool for Mrs Chin’s latest spectacular Art project. Mrs Chin has made a connection with colleagues at the Armley Industrial Museum. The Museum hopes to create the biggest pom-pom sheep in the world and is recruiting Leeds schools to contribute to the project. The Robin Hood Art Club, of course, is keen to make its contribution to the World Record attempt. We hope to have our own permanent pom-pom sheep too. Any donations – all colours – would be very gratefully received.
Lunchtime Supervisory Assistant
We have a vacancy at school for a Lunchtime Supervisory Assistant after the resignation of Steph Brennan. My thanks to Steph for her contribution to the school in this role. We are sad to see her go. The role is an opportunity to enjoy some quality time with our children playing and having fun at lunchtime. Anyone interested, please see Mrs Smith for further details.
Apprenticeship vacancy
We also have an apprenticeship vacancy in our Early Years. Our apprentices are all studying for NVQ’s in early Years education. Anyone interested, please contact Mrs Smith for further details.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have had a very busy week in Nursery and the children never fail to amaze us with their achievements! I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for the time and effort you spend supporting your child at home. It is having such a tremendous impact on their development in Nursery. The progress they are making is incredible and the steps they are taking in their learning are really starting to shine!
THIS WEEK
The children have been learning about the traditions of the Chinese New Year. We made our very own dragon to dance with and have filled the room with beautiful hanging lanterns. The lanterns and dragons that arrived in Nursery as home learning are a real compliment to the activities that have supported the learning in Nursery and it is wonderful to see the pride in the children’s faces as they spot them decorating the room! We have also been developing our writing skills, sending happy new cards and continuing to build on the children’s number skills, recognising numbers up to 20 and adding 2 small numbers together to find a total.
NEXT WEEK
The children will be continuing with the topic “Animals in their Habitats” and learning about Jungle Animals. We will be sharing stories, learning songs, and creating our very own maps to go on our very own animal safari!
We will also be using the Cbeebies characters to help our understanding of subtraction as we juggle bananas with the Jingle Jungle monkey! Please do visit the Cbeebies website at home too to access stories and games based around Jungle characters.
How you can help us
· Please return your child’s reading record and name writing book on a Wednesday (Group1) or Friday (Group 2).
· Continue sharing stories and rhymes.
· Encourage your child to put on their own coats, socks and shoes.
Please could I make a request for old newspapers to be brought into Nursery for the children to use on the painting table.
Many thanks for your continued support
Have a super weekend.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP
Well done to everybody for another amazing week in Reception. Thank you to everyone for their amazing home learning (which gets better every week!) and thank you too to Archie and his mum for bringing their Guinea Pigs in to visit!
THIS WEEK
We have been learning all about China China
NEXT WEEK
The children will continue learning about animals in their habitats and we will be focusing on 'Jungle animals'. For their home learning we have asked the children to come up with some super jungle animals that we can add to our brilliant displays in the classroom. Each day we will be finding out about a different animal and will be sharing stories, songs and rhymes to help develop the children's understanding. During our topic sessions we will be working on a collaborative display to showcase our super learning.
Over the next two weeks we will be completing our half termly assessments and would really appreciate it if you could make sure your child brings their reading bag in everyday.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
- by listening to your child read for at least five minutes every day and adding a comment to the shared reading record
- by practising the words of the week which are: went/it's/from/children/just/help
- by completing the home learning task and bringing it in on Monday morning
Thank you for your continued support, it really is having a massive effect on the super progress your child is making.
It's been another fantastic week of learning! The children have been busy preparing for our special event next week and their enthusiasm for the rainforest has grown and grown! We would like to thank all the children and parents for all the efforts made in home learning and added extras being brought in to class about the rainforest, which has helped the children even further in their learning. There is no home learning this week so please spend time reading with your children and applying the spellings from this half term in to sentences.
Numeracy
This week the children have been wowing us with their knowledge on navigating! The children have been amazing at knowing the difference between left and right, clockwise and anti clockwise, have been turning in quarters, halves and wholes, understanding co-ordinates and using compasses! Their engagement in all of the activities has been brilliant. Well done to you all!
Literacy
We are sure you would have been hearing all about our quest to adopt an endangered animal from the rainforest! The children have been writing a letter to yourselves, about why you have to come in to school next week! You are invited to our 'sale of learning' which is taking place on Wednesday 1st February, in the school hall from 2.15pm - 3.00pm. You will be able to purchase any of your children's work that they have been working on over the past five weeks. This is so we can raise money to all adopt an endangered animal from the rainforest. You will receive a letter from your child to explain why we are asking for donations and we would like it if you would be able to write a reply to these letters that can be posted in the school post-box. You will need to include your child's full name and class.
Topic
The children have been busy working in groups of six, creating fantastic large scale art work drawings of different endangered animals. They have also begun sewing their own stuffed animals which will be on show at the 'sale of learning'. We really are very proud of their achievements and we are sure you will be able to see how much amazing learning has taken place over this half term.
Next week
Numeracy
The children will be learning about halves and quarters of shapes. They will also be learning how to halve numbers. This will include the children taking part in a range of investigations and following recipes to bake some food for you to eat on your visit to school on Wednesday.
Literacy
The children have been really enjoying PE this half term so we have decided to invite Mr Silly, Mr Greedy and Mr Strong to come and take part in one of our lessons. The children will be continuing to use persuasive language, punctuation, developed sentences, paragraphs and super handwriting.
Topic
The children will be completing their sewing of stuffed animals and understanding all about charity. They will be looking closely at the WWF website and as a class they will be deciding what endangered animal they would like to adopt. Take a look at the website and have a look!
The children will be completing their sewing of stuffed animals and understanding all about charity. They will be looking closely at the WWF website and as a class they will be deciding what endangered animal they would like to adopt. Take a look at the website and have a look!
Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!
The Key Stage One Team
LKS2 News
We have had yet another fantastic week in 3/4 full of inspirational learning. We are so pleased with the children's enthusiasm towards our topic of World War Two and have been busy writing our diary entry's for our evacuee journals, creating propaganda posters, learning WW2 songs and making our very own Anderson
To celebrate the end of the war we will be holding our very own VE day party to share our fantastic outcomes from the unit with parents and carers. This will be held on Tuesday 7th of February at 2:30pm, in the school hall. We will be asking the children to be dressed in traditional 1940's outfits.
Literacy
The children have been learning all about the Blitz this week and the impact this had on city life. They have used all of their factual information to create a diary entry as an evacuee talking about how they felt and what they saw on a visit back to London
Numeracy
This week, the children have been applying their knowledge of reading scales and converting measurements to weigh out recipes that were used during the war and have been solving problems by weighing out different objects. Next week, the children will be using their understanding of measurement to convert different capacities in order to solve some practical problems. We will be making Moshi Monster drinks and recording different capacities on various scales. We are continuing with our push on times tables. Please continue to support your child with their quick recall of times tables up to 12x12. TNT tables is a great, fun game to help them practice and see if they can beat their best time: http://www.fieryideas.co.uk/tnt.html
Topic
The children have had lots of fun this week creating their own propaganda posters, the children worked super hard through detailed illustration to portray a government message from WW2. We have also been making our own Anderson
Please ensure your child has a warm, outdoor PE kit in school. 3/4T & 3/4N on Tuesdays and 3/4M on Thursdays.
Have a great weekend,
Year 3/4 team
UKS2 News Roundup:
- Congratulations to Jack Gillings who is our achiever of the week this week. Jack is incredibly hard working and is really impressing us with how well he is engaging with his targets and his sheer determination to succeed- A true inspiration!
Numeracy:
- In Numeracy, we started this week looking at Prime numbers and carrying out some investigations. We then went on to learning about number patterns and sequences, with some really highly challenged contextual learning that really got everyone's brains working hard.
- Next week, we will be learning all about measures, including: reading scales, finding differences between two measurements and finding fractions, decimals and percentages of measures too!
- Home Learning: Why not try the 'Multiple Wipeout' or 'Ghost Blasters' ipad/ipod app to help improve the speed of times table facts even more!
The Year 6's also have their SAT revision packs as their ongoing home learning.
Literacy:
- This week, we have been planning and developing our own Greek Myth. We have planned the events and created some fantastic character descriptions, applying our skills from previous weeks. We have also taught the children how to create effective shifts in time, which mean the children can move their story on whilst focussing on key events in detail.
- Next week, we will be continuing our myths with a particular focus on inserting dialogue to enhance the story. We'll continue to focus on the use of figurative language.
- Home Learning: This week's spellings involve using apostrophes for omission. The children will be told the full word during the test, the children will then be expected to know how to spell the shortened version of the word, placing the apostrophe in the correct place. They are: don't, he's, wouldn't, could've, can't, wasn't, they're, weren't, she'll, it's.
Other areas of the curriculum:
- In Topic, we've been continuing to create some fantastic outcomes which will form a part of the historical research presentations. These outcomes include written, ICT and Art outcomes. The masks are made, the scripts are written, the actors are learning their lines and next week we will be supporting the Technology teams to create backdrops and music for the Greek Myth production.
