Issue 21 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 21

Friday 24th February 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome back to a new Half Term at Robin Hood.  I returned to school ‘late’ on Monday morning, having first attended a Headteacher Briefing.  Three things struck me immediately on my arrival at half past ten.  The first thing was how fantastic the school grounds look.  Mr Reynolds spent much of last week hard at work with his pressure washer, and the school environment looks truly fantastic as a result… a testament to his hard work and dedication.  I then went into the Key Stage One area, which is beautifully dressed for the new London Topic.  Our Year One and Two children were in the Hall solving the problems caused by the Great Fire in 1666.  The enthusiasm of our staff and our children, all dressed in role throughout the week to create a rich and immersive learning experience, is truly impressive.  We have an incredible team of people with fantastic energy and imagination who are creating wonderful learning opportunities for our children.  I am certain that parents of children in Reception are hearing lots about Traditional Tales, our Year 3/4 parents are hearing all about our Mysterious World topic, and our Y5/6 parents are hearing all about Japan.

My thanks to all parents… The Home Learning you are sharing with your children is superb.  Special thanks to our Year 1/2 parents this week for entering the spirit of the Topic, which the  children have really loved.  Dressing in character all week has without doubt deepened their connection with the Topic.  All of those I have spoke with have been able to describe in detail large chunks of the learning this week.

International Week of lunches

We are having an International Week of Lunches during the week commencing 27^th February.  Children taking School Dinners will be treat to a menu from around the world, a different country every day.

Date for your Diary

On Monday 30^th April we will be hosting a community event after school for which the School Hall will be open to all children, parents/carers and grandparents, uncles and aunties to help make as many pom-poms as we can!  The event will be led by Sarah Barton, Educational Officer for the Leeds Industrial Museum, who will be helping us create enough pom-poms to make our very own life-sized sheep!  The Robin Hood Primary School sheep will be part of an exhibition celebrating British wool and will feature in the Museum over the coming year.  Sarah will be holding an Assembly first thing in the morning for children.  We will be making our first pom-pom during the day.  Please help us to make the most pom-poms… and to make the biggest pom-pom sheep we can.  If you have any wool to donate, or can just turn up to take part – please play your part in helping us to make this a really fun community event.  Likewise, if you can make pom-poms at home with your child and then bring them into school… the more pom-poms, the better!

Community Role

A great school, of course, aims to be at the heart of its’ community.  I am delighted with the community activity that we are involved in as a school.  Our end of Topic celebrations are incredibly well supported by our community – my thanks to you, as are our Topics themselves… with children dressing the part, etc.  Our children are absolutely clear and very proud about the contribution that they are making to their community.  Following are two further stories about our community engagement…

Art on display at Rothwell Library

Rothwell Library is currently hosting an exhibition of Artworks by pupils at Robin Hood.  The Art on display has been inspired by Spanish painters.  The Artworks showcased are mosaics from Key Stage 1, Spanish towns by Lower Key Stage 2 and beautiful paintings inspired by Miquel Barcelo by Upper Key Stage 2 artists.  Foundation Stage are exhibiting work based on the Elmer series of books.  Please do visit the Library to view the exhibition and see the fantastic Artworks.  The Library is open Mon-Fri 9.00am-7.00pm, Sat 10.00am-4.00pm, Sun 12.00pm-4.00pm. The exhibition runs until Tuesday 27^th March.

Artwork from Robin Hood is now being displayed in an incredible nine separate locations around the city.  Pupils from Robin Hood can truly be said to be contributing to making Leeds both beautiful and great.

Parent Forum

Our next Parent Forum will be held in the Community Annexe – Friendly Faces building – from 9.00am, Friday 2^nd March.  Come along for a coffee and a chat with Mrs Dale (Deputy Head teacher) and Mrs Ann Parker (Governor) about any aspect of school life that you like.  The Parent Forum is designed as an opportunity for you to share your thoughts about school in an informal atmosphere with Governors and School Leaders.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

The children have returned to Nursery full of enthusiasm and ready to roll with our new topic of Traditional Tales. Thank you for the home learning that came with them this week, it has beautifully enhanced our new areas in the classroom and the children have thoroughly enjoyed using the props in their play.

THIS WEEK

We have been sharing the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The children have been using puppets and story cards to retell the story and have been engaging in role play, acting out the events and taking turns to be the different characters, making the most of our new woodland cottage home corner.

Within number we have been looking at simple division. We have been making buns with the playdough and sharing them with our friends, making sure we all had the same so it was fair!

NEXT WEEK

We will be continuing with our traditional tales and sharing the story of the 3 little pigs. We will be putting on our creative hats once more to explore different media and materials to make a fabulous display. We will also be enhancing our construction site, encouraging the children’s imagination around planning and building models.

The children will also continue to learn about simple division, number recognition and shapes.  

How you can help us

·        Build simple models with Lego, empty food boxes at home.

·        Share stories and rhymes, engaging in conversation about characters and events

·        Practise writing your child’s name – naming the letters in their name as they write them.

·        Draw simple pictures – people, a house, flowers etc to help develop your child’s pencil control.

Many thanks for your continued support

Have a super week.

Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team

RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP

We've had another brilliant week in Reception. The children came back full of energy and enthusiasm and have had a fantastic time immersing themselves in our new topic of Traditional tales! Thank you too for all the amazing home learning which we are delighted with!

THIS WEEK

We have been sharing the story of Little Red Riding Hood and then retelling using 'Pie-Corbett which is an exciting way of storytelling - adding actions to the words. Ask your child to show you what they have learned and we are sure you will be impressed! In our literacy sessions we have been creating story maps and adding the characters narrative to our maps using speech bubbles. We have been practising using different voices for each character and the children have really enjoyed using the puppets too.

NEXT WEEK

We will continue our Traditional Tales theme but will be learning about the Three Little Pigs. The children will be sharing the story and then we will be asking them to re write the story adding their own ending, drawing on the pattern of traditional story language (Once Upon a Time, and Happily Ever After) so do watch this space! In numeracy we will be continuing with our theme of sharing (division) by sharing out food amongst the three pigs and thinking about what we can do if we have any left over.

PLEASE note that next Thursday is World Book Day and we would love all the children (and staff!) to come to school dressed as their favourite traditional tale book character. Our home learning task this week will support this event.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

• By listening to your child's fabulous reading for at least five minutes every day
• By learning the words of the week which are: I'm, don't, old, by, house, time
• By sending in your unwanted boxes etc for our junk modelling activities
• By completing the home learning and sending in with your child on Monday morning
• By sharing the story on line - Ipad LITE 3 Little Pigs or .http://www.kizclub.com/storytime/threepigs/pig1.html

Thank you for your support.

KS1 Newsletter

Well what a fantastic way we have started our new topic all about London! The Key Stage One team would like to say a MASSIVE thank you for the time and effort that has gone in to the children's costumes! They have had a busy and inspirational week and wearing the costumes has added even more of an authentic feel to us going back to the past!

Topic

The children started the week as soon as they entered the building! The Key Stage One mall was a sight to behold and all the children were 'wowed' by all that they could see. Then they enjoyed a visit from William Petty who explained to the children in great detail about the Great Fire of London and what happened. The children took part in experiments to feel what it was like to be part of the Great Fire and how they could help to put it out! They gained an enormous amount of knowledge from this experience and showed great enthusiasm to the tasks. Well done to you all!

Numeracy

This week the children have been doing lots of dividing! They have spent the week using arrays to divide rats in to different amounts of groups. This has included 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, 7's, 8's, 9's and 10's. The children have also been using their mental skills of counting forwards to quickly solve division problems such as 10 divided by 2. We are very impressed by how much the children have been challenging themselves in their learning. Well done to you all!

Literacy

The children have used their William Petty experience to start the new unit on 'Recounts'. They have produced a recount all about what happened on Monday and how much fun they had! We are very impressed with the detail that they put in to their writing and they have shown great enthusiasm towards showing off their best writing!

Next Week

World Book Day

This will take place on Thursday 1st March. Please feel free for your children to wear the costumes that they have worn this week as we will be linking our day to the past. However, if you still want to dress up in your favourite book character we look forward to seeing these outfits too!

Numeracy

The children will be continuing to understand how to solve division problems. Any counting at home, particularly in 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's and 10's will support the children in their learning. In particular the Year 2 children will be understanding the concept of remainders and they will be solving word problems all about the Great Fire of London.

Literacy and Topic

These will be linked together next week. The children will be playing the role of the 'Mayor' and writing a diary about his experience of the Great Fire of London. The children will also be creating their own London Gazette' as another opportunity to show their understanding of the Great Fire of London.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Key Stage One Team

LKS2 Newsletter

We have had a very fun and eventful week back in year 3/4 and would like to congratulate all the children for their sensible and mature attitudes towards their learning. Thank you to everyone for the amazing home learning we have received, it's really kicked off our exciting topic 'Our Mysterious World'. We were blown away by the fantastic posters, radio broadcasts, news paper articles and models of different mysterious phenomena!!!

Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been developing their mental multiplication and division skills through doubling, halving and finding quarters, eighths and sixths of a given number. The children have also been finding the related division facts when multiplying by 10 and 100. Next week we will be focussing on the 3 and 6 times tables and developing our written strategies for multiplication using arrays and the grid method.  

Here are some great activities to support your child's learning:

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=dartboarddoublesandhalves (A great revisit for the doubling and halving we've used this week)

http://www.fieryideas.com/tnt-tables-46-c.asp (TNT Tables - an addictive activity to practise times tables)

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=gridmethodpvcardsv3 (A resource we plan to use in class to support place value when multiplying)

Literacy
To start off the week we watched a mystifying news report about Bigfoot being sited at Robin Hood Primary school. Over the course of the week the children have then written a news paper article all about the event. We have been developing our paragraphing by coherently organising our ideas into rainbow paragraphs and supporting this with a quotation. Next week we will be reporting about a new mystery witnessed by Mr Wilson during his recent holiday in Scotland.

This is the last week of our 'Reading Around The World Challenge' and we encourage the children to read as much as possible in order to get lots of air miles and travel around the world. Each 10 minutes of reading time is 500 air miles. Some children are already on their second attempt.

RE
The children have watched an animated version of the Easter story which they will be representing during their ICT sessions using comic life. We will also be capturing scenes from the story in mural paintings. These will be used in our Easter service on Friday 30th March at Lofthouse church.

PE

This half term our PE unit is basket ball where we will be learning lots of skills from dribbling to shooting. The children will then put these into a dance routine in the style of 'High School Musical'.

Reminders

Next Thursday March 1st is World Book Day. Everyone is encouraged to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. Please could children also bring an art shirt with them as well.

Spellings

Group 1                                                                                      

(/or/, /ar/)
 1. born
 2. fork
 3. short
 4. morning
 5. forget
 6. park
 7. shark
 8. yard
 9. parcel
10. garden
 Group 2
 1. quicker
 2. quickest
 3. colder
 4. coldest
 5. taller
 6. tallest
 7. closer
 8. closest
 9. bigger
10. biggest
 

Thank you,

Team 3/4

UKS2 News Roundup:

• Our achiever this week is Kian Wade! He has created an amazing wave picture this week, based on the Japanese artwork of Hokusai. The techniques he has used are truly outstanding and he should be extremely proud of himself. Well done, Kian!
• Please can we ask that the children bring back their permission slips for the Wagamama's trip by Monday- Thank you.
• Can children from Mrs Brook's and Miss Darroch's classes please bring in a plain pillowcase in preparation for making the Japanese Koiniboros. It does not necessarily have to be white but it must be plain.
• Thank you everyone for the fabulous home learning that we have received. We really appreciate the engagement from parents in supporting this. The quality has shown a marked improvement and we are very grateful for that.
• World Book Day will be on Thursday next week. Please carry on reading to try and get as far around the world as possible.

 Numeracy:

• This week in Numeracy, our focus has been on 2D and 3D shapes. We've been revisiting the language and properties of shape and carrying out investigations to explore nets.
• Home Learning: Please complete the sheet looking at and studying Tangrams.

 Literacy:

• This week, the children have been creating news reports around an annual event in Japan. The event that we chose to cover is the Japanese animation festival in Tokyo. The children have used journalistic language to create their reports.
• Home Learning: Please read regularly and record the number of minutes you are reading for the Global Reading Challenge! Please learn the spellings, which prepare the children for spelling accuracy in next week's writing activities.

 Other areas of the curriculum:

• We have kicked off our Japan topic this week, with amazing outcomes already evident. Miss Gascoigne's class have created Japanese Koiniboros, which are traditionally used on Children's Day in Japan. Miss Darroch's class have created some fantastic animations, exploring Japanese gadgets. Mrs Brook's class have been creating Japanese art work on plates, inspired by Hokusai and his interpretations of The Great Wave and representations of Mount Fuji. Next week, each class will rotate to carry out one of these areas of learning.
• We have also given the children opportunities to look at Japanese artefacts and objects, promoting rich discussions. The children have also eaten Japanese snacks and marvelled at the unusual tastes and bright packaging!
•  Our blogs:

http://56bgreeks.blogspot.com/       http://56dgreeks.blogspot.com/    http://56gancientgreece.blogspot.com/

Issue 20 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 20

Friday 10th February 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

We have members of staff out visiting our European Partners in Pisa, Italy, this week.  This represents the last ‘mobility’ for this Comenius project.  During the project our children have sent books, stories and resources to schoolchildren in Norway, Czech Republic, Italy and Austria.  The Comenius project is fully funded by the European Union. It aims to bind the countries of Europe closer together through education and it provides many positive benefits for the staff, school and pupils.  The school benefits from international links and additional resources for children that it would otherwise not have.  Our international projects connect our children with their world, helping them to become powerful, connected, informed, tolerant and responsible twenty first century world citizens.

Year 34 Event

My thanks to those parents, families and friends who joined Year 34 for their fabulous VE Day Celebration in the Hall this week.  The children all looked absolutely stunning in their VE Day clothes… all very authentic indeed, it was like going back in time.  We celebrated some incredible learning from the topic that included Evacuee Diaries and Anderson Shelters.  My thanks to Miss Thackeray and the Y34 team for their brilliant efforts with this Topic. The staff, too, looked great in their uniforms and led the spirit of the day.  Look out for photographs of our VE Day celebration in next month’s Rothwell Record.

Brilliant Teams

‪The current Rothwell Record carries the story of our Art Installation at Lofthouse Children’s Centre.  My thanks to Mrs Chin and Mrs Mistry, the inspirations behind this work.  Mrs Chin’s and Mrs Mistry’s influence can be seen everywhere in school.  The artworks that we have on display all around the school are absolutely incredible.

Mrs Chin, Mrs Mistry, the Year 34 team (as reported above) and every team throughout school are creating incredible learning opportunities for our children.  I am delighted that our curriculum – described by Ofsted last year as ‘exceptional’ – is scaling exciting new heights that I am certain you as parents will be well aware of.  The ‘buzz’ of excitement amongst the children is incredible.  We challenged ourselves as a staff after the Ofsted inspection last year to improve even further.  I am delighted that we are doing that, every day. We have brilliant teams at Robin Hood who are working brilliantly together.

International Week of lunches

We are having an International Week of Lunches during the week commencing 27^th February.  Children taking School Dinners will be treat to a menu from around the world, a different country every day.

Have a fantastic weekend and Half Term,

Mr Wilson

KS1 Newsletter

Well another half term of outstanding learning has flown by in Key Stage 1. The children have continued to impress us yet again with the amazing progress that they have made and their dedication to their learning. Our Rainforest Topic has been a great success with the children relishing in their achievements and their contribution towards protecting and saving the animals of the Rainforest. Year 1 have adopted an orang-utan, Year 1/2 a Leopard and Year 2 chose to save the endangered polar bear. Thank you again to all those parents that have supported us with this topic across the half term.  

Reading ChallengeYour child will have brought home a copy of their reading passport this week either alongside their home learning or within their reading record. The children must log the amount of time they have spent reading in order to read their way around the world. The journey will come to an end on World Book Day 1^st March. Those children within school that have read their way around the world will be entered into a national competition. Please record daily in your child’s reading record the amount of time spent reading each day, as this will provide the teacher with the evidence to support their reading passport journey.

Next half terms topic – LONDON!Across the next half term the children will be learning about London in the past, including the Plague and Great Fire of London. We will also be learning about London today including popular landmarks and tourist attractions before concluding the topic with a look into the future of London with the children developing new buildings for the famous London skyline!
As part of our topic the children will be spending the first day back in school with a visitor from the past. For the WHOLE WEEK could all children please come to school dressed as a child from 1600’s in order to really start the topic off with a BANG! If you’re stuck for ideas girls could wear a simple brown tabard and white apron and hat and for the boys an oversized shirt and tattered brown trousers.

For the last week of topic we would like the children to attend school dressed as a business person in order to support our theme of London in the Future with the children designing and pitching ideas to the whole class.  

This Week in School

In literacy the children have been writing a letter of thank you that could be given to those that attended our amazing open afternoon. The children have been encouraged to use all of their writing skills that they have acquired from this past half term to develop an engaging interesting letter.

In Numeracy the children have extended their understanding of fractions into number. They have worked through a range of problems including helping their class teacher’s work out how much they spent in the half price sales!

This week in topic we have provided the children with the opportunity to be real life scientists. They have been developing their own investigations to find out more about the forces around us.

Enjoy your week off, a chance to recharge and rest ready for another fun filled half term!

LKS2 Newsletter

We have had a thoroughly fantastic week in year 3/4. Our highlight has to be our VE Day Celebration which took place in the hall on Tuesday afternoon. The children entered singing traditional WW2 songs and all looked fantastic in their outfits. We all loved sharing our amazing learning from the half term, which included our beautiful Evacuee's journals, Propaganda posters and Anderson Shelters. Thank you again to everyone who came along, your involvement really helped us celebrate the children's learning in style!

Topic Homework

Next Half Term's topic is "Our Mysterious World". We will be uncovering the secrets of the world's greatest mysteries including Big Foot, The Loch Ness Monster, Stonehenge, UFOs and many more unsolved phenomena. For the children's home learning we would like them to investigate an unsolved mystery of their own choice and present this in the format of a new report (a video, radio broadcast or newspaper report).

Literacy

This week the children completed their final entry for their wartime journal and we must say that we have loved seeing the children's beautiful handwriting when copying up their fantastic writing. We are currently displaying some of the journals in school and others will be returned after the holidays.

This weeks spellings:

Group one

1. boat

2. coat

3. road

4. soap

5. book

6. bookcase

7. cook
8. could

9. would

10. should

Group two

1. taught
2. caught

3. straight

4. weight
5. eight
6. tough
7. cough
8. rough
9. enough
10. through

Next half term our focus will be on Newspaper reports. If you are looking for a good resource to use, the BBC Newsround website offers a wealth of news and information as well as fun activities for the children to complete.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/

  

Numeracy

This week, the children have been using the relationship between multiplication and division number facts in the form of a trio.

E.g.

                    5                                  5 x 9 = 45

                                                        9 x 5 = 45

                                                       

       9                       45                     45 / 5 = 9

                                                        45 / 9 = 5

We have also held our times tables challenge. The children have been practising their mental multiplication skills all this half term and we are really noticing a difference.

Next half term we are developing our mental and written strategies for multiplication and division. Please practise the children's times tables regularly. We expect all children to know all their times tables to 12 x 12 and the related division facts by the end of year 4.

Here are some great activities to support your child's learning:

http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ (There are lots of great games to play here)

http://www.primarygamesapps.co.uk/ (Great apps for itouch, iphone and iPads that we are currently using in class)

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=gridmethodpvcardsv3 (A resource we plan to use in class to support place value when multiplying)

Topic

On Thursday the children had a fun filled practical Science day planned by Miss Snowden. The children developed their understanding of series circuits. They then used their findings of how the brightness of a bulb alters when more bulbs are added to a circuit, to help them create parallel circuits including a number of switches. The children have presented their learning in the form of a poster which we will be displaying in the classroom.

Please ensure your child has a warm, outdoor PE kit in school. 3/4T and 3/4N on Tuesdays, 3/4M on Thursdays.

Have a great holiday,

Year 3/4 team

UKS2 News Roundup:

• Our achievers this week are Miss Darroch's ICT Club who include Rhys and Finlay from Year 5/6! The club have been busy producing short animations around school on the theme 'Robin Hood Comes Alive' and developing their skills on iMovie to collate these together. Well done to all!
• Well done to the many children in Year 5/6 who are now on their journey around the world as part of the Global Reading Challenge! This week, the children were given their Reading Passport to record their miles (10 minutes of reading equals 500 miles) Please record the times read in your planner over the half term holiday. We're sure that the children will make great progress with their journey over the next week.
• Half Term Home Learning:
• The Year 5 children are to research an element of Japan which they would like to present and share with the rest of the class on Monday 20th February. The children may wish to choose from one of the following themes: Japanese culture/traditions, Japanese food, Japanese clothing, Education in Japan, Japanese History or local areas in Japan.
• The Year 6 children will be receiving another SAT paper pack to complete with parents at home. Please bring this back by Thursday of the first week back. (23rd February). Feel free to engage with the Japan home learning. The more good quality outcomes, the better.

• Reminder: As part of our Topic on Japan after the holiday, each child will need a plain white pillow case. Please can these be brought into school for the start of the new half term. Thank you to those children who have brought theirs in.      

Numeracy:

• This week in Numeracy, our focus has been on time. We've been practising telling the time on both analogue and digital clocks and applying our skills to solve problems. 
• Home Learning: 'Maths Mission' - How many different 2D shapes, drawn with a ruler (with exception of a circle!) can you incorporate into a picture? Make sure you are able to name the shapes you have chosen to use though!

Literacy:

• This week, we have been planning and drafting letters to pupils in Japan. We're very fortunate to have established a link with a teacher in Japan who has sent letters from his students as well as a parcel, which we'll open after the half term break! We've also written a descriptive paragraph based around a narrative prompt to show off the skills we've been focusing on this half term.
• Home Learning: Please read regularly and record the number of minutes you are reading for the Global Reading Challenge!

Other areas of the curriculum:

• In Topic, the Acting Teams and members of the Technology Teams have been rehearsing the drama performance of each class' Greek Myth. Each team has also been finalising and rehearsing their presentations of their historical research. We have a super range of art, written and ICT outcomes which reflect the children's learning about Ancient Greece this half term. Our blogs: http://56bgreeks.blogspot.com/       http://56dgreeks.blogspot.com/    http://56gancientgreece.blogspot.com/

Issue 19 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 19

Friday 3rd February 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

We were visited on Monday this week by Headteacher colleagues from Scotland, Spain and the Netherlands.  They spent time in our classrooms in both the morning and the afternoon.  All were amazed at the fabulous learning going on in our classrooms and all expressed very sincere praise for our school.  Earlier today, we welcomed Mrs Bailey back to Robin Hood.  It was lovely for everyone to see her and for her to say hello to staff and pupils alike.  Mrs Bailey visited with members of the teaching staff from her school.  I am pleased to report that she has made a successful start to her Headship in some difficult circumstances.  I am certain that with Mrs Bailey at the helm the school can look forward to an outstanding future.

Key Stage One Fund Raising

‪Key Stage One held a Fund Raising event on Thursday this week.  Our thanks to parents, family and supporters for the brilliant turn out in support of our children and their charity initiative.  Throughout the Half Term the children have been producing posters, fact files, pictures and teddies, all of which were all up for sale.  Our curriculum is about connecting our children with real life situations and real world contexts for their learning.  My thanks to the children, families, supporters and staff for making this a special topic and a special event.  Special thanks go to Mrs Comstive, Mrs Mistry, Miss Boyes, Mrs Beckwith and Miss Abbey who spent additional hours preparing for the event and adding the finishing touches to the items for sale.  The event raised a total of £287.55 towards the children’s nominated charity.

Year 34 Event

Parents of our Year 34 pupils can look forward to their Open Event next week where they will be celebrating their learning about the Second World War with you.

Your views

I was very proud and pleased to read the wonderful positive comments left by our parents after the Key Stage One event yesterday.  We plan to make this a feature of our open events and invite you to share your views with us.  We will be adding a new board in our Entrance area, next to our Press Board, where we will post your views.  If you haven’t been into school to have a look at our Press Board yet, please do stop by.  It is lovely to reflect back on the many and diverse reasons that the school has received positive publicity in recent years and to see some of our children from years past.

Brilliant Teams

An outstanding school, as the above story so clearly demonstrates, is founded upon brilliant teams working together effectively for the benefit of all.  I would also like to shine the spotlight this week on the work of our fantastic Cleaning Team.  I am filled with pride every day about how clean and how bright an environment our school is.  Our Cleaning Team, led by Mr Reynolds, takes pride in achieving a bright, welcoming and clean environment every day for our children, staff and community.

Cleaner Required

Our school is as beautiful as it is in part because we invest heavily in cleaning materials and equipment.  We seek to add another cleaner to our Cleaning Team in order to further enhance an already fabulous environment.  If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please contact Mrs Smith in the School Office.

Apprentice

Thanks to everyone who has thus far shown interest in our apprenticeship vacancy.  Further details about the vacancy are available from myself or Mrs Smith.  We are delighted that we are able to further support young people in our community by offering pathways into careers.

Dinner Money

Could parents of children on School Dinners please note that Dinner Money should be paid on a Monday for the week the meals are to be taken.  We are spending more and more precious administration time each week on issuing reminder letters.  More time on matters like this means less time on child-focused tasks.  Please support us.

Nursery times

Nursery parents please note that opening times for our Nursery are 8.45am-9.00am on a morning.  This is the precious settling time that you can spend in the Nursery with your child.  The external and internal doors will be locked at 9.00am.  The teaching morning begins at 9.00am, as in the rest of the school.  Late arrivals must report to the Main Office.  Late arrivals will only be admitted to Nursery after a phone call from the office.  Given that we have a 15 minute entry period, please ensure that your child is in Nursery on time.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
The children have been full of enthusiasm as we continued our topic on
animals and learnt all about jungle animals. The quality of the home learning that arrived in Nursery has been inspirational. The ideas the children bring
into Nursery with them is fantastic, we have been using the home learning
as a tool to encourage the children to teach each other how they have made things, and used their ideas to further enhance our setting.

THIS WEEK
We have been writing about our favourite animals and drawing pictures of
them too! We have been focusing on the animal’s colours and patterns and concentrating on colour choice and detail. We have also been busy counting animals and adding them together to see how many are hiding in the jungle.
It has been a delight to observe the children engaging in imaginative play and developing their social interaction skills as they make the most of our new
jungle explorers’ safari hut.

NEXT WEEK
The children will be continuing with the topic “Animals in their Habitats” and learning about woodland animals. We will be sharing stories based around Percy the Park Keeper and learning to classify the different animals according
to their features. We will also be discussing animals which are nocturnal and animals that hibernate.
In number the children will be looking at shapes as well as continuing to count
in order and count out smaller amounts from a larger group.

How you can help us
• Please return your child’s reading record and name writing book on a      Wednesday (Group1) or Friday (Group 2).
• Play games (i.e. board games) that involve turn taking.      
• Encourage your child to put on their own coats, socks and shoes.

Many thanks for your continued support

Have a great weekend.

Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team


RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP

Well done to everybody on another amazing week in Reception. Even though the weather has been a bit on the chilly side we have still managed to enjoy our fabulous indoor and outdoor provision! Our classroom has been transformed into a jungle with your fabulous home learning and Miss Fox's super small world area; we are surrounded by crocodiles, monkeys, snakes and parrots!

THIS WEEK

We have continued with our Animals in their Habitats topic and have been focussing on Jungle animals. The children's home learning has proved a great inspiration for our independent making table and in our topic sessions we have been making large scale animals to display in our classroom. We have been sharing lots of jungle stories and the children have been describing and recreating their very own animal patterns. We have been impressed with their adjectives (smooth, shiny, slippery, and bright) and their grasp of alliteration (cranky crocodile, loud lion and tall tiger). Well done!

NEXT WEEK

Is our final week in our Animals topic and we will be looking at British wildlife animals. For home learning we are asking the children to have a look when they are out and about and see which animals they can spot in their garden or at the park. We will be finding out more about the wildlife animals and creating fact files which will explain where they live and what they like to eat. Part of our learning will be around nocturnal animals, so expect to be amazed by some super information by the end of the week! In our topic sessions we will be making both blow painted hedgehogs and salt dough birds - with the children adding their own detail. In the outdoor area we will be making some bird feeders to hang in the trees and help the birds to survive the winter. It looks like it will be another fabulous week.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

• By keeping up your fabulous support around reading and writing. Visitors to our classroom continue to be amazed by the children's achievements
• By helping your child to complete their home learning and bringing into school on Monday morning
• By practising the words for next week which are: said, have, like, so, do, some

Thank you for your continued support.

KS1 Newsletter

What an amazing week this has been!  The children were very excited about the Fund Raising Event which took place on Thursday.  This was a fantastic community event and showed us yet again how supportive the Parents/Carers are at Robin Hood!!  The event was to raise money to help save an endangered Rainforest animal which each class will decide upon next week in Topic.  The Key Stage 1 staff would like to say a huge Thank You for your wonderful comments and for making the event a brilliant success!!

Reading around the World
Miss Nicholls last week introduced the theme for World Book day, 'Reading around the World'.  Please continue to read lots at home, when you add a comment in your child's reading record please write the time you and your child read.  This will be recorded in school so we can see where in the world your child is......

Literacy
We hope you all received your invitation to the Fund Raising Event on Thursday, thank you for the replies to your child.  Every child who received a letter from their Parents/Carers was so excited and proud to read it to the rest of the class.  There were some incredible replies, from bird shaped paper, to 'official' typed letters!  This was a fantastic link between home and school. 

Next week the children will be writing a Thank You letter, explaining how much money we raised (a whopping £287.55) and sharing their thoughts and feelings.  The children will also bring these home to share.  They will continue to develop their ideas using so, if, but, because, when, CAPITAL LETTERS, full stops, text effects (bold text, CAPITALIZATION, ........, !!).

Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have being looking at fractions of shapes, cutting shapes in half, quarters and even thirds!  They have also being writing these as numbers 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, discussing what each number means within the fraction (the top number is the parts which are coloured in and the bottom number is the number of sections).  They have investigated equivalent fractions, 2/4 is the same as a half.   Why not draw some shapes and ask your child to write the fraction.

Next week the children will be using this knowledge of fractions and sharing sections out equally and using it with numbers.  The children will be halving numbers, investigating that only even numbers can be halved.  They will continue to look at sharing numbers into quarters and even thirds.

Please support your child by counting lots at home.  counting in 2's, 3's, 4's and 10's.

LKS2 Newsletter

We have had yet another fantastic week in 3/4. As always we have been blown away by the children's positive attitudes towards their learning and the mature decisions they are making in the playground. We have had an action packed week, writing letters as evacuees to our fathers who are away fighting. We have been testing our measuring skills through creating rainbow cocktails in numeracy and designing mini allotments to accompany our Anderson shelters during topic.

To celebrate the end of the war and share all our outstanding learning from across the unit, we will be holding our very own VE day party 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 for the whole day so no uniform will be needed.

Literacy

The children have been busy using all of the knowledge they have gained around WW2 to write a letter as an evacuee to their fathers. They have told him all about being evacuated to the countryside, their journey on the train, the activities they have learnt whilst being in the country and what life was like in London during the Blitz. We are so proud that the children are applying all of their personal targets to their writing and further enhancing their compound and complex sentences by grouping these into super rainbow paragraphs, using wow words, powerful verbs, sentence starters and perfect punctuation. All of our diary entries and letters have gone into creating our very own WW2 evacuee journals and we are very excited to be sharing all these with you at our VE day celebration on the 7th February, in the school hall. We are also looking forward to using this opportunity to show off the beautiful handwriting that goes on in 3/4!

Numeracy

This week, the children have been using their understanding of measurement to convert different capacities in order to solve some practical problems. We have been carefully measuring out different capacities to make different Moshi Monster drinks, used ICT to record different capacities on various scales and have followed a series of instructions to create rainbow drinks that layered different liquids on top of one another. We have had lots of fun throughout our measuring unit and the children's enjoyment for learning has been overwhelming. We are still 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 completing their Anderson shelters by creating their very own mini allotments packed with a variety of vegetables. The children have also continued to create their own propaganda posters, everyone has worked super hard through detailed illustration to portray a government message from WW2. Once again, we're all looking forward to sharing all of our fantastic outcomes from this half term with you at our VE day celebration on the 7th February.

Please ensure your child has a warm, outdoor PE kit in school. 3/4T and 3/4N on Tuesdays, 3/4M on Thursdays.
 

Have a great weekend,

Year 3/4 team

UKS2 News Roundup:

• Our achiever this week is Ben Parker for his amazing efforts across the curriculum! Well done Ben, keep up the fabulous effort!
• Last week in Celebration Assembly, the children were introduced to the Global Reading Challenge. They will be rewarded with 500 reading miles for every 10 minutes spent reading. Everybody who completes the challenge will be entered into a draw with the chance to win prizes for both themselves and school! Please make a note of the number of minutes read in your planner. These minutes will then be converted into reading miles and recorded in a special reading passport which will help us to keep track of our journeys around the world. The journeys are in six stages-
  Journey one: 3000 miles (1 hour) London - New York
  Journey two: 4500 miles (1 and a half hours) New York - Rio De Janiero
  Journey three: 6000 miles (2 hours) Rio De Janiero - Nairobi
  Journey four: 7500 miles (2 and a half hours) Nairobi - Sydney
  Journey five: 6000 miles (2 hours) Sydney - Beijing
  Journey six: 4500 miles ( 1 and a half hours) Beijing - Athens
  Journey seven : 1500 miles (30 minutes) Athens - London
• Next Friday (10th February), each Year 5/6 class will be showing their Greek Myth drama performance in the afternoon assembly (2:30pm start). Everybody has contributed towards the performance either by writing the script, making the masks, creating the backdrops, composing the music or acting out the script. Parents and carers are most welcome to come and watch!
• Next half term, our Topic will be on Japan, which we're very excited about! For one of the activities, each child will need a plain white pillow case. Please can these be brought into school for the start of the new half term. Thank you.    

Numeracy:

• This week in Numeracy, our focus has been on both imperial and metric measures. We've been practising reading scales and have also converted a recipe into metric measurements. We then measured out the ingredients for the 'Recipe of Disaster'. Look out for photos of us in action on our blogs! Next week we will be continuing with our fantastic measures learning and we will also be looking at fractions of measurements.
• Home Learning: The 3rd Times Tables Challenge of the year will be held on Friday 10th February. Why not practise your tables on apps such as Math Ninja, Eggs on Legs or Multiple Wipeout? There are also lots of interactive times tables games at https://db3prd0402.outlook.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=sZg8altzaEiCQIkXF_yJiqoI12kitc4ICu-L_VyYYZJCbZvI5ghjjdZpfodoWJAfa6Hy1JiLR8w.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk%2fmaths%2ftimestable%2finteractive.htm or see your class teacher for some resources to help you practise.

Literacy:

• This week we have been continuing to develop our own Greek myths with a particular focus on incorporating appropriate dialogue into paragraphs. We've focused really closely on ensuring that any dialogue is accurately punctuated with speech marks as well as capital letters, full stops, commas, exclamation and question marks. 
• Next week the children will be carrying out an assessed write to show us what fantastic writing skills they have retained this half term. The assessment will be around a Narrative stimulus in order for the children to apply their skills and give them the opportunity to shine.
• Home Learning: Please continue to read regularly and record the number of minutes you are reading for the Global Reading Challenge!
• SPELLINGS: The children will be tested next week on 20 random spellings from the spelling lists learnt this half term.

      Other areas of the curriculum:

• In Topic, we've been refining our fantastic outcomes which will form a part of the historical research presentations. These include written, ICT and Art outcomes. The masks are made, the scripts are written, the actors are learning their lines, the music has been composed and the backdrops have been created for the Greek Myth drama. Next week, we'll be busy practising our presentations and rehearsing the performance. Visit our Greek blogs to find out what we've been up to!

http://56bgreeks.blogspot.com/
http://56dgreeks.blogspot.com/

http://56gancientgreece.blogspot.com/