Newsletter Issue 23 |
Friday 9th March 2012
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Dear Parent/Carer,
We began this week with an alien spaceship and a meteorite from outer space landing on the school field. The Police and scientists were on hand to investigate, along with our Year 3/4 children and staff. Police Officers then went on to investigate an incident in Reception class. Goldilocks had snuck into our Reception classroom during the weekend. We were left with a broken chair, half eaten porridge and a trail of footsteps leading a way from the scene of the crime. Police Officers cordoned off the area and the children spent Monday gathering evidence. They found gloves, a bobble, and - in true CSI style - a strand of golden hair. If you see a golden-haired young girl in the area... who may be being chased by a group of angry-looking bears… please let me know. Our Reception pupils have produced posters, descriptions, scene of crime reports and much more if you need any further information.
Public Meeting – date clarification
The Public Meeting being held by Persimmon Homes at the school is on Tuesday 13th March between 4.30pm and 7.00pm, not Wednesday as stated in last week’s newsletter. My apologies for the mistake.
Parent Forum
My thanks to the parent who used the Parent Forum last week to share her views with Ann Parker (Governor). The issue raised was very quickly acted upon and resolved. Our Parent Forum will continue with the next date to be announced shortly. We are a listening school and we pride ourselves on how fully we engage with our community.
National Support School
Robin Hood has been designated as a National Support School by the National College for School Leadership. This means that we will be working with the National College to support schools that are, for one reason or another, facing challenging circumstances. This recognition by the National College of what Robin Hood has to offer to the education system as a whole is testament to the quality of staff and Governors at the school.
PTA Meeting
There is a PTA Meeting at The Halfway House Public House next Wednesday, 14th March. Everyone is welcomed to attend. We enjoy a fabulous community spirit at Robin Hood. Our celebration events are extremely well attended. The PTA is a fabulous way to develop social ties and community spiritedness in support of the children. Our PTA has struggled in recent times, which is a shame as it has so much potential to be a force for good and to be yet another way in which our children’s experience at Primary School can be enhanced. Please consider whether you could make a contribution to a refreshed PTA and to the wider school community.
Have a fabulous weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
We have been on high alert in Nursery this week as we had a break in to our home corner! The children put on their detective hats and collected evidence that led us to believe we had in fact been visited by Goldilocks! Should you see her around the local area please let us know so we can lock away our porridge!
THIS WEEK
We have shared the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. The children have thrived on the drama and excitement of the hunt for Goldilocks, and it has been a delight to see the true enthusiasm they have for learning about the characters and events of the story. As a result of our hunt for Goldilocks the children have made their very own Goldilocks wanted posters in literacy and in Numeracy have been learning about size and ordering objects in size order, using language such as biggest, smallest, large, tiny etc.
NEXT WEEK
We will be continuing with our traditional tales and sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. They will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of story language and how stories consist of characters, settings and events, a beginning a middle and an end. The children will also be planting their own beans, alongside a science investigation, looking at conditions for growth. In Numeracy the children will be learning about non standard units of measure (e.g. hands, feet, paperclips, unifix cubes etc) to measure and compare heights and lengths of different objects.
How you can help us
· Compare objects size and height e.g. order your toys on the bed from biggest to smallest
· Practise naming the different letters in the alphabet alongside the sound they make (jolly phonics)
· Continue sharing stories
· Provide opportunities for writing development e.g. making shopping lists, taking orders for drinks, sending cards etc.
Many thanks for your continued support
Have a great week.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP
We have had another brilliant week in Reception with the children taking full advantage of the fine weather to enjoy our amazing outdoor provision!
We will be doing our PE sessions on Fridays as usual so please make sure your child has their PE kit in school every Friday. Hopefully we will be doing some outdoor PE after the Easter break so your child will need trainers and a sweatshirt or hoody too.
THIS WEEK
We had a major incident on Monday when we realised that Goldilocks had broken into our classroom and left a mess in the home corner. She even left footsteps as she made her escape. The Police came to investigate and the children have been very busy compiling crime reports and looking for evidence.
We have also been sharing the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears with the children, looking at alternative versions and comparing them to discuss things that are the same and different. The children are really enjoying talking about characters and settings in the story.
NEXT WEEK
We will be sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk using Pie Corbett actions to act out the story which will be great fun! The children will be talking about the beginning, middle and end parts of the story and will be talking about the characters and the settings with confidence. In numeracy we will be helping Jack to organise his beanstalks by size and measuring using non standard units such as paper-clips, hands, pencils before we move on to measuring using rulers and recording our findings in cms.
In topic next week we will be planning our bean planting investigation and making something special for Mother's day (shhh....)
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
- By listening to your child's amazing reading every day for at least five minutes
- By supporting them to complete their home learning and bringing it in on Monday morning
- By practising our words of the week which are :here, saw, very, put, oh, their
- By sharing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk ahead of next week in order to enhance their excitement and engagement. - on the Ipad - Jack Lite HD or on the Internet http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/jack-and-the-beanstalk, on Cbeebies http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/misc/stories/misc-jackandthebeanstalk or on http://storynory.com/2008/07/14/jack-and-the-beanstalk/
Thank your for your support.
KS1 Newsletter
What a lovely week we have had in Key Stage 1. The sun has been shining and we have, as always, had lots of fun!
In the next few weeks the children will be starting their design technology topic which is based around building models. We are in great need of any spare boxes, kitchen roll tubes, lids etc that you collect at home in order to restock our workshop areas. We are sure the children will turn them into something fabulous to bring back home!
This Week in School
In literacy the children have been writing Police reports, recounting what happened to Basil the mouse when he was caught and strapped to a deadly mousetrap! Luckily Basil escaped but the children have been trying really hard to include a greater level of detail into their writing through the use of connectives, adverbials and detailed paragraphs in the hope of assisting the police in catching the villain.
In Numeracy the children have begun a new unit of learning on multiplication. We started the week with the children solving picture problems such as how many wheels on 5 bikes, how many fingers on 4 hands. The children created their own strategies to solve these problems and then moved on to developing number sentences using the multiplication sign (x). Towards the end of the week the children have developed quick methods for solving simple multiplication sentences including the use of a 100 square, arrays and by counting groups on our fingers. You can support your child at home with this learning by encouraging them to count in 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, 10’s and even 4’s whenever possible.
In Numeracy the children have begun a new unit of learning on multiplication. We started the week with the children solving picture problems such as how many wheels on 5 bikes, how many fingers on 4 hands. The children created their own strategies to solve these problems and then moved on to developing number sentences using the multiplication sign (x). Towards the end of the week the children have developed quick methods for solving simple multiplication sentences including the use of a 100 square, arrays and by counting groups on our fingers. You can support your child at home with this learning by encouraging them to count in 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, 10’s and even 4’s whenever possible.
In topic the children have been learning all about germs and how they spread. The children started the week by investigating how well they wash their hands. The children covered their hands with glow in the dark “germs” that showed up underneath a light box. The children had to then wash their hands and check them again to see if they had managed to get rid of them, with varying success! The children also received a video message from another school asking for their help in combating germs. The children in groups then spent the week learning about germs and creating video clips, leaflets and hand washing instructions to educate others about germs and how to defeat them.
Next Week
In Literacy we will continue to write and develop our Police reports ready to send to the investigators on Friday. The children will be encouraged to develop their writing even further with the use of adverbs and adverbials to describe key elements. In Year 2 they will continue to enhance and organise their writing into paragraphs to create a clear and concise interpretation of all the facts.
We will be continuing with multiplication next week as the children apply their already amazing skills and strategies to a range of word problems and missing number investigations. The children will be using mental methods to solve simple multiplication for example: 3 x 5 = (The children will use 3 fingers to represent the groups and then count them in 5's) You can practice this at home by asking your child to multiply any number up to 10 by either 2, 3, 5, or 10! When tackling more complex word problems such as: "Miss Oxley washes her car. She uses 12 buckets of water. Each bucket has 5 litres of water. How many litres does she use altogether?" the children will draw 5 circles to represent the groups then they will represent the 12 in each group using T's and U's (12 = 1 packet/ ten & 2 ones/units) before counting how many altogether. This is a complex skill so why not practice at home and invent your own word problems?
Topic learning will focus on London and it’s landmarks with the children exploring the various ways in which tourists travel around London London
LKS2 Newsletter
Monday was a very mysterious and eventful start to our week! Mrs Dale made the fascinating discovery of a meteor and a crop circle within the school field. We have read actual news reports from the weekend where meteors had been spotted around the UK
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been applying their written multiplication skills to word problems and we have been finding the area of Areas 51! Next week we will be looking at written methods for division and strengthening our division number facts.
We have been practising our 2, 4 and 8 times tables. Next week we will be looking at the tricky 7s, 8s and 9 times tables! Here are some great activities to support your child's learning of times tables:
http://www.fieryideas.com/tnt-tables-46-c.asp (TNT Tables - an addictive activity to practise times tables)
http://www.mad4maths.com/multiplication_table_math_games/ (Mad 4 Maths - times table games for x3, x4, x5, x6, x7 and x8)
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?f=gridmethodpvcardsv3 (A resource we plan to use in class to support place value when multiplying)
Literacy
We have used the fascinating events from the beginning of this week to write fantastic reports all about UFOs. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning new and exciting facts about the thousands of UFO sightings that have been reported around the world.
We have used the fascinating events from the beginning of this week to write fantastic reports all about UFOs. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning new and exciting facts about the thousands of UFO sightings that have been reported around the world.
Next week we are using Maddie and Grace's holiday home learning as the stimulus for our classroom learning. Their engaging news report about the Bermuda Triangle is sure to get us all investigating!
ICT
The children have been retelling the events of Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday. The children have shown a great understanding of the Easter story as they are applying their learning from RE sessions.
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
Please could children bring an art shirt with them to school.
Spellings
Group 1
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Group 2
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1. seen
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1. break
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2. been
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2. breakable
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3. night
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3. reverse
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4. down
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4. reversible
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5. first
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5. straight
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6. next
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6. straighten
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7. after
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7. strength
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8. again
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8. strengthen
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9. new
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9. tight
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10. now
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10. tighten
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Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 News Roundup:
- Our achiever this week is all of Year 5/6 for their fabulous Japanese Koinibori flags! Have a look down our mall to see the finished results. Well done, everyone!
- This week we welcomed Sensei Ron, Sensei Jackie and Sensei Martin from Go-Kan-Ryu at Lofthouse to support our learning of Japanese Martial Arts in PE; the children had a fantastic time learning all about the history of Karate and even got to perform some Karate moves!
- Today, everybody has taken home a target card, please decorate this and bring it into school on Monday as we will be developing its use in our Literacy session.
- Reminder: Mrs Brook's class will be visiting Wagamama’s in
Leeds this Tuesday (13th March). Please ensure that you have a coat and your lunch as usual, school dinners will be provided with a meal. Miss Darroch's class will visit on Tuesday 20th March and Miss Gascoigne's class on 27th March.
Numeracy:
- This week in Numeracy, our focus has been on translation, rotation and co-ordinates. We've explored how techniques such as using tracing paper can help answer questions on these themes.
- Next week, we will be learning about angles, ratio and proportion. We will be measuring, drawing angles and calculating angles on a line and within shapes. We will also be using and applying our measures, fractions and number skills to ratio and proportion multi-step problems.
- Home Learning: Why not take a look at the following websites to brush up on your angles learning ahead of next week?
Literacy:
- Our focus in Literacy this week has been writing a tourist guide for
Japan Japan - Home Learning: Please learn the spellings which prepare the children for spelling accuracy in next week's writing activities on characters and settings. The spellings are Mercedes, leapt, crouched, darted, transformed, effortlessly, quickly, steadily, determination, courage
Other areas of the curriculum:
- We have continued to create amazing outcomes this week as part of our
Japan Mount Fuji . Miss Gascoigne's class have created high quality animations to showcase Japanese technology and gadgets and Mrs Brook's class have created Japanese Koinibori flags. Next week, we will be designing and making Japanese kimonos! - In Music, 56D are developing video soundboards for Robin Hood using an app called Mad Pad. This week, we've explored our surroundings and taken photos of potential sounds for the sound board. 5/6G have been developing their sign language skills even further by learning Greatest Day by Take That! 5/6B have been composing musical rhythms using their bodies!
- Visit our blogs:
