Newsletter Issue 10 Friday 18th November 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
As you are aware, our school is recognised nationally for it’s effective use of twenty first century technologies. We are using those technologies as powerfully as we can to keep you up to date with school news and information on your child’s learning.
Robin Hood Newsletters on Facebook
Our weekly newsletter is now available on Facebook. If you search for robinhoodpri@hotmail.co.uk in the Facebook Search and make a Friend Request you will be added to the friendship group. This means that you will be able to access the newsletter via all Facebook media… including Smartphone. The newsletters will be posted onto the Facebook page on a Saturday morning.
Blogs
The newsletter blog has been updated to include an email subscription option. Subscribing to the blog will mean that updates appear direct in your email Inbox. If you receive your emails on your phone… the updated blogs will be pushed direct to your phone. Some class blogs have also been updated to include this feature.
Parent Mail
We also, of course, send out text messages via Parent Mail, eg; this week’s text to Year 4 parents letting them know that the children had arrived safely at East Barnby. Please do not reply to text messages sent through Parentmail.
Strike
As I am sure you will know, a day of mass strike action is planned for 30th November. This situation is still unfolding as some unions are still to announce the results of their ballots and advice from some unions is still emerging. All Headteachers are required to complete a Risk Assessment on the likely impact of the strike action on their school and plan accordingly. It is likely that some action will affect the school. It is prudent at this time for families to make alternative childcare arrangements for the 30th in the event of the strike affecting classes. I am gathering all of the information that I can and will keep you informed as best I can, however, some information – and thus decisions on the opening of some classes – may only be available at short notice.
Christmas Fair
Due to the re-organisation of our PTA, the Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December has been postponed. As you will be aware, the PTA has been able to put on fewer and fewer activities in recent times due to a dwindling of donations, support and help. It is hoped that the newly developing PTA will be hosting a Christmas Disco for children, details out soon. Now is a great time to get involved with the future of our PTA, who also now have a facebook page at: www.facebook.com/robinhoodprimaryschoolpta
School Dinners
I enjoyed a lovely homemade Chicken Hot Pot in the Dining Hall with our children this week. My thanks to Mrs Nash and her team for their fantastic developing efforts to provide healthy, fresh meals for our children and my thanks also to Mrs Hick and the team, who are working very hard together to make our lunchtime experience as enjoyable and as exciting as possible.
A reminder to all parents of children taking a School Lunch; lunch money should be paid on a Monday, please.
Operation Christmas Child
Our Operation Christmas Child Appeal has brought in approximately fifty boxes so far. We have some way to go to improve upon last year’s fabulous effort that brought in over 120 donations of gift boxes for children who otherwise would not have been receiving a gift at Christmas. Our boxes are being taken on Tuesday for transportation to Somalia… So this is the last chance to make a donation this year.
Money
All monies for trips, etc should be posted in the silver post box outside the school office in an envelope with your name and the purpose of the payment written on, and not handed to members of staff or left with your child to be handed to a member of staff. Thank you.
Carlton Athletic Giants Under 8’s
Carlton Athletic Giants Under 8’s are looking for both girls and boys for their teams. Contact www.carltonathleticgiants.co.uk
Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal
Out of a total of £1147.88 collected by the Royal British Legion for this year’s Poppy Appeal, Robin Hood contributed £208.31. Thank you to everyone for their kind donations.
Copley Lane Orchard
Copley Lane Orchard is a local initiative to create a wildlife haven in the community. Leeds Wildlife Volunteers will be on site at an Open Day this Sunday to demonstrate orchard care and to Bug Hunt. Children are encouraged to bring their own Bug hunting kits.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
Many thanks for the wonderful home learning that came into Nursery this week. The children’s creative skills are continuing to amaze us! Please please do visit the Nursery blog to see the outcomes! The blog is a great way to keep up to date with our achievements and the key learning objectives we are covering so please do make yourself a follower!!
THIS WEEK
The children have been thinking about different celebrations. Our focus this week was the celebration of Eid. We used video clips to gain an insight into the preparations and family traditions of Muslim families. The children then made their own decorations and held their very own parties outside in our Nursery garden. The children also tasted some different Asian foods and recorded which they liked and disliked!
NEXT WEEK
We will be continuing our topic on festivals and celebrations and the children will be learning about Hanukkah. The children will be learning all about the festival of lights and the traditions of the celebrations.
In number the children will be continuing to develop their counting out skills and ability to recognise numbers. Please support your child to develop their knowledge and confidence with numbers, by playing number games at home. The children have really enjoyed playing games like dominoes and board games that involve rolling a dice, so please foster this at home too.
As ever we will continue to work with the children to develop their writing in lots of fun and creative ways. The children will build their gross motor skills using ribbons to make patterns in the air, and move to music making large scale movements with pom poms. We will also continue to develop their fine motor skills, using playdough to build muscle strength and practice a pincer grip with tweezers.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
•Please encourage your child to put on their own shoes and socks... in PE the children are asked to take them off and independently put them back on!
•Bring your child’s reading record into Nursery on a Wednesday.
Requests!
If you have any old pots and pans, spoons or Tupperware that you no longer require, please could you donate it to Nursery for our musical junk yard!
Have a fabulous weekend.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP
Well done for another great week in Reception. We are really proud of how hard the children are working and of the super progress they are making in their reading and writing. Have a look at our blog and see what has been happening this week http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
THIS WEEK
We have been finding out about other celebrations and have focused on the Muslim celebration of Eid al- Fitr. The children wrote shopping lists and then decorated the classroom and prepared for their very own Eid party on Wednesday. We have also had a go at creating Mendhi patterns on drawings of our hands and have tasted some traditional foods that Muslims enjoy during their Eid celebrations. In numeracy we have been estimating and checking our guesses, working on improving our knowledge of numbers above ten.
NEXT WEEK
We will continue to find out about other celebrations and will start from the children's own experiences. Our home learning is to create a poster about a celebration that your child has enjoyed. We will collate these into a talking book and the children will be able to add their own narrative. We will be learning about weddings and christenings and discussing the important traditions that are involved. We will also be sharing some Diwali stories and creating some amazing artwork, displaying our learning journey.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
• Please continue to read every day for five minutes and write a comment in your child's reading record. All children should be reading PINK or RED books now. If they are still bringing home LILAC and you need advice and tips to support your child, please do make an appointment to see one of us.
• Please engage with our blog, try out our CVC and maths games and keep practising our Nativity songs
• Please practice writing the tricky words -he, she, we, me, be, was and reading the tricky words - you, they, all, are, my and her
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Our production will be on Friday 9th December at 10.00am (so please help us to get practising!!)
Key Stage 1 Newsletter
It is unbelievable how quick this half term is going! The children have been very busy this week and are becoming really excited about our trip to see Beauty and the Beast on Tuesday 6th December. Thank you to those parents who have already paid for the trip.
Home Learning and Reading Records
We would like to say Thank You to all parents who continue to share their child's addition learning they are doing at home. This is extremely important and is celebrated in school, please continue to share with us any extra learning your child does. The reading records are looked at each week where we continue to celebrate the successes your child has had at home! A busy reading record is something we absolutely LOVE seeing!
This Weeks Learning
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have begun a unit of learning on subtraction.
The children have been using strategies such as; counting backwards on their fingers, using the hundred square or partitioning the numbers. The children have been taking units from units (8 - 6 = 2) progressing onto subtracting tens and units from a single digit number (14 - 3 = 11) and concluding the week taking away 2 two-digit numbers (42 - 11 = 31).
This will continue next week by looking at the hundreds, tens and units! The children will apply their knowledge of addition and subtraction into word problems. Any numeracy learning you do at home, please share in the reading record or feel free to put in to your child's home learning book.
Literacy
In Literacy the children have started to look at the next book in the story writing unit. The children have been enjoying reading with expression and sharing their own ideas on how they could change the story or make it better. The children have learnt how to change their voice when reading exclamation marks (!), question marks (?), bold text, CAPITALIZATION and discussing how ellipsis.................. can add suspense within the story. The children have begun the preparation of retelling their class story (Gruffalo Year 2, Room on the Broom Year 1/2 and Smartest Giant in Town Year 1). They have designed their own characters to feature in their class story.
We are looking forward to reading the stories that they produce next week!
Topic
In Topic this week the children have been learning all about castles. We would like to say Thank You to the parents who have provided their children with books about Castles. The children have been keen to share these with the class and have showed fantastic engagement in this area of their learning. The children have been learning about how castles have changed over time, the features of a castle and have looked at different people who live in castles. The children have been busy creating and designing their own coats of arms, Please come in and see these in the classroom at any point....they are up on the wall for all to see!!
LKS2 Newsletter
WOW! What another fantastic week we have had in Y3/4! The children in year four have had an AMAZING time on residential at East Barnby and we can't wait to hear more of their stories and see their photographs on Monday! Back in school, the rest of us have also had a superb time...
Literacy
We have been continuing with our persuasive writing this week, which has seen us tasting doughnuts and thinking of superlatives, comparatives similes and metaphors to describe them. Following on from this, the children read some character profiles and designed a doughnut for a specific person to encourage them to write for different audiences. Our Topic learning tied in with this theme and has resulted in some brilliant persuasive displays for their products! Next week, the children will be designing their own theme parks and producing persuasive literature about them.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been exploring column addition and realising they can add very big numbers once they have grasped the principle of place value and carrying tens over. The Moshi Monster theme for our addition proved very popular, with the children having to complete specific addition challenges at the end of the week! We have been blown away with their learning and perseverance! Next week, we will be continuing with column addition and moving on to subtraction.
Reminders
We would like to remind you about our very special fashion show during celebration assembly on Friday 25th November! The children have all worked incredibly hard on these and have produced some great designs which they can't wait to show off! Please ensure your child brings some shorts and bright coloured socks to wear for this, to make sure we can show their pumps off to their full potential.
Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Thank you to all parents and carers who have helped their children to create some wonderful inventions for the topic home learning; we have thoroughly enjoyed hearing all about these marvellous creations and have been stunned with the effort and creativity that has been put into this... definitely some ‘Dragon’s Den’ potential within Robin Hood!
Numeracy: This week we have been learning all about multiplication and division, using chunking, grid method and bus stop methods to support calculations, applying these skills to an Alton Towers theme. Next week we will continue to apply our high level strategies to calculate speed, distance and time taken for a rollercoaster to travel around its track... we will even be creating our very own rollercoaster, ensuring that we take the safety and thrill of the ride into consideration.
Visit the following websites for a step by step demonstration of some of the methods we will be using: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/maths/games?page=3
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/school_booster/busstopdivision.html
Home learning: Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables, 7’s, 8’s and 9’s in particular. These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy, especially during the current unit. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
This week we have written a short letter to David Cameron in order to stress our views regarding SATs tests. The children have written some fantastic letters, containing many level 5 features, a formal tone and balanced arguments!
Next week, we will be writing a persuasive letter of invitation to a celebrity to invite them to our Christmas Fair; we will be using emotive language and superlatives in an attempt to persuade them to come to our fantastic annual event!
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our Literacy unit: extraordinary, fashionable, successful, essential, assure, appreciate, consideration, significantly, reputation, appearance.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Topic we have been looking at famous and convenient inventions; paying particular attention to communication... we are looking forward to learning more about the famous inventions and inventors next week!
In PE we have been using the apparatus to create sequences using and developing the core skills.
In our Reading sessions we have continued to read our class novel, Room13. We have reached the most dramatic part of the story...we even read in the dark by torchlight whilst listening to eerie music to really get into the spirit of the book.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Friday, 18 November 2011
Friday, 11 November 2011
Issue 9 2011-12
Newsletter Issue 9 Friday 11th November 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
It is one of the many great privileges of my job that I have the opportunity to wander around the classrooms at Robin Hood and take in the wonderful learning that’s going on, all the time.
A visit to our Nursery this week allowed me to reflect on what a wonderful learning environment Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team have created, indoors and out. We have constant outdoor music, lots of great activities and learning resources and a truly fantastic environment for learning.
This is reflected equally in our Reception provision. It is a particular delight to me to see children thoroughly enjoying learning, and enjoying being challenged to take their learning even further. We have a wonderfully gifted team in our Reception, Nursery and Early Years that are ensuring a brilliant start to our youngest learner’s careers in education.
Key Stage One pupils have been busily engaged in lots of powerful learning. I’ve seen some incredible handwriting, amazing drawing and fabulous spellings in Key Stage One this week.
Our Year 34 pupils have been working incredibly hard on their trainer designs, art work, posters, movies and promotional literature. Again, the enthusiasm for learning and the sheer fun that children are having while learning is a delight to see.
Year 56 have been pushing the boundaries of their mathematical understanding, controlling their movements in PE, creative imaginative works of art and much, much, much more.
We began our week with a Key Stage Two Assembly on Mary Anning. Mary overcame many challenges in her life to become recognised as one of the most important female scientists. We held a Remembrance Day Assembly today to understand why poppies are an important symbol in our country and to reflect upon the fallen and the folly of war. We also marked the fact today that 11.11.11…. and at 11.11am was a very historical moment that we’d all remember together.
Robin Hood Newsletters on Facebook
Our newsletter is now available on Facebook. If you search for robinhoodpri@hotmail.co.uk in the Facebook Search and make a Friend Request you will be added to the friendship group. This means that you will be able to access the newsletter via all Facebook media… including Smartphone. The email address is not used for anything else, so please don’t try to contact us via it. Some staff may befriend our Facebook page. I have instructed staff not to accept friend requests that come via this connection. There is very strong advice from the Professional Associations that, for very sensible reasons, school staff maintain separate personal, professional, and public, lives. The newsletters will be posted onto the Facebook page on a Saturday morning.
Children In Need
We will again be supporting the Children In Need Appeal on Friday 18th November. This will be a Non-uniform Day. We ask that all children bring a Non-Uniform donation – all proceeds from the donations will be forwarded on to the Charity. The theme for Children In Need dressing up this year is spots. Pupils Jenny Hepworth and Shannon Keeble will be holding a Bake Sale on the day. Again, all proceeds will be going to Children In Need.
School Dinners
Since September, our kitchen has taken up the Food for Life initiative. The Food for Life initiative requires a daily fresh food menu. Meals are made from fresh, rather than being made centrally, distributed and then re-heated in kitchens for service at lunchtime. Produce is locally sourced, meat is local and outdoor reared. All meals are nutritionally balanced, children are encouraged to take a vegetable daily, and there is a self-service daily Salad Bar. Menus are on a three week rota, with a roast dinner option every Wednesday. Even the Fun Day menus… like pizza… are fully homemade. Children use plates and have metal cutlery… rather than the airliner trays and plastic cutlery that we had in the past.
Blogs
Our blogs are brilliant! I looked at the Reception blog again this week…. Which has changed out of all recognition even from how it was last week! The Reception blog is receiving an incredible amount of traffic. Yesterday there were 169 hits in just the one day. Today, there have been 17 hits by 8.00am. The blogs are just one of the many, many ways that we engage families in their children’s learning at Robin Hood. Our school website itself received a staggering 6794 hits in just one day last week.
Christmas Fair
The Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December will be taking place between 12.00pm to 3.00pm. In order to make the Fair a success, our PTA require your donations of chocolates, cakes, buns, bottles and tombola prize donations. Any donations, support and/or offers of help: please contact Jenny Curgenven, PTA Chair either direct or leave a note for Jenny with Mrs Smith or Mrs Holland at the School Office.
Cash Handling
For security reasons could all payments for dinner money, trips etc be placed in an envelope with your child’s name, class and what the payment is for, and then posted in the silver box outside the office.
Have a fabulous weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
The children have had lots of fun this week as we shared our experiences of Bonfire Night and learnt the history behind the tradition. Thank you so much for the home learning that was produced to support the children’s learning. Please do take a look at the display and the Nursery blog, to see the outcomes of this week’s activities!
THIS WEEK
The children sequenced the story of the gunpowder plot, used active drawing as a way to recount their very own experiences of Bonfire Night, and we also found time to carry out an investigation to see which of our very own fireworks travelled the furthest!! The children have also been continuing to develop their counting skills, as we counted how many fireworks were glistening in the sky!
Our focus in phonics has been rhyme and the children have been using ICT games to develop their awareness of rhyming words and phrases.
NEXT WEEK
We will be continuing our topic on festivals and celebrations and the children will be learning about Eid. We will be using video clips made by other children about the traditions and preparations their families take part in during the celebration.
In number the children will be concentrating on matching numbers to quantities. Please continue to support your child with this at home, playing number games, pointing out numbers on the phone, counting objects or items, getting 3 spoons etc, to help build your child’s confidence and knowledge of numbers. We will also be learning to count in 2’s!
In literacy we will be supporting your child to develop an awareness of the letters in the alphabet, as we write shopping lists in preparation for our food tasting activity. Please could we ask that you help your child develop their mark making skills at home too, by practising the letters in your child’s name as often as possible. Please also refer to the letter to parents sent last week, detailing the next steps in writing.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please continue to read stories with your child every day, pointing out the key features of the story and modelling how to hold the book carefully, and allowing your child to turn the page. Encourage your child to follow the words with your finger.
· Please could you provide your child with a change of clothing and leave it in their bag and on their peg, so they are available should we need to change them.
Thank you for your support.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for the amazing response to our Bonfire home learning..... WOW!! Miss Abbey has made a short video which you can see on our blog http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/ Please do have a look and see what has been going on this week!
THIS WEEK
We have continued with our Celebrations topic and have been finding out more about the history of Bonfire Night and just who Guy Fawkes was and his significance to our celebrations today. The children have worked collaboratively to make our very own Guy Fawkes and at the end of the week we will be remodelling him into a scarecrow for our Foundation stage garden! The children have made their own rockets and have estimated and then measured how far they can travel
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be finding out about the important history behind Poppy Day and the children will be using their home learning to kick start our session on Monday. Later in the week we will be finding out more about the Muslim religion and the celebration of Eid. we will be finding out about their celebrations and will be preparing for and holding our own celebration in the setting. Children will be able to taste a variety of authentic traditional foods and then write descriptive words to tell their friends what they have found out. In our numeracy sessions we will continue with our estimating and will be using some simple Sudoko grids to count and order numbers correctly.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By continuing to read every day with your child for five minutes. Hopefully your child will be bringing home Pink or Red books to read to you. If your child is bringing a Lilac and a Pink, please try to read both offering lots of praise and encouragement. Pink books are the target for all children at this stage.
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: he/she/we/me/be/was. Sounds are n k and e
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names independently
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.These should be written across the page and with a space between them. The children should also be using the correct sequence of movements .
If you have any concerns or need any support, please let one of us know. Thank you.
KS1 Newsletter
What another amazing week KS1 have had. Please check out our blog and take a look at the brilliant learning which is happening at Robin Hood....
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have continued to read their class book (Room on the Broom -Year 2, Smartest Giant in Town - Year 1/2 and Gruffalo - Year 1). The children have been busy creating their own characters to feature in their version of the class story. Within the writing the children have ensured they used CAPITAL letters, full stops, clear finger spaces, developing their ideas using:- so, if, but, because, and, when, adjectives (describing words) and verbs (doing words).
The children have written fantastic stories and have continued to show off all their learning thus far.
Next week the children will continue with their Narrative unit and will focus on a different book written by Julia Donaldson (Gruffalo - Year 2, Room on the Broom - Year 1/2 and Room on the Broom - Year 1). The children will read the stories, developing their fluency and expression. They will answer questions about the book to develop their understanding, along with dramatising the books in the correct sequence.
Numeracy
What an amazing week in Numeracy, the children have been busy adding numbers together using the related vocabulary: addition, sum, total, altogether, more than.
The Year 1's have been adding a single digit number to a 2 digit number by putting the biggest number in their head and then counting on. They have used their fingers to count on the smaller number but then progressed onto using the hundred square, circling the biggest number then counting on the smallest number. Please use the 100 square in the front of your Home Learning books and provide your child with some addition sums to complete and show off their learning.
The Year 2's have continued to use the mantra that we put the biggest number in our head and then count on using mental strategies, by applying their knowledge of the Malteaser system from last half term.
e.g
58 + 25 =
68 79
78 80
81
82
83
The children then progressed onto using the 'Column addition' method to support their learning, by adding the unit and then adding the ten.
e.g.
58
+ 25
--
83
Carry the 1
Please support your child in using either method and provide them with two 2-digit numbers to add together so they can show off their learning from this week.
Next week the children will spend the first part of the week using their knowledge of addition and apply this learning to word problems and investigations. The children will conclude the week developing their understanding of subtraction and using the related vocabulary: take away, less than, subtract. The children will investigate what happens to the numbers within a take away (the total is smaller then the biggest number in the sum, a take way can not be done in any order unlike an addition).
Topic
This week in topic the children have been busy with their Art unit, drawing and colouring in characters from Beauty and the Beast. The children have developed the skill of 'tickLing' the paper to create the outline of the image before adding detail to add to the overall effect. The children have developed their colouring in skills, colouring in the same direction and using contrasting colour to develop the look of the image.
Please check out the KS1 blog for the pictures the children have created!
LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a fantastic, creative, fun filled week in 3/4. The children have been busy carefully following their plimsoll designs to customise their own pumps. We were very pleased by the children's effort and attention to detail whilst carefully painting the different areas of the plimsoll. Next week we will be further enhancing these by adding the finer details. We can't wait to show these off during our fashion show in the celebration assembly on Friday 25th November.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been further developing their mental strategies for addition. They have been adding multiples of ten and adjusting, looking for number bonds and partitioning the numbers into tens and units to add. The children then applied all of these strategies when adding up different coin values to solve problems involving the Simpsons. Next week we are looking at written strategies to add using column addition.
Literacy
This week we have been writing a letter to Mr Lewis (The chief buyer for Nike) persuading him to make our own trainer designs. The children have described their own designs in detail and included lots of persuasive features in order to influence Mr Lewis. Next week we will be designing our own delicious doughnuts to persuade people to purchase them! The children will be carrying out their own market research by tasting all different types of doughnut and focusing on their target audience.
Home learning
We would like to say a HUGE well done to all the children for the amount of reading everyone is doing at home. We are so pleased to be handing out so many stickers for all the fabulous reading. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all parents / carers for all the fantastic support around reading at home and the informative comments in the children's reading records.
Reminders
We would like to congratulate all the children who auditioned for the Christmas production, we were blown away by the children's fantastic confidence and enthusiasm towards the production, we are sure it will be a memorable performance. All the children who auditioned have received a speaking part. The lines have been given out today so please get busy practising.
Please can we ask that all children bring an Art shirt into school and leave it in their lockers for whenever we are doing Art and DT.
Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations to Jessica Siddons, who is our achiever of the week, as she WOWED us with her incredible writing skills this week!
• Once again, a BIG thank you to all parents and carers who have helped their children to create some wonderful inventions for the topic home learning. We have been blown away with creativity and thought that has gone into these inventions and really wish some of them were real. Any children who have not yet brought in their work still have time as we expect all creations in by Monday.
Numeracy: This week we have been looking at finding the area of squares, rectangles and compound shapes. We have also created our own Mario Kart race tracks ensuring we stuck to a specific set of criteria. This required our use of multiplication skills using times tables and the grid method! Visit this website for a step by step demonstration: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/maths/games?page=3
Next week we will be focusing on division using the bus stop and chunking method with an Alton Towers theme to make links with our Science unit ‘Forces’ The children will be applying their multiplication and division skills to calculate the speed of particular rides... we will even be designing our very own roller coaster track, making sure we calculate the perimeter and area needed to build it safely.
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
This week we have been developing our ideas in order to convince Mr Wilson not to change the school hall. We have included very specific persuasive language as well as literary features to help our points of view REALLY stand out. Next week we will be writing to David Cameron outlining our views about SATs. We will be putting our persuasive techniques into practise ensuring we consider both sides of the argument.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our Literacy unit: practise, practice, government, assessment, education, questions, campaign, eradicate, experience.
Please gather reasons at home ‘for’ and ‘against’ SATS. These will be shared on Monday during our Literacy lesson.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have come to the end of our unit looking at forces in action. We have investigated the effects of air resistance and have made conclusions about how surface area affects this.
In PE we have continued to look at the core skills of gymnastics and have begun to put these into sequences.
In our Reading sessions we have continued to read out class novel, Room13. We have now got to the ‘climax’ of the story and are beginning to make predictions about what will happen next.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Dear Parent/Carer,
It is one of the many great privileges of my job that I have the opportunity to wander around the classrooms at Robin Hood and take in the wonderful learning that’s going on, all the time.
A visit to our Nursery this week allowed me to reflect on what a wonderful learning environment Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team have created, indoors and out. We have constant outdoor music, lots of great activities and learning resources and a truly fantastic environment for learning.
This is reflected equally in our Reception provision. It is a particular delight to me to see children thoroughly enjoying learning, and enjoying being challenged to take their learning even further. We have a wonderfully gifted team in our Reception, Nursery and Early Years that are ensuring a brilliant start to our youngest learner’s careers in education.
Key Stage One pupils have been busily engaged in lots of powerful learning. I’ve seen some incredible handwriting, amazing drawing and fabulous spellings in Key Stage One this week.
Our Year 34 pupils have been working incredibly hard on their trainer designs, art work, posters, movies and promotional literature. Again, the enthusiasm for learning and the sheer fun that children are having while learning is a delight to see.
Year 56 have been pushing the boundaries of their mathematical understanding, controlling their movements in PE, creative imaginative works of art and much, much, much more.
We began our week with a Key Stage Two Assembly on Mary Anning. Mary overcame many challenges in her life to become recognised as one of the most important female scientists. We held a Remembrance Day Assembly today to understand why poppies are an important symbol in our country and to reflect upon the fallen and the folly of war. We also marked the fact today that 11.11.11…. and at 11.11am was a very historical moment that we’d all remember together.
Robin Hood Newsletters on Facebook
Our newsletter is now available on Facebook. If you search for robinhoodpri@hotmail.co.uk in the Facebook Search and make a Friend Request you will be added to the friendship group. This means that you will be able to access the newsletter via all Facebook media… including Smartphone. The email address is not used for anything else, so please don’t try to contact us via it. Some staff may befriend our Facebook page. I have instructed staff not to accept friend requests that come via this connection. There is very strong advice from the Professional Associations that, for very sensible reasons, school staff maintain separate personal, professional, and public, lives. The newsletters will be posted onto the Facebook page on a Saturday morning.
Children In Need
We will again be supporting the Children In Need Appeal on Friday 18th November. This will be a Non-uniform Day. We ask that all children bring a Non-Uniform donation – all proceeds from the donations will be forwarded on to the Charity. The theme for Children In Need dressing up this year is spots. Pupils Jenny Hepworth and Shannon Keeble will be holding a Bake Sale on the day. Again, all proceeds will be going to Children In Need.
School Dinners
Since September, our kitchen has taken up the Food for Life initiative. The Food for Life initiative requires a daily fresh food menu. Meals are made from fresh, rather than being made centrally, distributed and then re-heated in kitchens for service at lunchtime. Produce is locally sourced, meat is local and outdoor reared. All meals are nutritionally balanced, children are encouraged to take a vegetable daily, and there is a self-service daily Salad Bar. Menus are on a three week rota, with a roast dinner option every Wednesday. Even the Fun Day menus… like pizza… are fully homemade. Children use plates and have metal cutlery… rather than the airliner trays and plastic cutlery that we had in the past.
Blogs
Our blogs are brilliant! I looked at the Reception blog again this week…. Which has changed out of all recognition even from how it was last week! The Reception blog is receiving an incredible amount of traffic. Yesterday there were 169 hits in just the one day. Today, there have been 17 hits by 8.00am. The blogs are just one of the many, many ways that we engage families in their children’s learning at Robin Hood. Our school website itself received a staggering 6794 hits in just one day last week.
Christmas Fair
The Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December will be taking place between 12.00pm to 3.00pm. In order to make the Fair a success, our PTA require your donations of chocolates, cakes, buns, bottles and tombola prize donations. Any donations, support and/or offers of help: please contact Jenny Curgenven, PTA Chair either direct or leave a note for Jenny with Mrs Smith or Mrs Holland at the School Office.
Cash Handling
For security reasons could all payments for dinner money, trips etc be placed in an envelope with your child’s name, class and what the payment is for, and then posted in the silver box outside the office.
Have a fabulous weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
The children have had lots of fun this week as we shared our experiences of Bonfire Night and learnt the history behind the tradition. Thank you so much for the home learning that was produced to support the children’s learning. Please do take a look at the display and the Nursery blog, to see the outcomes of this week’s activities!
THIS WEEK
The children sequenced the story of the gunpowder plot, used active drawing as a way to recount their very own experiences of Bonfire Night, and we also found time to carry out an investigation to see which of our very own fireworks travelled the furthest!! The children have also been continuing to develop their counting skills, as we counted how many fireworks were glistening in the sky!
Our focus in phonics has been rhyme and the children have been using ICT games to develop their awareness of rhyming words and phrases.
NEXT WEEK
We will be continuing our topic on festivals and celebrations and the children will be learning about Eid. We will be using video clips made by other children about the traditions and preparations their families take part in during the celebration.
In number the children will be concentrating on matching numbers to quantities. Please continue to support your child with this at home, playing number games, pointing out numbers on the phone, counting objects or items, getting 3 spoons etc, to help build your child’s confidence and knowledge of numbers. We will also be learning to count in 2’s!
In literacy we will be supporting your child to develop an awareness of the letters in the alphabet, as we write shopping lists in preparation for our food tasting activity. Please could we ask that you help your child develop their mark making skills at home too, by practising the letters in your child’s name as often as possible. Please also refer to the letter to parents sent last week, detailing the next steps in writing.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Please continue to read stories with your child every day, pointing out the key features of the story and modelling how to hold the book carefully, and allowing your child to turn the page. Encourage your child to follow the words with your finger.
· Please could you provide your child with a change of clothing and leave it in their bag and on their peg, so they are available should we need to change them.
Thank you for your support.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for the amazing response to our Bonfire home learning..... WOW!! Miss Abbey has made a short video which you can see on our blog http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/ Please do have a look and see what has been going on this week!
THIS WEEK
We have continued with our Celebrations topic and have been finding out more about the history of Bonfire Night and just who Guy Fawkes was and his significance to our celebrations today. The children have worked collaboratively to make our very own Guy Fawkes and at the end of the week we will be remodelling him into a scarecrow for our Foundation stage garden! The children have made their own rockets and have estimated and then measured how far they can travel
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be finding out about the important history behind Poppy Day and the children will be using their home learning to kick start our session on Monday. Later in the week we will be finding out more about the Muslim religion and the celebration of Eid. we will be finding out about their celebrations and will be preparing for and holding our own celebration in the setting. Children will be able to taste a variety of authentic traditional foods and then write descriptive words to tell their friends what they have found out. In our numeracy sessions we will continue with our estimating and will be using some simple Sudoko grids to count and order numbers correctly.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By continuing to read every day with your child for five minutes. Hopefully your child will be bringing home Pink or Red books to read to you. If your child is bringing a Lilac and a Pink, please try to read both offering lots of praise and encouragement. Pink books are the target for all children at this stage.
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: he/she/we/me/be/was. Sounds are n k and e
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names independently
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.These should be written across the page and with a space between them. The children should also be using the correct sequence of movements .
If you have any concerns or need any support, please let one of us know. Thank you.
KS1 Newsletter
What another amazing week KS1 have had. Please check out our blog and take a look at the brilliant learning which is happening at Robin Hood....
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have continued to read their class book (Room on the Broom -Year 2, Smartest Giant in Town - Year 1/2 and Gruffalo - Year 1). The children have been busy creating their own characters to feature in their version of the class story. Within the writing the children have ensured they used CAPITAL letters, full stops, clear finger spaces, developing their ideas using:- so, if, but, because, and, when, adjectives (describing words) and verbs (doing words).
The children have written fantastic stories and have continued to show off all their learning thus far.
Next week the children will continue with their Narrative unit and will focus on a different book written by Julia Donaldson (Gruffalo - Year 2, Room on the Broom - Year 1/2 and Room on the Broom - Year 1). The children will read the stories, developing their fluency and expression. They will answer questions about the book to develop their understanding, along with dramatising the books in the correct sequence.
Numeracy
What an amazing week in Numeracy, the children have been busy adding numbers together using the related vocabulary: addition, sum, total, altogether, more than.
The Year 1's have been adding a single digit number to a 2 digit number by putting the biggest number in their head and then counting on. They have used their fingers to count on the smaller number but then progressed onto using the hundred square, circling the biggest number then counting on the smallest number. Please use the 100 square in the front of your Home Learning books and provide your child with some addition sums to complete and show off their learning.
The Year 2's have continued to use the mantra that we put the biggest number in our head and then count on using mental strategies, by applying their knowledge of the Malteaser system from last half term.
e.g
58 + 25 =
68 79
78 80
81
82
83
The children then progressed onto using the 'Column addition' method to support their learning, by adding the unit and then adding the ten.
e.g.
58
+ 25
--
83
Carry the 1
Please support your child in using either method and provide them with two 2-digit numbers to add together so they can show off their learning from this week.
Next week the children will spend the first part of the week using their knowledge of addition and apply this learning to word problems and investigations. The children will conclude the week developing their understanding of subtraction and using the related vocabulary: take away, less than, subtract. The children will investigate what happens to the numbers within a take away (the total is smaller then the biggest number in the sum, a take way can not be done in any order unlike an addition).
Topic
This week in topic the children have been busy with their Art unit, drawing and colouring in characters from Beauty and the Beast. The children have developed the skill of 'tickLing' the paper to create the outline of the image before adding detail to add to the overall effect. The children have developed their colouring in skills, colouring in the same direction and using contrasting colour to develop the look of the image.
Please check out the KS1 blog for the pictures the children have created!
LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a fantastic, creative, fun filled week in 3/4. The children have been busy carefully following their plimsoll designs to customise their own pumps. We were very pleased by the children's effort and attention to detail whilst carefully painting the different areas of the plimsoll. Next week we will be further enhancing these by adding the finer details. We can't wait to show these off during our fashion show in the celebration assembly on Friday 25th November.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been further developing their mental strategies for addition. They have been adding multiples of ten and adjusting, looking for number bonds and partitioning the numbers into tens and units to add. The children then applied all of these strategies when adding up different coin values to solve problems involving the Simpsons. Next week we are looking at written strategies to add using column addition.
Literacy
This week we have been writing a letter to Mr Lewis (The chief buyer for Nike) persuading him to make our own trainer designs. The children have described their own designs in detail and included lots of persuasive features in order to influence Mr Lewis. Next week we will be designing our own delicious doughnuts to persuade people to purchase them! The children will be carrying out their own market research by tasting all different types of doughnut and focusing on their target audience.
Home learning
We would like to say a HUGE well done to all the children for the amount of reading everyone is doing at home. We are so pleased to be handing out so many stickers for all the fabulous reading. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all parents / carers for all the fantastic support around reading at home and the informative comments in the children's reading records.
Reminders
We would like to congratulate all the children who auditioned for the Christmas production, we were blown away by the children's fantastic confidence and enthusiasm towards the production, we are sure it will be a memorable performance. All the children who auditioned have received a speaking part. The lines have been given out today so please get busy practising.
Please can we ask that all children bring an Art shirt into school and leave it in their lockers for whenever we are doing Art and DT.
Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations to Jessica Siddons, who is our achiever of the week, as she WOWED us with her incredible writing skills this week!
• Once again, a BIG thank you to all parents and carers who have helped their children to create some wonderful inventions for the topic home learning. We have been blown away with creativity and thought that has gone into these inventions and really wish some of them were real. Any children who have not yet brought in their work still have time as we expect all creations in by Monday.
Numeracy: This week we have been looking at finding the area of squares, rectangles and compound shapes. We have also created our own Mario Kart race tracks ensuring we stuck to a specific set of criteria. This required our use of multiplication skills using times tables and the grid method! Visit this website for a step by step demonstration: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/maths/games?page=3
Next week we will be focusing on division using the bus stop and chunking method with an Alton Towers theme to make links with our Science unit ‘Forces’ The children will be applying their multiplication and division skills to calculate the speed of particular rides... we will even be designing our very own roller coaster track, making sure we calculate the perimeter and area needed to build it safely.
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
This week we have been developing our ideas in order to convince Mr Wilson not to change the school hall. We have included very specific persuasive language as well as literary features to help our points of view REALLY stand out. Next week we will be writing to David Cameron outlining our views about SATs. We will be putting our persuasive techniques into practise ensuring we consider both sides of the argument.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our Literacy unit: practise, practice, government, assessment, education, questions, campaign, eradicate, experience.
Please gather reasons at home ‘for’ and ‘against’ SATS. These will be shared on Monday during our Literacy lesson.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have come to the end of our unit looking at forces in action. We have investigated the effects of air resistance and have made conclusions about how surface area affects this.
In PE we have continued to look at the core skills of gymnastics and have begun to put these into sequences.
In our Reading sessions we have continued to read out class novel, Room13. We have now got to the ‘climax’ of the story and are beginning to make predictions about what will happen next.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Friday, 4 November 2011
Issue 8 2011-12
Newsletter Issue 8 Friday 4th November 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
Harvest Fun!
We had an interesting turn of events for our Harvest Celebration this year. On the final day of last Half Term, we were half way to the Church when we were informed that, due to a mix-up, it was no longer available for our Harvest. A school is defined by its response to challenging circumstances… We turned around, prepared the Hall and held a fabulous celebration, led by our Key Stage One pupils. My thanks to those parents and families who stuck with us through the confusion to attended the event. We do hope to return to Lofthouse Church for our Christmas, Easter and Harvest celebrations to come.
Home Learning
I would like to say an enormous thank you to our pupils, parents and families for their fantastic Home Learning projects. The Home Learning projects are truly incredible… we have received some really inspired and inspirational creations that have clearly been a delight for families to produce together. Learning together and having fun when learning really are the keys to successful learning.
Christmas Fair
I was delighted to hear from Jenny Curgenven, our PTA Chair and Governor, that we have a group of PTA volunteers who met at the Halfway House recently and that our Christmas Fair will be going ahead on Saturday 3rd December. More information will follow soon.
A school sits at the heart of its Community and can act as the focus for social and community events that add genuine value for that community. Being an active member of the PTA at Robin Hood benefits not only our children in school but the community as a whole. Your offers of help and support for the Christmas Fair will, I am certain, be greatly appreciated by Jenny and our PTA volunteers.
Trainer fashions at Celebration Assembly
Our Year 34 pupils will be up on the catwalk at the Celebration Assembly on 25th November to model the fantastic trainer creations that they have produced this Half Term. The pupils have used trainers as a stimulus for design research, making movies, writing persuasive adverts to sell their ground breaking designs and actually making the trainers themselves. Please join us for our fabulous fashion display.
School Photographs
Individual and family group school photographs will be taking place next week, Wed 9th November.
Children In Need
We will be supporting the Children In Need Appeal on Friday 18th November. This will be a Non-uniform Day. We ask that all children bring a Non-Uniform donation – all proceeds from the donations will be forwarded on to the Charity. The theme for Children In Need dressing up this year is spots. Pupils Jenny Hepworth and Shannon Keeble will be holding a Bake Sale on the day. Again, all proceeds will be going to Children In Need. My thanks and congratulations to the girls for their super charitable efforts.
Poppy Appeal
We are selling poppies in school on behalf of the Royal British Legion Appeal. Our School Captains will be visiting classes daily with poppies for sale.
Year 4 Residential
Our Year 4’s are preparing for their upcoming residential visit to East Barnby. My thanks to the staff who make ‘extras’ like this a possibility for our pupils. We are very fortunate to be able to offer two residential visit for our pupils during their careers at Robin Hood, made possible only through the dedication and commitment of our staff. Miss Thackeray, Miss Nicholls, Mrs Beckwith and Mrs Cookson will be accompanying the children on the trip this year. Year 4 swimming will be cancelled on 18th November for those children who are in school due to the residential.
Fantastic Staff
While on the subject of our fantastic staff, I would like this week to highlight Mrs Wathen’s contribution to our school. Mrs Wathen is a key member of the team that makes the school tick. She is a very talented organiser – having taken a leading role in the development of our International provision – and a very talented teacher of Spanish. Magic happens at Robin Hood due to the talents and the hard work of the staff here. My grateful thanks to Mrs Wathen and to all of our fabulous team for creating the magic at Robin Hood.
Blogs
I spent a lovely half hour one evening this week looking at the various blogs that we have running from around school. The blogs – accessed via the Homepage of the school website – are truly incredible and give a fantastic insight into the learning that is happening all around our school. If you haven’t viewed our blogs recently… I would heartily encourage you to do so. They are further evidence for you of the amazing things that are happening at Robin Hood.
Have a very safe Bonfire Night and a brilliant weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a wonderful first week back in Nursery and begun our new topic on Celebrations! The children did a fantastic job starting the festivities this week in Halloween attire! Many thanks to those children and parents who put so much time and effort into the Halloween decorations for the Nursery! They are amazing once again!
THIS WEEK
We have been learning the importance of staying safe on Bonfire Night! The children have watched news bites and video clips and shared safety stories with Welephant, the fire safety elephant, about the dangers of fire and fireworks! As a result of our learning and in preparation for the main event, the children have made some fantastic bonfire night safety posters. The children have also been enjoying singing songs and playing musical instruments around our very own camp fire, and what glorious singing voices they have too!!
NEXT WEEK
We will be looking at the history behind Bonfire Night and sharing our experiences of the event this year. The children will also be making their very own fireworks and be using them in an investigation to see which travels the furthest!
The children will also be developing their counting skills using the firework and bonfire theme to count out objects and recognise numerals. Please continue to support your child with their number skills at home too, counting objects, sharing items, spotting numbers around you etc, to help your child feel confident when they are involved in these activities in Nursery.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Return your child’s reading record on a Wednesday
· Practice recognising the letters in their name.
Requests!
If your child has any clothing that they have out grown, please could we kindly ask that you donate it to Nursery. (including girls knickers and boys pants).
Thank you for your support.
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for the amazing response to our Halloween home learning. Miss Abbey has made a short video which you can see on our blog http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/ Please do have a look and see what we (and you) have been up to this week!
THIS WEEK
We have started on our new topic of 'Celebrations' and have been finding out more about Halloween and Bonfire Night. Mrs Holland came to talk to the children about fire safety and we have produced our own posters with facts and tips to help us stay safe, which we will display around school. We also had two lovely pumpkins that Mrs Friar and the Nursery children grew, which we made into Halloween lanterns (with very scary faces!)
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be finding out all about the story of Guy Fawkes and where the Gunpowder Plot originated. The children will be retelling the story in their own words and we will be asking them to use time connectives, such as first, next, after that and finally to link the events chronologically. In our topic sessions, we will be creating some amazing firework pictures and in numeracy we will be doing some estimating and measuring using non standard units. We will even predict and check how far our rockets can fly! (Kitchen roll tubes gratefully received - thank you!)
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should now be on PINK band books. We have heard some super reading this week from the children but please can we ask that you continue to put extra support around your child if they are still on Lilac books to help them progress on to Pink. Thank you.
By practising the sounds of the week every day. Sounds are z, j and h.
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names independently.
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.Well done to those superstars who have achieved this in the last week!
By writing the first set of tricky words (I, no, go, the, to, into). We will be asking the children to show us how fabulously they can write these words next week.
Have a lovely weekend.
Key Stage 1 Newsletter
Well a big welcome back to all the children in KS1! The children have returned to school recharged and eager to learn, leading to a very productive first week back. Here are a few useful dates for your diaries of events across this half term:
9th Nov – School Photos
6th Dec – KS1 Theatre Trip
9th Dec – Celebration Friday
14th Dec – KS1 Christmas Performance (2pm-3pm)
15th Dec – KS1 Christmas Party
KS1 Christmas Performance (6pm-7pm)
16th Dec – Final day of term
3rd Jan 2012 - Training Day
4th Jan 2012 – First Day of term.
Home Learning and Reading Records
Please ensure that your child is handing in their Reading Record and home learning book every Monday morning. Even if your child has not completed their home learning in their book it must be handed in so that the next home learning task can be sent home. Also don’t forget that if your child hands their reading record in every Monday morning for the rest of the half term they will receive 100 merits! All these will add up for our class merit winner at Christmas and that all important Toys R Us winner at the end of the year.
Water Bottles
It is very important that your child brings their own water bottle in to school every day so that they are able to have a drink whenever they wish. Although they are able to have a drink at lunch time school cannot facilitate this within the classroom across the day.
This Weeks Learning
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have been investigating number bonds. This is pairs of numbers that total 10, 20 and even 100! The children have explored this in a range of contexts including working out missing numbers within a number sentence (e.g. ? + 11 = 20). The children have also been finding 10 more/less than a given number. Why not try this at home?
Next week the children will be enhancing their addition strategies. In school we work out addition problems by placing the biggest number in our head and counting on. The children will begin adding single digit numbers but will soon be tackling the addition of larger 2 and even 3 digit numbers!
Literacy
We have begun a new unit on Story Writing this week with the children exploring some of our favourite Julia Donaldson stories (Y1: The Gruffalo, Y1/2: Smartest Giant, Y2: Room on the Broom). The children have been using Drama to explore the events and characters within the story. Next week the children will be writing their own stories based on their class text but they will be adding their own ideas by changing the characters, setting or structure of the story.
Topic
In Topic this week the children have been introduced to the story of Beauty and the Beast. We have been exploring the main characters within the story in order to create a fact file using smart notebook on the computers. The children have also been learning how to present their information by changing background colour, text settings and they have even begun finding their own images using the internet.
Next week the children will be developing their drawing and colouring skills as they complete detailed drawings of the characters within the story. We will also be looking at adding finer details and backgrounds to our images.
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. We were blown away by the fantastic posters, radio broadcasts, TV adverts and models of different inventions!!!
Numeracy
In Numeracy the children have been developing their mental strategies for addition. We have been recognising number bonds from 10 to 100 and have been adding three or four different two digit numbers by finding pairs totalling 9,10,11. We have also been partitioning numbers by adding together the tens and then the units.
Literacy
This week we have been analysing a selection of radio and television adverts, identifying persuasive features. We have then written our own radio broadcasts for our trainer designs using persuasive features such as statistics, quotations, comparatives, superlatives and lots of fantastic adjectives.
RE
The children have watched an animated version of the Christmas nativity story which the children will be recreating in the style of a comic book.
ICT
The children have designed their own Nike trainer (using the Nike website) and then transformed these images into a video. They will then be using these to create their own persuasive trainer adverts.
Reminders
We would like to thank all the parent/carers for their contribution towards our white plimsolls. The children will be customising these over the next couple of weeks as part of our DT unit and these will then be the stimulus for lots of fantastic writing during literacy. We will be showcasing our final outcomes at a fashion show during celebration assembly on Friday 25th November.
Next Tuesday we will be holding auditions for our Christmas production 'The Xmas Factor'. Every child who would like to audition must prepare a short poem or joke to perform in front of the class. Every year priority of speaking parts goes to the year 4 children however there are some extra parts so we do encourage year 3's to audition as well. Good Luck!
Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
·Congratulations to Faith and Jade who are our Achievers of the Week for their super moving collage which they created using a wide range of techniques in Smart Notebook.
·Thank you to all parents and carers who have helped their children to create some wonderful inventions over the holiday. We are truly amazed with the standard of creativity, thought, attention and detail that has been put into these pieces. We really do appreciate the support you give with the home learning - Thank you. Any children who have not yet brought in their work still have another week…so get thinking.
·A big thank you to all year 6 children who have taken time out of their half term break to complete some of the SATs revision pack. We will be engaging with this information over the next few weeks so please make sure you have it in school with you at all times.
Numeracy: This week we have been focusing on finding the perimeter of different shapes and then applying our addition skills to solve problems. Next week we will be moving on to looking at finding the area of squares, rectangles and compound shapes. This will require our multiplication skills! We will be using the grid method to multiply 2, 3, 4 and even 5 digit numbers.
Home learning: Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
This week we began our unit on persuasion. After reading a very interesting letter from Mr Wilson about changes to the school hall, the children set about planning and drafting their own letter in response ensuring they included persuasive elements throughout. Next week we will be editing these letters and marking them against our star criteria in the hope that we will be able to convince Mr Wilson not to change the school hall.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our RE unit: Biblical, Religion, Tradition, Prayer, Worship, Symbol, Testament, Resurrection, Samaritan, Apostles
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have begun our unit on forces and have looked at the effects of gravity. We have carried out investigations around water resistance (buoyancy) and air resistance in order to test out our theories.
In PE we have been looking at the core skills involved in gymnastics (balances, rolls, turns and jumps). We have practised some of these skills and will be trying to perfect them over the next few weeks.
In RE we have begun our unit studying the Bible. We have been navigating our way around the text and have familiarised ourselves with some of the content. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the different ‘books’ of the bible including the Gospels.
In our Reading sessions we have begun looking at the classic horror novel ‘Room 13’ by Robert Swindells. The novel is set in Whitby and tells the story of a young girl called Fliss who encounters strange goings-on during a school trip…and they all seem to relate to a particular person and a particular room…
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Dear Parent/Carer,
Harvest Fun!
We had an interesting turn of events for our Harvest Celebration this year. On the final day of last Half Term, we were half way to the Church when we were informed that, due to a mix-up, it was no longer available for our Harvest. A school is defined by its response to challenging circumstances… We turned around, prepared the Hall and held a fabulous celebration, led by our Key Stage One pupils. My thanks to those parents and families who stuck with us through the confusion to attended the event. We do hope to return to Lofthouse Church for our Christmas, Easter and Harvest celebrations to come.
Home Learning
I would like to say an enormous thank you to our pupils, parents and families for their fantastic Home Learning projects. The Home Learning projects are truly incredible… we have received some really inspired and inspirational creations that have clearly been a delight for families to produce together. Learning together and having fun when learning really are the keys to successful learning.
Christmas Fair
I was delighted to hear from Jenny Curgenven, our PTA Chair and Governor, that we have a group of PTA volunteers who met at the Halfway House recently and that our Christmas Fair will be going ahead on Saturday 3rd December. More information will follow soon.
A school sits at the heart of its Community and can act as the focus for social and community events that add genuine value for that community. Being an active member of the PTA at Robin Hood benefits not only our children in school but the community as a whole. Your offers of help and support for the Christmas Fair will, I am certain, be greatly appreciated by Jenny and our PTA volunteers.
Trainer fashions at Celebration Assembly
Our Year 34 pupils will be up on the catwalk at the Celebration Assembly on 25th November to model the fantastic trainer creations that they have produced this Half Term. The pupils have used trainers as a stimulus for design research, making movies, writing persuasive adverts to sell their ground breaking designs and actually making the trainers themselves. Please join us for our fabulous fashion display.
School Photographs
Individual and family group school photographs will be taking place next week, Wed 9th November.
Children In Need
We will be supporting the Children In Need Appeal on Friday 18th November. This will be a Non-uniform Day. We ask that all children bring a Non-Uniform donation – all proceeds from the donations will be forwarded on to the Charity. The theme for Children In Need dressing up this year is spots. Pupils Jenny Hepworth and Shannon Keeble will be holding a Bake Sale on the day. Again, all proceeds will be going to Children In Need. My thanks and congratulations to the girls for their super charitable efforts.
Poppy Appeal
We are selling poppies in school on behalf of the Royal British Legion Appeal. Our School Captains will be visiting classes daily with poppies for sale.
Year 4 Residential
Our Year 4’s are preparing for their upcoming residential visit to East Barnby. My thanks to the staff who make ‘extras’ like this a possibility for our pupils. We are very fortunate to be able to offer two residential visit for our pupils during their careers at Robin Hood, made possible only through the dedication and commitment of our staff. Miss Thackeray, Miss Nicholls, Mrs Beckwith and Mrs Cookson will be accompanying the children on the trip this year. Year 4 swimming will be cancelled on 18th November for those children who are in school due to the residential.
Fantastic Staff
While on the subject of our fantastic staff, I would like this week to highlight Mrs Wathen’s contribution to our school. Mrs Wathen is a key member of the team that makes the school tick. She is a very talented organiser – having taken a leading role in the development of our International provision – and a very talented teacher of Spanish. Magic happens at Robin Hood due to the talents and the hard work of the staff here. My grateful thanks to Mrs Wathen and to all of our fabulous team for creating the magic at Robin Hood.
Blogs
I spent a lovely half hour one evening this week looking at the various blogs that we have running from around school. The blogs – accessed via the Homepage of the school website – are truly incredible and give a fantastic insight into the learning that is happening all around our school. If you haven’t viewed our blogs recently… I would heartily encourage you to do so. They are further evidence for you of the amazing things that are happening at Robin Hood.
Have a very safe Bonfire Night and a brilliant weekend,
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a wonderful first week back in Nursery and begun our new topic on Celebrations! The children did a fantastic job starting the festivities this week in Halloween attire! Many thanks to those children and parents who put so much time and effort into the Halloween decorations for the Nursery! They are amazing once again!
THIS WEEK
We have been learning the importance of staying safe on Bonfire Night! The children have watched news bites and video clips and shared safety stories with Welephant, the fire safety elephant, about the dangers of fire and fireworks! As a result of our learning and in preparation for the main event, the children have made some fantastic bonfire night safety posters. The children have also been enjoying singing songs and playing musical instruments around our very own camp fire, and what glorious singing voices they have too!!
NEXT WEEK
We will be looking at the history behind Bonfire Night and sharing our experiences of the event this year. The children will also be making their very own fireworks and be using them in an investigation to see which travels the furthest!
The children will also be developing their counting skills using the firework and bonfire theme to count out objects and recognise numerals. Please continue to support your child with their number skills at home too, counting objects, sharing items, spotting numbers around you etc, to help your child feel confident when they are involved in these activities in Nursery.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· Return your child’s reading record on a Wednesday
· Practice recognising the letters in their name.
Requests!
If your child has any clothing that they have out grown, please could we kindly ask that you donate it to Nursery. (including girls knickers and boys pants).
Thank you for your support.
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you for the amazing response to our Halloween home learning. Miss Abbey has made a short video which you can see on our blog http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/ Please do have a look and see what we (and you) have been up to this week!
THIS WEEK
We have started on our new topic of 'Celebrations' and have been finding out more about Halloween and Bonfire Night. Mrs Holland came to talk to the children about fire safety and we have produced our own posters with facts and tips to help us stay safe, which we will display around school. We also had two lovely pumpkins that Mrs Friar and the Nursery children grew, which we made into Halloween lanterns (with very scary faces!)
NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be finding out all about the story of Guy Fawkes and where the Gunpowder Plot originated. The children will be retelling the story in their own words and we will be asking them to use time connectives, such as first, next, after that and finally to link the events chronologically. In our topic sessions, we will be creating some amazing firework pictures and in numeracy we will be doing some estimating and measuring using non standard units. We will even predict and check how far our rockets can fly! (Kitchen roll tubes gratefully received - thank you!)
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should now be on PINK band books. We have heard some super reading this week from the children but please can we ask that you continue to put extra support around your child if they are still on Lilac books to help them progress on to Pink. Thank you.
By practising the sounds of the week every day. Sounds are z, j and h.
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names independently.
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.Well done to those superstars who have achieved this in the last week!
By writing the first set of tricky words (I, no, go, the, to, into). We will be asking the children to show us how fabulously they can write these words next week.
Have a lovely weekend.
Key Stage 1 Newsletter
Well a big welcome back to all the children in KS1! The children have returned to school recharged and eager to learn, leading to a very productive first week back. Here are a few useful dates for your diaries of events across this half term:
9th Nov – School Photos
6th Dec – KS1 Theatre Trip
9th Dec – Celebration Friday
14th Dec – KS1 Christmas Performance (2pm-3pm)
15th Dec – KS1 Christmas Party
KS1 Christmas Performance (6pm-7pm)
16th Dec – Final day of term
3rd Jan 2012 - Training Day
4th Jan 2012 – First Day of term.
Home Learning and Reading Records
Please ensure that your child is handing in their Reading Record and home learning book every Monday morning. Even if your child has not completed their home learning in their book it must be handed in so that the next home learning task can be sent home. Also don’t forget that if your child hands their reading record in every Monday morning for the rest of the half term they will receive 100 merits! All these will add up for our class merit winner at Christmas and that all important Toys R Us winner at the end of the year.
Water Bottles
It is very important that your child brings their own water bottle in to school every day so that they are able to have a drink whenever they wish. Although they are able to have a drink at lunch time school cannot facilitate this within the classroom across the day.
This Weeks Learning
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have been investigating number bonds. This is pairs of numbers that total 10, 20 and even 100! The children have explored this in a range of contexts including working out missing numbers within a number sentence (e.g. ? + 11 = 20). The children have also been finding 10 more/less than a given number. Why not try this at home?
Next week the children will be enhancing their addition strategies. In school we work out addition problems by placing the biggest number in our head and counting on. The children will begin adding single digit numbers but will soon be tackling the addition of larger 2 and even 3 digit numbers!
Literacy
We have begun a new unit on Story Writing this week with the children exploring some of our favourite Julia Donaldson stories (Y1: The Gruffalo, Y1/2: Smartest Giant, Y2: Room on the Broom). The children have been using Drama to explore the events and characters within the story. Next week the children will be writing their own stories based on their class text but they will be adding their own ideas by changing the characters, setting or structure of the story.
Topic
In Topic this week the children have been introduced to the story of Beauty and the Beast. We have been exploring the main characters within the story in order to create a fact file using smart notebook on the computers. The children have also been learning how to present their information by changing background colour, text settings and they have even begun finding their own images using the internet.
Next week the children will be developing their drawing and colouring skills as they complete detailed drawings of the characters within the story. We will also be looking at adding finer details and backgrounds to our images.
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. We were blown away by the fantastic posters, radio broadcasts, TV adverts and models of different inventions!!!
Numeracy
In Numeracy the children have been developing their mental strategies for addition. We have been recognising number bonds from 10 to 100 and have been adding three or four different two digit numbers by finding pairs totalling 9,10,11. We have also been partitioning numbers by adding together the tens and then the units.
Literacy
This week we have been analysing a selection of radio and television adverts, identifying persuasive features. We have then written our own radio broadcasts for our trainer designs using persuasive features such as statistics, quotations, comparatives, superlatives and lots of fantastic adjectives.
RE
The children have watched an animated version of the Christmas nativity story which the children will be recreating in the style of a comic book.
ICT
The children have designed their own Nike trainer (using the Nike website) and then transformed these images into a video. They will then be using these to create their own persuasive trainer adverts.
Reminders
We would like to thank all the parent/carers for their contribution towards our white plimsolls. The children will be customising these over the next couple of weeks as part of our DT unit and these will then be the stimulus for lots of fantastic writing during literacy. We will be showcasing our final outcomes at a fashion show during celebration assembly on Friday 25th November.
Next Tuesday we will be holding auditions for our Christmas production 'The Xmas Factor'. Every child who would like to audition must prepare a short poem or joke to perform in front of the class. Every year priority of speaking parts goes to the year 4 children however there are some extra parts so we do encourage year 3's to audition as well. Good Luck!
Thank you,
Team 3/4
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
·Congratulations to Faith and Jade who are our Achievers of the Week for their super moving collage which they created using a wide range of techniques in Smart Notebook.
·Thank you to all parents and carers who have helped their children to create some wonderful inventions over the holiday. We are truly amazed with the standard of creativity, thought, attention and detail that has been put into these pieces. We really do appreciate the support you give with the home learning - Thank you. Any children who have not yet brought in their work still have another week…so get thinking.
·A big thank you to all year 6 children who have taken time out of their half term break to complete some of the SATs revision pack. We will be engaging with this information over the next few weeks so please make sure you have it in school with you at all times.
Numeracy: This week we have been focusing on finding the perimeter of different shapes and then applying our addition skills to solve problems. Next week we will be moving on to looking at finding the area of squares, rectangles and compound shapes. This will require our multiplication skills! We will be using the grid method to multiply 2, 3, 4 and even 5 digit numbers.
Home learning: Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
This week we began our unit on persuasion. After reading a very interesting letter from Mr Wilson about changes to the school hall, the children set about planning and drafting their own letter in response ensuring they included persuasive elements throughout. Next week we will be editing these letters and marking them against our star criteria in the hope that we will be able to convince Mr Wilson not to change the school hall.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our RE unit: Biblical, Religion, Tradition, Prayer, Worship, Symbol, Testament, Resurrection, Samaritan, Apostles
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have begun our unit on forces and have looked at the effects of gravity. We have carried out investigations around water resistance (buoyancy) and air resistance in order to test out our theories.
In PE we have been looking at the core skills involved in gymnastics (balances, rolls, turns and jumps). We have practised some of these skills and will be trying to perfect them over the next few weeks.
In RE we have begun our unit studying the Bible. We have been navigating our way around the text and have familiarised ourselves with some of the content. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the different ‘books’ of the bible including the Gospels.
In our Reading sessions we have begun looking at the classic horror novel ‘Room 13’ by Robert Swindells. The novel is set in Whitby and tells the story of a young girl called Fliss who encounters strange goings-on during a school trip…and they all seem to relate to a particular person and a particular room…
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Friday, 21 October 2011
Issue 7 2011-12
Newsletter Issue 7 Friday 21st October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
Newsletter
Just a reminder to our community; our newsletter is available to you in the following formats:
- Collect a paper copy from the office (arrange with Mrs Holland)
- give your email address to Mrs Holland to receive it direct to your email
- subscribe to the newsletter blog
- read the newsletter on our Noticeboards
Fantastic Staff
I would like this week to highlight Mrs Mates’s contribution to our school. Mrs Mates has stepped into the Lunchtime Supervisory role for us for the last three weeks during Mrs Hick’s absence. Mrs Mates has done an absolutely fabulous job for us. She is a highly valued and long-serving member of our Lunchtime Team.
PTA
The PTA AGM took place at school on Thursday 13th October, 6.00pm. The PTA is struggling to survive due to lack of support and lack of donations. As you will be aware, the PTA have been unable to run the Magic Show this year, there was no Summer Fayre, no Easter Egg Tombola, no Mothers Day Flowers… all activities and events that had become part of the life of the school. The PTA have very few funds left. We don’t have a Christmas Pantomime booked this year and the Christmas Fair – which ran at a very reduced level last year, as some of you will remember – is in serious jeopardy of not running at all this year. The PTA will be announcing a meeting to discuss the prospects for a Christmas Fair shortly.
The PTA need not only support in terms of attendance at the events, they need support in terms of the commitment of time to prepare and organise events. A very committed group of parents have taken the brunt of the workload for quite some years now. My thanks on behalf of our children to those people who have given their time, energy and commitment to our PTA.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a gorgeous week in Nursery this week learning all about Elmer the patchwork elephant. The children started the week full of excitement after producing yet another stunning array of homemade Elmers!! They really are a creative bunch! The home learning is having such a fantastic impact on the learning we achieve in Nursery so please do continue to support your child.
THIS WEEK
We have shared stories about Elmer that have been adored by the children. We have used images from the stories to think about colours, we then had a go at mixing our very own colours to paint Elmer! The children have also made 2 fabulous paper mache elephants to represent Elmer and his cousin Wilbur, which we hope to be able to display in main school! In number we have taken the idea of the repeating pattern on Elmers coat and then designed a new version. We have continued to use the theme to help with counting in order and also size ordering.
NEXT HALF TERM
We will be starting a new topic looking at Celebrations! We come back to Nursery on the 31st October with a Halloween spectacular, and then we will be moving on to the preparations for Bonfire Night! We will be counting using songs and rhymes and making our very own fireworks and using them in an investigation to see which travels the furthest!
During the holidays please do continue to support your child at home by sharing stories together, singing songs and rhymes, counting and playing games that involve turn taking. We will also be developing our writing skills, so please encourage your child to “write” at home too. Making it fun and natural is the best way, for example, ask them to take drinks orders, write a shopping list to help you at the supermarket, use chalks outside on the path, use paintbrushes and water – add glitter for an extra sparkle to practice writing the letters in their name.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· By ensuring your child can put their own coat on and that they bring a coat to Nursery every day.
· By practising putting on and taking off their own shoes and socks.
DIARY DATE
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Nursery (and Reception) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However, we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate.
Thank you for your support. Have a great half term!
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you to all the parents who attended our parent consultations this week. It was lovely to see you and share the fabulous news about how your children have settled and the super progress they are making.
Thank you too for all the amazing home learning. Miss Abbey has uploaded them onto our blog at: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
Look out for the half term homework to be returned on Monday 31st October.
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic,focusing on Elmer the elephant. The children have been discussing why Elmer is different and what qualities Elmer has that makes him a special friend to the other animals. The children have written some lovely letters to Elmer and invited him to a party as well as creating a large scale collaborative Elmer with Mrs Chin, to display in our classroom. Your home learning will be going up on this display too.
NEXT HALF TERM
We will be starting our new topic of 'Celebrations'. The first week back, we will look at the traditional Halloween and Bonfire Night celebrations and we will be creating some super artwork for a display. We are hoping to have a visit from a Fire Safety Officer to talk to the children about how to keep themselves safe.
In our numeracy sessions we will continue with our counting and number formation but we will also be moving on to estimation (then counting to check) followed by rounding numbers to the nearest 10.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should be ready to move onto PINK band books by the end of this half term. Some children have made such super progress that they will be working on RED band books after their reading assessment . Please put extra support around your child if they are still on Lilac books. Thank you
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: will, them, then, that, this, with. Sounds are v, w and y
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.
DIARY DATES
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Reception (and Nursery) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
Have a lovely half term.
KS1 News
How quickly the first half term has gone! The Key Stage One team would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and carers who attended Parent Consultations this week. The children have started the year with exceptional attitudes to their learning. It has been fantastic to share their achievements and their next steps in their learning journey! We would also like to say a thank you for the feedback regarding the new reading records and how they are being used effectively.
Numeracy
This week the children have been showing what they have learnt across the half term with a series of short tasks to show off their learning. We have been very impressed with the childrens understanding of number! Next half term the children will be starting to learn all about addition. They will begin the term learning number facts such as number bonds to 10 (6 + 4) and number bonds to 20 (18 + 2). Please support your child through half term by counting objects and using their fingers to add numbers together.It can be adding as much as you want together!
Literacy
This week the children have written a non chronological report all about Robin Hood Primary School. The children have produced fantastic outcomes and should be very proud of their achievements! The children have been using their targets successfully and have consistently applied their learning of new literacy skills in their writing. Next half term the children will be starting a unit of work on 'Narrative' writing. Across the half term the children will be reading books by the Author Julia Donaldson, 'The Smartest Giant in Town', A Room on the Broom' and 'The Gruffalo'. We are looking forward to reading the stories that the children have been asked to produce for the home learning task over half term.
Topic
This week the children have been learning all about the Harvest Festival, what is for and why people celebrate at this time of year. We would like to thank all parents who came to school to see Key Stage One perform a super assembly! Next half term the children will be learning all about Beauty and The Beast. So why not enjoy watching this over half term and get to learn a few of the songs!
All the Key Stage One team hope you have a fantastic half term! Enjoy and relax!
LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a fun and eventful week in year 3/4. We have thoroughly enjoyed sharing the learning that has been taking place with parents and carers within this weeks parent consultations. The children had a fantastic experience at Danelaw Viking Village this week, where our learning this term really came to life!
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have shown us the wonderful learning they have developed within their Data Handling. We have been looking at venn diagrams, pictograms and bar charts, allowing the children to read and interpret data from them. On Friday we completed our first Times Table Challenge - please ensure your child continues to practise their times tables at home.
Literacy
This week we have been completing our final write about the ‘Vicious Vikings’. The children have chosen their information from the topics covered this half term, including rainbow paragraphs, super compound and complex sentences within their writing, as well as many audience engaging features that we have enjoyed reading! Well done year 3/4!
Topic
Over the course of this week the children have been continuing to make their moving mechanisms, weaving and Kar2ouche animations. They look fabulous!
RE
The children have also completed their stained glass windows, including Christian symbols. They are certainly brightening up our classrooms.
Reminders
Our Topic next half term is ‘Amazing Adverts’. As part of our learning, we would like the children to bring their favourite pair of trainers in to school on the first day back after half term. Details of our holiday homework have been given to your child, we would really appreciate your support.
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations to our Starbooks readers, who are our Achievers of the Week. These children have shown a great deal of dedication and a regular commitment to reading at home and in school and have demonstrated a positive attitude towards making progress. Well done guys, you really have deserved those hot chocolates.
• Thank you to all parents and carers who attended parent consultations this week. It was a great opportunity for us to share with you some of the great progress your child has made so far this year. We are really grateful for all of your support and we are sure that further progress will be made with a continued input both at home and in school.
• Congratulations to Erin Surtees who is our Times Table Champion for this half term. It was a very close battle for the top spot and we hope that we see just as much enthusiasm next half term.
• Out topic next half term will be about inventions. We have asked the children to create an invention of their own and present it in whatever form they wish. We would like to see all creations back in school for the start of the second week back.
• Year sixes should have brought home a SAT pack containing examples of past papers. These are for the children to complete at their own pace over the holidays. We hope that this will help to support them in the run up to the SATs next year. Please ensure your child engages with these papers over the holidays and brings them back into school during the first week.
Numeracy: after half term the children will be focussing on multiplication and division strategies as well as data handling with a Mario Kart theme. To get you started, why not have a look on the I Am Learning platform where you will find lots of games to help you. Also, there are help videos on the school website to show you the methods we will be using.
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
After half term we will be looking at persuasion. We will be applying our persuasive techniques to letter writing as well as writing balanced arguments.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our topic next half term: invention, television, telephone, bicycle, design, creation, technology, genius, convenience, appliance.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Art we have been creating our own city skylines based on an inspirational video clip and a selection of photographs. We have created a colourful sunset and then added silhouettes of buildings using black paper.
In PE we have completed our line dances, rock and roll and street dance performances. We have showcased these to the whole of Year 5/6 so that we can all see what each of the classes have been doing and we are very proud of what we have managed to achieve.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Dear Parent/Carer,
Newsletter
Just a reminder to our community; our newsletter is available to you in the following formats:
- Collect a paper copy from the office (arrange with Mrs Holland)
- give your email address to Mrs Holland to receive it direct to your email
- subscribe to the newsletter blog
- read the newsletter on our Noticeboards
Fantastic Staff
I would like this week to highlight Mrs Mates’s contribution to our school. Mrs Mates has stepped into the Lunchtime Supervisory role for us for the last three weeks during Mrs Hick’s absence. Mrs Mates has done an absolutely fabulous job for us. She is a highly valued and long-serving member of our Lunchtime Team.
PTA
The PTA AGM took place at school on Thursday 13th October, 6.00pm. The PTA is struggling to survive due to lack of support and lack of donations. As you will be aware, the PTA have been unable to run the Magic Show this year, there was no Summer Fayre, no Easter Egg Tombola, no Mothers Day Flowers… all activities and events that had become part of the life of the school. The PTA have very few funds left. We don’t have a Christmas Pantomime booked this year and the Christmas Fair – which ran at a very reduced level last year, as some of you will remember – is in serious jeopardy of not running at all this year. The PTA will be announcing a meeting to discuss the prospects for a Christmas Fair shortly.
The PTA need not only support in terms of attendance at the events, they need support in terms of the commitment of time to prepare and organise events. A very committed group of parents have taken the brunt of the workload for quite some years now. My thanks on behalf of our children to those people who have given their time, energy and commitment to our PTA.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a gorgeous week in Nursery this week learning all about Elmer the patchwork elephant. The children started the week full of excitement after producing yet another stunning array of homemade Elmers!! They really are a creative bunch! The home learning is having such a fantastic impact on the learning we achieve in Nursery so please do continue to support your child.
THIS WEEK
We have shared stories about Elmer that have been adored by the children. We have used images from the stories to think about colours, we then had a go at mixing our very own colours to paint Elmer! The children have also made 2 fabulous paper mache elephants to represent Elmer and his cousin Wilbur, which we hope to be able to display in main school! In number we have taken the idea of the repeating pattern on Elmers coat and then designed a new version. We have continued to use the theme to help with counting in order and also size ordering.
NEXT HALF TERM
We will be starting a new topic looking at Celebrations! We come back to Nursery on the 31st October with a Halloween spectacular, and then we will be moving on to the preparations for Bonfire Night! We will be counting using songs and rhymes and making our very own fireworks and using them in an investigation to see which travels the furthest!
During the holidays please do continue to support your child at home by sharing stories together, singing songs and rhymes, counting and playing games that involve turn taking. We will also be developing our writing skills, so please encourage your child to “write” at home too. Making it fun and natural is the best way, for example, ask them to take drinks orders, write a shopping list to help you at the supermarket, use chalks outside on the path, use paintbrushes and water – add glitter for an extra sparkle to practice writing the letters in their name.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· By ensuring your child can put their own coat on and that they bring a coat to Nursery every day.
· By practising putting on and taking off their own shoes and socks.
DIARY DATE
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Nursery (and Reception) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However, we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate.
Thank you for your support. Have a great half term!
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you to all the parents who attended our parent consultations this week. It was lovely to see you and share the fabulous news about how your children have settled and the super progress they are making.
Thank you too for all the amazing home learning. Miss Abbey has uploaded them onto our blog at: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
Look out for the half term homework to be returned on Monday 31st October.
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic,focusing on Elmer the elephant. The children have been discussing why Elmer is different and what qualities Elmer has that makes him a special friend to the other animals. The children have written some lovely letters to Elmer and invited him to a party as well as creating a large scale collaborative Elmer with Mrs Chin, to display in our classroom. Your home learning will be going up on this display too.
NEXT HALF TERM
We will be starting our new topic of 'Celebrations'. The first week back, we will look at the traditional Halloween and Bonfire Night celebrations and we will be creating some super artwork for a display. We are hoping to have a visit from a Fire Safety Officer to talk to the children about how to keep themselves safe.
In our numeracy sessions we will continue with our counting and number formation but we will also be moving on to estimation (then counting to check) followed by rounding numbers to the nearest 10.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should be ready to move onto PINK band books by the end of this half term. Some children have made such super progress that they will be working on RED band books after their reading assessment . Please put extra support around your child if they are still on Lilac books. Thank you
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: will, them, then, that, this, with. Sounds are v, w and y
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names
By recognising and practising writing the numbers to 20 with the correct formation.
DIARY DATES
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Reception (and Nursery) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
Have a lovely half term.
KS1 News
How quickly the first half term has gone! The Key Stage One team would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and carers who attended Parent Consultations this week. The children have started the year with exceptional attitudes to their learning. It has been fantastic to share their achievements and their next steps in their learning journey! We would also like to say a thank you for the feedback regarding the new reading records and how they are being used effectively.
Numeracy
This week the children have been showing what they have learnt across the half term with a series of short tasks to show off their learning. We have been very impressed with the childrens understanding of number! Next half term the children will be starting to learn all about addition. They will begin the term learning number facts such as number bonds to 10 (6 + 4) and number bonds to 20 (18 + 2). Please support your child through half term by counting objects and using their fingers to add numbers together.It can be adding as much as you want together!
Literacy
This week the children have written a non chronological report all about Robin Hood Primary School. The children have produced fantastic outcomes and should be very proud of their achievements! The children have been using their targets successfully and have consistently applied their learning of new literacy skills in their writing. Next half term the children will be starting a unit of work on 'Narrative' writing. Across the half term the children will be reading books by the Author Julia Donaldson, 'The Smartest Giant in Town', A Room on the Broom' and 'The Gruffalo'. We are looking forward to reading the stories that the children have been asked to produce for the home learning task over half term.
Topic
This week the children have been learning all about the Harvest Festival, what is for and why people celebrate at this time of year. We would like to thank all parents who came to school to see Key Stage One perform a super assembly! Next half term the children will be learning all about Beauty and The Beast. So why not enjoy watching this over half term and get to learn a few of the songs!
All the Key Stage One team hope you have a fantastic half term! Enjoy and relax!
LKS2 Newsletter
We have had a fun and eventful week in year 3/4. We have thoroughly enjoyed sharing the learning that has been taking place with parents and carers within this weeks parent consultations. The children had a fantastic experience at Danelaw Viking Village this week, where our learning this term really came to life!
Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have shown us the wonderful learning they have developed within their Data Handling. We have been looking at venn diagrams, pictograms and bar charts, allowing the children to read and interpret data from them. On Friday we completed our first Times Table Challenge - please ensure your child continues to practise their times tables at home.
Literacy
This week we have been completing our final write about the ‘Vicious Vikings’. The children have chosen their information from the topics covered this half term, including rainbow paragraphs, super compound and complex sentences within their writing, as well as many audience engaging features that we have enjoyed reading! Well done year 3/4!
Topic
Over the course of this week the children have been continuing to make their moving mechanisms, weaving and Kar2ouche animations. They look fabulous!
RE
The children have also completed their stained glass windows, including Christian symbols. They are certainly brightening up our classrooms.
Reminders
Our Topic next half term is ‘Amazing Adverts’. As part of our learning, we would like the children to bring their favourite pair of trainers in to school on the first day back after half term. Details of our holiday homework have been given to your child, we would really appreciate your support.
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations to our Starbooks readers, who are our Achievers of the Week. These children have shown a great deal of dedication and a regular commitment to reading at home and in school and have demonstrated a positive attitude towards making progress. Well done guys, you really have deserved those hot chocolates.
• Thank you to all parents and carers who attended parent consultations this week. It was a great opportunity for us to share with you some of the great progress your child has made so far this year. We are really grateful for all of your support and we are sure that further progress will be made with a continued input both at home and in school.
• Congratulations to Erin Surtees who is our Times Table Champion for this half term. It was a very close battle for the top spot and we hope that we see just as much enthusiasm next half term.
• Out topic next half term will be about inventions. We have asked the children to create an invention of their own and present it in whatever form they wish. We would like to see all creations back in school for the start of the second week back.
• Year sixes should have brought home a SAT pack containing examples of past papers. These are for the children to complete at their own pace over the holidays. We hope that this will help to support them in the run up to the SATs next year. Please ensure your child engages with these papers over the holidays and brings them back into school during the first week.
Numeracy: after half term the children will be focussing on multiplication and division strategies as well as data handling with a Mario Kart theme. To get you started, why not have a look on the I Am Learning platform where you will find lots of games to help you. Also, there are help videos on the school website to show you the methods we will be using.
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts are fundamental to all areas of numeracy. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
After half term we will be looking at persuasion. We will be applying our persuasive techniques to letter writing as well as writing balanced arguments.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our topic next half term: invention, television, telephone, bicycle, design, creation, technology, genius, convenience, appliance.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Art we have been creating our own city skylines based on an inspirational video clip and a selection of photographs. We have created a colourful sunset and then added silhouettes of buildings using black paper.
In PE we have completed our line dances, rock and roll and street dance performances. We have showcased these to the whole of Year 5/6 so that we can all see what each of the classes have been doing and we are very proud of what we have managed to achieve.
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Issue 6 2011-12
Apologies for the delay in putting the newsletters onto the blog but this is due to short-term problems with the internet.
Newsletter Issue 6 Friday 14th October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
As I write, I can hear a beautiful rendition of ‘California Dreaming’ by The Beach Boys coming from our Year 6 class. Magical! I also had the pleasure of watching the same class do their Line Dancing routine – part of their America Topic – in the School Hall.
As many of you will have seen, our Big Draw last week attracted press coverage from the Yorkshire Evening Post as well as Calendar News. We are looking forward to another couple of news articles on the interesting things that our children have been doing recently in the forthcoming Rothwell Record.
Parent Consultations
By now you should have received your appointment time for our Parent Consultations next week. We have provided everyone with an appointment time. These are important meetings, please contact Mrs Smith if for any reason you are unable to attend your appointment time and we will agree an alternate meeting time. Please remember, consultations are of ten minutes maximum duration – we do ask you to respect this as we want all appointments to run to time. The quality of appointments is compromised if parents have been kept waiting and everyone is under time pressure.
Clubs
There are no Clubs, except the paid-for Clubs, next week. Information has already gone out about this to parents. This is been due to Parent Consultations. Clubs begin again as normal after the Half Term.
After the Half Term we will be extending our Clubs offer by launching a Spanish Club from 3.15pm-4.00pm. More details of this exciting opportunity will be announced soon.
Holiday Clubs at Friendly Faces
Holiday Club places are available at Friendly Faces both this Half Term and for the first week of the school Christmas Holidays, up until 23rd December. Full days are charged at £27.50 and half days £14.00. We have an Early Bird rate of £22.50 and £11.50, if booked a Half Term in advance. For Friendly Faces places, please contact Louise Parker on 07810071148.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. During that time, we have trained fabulous teachers like Mrs Steel, Miss Mees, Mrs Moore and Mrs Brook who have all then gone on to join our permanent staff. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
Mrs Smith certainly deserves to be this week’s star. Mrs Smith celebrated her twentieth anniversary at Robin Hood yesterday. For all of those years, Mrs Smith has been a fabulous servant to our school. ‘Front of house’ can sometimes be a difficult and challenging job but it is one that Mrs Smith always does with a smile and a brilliantly positive attitude. Parents and visitors often comment to me on how fantastic our Mrs Smith is. This was typified when a family that recently left our school saved their very special praise for Mrs Smith and all that she had done for them over the years.
Comenius Visit
We have had a number of staff out of school this week who have been meeting with European partner schools and visiting schools in the Czech Republic as part of the Comenius project. Comenius is fully funded by the European Union. Involvement in the project brings addition funds, resources and links to our school and provides new learning opportunities for children. It is our aim to build strong and lasting partnerships with our European partners and to build staff expertise and confidence that will enable us to offer future Comenius visit to pupils.
Unnamed Clothing
A final call on unnamed clothing for this Half Term. We have two cardigans, 1 size 28" and 1 size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8 and a brown leather H & M jacket age 5-6. Please help us to help you – ensure that all items are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a fabulous week in Nursery, despite the unfortunate weather and the children should be very proud of their achievements. They have produced some beautiful artwork to decorate our outdoor area and some beautiful gifts for special people in class and at home! Can I also say a huge thank you for the incredible home learning that has been produced again this week. Please do take a moment to look at the display by the snack table in Nursery, it is stunning and definitely makes me feel happy!!
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, and have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been sharing stories and looking at photos, to encourage us to think and talk about different emotions, and how best to deal with tricky situations. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 10 and counting up to 20! We have also been learning our number names, what numbers look like and how we count objects! Please continue to play games and sing songs with numbers at home too.
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer outside and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· By reading daily with your child, encouraging your child to be involved in the book as much as possible.
· By practising counting at every opportunity e.g climbing stairs, fastening buttons etc.
· By ensuring your child can put their own coat on
· By practising putting on and taking off their own shoes and socks
DIARY DATES
Celebration afternoons are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Nursery (and Reception) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
Home Learning!
To make your own Elmer the Elephant! (Images available on Google) You can be as creative as you like – make Elmer from card, 3D, using paints, create your own coloured pattern (spots, stripes, rainbow, hearts etc). A template is available should you need one please see the Nursery staff.
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Well done to all of you for working so hard all week! We are really impressed with the children who have not only learned their keywords, but are spotting them in their reading.
Thank you too for all the fabulous home learning. Miss Abbey has uploaded them onto our blog at: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, but have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been creating artwork for a super display and we will be including the children's home learning outcomes too. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 20 to zero which has proved a bit tricky(!) as well as learning how to write numbers correctly and thinking about the place value and how many tens and units are included in numbers. (eg 14 is one ten and four units)
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer in the hall and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should be ready to move onto PINK band books by the end of this half term
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: but, put, the, to, I, no, go, into. New sounds are: f, h and u
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names
By practising writing the numbers to 10 with the correct formation
DIARY DATES
Parent consultations are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Reception (and Nursery) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
KS1 Newsletter
What a busy week Key Stage 1 have had! On Tuesday morning we waved good bye to Miss Oxley and Miss Mees who left on a Comenius visit to Prague. They were very excited at the thought of teaching in a different country and sharing their experiences of Robin Hood. We can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures.
Parent Consultations
Thank you to Mrs Smith for organising the parent consultations, every parent now has an appointment to see their child's class teacher. We look forward to seeing you all at the parent consultations to share the experiences your child has had and our aims and aspirations for the year ahead!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have continued to develop their knowledge of having a Healthy Lifestyle. The children have been learning about 'Exercise and Keeping Fit' and have created a fact file poster to promote the importance of exercise. They have tried hard to include developed paragraphs, sub-headings, Did you know.....fact, CAPITAL Letters, full stops and text effects. The children added colour and detail to their fact file posters in order to make them eye-catching to the readers. You will find the fact files around school during the Parent Consultation week, so please make sure you have a read and see if you are leading a healthy lifestyle!!
Next week in Literacy the children will be concluding their block on Non-Chronological Report writing and will be writing about Robin Hood School. They will be including lots of information about school life which could include: their friends, favourite subject/lesson, classroom/playground and any other information they wish to include. Please support your child at home by discussing the things they have learnt since being in their new class.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to deepen and test their knowledge of Place Value and Numbers and the Number system. The children have been partitioning numbers using the malteser system but also using numbers:
e.g 367
is made up of: 300 60 7
The children then progressed onto finding missing numbers:
e.g 67 = ........+ 7
The children partitioned the number first, then filled in the missing number. Why not support your child at home and ask them to partition 2,3 and even 4 digit numbers.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be showing off all their learning from this half term and explaining the progress they went through in order to get the answer.
Topic
In topic the children have drawn a self-portrait of themselves, looking closely at the shape of the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. They used mirrors to closely inspect the colour of their eyes and skin tone before using paints to add detail to their pencil drawing of themselves.
Next week the children will be learning about the Harvest Festival and what the celebration signifies. On Friday the children will be presenting their knowledge and understanding at Lofthouse Church on Friday at 10 o'clock. Hope to see you there!!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Well done to all the children on yet another fantastic week in year 3/4! We have been very impressed with the level of effort they have all been putting in to their learning. We are looking forward to seeing you at the parent consultations next week to discuss your child's progress so far this year.
Numeracy
In numeracy, the children have been doing some fabulous learning. We have been looking at venn diagrams, pictograms and bar charts, and learning how to read and interpret data from them. Not only this, but we have also had a go at constructing our own pictograms and bar charts. Why don't you ask your child to show you what they can do? Please ensure your child is practising their times tables with you at home as this will help them in their numeracy learning.
Literacy
As you know, we are learning all about the 'Vicious Vikings'. This week's learning has been focused around Viking battles, Viking weapons and King Alfred the Great. The children have been improving their note taking skills in order to gain some quality information to write detailed rainbow paragraphs. They have been including some super compound and complex sentences within their writing, as well as many audience engaging features that we have enjoyed reading! Well done year 3/4!
Topic
Over the course of this week the children have been continuing to make their moving mechanisms, weaving and Kar2ouche animations. We are so pleased with their super progress and we all think that they are going to be looking fabulous by the end of next week.
Reminders
Our school trip to Danelaw Viking Village in York is happening next week. Year 3s are going on Tuesday, year 4s on Thursday. Please ensure you refer to the letter sent home as this details what the children need to bring. As we are outside for most of the day it is vital the children have suitable clothing which will keep them warm and dry if it rains. A pair of wellingtons as well as trainers is advisable. It is a fantastic day and we are sure the children will really enjoy living like Vikings for the day!
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
Congratulations to Shannon K, our Achiever of the Week, for the great effort and thought which she put into her mathematical explanations about our recent practical activity in Numeracy. Shannon expertly included mathematical language in her explanations. Shannon's depiction of an American icon in the style of Andy Warhol was also really impressive. Well done.
The first Times Tables Challenge will be held on Friday 21st October so keep practising your times tables.
Next week is Parent Consultations, for which appointments for all the children have been made. We look forward to updating you about your child's start to the academic year, our aims and ambitions for the year and your child's progress and targets.
Numeracy: This week, we have been finding fractions of shapes as well as focusing on mixed numbers and improper fractions. Finding common denominators is also a focus. These websites provide useful information and games to practise fractions- http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Numeracy Home learning:
Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables ahead of the Times Tables Challenge on Friday.
There is a fraction activity on I Am Learning ( via the Learning Platform) for the children to access at home.
Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units.
Literacy
In Literacy, we have been looking at newspaper reports and 'stealing' WOW words and phrases to use in our own reports about the recent Big Draw at school. There's a continuing focus on including our star criteria which include the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Literacy Home Learning:
This week’s spellings are recorded in your child's planner. Please practise these regularly at home!
Please read the next chapter of Stormbreaker. There are questions about the text which are also available on I Am Learning.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Art, we have been representing iconic images of America in the style of Andy Warhol.
In PE, we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE, we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage to Lourdes. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs!
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Newsletter Issue 6 Friday 14th October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
As I write, I can hear a beautiful rendition of ‘California Dreaming’ by The Beach Boys coming from our Year 6 class. Magical! I also had the pleasure of watching the same class do their Line Dancing routine – part of their America Topic – in the School Hall.
As many of you will have seen, our Big Draw last week attracted press coverage from the Yorkshire Evening Post as well as Calendar News. We are looking forward to another couple of news articles on the interesting things that our children have been doing recently in the forthcoming Rothwell Record.
Parent Consultations
By now you should have received your appointment time for our Parent Consultations next week. We have provided everyone with an appointment time. These are important meetings, please contact Mrs Smith if for any reason you are unable to attend your appointment time and we will agree an alternate meeting time. Please remember, consultations are of ten minutes maximum duration – we do ask you to respect this as we want all appointments to run to time. The quality of appointments is compromised if parents have been kept waiting and everyone is under time pressure.
Clubs
There are no Clubs, except the paid-for Clubs, next week. Information has already gone out about this to parents. This is been due to Parent Consultations. Clubs begin again as normal after the Half Term.
After the Half Term we will be extending our Clubs offer by launching a Spanish Club from 3.15pm-4.00pm. More details of this exciting opportunity will be announced soon.
Holiday Clubs at Friendly Faces
Holiday Club places are available at Friendly Faces both this Half Term and for the first week of the school Christmas Holidays, up until 23rd December. Full days are charged at £27.50 and half days £14.00. We have an Early Bird rate of £22.50 and £11.50, if booked a Half Term in advance. For Friendly Faces places, please contact Louise Parker on 07810071148.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. During that time, we have trained fabulous teachers like Mrs Steel, Miss Mees, Mrs Moore and Mrs Brook who have all then gone on to join our permanent staff. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
Mrs Smith certainly deserves to be this week’s star. Mrs Smith celebrated her twentieth anniversary at Robin Hood yesterday. For all of those years, Mrs Smith has been a fabulous servant to our school. ‘Front of house’ can sometimes be a difficult and challenging job but it is one that Mrs Smith always does with a smile and a brilliantly positive attitude. Parents and visitors often comment to me on how fantastic our Mrs Smith is. This was typified when a family that recently left our school saved their very special praise for Mrs Smith and all that she had done for them over the years.
Comenius Visit
We have had a number of staff out of school this week who have been meeting with European partner schools and visiting schools in the Czech Republic as part of the Comenius project. Comenius is fully funded by the European Union. Involvement in the project brings addition funds, resources and links to our school and provides new learning opportunities for children. It is our aim to build strong and lasting partnerships with our European partners and to build staff expertise and confidence that will enable us to offer future Comenius visit to pupils.
Unnamed Clothing
A final call on unnamed clothing for this Half Term. We have two cardigans, 1 size 28" and 1 size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8 and a brown leather H & M jacket age 5-6. Please help us to help you – ensure that all items are clearly labelled with your child’s name.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery Newsletter
ROUND UP!
We have had a fabulous week in Nursery, despite the unfortunate weather and the children should be very proud of their achievements. They have produced some beautiful artwork to decorate our outdoor area and some beautiful gifts for special people in class and at home! Can I also say a huge thank you for the incredible home learning that has been produced again this week. Please do take a moment to look at the display by the snack table in Nursery, it is stunning and definitely makes me feel happy!!
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, and have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been sharing stories and looking at photos, to encourage us to think and talk about different emotions, and how best to deal with tricky situations. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 10 and counting up to 20! We have also been learning our number names, what numbers look like and how we count objects! Please continue to play games and sing songs with numbers at home too.
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer outside and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
· By reading daily with your child, encouraging your child to be involved in the book as much as possible.
· By practising counting at every opportunity e.g climbing stairs, fastening buttons etc.
· By ensuring your child can put their own coat on
· By practising putting on and taking off their own shoes and socks
DIARY DATES
Celebration afternoons are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Nursery (and Reception) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
Home Learning!
To make your own Elmer the Elephant! (Images available on Google) You can be as creative as you like – make Elmer from card, 3D, using paints, create your own coloured pattern (spots, stripes, rainbow, hearts etc). A template is available should you need one please see the Nursery staff.
Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Well done to all of you for working so hard all week! We are really impressed with the children who have not only learned their keywords, but are spotting them in their reading.
Thank you too for all the fabulous home learning. Miss Abbey has uploaded them onto our blog at: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/
THIS WEEK
We have continued to work on the OURSELVES topic, but have been focusing on our feelings and emotions. We have been creating artwork for a super display and we will be including the children's home learning outcomes too. In numeracy we have been practising counting backwards from 20 to zero which has proved a bit tricky(!) as well as learning how to write numbers correctly and thinking about the place value and how many tens and units are included in numbers. (eg 14 is one ten and four units)
NEXT WEEK
We will round off our topic by sharing some stories about Elmer the elephant. The children will consider the ways that Elmer is different and will be finding out about his friends. They will be writing invitations to Elmer and will be using his super pattern to count different colours and learn about simple repeating patterns. We will also be practising ordering elephants by size. The topic activity will include creating a huge collaborative Elmer in the hall and we will be finding out how to mix paints to make our very own colours!
HOW YOU CAN HELP US
By reading daily with your child for five minutes. All children should be ready to move onto PINK band books by the end of this half term
By practising the sounds and keywords of the week every day. New words for next week are: but, put, the, to, I, no, go, into. New sounds are: f, h and u
By ensuring your child can write their first and second names
By practising writing the numbers to 10 with the correct formation
DIARY DATES
Parent consultations are next week. We look forward to seeing you all then.
The first Monday back (31st October) is Halloween and Mr Wilson has agreed that the children in Reception (and Nursery) can come to school dressed for Halloween. However we will be accessing our full provision so please make sure outfits and shoes are practical and appropriate. Thank you
KS1 Newsletter
What a busy week Key Stage 1 have had! On Tuesday morning we waved good bye to Miss Oxley and Miss Mees who left on a Comenius visit to Prague. They were very excited at the thought of teaching in a different country and sharing their experiences of Robin Hood. We can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures.
Parent Consultations
Thank you to Mrs Smith for organising the parent consultations, every parent now has an appointment to see their child's class teacher. We look forward to seeing you all at the parent consultations to share the experiences your child has had and our aims and aspirations for the year ahead!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have continued to develop their knowledge of having a Healthy Lifestyle. The children have been learning about 'Exercise and Keeping Fit' and have created a fact file poster to promote the importance of exercise. They have tried hard to include developed paragraphs, sub-headings, Did you know.....fact, CAPITAL Letters, full stops and text effects. The children added colour and detail to their fact file posters in order to make them eye-catching to the readers. You will find the fact files around school during the Parent Consultation week, so please make sure you have a read and see if you are leading a healthy lifestyle!!
Next week in Literacy the children will be concluding their block on Non-Chronological Report writing and will be writing about Robin Hood School. They will be including lots of information about school life which could include: their friends, favourite subject/lesson, classroom/playground and any other information they wish to include. Please support your child at home by discussing the things they have learnt since being in their new class.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to deepen and test their knowledge of Place Value and Numbers and the Number system. The children have been partitioning numbers using the malteser system but also using numbers:
e.g 367
is made up of: 300 60 7
The children then progressed onto finding missing numbers:
e.g 67 = ........+ 7
The children partitioned the number first, then filled in the missing number. Why not support your child at home and ask them to partition 2,3 and even 4 digit numbers.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be showing off all their learning from this half term and explaining the progress they went through in order to get the answer.
Topic
In topic the children have drawn a self-portrait of themselves, looking closely at the shape of the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. They used mirrors to closely inspect the colour of their eyes and skin tone before using paints to add detail to their pencil drawing of themselves.
Next week the children will be learning about the Harvest Festival and what the celebration signifies. On Friday the children will be presenting their knowledge and understanding at Lofthouse Church on Friday at 10 o'clock. Hope to see you there!!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Well done to all the children on yet another fantastic week in year 3/4! We have been very impressed with the level of effort they have all been putting in to their learning. We are looking forward to seeing you at the parent consultations next week to discuss your child's progress so far this year.
Numeracy
In numeracy, the children have been doing some fabulous learning. We have been looking at venn diagrams, pictograms and bar charts, and learning how to read and interpret data from them. Not only this, but we have also had a go at constructing our own pictograms and bar charts. Why don't you ask your child to show you what they can do? Please ensure your child is practising their times tables with you at home as this will help them in their numeracy learning.
Literacy
As you know, we are learning all about the 'Vicious Vikings'. This week's learning has been focused around Viking battles, Viking weapons and King Alfred the Great. The children have been improving their note taking skills in order to gain some quality information to write detailed rainbow paragraphs. They have been including some super compound and complex sentences within their writing, as well as many audience engaging features that we have enjoyed reading! Well done year 3/4!
Topic
Over the course of this week the children have been continuing to make their moving mechanisms, weaving and Kar2ouche animations. We are so pleased with their super progress and we all think that they are going to be looking fabulous by the end of next week.
Reminders
Our school trip to Danelaw Viking Village in York is happening next week. Year 3s are going on Tuesday, year 4s on Thursday. Please ensure you refer to the letter sent home as this details what the children need to bring. As we are outside for most of the day it is vital the children have suitable clothing which will keep them warm and dry if it rains. A pair of wellingtons as well as trainers is advisable. It is a fantastic day and we are sure the children will really enjoy living like Vikings for the day!
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
Congratulations to Shannon K, our Achiever of the Week, for the great effort and thought which she put into her mathematical explanations about our recent practical activity in Numeracy. Shannon expertly included mathematical language in her explanations. Shannon's depiction of an American icon in the style of Andy Warhol was also really impressive. Well done.
The first Times Tables Challenge will be held on Friday 21st October so keep practising your times tables.
Next week is Parent Consultations, for which appointments for all the children have been made. We look forward to updating you about your child's start to the academic year, our aims and ambitions for the year and your child's progress and targets.
Numeracy: This week, we have been finding fractions of shapes as well as focusing on mixed numbers and improper fractions. Finding common denominators is also a focus. These websites provide useful information and games to practise fractions- http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Numeracy Home learning:
Please continue to practise ALL of your times tables ahead of the Times Tables Challenge on Friday.
There is a fraction activity on I Am Learning ( via the Learning Platform) for the children to access at home.
Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units.
Literacy
In Literacy, we have been looking at newspaper reports and 'stealing' WOW words and phrases to use in our own reports about the recent Big Draw at school. There's a continuing focus on including our star criteria which include the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Literacy Home Learning:
This week’s spellings are recorded in your child's planner. Please practise these regularly at home!
Please read the next chapter of Stormbreaker. There are questions about the text which are also available on I Am Learning.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Art, we have been representing iconic images of America in the style of Andy Warhol.
In PE, we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE, we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage to Lourdes. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs!
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
Harvest Festival
Harvest Festival Friday 21st October
The children will be walking up to church at 9.30 (weather permitting), and any support walking with the children from parents or members of the community will be very welcome.
The service starts at 10.00am.
The children will be walking up to church at 9.30 (weather permitting), and any support walking with the children from parents or members of the community will be very welcome.
The service starts at 10.00am.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Issue 5 2011 - 12
Newsletter Issue 5 Friday 6th October 2011
Dear Parent/Carer,
Apologies to those families who received a slightly earlier edit of last week’s newsletter via email and paper. The couple of unfinished sentences that did go out via those sources have been amended on the online newsletter…
The Big Draw
We had a brilliant Big Draw Day on Monday, during which we received visits from Calendar TV, the Yorkshire Evening Post and Councillor Lisa Mulherin, our Chair of Governors. Children from every class, Nursery to Year 6, contributed to the vast artwork in our Hall and produced works of art in their classrooms, all of which were displayed on Tuesday at our Robin Hood Art Gallery Open Exhibition for parents and families. Thanks to everyone who attended that event in support of our fabulous artists. A group of Year 5 and 6 pupils created a permanent work at the rear of the school – our Friendly Faces Graffiti Wall. Robin Hood is, of course, well known for the quality of its Arts provision. We are the proud holder of ArtsMark Gold and have featured in national publications on Art by ofsted and The Campaign for Drawing. The Big Draw at Robin Hood featured on Calendar News on Wednesday this week.
Feedback
We do want to hear from you about your ease of access to the newsletters. We made the change to mainly an electronic system in order to
a. reduce paper, photocopying and administration costs
b. ensure that the newsletters get to those who do want to see them as Pupil Post was not always 100% reliable.
When the newsletter was paper-based, we were often told by parents that they did not receive the newsletter – which is why we added the blog version to our distribution process.
Parents are now able to access the newsletter – at school on the Noticeboards, via the blog, via email or in paper form from the office. We are currently looking at whether the newsletter can be distributed via facebook to make access even easier. Our newsletters contain important information about school. Please ensure that you have a method of accessing them.
Feedback on the different methods of accessing the newsletter could form part of the discussion at our Parents Forum, to be held in Friendly Faces, 9.00am 4th November. Mrs Ann Parker (Governor) and Mrs Dale (Deputy Headteacher) will be there to share a coffee and a chat about any aspect of school life. Please do speak with Mrs Dale about your child’s experiences of The Big Draw… she would be delighted to hear from you.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
It is a regular feature of our newsletters that I spotlight the contribution made by key members of staff to our fabulous school. I would like this week to pay my particular thanks to Mrs Holland. Mrs Holland’s full time move to the office last year has been a blessing for Mrs Smith, the staff and I as her ultra-efficiency and fabulous photocopier skills have helped us all greatly.
Unnamed Clothing
Mrs Holland has three school-badged jade green cardigans; one age 5-6, one size 28" and one size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8, a two-tone green Mothercare coat age 3-4 and a brown leather H & M jacket age5/6 – all unnamed. Anyone missing these items… please claim them from Mrs Holland… and write child’s name in them. We do not have the space in school to hold a stock of unnamed clothing. Any items not claimed by the Half Term will be donated to charity. Please help us to help you by ensuring that all items that your child brings to school are clearly named.
Holiday Absence
During their inspection in April, ofsted noted the number of school days at Robin Hood that are lost to family holidays during term time – both authorised and unauthorised. Our policy on Holiday Absence is clear, is available from our website (http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/parents/policies.php), is consistent with the other Rothwell schools and is consistently applied when requests are received. While I fully recognise the issues for families surrounding the taking of holidays in term time I am also aware of the impact that absence from school has upon learning.
PTA Annual General Meeting
The PTA AGM will take place at school on Thursday 13th October, 6.00pm. Parents of our Nursery and Reception children, as well as the parents of children throughout the school, are very much encouraged and welcomed to join us.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery newsletter Autumn 1 week 5
News Round Up
We have enjoyed another great week in Nursery as Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event. The children had a fabulous time going on a bear hunt and then produced a montage to represent the environments where we found our bears! Many thanks to the parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have concentrated on counting to ten and introduced counting backwards from 10. Please encourage your child to count objects at home too, e.g. how many lego blocks they have used to build a tower, how many teddies have they got lined up on their bed etc.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers and using number rhymes and games to help build on their skills.
How you can help us
Please ensure your child completes the home learning task and brings into Nursery as we do use the finished outcomes to support our activities in school.
Thank you so much to those parents who have engaged with the reading records and guidance notes to help your child with early reading skills. Please could I ask that Wednesday becomes the day that we hand in reading records and I will then return them to you.
Thank you.
Reception Newsletter
News round up
We have enjoyed another great week in Reception. Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event and thank you to all parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
As the weather has turned colder please can you make sure your child brings a coat every day. We have also had some polo shirts going missing, particularly after PE. Can you please check that all clothing (including shoes) is clearly named and if your child comes home wearing something that isn't theirs, please can you wash and return to school to allow us to return to the rightful owner!
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have looked at numbers above 10 and have continued with working on our number formation.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers above ten, talking about the way they are made up from tens and units and practising writing them. All children need to be able to read, recognise and write the numbers to twenty during their time in Reception.
New Sounds and Keywords
the new sounds for next week will be: 'b', 'd' and 'i'
the keywords will be: him, his, not, got, up, mum
KS1 Newsletter
What an amazing week it has been in Key Stage 1....check out the blog for photos of this weeks events!! http://robinhoodkeystage1.blogspot.com/
Home Learning
A huge THANK YOU to all parents and children for their outstanding home learning projects which were handed in on Monday. The Key Stage 1 staff were very impressed with the time, effort and creativeness the children showed. All projects handed in can be seen of the KS1 blog......
The Big Draw
On Monday the children took part in The Big Draw, where they were involved in art based activities across the day. The day started with a whole school assembly led by Mrs Dale who shared the vision for the day and the project which would take place in the hall.
The children went on an Autumn walk to collect leaves from the playground which then fed into the children's art work of leaf printing and observational drawings of leaves. When using the leaves to print, they first investigated the different ways to create a leaf print using primary colours and then teamed up with up to 3 other people to create amazing pictures of leaves. The children then continued to add detail to the pictures using coloured pens and pencils.
During the afternoon the children went outside to create observational drawings of leaves using charcoal and coloured pastels. The children spent time looking at how to create an effective outlines of the leaves (without drawing around the leaf itself) and then adding on the vines.
We hope you were able to join the celebration of this art work on Tuesday and even purchased some from the amazing artists Robin Hood have!!!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have tried so hard with their learning, creating a booklet all about being healthy and having a healthy lifestyle. The children continued to look at having a balanced diet and the effects this has on the body. They watched video clips to enhance their listening skills and knowledge of the subject. The children have completed their own Healthy Eating booklet including sub-heading, CAPITAL LETTERS, full stops, developed ideas (using: so, if, but, because, when), Did you know facts..... and text effects.
Next week the children will be learning with a partner and creating a poster on Exercise. They will be participating in different exercise videos, discussing the effects these have on they body while reading information texts about the benefits of exercise and the possible side effects of being unhealthy. The children will look at how to set out an effective poster using different colours to present different ideas.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to develop their understanding of Numbers and the Number System and using the Malteser system to partition two and three digit numbers. The children have been ordering the numbers and discussing which is the Biggest/Smallest and why. Please continue to support your child at home by asking them to write three and four digit numbers at home and label up the columns.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be developing their understanding of the 100 square and where the numbers are in relation to the columns and rows. They will continue to develop their understanding of 1 more/1 less and 10 more/10 less, using the hundred square but also doing this mentally. To really test the children's understanding and knowledge of the 100 square they will be given a small section to fill in and complete which will require them to use all the skills taught across the week.
Topic
This week has seen another taste testing session.....tasting different smoothies and trying to identify the fruit used. The children then continued to design, make and evaluate their own fruit smoothie, using a selection of fruit. The children really enjoyed the hands on sessions and even created their own labels which would be used for their bottles. I am sure in years to come we will see some of these on the shelves in Morrisons!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Our week kicked off with the fantastic 'Big Draw' on Monday, where we had lots of fun creating sky lines of the words most famous landmarks. We would like to congratulate all the children for their amazing enthusiasm and superb effort shown throughout the day. We would like to thank everyone who came along to support the event in the hall on Tuesday and who purchased our amazing pictures. I'm sure you'll agree 3/4 are very talented artists! Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls class have produced an amazing video of instructions on how to play a fun playtime game this week. This video is for the schools in our comenius project to use and learn from. Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls will take this with them next week when they are going to Prague to observe and teach in one of our Comenius partner's schools.
Literacy
This week we have continued to research what life was like for women and children. The children have introduced their report with an engaging opening paragraph and have continued to group ideas into paragraphs. We have been very impressed with the children's descriptions and attempts at complex sentences. Next week the children will be researching the battles that the Vikings and the Saxons took part in and the impact Alfred the Great had on the Vikings' reign over England.
Numeracy
This week we have been sorting and carrying out investigations around odd and even numbers. We also have had a lot of fun sorting multiples of different numbers into venn and carol diagrams. Next week we will be collecting data and representing this in pictograms and bar charts.
Topic
We have been continuing our weaving, moving pictures and Kar2ouche animations all about different aspects of Viking life. We are looking forward to sharing these with you at the end of our topic.
Reminders
All year four children who are going on residential have received the itinerary, equipment list and a medical form. Please can all medical forms be completed and returned to school as soon as possible.
Our trip to Danelaw Viking Village at Murton Park is fast approaching, please can you ensure we have everyone's payment in before we go. As the weather has turned quite cold please can all children make sure they come to school on that day in warm clothes and a waterproof coat.
Thank you,
Year 3/4 Team
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations Laura Bond, who is our Achiever of the Week, for her AMAZING paragraph about an American Film icon. She wowed us with her use of ALL the star Criteria. Well done Laura.
• Well done to everyone who took part in the Big Draw event on Monday. We were so impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity demonstrated by Year 56 as well as the quality of the outcomes. Some pieces of work are still available if pupils wish to take them home.
• Thank you to everyone who attended our Celebration afternoon on Friday. We were delighted to share the children’s work with parents and carers and we sincerely hope you enjoyed the biscuits that were on offer.
Numeracy: this week we have been looking at the relationship between fractions and decimals. We have found fractions of given amounts and applied it to the decorating of our biscuits. Next week we will continue to look at fractions. However, we will be focussing on mixed number and improper fractions as well as finding common denominators. The following websites are useful to get you started:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts facts are fundamental when working with fractions. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
Next week in Literacy we will be moving on to look at newspaper reports and the stylistic devices needed to write like a journalist. We will be using the Big Draw event as a stimulus and will be looking to include ALL of our Star Criteria in our writing. These include: the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our art unit: Scissors, Sculpture, Texture, Picture, Prepare, Create, Pastel, Material, Mixture, Build. You can practise these spellings via the Learning Platform.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have been finding out about how we hear and how sound travels. We have carried out investigations around changing the pitch and volume of musical instruments and have then had a go at making our own ‘unique’ sounds.
In PE we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Dear Parent/Carer,
Apologies to those families who received a slightly earlier edit of last week’s newsletter via email and paper. The couple of unfinished sentences that did go out via those sources have been amended on the online newsletter…
The Big Draw
We had a brilliant Big Draw Day on Monday, during which we received visits from Calendar TV, the Yorkshire Evening Post and Councillor Lisa Mulherin, our Chair of Governors. Children from every class, Nursery to Year 6, contributed to the vast artwork in our Hall and produced works of art in their classrooms, all of which were displayed on Tuesday at our Robin Hood Art Gallery Open Exhibition for parents and families. Thanks to everyone who attended that event in support of our fabulous artists. A group of Year 5 and 6 pupils created a permanent work at the rear of the school – our Friendly Faces Graffiti Wall. Robin Hood is, of course, well known for the quality of its Arts provision. We are the proud holder of ArtsMark Gold and have featured in national publications on Art by ofsted and The Campaign for Drawing. The Big Draw at Robin Hood featured on Calendar News on Wednesday this week.
Feedback
We do want to hear from you about your ease of access to the newsletters. We made the change to mainly an electronic system in order to
a. reduce paper, photocopying and administration costs
b. ensure that the newsletters get to those who do want to see them as Pupil Post was not always 100% reliable.
When the newsletter was paper-based, we were often told by parents that they did not receive the newsletter – which is why we added the blog version to our distribution process.
Parents are now able to access the newsletter – at school on the Noticeboards, via the blog, via email or in paper form from the office. We are currently looking at whether the newsletter can be distributed via facebook to make access even easier. Our newsletters contain important information about school. Please ensure that you have a method of accessing them.
Feedback on the different methods of accessing the newsletter could form part of the discussion at our Parents Forum, to be held in Friendly Faces, 9.00am 4th November. Mrs Ann Parker (Governor) and Mrs Dale (Deputy Headteacher) will be there to share a coffee and a chat about any aspect of school life. Please do speak with Mrs Dale about your child’s experiences of The Big Draw… she would be delighted to hear from you.
Graduate Teacher Trainees 2012
The application round for 2012 Graduate Teacher Trainees is open once again. This is an ‘on the job’ teacher training programme that Robin Hood has had the pleasure to be involved with for eight years now. Potential applicants should visit http://www.b-nett.co.uk/?page_id=479 for further details and application packs.
Fantastic Staff
It is a regular feature of our newsletters that I spotlight the contribution made by key members of staff to our fabulous school. I would like this week to pay my particular thanks to Mrs Holland. Mrs Holland’s full time move to the office last year has been a blessing for Mrs Smith, the staff and I as her ultra-efficiency and fabulous photocopier skills have helped us all greatly.
Unnamed Clothing
Mrs Holland has three school-badged jade green cardigans; one age 5-6, one size 28" and one size 30", two jumpers age 5 and 6-7, one pair of shorts age 5, a pale blue Pumpkin Patch raincoat age 8, a two-tone green Mothercare coat age 3-4 and a brown leather H & M jacket age5/6 – all unnamed. Anyone missing these items… please claim them from Mrs Holland… and write child’s name in them. We do not have the space in school to hold a stock of unnamed clothing. Any items not claimed by the Half Term will be donated to charity. Please help us to help you by ensuring that all items that your child brings to school are clearly named.
Holiday Absence
During their inspection in April, ofsted noted the number of school days at Robin Hood that are lost to family holidays during term time – both authorised and unauthorised. Our policy on Holiday Absence is clear, is available from our website (http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/parents/policies.php), is consistent with the other Rothwell schools and is consistently applied when requests are received. While I fully recognise the issues for families surrounding the taking of holidays in term time I am also aware of the impact that absence from school has upon learning.
PTA Annual General Meeting
The PTA AGM will take place at school on Thursday 13th October, 6.00pm. Parents of our Nursery and Reception children, as well as the parents of children throughout the school, are very much encouraged and welcomed to join us.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mr Wilson
Nursery newsletter Autumn 1 week 5
News Round Up
We have enjoyed another great week in Nursery as Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event. The children had a fabulous time going on a bear hunt and then produced a montage to represent the environments where we found our bears! Many thanks to the parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have concentrated on counting to ten and introduced counting backwards from 10. Please encourage your child to count objects at home too, e.g. how many lego blocks they have used to build a tower, how many teddies have they got lined up on their bed etc.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers and using number rhymes and games to help build on their skills.
How you can help us
Please ensure your child completes the home learning task and brings into Nursery as we do use the finished outcomes to support our activities in school.
Thank you so much to those parents who have engaged with the reading records and guidance notes to help your child with early reading skills. Please could I ask that Wednesday becomes the day that we hand in reading records and I will then return them to you.
Thank you.
Reception Newsletter
News round up
We have enjoyed another great week in Reception. Monday kicked off with our Big Draw event and thank you to all parents who supported their children by purchasing their amazing artwork.
As the weather has turned colder please can you make sure your child brings a coat every day. We have also had some polo shirts going missing, particularly after PE. Can you please check that all clothing (including shoes) is clearly named and if your child comes home wearing something that isn't theirs, please can you wash and return to school to allow us to return to the rightful owner!
This week
We have been learning all about our senses, what they are and how we use them. The children have been listening to sounds inside and outdoors and have smelled and tasted some interesting things, talking about the reasons they liked them and using super descriptive words such as 'salty', 'sour' and 'sweet'. In our numeracy sessions we have looked at numbers above 10 and have continued with working on our number formation.
Next week
We will be continuing to learn about Ourselves but will be focusing on our feelings and emotions. The children will be using role-play to act out different scenarios and we will be discussing different feelings and appropriate responses to different situations. The children will be thinking about the things that make them feel happy and sad and developing strategies to cope in different situations. In numeracy we will continue to look at numbers above ten, talking about the way they are made up from tens and units and practising writing them. All children need to be able to read, recognise and write the numbers to twenty during their time in Reception.
New Sounds and Keywords
the new sounds for next week will be: 'b', 'd' and 'i'
the keywords will be: him, his, not, got, up, mum
KS1 Newsletter
What an amazing week it has been in Key Stage 1....check out the blog for photos of this weeks events!! http://robinhoodkeystage1.blogspot.com/
Home Learning
A huge THANK YOU to all parents and children for their outstanding home learning projects which were handed in on Monday. The Key Stage 1 staff were very impressed with the time, effort and creativeness the children showed. All projects handed in can be seen of the KS1 blog......
The Big Draw
On Monday the children took part in The Big Draw, where they were involved in art based activities across the day. The day started with a whole school assembly led by Mrs Dale who shared the vision for the day and the project which would take place in the hall.
The children went on an Autumn walk to collect leaves from the playground which then fed into the children's art work of leaf printing and observational drawings of leaves. When using the leaves to print, they first investigated the different ways to create a leaf print using primary colours and then teamed up with up to 3 other people to create amazing pictures of leaves. The children then continued to add detail to the pictures using coloured pens and pencils.
During the afternoon the children went outside to create observational drawings of leaves using charcoal and coloured pastels. The children spent time looking at how to create an effective outlines of the leaves (without drawing around the leaf itself) and then adding on the vines.
We hope you were able to join the celebration of this art work on Tuesday and even purchased some from the amazing artists Robin Hood have!!!
Literacy
This week in Literacy the children have tried so hard with their learning, creating a booklet all about being healthy and having a healthy lifestyle. The children continued to look at having a balanced diet and the effects this has on the body. They watched video clips to enhance their listening skills and knowledge of the subject. The children have completed their own Healthy Eating booklet including sub-heading, CAPITAL LETTERS, full stops, developed ideas (using: so, if, but, because, when), Did you know facts..... and text effects.
Next week the children will be learning with a partner and creating a poster on Exercise. They will be participating in different exercise videos, discussing the effects these have on they body while reading information texts about the benefits of exercise and the possible side effects of being unhealthy. The children will look at how to set out an effective poster using different colours to present different ideas.
Numeracy
This week in Numeracy the children have continued to develop their understanding of Numbers and the Number System and using the Malteser system to partition two and three digit numbers. The children have been ordering the numbers and discussing which is the Biggest/Smallest and why. Please continue to support your child at home by asking them to write three and four digit numbers at home and label up the columns.
Next week in Numeracy the children will be developing their understanding of the 100 square and where the numbers are in relation to the columns and rows. They will continue to develop their understanding of 1 more/1 less and 10 more/10 less, using the hundred square but also doing this mentally. To really test the children's understanding and knowledge of the 100 square they will be given a small section to fill in and complete which will require them to use all the skills taught across the week.
Topic
This week has seen another taste testing session.....tasting different smoothies and trying to identify the fruit used. The children then continued to design, make and evaluate their own fruit smoothie, using a selection of fruit. The children really enjoyed the hands on sessions and even created their own labels which would be used for their bottles. I am sure in years to come we will see some of these on the shelves in Morrisons!!
LKS2 Newsletter
Our week kicked off with the fantastic 'Big Draw' on Monday, where we had lots of fun creating sky lines of the words most famous landmarks. We would like to congratulate all the children for their amazing enthusiasm and superb effort shown throughout the day. We would like to thank everyone who came along to support the event in the hall on Tuesday and who purchased our amazing pictures. I'm sure you'll agree 3/4 are very talented artists! Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls class have produced an amazing video of instructions on how to play a fun playtime game this week. This video is for the schools in our comenius project to use and learn from. Miss Thackeray and Miss Nicholls will take this with them next week when they are going to Prague to observe and teach in one of our Comenius partner's schools.
Literacy
This week we have continued to research what life was like for women and children. The children have introduced their report with an engaging opening paragraph and have continued to group ideas into paragraphs. We have been very impressed with the children's descriptions and attempts at complex sentences. Next week the children will be researching the battles that the Vikings and the Saxons took part in and the impact Alfred the Great had on the Vikings' reign over England.
Numeracy
This week we have been sorting and carrying out investigations around odd and even numbers. We also have had a lot of fun sorting multiples of different numbers into venn and carol diagrams. Next week we will be collecting data and representing this in pictograms and bar charts.
Topic
We have been continuing our weaving, moving pictures and Kar2ouche animations all about different aspects of Viking life. We are looking forward to sharing these with you at the end of our topic.
Reminders
All year four children who are going on residential have received the itinerary, equipment list and a medical form. Please can all medical forms be completed and returned to school as soon as possible.
Our trip to Danelaw Viking Village at Murton Park is fast approaching, please can you ensure we have everyone's payment in before we go. As the weather has turned quite cold please can all children make sure they come to school on that day in warm clothes and a waterproof coat.
Thank you,
Year 3/4 Team
UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup
• Congratulations Laura Bond, who is our Achiever of the Week, for her AMAZING paragraph about an American Film icon. She wowed us with her use of ALL the star Criteria. Well done Laura.
• Well done to everyone who took part in the Big Draw event on Monday. We were so impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity demonstrated by Year 56 as well as the quality of the outcomes. Some pieces of work are still available if pupils wish to take them home.
• Thank you to everyone who attended our Celebration afternoon on Friday. We were delighted to share the children’s work with parents and carers and we sincerely hope you enjoyed the biscuits that were on offer.
Numeracy: this week we have been looking at the relationship between fractions and decimals. We have found fractions of given amounts and applied it to the decorating of our biscuits. Next week we will continue to look at fractions. However, we will be focussing on mixed number and improper fractions as well as finding common denominators. The following websites are useful to get you started:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/fractions/index.htm
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/fractions/index.html
Home learning: please continue to practise ALL of your times tables as well as other number facts (e.g. number bonds to 100, 1000, etc). These facts facts are fundamental when working with fractions. Any additional resources related to specific strategies will be provided for those who wish to practise at home. These resources are NOT compulsory; however we hope that children will choose to use these to help them with their understanding of the units of work.
Literacy
Next week in Literacy we will be moving on to look at newspaper reports and the stylistic devices needed to write like a journalist. We will be using the Big Draw event as a stimulus and will be looking to include ALL of our Star Criteria in our writing. These include: the correct use of punctuation, complex sentences, adverbials, quotes and personal opinions.
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our art unit: Scissors, Sculpture, Texture, Picture, Prepare, Create, Pastel, Material, Mixture, Build. You can practise these spellings via the Learning Platform.
Other areas of the curriculum:
In Science we have been finding out about how we hear and how sound travels. We have carried out investigations around changing the pitch and volume of musical instruments and have then had a go at making our own ‘unique’ sounds.
In PE we have been rehearsing and finessing our performances of street dance, line dancing and Rock and Roll. Performances will be shown in assembly over the next couple of weeks.
In RE we have continued to look at the religious act of pilgrimage. We have looked at the Catholic faith and have compared it with the Muslim faith.
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
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