Issue 15 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 15

Friday 6th January 2012

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome back!  We have begun the New Year with our usual energy and enthusiasm.  It was great to see our children back on Wednesday and we look forward to a fabulous 2012 at Robin Hood… a landmark year for me personally as I now enter my tenth year at Robin Hood.  Where has the time gone…

The Golden Owls - Calling all budding film-makers 

Robin Hood is taking part in a new, exciting film competition for Young People that is being held in Leeds. The competition is open to entries made either in school or at home… all submitted to the competition via the school.  We, of course, want to encourage everyone to join in.  We will certainly be submitting a selection of the films that children have created at school and we welcome entries from anyone who enjoys making films outside of school hours too. The entries that are eventually nominated for a Golden Owl Award will be shown at an Oscar- style event, organised by Leeds, where film-makers will enjoy an exclusive evening.  All entries for the Golden Owls should be submitted to Mrs Moore by Monday 23rd January 2012.  As it is a competition for Young People, the competition rules are clear that films are children's own creations.  If adult support has been involved, please specify what form this has taken and to what extent.  For legal reasons, any music used must be copyright free.  Judges recommend using material from these websites (some are free, some are not):

http://www.beatsuite.com       http://www.smartassmusic.com/  http://www.backmusicmedia.com/royalty-free-music/?gclid=CKPU0rC72awCFQUk3godmSmtKw  http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/free-sfx-sound-effects-library.html?gclid=CPrJyZ_X3qwCFaEntAodviZxFA

http://www.royaltyfreesoundeffects.co.uk/  http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/

http://www.audiomicro.com/free-sound-effects

The Robins

We will be sharing lots more film and much more besides with pupils, parents and our community at our own Robins Evening on Thursday 22^nd March.  This event will showcase films selected for the Golden Owls, video and film content produced by Robin Hood pupils, fashion design creations from their Topics and much more.  It promises to be a fabulous celebration evening, one not to be missed.  Please circle that date in your calendars now.

Clubs

Our Clubs will recommence next week.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP

Welcome back to a new half term, we hope you had a fabulous Christmas break. It’s been wonderful having the children back full of energy and excited for the new term ahead!

THIS WEEK

Has gone amazingly quickly! We have begun a new topic all about Animals in their habitats, and the children have been as keen as ever to share their existing knowledge and posed lots of questions for what they would like to find out! Please take a look at the blog for the questions they have raised – maybe they could do some research and produce their own fact file at home based around one of them?

NEXT WEEK

The children will be focusing on animals we keep as pets. We will be using the home learning they produce to develop further ideas about how we take care of our pets and what makes a good pet owner! We will also be making and designing our very own pet carriers!

In numeracy the children will develop their counting skills and recognition of numbers and will be sorting and matching, using animal figures. We will also be developing our recognition of numbers 1-10, counting out objects to match.

How you can help us

Please continue to share stories with your child every day.

Practice writing your child’s name with them on a daily basis in their new name books.

Keep counting at home, playing number games and singing number songs.

Please note that Nursery sessions times are as follows:

Doors open at 8.45 for session to start prompt at 9.00am

Wednesday morning collection time is 11.30 -11.45.

Wednesday afternoon session - door opens 12.15 to start prompt at 12.30

Collection time is 3.00-3.15 pm on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday

Many thanks for your continued support

Have a great weekend.

Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team

RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP

Welcome back to our first newsletter of 2012! We hope you have all had a fabulous break and we have seen the children come back refreshed and rejuvenated!

THIS WEEK

We have introduced the children to our new topic of 'Animals in their Habitats' and have set up some fabulous new areas of provision to support their learning. We have made time to play in the areas alongside the children and this has allowed us to question their ideas and extend their thinking. We have also used our new Nintendo DS consoles and spent time getting to know the controls, using the stylus to write and send our keywords to each other.

NEXT WEEK

We will be learning about pets and our learning will start on Monday when the children share their home learning and tell us what they know about the type of pets that people have. We will be making our own 'lift the flap' books about pets and we will be asking the children to produce beautiful illustrations and use their keywords in their clues.

In numeracy we will be finding out about the most popular types of pets and using the 2Simple programme to create our own graphs to represent the data. In topic we will be using our DS's to play Nintendogs and designing and making our own pet carriers for poorly pets!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

Please support your child by listening to them read for five minutes every day and by reading and writing the keywords and tricky works with them. Can you also encourage them to complete their home learning task and bring this in on Monday morning. 

Please check our blog for any further  information: http://mrssatrobinhood.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your support.

KS1 Newsletter

Welcome back to the Spring term...

The children were very excited to come into school this week and eager to share their news of the Christmas holidays.  We are all looking forward to an action packed half term.....

NumeracyThis term the children will be learning about Shapes and their properties.  The children will be looking at both 2D and 3D shapes, using mathematical language to name the shapes including, pyramid, cylinder, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon.  They will be looking at and discussing their properties, recognising the number of faces, edges, vertices (3D) corners and sides (2D).
Across the half term the children will look at symmetry and symmetrical patters, designing their own pattern using 2D shapes. 
The learning will progress to looking at turns, whole, half and quarter turns, clockwise and anti-clockwise of both objects and shape.  The children will be using remote control cars and beebots to give instructions for moving along a route in straight lines and round right angles in squares and rectangles. 

Please visit the school website: Learning Zone: Numeracy: Shape games to continue your child's learning at home, or click on the following link: http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/pupils/learning-zone.php?p=1

This week the children have spent time looking at and describing both 2D and 3D shapes, describing the properties of the shape using mathematical language.  The children have been sorting shapes into different categories and then sharing the categories for their groups. 

Literacy

This half term the children will be writing invitations to a range of characters/people.  They will be reading examples of invitations, discussing the layout, including the use of paragraphs and ways of starting and ending the invitation.  They will look at persuasive phrases and how they can continue to develop their ideas using so, if, but, because and when, use time connectives to connect ideas together (first, then, next, after that, finally, eventually). 

The children have started their unit writing an invitation to a Mr Men character;  Mr Silly (Year 2), Mr Strong (Year 1/2) and Mr Greedy (Year 1).  The children have read the book, watched the audio clip and begun to think about the party games which would entice the character to join a party.  They have looked at the informal structure of an invitation and the basic information it gives, time, date and place which we have called the boring detail.  The children have started to look at giving their Mr Men character more information writing an Opening paragraph, describing why the character should come to the party. 

This will continue next week when they will think about the games which will entice their character and write a paragraph to include in their invitation.  The week will conclude by writing a closing paragraph, where they will finally beg their Mr Men character to attend and not miss out!

Topic

This half term our topic focus is all about the Rainforest.  Across the half term the children will be given a series of questions to research and find the answers to.  This week the children have been asked:  Who lives here anyway?  The children have spent the time looking at the rainforest, sharing their knowledge of where rainforests are located in the world and why they have the climate they do.  Rainforests only cover about 6% of the earth’s surface and they are located close to the earth’s equator, hence their warm and humid climate.

The children have been asking a number of mature questions to research further, such as:  'If the weather is warm in the rainforest, why is it called a rainforest and does it rain?'  'Why are people chopping the rainforest down if the people who live in them say they are needed?’ 

The children are very excited about finding the answers to their own questions and areas of interest.

LKS2 Newsletter

We hope that everyone has had a lovely Christmas and a happy start to the New Year. We have had a fantastic start to the New Year in 3/4 and are extremely proud of all the children's sensible and mature attitudes. We would like to thank everyone for all the amazing home learning we have received. We have been blown away by the fabulous range of outcomes, from super Powerpoints, to detailed sketches of air craft designs, the children have arrived with a breadth of knowledge about why World War Two began. This has helped to kick off our new topic 'Should I have been evacuated during WW2?’

To celebrate the end of the war we will be holding our very own VE day party in the hall to share our fantastic outcomes from the unit with parents and carers. This will be held on Tuesday 7th of February at 2:30pm, in the school hall. We will be asking the children to be dressed in traditional 1940's outfits. Further details of this will be given soon.

Literacy
During the next six weeks the children will be producing a WW2 journal filled with all the letters and diary extracts they will have written as evacuees. Today we have written our first diary extract talking about our feelings and emotions after being told we are getting sent away. We are also having a huge focus on punctuation using 'VCOP' which looks at vocabulary, connectives, openers and sentence starters to further improve our writing.

Numeracy
We are looking at measures this half term in numeracy so this week we have been busy converting the different measurements for length and thinking about what unit we would use to measure different objects. The children have been learning how to read the intervals of different scales. We are also having a HUGE push on the children's times tables recall. Please practise times tables with your child, up to 12x12 as this will support their multiplication skills next half term. This game is a fun way to practice your times table skills.

http://www.primarygames.co.uk/ghostb/ghostfinal.html

PE
Our PE unit this half term is football and we will be kicking off next week by learning different passes and dribbling techniques. As we will be outside for PE, please could all the children bring outdoor trainers, tracksuit bottoms and a warm jumper.

Thank you,

3/4 Team

UKS2 Newsletter

News Roundup:

• Happy New Year to everyone! We are all looking forward to what we know will be a fantastically successful half term.
• Congratulations to Faith, Ellie, Jack C, Ellis and Jack G for their effective communication and teamwork when dramatising a section of the story of Pandora's Box at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. They are our Achievers of the Week!
• Year 5/6 have had a fantastic time this week visiting the West Yorkshire Playhouse for a Drama day. This involved a backstage tour, drama workshop and a chance to watch the fantastic and impressive musical, Annie.
• We thank the Year 6 parents for completing the practise SAT papers over the holidays with their child. Please make sure that they are in school by next week as we will be resuming our Splat the SATs sessions.

Numeracy:

• The focus this week has been learning about positive and negative numbers and applying this to different situations such as temperature. The children have also spent a lesson learning about Probability and answering some very high level questions.

• Home Learning: Home Learning this week has been allocated via the Learning Platform. Specific exercises related to our learning back in school have been set up in order to reinforce the strategies learnt so far and strategies which will provide a 'one step ahead' ready for our learning next week. Access these via our school website - click Learning Platform - log in - I am Learning - My Room - My Homework.

Next week, the children will be focussing on interpreting and handling data linked to our Annie theatre trip. The children will also be exposed to some fantastic modern day types of data, which is sure to inspire them!

Literacy:

• The children have started the Narrative unit of writing, studying the story of Annie. They have been focussing carefully on well structured character descriptions and writing openings for the story.
• The children have started the story " Percy Jackson- The Demi- God files", by Rick Riordan. The book presents a fantastic modern day twist on Greek Mythology and the children have enjoyed familiarising themselves with the characters, this week.

• Home Learning: This week's spellings are linked to the story of Annie and will be used in our writing during the next week- orphanage, impersonate, mansion, disguise, miserable, adoption, Annie, Miss Farrell, Daddy Warbucks, Miss Hannigan

Next week, the children will continue to focus on a reinterpretation of "Annie" and will learn how to structure a story. They will be taught how to write an effective setting and use purposeful written techniques in various points of the story.

Other areas of the curriculum:

• In Topic, the children have been working in their teams and planning what they are going to study for their historical research. They have also been deciding on creative and dynamic ways that they can present their research and have been learning new skills in Smart Notebook to help them do this. Over the half term, the children will engage in two exciting projects around the unit of Ancient Greeks. As well as the historical research and presentations, the children will also work in their team in contributing to an aspect of the class drama, which will be based on a well known Greek Myth. We are all excited about this new innovative approach to our topic learning.

• Visit our blogs Topic blogs!
• http://56bgreeks.blogspot.com/
  http://56dgreeks.blogspot.com/
  http://56gancientgreece.blogspot.com/

Issue 14 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 14 Friday 16th December 2011

Dear Parent/Carer,

Christmas is upon us! I must say I have never known a term go by quite as quickly as this one.

It has been my delight and privilege to enjoy brilliant Christmas Performances by our children, Nursery to Year 4 this week. I am certain that our staff and talented performers have between them produced the best ever Nativities at Robin Hood. Highlights have included Lily in Nursery who fully explored the emotional depths of her part as Mary and a costume mix up in Reception where one Wise Man arrived on the day in a donkey costume… meaning that our performance uniquely featured two Wise Men and a very full stable. Like our Nursery and Reception, Key Stage One were magnificent – and had the most beautiful costumes I’ve ever seen – and Year 34 once again maintained their exceptionally high performance standards. Mrs Comstive’s Drama Club gave performances of equal professionalism and quality. The performances have been yet another demonstration of the quality, depth and range of exceptional Arts provision at Robin Hood.

The events this week have been fabulously supported by our community. It has been great to see so many parents and grandparents supporting both their children and our school. Our afternoon performances were undoubtedly the best attended ever. These have been great community events and my thanks to everyone who has attended. It is your participation that makes these magical moments for our children.

Our Nursery and Reception classes video conferenced with Santa in Lapland this week and I was amazed to see a Christmas Advent Calendar, created in Powerpoint as his Home Learning, by Elliot in our Reception class. Truly amazing!

Look back on the year
This year in brief included our Ofsted inspection in April, saying goodbye to longstanding colleagues Mrs Bailey and Mr Simpson, the creation of a new Leadership team at the school, the welcoming of Mrs Moore and Miss Snowden to our teaching staff, Miss Johal, Miss Beckwith and Miss Boyes to our Support Staff, welcoming Sara Jackson, Lofthouse Children’s Centre Manager, to our Governing Body, and the remodelling of our Hall. We can look back on 2011 with a great deal of pride and satisfaction and look forward to 2012… which is already shaping up to be a very busy and a very interesting year for us.

Parent Governor
We are also delighted to be welcoming Julie Newell to our Governing Body in her capacity as the newest of our Parent Governors. Julie’s candidacy did not need to go to vote and thus she joins our Body in the New Year. I would like to welcome Julie aboard and look forward to her input as a Governor.

Training Day
The first official day back at school is Tuesday 3rd January, which is a Training Day at Robin Hood. Children return to school after the Christmas break on Wednesday 4th January.

Friendly Faces
A reminder to everyone that Friendly Faces will operate as a term time only provision from Christmas onwards.

Clubs
As usual, there will be no Clubs in the first week after the holiday.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year and we look forward to seeing you on 4th January,
Mr Wilson

Issue 13 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 13 Friday 9th December 2011

Dear Parent/Carer,

Only one school week left before Christmas! Over two hundred children joined us for the cooked Christmas Dinner this year… served by Mrs Dale and I, alongside our lunchtime staff. With the tree in the Hall, turkey and stuffing and Jingle Bells playing over the speaker system, it certainly felt very Christmassy. My thanks to Mrs Dale, Mrs Smith, Mrs Holland, Mrs Hick, our lunchtime staff and everyone who made our Christmas Dinner enjoyable for the children.

I must say I have never known a term go by quite as quickly as this one. Proof, surely, of the old adage ‘time flies when your having fun!’

The Robins
Just a reminder to everyone that we will be hosting The Robins Awards Ceremony this year on Thursday evening, 22nd March. The Robins will be a celebration of films that have been made this year and of some of our spectacular curriculum creations. We will also be sharing our submissions to the Golden Owls Film Competition. The Golden Owls are a new film competition for children launched by Leeds City Council celebrating the best of young people’s film making across the city. Deadline for entries is 10th February. Robin Hood, of course, intends to submit a number of entries. Children can make films at home and submit their entries via the school.

Christmas Week
I look forward to seeing many parents, families and members of our community at our Christmas events next week. Full details appear on our newsletter blog and Facebook page.

Training Day
In the New Year we have a Training Day on the first day back, Tuesday 3rd January. Children return to school on Wednesday 4th January.

Christmas Disco
Many thanks to everyone who got involved for the PTA Christmas Disco last week. The Hall was certainly rocking and rolling and we had a great many of our children involved. Our newly re-formed PTA needs your help and support. It has real potential to become a very vibrant social and community group that adds real value to our school. The more supporters, helpers, advocates and interest it has… the more effective it can be, the more value it can add to the life of our school and the more important it can become in supporting additional things for our children to enjoy in school than would otherwise be the case. Please get involved in the conversation. Please support our PTA.

Graduate Teacher Trainees
The applications round for the Graduate Teacher Trainee Programme 2012-13 is now open. Robin Hood works in partnership with Teach Leeds – a consortium of nine Primary Schools in Leeds - to provide high quality teacher training. If you know of anyone interested in Teacher Training, please refer them to our website where they should click on the Apply for GTP 2012 button.

Friendly Faces
As of the New Year Friendly Faces will be operating as a Term Time Only Club. This means that we will no longer be offering Holiday Clubs or childcare on school Training Days.

Have a fantastic Christmas Shopping weekend,
Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
We have had a very busy and exciting week in Nursery that began with the snow storm on Monday morning!! After the excitement of the winter weather the children were set well on their way to embark on their Christmas preparations! We also had our second celebration afternoon of the school year and would like to say a huge thank you to those parents who came along to share in the children’s successes so far!!

THIS WEEK
The children have been retelling the Nativity story as well as preparing for our very own Nativity performance. We have been busy making gifts, and using our cutting skills to make our very own wish lists for Christmas! The children have also been showcasing their fabulous writing skills as we replied to our very own letter from Santa!!

NEXT WEEK
Will be our last week together before Christmas is here! The children will be involved in a whole heap of festive cheer including our Nativity Performances and our Christmas Parties!

DATES FOR THE DIARY

The TipToe Nativity (Mon, Tues, Wed chn): Tuesday 13th December 10am school hall

Group 1 Christmas Party: Tuesday 13th December 1.45 -2.45

The TipToe Nativity (Wed, Thurs, Fri chn): Thursday 15th December 10am school hall

Group 2 Christmas Party: Thursday 15th December 1.45 -2.45

Please make sure your child’s costume for the Nativity is given to the Nursery staff the day before the performance.
On the day of the Christmas party please provide just a small packed lunch for your child as there will be food including sandwiches available.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US
•Sharing stories and reading regularly
•Playing games (board games, dominoes, I spy etc) to support turn taking, counting etc.
•Spotting numbers, letters and words in the environment
•Practising writing our own names
•Practising putting on our own coats, shoes and socks.

Thank you for your continued support, have a wonderful weekend.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team.


Reception Newsletter
NEWS ROUND UP
Thank you all for the amazing home learning we received on Monday. Miss Abbey has put them on the blog and our ladies have displayed them in the classroom. Thank you too for all the fabulous costumes you have supplied for our Nativity performance.

THIS WEEK
We have had another super week in Reception with high levels of excitement on Monday morning when the snow arrived! We have had to stay inside during the early part of the week as it was very icy, but there have been lots of fabulous activities going on and the children have kept themselves very busy! The children have been working very hard on their performances and we hope you have lots of wonderful memories of your child's part in the nativity.

NEXT WEEK
Will be another really busy one! On Monday we will be watching the dress rehearsal of the Nursery Christmas production and on Tuesday we will be having a sneaky peak at Santa at his home, getting ready for Christmas! We will be having our Christmas party on Thursday afternoon and have asked for your help in providing food (see this week's home learning). The children will be having lunch as normal that day. If you want to send in party clothes for your child, please can you send them in a named carrier bag and we will help them get changed after lunch. Thank you.


Dates for your diary
Thursday 15th December - Reception Party (pm)
Friday 16th December - Carols round the tree 2.30 pm
Friday 16th December - break up day
Tuesday 4th January - staff training day
Wednesday 5th January - children return to school

How you can help us
Please continue to listen to your child's reading for a few minutes every day over the next few weeks to ensure they retain their confidence and enthusiasm.
Please also spend some time reading and writing the tricky words and keywords that were sent home for last week's home learning - we will be moving on to our new words in January.

Thank you for your continued support.

Key Stage 1 Newsletter

How quickly the week has gone! The children all thoroughly enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast Performance. It was a fantastic show for them to watch and we would like to say a massive thank you to all of the children for their outstanding representation of Robin Hood School!

Christmas Production
The time is nearly upon us!
We ask all costumes to be in no later than Monday 12th December.
In case you weren't sure on the times:
Wednesday 14th December 2pm -3pm
Thursday 15th December 6pm - 7pm.

Home Learning
We would also like to say thank you to all of the parents and carers in their support with the children's home learning. We have seen a vast range of super castles, interesting stories about castles, trips out to castles, using ICT to show off learning about castles and even our very own Castle cake which Year 1/2 had the pleasure of eating! It is absolutely fantastic how much support goes in to the home learning and we appreciate your feedback on how you have found the tasks that have been set.

Reading Records
It is really important to continue to log in your child's reading record any reading or other learning your children do at home. Over the Christmas period the children will take home books to read but also any other learning you feel you would like to share with us, please let us know! Your communication is extremely important to us and we want to know about any fantastic learning!

Next week
The final week of term is here and how quickly time flys when you’re having fun! The week will have a Religious Education focus where the children will learn about Christmas around the world. The children will be using a range of skills to make Christmas cards and calendars. We are sure you will like them!

Key Stage One Party
The Key Stage One Party will take place on Thursday 15th December during the afternoon in the hall. MEAL ARRANGEMENTS ARE AS NORMAL. Please supply your children with party clothes and where possible some food or drink for the party. This could be anything from sausage rolls, crisps and dip, cakes and squash. No fizzy drinks or nuts. Thank you!

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

The Key Stage One Team

LKS2 Newsletter

We have had a fantastic week in 3/4 full of lots of exciting fun filled learning! During ICT the children have been continuing with their amazing trainer video adverts and we can't wait to see the finished outcomes next week. During RE we have finished publishing the Christmas nativity story in the style of a comic strip!

Literacy
This week the children have been writing a persuasive letter to Santa outlining all the reasons as to why he should not strike this Christmas. The children have used lots of persuasive features such as rhetorical questions, quotations and statistics to support their writing. They have also grouped their fantastic ideas and summarised these in a concluding paragraph.

Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been practising their mental strategies for subtraction by taking away multiples of ten and adjusting. We then used all of our mental and written strategies for addition and subtraction to plan a party for the 'I'm A Celebrity' contestants as they left the jungle.

Reminders

Christmas Party
Our Christmas party is on Thursday 15th December so please can all children bring some party clothes to get changed in to. As our party is after dinner (MEAL ARRANGEMENTS ARE AS NORMAL), please could all children bring a small food or drink contribution such as crisps, buns, biscuits etc.

Production
Our dress rehearsal for our Christmas Production ‘Santa’s on Strike’ is on Monday 12th December at 1:30 pm. Please can everyone bring their costumes in to school on Monday ready to get changed into after lunch. If your child has not been given a speaking part, they will all be participating in the production through singing and dancing. Each class will be performing their own dance.

Mrs Moore’s class = ‘Reindeers’. Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-aliceband’ headpiece.

Miss Thackeray’s class =‘Carol singers’. Please wear Christmas clothes, hats, scarf’s and gloves. Lanterns are optional.

Miss Nicholls’ class = Domestic jobbers. Please wear Christmas clothes, an apron, rubber gloves, hairnets and have a duster or feather duster at hand.

Rudolph = Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-aliceband’ headpiece and a red nose.

The elves = Colourful tunics/tabards, tights, pointed cloth hats and shoes, aprons etc are a good start, but feel free to experiment.

People playing the part of family members = Pyjamas, dressing gowns, coats and normal casual garments are all that is required. A bit of tailoring or borrowing from parents may be required for those playing adults.

To remind you our production dates are: Tuesday 13th December 2:00pm and Wednesday 14th December - 6:00pm. Both productions will be taking place in the school hall. No tickets are required.

Look forward to seeing you there,
3/4 Team

UKS2 Newsletter

News Roundup:
•Congratulations to Phoebe Millard, Megan Spafford, Millie Reynolds and Chloe Jackson who are our Achievers of the Week. They have worked collaboratively this week to design, plan and build a prototype for a new seat in the school playground. Their design was well thought out, cleverly designed and beautifully presented -a very purposeful design. Well done girls.
•The Year 5/6 Christmas Party will be held on Thursday 15th December.MEAL ARRANGEMENTS ARE AS NORMAL. The children should come to school that day in uniform but bring party clothes to change into in the afternoon. For the party, we would appreciate contributions on the day of crisps, biscuits and buns as well as sugar free drinks.
•Year 5/6 will be leading the Christmas service at church on Friday 16th December at 10am. We hope to see you there!
•Reminder: Payment is due by Friday 16th December for the Year 5/6 trip to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, which will take place during the first week back after Christmas. Thank you.
Numeracy:
•The focus this week has been interpreting the data collected from Mario Kart on the Wii and DS. We collated Yoshi, Mario, Donkey Kong's and Toad's trial times to establish the overall winner and have then calculated average lap times as well as modal positions.
•Home Learning: The Times Tables Challenge will take place on Thursday 15th December. Ahead of this, please practise ALL times tables! Useful websites include http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/bingo/caller/caller.html as well as http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/timestable/interactive.htm
Literacy:
•'Christmas in Leeds MUST be cancelled' was the message we received from the Lord Mayor this week! We've considered the points he made but have gathered reasons to persuade him to change his mind. In our letters, our focus has been on developing links between paragraphs.
Other areas of the curriculum:
•In DT, we've been designing and making kites, including diamond kites, box kites and sail kites. We've been learning about the different parts of a kite and are using this technical vocabulary with super accuracy.
•In Music, Mrs Brook’s class have continued to practise Silent Night on the recorders ahead of the service at church next week. Miss Darroch's class have been continuing to learn the words to Little Donkey in sign language. Miss Gascoigne’s class have been continuing to create mash-ups of popular Christmas songs using Garageband.
•In ICT, we've been navigating robots around our Mario Kart themed tracks, with a particular focus on including a sensor in procedures.
Visit our blogs!
•5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/
•5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
•5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/

Issue 12 2011-12

Dear Parent/Carer,

It’s December already! Only two school weeks left this year…

Positive Feedback
I have had the pleasure of showing a number of prospective parents for our Reception class 2012 around our school during the past few weeks. It has been lovely to hear lots of positive feedback – even from those families who know they have little chance of securing a place with us for their child. It remains a source of frustration for us that we are unable to satisfy more of our average of 75 First Choice Preferences for our 45 Reception spaces.

Christmas Dates
Parents, families and community are welcomed to join us for our Christmas Productions. Here is the full schedule of events this Christmas:

Friday 9th December 10:00am Reception Production

Tuesday 13th December 10:00am Nursery Production
1:00pm Nursery party
2:00pm LKS2 Production
3:30pm Drama Group Production

Wednesday 14th December 2:00pm KS1 Production
6:00pm LKS2 Production

Thursday 15th December 10:00am Nursery Production
11:00am LKS2 Christmas party
1:00pm Nursery & Reception parties
1:45pm KS1 & UKS2 parties
6:00pm KS1 Production

Friday 16th December 10:00am Christmas Service at Lofthouse Church
2:30pm Carols Around the Tree


Christmas Lunch is next Wednesday, 7th December. Unfortunately, we’re up to capacity, so no more orders can be taken.

In the New Year we have a Training Day on the first day back, Tuesday 3rd January. Children return to school on Wednesday 4th January.

Christmas Disco
Our PTA will be hosting Christmas Discos for all children tonight. I’m sure that everyone will have a wonderful time. This is the time for you to bring your input as our PTA re-formulates and grows. Our PTA raises much needed funds that enhance the quality of our children’s experience at Robin Hood. Your support, help and donations are vitally important to helping the experience at Robin Hood be the best it can possibly be.

Friendly Faces
As of the New Year Friendly Faces will be operating as a Term Time Only Club. This means that we will no longer be offering Holiday Clubs or childcare on school Training Days.

Bags 2 School
There will be a Bags 2 School collection on 5th December.

Photographs
Also a note to say: Don't forget to get your photograph orders in by Tuesday 6th December for Christmas delivery.

Have a fantastic weekend,
Mr Wilson

Nursery Newsletter

NEWS ROUND UP
Christmas has finally arrived in Nursery - the children returned to school on Thursday to our super new areas. (Thank you to the support staff for their hard work in getting everything ready!) Once we receive your home learning decorations next week we really will have created a magical place.

THIS WEEK
As well as sharing the Nativity story with the children, we have been rehearsing our own Nativity production. It has been great to see the children retelling the story and making the links between their own performances and the original Nativity story. Well done to everybody who has been practising the songs and rehearsing their lines. Please keep up the hard work as we are nearly ready to impress you with our star quality!

NEXT WEEK
In Literacy we will be creating and writing some secret things which we will be sending home before Christmas (but ask no questions!) as well as printing our own gift wrap! We will also be practising our Nativity production and we will be performing a dress rehearsal. Please make sure costumes are in Nursery for Monday 12th Dec for the first group of children and again Wednesday 14th for the second group of children. Thank you.

The performances will be on Tuesday 13th December at 10am and 15th December in the school hall at 10am. We look forward to seeing you there.... don’t forget your tissues!!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US
The children are making fabulous progress as the year moves along, and we are very proud of all the children. Please continue to support your child at home, sharing stories regularly, playing number games, singing songs and rhymes and also practising to write their own names.

Thank you for your continued support

RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP
Christmas has finally arrived in Reception - the children returned to school on Thursday to our super new areas. (Thank you to the support staff for their hard work in getting everything ready!) Once we receive your home learning decorations next week we really will have created a magical place.

THIS WEEK
As well as sharing the Nativity story with the children, we have been rehearsing our own Nativity production. It has been great to see the children retelling the story and making the links between their own performances and the original Nativity story. Well done to everybody who has been practising the songs and rehearsing their lines. Please keep up the hard work as we are nearly ready to impress you with our star quality!
In numeracy we have been writing the numbers for our own advent calendar and creating our own baubles to put on our tree.

NEXT WEEK
In Literacy we will be creating and writing some secret things which we will be sending home before Christmas (but ask no questions!) as well as printing our own gift wrap and tags. We will also be practising our Nativity production and we will be performing a dress rehearsal on Thursday to Key Stage one.
Please can you make sure that all named costumes are in school for Monday 5th December. Thank you.
The performance will be next Friday(December 9th) in the school hall at 10am. We will positively be encouraging you to sing along with the songs!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US
Miss Lambert and I have done one to one reading assessments with the children and are thrilled at the progress that the children are making. Please keep reading for at least five minutes every day to ensure we maintain their confidence and the momentum. We are also sending home a list of tricky words and keywords to practice reading and writing before we move onto our new words in January.
If you haven't yet completed and returned the ICT questionnaire, please can you spend a couple of minutes doing that for us too?

Thank you for your continued support

KS1 Newsletter
Key Stage 1 have had a fantastic week of treats and fun! The children have been showing off all their learning so far and taken part in key assessments in Reading, Writing, Numeracy and Phonics. The staff are VERY proud of every member of KS1 for the amazing effort and dedication they show towards their learning.

Beauty and the Beast
The children are all very excited about the upcoming trip to The Carriageworks to see Beauty and the Beast. The children will need to wear their school uniform as normal on Tuesday 6th December. We aim to be back at school for 4:45pm. If there are any delays, school will be informed and a message will be passed on to parents.

Numeracy
This week the child have completed assessments in addition and subtraction, showing the strategies they use when adding/subtracting:
• a single digit number to a single digit number(7 + 9 = ) (8 - 3= )
• a two digit number to a single digit number (27 + 6 = ) (37 - 9 = )
• a two digit number to a two digit number ( 34 + 46 = ) ( 73 - 12 = )
The children have continued to show their skills when adding three numbers together
( 5 + 6 + 5 = ) (31 + 12 + 4 = ). Progressing onto adding and subtracting within the same sum (13 + 6 - 3 = ) (45 - 14 + 5 = ).

Please continue to support your child at home, developing their addition and subtraction skills by giving them sums to complete. Your child can bring these into school so we can celebrate the learning too!

Next week the children will be applying their knowledge of addition and subtraction to word problems such as:
• 12 children are on a bus.
8 children get off.
Then 4 more get off the bus.

How many children are left on the bus?

There are 29 children. 5 children are painting. How many children are NOT painting?

• There are 1000 pieces in a puzzle. 12 of then go missing. How many pieces are left?

Why not provide your child with some word problems ahead of next week....

Literacy
This week concluded the block on Narrative writing with the children writing their final Julia Donaldson style story. The children have particularly enjoyed reading the amazing stories written by Julia Donaldson and they have also had the opportunity to watch the Gruffalo DVD, which has helped to further develop their understanding of the book. The KS1 team are very proud of the stories which include, CAPITAL LETTERS, full stops, text effects (bold text, CAPITALIZATION, .........., !!!!!!!) developed ideas using (so, if, but, because, and, when), adjectives (describing words), verbs (doing words) and even adverbs (describes what the verb is doing, walking quietly, running quickly).

Next week the children will be looking at reading and writing instructions to make Christmas decorations, Christmas Cards and Calendars. The children will look at the structure, organisation and language used within instructions in order to support people following them correctly.

Topic
This week the children have been busy investigating different materials and discussing their properties. They have looked at wood, plastic, glass, brick, cotton, silk and discussed which materials would be good for different aspects of a castle building and why that material would be good to use. The children have also looked at investigating how to test which material would keep Belle warm and dry during a snowy/rainy Christmas at the castle.

Why not ask your child what their predictions were and what they found out from the investigation.......

LKS2 Newsletter

We have had a very busy week in Year 3/4! The children have been applying all their new learning this week and blowing us away with the progress that has already been made this year!

We have also begun practising this year's production "Santa's on Strike!". Please ensure that if your child has been given a speaking part that they are practising at home as much as possible. We are aiming to practise our performance (without scripts) next week as the production will be taking place on Tuesday 13th December 2:00 - 3:00pm and Wednesday 14th December 6:00 - 7:00pm. Both productions will be taking place in the school hall. No tickets are required.

Literacy
The children have been writing an engaging magazine article, targeting families and their need for a fun, stress-free day out. We have been impressed with how the children have been using all the persuasive features we have been learning this half term. Next week, the children will be using their persuasive skills to write to Santa and hopefully persuade him to return from his strike in time for Christmas.

Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been applying their written and mental strategies for addition and subtraction. Next week, the children will be continuing to apply these strategies within multi-step problems, including money.

Reminders

Last week we started to learn the songs for this years Christmas production ‘Santa’s on Strike’. All the children have been given the song words so please continue rehearsing at home!

If your child has not been given a speaking part, they will all be participating in the production through singing and dancing. Each class will be performing their own dance.

Mrs Moore’s class = ‘Reindeers’. Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-aliceband’ headpiece.

Miss Thackeray’s class =‘Carol singings’. Please wear Christmas clothes, hats, scarves and gloves. Lanterns are optional.

Miss Nicholls’ class = Domestic jobbers. Please wear Christmas clothes, an apron, rubber gloves, hairnets and have a duster or feather duster at hand.

Santa = Santa should be portrayed in his traditional red suit and beard.

Mrs Santa = wearing red too, or perhaps a ‘homely’ costume including an apron, big slippers and a headscarf.

Rudolph = Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-aliceband’ headpiece and a red nose.


The elves = Colourful tunics/tabards, tights, pointed cloth hats and shoes, aprons etc are a good start, but feel free to experiment.

People playing the part of family members = Pyjamas, dressing gowns, coats and normal casual garments are all that is required. A bit of tailoring or borrowing from parents may be required for those playing adults

Thank you,

Team 3/4

UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup

•This week’s Achiever of the Week goes to Rosie Soroka, for her excellent letter of invitation to her favourite band, in an attempt to persuade them to attend our school disco! Well done, Rosie!
• The children have brought home details about the Year 5/6 trip to the theatre during the first week back after Christmas. We will be spending the whole day at the West Yorkshire Playhouse taking part in drama based activities in the morning and then watching a performance of Annie in the afternoon. Payment for the trip must be returned to school by Friday December 16th. Thank you.

Numeracy:
This week, we have been collecting data using Mario Kart on the Wii and DS. From this, we're calculating the time it's taken to complete each lap as well as calculating our speed for each lap. Next week, we'll be continuing our analysis of the data as well as finding the average, mode and range for data collected from Wii Mario Kart.

Home learning:
The Times Tables Challenge will be taking place on Wednesday 14th December. Please practise ALL times tables ahead of this!
Try the following website to get you up to speed with your times tables... for a real challenge, why not try this at zero seconds!!!!:
http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/bingo/caller/caller.html

Literacy
This week, we have been writing to a Mario Kart driver of our choice to persuade them to drive for our team. There were lots of very tempting offers made such as heated seats, a car which had low air resistance etc. We focused on including lots of 'stars' in our writing including superlatives and literary features.

Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our Literacy next week which is based around the statement Christmas should be abolished: abolished, merrily, festivities, celebration, nativity, traditional, cancelling, Santa Claus, Bethlehem, ceremonies
This weekend, gather some reasons for and against Christmas being abolished

Other areas of the curriculum:
In DT, we've been exploring flight and have been making prototypes of kites. We're evaluating the kites to help inform the design. Next week, we'll make the kite.

In Music Mrs Brook’s class have been perfecting their performance of Silent Night on the recorders.
Miss Gascoigne’s class have been continuing to create mash-ups of popular Christmas songs using Garageband.
Miss Darroch’s class have been learning sign language to the first verse of Little Donkey.

5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/

School Christmas Disco, organised by our PTA

Friday 2nd December
Foundation / KS1 disco will be held 4.00pm - 5.30pm and
KS2 will be held 6.00pm - 7.30pm

Issue 11 2011-12

Newsletter Issue 11 Friday 25th November 2011

Dear Parent/Carer,

I read in an ofsted press release this week that only 4% of schools in the country are rated outstanding for teaching. I am firmly of the view that the true measure of a school is the quality of teaching in classrooms, day after day. We can all be very proud that Robin Hood is among that 4%... and very determined that it will remain so.

Year 4 residential
Our Year 4 residential visit to East Barnby last week was a fabulous success. Our children were fantastic… their brilliant behaviour and attitudes were frequently commented upon by Centre staff. My thanks to those staff members who made it possible; Miss Thackeray, Miss Nicholls, Mrs Cookson and Mrs Beckwith. Without the enthusiasm and energy of dedicated staff we would be unable to offer these great learning opportunities for our children.

Strike
A letter was issued to all parents/carers on Wednesday this week notifying that school would be closed to pupils on the National Day of Action, Wednesday 30th November.

Meningitis
We have had one confirmed case of meningitis in the school. A letter was issued to all parents on Thursday. Linked cases are very unusual. However, it is important for all parents to know the early signs of Meningococcal infection which include fever, headache, stiff neck, a dislike of noise, a dislike of bright light and possibly a rash.
www.meningitis-trust.org
www.meningitis.org

Charitable Donations
Pupils at Robin Hood raised a total of £398.90 for Children In Need last week… an increase on the figure announced at our Assembly, as some additional money came in after it. Sixty six shoeboxes were collected by the Operation Christmas Child charity on Tuesday this week. Thanks to everyone who made a donation, including online donations.

Holidays during term time
236 school days have been lost at Robin Hood in the two months since we returned in September to holidays taken during term. Last year 850 school days in total were lost to holidays. These are huge and very worrying numbers.

While I understand the pressures that families face in relation to holidays, I am duty bound to remind parents that: There is a very clear statistical link between poor attendance and low levels of achievement at school. The Department for Education has raised the threshold at which pupils are defined as persistently absent to 85% attendance. Parents do not have an automatic right to take their children out of school for holidays during term time and parents are required to seek the permission of the Headteacher before booking a holiday.

Our Attendance Policy is available to view on our website. Our Holiday Absence Policy is fair and is consistent with all other schools in Rothwell. We ask parents to respect and abide by school policies.

E-Robin Hood
Our newsletter has a facebook page, many of our blogs have a subscribe option, our PTA has its own facebook page. There are many ways of staying in touch with what’s going on at Robin Hood and we are constantly trying to develop innovative and convenient ways of keeping parents/carers informed about what’s going on at school.

Christmas Disco
As there will be no Christmas Fair this year, our newly developing PTA is keen to put on a Christmas celebration for children. Our PTA will be hosting Christmas Discos for all children on the evening of Friday 2nd December. Further information will be available from the PTA soon. Now is a great opportunity for you to make your contribution to the future direction of our PTA. The more voices that are involved in the conversation at this point, the more inclusive, representative and broad-based the PTA has the potential to become.

Bags 2 School
There will be a Bags 2 School collection on 5th December.

Friendly Faces
As of the New Year Friendly Faces will be operating as a Term Time Only Club. This means that we will no longer be offering Holiday Clubs or childcare on school Training Days. We have opened for seven consecutive School Holidays and Training Days. None of these clubs have come anywhere close to breaking even and we are unable to sustain a loss making part of the business. We apologise to those parents who have consistently used the Holiday Clubs.

Have a fantastic weekend,
Mr Wilson

Meningitis Letter to Parents, 24 Nov 11
Dear Parent
We have learnt today that one of our pupils has been admitted to hospital with
suspected meningitis which is likely to be caused by meningococcal infection.

I have spoken with the Public Health doctor who has advised me that meningitis/septicaemia due to meningococcal infection is a rare illness. Even where the diagnosis is confirmed, it is very unusual to see a second case. The immediate family has been given an antibiotic to help prevent further spread. There is no need for any other pupil in our school to have antibiotics.

It is extremely unusual to see linked cases of this illness. However, it is important for
all parents to know the early signs of Meningococcal infection which include fever, headache, stiff neck, a dislike of noise, a dislike of bright light and possibly a rash. If your son/daughter displays any of these signs, please have them seen by a doctor and show the doctor this letter.

Further general information about Meningitis may be obtained from:

The National Meningitis Trust Helpline Tel 0800 028 18 28
www.meningitis-trust.org

The Meningitis Research Foundation Tel 080 8800 3344
www.meningitis.org

I’m sure you will join me in wishing our sick pupil a smooth and very rapid recovery.

Yours sincerely

Mr M Wilson
Headteacher

Nursery Newsletter

ROUND UP!
The children’s response to the home learning activity set the stall for a fun packed learning week, as we continued to share our experiences of different celebrations!
Thank you for your continued support. Please also help your child at home to learn their lines from the Nativity. If you are having any problems sourcing costumes, please let me know.

THIS WEEK
Our focus this week has been Judaism and we have been looking at the traditions of the celebrations of Hanukkah. The children have created some beautiful artwork, including clay candle holders, stained glass Saint David stars and our very own drawings and collage pictures of Menorahs! The children are truly blossoming in their early learning journeys and we are proud of each and every one of them for their achievements!

NEXT WEEK
We will be preparing ourselves for Christmas as we learn about Advent. The children will be sharing the Nativity story and making links to our very own “Tip Toe Nativity” gaining a greater understanding of the characters and the meaning behind the performance. We very much look forward to seeing the outcomes of this week’s home learning as it will be a fabulous introduction to the meaning of the candles used on the Advent wreath.


HOW YOU CAN HELP US
•Please continue to share stories at home with your children, taking turns to hold the book and turn the pages.
•Listen to the Nativity songs on our Nursery Blog.
•Please bring in any empty boxes and cartons (no egg boxes, or toilet roll tubes)for the children to use in our craft area.

Requests!
If you have any old pots and pans, spoons or Tupperware that you no longer require, please could you donate it Nursery for our musical junk yard!

Have a wonderful weekend.
Miss Bradshaw and the Nursery team

RECEPTION NEWS ROUND UP
We've had another fabulous week in Reception and are very proud of the way that the children are progressing in their reading and writing. Thank you for all your support at home!
Our Reception production is getting nearer....if you haven't got it already, please can you get your child's costume ready for Monday 5th December. Thank you.

THIS WEEK
We have continued with our theme of celebrations and have been doing some speaking and listening activities following up the children's fabulous home learning. We then moved on to find out about Judaism and some traditional Jewish celebrations. The children have really enjoyed finding out more about different cultures and religions and have made us really proud with their independent writing.

NEXT WEEK
We will begin the week by finding out what Advent means and then linking this to the Nativity and our own production - to help the children understand the Nativity story and see the relevance of our own production and their individual roles.
We will be making our own Advent calendars and our numeracy learning will be linked to these - thinking about recognising, matching and writing numbers as well as counting backwards - our own countdown to Christmas!
We will be asking the children to write the tricky words that they have been reading for the last couple of weeks - you, they, all, are, my, her
We will also be checking how many children are confidently reading and writing simple CVC words such as cat, hop, bat, pin etc to form part of our ongoing assessments.

ICT
This week the children have been playing some fun games on the Ipad with Miss Lambert. The children have been learning their sounds with Mr. Thorne and practising their letter formation with the Hairy Letters game. Why not try downloading these at home if your child has access to an Ipad.

HOME LEARNING
Please listen to your child's fabulous reading for five minutes every day. Our home learning task for this week is to make an 'Advent Candle' (see home learning sheet).
Please can you bring in your fabulous home learning on Monday? Thank you.
Have a lovely weekend.

Key Stage 1 Newsletter
This week has been yet another busy one here in key stage 1. The children have been continuing with their learning with eagerness as always.

Trip Money
Our annual trip to the Theatre is organised for Tuesday 6th December. Can you please ensure that a payment of £16.50 is received by the school office no later than Friday 2nd December. You can pay by cash or cheque. Please place your payment in an envelope with your child’s name and class clearly labelled on the front. This can be deposited at the school office or in the drop box by the main entrance.

Key Words
Please ensure that you are engaging weekly with the key word spellings that are stuck into your child’s reading record every Monday. Being able to spell these words is vital in order for your child’s writing to progress. Your class teacher is always available if you need any advice!

Home Learning
The home learning for the next couple of weeks is an on-going project all about castles. This is due to be handed in on Monday 5th December. We look forward to sharing all the amazing outcomes!

This Weeks Learning
Literacy
In Literacy this week the children have written and illustrated their second story based on the creations of Julia Donaldson. Across the last two weeks the children have been building up their story writing skills to include a greater level of detail as well as a growing range of skills such as text effects, adjectives, connectives, time connectives …. The list of what are children are capable of is endless! All the Key Stage 1 staff are looking forward to reading their latest accomplishment this weekend.
Next week the children will be writing a final story of their very own creation in order to showcase their many skills learned across the past 4 weeks. Year 1 will be looking at the story ‘Room on the Broom’, Year 1/2: ‘The Gruffalo’, Year 2: ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’.

Numeracy
Numeracy has really been testing the children’s brains this week with the children developing their subtraction skills even further. We have developed quick mental strategies for subtracting a multiple of 10 from a given 2 digit number (e.g. 45 – 20) alongside more complex paper methods when subtracting two 2 digit numbers (e.g. 57 – 32). Why not ask your child to explain to you the different methods and strategies we can use. I am sure you will be amazed!
Next week the children will be engaging with several Numeracy Assessments. This will be carried out in a very informal way with the children helping solve a few problems that Mr Wilson has been having with his Sweet Shop! (We will leave the children to fill you in on this one!). Assessment at this point in the year plays a vital part in supporting your child’s learning into the coming year.

Topic
We have continued our Castle theme into this week’s topic but with a closer focus on the location of the Royal Castles visited by our Royal Family. This has also provided the children with an opportunity to look at the United Kingdom and the Countries within it. We have also looked at the flags of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales with the children using these as a starting point for creating their own flag to represent the whole of the United Kingdom.
Next week the children will be scientists as they investigate materials and their uses in hope of solving some tricky problems that we have been having!

LKS2 Newsletter

We have had another amazing week in Year 3/4! The children in year four excelled at East Barnby last week and we were delighted with the fantastic manners, teamwork and collaboration that the children displayed. We also received fantastic feedback from the centre staff, who said the children were exceptional. Well done to everyone who came, we had a very memorable time!

We were also thrilled with the children's performances in this week's Celebration Assembly. The children's trainers look really professional and their confidence on the catwalk was brilliant! Well done EVERYONE!

Literacy
We have been continuing with our persuasive writing this week, which has involved the children creating their very own theme park, for all the family. The children have been highly motivated by this stimulus and have been very creative in their designs. The children have also written an engaging magazine article, targeting families and their need for a fun, stress-free day out. Next week, the children will be using their designs to create a persuasive leaflet for their theme park.

Numeracy
In Numeracy, the children have been embedding their use of column addition and have been using column subtraction confidently to solve real-life problems. The children have also been developing their mental calculation skills, through the use of doubling numbers. Through the use of partitioning, the children are gaining confidence within this area. E.g. Double 65 = 120 + 10 = 130.
The children have enjoyed playing this doubling game within class. Perhaps you could challenge their thinking at home?
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/num%20machine/double.html

Reminders

This week we have started to learn the songs for this years Christmas production ‘Santa’s on Strike’. Can we ask all children with speaking parts to be practising their lines at home and make sure they are reading with lots of fantastic expression. All the children have been given the song words so please get rehearsing at home!

If your child has not been given a speaking part, they will all be participating in the production through singing and dancing. Each class will be performing their own dance.

Mrs Moore’s class = ‘Reindeers’. Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-alice band’ headpiece.

Miss Thackeray’s class =‘Carol singings’. Please wear Christmas clothes, hats, scarves and gloves. Lanterns are optional.

Miss Nicholls’ class = Domestic jobbers. Please wear Christmas clothes, an apron, rubber gloves, hairnets and have a duster or feather duster at hand.

Santa = Santa should be portrayed in his traditional red suit and beard.

Mrs Santa = wearing red too, or perhaps a ‘homely’ costume including an apron, big slippers and a headscarf.

Rudolph = Please can they wear brown tights / leggings or track suit bottoms and a brown T – shirt. Please can they have ‘antlers-on-an-alice band’ headpiece and a red nose.

The elves = Colourful tunics/tabards, tights, pointed cloth hats and shoes, aprons etc are a good start, but feel free to experiment.

People playing the part of family members = Pyjamas, dressing gowns, coats and normal casual garments are all that is required. A bit of tailoring or borrowing from parents may be required for those playing adults

Thank you,

Team 3/4

UKS2 Newsletter
News Roundup

•This week’s Achiever of the Week goes to.... everyone in 5/6D for their fabulous sign language skills to our Celebration Assembly song ‘Proud’... you should all be very PROUD!

•The children should have brought home details of a planned trip to the theatre during the first week back after Christmas. We will be spending the whole day at the West Yorkshire Playhouse taking part in drama based activities in the morning and then watching a performance of Annie in the afternoon. Payment for the trip must be returned to school by Friday December 16th.

Numeracy: This week the children have been investigating the area of compound shapes as well as circles. We have applied our knowledge of the Grid Method to multiply numbers, including decimals. Next week we will be consolidating our knowledge around this and other calculation methods and then applying all of the skills we have learnt so far this year.
Home learning: Times Table Challenge will be taking place in a few weeks’ time so 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.
Try the following website to get you up to speed with your times tables... for a real challenge, why not try this at zero seconds!!!!:
http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/bingo/caller/caller.html

Literacy
This week we have been applying a personal touch to our persuasive writing by planning and drafting a letter to ask a celebrity to come and perform at our Christmas Party. We have also looked at using superlatives within our sentences to really make the celebrity feel like they are ‘the best!’
Home Learning: This week’s spellings are linked to our DT unit starting next week: construction, modification, improvement, prototype, structure, technicalities, dowelling, flexibility, life-sized, variety.

Other areas of the curriculum:
In Topic we have been preparing a speech in order to pitch our invention idea to the Dragons from Dragon’s Den. We have also created a persuasive poster to advertise the same products. They looked A-MA-ZING!!!!
In Music Mrs Brook’s class have been perfecting their performance of Silent Night on the recorders. Miss Gascoigne’s class have been continuing to create mash-ups of popular Christmas songs using Garageband. Miss Darroch’s class have been learning sign language to a popular Christmas carol. Look out for these performances in assembly over the next few weeks.

5/6D http://robinhood56d.blogspot.com/
Visit our Blogs! 5/6G http://robinhood56g.blogspot.com/
5/6B http://robinhood56b.blogspot.com/

Next PTA meeting

Thursday 24th at 6.30pm at the Halfway House
Everyone is encouraged to go along to participate in the re-development of a new PTA.