Year Five
Newsletters
Autumn Newsletter - September 2024
Summer Newsletter - April 2024
Spring 2024
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YEAR 5
Welcome back and a very happy and healthy new year to you all. We hope you had a restful and enjoyable Christmas. We are excited to welcome back your children to school and continue their learning journey in 2024.
Expectations:
• Please aim to have your children in school for 8.45am so they can make the best start to their school day. Your child will be registered late if they arrive in class at 9:00am. • Please ensure the children are promptly picked up at 3:25pm via the far door in the main playground. The office must be notified if you are allowing your child to walk home alone. • Children should have their ties done up smartly, with their shirts tucked in. If hair is longer than shoulder length, it should be tied back using a black, white or red hairband. No jewellery is permitted in school, including earrings.
• Please ensure children do not bring to school any toys or pens – we will provide all equipment they need.
Topics taught this first half term
RE:
• In Religious Education this term, the children will be following ‘The Way, The Truth and the Life’ series and focusing on Inspirational People. The children will be investigating the lives of St Josephine Bakhita, St Damien and Fr Arrupe to find out how have been inspired by Gospel values and how they can inspire us.
English:
• We will be focussing on formal letter writing in the first two weeks which will culminate with the children writing their own formal letter. We will then move onto a unit focussing on playscripts where the children will look at Shakespeare and have the opportunity to write their own playscripts.
• Your child should be reading aloud to an adult at home at least three times a week. Please sign their reading record to show us this is happening. Please discuss your child’s book: there are a variety of questions and activities printed at the front of their reading record book. This will help them to develop their critical thinking skills and comprehension.
Maths:
• This term children will be covering multiplication and division as well as fractions and decimals later in the term.
• Children must log in to Times Tables Rockstars (TTRS) at least once a week as part of their weekly Mathematics homework.
Science:
• Children will be studying the topic of Forces - exploring this through a range of experiments.
History:
• The topic this term is Ancient Greece; children will be looking at different historical sources to find out about life in Ancient Greece.
Design Technology
• The topic is textiles and children will design and make a small stuffed toy, using applique and sewing skills.
PE
• PE is on Fridays, so please ensure children bring their PE kit to school at the beginning of the week.
• This half term PE will mostly be taught in the school hall as the children will be doing gymnastics. However, there may be times when your child will be outside. Please ensure your children are prepared by sending in the school’s winter tracksuit.
• Please make sure all uniform is clearly labelled including school bags. P.E kits consists of dark plain trainers, blue shorts, white t-shirt and socks and dark coloured trainers.
Homework
• Homework is set on Thursday and is to be completed for the following Tuesday when it is marked. Spelling tests are on Tuesdays and will be based on homework spellings.
• All homework books have a copy of the homework policy inside the front cover. Please remember to check over and sign your child’s homework so we know that you have seen it.
If you have any concerns or anything you would like to discuss, please email the school office who will forward all communication to us.
Finally, thank you for everything you already do to support your child with their learning and wellbeing – it really does make a difference.
Mrs Selwyn, Miss Webb Miss McCaul
St Elizabeth Class Teachers St Patrick Class Teacher
ST ELIZABETH’S & ST PATRICK’S CLASS NEWSLETTER
Dear Parents,
I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter break. We are now in the last term of Year Five and Year Six is quickly approaching! The children worked extremely hard over the Spring term.
As expectations take another step up this term, the children must continue to keep focused and be the very best version of themselves!
Topics taught this half term
English
During English this term, we will be looking at the narrative poem, ‘The Highwayman.’ It is a sophisticated text which includes a wide range of figurative language. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the children to expand their vocabulary and develop skills in describing characters and settings with precision. The children are being increasingly encouraged to use higher level punctuation including commas, dashes, brackets and semi-colons as well as relative and subordinate clauses to add detail.
Maths
During Maths this term, we will be completing perimeter and area and moving onto statistics as well as geometry. We will move onto geometry towards the end of the academic year. Please continue to support your children with their times tables at home to develop fluency and confidence. Please could you also remind your children to make full use of the ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ app/website.
RE/Humanities/Science
In Religious Education this term, we will be following The Way, The Truth and The Life series and focusing on Life in the Risen Jesus.
In Science this term, we will be studying Living things and their habitats.
In History, our topic is Benin.
In DT, we are creating a French Salad in line with our topic ‘Celebrating Culture and Seasonality.
Homework
Every Friday your child will be given homework to complete for the following Wednesday. It is important that homework is always handed in on time with a signature to confirm it has been checked by an adult at home. Please help your child learn the spellings they are set, ready for the weekly spelling tests (on Fridays).
Children should be reading to an adult at least three times per week. Please continue to ask your child a range of questions about the book they are reading and encourage them to read books of different genres.
Children should also log into their Doodle account to revise grammar skills and spellings.
PE
We will continue to have PE on a Friday so please ensure they bring their PE kit to school at the beginning of the week. Please ensure that all items of clothing are properly labelled as this will help us to find it promptly if it goes missing.
As always, please do not hesitate to see us at the end of the day or contact us through the office if you have any questions or require any support with your child’s learning. Finally, thank you all for your continued support with reading and homework at home. It really does make a difference!
Yours sincerely,
FIONA HALL MARY-ANN OKEREKE
Class Teacher Class Teacher