Autumn Term

Welcome to a new academic year. Year 5 is a very eventful and important year, as we will be covering all writing genres and maths topics in preparation for Year 6, not to mention our Paris trip to see our pen-friends in the summer term.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us. Please also see the school website for school dates.

English

This term in English, we will be exploring different authors and genres in reading and writing with a focus on ‘Talk for Writing’. We will be looking at familiar stories which we will use as a stimulus for children to write their own stories. It is therefore very important for y our child/children to read every day at home, as this will expand their vocabulary and give them the tools to be successful writers.

Even though yo ur child is now in Year 5, s/he will still benefit greatly from reading with and discussing texts with you. Children will take a book of t heir choice from the class library to read at their leisure at home.

Our English pro gramme includes: Talk for Writing, Destination Reader, weekly grammar practice and learning new sentence types, with a focus on punctuation. We will continue to work on spelling strategies with weekly spelling tests.

Topic

In our exciting cross curricular topic ‘Off with Her Head!’, we will be travelling back in time to the 1500s where we will meet the terrifying Tudors, a domineering dynasty that changed our history. As detectives we will be exploring what sort of man would order the beheading o f his wife and answer the question: ‘Was she really that bad?’

RE

In our first RE to pic we will be learning about The Bible: “What Is The Bible’s ‘Big Story’ and What Does It Reveal About Having Faith in God?” In Autumn 2 we will explore the festival of Christmas through music and art, with the question: How do Art and Music convey Christmas?

Homework

Homework will go out on Mondays and should be returned on Fridays. Homework will consist of spellings, sentence and grammar tasks, maths acti vity and learning of times tables. Spelling and times tables tests will take place on Friday mornings. At half term, children will be given a longer topic research project task. Children are expected to read at home every day for at least 20 minutes. Books can be borrowed from their class library.

Science

Our science topic this term is Marvellous Mixtures. We will be exp loring properties and the changing states of mater ials. We will be dissolving, separating and investigatin g reversible and irreversible changes. Lessons will inv olve predicting, carrying out fair tests, recording resu lts and drawing conclusions and modifying expe riments. There will also be a focus on how materials behave in the world around them and working scientifically.

Maths

In maths this term we will be looking at place value, the number system, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division. We will be looking for children to develop their depth of understanding in these areas. Lessons will be very practical to embed abstract concepts.

In addition to this, children will be participating in maths fluency sessions to consolidate mental strategies and quick recall. Instant interventions to close gaps will take place in class time.

PE

PE will be on Wednesday mornings and swimming will take place on Thursdays mornings at the Park Road Leisure Centre. Please make sure your child has correct PE kit in school all week and swimming kit on Thursdays. Turquoise Class will leave school at 8.30am promptly to get to the pool on time for our 9.00am lesson. Please make sure your child has any medication, including inhalers at school. Children are encouraged to bring a healthy snack – fruit or a cereal bar – and a drink of water which they can have on the walk back to school. A letter detailing correct swimwear and swim kit was sent home last week.