Year 5 2023 - 2024

Autumn Term 2023

Hello and welcome to our Year 5 class page.  On here you will find everything you need to know about what your child is learning at school. 

My name is Mr Campbell and I will be your child’s teacher this year and I will be assisted by highly skilled Mrs Rickett and Mrs Turley.

Topic

During this term, we will be learning all about our early settlers, the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings.  Alongside developing key historical skills such as chronology and source evaluation, we will be enriching our curriculum through preparing and cooking Anglo-Saxon food during Forest School.  Undoubtedly, the children will enjoy our cross-curricular approach to this topic as we establish which paints and colours would have been used for decorating our own Saxon jewellery and how the language introduced by the Vikings is still very evident today in the names of our town, cities and counties.

English

In English, we will be building on the skills we have developed in Year 4 with a real focus on edit and improving the basics.  We will strive to become more consistent in our use of full stops, commas and capital letters, whilst securing our understanding of different sentence types.  We will mainly be following two texts through the autumn – Beowulf and Lost Happy Endings.  Through our work on Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo, we will be using our narrative skills and imagination to write a further adventure for the mythical Nordic creature, inventing our own monsters and incorporating motives and viewpoints for them.   Whilst our work on Lost Happy Endings by Carol Anne Duffy and Jane Ray will see us plan and compose a traditional tale focusing on describing settings, characters and an alternative ending. During this term there will also be a big focus on oracy and developing our speaking and listening skills.

Maths

During Autumn term, there will be a big emphasis on basic skills in mathematics.  As this cohort of children have recently sat their MTC multiplication check, I am looking forward to working with them on developing some key concepts which require a solid foundation knowledge of times tables.  Initially, the children will be exploring the place value of numbers up to, and beyond, one million.  They will be reading, writing and interpreting the value of increasingly large numbers and this will take a level of resilience as the children grapple with expanded place value charts.  The children will move on when they are secure to develop their understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in the lead up to Advent and Christmas.  As is always the case, regular assessment checks will be made and interventions will be put in place for any child who is struggling with gaps in their knowledge.

Religious Education

In RE this term, we will start the year by learning about the meaning of our school Mission Statement - Love Jesus, Love Learning, Love Life - alongside developing our understanding of Creation.  We will then move onto reflecting on the life of one of our most important prophets, Moses.  We will discuss his difficult birth in Egypt before studying his courage in setting the Israelite people free and learning of how God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai when he felt as if all hope may be lost.

To end the term, we will be thinking of people who are inspirational to us and linking them to the heroic work and beliefs of Saint Vincent De Paul.  

Homework

At home, there are many different ways in which you can support your child with their learning this year. Each week, Google Classroom will have details of reinforcement activities that can be completed in Home Learning books. There are also the Spelling Shed and Times Table Rockstars apps that the children are warmly invited to use as regularly as possible.

Children should also continue to read every night and to have their reading logged in their reading record each time.  It is imperative that pupils read aloud regardless of their book band level.   Should I find a particular area of weakness in which I feel a child needs more work, I will note this in their planner along with an activity to help support them.

Children's planners will note when your child has read in school with an adult as well as times when your child has partaken in a Guided Reading group session and sometimes next steps will be suggested for you to best support your child at home.  All parents and carers are asked to sign page 4 in your child's planner which sets out our homework expectations for the year.

Children will have weekly spellings which are pertinent to their spelling needs and these will be written in their planners of a Friday.  Children will have a week of learning their spellings in school and at home before a spelling assessment the following Friday.

PE Days

Tuesday morning with Mr Campbell/Mrs Rickett

Friday afternoon with Mr Campbell/Mrs Rickett

Please make sure that your child comes to school in their PE kits on these days.

Music

In Year 5, the children have the wonderful opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument.  These sessions will be led by our violin tutor Miss Sherwood from Edsential Musical Routes.  Her expertise is second to none and we now have several Year 6 children who have opted to continue violin tuition this year.

Pupils will receive their instruments within the first two weeks of term and violin lessons will take place of a Thursday afternoon.  It is therefore vital that the children remember to bring their instrument into school with them every Thursday unless stated otherwise.

To keep the violins tuned and well looked after, please ensure that they are kept in a safe space which isn't too hot (like near a radiator) or somewhere that is too cold (for example the boot of a car in the winter months).

Forest School

Unless stated otherwise, our Forest School dates for this year are as follows:

Thursday 14^th September 2023

Thursday 16^th November 2023

Thursday 25^th January 2024

Thursday 14^th March 2024

Thursday 16^th May 2024

Please ensure that your child comes to school on these days dressed accordingly to the weather forecast in old clothes which you don’t mind getting dirty.  During the winter months, it will be imperative that the children are wrapped up with multiple layers and wear boots/old shoes.

Open invitation

You are always welcome to chat with myself after school, or to make an appointment.  Thank you once more for your ongoing support.  Together everyone achieves more, so it is much appreciated.

Mr Campbell

Year 5 Teacher & Deputy Headteacher