Year 5 2024 - 2025

Summer Term

Hello and welcome to our Year 5 class page - 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, assisted by highly skilled Mrs Rickett and Mrs Finch.

Topic

During this term, we will be learning all about the history of our home, Ellesmere Port.  Alongside developing key historical skills such as chronology and source evaluation, we will be enriching our curriculum through a visit to Ellesmere Port Boat Museum to investigate the question, ‘was Ellesmere Port once the most important town in the world?’ Furthermore, we will be organising a local walk through Rivacre Valley studying ordnance survey symbols and the key features of a stream as well as visiting Little Sutton library to study different sources on the growth of Ellesmere Port and the importance industry has played.  We will also build on our learning from Year 2 by learning more about the importance of the Shropshire Union Canal and Manchester Ship Canal.

English

In English, following on from our work on Young, Gifted and Black, we will be thinking about our local environment and using the text Paperbag Prince by Colin Thompson to create persuasive leaflets to the local council to help us clean up our town.  Through this unit, we will be developing our knowledge of persuasive devices, rhetorical questions and editing our writing to ensure we are being precise with our vocabulary choices and minimalising errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. We will also explore the text The Brilliant Deep by Kate Messner which is a beautifully illustrated biographical tale telling the story of Ken Nedimyer and his brilliant idea to save coral reefs. It shares the power of one: one person, one idea to make a difference in the world.  We will link this idea to our work on conservation within our village and town.

Maths

During Summer term, we will be building on our understanding of fractions when we develop our understanding of decimals to two decimal places and percentages.  Any child who has struggled with their work on fractions can be supported through the assessment materials found on our Google Classroom page.  We will then move onto area and perimeter – in which the children will be drawing links to the work they did on addition and subtraction and also multiplication earlier on in the year.

We will end the academic year with units on statistics, shape, direction and some cross curricular work on negative numbers and graphs (linked to our topic).

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 be studying Life in the Risen Christ.  In this topic the children will understand the Jesus is risen from the dead and is present to us in different ways. They will hear the story of Jesus appearance to Mary of Magdala and they will have an opportunity to learn about different ways of praying and Jesus’ teaching and example of prayer. We will end the year by learning about other faiths, and in this unit we will learn about some of the similarities and differences that exist between Christianity and other world faiths.

Homework

At home, there are many 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 or online through the Atom Learning homework portal. 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 (even if they are free readers) as we strive to improve inference, deduction, intonation, and basic oracy skills.  Reading makes the curriculum accessible, and I cannot stress enough the importance of your child reading daily at home. 

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.

Your child will have weekly spellings which are pertinent to their needs and curriculum expectations which will be written in their planners of a Friday (and also uploaded onto Google Classroom weekly should your child be absent).  Children will have a week of learning their spellings in school and at home before a spelling assessment the following Friday.

PE Days

Tuesday afternoon: with Mr Campbell

Friday afternoon: with Miss Rickett

Please make sure that your child comes to school with the correct equipment 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 Mrs Elliott from Edsential Musical Routes. 

The children will receive their instruments within the first two weeks of term and violin 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:

19th September 2024

14th November 2024

23rd January 2025

13th March 2025

8th May 2025

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. 

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