Welcome to Year 5

WELCOME TO Y5 Mrs Houghton, Mrs Selman, Mr Denholm, Mrs Dixon, Mrs Naylor and Miss Seddon

WELCOME TO Y5 • We are very lucky to have one of the new classrooms this year.

• Please feel free to have a look around our classrooms following the meeting. We will also be around if anyone has any questions.

DAYS TO REMEMBER • Y5H have PE on a Thursday and a Friday, Y5SD have PE on a Monday and a Thursday- please make sure children have the correct PE kit in school each week. We will send PE kits home for a freshen up each half-term. • Reading books can be changed every Monday and Thursday. • Y5 will visit the library on a Tuesday afternoon, children will be able to choose and change their library book to read during independent reading time in class. • Homework will be sent out on a Friday to be returned the following Friday. • Spellings will be set each week on a Friday and tested the following Friday. • Times Table challenge sessions are on a Monday afternoon for Y5H (Y5SD)- it would be great if children practised their times tables over the weekend. • Celebration assembly will take place on a Friday afternoon 2.25-2.45pm parents are invited to attend from 19th September 2014.

PE & HOMEWORK • If for any reason your child is unable to take part in PE or complete their homework they will need to bring in a note from home that has been signed by an adult. • Earrings must be removed for PE at all times, please make sure your child has taken their earring out for PE on their PE day.

NEW CURRICULUM-ENGLISH • In Y5 we will teach English everyday. The children will work through a range of objectives and activities taken from the new English curriculum.

• As part of the new curriculum children will be taught through a text that is age appropriate and challenging. • The new curriculum places a greater emphasis on children’s spoken English and encourages drama activities to be used on a regular basis. • It also requires children to be taught discrete sessions of spelling, punctuation and grammar. • Autumn Term Parent Workshops will be offered.

• Here is a copy of our timetable to show how English will look each day:

READING • Your child has been given a school reading book. Most of the children have chosen these for themselves. This must be taken home every night and brought into school every day. Your child should be aiming to read for at least 20 minutes each night, sometimes, but not all the time with an adult. • Their school reading record book should be completed by your child with a reflective comment about the book and signed by an adult to say they have read and feedback any difficulties or concerns within the week. They are allowed and encouraged to read other books (as well as their library book) of their own at home and these may also be noted in their reading record. • The wider the variety of reading material they experience, the better.

READING • Some children are now working at a level that means they have read all of our school reading scheme and are now on a home free reader. These can include books they have at home or books from our school/class library. • Guided reading happens everyday, each child will read with an adult twice per week. • Other activities during guided reading may include pre or post reading activities linked to a book they have read with an adult in school, comprehension tasks, paired reading, ERIC (Everyone Reading In Class) or a variety of interesting reading based activities. • Autumn Term Parent Workshops.

SPELLINGS • Every Friday, your child will bring home a list of 12 spellings to learn. These are to be practised at home, ready for a spelling test the following Friday. It might help if they decide to learn perhaps 2 words each night and then practise them all on the Thursday night before the test. (Read, Cover, Write, Check ) method is effective! • They will probably require some adult help with this, to check they understand the meaning of the word as well as the spelling. An older brother or sister could maybe help here. Children should write a sentence next to each spelling to show they can use this word in their writing correctly. This sentence should be correctly punctuated. • Autumn Term parent Workshops.

NEW CURRICULUM-MATHEMATICS • We will have at least one hour of mathematics each day in Y5, this session will teach objectives taken from the new curriculum. • Topics will be taught in a practical and fun way and time will be given for children to apply their knowledge independently through follow up problem solving activities later in the week. • Separate sessions will be dedicated to mental maths and the times table challenge. - Mathletics will be used as part of consolidation and can be accessed from home too. Certificates will be awarded in achievement assembly for gaining points throughout the week. - - Autumn Term parent Workshops.

TIMES TABLES • We must stress the importance of times table knowledge as this underpins a lot of the learning that will take place in Y5. We recommend that children spend 15 minutes each night practising their mental recall of times tables facts. • Once your child can confidently recall the multiplication fact of a chosen times table they should move on to practising another times table.

• Once your child can confidently recall facts up to 12 x 12, they should begin to learn the corresponding division facts to each times table e.g. If 12 x 12 = 144, 144 / 12 = 12. • We will send home a home – school Times Table challenge booklet to help your child to practise each times table fact.

LEARNING WALLS • Learning walls will be used as part of English and Mathematics to display helpful learning hooks for the children. • Learning walls allow children to refer back to what they need to include in their work. • They are also an interactive area that the children can take ownership of.

NEW CURRICULUM –COMPUTING ICT • ICT/Computing will be taught on a Thursday as a discrete lesson. Children will be taught from the new ICT curriculum that encompasses computing elements such as programming. • Children will have the opportunity to use the new ICT suite and facilities, laptops and iPads as part of their weekly timetable and Learning Challenge new curriculum.

LEARNING CHALLENGE CURRICULUM • In previous years the children have accessed foundation subjects such as history, geography and art as part of PLT (personalised learning time). This will now be called the ‘learning challenge curriculum’. • Children will be able to personalise their learning around a given context for learning choose which topics they would like to learn about. • Each topic context for learning will be introduced with a ‘WOW moment’ that will inspire and engage the children’s interests to learn more. • Here are the topics we will be learning about in Y5:

Y5 LEARNING CHALLENGE TOPICS What’s so special about the USA?

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Why should Were the gunpowder Anglo, treason Saxons and plot really never be smashing? forgotten? Printing Paul KleeAnglo houses of Saxon parliament patterns

How can Why should How could we rethe Hitler have discover rainforest convinced the be a nation wonders of important like Ancient to us all? Germany Egypt? to follow Rousseau him? Ancient Egyptian Paul Nash art

WOW MOMENTS…

•Each topic will be introduced with a ‘wow’ moment to inspire and engage the children. Here is our introduction to our ‘What’s so special about the USA?’ topic.

ART • The children will be taught art as part of the ‘Learning Challenge Curriculum’ and will focus on one art skill across the whole school each half term. • Could we please ask you to send in an art shirt (old large tshirt or shirt) that can be worn over your child’s uniform to protect it. • We would also appreciate any old yogurt pots or newspapers to help keep our new classrooms looking wonderful.

THE NEST AT NEWTON Nurture Group A nurture group is a small class of six to eight children which acts as a kind of bridge between home and school. It offers additional help for pupils within a small, structured ‘home like’ classroom. We incorporate curriculum activities although the majority of the learning is social, emotional, behavioural aspects of learning.

FINALLY We appreciate all the help you can give. I hope we can work together to make Year 5 a successful and enjoyable experience for your child. Teachers will be around on their classroom door each morning for any short messages that you want to pass on. If you wish to make an appointment after school to speak to your child’s class teacher please do so via the office, we are always happy to discuss any of your concerns or queries that you may have.

Mrs Houghton and Mrs Selman