Monday 14thSeptember 2015

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back! I hope you have had a lovely summer and enjoyed time as a family. It is great to see that the children are quickly getting back into routine at the start of this busy term. We are extremely lucky to have Mrs Corbett working with us each morning. As we begin the new school year I would like to outline the key areas of learning for this term as well as some useful information and dates for you.

The areas of learning that we will be covering this term:

Subject / Overview
English /
  • Reports
  • Autobiographies
  • Setting description
  • Adventure stories
  • Poetic style

Maths /
  • Place value
  • Addition and Subtraction
  • Multiplication and division
  • Negative numbers
  • Fractions and decimals – ordering and finding equivalents

Science /
  • The Earth, Sun and Moon
  • Forces

History / Anglo-Saxons and Scots
  • Life as a Saxon settler
  • Anglo-Saxon leaders
  • Armies and invasions leading up to 1066.

Geography / Hills, Mountains and Earthquakes
  • Identifying features
  • Locating on a map.
  • Changes over time.

DT / Slippers
  • Designing and producing a product

Art /
  • Looking at the local church, make comparisons with other great buildings.
  • Drawing from observation to increase awareness and use of perspective.

RE / Hinduism
  • Developing an understanding of the Hindu faith and beliefs

Music /
  • Steel panning
  • Using rhythmic ostinai to develop an accompaniment to create variations.
  • Looking at the progression of vocal music throughout history.

ICT / Touse a variable to increase programming possibilitiesanduse ‘if’ and ‘then’ commands to select an action. Todecompose a problem into smaller parts, to design an algorithm fora specific outcome and use this to write a program.
Life Skills / Life Skills: Employability and enterprise skills including career optionsand personal presentation techniques.
PE / Specialist dance
Gymnastics
  • Developing sequences
  • Evaluating performances
Tag Rugby – Team games and interception sklls
Outdoor Education / Environmental studies at Path Hill, Whitchurch

Specialist Teachers

We are fortunate enough to have many specialist teachers across the school. In year five the children will continue to have Music, Drama and Dance on a Friday afternoon. These sessions will be taught by Miss Watson, Carrie Jones and Debbie Camp. Madame Ison will teach French language and cultural studies one afternoon per week. The children will also continue to learn to play the steel pans with Mary Genis and Danny on a Tuesday morning and I am looking forward to learning with them!

Homework

Homework will be set on a Thursday and is to be handed in the following Monday please. This will include weekly spellings and times tables. Please assist your child with their spellings and times tables as someone to test them on their words or tables is hugely beneficial.

Physical Education

The children will have PE on alternate Wednesdays, as well as weekly dance lessons with Debbie and their alternate weekly Outdoor Learning sessions on Mondays. Please ensure that your child’s PE kit is in school all week to allow for any timetable changes. Within their PE kit, the children should have shorts, a white t-shirt and plimsolls for indoor PE and tracksuit bottoms, a sweatshirt and trainers for outdoor PE. They should also have a change of socks. This is especially important for girls who will need to change from tights within PE lessons. Can I please also ask that, for safety reasons, any ear-rings/studs are removed for all PE activities as soon as is possible after any initial piercing. Only during the ‘healing’ period will children be allowed to wear tape to cover these.

Outdoor Education

This year Outdoor Education will take place on alternate Monday afternoons, the dates are as follows;Monday 21st September, Monday 5th and 19th October and Monday 9th and 23rd November.

Please could you ensure that on the above dates your child has their outdoor learning clothes. This should include: wellies, tracksuit bottoms or leggings, warm socks, a warm jumper, a waterproof coat and gloves and a hat, when necessary.

Water Bottles

Children are kindly requested to bring a bottle containing water which they will have access to throughout the day. We ask for it to be water in particular as squash can be very sticky when spilt. Having water readily available also helps to support our Healthy Schools initiative. The children may however have a separate drink of squash or similar (no fizzy drinks please) in their lunchbox. Thank you in advance for your support in this matter.

Uniform

Thank you for returning your child to school looking so presentable. The smart appearance of our children is often noted by the public. It is school policy that children should tie their hair up if it is long enough due to health and safety requirements. We also request that children do not have any unnatural colours or extreme styles, i.e. no stripes or shapes cut into their hair.

I am really looking forward to teaching your child this year. If you feel that you could offer some time to come in and help in class or with readers, or you have any specific skills that you could offer us, please come and let me know.

I hope this information will be useful to you. If you feel you have any questions, my door is always open before and after school. Thank you in advance for your support.

Yours sincerely,

Maria Butler

Year 5 Class teacher