UKS2 Newsletter – Spring 1 2018

Happy New Year and welcome back to a new term to all of our year 5 & 6 families.

Learning

Our topic this term is Victorian Inventions – a chance for children to learn key dates and figures from the period as well as explore the impact that the developments of the period have had on our lives. In Science, we will be learning about Electricity and Circuits, with a link to the developments and discoveries of the Victorian period. All classes will be exploring the story of the Little Matchgirl in English, ultimately writing our own narratives set in the Victorian period.In Maths, year 5 will begin the term with a unit on Multiplication and Division written methods before moving on to Fractions and Decimals. Meanwhile, year 6 will be covering Decimals, Percentages and Algebra.

Trips / dates

Unfortunately, our planned trip to Milestones Museum in Basingstoke this term has had to be cancelled due to thefinancial loss made on our recent visit to the Mandir as a result of non-payments. If you are interested in taking your child along to the museum yourselves, they have a lot to offer linking to this term’s Victorian topic that would help to further enhance our learning at school.

This term’s UKS2 class assemblies will be held on:

-Rowan Class – Tuesday 16th January

-Hawthorn Class – Tuesday 30th January

-Hazel Class – Tuesday 20th February

-Sycamore Class –Tuesday 6th March

All parents, carers and family members are invited to attend our end-of-topic Exit Point event on the afternoon of Monday 5th February. This will be a chance for the children to share their learning from throughout the term with you all. More information to follow nearer the time.

SATs

With End of Key Stage 2 Assessments coming up in May for year 6 pupils, we are beginning to increase our support to help the children prepare for this. Although these tests are important, we do our best to reduce pressure for the children and make the experience as normal and low-key as possible. A presentation to parents is being held in Mapledurum Hall on Thursday 11th January at 6pm to provide you with further details of what the tests will look like, when they will take place, and how we will approach the tests at school. Please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher if you have any further questions or concerns in the lead up to these assessments.

Home Learning

New home learning tasks for the term will soon be sent home, with exciting new projects for children to complete linked to their topic – these are due in on Monday 5th February.Weekly English and MyMaths homework will continue to be set every Monday.

A plea

If anyone has any film canisters or matchboxes spare at home that they would be happy to give to us to help us with our learning this term, please send them into school where they will be much appreciated.

Many thanks once again for your continued support and do pop in to speak to any of us if we can do anything tohelp.

Kind regards,

Mrs Natalie Napper