Welcome to Year 5!

Year 5 is taught by Ms Candlish, Mrs Davies and Mrs Liana-Stellmach.

Our PE days for Term 1 are Tuesday and Thursday. Please come to school wearing your school PE kit on these days, bringing school shoes in a separate bag to change into indoors if it is wet/muddy. Our PE in Term 1 will be netball and tag rugby.

Our 'Drop Everything and Read' day is Tuesday. Parents are invited to come into class and read with their child until the register is taken just before 9am. Please sign in at the school office in plenty of time, if attending and please remember to leave, with a school adult, via the office so that you can sign out too!

This term's Forest School session will be held on Thursday 18th September. In order to participate fully in the session, please ensure that wellies and a waterproof coat are brought into school on that day (whatever the weather) and come dressed in comfortable, full-length trousers, and a top with long sleeves as we will be going into The Meadow. Please ensure snacks are in a lidded container.

It is very useful to also have a spare change of clothes which can be kept on your peg in the cloakroom. Waterproof coats and wellies need to be in school to maximise play times.

Our topic across terms 1 and 2 is called 'Peasants, Princes and Pestilence'. We will gallop through the dark and deadly world of 14th century Britain, sword and shield at the ready, discovering the grotesque effects of bugs and bacteria on the human body along the way.

In English, we will focus on poetry and reading aloud initially, before moving onto our first fiction writing unit, the 'defeating the monster' tale, ‘Beowulf'.

Our topic work will also flow through our wider curriculum as we explore:

• In Science we'll investigate the wider properties of materials and their uses. We'll learn about mixtures and how they can be separated using sieving, filtration and evaporation. We'll also look at reversible and irreversible changes, and use common indicators to identify irreversible changes.
• In E-Safety, pupils will be learning about the online reputation and will consider ways that information about anyone online can be used by others to make judgments about an individual and why these may be incorrect.
• In Computing, pupils will use their knowledge to modify existing animations and games using repetition. 
• MfL - we shall recap number, months and learning how to say the date in French.
• In Art and DT, we’ll learn about colour theory by studying tints, shades and tones, then learn about the features of landscapes before using this knowledge to create landscape paintings. 
   

This term, maths focuses on number and place value; mental addition and subtraction and mental multiplication and division. We'll keep going with our times tables too!

Useful links to support spelling at home:

BBC Bitesize

DoodleMaths and DoodleTables

Practise times tables with Sumdog

Homework

✏️ Spelling Homework

Each child has a spelling book to practise words and patterns learned in school.

🗂️ At the start of each half-term:

• A list of spelling patterns and statutory/common exception words will be added to the book.

🧠 Practise at home:
Children should practise their spellings each week using a variety of methods in their book or using Spelling Shed (online). Examples include:

🎨 Fun Spelling Strategies

• ✅ Look, Cover, Write, Check
• ✍️ Pyramid Writing (e.g. s, sp, spe, spel, spell)
• ✂️ Cut & Match words with meanings
• 🧠 Make Silly Sentences using your spelling words
• 🎮 Play on Spelling Shed – fun interactive games!

📅 Weekly Quizzes:
Spelling quizzes take place during lessons and review both current and past spelling patterns. This helps teachers identify any areas for revision.

📖 Reading at Home

We encourage children to read 3–5 times per week with an adult.

👨‍👩‍👧 How you can help:

• 🖊️ Sign the reading record with the date and your signature
• 💬 Add a comment if you’d like to share anything about your child’s reading

📘 Reading records are checked weekly by the class teacher every Thursday, which is also our library day.

Maths

DoodleMaths

• 2 compulsory assignments per week set Friday-Friday - Please ensure that this is completed independently to give a true reflection of your child's understanding.
• One assignment will consolidate the week's learning.
• One assignment as a pre-teach for the following week based on previous learning to ensure that your child is reading to progress.
• Your child can also complete their daily questions as an optional extra to ensure a broad practice of maths skills and work on areas they find tricky.