Diamond Class

We are really excited to be welcoming your children into Year 5 this year.
The children have all returned to school with a really positive attitude and we are sure that we will have a successful year together. In line with our SHINE motto ‘Learn Together, Shine Forever’, we have gemstone names for each class. This Year 5 class will be known as Diamond Class.

A typical day in Year 5

When the children arrive, they’ll take part in a morning activity to ease them into the day. We then have Whole Class Guided Reading sessions, followed by Collective Worship with the rest of the school in the hall. After the Collective Worship, we have a maths session, which includes a fluency task, before break time. After break, the children have English followed by spellings or handwriting then it’s lunch time. In the afternoons, children will be taught a range of foundation subjects including History, Geography, Music, Art, DT, PE, PSHE, RE, Computing, French and Science.

Themes and values

Over the course of the year, we will be teaching three main themes. Within these themes, the children will be developing their knowledge, interests and skills to cover most of the curriculum areas. Additionally, our Ethos is rooted in our Christian values. These values permeate through our curriculum, behaviour and attitude toward one another.

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Theme	It’s all Greek to me!	We have Lift Off!	Roses, Rivers and Religion
Value	Hope Peace	Respect Forgiveness	Community Faith
The overarching value is Love

Trips and visitors

We place great importance on providing children with experiences that spark their curiosity and bring learning to life, in line with our R.E.A.L curriculum. In Year 5, the children will enjoy a variety of visits from guest speakers as well as trips in the local area and further afield. These opportunities are both exciting and valuable for their learning.

We do our best to keep costs as low as possible. Payments can usually be made through the Gateway App or via the school office. For larger trips, staggered payment options are available.

Homework

As with last year, children will be given weekly homework. This will include English homework which will improve their grammar and punctuation skills. They will also receive Maths homework which will include a range of questions to keep children’s fluency and recall skills up to date. The maths homework will be found on maths.co.uk and your child should have their own login details. Homework goes out on a Friday to be collected the following Wednesday.

Reading at home

We are using the same reading record format as last year which includes lots of prompts in the centre pages to support their writing, vocabulary and spelling too. We are continuing to put a lot of emphasis on reading this year. Please hear your child read at least four to five times a week (with three of those occasions being signed). Signed reading records need to come into school on Friday for teachers and teaching assistants to check. If we see three signed reading entries per week, your child will receive a star.

How else can you help your child at home?

Ask your child about that week’s concepts and give them a chance to explain their learning. We will also be providing a range of web links that children can access at home to support them with their learning. We anticipate that the children’s homework should take no longer than 20 minutes per subject. We ask for your support in providing children with a suitable environment for them to complete their homework in.

PE days

Diamond class will have PE on Mondays. Children should wear their school PE kit into school on that day – this should include a coloured t-shirt (in accordance with their house) and their school jumper. On colder days, they are more than welcome to wear joggers. If they are doing PE outside, an alternative jumper. Please see the school’s website for more details.

Equipment

Please ensure your child has a named water bottle in school. These should be taken home and washed every day. This should only contain water.
Please bring in a healthy snack for playtime, e.g. fruit or a cereal bar.
Please could you bring in a large, old t-shirt. This will be used for any art activities and can be kept in our class cupboards. Please make sure they are clearly named.

If you would like to volunteer to help with reading or our REAL curriculum activities, then please speak to a member of staff. Finally, if you have any questions, concerns or would like to speak to any member of the Year 5 team, we are available at the end of the day and will be more than happy to support you with anything that you need. Alternatively, you could email/phone the school admin team and they will pass along messages to us.

Many thanks

Mr Stanton, Miss Middleton & Mrs Tonkin

autumn-term-year-5-overview.pdf 1.43 MB