Welcome to Year 5!

Year 5 can be a calm and studious year; a year to embed all of the knowledge learnt in lower Key Stage 2; a year to start the preparations for transition to secondary school. But is also a year where children  show us their individuality and creativity and their personalities really shine 

This is often a year when children grow in maturity – sometimes even more so than in their final year in primary. They gain a greater independence and confidence from being given more responsibility in their learning.

Children in Year 5 are increasingly encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning: to do their homework, to pack their school bag, to remember their PE kits. And they develop and grow as a result. It is about encouraging independence in preparation for bigger things to come. We love teaching Year 5 and are excited to share the year with our fantastic group of children! 

This half term our focus will be life in Ancient Greece and the legacy left to us from this incredible period in history.

With this history focus, we will aim to answer some questions about how some aspects our modern lives have been influenced by bygone eras. 

Our writing focus will be around the myths of ancient Greece and especially the well known myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.  We will hope to not only discover the importance of Greek heroes, villains and fantastic creatures, but also the often overlooked role of women at this time. 

In art and design we will continue to develop our technical skills while ensuring we incorporate the artistic flavours of this influential era. 

Science and SRE

The health and well-being of our pupils is an important part of our pupils’ overall education. This is taught through our Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) course. This looks at many topics including all kinds of relationships, physical / emotional health and living in the wider world. The aim of the SRE course is to help our pupils make safe and informed decisions during their school years and beyond.

We will be teaching 4 lessons about SRE this half term, which will include topics such as puberty and the changes that our bodies go through including menstruation. During the course, pupils
will be able to anonymously ask questions in our ‘Ask it Basket,’ which will be answered factually and in an age appropriate manner. Each pupil's privacy will be respected, and no one will be asked to reveal personal information.

Further topics such as conception and intercourse will not be discussed in this year group.

Reading

It is vital your children read as much as possible at home as well in school.  Please sign your children's reading records regularly.  If you sign it 3 times in a week, they will receive a raffle ticket. At the end of every 3 week cycle, the reading prize trolley will make a tour of the school and raffle ticket winners will be picked. There are some beautiful prizes.  Remember, we have fantastic resources like Bug Club which all the children have log ins for and can use at home and will be using in school. After we have spoken with you at parents evening, we will also release all the login details for our new Reading Plus scheme. 

Homework

This will go home every Friday on the Homework letter and will consist of either a spelling pattern to practise or a list of words to learn.  The weekly spelling rule is practised all week in class so it's important that the children are learning it at home too. In addition, a maths or a SPaG task should also been completed. This will be clearly presented on the homework sheet along with any other important messages for the coming week.

PE

PE is timetabled for Wednesdays and Fridays but there will be times when we can fit in PE slots on different days so it is a good idea for your child to have PE kit in school all week.