Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Happy New Year and welcome back. I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and NewYear.

 

We are excited to welcome the children back and start our learning for the first part of the Spring Term!

 

On Wednesday 8th January we are lucky to be starting our term with a visitor who is going to lead a workshop for the morning about Climate change and freshwater systems – linking to our Geography work on Rivers last term. Hayley, who is running the workshop, works for Cornwall Climate Care. Cornwall Climate Care are a charity and provide the workshop for free – however if you able to send in a small donation to donate it would be much appreciated.

 

In History, our focus will be on Ancient Greeks. We will be focussing on the Golden Era of this ancient civilisations and considering the project question ‘What did the Greeks ever do for us?’. We will begin by creating our own timelines of the Greek eras while also considering what else was happening across the globe at the time of the Ancient Greeks. We will be investigating the city-states of Athens and Sparta to identify similarities and differences between them, learning about democracy and assessing the legacy of the Ancient Greeks.

 

In English, we will be reading ‘Who Let the Gods Out’ by Maz Evans. Our narrative writing unit will be based on the book.We will be exploring characters, using figurative language and learning how to build suspense and tension through sentence structure. Children will plan, write and edit their own story inspired by our class book.

 

We are really going to be focussing on ensuring the children are writing to their full potential – children will be given individual targets, so they are able to ensure they know what needs to be done to take their writing to the next level! We will also work to develop strategies of answering written reading comprehension questions.

 

In Maths, we will complete our multiplication and division unit before moving onto the first of two fraction units. Our focus of the term for key instant recall facts is to know the doubles and halves of all two-digit numbers. We will continue to focus on developing and maintaining instant recall of times tables up to 12 x 12 beginning with recap of the 8 times table. We recommend regular practice at home, whether through games, songs, or timed challenges, to make this process enjoyable and effective.

For more information on curriculum areas please see project map which I will share on Class Dojo.

 

PE/Outdoor Learning

PE will be continue to be on Monday with Mr Bain/Mrs Hunter and on Fridays with Mr Bain. We will be covering units on dance and football.

 

Children need a pair of wellies or outdoor shoes (separate to shoes worn inside) in school if they wish to go on the field during playtime.

 

The children will also have an outdoor learning session on Friday so please provide your child with appropriate clothing for the day, such as waterproofs and wellies. Hats and gloves also recommended as winter continues – it is very handy if all these items are name labelled. Children can continue to come into school wearing their PE kit on these days.

 

Porthpean Residential

More information about deposit and instalments will be sent out very soon – please keep an eye out for details which will be shared on ClassDojo. Desposits/payments will be made via ParentPay.

 

Supporting your child at home

 

• Reading is possibly the single-most important activity your child can do to improve achievement in school, across a range of curriculum subjects. Please encourage your child to read for a minimum of 10-15minutes (ideally half an hour) at least 3 times a week – we will be looking at reading records regularly and encouraging children to use them to record their reading in school and at home.

• Time Tables -secure knowledge of the times tables facts (and the related division facts) up to 12 x 12 underpins the majority of the Year 5 and 6 Maths curriculum, and working on these can really boost progress and fluency. If your child if not yet confident with their times tables, please support them in learning and practicing them.  Each child has a personal login for Times Tables Rockstars and I would highly recommend regular practice by visiting https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student or downloading app. Children can also listen to songs and play other games online to make times tables fun to practise.

 

Thank you for all your kindness and support during the challenges of last term. We hope this term will be much more settled. If you have any questions or require any additional resources, please do not hesitate to reach out via ClassDojo or email shunter@stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk.

 

Warm regards,

 

Mrs Sarah Hunter and the Year 5 Team