Welcome to Beech Class - Year 5

The teacher in Year 5 is Mrs G S

Learning Support Assistants:

Mr Beckett and Ms Brown

Important Information

P.E

Monday and Friday

Please ensure you come to school in P.E kit on these days.

Forest School and Music - alternate Wednesdays (see rota below)

For Forest School, please ensure you have waterproofs to cover your PE clothes and wellies.

Curriculum information

Autumn Term Topic: Out of this World!

In Autumn 2, we are moving on to reading 'Street Child' by Berlie Doherty.  There are enough copies of this in school unless your child would specifically like their own copy, in which case they are welcome to bring it in.  

Reading is such an important skill: it really unlocks all areas of the curriculum. We would ask parents to hear their child read at least three times a week (but ideally daily), 5-10 minutes a night is all that is needed.  As well as supporting your child read words, it is also useful to ask questions and check your child’s understanding of the text. In class, we will be practising a variety of comprehension (VIPERS) skills including: inferencing, predicting, explaining and retrieving.

English 

We will be looking closely at our core text mentioned above and picking out and learning important spelling, punctuation and grammar rules such Preposition and Prepositional phrases, Ellipsis and Comparing and Contrasting Conjunctions.  We will also be revisiting some of our Autumn 1 SPAG features such as Parenthesis as revisiting our learning helps to reinforce and enhance it.  

We will use 'Street Child' (and occasionally other contexts) as a springboard for extended writing sessions, ('Big Write' on Friday), where we will consider a variety of different purposes for writing.  This term, we start off by writing a Non Chronological Report and a Letter. 

Mrs Duffy will continue to expertly guide the children through the spellings using our 'Rising Stars' programme and other methods each week.   Mrs GS will continue to practise handwriting with the children in the session that follows. 

Maths

Autumn Term focuses on Fractions - continuing to follow the excellent 'White Rose Maths' scheme.  We will also have a weekly times table lesson.  Please continue to support your children’s learning of times tables by regularly allowing them to play 'TT Rock Stars' or any other method that suits your child.  As you should be aware from a recent Parentmail, we will participate in 'England Rocks' a 'TT Rock Stars' competition in mid November.  

Science 

In Science, we are looking at Space, including the Solar System, the Planets, the motion of Planet Earth and the Planets, Night and Day and the Moon.  

R.E.

Following our brilliant trip to the church at the end of Autumn 1, we continue to explore different 'Rites of Passage', focusing in particular on our own experiences and drawing comparisons between different people and religions in terms of their values, commitments and core beliefs.  We will think about our school values and how these relate to our learning here.  

P.E

We will have P.E. every Monday and Friday so children will need to come to school in their PE kit on those days.  In the Autumn 2, we will be playing Hockey - using brand new hockey sticks - and Tag Rugby.

Forest School and Music:

Forest School and Music will alternate each week on Wednesdays (see the class timetable and rota below).  Please remember to wear your Forest School clothes on Forest School days.  Thank you!

Home Learning

Homework for Autumn 2 will continue to be optional and the children can pick a task from the same grid the children already have in their books (this grid is also on a link below).  Should the children wish to do a piece of homework, it should be completed and handed in on Wednesdays: there is a box in the classroom.  Mrs Duffy will set spellings each Wednesday and these should be practised ready for a review the following week.  Spelling books need to be brought in each Wednesday morning. The children should also continue to read and go over their times tables. 

Trips:

On Monday November 18th we will be going to the Science Museum to coincide with our learning in Science and Humanities about space. 

We will also be participating in some local school sport events during school hours - details tbc.  

As you know, we will be going on an exciting residential trip to Bawdsey Manor from 16 - 19 May 2025.  There will be a presentation on this at 3.30 pm on Thursday 14th November that parents are welcome to attend and ask any outstanding questions.  We realise this is a big commitment, but will be so beneficial for the children's physical and emotional learning.  Thank you for your support!