Swans

 Welcome to the Swans

 We are the Year 5 class team:

Mrs Leach – Class Teacher

Mrs Adair - Teaching Assistant

Email contact 

SLeach@sharnbrookprimary.beds.sch.uk

For SEND contact Mrs Wildman

sendco@sharnbrookprimary.beds.sch.uk

  Year 5

Swans Autumn Term 2023

 Welcome to the Year 5 (Swans) newsletter of the new academic year. We hope that you had a fabulous summer holiday and return to school excited about all the things that we’re going to be doing. Below you will find an overview of the different topics we’ll be studying.

Read on to find out more...

PE lessons will take place on a Tuesday and Friday. Please come dressed in your PE kit on these days and ensure you have your water bottle filled!  As the term moves on please also keep an eye on the weather forecast; ensure you bring a suitable rain coat/jacket for outdoor PE and I would also recommend a change of socks and shoes if the forecast is wet.  (shoes could be your school shoes, please don't feel you have to purchase two pairs of trainers) 

Homework is compulsory and includes reading daily at home, one of these sessions should be to an adult. This should be for a minimum of 20 minutes and all reading should be recorded in the reading diary.  Children should also be working on their timetable knowledge through TTR for a minimum of 25 minutes throughout the week and completing the assigned spelling tasks on Spelling Shed.  Some of these spellings will be tested in our weekly spelling test, which will be held on a Monday.  With spelling and timetable work, little and often is a much better approach than doing it all in one sitting, as this aids long term memory. One longer piece of homework will be set on a weekly basis. The children have been provided with a reading a homework diary, please sign the books at the end of each week to acknowledge that you have seen the homework which has been set.

Healthy Snacks may be brought in daily to eat at morning break.

Water Bottles may be brought in each day and kept with the children throughout each lesson. Water bottles will need to go home daily to be cleaned and refilled.

Pencil Cases:  All pupils should have their own stationery for lessons and all writing will be in blue pen. In pencil cases children will need: a blue ballpoint pen, a graphite pencil, a ruler, a rubber and a sharpener (pencil crayons and felt tips are optional). It would also be helpful to have a small glue stick, pair of scissors, a compass and protractor. Please make sure your resources fit into one pencil case.

Curriculum
ENGLISH
For the first half term our work will be inspired by the very exciting text 'Queen of the Falls' by Chris Van Allsburg.  We will use this text to build up to writing a recount.  In the second half of the term we will look at the traditional tale, 'The Lost Happy endings' by Carol Ann Duffy and Jane Ray.

MATHS
Throughout this term we will be covering blocks on Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Decimals and Fractions, Measure and Data, Multiplication and Division.

ART and Design

The Swans will have their art lessons with Miss Gingel on a Friday afternoon.

GEOGRAPHY

For geography our first topic will be exploring the enquiry question 'What is life like in the Alps?'

HISTORY
We will be looking at Ancient Greece in history, we will learn about who the Ancient Greek people were, when they lived and where and how they were able to establish their empire. They learn how the political system worked in Ancient Greece, investigate the legacy of Athenian Democracy and compare it with the political systems we have today. The children also compare and contrast the modern day Olympics with the Ancient Greek events and use their mathematical skills to present their findings in the form of a Venn diagram. They also learn about and order events from the Battle of Marathon and write in role to present the events from a specific viewpoint. In addition to this they learn about Ancient Greek religion, research information about a variety of Greek gods and write their own Greek myth. Finally, they use historical evidence to find out about the Trojan War and use the information to write and re-enact scenes from it.

SCIENCE
Space and the Earth is our first science topic and this will give the children a basic overview of Earth and its place in our solar system.

In the mornings Swans will be expected to walk independently to the classroom from 8.40; a member of the Swans team will be in the room to greet them from this time and the children will be expected to complete their morning work. The children will be dismissed from the classroom at 3.20pm. The children have been told that they must return to the classroom if an adult that they are expecting to meet them isn’t on the playground, ie they are not to just walk home. Please reinforce this with your son/daughter. If your son/daughter is going to be walking home independently, please communicate this in their reading/homework diary or by dropping me an email.

Mobile phones: We recognise that some pupils may need to/wish to bring a mobile phone to school if they are walking to or from school by themselves. All phones need to be named and turned off once on school grounds. In the classroom they will be collected and placed a secure box, the children will collect their phones prior to leaving the classroom at 3.20pm. If pupils have phones out in the classrooms they will be confiscated and a parent will have to collect it from the office. No phones will be allowed on any school trips or visits.

As always, please don’t hesitate to ask if there is anything you are unsure of or require further clarification on.
Mrs Leach and Mrs Adair