Welcome to Year Five!
Welcome to another year at St Catherine’s, we are really excited at the prospect of the learning and fun ahead of us! As always, we have really high expectations and know we will all have a really positive and successful year together.
Classroom Procedures
Please encourage your children to be independent by coming into class by themselves whenever possible. Children need to bring their book bag every day, with their reading books inside and may also bring a bottle of plain water to drink through lessons. It is school policy that we only have healthy snack at break time and you may wish to provide your child with something appropriate as we cannot guarantee to always have fruit available for Junior children.
School meals should be ordered and paid for via Schoolmoney for the week by midnight on Sunday. The menu is made available on Class Dojo and there are main meals, vegetarian options, jacket potatoes and hoagies (filled bread rolls) to choose from each day.
Children may bring in items to discuss with the class, if they relate to our topics as this often adds interest to our lessons. However, we do not allow toys and games on a daily basis, as this can lead to problems.
We continue to have our House system (also known as “Dojo” points) for children to earn rewards for good work and thoughtful behaviour and this remains a very popular system with the children. We will also be continuing with our “Diamond” rewards for kind, helpful behaviours and attitudes. The children will tell you we can become quite competitive, as the adults can earn diamonds too! We will continue to use “Dojo” for simple messages and to share the great learning happening in class!
Absences and Holidays
We would be grateful if you could let school know with a phone call if your child is absent or with a Dojo message, as any unaccounted for absences have to be recorded as unauthorised. May we also remind you that the Government is now also very strict on the issue of holidays and are discouraging families removing children from school in term times through the issuing of fines. If you need to take your child out of school under special circumstances, please let the office know. Your support in these issues is very much appreciated.
Reading
Children will have the opportunity to change their reading book once or twice a week, during set guided reading times. Whilst we try to hear individual readers, much of our reading time is taken up with group comprehension work, so please continue to read with your child as this is extremely valuable to their learning and encourage children to retell and discuss what they read.
PE
PE is an important and compulsory part of the school curriculum so it is important that children wear their PE kits to school every Tuesday and Friday (days vary from half term to half term and we will let you know of changes in advance). Please name all items of clothing, as this makes it much easier to return lost items to their owners!
Children will also have opportunities to have PE taught by professional outside agencies. Longer hair needs to be tied up and jewellery removed, for safety reasons. If for any reason your child is unable to take part in a lesson then please let us know.
Maths
Calculation guides for parents are available on the school website, which is designed to show parents and carers how pupils are being taught Maths in school. It demonstrates how pupils are expected to progress using written methods in all four number operations.
Learning Powers
We continue to promote use of our “Learning Powers”, a set of attitudes and behaviours that enable children to face challenges calmly, confidently and creatively and as a result, give them the life skills that they need for their journey through school and into the real world. We teach these behaviours to the children through the 5Rs:
Resilience - Resourcefulness - Reflectiveness - Responsibility - Respect (runs throughout the above).
We would love to hear if children are demonstrating these valuable life-skills in their out-of-school experiences too!
Curriculum
Over the year we will be learning through a variety of different themes, incorporating a wide range of learning objectives. Please find attached a copy of our learning plan for Year 5.
Homework
We encourage parents to use their discretion in how long to ask their child to work at a task. However, as pupils move through the school, it is important to help them develop stamina when completing independent learning tasks in order to prepare them for secondary school expectations. For Year 5 it is recommended the children spend 1.5 to 2 hours hours per week on homework:
Reading :The importance of reading at home cannot be over-emphasised and we hope that children will read for pleasure in their own time. Please aim to hear your child read and discuss the text at least once a week.
Common exception spellings: There are given sets of words for children to learn divided into year groups and we are recapping 3/4 words and learning 5/6 words - there are copies of these in your homework books.
“Spelling Shed” at home and complete spelling activities as set at least once a week. Please send a Dojo message to Mrs Powell if you require any support with logging in. Log in details and spelling lists are in homework books.
Maths: Pupils may be required to learn key facts, for example, multiplication tables and as they get older will receive homework to practise calculation skills. Pupils from years 2-6 will also have access to “Timestable Rockstars” online resources to practise math skills at home, and we expect all children with internet access to utilise the sites for 15-30 minutes per week (at least 10 games) . Please come and speak to us if you do not have internet provision in your home or if you have any problems with logging in. Children will also be issued with My Maths logins and further digital maths homework will be set as the year progresses.
Homework books contain our key instant recall facts for Year 5 and any practice you can do of these is a great help to children’s mathematical progress.
Themes: Each themed unit of work will be accompanied by a knowledge organiser of important facts and information that will be sent home in homework works books, Children need to spend time learning as much as possible by heart and will then have quizzes to see how much they have retained. Please share these at home.
Many thanks for your continued support. It does make such a difference to the progress that the children make in school and keep an eye on “Dojo” for regular updates!
Hearing individuals read in school can be a really important way to encourage reading progress and we are keen to hear from anyone who has any amount of spare time and would be willing to pop in and hear some children read. Please let us know if you, or a family member, would be able to help us.
We’re looking forward to the year ahead and hope that your children are too.
If you have any problems or questions please feel to speak to any of the Y4 staff.
To develop your child’s fluency and mental maths skills, we are introducing KIRFs throughout school. KIRFS are a way of helping your child to learn by heart, key facts and information which they need to have instant recall of.
KIRFs are designed to support the development of mental maths skills that underpin much of the maths work in our school. They are particularly useful when calculating, adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. They contain number facts such as number bonds and times tables that need constant practise and rehearsal, so children can recall them quickly and accurately.
Instant recall of facts helps enormously with mental agility in maths lessons. When children move onto written calculations, knowing these key facts is very beneficial. For your child to become more efficient in recalling them easily, they need to be practised frequently and for short periods of time.
Over their time at primary school, we believe that - if the KIRFs are developed fully - children will be more confident with number work, understand its relevance, and be able to access the curriculum much more easily. They will be able to apply what they have learnt to a wide range of problems that confront us regularly