Classes 2022-2023 -
Year 5 @ Hewish
Welcome to Year 5 @ Hewish
Class Teacher: Mr Phillips + Mrs Brawn
LSA : Mrs English
Dear families
Welcome to Terms 5 and 6. The Year Five crew have settled back into the class superbly. We have launched our new learning theme entitled, ‘Why is it important to look after our World?’ with the children already devising creative ways to become more sustainable. At the time of writing, we are in the middle of producing our first published piece of poetry based upon a wonderful book called ‘’The lost Words’ and have begun to read our new anchor text entitled ‘Boy in the Tower’. All of this, we look forward to sharing with you during the coming term.
Our classroom is designed so that there are constant opportunities to rehearse, reflect and remember the learning journey. We will encourage the children to see their learning as part of that journey. The process of mistake-making, learning, restarting and improving will as much to be celebrated as the end product. Post-It notes, planning sheets, peer feedback (where the children learn to evaluate each other’s work and give kind, specific and helpful feedback) will be valued as much as the neat final draft, the sketchbook as much as the final painting. Why? Because the finished product is a direct result of what has gone before. If we don’t sing the praises of editing, re-drafting, evaluating, hypothesising and testing, then your child only learns to focus on the outcome as opposed to the learning that took place. Your children’s books and learning journals will also reflect a conversation about learning between themselves and their teachers. When you view their work, you will notice that all feedback is given in different coloured pens. Any feedback written in pink highlights where the children have been successful whereas green ink shares where a learner can improve or challenges the learner to explore the learning more deeply. The use of green ink does not indicate negativity. All work the children produce will receive feedback with most pieces receiving feedback in both pink and green pen. You will also notice the use of purple pens; this is where your child has responded to the feedback with their own editing and improvement.
In school, no two days are ever the same as the learning is dictated by the children’s work. However, there are routines which do help to provide structure. When the children arrive in the morning, there is always an activity for them to become involved in. This ranges from responding to feedback in their learning journals to new challenges which inform that day’s learning. The classroom will contain working walls which tell the story of the learning so far. When you visit the room, you will be able to see for yourself how these support, develop and celebrate learning. We provide the children with all necessary resources so there is no need for children to bring pencils, pens and indeed, pencil cases to school. We also share a cloakroom space with Year Four so would ask that the children only bring necessary equipment to school so as to keep this space tidy and accessible. They will need a water bottle (which can be refilled during the day), lunchbox, the book they are currently reading and their reading record. Our PE days are Monday and Friday. On those days, the children are asked to wear their school PE kit to school. They are also permitted to wear a school hooded jumper or their normal school jumper.
We very much like our classroom to be a safe place for learning. All children are given opportunities to contribute through a variety of approaches such as ‘our cup of fate’. We use learning partners where appropriate and adopt a ‘no hands up’ policy. The children are encouraged to think and reflect on their contributions in class. Naturally, children love the highs of success and can be keen to avoid failure. We emphasise to children that risk taking in learning is a good thing which can lead to mistakes as well as success. Any mistakes are seen as an opportunity to learn and probe the thinking behind it in order to develop understanding. When working with your children at home, please encourage them to explain their thinking and decision making.
You can also help us by asking your children to discuss what they’ve learnt during the day, what their successes were and which problems they still may need to solve. Help us also to solve the perennial problem of lost property by labelling everything – it really does save us a lot of time and helps us to relocate clothing and equipment with the children.
On the website you will see links to our twitter feed so that you can keep up to date with what is happening in the class.
Below is a copy of the spellings for this term.
Terms 1 and 2
Our Learning theme for these two terms is called ‘Why do people invade and settle?’ This is an interesting history and geography enquiry which will cover various aspects of the Viking invasion and how the Anglo- Saxons responded to it. They will learn what life was like before the invasion, where Vikings came from, why did they travel and invade England, how did the travel and what was the affect on the country after invasion. Lessons use an enquiry approach and each week build on the previous weeks learning. We will have a fantastic learning experience and bring history to life with a company called The Past Presents where the children will handle artefacts and do re- enactments of Viking battles and burials amongst other aspects of Viking life.
Science enquiry : Why do materials change? This will include comparing and grouping together everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their hardness, solubility transparency, conductivity (electrical and thermal) and response to magnets. Children will learn that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution. They will use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating. The children will develop their scientific enquiry skills by making predictions prior to designing and carrying out fair tests. They will learn about making careful observations and then reflect on these to say what they have found out.
Religious Education starts in term 1 with learning about Creation. We will learn from the first book of the bible – Genesis and then make comparisons with the theory of Evolution and Cosmology. It is an interesting and thought provoking unit of work. After this, we move onto Incarnation and ask the question ‘ Was Jesus the Messiah?’
English – Reading We will read the book ‘Riddle of the Runes‘ by Janina Ramirez which links really well to our learning theme as it is set in Viking times. It is a fantastic book which captures the imagination of the children very well. The heroine is called Alva and she is an adventurous, brave and curious girl who is determined to solve a serious of clues which seem to be leading her to treasure which has a connection to her father who is missing. In addition to this books, we will use non-fiction writing to enhance our comprehension skills.
English – Writing
Maths – over the terms we will cover addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, angles around a point and on a straight line as well as triangle and quadrilaterals. The children will need to apply their knowledge of times tables on a daily basis so we would encourage them to keep practising tables that they do not know off by heart yet.
Useful maths websites:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=hit%20the%20button
PE – our PE will usually be two sessions per week. Occasionally, due to other events in school, this may be one session. PE is taught in 2 ways. The first lesson uses key skills which are then applied in a sport in the second lesson each week. Sports these terms are basketball or netball followed by seated volleyball / scorpion handball.