Dear Parents & Children - Welcome to the Spring Term

Year 5 Westall Class

Miss Jones

Summer Term 2021 

Hello parents, carers and children,

We have had a wonderful start to the Summer term, with an exciting history workshop and the start of our summer production. Coming in to the second Summer term, we have our whole school production, sports day, lots of sports events and of course the residential trip. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and do our bit as the incredible community that we are to ensure this all goes ahead. As well as this, we will continue with our high-quality core and foundation learning, aiming to plan and deliver exciting and engaging lessons to your children. 

During our Summer term we have been learning about our new topic: 'Building a Village'. In this exciting learning we have been learning all about what makes a place somewhere to live. Considering questions about why people of the past chose to live in settlements and in this term we will be looking at different countries as well as different times in history and different societies. Over the next few weeks, we will conclude our learning before moving onto the unit: 'Water for Everyone', this page will be updated as we move onto our new topic.

In our new unit we will cover:

In Geography, we’ll be finding out:

• About different types of settlements
• About services in our local area
• About village life in our host and home country
• How to map and record geographical information

In History, we’ll be finding out:

• About the history of our local area
• About the history of two settlements from the host and home countries
• How to use evidence to research and record history
• How to create a settlements museum

In Technology, we’ll be finding out:

• What materials are used in local buildings
• How to make concrete
• How to make our own Roman road
• About eco-friendly buildings and settlements

In Science, we’ll be finding out:

• How to sort different materials
• How to test materials for hardness
• How to test materials for water resistance

In Society, we’ll be finding out:

• About extra services for our local area
• How we could encourage friendship in our area

In International, we’ll be finding out:

• About the quality of life in the host and home countries
• What the ‘global village’ is and how it affects us

All of the work we are going to do has been specially written to help your child reach the learning goals. Children will be reading, researching, writing, illustrating, working on their own and working in groups. Throughout our learning we will be looking at how we can explain our ideas to others and share our learning.

Teaching in a thematic way, the national curriculum requirements of English, Maths, Science, RE and Music will be  interwoven with our topic learning. In English we will be looking at a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts and developing our understanding of descriptive vocabulary, use of paragraphs and varying sentence structure. In Numeracy, we will be investigating angles, area and perimeter.

During this term, Year 5 will continue their French sessions, learning new vocabulary through songs and games. In RHSE we will be looking at the unit ‘Growing and Changing’ – during this unit we will have a closer look at how we change as we grow and how our feelings might change too.

We already know the interest you take in your child’s work. If you can, please discuss with your child the work they have done as the term progresses and let them teach you. Additionally, if you feel that you can contribute to our learning through your own knowledge and experiences then please get in touch. We welcome opportunities to include parents and carers in our learning.

If your child has some work to research, please help them, but without actually doing the work. If you have the chance to further their interest in the ideas of this theme please take it, but your enthusiasm and interest is most important.  A key focus this term will developing our independence within our work and reflection. Please encourage your child to be independent with their choices and decisions at home. I hope your child will have lots of fun and be happy and enthusiastic in their learning this term.

PE

PE will continue on a Tuesday. The children will need a sky blue polo top with the school badge, plain royal blue shorts, royal blue tracksuit and black or white trainers. For health and safety reasons, earrings and watches should be removed for all PE lessons and long hair must be tied up. The children will need to arrive at school in their PE kit and will wear it all day.

In Westall, across the week, we have Mrs Donnelly and Miss Moorehouse helping us with our learning. 

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call the office to make an appointment.

Homework

Summer Term 

Homework will be set with relevance to our learning and will be designed to offer enrichment opportunities for your child.

Children will receive homework twice per week.

Reading                                     Every night (15 minutes – please comment on your child’s reading record)

Curriculum activities               Given out on Wednesday Returned on Monday

Spelling & times tables           Given out on Friday Returned on Wednesday 

By the end of the unit, we aim for your child to achieve their learning targets. We hope they have an enjoyable time in the classroom and that you have enjoyed seeing your child work with enthusiasm. If you have any comments or questions about your child’s learning, please get in touch.

Kind regards, 

Miss Jones and Mrs Donnelly

Reading Books

Please ensure you read daily with your child, as they grow it is important to foster a love of reading within them. A fantastic way to do this is to have discussions about the books they are reading and  listening to them read.

When reading with your child at home it is important that they understand what they’re reading. Use these questions to help question your child:

1. What has happened so far?
2. Who are the main characters?
3. What have you learnt from what you have read? (Non-Fiction)

Please comment in your child's diary each time you read with them. Pupils will also have the opportunity to bring a book home from the school library. Please make sure children have their books available to read everyday.