Welcome to Year 5 and the fabulous Class Picasso! Time is moving on for your children now as they reach their 10th birthday and journey towards the end of primary school. We have lots of work to complete this year so we will be focusing on achieving our full potential with lots of fun and laughter included.

During most days in Year 5, we will have English and Maths in the morning and then topic and sport learning in the afternoon. This will be linked with our six exciting learning themes, for which you can see a sneak peak further down the page.

Children in Year 5 are extremely lucky to have an eight week block of Forest Schools at a specific point during the year. This is an incredible opportunity to get to explore nature and develop outdoor survival skills with our fantastic forest school leader- Mr Saull-Hunt and his assistant Mrs Sinden. You will be notified in advance of when your child’s sessions will commence. Please see the Forest School tab to find out more.

Homework will be given out on a Thursday and will be due in the following Wednesday. Feel free to help your child with this; we see homework as an important part of consolidating the learning we do in class. The more times new learning can be explained and practiced by children, the better the depth of their understanding.  In addition to this, we would like the children to read at least four times a week. Reading with/ to an adult remains a key part of children’s development, even at this point in their education when they are able to read more challenging texts alone. At this level, the focus shifts away from supporting children to read the words, and moves instead towards asking them questions about the text. These questions can be very simple, eg, ‘Who is speaking?’, ‘What’s just happened?’, ‘Why do you think they’re doing that?’, ‘What do you think might happen? Why?’ etc.  It’s also really handy to check that children are using the correct expression when reading, using the punctuation to guide them. This kind of regular support will make a huge difference to your child’s progress in reading!

The children will have two PE sessions a week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. During Terms 1 & 2, children are fortunate enough to be  taught Mindful Movement by a qualified instructor. Wednesday slots will be taught by Miss Newton and will be a more traditional mixture of dance, gymnastics, athletics and competitive team games.  Although these will be our usual PE slots, please ensure that your child has their full PE kit in school every day in case there is a timetable change.

Please pop in any day after school if there is anything you would like to discuss or if you have any concerns.  We are looking forward to a year filled with amazing learning and lots of fun!

Team Picasso