Welcome to Year 5

Autumn Term 2024

     Miss McArdle, Mrs Steer, Mrs Mannock (Maternity cover), Madame Leydon,

Mr Reid, Mrs Downing, Miss Cliff

English

Our writing this term will centre around the book “Carrie’s War” by Nina Bawden. We will produce a balanced argument, a diary entry, a postcard and descriptive pieces of writing.  In December, we will watch The Snowman and add descriptive text to parts of the film. Throughout the term we will be concentrating on improving our standards of presentation, spelling and how to use a range of punctuation accurately including full-stops, commas, question marks, exclamation marks, brackets and dashes.  

Click on the picture below to find out a little bit more about Carrie's War.

     Maths

This term, we will be learning about:  Reading and writing Roman Numerals to 1000 Read, write, partition, compare and order numbers to a million Count in powers of 10 Round to the nearest 10, 100, 1000 within 1,000,000 Use mental strategies to add and subtract Add and subtract whole numbers with more than 4 digits Round to check answers and compare calculations Find multiples and common multiples Factors and prime numbers Find square and cube numbers Multiply and divide by 10, 100, 1000 Find equivalent unit and non-unit fractions Compare and order fractions less than 1 Add and subtract fractions

These skills will be extended and applied in forms of reasoning and problem solving. 

If you would like to support your child further with any of the units covered this term, please click on the following link which will take you to 'Workbooks for Parents' on our school website.  The relevant booklets for this term are:

                                                                                 Addition and Subtraction

                                                                                                                                                                                             Fractions A

                                                                                                                                                                                             Place Value

                                                                                 Multiplication and Division

                                      http://www.excalibur.cheshire.sch.uk/page/maths-workbooks-for-parents/86832

In maths, mental recall, including times tables, doubling and halving numbers and number bonds is vitally important if children are going to make good progress. Using the internet, games or board games can help reinforce the maths needed for Year 5 in a fun and enjoyable way. Please click on the links below to support both written and mental maths.  Also, at the bottom of this page, you will find a document containing all the mental maths objectives for each year group so that you can suport your child with their mental maths.  

Top Marks - Daily 10 

This term, we will be completing the topics Forces, plus, Earth and Space. There will be a focus on developing scientific skills through the application of the five types of scientific enquiry:

• Observation over time
• Pattern seeking
• Identifying, classifying and grouping                          
• Comparative and fair testing
• Research using secondary resources

During our Forces topic, we will: 

• Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object
• Identify the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces
• Recognise that some mechanisms including levers, pulleys and gears allow a smaller force to have a greater effect

During our Earth and Space topic, we will:

• Describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the sun in the solar system
• Describe the movement of the moon relative to the Earth
• Describe the sun, Earth and moon as approximately spherical bodies
• Use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky

Humanities

In history, will learn about: how and why the war started; what evacuation was and what it was like for the children of Britain; key events that took place such as The Blitz; The Battle of Britain and Dunkirk; why Crewe was bombed so heavily; how people managed to carry on with normal life during the war and VE day.

For our geography topic we will be learning about why population changes. Through this topic we will learn about how the global population is changing, what birth and death rates are, how the climate is impacting population as well as investigating how population is impacting our environment.

Reminders and Information

Staff in Year 5:

Miss McArdle - Class teacher - Tuesday (am), Wednesday (am), Thursday, Friday

Mrs Mannock - Class teacher - Monday, Wednesday (pm)

Madame Leydon – MFL teacher,Tuesday (pm)

Mr Reid -Tuesday (pm)

Miss Cliff and Mrs Downing - Welfare Assistants

PE

Our regular PE days will be Tuesday and Friday.  Pupils will bring their PE kits into school and change at school.  Please make sure that your child wears the correct Excalibur PE kit.  A list of the full PE kit is on our website.

http://www.excalibur.cheshire.sch.uk/page/school-uniform/6064

Pupils can wear their tracksuit bottoms for PE if it is ever too cold.  I would be grateful if you could make sure that long hair is tied back and that earrings are removed or covered with micro-pore or similar on PE days. 

Start and Finish Times

The school gates will be opened at 8:50 to all children and we encourage children to arrive at this time. It really does help the class to settle before we begin our day at 9 am. Any arrivals after 9 am must be reported to the office (even if the gates are still open) as the register will have been sent electronically by this point. The school day will end at 3:20 pm. 

Snacks

Please could you send your child in with a healthy snack for their midmorning break.  Children can also purchase warm snacks at breaktime from school.  

Water Bottles

It is important for children to drink water throughout the day.  Therefore, children may bring in bottles of water each day so long as the bottle has a secure lid. It is also really helpful if every bottle is clearly labelled.  Please can you remind your child to take their bottle home every night for washing and refilling.  

Homework

Every Friday, your child will be set the following tasks to be completed by the following Thursday: 

• Maths - Homework will be set weekly on Mathletics (up to two pieces). Your child also has access to extra work in their student area should they wish to complete more tasks. Furthermore, should you wish to complete any extra maths with your child, please find ‘Workbooks for Parents’ for each unit of maths we cover in Year 5 on our homepage under ‘Curriculum’ then ‘Maths’ (link above in 'Maths' section).   Furthermore, we would recommend that your child spends time working on their mental maths.  They have a login for TT Rockstars plus they can visit Hit the Button which is free online. 
• Reading - questions set from a short text - to be in school by the following Thursday.
• Spellings - either a spelling rule or words from the statutory Y5/6 spelling list.  These will be tested on Thursdays.

                              Recommended homework time is half an hour per day for Years 5 and 6.

If you have any queries or questions, please do not hesitate in contacting either Miss McArdle or Mrs Mannock through our contact email address (contact@excalibur.cheshire.sch.uk) or you could send in a note to us directly.  We look forward to a fabulous term working with you and your child.