"Do everything in love” 1 Corinthians 16:14

 

Learning to love, loving to learn

Welcome to Year 5!

Our staff

Mrs Haslam is our class teacher, Miss Elwell and Mrs Whittaker provide support on a regular basis. 

The following information tells you a little more about the coming term in Year 5 and your child's learning. However, if you have any queries or questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

sara.haslam@st-marys.halton.sch.uk

General information

• Please tie back long hair and only wear stud earrings if you have pierced ears.
• Please have a bottle of water at school every day. This can be refilled as necessary.
• Please bring a small school bag, reading book & diary every day.
• Please return your homework on or before Wednesday for marking. Homework will be sent out on a Friday. If you are absent on Friday, please make sure you ask for it as early as possible the following week so you have time to complete it. 
• All school uniform needs to be labelled with your name but particularly jumpers and cardigans.
• A full PE kit should be in school at all times, consisting of black shorts, white t-shirts and trainers. Jogging bottoms/leggings can be added as the weather gets colder.

PE is timetabled for Tuesday and Friday now that swimming has finished.

 

Spring Term 2025

 

Our Christian Values

During the second Spring half term, our school value is COURAGE. 

Joshua 1:9, says: "Be strong and courageous... for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go"

Love of reading

We will continue reading There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louise Sachar as our class reading book. We have enjoyed meeting the characters as getting to know a little more about American school culture so far!

English

Our weekly routine will include learning writing skills, spelling and grammar, handwriting and guided reading sessions. Daily reading at home continues to be essential and we would ask that you question your child regularly on the book they are reading to develop a deeper understanding of a range of texts, to develop new vocabulary and strengthen writing skills. PLease make a comment in their reading records too.

Writing

During the second half of the Spring term, we are exploring The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield to develop our writing skills. We will use this to inspire us to write biographically.

Reading

Our Guided Reading text this half term is Exploring Space by The Literacy Company, which will complement our writing skills and help to reinforce our understanding of the impact of the features of non-fiction texts. 

 

Spelling

We will use Pathways to Spell as part of our English lessons to develop spelling strategies and learn spelling rules, as well as the essential Y5/6 words.

Maths

As mathematicians, the children will learn through concrete experiences moving onto pictorial and abstract methods as their confidence builds. They will also be expected to use their learning to reason about maths and solve problems. 

During the second half of the Spring term, we will complete our topic on Multiplcation and Division then move on to Fractions. THis will include comparing and ordering fractions with different denominators, exploring equivalent fractions, recognising and converting between mixed fractions and improper fractions, adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions. The BBC Bitesize resource is an excellent way to support children with this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zpwbqyc 

Science

As scientists, we aim to develop our knowledge and understanding, scientific skills and measuring and recording abilities. During the Spring term we will be studying the topic of Materials - using lots of practical investigations to identify the properties of materials and then finding out about changes to materials. 

Geography

Our Spring term geography topic is Natural Resources and the Sustainable world. We will learn about renewable and non-renewable sources of energy, use of natural resources and water as a precious resource. We will describe how the world is changing and explain some of the reasons for change – global food production, economic minerals and wood.

RE

For RE we will continue to use the Questful RE planning. This half term we will focus on the question: 

Why Do Christians Believe That Easter is a Celebration of Victory?

The aim of this unit is to: 

• • emphasise that Christians believe that Easter is the celebration of Christ’s triumph and victory over death. This is is at the very heart of Christian belief.
  • ensure that pupils have an understanding of the importance of Jesus death and resurrection in Christian belief, as a rescue plan to restore the relationship between God and his people.

We will explore through these key questions:

• Why do Christians believe that Easter is a celebration of victory?
• In what ways is Christ’s death and resurrection a victory?
• What is Jesus victorious over and why?
• How does his victory affect the lives of Christians today?
• How do the events and services that take place in churches during Holy Week and Easter reflect Christian belief that Jesus’ death and resurrection was a victory?
• What did Jesus do to save human beings?

PE

Our PE will explore accuracy and rallies in net games and invasion ina team using hockey and football skills. 

Art and DT

Our Art this term focuses on The Art of the Anatomy. This will enable us to explore life-like qualities and real life proportions when developing our drawing skills. Last half term we explored bread making with a Greek influence!

PHSE

In PHSE, we will follow the Heartsmart scheme. The focus is 'Don't rub it in, rub it out!' exploring courage. 

Music

As musicians, we will be using Charanga to explore different music genres and new terminology. This term's topic is Decoding Sound and Notation. The objectives are to

1. Develop and expand musical understanding through critical listening and analysis of contrasting pieces.

2. Read and perform notated melodies with confidence, applying knowledge of pitch, rhythm, and musical expression.

MfL

As linguists, we will learn how to read, write and say more names of places in our town. We will also learn about how gender changes what we say and write when considering nouns and adjectives. Our spoken sentences will be extended by the use of conjunctions. 

Computing

This term we will learn about video editing and flat-file databases. We will also learn about managing and evaluating online information considering the use of different searches and search engines.

Homework will be sent out on Friday to be returned on or before the following Wednesday.  We expect this to take about 30 minutes.  Please come and see us if there are any difficulties or write a note on the piece of work. It is important to complete each piece as they will either build on taught skills or pre teach skills ready for the following week.