"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 and Mrs Humphreys and Miss Elwell will also work with us 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

• PE is timetabled for Wednesday and Swimming will be on Friday.
• Please return your homework on or before Wednesday for marking. Homework will be sent out on a Friday.
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• 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. 

  We expect homework to take about 30 minutes each week.  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.

• Please tie back long hair and only wear stud earrings if you have pierced ears.
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• Please have a bottle of water at school every day. This can be refilled as necessary.
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• Please bring a small school bag, reading book & diary every day.
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• All school uniform needs to be labelled with your name but particularly jumpers and cardigans.
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• 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.

Autumn Term 2026

Our Christian Values

During the first Autumn half term, our school value is LOVE. This value is central to life at St Mary's, and we do everything in our classroom and around our school community in LOVE.

Jesus said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34

Love of reading

Mrs Haslam loves reading! She will read to the class and there will be regular opportunities during the week for children to share their own reading interests and recommend books. If there is a book you have enjoyed sharing with your child, please let Mrs Haslam know. 

This term we will begin to read Wonder by R J Palacio. If your child would like to follow along, they could borrow a copy from the library.

 

English

Our weekly routine will continue to 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 first half of the Autumn term, we are exploring The Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsberg to develop our writing skills. We will use this to inspire us to write a newspaper report.

Reading

Our Guided Reading text this half term is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls

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 first half of the Autumn term, we will focus on Number and Place Value. This is an approximately 6-week unit, encompassing numbers to and beyond one million, reading, writing and partitioning numbers, rounding, estimating, comparing and ordering numbers, as well as applying these skills to problem solving. There are lots of activities on this BBC bitesize page to help with and consolidate learning: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkvxb7h?scrlybrkr=e5c2a66e

Science

As scientists, we aim to develop our knowledge and understanding, scientific skills and measuring and recording abilities. During the first part of the Autumn term we will be studying Living Things, exploring life cycles and reproduction. We will focus on recording data and the presentation of our findings. 

Geography

During the first Autumn half term, we will study North and South America: how diverse are their places and landscapes? We will look at the diversity of physical and human geography, biomes, the wealth of natural resources and tourism. 

RE

For RE we will continue to use the Questful RE planning. This half term we will focus on The Bible: How and why do Christians read the Bible?

The aim of this unit is to: 

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• deepen children’s understanding of the importance and impact of the contents of the Bible in the lives of Christians.
• to develop further children’s understanding of the significance of holy books in the lives of the people of all world faiths.

We will explore through these key questions:

• How and why is the Bible read and used by Christians?
• Do you need a Bible to be a Christian?
• Why do Christians believe that the Bible is holy?
• Why is the Bible a best seller?
• Why are there so many versions of the Bible?
• Which books of the Bible do you think are the most important? Why?
• Why are sacred texts so important to people of faith?
• In what ways do the contents of the sacred texts impact upon the lives of the believers?
• What is the connection between the ways in which the Holy Book is treated and how the believer regards the contents of the book?

PE

Our PE will concentrate on Invasion games. We will also swim once per week this term. 

Art and DT

Our Art this term focuses on Art in Fashion. This will enable us to explore colour theory and more complex colour wheels, as well as be inspired by Expressionist and Op Art artists to create designs for our own fashion. 

PHSE

In PHSE, we will follow the Heartsmart scheme. The focus is Get Heartsmart - Love

Music

As musicians, we will be using Charanga to explore different music genres and new terminology. We will learn that singing and listening are at the heart of each lesson. We will play, improvise and compose using a selection of notes, exploring music from around the world and experimenting with tempo.

MfL

As linguists, we will learn how to read, write and say the names of places in our town, to tell the time, numbers to 20 and beyond and describing things with the adjectives small and large. 

Computing

This half term we will learn about how computer systems share information. We will also learn about online safety, particularly focusing on self-image and identity.