Weekly Newsletters

On this page we upload a short newsletter at the end of each week to show some of our learning from the week, and to give details of any important dates or notices coming up.

Term 5 – End of Week 2

In Maths, the children have continued using a protractor to carefully measure and draw a variety of acute and obtuse angles. We have moved on to calculating angles around a point to total 360 degrees and angles on a straight line to total 180 degrees. Next week we will be learning about lengths and angles in shapes.

In English, we are continuing to develop our persuasion skills, building up to our hot task of writing our own persuasive letter. This week we have analysed our model text in great detail and looked at what persuasive letters must contain, including addresses, valediction and salutation. Next week we will be writing a persuasive paragraph, planning and gathering evidence ready for our own persuasive letter writing.

We have completed our learning on earthquakes in Geography this week with creating a leaflet to sum up everything we had learnt. Our new topic will be based on fieldwork.

In our RE our topic of Judaism has also come to an end, with a lesson on synagogues. Next week we will begin our new topic on the Gospel.

As you can see, we have had a busy couple of weeks in our Science learning this term. In week 1 we made butter in a makeshift butter churn. This week we have been experimenting with the effects of yeast on different household items. Pictures of these experiments can be seen above.

Looking Ahead to Next Week (and a bit beyond):

• Tuesday and Thursday (when not doing Forest School) will continue to be our PE days this term – please ensure that PE kits are in school for these lessons.
• On Thursday afternoons Year 5 have Forest School this term, alternating between 5F and 5N each week. 5F enjoyed their first Forest School session this week so it is 5N’s turn in Week 3.
• Early Bird Groups will start on Tuesday.  For terms 5 and 6 we will be running Early Bird Groups on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – if you child has been invited to attend a group(s) they will have been given a letter with details and a permission form.  Please could we ask that any remaining forms are returned to us by Monday so that we are aware of numbers of attendees and can offer places to others if appropriate.
• Swimming Booster groups will start on Monday – parents/carers will have received a letter if this applies to your child. Some children may not need to take part in these booster sessions for long, so it is vital they attend. If they no longer need to go, your child will be informed.
• As you know, we have our first exciting event of the term (Viking Day) this Monday coming (29th April). Please ensure payment and consent has been given, this is essential as without consent, your child cannot take part.
• We also have our Battle Abbey trip on the 20th of May. If you would like to join us as a parent helper for the Battle Abbey trip we would be very grateful to hear from you.  Please pop a note in your child’s contact book – spaces are limited for this due to coach seats so first come, first served.  Thank you in advance for your help. Payment for this has been set up on Parent Pay so please ensure this is completed in advance.

Term 5 – End of Week 1

We hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter break as we certainly “hit the ground running” this week with it being a case of “new term, new topic” across most of our subjects.

In Maths, the children have shown great understanding of the concepts of acute, obtuse and reflex angles and have impressed us with their accuracy of using protractors to measure angles for the first time.

In English, we are developing our skills of persuasion by writing persuasive letters inspired by the picture book “When Jessie came across the sea”. We apologise in advance for any extraordinarily persuasive conversations you have with your children in the next few weeks!

We must also say a big well done to everyone for their polite and helpful behaviour with our visitors earlier in the week.

Looking Ahead to Next Week (and a bit beyond):

• Tuesday and Thursday (when not doing Forest School) will continue to be our PE days this term – please ensure that PE kits are in school for these lessons.
• On Thursday afternoons Year 5 have Forest School this term, alternating between 5F and 5N each week. 5N enjoyed their first Forest School session this week so it is 5F’s turn in Week 2, you will have been emailed separately about clothing the children should wear for this and whether their housegroup session is in the morning or afternoon.
• Early Bird Groups will start on Tuesday.  For terms 5 and 6 we will be running Early Bird Groups on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – if you child has been invited to attend a group(s) they will have been given a letter with details and a permission form.  Please could we ask that any remaining forms are returned to us by Monday so that we are aware of numbers of attendees and can offer places to others if appropriate.
• Swimming Booster groups will start on Monday – parents/carers will have received a letter if this applies to your child.
• As you know, we have two exciting events coming up this term - Viking Day and our Battle Abbey visit.  Bookings are to be made via ParentPay which is also the way to give your consent.
• If you would like to join us as a parent helper for the Battle Abbey trip we would be very grateful to hear from you.  Please pop a note in your child’s contact book – spaces are limited for this due to coach seats so first come, first served.  Thank you in advance for your help.

Term 4, Week 6

What can we say - we made it! Well done Year 5, it's felt like a really busy term, we've packed so much in and got to the end of it with smiles on our faces and leading a church service to be so proud of!

As a team, we were very proud of each and every member of Year 5 this morning - the children all stayed focused, spoke and sang clearly and really showed that they understood the meaning of the Easter story. A special thank you to our soloists who absolutely rose to the challenge of presenting characters including Pontius Pilate, Barrabas and Mary Magdalene.

Thank you also to the many parents and carers who were able to join us for the service in church this morning, it really meant a lot to us all and we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share the powerful "Good News" story of Easter with so many people.

On that note, we hope you all have a wonderful Easter holiday and have a chance to rest and enjoy time with family,friends and perhaps eat a bit of chocolate too!

We look forward to seeing you again on Monday 15th April, when we start Term 5 which is titled "Traders and Raiders". For more information about what our learning in Term 5 will include please visit our Curriculum page. 

Please note: Early Bird Groups and Swimming Boosters will begin again in Week 2, whilst 5N will start Forest School on the Thursday of week 1.

Don't forget summer uniforms for Term 5 please!

Term 4, week 5

As another jam-packed, fun week comes to a close, we can't quite believe we are coming to the end of term 4 already. This week has been full of plenty of excitement and 'wow' moments. 

On Tuesday, we had Charlie from Sussex Cricket visit us to lead a cricket taster session. It was a fantastic afternoon, learning how to field and bat. We couldn't quite believe how high he could throw the ball! More photos above to enjoy from the afternoon!

In English this week we have been continuing our poetry topic. Focusing on performance poetry and writing our own version of the 'Animal Riddle' poem by Pie Corbett. We enjoyed trying to hide the word within the poem for other people to guess from our clues! Next week, we will be writing our own free verse poems.

In Maths, we have been focusing on statistics, learning how to draw and interpret line graphs and data within a table. We realised how much arithmetic was needed to fill in missing data! We will be continuing with our statistics unit next week.

On Thursday, we had a 'dress rehearsal' at the church ahead of our Easter service next Thursday. The children have worked really hard and it would be great to see as many familiar faces watching as possible!

Term 4, Week 4

We write this at the end of a whole day of Science (in celebration of British Science Week) and the children have done brilliantly!  We've been very impressed with the way they have worked together to plan, carry out and record their own investigations about the impact of friction on the speed a vehicle travels at.

Science day came at the end of another busy week where we were visited again by our local STEM Ambassador, Kerry. She taught us about Earthquakes and Tsunamis which really supports the learning we have been doing in Geography this term.  The children really enjoyed the practical aspects of using springs to represent the different waves in an earthquake and using a model to simulate how a Tsunami is formed.  We are very grateful to Kerry for leading such informative workshops for us.

We hope you enjoy the slideshow of photos from Science Day and Kerry's visit at the end of this newsletter.

Alongside all this, we have continued to work on preparations for the Easter Service and the children have developed their skills of calculating perimeter and area of a range of different shapes in Maths.  They have also started a new topic in English - poetry!

Looking ahead to next week:

1) We are still rehearsing for our Easter Service, please encourage your child to learn any lines they may have. These will have gone home in their contact books.  We hope that many of you will be able to join us for the service in church on Thursday 28th March (the last day of term).

2) Year 5 are lucky enough to have a visitor joining them on Tuesday afternooon to lead their PE lesson.  It will be a Cricket lesson so we would encourage all children to bring in their PE kits for this (as usual).

3) Parents evenings will take place on Tuesday and Thursday after school, please book your timeslots for this via the online system.  If you need to book an alternative time to those available please talk to us at the gate or via the office.

Many thanks.

Term 4, Week 3

Another busy week for year 5 with World Book Day, Assessment Week AND practising for the Easter Service all rolled into one!

The children had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day on Thursday, with some brilliant costumes shown and huge enthusiasm for their chosen book. We enjoyed getting to know our focus text this year: Flooded. We had a read through and discussed the deeper message of the story and how working as a team always makes a job easier. We produced some beautiful paintings of what our classroom or playground would look like if it was flooded, inspired by the colours in the story. We have also completed our Viking Saga this week after much planning and preparation. 

As well as completing our reasoning papers, we have begun a new topic in Maths: Perimeter! We have enjoyed trying different strategies in calculating perimeter and learning a new word: rectilinear.

We are still rehearsing for our Easter Service, please encourage your child to learn any lines they may have. These will have gone home in their contact books.

Term 4, Week 2

What a week! It feels like we've been through all the seasons in one day with hail, rain, wind and sunshine today but we made it and have accomplished a lot. 

A few highlights of the week are shown in the photos below and have included:

• Carrying out a game in Computing to simulate how the internet works
• Working collaboratively in English to find specific writing features in a model text and then coming up with ideas for alternatives the children could use in their own writing
• Communicating effectively in groups for PE
• Discussing what it means to feel included or excluded in friendships (in our RHE lesson) and exploring suggestions for how we can be more inclusive and welcoming to others.

In the midst of all this we've also found time to practice for our Easter Service (coming up on the last day of this term) and have completed 2 Maths Assessments and 1 English Assessment as this is the time of our mid-year assessments which track progress ahead of parent consultations later this month. The children have coped well with the assessments but will no doubt be glad when we finish them next week.

Looking ahead to next week

It will be another busy week, with a few things to be aware of:

1) Tuesday will be our PE day as usual.  

2) Wednesday morning will begin with Year 2 leading a church service - please could children therefore register at church at the normal time rather than coming to school first. There will be no walking bus on Wednesday as a result of this.

3) We will be continuing to practice for our Easter service during the week and it would be wonderful if parents/carers could encourage their children to spend some time learning their words (where needed).

4) On Thursday the whole school will be celebrating World Book Day and children (and adults) are encouraged to dress up as their favourite characters from books (this is not compulsory of course and we ask that any costumes are still appropriate for a day in school). As you will already be aware from the whole school newsletter, we have a number of events happening during the week beginning 4th March in celebration of World Book Day in addition to the usual dressing up day on Thursday. The following activities/events will all run from Monday 4th - Thursday 7th and include:

• create a book character from a vegetable competition

• send in a photo of your child reading in the most interesting place

• donate your pre-loved books (good condition please) and receive some back at the Eco team's book swap. More information to follow.

• collaborative reading at Beacon school. More information to follow if your child is selected.

• "guess the mystery reader" challenge on the school website

5) We will be completing Writing, Reading and Maths assessments next week.  Whilst we have reassured the children that they can only try their best and these assessments are a way of finding out how much their learning has "stuck" so far this year we do encourage the children to try their hardest to showcase what they have learnt.  The results of these assessments will inform our planning for parents evening but of course we will also discuss other elements of how the children are getting on in Year 5. 

Term 4, week 1

Week 1 of term 4, complete! What a week back it has been! We have settled back into our school routine quickly and have launched into lots of new and exciting topics.

Our English will link to our History learning of the Vikings! We have been reading a Viking saga - Thor and the Mighty Hammer. We will be doing more work on this next week, as well as learning the timeline of what happened between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings.

We have continued our learning on decimals in Maths, having a go at comparing and ordering them and rounding them to the nearest tenth using a number-line to support us. Our learning on decimals will continue next week.

Most exciting of all of course, is the Easter service, which will take place on the last week of term! Roles have been given and we are now in the process of rehearsing the script and the songs! Watch this space, as there will be lines going home to practise as well!

Term 3, Week 6

It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve reached the end of Term 3 and what a busy term it’s been!
You definitely all deserve a break so we hope you have a relaxing few days to enjoy during half term.

This week has been busy as usual, however we’d like to specifically mention the conversations that we had within the year-group during Safer Internet Day on Tuesday.

This year’s theme for Safer Internet Day was “Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online.”

During the day we considered what is meant by influence and navigating change as well as discussing the main ways the children use the internet at the moment.  We were very impressed by the maturity and knowledge shown by the children within these conversations, they are clearly aware of the need to be cautious about the information they share and who they choose to “friend” online.  It was useful to hear that many of the children are using the internet to converse with friends and to share videos and as a result we felt it may be helpful to share a couple of links about helping to protect children as they develop their use of the internet. 

Both the NSPCC and Internet Matters provide lots of helpful information about age restrictions and child appropriate apps which we hope you will find useful as you support your children when they navigate online relationships etc. If there are any other areas of internet safety that you would like some support with please do let us know and we will be happy to help.

In the meantime, we hope you all have a lovely half term break and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday 19th February for the start of Term 4!

Looking Ahead to Term 4

• Tuesday and Thursday will again be our PE days so children will need to ensure they have their PE kits at school on both days. Details about future swimming lessons will be shared when we have them.
• Early Bird Groups will remain the same this term as they were in Term 3.

Term 3, Week 5

What an amazingly busy week, the children should be so proud of all that they have achieved!

As the slideshow of pictures shows, our week has involved lots of practical tasks which have really helped the children to embed their learning.  We have combined our learning of History and English with DT by spending time learning about writing effective instructions (recipes) and then using these to make Anglo Saxon bread. Firstly, the children enjoyed a paired drawing game in English which focused on the importance of giving clear instructions. 

The children then enjoyed the opportunity to develop their cooking skills, particularly focusing on measuring ingredients, kneading dough, cutting and shaping the bread.  We even combined our bread making project with maths by ensuring that the dough was divided into equal fractions when it was shared out, a great example of metacognition.  Our next step is to evaluate our bread having noticed the differences between the look and taste of peasant bread compared to royal bread!

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

• Tuesday and Thursday will continue to be our PE days as usual.
• On Wednesday, our day will start with a Church Service led by Year 3.  Children are therefore asked to register at the usual time of 8:45-8:55 at Church instead of in school.
• If your child is completing their poetry competition entry (as mentioned a few weeks ago) please return it to school by Friday so that we can send them on together for you.
• We continue to politely ask that children don’t bring toys into the classroom, or bring precious “pocket sized toys” for use in the playground and would like to remind children that any toys etc they bring into school are their responsibility.  We are increasingly finding toys are being brought in which distract from learning and cause upset if they are lost or broken.  We have a range of school equipment (and clubs) available at break and lunchtimes which children are welcome to use/take part in.

Term 3, Week 4

Week 4 of Term 3 has flown by and despite lots of coughs, colds and some dreary weather, the children have progressed well with their learning.

The highlights of this week’s learning have included writing our own Anglo Saxon legends, writing instructions to make cheese and marmite sandwiches and learning how to multiply fractions by integers (whole numbers).

We have another week of fractions coming up (this will be focused on finding fractions of an amount or quantity) so we have included a link to a video which you may find helpful in supporting your child’s learning with the key concept of multiplying fractions.

This week we were also joined by Mrs Ali for our RE lesson. It was very good to give the children the opportunity to hear directly from someone who has been to Mecca and could speak to us (and share photos and books) about her trip and the importance of the Qur’an in the lives of Muslims today.  This directly relates to our RE topic for this term. 

A few photos of Mrs Ali’s visit, our Science “demonstration” of the particles in solids, liquids and gases and our English lesson about instructions for making a sandwich are included below.  

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

• Tuesday and Thursday will be our PE days for the rest of this term so children will need to ensure they have their PE kits at school on both days. As you will know from Mrs Edwards’ earlier newsletter, our swimming lessons with Elliott have now finished. Details about future swimming lessons will be shared during Term 4.
• We continue to politely ask that children don’t bring toys into the classroom, or bring precious “pocket sized toys” for use in the playground and would like to remind children that any toys etc they bring into school are their responsibility.  We are increasingly finding toys are being brought in which distract from learning and cause upset if they are lost or broken.  We have a range of school equipment (and clubs) available at break and lunchtimes which children are welcome to use/take part in.

Term 3, Week 3

It’s hard to believe it but we’re already 3 weeks in to Term 3, doesn’t time fly!

It’s been a busy week as usual, the children have written character descriptions and started to think of their own plots for Anglo-Saxon legends whilst also learning about what brought the Anglo-Saxons to Britain in the first place. In Maths, we’ve been learning about division and practicing the bus stop (short division) method – if you’d like to help with practice at home the following link should help.

Our PE focus this term is gymnastics so we thought we’d share some photos of how the children have been getting on.

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

• On Monday afternoon we will be welcoming a parent visitor to share with us about her Muslim faith. The children have been engaging well with our RE topic for the term “what does it mean to be a Muslim in Britain today” so to hear firsthand accounts is a great opportunity to support their learning.
• Tuesday will continue to be our PE day this term – please ensure that PE kits are in school for Tuesday’s lesson
• On Thursday afternoons Year 5 have swimming lessons, please ensure that your child brings their full swimming kit (including swimming costume, towel, swimming hat and goggles (if needed)) each Thursday
• We also politely ask that children don’t bring toys into the classroom.  If you feel that your child would benefit from a fidget toy in order to help them focus on their learning please discuss this with their teacher first.  We need to ensure that an appropriate fidget toy is used which can support focus for learning without being a distraction to others who are trying to learn. 

Term 3, Week 2

What a busy week, especially considering it’s been our first full week of the term!

This week, the children have shown really good focus and progress in their understanding of long multiplication in Maths.  We’re continuing to build on this understanding by solving problems involving multiplication and looking at the inverse operation, division.

In English, our study of Kenning poetry has been great fun.  These riddle-like phrases proved to be popular as children worked to create their own clues given a variety of different topics.  If you’d like to create some Kennings at home, please see the following video and this week’s homework task.

As an extra piece of home learning this week, the children have been told about a poetry competition for 7–12-year-olds. They will have come back with a worksheet about this with all the instructions, if they are wanting to take part. Please let us know if you have any questions. Closing date is the 16th of February, so they can be submitted by you on this date as this is in the half term. Good luck!

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

• Tuesday will continue to be our PE day this term – please ensure that PE kits are in school for Tuesday’s lesson.
• On Thursday afternoons Year 5 have swimming lessons, please ensure that your child brings their full swimming kit (including swimming costume, towel, swimming hat and goggles (if needed)) each Thursday.
• We also politely ask again that children don’t bring toys into the classroom as we are seeing an increasing number appearing.  If you feel that your child would benefit from a fidget toy in order to help them focus on their learning please discuss this with their teacher first.  We need to ensure that an appropriate fidget toy is used which can support focus for learning without being a distraction to others who are trying to learn.  If children are bringing a pocket sized toy with them to use at break or lunch this must be kept in their bag, tray or pocket during lessons and worship times.

Term 3, Week 1

Welcome to 2024 everyone, it’s been lovely to catch up with the children this week and to discuss their hopes and aims for this New Year, both individually and as a year group.  The new year has certainly got off to a busy start with our maths focusing on long and short multiplication and the children starting to learn about the legend of Beowulf in English.  Despite the rainy weather we’ve also had some great PE time, playing team games and showing great communication and collaboration.

In addition to sharing some pictures and details of our learning each week, we aim to use our class newsletters to share tips and resources for helping to support children even more in their learning. This week, we have therefore attached a couple of short videos to show the main methods of multiplication we have been learning about.  As with any learning, repeated practice really helps to embed the skills and knowledge learned so we hope these short videos will help you in supporting your children with their maths homework this week.

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

• Tuesday will continue to be our PE day this term – please ensure that PE kits are in school for Tuesday’s lesson
• On Thursday afternoons Year 5 will again have swimming lessons, please ensure that your child brings their full swimming kit (including swimming costume, towel, swimming hat and goggles (if needed)) each Thursday
• Early Bird Groups will start on Tuesday.  For terms 3 and 4 we will be running Early Bird Groups on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – if you child has been invited to attend a group(s) they will have been given a letter with details and a permission form.  Please could we ask that completed forms are returned to us by Monday so that we are aware of numbers of attendees and can offer places to others if appropriate.
• On Wednesday the day will start with a church service led by Year 4.  Please would you therefore ensure that children go straight to church (where doors open at 8:45) to register. There will not be a walking bus on that day.
• We also politely ask that children don’t bring toys into the classroom.  If you feel that your child would benefit from a fidget toy in order to help them focus on their learning please discuss this with their teacher first.  We need to ensure that an appropriate fidget toy is used which can support focus for learning without being a distraction to themselves or others. 

Term 2, Week 7

Well done everyone, what a busy week and you've made it! It's time for a well earned Christmas break!

Year 5 have done really well to keep up their learning stamina this week, completing a unit of work on Fractions and writing Portal Stories in English.

We've also seen some great creativity, completing futurism prints (photos to follow) and making 2024 calendars which the children were keen to take home today. 

​​​​​​Year 5 also did brilliantly in the Key Stage 2 Carol Service this week, it was wonderful to see so many children in the church on Wednesday evening.

Thank you very much for all your support this term. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and look forward to seeing you when term begins again on Wednesday 3rd January.

Please note: We will be in touch regarding Early Bird Groups in the New Year, they will be starting in Week 2. 

Term 2, Week 6

This week we have been VERY busy and festiveness at Fermor has officially begun! With Father Christmas' grotto, Chritmas jumpers and Christmas lunch it's hard to believe we had time for any work at all... but believe us, there was plenty still to do! We have been focusing on learning about portal stories in English amd have started subtracting fractions in Maths. We had a visit from our STEM ambassador Kerry, who taught us lots more about Space and we spent this time gathering any questions to ask her, as she is an expert!

SCHOOL SWIMMING LESSON UPDATE:

First, I would like to say Hello! My name is Elliott Stevens, and I am the owner of Swim Stars South East and founder of Heathfield Swim School. I am also one of the teachers that are now delivering swimming lessons and a new swimming programme to your children at the school. I just wanted to spend some time to give you all a quick update regarding the progress of your children this year to date. So far, the last two terms that me and my team have been delivering lessons at the site we have seen a huge increase in water confidence, technique, and swim skills so to everyone who has been participating I just want to say a HUGE WELL DONE, you are making excellent progress.

A small overview on what we have been doing:

Year 5 – Have been working on all four strokes breathing and timing. We have also worked on swim skills this term improving handstands, forward rolls, backward rolls and movement shapes.

We will be adding in a Water Safety element to all classes over the next two terms to include personal survival skills, lifesaving skills and how to stay safe when in and around the water. I look forward to seeing you all continue with the great progress and want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

There will be no swimming boosters this Tuesday (12th December)!!

Term 2, Week 5

Well done Year 5, you've had a great week and a particular well done for the Church Service that you all led so confidently on Wednesday.

Thank you very much also to all the parents and carers who were able to join us at church this week, we really appreciated it.  Of course, we completely understand that many people are unable to attend midweek, daytime events like this so we're very grateful that some of you were able to make it. For those of you who were unable to join us, we've included a few pictures from the service about our class values of Goodness and Faithfulness. A particular high point was a funny sketch about goodness which involved crisps being poured into a pair of shoes!

In addition to leading a great service, the children have also worked hard on assessments this week, taking the opportunity to demonstrate the learning they have done in English and Maths since September.  Despite being tired and a little "bubbly" with the approach of Christmas, the children focused well on the assessments.

Important Information for the coming week:

1) Swimming booster sessions will take place on Tuesday and all children will have their swimming lesson as usual on Thursday afternoon.  Please ensure that children bring a full swimming kit with them for this (including a swimming hat).

2) On Monday we will be visited by our local STEM Ambassador, Kerry, who will be leading a workshop about Space (to support this term's Science topic).  We hope the children will find her presentation interesting and have some good questions ready for her!

3) All Early Bird Groups will be taking place this week as normal.

4) As we draw closer to Christmas we have a few "Christmassy" events coming up and next week is no exception. 

• On Thursday it will be Christmas Jumper Day, AND Christmas Lunch (please make sure you have booked this via ParentPay).
• On Thursday evening the School Choir will be joining the festivities by singing at the Civic Carol Service.
• On Friday, the highly anticipated "Father Christmas in the Forest" returns. You should have received details about this via email and places can be booked via ParentPay.
• Looking ahead to the following week - on Wednesday 13th December we will be holding the Key Stage 2 Carol Service at 6pm in Church.  We hope very much that all children are able to attend this event, it is always a very special evening.

5) In Art, we will be creating some printing plates over the coming days, to create our final 'space themed' painting. In order to do this, we kindly ask for a few donations from you (if possible). We need a wide range of materials for the children to create their own textured plate, things like: wool, bubble wrap, dried foods like pasta/rice, feathers fabric, kitchen roll, etc. Anything that you can donate, we would really appreciate. Thank you.

Term 2, Week 4

What a busy, and practical, week it's been!

Year 5 have been busy practicing for next week's church service, which we hope many parents and carers will be able to join us for on Wednesday morning.  We've also enjoyed lots of very practical lessons this week including investigating the challenges of oral histories, exploring rainfall in the Amazon Rainforest (using Broccoli to help us) and beginning to visualise the scale of different planets and distances in our solar system using a variety of fruit, vegetables and even toilet roll! The following photos should give you a taste of some of this learning, in addition to our usual Maths and English of course!

Important Information for the coming week:

1) Swimming booster sessions will not take place on Tuesday this week (but will resume as usual the following week), however, all children will still have their usual swimming lesson on Thursday afternoon.  Please ensure that children bring a full swimming kit with them including a swimming hat.

2) We will be practicing for the Church Service again during the first part of the week and it would be very helpful if the children could learn their words for this. 

3) Year 5 will be leading the Church Service on Wednesday morning so please don't come to school for registration, but head directly to the church.  There will be no walking bus or early bird group on Wednesday as a result.

4) You are welcome to join us for our Church Service on Wednesday morning.

5) In Art, we will soon be creating some printing plates, to create our final 'space themed' painting. In order to do this, we kindly ask for a few donations from you (if possible). We need a wide range of materials for the children to create their own textured plate, things like: wool, bubble wrap, dried foods like pasta/rice, feathers fabric, kitchen roll, etc. Anything that you can donate, we would really appreciate. Thank you.

6) As a reminder, a few year 5 children have been bringing in chewing gum. Please make sure your child isn't coming to school with chewing gum as this is a health and safety concern. Thank you, year 5 team.

And finally, we hope to see lots of you at the Christmas Fair on Saturday!

Term 2, Week 3

It's been a busy week as usual, particularly as we've also started preparing for our church service which is rapidly approaching.  Even in these early days of preparations the children have been impressing us with their thoughtful descriptions of our class values, clarity of speaking and behaviour as a group. We will share some photos next week but don't want to give too much away as it would be lovely to see some parents at the service on Wednesday 29th November!

In terms of learning this week we've been busy researching and writing information texts about planets in English, finding out about the layers of rainforests in Geography, learning about Maya jobs in History and comparing fractions in Maths.  The slideshow below gives a small taste of the work that took place in English and Geography this week.

Important Information for the coming week:

1) Swimming booster sessions will run on Tuesday again and all children will still have their usual swimming lesson on Thursday afternoon.

2) PE will take place on Tuesday as usual.

3) We will be practicing for the Church Service again during next week and it would be very helpful if the children could learn their words which they have been asked to stick in their contact books.

4) With the Christmas Fair coming up on Saturday 25th November there is the opportunity for children in years 5 and 6 to help on the day.  If your child would like to volunteer and you are happy for them to do so there is a short form that should be completed - they can ask their teacher for a copy of this if they have not already taken one. 

Term 2, Week 2

After the fun of pyjama day we all feel sleepy and ready for the weekend but it's been a great week of learning as usual.

We're really enjoying the cross curricular links between our studies in Science, English and Art as we focus on learning about the planets and space.

Lots of our work appears to have involved torches this week! In computing we created morse code messages and in Science we modelled how sundials work.

Next week we're looking forward to continuing our maths work on our new topic of fractions and finishing to research and create information texts about the planets.

Important Information for Next Week

1) Swimming boosters start on Tuesday for those who have been notified

2) Early Bird Groups continue on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

3) Scholastic book fair is on after school, on Thursday for Year 5 and 6 specifically

4) Swimming continues on Thursday (please ensure your child brings a full swimming kit including a hat).

Term 2, Week 1

Firstly, we hope you all had a lovely break over half term!

What a whirlwind of a week we've had!

It was good to see the children back in school in their smart, winter uniforms on Tuesday and with the change in weather they definitely needed the warmth of their jumpers on the playground during the week.

Despite the miserable weather and the challenges it brought us all, we have been impressed with the learning that's been carried out this week.

From learning about Semaphore (a very early method of coding) in computing, to introducing new topics in Science, Geography and RE, it's been a very busy week.  The children are particularly excited by our new Science topic of "Earth and Space" and have already shown that they have lots of interesting knowledge to share. 

In English, we have started to consider the features of Information Texts which we will learn more about next week, whilst in Maths we have come to the end of our block of learning about multiples and factors and will be moving on to start work on Fractions next week.

Important information for the coming week

1. Our PE day remains as Tuesday this term and we swim on Thursdays.  Please ensure that your child has their full PE kit and Swimming Kit (including hat) on the appropriate day.  Booster Swimming sessions also start soon for those who have been specifically invited to attend.
2. Early Bird Groups start on Tuesday morning.  If your child has been invited to attend any early bird groups this term they will have been given a specific letter and response form about this. 
3. We meet at Church on Wednesday morning for our service led by Year 6.  This means that there will not be an Early Bird Group, Running Club or the Walking Bus on Wednesday this week. Please could all children register at church at 8:45am.
4. Please could we ask that all children bring coats and jumpers with them each day.  Whilst the classrooms can be very warm, the changeable weather means it's often cold or damp outside so appropriate clothing is needed because wherever possible we encourage children to go outside at break and lunch. 

Term 1, Week 7

Well done for a great term Year 5, we made it and we hope you all have a fantastic, well earned break over the next week.

We'll look forward to seeing you again when Term 2 starts on Tuesday 31st October, but in the meantime here are a few snapshots of our learning this week which has included investigating square and cube numbers, making pop up books and writing playful poems!

Important Information

We hope you all have a good rest over half term and we'll look forward to seeing you again when term restarts on Tuesday 31st October 2023. 

Our timetable will remain the same for term 2, so:

• Our PE day is Tuesday - so please ensure that PE kits are brought back in to school on the first day of term
• Our Swimming day is Thursday
• We will be starting some Early Bird Groups next term, a letter will be sent separately to advise you if your child has been invited to attend an Early Bird Group

Term 1, Week 6

The children have done really well this week, especially as we've had lots of changes to our normal timetable. In Design and Technology we've made great progress in creating our pop-up books, we will share some photos when they are closer to completion.  

A large number of Year 5 took part in the Cross Country event this week and had some fantastic success.  Whether they won, qualified or not, we are proud of every child who took part and challenged themselves. 

Our other change from our normal timetable this week was a morning spent learning about the Mayan culture and history from our visitor, A few photos are attached below.

Term 1, Week 5

Wow, where did that week go? We've been busy with things like writing a Hot Task in English (an independent write at the end of a learning topic where the children get to "show off" their knowledge of the topic - in this case writing effective setting descriptions), completing a unit of work on addition and subtraction in Maths and learning about the staple foods of the Mayans in History.

The children also enjoyed some lighthearted relief in computing where they were coding a game called "parachuting cows", and a practical lesson in Science where we looked in detail at the different parts of a flowering plant.  As the photos show, the children really enjoyed the opportunity to get "stuck in" with their learning.

Important Information for next week

We have a few different things going on next week to be aware of:

1) On Monday afternoon we will be continuing our Design and Technology work on making Pop-up books.  This means our timetable will be different to normal.

2) PE remains on Tuesday afternoon and Swimming on Thursday afternoon as normal.

3) On Wednesday morning we will be joined by Kerry (a STEM Ambassador) who will be talking with the children about her experiences and learning from visiting Mayan ruins; this means our timetable for the day will be slightly different to normal. In the afternoon, some Year 5 children will be taking part in the Key Stage 2 Cross Country Event at Beacon - you will have been written to separately about this if it applies to your child.  If your child is attending they will be having an early lunch so will either need to bring a packed lunch or to order a sandwich from school.

Term 1, Week 4

Another busy week in Year 5. The children have done brilliantly with their learning this week, particularly with writing amazing setting descriptions in English (using expanded noun phrases, similes, metaphors and amazing adjectives) and building confidence in the column methods of addition and subtraction in Maths.

Our "photo opportunity" came on Wednesday when we released the butterflies that we have been studying over the last few weeks in Science.  The children have enjoyed learning about life cycles and it has been fantastic to watch a life cycle in full as our tiny caterpillars from a few weeks ago have undergone metamorphosis to emerge as beautiful, painted lady butterflies.

Important Information

• As shoes are not allowed in the swimming pool children may find it useful to bring a pair of flip flops with them on swimming days, this will make changing footwear at the swimming pool door a lot quicker and should be particularly helpful on days when the weather is not too good.
• On Wednesday 4th October 2023 it is our Harvest Service in Church, please would all children register at church in the morning rather than in school.  Church doors will open for registration from 8:45am.
• During week 6 we are excited to have a visitor join us for a morning. On Wednesday 11th October our local STEM Ambassador, Kerry, will be joining us to lead a workshop about the Maya. Kerry will share stories and photos of her visit to Maya Temples providing a great way for the children to learn more about this historic civilisation alongside their learning in history lessons.

Term 1, Week 3

Well done for another great week Year 5. It's been a varied week weather wise and also a varied week in terms of the sort of learning activities we've been getting up to. As usual, there have been a number of independent learning tasks as we constantly work to develop each child's independence and resilience within their learning.  However, we have also enjoyed a range of more collaborative learning activities as these present such good opportunities for the children to develop their communication and cooperation with one another.

As the following photos show our learning activities this week have included:

1) Using manipulatives called "arrow cards" to assist with addition and subtraction of 10s, 100s and 1000s in maths.

2) Working in pairs on a Science challenge to find and order the different stages in life cycles of butterflies and frogs.

3) Working in small groups in English to create vivid descriptions of rainforest scenes.

We look forward to continuing our learning next week.

Important Information

As you know, we are sorry that swimming lessons did not start this week as originally intended.  They are now due to start next week so please could all children bring in their swimming kit on Thursday. 

Our other PE slot remains at Tuesday afternoon when the children will continue to learn Netball.

Term 1, Week 2 Newsletter

With the hot weather back this week it's definitely felt very summery at school, but this hasn't affected the childrens' concentration.  Throughout the week we have completed baseline assessments in Maths and English and the children have focused brilliantly! They've shown their maturity when working in "test conditions" and have done a great job at showcasing their learning from last year. 

After lots of thinking tasks the children have also enjoyed the opportunity to do some more practical activities such as PE (our topic for this term is Netball) and Art. Whilst the "Meet the Teacher" presentation was going on on Friday morning the children were industriously making paper apples ready for the Harvest Festival display in church.  Photos to follow.

Thank you very much to those of you who attended the Meet the Teacher event on Friday, Miss Fuller was very sad not to be there but trusts it went well. Of course, if you would like to meet your child's teacher we are usually available at the gate after school, can be reached via contact books or you can book an appointment to meet us via the school office.  

Important Information

1) If you missed the Meet the Teacher event this week but would like to see the information that was shared, we will shortly be uploading the presentation to the relevant section of our class page.

2) Our PE day next week is Tuesday, whilst our first swimming session takes place on Thursday afternoon - please ensure that your child brings their full swimming kit (including hat and goggles (if needed)) on Thursday.

3) Homework can be found on the homework tab of this page - if your child would like a printed copy of the homework sheets this can be arranged, please let us know via their contact book.

Term 1, Week 1 Newsletter

Well done for a great start to the term Year 5.  We've packed a lot in, in what's been a very hot week.

As the photos show, the children enjoyed our Stunning Start activity in which we "flew" to South America, learning about the 12 countries and 2 territories that make up this continent.

For more information about our learning this term, please remember to check out our curriculum page.

Important Information

As we continue to settle in to the new term, we have a few key points to be aware of:

1) Our PE days for this term are Tuesday and Thursday.

2) From Week 3, our Thursday afternoon PE slot will be swimming.

3) During next week the children will be completing assessments in English and Maths - these are a repeat of the assessments they completed towards the end of Year 4 as we establish baselines for their learning this year.  These assessments will be completed under test conditions however we do reiterate to children that they should not be worried about them.

4) On Friday 15th September we will be holding a "Meet the Teachers" session from 9:00 - 9:30. We hope to meet many of you there so we can share more details of the year we have planned!