Year 5 Parent Information: Welcome!

1. Year 5 Parent Information: Welcome!

2. Who Are We? • Mr White is the year 5 teacher, who will be teaching all week except on Tuesday afternoons when Mrs Tucker will teach music and Mr Ault, PE. Mrs Miller will be teaching French on Wednesday afternoons for 30 minutes. • Mrs Broadbent is our teaching assistant, working full time shared with Year 6. She works mainly with intervention groups in the afternoons. Children may be involved in long term or more short term interventions as appropriate. • Mrs Elliott and Miss Cordaro are also teaching assistants, working on a one to one basis across the week. (Mrs Elliott is also available as a class TA three afternoons a week). • On Monday mornings, for several weeks, we have Mr Wyn Reynolds from Bible Explorer delivering entertaining RE lessons, which have to be seen to be believed!

3. Class Organisation • PE is currently on Tuesday and Wednesday but please ensure PE kits are available throughout the week. They should be brought in on a Monday and taken home on the Friday. Please provide a draw-string bag to allow easy hanging on children’s pegs. A book bag and lunch box plus coat should be the only items that your child needs to bring in. Please consider space issues if bringing in huge bags!

4. Homework expectation is for reading to be done at least 3 times each week and tables practice (in the form of a times tables grid or practise through sumdog) is expected every week. There will be one piece of longer homework each week (max 30 minutes). We will be trialling a menu system, where the children can choose what they would like to do.

5. If you wish to contact me, I have a new email address: jwhite@sandiway.cheshire.sch.uk. • Your child currently has a Sumdog username and password. Please encourage your child to work on this as it helps develop their mental maths skills. Homework may involve Sumdog as well. I will be giving merit stickers for the top 5 users of Sumdog each week, whether homework or not! • PE kit needs to be black or navy blue shorts, plain white t-shirt, socks and suitable footwear (trainers). They will also need tracksuit bottoms and a long-sleeved top for when it gets a bit colder as we are planning to go outside until the weather becomes unsuitable.

6. Timetable • See attached timetable in pack. This is the default timetable and often changes!

7. Curriculum • Details of the topics we are studying is on the handout – our topic this term is key events in recent British History: Battle of Britain, the Civil Rights movement and Man Landing on the Moon. A class trip is currently being booked for a trip to the War Museum in Manchester – please see separate letter, due soon, for details of this.

8. Your child will be grouped for Literacy and Maths to ensure suitable activities are given to enable them to achieve as best as possible. These groups are flexible and adaptable – please remember that children progress at different points. If your child changes groups it is not something to worry about however if you wish to discuss anything, please arrange an appointment through the office, or less formally, email me. If we have a concern about your child’s progress, we will contact you directly.

9. Reading • Reading remains vital to your child’s progress. At this stage, they do not necessarily need to be listened to. It is more a case of asking questions about their understanding of what is happening, how and why character’s react and author’s techniques. In class, we have regular guided reading sessions where the teacher works with your child in a small group on their reading comprehension.

10. Record any reading in reading records and they can be used as another form of communication as we read these when we do a guided reading session. Encourage your child to comment on what they have read. • We have a new competitive reading scheme, which will start this week. The children will be bringing home passports, which they can tick off when reading has been done.

11. Residential • At this moment in time, the residential is booked for year 5 to go to Conway in the 2nd term. Details will follow.

12. Assessments • Through the year, whilst teaching, we do on-going teacher assessments. At this current time, due to the new curriculum, it is unclear whether we will be doing formal tests.

13. Behaviour • Standards of behaviour are expected to be high in the year 5 classroom. If a child breaks the rules, they will be moved onto the yellow and miss some of their break. If they continue or the misbehaviour is more serious, they will be moved onto the red and miss all of their break. It is likely that parents will then be contacted. Minor rule breaks will not involve parental contact.

14. Children are encouraged to report any issues which they are concerned about to any member of staff as soon as possible so issues can be resolved without escalating. Please support your child to do this. Please remember that there are two sides to every story and issues are more often than not easily resolved through discussion between the relevant children and class teacher.

15. Your child will be rewarded for good behaviour and attitude through the use of class points, team points, a writer of the week award and a sticker leading to awards system. A weekly certificate for someone, who has really stood out, is also given. Please celebrate your child’s successes with them regularly.

16. How Can I Help? • Please support all homework activities; especially by ensuring regular reading (at least 3 lots of 30 minutes each week) and practise of times tables and spellings (a list of year 3 and 4, and 5 and 6 words is included). Question your child at the end of their reading about what they have read rather than listen to them read. Encourage them to read a wide range of literacy (newspapers, magazines, poetry, narrative books, information books etc).

17. Let us know if there are any significant changes in home circumstances or your child’s behaviour (including anything positive!) • If your child has been vomiting or has diarrhoea, please keep them off for 48 hours after the last bout. Any medication needs to be brought to the office and a form filled in.

18. Help with trips or transport to sporting events is always appreciated as without it, we can’t provide them. We try to ensure that all children get some opportunity to attend sporting events although several are competitive and for these we try to pick the best team and a second team if we can. Children get more opportunities in year 6 than year 5 so please bear this in mind if your child is not chosen. • Promote independence by making it your child’s responsibility to pack their bag, remember their homework, PE kit etc. Subtle reminders may still need to be done!

19. Avoid holidays or appointments in term time as your child can miss something which is not covered again or important to their understanding. • Water bottles are allowed but only ones which can be opened and closed easily to avoid spillages. • If you have any questions about anything, please ask. Either email or if you want to meet face to face, please arrange an appointment through the office. If it is a quick informal chat, please try to see me before 8.45 or at the end of the day. We are unable to discuss things once the children have entered the classroom.

20. We have 2 opportunities for formal parents’ meetings during the year. These are 10 minutes slots to discuss your child’s progress rather than discussing particular issues.