Blwyddyn Pump - everything you need to know.

While Mrs Ketcher-Murrell is out of class, Miss Oxford will be teaching the class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Mrs Adams will be teaching the class on Thursday and Friday.  

Mr Morris Wednesday morning (Forest School Session)

Teaching Assistant: 

Start time: 08:45            End of the day: 15:20 

Expectations: Year Five is a fun class but the children are also expected to work hard. The timetable is arranged so that the children take part in a range of lessons over the course of the week. They will have one Forest School session each Wednesday and will need suitable clothes for this. They will also take part in three 'mission' sessions each week. These sessions are used to focus on specific skill development. Your child will need a small pencil case to hold 2/3 black writing pens, a red pen for underlining, 2 writing pencils, a rubber, a sharpener, glue stick, coloured pencils (10 is plenty) and a coloured pen for self assessment. A transparent 30cm ruler is also required. Please label everything - you'd be surprised at what gets lost on day 1!

PE: kit needs to be brought to school every  FRIDAY. Children with long hair will be required to wear a bobble and earrings will need to be removed or taped. PE kit comprises of black shorts/leggings/tracksuit bottoms, a plain white/Newton logo t-shirt and trainers. Red and white striped Newton rugby shirts or a plain black jumper may be worn in colder months. No external sports kits are allowed.

Reading: We have daily reading in class. This is during a ‘guided reading’ session and at other times. We will also read a class novel to the children. We will read a range of texts in small groups and the children will also read to themselves. We have a range of reading materials available and also make use of EPIC reading. The class code is UCW7483.

Most children will have Oxford Reading Tree books. One to read in school, and one to be read at home. Please ensure that your child knows when they need to renew their book. Some children are ‘free readers’ and can change their books in the school library or read a book from home. We no longer have reading records as they were not being used regularly by the majority, but please feel free to use your own book as a record of what your child has read.

Spelling: we will learn new spelling words weekly. When marking the baseline test, we look at the components of each word that are spelled incorrectly and group the children accordingly. E.g. the word invented may be spelled ‘inventid’ and then the child would be expected to practise the ‘ed’ ending at some point that term. So even though you may think that your child can a)spell the words or b) have already learnt this list, they have spelled the component incorrectly during the test so will need to repeat it. Children will write their words into a spelling and handwriting book in school and will learn both at the same time. They will insert their words into J2Spell and this means that they can also have access to the words at home. Spelling programmes have proved to be an incredibly worthwhile tool for improving a child’s spelling ability, so please ensure that your child is learning them daily. Please ask if you’d like your child to have a handwriting booklet to be completed at home and I will get one sent home as soon as possible. 

Maths Facts: This term we will be trying to improve the children’s knowledge of times tables and they will have daily practise. If your child knows the times tables, we would expect them to improve their recall speed. This is something that can be done by all families at home and you should aim to learn them as often as you can - at least three times a week would be very beneficial to your child. J2Blast can also be used both in school and at home to support this area.

Homework: We came away from written homework at the start of the last academic year after analysing the answers of a parent questionnaire. Instead, we believe that the most important tasks for children to do at home are: daily reading and spelling (this can also be on J2Spell) and learning maths facts (starting with all times tables.) If your child has struggled with something throughout the day, we may send home the tasks for them to go over the learning again but we won’t require these to be returned to school. Sometimes your child may be asked to research something for the work in class, but this will be shared on Class Story. There is also a homework tab on the website which has lots of different sources of learning that can be done at home.  

Class Dojo: This is first and foremost a reward system and it is used throughout the school. Your children will gain and lose points throughout the year. The points system was finalised with your children. Pupils are also encouraged to nominate each other for points - we don’t always see all of the good that goes on, especially on the playground. You should have access to Class Story and School Story. If you do not, please let me know so that this can be rectified. I will use both the message facility and Class Story to share information with you so please ensure that you check it regularly as it is our main form of communication. All important messages must be phoned through to the school office on 01792369826, many thanks.