Year Five 2024 - 2025

WELCOME TO YEAR 5

Dear Year 5 pupils, parents and carers,

Welcome to Year 5 and welcome back to school. We hope that you have all had a lovely summer break and are ready to work hard this year!

We are very lucky to be having Ms Johnson working with us in Year 5 this year.  Year 5 is a fun, action packed year with lots of exciting opportunities for the children including our residential to Ghyll Head in the Summer Term. This is an important year for all the children and we hope they all enjoy the year and work hard in achieving their potential to become strong, independent learners.

As always, the main gate will be open from 08:45 and the children will leave school through the same gate at 15:00. School starts at 08:55 and it's important that your child is not late. After school clubs will be available throughout the year and can be booked through the Parent Pay app or by contacting the school office. Spaces fill up quickly so it is important that if you would like your child to attend one or more of these clubs that you book it as early as possible.

As a Catholic school Religious Education is very much at the centre of our curriculum and the children will be learning about lots of different aspects of Religion and other faiths – through the Come and See programme. Ms Bailey will be teaching RE in Year 5 this year.

All pupils will have been provided with a reading pack and reading diary.  Please do try to read with your children at home and fill in their reading record when you do so. For the past number of years, we have been using Accelerated Reading in school and this allows children to take mini quizzes after they complete a book. This is an excellent resource and allows us to track and monitor reading throughout the school. We have seen a real growth in progress with reading in school with the engagement of Accelerated Reading.

I am often asked by parents about ‘extra homework’, please be assured that children are set a reasonable amount of homework and will not be given homework during the school holidays. However, if you wanted to do extra work at home please encourage your child to go on TT Rockstars (logins are in their reading records) do some extra reading or practice spelling words from their spelling list which will be sent home at the start of every half-term.

It would be fantastic if parents would support us at school by encouraging children to do their homework and bring it back into school. This is an excellent way for you to engage with your child and speak to them about what they are doing at school. 

Letters of communication are sent home in the reading packs so please make sure they are brought in to school every day. This will help you stay organised, carry any homework and anything else you may need for a school day.

Parents, please read all letters sent home with the children so that you are aware of any events and exciting things going on in school throughout the school year. Don’t forget to mark those dates on your calendar.

Our weekly routine will be:

• Wednesday: Homework should be handed in by placing it in the homework tray in the classroom.
• Tuesday and Friday: Children should arrive at school in their full P.E. kits, consisting of white t-shirts, black or navy shorts or tracksuit bottoms (in Winter), and trainers or black pumps. Please ensure that they do not wear any hooded jumpers or jackets; instead, they should wear their school jumper. On these days, regular school uniform is not required. We are delighted to be welcoming CITC and their coaches into school to support with PE lessons every Friday this year again.
• Friday: Reading records will be monitored and children will receive their homework tasks to complete at home. Weekly spelling tests will be done in class on that weeks’ words.

If you have any questions or concerns please don’t ever hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for your continued cooperation and support. Here's to a successful and fulfilling year in Year Five!

Miss Donnelly and Ms Johnson