Welcome Statement
Welcome to the Years 5 and 6 Information page!
In the first half of the Autumn term, Years 5 and 6 will be focusing on the Geography unit – ‘Climatic Regions and Natural Disasters’ (please see Knowledge Organiser below for more details).
If you have any questions or concerns that you would like to discuss with us, we are always happy to have a catch up with you in person, or you can contact us via the class email addresses:
Year 5 – beech_class@alconbury.cambs.sch.uk
Year 6 – yew_class@alconbury.cambs.sch.uk
Reading
Reading is an essential skill to succeed in life; it enables them to discover new facts, to learn at school and opens them up to a world of new ideas, stories and opportunities.
We strive to instil a love of reading within our pupils by modelling a reading culture as part of daily life. We read a wide variety of genres and high-quality, appropriate texts, as well as following the children’s’ interests.
Children are encouraged to read, either independently or to you, regularly from their personal reader or reading scheme book. In class, we read regularly to the pupils, as well as encouraging them to read passages aloud to their peers (if they feel comfortable).
PE
The children will take part in a wide variety of physical activities throughout the year. For Year 5, their PE days will be on Mondays and Wednesdays, whilst Year 6 will have PE on Mondays and Wednesdays.
We would like the children to bring both indoor and outdoor kits into school on a Monday, leave their kits in school and then take them home on Fridays to be washed. Indoor kit consists of black shorts and white T-shirts; outdoor kit should also include a change of footwear (trainers or boots) and you should also include warm outer clothing such as a jumper or tracksuit – especially as the weather gets colder and wetter.
Due to the number of children who regularly forget their kit, as a staff we have decided that in future we will take the following steps:
- The first time a child forgets their kit they will be allowed to borrow a spare kit.
- The second time they will miss their PE session.
- The third time a letter will go home to parents.
Homework
Homework provides an opportunity to reinforce what has been learnt at school, and helps keep you involved with your child’s learning. We expect the children to maintain the same standards of presentation in their homework tasks as in their school books. We also like you to sign or initial the homework each week so that you are aware of the work the children are doing, and you are welcome to add a comment or ask a question.
The homework programme remains the same this term:
Literacy/spelling homework will go out on a Monday and should be returned by Thursday for Year 6. Children will be required to investigate a spelling rule and discover words applying to this rule. To check their understanding, they will be tested on words chosen by the teacher the following week, which follow the pattern. Key words will also be sent home to learn.
Maths: pupils will not be given a set homework task each week. However, to support the pupils with their learning, we encourage them to use ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ (we will provide them with their individual logins, so they can access this at home too) and other resources to support them with the fundamentals.
Please remember: Tables and reading should be practised every week on a regular basis. Much of the classwork at this stage is linked to table facts and number bonds and limited knowledge or slow recall causes problems with other aspects of maths. Tables are an integral part of the maths curriculum, but other areas of mental recall are also involved – addition, subtraction, percentages, rounding etc.
