"Do everything in love” 1 Corinthians 16:14

 

Learning to love, loving to learn

Welcome to Year 5

Our staff

Mrs Haslam is our class teacher and Mrs Skitt will be supporting our learning.

The following information tells you a little more about the coming term in Year 5 and your child's learning. However, if you have any queries or questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

sara.haslam@st-marys.halton.sch.uk

General information

• Please tie back long hair.
• Please have a bottle of water at school every day. This can be refilled as necessary.
• Please bring a small school bag, reading book and homework record every day (if relevant to your child).
• Please return your homework on or before Wednesday for marking. Homework will be sent out on a Friday.
• All school uniform needs to be named but particularly jumpers and cardigans.
• A full PE kit should be in school at all times, consisting of black shorts, white t-shirts and trainers. Jogging bottoms/leggings can be added as the weather gets colder.
•  

PE is timetabled for Tuesday and Friday during Spring 2. 

 

Spring Second Half term 2025

 

Our Christian Values

During the second Spring half term, our school value is Courage.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

 

Love of reading

We are continuing to read our class novel, 'The Boy at the Back of the Class' by Onjali Q Rauf. It's taking some time, but we are really enjoying it!

English

Our weekly routine will continue to include learning writing skills, spelling and grammar, handwriting and guided reading sessions. Daily reading at home continues to be essential and we would ask that you question your child regularly on the book they are reading to develop a deeper understanding of a range of texts, to develop new vocabulary and strengthen writing skills.

Writing

During the second half of the spring term, we are exploring 'The Darkest Dark', by astronaut Chris Hadfield to develop our writing skills. We will further develop non-fiction and descriptive writing skills to help us write a biography.

Reading

Our Guided Reading text this half term is 'Exploring Space' by The Literacy Company. This compliments our writing text as it features space exploration and is non-fiction.

 

Spelling

We will continue to use Pathways to Spell as part of our English lessons to develop spelling strategies and learn spelling rules, as well as the essential Y5/6 words.

Maths

As mathematicians, the children will learn through concrete experiences moving onto pictorial and abstract methods as their confidence builds. They will also be expected to use their learning to reason about maths and solve problems. 

During the rest of the Spring term we will focus on fractions, comparing and converting fractions, adding and subtracting then moving on to multiplying. The term finishes with a focus on decimals and percentages.

Science

As scientists, we aim to develop our knowledge and understanding, scientific skills and measuring and recording abilities. During the Spring term we will be investigating Materials and their properties. This will include learning about properties such as hardness, thermal conductivity, materials that are soluble and those that are not, and investigating changes that are reversible and those that are not.

Geography

During the second half term we will look at geography. We will focus on where natural resources are found, how we use them and the need for taking responsibility to ensure our use of these is sustainable.

RE

For RE we will continue to use the Questful RE planning. This half term we will complete our focus on Jesus, and why Christians believe Jesus was a great teacher and then move on to studying Easter.

The aim of the Jesus unit is to:

• emphasise Jesus’ skills as a great teacher.
• consider carefully the messages of the parables and how they impact on the lives of practising Christians.

We will explore through these key questions:

• Why did Jesus tell this story?
• What can we learn from this story?
• How does this story help us to understand Christian beliefs?
• How does this story impact on the lives of believers?

While the aim of the Easter unit is to:

• emphasise that Christians believe that Easter is the celebration of Christ’s triumph and victory over death. This is is at the very heart of Christian belief.
• ensure that pupils have an understanding of the importance of Jesus death and resurrection in Christian belief, as a rescue plan to restore the relationship between God and his people.

We will epxlore through these key questions:

• Why do Christians believe that Easter is a celebration of victory?
• In what ways is Christ’s death and resurrection a victory?
• What is Jesus victorious over and why?
• How does his victory affect the lives of Christians today?
• How do the events and services that take place in churches during Holy Week and Easter reflect Christian belief that Jesus’ death and resurrection was a victory?
• What did Jesus do to save human beings?

PE

Our PE will concentrate on accuracy and rallies in net games such as tennis and invasion in team games such as hockey and football.

Art and DT

Our Art this term focuses on the Art of the Anatomy. This will allow us to further develop our skills in drawing and sculpture. OUr DT topic this term will focus on food technology, cooking spaghetti bolognese.

PHSE

In PHSE, we will follow the Heartsmart scheme. The focus is 'Don't Rub it in, Rub it Out!'. This helps us develop simple strategies for resolving confilct and looks at forgiveness, how we handle emotions and our own mistakes. 

Music

As musicians, we will be using Charanga to explore different music genres and new terminology. We will learn that if we play three or more pitches together, we can create chords in music and that they provide the basis for accompaniment in music. We will learn how to use chords in compositions, and that we can create music that is really interesting. We will continue by studying styles of music and what is meant by 'texture'.

MFL

As linguists, we will learn how to read, write and say phrases about our town and telling the time. We will continue to find out about grammatical gender to write nouns & adjectives accurately and extend our range of spoken questions and answers. 

 

Computing

This half term we will learn about video editing and databasesas well as continuing to learn about managing online information.

Homework

Homework will be sent out on Friday to be returned on or before the following Wednesday.  We expect each piece to take about 30 minutes.  Please come and see us if there are any difficulties or write a note on the piece of work. It is important to complete each piece as they will either build on taught skills or pre teach skills ready for the following week.