Dear year 5 children and families,
Welcome back to school! We hope you had a restful summer. We are looking forward to a new year.
We would like to share some key bits of information about this year:
PE days and PE kit
Until the October half term, every Wednesday, starting from 7th September, one of our PE sessions will take place at the Eversley Leisure centre. The second is outdoor PE and will be on a Thursday. After half term the indoor PE day will change to Monday for the remainder of the year.
On both PE days children may come into school wearing their PE kit and wear them all day. This must be the correct school kit, including the blue PE T-shirt (with or without the logo). Shorts or jogging bottoms should be black. Children who do not have this kit must come to school in uniform as usual and change into PE kit for the PE lesson. Please note that earrings must not be worn for PE and is advised for children not to wear them at all on PE days.
Homework and reading
Homework will be set on a Thursday, starting from 15th September. Homework folders will be issued for this. It will be due in the by the following Tuesday morning. We are always willing to help if children have difficulties completing their homework or for any reason need an extra copy. It is, however, their responsibility to come to us before the due date to discuss this. Any homework not handed in by the due date may need to be completed in school.
We cannot stress enough the importance of regular reading at home, along with times tables and spelling practice. These are a crucial element of your child’s weekly homework. Experience and research tell us that the impact of these on children’s academic development cannot be underestimated. If you are in any doubt about the effect that your support has on your child’s education and life chances, please look at table overleaf.
Reading diaries will be checked on a Monday morning. Children are expected to read a minimum of 4 times per week and reading diaries should be signed by an adult to confirm that this has happened. We may ask children to stay in and read during break-times if they persistently do not hand in their diary or that it does not show that they have read the required number of times.
Additional groups
We are very lucky to have a third teacher – Mr Lawday – working across year 5 in the mornings for English and maths lessons this year. This is to enable us to provide as much support as possible to all of the children to make up for the disruptions to learning over recent years caused by Covid. Mr Lawday will be teaching in the ‘resources room’ (also known as breakfast club) in the Cedar building – the same building as the Year 4 and 5 classrooms. This will mean that all three classes are significantly smaller, which will benefit everyone. The children will be mixed up across the year group but they will remain in the same group for both maths and English and will return to their class groups for afternoon lessons.
Hair, earrings, footwear and drink bottles
This is just a quick reminder that any hair longer than shoulder length should be tied back and any earrings should be small studs/hoops. Larger hoops or dangly earrings are not allowed. School shoes should be plain black with no white or coloured markings, including around the sole. Please ensure that your child has a water bottle in school every day. There is plenty of access to drinking water to refill these as often as necessary but, for hygiene reasons, it is not appropriate for us to provide cups.
Other staff working in year 5
Our LSAs are Mrs Smerdon in 5B and Miss Martin in 5F.
On Fridays the usual class teachers will be out of class for the half of the day. The classes will be covered on these days by Mrs Sach in 5B and Mrs Oliver in 5F.
Please feel free to speak to any of the year 5 team if you have any questions or concerns. We can be contacted by email or through the school office and are usually available for a chat straight after school.
Many thanks for your support,
Mr Burgess, Mrs Friedberg and Mr Lawday
