Year Five 2023 - 2024

WELCOME TO YEAR 5

Dear Year 5 pupils, parents and carers,                                                                       

Welcome to Year 5 and welcome back to school.  I am very excited about the New Year ahead and looking forward to us having a happy, productive and fun school year.  We are very lucky to be having Mrs Hamilton working with us in Year 5 again this year.  Year 5 is a fun, action packed year with lots of exciting opportunities for the children including a trip to Quarry Bank Mill in the Spring Term and our residential to Ghyll Head in the Summer Term.

In the year ahead, we have lots of exciting English, Maths, Science and new topics that we will be covering this year.  Some of the topics we will cover are; Local History with a focus on the Lancashire Cotton Industry, the Slave trade and the Manchester Ship Canal, The Anglo Saxons and The Rise of Baghdad as an early civilization. These topics are linked with our literacy topics so the children have a real opportunity to immerse themselves in the vocabulary.  The children have already shown an incredible interest in topic and I would encourage parents to send in any books or resources from home that you may have related to our topics. 

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.

 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 it in their reading record when you do so.  For the past number of years, we have been using Accelerated Reading in school.  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.  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.

Homework will be set on a Friday and should be returned on a Wednesday.  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.  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 the Year 5/6 spelling list which was sent home at the beginning on the year.

It is important that you come to school on our PE days dressed in your full PE kit. This should be a plain white t-shirt, black or navy shorts/joggers and your Holy Name school jumper.  Please do not send children in any other types of clothing or football kits.  PE in the Autumn Term will take place on Monday and Friday and we are delighted to be welcoming CITC and their coaches into school to support with this.

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.  Studies show that parental involvement in a child’s education is one of the strongest indicators of student achievement.  We hope you will make it a priority this year to attend as many school-sponsored events as possible.

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

Miss Lynch and Mrs Hamilton