Birkby Junior School

Happy New Year!

We hope you have had a great holiday and are refreshed and revitalised, ready to take on the challenges of the Spring Term.

You are now in your second term of year 5, which will continue to be exciting and challenging. Keep persevering and showing us a mature and independent approach towards your learning.

What will we be learning?

Our focus in English lessons will be based on reading ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’, by Rick Riordan, to explore the features of fantasy stories, in order to plan and write our own fantasy stories later in the term.  We will also be using Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, as a basis for writing a range of fiction and non-fiction pieces, such as informal letters and obituaries.  We will be focusing on being able to include the correct features of each text type within our writing, carefully considering the audience and purpose.  After half term, we will be writing our own Fantasy Stories, using knowledge of the features we have gained from our learning during the first half term.

Cracking Comprehension sessions will continue to reinforce important comprehension strategies and develop understanding of reading skills.

In our Maths lessons, we will begin the term by completing our statistics unit which we started before the holidays.  After this, we will be developing our written multiplication and division methods. We will then continue to build on our knowledge of fractions from the autumn term (multiplying fractions and finding fractions of amounts).  After half term, we will move onto decimals and percentages.  We will learn about decimal place value and round, order and compare decimals.   We will then link our decimals and fractions knowledge to percentages. Finally, we will build on our understanding of perimeter and area, working with composite shapes. 

We will continue to develop general calculating skills – mental and written – using all four operations.  The aim is for you to be confident and efficient when using the methods in the school’s calculation policy. 

We will be spending lots of time problem-solving and working on our mastery and reasoning skills, which help us to understand the important concepts in Maths and make connections between them.   Daily Fluent in Five practice will help you to increase speed and accuracy when calculating.

All children are expected to know their times tables by the end of year 4; we will continue to practise these this year.  You must make this a personal target if you cannot recall them quickly and accurately.  If you can, you need to extend this to knowing the related division facts.  Knowing your times tables facts will help you in all your Maths work - keep learning them!  Spending time on TT Rock Stars will help with your speed and accuracy.

For our Geography and History work, we will be moving onto learning about Greece, where there will be a focus on building on the geography and history skills you have developed so far in school. We will begin the term by developing our geography skills, using maps to think about the location & physical features of Greece, including mountains and volcanoes.  After half term, we will be learning about Ancient Greece and when this was, making links with periods of history we have studied so far. We will learn about religious beliefs at that time in Greece, as well as the legacy of the Olympic games. We will also explore how the Ancient Greeks influenced the modern world.

Our Science lessons will focus on Forces to begin with – friction, gravity, air resistance and water resistance. After half term, we will be gazing towards the sky, as we take a closer look at the Solar System, during our Earth and Space unit. We will explore the movement of the Earth, the other planets and the Moon, thinking about changes in past beliefs based on changing scientific evidence.  Knowledge learnt will help to explain and demonstrate night and day and the seasons.

In Art lessons we will be exploring the work of Imran Qureshi, developing our observational drawing skills, before colour knowledge and painting skills.    Following this, we will focus on 3D skills working with clay, designing and creating Mexican sugar skulls.

Also, to keep our bodies as fit and active as our minds, we’ll have the opportunity to develop a range of skills individually and in teams.  This term our P.E. sessions will cover boxercise and games (net and wall skills). When we are not swimming, we will be developing our skills in invasion games and gymnastics. You will be informed by your class teacher when you have P.E. lessons. You will need to come to school in your P.E. kit on your P.E. days - please make sure you have suitable footwear too.

We will be going swimming at Salendine Nook High School every Thursday (5HT, 5HK and 5G). We will be continuing with lessons until February, and then 5B and 5I will go from February to July.  Please remember to bring your correct swimming kit on Thursdays.

Please see the Curriculum Information Booklet for more detail about other aspects of our learning.

What will I need to bring to school?

You need to remember to bring your planner into school every day.  Your teacher will check your planner regularly and an adult at home will need to as well.  You also need to remember to return your home reading book and your library book regularly, so that you have the opportunity to read and enjoy as many books at home as possible.

What work will I need to do at home?

Every Wednesday, you will be given Maths and English homework.  This must be returned to school by the following Monday.

Your teacher will also share the new spellings you need to learn in your English lessons - try to practise spellings every day and you can also use Twinkl Spellings to practise.  You will be tested on these the following week.  Bringing your planner to school every day, will help you to remember what work you need to do.  This is a good habit and will help you to become an independent learner. Remember to complete Mathletics activities and practise your times tables using TTRS.

In addition to this, it is important that you continue to read and discuss texts with someone at home on a regular basis, this includes your home reading book and your library book.  You will be able to visit the school library once a week, in order to select a new book and your class teacher will change your home reading book regularly.

Try and read every day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes.  It doesn’t have to be the school library book – it could be a magazine, game instructions, a recipe or any other texts you have and enjoy reading. 

Let’s continue to work hard, developing as inquisitive and independent learners.  We have an exciting new term ahead of us – we can’t wait to get started!

A very excited Year 5 team!