St MAry's class

Welcome to Year 4 and 5

Welcome to St Mary's Class

Welcome to Year 4 and 5. I hope you all had an enjoyable break and are settling back into Term 5.

We are proud of our class contract that we have updated this term.

In St Mary’s class, we…

are sensible and kind to each others,
are always trying our best,
are excellent role models for our school
listen to each other,
are always READY, SAFE and RESPECTFUL,
show pride in our work,
treat each other how we want to be treated,
ARE A TEAM 🙂

Here are a few things you need to be aware of to help our term go smoothly.

We provide all stationery for every child, so no need to bring in pencil cases or stationery from home. Due to limited space in our cloakroom, rucksacks are not preferred. Please provide your child with a drawstring backpack, if possible.

We endeavour to offer all children outside learning opportunities, therefore please could your child have a waterproof coat in school at all times, otherwise your child may miss out on some of the different and rich experiences on offer. We also need to walk to the church for assembly and Parish rooms for lunch, whatever the weather!

It is extremely important that your child has access to water all day. Your child will need to bring in a named water bottle. Please ensure that this contains only water as squash and other soft drinks are not permitted in the classrooms.

If your child has a packed lunch, they will need to bring this in a clearly labelled lunch box. Please remember that we are a NUT FREE school. Healthy snacks can be brought in to eat at break time. Again, any containers need to be labelled clearly with the child’s name.

Topic

This term our topic is ‘Our Blossoming World’, studying plants and the environment in science and exploring the world in geography and through art and music. If you think that you may have any resources or skills to share with us regarding this topic, please let us know, as it would be much appreciated.

Our Blossoming World Topic Web

PE

PE will be on Mondays and Tuesdays. On PE days, your child should come into school wearing their PE kit.

Homework

All children will be provided with a homework book which is used to record homework set and in most cases should also be used for completing the homework. Homework is usually set on a Wednesday and is due in the following Tuesday. The homework task can be found on the class page on the school website. All children will be shown how to access the tasks and they will be explained in class. Any support / reminding you can give your child to ensure they complete their homework on time is very much appreciated. Children will have a set Maths task and an English task focusing on spellings. There may be a task based on another English skill or linked to our topic based homework. Some homework tasks will be set to help them with their future learning in class or they may be to consolidate on skills they have learnt in class. I always explain the homework tasks in class. Homework, where appropriate will be marked, reviewed or used as part of their class work to aid their learning and understanding. Children will also have times tables to practise on a daily basis. It is anticipated that each maths and English activity will take between 30-40 minutes to complete. If it is taking your child a lot longer then please let me know.

Sheets given out in class available below.

Children are expected to read aloud at home every day, for at least 10 minutes. The reason for this is that it not only helps with their reading, it also has a huge impact on their writing: reading with expression encourages children to look at the punctuation and use it in their own writing; discussing the structure of a story, predicting and analysing texts helps to develop an awareness of text structure and explaining unfamiliar vocabulary helps to extend their vocabulary. Please help your child to bring their reading book to school every day and take it home every evening. Please sign and date in their homework books to confirm they have read at home. Of course continuing to read alone for a longer period of time is also very beneficial. In school, we aim to discuss books and hear children read at least once a week.

And finally…

If there are ever any problems, questions or worries, however small they may seem, please feel free to come and see any of us, after school, or write a note in your child’s homework book. It is important that your child feels safe and secure at school and dealing with any issues straight away will help to create a productive and creative environment, where your child feels able to take risks in their learning. Sorting the little problems out quickly makes it less likely that they will develop into ‘big’ ones later on.

I look forward to working alongside you in what we are sure will be a very happy successful rest of the year for your children. Thank you very much for your support and help.

Mrs Wareing

Year 4 and 5 class teacher.