Year 5 Parent Meeting: What's New and Important Information

1. Welcome to Year 5’s parent meeting. Year 5 Team Demi Jeffels(5JW Class Teacher & Year leader) Nina Watson(5JW Class Teacher & Leader of PE) Clarence Ng (5CN Class Teacher & Leader of Boyband) Shari Tickell (5ST Class Teacher & Leader of History) Wendy Armah(supporting groups of children in the afternoons across Year 5 & 6) RinatKoren & EleniMarku & Kym Barnard-Lim (learning support)

2. What is new? • Specialist Teaching: • Music – This year the whole school has a music specialist teaching music for a term. In year 5, the children will learn to play Samba. 5JW will begin their music learning in the Autumn term and it will then be on a rotation with the other two classes throughout the year. • Forest School/Art/PE – During our PPA (planning time), specialist outdoor learning will take place. This will be on a rotation half termly with Art and PE. • Residential trip – Year 5 will be taking part in a 3 night adventure at Pendarren House in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. This will take place in the Summer term and further information will follow nearer the event. • Planner – In Year 5 children have a planner in which they can record comments on what they are reading at home. This is also a way of communicating with the class teacher.

3. PE Equipment • It is essential that children have their PE kits in school everyday. This includes a Rhodes Avenue T-shirt (available from the school office), navy shorts, jogging bottoms, a warm top, spare socks and appropriate footwear. Children will be asked to remove or cover earrings before taking part in their PE session. • PE Days: Tuesdays / Wednesdays

4. Break time Morning Snacks: • As part of school policy and our commitment to being a Healthy School, children may bring a playtime snack of fresh fruit and/or vegetables. Water will always be available during the school day, however we are happy for you to bring into school a bottle of water clearly labelled. • On Fridays, children are allowed to bring a small ‘treat snack’ e.g. cereal bar, Yoyo’s, popcorn etc. This should only be the case on a Friday – please remind your children. (Please remember not to bring anything containing nuts and no sweets).

5. Communication • Your child’s class teacher is your first point of contact if you would like to discuss something in relation to your child’s learning. Please email the office, who will pass this message on to the relevant member of staff, to make an appointment to meet at a mutually convenient time. • If you would like to discuss anything in addition to this, please see the Year leader. • If you are a parent rep for the class, please let yourselves known to your child’s class teacher as we will sometimes try to send messages to reps when we need additional class messages or support. • The website for the year group will be our main point of communication. Each week the learning we have been doing in school will be uploaded onto the website.

6. Communication The website for the year group will be our main point of communication. Each week the learning we have been doing in school will be uploaded onto the website.

7. Curriculum • In Year 5, we have lots of exciting new topics to learn throughout the year ranging from ‘Anglo Saxons and the Vikings’ to learning about the history and geography of the Arctic and Antarctic, Ancient Egypt and many more interesting topics. • Please access the school website regularly for any further information. You will also find that there are the end of year expectations outlined for English, Maths, Science and foundation subjects.

8. Educational visits • Educational visits are an important aspect of the Rhodes Avenue Curriculum. School visits and trips provide the opportunity to enrich learning outside of the classroom and inspire learning back at school.  • We aim to take the children on as many school trips as possible, however we recognise this can become costly.  We have decided to set a maximum limit on the amount we ask you to pay for trips over the whole year to £30.  (not including Pendarren) The school will make every effort to keep the cost of the educational visits to a minimal by using public transport or by visiting free exhibitions.  • We have an exciting Viking workshop that will be held on the 24th of September 2019, thank you to all of those that have volunteered.

9. Our homework policy was updated last year and launched by Mr Hall. Since then we have taken feedback from parents and made some adaptations. 1st tier In Year 5, children will be expected to read daily for 10-15 min. It is expected that children will practise their times tables daily at home. Your child will be given a log-in card to Times Table Rockstars (ttrockstars.com). Children will learn spelling rules/patterns and practise times tables during lessons. 2nd tier Over the year, there will be a range of projects. We expect all children to complete at least three of these. More details will follow. 3rd tier This homework is parent choice. You can do as much or as little as you would like your children to do. We will provide you with programmes we have bought and websites that will guide your child through learning interactively. On the website, there will be a weekly update showing what your children have learnt the previous week so if you wanted to support them at home then there is guidance on what has been covered. Home Learning

10. Resources available: There are Maths books available for you to purchase for £1.99 each should you wish to do so. This is not compulsory but following feedback, some parents have stated that they preferred some of the children’s learning at home to be screen free and have asked for book recommendations. There is one book available to buy per term which has activities that match the learning your child is doing in school. These are not compulsory but should you wish to purchase, you can do so via the School Money Eduspot system. Over the next couple of weeks your children will be coming home with different logins glued into their planners. These are for websites that the school have subscribed to in order for your child to have access to at home- should you so wish. Mathletics Times-Tables Rockstars Purple Mash On the website you will also find further links to different sites that you may find beneficial in supporting your children with home learning if you would like to do so. Home Learning

11. Tier 2 homework – further information • Information about our projects for the year is also on the website. It is a school expectation that children complete a minimum of 3 during the course of the whole year. More information on these projects will follow and will be available on our web page shortly. • -Inspirational Person -Egyptian project • -World Book Day -Maths investigation • -Science project -Art project • Children can choose their area of interest in and present it in any way they would like i.e. a cardboard display board, a sparks presentation, an i-movie, a poster, an information booklet, a brochure a costume, a mask etc.

12. Thank you for attending • The parent letter is uploaded to our website and this PowerPoint will be also. • We look forward to the exciting year ahead, teaching your children and getting to know you all better. Thanks for your support so far! • Any questions?