Kestrels
A very warm welcome to Kestrels! Our class teacher is Miss Palmer and our wonderful teaching assistants are Mrs Adamson, Mrs Bourne and Mrs Bell.
Key information
Expectations
Our outdoor P.E. lesson will take place every Friday and indoor P.E. will be on a Thursday. Please make sure your child comes to school in their P.E. kit on these days. Please make sure your child does not wear jewellery on these days and long hair is tied back.
Reading books and diaries need to be in school every day. Our expectation is for the children to read five times per week. It is important to hear your child read regularly and discuss the books with them. Ask them to recall and retrieve information they have read, discuss how characters may be feeling at different stages of a story or look up new vocabulary and use in a sentence. Pupils will receive a stamp on their Starbooks loyalty card every time they have completed 5 reads per week. If they achieve 6 stamps in a half term, they will choose from a variety of rewards. Their name will then be entered into a raffle to win a £10 Starbucks voucher.
Home learning
The children will receive a new spelling list to practise at home every Monday. They will then be tested on these the following Monday. Spelling lists will also be available on our online platform 'Spelling Shed' along with games to help the children learn their spellings. Login details will be in your child's diary.
It is very important that our children continue to learn their times tables as it underpins many aspects of our maths curriculum. We use Times Table Rock Stars to set weekly tasks and battles to develop the children's knowledge and instant recall of multiplication tasks. We expect children to go on every day for at least 5-10 minutes to practise their tables.
Every week, the children will be given either maths, reading or topic-related homework on a Friday. These will need to be returned the following Friday.
Sometimes we may set homework linked to our wider curriculum and will notify you of this.
Learning Powers
The children can earn points for using their learning powers. These include:
Busy Bee power- given for active learning, such as being focused.
Unicorn powers are given for playing and exploring, using a 'can do' approach.
Magnifying powers are given for creating and thinking critically, such as using learning walls independently to further own learning.
Useful resources
https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb/
https://www.purplemash.com/login/
Our Topic
Click below to see what we are learning about:
Upper Key Stage Two - Parents information - What are your children learning?
This year, years 5 and 6 will be covering the following topics:
Space: We will be learning about the Solar System and our place within it, as well as about significant figures in history who have pioneered the advancement of space travel and what we understand.
Ancient Greeks: Our English work will include learning about and writing Myths and Legends, culture and education during ancient Greek times. In art we will be designing and making our own gargoyles based on mythical creatures.
Endangered Worlds: We will focus on our environment and how animal habitats are declining due to pollution. Our main focus will be on ways to be greener and with a geography focus on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and how humans have affected the global climate.
Photos of our learning environment and amazing work: