We would like to welcome you to the Year 5/6 team and to let you know about some of the things that you can expect to happen this year.

In Year 5 and 6, we live by the motto: Work Hard, Play Hard. By this, we ensure we put all our efforts into our learning and any other opportunities that come our way whilst also trying our best to enjoy them and have fun at the same time.

We have 3 home classes, who work together as a team. All of our classes at St Oswald’s are represented by an animal. In Upper Key Stage Two, our classes are represented by owls!

Snowy Owl Class Mr Waterfall Smith’s class	Tawny Owl Class Mr Airey’s class	Barn Owl Class Mrs Walton’s class

What have we been learning about?

Don’t forget about our fortnightly newsletters sent on SeeSaw, our home-school communication platform to find out all about what has been happening in our phase. Please speak to class teachers if you require a code to sign in.

Who are we?

As a phase, we work together as a team so different teachers and support staff will work in different classes throughout the school year. In addition to our phase team, we also work alongside three HLTAs (Higher Level Teaching Assistants) who teach high quality P.E., Spanish and Art lessons.

What does the school day look like in Year 5/6?

Start of day: 8:45am

Entry point: Year 5 and 6 exit through the Upper Key Stage 2 cloakroom.

End of day: 3:15pm

Exit point: Tawny Owls and Snowy Owls leave through external classroom doors. Barn Owls leave through UKS2 cloakroom doors.

Morning sessions

During a morning, children engage in a wide range of core learning activities. Children will split into single year group classes throughout the morning for reading, English and maths sessions.

Collective worship

Collective worship takes place daily. The focus and gathering changes as the week progresses:

• Monday: Whole school collective worship
• Tuesday: Class collective worship
• Wednesday: Singing whole school worship
• Thursday: Phase collective worship
• Friday: Celebration whole school worship (parent/carers are welcome to join this collective worship)

Afternoon sessions

During an afternoon session, children engage in two or more foundation subjects. Children will participate in many subject areas such as Design and Technology, Science, Geography, P.E. and more!

Each day ends with a story time together before we make our way home.

What will our topics of learning be this year?

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Our learning topic:	Britain At War	Chocolate/ Me, Myself and I	Royalty/ I’m a Survivor

Want to find out more about each topic of study? Visit our subject pages to find each curriculum area overview.

What are the homework expectations?

Spellings: Your spellings will get set and tested every Friday. At the beginning of each term, you will receive the spellings for the term and will glue them into your planner. Make sure you get plenty of practise each week. You can use spellingframe to go over your spellings at home. 

Reading: You should be reading at school and home every day. You should have a book for in school and a book for home.

Maths: Maths homework will be set by your maths teacher every Friday. You will need to hand it in by the following Friday where you will mark it together with your maths teacher. You should aim to use TTRs at least 30 minutes a week. Raffle Tickets will be awarded for anyone who achieves this.

SPaG: This year we are sending SPaG homework which will be set each Friday and due back to be marked the

following Friday. This homework will link as closely as possible to the SPaG lessons taking part each week. 

Home Learning Projects: You will receive a home learning project sheet at the start of each half term. We will explain how these work in Y5/6 and show you examples of some fantastic home learning projects that have been completed in previous years. Home Learning Projects will be set during our Stunning Start days and you will then get to share your entry with the rest of Y5/6 during our Fab Finish day at the end of the half term. We would also love to invite parents into school to come and see the projects on display in the hall after school on our Fab Finish day. 

Equipment Requirements

PE Kits: You will need to have a PE kit in school every day which can be washed over weekends. You need to have 2 pairs of PE shoes (1 indoor, 1 outdoor) and plenty of warm clothes – the majority of PE lessons will be outdoors (even in the winter!). Please name all of your PE kit and your PE bag. 

Pencil Case: This year we will be providing you with a pencil case and equipment, you do not need to bring anything additional to use. 

Water Bottle:  You must bring a water bottle to school with you each day. This should be clearly labelled with your name.

Useful parent links