Welcome to Patience Class.  My name is Mrs Minhas and I am the Year 5 teacher; our teaching assistants are Miss Rego and Mrs Sheaky.

Year 5 is a significant and formative stage for our pupils, as it is leading up to their final year at St Augustine before making the leap to secondary school.  A key focus throughout the year is on fostering maturity and responsibility in their approach to learning—encouraging children to become confident, organised and independent learners.

This also the year when all pupils will begin to consolidate, bring together and apply the knowledge that they have gained throughout the past five years.  The skills and knowledge that they will build on this year will help to ignite their motivation to strive to reach their best, while inspiring them to grow and adapt to face the new challenges that Year 6 and secondary school will present.

Literacy Texts for Autumn Term 1

Reading Focus

As part of our celebration of British History Month, pupils are exploring Black and British by David Olusoga. Through this powerful non-fiction text, they will develop a range of reading skills, including vocabulary in context, information retrieval, inference, summarising, and making predictions. Pupils are encouraged to justify their opinions using evidence from the text, deepening both comprehension and critical thinking.

Writing Focus

Our writing journey this term is inspired by Freedom Bird by Jerdine Nolen. Set in North Carolina, this moving story follows John and Millicent Wheeler, whose parents were sold into slavery. Carrying their parents’ dreams of freedom, the children hold tight to the belief that one day their people will rise and fly away. This text offers a meaningful foundation for pupils to explore narrative techniques, historical context, and themes of hope, resilience and legacy through their own writing.

Reading at Home

All pupils are expected to read regularly at home with an adult in order to develop their comprehension/inferential skills as well as the speed, fluency and accuracy of what they read.  In school, we focus a great deal on analysing the content of what is being read; asking a variety of questions about the content in order to ensure that they gain a deeper understanding.  Asking these questions at home will improve their reading skills.  So, it is imperative that you read with your child every day for at least 15 minutes.

We would ask parents/carers to initial and date any comments that they make in their reading records on a daily basis, as well as indicating when their child has finished the book; these records will be checked regularly.

Homework

 All pupils will be set homework every Friday (pink books) and it is to be submitted by the following Tuesday.  Homework will include spelling/timetables, online Oxford Reading Buddy texts along with another piece of work related to the content covered in school during that week for consolidation.

Please remember - the aim of the Spelling homework is that all children apply this knowledge in their written work, not only in Literacy, but across the curriculum.  So please practise the given spellings in a context so that children understand their meanings and how to use them correctly.

Physical Education

PE will take place every Monday afternoon.  As such, please send the children into school already dressed in their PE kit. This will be black shorts/jogging bottoms, a white t-shirt and trainers.  

All jewellery must be removed for PE lessons.

I look forward to working in partnership with you to support your child’s educational development within a focused, engaging, and nurturing learning environment.