Please see the attached letter which details how to access Bug Club from home. The children have used this reading tool in school and should continue to use it at home to support their home reading (at least 3 times per week).

In short, children are able to read e-books at their level and earn coins towards personalising their homepage. Children earn coins by completing comprehension exercises which assess a range of reading skills.

Bug Club letter for parents

Dear Parents and Carers,

Please remember that reading diaries are due in tomorrow so that we can still monitor how your child is reading at home. We will then quarantine them over the weekend and return them with your child on Monday.

Thank you,

The Year 5 Team

Mr Wilcox is beginning to collect and edit the videos for a fabulous music video involving children from Year 4, 5 and 6, but he needs your help! All you need to do is video yourself singing along to the video. You could choose a verse, belt the chorus, or smash the rap. If you are really ambitious, you could sing the whole song along to the backing track. The backing track can be found on the Music section of Google Classroom.

If you have not done so already, please send your video to your year group’s email address. Ours is newdale.year5team@taw.org.uk.

For your chance to appear in a music video, get your videos in by 6pm on Wednesday 10^th March.

Have fun!

Dear Parents and Carers,

For World Book Day on Thursday 4^th March, children in school (and at home) are encouraged to dress up. The school theme is “Alice in Wonderland,” however children should feel free to choose their own book character or wear their comfiest reading gear!

Please also be aware that we have a Forest School session that afternoon in school so children will need to bring suitable outdoor clothing, footwear, coats, gloves, and hats.

Thank you,

The Year 5 Team

Dear Parents/Carers,

When the children come back to school, we are excited to be using Harry Potter as a stimulus for learning across Literacy and Guided Reading. In previous years, we have found that exposing the children to a fantasy environment has raised engagement and achievement in both Reading and Writing.

As part of this, we will be reading the first Harry Potter book to develop VIPERS reading skills which are fundamental to comprehension. We will also be watching parts of the film deemed relevant to learning. This will aid the transfer of skills and knowledge from the short-term memory into their long-term memory via the “visuospatial sketchpad” which encodes knowledge graphically in the brain.

Should you wish to discuss this further, please contact the Year 5 email address at newdale.year5team@taw.org.uk.

Kind Regards,

The Year 5 Team

Dear parents and carers,

Teachers across the school are working hard to plan high quality work for your children to complete whilst at home (and for those in school).

As you are aware, the government has set very clear guidance regarding the amount of time which should be spent by children on schoolwork.

The amount of remote education should be a minimum of:

• key stage 2: 4 hours a day (this includes all lessons set on the morning timetable)

We have ensured that a wide range of subjects are covered within this time and are particularly mindful of the need to ensure children have time away from screens.

That said, we remain keen to stress how vitally important it is that your child is reading every single day; and while at home, we have provided online resources to facilitate this.

Reading underpins every subject that is taught in school and is a life skill your child will need above everything else. We have tried hard to ensure that part of your child’s school working day includes meaningful and progressive reading.

Each year group has a specific time each day where your child should be reading.

In year 5, children are encouraged to read daily using Fiction Express or their own books and to then comment on their e-Reading diary which can be found at the top of the “Classwork” section on Google Classroom.

Please let us know if you are struggling to access these resources or need more support.

World Book Day 2021

Next month on the 4^th March is the annual celebration of reading across the country!

As we expect to still be in a lockdown situation, Newdale would like to introduce an Alice in Wonderland whole school theme. We hope that by having one theme, this will support families who have children in multiple year groups.

More information will follow, but we would heartily encourage dressing up for those who enjoy this and of course a mad hatter’s tea party of your own!

Kind regards,

The Year 5 Team

This message is just for those children in Mr Banfield’s class who are in school tomorrow (Thursday 4th February).

We are excited to have a fantastic Forest School session with Miss Taylor tomorrow afternoon. Children will need to bring in warm, waterproof clothing as well as suitable footwear which may get muddy. We would suggest that pupils bring in multiple layers, gloves, hats and wellies/boots. We will be outside for over an hour in the afternoon and will enjoy a fire activity in a controlled and safe environment.

Please send your child into school wearing their forest school kit.

Mrs Arthurs’ class will be completing this session next week (11th February)

Thank you,

Mr Banfield