Children arrive in class and hand in their reading records and homework, which are checked. Children are then given the opportunity to change their reading books if needs be, and to hand in any letters. The class read quietly for the first fifteen minutes of each day.
Dependent on the day, year five spend the first half an hour of their learning time either completing reading comprehension work as a class (which happens three times a week), learning their class language (French or Chinese) or having a PSHE session linked to social and emotional needs.
Maths is taught in two classes. For the first fifteen minutes of the lesson, children work on mental math strategies such as multiplication tables, finding fractions of amounts, converting measurements etc. This is a fun session where the children increase their speed of recall and learn the strategies which help them answer questions quickly. For the main part of the lesson, the principal focus is to ensure that pupils extend their understanding of number (place value, the four operations and fractions, decimals and percentages) or develop their understanding of shape, space and measure. We strive to make the lessons interactive and enjoyable with well thought-out equipment and resources used to aid learning. Within each lesson, there are three differentiated levels of challenge so children are able to work at a suitable level or extend their learning as appropriate.
English is taught in two classes. The first part of the lesson is a SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation or Grammar) activity linked to our year five objectives, usually lasting around fifteen minutes. The main part of the lesson is usually writing-based, focused around a subject or genre, such as narratives, reports or diaries. One of our main focuses within writing is self- and peer-marking, editing and improving work, which we think are vital skills. We often include differentiated challenges in English sessions as we do in maths, so children feel they are working at an appropriate level, or are able to extend their learning further. Furthermore, as our school focus is reading, whole class reading sessions do, on occasion, take place within these lessons; on average these are once a fortnight, which are in addition to our morning reading tasks and tend to link to the book or text type being studied.
During the afternoon, the children take part in a variety of foundation subject lessons, which are mostly taught by the class teacher but are also taught by other members of staff who can share their own subject expertise with the children. Computing takes place on a Monday; PE lessons take place on Tuesdays, when music also takes place, and Fridays; Wednesdays are topic lessons (history or geography based) and science lessons are on a Thursday afternoon.
In year 5 the children get two pieces of homework a week.
Monday – English (spellings), which should be completed and returned on Friday.
Friday – Maths, which needs to be handed in by Tuesday.
