Friday 11th September

What an amazing first full week back we have had! It was so wonderful to see so many of you at the Meet the Teacher event on Tuesday evening and to share some important information about the year ahead. As I mentioned then, should you have any questions or concerns, or simply want to talk something through, I can be reached at year5@keremschool.co.uk. I am also very happy to arrange a phone call if you would prefer to chat.

We have certainly hit the ground running this week, beginning many of our new topics across the curriculum. In maths, we started our unit on number and place value. Building on the children’s learning from last year, we explored numbers up to 1,000,000 and worked on using place value columns to represent them accurately. We also developed our understanding of Roman numerals and this ancient number system. The children were challenged to answer the tricky question, ‘Do larger numbers always have more numerals than smaller numbers?’ using the PEE method - Point, Evidence, Explain - to justify their thinking. 

In English, alongside the rest of the school, we focused on Quest by Aaron Becker. Although this beautiful book has no words, its detailed illustrations tell a rich and exciting story and provided a fantastic opportunity for the children to develop their creative writing skills. Throughout the week, we worked on setting descriptions and oral storytelling before the children planned and wrote a story about a quest of their own. It was fascinating to see the huge variety of imaginative ideas they produced, despite everyone beginning with the same prompt.

Everyone was excited to begin our new art unit based on the work of Hokusai and his famous print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. This week, we focused on developing watercolour techniques, learning about different types of washes and how to sketch effectively before adding watercolour. There were some excellent skills on show, and I cannot wait to see how the children develop these further over the coming weeks.

This half term, the children will be coding and creating their own games in our computing lessons. We began this week with an introduction to sprites - the characters or avatars that appear in games. The children learnt how to programme their sprites to perform different actions, such as growing and spinning, and were also introduced to event blocks. These are pieces of code that tell the program what should happen when a particular event occurs; for example, when an avatar reaches the side of the screen, it might lose a life. Some of the coding was quite challenging, but the children persevered brilliantly and worked very hard.

We had a very enjoyable first music lesson this week. We firstly spent time singing some songs in preparation for Rosh Hashanah. Then, using claves, the children learnt a rhythm that we used to play along to a Rosh Hashanah Parody. The aim of this was to be able to keep in time with each other and follow the directions that they were being given. The children did a great job!

Our first Forest School session of the year was delightful, with the children being given plenty of opportunities for reflection and introspection. One of the loveliest things to see was the wonderful middot and truly mensch-like behaviour on show. The children supported one another, demonstrated kindness and consideration, and set a fantastic tone for our Forest School sessions this year.

I am wishing you all a Shanah Tovah - a happy and healthy new year. 

Shabbat shalom,

Miss Simon, Mr MacKinnon and the Year 5 team

Friday 4th September

Welcome back to school and welcome to Year 5! 

It was so lovely to see the children after the long break and hear all about the holidays. A big thank you to everyone who sent in a photograph of their holiday adventures - it was wonderful to see what you got up to. 

This week we did a lot of the admin tasks that come with the beginning of the year; getting books and iPads ready, learning about Year 5, and having brief lessons in different subjects. We also did our yearly self-portraits that will be up on display when you come to the school for Meet the Teacher on Tuesday.

A few reminders:

• PE days will be Tuesday & Wednesday. On these days, please send your children into school in PE kit.  
• We have Forest School this term on Thursdays. This will begin on Thursday 10th September. Please send your children into school in PE kit, with weather appropriate clothing for Forest School.
• On all other days, children should be in full school uniform, including black school shoes.
• Homework will be set on Google Classroom. 
  • Maths is set on Wednesday to be returned on Monday.
  • English is set on Thursday and returned by Tuesday
  • Humanities/Topic homework is set on Friday and returned by Wednesday
• Meet the Teacher Evening is on Tuesday 8th September.
• All communications should be sent to year5@keremschool.co.uk 
• We will be in touch in due course regarding interventions.
• Reading books and records should be kept in children's bags daily so that we can read with your child.

Shabbat shalom,

Miss Simon, Mr MacKinnon, Mr Fletcher and the wider Year 5 team.