Dear Parent/Guardian,

I am very much looking forward to my probationary year at Saint Brendan’s and am delighted to have the Primary 5 class! Our first week together has been lovely as the children have settled into their school routine after the Summer break. I have been getting to know them through educational games and lots of fun activities, and the children have also set themselves targets to achieve this term. Miss Hill, who is my mentor, will teach the class on a Tuesday.

Literacy

For literacy, we will be implementing the North Lanarkshire Active Literacy Programme. The children will learn new spelling strategies to help consolidate their learning.

As for our class novel, we will be studying – and enjoying! – Tilly and the Badgers. The children will explore the six reading strategies (prior knowledge, metalinguistics, visualisation, inference, main ideas and summary) when working on this book which will aid their understanding. Books will be part of our weekly homework routine and I know you will encourage your child to become bookworms.

Numeracy

Our first topic will be Place Value which involves the children looking at what the digits in a number represent up to 10,000. We will begin by revising our previous study of the topic but will then progress to more challenging numbers. The children will then move onto measure where they will be working with a variety of different types of standard units.

R.E

This term during R.E the children will be learning about the Bible and its importance in our daily lives. The children will also be looking at Saints and stories from the Bible.

Health and Wellbeing

We have P.E. twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays and the first thing we will be doing is athletics. As our Science co-ordinator, Mrs McLauchlan will be taking the children on a Friday to cover Science and substance misuse.

Interdisciplinary Learning

I am really excited about our project this term which is a whole-school topic called, ‘It’s a Wonderful World’. Primary 5 will investigate and explore the rainforest! Within this topic, we will focus on Social Studies, Expressive Arts, Health & Wellbeing and Technologies. I can’t wait to see the wonderful imaginations and ideas of our class.

Remember, you can help your child with homework and ensure they continue to bring a water bottle, P.E kit and a positive attitude towards their learning.

Thank you in advance for all your support this year. I am looking forward to meeting you all as we all enjoy watching the children grow and flourish.

Elizabeth (Lisa) Burns