Dear Parent/Carer,

A big hello and welcome back to all of the children who will be joining me, Miss Burns, this year in Primary 5! The children have really enjoyed catching up after the summer break and have settled in for what is sure to be a busy and exciting year! I am very much looking forward to a year of learning and fun with the boys and girls!

Literacy

All children will continue to follow the North Lanarkshire Active Literacy Programme to support their learning in spelling, reading, writing, talking and listening.

The children will continue to read a variety of quality texts, in class and at home. We will start the term by exploring the novel ‘Emily’s Surprising Voyage’ as a class. This will allow the boys and girls to refresh their memory and consolidate what they know about the comprehension strategies, before moving to work within their own reading groups later in the term.

The class will continue to consolidate their awareness of different sounds, common words and spelling rules this year. This will help the boys and girls to write with increasing accuracy as the year goes on.

Numeracy

In numeracy, the class will continue to apply what they learn in active and practical ways. Each week, the children will experience direct teaching, partner/group activities and written tasks to build and consolidate their understanding of concepts.

Throughout the year, there will be a continued focus on mental arithmetic and problem solving skills. Over the course of the first term children will revisit familiar topics including place value and measure as well as addition and subtraction.

RE

In RE, our class has already spent some time learning about different parts of the Bible, particularly the Epistles, and about the importance of Icons as a focus for prayer. The class will now spend some time learning more about the life of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus. Later in the term, the children will learn more about Mary and how she is celebrated in Catholic tradition.

Health and Wellbeing

At the start of this new year, the class will be spending some time focusing on the importance of challenges in learning and how we can face these with confidence and positivity. A wee reminder that PE for Primary 5 will take place on a Wednesday and a Thursday. We would encourage the children to bring their kit into school on a Monday and take it home on the Friday. All items of children’s kit should be clearly labeled with their name and class. This term, our focus will be on Games. .

Cross Curricular

Our class topic for the first term will be ‘Children’s Rights’. The class have already started to learn more about the rights that they are entitled to under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and worked very hard to plan and prepare for our very successful ‘Day of Play’ last week. The class will now be looking to the past with a focus on the lives of children in New Lanark. They will learn about how things have improved for children in Scotland over time and will be drawing comparisons between what life was like for children in New Lanark and their own lives today.

I am looking forward to working together with both you and your child to help him/her to make the very best of their year in Primary 5. Please feel free to communicate any comments or concerns using the homework diary.

Many thanks

Miss Burns

Class Teacher