CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL
BOLTONS
Church of England Primary School
Headteacher: Mrs A. Pitcher
Telephone: (016973) 42217
Fax: (016973) 49452
Email: admin@boltons.cumbria.sch.uk
1st May 2015
Bolton Low Houses
Wigton, Cumbria
CA7 8PA
Dear Parents,
Just a quick note to update you on what we will be covering in year 5 this term - much of which
we are well on the way with!
Homework and spellings will continue to be set on Wednesdays and the spelling tests will be on
the following Monday.
This term we will be covering the following:
English
This term we will be looking at science fiction stories and then newspaper reports. We will look at
the key features and the author’s choice of words as well as writing our own examples of these. In
reading comprehension we will be looking in some depth at examples of these genres. We will be
studying the key vocabulary and features that are associated with each genre. Currently, we are
having a big push on using a thesaurus to widen vocabulary. In our sentence level work we will be
focusing on improving grammar and punctuation. Please, if you hear your child speaking
incorrectly at home, correct them as this reinforces what we are teaching at school. Handwriting
practice will continue and a good standard of presentation will be expected in all areas of work,
including homework. As always, please continue to hear your child read and encourage them to
read a wide range of genres that they both enjoy and find challenging.
Maths
In Numeracy this term we will continue to consolidate calculation skills. Please continue to help
your child learn their tables – I know many have learnt them but they need continual revision –
especially rapid recall and inverse operation questions. We will continue with this in school as
well. Remember that tables are now taught up to 12 times. We have already learnt about decimal,
fraction and percentage equivalence and applied this through problem solving questions. This is
something that everyone finds hard and we will be revisiting this area again. We have also
consolidated some shape and space work and introduced translating shapes. Later in the term we
will be looking at timetables and data handling.
Computing
Having finished our work on coding we are now beginning a unit of work on tessellation graphics
skills. Many of these will be taught through publisher as this is a program that the children are
familiar with and often have access to at home.
Science
In Science this term we are revising and extending our knowledge of light. This has already started
with some shadow stick work – we were really lucky as this year it was, for once, sunny when we
wanted to do the work! We have discussed the relative movement of the earth and how this affects
shadows. Later on we will be learning, amongst other things, about reflection and refraction,
colour and how we actually see things.
Modern Foreign Language
In French this term our topic is ‘Our Body’. We have been working on both learning the new
vocabulary and pronouncing it correctly. Songs, labelling activities and games help the children to
remember this. After they have learnt this we will be moving on to learn about sport and the
children will learn how to discuss what their favourite sports are.
RE
In RE the children have been plotting their own life journeys – what they feel have been important
moments in their lives. This will then lead into work that enables them to really think and discuss
their views about life.
PE
Carlisle United will be continuing to teach skills on a Thursday and we will continue to teach a
variety of invasion games. At the moment we are lucky to have some external multi-skills
coaching.
Music
Mr Clarke will continue to teach music.
Topic
Our geography topic this term is mapping – an essential skill for later in life. The children will
learn the major continents, mountain ranges, oceans and rivers of the world. They will be able to
carry out research on variety of countries and learn more about them by studying a range of map
types and scales. We will also be learning about our own Ordnance Survey maps – scales and
symbols and improving our map reading skills.
Art
This term we are looking at different sculptors and using their work to inspire our own. We will be
using a range of different media to do this. As always, we will be developing our drawing and
painting skills and it would be nice to think that the weather will enable some of this to be done
outside.
Design and technology
In D&T we are looking at different musical instruments and finding out how they produce sound.
We will then be making our own instruments out of recycled materials.
Please feel free to ask me if you have any queries or concerns. Please do have a look at the school
website as I do post photos in the year 5 gallery and the junior art and design gallery.
Yours sincerely,
Julia Garner