Dear _____________ and Family,
Welcome to Primary 5! I hope everyone has had a great summer and you are ready for another great year at Roe
Valley IPS! I’m excited about having the chance to get to know you all over again, and I’m looking forward to a happy and productive school year.
Key Stage 2
Primary 5 is the beginning of Key Stage 2 so there will be a big emphasis on developing independence and a good work ethic. I hope you will enjoy all of the exciting activities that we have planned. I will be adding a short information presentation to our class page of the website to give you an idea of what is expected in Primary 5.
Each term I then hope to produce a brief newsletter to keep you informed and updated on what will be happening in our class, and a monthly overview of children’s learning will be available on our class page of the school website.
Dinner Money
If your child is having a school dinner please send the money in to me and I will forward it to the school office.
Healthy Break Time
Children will have a new water bottle this year with clean fresh water throughout the day. Please remember that children are only allowed fresh fruit or vegetables or dried fruit for snack – fruit winders and cereal bars are not allowed.
Allergies and Asthma
Please ensure that I am informed if your child has an allergy or asthma. If your child suffers from asthma please ensure that inhalers and instructions on the dosage are brought to school.
Homework in Primary 5
Children will continue to receive homework every night except weekends. Please see attached homework policy for further details. Children will begin reading and written / ICT homework this week and our spelling programme will begin next week following assessment this week.
We will be continuing to use ‘Mathletics’ this year with set tasks and additionally this year we have purchased access to a Literacy equivalent called ‘Spellodrome’. Both can be accessed through our class page on the school website and login details are in your child’s homework diary. Please have a look at the P5 Parent Information on our class page to find out more about these programmes.

Please check and sign your child's homework diary every night when homework is complete. I will ask pupils to put any notes that need to be signed and returned in their diaries. Please also sign the permission slips at the front of the homework diary – if you are unsure of any of the policies they are available to view on our website.
Homework should not take much more than 50 minutes – approx. 10-15mins reading, 10-15mins spellings and 20mins written / ICT homework. If your child is spending more than an hour on homework then I would really like to know about it. Homework does not need to be their life after school although it does need to be completed. If for any reason your child is unsure of their homework, or if you feel that it is taking too long, please put a note in their diary and we can look at it in school.
In Primary 5, parents should not need to sit with their children while they complete the homework, but it would be helpful if you checked at the beginning that they know what to do and then check over their work at the end.
In Primary 5, there is a big focus on building children’s independence, so they will be expected to write their homework into their diaries themselves. This will be checked daily for the first few weeks and after this, only spot checks will be made. The children will also be responsible for making sure that they have everything they need to complete their homework before leaving school. If your child is not bringing homework home or telling you that it is complete, please check it to make sure.
Spellings
This year we will be continuing with the Linguistic Phonics programme. The children will be given a spelling sheet outlining the tasks they are expected to complete but if you have any questions, please call in and ask me.
If you would like a re-cap on information about the Linguistic Phonics programme, please have a look on our website
(Parents Area – Help with Homework). Each child will be given one spelling booklet for each term – if they lose this, they may download a new copy from our class page on the school website.
Swimming
During the first term, Primary 5 will have the opportunity to take swimming lessons as part of their P.E. and we will be taking a bus to the leisure centre for this to avoid walking back to school with wet hair. These lessons will begin on
Thursday 12 th September and a permission slip will be sent out later in the week with further details and cost so please look out for this.
P.E.
In addition to swimming, we will have another P.E. session each week. On this day, children should remember to wear their P.E. uniform (day to be confirmed). This day may change throughout the year but I will keep you informed of any changes.
Website
I hope you will find our website ( www.roevalleyintegrated.com
) useful and I plan to use it a lot throughout the year to keep you updated so look out for new additions on our class page! You will be able to find copies of monthly pupil planners with learning targets and details of events and news for our class as well as games relevant to your child’s

learning. (Don’t worry if you don’t have internet access, just let me know and I will send out paper copies of any information there).
As ICT Co-ordinator I am always interested to hear parents’ views on our website so if you have any suggestions as to how I can improve it, please pass them on! There is currently a suggestion box in the Parents’ Area of the website that allows you to give anonymous feedback and suggestions and it would be great to hear your ideas.
Absences
If your child is absent a form will be sent home which you are required to complete and return to me stating the reason for your child’s absence.
Special Events
Upcoming school events you should be aware of include:
- Parent/Teacher Meetings 23 rd -25 th October (provisional dates)
- Harvest service (Primary 4 and 5) Thursday 17 th October, 10.30am (provisional date)
Please mark these dates on your calendar. Parental involvement in a child’s education is one of the strongest indicators of student achievement. We hope you will make it a priority this year to attend as many school-sponsored events as possible.
Our open door policy continues in Primary 5, and if you have any questions or concerns at any time please don’t hesitate to ask (the best times to catch me are before 8.50am or just after school).
Once again, welcome to Primary 5. Let’s work together to make this the best year ever!
Many thanks,
Mrs Laura Coulter