Squirrel Class (Year 5) 2025 - 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the class page for Squirrel Class.

Class Staff

Teacher: Miss Hought

Teaching Assistants: Mrs Cavanagh, Mrs Bebbington and Mrs Healey

Here you will find all of the exciting and wonderful things that your child will be learning during their time in Year 5. If you have any questions, please use Class Dojo or speak to a member of our team at drop off/ pick up.

Thank you. 

Miss Hought, Mrs Healey, Mrs Cavanagh and Mrs Bebbington

Summer 1

Our English text for Summer 2 is King Kong by Anthony Bown. 

Based on the famous story of the giant gorilla, this beautifully illustrated book follows King Kong as he is taken from his home and brought to a busy city, where he is misunderstood and treated as a spectacle. Through powerful images and thoughtful storytelling, children will explore themes of friendship, kindness, empathy and the consequences of human actions.

The book provides excellent opportunities for discussion, reading comprehension and creative writing, while encouraging children to consider different perspectives and develop their understanding of character and emotion.

In reading, we will be exploring a mix of different genres, such as stories, poems, and facts, so children can explore all kinds of writing. By reading a range of texts, children not only improve their reading but also start to enjoy different types of books. This scheme helps them become more confident readers while learning about new ideas and topics.

We will be using our different VIPERS skills: Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise to

improve our understanding of what we read.

'Reading for Pleasure' has great amounts of benefits for your child. In Year 5, we ensure your child has time to read for pleasure and we set time aside to read our class book. 

Benefits of 'reading for pleasure':

Inspires imagination and creativity.

Enrinches cultural awareness and understanding. 

Increases empathy and improves relationships with others.

Lifts well-being levels and improves mood.

Improves progress in vocabulary, spelllings and even maths.

                                             Encourages children to take a screen break.

Read with your child every day even if it is just 2 minutes- this can make all the difference. 
Record in their reading diaries to ensure that your child is receiving their stamp for their book from the vending machine, or reading buddy. 

You could ask your child about what they think might happen next in the story, how do they think the character is feeling, who is the author and what do they do. 

During Summer 2, we will be focusing on the following: Decimals, Negative Numbers, Converting Units and Volume.

We would like children to continue using Times Tables Rock Starts. Times Tables knowledge is so important! It is used in all areas of maths. If your child can rapidly recall them, this will support them when solving challenging maths fluency and problem solving questions. 

Children will have ongoing access to their TT Rockstars logins at home.Please ensure that your child is practising them at home as it is very beneficial for their learning.

If you have misplaced your child's login, please drop me a message on Class Dojo and I will resend for you.

This half term in Science, we will be learning about Properties, Changes and Separating Materials.

This term, Year 5 will be studying Properties, Changes and Separating Materials in Science. Children will investigate the properties of different materials and explore why certain materials are chosen for particular uses. They will carry out practical investigations to test materials and learn how scientists compare and group them based on their properties.

Throughout the unit, pupils will explore reversible and irreversible changes, including dissolving, filtering, evaporation and chemical reactions. They will also learn how mixtures can be separated and develop their scientific enquiry skills by planning investigations, making observations and drawing conclusions from evidence.

This exciting, hands-on unit encourages curiosity, problem-solving and scientific thinking while helping children understand how materials behave in the world around them.

Your child will have a music lesson each week where they will learn to explore their musical abilities.

This term, Year 5 will be studying Musical Theatre in Music. Children will explore the exciting world of stage musicals, learning how music, acting and dance are combined to tell a story and entertain an audience.

Throughout the unit, pupils will listen to and evaluate songs from a range of well-known musicals, identify the features of musical theatre, and develop their singing skills through rehearsing and performing songs. They will explore how music can convey character, mood and emotion, and learn how performers use expression and movement to bring a performance to life.

As the unit progresses, children will work collaboratively to create and perform their own musical theatre pieces, developing their confidence, creativity and performance skills. They will have opportunities to sing as part of a group, perform for an audience and reflect on their own and others' performances.

This engaging unit encourages teamwork, self-expression and a love of music while helping children gain a deeper understanding of one of the world's most popular performance genres.

Your child will have 2 P.E lessons each week. Please see the uniform timetable below for the days where PE kit or Forest School kit will be needed. This half term we will be having lessons in Athletics and Rounders. 

Other useful links:

Please see below links to useful websites for your child to use when they are at home. I will be adding to the list throughout the course of the year so please make sure you check for updated links.

Oxford Owl - Linked to our phonics Read, Write Inc programme https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/   

Story Nory - A range of stories by classic authors as well as poems musicals and fairytales. https://www.storynory.com/archives/classic-authors 

Story Berries- Read along with audio clips. https://www.storyberries.com

Monkey Pen-  Free downloadable children’s books in PDF format. https://monkeypen.com/pages/free-childrens-books

Free Children’s Stories-  https://www.freechildrenstories.com

Keeping Safe Online-  www.esafety.gov.au/kids 

Topmarks- A great way for children to practise many of their maths skills https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16&AgeGroup=3

Newsround is a very good outlet for your child to watch each day to gain a wider understanding of what is happening not only in our country, but the rest of the world. We will be watching newsround every afternoon in class.