Welcome to Birch!

Year 5/6

The following content is from the previous academic year 2022 - 2023

Friday 17th March

We have had a lovely couple of weeks. We had our brass concert in Cheltenham on Monday, which the children should be incredibly proud of, they were all amazing. 

Regarding to homework:

• The new reading rules are that children only have to read 3 times a week and for it to be signed by an adult. They no longer have to do the reflections, as we felt this was preventing some of the children from wanting to read.
• For Timetables rock stars, we would like the children to do 5 minutes at least 3 days a week because timetables are the underlying thing for everything we do in maths, so becoming more fluent with timetables is brilliant. The order that children should learn their timetables in is: 2, 5, 10, 3, 4, 8, 11, 6, 9, 12 and then 7.
• Mathsframe is another website children can use to help with their maths. It has got maths games on it to help them in lots of areas. The whole class have the same login details and they are Username: Kingswood, Password: maths123.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, we will see you on Monday ready for the last 2 weeks of term.

We have started to make our mosaics this week. We followed our plans and had to select the tiles by size and colour to match our designs.

We had a lovely morning at the Church for our Poetry Competition, we have attached a picture of Birch's finalists.

This week, year six used drama to explore the characters and events in our whole class reading text: The Queen's Fool by Ally Sherrick. The children enjoyed this task and showed good teamwork skills.

Year five have come up with lovely ideas for their characters and settings for their historical narrative. In maths we have been thinking about how to work out long multiplication. 

Miss Dovaston

We are excited to share with you that we will be changing our homework structure to focus more closely on our core skills.

Next week your child will be given a login to an online maths learning programme and focused reading homework. We will then provide you with more details on how these can be accessed and our expectations for the frequency that these activities should be completed.

We will also supply some additional suggestions for topic based activities to enhance learning that your child can complete if they want to.

In the meantime, please continue with weekly reading activities.

Miss Dovaston

We have had a brilliant first full week back at school. It has been lovely getting to know each child individually.

For our whole class reading we have been reading The Queen's Fool, which we are really enjoying.

In maths, year 5 been looking at angles and how to measure them and year 6 have been looking at 2D shapes and their lines of symmetry. 

On Friday we did PE, which was our first lesson was about Tennis. We learnt how to stand and hold the bat properly, and in pairs we were hitting the ball to each other to help us gain control.

Miss Dovaston

We are going to be looking at lots of mini topics this term. To begin with, we are going to be covering the Tudors through our English text and the Romans as part of our history.

Thank you very much for welcoming me into Birch class, I am looking forward to getting to know you all as the term goes on.

Miss Dovaston

Week Commencing 5.12.22

The week started brilliantly with Birch Class enjoying the Key Stage One nativity dress rehearsal, followed by a wonderful trip to the pantomime at the Everyman Theatre!
 

In English, the whole class have continued to read Goodnight Mr Tom, which they’re enjoying.

In maths, Year 5s have been learning to multiply whole numbers by 10, 100 and 1000.

In the afternoon, Birch Class have been researching and planning for a winter seasonal meal for D&T. In P.E., the class have been learning about different rolls in gymnastics and different blocks in hockey. Also, Birch Class have particularly enjoyed making working and non-working circuits as part of their electricity work in Science.

On the Friday, Birch enjoyed joining in and helping with the Christmas shopping event.
 

A selection of photos are below.

Week Commencing 28.11.22

This week has been another busy week in Birch Class.
 

In English, the Year 5s have started a new genre: newspapers articles. They have read their model text linked to VE Day and answered questions about it. In Year 6, they have been practising using DADWAVERS to improve their sentence openers and planned a descriptive story.
 

In maths, Year 6s have continued learnt about fractions whilst the Year 5s have finished their unit on decimals. If you want to see the learning objectives and small steps, they’re on the page ‘How To Help Your Child at Home’ - maths.

In the afternoons, they have been learning about winter seasonal meals, ready for their D&T topic. Also, using an atlas, they located many European landmarks and cities such as, The Elizabeth Tower (they learnt a new fact that this it isn’t officially called Big Ben). Mrs Gibson continues to teach hockey in P.E. This week, they learnt is to do a block tackle. Finally, they have decorated the class, ready for Christmas,  very creative!

We hope you enjoy the photos below.

21st - 26th November

This week started with the fun of puddles and mud at Forest School. There, Birch Class were also given the special task of planting 15 saplings, which the school can watch grow over the years.

In English, Year 6s continue to enjoy the book FaRther and have been describing scenes from the book and writing in role as one of the main characters. The Year 5s have completed their research for either the Battle of Britain or The Blitz and have planned their independent non-chronological reports.

In maths, Year 6s have been practising their long division before starting a new topic. Whilst the Year 5s are adding and subtracting numbers with decimals.

In the afternoons, they have all had the chance to pose their own question linked to World War Two and research to find the answer. Also, they confidently added key dates from this historical period to a timeline.

We hope you enjoy the photos below.

14th - 18th November 2022

This week in maths, Year 6s have continued learning about multiplication and division. Whilst the Year 5s have started to look at adding and subtracting using both mental and written strategies.

In English, Year 6s have been enjoying the book FaRther to link their writing work to. The Year 5s have been learning about non-chronological reports.

In the afternoons, they all continue to learn brass and extend their knowledge and understanding of World War Two, including using drama to share information about The Blitz. Also, they have learnt about being assertive in PSHE. In P.E., the new topic is gymnastics. 

On Friday, they supported Children in Need with non-uniform and some spotty attires!

We hope you enjoy the photos below.

Birch Trips and Extra Curricular Term 1

Monday 12th September - Forest School 1

Wednesday 14th September - Year 6 South Cerney

Monday 19th September - Forest School 2

Tuesday 20th September - Whole class World War Two trip

Whole class brass lessons in school time.

Summer Term

This term, we are going to be learning about Ancient Rome.
Our topic title is, ‘Ancient Engineers’!

Happy New Year!

This term's topic is called, 'Explorers'.

During this term, we will be learning about the Amazon Rainforest.

Lockdown Update!

All lessons and work are set on our Google Classroom.

However, reading, usual termly homework and spellings can be found on this page too.

Please email the Office or class email if you have any questions.