Year 5 Term 1 Newsletter

Meet The Teaching Team

5A - Emma Harper (PLC Leader)

5B - Julian Gordon

Welcome to Term 1

We warmly welcome all our Year 5 students and families to what promises to be an exciting year of learning. We are looking forward to working in partnership with you to support each child’s learning, confidence and wellbeing. We have been so pleased with how positively the children have settled into their new classes and begun building connections with one another. Together, we aim to make Year 5 a positive, engaging and rewarding experience for every student.

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

16/02: 4-6 House Swimming

13/02: 3-6 Assembly

17/02: Whole School Photo Day

23/02: Curriculum Day

27/02: Community Picnic

05/03: Natural Disasters Incursion

06/03: Beach Swimming Program

06/03: 3-6 Assembly 

09/03: Labour Day - Public Holiday

10/03: District Swimming

12/03: Divisional Swimming for selected students

11th - 18th March: NAPLAN testing

20/03: 3-6 Assembly 

27/03: House Cross Country

02/04: Last Day of Term 1- 2.30pm finish - Whole School Assembly at 2.00pm

Electronic Roles

Our electronic rolls are legal documents therefore we must be accountable for any absences. Please assist with this by informing the school by replying to the text message sent by COMPASS in the event of your child being away.

Teaching and Learning

Reading and Viewing 

Children will be encouraged to select novels, which are appropriate for their reading level and interest. Each class will be working through comprehension instructional routines. This program explicitly teaches reading skills and strategies that develop and promote active and independent learning. Comprehension is a highly cognitive skill involving multiple interactions between readers and texts. We will be using a range of whole class and small group activities to investigate questioning techniques that are required as a skilled reader.

Writing

The key foci in writing this term will be narrative and persuasive text types. Using quality literature as a model, students will be working and focusing on;

• Texts that contain interesting and engaging introductions.
• Further developing the vocabulary and their ability to choose verbs, adjectives and adverbs more accurately.
• Developing students' ability to create adjectival and adverbial phrases and use them appropriately within their writing.
• Students will write within specific frameworks to ensure that their writing adequately meets its intended purpose.
• Using a range of sentence structures for variety and impact.

English Orthography

Students will be building on the skills they learnt in Year 4.  They will investigate different words, whilst also revising the spelling norms and suffixing conventions that apply to words.

Mathematics

In Mathematics we will have a strong focus on problem solving and being able to manipulate and work with numbers. This term we will focus strongly on Number, especially place value, including decimals, and operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).  Throughout each unit, students will be encouraged to apply their mathematical skills to investigate different problems.  Regular and varied assessment activities will see students have discussions with their teachers about their progress across the unit and support their accountability for demonstrating growth.  Students will be encouraged to develop their thinking skills as mathematicians, rather than simply trying to race to an answer.

Humanities

This term our units are Australian Government, Australian Natural Disasters and Design and Technology.  In these units, we will be focussing on:

• The 3 different levels of government and what they are responsible for
• The different types of natural disasters that occur in Australia and their effects on our communities
• Government and public responses to past natural disasters
• Building a town that can withstand a natural disaster

Wellbeing

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

This term we will be developing our Emotional Literacy skills.  Students will participate in engaging scenario-based activities that help them to develop empathy for others and how to read body language.  Students will learn how to understand how kind words and actions can help support each other, and learn how to manage positive social behaviours.

Friday afternoon assembly awards will be given to children who have shown personal growth specific to the school's values. Parents will be informed if their child is receiving an award.

To further support the school values, CEPS follows a SWPBS framework, which we refer to as CEPS Positive Behaviours Support. This framework encourages acknowledging positive behaviours displayed by students within the school. 

Your child may receive a CEPS raffle ticket for displaying the expected positive behaviours! Award winners will be drawn and announced during assembly on Friday afternoons. 

Supporting Learning from Home

Homework

Homework is important for establishing routines in preparation for secondary school. Students are expected to read daily, record this in their diaries and have a parent sign this off. They should also practise their number fluency (e.g. times tables).  In addition, they have a choice of projects they can work on over the month.

Term 1 Additional Information

NAPLAN

NAPLAN, which stands for The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy, is a standardised set of tests that are sat by students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.  The results give parents and schools an idea of where each child is at in their development, and help education bodies identify areas of the curriculum that need specific focus.

This year NAPLAN will be held from 11 - 18 March.  

Schedule

Wednesday 11th March, 9:30am - Writing 

Thursday 12th March, 9:30am - Reading 

Tuesday 17th March, 11:15am - Language Conventions

Wednesday 18th March, 9:30am - Numeracy 

Please speak with your teacher if you have any questions.

Communication

Communication

You are welcome to contact your classroom teacher via email through Compass. Whilst families are navigating the transition to Compass, we are also still using Dojo for messages between parents and teachers at this stage. This is likely to be phased out at some stage this year. We are also still currently using Dojo to share learning updates from our classrooms.

With that said, you are always more than welcome to pop into the classroom before or after school if you have any queries or concerns. 

Whilst we endeavour to get back to you promptly, please understand that we are often unable to check these messages until after 3:30pm. If you need an important message to be passed on to your child, we ask that you communicate this via the office (e.g. to advise that your child will be collected early or by another family member). The office will then pass the message on to your child's classroom teacher.

Compass: Compass is the formal tool for communication regarding attendance, payments, excursions, camps, permission forms, school reports, etc.

Please use Compass to advise the school in a timely manner of all student absences.

Early Pick Up: If you need to pick up your child early, please collect them from the office area and be sure to sign them out. You will require an Early Leaver's Pass, provided by the office staff, before we are able to dismiss students. 

You can also keep up-to-date by using the school website and weekly newsletters:  http://www.cheltenhameast.vic.edu.au