Year 5 Term 2 Newsletter 

The Teaching Team

5A - Emma Harper (PLC Leader)

5B - Julian Gordon

Welcome to Term 2

Dear Families,

The Year 5 students have made a fantastic start to the term! We've loved hearing about their wonderful holidays and are enjoying the chance to connect with each student. Excitement is already building for our upcoming  camp at The Ranch (25th May), and we’re supporting students as they develop resilience and leadership skills in preparation.

This term will offer many opportunities for growth and learning. We celebrate our students’ effort and persistence— because when students believe in their ability to improve, they begin to understand that effort leads to real growth and success.

We're looking forward to a fabulous Term 2 and all the experiences it will bring in Year 5!

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

12/05: Special Food Day

18/05: Curriculum 

18/05: Learning Progress Meeting - 1pm - 3:30pm

21/05: Learning Progress Meeting - 1:20pm - 3:40pm

25 - 27/05: The Ranch Camp

5/06: Cheltenham Secondary College Science Day

8/06: King's Birthday Public Holiday

26/06: Last Day of Term - early finish 2:30pm

26/06: Student Reports Available on Compass 

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 Sentral in the event of your child being away.

Teaching and Learning

Reading and Viewing 

Children will be supported to source novels that are appropriate for their reading level and interest. As a class, we will be working through particular comprehension strategies, including author’s purpose, inferential understanding, cause and effect, and compare and contrast. Students will also learn in small focus groups to strengthen their skills. Further to this, students will practice their fluency skills by reading in pairs daily.

Writing

This term, writing will focus on Narrative and Informative Text Types, specifically biographies. Using quality literature as a model, students will be working with and focusing on: 

• Texts that contain interesting and engaging introductions, adjectival and adverbal phrases.  

• Using a range of sentence structures for variety and impact including simple, compound and complex sentences. 

• The importance of including specific researched facts and having these presented in order of occurrence. 

• Writing within specific frameworks and structures to ensure that their writing adequately meets its purpose.  

English Orthography

Students will investigate different words of their own choosing and interest, whilst also revising the different Spelling Laws and Suffixing Conventions that apply to words.

Mathematics

In Mathematics, students will apply efficient strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division and solve problems involving unknown values. Students will explore fractions and decimals, ordering and representing them in different forms. Measurement concepts will include estimating and comparing length, mass, capacity, and area, as well as working with 12- and 24-hour time. Students will examine properties of 3D objects and their nets. We will also continue to focus on number fluency skills, which provide students with confidence and understanding as they progress through mathematical concepts. Learning will be supported through hands-on tasks, collaborative problem-solving, and opportunities to explain and justify mathematical thinking.

Humanities

This term, our focus is the history of the colonisation and exploration of Australia, and how this affected First Nations people. Throughout this unit, the emphasis will be on: 

• What life was like in the penal colonies and early settlements of Australia. 

• The major explorers of mainland Australia and mapping their expeditions. 

• The effect on First Nations people of these events.

Wellbeing

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

This term, we will continue exploring Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships, with a focus on building character strengths and developing personal coping strategies. We will also support students in strengthening their growth mindset, helping them understand that challenges are opportunities to learn and grow.

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. 

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. 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.

Communication

If you have any queries along the way, please feel free to contact us via email through Compass. If any more urgent concerns arise, please organise a time to meet with your child’s teacher.

We use Compass to communicate School and Year 5 Information and Class Dojo to celebrate the children’s daily learning. 

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