Year 5 - Birch Class 2021 - 2022

Whose home is it anyway?

This half term, our focus text is ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’ by Joe Todd-Stanton. This story focuses on Arthur, a young boy who decides to make the journey to the great hall and help Thor catch the wicked Fenrir. There, he is set the almost impossible task of sourcing magical elements to make a Golden Rope. In an exciting battle, it seems as if all is lost, until Arthur proves that even a small boy can be the most unlikely of heroes.

Further linking to our previous story of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ by Neil Gaiman, we will be continuing to look at this author’s work through the story of ‘Odd and the Frost Giants’. Odd, who is also a young boy, is left fatherless following a raid and in his icy, ancient world there is no mercy for an unlucky soul with a crushed foot and no one to protect him. Fleeing to the woods, Odd stumbles upon and releases a trapped bear …and then Odd’s destiny begins to change.

Linking to the context of our story, we will explore The Viking settlements of Britain and how this affected the Anglo-Saxons and what Viking life was like here. We will also be focusing on when England became a unified country and explore the end of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking era in Britain.

Reading

At Westfield, we expect all children to complete five reading sessions a week. These should be recorded in each child’s individual planner. Pupils' planners are checked every morning by the class teacher. A reminder of expectations can be found in the front of pupil planners.

Spelling

Every Monday, spellings will be given to the children to learn. These spellings will be introduced to the children through a discreetly taught spelling session. Children will be tested on these spellings on a Friday. 

Online Learning Resources

Our children have access to a range of online resources to aid their learning. Here are the links to some useful websites that children can use whilst not in school. All children are familiar with how to use these.

Bug Club: https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0

TTRockstars: https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student/86651

Spelling Shed: https://www.spellingshed.com/en-gb 

Purple Mash: https://www.purplemash.com/sch/westfieldwa7

Covid-19 Isolation

In the event of a child having to isolate, remote learning will be provided through Google Classroom. Every child has been given their own Gmail address. They are able to log onto our online classroom using these details.

It is a requirement that children access our remote learning platform on the days that they would usually attend school. It is important that good communication between school and parents/carers maintains during an isolation period. We ask that all children respond to the daily task briefing on their Google Classroom homepage. This is so that the class teacher can record who has been able to engage with the learning tasks.

If you have any questions, please contact the school office.