Oak class
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Mrs. Tyler Class Teacher |
Miss Bartlett Teaching Assistant |
Welcome to Oak class
A very warm welcome to Oak class, a class of super enthusiastic year 5 and year 6 children. We aim to foster and develop the growing independence of our children academically, socially and emotionally in preparation for the transition to secondary school.
Important dates for Oak class in term 5:
Year 6 SATs week Monday 13th May to Thursday 16th May.
Year 6 SATs breakfast Monday - Thursday 8am - details and permissions to follow and Thursday 16th May is Year 6 celebratory pizza lunch.
- Monday 13th: Grammar, punctuation and spelling papers.
- Tuesday 14th: Reading paper
- Wednesday 15th: Maths paper 1 (arithmetic) and maths paper 2 (reasoning)
- Thursday 16th: Maths paper 2 (reasoning).
Please see the Parent's SATs presentation powerpoint from February.
Learning: Curriculum
For more information about what the children will be learning this year, please see on our overview on the long term plan below, which was updated for April 2024.
General information for term 5
PE
Our PE days for term 5, are currently:
Monday: OOA with Mr. Kiely; Friday: Rounders with Mrs. Tyler
Homework
Homework is set on a Friday 3:20pm and is due in by 9am the following Friday. This gives the maximum amount of time to complete it. Children are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and can ask to complete some of their homework during lunch break if they have other commitments during the week.
Homework comprises of a set of online tasks: weekly spellings set on Spellingshed, some grammar games on Rollama and times tables set on TTRockstars. The children will be practicing the timestables that best suits their learning and the number of games required will depend on accuracy and speed.
Your child will have a login sheet that they can use to remember their passwords. Please encourage your child to organise their time themselves in order to complete their homework, and continue developing as a responsible learner.
Oak class love to read! Being a fluent reader when reading out loud is really important for self-esteem, especially when the children move up to secondary school and need to read aloud in class. Please find time to hear your child read at least three times a week. Reading magazines, newspapers, websites and recipes are also all good sources of reading material as well as much-loved reading books. When you have heard your child read then please sign their reading record (they have been told to get it all ready for you!).
An optional creative homework is also set in the second week of term and it is due in on the week before the half term. This allows an enthusiastic child to show off what they can do and give an opportunity to share it with their teacher and their classmates in a celebration.
Teacher cover in class
Mrs. Charleton will be covering Oak class on Wednesday afternoons (PPA) and Thursday afternoons (while Mrs. Tyler delivers forest school to another class) and she will deliver the French, music, RE and computing curriculum.
What are we doing in Summer term 5?
We are excited to start our new book in English called Can you see me? written by Libby Scott. Our writing this term will focus on writing diary entries using embedded clauses, hyperbole, expanding our use of a range of sentence structures and the using figurative speech.
In maths, we will be covering algebra and ratio and proportion as well as having some consolidation time, focussing on the reasoning and problem solving skills needed.
In history, we are embarking on a local history unit using the census data for the village from 1861 to 1911 looking at the theme of poor and wealthy households as well as the range of jobs those in the village did at the time.
In science, we will continue with some investigations into our last science unit – electricity and then the children will plan and carry out their own investigations based on the topics they have covered so far in oak class.
PE: On Mondays, Mr. Kiely will take the class for OOA and on Fridays, the class will play rounders.
Mrs. Charleton will be in class on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and she will use this time to deliver the French, music, computing and RE curriculum.
In PSHE, we are covering the unit Being our best and starting to plan our Grow a Fiver campaign for term 6 (which follows on fromour previous PSHE unit on managing money).
Art this term is based on Take One Picture and will be based on Frida Kahlo. There will be a display for you to come and see at the end of term. Please do come and visit!
Year 6 have SATs week the week beginning Monday 13th May. Yr6 breakfast club will make a return for the week so look out for further information. The SATs week afternoons will be a relaxed affair for all the class and very practically based.
A busy term of only 6 weeks. Please come and see us at the end for our art displays.
Spring Term 4 Roundup!
Another busy term! We have worked hard on our statistics, area and perimeter and finding unknown angles in geometry. Our finding the mean has also helped in science for our investigations in our electricity topic.
In English, we have written an adventure text based on Kensuke’s Kingdom. Our writing is about being on a deserted island and coming across a stranger on the beach and we were focussing on body expression, emotion and speech. Our writing will be up on display in the hall so come and have a look when you are next in school. The children had had fun making their deserted islands during a soft start session.
The children have had opportunities for lots of different PE this term – hockey, bench ball and swimming as well as a couple of sessions session gardening with Mrs. Potten. They have helped to sow and care for a range of different plants.
In history, we have been learning about the English Civil War and its importance in the establishment of the British Values that we have today.
Art has been a big hit with everyone: digital photography and the making of animations on the iPads.
It has been a productive term and Oak class wish to say, “Happy Easter!” to everyone.
What are we doing in Spring term 4?
Another really busy term! We have lots of PE on offer: bench ball, hockey and swimming as well as a turn doing gardening sessions and starting to crop some crops that we can eat in school and make produce to show in the Westwood Flower Show in August.
Our class book this term is the wonderful Kensuke's Kingdom and our writing outcome is to write a narrative based on meeting a stranger on an otherwise deserted island.
In maths, we will be completing units of area, perimeter and volume, statistics and shape.
Science is very noisy this term as we learn about making different circuits and running some investigations into varying the loudness of buzzers and brightness of bulbs. There will also be some investigations into fruit batteries!
The children are really excited about art this term as it is digital photography and we will be experimenting with composition and light and taking some excellent photos to share along the way.
We have lots of extra things planned this term such as our class assembly; a visit from Wiltshire Air Amulance to support a child in class that is being sponsered; a visit to the Egg theatre to see Donuts as well as celebrating World Book Day. Please come back to see some photos at the end of term.
Spring Term 3 Roundup!
It has been another busy, but fun term in Oak class which seems to have whizzed by.
Most recently, our dancers performed at the West Wilts Dance Festival at the Forum in Bath. They were on third and danced really well.
Another exciting activity we have done this term in bi-weekly bread making, starting with the simple rolls, moving onto shaped bird rolls, then with different fillings and then more of a pizza based bread. We have been making the dough during soft start and cooking then during lunch. It certainly was popular with most of the class.
In our learning, we have finished fractions/decimal/percentages and converting units in maths. Our book about survival in harsh environments produced some great explanation writing with illustrations.
In science we have been experimenting with growing plants from parts of other plants. We currently have lemon, mango, banana, potato, garlic and mushrooms growing with various degrees of success. Next term we will plant our seed potatoes and then cook them when they are ready.
Our geography topic was about ports, deserts and developing and developed countries which linked well with our DT challenge about the transportation of tomatoes down the mountainsides in Napal.
We have taken part in lots of PE this term: dance, swimming and some forest schools.
What are we doing in Spring term 3?
This term, our topic is geography based, focussing on deserts, ports and industrial areas. In English, our new book is called 'How to survive anywhere' and we will be finding out how, indeed, to survive anywhere! The writing focus in week 5 will be an explanation text on how to survive in a harsh environment of the children's choice. If you have any survival types books at home that your child would like to share with the class, then please feel free for the books to come into school for the day.
In maths, we will finish our fractions unit with fractions of amounts and then move onto converting fractions, decimals and percentages. Towards the end of the term, we will move onto converting units.
In science, we are comparing the lifecycles of different animals and finding out about the different ways plant reproduce - and trying to propagate some plants ourselves.
We will be learning about gears and pulleys in DT and the children will be designing a gadget that will help them survive in their chosen, harsh environment. We will let you know if we need any bits and bobs from your recycling bin.
In RE, we will be asking how can Brahman be everywhere and in everything? In music we will be singing the slow pop ballad, 'Make you feel my love' - originally sung by Bob Dylan in 1997 and covered by Adele in 2008.
PSHE this term is focussed on the unit keeping safe and the children will be discussing how to spot bullying, how to make good decisions, how to manage risk and we will find out about the effects of vaping on the body.
Please keep checking our page for what we have been doing this term as we aim to add photos of what we have been learning.
Autumn Term 2: Roundup!
It has been another busy term in Oak class this term. We have been transported to the world of Narnia with the book ‘The lion, the witch and the wardrobe’ with hot chocolate, Turkish Delight and our snuggly blankets from home. Our work in English has resulted in a final piece of writing on the disappearance of Mr. Tumnus in a newspaper article.
In maths, we have spent most of the term on learning the four operations using fractions, hopefully we will have finished them by the end of term. The children have done a brilliant job of mastering the basics.
For science, we have been learning about the classification of organisms. This meant that we have been on bug hunts, learnt about Carl Linneaus and his classification system; how the scientific names of animals and plants come about and currently we are working on micro-organisms and how they benefit us, with a bit of bread making.
In geography, the class learnt about time zones and climates across the world. In RE, we have been debating if the Christmas story is true or not and the facts around it. In music, we have been listening to Classroom Jazz and in computing we designed a media web page, which we showed in our class assembly as we were so proud of them.
In art, we have been learning how to sketch in pencil and our final piece will be drawing the other half of an animal face, trying to show the different details and textures.
PSHE focussed on the topic of bullying and what to do if someone tried to peer pressure you into doing something that you didn’t want to do.
For PE this term, we have been developing our expertise on gymnastics on the apparatus and developing parkour moves. We have also started our dance rehearsals for the Wiltshire Dance Festival in February.
Oak class have been lucky enough to have a forest school session with Maple class, which was loved by everyone and involved lots of dens and leaves.
It has been a really busy term and Oak class have been fabulous at rising to the occasion.
Happy Christmas!
What are we doing in Autumn Term 2?
We have had a really busy start to the term. This term, our main English book is The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe written by C.S.Lewis. We will be focussing on the disappearance of Mr. Tumnus for our writing outcome – a newspaper report.
In maths, we will finish learning to multiply 4 digit by 2 digit numbers and then move on to the four operations using fractions. This is where our TTRockstars work will really benefit us.
In science, we are learning how to classify different organisms using classification keys and deciding whether microorganisms are useful to us. In geography, our new topic is climate, rainfall, temperature and world time zones. The children will be learning to draw line graphs – which is handy as they have just had a session on the principles in maths this week!
PE with Mr. Kiely is gymnastics on apparatus and towards the end of November, the children will have Rachel for dance to start to practice our dance in readiness for the dance festival in February.
TTRockstars has an England Rocks tournament in week 3 where the children have 3 days to run up some excellent scores for the school. Information for parents can be found in the documents below.
As it is the term that ends at Christmas, there are, of course, a number of Christmas events taking place including supporting the KS1 nativity this year.
Please keep checking our page for what we have been doing this term. We aim to have some students to help decide what they want on their class page.
Autumn Term 1 Roundup!
Oak class have had such a busy term! In our topic, we have been learning about the Anglo Saxons and how they came to settle and live here. Our end piece of writing was a fact file about different aspects of Anglo-Saxon life. The reading book that we studied for English was ‘The London Eye Mystery’. The children experimented making photofits on the computers; took a virtual ride on the London Eye and then found out about the different buildings that can be seen from the pods. Our end piece of writing was a setting description, using what they had found out, and some of the children read out their finished pieces to the rest of the class. A highlight in our science topic, properties of materials, were the melting and evaporating experiments and for this we used our brand-new scientific tea light holders. During art, the children sketched self- portraits and still life drawings of different fruits and vegetables with the aim of trying to use different pencil strokes for details. We are hoping to put them on display in the hall. Come and have a look!
Our Community Games afternoon was a success and we learnt how to play Mancala. Thank you to all those adults who came and played with us. We have been busy using our voting rights. We have elected our new class school councillors, had a Pupil Parliament meeting with the rest of the Trust schools and have two new, enthusiastic Sports Ambassadors to help with playtimes. Term 2 looks to be an even busier one!
Autumn Term 1: What we are learning about?
In English, our class book is The London Eye Mystery and we will be focussing on learning the skills for writing mystery settings. We will be using this for our whole class reading sessions as well as extracts from a variety of other texts.
Maths this term focuses on place value and formal written methods in arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). This is where the times table practice (homework) will help immensely.
Our science topic is the properties of materials so we will be investigating whether all solids dissolve into solutions; if changes are reversible or not; what happens when we burn something and how to separate different materials using magnetism, sieving, filtering, evaporation and condensation. A knowledge organiser will be sent home the second week of term for you to share with your child.
History: Our topic is finding out how the Anglo-Saxons came to be in Great Britain and whether they were invaders or invited settlers. There are lots of fascinating facts and I know that the children will be surprised. There is a knowledge organiser for this and it will be sent home the second week of term so that you can engage in discussions with your child about their learning. Children are encouraged to share any extra learning that they might do, at home, with the class. This could be facts, recounts of visits, photos and pictures or a presentation for creative learning.
In art, we are finding out about the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, famous for his fruit portraits. The children will be drawing self portraits and also using collage. You will be able to see their work during the parent's evening consultations in October.
In computing, the class are learning about computing systems and networking.
In music we will be studying Bon Jovi's 'Living on a prayer'.
French we will learn words associated with healthy eating, which ties in with our art topic.
The question for discussion in R.E. is 'What is the best way for a Hindu to show commitment to God?'
PSHE topics are visited daily and is based on the curriculum topics and the values of the school, the values of Palladian Academy Trust and the wider British values.
If you have any questions about the class, then please don't hesitate to get in contact with myself or the school office.
