Welcome to Year 5
Teacher : Mrs Feldman and Miss Coy
Support staff: Mrs Smith, Mr O'Connor, Mrs Stalham, Mrs Ward
Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed the break and are feeling well-rested and ready for the summer term. As the weather improves, we look forward to more outdoor learning opportunities as well as our annual sporting events such as Race for Life and Sports Day! (Dates all tbc)
Please take a look at our class timetable, along with the KS2 long-term plan, which outlines the learning that will be covered this term. Please note that all timetables are subject to change due to our busy school schedule.
Homework and Reading Records
Homework will continue to be given out on a Thursday and should be returned on Tuesday mornings, along with reading records. As in the spring term, homework will be marked in class. This homework is in addition to regular reading at home. Children will receive merit points if their reading record is signed at least three times each week.
PE
Swimming will continue to take place on Thursday mornings. As part of the curriculum, it provides a valuable opportunity for children to practise and develop their swimming skills. If your child is unable to take part, please speak to the class teacher or send in a note. PE will also be on a Wednesday afternoon. Please ensure your child has their PE kit in school.
English
In English this term, we will be finishing our unit on biographical writing about Malala Yousafzai. After this we will start our new writing topic which is all about the Ocean and in particular coral reefs. Our genre focus will be on information writing and persuasive writing. We will develop skills that we have learnt earlier on in the year, such as using parenthesis, as well as learning how to use modal verbs and adopt an appropriate register when writing.
Habs
We will continue to visit Habs on Monday afternoons. The sessions for this term will be held on Mondays: 27th April; 11th and 18th May; 8th 15th, 22nd and 19th June.
Snack
Please remember that your child can bring in one piece of fruit to have at morning playtime. Without a snack, it can be a long time for them to go without eating. Please also ensure that water bottles are sent in daily.
School Trips
Vocal project – Thursday 30th April
Knebworth House and Gardens – Monday 1st June
Please refer to the long-term plan for further details about the other topics being covered this term.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to pop in and speak to one of us.
Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Feldman and Miss Coy
Year 5 Summer Timetable 2026
Reading in KS2
In KS2 children have daily whole-class reading lessons. At Monksmead, we use VIPERS from Literacy Shed Comprehension Plus to help structure the learning and ensure that all key skills are being learnt.
VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts. The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc. As such, VIPERS is not a reading scheme but rather a method of ensuring that teachers ask, and students are familiar with, a range of questions. They allow the teacher to track the type of questions asked and the children’s responses to these which allows for targeted questioning afterwards.
To support the children in accurately answering comprehension questions, we use A.P.E. This stands for 'Answer', ' Prove it' and 'Explain it'.
Science Knowledge Organisers - Summer 2026
Knowledge organisers for the individual topic area.
