Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School

St. Sebastian – Years 5 / 6

St. Sebastian, patron saint of sports and athletes, came from Milan and was a member of the Roman army. Upset by the persecution of Christians he used his position to speak to people about Christ and his example of faith led many to believe too. When it was discovered he was a Christian the emperor Diolectian ordered that he should be executed. He was tied to a tree while archers shot arrows at him. Miraculously, he survived and again - despite great danger to himself - he challenged the emperor to end his persecution of the Christians. Unfortunately, he was killed when he tried to do this.

St. Sebastian is often symbolised holding arrows to represent his martyrdom.

St. Sebastian lived his life as every Christian should; he courageously faced challenges, showed concern for the needs of others and never gave up his faith. In St. Sebastian’s class, we try to follow the example of our class saint.

Learning in Year 5 and Year 6 

The emphasis in Year 5 and Year 6 is upon children taking an increased personal responsibility for learning, in order to prepare themselves for being ready for secondary school. In our classroom, we work closely in teams which change every half-term. We enjoy the chance to work with different class members closely in order to improve our learning. 

The children in Year 5 and Year 6 are taught together for their daily English lessons. For mathematics, Mrs Batson our Head teacher teaches Year 6. During the afternoon we return together for other lessons in the curriculum including PE, which takes place twice a week. 

In Year 5 and Year 6 we continue to use the App ‘Class Dojo’ to support home-school communication. Important class messages and updates of what we get up to will be shared through this. There is also an option to message the teaching staff. You will be sent a link to join up to this when you join our class. Please be in touch if you have any problems accessing the App.  

Helping at Home 

We hope that our homework activities act as a signpost to support your child's learning further at home; we fully appreciate your support along your child’s learning journey.

There are several homework activities which have a direct impact on children’s overall progress at this important but still relatively early stage in their education. Most particularly, these include: consolidation of basic mathematical facts and developing reading for pleasure.  With this in mind, we will be setting the following activities each week:

Reading

In school, we promise to read to your child for 10 minutes minimum every single day through our class reader. If you can combine this with 10 minutes minimum of reading every day at home (a mixture of your child reading and you reading to them), then together we will have exposed your child to 20 minutes of reading time. Children in Year 5 and Year 6 still need to hear a fluent reader reading out loud and practise reading out loud themselves, even if they are a confident reader. Some of the benefits of this are listed below. 

Children should be reading 5 times a week for 10 minutes or more. We will hear your child read at school on a regular basis, but reading skills will focus more on comprehension and answering questions about the text rather than decoding and fluency. Children will continue to develop their reading skills on a daily basis through reading lessons.

Mathematics

This year we will be sending home weekly maths homework using the Maths Practice Questions Books for Year 5&6

Spelling

This year we will be following Spelling Shed online This will happen within our school timetable daily. Common exception words for Year 5 and Year 6 are shared here. Children also have access to the Spelling Shed website and each week are set challenges and games to complete at home to complement their weekly words.

Responsibilities 

As the oldest class in the school, we try to set a positive example and be good friends to younger children who need our help. Our Year 6 children are proud to be ‘buddies’ to the EYFS in Reception and Nursery class . The children in Year 6 also have important responsibilities around school; such as being House Captains, delivering registers etc. We also have a Head Boy and Head Girl, who are voted to represent the children in school after they have written a successful manifesto and won an election campaign! We contribute to school celebrations of Mass with Father Teddy and enjoy writing prayers to share with the rest of the school.

Extra - curricular 

Our Year 6 residential visit to Alton Castle, a retreat centre in rural Staffordshire, is one of the most eagerly anticipated events at Our Lady's! Alongside this experience, the children have lots of other exciting experiences planned throughout the year, often related to their topic work. 

This year, we have a football team, with children in St Sebastian's class representing our school in matches and tournaments. There are also plenty of after school clubs which the children can participate in. Please look out for information being sent home as different clubs take place throughout the year.

General Reminders

*The children do not need to bring a pencil case to school. We will provide all that they need for everyday work.

*The children should bring a named water bottle to school every day.

*Our PE days are Tuesday and Thursday PE – please bring warmer kit when the weather gets colder. On these days of the week the children can come to school in their PE kit. This must be our school kit and not non-uniform items. Children also take part in Forest School activities on Tuesdays so they will need suitable footwear such as wellies and warm water proof clothing especially as the weather gets colder

Here is a reminder : School PE t-shirt; School Royal blue shorts or navy blue jogging bottoms and the P.E school hoodie. Please make sure your child’s name is in all items!

Autumn Term 2022 Learning

For our foundation subject curriculum topics, please see our curriculum maps on the Teaching and Learning Tab of our website.

Please come and see us - our door is always open!    

 Mr Price, Mr Quinny & Mrs McGregor