Oak Class 2023 - 2024

WELCOME TO OAK

Class teacher - Mr M Thomas

Learning Support Assistant - Mrs D Feast

This term, we are on a voyage of discovery... adventuring into feasting halls and misty moors...

As role models for the rest of the school, Oak class embody the values and vision that we have for our school community. In the courtesy and gratitude we demonstrate around school, we model how our faith that making wise choices and always striving to do the right thing by ourselves and others allows us to grow in confidence and maturity. The wisdom that comes from always striving to make these wise choices allows us to thrive as we take advantage of the many opportunities we have to shine in Oak class, from whole school dramatic performances to residentials and projects to support our local area.

Hello! I'm Mr Thomas and I couldn't be more excited to be your teacher this year. I can't wait to teach some of you for the first time and I'm delighted to welcome back some familiar faces from last year. I know that we are going to have a wonderful time together as we dive into all of the opportunities and experiences we have planned for you.

From roaring hearths in raucous Anglo Saxon Great Halls to Vikings pillaging along rivers, our Autumn term learning will focus on Invaders and Settlers. In our History and Geography lessons, we'll trace the legacy of the Roman invasion, settlement and subsequent abandonment of Britain to the mercy of the invading Angle and Saxon tribes of Northern Germany and Denmark. We will explore why the Romans, Anglo Saxons and Vikings all chose to migrate to Britain, investigating reasons for their patterns of settlement. Our main focus will be on the Anglo Saxons as we investigate the Sutton Hoo burial, the legend of Beowulf, paganism and early Christianity in Britain.

Our first class novel will be the incredible Monster Slayer: A Beowulf Tale by Brian Patten which will provide the focus for our writing this term, including persuasive letters, diary entries and poetry. Following this, we’ll move onto Here Lies Arthur, a stunning novel by our first Spotlight Author, Philip Reeve, which will illuminate the Dark Ages and shed light on the perspectives of the Britons living in the time following the Roman withdrawal from Britain and the subsequent invasion of the Angles and Saxons. We’ll end the term with our second Spotlight Author, Tony Bradman’s novel Anglo Saxon Boy which will lead us up to the pivotal moments of 1066 and the end of the Anglo Saxon and Viking era in Britain.

In Science, we'll be learning how to look after our environment, covering climate change, energy consumption, landfill use and the burning of fossil fuels. We’ll follow this by exploring forces, marvelling at the mysteries of gravity and investigating the effects of water and wind resistance, linking to our learning about the Vikings and their lightning-quick longboats.

Linking to our Geography learning about settlements and migration, in Maths, we’ll use our Computing skills to create Excel spreadsheets and graphs showing the population of London from 1801 to the present day. We will also be creating PowerPoint presentations about life in either the Roman, Viking or Anglo Saxon eras which will support this term's debate question: which era would be best to live in. All of this talk and learning will help us to write balanced arguments explaining which era we would most prefer to live in.

Our first Maths topics will see us covering Number and Place Value as we explore numbers up to one million for year 5 and 10 million for Year 6. We’ll be reading, writing, ordering and comparing numbers as well as rounding them before moving onto Roman Numerals and negative numbers. We’ll be recapping mental methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to ensure we are as fluent and confident with our arithmetic as possible. We’ll build on our fluency skills with reasoning and problem solving questions that will stretch our understanding.

In PSHE, we’ll be exploring the themes of empathy and friendship and in RE, we’ll be learning about the Christianity as a multicultural and worldwide faith. In PE, inspired by the world cup, our first focus will be on rugby as we build our passing and movement skills.

In Art, we will be exploring the work of the architect Zaha Hadid, comparing her most famous buildings to Vale Royal Abbey. We will begin by developing our sketching skills before moving onto painting, using brush techniques to create texture and combining colours, tones and tints to enhance the mood of our final piece: a painting of Vale Royal Abbey inspired by Zaha Hadid. Our DT learning will see us create catapults inspired by the Romans and their incredible technology.

In Music, we will be linking to our History learning by adapting and transposing motifs inspired by our Romans learning. Following this, we will be exploring dynamics, pitch and tempo through the song Fingal's Cave. In Computing, we will combine our PowerPoint, oracy, history and geography skills to create and present persuasive PowerPoint presentations arguing which era (Romans, Anglo Saxons or Vikings) would have been the best to live in. We'll also continue our regular E-Safety lessons to ensure we're aware of how to stay safe and happy online in both school and at home.

As mentioned above, our first focus author will be the incomparable Philip Reeve; we’ll be diving into some of his best novels in whole-class reading lessons to give us a taste of his style and stories. Reading is at the heart of successful learning and we will immerse ourselves in a range of quality texts over the course of the year. As Reading is a priority across all subjects, we regularly use a range of fiction and non-fiction texts in our whole-class Reading lessons to help inform richer learning across the curriculum in the afternoon. In addition to this cross-curricular learning, a single day might also see us exploring the motivations of characters in our gripping class novels or simply allowing children time to develop a love of reading through our provision of high-quality fiction books. Wherever and whenever possible, we will prioritise developing the skills and positive attitudes towards Reading that will enable Oak class to become confident, informed and engaged learners.

Home Reading expectations are detailed below, but should your child express and interest in a particular author, series or genre, please let us know and we would be delighted to order books from our library partners free of charge. Visits to your local library are also encouraged!

PE will be on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Please can children come into school on those days already dressed in their PE kits.

Homework

Please ensure your child reads at home at least 4 times per week for 15-20 minutes. In Years 5 and 6, they are expected to record their own reading in their Home – School contact books; parents just need to sign each time.

TT Rockstars should be practised at least 3 times per week also for a minimum of 5 minutes each time.

For Year 6, Mental Maths will be sent home twice per week; both sheets will be given out on Mondays. The first sheet will be due on Wednesday and the second on Friday.

Both Year 5 and Year 6 will also have a weekly SPaG sheet. This will be given out on Mondays and is to be returned the following Monday.

All Oak children will be given their own personal spelling lists to practise at home. These are linked to the statutory spelling lists for each year group available at the bottom of this page. There will also be a statutory spelling list for each half term: these will be different for Year 5 and Year 6.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me using the Home-School book We love to celebrate any out of school learning or achievements by our children so please email to the office or send in anything your child would like to share with us.

Oak’s Curriculum Evening will take place on Monday 22th September at 5pm in Oak's classroom.

If your child is absent from school due to COVID-19 and requires remote learning, please download and read the PDF document listed below.