Bulletin for the week commencing 22nd April

Dear Parents,

We had a great first week back.  The children adored the initial story in our new class reader: 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' in Usborne's 'Arabian Nights'.  They were quite surprised at just how feisty Marjana was; I'm sure they'd love to tell you how she got rid of the thieves! 

Tomorrow I am going to test the children on the 10 words we started learning last week as part of the spelling trial.  The official test is next week but I'd just like to see how they are getting on with them.  (The words are listed below.)  Last week they seemed to be finding 'luscious' and 'conscious' the trickiest words to learn.  If your child has also learned the words which I posted last Sunday, I will test them on those words, but the test is optional.

We have lots of things to look forward to this week, including the visit by the Tottenham coach tomorrow.  It will be great to catch up with you at parents' evening, and you can have a look at your children's books on Monday and Thursday after school.  On Thursday the children will be having their class photos taken.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

Dear Parents,

Here are the Year 5 spellings for the test on 29th April.

spacious

gracious

precious

conscious

luscious

vivacious

tenacious

delicious

atrocious

ferocious

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.  

Dear Parents,

I hope that you and your family have had a wonderful, restful, happy holiday, and I am looking forward to seeing the children on Tuesday.

Here are the spellings for next week.  The first ten words are the compulsory words, and the second ten are the challenge words.
Thank you,
Mrs G.
amplify solidify signify falsify glorify notify testify purify intensify classify
blacken brighten flatten lengthen mistaken straighten shorten thicken tighten toughen

Dear Parents,

We will be working hard this week to complete our units of work in Topic, French and R.E.  I also hope to finish 'Oranges In No Man's Land' with the children.  In Maths, we will be revisiting percentages.  

Only 4 days of the Spring Term left: the weeks have whizzed by!  The Easter Bunny will be making his presence felt in Year 5 this week, leaving a few eggs here and there!  I will not be setting homework over the holidays and I hope that you all have a wonderful, restful break.

I look forward to seeing some of you on Thursday at the Easter service.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty. 

Dear Parents,

Last week was a very busy and exciting week.  I hope that your child enjoyed Red Nose Day and Art Week.  This week we will be writing our eco-fairy tale; practising reading and drawing angles; and carrying on with our class reader and foundation subjects.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

Hello everyone,
Here are the spellings for next week's test.
With best wishes,
Madeline Gogarty.
pollinate captivate activate motivate communicate medicate elasticate hyphenate alienate validate
criticise advertise capitalise finalise equalise fertilise terrorise socialise visualise vandalise 

Weekly Bulletin

Dear Parents,

I won't be setting any spellings or homework this week as it is Assessment Week.  I thought it might be helpful to provide you with a brief timetable of what is happening, as it is also Art Week and Red Nose Day!

Monday: Reading assessment; Maths revision; P.E.

Tuesday: Maths assessment; English lesson; Japanese art 1 - designing a manga character.

Wednesday: SPaG assessment; Maths lesson; Japanese art 2 - making paper cranes and origami.

Thursday: English; Maths; Japanese art 3 - replicating a traditional Japanese painting.

Friday: Red Nose Day activities through the day.  I.T.; Science; staff/student netball match.

At 2.45 on Friday, there will be an art exhibition in the hall.  Each class will be showcasing their art work.  We plan to serve ice cream mochi (rice balls) on our stall!

I am hoping that the children won't even notice that it's Assessment Week as there are so many fun activities going on! 

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

Weekly Bulletin and spellings for a test on 11th March

Dear Parents,

It was a shame that the trip to see 'We Will Rock You' was cancelled last week.  That afternoon, I showed the children a clip from 'Camp Rock 2', which they seemed to love, especially the part where a boy runs up a wall and turns a back flip!  If they'd like to see it again, it is on YouTube and called 'Cast of Camp Rock 2 - It's On'.

Next week in English we will be writing an eco-fairy tale, subverting a traditional tale to bring home the importance of recycling.  We read an example about Eco-Wolf and the children really enjoyed it.  They also enjoyed their week in Maths focusing on multiplication and division.  You could challenge them to solve 2 wholes divided by three-quarters, using the Kentucky Fried Chicken method.  They should come up with eight thirds or two and two thirds!

On World Book Day this week, we will be thinking of the value of integrity through our class text, 'Oranges In No Man's Land'.  We will be considering whether it is right to bend the truth to protect one's family.

Have a good week,

Madeline Gogarty.  

Here are the spellings for next week.
With best wishes,
Madeline Gogarty.
forty
scorch
absorb
decorate
afford
enormous
category
tornado
according
opportunity
Challenge words
pause
cause
sauce
fraud
launch
author
August
applaud
astronaut
restaurant 

Weekly Bulletin and Spellings for a test on 4th March

Dear Parents,

The children seemed to have a lot of fun performing their assembly last Thursday!  Thank you for your support.  I thought they looked great in their costumes.  One of the children wore a wonderful tie from the King's Road that his grandfather had worn on his wedding day!  It was fantastic to see a piece of really authentic fashion history.

This week we will be practising multiplication and division in Maths.  We'll use these operations in the context of whole numbers, decimals, fractions and word problems.  In English, we will have a debate about whether it should be a criminal offence to put recyclable objects in a general rubbish bin.  The children have very strong views on this - I am sure they would enjoy trying to convince you of their point of view!

On Thursday we will be going to see 'We Will Rock You' at the Amersham School.  I am really excited about this as I think the children are going to love it.  We will be doing our Maths lesson in the afternoon.  I've decided to take the children to the Slough Mosque during the Summer Term to space the trips out a little!

I am pleased with the way the children performed in last week's arithmetic test.  None of the children received any support and, although not all the answers were right, all the methods were used correctly.  Well done, Year 5!  From this week I am also going to try to fit in a short weekly SPaG test, which I will also send home for you to see.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

Please learn these spellings for a test on the 4th March.
telephone, telegraph, telepathy, microphone, automobile, automatic, graphics, signature,
quadrilateral, microscope
Challenge words
impatient, irregular, discovered, misplaced, unnecessary, irrelevant, impolite, preview,
autobiography, transplant
Thank you,
Mrs Gogarty      

Assembly on the 22nd

Dear Parents,

Your child is welcome to wear non-uniform tomorrow, before the assembly.  If this is the case, could they please bring in their uniform so that they can change into it later?

Thank you so much for your support!

Madeline Gogarty.

Dear Parents,

This week in Year 5, we will be concentrating on statistics in Maths, and persuasive writing in English.  In their Arithmetic lessons, the children are now doing practice Year 6 papers.  By the end of Year 6, they should be aiming to score 30 out of 40 on this paper in order to secure expected standard, so I am pleased with the progress they are making.  Each week I go through the most common misconceptions with the children, and I am always impressed by how receptive they are to refining their skills and mathematical techniques.

I think that the children have enjoyed preparing for their assembly.  It is on Thursday at 8.50.  I would be very grateful if they could come to school as early as possible after 8.30 so we can get ready.

I hope that you have had a wonderful half-term.  I am mindful that the children are now halfway through Year 5, and that we have 6 school months to get them ready to enter Year 6 at a really secure starting point.  We'll try to have lots of fun with our learning, and to work hard!

Next week we will be starting our new class reader: 'Oranges In No Man's Land'.  I think that the children will enjoy it enormously.

Here are the spellings for 26th February.  I am sorry that I repeated the first ten words for this coming Monday's test.  We will do both tests anyway, just to see how well the words have stuck!

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

Please learn these spellings for a test on 26th February.
bough
cough
enough
bought
though
thought
thorough
plough
drought
sought
Challenge words
cooperate
coexist
reinvent
reenter
reemerge
retell
reignite
recover
resign
reown
Thank you,
Mrs Gogarty.  

Bulletin and spellings for week commencing 19th February

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been a great pleasure to read the children's flashback stories.  Some of Year 5 chose to write about a memory from Mrs Quarry's childhood, and many others wrote about one of your memories.  The children have produced some amazing writing!

We worked on converting metric units in Maths last week, and the children showed lots of resilience!

I am hoping to finish 'Ice Palace' with the children before half-term.  So far, they seem to be totally engrossed.

I will not be setting homework, other than spellings, over the holiday.  I think that the children really deserve a little rest!

Have a wonderful half-term.

Madeline Gogarty.

Hello!
Here are the spelling lists for half-term.
membership
ownership
partnership
dictatorship
championship
craftsmanship
fellowship
apprenticeship
citizenship
sponsorship
 

Challenge words
stationary
stationery
steal
steel
wary
weary
who’s
whose
fate
fete
 

Thank you,
Mrs Gogarty

Bulletin and spellings for 5^th February

Last week the children enjoyed hearing Mr Bob’s recollection of an adventure from his school days.  They have written some brilliant flashback stories about his escapade.  This week we will be writing stories based on a flashback that is personal to the children.  If you have a vivid childhood memory, I’d really appreciate it if you could discuss it with them: where it happened; who was involved; how you felt.

We will also be starting our new class reader: ‘Ice Palace’ by Robert Swindells.  Here is a review of it, written by a child.

Ice Palace by Robert Swindells - review

Ice Palace was a fantastic story, and undoubtedly the book with the most beautiful, chilling descriptions I have ever read. It told an incredibly moving tale and I found it very hard to put down; I think I am definitely going to try other books by Robert Swindells. I can't seem to find any negative points about it and I would recommend this book to anyone (who loves reading!) over eight years old.

I REALLY enjoyed this book!

We had a lot of fun in Maths last week with percentages, and I was delighted with the way the children embraced this new topic!

We also heard from some of the children about the people they admire.  It’s been interesting to find out about family members, badminton stars and footballers.  We have a great children’s author coming up on Monday.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

Spellings

Hello!
Please learn these words for a test on the 23rd.

happiness
hardness
madness
nastiness
silliness
tidiness
childishness
willingness
carelessness
foolishness

Here are the challenge words.
membership
ownership
partnership
dictatorship
championship
craftsmanship
fellowship
apprenticeship
citizenship
sponsorship
 

Thank you,
Mrs Gogarty

Bulletin and Spellings for 29^th January

Dear Parents,

The children enjoyed their fraction work in Maths last week, and we will be reinforcing their understanding over the coming weeks.  In English, we finished ‘The Eighteenth Emergency’.  You could ask your child to compare ‘The Eighteenth Emergency’ with ‘The Butterfly Lion’ or even ‘Hamlet’!  They are able to make fantastic comparisons!

I’ve posted the script of our forthcoming assembly on the class page.  All of the clips that we will be using are included.  I’ve also posted a link to a clip which teaches children 60s dance moves.  We will be using these in our ‘Surfin’ USA’ dance.

Have a great week!

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty

Please learn these spellings for a test on January 29th.
Creating nouns using 'ity' suffix
community
curiosity
ability
captivity
activity
sensitivity
possibility
flexibility
visibility
eternity

Statutory spellings challenge words
vegetable
vehicle
bruise
soldier
stomach
recommend
leisure
privilege
occur
neighbour
 

1960s Dance Moves

Hello, Year 5!

Teach yourself some 1960s dance moves by using this video: https://vimeo.com/204336221.

Perhaps you could use them to make up a dance to 'Surfin' USA'.

Bulletin and Spellings for w/c 22^nd January

Dear Parents and Carers,
It was very good to see you last week for the consultations.  I found the conversations really useful and informative.  If we didn't manage to catch up, I'll phone you this week for a chat about your child's progress.

Our next assembly is on 22^nd February.  This is the 55^th anniversary of the last time that the Beatles sang together, and so it is going to be about the 1960s.  We will just be referring to the happy events of that decade!

It would be lovely if the children could wear a 1960s outfit for the assembly.  If your child wants to wear something low key, they could wear jeans and a white shirt and I can lend them a kipper tie!  It would be great to have some hippy outfits and mini dresses as well, worn with leggings.  I have quite a few costumes, so, if your child would like to borrow something from me, please ask them to let me know as soon as possible.

We are going to perform a piece of music and movement to the song ‘Help’ by the Beatles.  I would be very grateful if you could familiarise your child with the following clip.  We are going to sing the John part together first.  We’ll put in Paul and George’s backing later.

I really hope that the children will enjoy practising the assembly.  (We can’t devote too much time to this – just a few minutes here and there – but it should be fun!)

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTsB-llTzyc

Please learn these words for a test on the 22^nd.
Thank you,
Mrs G.

certainly
definitely
possibly
perhaps
probably
frequently
often
occasionally
rarely
always

Challenge words

deceive
conceive
receive
perceive
ceiling
deceit
receipt
conceited
transceiver
conceit

New Year’s Message and Spellings for the week commencing 15^th January

Hello everyone,
Mrs Quarry and I would like to express our thanks for all of your kind wishes, cards and gifts at Christmas.  We are very grateful!  We wish you and your families an extremely Happy New Year.  (I used my vouchers to buy a coffee machine, so I am hoping to be extra alert in 2024!)

I am really excited about our new topic in English, which is about including flashbacks in narratives.  In a couple of weeks, the children are going to write a story about a vivid memory from childhood of one of their family members.  It could be a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, older brother or sister etc.  I'd be very grateful if the person concerned could have a talk with your child about this memory.  It would be really helpful if the child could take notes.  The memory can be about something at school, home or on holiday.  Ideally, it will be a substantial memory, involving something happening (an incident) and lots of dialogue.  Could they also find out about the place where it happened?  If they could bring in a photo of the adult at the age of the memory, that would be brilliant, but no problem at all if that's not possible.  I greatly appreciate your assistance with this matter.

To brighten the dark days of January, I am going to make a Year 5 Class Calendar.  Mrs Quarry and I will put up the children’s faces, one for each of the coming thirty-two school days.  Behind the child’s face, we will display someone that the child really admires.  It could be anyone: an artist, an author, a footballer, a famous person, someone they know.  Each child will be asked to reveal their choice on the allocated day, and to explain why they admire the person they’ve chosen.  (I will be choosing Luke Ayling because he plays for Leeds United and he is an advocate for children who stammer.)  We should end up with 32 images of people liked by the children, which I hope will help to make Year 5 a happy place.  I’d be really grateful if you could have a chat with your child to help them come up with a suggestion for Monday.  They can bring in their own photo of their choice, or Mrs Quarry and I can source it for them.

I look forward to seeing you next week at the consultations.  If you have an appointment for Thursday, you can have a look at your children’s books on Monday after school.  If you have an appointment for Tuesday, the books will be on display for you to see on that day.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.     

Hello everyone,
Here are next week's spellings.
equipment
environment
government
parliament
enjoyment
document
management
movement
replacement
statement
Here are the challenge words.
preferred
regretted
forgetting
regretting
admitted
forgotten
happening
admitting
happened
beginner

With best wishes,
Madeline Gogarty.

End of term message

Dear Parents and Carers,

On behalf of the Year 5 team, I would like to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2024!  It has been a real privilege to work with your children this term, and I am very much looking forward to meeting with you in January, when you will be able to have a look at their books and discuss their progress.

With best wishes,

Mrs Gogarty.

I thought you might like a copy of the Year 5 prayer that will be read at the Christmas service on Tuesday.  It is a combination of ideas from all the children.

Bulletin for week commencing 11th December

Last week was a really exciting one for the children!  On Monday they had a special Christmas afternoon with Mr Byrne.  They were allowed to choose between four activities: watching the Reception Nativity dress rehearsal; doing Christmas colouring; doing handwriting practice of Christmas jokes; or watching 'Nativity'.  I think that everyone had a fun, enjoyable afternoon.

On Tuesday, our six Radio Christmas representatives did Year 5 proud.  The rest of the students watched the broadcast live in the classroom, and were very excited to see their friends performing our script.  In the afternoon, the children watched the Key Stage 1 Nativity dress rehearsal.

On Wednesday, we had a fantastic morning at the pantomime.  Year 5 were sitting near the stage and so had lots of opportunities to throw the toilet rolls back at Buttons when he was singing 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'!

On Thursday, it was Christmas jumper day, and the students wore a spectacular array of jumpers!  The sports leaders arranged a Christmas quiz for the class, and Mr Byrne organised an amazing game with the ipads.  I'm not sure how it worked, but I'm certain that your child could fill you in on the details!

On Friday, we performed the dress rehearsal of our carol concert to the rest of the school.

In amongst all of these activities, the children also did lots of work!  They wrote scenes from 'Hamlet' in their own words, and I can't wait for you to see these when you come in to look at the children's books in January.  They also continued refining their knowledge of time, working on increasingly challenging word problems.  Miss Mehmood left the class on Tuesday; she really enjoyed her time at CBS and thought that the children were delightful!  They completed their French assessments, and did a great job with them!

At such a busy time of year, I have tried to make the classroom as magical and calming as possible.  We have lots of coloured, twinkly lights and a special elf shelf where the children can bring their elves to sit with our class elf, Elvis.  As elves go, Elvis is very well-behaved and rather shy.  What he likes to do best is to sit with his elf friends or to accompany the children around the school to the Christmas events.  Last week he watched two Nativities and the pantomime; helped to clean the board and do the recycling; and had fun hanging out with elf friend at the Radio Christmas broadcast.

I hope that the children will really enjoy performing in the carol concerts this week!  We will also be finishing off our units of study for Topic and Religion, and carrying on with our work on 'Hamlet' and time.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.  

Dear Parents,

Last week the children worked really hard: they completed their assessments; started a unit in Maths on the 24 hour clock; and learned all about what life was like at the time that Shakespeare wrote 'Hamlet'.  I was really impressed by their understanding.  I think you'd be surprised and delighted by their response if you asked them whether they could tell you a little about the ;socio-cultural context' of 'Hamlet'!

It was great to see so many of you at the Christmas Fayre yesterday!  It was a real success, and the children seemed full of excitement and happiness about all of the Christmas events coming up.  Thank you to the PTA for their brilliant organisation!

On Tuesday, representatives from our class will be appearing on Radio Christmas from 1 until 2.  All the children contributed to the script, and I hope that they will have a lot of fun either performing it or hearing their ideas being broadcast.  In the afternoon, we will be watching the dress rehearsal of the Key Stage 1 Nativity. 

On Wednesday, we are heading for the panto at the Elgiva, and Thursday is Christmas Jumper Day.

Mrs Rowland has suggested that the children sing 'O Holy Night' to the following piano accompaniment.  I would be really grateful if you could ask them to practise singing it to you a little this week.  It's trickier than the other version, but Mrs Rowland thinks that they are ready for it and that it will be a good opportunity for them to showcase their singing skills!

Any book reviews completed by the children would also be welcomed!

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKJslZPbCPY

Dear  Parents,

This week is assessment week, so I won't be setting any spellings or homework.  We have already completed our SPaG and Arithmetic assessments, and I am very much looking forward to meeting with you in January at the consultation sessions to update you on your child's progress.

The children have really enjoyed reading and discussing 'Hamlet', and acting out scenes from the play.  Mrs Peel, our Chair of Governors, visited the school on Thursday.  She was impressed by the acting skills of the pupils performing the sword fight scene, and by the rapt attention of the children in the audience!

On Thursday, I asked the children to list what they wanted to include in our Radio Christmas script.  I tried hard to include everything, but couldn't quite squeeze in any recipes!  I've posted the script as I thought you might like to look at it with your child.

On Tuesday 28th, Year 5 will have a talk from one of the school governors to tell them all about the Junior Duke scheme.  I'm looking forward to it!

Thank you for all your contributions for the hamper.  We will be packaging it up on Thursday, and I'll send you a photo to show you how lovely it looks.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.       

Dear Parents,

I've posted a book review template on the site so that your child can complete a review/reviews of the books they've read and enjoyed this term.  Ideally the books would be from the challenge list but, if your child particularly enjoyed a different book, I'd love to find out about it!  A target would be to complete three reviews by the end of term.  I will also give your child a hard copy of the template.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty.

Dear Parents,

This afternoon the children will also be bringing home their arithmetic tests from week 2.  I would be really grateful if you could initial their mark and send the paper back into school with them tomorrow so that I can store it in their arithmetic folder.  The test is out of 32.

I very much appreciate your support.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty

Dear Parents,

This week I will be sending home some background information about our new unit in French, 'La date', together with your child's log-in to access the games on the Language Angels site.

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty. 

Year 5 5th to 15th September

Dear Parents and Carers,

It was fantastic to meet your children last week and to get to know them a little.  We went straight into our learning, starting by writing a biography of Michael Morpurgo in English; reading 'The Butterfly Lion' in guided reading; looking at Place Value in Maths; and launching into our Topic of 'The Romans'.  I was very impressed by the children's enthusiasm and effort.  They have clearly had a wonderful year with Mr Heath, and learned a great deal!

All clubs start this week.  Homework in English and Maths will be issued on Monday 11th.

On Monday 11th September the children will have P.E. in the afternoon.  Please could they bring their reading books and reading records into school so that Mrs Quarry can hear them read?

On Wednesday I am looking forward to meeting some of you at the 'Meet the teacher' sessions after school.

Thursday is another important day for reading books to be in as Mrs Farlam will try to hear readers on that day.

On Friday, the children will have celebration assembly as usual.  The class is taught by Mrs Rowland in the morning and Mrs Goodenough in the afternoon.

I'm going to attach the Year 5 timetable so that you can see what your children will be doing each day.

The children coped really well with the heat last week.  Thank you for sending them in with water bottles.  We are quite lucky as our classroom receives lots of shade from the trees in the woodland, so it never becomes too hot!

With best wishes,

Madeline Gogarty. 

Please learn the following spellings for a test on 18/09/23.
vicious
gracious
spacious
malicious
precious
conscious
delicious
suspicious
atrocious
ferocious

Challenge spellings.  If your child would like to participate in the challenge spellings test, please could you ask them to learn this list for a test on 18/09/23?
occasion
decision 
persuasion 
possession
concession
profession
position
question
promotion
suggestion
I apologise if you received an email with no content!
Thank you,
Madeline Gogarty