The Year 5 Team

Curriculum Overview

This week in Sussex 5:

Week beginning 12th January 2026

Dear parents and carers,

In maths we have been practising all our skills and remembering what the language is asking us to do.  Although the children can do one skill, such as division, if they have to manipulate the question they find it tricky to work out what to do so we are practising attacking questions from different perspectives!

It seems that we're also finding it difficult to count in 25's so we'll have to keep chanting and pracising this skill.

We have been creating character descriptions in English this week.  We have created a new character for our story, Twitch which we will be adding to our stories next.  Once the children had written their character description, with as much detail as possible I showed them their picture characters using AI - the children loved this and understood that the more description they added, the better their pictures became.

We had a great welly walk on Friday afternoon, collecting sticks, stones and acorns around the field to make tracks for other children to follow.  Sorry about the muddy clothes - the forest school area was waterlogged!

We still need lots of newspaper - hardly any has been brought in. We will be making 3D maps next week, using papier mache so will need lots of newspaper - please send it into class any day, up to next Friday.  Thank you.

In science the children have been  learning about the 5 main characteristics of mammals and how they are so different to other animals.  See if your child can remember all 5!

The children's confidence is growing in swimming as they are now used to the routine of going again.  I hear some very good reports of their abilities and achievements already.

The children's other PE lesson will be on Thursdays with Mrs Nash this term.

Mrs Townshend and Ms Walker.

Please find the home learning at the top of this page.  

Spellings are set on a Wednesday for testing on the following Wednesday.

Times tables will be tested on a Friday - this week we will be testing  6 times table and 16 times table.  Next week ( 23rd) it will be the 7s and 17s.

A typical week in Sussex 5

Home Learning

Spellings 

Multiplication Tables

Weekly practise of multiplication tables is vital in supporting mathematical development. Below is a chart of the 36 essential facts to learn. This is especially helpful for children who are almost fluent.

Times Tables Rockstars! 

To keep practising the multiplication taught in class, and challenging yourself to keep the ones you already know fresh, don’t forget to log into your Times Tables Rockstars account. 

https://play.ttrockstars.com/

Challenge yourself to beat your score and build your knowledge as you become a Rockstar!

Please ask your class teacher if you need replacement log in details.

To continue to learn times tables, this website is useful:

Times tables games - Learn them all here!

Reading

Children should bring their Accelerated Reading Book to and from school each day. When they have finished reading, children are asked to complete a quiz before changing their book. 

https://global-zone61.renaissance-go.com/welcomeportal/6704864

Parents please log your child's reading on the BOOM reader Parent Portal or by using the BOOM reader parent app on your tablet/mobile no more than once a week.

boomreader.co.uk/parents

Spelling

The link below will take you to the spelling scheme we are working from in school.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/english/primary-spelling/

This document contains spelling strategies that are used in class, and can be used at home to aid learning new words:

Southborough's Spelling Strategies