Eagle Owls

About Us

Eagle Owls is our Year 5/6 class. The class teachers are: Mrs Sarah Crothers (Monday, Thursday and Friday) and Miss Natasha Chandler (Tuesday and Wednesday). We are supported at different times throughout the week by two excellent teaching assistants: Mrs Thomson and Mrs Bernasconi.

Curriculum and Learning

Over the two years in Eagle Owls, we learn through topic-based lessons which run on a two-year cycle. Our topics include: The Victorians, Ancient Greece, Shakespeare, Ancient Egyptians and Knowledge of the World. English texts are chosen to provide the children with a broad range of genres, subjects and styles, including fiction and non-fiction, newspaper reports, diaries, letters, non-chronological information reports and poems.

In Maths, we follow the White Rose scheme of work. We plan each lesson to build upon the previous one, so all children make progress and achieve.

Reading

Children are encouraged to read daily in class, with guided reading sessions four times each week in addition to one-to-one reading opportunities.

Reading is assessed three times a year and these results inform where pupils are positioned on our reading scheme. Our goal in Eagle Owls is for children to graduate from our reading scheme and become free readers. Book levels are given three times and year and pupils are encouraged to change their own books independently from our scheme. Children are also encouraged to read as broadly as possible from a wide range of genres. Here is a list of books recommended for years 5 and 6. It is not exhaustive but a good starting place.

These booklists can be found here:

Best Books for Year 5: Recommended Booklist for Ages 9-10

Best Books for Year 6: Recommended Booklist for Ages 10-11

Timetable

Our day starts at 8.40am when the children are collected from the playground. There is a morning work task to settle with before the main part of the day.

A typical day will include English, Maths and assembly in the morning, with other subjects taught in the afternoons. The school day finishes at 3:10pm.

We have PE twice each week. On PE days children come to school in their PE kit. PE days are set at the beginning of each term and are communicated to parents through Class Dojo.

Here is an example of our weekly timetable.

Assessment

Assessment in Eagle Owls is ongoing. Informal assessment during lessons helps us to plan for future lessons and shows what children have understood. This is done through talking to children and looking at the work they have produced. Summative assessment takes place each long term and consists of maths reasoning and number papers from White Rose and, reading assessments. This gives a snapshot of children’s independent work and provides approximate reading ages from which we can support children's reading skills.

In May, the Year 6 children take part in the SATs (Standardised Assessment Tests), which are national exams in England for 10 and 11 year olds. They are tested in the core subjects which are: Maths, English Reading and English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (SPaG). These assessments are nothing for the children to worry about as we focus on the children's progress and learning over the whole year.

Home Learning

In Year 5/6 we do not set formal homework. However, children are expected to read at least five times each week and record this in their reading records. They will also have ten spellings to learn and practise each week. In addition to this, pupils are set the goal of achieving 100 stars on Doodle maths/Doodle tables each week. Spellings are tested weekly.

Trips / Visits

We make the curriculum as exciting as possible and link trips, visitors and workshops to areas that we are learning where possible. Each year the trips can differ, but recent trips have included: a visit to the Pantomime in Oxford to see Dick Wittington, a high ropes course and Junior Citizens.

Every alternate year, we go on a residential trip, which is a 4/5-night stay at an O.C.C. base. This trip is a wonderful opportunity for the children to experience a wide range of activities such as climbing or kayaking. It provides valuable life experiences and helps improve skills with their confidence, independence and resilience.

Communication

Communication is key to a smooth-running classroom, and we do this in several ways.

We use Class Dojo for whole-class messages and notes such as needing to bring something in, or a summary of what we have learnt in the week. We add important dates to this too, so do check regularly for updates.

Teachers are available at the beginning and the end of the day if there is a quick query or message to pass on. If you need a longer meeting, then please email the office who will pass on your message, and we can arrange it with you.

We hold two parent’s evenings each year. The first in the Autumn Term, this meeting will focus on how your child has settled into the year group and discuss any concerns. In the Spring Term, we hold our second meeting which will focus on your child’s academic progress.

If your child has SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), in addition to the parent’s evenings, we will invite you to come into school three time each year to review their pupil profile and discuss their support needs.

At the end of the school year, you will receive a school report with details of the levels your child has achieved in the core subjects,

A few reminders

Things to bring with you every day.

Water bottle- just plain water, please.

Lunch box if you are having a packed lunch.

Snack- a break-time snack is no longer provided by the school from year 3 onwards. You will need to bring a fruit or vegetable snack for break time. Please do not bring in yogurts, fruit winders (or the like) meat, cheese or other snacks. We are a nut-free school so no nuts at all, please.