St. Vincent’s Catholic Primary School Curriculum Meeting

Reading We encourage the children to read in school and often have time for silent reading, We encourage the children to read at home and appreciate your support in this. Statistically children who read regularly do better in education. Children should read for 20 minutes every day. This doesn’t have to be out loud to an adult it can be independently. Reading regularly has huge benefits; improved writing, expanded vocabulary, develop interests, improved spelling, sharpens analytical skills, processing skills improved, relaxation, improved communication skills, improved concentration. Children may bring in books from home to read, it is important for them to read a wide variety of reading material. Bug Club books can be accessed at home.

Handwriting We use a handwriting scheme across the whole primary school. This scheme is very clear about the letters that are joined and those which break up a word. Regular practise of the different joins and letter formations will hopefully lead to neat, joined up handwriting in all work, not just when in handwriting lessons. All work including homework should be completed with joined up handwriting and without the use of pen erasers. We use brackets and a cross if a mistake is made. Pen licences have already been given to some children who are demonstrating consistently neat, fluent and joined handwriting. We will to continue to issue these throughout the year on the understanding that the children’s writing must continue to this standard.

Grammar and Punctuation This aspect of English is very much dependent on the individual needs of the children and English class. By the end of Year 5 we would hope that all children are confident with using capital letters, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, speech marks and commas accurately. Additional skills will include using apostrophes, colons and semi colons correctly. Children are expected to use the correct technical terms in Grammar lessons and these are used in the Year 6 SPAG test.

Writing Variety of tasks- stories, reports, recounts, persuasive writing, poetry VCOP- resources Dictionaries and thesaurus- encourage use at home and school Writing at length in other subjects too

Verbal Reasoning One session per week with homework. Different types of questions Specific strategies Opportunity to widen vocabulary Useful to have pocket dictionary/thesaurus Timings

New Maths National Curriculum 2014 Came into force in September 2014 and places a greater emphasis on developing a sense of number and mental arithmetic skills. It aims to develop the foundations of algebra and proportional reasoning. It has placed a lower emphasis on statistics and it has moved probability to Key Stage 3. There has been a policy of upskilling pupils, where topics previously covered in Year 5 were moved down and were studied in Year 4 instead. The children have already had one year of teaching in the new curriculum and we are monitoring their progress in line with Age Related Objectives.

Addition/Subtraction Multi-step word problems, rounding to check calculations, Previously used 4 digit numbers , but new NC requires pupils to calculate whole numbers up to 1,000,000, both using formal written methods and appropriate mental strategies Solve multi-step problems in contexts, with the pupil being required to decide which operations and methods to use and why Use rounding to check answers and to determine, in the context of a problem, levels of accuracy Number & Place Value Interpret negative numbers Read, write and compare numbers up to 1,000,000 Re-introduced Roman numerals

Multiplication & Division • Pupils are required to know all multiplication tables up to 12x12 by the end of Year 4 • Use these multiplication facts to know the corresponding division facts • Understand and calculate prime numbers • Recognise and use square and cube numbers • Multiply numbers up to 4 digits by a one- or- two digit number • Multiply whole and decimal numbers by 10,100 & 1000

Fractions • Recognise mixed numbers and improper fractions and convert between the two • Read and write decimal numbers as fractions and vice versa • Understand the concept of percentages and link this back to knowledge of fractions • Read, write and order decimals up to three decimal places • Add and subtract fractions with the same denominator • Multiply proper fractions and mixed numbers by whole numbers • Problem solve with numbers up to three decimal places and use equivalent fractions

• Convert between different units of metric measure Measurement • Convert between different units of metric measure • Measure and calculate perimeter of composite rectilinear shapes • Calculate area of rectangles using standard units (eg: cm2) • Estimate volume and capacity of cuboids Geometry • Identify 3-D shapes from 2-D representations • Distinguish between regular and irregular polygons • Know that angles are measured in degrees and estimate and compare acute, obtuse and reflex angles • Draw and measure angles using degrees (O) • Use properties of rectangles to deduce missing facts ad find missing lengths and angles

Abacus and Mymaths Web Browsers: Please access the sites via Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari. Internet Explorer is not a supported browser so may have limited functionality. Username: these are the same as the log ins from last year that children should have been accessing. All passwords have been set as vincents and the school code is svrc. All passwords are lower case. Mymaths instructions and passwords have been stuck into the back of homework diaries. The same log in details will allow children to access Abacus maths activities, Bug Club reading activities and some Grammar and Punctuation activities.

Science, History & Geography Properties and changes of Materials Circle of Life Forces Earth and Space Anglo Saxons Rainforests South America Romans

AOB General responsibility for their own possessions Labelling uniform Letters from parents