Welcome to Red Class!

Mr Edwards and Miss Cook run Red Class together. The ‘oldies’ of the school are a lovely bunch and great to work with. We both hope this year will be lots of fun!

Red Class are supported by teaching assistants Pamela Croft and Jo Clayton. We also are helped by Kirsty Wilson, one of our governors who is volunteering on Thursdays

Being the eldest children of the school Red Class have lots of responsibilities in the school and have taken on the task of devising their own class rules (presented as ancient scrolls on display now in Red Class ), rewards systems, jobs and responsibilities as well as setting themselves SMART targets for this term.

Both Mr Edwards and Miss Cook believe that all children learn differently and so we are keen to uphold this notion in our teaching and challenge the children’s learning in a variety of ways throughout this year. During the first few weeks of Term 1 KS2 went to Adventure Dolphin in Pangbourne. This was for us all to get know each other a bit better and make all the children feel happy being part of Red Class. We believe that this trip has helped to form some solid foundations for future work and collaboration between Year 5 and 6. We are both excited and enthused by the challenges and experiences that this year will bring.

Routines

Year 5 and Year 6 will all be registering together in Red Class in the mornings and afternoons but during Numeracy and Literacy will be having separate sessions. Year 6 will have Mr Edwards in the Red Class room and Year 5 will be with Miss Cook in what is now known (as decided by the children) as Silver Class and Gold Room, in the main building. Both these new teaching rooms have been altered over the summer with Silver Class having had a new interactive whiteboard installed.

In the afternoons all the children will be back together again in Red Class and having their lessons taught by either Mr Edwards, Miss Cook, or, both!

Reading

One new addition to the timetable is a Reading Workshop session which will happen everyday after lunch. As part of this we would like the children to have a book to read both at home and at school. They will need to bring this in with them everyday and a Reading Record will go with it for them to keep a record of what they have read. Year 6 have sorted out all the books in Red Class and have decided on the ones they will be interested in reading- the final count was nearly 700 books! The children decided on their own genre titles and the books organised with the help of Kirsty, our volunteer. This means there are plenty of books in school for the children to choose from. However, if they do want to bring in books from home this is not a problem.

Homework and Spellings

The children will get new spellings to learn each Friday and will be tested on these the following Friday. The spellings will have, where possible, links to the topics they are studying. On the final Friday of the term the children will be tested on a mixture of spellings from the previous weeks, so it is important that previous weeks’ spellings are revisited throughout the term.

Children will receive Numeracy and Literacy homework each Friday which will be due in the following Wednesday. Homework for other subjects may also be given throughout the week but this will most likely be work to finish off or a research focus.

What are we learning about this term?

The curriculum map shows what Red Class will be learning about in Terms 1 and 2.

Dominic has put together some amazing facts for us, all about our Solar System.

If parents have any questions or queries about how Red Class will run this year please don’t hesitate to approach either one of us. We will be available at the end of school each day in Red Class.

Clubs

Miss Cook runs Recorder Club on Wednesday Lunchtimes.

Mr Edwards runs a sport club on Thursdays which isn’t dedicated to any one particular sport but gives children a chance to practice their skills and play a range of sports.

Other clubs to be run this year - Miss Cook hopes to run a Sign Language and Dance club possibly next term.