Welcome to Class 5! 

Croeso i Dosbarth 5!

 

Teacher: Mrs Lawley	Learning Support Assistant: Miss Morris

Communication

Contact us on class5@stmellonsprm.cardiff.sch.uk

 

   X  (Twitter) - @stmellonsprm

 Our School ID: 13339

 Google Classroom Code: x4wdqch5

 Overview of the day

8.45 Classroom door will be opened and pupils to complete their Morning Activity

8.55 Register​

9.05 – 9.25 Worship ​

9.25-10.45  Literacy, Languages & Communication​

10.45 – 11.00 Snack / Break Time​

11.00 – 12.00 Mathematics & Numeracy​

12.00 – 1.00 Lunch​

1.00 – 1.25 Guided Group Reading​

1.30 – 2.30 (Topic/Science/RE/ICT/PE)​

10 minutes daily mile​

2.30 - 3.00 SpaG Practice and FIT 

3.00 Daily Welsh Activities​

3.20 Home Time  

Important Dates for the Half Term

Christian Value - Courage
5th January – Children return to school, Values celebration day
6th January - Epiphany Celebration
7th January - Candlemas Assembly for Children 9.15am
16th January - Chinese New Year Celebration PS1&2 for children
20th and 21st January - Spectrum Workshop Years 3 and 4
26th January - St Dwynwen’s Day Celebration for Children
25th January - Whole School Islam Celebration Day for Children
4th February - Courage Clergy Worship 9.15am for Children
Bishop Cherry visiting
2nd - 6th February - National Story Telling Week
6th February - Mid Term Reports sent out to parents
9th February - Welsh Language Music Day
12th February – Valentine Disco PS1 & 2- 3.30-4.30pm, PS3 4.45-5.45pm
Spectrum Workshop Year 5
9th-15th February - Children’s Mental Health Awareness week
10th February - Safer Internet Day
13th February – Last day of term
16th – 20th February 2026 – Half Term

Christian Value – Forgiveness
23rd February - Return to school, values celebration day
5th March - World Book Day
3rd March - Eisteddfod Celebration for Children
9th March - International Women's Day
9th - 11th March Year 4 Residential to Llangrannog
13th March - World Maths Day
2pm Parents Maths Workshop
17th March - Sikhism Celebration Day
Rags to Riches Collection
23rd and 24th March – Parents Evening 3.30-5:30pm
23rd March - Easter Eucharist 9.15am families welcome
23rd March – Easter Celebration Week
26th March - Messy Easter Celebration Day
27th March - Last day of term
Easter Holidays – 30th March - 10th April 2026

 

 

Classroom Routine

Please bring a bottle of water to school daily, clearly labelled with your name. 

Healthy snacks can be purchased from the snack trolley (ordered via ParentPay) or brought in from home. 

Our PE day is Monday - please wear your PE kit to school. 

PE kit is a white polo shirt (or your house colour) and grey or black shorts/joggers & trainers.  Plain kits please, no patterns or large logos.

Children should wear school uniform each day (apart from PE day) and please ensure that all clothing is clearly labelled with the child's name.

 

 

Current Learning

This term our inquiry title is 'Windrush'.

During our first week back after Christmas, pupils thought about our new inquiry and these are the questions we want to investigate…

Why were they called Windrush Generation? 

Why did people leave the Caribbean to come to Wales? 

How long did the ship take to arrive in Britain? 

 What was school like for the Windrush children? 

 Why were they discriminated against? 

What jobs did they get? 

Where did they live in Wales? 

Did they move to Cardiff? 

What was happening in Britain after World War II? 

What kinds of jobs were people offered in Wales? 

 Did people feel welcome when they came to Wales? 

 

As a result of these questions, pupils learn about who the Windrush Generation are, when and why they came and how they shaped modern Britain and Wales. They will understand the challenges they faced (especially racism) and the legacy of resilience and contribution. Through this topic pupils will gain an understanding of societal change. 

Planning

The Inquiry planning document for our topic will be uploaded shortly.

 

 

 

Homework

 

 

windrush homework grid spring 2026.pdf

 

Weekly homework – Numeracy / Literacy alternated each week. Usually based on something we have learned that week. Set on Friday, due in on Wednesday. Please submit via Google Classroom or send to our class email.

 

The Four Purposes

The curriculum for Wales is based on four core purposes.

The four purposes are that all children and young people will be:

Ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives.

Enterprising, creative contributors who are ready to play a full part in life and work.

Ethical, informed citizens who are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

Healthy, confident individuals who are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Our Christian Value

We  follow the ‘Values for life’ scheme this term and our value is ‘Courage’.

Joshua 1:9, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go".

 

windrush homework grid spring 2026.pdf

 

 

Please discuss our termly value with your child at home and encourage them to share how they have been ‘living out’ the value in their daily life.

 Literacy

In our Literacy sessions we will be working on developing our reading, writing and oracy through a range of genres. Each session will feature the following format:

- An engaging warm up (Consolidating past skills or developing new skills)

- Concrete learning (Development of Literacy skills)

This half term we will be exploring information writing, letters of advice, persuasive speeches, first person recounts, interviews and Biography/ autography, where we will look at the life of Sir David Attenborough and will write a biography to celebrate his achievments. 

Reading continues to be an extremely important part of your child's learning. We take part in Guided Group Reading sessions daily. These sessions aim to not only develop their reading skills, but also broad their exposure to to different literary genres, continue to develop their vocabulary and grammar knowledge and support reflections and inference skills. 

To continue to encourage a love of reading we will also be reading a class book this half term - Windrush Child, by Benjamin Zephaniah. Through it we will continue to focus on the reading skills of vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval, and summarising.

 

Numeracy

In our Numeracy sessions we will be working on developing our maths and reasoning skills to become confident Mathematician . Each session will feature the following format:

- An engaging warm up (Consolidating past skills or developing new skills)

- Concrete learning (Development of Numeracy skills)

In Numeracy this half term, we will be focusing on multiplication, division and fractions. We will build on our knowledge of written calculations. We will be answering problem solving questions linked to each area to consolidate our learning.

We will be using Magma Maths in school to support our learning and children are welcome to log on at home to continue their learning.

We will continue to use TTRS regularly.  Please encourage the children to use this regularly at home; it really does make a difference to the children’s confidence and ability in maths.

 

 - Times Tables Rock Stars - click here for information for parents. 

 

Times tables games - Learn them all here!

Times Tables Games for 7 to 11 year olds (topmarks.co.uk)

Times tables games and songs 1-12 - BBC Bitesize

 

 Welsh

The Welsh language is very important to us. We encourage both staff and children to use incidental Welsh both inside and outside of the classroom. We enjoy our daily Helpwr Heddiw sessions to support children in learning new phrases by playing fun Welsh games. 

 In our Welsh lessons we will be focussing on being able to describe ourselves. Focusing on what we like and enjoying, including food and past times, as well as what we don't like or enjoy. We will be looking to extend this by using achos (because) and ond (but) to add more detail to our descriptions of ourselves.

Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

MFL is under review at the moment. It is a section of the 'Languages Connect Us' in our Literacy Curriculum.

 

Internet Safety

At St Mellons, we promote the use of 'SMART' rules, as we know how important it is to stay safe online.

Please encourage your children to use these 'SMART' rules at home too. 

For more information please visit https://hwb.gov.wales/zones/online-safety/key-information/primary-learners/ 

Health and Wellbeing

The Curriculum for Wales is now a statutory requirement since September 2022 for all schools in Wales. It has a key role to play in helping children and young people navigate the world safely. Welsh Government wants education to help our children to develop as healthy, confident individuals, ready for the next chapter in their life after school. Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) encompasses the knowledge, skills, dispositions and values that will empower learners to:

• support their health and well-being

• develop healthy, safe and fulfilling relationships of all kinds, including those with family and friends, and in time, romantic and sexual relationships

• navigate and make sense of how relationships, sex, gender and sexuality shape their own and other people’s identities and lives

• understand and support their rights and those of others to enjoy equitable, safe, healthy and fulfilling relationships throughout their lives.

Please click here for more information curriculum-for-wales-relationships-sexuality-education-code.pdf (gov.wales) 

 

Healthy Schools

 

We are very proud to be promoting a healthy school. We encourage all children to eat healthy during snack and lunch times. 

We are able to provide snack for your children in school at a daily cost of £2 per week / £14 per term. Please pay via ParentPay.

Please ensure that your child has a labelled bottle in school daily, containing water only. We have fresh drinking water fountains, where the children can refill their bottles.

For advice on how to make a healthy packed lunch, please visit: https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes/ 

Active Travel

WOW is a pupil-led initiative where children self-report how they get to school every day using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker. If they travel sustainably (walk, cycle or scoot) once a week for a month, they get rewarded with a badge. It's that easy!

Please support us on our Active Travel mission by encouraging your child to walk, cycle or scoot to school, or use Park and Stride. This will help keep our bodies healthy and help reduce our carbon footprint!

Picture News

 

Picture News turns news stories into engaging weekly talking points and activities for our assemblies and classroom sessions.   We discuss current affairs during worship time on Mondays and relate them to our Christian values.

 

Useful Links

HWB: https://hwb.gov.wales - Hwb Collection of online tools provided to all schools in Wales by the Welsh Government

Ask your teacher for your HWB password.  On Hwb you can...

• access your personal Hwb email
• use online Microsoft software (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc)
• use J2e
• and much, much more.

 

 Giglets offers your child the ability to read books online and answer questions abouot what they have read to show their understanding. Books will be allocated to your child by the teacher for them to enjoy at home or as part of GGR sessions:

https://pupil.gigletsedu.com/landing

 

BBC Bitesize is free and has many activities to practice all aspects of the Literacy and Numeracy framework.

Practise coding skills on Scratch

Multiplication Grid Game

Hit the Button

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ - Great online games for curriculum areas

https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/levels/zbr9wmn - BBC Bitesize

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html - Lots of online games linked to different areas of the curriculum

https://www.learn-welsh.net/welshgames - Online Welsh games

https://corbettmathsprimary.com/5-a-day/ - Corbett Maths - 5-a-day Challenges

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ - White Rose Maths - Reasoning Challenges