Welcome to Wise Owls

My name is Mr. Peetoom and I am the teacher of Years 5 and 6.  In Wise Owls, we strive to achieve the balance of having high expectations for all children and managing to have a lot of fun along the way:

• Fun activities outside the classroom to enhance the curriculum

• Individual attention in a small-class setting

• Positive learning environment for your child

• Healthy lifestyles promoted through physical activity and sports

• Age range - Years 5 and 6
• Class Size - 27
• Teacher - Mr. Peetoom
• Teaching Assistant - Mrs. Showering
• Specialist Science Teacher - Mrs. O'Connor

Class News

Our current topic in the 2^nd half of the Spring Term is Inventors and Inventions. I am making strong links between our fantastic class novel – ‘Clockwork’ by Philip Pullman and this topic. It is a gripping tale full of Gothic language and ideas, and the children are absolutely hooked. We are using the book as the theme for reading and writing. The children have also written some performance poetry based on aliens and space. In the wider curriculum, our children continue to enjoy fantastic Forest Schools sessions every Tuesday. Our history topic, the Islamic Golden Age, covers learning about a non-European society that provides contrast with British history, and closely links with our topic of inventions. The children have also been developing their understanding of the fundamental principles involved in programming. Our sports coach this half-term is teaching the children striking and fielding skills. Wise Owls continue to do their daily 15-minutes exercise and we are setting the example to the rest of the school with their amazing skipping skills – they are certainly inspiring the younger children! We have been alternating between the Born To Move dance routines and skipping, and as the weather improves we will get running our Daily Mile again. Additional sessions for maths, reading, & SPAG are now in full swing for Year 6 children (either 1:1, small group or full cohort sessions), as we prepare them for their end of Year 6 assessments. It’s always a balancing act, and I think that here at WLSJ we really have managed to achieve a broad and balanced curriculum.

After-school sports club this half-term is netball on Thursdays. I am also dedicating more lunch-times to training for football, netball, tag-rugby and indoor athletics competitions.

Homework

Every child is expected to read at home 4 times per week, with comments and a signature in their reading record.  Reading records are checked every Monday morning.  Wise Owls Reading Challenge has gone from strength-to-strength since September, with the children reading a broad diet of some of the best children's fiction available.  The profits from November's restaurant night were spent on buying new books for the class library and these books have been hugely popular with the class.

Homework is given out every Thursday.  This year we are alternating between a creative art homework one week and a reading comprehension the next.  These homework tasks will be handed in on the following Tuesday.  I also do a very short maths or grammar homework on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  This should take about 10 minutes to complete.

Class Timetable

Please click on the link below to view our current timetable.