Year 5 introduce themselves

We took some time out from our study of African tales this week in English, to remind ourselves of the skills needed to write a good letter. Year 5 were fascinated to hear about the way in which, in their teachers’ not so recent past, we used to write each other letters to keep up to date with news of friends and family. ‘Why didn’t you just FaceTime?’ they asked!

We showed them examples of letters we had received, and explained why the little jokes and personal details in each made them so important to us, and why we had kept them.

As we have quite a lot of new faces in Year 5 this year, we asked the children to write to our new students, introducing themselves and telling them all they needed to know about Gateway. Our new children wrote back to tell their class all about them, and what they thought about Gateway so far.

What a great time we had!

As these were ‘real’ letters with a ‘real’ purpose, the children took immense care over their handwriting and presentation, and were really thoughtful in what they wrote. They recommended clubs, and places to hide when playing hide and seek, offered help at break times if newcomers felt worried, and explained which lunch options were the best!

By the end, we all knew a lot more about each other, and Year 5 could appreciate the value of a personal letter. Do encourage them to keep going at home, to write to friends and family in the ‘traditional’ way. It is still so exciting to see a handwritten envelope with your name on it arriving in the post...