Summer 2

Year 5 have finished off their penultimate year at primary school with a very busy and full half term! 

In English, we studied a text based on Little Red Riding Hood and have written some fantastic and often slightly scary warning stories following the same structure. In maths, we finished our fractions unit and have looked at decimals. The children worked really hard in both of these tricky units and have achieved well across both. 

In history this half term, the children have really enjoyed our civil rights units. They have thought hard about human rights, how to be inclusive and what rights we should all have. We have looked at some notable figures linked to civil rights and the children have been brilliant at remembering different facts about these people and how they have advanced rights for different groups of people. In art, we have had to show great independence as we have created self portraits. The children have worked hard to try out different effects and then have created a final piece that they should be really proud of. 

The children were inspired by the makers of Wallace and Gromit and created their own, brilliant stop motion animations using playdough and all sorts of backgrounds and props! I was blown away by their creativity! In RE, the children also grappled with some of the stories of the Old Testament and looked at a number of inspirational women from the Old Testament and thought about whether the risks they took were right or not. In science, children have tried to answer the question 'What are irreversible and reversible changes?' We've spent time with all sorts of different mixtures and solutions and have tried to separate them back into their original states. 

We also managed to finally go to Beacon Fell for our Orienteering trip (third time lucky!) and the children showed amazing teamwork as they worked together to work out different clues and how different posts using a map and a compass. I was very proud of their achievement during this trip. 

Other notable and exciting things this half term have been our Rock Kids day and our trip to see Beauty and the Beast and Brownedge. 

Well done for all your hard work year 5, we are all so proud of how much you've grown and developed this year. I know you will continue to do well as you become the oldest in the school and the role models to all the other children. 

Have a lovely summer break, 

Mrs Holden, Mrs Parr, Miss Omer and Mrs Walker. 

Summer 1 

Year 5 have finished this half term off with the most amazing worship all about Pentecost! They did such a good job with it. They were confident and spoke clearly, they all remembered their lines and when to come in and when to sit down. They were, honestly, amazing! I've had so many comments since from staff singing Year 5 praises for their worship. They should all be really proud of themselves for it! 

But it's been a busy term with many other things going on. Here are a few of the highlights...

Bikeability

We finally managed to get bikeability to go ahead with no more cancellations because of the weather or illness! They children showed amazing independence as they learnt to be safe on the roads and how to signal and keep themselves safe. 

Sporting Festivals

We've enjoyed a few sporting activities this half term. We loved the cricket festival, even though it was cold and a bit wet! We loved having Miss Clarke and some of the pupils from Brownedge teach us some dance. We were disappointed when sports day was cancelled but are really looking forward to it happening next half term. 

The World

We've spent some time learning about other religions this half term. We've looked at the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi and the Buddhist festival of Wesak. This has helped us to be more inclusive of those who follow other religions. 

Curriculum

English - We really enjoyed looking at our journey story 'Race against Time' and the children wrote some really good journey stories of their own where characters had different tasks to complete. The children included some fantastic descriptions within their writing. 

Maths - We've been looking at fractions this half term, which we've found a bit tricky. But, we've persevered and worked independently to learn how to find equivalent fractions and how to compare fractions. 

DT - We've enjoyed our DT unit this half term creating monitoring devices to monitor the temperature of an animal enclosure and giving us a warning if the temperature was too hot or cold. We've created cases for these and designed them on a program called TinkerCad which the children loved. 

Computing - We've had lots of fun creating name badges, animations and polling programs on our micro:bits. 

RE - We've spent time looking at the book of Daniel in the Old Testament and thinking about whether Daniel and his friends made the right choice in standing up and being loyal to God even if it could have cost them their lives. 

Science - The children have learnt about different animal lifecycles and compared them. We found out that while most mammals give birth to live young, some, called 'monotremes' lay eggs!

Geography - We've been looking at the Amazon Rainforest in God's wondrous world and inquiring about the impacts of deforestation on that and the rest of the world. 

It's been another busy but brilliant time in Year 5. 

Have a lovely half term and a good rest. 

See you on 3rd June! 

Spring 2

What another fantastic half term we've had in Year 5. 

The children have loved learning our portal story 'The Gas Mask' and have written some fantastic portal stories themselves. We've been focusing on dialogue this half term and the children have been able to punctuate their speech really well. 

We've worked really hard in maths with some tricky calculations. We've been learning how to multiply 4 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers and we've been learning how to use the short division method to divide 4 digit numbers by a single digit number. 

The children have absolutely loved our history unit all about World War 2. They've loved learning about the impact that WW2 had particularly on women and children. The children also loved going to the Imperial War Museum this week and loved seeing all the different objects we've talked about during our unit. 

In science, we've been learning all about the human lifecycle and have discussed the changes that occur over our lifetimes. I'm not sure any of us are looking forward to getting older!! 

The children have really enjoyed our art unit looking at retrofuturism and artwork created around the Space Race in the 1960s. We've made some really lovely final pieces showing what we think the future might look like. 

We hope you all have a lovely Easter Break. 

Christ is risen, He has risen indeed. 

See you all on 15th April!

Spring 1

What a fantastic and full half term! 

We've loved our DT unit creating Doodlers. We had to do lots of problem solving to make sure they worked. 

In geography we've had a focus on our world but discussing climate change. We've looked at; what causes climate change, the impacts of climate change as well as how we can try and fight climate change; as a society and as individuals. 

In PSHE, we've been discussing our dream jobs and different routes into work. We've had practise interviews and discussed the impact of inclusion and stereotypes. 

In science, we have been looking at the properties of materials, particularly focusing on magnetism, transparency and hardness of materials. We've used our knowledge to help us decide what materials to use for different objects. 

In English, we've been looking at our description toolkit and created our own meeting stories. We've also looked at persuasion and have written fantastic persuasive adverts for different theme-parks or adventures.  

We've had to be very resilient in maths when we've found area and perimeter tricky and have learnt all about products, multiples, factors, common factors and prime numbers. 

We had a fantastic 'God's Big Picture' Day where we looked at the story of the Bible from the beginning right to the end! 

year 5 have had to deal with disappointment after disappointment with our Beacon Fell trip being cancelled for the second time and Bikeability also being cancelled. We've worked hard at dealing with disappointments and being enthusiastic for our learning this half term. 

A fab term Year 5! Enjoy your half term off. 

See you for the next half term on 19th February! 

Autumn 2

In English, we have been using the suspense toolkit. We have used techniques such as ellipsis, short sentences, rhetorical questions and developing our vocabulary to write suspense stories.

In maths we have been adding and subtracting with large numbers. We have also been rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. We have been measuring and drawing angles and calculating missing angles on both straight lines and in circles.

In computing, we created Scratch projects and adding our own sound files. We finished with a Battle of the Bands to see which group could create the best song.

In History, we have been learning all about the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings up until the time of Edward the Confessor in 1066 when William the Conqueror became King. We have learnt all about Viking raids and invasions and who the different rulers were throughout this time period.

In art, we have created some fantastic art installations and in science we have been learning all about space and the solar system.

In PSHE, we have been talking about stereotypes and how we can challenge these. We also discussed what the terms prejudice and discrimination mean.

We have had a great half term and loved all the Christmas activities towards the end of term including the Nativity, the Christmas Fair and watching the Pantomime.

Autumn 1

What a brilliant first half term in Year 5.  All the teachers have commented on how much learning has already taken place and how impressed they all are of all the Year 5 children. They have been resilient and preserved when the learning was challenging.  

In English, we have been focusing on the ‘characterisation’ toolkit. We have been describing the monster (Grendel) in our defeating the monster story ‘Beowulf’. We learnt the text map and then innovated this to write our own story.  For our non-fiction unit, we wrote recounts of the events from Beowulf in the style of a newspaper report. We then wrote our very own newspaper reports.

In maths, we have been working on our place value and numbers up to 1,000,000. We have also learnt how to read and write roman numerals. We have been measuring angles using a protractor and calculating the size of different angles on a straight line.

In DT, we have learnt about different types of bridges including truss bridge, arch bridge and beam bridge. We then discussed and debated what the best material would be to build a bridge before building bridges out of wood.

In science we have been learning about forces. We have learnt about air resistance, friction and gravity.

We have loved reading our class novel, ‘The boy at the back of the class’ by Onjali Q. Raúf.