Year 5
January/February 2025
English
Year 5 have continued to demonstrate enthusiasm and dedication in their English lessons. We began the term by exploring non-linear narratives, using the music video for Titanium by David Guetta as inspiration. We then delved into the thrilling world of Macbeth, thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to bring Shakespeare’s work to life. A particular highlight was welcoming our parents for a live lesson—some even embraced the challenge of playing the Three Witches! We concluded the term with writing activities based on our class novel, War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, which allowed us to deepen our understanding of historical fiction.
Maths
Our mathematical learning this term has focused on geometry, including shape, space, and measure. We have mastered the use of protractors, refined our knowledge of angles, and developed our understanding of coordinates, area, and perimeter. We are now confident in calculating the area of compound shapes and triangles—an impressive achievement!
Science
In science, we have been exploring materials and their properties, with a special focus on reversible and irreversible changes. Our hands-on investigations have helped us understand key scientific concepts, and we have enjoyed experimenting with methods for separating mixtures of solids and liquids. As we approach the end of the unit, we are excited to learn about famous chemists and their groundbreaking discoveries.
History
Our history lessons have been filled with excitement as we explored the fascinating world of the Romans. We have deepened our knowledge of the Roman Empire and the reasons behind their arrival in Britain. A standout moment was our trip to Colchester Castle, where we ventured into the foundations to see the remains of a Roman temple. The museum staff were incredibly impressed by our knowledge, particularly our well-reasoned arguments on whether Boudicca was a hero or a villain.
Other Subject Areas
We have continued to enjoy a broad and enriching curriculum. In RE, we have explored Christian beliefs and the teachings of Jesus, while in PSHE, we have examined environmental issues and the impact of our digital footprint. Our sporting skills have continued to develop in both indoor and outdoor games, and in computing, working with microbits has been a definite highlight. We are looking forward to further advancing our coding skills next term.
Year 5 have had a fantastic start to 2025, and we are excited to see what the next term brings!
December 2024
English
Year 5 have thoroughly enjoyed diving into The Alchemist’s Letter. The children wrote creatively in the role of a mad alchemist who invented a contraption using his memories as fuel to turn metals into gold. They explored the alchemist’s emotional journey by crafting diary entries that captured his transformation and loss of identity, followed by heartfelt letters of apology to his estranged son. Currently, we are writing biographies on our favourite surrealist artists, drawing inspiration from our art studies. We also continue to enjoy reading Crowfall, delving deeper into Orin’s story and the rich cast of characters.
Maths
We have been working hard in maths, particularly during our assessments last week, where the children showcased their understanding with confidence. Our focus has been on improving arithmetic and mathematical reasoning. This term, we are exploring fractions, percentages, and decimals, including finding percentages of amounts—a challenge that the children are tackling with determination. The 99 Club challenge every Friday remains a highlight, encouraging quick recall and mental math skills.
Art
Our recent trip to the Tate Modern on London’s Southbank was a memorable experience for the class. Seeing surrealist works in person, including Salvador Dalí’s ‘The Metamorphosis of Narcissus’, was awe-inspiring. The children enjoyed sketching and sharing their thoughts on various pieces. Building on this inspiration, we will be planning and creating our own surrealist art pieces next week as the culmination of our topic.
Geography
In geography, we have continued exploring the fascinating topic of the USA and North America. The children have been learning about the diverse climate zones across the continent and how these influence the formation of biomes. As we approach the end of the term, we will focus on extreme weather events and their impact on human activity in the region.
Science
This term in science has been full of hands-on investigations! A standout moment was our exploration of viscosity, where the children learned what it means and how to test it. We have also investigated the properties of different metals and are currently testing the absorbency of various kitchen roll brands—practical experiments that spark curiosity and critical thinking.
RE
In RE, the children have been deepening their understanding of places of worship, comparing Anglican and Baptist churches, Reform and Orthodox synagogues, and discussing worship practices in Hindu Mandirs and homes. This week, they are writing reports on the significance of communal worship for believers, and next week, pupils will design their own innovative church concepts.
PSHE
Our PSHE lessons have focused on safe relationships, incorporating lessons from the Walk Online Roadshow. The children have created comic strips to illustrate the importance of consent and participated in engaging roleplay activities to apply their learning.
Finally, we have continued to enjoy our learning in PE, music, computing, and French. The children are particularly excited about preparing for our Christingle and Christmas performances and can’t wait to share these with you soon!
November 2024
Year 5 have had another jam-packed few weeks of exciting learning!
English
We explored the legend of Robin Hood by writing our own versions of the story and learning about the legend genre. This week, we connected our writing with our art topic, surrealism. We created present-tense narratives about someone entering a Salvador Dalí-inspired dreamscape. Immersing ourselves in the works of surrealist artists has been a fascinating experience. We're also thoroughly enjoying our class book, Crowfall, a captivating fantasy/science fiction novel about Orin, a boy living on a technologically advanced island where things aren't quite as they seem. We can’t wait to discover what happens next!
Maths
This term began with a recap of short multiplication, followed by mastering long multiplication to solve problems involving 4-digit and 2-digit numbers. We applied these skills to a range of reasoning and problem-solving questions. Now, we’re delving into fractions, decimals, and percentages. Our knowledge of converting fractions, as well as adding and subtracting them, has already deepened significantly.
Art
In art, we’re studying Surrealism. We've been developing our artistic appreciation and technical drawing skills, and we’re now moving on to explore colour. We’re thrilled to be visiting the Tate Modern next week to see real surrealist paintings up close—it promises to be an inspiring trip!
Science
Our science topic, Materials and Their Properties, has been engaging and hands-on. We've investigated various solids and liquids, applying our scientific enquiry skills to understand their unique characteristics.
Geography
In geography, we've been learning all about North America and the USA. Make sure to check out our last newsletter for pictures and information about our USA Enrichment Day—it was a fantastic experience and we especially enjoyed recreating models of iconic landmarks.
PSHE
In PSHE, we’ve been discussing safe friendships in class and were fortunate to attend the Walk Online Roadshow this week. The session, led by The Two Johns, was both exciting and informative reminding us of how to stay safe when using our devices connected to the Internet.
Once again, we’ve continued to enjoy all our other subjects and look forward to sharing more of our learning adventures soon!
October 2024
Year 5 have had an interstellar start to the new academic year. We visited the Science Museum and explored the galleries, the WonderLab, and watched a 3D IMAX movie filmed from the International Space Station. We are fully immersed in science learning so far and are excited about our upcoming walk to Somers Heath to visit the travelling Astrodome, which will continue to enhance our learning.
In English, we’ve been working on narrative writing, using J.K. Rowling as inspiration. We wrote traditional tales and suspenseful stories based on the Dementors. We also used our whole-class reading book, There’s a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, to write diary entries from different characters’ perspectives. To finish the term, we will be inspired by the picture book Island.
In maths, we have focused on place value, including negative numbers, and used this knowledge to add and subtract accurately. We’ve also moved into telling time using both 12-hour and 24-hour notation. Some of us have been especially delighted to learn how to tell time accurately on an analogue clock.
In DT, we’ve been enjoying planning electronic greeting cards. We are constructing circuits within the cards so that they have a light-up element.
In history, we’ve been studying influential monarchs from the last millennium, including King John, Queen Anne, and Queen Victoria. We are also looking forward to building on our Democracy Day learning by exploring how parliament, rather than the monarch, now plays a key role in lawmaking in this country.
Additionally, we’ve been enjoying our PSHE, RE, music, computing, and French lessons, and we look forward to sharing more about these in the future.
Year 5 Parent Meeting 2024
2023-2024
In Year 5, we've had a busy summer term.
During English, we've been exploring a powerful video "The Piano" and have crafted beautifully emotive letters and first-person narratives. Some of our work has even made it onto the Wow Walls already. Next, we're gearing up for a balanced discussion on the topic: "Is technology destroying the human race?"
In maths, we've tackled some challenging concepts, diving into an introduction to algebra. The children have really embraced the challenge, and we're now focusing on applying our problem-solving and arithmetic skills.
Outside of English and maths, we've been exploring the world of the Vikings, creating timelines, and discovering their systems of crime and punishment. In food technology, we've explored the process of producing beef and indulged in taste-testing different Bolognese sauces. Next up, we're excited to create our own!
In science, we're deepening our understanding of life cycles, becoming experts on plants, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Additionally, we're continuing to enjoy Re (Green Religion) PSHE (looking after ourselves in the sun), PE and music. Feel free to ask us about any of our learning.
We are also excited about our upcoming trip to Ingreboure Valley next Thursday, where we'll be learning rivers, setting the stage for our topic next half term.
Year 5 have continued their hard work into the Spring Term and are already achieving some of their academic New Year's Resolutions.
English
We began the term by watching the music video for Titanium by David Guetta feat. Sia. We used this to inspire our writing and told the story of a troubled teen with superpowers. After this, we worked on our poetry skills, producing poems in the style of William Shakespeare. We enjoyed the story of Macbeth so much that our teachers are going to share more of the work of Shakespeare with us. We are now using our fantastic whole-class reading book, War Horse, to inspire narratives from a different perspective.
Maths
In maths, we started by recapping some of our multiplication and division learning. We learnt some new terms such as prime, composite, and cubed numbers. We have then spent the last couple of weeks working on measurement and geometry. We impressed our teachers with our protractor use, and we are now looking at transformations - translations and reflections.
History
We have gone Roman mad! We are learning all about he success of the Romans, including how they conquered so much of Europe and why their army was so successful. We are moving on to investigating Boudicca and deciding whether she was a hero or a villain. Additionally, we are all excited about our trip to Colchester Castle on February 8th to bring our learning to life.
Science
In science, we have continued to look at material and their properties, moving onto deepening our learning about reversible and irreversible changes. We have learnt what a suspension and a solution are and how to separate them.
Design and Technology
In DT, we have become engineers as we study bridges, how they are constructed and what makes them successful - or not so successful! We had a go at making our own beam and arch bridges and will continue this learning by creating bridges from different materials, which links well with out science learning.
Other Curriculum Areas
We have also continued to enjoy PE sessions where we have practised both tennis and badminton. We have also continued our swimming lessons, where we have become incredibly confident and skilful.
In RE, we have learnt about the five pillars of Islam and investigated why ach is so important tot the Muslim faith.
Our PSHE topic has been about what we can do to support our local areas effort to protect the environment. We created some fantastic posters which give people advice on changes they can make in their own lives.
Finally, in French, we have continued our learning about past times, speaking in sentences to answer questions about what we get up to in our free time.
Year 5 have had another jam-packed half-term so far with plenty of learning in and out of the classroom.
We began the half-term with a fantastic USA enrichment day where we learnt so much about North America and the fifty states. We have continued this learning in our geography lessons.
In English, we started with the legend of Robin Hood which we told in traditional, story-telling language. We then used our art learning about surrealism to inspire a setting description of a Dali-esque dreamscape. This week, we have just completed a unit on ‘The Alchemist’s Letter’ where we wrote highly emotive letters from a father to his estranged son. If you search online for ‘The Alchemist’s Letter’, you will be able to watch our stimulus – it’s very powerful!
In maths, we have had lots of fraction fun! We are now able to use the four operations with fractions and have begun applying this to reasoning and problem-solving questions. We also enjoyed sharing the operations we use at Aveley Primary with our parents and other family members during a workshop.
Alongside all of this, we have visited the Civic Hall in Grays to take part in the Walk Online Roadshow. We developed our knowledge of online safety during an entertaining and interactive presentation from the Two Johns.
Also, just this week, we journeyed to the science museum. On our journey, we enjoyed the sights of London, including seeing the Houses of Parliament which we learnt about last half-term. When we arrived, we took part in an explosive workshop about space before venturing into the galleries. We learnt so much about our previous topic (Earth and Space) and now we are excited to continue learning about materials and their properties.
Year 5 have had a great few weeks of learning.
In English, we have written two distinct narratives - one a suspense story based on the writing of JK Rowling, the other an emotive and descriptive tale of a small family who have ben shipwrecked on the back of a giant turtle.
In maths, we continued our work on place value, addition and subtraction and then moved onto telling the time accurately, studying timetables and working out time intervals.
In science, we have finished our unit of Earth and Space. This involved a live lesson over Teams with Dr Amy from UCL who is an expert on all things space - this secured our learning and she shared 3D glasses with us which made for an immersive experience.
We also continued to apply last year's science learning to design and technology, and begun construction of greetings cards with an electrical component. We will evaluate our attempts on our return to school.
We cannot wait for all the exciting learning that next half term will bring, including our visit to the Science Museum in London.
Year 5 have had an interstellar start to the new academic year. We have already visited an Astrodome (mobile planetarium) where we deepened our knowledge of our solar system. We marvelled at the sights of the constellations and learnt more about planet formation. Back in school we've been producing fantastic writing including information texts on the Earth and Space, and incredible diary entries linked to our current reading book, 'The Many Worlds of Albie Bright'.