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Year 5 

Rights Respecting Articles in Child Friendly Language 

Every great dream begins with a dreamer.  Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

- Harriet Tubman

Welcome to Year 5 Slides

JCA 2025 information session slides

Year 5 is the beginning of Upper Key Stage 2 and we will be concentrating on honing our writing and mathematical skills in readiness for Year 6.  The pupils also benefit from our exciting residential trip in the summer term.  This develops the resilience, independence and personal growth of the children which is all part our transition work preparing them for Year 6 and beyond.

 Meet the team

 Mrs Willis (5W) - Year Leader

Miss Hall (5H) - Class Teacher 

Miss Lopez (5L) - Class Teacher

Support Staff - Miss Cowan, Miss Myers and Miss Kasia

What we do and when

Autumn 1 learning overview

Autumn 2 learning overview

Spring 1 learning overview

Spring 2 learning overview

Summer 1 learning overview

Summer 2 learning overview

Our learning

Summer Term

In history we have enjoyed learning all about how people have used their voices to help to shape British society.  We began by considering the Suffragists and Suffragettes and their struggle to gain women the vote.  Role playing some key characters really helped us imagine what that fight might have felt like.  We discussed campaigns for change and boycotts in recent history.  The children identified the links between the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the US with that of the work of Paul Stephenson who helped organise the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1950s Britain.  We brought the topic right up to date by learning about the Black Lives Matter campaign and how, in November 2024, two TfL travel lines were given the names: Suffragette and Windrush.

In Summer 1, Year 5 were lucky to experience Penwortham’s School Journey and Golden Week. For many children in Year 5, the residential trip is the highlight of the term. This year was no exception - the children (and staff) had a fabulous time learning new skills, developing confidence and improving resilience. Who knew that your children were such experts at fencing, abseiling, low ropes, climbing, circus skills, sensory trail, initiative exercises, survival skills, Jacob’s ladder, buggy building and disco dancing!

This term in science, Year 5 have been exploring ‘Living Things and Their Habitats.’ It was great to make the most of the lovely weather by heading out to the wellbeing garden. We located the potatoes (tubers) and examined the spider plant (runners). The new sensory patch was a firm favourite, especially the chocolate mint! Later in the week, we dissected a lily and identified its different parts. We successfully located the stamen, petal, carpel, and stigma, and discussed their different roles in plant reproduction of some flowering plants.

Previously...

Your children have made an excellent start to Year Five. They have returned to school after the summer break, rested and ready to learn. We began the term, looking at the book ‘The Spaces In Between’ by Jaspreet Kaur.  Each class discussed some of the situations that can make us feel overwhelmed (like the examples in the book) and came up with useful advice for any friends feeling anxious about crowded spaces or loud noise.  The classroom doors are looking great with the children’s creative interpretation of the book’s theme. 

The children have really thrown themselves into art this term, starting with a still life sketch of sunflowers. They enjoyed further developing the sketching techniques they learnt in Year 4 to experiment with light and shadow, as well as create perspective. This will serve them in good stead for our nature-inspired printing topic later this term.

More recently, in Art, Year 5 have been experimenting with print. Our Artist of Study has been British printmaker; Angie Rogers. In her style, and following her process, we have developed our line-making techniques and exploring how to create texture using soft pastels. Our final pieces are a layered print, combining both monoprint and pastels, inspired by the Norwegian countryside (to link to our new geography topic).

 

In history, we started our topic on ‘Dark Ages Britain’ by exploring a virtual Viking settlement and raid. We used our Year 4 knowledge about the Anglo-Saxons to make connections across the two groups and discussed push and pull factors for why the Vikings also chose to invade Britain.

 

In geography, we have started our topic all about Norway.  We already had some understanding of the landscape there as we studied why some Vikings fled Scandinavia to set up home in Britain in our history lessons earlier in the year.  We have already developed a deeper understanding of geographical terminology and applied our understanding of latitude and longitude and how these are used to locate even very remote places.  Each lesson builds our map skills and we have been learning how to source information in altlases as well as using online tools like Google Earth and Mapmaker.

Your children have worked incredibly hard throughout the entire autumn term. We began the half term, looking at our new geography topic learning all about Norway.  Each class created their own travel guides teaching the viewer all about what Norway has to offer.  The children included human and physical features and made excellent use of their persuasive language skills.  We used VR sets to help the children understand all about the Aurora Borealis.

Our English work writing blogs based on Malala Yousafzai’s book, If I had a Magic Pencil, gave the children the opportunity to consider what they feel really passionate about. 

This term in art, Year 5 have been experimenting with print. Our Artist of Study has been British printmaker; Angie Rogers. In her style, and following her process, we have developed our line-making techniques and exploring how to create texture using soft pastels. Our final pieces are a layered print, combining both monoprint and pastels, inspired by the Norwegian countryside.

 We began the term, looking at the book ‘All the Wonderful Ways to Read’ by Laura Baker.  Each class discussed their own criteria of what makes a good reader. Common themes in the three classes were: experimenting with different genres; being self-motivated; and reading regularly (all good to hear!).

How can you help at home?

Regular reading is still highly important in Year 5 so please do continue to hear your child read as well as encourage them to read for pleasure independently. All children are expected to read regularly at home and record in their reading records daily. Year 5 pupils need to develop their inference and deduction skills so asking them questions about what they have read will really support them.

Spelling is a very important part of the Year 5 English curriculum and therefore a new list of target words from the National Curriculum will be set each week via Google Classroom.  See this link for the spelling word list (including some common patterns) taught in Year 5 and Year 6 https://cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/08/29/13/56/09/5a42eb6a-f57f-4dc4-a66e-bd4c5e27e4b7/SpellingWordList_Y5-6.pdf

 It is our aim that all pupils move up to Year 6 having excellent, rapid recall of times tables up to 12 so pupils are tested every week. Please speak to your children about the weekly expectation to regularly use Times Tables Rock Stars https://ttrockstars.com/

Children will be set weekly maths activities on Mathletics. All children have been given their own login and are expected to complete all tasks set. Reminders will be given in Reading Records for those children who do not complete their maths homework.

Useful websites:

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If so, please sign up to the Penwortham community!

Thank you