Year 5 Spring 2 Curriculum Information

Welcome back Year Five. I hope everyone has had a restful holiday and is excited to be back at school after the February half term. We are now more than halfway through the academic year!

Our class read for this half-term is Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman, a powerful and thought-provoking story about a thirteen-year-old boy named Cameron who is seriously ill and in need of a heart transplant. When no human heart becomes available, doctors offer him a groundbreaking and risky solution — a transplant using a genetically modified pig’s heart. The story follows Cameron as he struggles with the decision, the media attention surrounding the operation, and the reactions of friends, family and the wider public. While the transplant could save his life, it also raises big questions about science, ethics and what it truly means to be human. Malorie Blackman explores themes of bravery, identity, friendship and prejudice in a way that encourages thoughtful discussion. I am hoping this powerful story will help the children reflect on empathy, courage and the importance of looking beyond differences to understand one another.

In English last term, our non-narrative writing focused on developing biographies about the great environmentalist David Attenborough and the inspirational primatologist Jane Goodall. The children explored how to organise factual information clearly, use formal language and highlight significant achievements, while also reflecting on the importance of caring for our planet and the animals we share it with.

This term, we are moving into narrative writing and channelling our creativity through night-time adventure stories inspired by Gorilla by Anthony Browne. In this beautifully illustrated story, a young girl named Hannah feels lonely because her father is always too busy to spend time with her. Through magical realism, Hannah’s wish comes true as a mysterious gorilla takes her on a wonderful night-time adventure. Beneath the fantasy, the story explores themes of loneliness, love and the importance of family connection.

We will be linking this new narrative work to our previous learning by encouraging the children to think deeply about themes of care, responsibility and empathy — whether that is caring for the natural world, as shown by Attenborough and Goodall, or caring for the people closest to us, as seen in Gorilla.

To celebrate our writing, Year 5 will be sharing their finished night-time adventure stories with our EYFS children. This special opportunity will allow them to read aloud with expression, adapt their language for a younger audience and take pride in their work as role models within our school community. We are very much looking forward to seeing their creativity come to life and watching them inspire our youngest readers.

For Maths the focus of the term will to be to continue our development of fractions. This requires a secure knowledge of times-tables. Please can we make sure that all students to continue to develop this at home; you can sing, shout, and chant those times-tables every night and practise on Times Table Rockstars. Furthermore, we will be looking at area/perimeter of shapes with a more practical outlook on how the learning takes place. For many jobs in the world, it is vital to have a good understanding of measuring area/perimeter.

In Physical Education, we will be continuing our swimming lessons at the local swimming pool. This term, the children will focus on developing their confidence in the water, refining their stroke technique and improving stamina. Swimming is such an important life skill, and it is fantastic to see the progress the children are already making. Alongside building individual strength and endurance, pupils will continue to develop perseverance, self-belief and personal goal setting as they work towards improving their distances and technique. I am really looking forward to seeing their continued progress in the pool this term.

In History this term, we will be studying the important and thought-provoking topic of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The children will explore the origins of the trade, why it began, and the economic and political factors that allowed it to develop. We will examine how millions of enslaved African people were forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and consider the profound and lasting impact this period of history has had on the world.

This unit does include some sensitive and emotive subject matter. However, it is a vital part of human history and will be taught in an age-appropriate, respectful and carefully considered way. Our focus will be on developing historical understanding, empathy and critical thinking, while ensuring that pupils feel safe to ask questions and share their thoughts. To support learning at home, knowledge organisers will be sent home at the start of the unit. These will outline the key vocabulary, dates, people and concepts we will be covering, enabling parents and carers to see exactly what is being taught and to support discussions at home.

In Science this term, we will be focusing on our biology topic, Living Things and Their Habitats. The children will be learning about the life cycles of different animals and plants, exploring how living things grow, reproduce and change over time. We will compare life cycles in mammals, amphibians, insects and birds, as well as investigating the stages in the life cycle of flowering plants. To bring our learning to life, we will be exploring nature first-hand during our trip to the Botanic Gardens. The children will take part in activities such as pond dipping, observing plant species up close and identifying different habitats. This hands-on experience will help them deepen their understanding of ecosystems and the interdependence of living things. It promises to be an exciting and engaging topic, full of exploration, discovery and opportunities to connect classroom learning with the natural world around us.

There are also many other exciting opportunities taking place throughout the term. We will be continuing to develop our community pledge, encouraging the children to think about how they can make a positive contribution to the world around them and take pride in their role within our local area.

As part of our RE learning, we are hoping to welcome Reverend Mary into school to speak to the children about Easter and its significance within Christianity. This will provide a valuable opportunity for pupils to deepen their understanding through discussion and first-hand insight.

In addition, Year 5 will be accompanying Year 1 on a local visit to the Melton Carnegie Museum to explore local heritage. This will not only enrich their understanding of our town’s history, but also allow them to take on a supportive role as positive role models for the younger children.

We are also very much looking forward to celebrating World Book Day, which this year will be themed around The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The children will take part in a range of creative activities inspired by the story — from exploring its memorable characters and themes, to celebrating the joy and magic of reading. We can’t wait to see the fantastic costumes and enthusiasm for books on the day!

It promises to be a busy and rewarding term, so please do keep up to date with all news and reminders via Class Dojo. Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

 

 

 

Year 5 Spring 1 Curriculum Information

Welcome back Year Five! I hope you all had a restful, festive holiday and are excited to be back.

Our class read for this half-term is the famous story ‘Romeo and Juliet’ written by William Shakespeare. It is a tragic love story where the two main characters, Romeo, and Juliet, are supposed to be sworn enemies but fall in love. Due to their families' ongoing conflict, they cannot be together, a captivating story with a tragic ending.

The theme throughout this term has a focus on the importance of reading and developing reading skills. Our VIPERS lessons will particularly focus on developing our vocabulary and decoding skills. We shall also be reading ‘Migration’ by Mike Unwin and Jenni Desmond exploring the migrations of twenty animals. A double page spread is dedicated to each animal with each having a beautiful illustration spanning the full double page. The writing evokes the incredible journeys undertaken in a succinct fashion that both informs and encourages further research. An Arctic tern, in its lifetime, may fly the equivalent of three times to the moon and back, while it takes the Monarch butterfly four generations to complete its migration. Incredible! 

For our everyone’s welcome book we shall be reading: The cow who Climbed a Tree by Gemma Meino. This story celebrates imagination, curiosity and daring to be different, values our Year 5 children excel in.

In English this term, our non-narrative writing will focus on biography writing where we will develop our use of grammatical features such as modal verbs, metaphors, alliteration and colons. We will be learning about the wonderful David Attenborough and Jane Goodall and their passion for wildlife before basing our writing on their lives.

 Our narrative writing will focus on Anthony Browne’s ‘Gorilla’ story. Anthony Browne's incomparable artwork illuminates the deeply satisfying story of a lonely girl, a friendly gorilla, and their enchanted night out.

For Maths, our focus for the beginning of the half term will be fractions, decimals, and percentages. Timetables yet again is key to the learning taking place. This is important that TTRS is being completed and parents help support children with this area of mathematics. Every week, a pupil from our class receives an award in celebration assembly for their effort on TTRS that week, something to aspire to earning!

In Physical Education, we are lucky enough to be able to have swimming lessons. This is a key life skill and is something which I am enthusiastic to teach. Everybody should have the skill of being able to swim. We are also lucky enough to have a basketball coach coming in to school to teach us for the first few weeks of the half term.

This half term, Year 5 pupils will be exploring the fascinating world of forces and discovering how they affect everything around us. Children will learn that a force is simply a push or a pull, and that forces can change how things move by making them speed up, slow down, change direction or even change shape.

Pupils will be introduced to Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most important scientists in history, and learn how forces are measured in Newtons. They will explore gravity and understand how it pulls objects towards the centre of the Earth, as well as how other forces can act against gravity – for example, how birds are able to fly.

Through hands-on investigations, children will see that although we cannot see forces, we can observe and measure their effects. They will compare forces of different strengths and learn what happens when forces are balanced or unbalanced.

The unit also explores different types of forces we experience every day, including:

• Friction, and how rough and smooth surfaces affect movement
• Air resistance, including why parachutes work and how streamlining helps objects move faster
• Water resistance, and how it slows objects moving through water
• Upthrust and buoyancy, helping children understand why some objects float while others sink

In History, building on chronologically from the last term, pupils will examine how France’s defeat, and loss of colonies in America, led to national debt, and exasperating feelings of social inequality which sparked the French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille, a state prison in Paris, signified the peoples’ resentment and hardship felt during this time. This violent attack on the government, by the people of France, marked a major turning point which began the process of dismantling the monarchy. The people in France still celebrate Bastille Day, which they call La Fête Nationale, where they remember the time when the people rebelled against the power of the monarchy. Analysing sources & evidence, the pupils will learn about the lavish lives of King Louise XVI and Marie Antoinette. The children will be encouraged to recall previous learning about Charles I of England and compare his fate with the king and queen of France. The pupils will also discuss what is meant by the term ‘absolute monarchy’ and will be asked to discuss the similarities and differences between that, and the constitutional role of the monarchy in Britain today.

In art this term we shall be exploring Chinese Painting and Ceramics. Becoming familiar with examples of Chinese art, including silk scrolls, calligraphy, brush writing and painting, porcelain.

There will be loads more exciting learning opportunities and sessions going on, so please check our Class Dojo regularly for pictures, updates and much more!

Thank you for your continued support!

 

 

Year 5 Autumn 2 Curriculum Information

After a great first term, I am very excited to welcome the class back to continue our learning.

This term, Year 5 have been diving into the beautifully written book Mayowa and the Sea of Words by Chibundu Onuzo. The story follows Mayowa, a curious young girl who discovers the magical power of words and imagination as she journeys through a sea made entirely of language. Along the way, she learns about courage, creativity, and the importance of finding her own voice. Through exploring the language and themes in the book, we hope the class wo; develop their own storytelling skills. It’s been wonderful to see how engaged and inspired the children are by Mayowa’s adventures — and how they are using the story to build confidence and creativity in their own writing.

In English last term, our writing focused on refugeeism and the journeys refugees may undertake to find safety. This term during our non-fiction writing we will be writing about the tallest mountain on the planet ‘Mount Everest’. We will read the picture book ‘First to the Top’ which is about Edmund Hillary and his sherpa Tenzing Norgay being the first people in history to reach the summit of Everest. The English lessons will be heavily complemented by our geography lessons as we are learning about mountains- this is one of my favourite topics to teach. Our big question for geography is ‘Where are different mountains located?’. We will finish off the half term with the beautifully festive story ‘The Snowman’ by Raymond Briggs inspiring our narrative write and building up our Christmas spirit in time for the holidays.

In RE, we are continuing with a Christmassy theme, learning about the Christmas story. We will consider and compare different tellings of the story from the Bible and consider whether we believe them to be true or not.

For Maths we will be continuing to develop our timestables knowledge. Our focus of this half term will be on multiplication and division. This is such an important part of mathematics at primary school because all other elements of maths that we must cover like: fractions, decimals, area etc all require good knowledge of multiplication and division. This is important that TTRS is being completed and parents help support children with this area of mathematics.  

In Physical Education we will be using our fitness from last term to help us with other parts of P.E. Our focus will be on Tennis and dodgeball and we will continue with PE lessons on a Thursday and Friday. 

Our history topic this term is ‘The Early British Empire’ and how Britain created an empire across the globe. The big question for history will focus on ‘Do British Values extend further than Great Britain?’ This will enable the class to look in detail at other countries that were part of the empire.

Finally, our science lessons will be looking at different types of ‘materials’ where at the end of the term the pupils will be answering the big question ‘Why do materials have different properties and states of matter? In science lessons we will be completing a range of experiments and the class will look at how to complete a fair test.

Please keep a look out on Class Dojo for photos of our learning, information, and updates. We have lots more exciting experiences planned for this half-term.

Year 5 Autumn 1 Curriculum Information

 We have an exciting half-term planned! Our class read will be based on the ‘Windrush Child’ which we have already began reading in school. Benjamin Zephaniah the author of the book describes the book as "historical, fiction, but true story" about a young boy's journey from Jamaica to England. The character in the book Leonard finds himself in complete shock when he and his Mother arrive off the ship to find themselves in Southampton port. His Father who is living in Manchester already, moved from Jamaica to better his life for him and his family, however Leonard struggles to adapt to life in England and not really knowing his Father. The book follows an exhilarating, eye opening journey which opens the eyes to the reader to all the issues people face trying to better themselves by moving country. This is a story which is extremely relatable to some members of our class who have moved from a different country. This book encourages all of our school values and links nicely to our Personal, Social and Health and Education lessons where we are looking at ‘Being Me in My World’.

In English we are following a similar kind of story to our class novel. The fascinating picture book is called ‘The Journey’, which follows a family trying to flee a conflict. This book will be the base to our English writing lessons. Our writing will follow the journey of the family fleeing the conflict area, which will then result in an independent write about a new beginning.

Year Five will also be exploring ‘The Proudest Blue’ by Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali. An uplifting picture book with Islam at its heart, which complements our history topic: ‘Baghdad’. This is a universal story of new experiences, and the unbreakable bond shared by siblings and of being proud of who you are, from Olympic medallist and celebrated Muslim author Ibtihaj Muhammad.

We shall also be exploring our Everyone’s welcome book: ‘Little people, BIG DREAMS by Stevie Wonder. At just 8 years old, it was clear that Steveland Judkins was going to be a star. Renamed Stevie Wonder for his astonishing talent on the piano and other instruments, he wrote and performed some of the biggest hits of the 1970s. Stevie became known for his inventiveness, his soulful voice and the social commentary in his lyrics. He is a UN Messenger of Peace and remains one of the music world’s most iconic figures. This inspiring book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the great musician’s life.

For Maths we will be continuing to develop our times tables knowledge. However, our main strand of Maths is a really important part to learn which is ‘Place Value’, where we will be dealing with numbers up to 1,000,000.

In Physical Education we will be focusing on Fitness and Hockey. Improving our hockey stick skills, ball controlling skills and much more!

In Music, we shall begin Clarinet music lessons and focus on Melody and Harmony in Music.

In Art, we shall be looking at art from Western Africa - Antelope headdresses of Mali, ivory carvings and bronze relief sculptures and panels. We will explore spiritual purpose and significance of many African works of art, ceremonial masks, cultural changes reflected in artwork, for example the influence of the Portuguese traders on West African art. We will use 3D mixed media to design and create relief sculptures.

In RE, Year Five will learning to compare the different ways Sikhs put their religion into practice. Thinking about our key Question: How far would a Sikh go for his/her religion?

For our Geography lessons, we are going to focus on ‘Spatial Sense’ which means the study of the locations of things, the conditions at different places, and the connections between places. Thinking about the world in spatial terms (spatial thinking) allows students to describe and analyse the spatial patterns and organisation of people, places, and environments on Earth. Particularly we will be focusing on the different hemispheres. Our BIG QUESTION: How do maps help locate places?               

In History, we are going to be focusing on our topic of Ancient Baghdad, where we will be looking at the rise of the Islam. Baghdad was the centre of learning during the golden ages in the year 900CE. Baghdad was home to the first universities, hospitals and the largest library ‘House of Wisdom’ in the world. Many scholars travelled to this amazing circular city to study. The class will also take part in some drama and look at how Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols leaving the river Tigris completely black from the ink from the ‘House of Wisdom’.

Finally, our science lessons will be looking at ‘The Human Body’ particularly the different stages of the human body growing up. Therefore, we will be looking at adolescence, puberty, adulthood and then slowing down in later life. Throughout our learning this half-term, we will be trying to answer our BIG QUESTION: How does our body change overtime?

Please keep a look out on Class Dojo for photos of our learning, information, and updates. We have lots more exciting experiences planned for this half-term such as a farm trip, CLS learning days and much, much more!