Wow, what an amazing start to the year we have had in Year 5! Everyone has quickly settled in and hit the ground running, working hard on our year group curriculum. Of course, we have enjoyed many other exciting special events too. 5LS performed a great space themed class assembly to parents whilst 5DC produced a space themed radio show to share their learning in science. Capping it all off, we also had a fantastic trip to the Winchester Science Centre where our knowledge of the Universe expanded to beyond Earth levels!

English Highlights

In our writing lessons, we have started our year with a punctuation and grammar recap, we have written recounts in the form of the Moon Landing including hot seating activities as Neil Armstrong and we have written sci-fi settings and non-chronological reports about alien life on the Moon of Pandora from the Avatar film franchise. Our guided reading lessons have looked at ‘Space Explorers’, a ‘Daredevils Guide to Space’ and the Frank Cottrell Boyce novel ‘Cosmic’, all of which have been greatly enjoyed across our three classes!

Maths highlights

In our maths lessons, we have consolidated and extended our understanding of place value, addition and subtraction written methods, multiples, factors, square numbers and prime numbers. Following on from this, we have extended our understanding of fractions, focusing on finding equivalent fractions with the same denominators, comparing and ordering fractions and finally adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators.   

Science and Foundation Highlights

Year 5 have enjoyed an incredible term diving into the wonders of Earth and Space. We investigated the reasons behind the changing seasons, explored the sequence of the planets along with fascinating facts, discovered why day and night occur and learned how the Moon appears to alter its shape. In geography, our focus was on understanding our place in the world by using compass directions, hemispheres and lines of longitude and latitude to map locations. Another highlight was our unit on renewable energy, where we discussed how to ensure resources are available for everyone. This sparked thoughtful conversations about sustainability and inspired our young learners to think about the future.

Our D&T lessons brought creativity to life as we transformed old t-shirts into space-themed cushions. Through practical skill-building, we designed, crafted and evaluated our colourful tie-dye creations, finishing the term with pride in our upcycled products.

Alongside our studies, the festive season was filled with joy. Year 5 pupils narrated the Westfields Carol Service at St Swithun’s Church, while many of our choir members braved the cold to perform at the Yateley Christmas Market—a memorable chance to share music with the local community.

Summer has been a busy term. Where have the weeks gone? During the term, Year 5 have travelled all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to study the wonderful country of Mexico and the Ancient Maya who lived there in the past.

During our writing topic, we have written a persuasive holiday brochure detailing the amazing tourist hotspots in Mexico. You would definitely holiday there after reading our adverts and persuasive writing! Following that, we explored the Mexican festival, Day of the Dead, watching a short-animated film ‘Dia De Los Muertos’ and we have written a finding story based it. Our final piece of writing was a balanced argument to debate how we need to look after the Earth and recycle our rubbish. For this, we used the book Tin Forest as a basis to trigger our ideas.

In maths, Year 5 have calculated the area and perimeter of rectilinear shapes using known sides to find the length of other sides. We have also drawn graphs and tables in our statistics unit, explored, compared and described both 2D and 3D shapes, found points of a coordinate grid and looked at the place value of both decimals and negative numbers.

In other subjects, Year 5 had the opportunity to design and build moving toys using cam mechanisms in our D&T lessons. This hands-on project encouraged both imagination and precision using drills and saws. From jungle animals to mythical creatures, the class showed impressive commitment, creativity and craftsmanship Their finished products were not only functional but highly creative, showcasing both mechanical understanding and artistic flair.

Additional activities have included the Fiver Challenge Business Fair, our trip to the British Wildlife Centre and watching the fantastic Year 6 production.

What a packed term spring has turned out to be. During the term, Year 5 have travelled back in time to learn about life in the Anglo-Saxon and Viking era of British History. Life was hard back then and our study of Viking Britain showed how children lived a very different life to our lives today. Our key question for the topic was “Who were the better warriors – Anglo-Saxons or Vikings?” This proved difficult to answer as the two peoples defeated each other in different ways. We culminated our learning with our Creative Day – dressing up as Saxons and Vikings to create Sutton Hoo inspired jewellery, helmets, runes and sagas – definitely a day to remember!

Our English topics this term have enhanced our understanding of this time period too with a study of Macbeth who fought the Norwegians in his race to the crown of Scotland and the mighty Beowulf (an Anglo-Saxon monster slayer). We have linked our reading to the Vikings with Viking Boy, non-fiction Viking texts, Norse Myths and Legends, How to train your Dragon and more.

In maths, we have focused much of our learning on fractions (we don’t do things by halves in Year 5!) with decimal and percentage equivalents. We hope that our learning has secured our knowledge of fractions, equivalents and parts of wholes. We have explored multiplication and division formal methods and used them to find answers to problems and reason about them.

In science, our learning has focused on materials and their properties, changes of states and reversible or irreversible changes. Many practical investigations and experiments were performed this term and Year 5 have become investigative scientists.

Another highlight was completing our design and technology topic ‘The Great Bread Bake Off’ by investigating the different types of breads around the world and finding out how bread is manufactured. We then designed, made and baked delicious bread rolls, stored them in bespoke packaging and evaluated our efforts – a great process and experience for us all!

In PE, we had TA sports in the first half term to supply some excellent coaching on the game of hockey.

And, of course, a luck band of singers travelled to the O2 in London for a full-blown concert, returning to school in the late hours having sung their hearts out at ‘Young Voices’.

A fun packed and busy term.

Wow, what an amazing start to the year we have had in Year 5! Everyone has quickly settled in and hit the ground running, working hard on our year group curriculum. Of course, we have enjoyed many other exciting special events too. 5DC performed a great Space Assembly to parents whilst 5RT produced a superb Radio Show to share their learning about Space. Capping it all off we also had a fantastic trip to the Winchester Science Centre where our knowledge of the Universe expanded to beyond Earth levels!

English Highlights

In our writing lessons we have looked at the genres of poetry based on the Iron Man, recounts in the form of the Moon Landing including hot seating activities as Neil Armstrong, writing sci-fi settings and non-chronological reports about alien life on the Moon of Pandora from the Avatar film franchise. Our guided reading lessons have looked at Space Explorers, a Daredevils Guide to Space and the classic science-fiction tale The War of the Worlds. All of which has been greatly enjoyed across our three classes.

Maths highlights

In our Maths lessons we have consolidated and extended our understanding of place value, addition and subtraction written methods, multiples, factors, square numbers and prime numbers. Following on from this we have extended our understanding of fractions, focusing on finding equivalent fractions with the same denominators, comparing and ordering fractions and finally adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators.   

Science and Foundation Highlights

Year 5 have had a fantastic term learning all about the Earth in Space. Our areas of study have explored why we have seasons, the order of the planets (and many planetary facts), why we have day and night and how the Moon seems to change it’s a shape. Our Geography lessons focused on where in the world we are by looking at compass points, hemispheres and lines of longitude and latitude to plot our positions. Our second unit focused on renewable energy and ensuring that we have enough for everyone – the year group focusing on sustainability for the future which really inspired many of our citizens of tomorrow. Our exciting DT topic of upcycling t-shirts into space themed cushions took us up to Christmas and after completing focused practical tasks to develop our skills we thoroughly enjoyed designing, making and finally evaluating our quality upcycled tie-dye products.

It has also been a term of festive fun with Year 5 children narrating the Westfields Carol Service at St Swithun’s Church. We also had many Year 5 choir members singing at the Yateley Christmas Market, a rather chilly but fantastic opportunity to sing in front of the local community as well as accompany Mr Chaplin and Mrs Cannon to sing as part of the School Choir at the Anchor Care Home to spread a little festive cheer. Not to forget our Christmas Extravaganza during which we sold our handmade decorations which gave us the opportunity to practice our entrepreneurial skills.

Looking back on the summer term, it is amazing how much we have fitted in! We started the summer term with our fantastic Finish learning exhibition which showcased our learning about the Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age to parents. Next up was the amazing Year 5 Fiver Challenge business fair. After lots of preparation, our entrepreneurs sold their wares, advertised their exciting experiences and stalls and they made a whopping £950 in 2 hours! We also crammed in 5DC’s class assembly (with singing in Spanish) and 5LR’s radio show which were both about the fantastic country of Mexico. Finally, who could forget our trip to the British Wildlife Centre where we encountered many native species of animals that inhabit the UK, including baby badgers?

English Highlights

This term’s writing showcased our pupils’ persuasive personalities with an advert to go and visit Mexico. We used all of Mexico’s glorious features to entice our readers into a Mexican holiday- culminating in a green screen advert. Our second writing journey was a story narrative based on a short animation ‘Día De Los Muertos- the Day of the Dead’. We used the film as a basis to write our own finding story where our character was whisked away to a magical land. Our final piece was a balanced argument focusing on deforestation with the question: Should we cut down rainforests? After reading our discussion text, you decide!

Our guided reading lessons focused on ‘The Explorer’ by Katherine Rundell. Using a copy of the book each, we explored the characters, plot and predicted what would happen to the children stranded in the Amazon rainforest. We continued the book as a class reader to see if we were correct. Afterwards, we read rainforest themed poetry and evaluated language and meaning. We also explored a story about the infamous Lobo: a wolf who troubled the settlers of New Mexico in The Wolves of Currumpaw.

Maths Highlights

Our maths learning started with a topic on position and direction where we explored compass points, turns around a point in angles and coordinates on a grid. Shapes were explored, finding lines of symmetry and translating them from one position to another. Adding and subtracting decimals came next with a focus on money and measurements. Negative numbers allowed us to find number smaller than 0. Our final topic was measures where we converted form imperial to metric, various metric forms and looked at the concept of volumes of a shape.

Science and foundation highlights.

Our science topic of living things and lifecycles allowed us to understand that the life of all animal types differ vastly. From mammal life cycles, to the metamorphic cycles of butterflies and amphibians, we were in awe of the wonders of nature. The term also started off with our Geography unit- a North America study. We examined the physical and human geographical features and decided how Mexico City and Yateley were different and which place was the better to live in. The history topic of the Maya kicked off the second half of the term. Continuing our Mexico study, we explored the Ancient Maya and the wondrous cities located in the jungles of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Despite using all the evidence available to us, we could not agree on our key question- what happened to the Maya and why did they disappear? Using resistant materials in our Design Technology lessons allowed us to develop our skills in cutting, drilling and fixing wood. We all learned a valuable skill- measure twice and cut once.

What a packed term spring has turned out to be. During the term, Year 5 have travelled back in time to learn about life in the Anglo-Saxon and Viking Era of British History. Life was hard back then and our study of Viking Britain showed how children lived a very different life to our lives today. Our key question for the topic was “Who were the better warriors – Anglo-Saxons or Vikings?” This proved difficult to answer as the two peoples defeated each other in different ways. We culminated our learning with our Creative Day – dressing up as Saxons and Vikings to create Sutton Hoo inspired jewellery, helmets, runes and an Anglo-Saxon court room role play – definitely a day to remember!

English highlights:
Our English topics this term have enhanced our understanding of this time period too with a study of: Macbeth who fought the Norwegians; the mighty Beowulf (an Anglo-Saxon monster slayer) and the trickster God Loki whose shape changing tricks led to many a tale! Our main writing tasks were a trickster tale based on Loki, a letter from the fiendish Scottish king, Macbeth and a newspaper report on the devastating attacks by the Grendel. We have linked our reading to the Vikings with Viking Boy, Norse Myths and Legends, How to train your Dragon and more. We have studied Viking non-fiction to deepen our understanding of the history topic.

Maths highlights:
In Maths we have focussed much of our learning on fractions (we don’t do things by halves in Year 5!) with decimal and percentage equivalents. We hope that our learning has secured our knowledge of fractions, equivalents and parts of wholes. We have explored multiplication and division formal methods and used them to find answers to problems and reason about them.

Foundation subject highlights
In Science our learning has focused on materials and their properties, changes of states and reversible or irreversible changes. Many practical investigations and experiments were performed this term and Year 5 have become investigative scientists suing our science skills to compare, classify and group materials.  During Science Week we buddied up with the Infant’s Reception Classes and went on a colour scavenger hunt around the grounds.

Another highlight was completing our design technology topic ‘The Great Bread Bake Off’ by investigating the different types of breads around the world and finding out how bread is manufactured. We then designed, made and baked delicious bread rolls, stored them in bespoke packaging and evaluated our efforts – a great process and experience for us all!
In PE we used Yateley Schools Pool to practice swimming- an essential life skill.
And of course, a lucky band of singers travelled to the O2 in London for a full-blown concert, returning to school in the late hours. A fun packed and busy term.

Wow, what an amazing start to the year we have had in Year 5! Everyone has quickly settled in and hit the ground running, working hard on our year group curriculum. Of course, we have enjoyed many other exciting special events too. 5HC performed a great Space Assembly to parents whilst 5DC produced a superb radio show to share their learning. Capping it all off we also had a fantastic trip to the Winchester Science Centre where our knowledge of the Universe expanded!

In our writing lessons we have looked at the genres of poetry based on the Iron Man, recounts in the form of the Moon Landing including hot seating activities as Neil Armstrong, writing sci-fi settings and non-chronological reports about alien life on the Moon of Pandora from the Avatar film franchise. Our guided reading lessons have looked at How to train as an astronaut, George’s Secret Key to the Universe and a long study of The War of the Worlds; a great mix of non-fiction and classic texts.

In our Maths lessons we have consolidated and extended our understanding of place value, addition and subtraction written methods, multiples, factors, square numbers and prime numbers. Following on from this we extended our understanding of fractions, focusing on finding equivalent fractions with the same denominators, comparing and ordering fractions and finally adding and subtracting fractions.                                                                    

Year 5 have had a fantastic term learning all about the Earth in Space. Our areas of study have explored why we have seasons, the order of the planets (and many planetary facts), why we have day and night and how the Moon seems to change it’s a shape. Our geography lessons focused on where in the world we are by looking at compass points, hemispheres and lines of longitude and latitude to plot our positions. Our second unit focused on renewable energy and ensuring that we have enough for everyone – the year group focusing on sustainability for the future.

Our exciting DT topic of Space cushions took us up to Christmas and after completing focused practical tasks to develop our skills we thoroughly enjoyed designing, making and finally evaluating our upcycled tie-dye products.

It has also been a term of festive fun with Year 5 children narrating the Westfields Carol Service at St Swithun’s Church. We also had many Year 5 choir members singing at the Yateley Christmas Market, a rather chilly but fantastic opportunity to sing in front of the local community. Not to forget our Christmas Extravaganza during which we sold our handmade decorations which gave us the opportunity to practice our entrepreneurial skills.