The children have returned from the half-term break full of curiosity and enthusiasm! In English, they’ve been learning fascinating facts about Antarctica and creating detailed fact files to help them understand the extreme conditions faced by Shackleton’s expedition in Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill. In maths, they’ve been building on their knowledge of square numbers to explore cube numbers as well as practising multiplying and dividing by multiples of 10, 100 and 1000. In geography, they’ve been discovering how the Earth’s tectonic plates move and how this can lead to the formation of volcanoes. Meanwhile, in computing, they’ve loved exploring how videos are made — considering lighting, camera angles and sound to see how these can completely change a viewer’s experience.

We love the focus and flair that the children have applied to their learning this week! They’ve written some Pulitzer-worthy newspaper reports about the mysterious events of an unforgettable Tuesday night that left a small town in chaos - and are now busy crafting their own imaginative stories to share with younger pupils in KS1. Pigs really might fly!

Our classrooms transformed into mini-lunar labs as the children endeavoured to answer the question, "Why do the Moon’s craters vary so much in size?" In art, they used their collagraph plates to create striking abstract prints, perfect backdrops for the imaginative future scapes to come. In maths, pupils have been flexing their addition and subtraction skills using RUCSAC to help them reason and problem solve, and in music they’re composing atmospheric three-note melodies inspired by Hans Zimmer’s Earth. Meanwhile, our budding historians have been busy asking questions about the artefacts discovered at Sutton Hoo and developing their own hypotheses as to their purpose, ownership and origins.

We are delighted with how confidently the children have settled into Year 5, demonstrating excellent behaviour and a real enthusiasm for their learning. Our unit of work on Space in science has captured their imaginations, with astronaut training and a growing knowledge of the solar system linking handily to space-themed retrofuturism in art. In maths, they are securing strong foundations in place value to one million, while in English they are exploring our core text, Tuesday by David Wiesner, and developing their prediction and inference skills. We have also begun our new History topic on the Anglo-Saxons.

We are all looking forward to an exciting year of learning ahead!

Year 5 have been really busy rehearsing for their Isle of Wight assembly, which was a huge success this morning! Thank you to everyone who came to watch. We are all very proud of their individual achievements, as well as how well they have worked together to perform as a year group. In DT this term, we have been designing and building pulley systems. We have linked this to a real-life problem that farmers in Nepal face, as they have to transport tomatoes they grow down mountains to towns so they are able to sell them at markets. We think you will agree, their designs are fantastic! Next week we will automate them, so we look forward to that. In maths we have entered our final topic of the year - volume. In English, we continue to read Journey to Jo'burg and have started to think about planning a creative narrative where the characters the children design will Journey to a country or city of their choice! 

Year 5 have been busy learning all about the coastal features on the Isle of Wight! We have investigated how the groynes at Sandown beach work to stop longshore drift, as well as being able to identify the effects that coastal erosion has had on the island. We will see all of this in action next week! In English, we have rounded up our topic on The Lost Words, where the children have impressed us with their poetic prowess. We have begun to look at our new core text, Journey to Jo'burg by Beverly Naidoo, where we have explored the history of apartheid in South Africa. We have had some excellent discussions in our classes, full of curiosity. In maths we have been learning how to count through zero into negative numbers, applying this to real life situations like temperature. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning with a suitcase in tow! Happy packing!