Year 5

"I am still learning"

Michaelangelo (aged 87)

Intoduction

Welcome to Year 5, an exciting and challenging year for the children. In the upper school children are expected to take a more mature and independent approach towards learning.

These skills are developed throughout the year and children will have opportunities to learn through working together, listening to each other and sharing ideas.

In the Spring term all children are invited to go on a week's residential trip to an educational adventure centre, Robinwood Activity Centre, based at Dobroyd Castle. This is an excellent opportunity for the children to take part in a range of activities and to develop key life skills in preparation for their final year in Primary school before the transition to Secondary school.

Curriculum coverage

We begin our year with a curriculum evening for parents, where we look at what the year will bring for the children in Year 5 and the expectations that are set.

In Maths the expectation in the new curriculum is that children will be confident and secure in multiplication and division facts for rapid recall for all times tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of Year 4. It is very important therefore, that children who are not confident in using all of these times tables continue to practise this at home as a lot of the curriculum in Year 5 and 6 builds on this knowledge.
Mental Strategies for solving problems are encouraged as well as a range of written calculation strategies and children are encouraged to discus and explain the methods that they used for calculations. This helps the children to answer questions when they are asked to "Show their working". They will be pushed to apply what they have learned in problem solving activities, frequently involving 2 or 3 step problems.
It is always very useful if children can practise practical skills at home such as handling change when paying for items in a shop, working out how long it is until a TV programme starts/finishes, looking at the volume of liquids in different household items e.g. a bottle of milk/tin of soup, weighing items for cooking and talking about the difference between grams and kilograms. We have found that the more practical experience a child has in talking about Maths in an everyday environment, the more confident that they will be when faced with written problems involving these scenarios.

In English we will be continuing to work on a range of strategies to help the children write varied and interesting sentences, you might have heard the children refer to these as "Alan Peat" sentences. These structures have nicknames to help the children to remember them e.g.

"3Ed sentences" - Shocked, horrified and disappointed, Mum wondered how there could be such a huge mess in such a small kitchen after the children had been cooking!

Children will be encouraged to use dictionaries and thesauruses to find the meaning of words, look for more exciting word choices or check the spelling of words. It is not necessary, but may be helpful for children to have their own dictionary and thesaurus that they can use in and out of school to become more familiar with this.

Children will take part in guided reading and reading comprehension sessions and complete activities based on these texts. Online books are available through the Active Learn Bug Club site and include a quick comprehension quiz for each book. The children are also encouraged to take responsibilty for developing their own reading skills, selecting appropriate books from our school library and practising these skills at home.

Our Science programme is practical, investigative and stimulating, building upon previous learning. The children are encouraged to explore and exchange ideas, but above all to observe and learn from investigations. They will be look at topics in more depth, for example investigating questions such as “Are all liquids the same?”

In Design and Technology, we investigate different mechanisms and design toys using CAM mechanisms.

In Humanities, we follow the British timeline from the Roman period studied in Year 4 and learn about the Anglo Saxons who invaded and settled in Britain. In our wider world studies we will look at the Ancient Greeks, how they lived and how their ideas and inventions affect the world today. Linked to the Olympics in Rio next year we will follow the development of the original Greek games through to the modern day Olympics. The children will also have an opportunity to learn more about South American countries and the habitat of the Rainforest.

Computing is a very exciting new development in the new curriculum and children develop skills in coding, game design, website design and creating virtual spaces.

Trafford Music Service visit Year 5 throughout the year providing an amazing opportunity for all children to learn a musical instrument for a term. Last year all three Year 5 classes had the chance to learn the Tenor Horn, while this year we are looking forward to Cello lessons.

As well as the instrument lesson, the teachers from Trafford Music Service also teach the children about musical notation, rhythm and pitch and teach a wide variety of fun singing games. At the end of the music project the children perform a concert to their parents, family and peers.

During the Autumn term we have focussed on Observational Drawing in Art, using natural objects such as flowers, fruit and shells as well as pictures of Anglo Saxon artefacts from the British Museum.

Later in the year we will look at pattern through the work of British artists Clarice Cliff and William Morris.