Year 5 Blog

Welcome back everyone, I hope you had a wonderful and restful Easter break! You have come back to school ready to learn, and being very respectful to everyone – a great start!

In English, we will be moving onto our new class text of ‘Stormbreaker’, and we will be composing many different pieces of work, like a blog and an adventure story. We will also be developing our spelling and grammar, and incorporating these into our final pieces. 

In Maths, we will be finishing our Decimals and Percentages topic, as well as completing our Perimeter and Area and Statistics topics. We will also be recapping skills learnt last half term, as well as regularly practising our times tables. 

In Science we are moving onto our new topic of Living Things and their Habitats. We will be doing lots of research using secondary sources, such as the internet and books. 

In PE, we will be finishing off Cricket and Hockey, and then learning different skills in Athletics and Basketball.

In Computing, we will now be using Kodu, which is a programming software that we will use to program a character and create algorithms in a game.

We will be finishing off our Geography topic of ‘Oceans’ and moving onto an Art topic, where we will be using different materials to create an ‘Interactive Installation’. After that, we will be moving onto our History topic of ‘Maya’, where we will be delving deep into the lives of the Ancient Maya civilisation.

Our PSHE topic for this half term will be completing our ‘Safety and the changing body’ topic, with learning about influence dangers and first aid, and then we will move onto ‘Citizenship’ where we will look at justice, parliament and the impact we have on our community. 

We also have our trip to KESH on Wednesday 17th April, which will be an exciting chance for pupils to see the school, as well as have a go at some Design Technology lessons led by the specialist teachers!

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It’s been another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it half term, but we have crammed in lots of enjoyable activities and excellent learning. 

For many of us, one of the highlights will have been the residential trip to Bell Heath where there were many opportunities to try activities that we normally don’t get to do. The photographs coming through have shown so many smiling faces and pictures of people challenging themselves to do things that maybe they thought they couldn’t. Those of us who were still in school didn’t miss out; we have been applying skills and knowledge from across the curriculum to some fiendish challenges. What has been lovely to see is that, no matter the setting, the children have shown determination, teamwork and grins a mile wide. 

Our English work this half term has been based around the evolving events from the novel Cogheart. The piece of writing that the children excelled at was the persuasive letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in which they tried to convince him to help relieve the plight of the mechanicals. They drew on their knowledge of equality from P.S.H.E and the treatment of slaves throughout history to write some very emotive and convincing arguments for equal rights. They also designed, described and wrote instructions for a mechanimal (a mechanical, clockwork animal).

Their love of the book shone through on World Book Day when they used their knowledge of the world of Cogheart to craft their own visual encyclopaedia. Nothing makes a teacher happier than setting a class a challenge and then watching them run with it. They organised themselves, wrote the entries and arranged it all without much help from any of the adults.

In Maths we have focused on deepening our understanding of formal multiplication and division. This has segued beautifully into the learning about fractions and the children have tackled increasingly more complex concepts and questions. The class are supportive of each other and eager to be challenged. 

Our D.T. topic had us using the new Crumble programmable circuit boards. As a class, we were intrigued by some of the new components and, because we have such a solid understanding of programming from our Computing lessons, we were able to experiment with them. It didn’t always go as planned, but the best way to learn is to be free to make mistakes and then experiment with solutions. I am so proud of the class – they rose to every challenge I set them. 

Science has included a lot of practical work as we have been investigating the states of matter and how they can change. The class demonstrated a solid grasp of solids, liquids and gases and were able to carry out experiments with a very mature attitude. We have investigated reversible and irreversible changes; the children loved the exploding gas canisters experiment. 

In P.E. we have studied both cricket and hockey. After revising the basic skills, we have had some competitive activities between groups in our class as well as against 5JD – we haven’t beaten them yet, but we will! The class continue to show their growing maturity through their teamwork and supportive attitudes to others. 

I cannot wait to get back after the Easter break to see what 5A can achieve in the Summer Term. Have a lovely break and enjoy spending time with your families. 

What another amazing half term we have had 5D! You have really impressed me with not only how mature you are growing up to be, but also your kindness, sympathy and helpfulness. You are all superstars!

In English, we have finished our book, Cogheart, and you have all created the best pieces of writing this year! You have written emotive and persuasive letters, informative non-chronological reports, factual newspaper reports and incredible comic books based on your own ideas. I am so impressed with the level of writing you have produced!

In Maths, we finished our topic of Multiplication and Division, and we moved onto Fractions, which we have also finished. The rate you have been working at in lessons has really improved, and it is great to see most of you moving onto the reasoning and problem solving questions! You have worked really hard in Maths this half term, and you should all be super proud!

In Science, we have conducted a lot of really cool experiments to test the properties and states of matter, such as burning different materials and mixing bicarbonate of soda with vinegar to test irreversible and chemical changes. 

We have completed our DT lesson of monitoring and control, where we designed and built a circuit to go inside of a burglar alarm. There was constant determination and resilience in these lessons – it was tricky to code the circuit, but everyone worked extremely well as a team and managed to either make it work or evaluate how it could be improved. After this, we started our Geography topic, which allows us to learn about Oceans and how we can impact and save our oceans. We will be having a fieldtrip after Easter to look at the types of pollution in and around areas of water. 

The residential trip was so fun. Everyone was so mature and it was so lovely to have a great time seeing you get stuck in and push yourself out of your comfort zone.

I am so proud of how far you have all come this half term, and I can’t wait to see what Summer term brings! Have a great Easter break, and enjoy the celebrations!

We have come to the end of another action-packed term. 

This week, some members of 5H were fortunate enough to spend three days on the Bell Heath residential trip, completing numerous fun activities including zip wiring, archery, and rock climbing. All year 5 pupils had lots of fun and were a credit to our school throughout the trip. Well done.

In our maths lessons, we have continued to use manipulatives to help us to further understand multiplication, division, and fractions. We are now much more confident with multiplying 4-digits by 2-digits, and we have mastered short division with remainders.

We have conducted a range of investigations to learn more about properties and their materials in our science lessons. We really enjoyed burning different materials to discover whether burning is a reversible or irreversible change.

We have continued to read ‘Cogheart’ in our English lessons. The dramatic plot has kept us guessing throughout and we are excited to discover why the silver-eyed men are chasing after Lily and Malkin. Based around the themes of the book, we’ve produced some excellent work and we’ve held some interesting discussions and debates.

In our geography lessons, 5H have been learning about why the ocean is important and how it is used. We have also used surface books to research the benefits and threats to the Great Barrier Reef. After the half term break, we’ll be learning about the different ways to keep our oceans healthy.

We have learnt a range of new skills in P.E this term. We started with hockey, learning how to hold the hockey stick correctly, and how to pass and shoot with accuracy. We have recently started to learn the basic skills and rules required to play cricket.

In computing, 5H have been using Lego WeDo. We have built Lego models and then programmed the models to interact with the world around us.

It has been a very busy term, but we have all loved every second. Make sure you get some rest over the holiday and be ready to go again in the summer term. Have fun and take care.

We’ve come to the end of another term in 5JD, but it feels like we only just started!

A highlight for many will have been the opportunity to go to Bell Heath on residential. I have seen from the photos that the children that went have enjoyed challenging themselves, and pushing beyond what they would normally do at school. The children that stayed in school also got to try a fantastic few days of practicing the skills they have been learning this term in an enjoyable way.

In English, we have continued to follow the adventures of Lily, Malkin and Robert as we read ‘Cogheart’. We have based several pieces of writing upon the text, including a formal letter to former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, persuading him to take action to address the plight of mechanicals. The children drew on their knowledge of history, PSHE, and persuasive writing to produce some wonderfully emotive work.

Our Maths lessons have centred around developing the children’s confidence in some key multiplication and division skills, and have recently moved on to exploring fractions and decimals in more depth.

In DT, the children showed resilience and ingenuity to use ‘Crumble’ to create their own circuits, coded to perform the purpose of showing that an alarm system is armed. The children did fantastically, and used skills from computing to help them rise to the challenges of the topic.

In Science, we have been exploring how some materials change their states, and their properties. There has been an emphasis on doing this through practical work, with the children particularly enjoying discovering the difference between reversible and irreversible change by applying heat to some different materials (in a controlled environment).

P.E. began with Cricket, and the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the improving weather more consistently. The topic culminated with a match against 5A which I’m pleased to say 5JD won, although I was even more proud to see how gracious the children were in victory, embodying the spirit of competition that sport encourages.

I look forward to returning after the Easter break, refreshed and ready enjoy the challenges and opportunities of the summer term.

Welcome back after hopefully a restful week. We have so many wonderful things happening this half term, and we can’t wait to share them with you!

In English, we will continue to read Cogheart, which will help us to write a persuasive letter campaigning for mechanical rights and a story based off our class text. 

In Maths, we will be continuing our Multiplication and Division topic, looking at written methods for solving problems. Then, it will be Fractions, where we will deepen our knowledge of what we have previously learned. 

In Science, we will continue to learn about Properties and States of Matter, through various experiments and investigations. 

In Computing, we are using Scratch to learn how to code a counting maze. This is similar to our DT topic, Monitoring and Control, where we are coding circuits that we have built to have specific purpose, like a car alarm or sensor.

After DT, we will be moving onto our Geography topic of Oceans, where we will learn how oceans are formed, as well as how we can keep our oceans safe and protected.

Our PE topics will be Hockey and Cricket this half term, working through different techniques and incorporating these into game situations.

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

In PSHE, we will be looking at Safety and Changes to our body. This will include learning about how to stay safe with friends and online, as well as learning about the changes to our body as we grow older. In RE, we will be focusing on why Christianity doesn’t look the same.

We also have lots of fun things happening this half term, like the Bell Heath Residential, the Book Fair and World Book Day. 

If you haven't booked an appointment already, we would like to invite you to attend our Parents Evenings, taking place on the following dates:

• Wednesday 6th March 3.40pm - 6.50pm

• Thursday 7th March 3.40pm - 5.30pm

Click here for further information and to book.

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates - use the buttons below.

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download soon using the button below.  You can also visit our Learning Hub using the button below.

We also encourage the use of websites such as Times Table Rockstars.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

We look forward to another half term of seeing everyone work hard and develop in their education. 

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The first half term of spring has flown by and has been packed with fun and learning. 

The highlight has to have been our Brig House trip. It was an utterly exhausting day of fresh air, team-building and fun. I don’t think anybody stopped grinning from the moment we were got on the coach until the moment we stepped through our front doors in the evening.

The giggles and hilarity continued with our visit from Professor McGinty as he helped us learn about the ancient Greeks in support of our History topic. We have compared how people lived in some of the varied city-states of ancient Greece and studied the pantheon of gods they worshipped.  

The children have really engaged with our new class text in English, Cogheart by Peter Bunzl, and that has really seen the fires of creativity burning bright in their writing. They have designed a mechanimal, written a sales pitch for it and then a set of instructions for its operation. 

Maths has placed the focus firmly on fractions and we have put our times tables knowledge to good use as we have converted equivalent fractions with ever-growing confidence. I think the children will be hearing the phrase ‘whatever we do to the denominator, we do to the numerator’ for years to come!  

We have been investigating the properties of materials in Science after finishing our forces topic and this has allowed plenty of opportunity for practical work. We have thought about comparative and fair tests as well as how it is best to present our findings clearly.

P.E. has been split between studying tennis and netball. We have worked on our skills and then made sure that we could apply this into the setting of competitive games.  

5A continue to impress me with their growing maturity, their social and academic support for their peers and their willingness to challenge themselves. I can’t believe that we are now halfway through our time together, but I am thoroughly excited by the thought of what the latter half of this year holds. Enjoy the break and come back refreshed. 

What a fabulous half term we have had! These 5 weeks have gone so quickly, but we have had so much fun!

We had our trip to Brighouse, and it was amazing to see the children getting ‘stuck in’ with the activities – some very literally got stuck in the mud! We also were very lucky to have a visit from Professor McGinty who spoke to us about the Ancient Greeks.

In Maths, we have finished our fractions topic and we have moved onto learning the written methods of multiplication and division. The children have found it challenging, but they have persevered and showed excellent determination.

We have started our new Science topic of Properties and States of matter, where the children have already completed some very fun investigations. We will be continuing this after half term.

In English, we wrote some incredible non-chronological reports and instructions. Everyone has really impressed me with how hard they have worked, both in their lessons and around the school.

We have also been learning about lots of really fun topics, such as the Ancient Greeks, learning how to code a crab maze using Scratch and learning Tennis and Netball in PE.

I am super proud to be your teacher, and I hope you have a very restful half term!

We started the new year with our new art topic – ‘Painting and Mixed Media: Portraits’. 5H created interesting portrait drawings using words, experimented with materials and techniques, and constructed self-portraits that represented aspects of themselves. In our History lessons, we have been using the school laptops to research and answer the question, ‘What did the Greeks ever do for us?’. It turns out that many of the things that make the UK a cool place to live were invented by the Greeks.

In our English lessons, we have absolutely loved reading ‘Cogheart’ by Peter Bunzl. We cannot wait to read on to find out what happens next. Based on the characters and themes of Cogheart, 5H produced some tremendous written work. We designed our own mechanicals and then produced some superb non-chronological reports to share information on our mechanicals. We then created clear instructions on how to use our mechanicals. 

In Maths, our focus has been on fractions. We have used our existing knowledge of fractions to order, compare, and add fractions with the same and different denominators. Mrs Bates and I have been very impressed with the resilience of 5H (maths class) throughout the term.

In P.E., we have enjoyed learning the skills and rules required to play netball and tennis. 5H especially enjoyed playing competitive netball matches against each other. We also enjoyed a game or two of doubles tennis.

Overall, 5H have had a super term. 5H continue to show enthusiasm for all classroom activities and continue to show kindness and respect towards each other and the school community. Please keep this up for the rest of the school year. 

Have a lovely half term break, 5H. I’ll see you in Spring 2.

Mr Hogarth

What half term it’s been!

In English, we’ve been studying ‘Cogheart’ by Peter Bunzl. We’ve immersed ourselves in the world of ‘mechanimals’ and ‘silver eyed men’, writing a non-chronological report about a mechanimal of the children’s creation, and an instructional text on how to construct it.

In Maths, the children have shown resilience and determination in tackling the tricky subjects of fractions and long multiplication. It has been heartening to see how the whole year group have applied themselves as they grapple with new mathematical ideas.

In Science, our topic has been ‘States and properties of Matter’, in which we have investigated the differences and similarities between varies materials and looked at why these variations occur. We have also explored various ways of recording and processing the results of our experiments.

We began the term by studying portraits in Art, creating both a poem portrait and a mixed media portrait. Our latest foundation topic has been the Ancient Greeks, asking ourselves the question, ‘what did they ever do for us?’. Quite a lot it turns out, including democracy, philosophy and even lots of the words we use today.

We also visited the Brighouse in North Warwickshire, and had a fantastic day exploring the countryside. It was lovely to see the children relax and develop their teamwork skills whilst building dens in the woods.

Well done 5JD!

Welcome back everyone, I hope you had a wonderful and restful holiday! You have all settled back in so positively and maturely, well done. This term, we will be doing so many incredible things! 

In English, we will be reading ‘Cogheart’ and creating many different pieces of work including: writing instructions, writing persuasive arguments and a newspaper article. We will be developing our spelling and grammar, and incorporating these into our final pieces. 

In Maths, we will be finishing our Fractions topic and will move onto Multiplication and Division, Decimals and Percentages. We will also be recapping skills learnt last term, as well as regular practice of our times tables.  

In Science, we will be finishing our topic of Forces and moving onto Properties and changes of states. Will be doing lots of fun experiments to help us understand the science behind what we are learning. 

Our topic for this half term is Art, and we are looking at Portraits and Mixed Media. We will be using different materials to create backgrounds, and use photos of ourselves to create interesting and unique portraits.

We are moving onto Tennis and Netball in our PE lessons, so make sure to wrap up warm! 

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates - use the buttons below.

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download soon using the button below.  You can also visit our Learning Hub using the button below.

We also encourage the use of websites such as MyMaths and Times Table Rockstars.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

We also have our trip to Brighouse at the end of January, which is extremely exciting! We hope you have a great half term, and enjoy all the wonderful learning we have planned for you!

Follow us on Twitter!

Don’t forget to follow our classes on Twitter.  Click a button below to find your child's class on Twitter.

We have come to the end of another very enjoyable half term. A huge well done to every member of 5H. Your attitude and behaviour has been excellent throughout the term.

In our history lessons, we learnt about one of the most famous royal families in British history – the Tudors. After analysing primary and secondary sources relating to Henry VIII, we debated whether he should be remembered as a fair ruler or a tyrant. We also investigated the death of Henry’s wife Anne Boleyn, learnt more about Henry’s daughter Queen Elizabeth I, and studied inventories to discover what it was like to live in Britain during the Tudor era.

In our geography lessons, we used surface books to research what life is like in the Alps. After a local area walk, we compared the city of Innsbruck with Birmingham, focussing on any similarities and differences in physical and human features.

In science, we have been investigating forces such as gravity, water resistance, air resistance and upthrust. 5H enjoyed conducting an experiment to find out why different shaped plasticine models either floated or sank to the bottom of a water tank.

Our English lessons have been lots of fun this term. Despite the tricky vocabulary and content, 5H were able to analyse and understand Alfred Noyes’ ‘The Highwayman’ poem. We then retold the story from the point of view of one of the main characters. I was so proud of the work produced by 5H. Please look out for some of 5H's work, which will be on display in the Year 5 display boards when you return.

In maths, we have worked hard to improve our multiplication and division skills. We are now much more confident with factors, multiples, square and cube numbers, and prime numbers. Recently, we worked hard to multiple and divide by 10, 100 and 1000.

Whatever you do over the two week break, please get some well-deserved rest and then come back to school re-energised and ready to go again.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2024.

Mr Hogarth

Our English lessons for this half term have drawn inspiration from The Highway by Alfred Noyes. We have used this poem as the basis for our own retelling of the events, but as a narrative and with the emphasis on developing our ability to convey the emotions of the characters. We have tried to show these feelings through actions and descriptions of body language rather than simply telling the reader. It has been a challenge, but the children have all worked hard and have shown a growing understanding. 

My Maths group have been deepening their understanding of the four operators: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The questions have challenged the children to identify what is being asked of them and to select the correct skill to solve the problems. We have ended the term with fractions which seems to be a firm favourite for many of them. They are showing a growing willingness to try new skills and a resilience to mistakes – these are an opportunity to learn.

We have looked at a plethora of forces in Science. We have observed and investigated: gravity and air-resistance by using parachutes; water-resistance by designing submarines; buoyancy through the construction of plasticine boats; and friction through the use of experiments into the types of surface used for flooring. The questions from the children have kept me on my toes and they have really engaged with the subject. 

Our History focus has been on the Tudors and included a wonderful day out to Blakesley Hall, a wonderful Tudor house right here in our community. In class, the children had a murder mystery to solve which introduced them to Anne Boleyn and then onwards to the other wives of Henry VIII. We looked at the use of primary and secondary sources when evaluating historical figures and used some of these to evaluate Henry as a ruler and to ascertain why he chose each of his wives. 

We have studied the Alps in Geography and used Innsbruck in Austria as a case study to compare Alpine life to that in Yardley. Our local walk to look at the amenities and reasons to live in Yardley gave the children another chance to shine and they represented themselves, and the school, with aplomb. 

It’s been a long term, but 5A have made it a joy. They continue to grow as individuals and as a class; they should be very proud of their time in Year 5 so far. 

I hope you have a lovely break. Rest up and do something you enjoy. 

Best wishes for a bright and happy New Year to one and all – see you then!

What a great half term 5D! 

We have done so many exciting things since coming back, like our trip to Blakesley Hall, the Artist in Residence Workshop with Mr Thacker and our Local Area visit. Everyone was so sensible and had so much fun on all of these trips – I am extremely proud of you!

We have also completed some incredible work inside of school too, like writing a narrative in English, creating a brochure for Innsbruck in Geography and designing our own houses on Sketchup in Computing. 

I have seen a growth in maturity and enthusiasm, as well as teamwork this half term, and I am very excited to see you grow even more in Spring.

I hope you have a wonderful break, and enjoy spending time with your family and friends. See you in January.

In English this term we began by focussing on recapping our GPS skills to make sure our writing is the best it can be. Ever since, we have been reading and delving into ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes, and exploring how emotive language can have an impact on the reader. I have been hugely impressed to read the fantastic retells of the story that the class have produced.

In Maths, my group have been learning about addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, and have begun to explore fractions. The children have really impressed me with their resilience when tackling complex ideas. They have shown that they are willing to make mistakes and learn from them.

In History, we have learnt about the Tudors. We investigated the death of Anne Boleyn, finding Henry VIII guilty of murder, and analysed whether we thought he was a fair ruler or a tyrant, learning to use primary and secondary sources in the process. We also visited Blakesley Hall, a genuine Tudor house in Yardley.

In Geography we have studied the Alps, comparing our own local area to Innsbruck in Austria. The children did themselves proud and represented our school wonderfully on the local area walk around Yardley.

This term’s science topic has been forces. We have observed the effects of gravity and air-resistance, by dropping parachutes from the window of the conference room, investigated buoyancy and water resistance by constructing boats and submarines to be floated in water, and performed experiments to demonstrate the effects of friction. The children have demonstrated admirable curiosity throughout.

Well done on another successful half-term, and I hope you have a restful and enjoyable break. 

Merry Christmas.

Welcome back, after an exciting half term. We hope you had a great Halloween and Bonfire night! Here’s what we’ve got planned for this half term…

English

This term we will be reading The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. There will be a focus on deeper understanding of poetry through discussion and exploration of the structure of the poem. Using themes from the text, a range of writing genres will be explored while paying close attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Maths

We will begin with revision and recap of what was learnt during last half term, and then will move onto addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to practise. ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play, whether it be for multiplication or division!

Science

In Science we are learning about Forces, and what forces we experience on Earth. This will give the children an understanding of the various methods of scientific enquiry used to answer different types of question.

RE / PHSE 

Our topic in RE this term explores the concept of commitment through studies within Sikhism and Christianity, whilst allowing the children to share their own views from their own communities. 

Wider curriculum

We are going to be exploring the Tudor times, which will be accompanied by our trip to Blakesley Hall. We will then learn about the Alps and compare our local area to a place in the Alps. 

Computing 

We will be moving onto Networking, where we will learn how networks are created, and how they are applied in our daily life. 

PE/Games

In PE we will be developing our stamina in Boxercise, and our artistic flare in Gymnastics.

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Learning at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates - use the buttons below.

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download soon using the button below.  You can also visit our Learning Hub using the button below.

We also encourage the use of websites such as MyMaths and Times Table Rockstars.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

Follow us on Twitter!

Don’t forget to follow our classes on Twitter.  Click a button below to find your child's class on Twitter.

What an excellent first half term we have all had in 5A. Everybody has settled into their new class and the new routines with ease and maturity. It has rushed by so fast, but then time always flies when you’re having fun and there has been plenty of that. 

We have been reading The Explorer by Katherine Rundell in English and this has been the inspiration for our first two pieces of writing – a diary entry and a menu. The children have had to use all their emotive and descriptive skills (including expanded noun phrases, similes, metaphors and hyperbole) to conjure up everything from the feeling of being in a crashing plane to making a maggot salad sound appetising. We have used our Reading lessons to learn about Black History Month, especially some key people who herald from Birmingham. 

Maths saw the children move into sets and they have all quickly built relationships with their new classmates and teachers. The focus has been on Place Value and interacting with numbers. The children have developed their understanding of the foundations of Maths through this. We continue to revisit and revise key fluency skills in every lesson.

The learning in Science has been about Earth and the Solar System. We have used various types of scientific investigation to learn about: planetary sizes; the vast distances in between planets and the Sun; why the Moon changes shape throughout the month; and why we have night and day. We finished the topic with a visit to the Space Dome.

We have studied both Art and D.T. topics this half term. Through Art, we learned about retrofuturism and how to print using a collagraph. The children were given time to investigate the use of different drawing techniques and media, texture and colour before producing some amazing final pieces. D.T. has offered more chances for the children to use and develop their practical and planning skills as they learned about strengthening and reinforcing structures using triangulation. This culminated in using saws and glue to build a scale model of their designs for a bird-hide – something they did very sensibly, safely and skilfully. 

Group work has been the focus in our two P.E. topics as we worked through a selection of team-building activities followed by choreographing and performing a street dance routine. It was wonderful to see the children encouraging each other to perform, as well as the hard work and dedication that went in to rehearsing. 

Computing lessons have focused on Digital Safety in online relationships and communities. This learning allowed us to revisit that from previous years and to build in more specific teaching that is relevant to the children as they continue to use the vast resource of the internet more and more.

Never has a class worked so hard and laughed so much together; I hope you all enjoy your much earned rest. It has been an absolute joy and I can’t wait to see you all after the break and to have more adventures.

What a fabulous half term I’ve had with 5D! Everyone has settled in so well, and I am extremely proud of the maturity and progress I have seen since September.

In English, we have been recapping basic writing skills, whilst developing our figurative language, like similes and metaphors. We have also written some fabulous pieces based on our class text – The Explorer, by Katherine Rundell, such as a diary entry and a restaurant menu. We have been recapping our retrieval skills in our reading sessions, and have read lots of wonderful things.

Place value has been the topic for Maths this half term, and the children have worked really hard to understand and apply lots of tricky concepts, such as rounding, roman numerals and comparing and ordering numbers up to 1 million!

We have been exploring Earth and Space in Science, and as well as learning about how our solar system works, we have also used some of the 5 enquiry types, such as researching the planets using secondary sources and pattern seeking by exploring how and why we have day and night. 

We have had 2 exciting ‘foundation’ topics this half term. We started off with our Art topic ‘I Need Space’ where we explored 'Retrofuturism' through drawing, and our DT topic of ‘Frame Structures’ where we used measuring, sawing and gluing skills to create a frame structure for a bird hide, out of wood. The children were extremely creative and sensible during this topic.

In PE, we have worked together in different sized groups during Team Building, and created excellent routines in our Street Dance topic. 

We have recapped Digital Safety in Computing, and we gave great advice on how to stay safe online. We also build 3D houses using a design software called ‘Sketchup’.

We have done so many wonderful things this half term, and we have had so much fun! I can’t wait to see what we get up to next half term, but for now, have a wonderful rest, and I will see you in November. 

A big thank you to each member of 5H for the lovely start to the new school year. Although I already knew many of you from my time in Year 2, It has been an absolute pleasure to see how you have progressed since that time. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you again, learning more about your hobbies and interests. I have been impressed with how quickly you have settled, and how you all strive to model our school values each day.

In our English lessons, we have thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Explorer’ by Katherine Rundell. We can’t wait to continue reading this book to find out what happens to Fred, Con, Max and Lila, who are stranded alone in the Amazon Rainforest. Using the themes and ideas from the story, we have written some excellent diary entries, and designed our very own rainforest restaurant menus.

In Science, we have been using our scientific and investigative skills to help us to learn more about ‘Earth and Space’. Did you know that Jupiter has between 80 and 95 moons! Recently, we have started our new topic, ‘Forces’, and have conducted investigations to help us to further understand the forces gravity and air resistance.

In our art lessons, we learnt that retro-futurism is the future as envisioned by the past. After studying some examples of retro futuristic artwork, we produced our own art depicting our vision of the future. You can see some of our fabulous work displayed on the board outside of the Year 5 classrooms. 

In our D&T lessons, we looked at different examples of framed structures and joins, to help us to design and make our own bird hides. 5H were very sensible when using junior hacksaws and demonstrated excellent teamwork to produce some strong and stable structures. Check out 5H's twitter feed for pictures of our bird hide structures.

In maths, we have worked hard to develop our place value knowledge. We have been rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000, and comparing and ordering numbers up to 1 million. After half-term, we’ll be focussing on addition and subtraction.

It has been a wonderful term. Please, get some rest and be ready for Autumn 2!!

Have a nice break.

Mr Hogarth

What an incredible 1st half term we’ve had in 5JD! I’ve been so impressed with the progress and growing maturity I’ve seen from the children since the beginning of September.

In English we’ve been revisiting some of our basic writing skills, whilst focusing mainly upon descriptive skills like figurative language. The children have taken the opportunity to practice these skills in the pieces we have written based on our class book, ‘The Explorer’ by Katherine Rundell. These have included writing a rainforest restaurant menu, and a diary entry. In reading we have been recapping our retrieval and basic reading skills while exploring a variety of texts.

Our main areas of focus in Maths have been place value and recapping our basic fluency skills. The children have worked extremely hard to understand and apply some very tricky concepts, such as rounding, roman numerals and comparing and ordering numbers up to 1 million.

‘Earth and Space’ has been our science topic, and the children have shown wonderful curiosity and resilience in investigating why we have day and night, why the moon appears to change shape, and exploring the planets and other celestial bodies in our solar system.

Our 2 ‘foundation’ topics have been ‘I need space’ in Art, giving the children the opportunity to immerse themselves in space themed art inspired by ‘retro-futurism’ and create their own futuristic art using collagraph printing, and ‘Frame Structures’ in Design and Technology, in which the children have looked into the techniques used to reinforce and stiffen structures all around them, and to construct their own frame structure for a bird hide.

In P.E. we have covered Team Building, and created some fantastic routines in our Street Dance topic. The children have thrown themselves in with admirable enthusiasm!

We have shared some excellent advice with the children on how to stay safe online during our ‘Digital Safety’ topic in Computing, and have recently moved on to exploring 3D modeling using the app ‘Sketch Up’ to create house designs.

We have had a fantastic half term and achieved so much, and I look forward to seeing how far the children can push themselves in the coming weeks!

Welcome back after a long summer! It’s so lovely to see everyone again, and to hear how enthusiastic the children are for this year!

English

This term we will be reading The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. There will be a focus on deeper understanding of the text through higher order questioning and discussion. Using themes from the book, a range of writing genres will be explored while paying close attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Maths

The autumn term will begin with revision of quick mental and written strategies that form the building blocks for more complex application including: place value, partitioning, multiplication and division by powers of ten, factors, multiples and prime numbers . You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to practise. ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play.

Science

In Science we are learning about Earth, and what lies beyond in our solar system. This will give the children an understanding of the various methods of scientific enquiry used to answer different types of question.

RE / PHSE

Our topic in RE this term explores the different ways in which we can help others including the care of animals and our environment.

Wider curriculum

We are going to start the year off by creating a retro futuristic piece of art in our ‘I need space’ topic. Then we will move on to study framed structures, with pupils designing and creating bird hides. 

Computing

Ready for a year of coding and game design, we are preparing the children this term, with a course in e-safety.

PE/Games

In Team-Building we will be developing our teamwork skills with a variety of activities designed to help us work together efficiently, after a long summer. 

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Learning at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The latest 'Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

Follow us on Twitter!

Don’t forget to follow our classes on Twitter.  Click a button below to find your child's class on Twitter.

We have had a busy but brilliant, fun filled last half term. 

In our wider curriculum topics, we completed our work on the Ancient Greeks by debating and answering the question, ‘What have the Greeks done for us?’. We agreed that the Greeks did a lot for us. Recently, in our D&T lessons, we looked at how alarms and switches work, and then applied our knowledge into designing and making our own alarm systems.

In English, we finished reading ‘Stormbreaker’, and as a reward for all the fantastic work we produced based on the events of the book, we enjoyed watching the film version. We then compared the book and film versions. Recently, we wrote some excellent newspaper reports based on the final dramatic events in the story.

In P.E., we learnt the skills required to play basketball and football. We also had our year group Sports Day. Thank you to all parents who attended and cheered on all the children. A particular thanks goes to those who competed in the teacher and parent race.

We have been very busy in Maths this term. We started by finishing off our ‘Decimals, Percentages, and Fractions’ work, and then moved on to ‘Area and Perimeter’, before ending on ‘Statistics’. Once again, I have been mightily impressed with the determination and resilience shown by my maths class. 

We really enjoyed our Science topics this term. We learnt about the life cycle of humans and animals, and the different stages of life we go through and how they can affect us. We particularly enjoyed a lesson where we measured pupils from different year groups to answer the enquiry question, ‘Are older children taller?’.

Our class assembly was a huge success. Each member of 5H played their part in ensuring the assembly ran smoothly. Well done to all, and thank you to every member of 5H, Mrs Bates, Mr Shaw, Mr Duveen and to parents.

5H have had an excellent term and school year. It has been a pleasure to have been a part of their learning journey. I am proud to have been their teacher and I am proud of the progress they have made. I would like to thank all parents for their support throughout the year, and I wish every member of 5H the very best in Year 6 and beyond. Enjoy the summer. Get some rest. Make sure you come and say hello to me in September.

In English this half term, we have finished our book, ‘Stormbreaker’ and we really enjoyed learning how determined and courageous Alex Rider was, skills that I have seen in all of the children this year. We have worked hard to recap grammar we have learnt throughout the year, as well as new grammar to include in our writing. We have written to amazing pieces of work based off our book, like a non-chronological report and a newspaper report.

In Maths, we have looked at Statistics, where we were able to draw and interpret line graphs as well as confidently read and answer questions on Two-Way tables and timetables. We have practiced our times tables and reasoning skills. The children are showing great determination with their times tables, and are trying extremely hard to improve their recall.

In Science, we have been looking at Animals including Humans. We have explored the life cycle stages of humans, and what happens to us as we grow older. 

In Computing, we have been practicing our coding skills by using Kodu – a programme where we use Kodu to create and play a game in a virtual world. We have also recapped our typing skills, and learnt more about digital safety and how to stay safe online. 

In our wider curriculum lessons, we learnt about Ancient Greece, where we learnt about the first philosophers, and debated whether different groups of people should be able to vote or not. During this half term, we had a DT day were we were Celebrating Culture and Seasonality, by creating a summer salad. We then moved onto our DT topic of ‘More complex switches’, where we created an alarm including a switch/sensor using electrical circuits and different types of inputs and outputs.

In PE, we have learnt about Basketball and Football, and it was great to see the children working in teams. 

I can’t believe that this year is over. I am so incredibly proud of every single one of you for the knowledge and confidence you’ve gained over the past year. We’ve had our struggles and tough times, but I am so lucky to have been your teacher for the past year. I will always have fond memories of our laughs and interesting times at Forest School! You are all incredible children, and should always keep being your wonderful selves! 

I wish you all the very best of luck for Year 6, and I hope you will come and tell me about the fun that you have!

Have a well-deserved summer everyone!

Dear 5W,

We cannot believe we are writing this in your final week of Year 5! We have been so lucky to teach and get to know every single one of you. There was a lot of uncertainty at the beginning of the year, but the perseverance and determination shown by all of you has meant this year has been incredible for all of us.

We have been faced with many challenges this year, but all of you have continued to impress us with your positivity, creativity, enthusiasm and consideration of others. We have accomplished so many goals throughout the year and I hope you are as proud of yourselves as we are of you.

Our skills in English, Maths, Reading, Art and the rest of the curriculum have continued to improve and we are overly impressed with the extra work you have all put in to continue to progress in your learning. Your love of reading has continued to flourish and we are so overwhelmed by the range of texts you are exploring and the discussions you are having, not only with us, but with your peers in the classroom.

We do not doubt you are all going to be amazing in Year 6 and we cannot wait to hear about all of the wonderful things you are getting up to and the achievements that we know each and every one of you will make.

Have an amazing summer and we will see you all in September.

Well done 5W!

Mrs Danks and Mrs Walker xxx

Wow! What a fabulous way to end the school year.

This half term has seen the pupils produce some truly outstanding pieces of writing. Including a newspaper report relating to events in 'Alex Rider: Stormbreaker' and a fascinating non-chronological report about jellyfish.

I have been amazed by the resilience shown by everyone in my Maths group. Everyone took on the challenge of completing a full set of Maths SATs papers. It was great to see everyone rise to the occasion with smiles on their faces.

I wish all of 5LW the best for next year (and beyond). Next year will be a fresh start for everyone and I hope you all have a great time with your new classes and teachers.

I would like to thank all of our families of all of your support this year. Your children really are a credit to you. It has been a pleasure being their teacher this year.

I hope that everyone has a happy and restful summer. I will see you all around in the school playground! 

Miss Wade

Welcome back! 

We all hope that you had a lovely, long break and were able to have a well-deserved rest. Please read through our Year 5 blog to fill you in on everything we will be getting up to over the next half term. 

English  

Alex Rider and his exciting adventure in the novel Stormbreaker, is still on the go – and you’ll be glad to know there are plenty more thrills in store. There will be great opportunities for writing; we will continue to work on English skills, including spelling, grammar and punctuation, with a focus on proof reading, correction and editing. 

As usual, everyone will experience the joy of reading aloud in class, as well as listening to the teacher reading. Vocabulary will be clarified with discussion, examples and images, so we have a comprehensive understanding of the text, and we will be sure to address any queries along the way.  

Our love of reading will be fuelled by the study of a range of extracts ripe for analysis, and perfect for practising our developing inference skills. Reading for pleasure will be at the heart of what we do, enabled by trips to the library, book awards, and impromptu visits from our very own book fairy.  

Remember to also visit the YPS Virtual Library (available on our website) and check out our @YPSEnglish Twitter to see what everyone is getting up to at YPS!  

Maths  

During this half term, we will continue to focus on shape, space and measure and will be reviwing a lot our learning, with a focus on number and fractions.  

We will continue to challenge ourselves with the rapid recall of times tables and use our knowledge of the four operation methods to understand and solve a range of worded problems and solve difficult tasks using teamwork skills.  

We will also continue with the revision of quick mental and written strategies for all four operations and ensure that we are confident and continue to improve our pace and challenge when completing.  We will be consolidating our learning using a range of skills including written calculations, manipulatives and reasoning/problem solving.  

You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to practise. ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play.  

Please visit the school website and click on Pupils --> Learning Hubs and select Year 5. There are lots of useful websites and links to help support and challenge your Maths knowledge. 

Science  

Our topic for this half term, is ‘Animals Including Humans – Stages of Life’. This will follow on from our previous topic of Life Cycles. We will look into the different stages in life, growth, adolescence, old age and much more.  

We will use our enquriy skills that we have been practising this year, including comparative/fair testing, research, observation over time, pattern-seeking, identifying, grouping and classifying and finally problem-solving.  

RE / PHSE  

In P.H.S.E. , we will look at UNICEF Rights of the Child, and use our time to reflect on our  experiences in Year 5. We are looking forward to our transition to Year 6, and then on to secondary school. 

We will continue to explore different religions during this half term, focussing on basic beliefs and practices all over the world, then comparing religions. Pupils will build on what we have explored already, helping them understand that variety is the spice of life and that we should respect the choices and opinions of others. We love hearing about individual experiences, and learning more through discussion and questioning in the classroom.  

Wider curriculum  

We will continue with our Art topic (portraits), exploring how artists use colour to create an atmosphere, or to represent feelings in an artwork; for example: using warm or cool colours. This understanding will support our creation of a self-portrait using mixed media.   

Music, Spanish and Forest School sessions are also on the menu. Keep checking out the subject Twitters on our website to keep up to date with everything. 

Computing  

We will be continuing to work on Lego WeDo and focus on the following skills: 

• Investigating, modelling and designing solutions 

• Engage pupils in science by making it real and relevant  

• Basic computing skills 

• Collaboration and presentation skills 

• Critical thinking and problem-solving 

Technology and the internet should be there to enhance and simplify our lives rather than be a cause of distraction, worry or upset. 

Visit our Stay Safe Online section of our website for more information. 

PE/Games  

In Games we will be focusing on football and basketball 

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Learning at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Summer 2 Learning At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

In English this half term, we have been reading our book, ‘Stormbreaker’ and are thoroughly hooked on the action and adventure that Alex Rider goes through. We have worked hard to recap grammar we have learnt throughout the year, as well as new grammar to include in our writing. We have written to amazing pieces of work based off our book, like a diary entry and an adventure story.

In Maths, we started off the half term by finishing off our multiplication and division topic, where we were able to decide which written methods were appropriate for different questions. We then moved onto number sense, and being able to represent and partition different numbers. On Fridays, we have practiced our times tables and reasoning skills. The times tables scores I have seen have improved so much since the start of the year, and I am so proud of the hard work I have seen. 

In Science, we have been looking at Living Things and Their Habitats. We have explored the life cycle of different types of animals, and compared how they develop through different stages of their life. We also started looking at the parts of plants and were able to dissect a plant to view its parts. 

In Computing, we started off by using Lego WeDo – a programme where we use Lego to build different objects, and program them to move. We have also recapped dour typing skills, and learnt more about digital safety and how to stay safe online. 

In our wider curriculum lessons, we started off with Art, where we created self-portraits using different media, like collage, paint and colours. We then moved onto our Geography topic of The Alps, where we have been on a local walk, to allow us to compare life in The Alps to Birmingham. 

In PE, we started off with athletics, and I was very impressed at how fast the children are. We have also moved to Rounders in the later part of the half term, and it has been so fun to have games of Rounders within the class, in the beautiful sunshine. 

There have been lots of fun things this half term that the children have enjoyed, such as The King’s Coronation and celebrating Eid. We also had an amazing day at Brighouse, where the children developed their outdoor learning skills, and lots of the values seen at Yardley, like teamwork and determination. 

Well done for a great half term everyone, I can’t wait to see you again next half term for some more fun!

It has been another excellent half term! In English, we have been busy reading ‘Stormbreaker’, which is keeping us thoroughly entertained with lots of twists and turns in the plot. We enjoyed writing our own adventure story and diary entries based on the events of the story. 

In Science, we have been learning about the life cycles of the different animal groups. We recently used classification to identify, group and name a variety of living things. In one of our favourite lessons, we discovered some very weird facts about parasites. Did you know that the longest tapeworm to be found inside a human was measured at 21 metres long!? Recently, we enjoyed dissecting flowers to help us to further understand the anatomy of a flower.

In Maths, we began by continuing our work on fractions. We are now confident in our ability to convert between improper and mixed number fractions and finding a fraction of an amount. Recently, we have been consolidating and extending our understanding of equivalent fractions and decimals when working with tenths, hundredths and thousandths.

In our Art lessons, we explored how a drawing can be developed, how we can combine materials for effect, and how we can show identity in our self-portraits. We created several mixed-media portraits, experimenting with materials and techniques with each piece before creating a final piece.

In Geography, we have worked together to discover what life is like in the Alps. We recently enjoyed walking around our local area to make comparisons with the leisure activities that can be found in cities located by the Alps.

There has been plenty to celebrate over the past few weeks. 5H thoroughly enjoyed learning about Eid and the King’s coronation. We made coronation coins and sun catcher mosques to celebrate those occasions. We also enjoyed a trip to Brighouse where the LA was to ‘enjoy yourself’. 5H certainly did that. They were excellent ambassadors for our school on the trip.

Have a lovely half term break. See you in a week's time for the final days of Year 5.

Mr Hogarth

We started the Summer term off in style this year!

In English we went on an adventure with our new book ‘Alex Rider: Stormbreaker’. We love reading all about Alex and his escapades as a secret agent. We cannot wait to see what happens next half term!  I was blown away by the fabulous pieces of writing the children had created. I was particularly impressed with their adventure stories which they were able to fill with plenty of drama and suspense. 

In Maths we have been looking at fractions, decimals and percentages as well as area and perimeter. We explored these concepts in a number of different ways, using a range of physical resources and diagrams to help us to show our understanding and explain our answers more thoroughly. 

We have been incredibly busy this half term looking at a range of different wider curriculum topics. We started the term by looking at Art and focusing on portraits. The children created their own mixed media portrait that reflected their personality. They explored a range of different mediums and the final pieces are outstanding. Following this, we moved on to our Geography topic about the Alps. After locating the Alps, we explored what there is to do there and compared a city in the Alps to our own local area. We were incredibly sensible on our walk around Yardley while we discovered what there is to do in our local area. 

We have been working on our batting and bowling skills in PE! We really enjoyed our Rounders topic, in which the children were able to set up their own matches and play against 5D. We have also been looking at Athletics and practising our running, jumping and throwing ready for Summer 2.  

It is safe to say that this half term has been an excellent one. I hope everyone has a restful break before our final half term. I cannot believe that it is here already!

There are only 7 more weeks left of Year 5! I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by. 

The last half term has been very interesting. It has been great to see the independence from each and every one of you grow over the weeks. We are extremely impressed with your mature and responsible attitude. 

We have started Anthony Horowitz's 'Strombreaker' and are absolutely loving it. We have used the text to create a range of writing genres, including a diary entry and adventure narrative, and are continuing to see a huge improvement in punctuation, grammar and spelling. We are continuing to fill our published writing books with fantastic pieces, ready for our Year 6 teachers to look at.

There has been an incredible improvement in the rapid recall of times tables and we are continuing to monitor our scores three times a week, to ensure that we are practising consistently. In our Maths class, we have continued to revisit a range of methods methods during our starters every day. We have also started to look at shape, space and measure, in particular, angles.

Our new Geography topic, 'What is life like in the Alps?' has really supported our retrieval skills, by reviewing our knowledge of the world's continents and countries. We have taken part in a local area walk to aid our discussion surrounding these comparison lessons and we have also created a class assembly for parents and pupils to help share our knowledge.

All Living Things is our Science topic this term. We will be continuing this topic during the next half term. So far, we have dissected plants, sorted a range of flowers and discussed weird and wonderful life cycles in depth.

We have continued to improve our skills in Music, Spanish, Forest School, RE and PE. Please continue to check out our Twitter for further information of what we have been getting up to. 

Thank you again for another incredible half term and for all of your support along the way.

Have a lovely break and we look forward to seeing you all when we return.

Mrs Danks and Mrs Walker xxx

Welcome back! 

We all hope that you had a lovely, long break and were able to have a well-deserved rest. Please read through our Year 5 blog to fill you in on everything we will be getting up to over the next half term.  

English  

After completing Cogheart last term, we will be starting the exciting adventure and mystery series of Alex Rider. Stormbreaker is a brilliant text, we know that you are all going to thoroughly enjoy. 

Alex Rider is fourteen when his whole world is turned upside down. Already an orphan, his guardian is killed in suspicious circumstances and Alex finds himself forcibly recruited into the MI6 to train as a super spy. He performs deeds of unimaginable daring, faces terrible danger – and lives to tell the  tale.  

We will be using this text as a focus for the majority of our writing this half term. Everyone will take turns to read aloud in class and listen to the teacher reading. We will clarify new vocabulary, and try to understand the text as much as we can and address any queries along the way. Using themes from the book, we will continue to explore a range of writing genres while continuing to revise, review and learn a range of grammar, punctuation and spelling rules.  

As always, we will continue to celebrate our love of reading by studying a range of extracts and continuing to develop our understanding of reading skills and challenge ourselves further with a range of questions. We will also be spending as much time as possible reading for pleasure and exploring a range of new and exciting texts. Our new school library is now open and we will be spending as much time as we can enjoying reading there. The Book Fairy is looking out for pupils who would like to be librarians, so keep an eye out for further information.

Remember to also visit the YPS Virtual Library that is available on our website and check out our @YPSEnglish Twitter to see what everyone is getting up to at YPS!  

Maths  

During this half term, we are focusing on a wide range of skills, including shape, space and measure. We will continue to challenge ourselves with the rapid recall of times tables and use our knowledge of the four operation methods to understand and solve a range of worded problems and solve difficult tasks using teamwork skills.  

We will also continue with the revision of quick mental and written strategies that form the building blocks for more complex application including: addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division. We will be consolidating our learning using a range of skills including written calculations, manipulatives and reasoning/problem solving.  

You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to improving. ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play.  

Please visit the school website and click on Pupils --> Learning Hubs and select Year 5. There are lots of useful websites and links to help support and challenge your Maths knowledge.  

Science  

In Science, our new topic is All Living Things – Life Cycles. We will learn about our incredible world of living things and their features. We will look at the local environment and take advantage of seasonal study opportunities. We will also cover how nutrients and water are transported around different animal bodies. 

RE / PHSE  

In P.H.S.E., we will look at UNICEF Rights of the Child and use our time to reflect on our time in Year 5 and think about our transition to Year 6 and then into secondary school. 

We will continue to explore different religions during this half term. We will be exploring the basic beliefs and practices that many people believe and comparing with other religions. Pupils have shown a keen knowledge and understanding of a wide range of religions. We love hearing about individual experiences and learning more through discussion and questioning in the classroom.  

Wider curriculum  

Our new topic this half term is Art, specifically - portraits. We will explore how artists use colour to create an atmosphere or to represent feelings in an artwork, for example by using warm or cool colours. We will use this understanding to create a self-portrait using mixed media.   

We will also be taking part in Music, Spanish and Forest School sessions. Keep checking out the subject Twitters on our website to keep up to date with everything going on. 

Computing  

We will be continuing to work on Kodu at the beginning of the half term, we will use controllers to create our own video games and then move on to Digital Wellbeing. We will explore how the internet and technology can make us feel. This includes recognising the impact being online can have on: our emotions, mental health and wellbeing and physical health and wellbeing.  

Technology and the internet should be there to enhance and simplify our lives rather than be a cause of distraction, worry or upset. 

Visit our Stay Safe Online section of the intranet for more information. 

PE/Games  

In PE, we will be focusing on Athletics and Rounders. 

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Summer 1 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

 We look forward to another amazing half term!

Wow, what a half term! I have seen such determination and resilience this half term, and I am so proud of everyone for their hard work and effort. 

In English, we have been continuing to read Cogheart, and have really enjoyed finding out more about the text. We have written for different purpose, like a persuasive letter and a gothic story. The imagination I have seen from everyone has been incredible, and the level of writing from each person has improved so much. I look forward to reading the next lot of writing the children produce after the half term.

In Maths, we have worked hard on completing the fractions topic, and we have moved onto multiplication and division. The children have showed great confidence and resilience when trying to multiply 2-digit by 2-digit numbers. The children have tried extremely hard with their times tables, and I have seen such an improvement since January.

In Science, we have carried on with our topic of Properties and Changing Materials. We have planned and carried out some exciting investigations, drawing upon our knowledge of working scientifically to observe and record results. 

In Geography, we have continued with our Mountains, Earthquakes and Volcanoes topic, and we have explored how the land has changed over time, linking to how these three features of land occur. We also spent 2 weeks looking at a Heritage project, studying the history of Birmingham and how it has changed over time.

We have had an amazing half term, and I feel so lucky to have been part of the progress made by every child in my class. I hope you have an egg-cellent Easter break, and enjoy a well-deserved rest! See you next term!

We have come to the end of another action-packed term. 

In our English lessons, we continued to read ‘Cogheart’. The twists and turns in the plot have kept us guessing throughout and we can’t wait to find out how the story ends. We’ve produced some excellent work and had some interesting discussions based around the language, characters and themes of the book,

In Maths, we have continued to use a range of resources to help us to further understand fractions, multiplication and division. We have mastered how to multiply 4-digits by 2-digits and are confident in dividing with remainders.

Our focus in Science has remained on 'Materials and their Properties', with investigations conducted to learn more about dissolving, filtration, and reversible changes. We particularly enjoyed burning different materials to discover whether this would be a reversible or irreversible change.

In Geography, we continued with our ‘Mountains, Volcanoes, and Earthquakes’ topic. We had fun practising earthquake drills and enjoyed building our own earthquake proof buildings. In History, we completed work on the ‘Dyche Collection’ – a collection of photos that offer a rare glimpse of migrant communities making new lives in our city.

We have learnt a range of new skills in P.E this term. We started with hockey, learning how to hold the hockey stick correctly, and how to pass and shoot with accuracy. We have recently started to learn the basic skills and rules required to play cricket.

In computing, 5H have been developing their own game, populating it with characters and props and then programming their behaviours and game rules.

Recently, some members of 5H were fortunate enough to spend three days on the Bell Heath residential trip, completing numerous fun activities including zip wiring, archery, and orienteering. All year 5 pupils showed great maturity and were a credit to our school on this trip.

It has been a thoroughly enjoyable, but very busy term. Make sure you get some rest over the holiday. Wishing you and your family a nice break. I'll see you in the summer term.

What a fantastic half term!

In English continued to read ‘Cogheart’ by Peter Bunzl. We have already created some fantastic pieces of writing based on this exciting text and have seen progression in our understanding of all reading skills.

This half term, we celebrated World Book Day. There were plenty of opportunities to read our favourite books throughout the day. A particular highlight was a class swap with RN. It was lovely to see the pupils sharing a story with the Reception children. 

In Maths, we have been focusing on ‘Multiplication and Division’ as well as finishing off our ‘Fractions’ topic. We explored multiplication and division in a number of different ways, using a range of diagrams and written methods to help us to show our understanding and explain our answers more thoroughly. 

We have thoroughly enjoyed our Science topic ‘Properties and Changes of Materials’. We had a chance to complete lots of our own science experiments throughout the topic. It was lovely to see the children apply their skills at the end of the topic by working as a team to create their own enquiry question. 

This half term we are starting our mini History project: ‘From City of Empire to City of Diversity – A Visual Journey’. We looked at how Birmingham has changed since the Second World War. We thoroughly enjoyed studying the photographs that were taken in our city. Following this, we returned to our Geography topic: ‘Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes’ where we looked at different types of mountains in more detail. It was lovely to have some of our Year 5 parents join us for our Geography workshop for a very special debate! 

We were lucky enough to enjoy a few themed days throughout the half term. During our ‘Space Day’, we combined our knowledge from Science and D.T. to create our own Moon bases. It was great to see so many examples of creative thinking and community spirit to complete this particularly tricky mission! Following on from this, we took part in our very own ‘Spain Day’. I was particularly impressed with the enthusiasm shown towards our restaurant challenge. Each group was tasked with creating a Spanish restaurant with a Spanish menu. It was great to see everyone visiting each other’s restaurants and trying out their newly learnt Spanish vocabulary. 

I hope that everyone has a restful Easter break. I cannot wait to see what fun lies ahead in the Summer term! 

Another half term over and we are ready to begin our final term of Year 5.

We would like to say a huge well done to all pupils in 5W for their hard work and focus over the last few weeks, we are very proud of how far you have come and look forward to the Summer term.

We have continued to read Cogheart by Peter Bunzl and we are still enjoying every chapter. We have used the text to create a range of writing genres and have seen a huge improvement in punctuation, grammar and spelling. All pupils are identifying their individual writing style and we couldn't be happier with the end pieces. We recently returned to a piece of writing from the beginning of Spring term and edited our pieces. We then typed these up and added them to our published writing books.

We have been looking at poetry extracts and non-fiction pieces relating to our other curriculum subjects and that is really helping us in our understanding of topics such as, changing properties and materials and notable individuals from past and present. 

We are continuing to see progress with the rapid recall of times tables and are continuing to monitor our scores every Tuesday and Friday to ensure that we are practising consistently. In our Maths class, we have focused on the four operations and will continue to revisit these methods during our starters every day. 

We began the half term taking part in the Heritage Project and have enjoyed studying the Dyche collection and improving our questioning skills. Some pupils also took part in a workshop with volunteers from the Heritage Project, which was enjoyed by all. We also completed our Geography topic of Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes. We ran a workshop for parents that included a debate between parents and pupils as to whether it is safe to live near an active volcano.

Changing Properties and Materials has been our Science topic this half term. We have explored a range of materials and properties and used our prior knowledge to build on our understanding from previous years. We have taken part in a range of experiments including observing changes and chemical reactions.

We have continued to improve our skills in Music, Spanish, Forest School, RE and PE. Please continue to check out our Twitter for further information of what we have been getting up to. 

Thank you again for another incredible half term and for all of your support along the way.

Have a lovely Easter break and we look forward to seeing you all when we return.

Mrs Danks and Mrs Walker xxx

Welcome back!

We all hope that you had a lovely break and were able to have a well-deserved rest. Please read through our Year 5 blog to fill you in on everything we will be getting up to over the next few weeks. 

A few key dates before we explain what we will be getting up to this half term: 

• Friday 3rd March – World Book Day

• Monday 6th March/Tuesday 7th March – YPS Book Fair open to parents after school (please see Twitter for the date of your child’s visit)

• Wednesday 8th March – Number Day

• Friday 17th March – Year 5 Geography Parent Workshop and Red Nose Day

• Tuesday 21st March – World Poetry Day

• Thursday 30th March – Year 5 Celebration Assembly 

• Friday 31st March – Decorate an Egg competition and non-uniform day

English 

We will be continuing to read Cogheart by Peter Bunzl. We have already created some fantastic pieces of writing based on this exciting text and have seen progression in our understanding of all reading skills.

Everyone will take turns to read aloud in class and listen to the teacher reading. We will clarify vocabulary, and work on any queries along the way. Using themes from the book, we will continue to explore a range of writing genres while continuing to revise, review and learn a range of grammar, punctuation and spelling rules. 

This half term, we will be celebrating World Book Day on Friday 3rd March. We will continue to celebrate our love of reading by studying a range of extracts and continuing to develop our understanding of reading skills and challenge ourselves further with a range of questions. We will also be spending as much time as possible reading for pleasure and exploring a range of new and exciting texts. 

 Remember to also visit the YPS Virtual Library that is available on our website and check out our @YPSEnglish Twitter to see what everyone is getting up to at YPS! 

Maths 

During this half term, we will also continue with the revision of quick mental and written strategies that form the building blocks for more complex application including: addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division. We will be consolidating our learning using a range of skills including written calculations, manipulatives and reasoning/problem solving. 

You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to practise. ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play. 

Please visit the school website and click on Pupils --> Learning Hubs and select Year 5. There are lots of useful websites and links to help support and challenge your Maths knowledge. 

Science 

In Science, we are learning about ‘Properties and Changes of Materials’, including reversible and irreversible. This will give the children an understanding of the various methods of scientific enquiry used to answer different types of question.

RE / PHSE 

In P.H.S.E., we will look at UNICEF Rights of the Child and

We will continue to explore different religions during this half term. We will be exploring the basic beliefs and practices that many people believe and comparing with other religions. 

Wider curriculum 

This half term we are starting our mini History project: ‘From City of Empire to City of Diversity – A Visual Journey’. We will be looking at how Birmingham has changed since the Second World War. Following this, we will return to our Geography topic: ‘Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes’ where we will be looking at different types of mountains in more detail. Please join us on Friday 17th March from 9am-10am for our Year 5 Geography Workshop.

Computing 

Now that we have completed our unit on Digital safety, we are going to be looking at the programme Kodu. Children will be learning about the key features of the program in order to design and create their own game.   

PE/Sport

In PE we will be focusing on Hockey and Cricket.

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Spring 2 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

Parents Evening

If you haven't booked an appointment already, we would like to invite you to attend our Parents Evenings, taking place on the following dates:

• Wednesday 8th March 3.40pm - 6.50pm

• Thursday 9th March 3.40pm - 5.30pm

Click here for further information and to book.

What a fabulous half term we have had!

In English, we have started reading Cogheart – an extremely exciting adventure story. We have written some amazing pieces of writing from this book, including instructions, a non-chronological report and a retell of the prologue. I have been so impressed with the level of writing shown by everyone, and I can’t wait to read more pieces from you next half term. 

In Maths, we have been focusing on Fractions. I am so proud of everyone in my Maths set – the amount of determination and resilience shown has been incredible. Everyone has tried extremely hard and should be proud of their progress. 

In Science, we have explored Forces, and carried out some exciting experiments to do with air resistance, buoyancy and friction. We then moved onto Properties and Changes of Materials, where we have started to discover how different materials change in certain conditions. We will carry this on after half term with some more exciting investigations. 

We finished off our Invaders and Settlers topic with a debate on who had the most impact on life in Britain, and now we have moved onto our Geography topic of Mountains, Earthquakes and Volcanoes, looking at how long changes over time. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this topic so far and have gotten stuck in with all the lessons.  

In PE, we completed our Netball topic and I was extremely impressed with the children and their passing skills. They worked very well as a team to play games of different sizes, and we even included different positions in the team. We then moved onto Tennis where we played matches, both individually and then as a double. We have now moved onto Cricket, where we have started looking at throwing and catching.

I have really enjoyed this half term, and it has been great to see the children grown in confidence and develop their learning even more. I am so proud of you all, and I hope you have a great half term!

It has been a super half term. 

In Maths, our focus has been on fractions. We have used our existing knowledge of fractions to help us to order, compare, add and subtract fractions with different denominators. I have been very impressed with the resilience and determination of my maths class across the term.

5H spent the first few weeks back after the Christmas break finishing our ‘Invaders and settlers’ topic. We then used all of our knowledge to debate ‘who had the greatest impact on life in Britain’. Following this, we moved onto our Geography topic - ‘Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes’. We have learnt about why earthquakes and tsunamis happen, and we even practised our own earthquake drills and built our own earthquake proof buildings. 5H held some very mature conversations about the major earthquake that has recently devastated parts of the world, it was a timely reminder of how destructive earthquakes can be. Recently, we looked at volcanoes and explored the structure of a volcano. We look forward to continuing with this topic after half term.

In English we have thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Cogheart’ - it is a real page-turner. We cannot wait to read on and find out what happens to Lily, Robert and Malkin. Based on the characters and themes of Cogheart, 5H produced some excellent written work. We designed our own mechanimals and wrote clear instructions on how to use them. We also wrote a retell of the prologue of Cogheart, written from the perspective of one of the characters. 

In computing, 5H explored, created, and shared their scientific discoveries as they built, programmed and modified their Lego WeDo designs. We had lots of fun.

In P.E, we have enjoyed learning and mastering the skills required to play netball and tennis. 5H particularly enjoyed the opportunity to play competitive netball matches against the other year 5 classes. Recently, we have moved on to hockey lessons and we look forward to continuing with this after the break.

Have a lovely half term break. Get some rest. See you in just over a week’s time.

We started the Spring term off in style this year!

In English we went on an adventure with our new book ‘Cogheart’. We love reading all about Lily and her exciting and mysterious journey through a mysterious Victorian England. We cannot wait to see what happens next half term!  I was blown away by the fabulous pieces of writing the children had created. 

In Maths, we have been focusing on fractions. We explored fractions in a number of different ways, using a range of physical resources and diagrams to help us to show our understanding and explain our answers more thoroughly. 

We spent the first few weeks of the term finishing of our much loved History topic: ‘Invaders and settlers’. We thoroughly enjoyed having a debate to decide who had the greatest impact on live in Britain. 

Following this, we moved onto our Geography topic all about ‘Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes’. We learnt all about earthquakes and where they are most common. We even had our very own ‘Earthquake day’ to study earthquakes and their effects in detail. Afterwards, we looked at volcanoes and explored the structure of a volcano. It was incredible to see the level of enthusiasm shown by all the pupils.  I cannot wait to continue this topic next half term.

This half term we have been getting our blood pumping in PE! We really enjoyed our netball topic where we practiced passing and shooting before getting into lots of matches. The children showed a great understanding of the many rules in netball. 

Half way through Year 5! I can't believe it!

We have had an incredible half term since returning in January and we are seeing progress being made every single day.

We have started a new novel this half term, Cogheart by Peter Bunzl and we are hooked! This story is full of mystery, twists and turns and very complex vocabulary. We are spending a lot of time discussing the plot and the characters to improve our inference and summary skills. 

We are continuing to focus on a range of reading skills using non-fiction, fiction and poetry extracts. We have looked at texts linked to the World Cup, our Science topic of changing properties and materials and we have also revisited some texts read during Year 3 and 4 to help us build our retrieval skills. 

In English, we have focused on improving cohesion and our sentence structure. We have learnt, practised and reviewed a wide range of GPS and are continuing to embed this in our writing. Throughout this half term, we have written a set of instructions, a non-chronological report for our own 'mechanimal' and a retell of the prologue from the text, in first person. We are extremely impressed by the writing we have seen over the last few weeks and are looking forward to seeing more over the next half term.  

There has been a huge improvement in improvig our rapid recall of times tables and are continuing to get better and better every week. In our Maths class, we have explored fractions and reviewed our knowledge on them. We have also looked in to fluency and our understanding of a range of skills, including, doubling, halving, partitioning, rounding, multiples and so much more. 

Our Geography topic this half term is Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes. We have spent time looking at earthquakes and discussing why they happen and where they happen more often. After half term, we will be taking part in the Heritage Project and then continuing our Geography topic with a focus on volcanoes.

Changing Properties and Materials has been our Science topic this half term. We have explored a range of materials and properties and used our prior knowledge to build on our understanding from previous years.

We have also been improving our skills in Music, Spanish, Forest School, RE and PE. Please continue to check out our Twitter for further information of what we have been getting up to. 

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Enjoy your week off and we look forward to seeing you on Monday 28th February.

Mrs Danks and Mrs Walker xxx

Welcome Back! 

We hope you had a wonderful break over Christmas, and that you had quality time as a family, whether you celebrate or not. We have some exciting plans for your child in 2022, and look forward to seeing them grow and progress with us. 

A few key dates before we explain what we will be getting up to this half term:  

• Tuesday 3rd January – Y5 Celebration Assembly (2.45pm-3.15pm) 

• Thursday 19th January – Professor McGinty visit 

• Tuesday 7th February – Safer Internet Day 2023 

• Monday 13th February - Y5 Celebration Assembly (9.10am-9.40am) 

• Friday 17th February – Non-uniform Day - £1 donation 

English

This term we will be reading Cogheart by Peter Bunzl. Everyone will take turns to read aloud in class and listen to the teacher reading. We will clarify vocabulary, and work on any queries along the way. Using themes from the book, a range of writing genres will be explored while paying close attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling. 

We will also be focusing our reading skills lesson on a range of extracts (poetry, non-fiction, interview, song lyrics) as we explore and deepen our understanding of retrieval, inference, summarising and questioning.  We will also be spending as much time as possible reading for pleasure and exploring a range of new and exciting texts.  

 Remember to also visit the YPS Virtual Library that is available on our website and check out our @YPSEnglish Twitter to see what everyone is getting up to at YPS!  

Maths  

During this half term, we will order and compare fractions, recognise and convert improper fractions and mixed numbers and recognise the equivalence between fractions, decimals and percentages. 

We will also continue with the revision of quick mental and written strategies that form the building blocks for more complex application including: addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division. We will be consolidating our learning using a range of skills including written calculations, manipulatives and reasoning/problem solving.  

You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to practise. ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play. 

Please visit the school website and click on Pupils --> Learning Hubs and select Year 5. There are lots of useful websites and links to help support and challenge your Maths knowledge.  

Science  

In Science we will continue our work on forces, looking at the simple mechanisms such as levers, pulleys and gears. We will then look at properties and changes in materials. 

RE / PHSE  

We will continue to explore different religions during this half term. We will be exploring the basic beliefs and practices that many people believe and comparing with other religions.  

In P.H.S.E., we will look at UNICEF Rights of the Child and future dreams and goals. 

Wider curriculum  

In Geography, we will begin the topic of Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes by focusing on earthquakes and their effects on communities who live in these regions.  

Computing  

Ready for a year of coding and game design, we are going to start with a programme called Scratch, where we are going to create a maze game. 

PE/Games 

In Games we will be focusing on Netball and Tennis. 

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils should come to school in their P.E. kit.  Details of kit required for P.E. can be found here.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Work at Home 

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Spring 1 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

Wow, what a half term! It has been lovely to see you all grow in confidence this half term, and to see you improve in lessons too!

In English, we have focussed on The Highwayman poem, written by Alfred Noyes. We have written incredible narratives and I am so impressed with the work that everyone has written, well done!

In Maths, we have moved through our addition and subtraction topic and we have looked at multiplication and division. It has been tough, but everyone has been extremely determined and enthusiastic in the lessons.

In Science, we have been exploring different forces, and we have done different experiments to test out different things, like using gyrocopters to test air resistance. The children have planned some great investigations, and have made come excellent conclusions.

In our History topic, we have been exploring ‘Who had the greatest impact on Britain: the Romans, Anglo Saxons or Vikings?’ We have compared different parts of the eras, such as religion, place names and why they invaded Britain, and we can’t wait to finish the topic off after Christmas and debate who we think had the greatest impact. 

Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy spending time with your family! Well done for all your hand work this term, and I can't wait for more fun next year!

It is the end of the Autumn term already - how quickly has that gone? With the cold days and the dark mornings and nights, the Autumn term can be the most challenging. 5H should be very proud of their resilience and dedication to learning throughout this term. Well done.

We’ve had a very busy, but fun filled term. In English, we thoroughly enjoyed analysing The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. We loved sitting in the hot seat and pretending to be characters from the poem, and we really enjoyed creating a story map to help us remember the narrative. After we had worked hard to analyse the poem in detail, we produced our own narratives based on the poem. Look out for some of our work on the display boards outside of our classroom.

In Maths, we continued to improve our place value knowledge, and have been busy building our understanding of written methods of addition and subtraction, including inverse methods.  

During our Science lessons, we have been looking at different types of forces. 5H really enjoyed making their own gyrocopters to investigate air resistance as well as making plasticine models to investigate buoyancy and water resistance.

We have been learning about ‘Invaders and Settlers’ in our history lessons. We’ve been busy researching and learning all about the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings, and debating who had the biggest impact on life in Britain. We had a fantastic visit to Lunt Roman Fort in which we learnt all about what it was like to live in Roman Britain. My apologies for the postponement of our class assembly, I know 5H had worked very hard to be ready to perform. I thank all parents for their hard work in helping their child to be ready. We are looking forward to performing our assembly in the new term and we hope you will be able to attend.

It has been a very busy term and we all deserve a restful holiday. Please put your feet up, 

enjoy the festivities, and come back to school in January refreshed and ready to go again.

Wishing all who celebrate a very merry Christmas. Happy new year to all. See you in 2023.

Mr Hogarth.

What a super half term! There has been lots of exciting things going on this half term.

In English, we have been looking at narrative poetry. The children really enjoyed our poem ‘The Highwayman’. Despite it being a tricky text with lots of complicated vocabulary, the children have produced some outstanding pieces of work. Including a retell from a character’s perspective. The children have thought carefully about how they can show rather than tell the reader about the character’s emotions. The final pieces are outstanding and look beautiful on our display. 

In Maths we have been working hard on our multiplication and division skills. We have been using our times tables knowledge to help us to solve lots of problems.  

During our Science lessons we have been looking at different types of forces. We have had lots of opportunities to investigate the forces around us. The children have been extremely sensible and mature when conducting their investigations in order to make sure that they got accurate results.  

Our History topic this half term has been action packed! We have been learning about ‘Invaders and Settlers’. It was a pleasure to see so many of our parents and carers during our History workshop where we explored how we teach History at school. During our topic, we have learned all about life in Britain during Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Viking times. We spent time comparing different areas of these time periods. At the end of our topic we had a debate to decide who had the biggest impact on life in Britain. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Winter break. I can’t wait to see everyone again in the New Year!

Miss Wade

Christmas already, where has the time gone?

5W have had another excellent half term and we are already looking forward to seeing them progress further during 2023. 

We have been reading another Robert Swindells text throughout this half term. 'In The Nick of Time' is a fantastic story all about a young girl who is taken back in time to 1955. This adventurous text has had us on the edge of seats every day. 

During our reading lessons, we have been focusing on a range of reading skills using non-fiction, fiction and poetry extracts. We have looked at famous people through the ages based on our Science and History topics and learnt a lot of information while retrieving, summarising, predicting and inferring. It has also been a great chance for us to learn new vocabulary that we can use in our writing.

In English, we have recapped spelling rules and look at a range of GPS tasks to support our writing. We have spent this half term exploring the poem, The Highway Man by Alfred Noyes. We looked at the structure and rhyme scheme of the poem and have built our speaking and listening, reading and writing skills to create a narrative retell of the poem. The outcome of this task has been incredible. We have been blown away by the skills of retrieval and choice of effective vocab to create a narrative piece that has been published into our writing books. 

Maths has had a huge focus on the four operations and being able to use these methods to solve reasoning and problem-solving tasks. We have continued to improve our rapid recall of times tables and are continuing to progress in this! Our fluency skills are improving each day and we will continue to test and recap on these skills when we begin fractions in January.

Our History topic of Invaders and Settlers has been very interesting, and we have gained a range of skills as historians. We hosted a parent workshop and looked at a range of sources to determine their reliability. We have also been able to understand the impact that the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings have had on life in Britain today. 

Forces has been our topic in Science this half term. We linked a lot of our new learning to prior knowledge in previous year groups and also our last topic of Earth, Space and Moon. We have planned and conducted a range of investigation to understand gravity, air resistance and friction. 

We have also been improving our skills in Music, Spanish, Forest School, RE and PE. Please continue to check out our Twitter for further information of what we have been getting up to. 

Thank you for all of your support since we returned to school in September, it is very much appreciated.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas and look forward to welcoming you back in the new year.

Mrs Danks and Mrs Walker xxx

Welcome back to the second half of our Autumn term. We hope you have had a relaxing half term break and are ready for the next part of our learning journey.  

A few key dates before we explain what we will be getting up to this half term: 

Monday 7th November – Y5&6 Winter Disco 

Tuesday 8th November – 5W library visit 

Friday 11th November – 5LW/5H library visit 

Friday 18th November – 5D library visit 

Tuesday 29th November – Year 5 Invaders and Settlers Workshop (9am-10am) 

Monday 12th December – Year 5 Christmas Celebration Assembly (2.30pm-3.15pm) 

English 

This half term we will be looking at the poem ‘The Highwayman’. There will be a focus on deeper understanding of the text through higher order questioning and discussion. Using themes from the book, a range of writing genres will be explored while paying close attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling. As we explore the world of poetry, we will also be working towards completing our own version of this famous poem. 

We will also be focusing our reading skills lesson on ‘In the Nick of Time’ by Robert Swindells. This text has the same author as our Autumn 1 book ‘Room 13’, so we will be spending time observing the comparisons and similarities of the two texts. We will also be spending as much time as possible reading for pleasure and exploring a range of new and exciting texts.  

The YPS Book Fair will be returning from Monday 21st November until Thursday 24th November. All classes will have a chance to visit during the school day and parents/carers are more than welcome to come and visit after school from 3.35pm-4pm. Remember to also visit the YPS Virtual Library that is available on our website and check out our @YPSEnglish Twitter to see what everyone is getting up to at YPS! 

Maths 

During Autumn 2, we will continue with the revision of quick mental and written strategies that form the building blocks for more complex application including: addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division. We will be consolidating a learning using a range of skills including written calculations, manipulatives and reasoning/problem solving. 

You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to practise. ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play.  

Please visit the school website and click on Pupils --> Learning Hubs and select Year 5. There are lots of useful websites and links to help support and challenge your Maths knowledge.  

Science 

In Science we are learning about ‘Forces’, including gravity and air resistance. This will give the children an understanding of the various methods of scientific enquiry used to answer different types of question. 

RE / PHSE  

Our topic in RE this half term is Buddhism. We will be exploring the basic beliefs and practices that Buddhists believe and comparing with other religions.  

In P.H.S.E., we will look at UNICEF Rights of the Child and celebrating difference. 

Wider curriculum 

This half term our topic is Invaders and Settlers, we will be studying Romans, Vikings and Anglo Saxons and their effect on Britain. Our History based topic will focus on the impact these groups of people had on Britain and why they invaded. We have already had a great start to this topic, as we recently visited Lunt Roman Fort last half term. Please join us on Tuesday 29th November from 9am-10am for our Year 5 Invaders and Settlers Workshop. 

Computing  

Now that we have completed our unit on Digital safety, we are going to be looking at the programme Sketch Up. Children will be learning about the key features of the program in order to design and make their own 3D house.  

PE/Games 

In Games we will be focusing on Gymnastics and Boxercise.  

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

P.E. Kit reminder

On the days of P.E. lessons, pupils in Years 1-6 should come to school in their P.E. kit.

Indoor and outdoor P.E. lessons (during warm weather):

• Plain white t-shirt.

• Plain black/grey shorts (or leggings if required).

• Black pumps/plimsoles (slip-on or velcro) or appropriate trainers (suitable for sport, not fashion trainers).

Outdoor P.E. lessons (during cold weather):

• Plain white t-shirt.

• Plain black/grey tracksuit bottoms (normal fit, not 'flared') or leggings.

• School sweatshirts/cardigans to be worn over P.E. t-shirt.

The following items are not appropriate:

• Football (or other sports) kits or tops.

• Hoodies or non-school sweatshirts.

• Coloured t-shirts or t-shirts with slogans or pictures on.

• Coloured shorts or shorts with patterns or pictures on.

ALL P.E. KIT MUST BE LABELLED WITH YOUR CHILD'S NAME AND CLASS

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Autumn 2 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

Christmas Fayre

Yardley Fundraisers (our PTFA) are pleased to announce that our Christmas Fayre will return this year!  It will take place on Friday 2nd December 2022, 4.30pm-7.00pm.

Please visit our Christmas Fayre page here for full details of the event, including:

• Details of what to expect at our fayre

• Details of our ‘Bring a Donation’ non-uniform day

• Raffle and tombola donations

• Information for people interested in having a stall

Year 5 will be there with a stall, we hope to see you there too!

What an amazing first half term we have had! We have been extremely busy learning new routines and getting settled within our new year group.

Our first topic in Science has been all about the solar system and we have enjoyed learning the names and order of the planets. We have also looked at how shadows are formed and how the sun moves during the day to affect the shadows. We had a visit from the Space Dome which was incredible. We were able to study the planets in detail and even see how the night sky looks in complete darkness.

During Design and Technology, we researched, designed and created our own bird hides. We spent time thinking about the purpose of the model and the materials that we would need to use. We then evaluated these products against a series of statements with our peers.

In our Maths classes, we have focused on place value and developing our independence by using a range of different equipment. We have made sure to continue practising our times tables to ensure rapid recall. Keep battling on TT Rockstars for extra practice at home!!!

We have read Room 13 by Robert Swindells in English. We thoroughly enjoyed the text and have spent our reading lessons focusing on clarifying unknown vocabulary and retrieval skills. As well as focusing on a range of new GPS skills in writing, we have also created an information text all about Whitby, which is where the book is set. I was so impressed with the figurative and persuasive language used in our final pieces. 

There has been a welcome influx of fabulous books, at school, and children should be asking to read with adults at home as much as possible. They may help themselves to any book in our classroom library, although I do enjoy children bringing in their favourite books from home too. We are currently running our '50 Nights' competition where pupils are asked to read and record in their planners, 50 nights of reading. When they have reached this goal, they can let me know and they will receive a brand new book as a reward. 

We have also been enjoying a range of different lessons including: Spanish, Forest School, Music, PE and many more. It has been an extremely busy yet enjoyable half term and I am already looking forward to the next one.

Have a lovely break 5W!

What an amazing first half term we have had! It has been so lovely to see the children grow in confidence and enthusiasm both inside and outside of the classroom, and it has been wonderful getting to know them!

In English, we have looked at lots of grammatical concepts, such as recapping sentence structure and different types of sentences, the twelve tenses, nouns, adjectives and verbs. We have also been reading ‘Room 13’, and we have created a brochure to persuade people to visit there. The children have worked very hard and have thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. 

In Maths, we started off the year with place value. This was a tricky topic, as the numbers we used went up to and including one million, however, the children showed lots of resilience and determination when answering questions. We have just moved onto our addition and subtraction topic, and will continue with this after half term. Once a week, we have an arithmetic and times tables lesson, and the children really enjoy this lesson and recapping their times tables knowledge. 

Our Science topic for this half term has been Earth and Space, and the children have been really excited to share all the facts they know about our solar system. We have looked at the different planets, how the Moon orbits the Earth and how the seasons are created. We were extremely lucky to have the Space Dome in this week, and the children wowed both the visitors and myself with their in-depth knowledge and excellent questions. 

We started off the year with an Art topic, focusing on Charles Sheeler and perspective. We created our own perspective street art which looked incredible! We then moved onto a DT topic, where we created a frame structure. We planned, build and evaluated a replica of a bird hide, and the children have one an amazing job!

In Computing, we have been learning all about digital safety, and how to stay safe online. We focused on online relationships and how we can identify positive and negative relationships.

I am so incredibly proud of how far you’ve all come this half term, and I’m so excited for the next one! Have a well-deserved break, and I will see you in a week!

We have come to the end of a very busy but thoroughly enjoyable Autumn 1 term.

In English, the focus has been on GPS. We have completed lots of practical activities in pairs and groups to help develop our understanding of the different sentence types, verb tenses, and direct and indirect speech. We have also enjoyed reading ‘Room 13’ by Robert Swindells. We can't wait to find out what happens to Fliss and her friends at the creepy Crow's Nest Hotel.

In our computing lessons, digital safety has been the focus. We now feel more confident in knowing when to report a post, when and how to support a friend, and who we can go to for support.

In maths, we have been focusing on place value, being able to identify the value of larger numbers, rounding, and Roman numerals. We have also revised our times tables. I have been very impressed with 5H’s determination and resilience when tackling some very tricky questions.

Our wider curriculum lessons started with Art and the work of Charles Sheeler, and enjoyed creating our very own Sheeler inspired perspective artwork. In Design and Technology, we looked at different framed structures and discussed how they are made to be strong and sturdy. We then created our own bird hides using saws and wood.

In Science, we have learnt about Earth and Space. We conducted lots of research using secondary sources to find out more about our planet and solar system. Did you know there are more than 200 moons in our solar system? 5H were amazed by this fact.

It has been a pleasure to get to know each member of 5H in Autumn term 1. I look forward to seeing you in Autumn 2. Have a lovely break. Get some well-deserved rest.

Mr Hogarth

Our first half term has been a super one! I have really enjoyed getting to know all of the children in 5LW.

In English we have been reading Room 13 and investigating the strange events taking place in The Crow’s Nest Hotel. We have had lots of fun learning all about Whitby and we enjoyed creating our own Whitby travel brochure. 

In Maths we have been thinking carefully about number and place value. We have used these skills to help us to round numbers, add and subtract, as well as solving lots of tricky problems. 

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our Earth and Space topic in Science. We have learnt about the planets in our solar system and why we have day and night. We conducted an investigation over time and found out all about shadows. The children have been extremely curious and have asked lots of thoughtful and relevant questions. We had a visit from the Space Dome and leaned lots of new facts about the stars. We even surprised them with a few facts of our own!

We started the term with Art and learning all about perspective and drew our own perspective pictures. Following this, we had a go at a DT topic

in which we designed and created our own bird hides. The children were incredibly sensible using the saws and worked well in their teams. I cannot wait for next half term where we will be starting our Invaders and Settlers topic. 

I hope that you all have a restful half term and I cannot wait to see everybody again in very soon. 

Our first half term has been a super one! I have really enjoyed getting to know all of the children in 5LW.

In English we have been reading Room 13 and investigating the strange events taking place in The Crow’s Nest Hotel. We have had lots of fun learning all about Whitby and we enjoyed creating our own Whitby travel brochure. 

In Maths we have been thinking carefully about number and place value. We have used these skills to help us to round numbers, add and subtract, as well as solving lots of tricky problems. 

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our Earth and Space topic in Science. We have learnt about the planets in our solar system and why we have day and night. We conducted an investigation over time and found out all about shadows. The children have been extremely curious and have asked lots of thoughtful and relevant questions. We had a visit from the Space Dome and leaned lots of new facts about the stars. We even surprised them with a few facts of our own!

We started the term with Art and learning all about perspective and drew our own perspective pictures. Following this, we had a go at a DT topic

in which we designed and created our own bird hides. The children were incredibly sensible using the saws and worked well in their teams. I cannot wait for next half term where we will be starting our Invaders and Settlers topic. 

I hope that you all have a restful half term and I cannot wait to see everybody again in very soon. 

We have come to the end of a very busy but thoroughly enjoyable Autumn 1 term.

In English, the focus has been on GPS. We have completed lots of practical activities in pairs and groups to help develop our understanding of the different sentence types, verb tenses, and direct and indirect speech. We have also enjoyed reading ‘Room 13’ by Robert Swindells. We can't wait to find out what happens to Fliss and her friends at the creepy Crow's Nest Hotel.

In our computing lessons, digital safety has been the focus. We now feel more confident in knowing when to report a post, when and how to support a friend, and who we can go to for support.

In Maths, we have been focusing on place value, being able to identify the value of larger numbers, rounding, and Roman numerals. We have also revised our times tables. I have been very impressed with 5H’s determination and resilience when tackling some very tricky questions.

Our wider curriculum lessons started with Art and the work of Charles Sheeler, and enjoyed creating our very own Sheeler inspired perspective artwork. In Design and Technology, we looked at different framed structures and discussed how they are made to be strong and sturdy. We then created our own bird hides using saws and wood.

In Science, we have learnt about Earth and Space. We conducted lots of research using secondary sources to find out more about our planet and solar system. Did you know there are more than 200 moons in our solar system? 5H were amazed by this fact.

It has been a pleasure to get to know each member of 5H in Autumn term 1. I look forward to seeing you in Autumn 2. Have a lovely break. Get some well-deserved rest.

Mr Hogarth

Welcome back, after a long, hot summer. We are really looking forward to getting stuck in to our new academic year.

English

This term we will be reading Room 13 by Robert Swindells. There will be a focus on deeper understanding of the text through higher order questioning and discussion. Using themes from the book, a range of writing genres will be explored while paying close attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Maths

The autumn term will  begin with revision  of quick mental  and written strategies that form the building blocks for more complex application including: place value, partitioning, multiplication and division by powers of  ten, factors, multiples and prime numbers . You can really help by supporting your child with the revision of their times tables try www.ttrockstars.com or www.transum.org and click on tables master for a great way to practise.  ‘Hit the button’ is another great way for your child to learn as they play.

Science

In Science we are learning about Earth, and what lies beyond in our solar system. This will give the children an understanding of the various methods of scientific enquiry used to answer different types of question.

RE / PHSE  

Our topic in RE this term explores the different ways in which we can help others including the care of animals and our environment.

Wider curriculum

We are going to start the year studying perspective and the artist Charles Sheeler. Then we will move on to study framed structures, with pupils designing and creating bird hides. Later in the term will look at Invaders and Settlers, studying Romans, Vikings and Anglo Saxons and their effect on Britain.

Computing 

Ready for a year of coding and game design, we are preparing the children this term, with a course in e-safety.

 PE/Games

In Games we will be developing our teamwork skills with a variety of activities designed to help us work together efficiently, after a long summer. 

Please observe the following safety rules:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson. This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E. lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered. Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Autumn 1 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

We have had an incredibly busy, but fun filled last half term. 

In our wider curriculum topics, we studied the work of Antony Gormley, and looked at the different techniques artists use to create sculptures. We then had a go at creating our very own Antony Gormley inspired sculptures. Recently, we have learnt about how different switches and alarms work, and then applied our new knowledge into designing our own alarm systems.

In English, we have explored a range of non-fiction and fiction texts. We particularly enjoyed creating our own playscripts and then bringing them to life by acting them out to an audience. We certainly have some budding actors in our class. We also produced some excellent recounts, writing from the perspective of a survivor of the Titanic disaster.

In computing, we worked together to make and code our own Lego model using the Lego WeDo program. It was great fun.

In P.E., we have mastered the skills required to compete in different athletics events, such as the javelin, the long jump, and the relay race. We also put our teamwork skills to the test when tackling a series of challenges. 

In maths, we started with translation and reflection, and then moved on to converting measurements and time. We also recapped and practised the four operations (amongst other skills). Once again, I have been impressed with the determination and resilience shown by my maths class. 

We have loved our Science topics this term. We learnt about the life cycle of humans and animals and the different stages we go through and how they affect us. On Science Day, we particularly enjoyed creating informative posters to raise awareness of diversity in science-related jobs.

5H have had an excellent term and school year. It has been a pleasure to have been a part of their learning journey and I am proud to have been their teacher. I would like to thank all parents for their support across the year, and I wish every member of 5H the very best in Year 6 and beyond. Enjoy the summer. 

Mr Hogarth

Wow! We made it through a whole year without interruptions, and hasn’t it flown. We have competed some great topics and pupils have made lots of progress in all areas of the curriculum. 

Our Anthony Gormley sculptures were super. Pupils used their imagination and skills to create lots of interesting poses. 

In Computing, there has been some fantastic coding going on with pupils able to use coding to make some complex counting machines.

In English, we enjoyed finishing ‘Stormbreaker’ and made some interesting comparisons between the book and the film. We have also completed some different genres of writing based on the Titanic story, which has also captured our imagination.

In Maths, we have focused on properties of shape, converting units of measure and also position and direction. Using coordinates we have been reflecting and translating shapes.

In Science, we have researched and investigated the different stages of the human life cycle and carried out some pattern seeking investigations.

During P.E., we have been working on our teambuilding skills and developing trust. We have also been polishing up our athletics skills. Sports Day was a big hit, with everyone participating enthusiastically.

It has been a pleasure to teach 5JW this year and I look forward to seeing them develop and progress through Year 6.

We started the Summer term off in style this year!

In English we finished our spy thriller ‘Alex Rider: Stormbreaker’. We loved reading all about Alex and his escapades as a secret agent. We all really enjoyed the twists and turns within the book!  I was blown away by the fabulous pieces of writing the children had created. I was particularly impressed with their non-chronological reports about jellyfish (which we discovered are not actually fish). 

In Maths we have been looking at position and direction as well as converting units of measure. We explored these concepts in a number of different ways, using a range of physical resources and diagrams to help us to show our understanding and explain our answers more thoroughly.  

Our wider curriculum topic at the start of the half term was focused on Art. We explored the work of the sculptor Anthony Gormley (who created the Angel of the North statue). The pieces that the children created look fantastic! Following this, we moved onto our D.T. topic all about alarms.  The children had the opertunity to explore different electrical circuits before having a go at creating their own alarm system. 

We have been looking at athletics in PE this half term. The children perfected their techniques in a range of events ready for our Sports Day. We saw some amazing performances from all of the children. I was particularly impressed with their javelin throwing. I would like to apologize to the parents and staff who were watching this event....I don't think any of us were prepared for just how far 5LW could throw those foam javelins! 

It has been a wonderful end to a superb year. I would like to say thank you to all of their children for their incredible hard work this year. I would also like to thank all of our families for all of their help and support. It has been an absolute pleasure to have every member of 5LW in my class this year. Our Year 6 teachers are very lucky to have you all next year. 

I hope everyone has a long and restful summer.  See you all soon!

Miss Wade 

We can't quite believe another year has gone by. 5W and set 2c maths have worked incredibly hard; the wonderful progress they have made is evident in their books, and we are already revising the skills we needed to, based on the assessments we did this half term.

Science has been about the human lifecycle, and we have used our scientific skills to investigate all sorts of questions that arose while we were learning about our species. We had a whole day focussing on the concept of,  ‘A scientist like me,’ where we learned about great scientists from diverse backgrounds, then planned, implemented and evaluated our own investigations in small teams. 

We have finished our last novel in English, and are covering any areas in grammar that need clarification. 

YPC has been art based, with some stunning sculptures produced in various styles (have a look on Twitter).We still have a few sunny afternoons of sports to look forward to (it might get us in the mood for some sporty family time this summer holiday).

Thank you to our wonderful children for their hard work, humour and resilience this year, and thank you to the lovely families who have made all the progress possible. Have a great holiday and see you in September 2022.

Yes! The final half term has crept up on us: the children have worked so hard to catch up, this year, and the evidence of their progress is clear in their demeanours, and their work. So we only have a few weeks to go, and we are going to make the most of it.

English

We have finished our class novel: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz, so now we are going to use the last few weeks to explore a range of non-fiction and fiction texts (including poetry). Please return to the spelling list in your child’s planner and ensure they can spell, understand and use the words in context. Reading at home with your child at least three times a week will support them as they become more familiar with language and literature.

Maths

Measurement and conversion, translations and time are next on the menu, in maths. We will continue with practising the four operations (amongst other skills) in our fluency sessions. You can get additional support on BBC bitesize.

Computing

We will be covering Kodu, Scratch, Lego Wedo and Sketch up (design package) depending on which class your child is in.

P.E.

Athletics and team building activities will be going on this term, culminating on our sports day (click here for details).

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Please come to school in appropriate sportswear on your PE days. 

Y.P.C.

World geography, including studies of Antarctica and the adventures of Shackleton, are among the phenomena we will be exploring this term. We are really looking forward to investigating the fascinating environments on our planet, and the way humans have been affected by them, and harnessed them for their own advantage. We will also be designing and creating our own 3D sculptures, inspired by Anthony Gormley, in clay.

R.E./P.H.S.E.

This term, we will be looking at being thankful, and the growing responsibilities as one becomes a teenager. We will also continue with our work on the UNICEF rights of the child.

Science

This term we will be learning about the human lifecycle, and the different stages we go through, including how they affect us.

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Summer 2 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

What another excellent half term! In English, we have been busy reading ‘Stormbreaker’, which is keeping us thoroughly entertained with lots of action and plenty of twists and turns. Through reading the spy novel we have discovered lots of new vocabulary. I have been impressed with how 5H have incorporated lots of the newly acquired vocabulary into their creative writing pieces.

In Science, we have been studying living things and their habitats. Our focus has been on learning about the life cycles of the different animal groups, and using classification to identify, group and name a variety of living things. We discovered some very weird but incredibly interesting facts when learning about the life cycle of parasites. This week, we have enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a flowering plant. 

In Maths, our focus at the start of the term was on understanding shapes and their properties. We learnt how to identify 3-D shapes from their net, and we now know how to distinguish between regular and irregular polygons. More recently, our focus has been on how to calculate the area and perimeter of both compound and irregular shapes. Once again, I have been impressed with both the determination and resilience of my maths class.

In YPC, we have completed our work answering the question ‘How do artists create and use pattern?’. We enjoyed learning about the different techniques and tools that Bridget Riley used to create her Op Art, and Pablo Picasso used to create his famous lino prints. We then had a go at creating our own artwork inspired by these incredible artists. We are now busy tackling our next challenge, answering the question ‘How is everyday life different in Antarctica?’.

It has been a thoroughly enjoyable but incredibly busy half term. Make sure you get lots of rest during the break. I’ll see you in the final term of the school year.

Mr Hogarth

Another half term flies by and we have managed to fit in lots of interesting activities. 

In English, we have been enjoying getting to know the teenage spy Alex Rider in ‘Stormbeaker’. We have already created some fantastic adventure stories and researched lots of amazing facts about Jellyfish. We have used these in our own non-chronological reports. Many of the class are now using a greater range of vocabulary and punctuation. The tension is building and we’re looking forward to his future adventures. 

In Maths, we have been developing our knowledge of 2-D and 3-D shapes, their properties and how to sort and classify them. We have also been calculating areas and perimeters of a variety of different shapes and developing our reasoning and problem solving skills. 

In Science, we have reminded ourselves about the characteristics of different animal groups and researched their life cycles. 

In YPC we have looked at the contrasting artists of Bridget Riley and Pablo Picasso. We have used their different styles to inspire our lino printing designs. We have already started our next topic based on World Geography, with a focus on the incredible expedition of Ernest Shackleton.  

Have a relaxing break. We have lots more great things to do next half term.

We started the Summer term off in style this year!

In English we went on an adventure with our new book ‘Alex Rider: Stormbreaker’. We love reading all about Alex and his escapades as a secret agent. We cannot wait to see what happens next half term!  I was blown away by the fabulous pieces of writing the children had created. I was particularly impressed with their adventure stories which they were able to fill with plenty of drama and suspense. 

In Maths we have been looking at statistics and properties of shapes. We explored these concepts in a number of different ways, using a range of physical resources and diagrams to help us to show our understanding and explain our answers more thoroughly. The children really enjoyed analysing the Premier League table during our statistics topic to see a real life example of a table. 

Our YPC at the start of the half term was focused on Art. We explored the work of Bridget Riley and Pablo Picasso in order to create our own lino tiles ready for printing. The pieces that the children created look fantastic! Following this, we moved onto our Geography topic looking at Antarctica. I cannot wait to continue this topic next half term. 

We have been working on our batting and bowling skills in PE! We really enjoyed our Cricket and Rounders topics, in which the children were able to set up their own matches. I was amazed by the control and skill shown in our Tennis topic, which we found out was harder than it looks! 

It is safe to say that this half term has been an excellent one. I hope everyone has a restful break before our final half term. I cannot believe that it is here already!

That felt like the shortest half term in history. We knew it was going to fly by, so got down to work straight away.

 YPC has been as creative as usual, with studies of great artists such as Bridget Riley and Picasso: how they used shape, pattern and colour to create beautiful works, sometimes with optical illusions. The children have made their own observations and annotations, which led to creating their own lino prints.

Maths Set 2C have continued to challenge themselves with fluency tasks involving angles first, then all the properties of polygons and polyhedra (2D and 3D shapes). Some of us have even progressed on to reasoning and problem solving with skills like finding perimeter and area.

Our thriller/action novel: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz is proving to be full of excitement, and we are refining our reading and writing skills so we may start Y6 with finesse.

Believe it or not, there is so much more we have managed to cover in science, P.E, R.E, music and Spanish but I'll leave it to the children to fill you in.

Have a marvellous half term everybody and make sure you get out and about (in a generous coating of sun cream) in the lovely weather.

We can’t quite believe how quickly this year is progressing, and how delightful it is to see how much your children have developed since the autumn term.

English

This term we will be reading Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. We will be using the text to explore a range of writing genres including recounts, formal letter writing, thriller stories, play scripts and film narrative. Please return to the spelling list in your child’s planner and ensure they can spell, understand and use the words in context. Reading at home with your child three times a week will support them as they become more familiar with language and literature.

Maths

There will continue to be a focus on geometry, statistics and time. 

We will also develop our understanding of the 4 main operations and apply them to multi-step problems. Our calculations will include numbers up to 6 digits, decimal numbers, negative numbers and fractions. Learning about imperial and metric equivalents for measure is and how to convert between them, is also on the menu.

Computing

During the first part of the summer term we shall continue to learn about coding using Kodu, you can download a free version at home if your child would like to practise.

P.E.

In PE and games we will be developing our striking and fielding skills: playing Rounders. We will also be learning about teamwork through outdoor adventure activities.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Please come to school in appropriate sportswear on your PE days. 

YPC

Next up is a study on Bridget Riley where we will look at her work and critically assess it (especially optical illusions). Then we will compare and contrast with the linoleum prints created by Picasso. Sketchbook work will include experimentation with different techniques for creating pattern and optical illusions. We will utilise all the skills we’ve learnt to create our own lino print work, in the style of Riley or Picasso.

We will then move on to a Geography based topic where will look at different climate regions, comparing Birmingham with Heimay in Iceland.

R.E./P.H.S.E.

This term, we will be looking at discipline and how events can affect our behaviour. We will also continue with our work on the UNICEF rights of the child. We also look at what makes a healthy friendship and relationships.

Science

Animals and their habitats are next up in science: we will be studying vertebrates (animals with a backbone). This will lead onto classifying these animals into different groups. Finally, we will look at their different life cycles and how they have adapted to their surroundings. 

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Summer 1 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

We have come to the end of another action packed half term. 

5H enjoyed a great day at Brighouse at the start of the term. We put our teamwork skills to the test by completing a series of fun challenges, we enjoyed a stroll through the woods, and we learnt how to start mini fires. Some pupils were also fortunate enough to spend three days on the Bell Heath residential trip, completing numerous fun activities including zip wiring, archery, and orienteering. On both trips pupils showed great maturity and were a credit to our school.

In English, we continued to read ‘Cogheart’. The twists and turns in the plot kept us guessing right up until the very end. We had some excellent discussions around the language, characters, and themes of the book, and we produced some interesting creative written pieces.

In maths, we have used a range of resources to help us to further understand place value, rounding decimals, and the equivalence between fractions, decimals, and percentages. In recent weeks, we have moved on to recognising different types of angles, and how to measure angles using protractors.

Our focus in Science has remained on materials and their properties, with investigations conducted to learn more about dissolving, filtration, and reversible changes. 5H particularly enjoyed burning different materials to discover whether burning is a reversible or irreversible reaction.

In YPC, we completed our mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes topic. 5H had fun practicing earthquake drills and enjoyed building our own earthquake proof buildings. In recent weeks we have been learning about CAMs. 5H successfully rose to the challenge of making our very own ‘Cogheart’ inspired CAM toys.

We have learnt a range of new skills in P.E this term. We started with archery, learning how to aim at targets high and low, near and far, with accuracy. We also enjoyed learning the basic skills and rules required to play cricket.

Our computing lessons have provided us with some interesting facts and information this term. 5H were amazed to learn that data signals travel all around the world at the speed of light via submarine fibre optic cables laid in our oceans.

It has been a thoroughly enjoyable, but very busy term. Make sure you get some rest over the Easter holidays. Wishing you and your family a nice break. I'll see you in the summer term.

What another fantastic half term! In English, we continued with our story ‘Cogheart’ . The children have completed some outstanding pieces of writing based around our book this term. This half term we have been focusing on our fiction writing skills. They have been thinking carefully about their vocabulary choices when composing their sentences. We have been thinking carefully about different types of figurative language that we can use. This has led to the production of lots of fantastic character and setting descriptions.

We started off this half term by looking at fractions, decimals and percentages in Maths. We built on the skills we had already learnt in our fractions topic to answer a variety of different questions. Following this, we moved onto our new topic: Properties of Shapes. This was a great opportunity to learn about angles and use a protractor to draw and measure angles. 

Our YPC topic, Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquake, came to an end this half term. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about earthquakes and practising our very own earthquake drill. At the children’s request, we talked about tsunamis and how to spot the early warning signs of a tsunami. Once we finished this topic we moved onto a fabulous DT topic all about CAM toys. The children had an opportunity to explore CAM toys. After this, we designed and made our own toys based on our English text ‘Cogheart’. I am so impressed with how the children worked collaboratively to come up with their imaginative creations. 

We have been extremely lucky this half term to take part in lots of off-site activities. At the start of the term we went to the Brighouse Outdoor Centre. With the help of Miss Pearson and Mr Jones, we had a go at a variety of different outdoor activities. Everyone enjoyed our walk to the woods to have a go at making some woodland art. But not as much as we enjoyed our cup of hot chocolate on our return! Towards the end of the term, half of our class went on a residential trip to Bell Heath. This was a great opportunity for these children to work on their independent learning skills as well as their cooperation and maturity skills. All staff who went were incredibly proud of the way that the children conducted themselves. Their manners, thoughtfulness and respect for others really shone through. They have made everyone at Yardley Primary School extremely proud.  

I hope that you all have a restful break and I cannot wait to see everyone in the Summer Term! – Miss Wade 

This half term has certainly flown by. We have been busy reading Cogheart, which is keeping us entertained as it has lots of twists and turns. The new vocabulary we are learning is continuing to develop our vocabulary. It’s been fantastic to see lots of it being used correctly in our creative writing in the last few weeks.

In Maths, we have focused on our understanding of fractions and making links to decimal place value and percentages. We keep finding more links to our times table knowledge, which continues to highlight how important learning our tables is. We have started looking at shape and have been investigating and measuring different types of angles and finding missing angles.

In Science, we have been looking at reversible and irreversible changes. We have enjoyed some exciting investigations and opportunities to make careful observations of different changes.

In YPC, we have now completed our work answering the question ‘How does land change over time?’. We have discovered lots of facts about Earthquakes as well as work on volcanoes and mountains. Our next challenge has been to create moving toys using cams. We have based our ideas on Cogheart.

Some of us have had an exciting time at Bell Heath and we also enjoy our visit to Brig House. Let’s hope the sunny weather returns for the holidays and next term. 

Have a lovely break.

Due to a taste of warmer weather, we've already had some fun outside, playing cricket in P.E. lessons, without being frozen. In geography, we’ve learned all about volcanoes and earthquakes, and have even designed an earthquake proof building, based on our research.

English has had an adventurous theme with the continuation of our epic mystery: Cogheart, by Peter Bunzl. The text includes some really challenging concepts and vocabulary, so we've handled it comprehensively, checking prediction, inference, retrieval and summary skills along the way. We are using contexts, prefixes, root words, word families and even hunches to clarify new words, and are becoming incredibly sophisticated as a result.

Maths in set 2c has been fun - we can now see the relationship between fractions decimals and percentages, and carry out a wide range of operations using each form of expression. Everyone is doing very well despite the fact that we have dealt with a few problem solving challenges which took clear reasoning and annotation to get round. 

Make sure you read over Easter, and get out in the fresh air as well. Don't eat too much chocolate. Have a lovely break.

Spring is just around the corner!  We hope you had a lovely half term holiday, and managed to catch some decent weather in our local parks, having fun as a family.

English

We will be continuing with Cogheart by Peter Bunzl.  It’s great to hear every child read, and so good for readers of all levels to be heard reading aloud.  The children are getting brilliant at skimming and scanning to find answers in the text, and they will have plenty of opportunities to show off what they have learned during writing lessons this term.

Maths

 We will continue on our work with fractions moving on to decimals and the percentages.  During this will look at decimal place value, rounding of decimals to 3 decimal places, equivalence between fractions, decimals and percentages. 

Computing

Each class will be having a go at Lego Wedo during the spring and summer terms – they will build moving structures to specification, then write the programs to animate them.  When it’s one class’s turn with the equipment, the other classes will be designing buildings on SketchUp (which is available as a free version to download at home). 

P.E.

Next half term our focus will be on cricket and archery.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Please come to school in appropriate sportswear on your PE days. 

YPC

In YPC we will finish our work on Mountains, volcanoes and Earthquakes by focusing in Earthquakes, and their effects on communities who live in these regions.  Once this is complete will move on to a D.T. project using cams to create moving toys.

We will also have the opportunity to visit Brighouse and carry out some more Forest School skills.

R.E./P.H.S.E.

In R.E. will be visiting work on ‘Participating and Willing to Lead’ and also ‘Being modest and listening to others’.

In P.S.H.E. we will continue to celebrate differences in society and individuals.

Science

In Science we are continuing to learn about materials.  We will investigate materials that dissolve and form a solution.  We will also investigate reversible and irreversible changes and also think about how to separate different mixtures.

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Spring 2 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites.  Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall.  Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library.

Video Parents Evening

If you haven't booked an appointment already, we would like to invite you to attend our Video Parents Evenings, taking place on the following dates:

• Tuesday 15th March 3.40pm - 5.40pm

• Wednesday 16th March 3.40pm - 6.20pm

Visit our Video Parents Evening page here to find out more and to book. 

If you have already booked an appointment, please test that your device will work for your appointment.  Click here to see how to test your appointment.

We have come to the end of another busy half term.

In English, we have been reading the excellent ‘Cogheart’ by Peter Bunzl. We have been gripped by the events unfolding and we all look forward to finding out what happens to Lily and the other characters when we continue to read the book after the break. Using themes, characters and settings from the book for inspiration, 5H have produced some excellent writing pieces.

In Science, we have had lots of fun conducting experiments to find out more about different materials and their properties. Recently, we completed a comparative test to discover which type of cups make the best insulators. In another comparative test, we added materials around the cups to discover which materials make the best insulators. 

In maths, our focus has been on fractions. We have learnt how to compare, order, multiply, add and subtract fractions. I have been very impressed with the attitude and resilience of my maths class, tackling each new lesson with determination and positivity. Well done.

YPC has been lots of fun this term. We started our new topic, Mountains, Volcanoes and Earthquakes. 5H enjoyed learning about how mountains are formed, and discovered the names and locations of some of the significant mountains in the UK and around the world. We also learnt lots of interesting facts about Mount Everest. Did you know that Everest grows by around 2cm each year! Recently, we created our own volcanic eruption, and after the half term break we will begin to learn about earthquakes.

P.E started with hockey. We had lots of fun learning how to correctly control the ball, dribble, pass, and shoot. We particularly enjoyed playing King of the Ring and being able to dribble the ball past Mr Hogarth. Recently, we have been working on our strength and fitness by completing lots of boxercise activities. 

In Spanish we have been learning how to introduce our friends and family members. There are many in 5H who are now able to ask and answer questions fluently.

In computing, 5H have been designing their own houses using Sketchup. Some children even managed to add swimming pools, gardens, cars, and interior furniture.

It has been a very busy and tiring term, so please make sure you get some rest and enjoy a well deserved break.

Mr Hogarth 

We started the Spring term off in style this year!

In English we went on an adventure with our new book ‘Cogheart’. We love reading all about Lily and her exciting (and mysterious) journey through Victorian England. We cannot wait to see what happens next half term!  I was blown away by the fabulous pieces of writing the children had created. From backstories to persuasive letters, the children really have shown that they can turn their hands to any genre. 

In Maths we have been focusing on fractions. We explored fractions in a number of different ways, using a range of physical resources and diagrams to help us to show our understanding and explain our answers more thoroughly. 

Our YPC topic was very exciting. We were incredibly lucky to take part in the ‘From City of Empire to City of Diversity’ topic which focused on how Birmingham and its people have changed in the years following WW2. We loved finding out about our own family histories and discovering interesting things about our loved ones. 

Following this, we moved onto our topic all about mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes. We learnt all about the different types of mountains and how they formed. We studied in some famous mountains in detail. Afterwards, we looked at volcanoes and explored the structure of a volcano. It was fantastic to see the children working as a team to create their own volcano fact files. 

This half term we have been getting our blood pumping in PE! We really enjoyed our boxercise topic where we were leaning all about different types of boxing moves all while completing some very intense exercise circuits. 

It’s been another busy half term. During YPC, we were lucky enough to have a visit from the ‘From City of Empire to City of Diversity’ exhibition. Pupils were able to view portrait photos from the past and discuss the reasons why people had these pictures taken. They also started to look at how historians can find evidence about different times in history from photos. We are now using our geography skills to learn about how mountains and volcanoes are formed.

In English, we have started reading Cogheart, which is an exciting adventure set in the past. We have learnt lots of new vocabulary during our reading and have been using it to support out writing. We have used the plot of Cogheart as a basis for some interesting writing genres including: a persuasive letter, a newspaper report and a non-chronological report. We are continuing to establish accurate use of punctuation and identifying spelling rules that can help us.

In Maths, we have moved onto focusing on fractions. We have been identifying how to make equivalent fractions, compare fractions, find fractions of amounts and also add/ subtract and multiply fractions. During our starters and on our Numbers day, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, we have focused on having rapid recall of times tables.

During Science, we have been learning all about conductors and insulators of materials, both thermal and electrical. To investigate these we have carried out comparative and fair tests.

We have had an action packed half term in 5W and 2c (Maths) . 

Our topic curriculum (YPC) began with a history project based on the photographs from the Dyche studio in Balsall Heath. Following that, we learned about mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes in geography.

Writing is coming on beautifully as the children start to implement targets, including increasingly sophisticated punctuation and clever vocabulary choices. We have recently worked on poetry, news reports and persuasive letters.

Why the Whales Came and Cogheart (our class novels) are both proving to be as gripping as we expected, and we are making sure we clarify any complex or ambiguous vocabulary as we go along.

Our scientific research on materials and their properties forces has built upon the knowledge we acquired in previous year groups, with investigations into electrical and thermal conductors and insulators.

During our maths lessons, the children are learning how to become more resilient and logical: we have tackled multiplication and division, in many forms, as well fractions, and the children are starting to solve tricky problems by spotting the relationship between the concrete and the abstract.

Everyone is working hard and it’s lovely to see your children’s confidence grow. Have a super week off, and we’ll see you soon.

Welcome Back!

We hope you had a wonderful break over Christmas, and that you had quality time as a family, whether you celebrate or not. We have some exciting plans for your child in 2022, and look forward to seeing them grow and progress with us.

English

This term we will be reading Cogheart by Peter Bunzl. Everyone will take turns to read aloud in class, as we clarify vocabulary, and work on any queries along the way. Using themes from the book, a range of writing genres will be explored while paying close attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Maths

In Maths, we will continue to work on our vital times table recall and also look at written methods of division. We will them move onto looking at fractions including decimals and percentages. We will order and compare fractions, recognise and convert improper fractions and mixed numbers and recognise the equivalence between fractions, decimals and percentages.

Computing

Each class will be having a go at Lego Wedo during the spring and summer terms – they will build moving structures to specification, then write the programs to animate them. When it’s one class’s turn with the equipment, the other classes will be designing buildings on Sketch Up (which is available to download for free, at home). 

P.E.

In P.E. will be carrying out boxercise in the first half term, working on our overall fitness and strength and then we will move on to hockey.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

Please come to school in appropriate sportswear on your P.E. days. 

YPC

We have been selected to work on a special ‘Heritage of Birmingham’ exhibition. Looking at the changes in Birmingham (especially migration) from the 2nd world war up until the 1960s. Following that, we will be learning about volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes.

R.E./P.H.S.E.

Our topic in R.E. this term explores being honest and truthful and in P.S.H.E. we will be looking at future dreams and goals.

Science

In Science we will continue our work on forces, looking at the simple mechanisms such as pulleys and gears. We will then look at properties and changes in materials.

Work at Home

All classes are on Twitter so please do follow us for updates. 

The ‘Spring 1 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

We encourage the use of our Learning Hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites. Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall. Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at the Virtual Library on the website.

We have come to the end of another very busy, but very enjoyable, half term. A huge well done goes to every member of 5H. Not only has your attendance been superb during this term, your attitude and work ethic has been excellent throughout.

In YPC, we have been busy researching and learning all about the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, to find out who had the greatest impact on Britain. A particular highlight of the term came when we went on our first school trip together, visiting Wroxeter Roman City, where we learnt all about what it was like to live in Roman Britain. Another highlight came with a visit from Professor McGinty, who taught us lots of weird and interesting facts about the Vikings and made us chuckle with all his silly jokes.

In Science, we have been investigating forces such as gravity, water resistance, air resistance and upthrust. 5H enjoyed conducting an experiment to find out why different shaped plasticine models either floated or sank to the bottom of a water tank. Next term, we will continue our investigations to learn more about levers, gears, and pulleys.

Our English lessons have been lots of fun this term. Despite the tricky vocabulary, 5H were able to produce some superb diary entries and modern-day poems inspired by Alfred Noyes’ ‘The Highwayman’. We have also started to read ‘Why the Whales Came’ by Michael Morpurgo, and we look forward to finding out what will happen next.

‘Dream Big Week’ seems like such a long time ago, but we had such a fantastic week, learning all about inspirational figures such as Malala Yousafzai and Katherine Johnson. 5H produced some fantastic work which is now on display in the school. 5H also created a lovely Remembrance Day display in memory of all those who have fallen.

In Maths, we have continued to improve our place value knowledge and tackled some tricky four operation calculations and word problems. Using inverse, we have been able to double check our answers.

In Spanish, we have learnt how to introduce ourselves and how to talk about our family and friends.

It has been a very busy term and each of you deserve a well-deserved break. Put your feet up, enjoy the festivities, and come back to school refreshed and ready to learn.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2022.

Mr Hogarth

What a super half term! There has been lots of exciting things going on this half term.

In English we have been looking at narrative poetry. The children really enjoyed our poem ‘The Highwayman’. Despite it being a tricky text with lots of complicated vocabulary, the children have produced some outstanding pieces of work. Including a diary entry written from the perspective of one of the characters in the poem. The children were able to get into character and really understand how the characters were feeling throughout the poem. 

In Maths we have been working hard on our multiplication and division skills. We have been using our times tables knowledge to help us to solve lots of problems.  

During our Science lessons we have been looking at different types of forces. We have had lots of opportunities to investigate the forces around us. The children were extremely sensible and mature when conducting their investigations in order to make sure that they recorded accurate results.  

Our YPC topic this half term has been action packed! We have been learning about ‘Invaders and Settlers’. We went on an incredible visit to Wroxeter Roman City in which we learned all about what it was like to live in Roman Britain. We also learnt about the Anglo-Saxons and how much they have impacted on our lives today. We had a visit from Professor McGinty who taught us about the Vikings. At the end of our topic we had a debate to decide who had the biggest impact on life in Britain. 

I hope that you all have a lovely Winter break. I can’t wait to see everyone again in the New Year!

Miss Wade

Christmas is rapidly approaching and we have come to the end of another half term. We have been extremely busy finding out about Romans, Anglo Saxons and Vikings and the effect they had on Britain. We have discovered lots of amazing facts, such as the fact that mud is a Viking word. We even got to visit a Roman city and we lucky enough to have a visit from Professor McGinty, who gave us even more information about the Vikings.

In Science, we have been investigating the forces around us such as gravity, air resistance, water resistance and upthrust. We will continue this topic next term finding out about levers, gears and pulleys.

In English we have produced some great pieces of writing inspired by the poem ‘The Highwayman’. We have written diary entries and our own modern day versions of this narrative poem. Next term we will be reading the book ‘Cogheart’ and continuing to develop the range of punctuation we use and expanding our spelling skills and vocabulary.

In Maths, we have been building our understanding of written methods of addition and subtraction, including inverse methods. We have recently started looking at multiplication. It is really important that we have rapid recall of our times tables as this will help us in lots of areas of Maths.

Next term we are taking part in an exciting Heritage Project, so it might be interesting to chat to your families and find out a bit about your family histories. 

Our class library has expanded with the book fairy delivering lots exciting new books that the pupils have requested.

It’s been a long term. I hope everyone gets to have a lovely break and we will back together in January.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

What a busy term we have had! In maths, we have been developing our fluency skills, confidence and speed with the four main operations, alongside a special focus on multiplication and division methods, patterns and relationships.

We have started another book: Why the Whales Came by Michael Morpurgo; everyone is getting a turn to read aloud to the class, and we have worked on the vocabulary in the text in order to enhance our enjoyment with better understanding. We’ve also looked at some narrative poetry: The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, and had a go at writing some poetry ourselves.

Practical investigations and model making to support them (parachutes and gyrocopters) have been good fun; we've learned all about forces this half term during our science lessons.

There's been some stunning art produced (Malala pictures) and we've enjoyed developing our handball and gymnastics skills. We also impressed Mrs Hodgkiss with our angelic rendition of Con mi Burrito Sabanero.

Now it's time to have a rest, and enjoy a quieter Christmas this year. If you don't celebrate Christmas, have a lovely holiday anyway. Well done 5W, you have come a long way in such a short time; promising things are ahead, and I'll see you in 2022.

Feliz Navidad

Mrs Walker

We hope you had a lovely half term, and it's great to be back!

Now that the children have settled in so well, we look forward to seeing their progress in the run up to Christmas. There are so many exciting things planned for forest school, Spanish, a visit to a Roman fort and a visit from Professor McGinty. We are kicking off this half term with Dream Big week - a topic week based on inspirational role models from all sorts of backgrounds

English

This term we will be starting off with Alfred Noye's poem: The Highwayman. It's a narrative, full of rich, archaic vocabulary, and figurative language - so there will be lots of new skills for the children to enjoy mastering.

Computing

We will be looking at staying safe online, we will be focusing on online relationships.

P.E.

This term we will be playing handball: we will start with the different throws and catches alongside learning some rules. We will practise shooting and defence, then had some fantastic games. Later in the term will move onto gymnastics looking at balances, rolls and forming sequences.

Please remember, if your child wears earrings, there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

YPC

We started our Invaders and Settlers topic, at the end of last term, with investigations into the lives of the Romans; we will continue our studies by looking at the Vikings and Anglo Saxons to discover how they influenced British culture, power and economics.

R.E./P.H.S.E.

In R.E. this term our focus will be on friendships and hopes for the future.

 In P.H.S.E., we will look at UNICEF Rights of the Child and celebrating difference.

Science

In Science, we will be focusing on forces, starting with gravity and then looking at other forces. Then how forces are used in simple mechanisms such as levers, pulleys and gears.

Work at Home

The ‘Autumn 2 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download here soon.

 We encourage the use of our learning hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites. Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall. Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at our Virtual Library website.

A big thank you to each member of 5H for the wonderful start to the new school year. It has been lovely getting to know you, learning more about your character, your hobbies, and interests. I have been impressed with how quickly you have settled, and how you all strive to model the school values each day.

In English, we have thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Room 13’ by Robert Swindells. It is a real page-turner that has had us on the edge of our seats. All members of 5H are eager to read the last few chapters to find out what will happen to Fliss and her school friends. Linked to this book, we have written our own suspense narrative, reported on Dracula being on the hunt for young blood, and produced a persuasive writing piece to convince people to visit the wonderful (and spooky) Whitby.

In Science, we have been helping Dr Zorg to learn more about ‘Earth and Space’. We have used our scientific and investigative skills to research and learn more about our solar system, the shape of Earth and the planets, and why we have daytime and night-time. 5H enjoyed a particular investigation - charting the changes in length of shadows over time.

Our YPC started with D&T. We looked at different examples of framed structures and joins, in preparation for designing and making our own bird hides. 5H were very sensible and mature when using the equipment and demonstrated excellent teamwork to produce some excellent bird hides, which are all still standing strong weeks later. We then looked at the art work of Charles Sheeler, learning about perspective and vanishing points, and had a go at creating our own perspective masterpieces. After half term, we’ll continue our research on the Romans, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons.

In maths, we have developed our place value knowledge, tackling questions on rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000, adding and subtracting, and identifying the value of larger numbers. We have also practiced our times tables with frequent games of Hit the Button.

It has been a wonderful 7 weeks for all. At home, over half term, If you would like some extra practice, then our school website has links to some great educational games. 

My advice, however, is to get some rest, and to be ready for the next term!!

Have a lovely week. I look forward to seeing you in November.

Mr Hogarth 

Our first half term has been a super one! I have really enjoyed getting to know all of the children in 5LW.

In English we have been reading Room 13 and investigating the strange events taking place in The Crow’s Nest Hotel. We have had lots of fun learning all about Whitby and writing pieces of work that create suspense and tension. 

In Maths we have been thinking carefully about number and place value. We have used these skills to help us to: round numbers, add and subtract, as well as solving lots of tricky problems. 

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our Earth and Space topic in Science. We have learnt about the planets in our solar system and why we have day and night. We conducted an investigation over time and found out all about shadows. The children have been extremely curious and have asked lots of thoughtful and relevant questions. 

We started the term in YPC by designing and making our own bird hides. The children were incredibly sensible using the saws and worked well in their teams. Following this, we learnt all about perspective and drew our own perspective pictures. I cannot wait for next half term where we will be continuing our Invaders and Settlers topic. 

I hope that you all have a restful half term and I cannot wait to see everybody again in November.

It’s been a busy first half term, we have covered a range of different skills. In Maths, we have been focusing on the number system and place value, being able to identify the value of larger numbers and also Roman numerals.  

In English, we have been enjoying the book ‘Room 13’ by Robert Swindells. It has kept us on the edge of our seats and has shown lots about using suspense writing, which we have had a go at ourselves. We have also found out about the town of Whitby and created our own non-chronological reports.

In Science, we have learnt about Earth and space and have investigated why we have night and day and worked at developing our Science skills. We have created line graphs and looked for patterns in results.

In D.T. we have also created some amazing framed structures, creating bird hides and using saws to cut wood and then creating strong joints. In Art, we have been developing our perspective skills, learning about vanishing points.

We have lots to look forward to next half term, such as finding out about the Romans, Vikings and Anglo Saxons and having a visit from Professor McGinty.

Have a great half term break. Have fun, stay safe!

What an excellent start to the school year, with new teachers, topics and special days to celebrate. I'm proud to say that 5W are settling down beautifully and are beginning to show the potential that we hope for. Lining up and moving professionally round the school has improved tremendously, as we are aware of how we appear to others. Class systems are coming together; we know where to find what we need and what is expected from us presentation wise.

Our first topic in Science has been all about our solar system, and we have enjoyed learning the names of the planets, and how they all orbit around the sun. 

Design Technology has been successful, resulting in the creation of our fantastic bird hide models, so YPC ( our Yardley Primary Curriculum for humanities) has been great fun.

Standards in English have been set, and everyone is doing their best to get their joined handwriting to the standard currently required by the government. Excellent grammar, good spelling and  accurate punctuation are vital this year, so we are being encouraged to check our work ourselves and correct any mistakes before handing work in. 

There has been a welcome influx of fabulous books, at school, and children should be asking to read with adults at home. They may help themselves to any book on the bookshelves, although it's lovely to see children bringing in favourite books from home too. 

Never forget the value of reading for pleasure, alongside the enormous benefits when learning new vocabulary, spelling and language structure.

The children are working hard in maths, the best way you can help is by playing times table games together or online - the odd informal test on a journey is always helpful, and don't forget to get your child to log in to MyMaths and Timestables Rockstars for extra practice.

We have so much to do and so little time. Thank you for your support (as always).

 Mrs Walker

Welcome Back!

We are so incredibly happy to see all the children returning to school with smiles on their faces, showing enthusiasm and curiosity. We are looking forward to teaching them lots of exciting lessons and useful skills. We shall all work together to have a great term with new, inspiring topics.

English

This term we will be reading Room 13 by Robert Swindells. There will be a focus on deeper understanding of the text through higher order questioning and discussion. Using themes from the book, a range of writing genres will be explored while paying close attention to grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Computing

Ready for a year of coding and game design, we are going to start with a programme called Scratch, where we are going to create a maze game. 

P.E.

In Dance, we will be developing our skills, of breakdancing. For P.E. we will be studying Netball. 

If your child wears earrings there are three options on P.E. days:

1. Children do not wear their earrings on the day that they have a P.E. lesson.  This is the safest option.

2. Children have plasters put on at home so that their earrings are already covered for their P.E. lesson.

3. Send plasters in so that their earrings can be covered.  Children will need to do this themselves, staff are not able to.

YPC

We are going to start the year studying framed structures, with pupils designing and creating bird hides. Then we are going to study perspective and the artist Charles Sheeler. Later in the term will look at Invaders and Settlers, studying Romans, Vikings and Anglo Saxons and their effect on Britain.

R.E./P.H.S.E.

Our topic in R.E. this term explores the different ways in which we can help others including the care of animals and our environment. In P.H.S.E., we will look at UNICEF Rights of the Child and goals for the future.

Science

In Science we are learning about Earth and what lies beyond our solar system. This will give the children an understanding of the various methods of scientific enquiry used to answer different types of question.

Work at Home

The ‘Autumn 1 Work At Home’ pack will be available to download from the school website soon.

 We encourage the use of our learning hub, Times Table Rockstars and MyMaths websites. Times tables can be a bit of a stumbling block, and the only way forward is regular practice to improve speed and out-of-sequence recall. Please support your child by hearing them read and encouraging them to read independently as often as possible, they may also like to take a look at the Virtual Library on the website.

Our final half term in Year 5 has been a busy one!

We finished Stormbreaker and completed a piece of non-fiction writing informing readers about the weird and wonderful world of jellyfish. We also tried our hands at a few different types of poetry - the haikus in particular were stunning.

We began to look at statistics in maths, looking at bar charts, line graphs and timetables, as well as learning to reflect and translate shapes across the x and y axes.

We started the term in YPC with a D&T focus, designing and making our own moving toys using CAMs, and then exploring optical art and foam printing through the work of Bridget Riley.

Sports Day was really fun, though it was a shame that parents couldn't join us.

Finally, on the morning of my final day at Yardley Primary School, I'd like to say thank you to all of the staff, parents, pupils, and particularly this year's 5A, for making my time here so special, and for teaching me so much. I know that the class, and the school, will continue to go from strength to strength.

Another busy ½ term with lots going on.

In English, we finished ‘Stormbreaker’ and also did some non-fiction writing, investigating fascinating jellyfish. We all learnt lots about these amazing creatures and created some fantastic non-chronological reports. We also put our poetry hats on and had a look at some different styles of poetry, including haiku.

In Maths, we revisited fractions and decimals, as well as looking at some work on graphs and time.

We had a very practical YPC half term, creating toys using CAMs. Pupils showed great skills using saws and showed great problem solving, whilst getting their toys to bob up and down, spin or both. We also looked at the art of Bridget Riley and created colour prints using foam tiles, with great success.

Pupils participated enthusiastically on Sports Day and it was a pity they couldn’t be cheered on by more than their class mates, perhaps next year we will be able to be a more of a family affair.

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching 5JW and am impressed with their resilience with dealing with the various interruptions caused by COVID. I wish them a successful time with their various teachers next year and hope it can be more settled for everyone.​

We can't quite believe another year has gone by. 5W have worked incredibly hard; the progress they have made is evident in their books, and their improved confidence and maturity.

During our science sessions we have been learning about the reproduction cycles of living organisms; there has been some fieldwork involved, and it has been helpful to expand our general knowledge and observations ( for example - all the 'fluff' that's been around in the air recently, came into our discussion of seed dispersal).

Maths has included a unit on geometry, one on statistics, then some work on fractions, decimals and percentages. Remember to remind your child to use Mathletics over the holidays to consolidate their knowledge.

During English lessons, we really enjoyed our class novel, Stormbreaker - and managed to get some great pieces of writing done whilst using it for inspiration. 

YPC has been D.T. and art based, with some stunning work produced in various styles (have a look on Twitter).

We still have a few sunny afternoons of rounders to look forward to (it might get us in the mood for some sporty, family time, in the park, this summer holiday).

I have had the best time teaching this class, they are a wonderful bunch of young people, and I am going to miss them tremendously.

Thank you to your gorgeous children for their hard work, humour and resilience this year, and thank you to the lovely families, supporting them, who have made all the progress possible. Have a great holiday and be ready for Year 6 in September.

Hasta luego,

Mrs Walker

A personal message from Mr Thacker:

What a strange and challenging year it’s been! Your children have been incredibly resilient, hardworking and a delightful distraction from the outside world. Considering the amount of school they’ve all had to miss due to lockdowns, their progress has been very good and they have continued to show a huge amount of enthusiasm and effort during lessons.

This will be my final year at Yardley Primary School. After thirty years of teaching here, I’ve decided that now is the time to move on to other things. I will miss working with children and seeing them develop and grow - both emotionally and academically - and I feel very lucky to have worked with such an amazing team of teachers over the past three decades. I’m also delighted that Class 5T will be my last ever class as they have made my final year of teaching in the classroom very enjoyable.

Thank you, goodbye and best wishes to you all.

Mr Thacker​