Our week started with the whole school focusing on refugees everywhere – . Mrs Porter led a very moving assembly which touched on one girl’s fraught trip to safety in England . We were all dressed in blues and yellows to show solidarity with Ukranian refugees.

Of course, this Sunday is Mothers’ Day. We rehearsed long and hard and for those of you lucky enough to witness it, were magnificent as we delivered our Mothers’ Day Song.

We have also produced some Mothers’ Day cards – En Francais and Electronic – (Remember that elecronic cells/ batteries are highly dangerous if swallowed by a child or pet)

Have a great Weekend!

This week in Year 5 (14th March- 18th March)

As well as continuing to work on our core curriculum subjects we have found lots of time to celebrate this week. The school has been awash with colours as first we celebrated St Patrick’s Day and everywhere you looked was someone wearing green or a shamrock.

On Friday, we were all dressed in red in recognition of Comic Relief – I looked respledent in my 1970s Arsenal top. Of course, this is a timely reminder of the Lenten Promises and commitments we make and our call, as Catholics, to reflect on the importance of showing charity to those less fortunate than ourselves.

We had a visit from Rock Steady Music, who enthralled the children with a chance to play musical instruments such as the electric guitar, drums, vocals and keyboards. There is a flyer which your child has which has more information.

Our electronic cards are really starting to take shape with all those lessons on electrical circuits really helping. (NB – These cards contain batteries which could be very harmful if swallowed by a small child/pet – please bear this in mind when your child brings home their electronic card).

This week in Year 5 (7th March- 11th March)

Well, this week we started our new book ‘Unspoken’. It is a wonderful book ( and not a single word of text) but has prompted much discussion between the pupils. This book, a tale from the underground railroad, linked into our research on slavery using Curriculum Vision. We were also able to link this with International Womens’ Day , when we learnt about Harriet Tubman who helped over 300 slaves escape in 19th Century America.

We learnt about how to establish emotional wellbeing this week – (the photos confirm that we all were very positively engaged).

We were also fine-tuning our ability to create electric circuits and extended this to series and parallel circuits.

Our reading area was ready this week. You can see it being road-tested below.

Finally, we were able to end the week with another child-led act of worship.

This week in Year 5 (28th February- 4th March)

Hi Everyone,

Another eventful week:

Science – this week we have had a couple of experiments investigating heat flow and insulation.

Then of course there was St David’s Day and Shrove Tuesday and the Ash Wednesday Service.

The week was crowned with our book day celebrations. Our focus was around the ‘Black Panther ‘ series of books but we also had a tutorial from our very own Teresa on how to make bookmarks – but not just any bookmark!

Of course, we all looked splendid in our assorted book character outfits – how many can you recognise?

NEW BOOKS

Mr Sallis has given the class some new books which are more reflective of the rich cultural heritages within our class.

50 BOOKS

This is a reminder of Mr Hayes’s letter which lists 50 key books for each Year group and a request for donations. We have already had a some donations to this effect. I will have the Book List in class which I will use to check off the items so children can see what books are left to buy in order to avoid duplication ( rather like a wedding.

Finally… those photos from last week.

This week in Year 5 (20th February- 25th February)

Hi Everyone,

It was good to be able to see so many of you and discuss how well Year 5 were progressing.

We have completed our current book – ‘The Lost Thing’. The children seem to have been writing out of their skins on this and produced some excellent work.

We have had great fun working with electrical circuits for our DT project and it was glockenspiels at the ready as we played very harmoniously along to ‘Feel my Love ‘ by Adele.

Finally, we were again able to end our week with a lovely act of worship led by the children.

There are photos of all this and , when my class ipad stops being so temperamental, I will ipload them.

Have a great weekend

This week in Year 5 (7 February- 11th Feb)

So what have Year 5 been up to this week? Well we have been working hard in English on ‘The Lost Thing’ and consolidating our work on fractions in maths. In history we learnt about ( deep breath!)Alfred, his daughter Aethelfalaed, her husband Aethelred, their daughter Aelfwynn and nephew Athelstan – and how they defeated the Vikings.

We had Internet Safety Day this week and we did an Quiz which prompted much discussion and made an Internet Safety themed fortune teller.

It was lovely to end the week with an act of worship led by some of the children.

This week in Year 5 (31st Jan- 4th Feb)

Well this week has been an eventful one. As was the previous two which, owing to technical difficulties, I could not tell you about on this webpage.

So in brief, some highlights from the enforced hiatus:

More science investigations – this time investigating the effect of temperature on the rate sugar dissolves.

And when learning about everyday Viking life, we built our own Viking village

Scripture Roadshow

This week week we went on a school trip (remember them!)

We were off to the Cathedral to learn about Scripture through various media.

After scaling Holywell Hill , we entered the Cathedral and were warmly greeted. Along with other schools, we were treated to an assembly involving singing (with actions) , prayer , meditation and drama.

After this, we went to the pre-booked drama workshop.

We started off with some warm up games involving Eagles, Tigers and Snakes and a ‘Moo – Off’!

Then the children played a game where they had to get into groups of certain sizes – if you didn’t manage to join a group – then you were ‘eaten by the sharks’. It was facinating to watch the children scrambling around making and breaking parnerships – but it was all good humoured .

Next came , human sculptures where the children had to work together to form a certain object/theme. The photos are in no particular order, but can you spot an elephant, a word beginning with B, a game of netball, some X-menand a famous London landmark?

I realised the children were being taught to collaborate together. The sessione ended with tableaux of Noah’s Ark,; The Nativity; Turning Water into Wine; and The Good Samaritan.

After this was some time to wander around the cathedral looking at various exhibitions.

Then it was off to eat a picnic in gthe park before swimming to round off an excellent day.

NSPCC Numbers Day

We were celebrating all things mathematical today. Who knew Albert Square could be so interesting?

Of course, we had to look the part:

Year 5 – Happy New Year

Let me first say that I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas holiday.

Thank you so much for the thoughtful gifts, giftcards and cards.

It was so lovely to see the children back. They seem to be suitably refreshed from their holiday which is good as we have a busy term ahead.

Here is a brief overview :

In English, we are completing our work on the book: ‘Hidden Figures’ about the pioneering work of several black women engineers and mathematicians working for NASA in the 1960s during the space race who had to overcome the many prejudices that were prevelent at that time. It has been an inspirational story and I know the children have found it eye-opening. We will be moving on to ‘The Lost Thing ‘ by Shaun Tan and ‘Unspoken’ by Henry Cole.

In maths we will be working mainly on fractions and reviewing maths fluency in multiplication and divison.

In computing the children will be undertaking a unit on Blogging; in Art, printing inspired by the Vikngs; and in DT, we will be making an electronic greetings card.

In History, we will learn more about the Vikings and Danelaw; in Geography we will be looking at Global Energy and Sustainability; and in Science we are studying material properties and dissolving.

THE FEAST of the EPIPHANY

This week we celebrated the Feast of the Nativity. Our focus was to compare how Matthew focuses on the Wise men but does not mention the Shepherds. Conversely, Luke mentions Shepherds but makes no mention of the Wise Men ( he didn’t say how many incidently).

We looked at the symbolism behind the gifts of Gold , Frankincense and Myrrh but mainly on the contrast between the Shepherds and The Wise Men.

Shepherds were poor, uneducated Jews on the periphery of society ; the Wise Men were educated, wealthy men of esteem (probably gentiles).

Perhaps the importance of these two stories is to illustrate how Jesus came to save everyone from all walks of humanity not just one particular segment. Moreover, the first to be invited to see Jesus, the Shepherds, were among the very poorest and of very low status.