Year 5
Welcome to Year 5!
As the children progress through Upper Key Stage Two, Year 5 is a super year for the children to build on their independence and self-motivation – their learning voices and personalities really developing and being heard. Whilst still having the chance to be elected as a Collective Worship Councillor or School Councillor, Our Year 5 pupils have the opportunity to take on more responsibility around the school, such as helping with the younger years at lunchtime and becoming Sports Ambassadors. These duties are valuable, and it shows through their increasing independence and confidence.
What We Are Learning:
Maths:
Maths is a journey from which many start at different places. At St George’s, we aim for our children to confidently use and apply mathematical concepts across a variety of situations. We proudly follow the White Rose Maths curriculum, which allows opportunities for children to clearly articulate their ideas and reasoning processes, enabling deeper learning. We expect children to make mistakes, analyse them and learn from them, justifying and explaining as they do this.
English:
Reading
We use a whole-class approach when teaching reading, using activities from Reading Explorers. Children are explicitly taught reading skills including skimming, scanning, text retrieval, inferring, deducing, analysing, and evaluating. As part of their learning, children are provided with opportunities to respond to the texts that they read through a range of question types. They are encouraged to text-mark and identify evidence from the text to justify their ideas and answers. Children are consistently encouraged to apply these skills when reading independently and reading across the curriculum.
We also enjoy a class text together. This is a well-loved and enjoyable part of our day as the children cannot wait for the next instalment of the book. We try to select texts that appeal to all of the members of the class so that they can all experience that wonderful feeling of reading together.
Writing
The Year 5 Curriculum for writing builds on prior learning, developing their skills from past year groups. We also introduce new ways of advancing their writing, such as introducing relative clauses, linking paragraphs using cohesive devices and punctuation to avoid ambiguity. We ensure to plan lots of opportunities for writing across a range of genres, increasing their opportunities to apply these skills.
Spelling
We follow the Active English Spelling approach. Children enjoy the activities and the repetitive and consistent nature of learning. They enjoy exploring the morphology and etymology of the new words that they are being taught. They are encouraged to apply these skills and words in their writing and other areas of the curriculum.
History:
Our history topics pose questions such as ‘what did the Greeks ever do for us?’. This dives into the creation of democracy and how ancient Greek philosophers have helped shape our society today. In Spring, we will be investigating ‘what was life like in Tudor England?’. We will study sources and decide their validity. Our last historical question will be ‘how did the Maya civilisation compare to the Anglo-Saxons?’ We will compare Anglo-Saxon and Maya homes and investigate the demise of the Maya population.
Computing
Video editing: To plan, film and edit a video focusing on transitions and snipping video clips.
Game creator: To plan, design and create the game environment.
Spreadsheets:
Coding: Simplify code to create a playable game.
Micro:bit: Using micro:bits to create simulations, setting the values of variables and trigger actions in programs.
Modelling: Explore the effect of moving points when designing. Design a 3D model to fit certain criteria.
Databases: To learn how to search for information in a database.