Miss Clifford, Miss Dixon
assisted by Debbie
CURRICULUM
OVERVIEW
Click here for Year 5 overview

MATHS
Please support your children to keep their times tables knowledge running smoothly! We rely more and more on quick recall of mental maths facts to underpin our learning. Time spent practising on Times Tables Rock Stars forms part of their weekly homework.
Please find the Maths Methods Handbook here

USEFUL NOTICES
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Reading records and reading books must be in school every day.
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Bring a water bottle to school each day.
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PE is on a Thursday and children should come to school wearing their kit.
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The Boutcher Mile is on Friday. Children should have their trainers available.
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Our library session is on a Thursday so please have your library book in school to renew or change.
HOMEWORK
Children will receive homework on Wednesday.
In Year Five, weekly homework is:
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daily reading (with responses in reading journal)
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comprehension x 1
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ten spellings words and sentences plus a Readiwriter activity
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practise of times tables through Times Tables Rock Stars (minimum of 25 minutes spent each week)
All homework needs to be completed for Wednesday morning. Please upload the spelling sentences to Google Classroom to be marked. The comprehension book should be brought into school for Wednesday to be marked in class.
Children will be tested on their spellings each Wednesday and their score will be recorded in their reading journal.
GUIDING READING
We will begin the term with a beautifully illustrated text titled Mythologica. This book has been chosen as it again links to our study of Greek Myths as part of our historical study of Ancient Greece. We will uncover the colourful lives of 50 powerful gods and goddesses, earth-dwelling mortals and terrifying monsters.

PSHE
Our first PSHE topic of the spring term is Dreams and Goals. In this unit, children will think about their aspirations, how to achieve their goals and the emotions that go with this. The unit will be split into the following lessons:

After half-term, they will move on to the topic, Healthy Me where they will learn about keeping safe and healthy. The unit will be split into the following lessons:

R.E
The first RE topic for the spring term answers the question: How does Holy Communion build a Christian community? This question will be broken down into weekly lessons and will cover the following points:
• what Jesus said and did about Communion and how Christians remember this;
• how and why Christians share in the Body and Blood of Jesus;
• how the act of sharing Communion demonstrates God’s Peace;
• the legacy of Jesus and how it may help Christians today in their legacy.

SCIENCE
The first science topic of the spring term is Living Things and Their Habitats. In this topic, children will describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals including mammals and they will describe the differences in the life cycles of an amphibian and an insect by exploring complete and incomplete metamorphosis.
In our next topic, children will learn about forces and this will include gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction and they will have the chance to create their own simple mechanism too. There will be plenty of opportunities for them to test and carry out fair investigations during lessons.

TOPICAL TALK

Topical Talk is a programme from the Economist Educational Foundation which supports discussions about current affairs. For children in Years Five and Six, we hold regular lessons where they explore a current story in the headlines. The activities foster progress in listening, speaking, problem-solving and creativity skills.
THEME
Year 5 will be learning about Ancient Greece this term. This will be an exciting topic, which I know they are looking forward to! Throughout this topic, they will build on their knowledge of empires, learn more about daily life there, make some comparisons between life in Athens and life in Sparta and know that the Olympic Games is one example of a legacy of Ancient Greece. They will also be learning about the beliefs of the ancient Greeks during their reading and writing lessons.

In Geography, they will do a comparative study between two contrasting locations.
In art, children will learn more about the artist Van Gogh and explore his works. They will use their sketch books to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, with focus on painting.

ENGLISH
We will begin this term with the book, The Odyssey, which links perfectly with our history topic of Ancient Greece. This illustrated story takes children on an adventure with the greatest of heroes - Odysseus - as he battles great monsters, gods and mortals on his voyage home to Ithaca. Children will use this book as a prompt for their own writing and will finish the sequence by writing their own epic adventure story.

BOOK LIST
Click here for Year 5 book list