English

In English, we have been studying Julius Zebra by Gary Northfield, a story about a Zebra who gets captured in his home in Africa and taken to Rome to compete as a Gladiator for Emperor Hadrian himself! We have been practising writing direct speech, building on our knowledge of subordinate clauses from year 4, and challenging ourselves to use them in our writing. We have written a narrative and a formal complaint letter from Septimus to Emperor Hadrian, ensuring we include formal language and modal verbs!
We have also been diving into The Tempest (A Shakespeare Story). While exploring different retellings of the story can be enjoyable, it's also important for students to experience the original play in its script form and to see it performed—either through film or, ideally, on stage. We showcased this for our class assembly! Throughout this unit, students have been engaging with the play's themes, characters, and key ideas. They’ve had various writing opportunities, including creating character descriptions, comparing characters, describing scenes and settings, and writing diary entries from the perspective of different characters. In addition to creative writing, students have been learning the conventions of writing playscripts, focusing on elements like dialogue, stage directions, and how to convey action through text. They’ve also had a chance to explore some of Shakespeare’s unique writing features, such as iambic pentameter.

In reading, we have been looking at our English texts Julius Zebra and The Tempest using questioning from our VIPERS reading domains. This has allowed the children to discuss the text in depth and explore various aspects of the story. VIPERS stands for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, and Sequence/Structure, which are key skills that help students develop a deeper understanding of the text.

Our class readers this term have been The Rotten Romans by Terry Deary and Macbeth (A Shakespeare Story) by Tony Ross

In the first half of the term, the focus in Spelling & Handwriting was on solidifying foundational spelling knowledge. Key spelling rules, patterns, and strategies to help them spell more accurately were introduced. In the second half of the term, we deepened our understanding of more complex spelling rules and patterns while continuing to build on foundational skills.

Maths

This autumn term in Year 5, students have been building strong foundations in key mathematical concepts. Here’s a summary of what we've covered so far:

Place Value:
We began the term by deepening our understanding of numbers up to 1,000,000. Students explored the value of each digit in large numbers, learning how to read, write, and compare them. They also developed their skills in rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000, and beyond.

Addition and Subtraction:
Next, we focused on adding and subtracting larger numbers, including those with more than four digits. Students practiced mental and written methods for addition and subtraction, with an emphasis on carrying and borrowing. They also applied their skills to solve problems in a variety of contexts.

Multiplication and Division:
In this unit, students worked on multiplying and dividing larger numbers by one-digit and two-digit numbers. They refined their understanding of multiplication and division facts and applied these skills to solve problems. Students also worked with long multiplication and division, including with remainders, and solved real-life word problems.

Fractions:
We’ve spent time building our understanding of fractions, starting with comparing and ordering fractions with the same denominator. Students also worked on converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers, as well as adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator. We introduced the concept of equivalent fractions and explored how to simplify fractions.

History

Our topics this term have been Roman Britain following the enquiry question "How did the Roman Empire leave its mark on Britain?" and The Victorians following the enquiry question "How have our lives changed because of the Victorians?"

The key substantiative knowledge threads of our learning have been:

Migration and Settlement
Achievements and Legacy:
Power and Rule / Invasion and Conflict

Science

Our topic is 'Properties and Changes of Materials'. We have been identifying the properties of different materials and linking that to our previous knowledge - such as understanding whether something is a conductor of electricity based on its properties. We investigated thermal conductors by carrying out an experiment using various cups containing boiling water. We measured how quickly the temperature of the water decreased over some time. We then chose the data of one of the cups to display on a line graph.

Computing

In computing, we have been developing our understanding of computer systems and how information is transferred between systems and devices. We have been considering small-scale systems as well as large-scale systems. We can explain the input, output, and process aspects of various real-world systems. We have also been discovering how information is found on the World Wide Web, through learning how search engines work (including how they select and rank results) and what influences searching, and through comparing different search engines.
 

Spanish

This half term, our topics have been La fecha (The date) and En la cafetería (At the cafe). The children have been learning to:

Recognise and recall the 7 days of the week in Spanish.
Recognise and recall the 12 months of the year in Spanish.
Recognise and recall numbers 1-31 in Spanish.
Ask and answer the question ‘¿Qué fecha es hoy?’ (What is the date today?) in Spanish.
Ask and answer the question ‘¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?’ (When is your birthday?) in Spanish.

Remember and recall a wide variety of foods, snacks, and drinks (with their indefinite article/determiner) typically served in a Spanish cafetería.
Understand better how to change a singular noun to plural form.
Perform a short role-play ordering what they would like to eat and drink.

R.E

Our Autumn 1 topic was "What do religions believe about God? All faiths and world views". We considered what faith means and how Christians and followers of other religions describe God. We have also thought about the meanings of stories from sacred texts about people who encountered God and why there are many ideas about God. In Autumn 2, our topic was "Christmas around the world".

P.E

In the Autumn term, our topics are 'Games (sending skills using hands)' and 'Gymnastics'