Last week Y5 participated in one of the highlights of our year - the tremendous Young Voices at the O2. Along with 9,000 other primary school children from across the South East, we sang our socks off to a medley of songs that included a Bob Marley tribute, pop classics spanning the ages and music from the musical Hairspray, all accompanied by professional singers and musicians. The children worked really hard in the run-up to the event, and we were hugely impressed by their enthusiasm and proud of their behaviour on the night. Great work children! A huge thank you to the Y5 parents for their support of this endeavour. It is a hugely enriching experience - unlike anything we can reproduce inside the classroom - and even the most reluctant of singers had an absolutely incredible evening.

Of course, classroom learning has also continued over the last couple of weeks! In maths, we completed a short unit of work on fractions that included multiplying both fractions and mixed-numbers by whole numbers. In science, we have been separating mixtures as part of our topic on materials and their properties. Viking trade routes and sagas have been the focus of our enquiries in history and, in English, we have performed part of the witches' opening scene from Macbeth, to help inspire and generate ideas for written setting and character descriptions.

...is more bread! We have been very busy in Y5 designing, baking and evaluating breads. From baps to plaits, we have had everyone in the school salivating as the smell of freshly baked bread has wafted through corridors, infused with lashings of cheese, onion, rosemary, pesto and jalapeño. It tasted pretty good as well!

We've also been busy in science, learning about hydrodynamics by investigating how the shape of an object influences resistance to its motion as it travels through a liquid. In addition, we've looked at the forces involved in levers and begun to develop an understanding of the concept of mechanical advantage through load/fulcrum/lever models.

In maths, our unit of work on fractions culminates this week, and we look ahead to multiplication and division in the new year. Poetry and motivational speaking have been the order of the day in English through our current text, Shackleton's Journey.

Finally, as the end of term approaches, we have been singing our socks off in preparation for the Christmas Carol Concert, which will surely be a wonderful and fitting conclusion to a fantastic autumn term.

The second half of the Autumn term got off to an explosive start as we have discovered how plate tectonics are involved in the formation of volcanoes. In science, after briefly considering volcanoes that exist beyond the realms of Earth - including the extinct mega-shied volcano Olympus Mons on Mars - our attention has shifted from outer space to forces. 

We have explored new number concepts including square numbers, cube numbers and prime numbers in our unit of work on multiplication and division, whilst in English we have petitioned Sir Ernest Shackleton to join him as crew members on his 1914 Trans-Antarctica Expedition. If you need a cook, photographer, champion swimmer, navigator, dog handler or able seaman, then you need look no further!

Year 5 enjoyed a fantastic visit from the Science Dome this week, where we learnt all about our solar system. It was brilliant to see our science topic come to life through immersive projections. We are also enjoying our weekly cricket sessions and have spent some quiet time reading in the library. In English, we have begun writing some creative narratives inspired by our core text 'Tuesday' - are those flying pigs?! In PSHE, we have also been building our team work skills by playing 'the floor is lava', helping each other to cross the playground without touching the floor. This week's theme has been kindness - have you paid an act of kindness forward this week?

After undertaking rigorous astronaut training, Y5 have well and truly embarked on the next phase of their educational journey. We kicked off with a tour of our solar system in science and have been checking our astronomical place values in maths - not forgetting that the Romans had their own numerical system - along the way.

In English, we have been levitating in an altogether different manner, exploring the magical world of Tuesday, authored by David Wiesner. Watch out for flying frogs! We have also journeyed back in time to explore the causes and consequences of early Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain and considered retrofuturism in art.

The Year 5 teaching team have been delighted with how quickly the children have settled into Y5 life in their new classes and look forward to the exciting year ahead.

The recent warm weather and sunshine have been a welcome addition to our weekly orienteering sessions, with the children focussing on successfully navigating the course, taking bearings and supporting each other as a team - as well as staying cool! Indoors, we have been preparing for the Y5 assembly later this week as well as continuing to explore human development in science and negative numbers in maths. 

Monday saw pupils meet their new Y6 teachers and experience their classrooms for next year. It's fair to say there is a great deal of excitement and perhaps a little trepidation about moving up to the top of the school!