And so we come to the end of a great year of learning and fun. What a fantastic bunch of children to teach. You are all set up now for a fantastic Year 6. Have a brilliant summer. See you next year!

After a very busy morning enjoying ourselves at KS2 Sports Day, Year 5 spent Thursday afternoon improving their public speaking skills.  We built on the skills we developed when we were younger – “Show and Tell” in Key Stage 1 and “Soapbox” in Lower Key Stage 2.  We are expected to talk to our class for approximately two minutes on a subject of our choice without using a powerpoint presentation.  Some of us already have the confidence to talk in front of others but we all know it is very useful to be able to improve the confidence and clarity with which we communicate to others.  It is also great to find out about the wide range of interests that the children have in Year 5 – so far we have heard speeches about Rubik’s Cubes, crows, horses, drumming and allergies.

Year 5 have spent a lot of time this week reflecting on their happy time on the Isle of Wight – what a great trip!  The children are looking forward to sharing their memories with you all next Wednesday during our assembly.  As we come towards the end of the academic year, the children have also been showing how much they have learnt by completing a series of assessments, not always easy when the sun is shining but good practice for the future.  We have also been familiarising ourselves with our new text “The Lost Words” – a book that was written to highlight the danger of losing words from everyday language that describe the natural world.  How can you love and save what you cannot name?  We were all lucky enough to see so much of the natural world last week on the Isle of Wight and it has helped us to appreciate the beauty that can be found all around us.  

Year 5 and their parents had a fantastic time at the O2 on Monday evening when after two long years we returned for the Young Voices concert. It was brilliant to see so many children jumping up and down, having great fun and singing their hearts out in such a joyful celebration. After the events of the past two years, it felt even more special for us all to be together again as a year group and to share the experience with so many other schools. A massive thank you to Mrs Boa for all her hard work in organising the event which will live long in the memory.

Another busy week of learning in Year 5. In geography, we have been finding out about the process of coastal erosion and we cannot wait to see its effects from high up on Tennyson Down as we observe The Needles during our trip to the Isle of Wight in a few weeks’ time. We have also been researching the history of South Africa so that we will be able to produce a non-chronological piece of writing (it’s a bit like an encyclopaedia entry) linked to our core text, Journey to Jo’Burg. Finally, in RE we have been busy learning about the Five Pillars of Islam and how we can relate its principles to our own life. 

On Thursday, Year 5’s science lessons enabled the children to show how well they can design, carry out and record an experiment independently of their teachers. Everyone knew the importance of looking back and thinking about all of their learning so far in Year 5 so that they could bring together different ideas. The children were tasked with identifying which type of tape was the stickiest – Sellotape, masking tape or duct tape. The exercise also allowed the children to show how well they can organise their learning together as part of a team of 3 or 4. The teachers were really impressed with the different scientific approaches taken by the children in tackling the same experiment and the time and care they put into recording and analysing their results.