Welcome to Year 5

Summer Term 2024

Areas of study for Year 5*

Literacy

In writing, children will be given the opportunity to select a notable Tudor figure and, after completing some research, will write a biography outlining the significance of the figure that they have chosen. In learning about the downfall of Anne Boleyn, the children will be given the opportunity to put their persuasive skills to the test by writing a letter to Henry pleading for her life and justifying their views with what they have learned about the character. Lastly, children will be given the chance to create a non-chronological report the six wives of Henry VIII and explore why they, like him, are still remembered to this day.

In the second half of the term, aliens will have landed, and people will be in panic and chaos. It is imperative that someone reassure the public that they need to remain safe. Children will take up the call by creating a poster to give detailed instructions on how to avoid an encounter with aliens and what to do in case you meet one. Children will then develop their ability to thrill and capture and audience using mystery, suspense and tension in a piece of narrative; they will describe someone’s first encounter with an alien life-form. The children when then report on the landing described in their narrative by creating a newspaper report about the event.

Numeracy

Mathematics will be continuing to follow the White Rose scheme of work. Children will develop their understanding of shape; learning how to use a protractor to accurately measure and draw angles up to 1800, they will then progress on to looking at the properties of regular and irregular polygons, before exploring 3D shapes and their properties. Children will then learn about position and direction, where they will cement their learning around coordinates by solving problems. They will then learn about translation, lines of symmetry and reflection in horizontal and vertical lines.

They will then go onto to develop their understanding of using their knowledge of all four operations for problem-solving and to calculate perimeters, areas, volumes, and capacities in real-life situations. Children will explore measurement, decimals and conversions, building on their knowledge of decimal numbers and fractions. They'll learn to convert between different units of measure, including length, mass, volume and time.

Reading

William Shakespeare is noted as being one of the greatest play writes and wordsmiths of all time. At the start of the term, linking to our study of the Tudors, we will look at his influence on the English language and his legacy through a careful study an abridged version of Macbeth including the study of the Witches song Children will do this using the VIPERS question structure and a range of activities designed to unpick the characters who make up this fascinating story.

In the latter half of the term, children will experience the classic novels ‘War of the Worlds’ and modern sci-fi novel ‘Phoenix’ as the children explore the genre of science-fiction We will look at authors such as H.G. Wells, who created imaginary scenarios of alien landings that went on to inspire films such as Star Wars and Avatar to name a few.

MFL

 

During this term, the children will develop the knowledge and skills to describe the weather and to also present a weather forecaster pretending to be on television. This will enable them to link the weather vocabulary with map work, compass points and general geography. This unit improves both language and cultural knowledge.

Later, they will learn how to describe what they are wearing in French. This is a unit that brings together much of the grammar covered in our Intermediate teaching type (nouns, gender, determiners, plurality, possessives, adjectival agreement, 1st person conjugation) so that the children can say and write what they are packing in their suitcase for a holiday.

PSHE/RSHE

Throughout the term, children will discuss what health and wellbeing includes. They will look in more detail at the importance of sleep, spending time outdoors and why it may be important to be clean and tidy indoors and outdoors. They will explore mental wellbeing in more detail and look at how they can make improvements to sustain a more positive lifestyle. Finally, they will learn about basic First Aid and how to respond to emergency situations.

RE

The children will be considering a key question this term, ‘How do followers show commitment to their religion?’  Children will begin by looking at the type of commitments people may make and what these might mean to them. They will then look at what it means to break a promise and how this might make them, or others feel. The children will explore the commitment of weddings, the importance of prayer and/ or worship to religious followers, and what fasting is. The children should be able to identify the similarities and differences between different religions by the end of the unit.

PE

At the beginning of the term, children will develop and apply ball skills in a variety of modified games to improve throwing and catching skills combined with reaction and response skills to enable greater success when under pressure. They will prepare for traditional invasion games, particularly ball sports that involve creating and finding space and require keeping possession and responding to set play instructions. Children will learn about attacking and defending strategies to help make effective decisions. They will also develop the personal skills to persevere and cope well when finding things challenging, and to embrace that both regular, focused practice and failure are key aspects of learning.

In this term, the children will develop and apply their jumping and landing and one leg balance through focused skill development sessions, modified/non-traditional games and sports and healthy competition. In preparation for Sports Day, the children will practice a variety of races alongside throwing and jumping events. Some of the running races will be differentiated so those that can only run for a shorter distance, compared to those that can run for a longer period. This will ensure that they are prepared for sports day and are aware of what events they are participating in.

Geography

Through first-hand experience in the local area, children will be studying rivers and water cycles. They will also explore human geography, covering settlement types, land use, economic activities like trade, and the distribution of natural resources such as energy, food, materials, and water. Children go on to learn about climate zones, biomes and mountains in physical geography.

History

The Tudor dynasty changed England from a small, obscure island to one of Europe’s largest powers. They turned the tiny country into the world power it was for decades. Today, England still has a stable and powerful hand in world politics. The Tudors got their country onto the world’s radar where it has stayed ever since.

This unit will focus on in-depth studies of one of Britain’s most notorious monarchs: Henry VIII and how his relationship with his six wives and the church changed British history. This study will also give children the opportunity to make comparisons between how the Tudors lived in comparison to how we live today in areas such as crime and punishment, leisure and home life. Moving on from this part of the Tudor period, children will then look at the importance of the Elizabethan period and how the ‘Golden Age’ of Elizabeth’s reign was influenced by the Spanish Armada and the relationship with Scotland.

Science

In the second half of the Summer term, the children will be building on their previous knowledge of living things; they will explore different life-cycles, focusing on plants and animals. As part of science week, they will be learning about animals, including humans, and exploring the stages of development in different species.

Music

The song, Kisne banaaya (Who Made Us?) from India and Pakistan explores how our world, and the different creatures that inhabit it, came into existence. The children will learn choreography to support the learning and understanding of the song (in Hindi), learn to sing the song comparing different performances and play an instrumental accompaniment on tuned percussion.

Computing

Over the course of the term, the children will be using the software ‘SonicPi’ to explore the topic of coding. During this unit of work, the children will be encouraged to think about how computers respond to instructions and how programmers can use this knowledge to create programs. SonicPi will be used to create and sequence a piece of music using computer commands. This will provide the children with experience of creating, altering and debugging their own digital computer compositions.

Art, Design & Technology

The children begin the term by exploring the work of Alberto Giacometti, an artist famous for his elongated bronze sculptures. They will be shown how to create their very own sculptures using wire and Modroc inspired by Tudor roses. They will then design and create their own piece of 3D artwork.  In DT lessons, the children will find out about the history of fruit pies, linked to their history on the Tudors as Elizabeth I was one of the first people to eat a fruit pie. They will find out how pies have changed through the years and explore different flavour combinations. Finally, they will have the chance to create, make and evaluate their own fruit pie.

*If you require additional information relating to our school curriculum, please ask at the school office or the class teacher.