Year 5

This time, Year 5 will be returning to History. For our final unit, we will be answering the question, ‘What impact did the First World War have on my local area’. We will be using national archives to see the names of soldiers, who lived in Meir and Stoke-on-Trent in general. We will be exploring which countries were involved in the conflict, the impact that it had on everyone from the soldiers on the frontlines to the women and children of Britain during the conflict. All the time, we will be asking what impact it had on Stoke-on-Trent. We will then explore how the war ended and what it projected towards the future ready for the children’s unit on the Second World War in Year 6.

During Science, we will continue to explore the life cycles of humans and plants. We will be dissecting plants to explore which parts of plants help reproduce. After half term, we will be looking more in-depth at humans lives and how we grow and change as we get older. This will help the children to understand the changes that they will experience as they get older.

In our other core subjects (English and Maths), we will be building upon the mass of knowledge that we have already gained this year. In English, our text this time is 'War Horse’. We will be using the text to explore the impact of the war on horses, debating whether was right that horses were used during the war and eventually writing narrative texts from the point of view of the horses. In Maths, we will be revisiting all of the arithmetic skills that we have learnt this year and also focusing on money, time, shape and statistics.

A busy end to the year but lots of fun to be had!

This time, Year 5 will be returning to Geography. We'll explore global trade and trade links and locate where our items come from around the world. We will be starting the topic by sampling fruits from many locations, before reflecting on how (and why) the goods we use every day are imported to us. We will study how we as consumers are affected by this and how it impacts other people, so we can consider a sustainable future for all!

During Science, we will be exploring physics this time and focusing on 'Forces'. We will be conducting experiments to explore the forces that impact our daily lives with a focus on friction, gravity, magnetism, air resistance and water resistance.

In our other core subjects (English and Maths), we will be building upon the mass of knowledge that we have already gained this year. In English, our text this time is 'Queen of the Falls', a fantastic true story of the exploits of the amazing Annie Edson Taylor in 1901! We will write biographies, stories and diary extracts. In Maths, we will be revisiting division and multiplication in arithmetic lessons whilst also continuing all things fractions in our day-to-day lessons. We can't wait to get on with our learning!

This time, we will be delving deeply into History with a focus on the Anglo-Saxon and Viking struggle for the kingdom of England. In this unit, we will be starting locally to discover if the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings lived in Stoke-on-Trent, before branching out nationally to discover what England was like during this time. Part of this fascinating unit will involve travelling to York (or Jorvik as the Vikings called it) for our residential visit. We will be learning about important people too, such as Alfred the Great and King Aethelstan.

During Science, we will be learning about reversible and irreversible changes in materials. We will be taking part in many experiments and enquiries, getting hands-on and testing many materials against different processes to see whether the changes can be reversed or not.

In our other core subjects (English and Maths) we will be doing lots of exciting things! In English, we will be reading ‘How to Train your Dragon’ and transporting ourselves into a mythical Viking world. Our main focus this time is on fictional writing – we all love a good story. In Maths, we will be focusing on times tables, multiples, factors and then moving to formal multiplication and division. We will also begin working on fractions – this will be a huge focus over the next few months!

As ever, we look forward to our learning!

To start our year, we will have a Geography focus in Year 5 as we explore mountains and upland areas, starting locally, then nationally and finally worldwide. This will all allow us to answer our key question, ‘Why are mountains popular places to visit?’ We will be visiting The Roaches to answer fieldwork enquiries and investigate how upland areas are different to our community in Meir. In the classroom, we will be developing our map skills by reading OS and digital maps and we'll locate mountain ranges both in the UK and the wider world. As a case study, we'll locate the Alps and investigate, in depth, what they climate is like, what activities humans do there and whether people should visit the Alps or not.

During Science, we will start by learning about materials in our world. This will involve sorting materials and developing our knowledge of the properties of these materials. We are looking forward to learning how to separate materials using filtering, sieving and evaporation and carrying out investigations to test solubility.

In our other core subjects (English and Maths), we will be doing lots of exciting things! In English, we start with ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ as our first text – we are very excited about this as we read the first book last year and we visited Warner Bros. Studios too! We will be writing descriptions of the animals that inhabit the Harry Potter world and also developing our story writing. In Maths, we will be focusing on times tables, place value and addition and subtraction mainly during these first ten weeks. We will also look at multiplication and division to build on our learning from last year.

A fantastic ten weeks of learning awaits us!