Year 5

Meet the Team

Mr Evans, Mrs Dalziel ,Mrs Shedlow, Mr Mason, Mrs Fry.

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Our Curriculum

The Island

Our first Year 5 topic focuses on ‘The Island’ by Armin Greder. This fascinating book focuses on themes on diversity, inclusion, refugees, and human rights. When an unusual man arrives on their island on a raft, they are reluctant to take him in. The islanders debate how to deal with the man and the children will put themselves in their shoes. The children will research and debate refugees worldwide and discuss moral issues to do with them. As a class, we will also read ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ – a heart-wrenching story of a refugee child joining a new school.

The Egyptians

The children will then uncover the fascinating history of the Ancient Egyptians and their civilization. They will travel back in time to join explorer Howard Carter on his discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and its hidden treasures. We will investigate the Ancient Egyptians by looking at the weird and wonderful artefacts found in his tomb. The children will research the way Ancient Egyptians lived, worked, and worshipped, as well as their lasting legacy and impact on the world today.

South America

We will then travel to South America to learn about the human and physical geography of this unique continent. We will specifically focus on the Amazon Rainforest and its unique ecosystem. The children will learn about the different environments within South America and its countries. They will then move on to researching the different lives of people and communities within the continent. We link our learning to climate change and the growing environmental importance of somewhere like South America.

Local History

Our final topic is focusing on the local history around Yorkshire. First, we will look at the changes that have happened to Leeds and how over the last 2000 years it has grown from a small village named ‘Leodis’, consisting of only 200 people, to a major city in the UK with a population of over 750,000. We then move onto looking at the history of Whitby following on from our Year 5 residential. We research the Abbey, the churches and the mystery surrounding Dracula. The children will have a better insight of the local history around them and where they live.

Maths

We will be using a collaboration of resources to teach maths this year, as children are expected to be confident manipulating numbers to 1 million. Our aim is to improve our fluency in the recall of facts and also our methods that we use to calculate. We then hope to be able to carry these into other topics such as fractions, decimals and percentages. We will use elements of the Maths No Problem program that gives us lots of opportunity to discuss and explain our learning. We will do lots of learning in pairs and groups. We will also use lots of resources from the White Rose Hub in order to further develop our reasoning and problem solving skills.

English

In writing we will focus on sentence structure and securing the use of basic punctuation to improve cohesion within our writing. Where possible, we like to use a wide variety of books and classic stories to inspire the children’s writing. We are aiming to give the children their own voice in using the Writing for Pleasure materials so that our pupils are given the tools they need to then put their own ideas into published texts. This is further to support the Year 5 children as they get closer to the top of the school in making sure they are making meaningful decisions in regards to their writing and have a clear authorial intent during writing sessions.

Science

As scientists we will explore different forces and the impact these have on different materials. We will then move on to learning about Earth and Space in order to better understand our planet and solar system. This includes understanding how the planets orbit the sun, and each other, to create days, months and years. Next, we look at Living things and their lifecycles, including how they create offspring. We will then investigate the properties and changes in different materials in order to understand what changes are reversible, as well as develop our scientific skills. Finally, part of our science learning under the topic Animals including Humans, is to understand the changes that happen during puberty and the different stages of human development.