Teachers
Seals: Mrs Amanda Tickel & Dr Rose Lerner
Penguins: Mrs Tamsie Flood Murphy
Teaching Assistant
Mrs Ann Mundy, Mrs Sarah Mackay, Miss Gabriella Saxby & Mrs Colette Williams
Mathematics
The children follow the new national curriculum for Mathematics, and we will use White Rose to support the teaching of Maths in Year 5.
Children will continue to extend their written and mental arithmetic skills alongside developing heir problem solving and reasoning skills. Learning will include place value, the four rules, money and real life problems, fractions, decimals and percentages, ratio and proportion, shape, space and measures and statistics.
English
The children access a range of fiction and non-fiction genres in reading and writing including:
Non-fiction: Reports, recounts, explanation, persuasion and letters.
Fiction: Poetry, classic texts and a range of modern authors.
Within the year, we teach specific, longer units of work on narrative writing, explanation writing and persuasive writing based on key texts.
Reading: During the day, there will be many opportunities for children to read. Some children will be heard to read on a one-to-one basis, regularly. We also teach reading skills through daily “Guided Reading”, where children rotate experience different activities linked to developing their reading and comprehension.
Spelling: Spelling is taught daily for 15 minutes focusing on specific letter patterns, focus on spelling rules and learning words from the Yr 5 & Yr 6 curriculum.
SPaG (Spelling, punctuation and grammar): This is taught for one lesson a week and is applied throughout the rest of the lessons for the week.
Topics
Every half term there will be a different topic from which cross-curricular work will be based upon. This allows for children to become engaged with their learning and to add more fun, meaning and purpose to their work. Our topics this year are as follows:
| Autumn Term: | To infinity and beyond… |
| Srping Term: | Under Attack |
| Summer Term: | Sink or Swim! |
To infinity and beyond…
We start the year with our fantastic Space topic. Early in the term we visit Chichester Planetarium where the children are inspired by viewing the planets and stars in the dome and are able to really extend their knowledge by talks from experts. The topic has a Science focus with extended research work about the Solar system. In Literacy sessions we produce non-chronological reports about the Sun and write diary entries in role as Neil Armstrong. In art sessions we look at the work of astronaut artist Alan Bean and use a variety of media to produce papier mache models, acrylic paintings of nebulae and chalk representations of the moon landings.
Underattack
During this topic we learn all about the invasion and settlement of Saxon tribes. In Geography we study the routes taken by the Angles, Saxons and Geats and their countries of origin. We look at where and why they settled in parts of the UK and the impact they had on our culture. We use historical sources and artefacts to research the Saxon way of life. We produce Saxon helmets inspired by the find at Sutton Hoo. Our core text is Beowulf and this provides a rich stimulus for creative writing.
Following on from the Saxons we then focus on the next invaders to our shores by studying the Vikings. With a historical focus we learn about the events surrounding the attacks on Lindisfarne. With drama at the core we re-enact scenes and write recounts. We carry out a DT project, designing and building models of Viking longships and our art work is based on figureheads, shields and collages of the warriors. Our core text is How to Train your Dragon and our Literacy centres on fictional writing.
Sink or Swim!
This is a new topic this year and has proved to be immensely popular. Our first core text is Kensuke’s Kingdom where we analyse Morpurgo’s techniques as an author and carry out in depth character studies. We then move on to study the events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic. We research the role of key characters using a variety of primary and secondary sources and hold a mock trial to decide who was most to blame. Using the non- fiction text The Story of Titanic for children we research the design of the ship and produce non- chronological reports. In art sessions we study The Wave by Hokasai and produce designs, using mixed media, that have been inspired by the painting.L
Our final topic has science at its core. We look at the reproduction of plants and animals and this links closely with our unit on Sex Education that is taught towards the end of the term. We study the work of famous naturalists such as David Attenborough and Joy Adamson and write biographies. Our core text is a science fiction based story called the Watertower. Georgia O’Keefe is our artist focus and we produce designs in the style of her work.
