Miss Shaw and Miss King are privileged to take your children on an exciting learning journey. We will make sure that your children are confident and happy as they become some of the oldest children in the school, taking on new roles and responsibilities and beginning to set their sights on their future aspirations.
This year, we’ll encounter a range of exciting topics: Ancient Maya; our Earth in space; global trade; rainforests and the Second World War. Children will have opportunities to develop important skills in team building, cooking, printing and drawing, as well as giving back to the local and wider community and forging international links through our participation in the Turing scheme.
Trips and experiences, including our visit to the Bristol Hippodrome, visiting the Orchid Project at Writhlington and having the space dome visit us at school, enrich your child’s learning opportunities and ensure that this year is a very special one!
PE
Both classes will have PE on Tuesdays and Friday. Please remember to wear PE uniform on both days. Information about uniform and PE uniform can be found here.
Forest School
Forest School will take place in the Summer Terms for Year 5. More information will be given about this closer to the time.
Year 5 Roles & Opportunities
During Transition Week, children completed application forms for our exciting Year 5 and whole-school opportunities, including Pupil Voice, Bistro Buddies, Mini Police and International Ambassadorship. We will make decisions about these roles during the Autumn terms and inform children and parents as necessary. If you have any questions about any of these opportunities, please contact the Year 5 team via the office.
Reading
In Year 5 and beyond, reading to and with your child regularly is very important and can give your child a great advantage in many aspects of life. Research has shown that regular reading at the age of 10 has a significant effect on a child’s achievement at age 16 and beyond. A mixture of independent reading, reading together and reading to your child will mean your child is maximising their opportunities to enjoy and make good progress with their fluency and expression when reading. Tips for reading at home can be found here: Tips for reading with your child | BookTrust.
Your child will bring home a levelled book which is matched to their reading ability (called ZPD – Zone of Proximal Development). This is measured regularly through the Accelerated Reader platform. The ZPD is given as a range. Choosing books within this range ensure your child is reading at a suitable level. Book levels (BL) can be found on the Accelerated Reader Bookfinder website. Reading records should be filled in each time your child reads at home and signed weekly by parents.
In Year 5 2025 – 2026, we will be studying the following books:
• Billy’s Blitz
• The Boy at the Back of the Class
• Kick
• When the Mountains Roared
• What was it like to be an Ancient Maya?
• The Explorer
• I Am Not a Label
Though we want to keep twists and turns exciting and surprising for the children, having a copy of our termly book at home that you can revisit with your child and discuss together will deepen their learning and engagement with the book. Asking questions about the day’s reading and learning will mean that your child is revisiting and practising what they have learned which will advantage them.
Spellings
Spellings will be set via our homework link within the school newsletter and written into children’s homework books. They will comprise a combination of target spellings for the whole class, individual common misspellings that your child needs to practise and words from the National Curriculum Year 3 & 4 and Year 5 & 6 spelling lists. Spellings will be tested regularly.
Homework
Homework will be set on Monday and returned the following Monday. Details of homework are sent to parents with the newsletter weekly.
In Year 5, homework will consist of a selection from:
• spelling practice
• times table practice (set on Times Tables Rockstars)
• activities on DoodleMaths
• pages from the Mental Maths CGP workbook
• reading
• activities from the Citizenship and Character award
Our Learning
Details of learning in our class can be found in Our Learning pages. The curriculum map below is a summary overview for the year:
The children in years 3, 4 and 5 celebrated Harvest with a wonderful service of singing, poetry and artwork this week. Thank you to all our parents and carers who came to join us for this celebration and thank you …
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We were extremely proud of our mini-police cadets who have ‘graduated’ at a prestigious ceremony this week. Presenting to their peers in Years 4 and 5 and to invited VIP guests, the cadets shared what skills they had learnt, places …
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We had such a fantastic day in the woods today! After our walk to the clearing, we started with a group chat about setting boundaries to help everyone stay safe. Then we played several rounds of “1, 2, 3, Where …
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Some children were fortunate to visit Longleat this week on a trip organised by the Rotary Club. Highlights included a boat trip to feed the sea lions and the safari.
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What a day! The mini-police cadets spent the day at PSJ Recreation Ground today. They worked in teams on a scavenger hunt and in a game of rounders. After a picnic lunch and some fun on the play equipment, they …
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Well done Year 5 on a lovely Forest School today! We had a brilliant time whittling some very dry wood which added a good challenge! In our free play we were able to do leaf printing, bug hunting, den building …
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On Wednesday, our Mini-Police cadets were invited to help out at the American Museum in Bath. The first job of the day was to build two ‘dead hedges’ which serve to attract wildlife to the gardens. Working in teams, the …
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A huge well done to Year 5 who had to have Forest school on the field today due to SATs. They were very sensible and respectful and enjoyed playing in this new space. We played some fun games including bear, …
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In Mini Police this week, our cadets were taught basic CPR before having an opportunity to practice this on the ‘Annie’ dolls. They were also shown how a defibrillator works which was very interesting. Thank you James from St John’s …
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