Welcome to Upper Key Stage Two

Year 5 is the transition from Lower to Upper Key Stage 2 and a crucial year in your child’s education. We endeavour to work in partnership with you to make it as stimulating, challenging and enjoyable as possible for your child. We will focus on developing your child’s independence and ensure they are confident individuals, successful learners, effective contributors and responsible citizens ready for their final year at primary school. To ensure that the children are prepared for their transition to High School, we encourage independence and that they are able to take responsibility for themselves and their own learning.  

Term One - Autumn 

We follow the White Rose Hub planning for Maths at Bolshaw; over the first term in Year 5, we will explore place value, as well as developing formal methods in addition and subtraction. We will take time to work with fractions and develop our understanding of equivalent fractions, as well as adding and subtracting them. We will also re-visit mental multiplication and division strategies, as well as how to calculate area and perimeter. 

Children are encouraged to read at home at least 3 times a week, this can be a novel they are reading at home or their school reading book. Reading is a feature of every English lesson and children will be encouraged to read out loud within the class setting. They will also share and discuss texts in our weekly Whole Class Reading sessions, where we explore a variety of texts in detail, discussing the writer’s intention and draw conclusions from evidence in the texts.

Children will be taught to develop their writing skills by exploring quality, vocabulary rich texts. This term we will be exploring and writing persuasive letters, simile poems about harvest, instructions for holding an epic sleepover and an extended narrative set during an Anglo-Saxon and Viking battle scene (it gets gruesome). Spelling rules and handwriting skills are taught discretely each week, but are also entwined throughout writing across the curriculum. 

This term’s Science topic is ‘Properties and Changes of Materials’. During the term we will develop our investigative skills while learning about reversible and irreversible changes. We will investigate thermal and electrical conductivity as well as exploring ways to separate a variety of mixtures using a wide range of methods. 

Our History topic is ‘Anglo Saxons and Vikings’. The children will learn about who the Anglo Saxons were and what their daily life was like. We will then explore the many attempts of invasions by the Vikings and their final conquest of Britain. Our studies will take us up to the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066. Children will explore how historians have drawn conclusions about what life was like in the past. We will have an immersive day based on battle tactics, which will be led by a visiting Viking.

Our PE days are on Wednesdays and Fridays. Over the term we will be developing our gymnastics, lacrosee and football skills. Children in Year 5 will also take part in a weekly Forest School session on Thursdays.

In Art we will be exploring still life drawings, developing our pencil and chalk pastel skills. We will be learning numbers and basic phrases in Spanish and in Computing we will be exploring how computer systems are used as a form of communication and how to utilise the different presentation features on Google Docs and Slides.  In RE we will be exploring how the teachings of Jesus influences the way Christians live in the 21st Century. 

Term Two - Spring

In Maths, we will further develop our understanding of multiplication and division, including; Multiplication and Division, Fractions, Decimal and Percentages. We also keep revisiting key facts such as multiplication facts and conversions between different units of measure. 

Our English Curriculum

Reading

Texts that will be covered in our Whole Class Reading sessions this term will include; A Monster Calls, The Boy at the Back of the Class, Rooftoppers and Gregor the Overlander.

Writing

This term children will explore and write biographies about astronauts, a fantasy adventure about alien invaders and a suspense narrative, which focuses on descriptive language devices.   

Our Science Curriculum

This term’s Science topics are ‘Space, Earth and Beyond’ and ‘Forces’. We will learn key facts about the solar system as well as develop our scientific enquiry skills. The children will take part in practical activities to help them understand different concepts about the Universe. We will explore different types of forces such as gravity, air resistance and water resistance and how they occur in every-day life. The children will also explore how mechanisms can create a force. We will develop our planning and observation skills in scientific investigations. 

Our Geography Curriculum

During the term, the children will learn about the Northern and Southern Hemisphere; the significance of latitude; the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn; the Arctic and Antarctic Circle; and habitats around the world.  We will also explore the Greenwich Meridian and different time zones around the world. This topic is very much based on children learning and understanding geographical vocabulary and applying it in their written work. They will learn about the physical and human features of different habitats across North America.

Physical Education

Our PE days are on Monday and Friday. On Mondays we will develop our lacrosse skills and onFridays we will be swimming at Cheadle Swimming Baths.  Children in Year 5 will also take part in a weekly Forest School session on Thursday and be given an opportunity to take part in the National Bikeability scheme.

Other Curriculum Highlights

In RE we will explore different places of worship and how people from religious and non-religious communities celebrate festivals and we will spend some time focusing on what it is like to be a Muslim in Britain today, which include a visit to the local mosque. We will continue to learn Spanish and in computing we will develop our coding skills and investigate the features of Spreadsheets.  

Term Three - Summer

Our Maths Curriculum

The units that will be covered this term in Year 5 are: Shape, Position and direction. Decimals and Converting Units.

Our English Curriculum

Reading

Texts that will be covered in our Whole Class Reading sessions will include; Cogheart, Oliver Twist and Kensuke’s Kingdom.

Writing

This term children will explore and write non-chronological reports about endangered animals, a Maya myth, explanation texts and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.     

Our Science Curriculum

This term’s Science topics are ‘Living things and their Habitats’ and ‘Animals including Humans’. We will be learning about the life cycles of different mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and amphibians as well as learning about asexual reproduction. This will link in with our PSHE topic on Puberty, where we will learn about the physical and emotional changes that both boys and girls can expect to experience over the next few years. We will develop our scientific enquiry skills throughout both topics through research and exploration.  As well as developing our planning and observation skills in scientific investigations. Children will be given the opportunity to follow their own lines of enquiry through our practical investigation sessions too. 

Our History Curriculum

In History we will discover the intriguing and sometimes gruesome Maya Civilization. We will find out about their everyday lives, their beliefs and rituals and how their lives compared to those of the Anglo Saxons and Vikings back in Britain.

Physical Education

Our PE days are on Monday and Friday. On Mondays we will develop our athletics skills in the first half of the term, and dance in the second. On Fridays we will learn to play rounders and cricket. Children in Year 5 will also take part in a weekly Forest School session on Thursdays.

Other Curriculum Highlights

As part of our Art unit, we will visit the Shropshire Sculpture Park as a class, and then we will be using recycled card to create 3D sculptures of endangered animals.  We will design and make a Maya feast on DT and in PSHE we will explore how to keep ourselves safe online and think about what defines our personal identity and values.