Year 5

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

As your child enters Upper Key Stage 2, the journey to prepare them for Secondary School begins. In Year 5, our aim is to get your child secure with previous learning as well as teach and consolidate the Year 5 curriculum. This will stand them in the best stead as they begin Year 6.

We will continue to promote their love of learning by developing their inquisitive nature; ensuring they have a broad and balanced curriculum. During this time, we will not focus solely of the academic progression of each child but also their mental and emotional wellbeing as well.

Supporting your child

Year 5 is a very busy year and to help your child, we have put together a few resources which may benefit them from home.

Reading-MyOn

By the end of Year 5, your child should be reading 120 words a minute. To ensure this happens, we expect children to read independently at home every night for 20 minutes. This could be with their own book or through the online books on MyOn.

MyOn

Spelling

By the end of Year 5, we expect children to be spelling the majority of the statutory spelling list. Strategies for spelling are taught in class but extra revision is needed to secure the spelling of these complex words.

Spelling

Tackling Tables

By the end of Year 4, children should know all of the times tables from 1-12. They will have sat their multiplication test. In Year 5, we would be continuing to revise these skills as we prepare for Year 6. We recommended that your child uses Tackling Tables to practise this at least 3 times a week. If they are not secure, please speak to your teacher to seek support and advice.

Tackling Tables

History

Staffordshire as a whole is inundated with fascinating back stories and one of them is explored in this study. Building on the learning around the Romans from previous years this will teach the children about what happened when the Saxons took charge. Looking locally at Mercia and our local area, children will see what settlement lived in the area and learn all about the King called Offa! He was a fascinating and unique ruler; the children will be learning about how he should be remembered. Looking more locally again they will also learn all about the importance of the Staffordshire Hoard and what it tells us about life at the time, with many opportunities to go and then see it at local venues.

Another period and a continuation of the building narrative that is history. This study explores the conflict that evolved around the time of the Viking rule. Exploring the local links again to the Vikings and the conflicts that occurred within the country itself, the children will be enthralled to learn about their importance. A study which will again build on previous learning, showing the children what life was like and how the Vikings impacted on the local area.

One of the most interesting and engaging studies this will allow the children to explore the local area that they live within. Focusing on the area of Cannock, the children will learn about how it has changed throughout the years from its humble beginnings as a hillfort back in the Anglo Saxon era. Working through to the current era the children will be able to see how it has changed, how there are still remnants of these eras and what impact each era had on the next. It also allows the children to explore themselves with many of the lessons linking to something they can go and visit. One study that focuses solely on our local area and one that the children will love!

Geography

What a way to start Year 5! A study of Russia! One of the major countries on our planet and a whole half-term to learn about; where it is, what places there are within Russia, the climate of the country and even the physical and human features found there. This is one of the standout studies of the Geography curriculum and the children will be fascinated by what they find out about this amazing country. Completing their own research, the children will have an active role in their learning, being able to use various videos, maps and live camera views of Russia to build an understanding of what the country is truly like. A magical and fascinating start for our Year 5 geographers.

Maps play such an important role in our lives. Whether it is finding our way to a local shop, directing somebody to our house or finding out about what the area used to be like many years ago. This study gives children a greater understanding of maps and the tools to use them for a variety of reasons. Children learn about important lines of longitude and latitude and they begin to understand the complexities of time zones … a real eye-opening lesson! Finally, they investigate the importance of maps and how important they are in helping people with a range of jobs in a variety of different ways.

Over time our world has changed dramatically and as we sit here reading this it continues to do so. What was the world like 1,000 years ago and what will it be like in 100 years? Here the children of Year 5 get to explore questions such as these and they build a picture of how our world used to look and what it may look like in the future. This study is an important one as it begins to build the children’s growing understanding of what impact they have on our ever-changing world. Linking to history studies they will explore migration and the way that the landscape has changed due to physical and human influences. This study is a detailed one and one that leaves the children with plenty to think about.

Science

A force causes an object to start moving, stop moving, speed up, slow down or change direction. Gravity is a force that acts at a distance. Everything is pulled to the Earth by gravity. This causes unsupported objects to fall. Air resistance, water resistance and friction are contact forces that act between moving surfaces. The object may be moving through the air or water, or the air and water may be moving over a stationary object. A mechanism is a device that allows a small force to be increased to a larger force. The pay back is that it requires a greater movement. The small force moves a long distance and the resulting large force moves a small distance, e.g. a crowbar or bottle top remover. Pulleys, levers and gears are all mechanisms, also known as simple machines.

The Sun is a star. It is at the centre of our solar system. There are 8 planets (can choose to name them, but not essential). These travel around the Sun in fixed orbits. Earth takes 365¼ days to complete its orbit around the Sun. The Earth rotates (spins) on its axis every 24 hours. As Earth rotates half faces the Sun (day) and half is facing away from the Sun (night). As the Earth rotates, the Sun appears to move across the sky. The Moon orbits the Earth. It takes about 28 days to complete its orbit. The Sun, Earth and Moon are approximately spherical.

Materials have different uses depending on their properties and state (liquid, solid, gas). Properties include hardness, transparency, electrical and thermal conductivity and attraction to magnets. Some materials will dissolve in a liquid and form a solution while others are insoluble and form sediment. Mixtures can be separated by filtering, sieving and evaporation. Some changes to materials such as dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible, but some changes such as burning wood, rusting and mixing vinegar with bicarbonate of soda result in the formation of new materials and these are not reversible.

As part of their life cycle, plants and animals reproduce. Most animals reproduce sexually. This involves two parents where the sperm from the male fertilises the female egg. Animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults. In humans and some animals, these offspring will be born live, such as babies or kittens, and then grow into adults. In other animals, such as chickens or snakes, there may be eggs laid that hatch to young which then grow to adults. Some young undergo a further change before becoming adults e.g. caterpillars to butterflies. This is called a metamorphosis. Plants reproduce both sexually and asexually. Bulbs, tubers, runners and plantlets are examples of asexual plant reproduction which involves only one parent. Gardeners may force plants to reproduce asexually by taking cuttings. Sexual reproduction occurs through pollination, usually involving wind or insects

Physical Education

Spring term and summer term see our children exploring gymnastics. Again they learn about different movements with balancing and equipment involved. They explore how to accentuate movements and add more control to their balances and rolls. We add in rhythmic gymnastics in stages of the learning to again push the unknown in routines and allow the children to explore as many areas of gymnastics as they can.

As part of the autumn term the children take part in a bespoke leader’s course. The purpose of the course is to show them how they can develop their leadership skills. Learning about how to lead others, communicate their games and also then monitor and change their games the children work towards a final interview to become one of our sports leaders. A course which builds a range of skills but also allows the children to gain more confidence and responsibility on our playground.

Linked with our team games unit, the children play modified invasion games. They develop further their attacking and defending skills and look into the tactics of stopping the opposition and scoring themselves. A unit which challenges their teamwork skills, we focus on communication and listening skills, which allow their learnt sills such as throwing and catching to transfer from activity to activity. A vital unit as our children also put into place their own games and rules, taking more responsibility to run invasion games of their own.