Friday, 5th September 2025
This Week
High Flyer of the Week!
LB has been our Highflyer of the Week for demonstrating curiosity and expressive communication. Congratulations and well done!
What a week it has been! We have completed our first full week in Year 5 with a lot of energy and positive learning behaviour. I have been so impressed with the children! They have arrived looking incredibly smart in their school uniforms and have worked incredibly hard.
| NOTICE: We will be having our first Open Morning on Friday, the 12th of September, from 0815hrs to 0915hrs. This will be a great chance for parents to gain an understanding of our curriculum this term. |
English – Our English lessons are split into three phases: exploration, shared or guided writing and independent writing.
We completed our first phase for our non-chronological report writing unit and have just begun with our second.
Phase 1:
| LO1: I can use a range of reliable sources e.g. books, websites and film clips to identify information on Mayan Gods. |
| LO2: I can identify effective vocabulary and the impact that they have. |
| LO3: I can analyse the structure of a non-chronological report by highlighting its features and structures: heading, subheading and technical language. |
| LO4: I can generate interest in Mayan Gods by creating a Kahoot Quiz. |
Phase 2:
| LO5: I can use similar writing models to plan a shared non-chronological report which focuses on its features and structures: heading, subheading and technical language. |
Spelling – Our first set of spellings (words that end with the suffix /cious/ but make the sound /shus/) were introduced to the children on Monday this week when we started our Super Sonic Spelling Journey. The list along with the activities to do at home were sent on the same day. We have begun by looking into the definitions and etymologies of the words. The set of words, which we will be studying over the next fortnight, has been listed below:
- Malicious
- Gracious
- Tenacious
- Vivacious
- Precious
- Spacious
- Atrocious
- Ferocious
- Suspicious
- Luscious
- Conscious
- Delicious
VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we will be focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.
We read and discussed the first few pages of our core text, ‘The Explorer’, thoroughly, discussing various VOCABULARY and focusing on making inferences.
Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).
Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!
Maths – Place Values
| LO1: I can use Roman Numerals to 1,000. |
| LO2: I can represent numbers to 10,000. |
| LO3: I can represent numbers to 100,000. |
| LO4: I can represent numbers to 1,000,000. |
(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)
Science – We started our first topic ‘Properties of Materials’ this week.
| LO1: I can explore and group materials according to their properties by carrying out a fair and comparative test and explain their suitability to perform a specific task. |
Theme (History/. Geography) – With our theme being ‘We are Explorers’ and our core text ‘The Explorer’, our history coverage will focus on The Mayan Civilisation and we will be studying Rainforests for geography this term.
Please be informed that our Geography and History lessons are taught bi-weekly. We began with geography this week and we will be starting history next week.
The Rainforests
| LO1: I can understand what a rainforest is and locate the world’s rainforests on a map. |
DT – We will be doing Cooking for DT this term with the focus being on Mayan Food. Our first lesson entailed thorough research on the various food items that the Mayans introduced to the world.
PE – Mr Sherwin will be teaching football, and I will be covering athletics for PE this term.
Computing – We tried and tested logging onto the computer and accessing Purplemash this week.
Art – Message from Mr Brown: Year 5 artists will be exploring artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans. To begin, we will work towards a piece of abstract art made up of Mayann symbols. Following this, the carvings on Ancient Mayann temples will form the basis of a printing focus. We will then move on to designing and creating a clay face masks in the style of the masks worn by Mayans.
PSHE – In PSHE, our focus shall remain on our children’s overall wellbeing and this term, we will be looking into how ‘we fit in this world’ under the topic ‘Being me In My World’. This week, we discussed our goals and aspirations for the end of the year.
Reading – Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads will be worth a house point.
RE – We looked at the percentage of various religions in the world, the UK, Brunei and Nepal and will next be discussing why some people believe in God while others don’t.
Music – Mr Brown started the year by looking at various sounds that create effect.
Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 8th of September
English – Phase 2.
Spelling – Week 2 on words that end with the suffix /cious/ but make the sound /shus/.
- Malicious
- Gracious
- Tenacious
- Vivacious
- Precious
- Spacious
- Atrocious
- Ferocious
- Suspicious
- Luscious
- Conscious
- Delicious
I hope the children will not just be able to spell the words correctly but discuss their meanings too by the end of this week.
VIPERS – We shall continue to read ‘The Explorer’ thoroughly and look at different VOCABULARY. We will also be focussing on RETRIEVAL questions this week.
Maths – Place Values
Science –Properties of Materials
History – The Mayan Civilisation
Geography – The Rainforests
DT –Cooking
PE – Football and Athletics
Computing – Online Safety
Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans
PSHE –Being me In My World
RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?
Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai
Welcome to Year 5
Dear Parents and Pupils,
I am sure you have all had a wonderful and restful break and have recharged well enough to gear up and take on the new challenges that come with every new beginning. Welcome aboard the Upper Key Stage 2 Journey with me; I hope we have a fantastically adventurous year ahead! I am extremely excited and enthusiastic to create a magnificent year with you. Let’s work together and try to come out the other end successfully!
Below are few things I would like us to keep up with throughout the year:
Year 5 Blog – At the end of every week, the events of that week, a forecast for the following week, important information and notices will be posted on our blog. Please try and keep up with it. Also, please be informed that this platform might change, as we are looking for an easier/ more accessible alternative.
SHED (Sleep, Hydrate, Exercise and Diet) – As we are all aware that sleep, hydration, exercise and balanced diet enable human mind to work to its optimum, please ensure to encourage your children to have a good SHED to create a pathway for them to achieve their goals to the best of their abilities.
Reading – Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Record Book as a starting point).
VIPERS – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding, and we will be focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.
Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!
PE – Children will be doing PE with Mr Sherwin on Tuesdays and with me on Thursdays. They need to come to school in their PE kit and appropriate shoes.
Homework – Children will come home with two sets of homework: spelling (fortnightly) and maths (weekly). Although it is not compulsory, I would like to encourage everyone to complete the activities sent home.
KIRF (Key Instant Recall Facts) – Ideas for KIRF will be posted every half term for practice and building efficiency at home.
Library – Our library sessions will be on Thursdays.
Lastly, please do not hesitate to contact me, if needed. You can either call our school reception or send an email to [email protected] and it will be forwarded to me. Alternatively, you can write a note on your children’s Reading Record Book and ask them to alert me.
Many thanks and best wishes,
Mrs Rai
Rhino Class