Week Beginning 16th December 2024

The final week of 2024 has been a busy one for Year 5. They wrapped up their geography learning and completed their Innovate Projects by producing maps of the local area, which they researched and planned via a learning walk in the immediate area around our school. The recorded the final touches for their history podcasts, which have been uploaded to Google Classrooms, and edited the videos they filmed in Computing. The children finished their independent narratives based on the adventures of Odysseus, and produced some fantastic writing! They managed all of this on top of the Christmas Carol Concert, an orchestral concert in school, making crowns for Christmas lunch, showing off their best dance moves in the class party, and having a visit from Santa himself. After a very busy Autumn term, we wish everyone a very merry and restful Christmas, and a fabulous new year. Well done everyone!

Christmas Music Concert

We were incredibly lucky to have a concert of carols and fantastic music delivered by an orchestra of local musicians and music teachers. The children in Year 5 were excited to see that their guitar teacher was the cellist in the orchestra. It was a fantastic performance and the children enjoyed every minute of it. What a treat!

Christmas Carol Concert at St Ethelburga's Church

The children gave a wonderful performance of the nativity, and sang beautiful carols to celebrate the the closing of advent and the approach of Christmas. Caroline, Kristoffer narrated beautifully, and India, Elijah, Felipe and Alicia delivered a beautiful poem.

Week Beginning 9th December 2024

This week was assessment week at St Joseph's, so the children worked really hard to show the learning they have completed across the curriculum this term. It was also a week filled with Christmas activities, including Christmas jumper day, carol practise and the fantastic school disco with amazing DJ Joe Banana! The children wrapped up their film production unit in computing, and we had a fantastic visit from the Metropolitan Police. The children had a blast trying on all of the equipment they brought! There were more shenanigans from our classroom elf, and we rounded off the week today with a Christmas panto. After another busy week, we hope the children have a restful and relaxing weekend!

Week Beginning 2nd December 2024

This week has been so busy that we almost forgot to take photos! In the run up to assessment week, the children have been busy working on their narrative writing, basing their stories on the adventures of Odysseus. In maths, we have been using our knowledge of fractions to solve problems involving mixed numbers. In computing, we shot our videos demonstrating a PE skill and evaluated them ahead of editing. There was a big push to finish our podcast scripts about life after the Shang Dynasty, and developed our running techniques in PE. We continued learning about the seasons in French, and endured a lot of nonsense from our Christmas elf. What a week!

Week Beginning 25th November 2024

This week, the children worked hard on absorbing the content of Odysseus in preparation for their writing tasks, doing lots of discussion work, roleplay and hot seating. In maths, they continued their learning about fractions, comparing and ordering, and finding equivalent fractions. Science this week involved learning about levers, pulleys and gears, for which Mr Hicklin kindly lent his bike to Year 5. The children drew fantastic diagrams of a pulley system, and made annotations about how each system appears in the mechanisms of a bike. In history, the children wrapped up their podcast scripts about life after the Shang Dynasty, and in computing, they storyboarded their instructional video, and headed outside to shoot and troubleshoot their first scene. It's been a very busy week, rounded off with a the weekly Celebration Assembly, where Zephaniah showed us his Ju-Jitsu trophy and demonstrated one of his moves for us on Mr Clark! Well done for a fantastic week Year 5!

Week Beginning 18th November 2024

It was another busy week for Year 5. We started off the week by finishing off our descriptive paragraphs, then we roleplayed and storyboarded some of Odysseus' adventures. In maths, we began to work on improper fraction and mixed numbers, completing group work and converting from one to the other. Computing focused on storyboarding for video production, and practising using the information in the storyboard to frame our shots. In history, the children used their research to begin writing a script for their podcast, which they will record for their Innovate Project. In science, the children investigated forces of resistance, including friction, air resistance and water resistance, concluding that surface area is far more important than mass. The week was rounded off with a wonderful Celebration Assembly, which celebrated the winners of our anti-bullying poster competition. What a busy week!

Week Beginning 11th November 2024

This week began in solemnity, as we observed a 2 minute silence for remembrance day, and created some beautiful poppy art for display. The children cracked on with fractions in maths, and with an independent setting description in writing. Wednesday was odd sock day to highlight the national anti-bullying campaign, and was spent at the British Library, participating in a fantastic workshop on maps, their history, and their importance. The children were guided in creating maps of their own, and were able to delve into some of the millions of treasures stored and archived at the library. In history, the children learned about the end of the Shang Dynasty, and drew comparison between the Ancient Egyptians and Britons. Thursday morning was filled with more art, as the children developed the designs for their 'talking boxes', which linked to their science learning in the afternoon, as they investigated the relationship between mass and weight, as part of their forces and mechanisms topic. Friday, which was non- uniform day to raise money for Children in Need, rounded off the week with independent writing planning, computing lessons focussed on videography, and some work on French phonemes. Well done Year 5!

Week Beginning 4th November 2024

This week, the children jumped back into their learning after the half term, and dived straight into their new English book, Odysseus. We worked hard all week on our descriptive writing developing our figurative language. In maths, we packed in lots of new information, covering square and cube numbers, as well as multiplying by multiples of 10, 100 and 1000. Our school hosted an assembly with Rabbi Jordan, who taught the children about some of the aspects of Judaism, and, in science, we investigated the effects of gravity, and recreated Galileo Galilei's experiment. A very busy first week back!