Welcome to Upper Key Stage 2! Year 5 is a year where children start to mature and gain a greater independence and confidence whilst being given the opportunities to become more empowered in their own learning.  Through recognising the needs and aspirations of individual pupils, we endeavour to ensure our children make the best possible progress and attain the highest personal achievements. With individual, personal targets and next steps, the children are given ownership of their written work. Using our King’s Oak learning habits becomes more embedded into our lessons so children are absorbing the skills to become lifelong learners.

We explore different topics through carefully chosen literature to enhance our rich and varied curriculum.  We study Tudors alongside reading ‘Lady Mary’ by Lucy Worsley where we explore the Tudor period through the eyes of King Henry VIII’s daughter. We learn about the difference between informal and formal writing and write texts using informal language including facts and opinions of characters we have met. In science, we study space and use the book ‘Curiosity, The Story of A Mars Rover’ by Markus Motum where we synthesise information to write causal and sequential explanation texts and learn organisational and presentational devices to structure our writing. While reading ‘Clockwork’ by Phillip Pullman, we revisit description writing and all the separate components that create imagery for the reader using drama to produce detailed descriptive language including facial expressions and body language. We learn to create reader empathy for specific characters and to edit and improve our work. When learning about Mountains, we use the text ‘Everest The remarkable story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’. We learn to express our opinions and back these up using evidence from a text.  We learn how to use all senses when planning our writing to produce an atmospheric experience for the reader.  When learning about Ancient Egyptians, we study ‘Secrets of a Sun King’ by Emma Carroll.  This is a delightful book which totally captures the interest of our pupils. We learn about the culture and society of the Ancient Egyptians alongside characters on an adventure where Howard Carter is excavating the tomb of Tutankhamun. Here we consolidate how language is used and applied in different contexts and how  and why the author uses specific vocabulary.

Our trips and visits are linked to each of our topics and going to Hampton Court culminates our Tudor topic. The children visit the kitchens and see where Lady Mary lived some of the time.  We search for evidence of Anne Boleyn and marvel at the opulence in which they all lived. 

The British Museum visit to the Egyptian rooms consolidates our History topic; the children are fascinated to see mummies alongside a myriad of other artefacts they have encountered through our reading.

When studying space, we have a mobile planetarium visit the school and we fly through the stars visiting each planet in turn, learning about their individual characteristics.

Overall, Year 5 is an exciting and challenging year – we look forward to welcoming you.