Year 5 - Southwold Primary School

Welcome to class 5’s page!

This term our overarching question is: “How do people’s lives change?”

In English, children will continue to develop their independent writing skills daily and receive explicit spelling, vocabulary, handwriting, comprehension and grammar instruction. Children will also have daily opportunities to read as part of ‘Southwold Stops to Read’, to support their love of reading.

In Maths, children will complete daily fluency practice, learn key skills, practise the four operations and then deepen their understanding through reasoning and problem-solving questions, focusing on the topics: Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division and finally, Fractions.

Within the first half of the Autumn term, children’s learning will focus on the Tudor period in British history (1485-1603), which links directly to our class text ‘Treason’ by Berlie Doherty.

- In History, children will learn about the key events of Henry VIII’s rule and the defining characteristics of the Elizabethan period. They will use a range of sources to make deductions about the character and decision of key monarchs and everyday life in Tudor times and link this to their developing factual knowledge.
- During DT lessons, children will have the exciting opportunity to create an automated toy using CAMs to make movement. Through the process, children will mark, saw and cut out the components before putting together an automata.
- Children’s scientific study will focus on Forces and how these affect everything around us. Children will complete their own investigations and write predictions and make conclusions using the data they collect.
- In Music, children are learning and creating arrangements based on sea shanties – specifically ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor?’
- In RE, children are learning about Hinduism and in their SCARF PSHE learning children are focusing on the topic ‘me and my relationships’.
- In PE, children will be learning gymnastics.

In the second half of the Autumn term, children’s learning will focus on the Alps and European geography. Again, our writing units will link to this area of study.

- In Geography specifically, children develop their understanding of the human and physical features of the Alps (using a range of data collection methods), while answering the essential question, “What is life like in the Alps?”
- During Art, children’s learning will revolve around the theme of colour and how this can be used to show depth and perspective in landscape painting. They will consider what specific artworks tell us about the changing landscape and lives on inhabitants depicted.
- Within Science, children will study Living Things and their Habitats. We will explore the life cycles of flowering plants and different animals and consider how animals survive in specific habitats. Children will also consider how habitats have changed and continue to do so, in the current climate.
- In Music, children will be considering why we sing and develop their vocal confidence and song writing skills.
- In RE, children will be studying Christianity and in their SCARF PSHE learning children are focusing on the topic ‘valuing difference’.
- In PE, children will be learning dance.

All children must bring their homework diary and reading book to school each day. Children’s reading records will be checked every Monday and Thursday – one stamp will be given for every time a child reads at home with a parental signature as part of the Reading Rainbow. Children will visit the school library and change their books every Thursday.