Our last week of term has been extremely busy, but lots of fun, as we go towards the Christmas holidays!

Monday

We completed our ukulele lessons in Music for this term. The children have learned so much: different chords, keeping in time with a rhythm, learning different tunes and composing using the learned chords. Today, in the absence of their parent concert, we performed in class.

Tuesday

Today was our KS2 Christmas lunch. We enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner and pudding and some of us even accessorised for the occasion. Not sure how much work we can complete in the afternoon with full stomachs! Even the adults!

Wednesday

Today was our Panto day (oh no it wasn’t!) We watched Goldilocks, Adventures of a Porridge Thief. It was amazingly funny and the children loved joining in especially with the songs. It got everyone in the Christmas mood especially when Joe Wicks made an appearance!

Thursday

Our last day of term has been busy finishing our Pandora leaflets and then a few Christmas activities. We ended the day with a Christmas carol concert.

**Reminders for early January 2022:

• No homework to be set over the Christmas holidays. Encourage your child to keep reading and practising their target times tables.
• 5SC Swimming kits are needed on Thursday 6th January. Remember to pack a swim hat, goggles and a towel.

*Any swimming consent forms, especially for 5SC, need to be handed in as soon as possible.

• Winchester Science Museum trip – Tuesday 11th January. Any parents will to help, please indicate on the return slip.

All that remains is to wish everyone a safe, happy and healthy Christmas. Thank you for your support this term and we will see you on Tuesday 4th January 2022. Happy New Year!

Best wishes,

The Year 5 Team

Congratulations to Kiera, Eva, Max and Johan!

They were pulled out of the hat to see ‘Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World’, as a reward for completing the Reading Passport Challenge. They will be going to Chichester Festival Theatre in January to see the show. Well done to all the children who completed the challenge and handed in their Reading Passports.

On Thursday we went onto the school grounds to see what creatures we could find as part of our long term study in Science. We had a great time looking for all sorts of creatures, finding spiders, slugs, centipedes, woodlice and flies (which were quite hard to catch!). We will be looking at the habitats where we found them and seeing how the habitat will change over the year and whether the creatures remain in the same place.

We think Sophie was a little scared of the spider!

Today, we wore our Christmas jumpers and bought in items for the ‘Love Christmas’ campaign. Thank you very much for all the donations made – it will really help to make someone’s Christmas that little bit better.

**Reminders:

Homework (red books) are due in on Thursday 16th December.

Reading Journals (yellow books) are due in on Thursday 6th January.

P.E. kits are needed on Wednesday 15th December.

*Any swimming consent forms, especially for 5SC need to be handed in as soon as possible.

Have a peaceful weekend and prepare yourselves for Gaudete Sunday,

The Year 5 Team

As we begin the first week of Advent, we have had a busy week…

Monday saw Year 5 take part in a Speed Ops morning, with the local police force, to talk to motorists who were exceeding the 30mph speed limit outside the school, along Stakes Hill Road. Although the temperature was very cold, the children enjoyed the experience of being able to ask motorists to reflect on the consequences of speeding. Some children even got to operate a speed gun!

Tuesday saw years 3-6 celebrate our Advent Mass at Sacred Heart Church. It was a lovely reflective message of hope as we enter the period of Advent. A huge thank you to all parents who helped walk the children to the church.

And finally…

A huge congratulation to Jasmine and Connie for their amazing trophy haul from a recent weekend dance competition. They won the trophies for various catergories including streetdance, solo, disco and slow.  Incredible achievement! Well done and maybe we are looking at future Strictly Come Dancing professionals! Keep dancing…

**Reminders:

• Reading Passport deadline to complete and return to class teacher is Wednesday 8th December.
• P.E. kits are needed on Monday 6th December.
• Homework (red book) is due in on Thursday 9th December.
• Reading Journals are due in on Thursday 9th December.
• Christmas Jumper Day is on Friday 10th December. Details to follow from Mr Cunningham with regards a charitable donation.

Advanced notice for upcoming dates:

• KS2 Christmas Lunch – Tuesday 14th December.
• Inset Day – Friday 17th December (Last day of term – Thursday 16th December)

Wishing you a lovely weekend,

The Year 5 Team

On Monday Year 5 were visited by two local PCSOs, who came in to discuss an exciting but worthy experience we will take part in. They discussed road safety awareness and what can happen when people speed in cars. Next Monday, we will be out in force (and high-vis jackets) checking the speed of people travelling along Stakes Hill Road. Those who are above the speed limit will be spoken to, by groups of children, about the dangers of speeding.

We took part in the Red Wednesday assembly, standing up for the rights of our brothers and sisters in the global Church. Please see Mr Cunningham’s blog for more information about this and some photos.

**Reminders:

• It’s the Years 3 – 6 Advent Service on Tuesday 30th November. If you are able to help walk the children to and from Sacred Heart please could you let us or the office staff know as soon as possible. A parent mail was sent out about this during the week.
• P.E. kits are needed on Wednesday 1st December.
• Homework (red book) is due in on Thursday 2nd December.
• Reading Journals are due in on Thursday 9th December.
• As we head into further cold and wet weather, please remind the children to wear a coat to school even if they arrive by car. Playtime and lunchtime can be very cold otherwise.

Have a restful weekend,

The Year 5 Team

This week saw two events for Year 5: our Year 5 / 6 Mass and a day trip to Fort Nelson, linking with our World War 2 topic.

A joint celebration was enjoyed on Tuesday morning with Father Jeremy with the theme of remembrance for lives lost in wars past and present as well as lives lost in our lives.

On Thursday, we enjoyed a trip to Fort Nelson to take part in ‘recruitment’ day for jobs in WW2. The children took part in three activities to see if they would like to have be part of one of three services: A.R.P (Air Raid Protection), A.T.S (Auxiliary Territorial Service) or the Home Guard. For each activity they won points for their efforts and the winning platoon was announced at the end of the day.  It was a fantastic day and the children loved exploring the fort. Thanks to our parent helpers for giving up their time to support this learning day – we couldn’t have done it without you.

And the winning platoon of the day was… Baker Platoon!  An all-girl platoon from 5SC – reminding us all just how vital women were in the war efforts to secure victory!!!  Well done to all platoons for excellent effort.

Reminders:

• Home learning set this week as normal on Sumdog and in home learning book – due Thursday 25th November.
• Yellow reading journals (book review) – due Thursday 25th November.
• No PE on Monday 22nd November as we have a visit from our local PCSOs during the afternoon.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Year 5 Team

On Thursday we enjoyed our family STEM day – we had to make eco houses; thinking about which features would make them sustainable. We designed them, thinking about measurements and materials. Using lots of recycling materials, we constructed our eco homes with help from family members. A wonderful time was had by all.

Huge thanks go to all the family members who supported the day. Here are some photos of the day and  final products:

We think there were some family members who were extremely proud of their achievements too!

+ Our STEM day helps us to live out the teachings of the Romero Award (#7 Care for our creation: the world was made by God, so we take care of all creation). If we can live more sustainably then we are taking care of the world God created for us.

Reminders:

P.E. kits are needed on Wednesday 17th November.

Red homework books are due on Thursday 18th November.

Yellow Reading journals are due Thursday 25th November.

It is the Year 5 and 6 Mass, at school, on Tuesday 16th November.

** Our trip to Fort Nelson takes place on Thursday 18th November – please ensure children wear appropriate clothing for the day as it can get very chilly there if it’s a cold and/ or wet day.

Have a great weekend,

The Year 5 Team

It has been a busy first week back and it’s been lovely to hear about all the fun, family times over the half term break.

In English and Maths, the children have begun new units: Extreme Sports and fractions and decimals and we will be continuing on our learning journey in these areas next week looking at creating our own report on extreme sports to be submitted to the First News newspaper and calculating fractions with different denominators. In RE, we have been looking at different Saints and how their actions inspire us to follow in their faith and footsteps and have been creating prayers from All Souls day on Monday.  Some of our Year 5 children have been completing their peer mediator training this week to help other children resolve conflict issues on the playground more effectively. They have really enjoyed the opportunity to learn about how they can help their school community.

Home Learning

Our usual home learning schedule resumes this week with English and Maths homework stuck into home learning books and the usual arithmetic and times table challenges set on Sumdog. Children have been given Sumdog and TT Rockstars login ins so if your child has forgotten their logins then please ask a member of the Year 5 team and we can update them.  Weekly times table test has gone home with the children as well to focus their learning on specific gaps in their knowledge. TT Rockstars is a good place to practise times tables.

Reminders

• Thank you for the recycling items so far, please continue to send in recycling items for our STEM day next Thursday (11th November).  Smaller items are really useful too such as bottle tops, yogurt/actimel pots, small plastic trays, toilet tubes, for the smaller details on the Eco Homes. Pipe cleaners, foil, material, felt can help to add other details inside and outside the homes too.  Larger items are good for the overall structure.
• Next week is Week 2 – P.E. kits need to be worn on Monday 8th November.
• Reply slips for the trip to Fort Nelson need to be returned by Monday 15th November.
• Friday 12th November is WEAR IT BRIGHT DAY – in aid of CAFOD. Children can wear any bright clothes they want and bring a suggested donation of £1 (or £1 per family) to raise funds for CAFOD development projects around the world.

Have a lovely weekend and let’s hope we can enjoy more autumn sunshine.

The Year 5 Team

This week, in maths, we have been dividing using grouping and a formal method and in English we have planned and written our sensory descriptions based on the book ‘The Day War Came’. For R.E. we have looked at why some Christians go on pilgrimage, creating a leaflet to explain what pilgrimage is, why Christians might go on a pilgrimage and some information about Lourdes, France.

Home Learning:

Half term homework

Over the half term you need to:

• Complete the extreme sports planning sheet, ready for the first week back (Thursday 4^th November)
• Continue to read Letters from the Lighthouse – our aim is to finished by the end of the first week back (this ticks off one of your Reading Passport reads)
• Continue to read a Year 5 Must Read book
• See if you can tick off one of the smaller reads from your Reading Passport, such as a poem/ news article/ book of your choice
• Continue to practise your multiplication facts.
• Collect resources wanted/ needed for building your sustainability house.

**Reminders:

• First week back is Week 2 – P.E. kits need to be worn on Wednesday 3^rd November.
• Reply slips for the trip to Fort Nelson need to be returned by Monday 15th November.
• Please return any slips if you are able to help on the family STEM day, on the 11^th November.

Have a fabulous half term,

The Year 5 Team

This week saw 5E visit the Sustainability Centre. Again, we had 3 days experiencing living sustainably and finding out all about the diversity of the South Downs. We all have new skill sets to add to our repertoire; confidence and leadership skills were gained as well as learning about our environment.

+ This experience has fantastic links to our Catholic Social Teaching as the world was made by God; we are following in His footsteps by taking care of His creation (Romero Award #7) Looking after our planet and each other is for the common good (Romero Award #2).

There are lots more photos, which the children have seen at the end of today. They thoroughly enjoy trying to find themselves in the photos taken!

I hope they have a good rest, ready for school on Monday.

Have a restful weekend,

Mrs Edge, Mrs Moore and Mrs Jonas