Welcome to the Summer Term!

We are looking forward to an exciting and busy term ahead.  We will be learning about the Benin Kingdom in History and Italy in Geography. We will continue to work hard but we will also have fun and develop our love for learning along side our knowledge and skills.  Please remember to keep completing your Reading Record and bring it to school every day.  We will also continue to work hard on our presentation so that you are ready to make a strong start to Year Six.

Mrs Kent and Mr McCarthy

Design and Technology - Making Pizzas

We had great fun making pizzas and then using the boxes we made to take them home (if we hadn't eaten them already!)

Maths - Pizza Ingredients

We investigated the ingredients and nutritional values of different take away pizzas by reading data from tables.

Euro 2024 Stadium Construction

In preparation for the Euro 2024 final, Year 5 were given cardboard and tape and asked to make football stadiums! They had a fantastic time and showed off their creative skills before playing a few matches. The excitement was palpable!!

Science and Design and Technology - Marble Run

We worked in teams to create marble runs using cardboard.  We tested them out and congratulated the winning team.  Then we worked as a team to tidy up!

Poetry Afternoon

We have been celebrating poetry this week.  We had a visitor from a young poet named Harrison, who read one of his published poems to us.  We had lots of questions to ask before we then tried writing our own poems.  In Science, we read poems about scientific topics and then created comic strips for them.

Maths - Dividing Fractions Games

We have been learning to multiply and divide fractions.  We played a loop game by matching questions to their answers.  We then created our own games, which we played with a partner.

PE - Hockey

We have been learning how to play hockey in PE with Coach Tim.  He we are trying out some of our new skills.

Outdoor Learning

Summer is finally here!  We have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather by working outside as much as possible.  On Monday we took part in a treasure hunt to find percentages during our Maths lesson.  Later in the week, we took our English learning outside and created freeze frames.

Science - Investigating Dissolving

We designed and conducted an investigation to find out if the rate at which sugar dissolves changes depending on the temperature of the water.  What do you think we found out?

Geography - Italy and Compass Directions

We used clues to locate Italy's bordering countries, regions and major cities.  The clues told us if each location was north, south, east or west of another place on the map.

Happy Fathers Day!

We made cards for one of our loved ones in our lives to celebrate Fathers Day. Thank you for everything that you do!

The School Library

One of our favourite parts of the week. Relaxing in our amazing library with a good book. What could be better?

Sports Day

Congratulations to everybody on a wonderful Sports Day.  You showed great sportsmanship and fair play.  You all supported one another and most importantly of all, you had fun!  Well done.  Mrs Kent and Mr McCarthy were very proud teachers.

National Gallery Trip

We had a wonderful trip to the National Gallery to learn about our Geography topic of Italy.  As well as viewing paintings by famous Italian artists, we also saw some of the most famous works of art in the world and learnt who painted them.  Following our cultural experience, we walked to St James' Park for lunch and then walked around the park to Buckingham Palace.  After walking along the Mall, we had a few minutes to enjoy the sights and sounds of the park before travelling back to school.  Behaviour was exceptional.

Golden Time

Well done to all those who earned their Golden time this week. We challenged ourselves by creating different objects with playdough under a time limit! See if you can guess what we made.

Tremendous Tennis!

Year 5 were lucky to experience a fantastic tennis session this week in our local pavilion. We learned lots of different tennis techniques and had fun learning a new skill.

Science - Amazing Changes!

Our new Science topic is Amazing Changes.  We observed different irreversible changes and made notes and diagrams of our observations.

Golden Time

Well done to all those who worked hard to earn their golden time at the end of term. As you can see, we had lots of fun playing parachute games!

Careers Week Dress Up Day

It was a delight to see everyone come to school dressed as their chosen career today! From lawyer to hairdresser, manager to teacher. It is safe to say our future world is in safe hands.

Careers Week - Making a Better World

On the final day of Careers Week, we were lucky enough to welcome two extraordinary and inspiring speakers.  Dawn Butler is our MP in Brent and she spoke about how a drive to help others helped her to overcome the challenges she faced in becoming an MP.  We then had a visit from Ryan Clement, who is one of our school governors and a very successful barrister.  He spoke movingly about how standing up for others who can not stand up for themselves is the most important part of his role. 

Careers Week - Finchley Arts Depot

We enjoyed another inspiring talk from Monique, who is the Chief Executive of the Arts Depot in Finchley.  She told us how much she loves her job as she meets creative people and helps other people.

More from Careers Week!

Our Careers Week continued with a talk from Carol from Borras Construction, who told us about the wide variety of jobs and careers involved in building work.  We started the day by writing letters to Adam of LW Theatres, to thank him for his time and his inspiration talk.

Careers Week

Our Careers Week has started well with two fascinating speakers!  On Monday, Dr. St John, who is a GP, told us all about her role and careers in medicine.  On Tuesday, we met Adam from LW Theatres, who gave a speech to the whole school about the various roles involved in running a successful theatre.  Both speakers were very inspiring and they both commented on the excellent behaviour.

History and Art - Benin Pottery

We continued our learning about the Kingdom of Benin by researching the role of the Oba and then creating our own Benin style pottery.

Science and Maths - Vitruvian Man

Our Science topic this term is "Growing Up and Growing Old."  We learnt about Leonardo DiVinic's Vitruvian Man and used our Maths skills to measure parts of our bodies and look for patterns.

Class Liturgy

We enjoyed our Year Five Liturgy, which was an opportunity for us to reflect and pray together.  We then had some time to enjoy God's gifts of nature and sunshine by reading quietly in the Prayer Garden.

History - Benin Bronzes Debate

We researched the Benin Bronzes and considered both sides of the argument "should the Benin Bronzes be returned to Nigeria?"  We were able to consider both points of view before making our own decision and giving a reason for it.

Maths - 3D Shapes

We started to learn about 3D shapes by using nets to create shapes and then working with different partners to identify the features.

Maths - Turns and Angles

We have been learning about direction and angles.  We used instructions to create a plan of a bedroom on the playground.  Next, we made angle measures to show acute, obtuse and reflex angles.  We drew these on the ground outside and then used ICT to test our partner's knowledge of angles.

English - Role Play

We have been reading "The Lost Book of Adventures" and considering the dangerous situations we could find ourselves in.  We created freeze frames based on illustrations from the book and we will use these to inform our planning and writing.

Science and Maths - Gestation and Statistics

In Science, we have been learning about the gestation periods of different animals.  We used the data we collected during our Science lesson to create bar charts in our next Maths lesson.

English - Explorers!

We began our new topic by being explorers and finding pictures of items linked to our new book around the playground.  We then worked with our partner to answer questions about the artefacts and make predictions.

Fun Science Afternoon!

We have a great afternoon of making and exploring in Science.  We made pullies and then used our Maths knowledge to help us to make parachutes which we tested in the KS1 playground.  This was a great end to our topic "Let's Get Moving!"

Easter Egg Hunt

A huge "thank you" to the Mini Vinnies and Mr Murphy for arranging such a fun Easter Egg hunt today!

NSPCC - Speak Out, Stay Safe

Last week, Mrs Kent led an assembly to remind us about the important message of the NSPCC "Speak Out, Stay Safe," campaign.  We learnt that:

- No means no!

- Private parts are private

- The telephone number for Child Line is 0800 111111

We all designed pants to remind us of the important information.

Shakespeare Week - Workshop and Geography

We enjoyed attending the workshop for Shakespeare week, where we learnt to act out scenes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  Before we returned to the Hall for the final performance, we completed a Geography task where we looked up the settings of Shakespeare's plays and located them on a map.

Maths - Perimeter

We have been learning about perimeter in Maths and completed several practical investigations and activities.

Stations of the Cross

We were very lucky to receive a visit from Father Tony, who prayed the Stations of the Cross with us in our chapel.  It was a moment of reflection and thanks and we really thought about how Jesus' suffering can inspire us to live a better life.

Science - Investigating Friction

During our Science lesson, we investigated friction on different surfaces by building a ramp and rolling a cotton reel down it.  We then recorded our results in a table and a bar chart.

World Book Week Maths

During World Book Week, we completed several book and reading themed activities in Maths including a treasure hunt in the hall.  On Wednesday, we calculated our reading speed in words per minute and then calculated how long it would take us to read the books we chose to read to Year One.

World Book Week - Monday

During English today, we each created our own book from a single piece of paper!  We have been learning about cliff hangers in stories and we each wrote our own mini story with a cliff hanger!

St David's Day Assembly

Well done, Year Five!  What a wonderful St David's Day assembly!  You taught the whole school about St David and Wales and shared a beautiful song.

Future London Survey

In our first Geography lesson of the term, we took part in a survey from the Mayor of London's office.  Young people have been asked to give their opinion on what the Mayor's priority for the future should be.  There were some excellent ideas!

Virtual Reality Maths Workshop

We all had great fun during the Virtual Reality Maths workshop!  We had an opportunity to work with our partner to try out different games and Maths activities in different settings.

Trip to the Golden Hinde

We had a wonderful time at the Golden Hinde and learnt so much about exploration during Elizabethan times from Catherine, our guide.  After lunch, we walked along the South Bank to Waterloo, taking some time to stop and sketch Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Maths and History - Making Vegetable Pottage

During Maths we prepared the vegetables for an Elizabeth vegetable pottage (soup).  We weighed each vegetable and used division to calculate how much of each one we would need.  We used the chopped vegetables to make our soup, which we tried during our History lesson.  We agreed that we needed some salt - which would have been very expensive during Elizabethan times - and a few more herbs to make it palatable!  

Golden Time

We played some fun games outside for Golden Time this week!

Elizabethans Assembly

We shared our History learning about Queen Elizabeth I and the Elizabethans during our whole school assembly.  We have learnt that Elizabeth wanted everybody to be able to choose their own religion.  We reflected on how important this is and wrote a class prayer to thank God for this freedom.  You can see the prayer after the photographs, below.

Maths Week - Maths and History

At the start of Maths Week, we consolidated our learning about multiplying numbers by solving puzzles and playing games.  We made links with our History topic of the Elizabethans.  We solved multiplication problems about facts and figures from the Elizabethan era.  We also learnt about Sir Francis Drake and the route that he took when he circumnavigated the world.  We used string to measure along the map and estimate the distance.

Science - Identifying Parts of a Flower

We have been learning about the life cycle of plants in Science.  We looked at some tulips in detail and made observational drawings.

English - The Promise

We started our new book in English by looking at some items which feature in the story and using them to ask questions and make predictions.

New Year, New Term!

Our first few days of the Spring term have been busy.  Our Science topic is Circle of Life and we took a walk around the school grounds to identify plants at different stages in their life cycle. We began the second day of term with prayers in the Chapel.   In Maths, we are learning to multiply larger numbers and we completed some excellent pair work, where we took on the role of teachers.  In RSHE we are thinking about being called to God.  We heard the story of the tax collector and created freeze frames.

Christmas Fun!

On our last full day of term, we took part in fun activities to improve our team work and communication skills and to help us get into the festive spirit.  This included a snowball challenge, Christmas statues, pass the parcel and creating a Christmas scene from paper drinking straws.

Westminster Cathedral Advent Mass

Year Five and Year Six travelled to Westminster Cathedral to attend Mass during Advent.  It was a very special occasion and we were able to hear the Mass in Latin.  After the Mass, Father Brian, who lead the service, complimented us on our wonderful behaviour.  He also reminded us that the Cathedral is a church for everyone and we are always welcome to visit.

Theatre for Every Child

We were inspired by our visit to "Matilda," and think that every child should be given the opportunity to visit the theatre.  We wrote letters to the Society of London Theatres to support their campaign to make this happen.

Matilda Reviews

Following our wonderful trip to the theatre last week, we wrote letters to the cast and crew of the show to share our reviews.  We have also made a book of our letters and pictures, which will be part of a new theatre section in our Library. 

Matilda

We had a wonderful time watching "Matilda," at the theatre. It was spectacular!  Everyone was very well behaved.  We travelled on the Bakerloo Line and arrived at Trafalgar Square.  This gave us the opportunity to see several famous landmarks and theatres before arriving at the Cambridge Theatre, where the performance was taking place.  We had to wait outside for a few minutes, which gave us time to perfect our Matilda poses!  Nobody was "Naughty," and several children mentioned that that would like to work in the theatre "When I Grow Up."  

Christmas is Coming!

We enjoyed Christmas jumper day and walked to church with Year One to take part in Advent Mass.

Maths - Fractions and Baking

We were the first class to cook in the brand new kitchen!  We began by calculating the fractions of ingredients we would need to make our cake and then worked in table groups to create delicious chocolate chip tray bakes.  We also used excellent team work and communication skills.  Once our cakes were in the oven, we all helped to wash and clean up.

Christmas Doors

We have decorated the door to our classroom with some beautiful, hand-made Christmas tree lights.  The lights remind us of the light and love which Jesus gives us and we all wrote a short prayer of thanks to him.

Christmas Craft

We have been making bracelets to sell at the Christmas Fayre.

English - Interviewing The Highwayman

We role played different characters in the poem "The Highwayman," and recorded our interviews using iPads.

Science - Investigations in the New Kitchen!

We were the first class to use the new kitchen area for a Science investigation when we put soap into the microwave for a minute and a half and observed the change of state.  (Remember, do not try this at home!)

Friendship Week - Learning Sign Language

We have been learning British Sign Language during Friendship Week.  We can now communicate basic greetings including "good morning," "good evening" and "hello."

Music - Recorders

This term, we have been learning about Jazz and playing the first notes on the recorder.

Memory Box

We visited the chapel and spent some time thinking about people who are no longer with us.  We wrote some memories and prayers for the memory box.

Science - States of Matter

We used stop-start animation to create short films about states of matter and how the atoms in solids, liquids and gasses are different from one another.

Geography - Locating Mountains

We began our new Geography topic by using Atlases and iPads to research and locate famous mountains.

Science - Investigating Materials

Do you know what this is?  We began our new Science topic by investigating the properties of materials.  We were given a mystery fabric and had to find out what it was by considering its properties and using the Internet for research.  We found out that the material is Kevlar, which was invented by a scientist called Stephanie Kwolek.

Black History Month - Writing a Persuasive Letter

We have been learning about persuasive writing in English.  We researched black role models and then wrote letters to Royal Mail to try and persuade them to feature these inspirational figures on future stamps.  We will let you know when we hear back!

Black History Month - African Drumming

We enjoyed our African Drumming workshop!

St Luke's Day 

We had a wonderful day, celebrating our class saint on his day of 18th October.  We started with a treasure hunt to find facts around the classroom.  This was followed by some quiet time to write prayers, which we shared in the Chapel.  Later in the day, we completed some art work.  We created symbols featuring St Luke's animal of the ox and made posters to thank workers in the NHS because St Luke is the patron saint of doctors.  The day ended with a tea party!

Spanish Theme Day

We dived into a world of Spanish culture and language. We had great fun in class starting to learn shape names in Spanish in Maths. We imagined what it would be like to holiday in Spain and created some persuasive sentences to encourage families to visit the country in Literacy.  Finally, we explored the vibrant world of Spanish art, creating Cubism portraits in the style of Picasso. Here are some pictures from our day.

Black History Month - History and RE

In History, we have been learning about the Vikings, who invaded the monasteries in the north of England.  We researched the life of St Hadrian, a very religious man, who helped to shape the future of the Church in England shortly before the Vikings arrived.  We started our learning with a quiz and then created factsheets.

Black History Month - Science

Our Science topic this half term is Earth and Beyond.  We have been learning all about the Solar System.  In Science, we learnt about three female, black scientists who have made huge achievements in this area.

Black History Month - Music

This half term, we have been learning about Rock and Roll Music.  During Black History Month, we listened to "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard, a pioneer of this style of music.  We created graphic scores to show the patterns in the music.

Black History Month - Performance Poetry

Year Five began Black History Month by performing poetry by the poet and rapper Karl Nova.

Viking Day Costumes and Fact Finding

Our Viking Day began with time to admire our costumes and props.  This as followed by a fact finding mission.  We researched and shared fun facts.

Viking Day - Broaches and Badges

We studied Viking patterns and designs and made our own badges and broaches.

Viking Day - Making Soda Bread

We followed a Viking recipe to make soda bread.  At the end of the day, we ate like Vikings by tearing off chunks of bread to taste.

Viking Day - Invasion!

We staged a (peaceful) invasion of Year Two!  They were very surprised when we explained that we wanted to take over their classroom.  After the invasion, we took some time to tell them about our costumes.

Viking Day - Dancing and Role Play

We researched Viking Long Ships and role played constructing and rowing one.  We followed this with some Viking style dancing!

Maths - Ordering and Rounding Numbers

This weeek, we have been learning to order and round numbers.  We played several fun games to help with our learning.  These skills also helped us in Science, where we learnt about the distance between planets in the Solar System using toilet paper.

Smart, New Uniforms!

Congratulations to the first winners of our new certificates to reward smart uniforms.  We are looking forward to giving out more in the near future.

Science - The Solar System

We followed instructions to make models to show how the the Sun, Moon and Earth are related to one another within the Solar System.  IT took patience and teamwork but was worth it!

English - Drama

We have been learning about abstract and concrete nouns and using this knowledge to create locations for our poems.  We imagined visiting these places and created freeze frames to show our reactions!

Our First Day in Year Five

Our first day in Year Five included an introduction to our new classroom, a class prayer in the Prayer Garden, team games and some quiet reading time in the Library.