Year 5
Year 5
Summer 1, 2026!
Welcome back! We hope that you all had a relaxing Easter break and you are ready for lots more learning this Summer!
Start time – 8:40am Pick-up time- 3:15pm
If you have any questions, concerns or worries, please contact us at year5@cpa.dsat.education and we will do our best to respond as soon as we can.
Please ensure that your child brings a labelled water bottle to school each day as well as ensuring that all items of your child's uniform is clearly labelled too.
Click on the link below to access the powerpoint from our Meet the teacher meeting.
Year 5 Meet the teacher powerpoint
Maths Calculations Parents' Guidance
English Information- Year 5 and 6
"Picture News" is a UK-based educational resource that provides schools with weekly current affairs packs, featuring a relevant photo, a "big question," and teaching materials to help children discuss real-world events, develop critical thinking, and learn about British Values, respect, and empathy in an age-appropriate way, often linking home and school learning.
Purpose of our PICTURE NEWS assembly at Canon Popham:
To make the world more accessible and understandable for children.
To develop speaking, listening, and vocabulary skills.
To foster independence, drive, and a passion for learning.
To build empathy and teach children to find their own voice.
PICTURE NEWS is delivered in a whole school assembly once a week with a thought-provoking question by class teacher throughout the school year.
Each week in assembly, the children learn about an exciting or important story that has been in the news. They consider their responses to the story and are invited to feedback their thoughts. They reflect on each story and learn how they relate to British Values and Protected Characteristics - Equality.
Each class will also take part in a weekly PICTURE NEWS assembly in their classroom.
Curriculum
Our historical study this half term is Vikings in Britain.
Our theme this half-term will develop our understanding of the people, culture, and impact of the Vikings from their early raids to their assimilation into England. We will explore who the Vikings were, how and why they travelled, and what they believed. Through studying Alfred the Great, the establishment of Danelaw, and key battles, we will develop an understanding of the Vikings’ influence on England, from settlement patterns to trade and cultural exchange.
Writing
Our writing this half term will be based on the book The Paperbag Prince by Colin Thompson.
The Paperbag Prince is about an old man living in a railway carriage on a rubbish dump. But he knows that even rubbish can sometimes contain treasure, and that if he stays long enough, gentle nature will heal the countryside and make the green come again.
We will be using modal verbs to indicate degrees of possibility and use a range of devices to build cohesion within a paragraph. We will also use use brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis. Using these will help us to write a persuasive leaflet to give information about waste management.
Reading
This half term, we will be looking at a range of fiction, non fiction and poetry texts.
As part of this unit we will be making predictions about the text from details stated and implied. We will explore the meaning of words and clarifying vocabulary in the text. We will ask and answer our own questions about the text, and make inferences from what we have read.
Maths
This half term we will continue to further develop our reasoning skills as well as learning about shape transformations and converting time, length, mass and capacity units.
We will also be focusing on knowing and remembering our Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) for Summer 1 - to recall square numbers up to 12² and their square roots.. Please click on the links below to continue to support your child securing their multiplication and division facts for to 12 x 12 too.
If you have any questions about these areas of Maths please don’t hesitate to come and speak to us.
R.E.
In RE, we will focus on the theme of Being and Belonging to explore the question "How might pilgrimage transform people’s lives?"
We will -
- explore places of pilgrimage for Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus.
- understand how pilgrimage makes people of faith feel.
- express ideas about what people of faith might gain from their special journey.
- understand that places can be special to more than one faith.
Science - Plant and animal life cycles
In this module, we will continue to:
● describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird
● describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.
We are also going to further develop our knowledge of Separating mixtures and changing materials.
In this module, we will:
● that some materials dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution
● to use knowledge of solids, liquids, and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating
● to demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes
● to explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda.
Design and Technology: Gears and pulleys
As part of our learning, we will -
- give examples of machines that use gears and/or pulleys.
- describe how gears and pulleys work and their purpose.
- design and make a gear and pulley system.
- write questions for market research, provide feedback and research market competitors.
- write and use a design brief to guide design.
- evaluate a product against a set of design criteria, provide useful feedback and incorporate changes.
- draw and annotate an eco-gadget bike design.
Art and Design: Textiles
This unit will build on our skills and knowledge of textiles, use of applique, running and overstitch and simple use of dye, the use of Batik, more complex stiches and use of embellishments. We will learn about celebrated textile artists, including Pacita Abad and Siobhan Healy and use their creations as inspirations for our own.
P.E. - Athletics, Netball, Ultimate Frisbee
Our P.E. lessons this term will take place on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.
Our PE focus on Wednesdays is Athletics and Netball.
Our PE focus on Thursdays is Ultimate Frisbee.
Please ensure that your child comes to school with the correct P.E kit which they will change into just before lunch. If your child wears earrings, these must be removed or provide tape to cover them. Ensure long hair is tied back away from the face.
P.S.H.E. - Fiver Challenge
This term, we will take part in The Fiver Challenge. This is from is a free national enterprise programme providing children, aged 5-11, a highly interactive and fun way of developing core enterprise and financial education skills, including problem solving, confidence, creativity and teamwork.
Computing – Databases
In our computing lessons this half term, we will be introduced to databases beyond branching databases. We will create our own databases as well as query existing databases to find information.
French - Les Jeux Olympiques (The Olympic Games)
In this unit, we will learn the key facts of the ancient and modern Olympics recounted in French, learn 10 nouns with their article/determines for common Olympic sports, and explore the full present tense conjugation of the high frequency verb ‘faire’.
Music
Our musical theme is Freedom to improvise. Improvisation gives you the freedom to express yourself, to really go for it!
When you improvise in this unit, why not use notes that lie further apart?
An ‘interval’ in music refers to the distance between two pitches. Some notes lie right next to each other (stepping motion) while other notes lie further apart (skipping motion).
TTRockstars and Reflex– Every day 10 minutes
Adaptive and individualized, Reflex is the most effective system for mastering basic maths facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Full of games that children love, Reflex takes children at every level and helps them quickly gain maths fact automaticity and confidence.
Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS) is a program designed to help children learn and memorise multiplication and division facts. It uses a gamified approach, incorporating a rock and roll theme to make practice fun and engaging. In order to get the best out of TTRS children should regularly play for short bursts of time over the week.
If you have misplaced your log in details or are having trouble accessing the websites, please email me to let us know.
READING – Every day 10 minutes
Please continue to enjoy your reading each day. Reading is fun and a great way to spend time together with your family, as well as developing our imaginations. Encourage your child to talk about what they have read and ask them a question or two about the book. This will help consolidate their comprehension work in school. Adults please remember to record what your child reads at home in their reading record. We will count all entries in the reading diaries weekly and award golden tickets to those who have read 20 times or more in a month.
Our book change day is Thursday.
Homework
Maths- Given out every Thursday to be handed in by the following Thursday.
If you have any questions, worries or concerns please contact me using the class email: year5@cpa.dsat.education
Thank you.
Mrs Milnes & Mrs Creighton