Summer has finally made an albeit fleeting appearance and we have had a great start to our summer term – the last one of Year 5!! It’s been a longer term, but it seems to have flown by!

We’ve said a fond farewell to our Victorian topic with a final piece of literacy work about Charles Dickens before we’ve launched into our new science-based topic of ‘Journeys; Our World and Beyond’.

In literacy, we’ve been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with Sir Tim Peake, looking at what it’s like for the astronauts who complete missions there for up to six months at a time! We’ve had a guided tour of the ISS and watched as Sir Tim performed some cool tricks with water in space. We even got to taste some of the special foods the astronauts eat whilst they’re up there. We decided we’d be happy to eat it if we had to live on board the ISS! We also started to read our new book, Cosmic by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Learners have been showing their understanding by creating mini dramas to perform to the class.

In numeracy, we’ve continued with fractions, decimals, and percentages by taking some of our learning outside, making decimal place value grids using natural resources. We’ve also dipped into our topic of space by first estimating, then measuring and finally creating scaled models of the planets’ distance from the Sun.

We have really started this new topic with bags of enthusiasm, with several learners creating their own space inspired PowerPoints and Pic Collages at home. Pupils have chosen to take their learning in many different and interesting directions, from space-inspired pictures to Lego rockets.

Our ‘Outdoor Learning Week’ was spent in the pond area doing a spot of pond dipping and we also created some bird baths to encourage our feathered friends to visit our forest school area.

In Health and Well-Being, we’ve been busy practising for sports day and for the upcoming swimming gala. We found some time to explore some reasoning activities making different regular and irregular shapes using our bodies. We’ve also been exploring our relationships and friendships in ‘My Happy Mind’ and thinking about our school value of ‘service’ and how we can show it in our daily lives.