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Curwen Primary School

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Y5 Termly updates & photos

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Archive

  • Summer 1

    Published 15/05/26, by Hana Mehmet

    Literacy

     

    In Literacy this term, year 5 have been reading “Survivor”, an adventure story set amidst the tragic natural disaster of Pompeii. The students then went on to create their own adventure story, where their characters encounter a natural disaster too. This has been a wonderful opportunity to bring together the myriad of writing techniques they have learnt about this year as well as show off their new found understanding of spelling and grammar. Carefully considering the atmosphere they want their story to create and how their choice of words will influence the reader, this has been an exciting and rewarding topic for all. 


     

    Science

     

    In science year 5 has been learning about materials and their properties. We undertook a series of experiments to test which materials were suitable for their purpose. If they were to make a tent, the children now know that they would need waterproof materials because that doesn’t let the water through and we want something opaque to block out the light if we want to sleep well at night. The children also had the opportunity to see and handle chicks as part of our life cycles unit. They went to the library where our librarian, Miss Fuller helped them to reactivate their learning about the chickens. 

     

    Maths 

    Year 5 learned about time this term in maths. They first used practical resources to help them solve problems like 1 quarter of an hour before/after. They were then able to move onto trickier SATs style questions that involved working out the difference between two times and answering questions based on time tables. They were also able to recognise time in both digital and analogue form, allowing them to truly grasp the concept of a 24 hour clock! 

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  • Spring 2

    Published 18/03/26, by Holly Croxall

    Topic-

    During Topic this term Year 5 have been fully immersed in the world of the Victorians and it has been quite the eye-opener! From the strict discipline of the classroom to the challenging lives of the urban poor, the children have developed a deep understanding of how different life was for young people over 150 years ago.

    To bring our learning to life, we recently visited the Ragged School Museum. This was a brilliant opportunity for the children to step back in time and see the reality of the Victorian era for themselves.

    The museum showed us the "Ragged Schools"—free schools set up for the poorest children who couldn't afford an education. Walking through the original Victorian classroom, the students saw the cramped wooden benches and the sparse, cold environment. 

    This topic has really sparked the children's curiosity. They have been comparing their own school lives to those of Victorian children, often concluding that they are very happy to be in a modern classroom! It has been wonderful to see them show such empathy.

    Literacy- 

    This term in Literacy Year 5 were lucky enough to take part in a fantastic creative writing workshop, hosted by Avron, with a stellar lineup of guest artists: Kat François, Alex Falase-Koya, Breis, and Rachel Seiffert. It was far from a typical day in the classroom; the energy was high as the students jumped headfirst into everything from narrative storytelling to live performance. Under the expert guidance of these mentors, the children found their own unique voices by writing moving poetry, building out new fictional worlds, and even dropping their own raps. It was wonderful to see their confidence grow as they traded their textbooks for microphones, learning that their own stories and rhythms truly matter. We are incredibly proud of the creativity they displayed, and we encourage you to ask them all about the "bars" they wrote or the tales they spun!

    Maths

    This term, Year 5 took part in a practical maths session, taking a hands-on approach to understanding perimeter. Rather than just working with diagrams in a textbook, they collaborated in small groups to construct their own rectilinear shapes using physical pieces of paper. By joining various rectangular and square pieces of paper, students created complex L-shaped and T-shaped polygons. This helped them visualize how a single "shape" is often composed of smaller units. Students then had to use their knowledge of parallel sides—calculating a missing side by looking at the difference between other known lengths. Once all sides were identified, the children worked together to sum the total distance around the edge (Perimeter).

    This lesson moved beyond simple addition. It required logical reasoning to deduce that if the total height is 10cm and one part is 4cm, the remaining segment must be 6cm. Children used their core skills of resilience, striving for success and teamwork to achieve success.

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  • Spring 1

    Published 01/02/26, by Hana Mehmet

    Please enter an introduction for your blog post here.

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  • Autumn 2

    Published 28/11/25, by Holly Croxall
    This term, the children have been reading their class books and their learning has been focused around reading skills. During each lesson, children had the opportunity to read their class text, understand a grammar rule and link it to their book, as
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  • Autumn 1

    Published 10/10/25, by Hana Mehmet

    Year 5 Website update – Autumn 1

    Topic

    This term, the children have been learning all about the ancient Greeks and spent some time understanding what life would be like for free people during Greek times as well as slaves. They listened to a Now Press Play experience where they helped save Athens from the Spartans who wanted to invade. This tied in nicely with other learning the children did about invasion where King Darius wanted to invade Greece to add to his empire. The Athenians won that war, despite having a smaller army. This was all because of their battle strategy.

     

     

     

     

    Literacy

    This term, the children have been reading information texts and Greek myths. They identified features of non-chronological reports and then spent their time gathering information and writing their own report. All children learnt vocabulary that was specific to the ancient and modern Olympics, and created freeze frames about these words. They understood that information can be organised in ways that appeals to readers and wrote their own report about the Olympics, making use of parenthesis and bullet points. Children enjoyed learning about Cronos and how he ate his own children.

     

     

    Maths

    This term in maths the children have been learning about place value. They started with learning about the different properties of number such as, factors, multiples and negative numbers. They then moved onto using a place value chart to determine the values of different digits and multiplying them by 10, 100 and 1000. Autumn term also means kick starting a new season of the school wide TT Rockstars competition!

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  • Summer 2

    Published 10/07/25, by Hana Mehmet
    Year 5 Website update – Summer 2 Literacy This term, year 5 has been reading one of the key class texts for year 5. 5A has enjoyed Stormbreaker, 5T has tucked their teeth into Kensuke’s kingdom, 5C has been enjoying boy at the back
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  • Summer 2

    Published 10/07/25, by Hana Mehmet
    Year 5 Website update – Summer 2 Literacy This term, year 5 has been reading one of the key class texts for year 5. 5A has enjoyed Stormbreaker, 5T has tucked their teeth into Kensuke’s kingdom, 5C has been enjoying boy at the back
    Read More

  • Summer 1

    Published 22/05/25, by Nazmin Choudhury
    Literacy To kick of their writing of a disaster story, year 5 has been reading Survivor – escape from Pompeii. Children are enjoying learning about earthquakes and tsunamis and the impacts of these disasters on a community. This literacy uni
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  • Spring 2

    Published 27/03/25, by Hana Mehmet

    Topic

    During their trip to the Ragged Trouser Museum, as part of their Victorian studies,
    Year 5 students explored the rich history of Victorian Schools in their local community.
    Overall, the trip was a delightful blend of history and roleplaying engagement, leaving
    the students with a deeper understanding of Victorian life. For International Family
    Week, children participated in hands-on sewing activities, stitching flags to their tie-
    dye T-shirts. This experience not only taught them practical skills but also fostered
    teamwork and creativity.

    Literacy

    In Year 5 during Spring 2, we celebrated World Book Day by decorating story spuds,
    turning potatoes into our favourite book characters. We also created a stop-motion
    animation using our spuds as the main characters! For International Week, we
    researched Spain and Greece, learning about their cultures and traditions. We then
    designed informative brochures and shared them with other students during Mini
    World. It was a fantastic way to celebrate books and global cultures!

    This term, the children have been completing their learning about fractions by
    exploring fractions of an amount. They also started learning about perimeter and spent
    time thinking carefully about what perimeter is and calculating perimeter of shapes. All
    children have been developing their reasoning skills in math and this can be seen in the
    challenges that they have attempted and the journaling explanations that accompany
    their calculations. This has allowed each child to apply their core skills of problem
    solving and resilience to maths.

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  • Spring 1

    Published 04/02/25, by Nazmin Choudhury
    Topic This term, year 5 have begun learning about the Victorian Era. The children created timelines to understand more about this time period, learning about Queen Victoria’s reign, Victorian inventions and the industrial revolution. Childre
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  • Autumn 2

    Published 19/12/24, by Nazmin Choudhury
    Topic Year 5 consolidated their learning about the Ancient Greeks with a Now Press Play experience. They found themselves immersed in Ancient Greece, helping on an important Quest. As part of their final outcome, the children made clay pots in the
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  • Autumn 1

    Published 15/10/24, by Nazmin Choudhury
    Topic Year 5 has been learning about the Ancient Greeks and their achievements in history. We have compared and contrasted ancient and modern maps of Greece, created our own timeline of important events, explored the impact of Ancient Greece on th
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  • Summer 2

    Published 11/07/24, by Nazmin Choudhury
    Topic This term, year 5 experienced sports day and geography day. The children were allowed to display their sportsmanship alongside their parents and get stuck in doing all sorts of competitive games. They enjoyed baseball, egg and spoon, relay a
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  • Summer 1

    Published 16/05/24, by Nazmin Choudhury
    Topic This term, year 5 have been learning about sustainability and understanding how to keep the world safe for future generations. Children understood what latitude and longitude mans and why they are important. All children were able to use gri
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  • Spring 2

    Published 21/03/24, by Hana Mehmet

    Topic

    This term, year 5 children have been continuing their learning about the Victorians and understanding how the Docklands were important during this period of history. While learning about the theatre in history, they used drama to act out a play by Oscar Wilde – The importance of being Earnest.

     

    In the run up to international week, children have also learnt about sewing techniques and used this to sew their flags onto their t-shirts. Parents were invited in to help their children and other children in the class to do the sewing.

     

     

    Literacy

    This term, year 5 have been reading their class texts. Children have been focusing on understanding authorial intent and learning the context behind words chosen by the authors. Each class has tremendously enjoyed reading their book. 5CB has been reading Kensuke’s kingdom, 5T has been reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, 5PB has been reading Stormbreaker and 5C has been reading Boy at the back of the class. This term has also been world book day and all children created story jars of their favourite story. This has fostered a real love for reading.

     

     

    Maths

    During our maths lessons this term, Year 5 has been learning about fractions, decimals and percentages. They have learnt the links between the three and started applying them to real life situations. Children are able to see that 50 percent is the same as half and that is 0.5. This information has been particularly useful when talking to the children about money and converting between pounds and pence.

     

     

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