Spring 2

Another fantastic term has come to an end! Year 5 have been showing off their writing skills by innovating Shaun Tan's 'The Lost Thing', applying their knowledge of different endings to the story. We have been focusing on multiplication and division in Maths, discussing the relationship between the two and several different methods and techniques to find our answers. Our Guided Reading sessions have consisted of 'The Wizard of Oz', a wonderful story that has allowed us to hone our retrieval and inference skills.

Project Based Learning culminated in a truly incredible Science Fair, and we were delighted to see so many parents enjoying the learning journey with the children. WE ARE Galactic Explorers has been a project that has encouraged an incredible amount of independent learning, as our students showed a genuine curiosity and willingness to explore the wonders of space.

We have seen children continue their progress with the graduation process, as plenty of bronze certificates have been handed out to our learners for continuing to fulfil their potential. We look forward to seeing more silver and gold certificates during the summer term!

Spring 1

Wow what a short half term that has been but we have managed to squeeeeeeze in so much. We have worked really hard on improving out descriptive writing by creating setting story openers based on pictures from a book. We spent time building up our word and sentence level before bringing it together to create some fantastic pieces. Maths has been all about practicing the basic operations but using decimals and focusing on word problems. We have also enjoyed reading Matilda by Roald Dahl as many of us have already had some experience with this text and where able to share our prior knowledge. 

This half term also kicked started our graduation process. We are working on different areas to achieve bronze, silver and gold. Some of these areas are; excelling in our learning, focusing on our learning, fulfilling our potential, organising our learning environment, showing a readiness to learn and trying out best. It is great to see so many of us already achieving bronze and the rest very close behind. 

Our project has allowed us to explore different countries of our choosing and learn all about them. We worked in groups to create some super documentaries, why not check them out below! We hope that we manage to get even more out of next half term as we move closer to the end of the year! 

Autumn 2

We have had a very exciting and long half term and are definitely due a nice relaxing break. We have been working hard at becoming mini motorheads for our project. Building model cars has been really fun and we are looking forward to racing them to crown a winner of the fastest and best looking car. Trevor kick started our project by pulling his car into the playground and opening it up for us to investigate. We were able to compare this to Mr Ahmed's hybrid car to see the similarities and differences. We have had lots of fun doing this and becoming car experts. 

English has taken us on a journey through playscripts and persuasive letters. Learning the techniques needed to persuade people to do something for you will come in really handy in the future I am sure. We also got the chance to act out our Fantastic Mr Fox playscripts that we worked hard to put together. In maths we have worked our brains to the max with fractions, adding, subtracting, converting and ordering them. 

The most exciting part of this half term has been using the VR headsets that the school recently purchased. We delved into Shakespeare's Globe, getting the chance to walk round and see what it is like inside. We also used the headsets to look at a racetrack and explore a car engine. This has been really exciting and we can't wait to use them again next half term. 

Have an amazing break, we all deserve it!! 

Autumn 1

Our new Year 5s have settled in incredibly well this term. There has been no shortage of exciting opportunities, from swimming lessons and a school trip, to our portrait artist project. Moving to a new quad can bring challenges, but we have adapted seamlessly to our new setting. We have been writing biographies of our chosen monarch, allowing us to gain some valuable information before drawing a portrait in the style of a famous artist. From stylised Henry VIII if drawn by Picasso, to a Frida Kahlo rendition of Mary I, there have been numerous fantastic pieces of art that we cannot wait to share with you.

Maths has seen focus on the core skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We have built on our prior learning and started to apply this to a range of real-world contexts thanks to Finance Friday.

Swimming lessons were a tremendous success, with pupils reporting they feel more confident than ever in the pool. The swim instructors commented on the excellent behaviour of Ainslie Wood students as a credit to the school.

The National Portrait Gallery was a wonderful opportunity for children to see some real-life art, inspiring them to create their own piece. This real-world opportunity wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our parent volunteers, and we once again extend a massive thank you for their support.