Year 5
Week beginning 2nd March 2026
Our project for this half-term is Maya Civilisation.
Year 5 has made a fantastic start to the term, diving enthusiastically into our new Mayan Civilisation project. In English, the children began exploring Rain Player, analysing ambitious vocabulary.. Maths lessons have focused on building fluency and reasoning through Maths Mastery and collaborative problem-solving activities. In History, pupils explored the origins of chocolate and began constructing a timeline of the Mayan civilisation, while in Science they were introduced to forces, learning key concepts such as gravity, friction and air resistance and how forces are measured. RE lessons encouraged thoughtful discussion about the Kingdom of God and the kind of king Jesus is, and Computing sessions focused on E-safety alongside an exciting live introduction to a games competition. It has been a purposeful, engaging and highly positive start to the new term.
As we head into the new term, we wish all families a fun, restful break and hope the children return refreshed for the Easter term. After the half term, we will continue to promote our agreed year group rules to ensure a calm, safe and respectful learning environment. These include:
1. Staying in the classroom unless an adult comes to get them.
2. Talking at the right times.
3. Remaining in their seats unless given permission.
4. Never using violent or threatening behaviour or language.
By consistently revisiting these expectations, we aim to support positive behaviour, readiness to learn and a safe environment where every child can thrive.
📚 Books at Bedtime – Reminder 📚
A reminder that our Books at Bedtime event will take place on Thursday 5th March from 5:30–6:15pm.
We are looking forward to a lovely evening of stories and reading together!
Please remember that parents/carers need to sign up via Arbor to secure their place.
We can’t wait to see you there! 😊
Important dates and messages:
Key Dates
The calendar section on the website lists all major events throughout the academic year, but here are some reminders:
- Thursday 5th March - World Book Day
- Thursday 26th March - Mediterranean Class Worship
- Friday 27th March - Break up for Easter holidays @ 1:20pm
- Monday 13th April - Return for the summer term
- Monday 4th May - Bank holiday
- Friday 22nd May - Break up for half term @ 3pm
- Monday 1st June - Staff INSET day
- Tuesday 2nd June - Children return for term 6
- Thursday 11th June 2026 - School’s 170th Birthday
- Friday 19th June 2026 - Sports Day at King’s Park Stadium
- Saturday 27th June - St. James’ Summer Fayre
- Wednesday 22nd July - Break up for summer holidays @ 1:20pm
Worship theme:
LENT
Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
Curriculum
This week, Year 5 will continue to immerse themselves in our exciting Mayan Civilisation project.
In English, the children will continue exploring Rain Player by David Wisniewski. They will focus on writing detailed setting descriptions inspired by the text, using relative clauses, figurative language and sensory techniques to enhance their writing. Later in the week, pupils will take part in World Book Day activities, including the KS2 Great Footy and Booky Quiz and a range of reading-themed tasks to celebrate books and storytelling.
In Maths, pupils will continue their fractions unit. They will develop their understanding of multiplying fractions by integers and build fluency and confidence through Maths Mastery sessions and reasoning activities.
In History, children will deepen their understanding of the Mayan civilisation by exploring what daily life was like, including the structure of Mayan society and who the Maya worshipped.
In Science, learning will focus on forces. Pupils will explore what a force is, how forces can be measured and how they affect objects.
In RE, lessons will explore how and why Christians understand the Kingdom of Jesus, encouraging thoughtful discussion and reflection.
In Computing, pupils will analyse existing games, identifying what makes a successful game. They will consider elements such as challenge, visual appeal and user engagement before beginning work on app creation. The children will also take part in online safety discussions, focusing on online reputation and responsible digital behaviour.
In PSHE, learning will continue to focus on health and wellbeing.
There will also be a range of enrichment activities this week, including Chinese New Year celebrations, reading buddies, spelling sessions, TTRS practice and World Book Day themed activities.
It promises to be another busy and exciting week of learning!
Other news:
-
PPA Days - PPA Days will be every other Tuesday, and children should come in wearing PE kits.
- PE every Thursday - Children should wear their PE kits every Tuesday.
Homework:
- Please find links to the relevant information below for the Project Overview and Homework.
- MyMaths - We will set up MyMaths tasks termly, based on the learning we will be doing this term. Please let us know if you are finding them too easy or tricky, and remember that below, there are many resources you can use to extend your learning from home. Various MyMaths activities have will be set for this term. This is to allow children who like to do more to be able to. However, children do not have to complete all the MyMaths activities. One per week is our minimum recommendation.
- Reading books - we would like to remind everyone to have a reading book in school - this can be a school or home book. We want all children to be able to share recommendations and reviews of what we have read recently. We display books we've read in the classroom to get children talking about the stories they love and inspire others to try new titles.
- Reading records - All children should now have a grey reading record in which they can record how often they are reading. They will receive one raffle ticket if they read three times a week and two if they read more than five. At the end of each term, we will draw a raffle to win a trip to Costa. You have to be in it to win it! Activities in the reading records can be completed at home for fun!
Reading:
This term, we are reading Boy in the Tower. We will be using Designated Reader sentence stems to support our written answers. Each lesson focuses on a different reading skill, including inferring, predicting, questioning, evaluating, clarifying, summarising and making connections.
Spellings:
This term we will be trialling a new spellings scheme with Purple Mash, starting with words ending with 'ious':
ambitious, precious , infectious, cautious , fictitious , vicious , repetitious , superstitious, nutritious and gracious.
Best wishes,
Year 5 Team
Miss Martin and Miss Perry
Learning as a family in Jesus, through Love, Hope, and Forgiveness.
Matthew 19:26: “With God all things are possible.”