Dear Parents and Carers,

We have reached the end of Week 2, and it is so nice to hear how much the children enjoyed their trip to the Milestones Museum seven days ago.

In Literacy, we have made further progress with the story Street Child, and the children are beginning to understand just how tough life was for Jim and other children from the slums in Victorian times. This week, we have followed Jim’s sad journey to the dreaded workhouse, where he meets horrible characters such as Mr Sissons – the man in charge – and the evil schoolmaster, Mr Barrack. However, there was a brief ray of hope for Jim when he met Tip, a charming youth who, although he is trapped in the workhouse and cannot read or write, is determined to laugh and joke his way through this adverse experience.  The children analysed the impact on the story of each of these characters – especially Tip – before discussing the pros and cons of Jim’s decision to attempt an escape. Will he stay or will he go? We will find out next week…

Maths saw the children reach the conclusion of their work on multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000, using the number of zeroes in the sum to help them find the answer, before moving on to study equivalent unit fractions. Next week, we will be learning about equivalent, non-unit and improper fractions.

In the afternoons, the children have studied Victorian homes of the past and compared them to their homes today. They have also begun building their fitness levels through circuit training and learnt how to pass and control a football in PE, have completed their draft house designs on Google Slides in Computing, and spent their Science lesson finding out about a lady called Jane Goodall and her discoveries whilst living amongst chimpanzees in Tanzania.

Over the coming weeks, we will be rehearsing our chosen song for the Christmas Carol Concert, as well as constructing some pieces for our Christmas hoop ready for the fair on Saturday 30th November.

Two final things to note:

• No football boots for our football lessons in PE please – trainers only
• Towards the end of next week, we will be asking the children to start bringing in card to help them make their Victorian cam toys in DT. Thanks to those who have been saving some up already, but please don’t bring any cardboard into school until Monday 25th November.

Have a good weekend,

The Y5 Team