Term 1 ,2025-26

This term, Indian Tigers have worked very hard and made a great start to Year 5. Our topic of ‘Dynamic Dynasties’ has focused on the civilisations of Ancient China.

English:

In English, our focus has been on narrative poetry. We began by exploring a traditional Chinese folktale and then looked at a poem that had been adapted from that story. We then read a second Chinese folktale and used it as inspiration to create our own poems. We also enjoyed learning the poems through actions and role play, which helped bring the stories to life. Throughout the unit, we worked on using figurative language—especially metaphors and similes—to strengthen our writing. The children produced some excellent poems, some of which were shared during celebration assemblies. We look forward to building on this next term.

Maths:

This term, our work in Maths has centred on understanding place value in numbers up to five digits. We explored the value of each digit and practised rounding to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 and even 100,000. The children learned a helpful rounding rhyme to support their understanding, and we used plenty of concrete resources to make the concepts clearer. We also built on our addition and subtraction skills, tackling multi-step problems that really challenged our thinking.

History:

In History, our topic Dynamic Dynasties has linked beautifully with our English work and will continue into next term so we can explore it in greater depth. We began by constructing a detailed timeline of the major Ancient Chinese dynasties, which helped us understand how each period fits into the wider history of China. Our main focus this term has been the Shang Dynasty, where we examined a variety of fascinating artefacts. The children learned about oracle bones and how they were used in divination ceremonies to seek guidance from ancestors. We are now looking forward to our trip to the V&A Museum, where we hope to discover even more about this remarkable period of history.

P.E:

This term, we’ve been developing our skills in tag rugby and indoor gymnastics. In tag rugby, the children have shown great perseverance and teamwork as they learned how to pass, move into space, and evade members of the opposing team. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow with each session. During indoor gymnastics, the pupils have been exploring counterbalance and tension, working carefully with partners to create stable and controlled shapes. They have also been practising balances, jumps, and rolls, linking movements smoothly to form short sequences. The children should feel very proud of their effort, focus, and positive attitude throughout.

Term 6 2024-25

Year 4 have continued our studies on Ancient Civilisations by focusing on the history of Ancient Egypt. Now that we have studied two ancient civilisations, we have noticed their similarities and differences. A highlight of the term was visiting the British Museum. We saw lots of artefacts from Ancient Sumer and Ancient Egypt and it really brought our learning to life.

English:

We have created two main pieces of writing this term inspired by our History work. Firstly, we learned about the Egyptian process of mummification. Once we understood the process, we wrote this as a set of instructions. The class set the instructions out with an equipment list, a method with numbered steps and used specific topic vocabulary. After we finished our set of instruction, we moved our focus to persuasive letters. We studied some examples before drafting our own to the British Museum. We came up with reasons as to why the British Museum should return the Rosetta Stone to Egypt. We set this out as a letter to try to convince them. We have written some very persuasive letters.

Maths:

We began Term 6 with our long-awaited multiplication check. The class have worked hard all year on learning their times tables and I am very proud of their effort. The majority of the class scored highly with some even getting full marks. This hard work will really pay off in their understanding of Year 5 Maths.

More recently in Maths, we have studied fractions. The class have learned to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers. They have learned how to add and subtract fractions and are starting to apply this knowledge to reasoning problems.

Other news

In Art, the class enjoyed learning about sculpture and each child created their own statuette. Our figures were inspired by Sumerian statuettes. Firstly, the children made a wire armature to help create a sturdy framework. Next, they sculpted the clay around this framework to make a human shape. When they dried, we painted them.

We enjoyed having a second trip this term when we visited the synagogue. This trip helped consolidate our RE work this year about Judaism. The class were able to ask lots of questions and see real objects they had learned about in lessons.

As part of Jubilee University, we learned about First Aid. The class learned how to call for help in an emergency using the acronym ‘LIONEL’ to pass on key information. They learned how to put someone in the recovery position if they lose consciousness, how to tie a sling to keep an injured arm from further damage and how to help if someone is choking.