Term 1 , 2025-26 

It’s been a fantastic start to the year in Australian Kangaroos! The class have settled brilliantly into the responsibility of being the oldest pupils in the school and have shown great teamwork, focus and positivity in all areas of learning. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to this term!

English

In English, we began by writing evacuee diary entries inspired by Goodnight Mr Tom, imagining what life might have been like for children during World War II. This helped us understand the emotional experiences of evacuation and develop an informal writing style using contractions and descriptive detail.
Later in the term, we were inspired by an evacuation model text for a balanced argument and went on to write our own pieces debating whether social media should be banned for under 16s. The children produced thoughtful, well-structured arguments showing clear reasoning and a range of persuasive techniques.

Maths

In Maths, we explored place value up to 10 million, working on partitioning and rounding large numbers confidently. We developed our problem-solving skills through multi-step addition and subtraction challenges and strengthened our understanding of factors, multiples, and prime numbers.
A real highlight was learning to solve long division using the HLS (How many, Ladder number, Subtract) bringdown method, which helped everyone understand each step clearly and build accuracy and confidence in this tricky skill.

Science

Our Science topic this term was Light. We learned that light travels in straight lines and reflects off surfaces, helping us to see the world around us. Using this knowledge, we designed and built our own periscopes, applying our understanding of angles to position the mirrors correctly. The best part was testing them out to see over tables and around corners!
We then linked this learning to our History topic by exploring how periscopes were used in trench warfare during World War I. We’re now looking forward to visiting a real trench in Term 2 to see first-hand what we’ve been studying.

Topic

Our topic, Britain at War, has helped us uncover the key events and causes of World War I, using the acronym MAIN (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism) to understand why the war began. We’ve also looked at how life changed during World War II, including the Blitz, and created striking Blitz scene artworks using white chalk on black card — some of which are shown in the attached pictures.

PE

PE has been full of energy and teamwork this term! We’ve improved our tactics, decision-making and skills in dodgeball, playing creative versions such as Doctor and President, as well as tournaments that tested our teamwork and reactions.
We also took part in tag rugby-similar to the original game- and have really enjoyed joining some of Year 5 for joint sessions. Together, we’ve worked towards a mini-game league with divisions and a premier round, building teamwork, strategy and sporting spirit.

Art

In Art, we explored distortion and abstraction, focusing on how line, colour, and shape can be used to create abstract pieces. Here are some examples of the artwork we created.

Term 6, 2024-25 

We have enjoyed our last term in Year 5, which included visiting the Houses of Parliament, the National Gallery, the Theatre (to watch Back to the Future) and Pizza Hut.

Achievements

As a class we have made very good progress across all areas of learning. We also achieved the most Attendance Certificates (12), the most 100% Reading Percentages, the most Punctuality Certificates (17) and the most Walk to School Awards (3). We are very proud of all these achievements.

Well done Indian Tigers!

Maths

Applying our previous experiences of place value and equivalent fractions was very helpful and beneficial to our own Mathematical development. We completed our learning of fractions, percentages and decimals this term. We were able to identify and record numbers in decimal forms as well as working out their equivalent fraction and percentages.

English

In English this term, we’ve finished off our Greek myths and moved on to writing some balanced arguments.  To stay within our Greek topic, we explored the question of whether the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece or be allowed to remain in the British Museum. We researched the subject online and then compiled the findings in a way that clearly explained both side of the argument.  However, it was clear from the children’s conclusion that the majority of the class thought that the British Museum should return the marbles to their rightful home- Greece.

Science

Our Science topic this term was Properties and Changes of Materials as well as looking at mixtures.  We explored the different properties of materials, the use of the thermometer as well as heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures and worked out how the two types differ from each other.

We also conducted experiments to separate mixtures. 

Science Week

As a school, we celebrated Science Week with the theme- Change and Adapt. Indian Tigers researched the Scientists whose contribution to Science in earlier times of life, still have relevance to modern Science. We looked at Kathryn Johnson, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. Some of the children read their biography to the class.

Library

We went to the Library every Wednesday to renew our books, read to the class and read quietly.

We looked forward to going into the Library.

P.E

This term we did athletics and Tennis. We had lots of fun.

Awards Assembly

The following children received awards for Impeccable Behaviour (Joash and Yessvita) and Best Progress (Jake and Bailey) with Yessvita and Jake winning the trophy.