WELCOME TO THE YEAR 5 AND 6 BLOG FOR THE SUMMER TERM! 

Week beginning 29th April

Please see examples below of yet another busy week in Years 5&6, including our geography field trip and some excellent responses! 

Year 6 Ukulele Concert - Wednesday 1st May

Year 6 were absolutely PHENOMENAL this afternoon as they performed six ukulele pieces to their family members and Year 5. They have been learning the ukulele for 30 minutes each Wednesday afternoon since October, led by Kathryn McGuinness from Hertfordshire Music Service and supported by Miss Kropman and, today, had the opportunity to showcase their talent! The first pieces (Lilo&Stitch and Watermelon Sugar) featured two of the first chords that they had learnt, whilst Count On Me and Uptown Funk demonstrated an impressive four chords. To complete the concert, Year 6 played Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Happy - both of which being far more complex, six-chord and multiple strum pattern songs. At the end of the concert, the watching audience went wild with applause to celebrate the musicality of this wonderful year group! Miss Kropman could not be happier with how well they performed this afternoon and is very proud of all of them. 

UKS2 Geography Village Field Trip – Monday 29^th April

This afternoon, Years 5 and 6 took their geography learning to the village! We have been discussing safety in our locality and decided to put this to the test with the support of Sam Griffin, Police Community Support Officer for our area. Sam and her colleagues kindly brought their speed boards with them and met each class by the church. They then took it in turns to measure the speed of drivers coming down Bluebridge Road into the village, and were amazed to see numerous motorists breaking the speed limit! Well done to members of Ruby, who recorded someone driving at 39 miles per hour, which the police will be following up on! We noted our results on a tally chart and will be analysing this information further back in the classroom.

In addition to our speed checks, each class also completed a survey of safety features in the village, investigating whether pedestrians have to walk between parked cars to cross roads .(they do!) and noting the lack of zebra crossings. We identified and listed key points of danger and worked together to suggest good places for crossing. Finally, we got the opportunity to complete some art observational sketches of the village in order to support our suggestions. This was a fantastic afternoon of practical learning and Miss Kropman was extremely proud of the excellent behaviour demonstrated by the phase!

Week beginning 22nd April

Please see below for examples of our learning in UKS2 this week! For more examples of Year 6 accompanying our whole school singing assembly this week, please see the Music Blog!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR PUBLISHED AUTHORS! - Friday 26th April

Back in February, Years 5&6 were set the challenge of creating a one hundred word story as part of the Young Writers national competition. Based on the theme of 'Crazy Creatures', our budding writers were tasked with planning, writing and editing an engaging narrative, with the prize of publication up for grabs! With ninety children in the phase, Miss Kropman, Miss Shaw, Mrs Karpasitis and Mr Neiman were hopeful that we might get one or two children awarded with this accolade. It was, therefore, our greatest pleasure to announce today that a whopping 51 children from Years 5&6 have been selected to have their work published in a book! This will now be available to purchase and a copy will soon be winging its way to our school library. Well done to all of them. Their teachers are INCREDIBLY proud! 

Topaz Science - Thursday 25th April

Topaz began their new science unit of 'Light' today by exploring how our eyes allow us to see. After a discussion about what they already knew, Topaz used the chromebooks to research the different parts of the eye and their functions. They expertly labelled a diagram and provided some awesome definitions for each part. Well done, Topaz!

Year 5 are continuing to work hard and make good progress in their trombone lessons. This week, Sapphire had the opportunity to try out some brand new instruments...and Miss Shaw joined in, too!

Week beginning 15th April

Welcome back to school for the Summer Term! This week, Year 6 have begun their SATS revision, whilst Year 5 have been multiplying fractions in maths and have started an engaging English unit based around Berlie Doherty's 'Street Child'. We have also fitted in some super work in the foundation subjects, as you can see below! 

RE through Art in UKS2 - Thursday 18th April

Years 5 and 6 have been enjoying learning about Buddhism in their RE lessons this year, and spent a peaceful afternoon demonstrating their understanding through the medium of art! Having previously created mandalas and having drawn a Buddha after learning about the life of Siddhartha, UKS2 were tasked today with making a rangoli dot circle. Linked to the Buddhist eight-fold path, we divided our circles into eight sections. Next, we looked at examples of these before using the end of a paintbrush to add intricate dots to a broadly symmetrical patterns. Accompanied by music, this helped us. This will form the basis of our Buddhist thangka, with the mandalas and Buddha to be added next week. Finally, we will add a sunlight pastel circle to represent the Buddhist belief about striving for enlightenment. We can't wait to share our final work with you! 

Pictured below are some examples of Topaz' work today.

Author Assembly - Thursday 18th April

UKS2 were treated to a whole school assembly this morning with published author Joanna Gutkin and her illustrator daughter, nine-year-old Maya. Joanna is a self-employed writer and journalist who first had the idea of writing a children's book during the Covid pandemic. Noticing a huge artistic talent in her daughter when she then came to publish her first book, Joanna asked Maya (then only aged 7!) to draw the pictures! Just two years later, 'The Elephant and the Goldfish' is taking Amazon by storm. Thank you to Joanna and Maya for an inspirational assembly ahead of their workshops with EYFS and KS1. I hope this has encouraged some of our budding writers and artists to aim for publication!