Year 5: Doves and Drakes
As you will see from the curriculum map available at the bottom of the page, Year 5 cover a wide and varied range of topics. We are keen to ensure that we make the most of opportunities to develop knowledge, skills and understanding in an assortment of ways.
Where possible, we make links between curriculum areas as well as special weeks in our school calendar, such as anti-bullying week and Black History month. For example, in History, the children learn about life in ancient Greece, comparing it with modern Greece and the influence that the ancient Greeks still have on modern Britain. Links are made with Art, by learning about their architecture and designs through artefacts and replicating them, with English, by exploring the Greek origins of many of our words and with Geography by map work, developing the children’s ability to identify different terrains and use maths skills to work out distances through scaling.
Topics, where appropriate, are supported by visits to museums and other places of interest, although at present, due to restrictions on public places and in the interests of health and safety, these are not possible. Instead, for example, we engage with virtual workshops, led by specialists. Some of these, like the one with the London Fire Brigade, enable the children to interact with the leader, in real time, asking and answering questions, whilst other workshops give them the opportunity to use downloadable resources in class in conjunction with online video content.
At present, we also engage with the school community and parents through Google Classroom and Google Meets, in order to ensure the children continue to have the opportunity to celebrate their achievements. This means that we can discuss and display what they are doing in class to the fullest extent possible. They were very proud of their Skills Builder project and their ‘Breaking News’ broadcasts were recorded and uploaded so that they could share them with their families.
Homework forms an important element of the work that we do in Year 5 and weekly tasks are linked to the Maths and English learning taking place in the classroom. Additionally, the children carry out a termly research project based on our topics of ‘Rivers’, ‘Space’ and the ‘Ancient and Modern Greeks’. They are expected to present these in front of the class and we have found this to be an excellent way for them to display creativity and independence in thinking and an opportunity to develop confidence in public speaking. They can also provoke thoughtful questioning and discussions!
Additional work may be set for children who require some further development of concepts being studied or as a result of tasks not being completed in school.
As well as the curriculum to cover, children in Year 5 also have the chance to take on additional responsibilities to show their growing maturity and commitment to the school, including becoming Young Sports Leaders. This gives them the opportunity to not only learn new skills, but to also teach younger members of the school community.
During Year 5, it is important to start thinking about which secondary school would be best for your child. For this reason, many children and parents attend secondary school open evenings and plan for the transition, over the course of this year. As well as offering special meetings to help in this process, you will also find, by clicking here, information about secondary schools in Merton. We are keen to ensure that their time in Year 5 will help the children to be well-prepared for this next phase in their lives.
Should you wish to learn more about the process of secondary school applications in Merton, please click here for this year's presentation about how this works.
Curriculum Overview
Click on the link below for an overview of the topics taught in each subject area, over the year.