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Year 5

Year 5 Blog

3rd February 2012

How busy can two classes be? We have been out and about in Crosby Village and South Road, Waterloo; we have had Marvel Comic artist Tim Quinn in to visit us; we have had fitness coach Trevor Jones in to tell us about living a healthy lifestyle....and we have managed to fit in a bit of work along the way too!

Maths fractions are boxed off and we are moving onto the dreaded decimals - we can certainly cope with these as we did SO well on our long division a few weeks back. We have been looking at fairy tales this week, relocating the story of Snow White to the present day and writing diaries as if we are Jack (from beanstalk fame).

We have had great fun with a new website that the school is buying into - Purple Mash. There is so much to do and we are learning how to type properly ....and how to make 3D computer games. I bet you can't guess which one the boys prefer...

Half term is looming and I know that we are all ready for a bit of a breather....we really have put a great deal into the last few weeks...but it has been worth it and we have achieved a great deal.

Boogie-on down with fitness coach Trevor Jones

9th December 2011

Oh, it's been a nightmare!! Mr Wardle, Mr O'Shaughnessy and Mrs Bonfante have been making the boys do the dreaded long-division....but, happily, we seem to have managed it pretty well. It is a hard thing to do and we go through a long-winded method to get there - but it works!! Thanks to all of the parents for not teaching it in their own way...that saves hours of time.

We had a brilliant day at Croxteth Hall this week. The boys applied for positions in the hall and got the jobs. There were footmen, gardeners, wood boys, stable boys ....and a few lucky guests too. The roles were drawn fairly from a hat. We learnt all sorts of things, from planting plants to folding napkins and decanting wine. What a great way to learn about the Victorians - it brought it all to life.

We are on the run up to Christmas so the card-making and letters to Father Christmas have started. We have also made some great calendars on the computers - they look really impressive. However, the other stuff continues as normal - comrehension/maths/grammar....no let-up....but we hve the panto and parties to look forward to this Friday!!

3rd November 2011

We had such a busy half term and we are now on our second half term already - my how time has flown!

We finished off our Earth Sun and Moon science topic and moved on to Changing State, where we examine solids liquids and gases. To start this topic we went out onto the playground to act like particles of a solid, a liquid and a gas. It was fun and we learnt a lot.

Year 5 modelled the particles in a solid

J5 modelling the particles in a liquid

a few J5s modelling the particles in a gas

Maths has moved on to strategies for subtraction - we are hoping to get some division in before Christmas too. English has been the usual stuff - comprehensions and grammar. However, we did write some brilliant Halloween poetry - they scared Mr O and Mr W who needed an extra cup of tea to calm their nerves.

History has been great as we have been continuing to look at the victorians. We have been lucky enough to get a place on the Croxteth Hall Victorian Christmas in December and the boys have been allocated their roles for the session. They have to apply for their jobs next week, writing to Lord Sefton. They should like that.

In ICT they have now moved on to Microsoft Excel and they are learning the important bits about spreadsheets. They are going to start to create their own next week - the boys should really like that.

We are loving our new classrooms - it is like we have always been there! We particularly like the SmartBoards - there is nothing guaranteed to build enthusiasm in a class more than the offer of writing on a board with a finger or two, pressing a virtual button - or working against the dreaded clock! Great fun....we are lucky to have one.

14th September 2011

Where did that summer go to? It seems such a long time ago. We are back now and have hit the ground running. We are getting

through some work I can tell you.

There has been a change in personnel as Year 5 are now being taught by Mr O'Shaughnessy, for a second year, and Mr Wardle, returning to the year after a short absence in Year 4. We have three new boys - Noah, Fraser and Marcus - who have all settled really well and have become major parts of our Year 5 team. We have some spanking new classrooms featuring state-of-the-art SmartBoards. We are still getting used to the set-up but it is all going well so far.

In Maths we have been looking at very large numbers and place values, as well as a fair dose of mental work too. The SmartBoard has been good as we have been able to write on the board electronically - everyone is desperate to have a go.

English has been looking at speech punctuation, story openings...with a couple of comprehensions thrown in for good measure.

In Science, it is Earth Sun and Moon, Geography - Water, History - The Victorians...so many new things to learn and research.

So much to do - so little time...it is going to be a busy year in Year 5...but an hugely enjoyable one too!

6th October 2010

Congratulations to the Judo Winner of the Year, Matthew White.
He says he nearly cried he was that pleased. Also, he said that Judo was such a great activity and that he loved all the skills of defence that the group are taught on a Tuesday lunchtime.

Thursday 10th May 2010

Y5 boys have been looking at football poems and have composed their own. Here are two particularly nice ones.

Back of the Net

It's that time of the year,
For the footy fans to cheer!
It's back of the net!
It's back of the net!
The players all want it,
The players all need it,
It's the world cup!
Come on England!

By Patrick Rogan

World Cup

As I run down the pitch,
With the ball, past McFlitch
The crowd goes wild for the last 2 minutes
As my adrenaline goes to its limits.
From one side of the pitch to the other
Some one screams out my name, oh it's my Mother!
The clock ticks down, 5,4,3
GOAL! Yeeees that was me!
We win 2-3 against Germany
And the 3 was made by me.

Harvey Dawbarn

Friday 19th March 2010

As ever, we've been busy in Year 5 over the past few days. In our maths we have been looking at symmetry, both reflective and rotational, as well as drawing nets of prisms and pyramids - and constructing them as well. If that's not enough, we've been drawing accurate polygons using set squares and rulers and, even more amazingly, drawing triangles using compasses. If you want to know how to do it ask any of the J5 boys and they'll be happy to explain.

English this week involved Greek mythology and we had a look at Pandora (well not ACTUALLY Pandora but her story, involving her box and all the bad things that she let into the world). We are in the middle of writing our own Greek myths - they're sounding good so far and the lads are as enthusiastic as ever (that really WASN'T a sarcastic comment - they are enthusiastic!)

Science has been REALLY good and we have been having a lot of hands-on work on our topic of sound. We have been learning about the 'V' word - VIBRATIONS - and we have been listening to sounds, trying out a variety of materials to see which provides the best sound insulation. We had a guest from the Senior School (Mr Dave Woods) who brought across an oscilloscope so we could have a look at sound waves - Louis Silvano kindly obliged by playing his barritone into it and it was great to see the sound waves wobble.

We've been involved in CATs testing this week (a sort of IQ test) and that's been quite a challenge. There's one more test to be done next week so that's something to look forward to.

Parents' Evening went well and Mrs Mellor and I are hoping that their boys will be treated to something nice this weekend for all of their hard work - I'm sure they'll let us know.

Thursday 4th March 2010

Busy, busy BUSY! WE have been trying to cram so much in to our school time - and we think we've done OK.

In Maths we have soldiered through long division and multiplication. Now we're starting on geometry and symmetry. Should be good. Our Fizz Buzz Bang tournaments continue to be popular and the final this week was a nail-biting affair. (Fizz Buzz Bang helps us with our times tables - as does our multiplication Prize Bingo which is not only fun but really helps the lads to hone their tables skills.

In science we've started a module about sound and have been making ‘Good Vibrations' around the class. We had a play with some tuning forks, ping pong balls, drums and water and made a right old noise. Great fun.

English has been interesting - we've started a series of 10 minute writing sessions where a theme is chosen at random and the boys have to write what comes into their heads. This week's theme was a chair (well it was in J5W anyway) and some of the ideas were excellent.

Our ICT has included a little more about spreadsheets, some presentation software, research and typing skills. The topic presentations are really coming along well - they are working in teams of 2 or 3 and this is working a treat.

In our Geography we've started looking at Llandudno as a contrasting locality to Liverpool. We have been mapping the area, looking at a CD Rom all about it - and we will be using route-planning software to work out the best route to take when we go on our field trip, hopefully in April or May.

History is still all about The Victorians and we are enjoying finding out about life in those times. We have had Mr Wardle using a cane and shouting like a Victorian teacher (very unusual....honestly). Bring back the old days eh?

There's a lot more we've been doing (including avoiding the mound of shirts that are piling up at the front of the class for our Baghdad appeal). Maybe we'll tell you all about that next time!

Tuesday 2nd February 2010

J5 have really been experimenting today with both classes making a lot of gas - and we mean more than the usual amount that they come out with! Mr Wardle and Mrs Mellor both did similar experiments using Bicarbonate of Soda and vinegar. Mrs Mellor used a rubber glove and Mr Wardle used a balloon and, once the two substances mixed together, the reaction was spectacular to watch - Mrs Mellor's rubber glove blew up and Mr Wardle's balloon blew up - nearly to popping point.

While this was going on Mr Wardle lit his chocolate fondue and melted some chocolate so that it changed state from solid to liquid. This change was reversible as, when it cooled down, it solidified again. Mean Mr W wouldn't let the boys eat the chocolate though as it was a science lesson and we really shouldn't eat anything involved in science lessons.

We love science in Year 5 and this topic really lets us plan and experiment like mad. We are, in fact, now the ‘Mad Scientists'!

Monday 11th January

Well, we are back to some sort of normality today with all but a couple of boys amking it back in to Year 5. We are hoping to start our new science topic (solids, liquids and gases, combined with Gases Around Us) and hope that the experiments can be planned and set-up tomorrow.

Mrs Rogers has been having Mr Wardle's class this morning while he does some stuff for Mrs Thomas. Back to normal this afternoon.

The heating is working REALLY well in John Bebb House, thanks to Jim our caretaker, and Mr Wardle is back moaning that it's too hot...some people are never happy. Mrs Mellor is now in the swing of things now Mrs Wynne has gone off on maternity leave.

Exciting things to look forward to this week include graphing, using Microsoft Excel, long multiplication and some work on tenses.

The boys in Year 5 have worked so very hard on their Liverpool topics and the feedback is being given back to J5W this week, after the boys have had a chance to look at other people's work. The topics are being displayed on the display board inside J5AW and also in the displayboard in the corridor outside J5W. They are excellent and worth a look.

Thursday 7th January 2010

Happy New Year from all of us to all of you! The snow has been a problem for the past couple of days and only 1/2 the year have managed to make it in because of the poor weather.

It has been rather cold in John Bebb House as the heating has been playing up. We have managed to do a fair amount of work - mental maths, English/DTproject and some other stuff as well.

We welcomed Mrs Mellor who is taking J5AW during Mrs Wynne's maternity leave. She and I got together to work on the brilliant English task, based on Wallace and Grommit's amazing contraptions, as seen in their short animated films. The boys have to think of an idea for a machine, draw a labelled diagram of the machine, write and instruction booklet for it and then design a newspaper advertisment for it. If they get around to finishing that we have some recording equipment for them to use to work on some radio adverts too. Who says that we haven't been working??!!

We are hoping that the majority of the classes will make it in tomorrow and we hope to start on our new science topic which will be looking at gases, solids and liquids. There are a few experiments I want to set up to look at evaporation and the weight of gas - all exciting stuff!

Friday 2nd October

The weeks are flying by in J5! After last week's excitement with the cake sale we moved onto J5W assembly which took quite a lot of practice. The boys learned their words well and the assembly was well received by the whole school.

In lessons we have been doing comprehensions, looking at angles (again), fractions (again) and also a bit on averages. J5AW did some work on the dreaded Bearings (J5W have that joy to come next week). We are hoping to move onto co-ordinates next week and have the BEST homework of the year on its way next Friday.

Earth Sun and Moon in science is nearly done and we look forward to an assessment test later this week (maybe 'look forward' isn't the correct phrase to use but you know what I mean). History has been looking at timelines and family trees and that was fantastic, thanks to the new workbooks that Mrs Wynne (with interference from Mr Wardle) put together. We've booked to go to Quarry Bank Mill - info to follow in due course - which will enhance our history studies....that really WILL be something to look forward too.

Friday 25th September

Busy, busy, busy! We've hit the ground running in J5 and all of the boys are working hard. IN maths we've already covered fractions, area, compass points and loads of mental work. IN English we've been writing letters as if we were Neil Armstrong writing to his Mum on the eve of the Moon Landing in 1969, worked through commas...and so much more. In science we are looking Earth Sun and Moon, having been running wround the playground demonstrating the movement of planets and measuring the shadows on a sunny day.

The boys have made the transition well and we are expecting a lot of hard work from the boys this year - Mrs Wynne and Mr Wardle are certain that they will see some quality stuff through the year.

Wedneday 10th June 2009

It's been a busy old week so far....and quite complicated with boys in and out for Brass Band visits, choir visits and sporting events. Today, a lot of the boys are out at the AJIS Festival in some far-flung place.

J5W have been working on a Sports Day project. The idea is to advertise a sports day, write and record a radio advertisment for it, press advertising and also to think about a stall selling products - and then making a 10% profit on all of the sales. It's quite a tough task but, as I write, the boys are engrossed and are co-operating well with one another. They will be recording their adverts in a bit - that should be interesting!

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

Well, as ever, it's been busy in Year 5. We returned from our half term holiday and have got straight back into the swing of things.

Maths has been looking at Volume and capacity - with the help of fictional character, Eric the Ant - and know that volume is the space that Eric has to pogo around the room (you'd be well advised not to ask as it all seems a bit daft out of context - a typical Wardle lesson!).

Our old mate Eric The Ant

English has been good for looking at different points of view. We have started by looking at fox hunting and are moving on to the pros and cons of wearing school uniform. It will be interesting to have a debate on that one towards the end of the week.

Our Sports Day is looming so the boys have had extra time in the open, air running, shot putting and jumping in order to get ready for the big day. Luckily the weather has been fabulous so we managed to complete everything. We hope that you will be able to pop along on 11th to watch the boys in action on 11th.

Thursday 21st May 2009

We are SO busy in Year 5! The exams have finished and the exam results are out tomorrow....but the work is still ongoing.

In English J5W have been looking at caves and then using superlatives to describe them. We have also been writing brochures to encourage people not to smoke - and we managed to fit a comprehension in about The Railway Children too!

Maths has been largely looking at perimeters and volume - we were measuring things and working out volumes this afternoon. God stuff!

Our science lessons have been concerned with sound and the boys will be planning an experiment to test sound insulation over the half term holiday. They should enjoy that.

The weather has been a bit dodgy this week so there have been some wet boys in lessons on a couple of occasions. Let's hope for some good weather next week.

Friday 8th May

It's been yet another busy couple of weeks in J5. The Puzzle Challenge Day last week was great fun and really got our brain cells moving....well some of us - we doubt that some of our class have brains!

This week, we have been revisiting old topics in readiness for our Summer Term exams. We haven't done a formal revision week as in previous years as this makes the tests unrealistic - in the real world we don't know what's in the exam paper and these exams are just like that. The boys have been self-managing the revision and have been telling us what they want to be covered. The Maths exam tends to be largely common sense and the boys have to read the questions carefully and work out what they need to do to solve a particular question.

Mrs Coyne took J5W for a couple of days while Mr Wardle was off getting rusty with the rain in Patterdale with the Year 4s. She praised them on their good behaviour while he was away...good news. However, when Mr W arrived back, tired and aching, the class wore him out with their enthusiasm.

Today J5W were doing the 100m in PE - some great times were recorded. In ICT, the boys have been looking at programming using the LOGO computer language. They are now able to draw octogons using one line of programming rather than 16 - that's the first important step to our goal of completing some basic computer animation, though we aren't talking Toy Story here, sadly.

Wednesday 18th March

J5W have been looking closely at flowers in our science lessons. We each got a flower and dissected it, looking at the various component parts. We then stuck these onto our sheet and talked about what each of the parts does. Very interesting....and bringing science to life too.

This afternoon we are story writing...with a difference. We all have a grid 6 x 6 - each square featuring a picture. We roll a die and then write a sentence about the picture that is shown in the square (sounds complicated but it isn't). There is some fabulous writing going on as we speak - we are going to read the best ones out to the class....can't wait!

Wednesday 11th March

J5D have been learning about the heart and the importance of a healthy diet in their science lessons this term and last week performed an entertaining and informative school assembly called “5 A Day”. Tom Harley was a very convincing teacher, teaching a group of pupils about a balanced diet and answering endless questions,some quite irritating ones. For example “sir,if I have a bar of white chocolate in one hand and a bar of dark chocolate in the other, is that a balanced diet?”

Then the scene switched to “5-A-Day” land were all the townsfolk are happy and healthy.Chris Oldnall gave an excellent recitation introducing some amusing characters;Bobby Banana,Barney Broccoli and Amber Orange.Christopher Haggerty danced in wearing a bright orange top and tutu with striped tights and long orange wig which brought chuckles from pupils and staff.

After some boys talked about their favourite fruits the whole class performed a healthy eating rap which had the school moving along to the beat.

5D worked hard learning their lines and enjoyed performing their assembly. Also the obviously got their message across judging by all the heathy plates of food in the dining room at lunchtime!

Friday 7th March 2009

We celebrated World Book Day a day late today and had some book-related tasks. In J5W we all chose our favourite book and stood at the front of class to tell the other boys about it - then read our favourite descriptive paragraph. There were some good choices - The Hobbit, Captain Thunderpants, Stormbreaker - some really good books. We even had a bit of The Wind in the Willows (Mr W's favourite book). The costumes were great - here's a picture of J5W.

Wednesday 4th March 2009

It's been a busy couple of weeks for J5W. Over the half term the boys had to prepare a 5 - 10 minute talk about Liverpool, using all sorts of weird and wonderful resources such as PowerPoint or OHPs. They also had to field questions from the audience - the rest of the class and Mr Wardle. The last of the boys did their talk today - they were all fantastic. We all learned a lot about our wonderful city and the boys enjoyed exploring to prepare for this major piece of work.

Alongside the presentations, it was our turn to do a class assembly this week. We chose 'Talents' as our topic and we told the story of Albert, played by Joseph, who was told that he was no good at anything by a VERY mean teacher, played by John. However, his friends thought otherwise and they made him practice singing - eventually getting a place on The X Factor (Simon Cowell was played by Giacomo, Louis Hurst by Tom, Danni Minogue was played by her namesake Danny and Cheryl Cole was played by James). The rest of the boys had things to say and learnt their words well. It was great fun and the message that we were trying to get across - we all have talents so use them wisely - was well received by the rest of the school.

In other areas we have been learning how to draw triangles with compasses (don't ask!) and writing instructions of how to make a paper plane (we had some fun throwing them too). In science we started our Life Cycles topic, planting seeds, setting up some experiments - and running around pretending to disperse seeds (Mr Wardle was the tree - strangely appropriate perhaps?).

This week we are celebrating World Book Day and some of the class are dressing up as a book character. Can't wait!

Thursday 5th February 2009

Michael Power from J5W writes...

In Mrs Ashcroft's history lesson, we went in to the art room. The boys, not knowing what they were about to do, tried their hand at Victorian writing. They had to sit up really straight, and lefties like Vincent Chow and Joe Roby had to use their right hand, as in the Victorian times that was what they had to do. They used proper inkwells and non-cartridge fountain pens. Boys like Leon and Giacomo took to it very well, but that obviously wasn't the case with every one as you should see our work!

We all thoroughly enjoyed it all

Tuesday 27th January 2009

In Science, J5W have been looking at the different food groups. The boys had been wondering why they had been bringing mounds of food packaging in the school....but all was revealed today. The boys had to sort the food packaging into 'healthy' and 'not so healthy' categories. There was some discussion about this as fat, sugar and calories were all taken into account.

Once the boys had decided what went where they set to work on collages to display the different types of food. Under the title 'You are what you eat' the finished articles will be on display in J5W. However, we are running low on food packaging already so, if you are reading this, perhaps you could send some clean food packaging in to school to be used by the class.

The lads had great fun - and learned a great deal along the way - while Mr Wardle stood drooling at the thought of all that lovely food!

Thursday 22nd January 2009

It's been a tough week. Mr Wardle and Mrs Davies have been making the Year 5 boys work REALLY hard, firstly by giving them seemingly impossible long multiplication calculations to do and then moving them on to single-digit (and double-digit in some cases) long division. The boys are working hard to overcome the challenges that have been set - and they are getting the hang of it! It's quite an achievement when they get the hang of it and some of the boys are rightly proud of themselves. Their teachers are!

Friday 9th January 2009

Hello to all our regular readers and a Happy New Year! It's like we've never been away as we've got straight back down to work.

In English we've been looking at tenses - and also J5W have been looking at the amazing Liverpool peojects that they handed in before Christmas. Mr Wardle marked them all but felt that they were too good not to be read by others so we've all had a go at marking them too.

In Maths we've started work on Long Multiplication - so far only multiples of 10 and 100 but next week we are moving on to the more complicated stuff....and then on to long division. A lie down in a dark room will be needed after that, I can tell you!

In Science we've been looking at Keeping Healthy. So far we've looked at what makes a healthy diet and this will continue next week. The boys have also had a go at some exercise to see what happens to their bodies after physical exertion. They are busily collecting food packaging so that they can see what actually goes into the food that we eat.

The boys all seem to be working hard and I'm sure we'll get through a lot together this term.

Friday 21st November 2008

J5W seem to have recovered from the trauma of Mr Wardle turning up for school dressed as a schoolboy (short pants and all) in aid of Comic Relief - J5D are still traumatised by the memory of Ms Davies in school uniform.....photo below (a bit scary!) - you have been warned!

Look at those legs....should not be allowed!

We've had a busy week...revision week is always a busy week. J5W made a list of the things that they wanted to be covered in English, Maths and Science - and they'd got through it all by the end of the week. Next week is Exam Week and it's best to be well prepared.

We were entertained by J6L's assembly on Wednesday all about Nonsense Poems (how dare they say that I speak nonsense all of the time?! I've never been so insulted!!!! - PAW). Mrs Ashcroft finished off Oliver Twist and the boys really enjoyed watching that as it allowed them to see what life was realy like in Victorian times. (Ask Mrs Lincoln....she was there!).

The boys are working on their Liverpool topics and their guidebooks should be completed by Christmas. They get to write all about our city, learn about bibliographies, indexes, contents pages, glossaries....so much including things that are right under their noses in the city and surrounding areas.

The boys will be revising this weekend and have promiseed that they will have early nights throughout the week - some hope!

Wednesday 12th November 2008

J5W have had a busy old time...as always! In Maths we've been getting our heads around decimals and graph work, having an interesting - and cold - traffic survey to complete on Liverpool Road. We are now looking at drawing 'The Perfect Bar Graph' and I think that they'll be good when they're finished. We are going to be drawing circles with compasses in the next few days - that WILL be fun!

In English, we've just been on a walk around the garden so that we can write some fabulous descriptive work. We were lucky because the sky was blue (or as Harry Cave put it 'the sky was a sapphire' - fab!) and the sun was shining. The crunchy leaves under our feet should hopefully have inspired some of the boys' creative juices.

In Science we were experimenting with gases (there's more than enough gas in our classroom already!), weighing air and setting up an evaporation experiment in class. We like doing hands-on things in lessons and we had 19 enthusiastic workers.

Children in Need is looming on Friday...I wonder what's in store??

Friday 10th October 2008

Yet another busy week in Year 5. J5W started the week with a brilliant Harvest Festival assembly. All of the boys wer involved in some way and it went down a storm with the rest of the school.

English revolved around Tudor and Stuart Beliefs, in particular the witches that were around in those days (some would say that there are some on the staff of the Junior School....not me, of course!) and we read some of Shakespeare's Macbeth and wrote some spells.

Maths was largely about nets of cubes and we made some 3D models. Science finished off our topic on Earth Sun and Moon. J5W did their assessment test on Friday while J5D are to do it on Monday 13th....what a lovely start to the week that will be!

Mr Wardle was on a Child Protection Course in the fair city of Birmingham (??!!) so J5W had Mrs Broom for the day. Of course, they were beautifully behaved, as always (???!!!!!!!)

On Saturday, some of the boys are involved in the Open Morning - guides, choir, swimming....what a talented bunch they are.

More exciting news next week...Missing you already! (PW)

3rd October 2008

It's been yet another busy week in year 5. Our English work has been continuing the theme of space and there has been some exciting Science Fiction writing going on in Creative Writing. In Comprehension we were looking at the writer Alan Garner's The Moon of Gomrath which is a great story.

Maths work has just started looking at area and we are goiing to be looking at - and making - nets of cubes and cuboids next week.

Exciting stuff in History as they were set a challenge to put various events in history in the correct order. That kept them busy for a good while, I can tell you!

Today it's the MacMillan Coffee Morning in the Junior Hall and J5W are doing their best to keep Mr W away from the cakes. (They aren't going to succeed as I'm going over at breaktime! - PW)

26th September 2008

Busy busy busy! It's been 'Space Week' in J5 this week and we have been looking at the Apollo missions in English, imagining that we were Neil Armstrong writing to our Mums the night before landing on the moon. We also wrote some poetry and are busily designing soopa-doopa spacecrafts for our building. We've continued looking at Earth Sun and Moon in science and have been loking at bthe length of days, especially sunrise and sunset.

Today was very exciting as we had our cake sale in aid of Macmillan Cancer Appeal. The final total isn't known yet but we were very busy and cakes were consumed by Juniors, Seniors and staff too.(Some senior staff had more than was good for them). J5W did the selling and they were SUPERB! Their sales techniques were a joy to watch (and hear) and all but a very few cakes were sold. The couple left over are being sold at lunchtime - there really are only a couple so they've done well to clear their stock.

More exciting stuff next week - J5 are hosting a coffee morning next friday (with the help of the Parents' Association) in aid of MacMillan again (8.30 - 12.00 in the Junior Hall, if you can make it) and they will be advertising this over the first part of the week - a good bit of English there!

22nd September 2008

Busy, busy, busy. J5 are really working hard across all the areas of the curriculum. Mr Wardle was away at Newlands with Year 6 at the start of last week so Mrs Broom came in to cover for him. The boys in J5W were very well behaved and worked well for her.

In Maths, they worked through angles - measuring and calculating - they all really enjoyed the practical side of that. They are now moving on to Bearings and then, hopefully, averages (I hate that word - mean, median or mode....which one?? They'll find out).

It's 'Space' week in English and Science. The Earth Sun and Moon topic continues in Science and we are starting to look at space travel and the Apollo missions in particular. We are going to be looking at science fiction writing in creative English and our comprehension wiill be all about aliens....exciting stuff!

13th September 2008

Year 5 have had a busy start to the academic year. There are a couple of new boys and they seem to have settled in already.

Again, this year, we are based on the ground floor of John Bebb House (or JBH as we like to call it). The work has started in earnest and in Maths we have already looked at equivalent fractions and comarison of fractions. English has involved writing stories about a Cowboy Hat (Mr Wardle happened to have one so it was the stimulus for some creative writing, along with an Egyptian fez??!!). In Science we have started to look at Earth Sun and Moon - there should be some good cross-curricular work coming from this.

History is the Victorians and Geography is all about Water. Throw in a few doses of games and PE, ICT and PSHE and we have a very busy time ahead.

This week, Mr Wardle is off to Newlands with Year 6 and will leave Mrs Davies behind for three days - she seems quite pleased about that! Mrs Broom is in for him and she'll take over where Mr Wardle left off.