Welcome to Year 5 – Hawthorne

Miss Mason

Learning Update

In Literacy, Year 5 have read The Island by Armin Greder, a powerful picture book that explores themes of fear, exclusion, and moral responsibility through the story of a man who is cast out by an island community simply because he is different. For their final piece, pupils wrote a sequel from the perspective of the unknown man, imagining what happened to him after he was rejected. In doing so, they applied key Year 5 writing skills, including writing in role and adopting a clear viewpoint, developing ideas across cohesive paragraphs, using rich descriptive language and expanded noun phrases, and selecting vocabulary for effect. Pupils also demonstrated their ability to infer character thoughts and feelings, maintain consistent tense, and use a range of punctuation accurately. They are now reading Firebird by Saviour Pirotta and Catherine Hyde, a myth-inspired story about a magical firebird whose power is sought by a cruel ruler, exploring themes of courage, sacrifice, and hope. As part of this unit, pupils have been practising retelling events using the past progressive tense and exploring the thesaurus to widen their understanding and use of synonyms and antonyms, enriching their vocabulary and narrative style.

In Maths, Year 5 have completed their recent topic on fractions. They learned how to find fractions of an amount by using division and multiplication, and how to multiply fractions by an integer through repeated addition and scaling. Pupils also developed strategies for finding the whole when given a fraction, using inverse operations and logical reasoning to work backwards. As they progressed into word problems, pupils practised carefully reading and interpreting questions, identifying key information, and deciding which calculation was required. They were encouraged to explain their thinking, show their working clearly, and check the reasonableness of their answers, strengthening their reasoning, problem-solving, and mathematical communication skills.

In Science, Year 5 have begun their topic on human reproduction and ageing. They started by classifying animals as mammals or non-mammals, using clear criteria such as whether they give birth to live young, produce milk to feed their offspring, have body hair or fur, and are warm-blooded. Pupils then explored and compared the life cycles of birds, insects, amphibians, and mammals, identifying key stages such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death. This project teaches children about animal life cycles, including the human life cycle, as they explore human growth and development through to old age, including the changes experienced during puberty and an introduction to human reproduction. Throughout the unit, pupils have focused on key scientific terminology and vocabulary, keeping a glossary in their books to support understanding and accurate use of subject-specific language.

In Art, Year 5 have begun exploring line, light, and shadow. They started by investigating one-line drawings, a technique where an image is drawn in a single, continuous line without lifting the pencil from the page, encouraging careful observation and control. Pupils initially found this challenging but quickly began to gain confidence, producing some lovely collage work in their sketchbooks. They also studied the work of Pablo Picasso, exploring how he used line drawing to simplify and abstract forms, and discussed how artists use line to communicate shape and expression. This project teaches children about the visual qualities of line, light, and shadow through the work of artists such as Picasso and Rembrandt. Pupils are being introduced to a range of shading techniques and have taken black and white photographs, which they reimagine using pencil, pen, and ink wash to create shaded drawings that show depth, contrast, and form.

In the following weeks, we will be learning:

• Literacy: Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo
• Maths: Decimals and Percentages
• Geography: Farming in the UK and reading maps with six-figure references
• R.E.: Holi and Ramadan

Spring Term 2025

Click on the links below to see what the children in Year 5 will be learning in the Spring Term.