What an exciting start to the year it has been in Year 5! The children have already thrown themselves into their learning and have shown lots of creativity, courage and enthusiasm. It has been wonderful to see them settling into their new routines and beginning to show us what they can do.

English
This week in English, we have been reading The Jamie Drake Equation, which centres around a young boy, Jamie Drake, whose dad is on a mission aboard the ISS, sending probes into space to search for life elsewhere in the universe.

In our writing, we have been focusing on figurative language, including similes, metaphors and personification. We have designed our own evil aliens and have been describing them using these writing skills. It has been lovely to give Year 5 the creative freedom to kick off their writing journey this year. It has been a really exciting writing task and has given the children plenty of opportunities to show off their creativity and writing talents!

Next week, we will be applying similar skills to describing settings and creating our own alien planets.

Maths
In Maths this week, we have been looking at much larger numbers than we have worked with before, as we have begun working with numbers in the millions. We discussed how we can use what we already know about smaller numbers to help us understand and work with much larger ones.

We have also had a real focus on explaining our answers. Being able to explain why we think something is correct can really deepen our understanding and help us spot any misunderstandings in our own thinking.

Next week, we will be rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000, as well as reading different scales.

PSHE
In PSHE this week, we have been focusing on courage and what it can look like in our everyday lives. Courage is rarely about having to face down a lion! Sometimes, it can take a huge amount of courage to admit that you are struggling and need help, to stand up for what you believe is right, or even to come into school when you are having a particularly difficult day.

We have had lots of thoughtful discussions and taken part in activities exploring the different ways that courage can show itself in our everyday lives.

Next week, we will begin our new thematic topic, Stargazers.

Spelling
In Year 5, we don't have weekly spelling tests. Instead, we have ten ‘red words’ that we work on throughout the term. In the first week, the children are tested on these words without having seen them beforehand. This helps us identify which words each child needs to work on and gives us a starting point from which we can measure their progress at the end of term.

This term’s red words are:

accommodate, accompany, according, persuade, opportunity, marvellous, rhythm, rhyme, queue, dictionary

Challenge words:
apocalypse, celestial, perihelion, aphelion, extraterrestrial

Love to Learn
We have sent the Love to Learn books home this week. Your task is to personalise your book and make it your own! This could include drawing in it, sticking in pictures of yourself or your interests, or adding anything else that you think represents who you are.

Please bring your books back into school by Thursday 17th September.

Dates to Remember

• 16th September – No Year 5 swimming this week. Children will have PE in school instead.

• 23rd September – Year 5 swimming begins. This will take place every Wednesday until the end of term.

• 25th September – Chilton Fundraisers Family Quiz. More details will follow from the Chilton Fundraisers.

• 8th October – Harvest Festival for Years 5 and 6 at 2.45pm.

• 23rd October – Halloween Disco. All children come to school in fancy dress. Years 1, 2 and 3: 2pm–3pm. Years 4, 5 and 6: 3.15pm–4.15pm.

• 23rd October – Final day of term.