What a thoughtful and mature week it has been in Year 5. The children have approached their learning with curiosity, resilience and a great deal of empathy, particularly when exploring some deeper themes in English.

 

English

This week in English, we finished writing our news reports by focusing on writing in the future tense. While this may sound simple, the children learnt how important consistency is and discovered that when writing about the future, we sometimes still need to use the present tense. For example: “Although the event is now over, people will remember this for the rest of their lives.”

We then moved on to poetry. In our class novel, Running on Empty, the main character AJ is dealing with — or avoiding dealing with — the death of his grandfather, which turns his world upside down. This led us to begin exploring poetry that addresses themes of grief. This can be a particularly challenging and sensitive subject, and it can bring up some big feelings. Year 5 have shown extraordinary empathy, thoughtfulness and respect for both the subject matter and one another.

Next week, we will begin writing some poetry of our own.

 

Maths

In Maths this week, we have been finding the factors of numbers. We then explored common factors of two numbers and learnt how to identify the highest and lowest common factors. After that, we revisited prime numbers and how to identify them. Did you know that 1 is not a prime number? A prime number must have exactly two factors — and 1 only has one!

We ended the week by learning how to cube numbers.

Next week, we will be working on developing our division skills.

 

Thematic

In Thematic learning, we have really got stuck into learning about the Anglo-Saxons. We learnt how the Scots and Picts were fighting in the north of Britain while the Romans invaded the Britons in England. When the Romans were called back to defend Rome, the Anglo-Saxons took the opportunity to settle in England, initially to help the Britons fend off the Scots in the north. Thankfully, the Romans had built Hadrian’s Wall, which made this much more difficult.

We also learnt that while the Romans were Christian, the Anglo-Saxons were pagan, meaning they believed in many gods. We ended the week by learning about well-known Anglo-Saxon stories, including Beowulf.

 

Love to Learn

Since we’ve been learning about prime numbers this week, we’d like you to try to find as many prime numbers out and about as you can. You could take pictures of any you see, keep a list of where you’ve seen which numbers or you could make a poster all about prime numbers.

 

Messages

Cardboard and newspaper

Thank you to everyone who brought in cardboard for us to make Saxon shields next week. We now have more than enough. We could, however, still use lots of newspaper so if you have any lying around we would make great use of it!

Birdwatch

Hello Chilton families,

This week, the whole school is took part in the Big Schools' BirdWatch to collect data for the RSPB. We are inviting you to take part at home too. Here's what you need to do:

1. ‎Choose an hour between 23 and 25 January 2026

2, Only record the birds that land in your garden

3. Record the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time

4. Sign up online and submit your results to the RSPB. Here's the link: Big Garden Birdwatch

Miss Isaac, who is Chilton's science leader, would love to see any photos of you doing this and also know any particularly interesting birds you saw. Feel free to send her an email: carol.isaac@chiltonprimary.co.uk

If you are fan of being out in nature and would like to show off your photography skills, you might be interested in the competition outlined below:

Bird Wise East Kent and Thanet Coast Project have teamed up to host a photography competition. There is a category for under 18s with the winner and runner up having their work displayed in Margate, Whitstable and Ramsgate. The deadline is midnight on Sunday 15^th February. Please go to their website for more information: Photography Competition | Bird Wise East Kent

Have fun twitching!

Miss Isaac

 

Dates to remember:

Friday 6th February – NSPCC number day (Reception and KS1 children to come in dressed in number themed clothes/KS2 to come in dressed as a Times Table Rock Star)

Friday 6th February – KS2 Countdown assembly at 9am (parents of year group house winners to be invited)

Tuesday 10th February - Safer internet day

Friday 13th February – Non-school uniform day

Friday 13th February - Chilton Fundraisers Winter Disco

Friday 13th February – Last day of term. School finishes at usual time