Elm Spring
Growing and Achieving in Year 5!
As we move into the Spring Term, I am incredibly proud of the progress Year 5 have made so far. This term, we will continue to build on our learning through targeted booster sessions, helping pupils to strengthen their confidence and develop key skills across the curriculum. I am particularly looking forward to seeing the children mature further as learners, take greater responsibility for their work and embrace new challenges with a positive attitude. We will be exploring exciting new concepts in a range of subjects, encouraging curiosity, resilience and independent thinking. Spring is always a fantastic term for growth, and I am excited to see Year 5 continue to flourish.
- Miss Kelley
Our charity work
This year, our class chose to support RETAS Leeds, a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers as they settle into their new communities. Through activities such as craft sales and bake sales, the children have raised money while showing great maturity, compassion and impressive entrepreneurial skills. We are incredibly proud of their efforts to make a positive difference.
Please find more photos in our Elm Photograph folder.
Our Learning:
Writing:
This term we have been writing our own myths based on the book: Arthur and the Golden Rope. This is a graphic novel following young Arthur Brownstone in Iceland, who must save his village from freezing after a giant wolf, Fenrir, extinguishes their fire. As an adventurous, unconventional boy, Arthur travels to the land of Viking gods to seek help from Thor. We have studied the features of good speech, expanded noun phrases and adverbials to apply this to our own writing.
We then explored Malala's Magic Pencil to develop our skills across a range of genres. Inspired by Malala's story, we wrote diary entries and letters, using descriptive writing, emotive language and persuasive techniques to engage our readers. We also explored the important issue of girls' access to education, constructing balanced arguments and persuasive pieces that encouraged us to think critically about equality, rights and opportunities around the world.
Reading:
In reading lessons, we studied Journey to the River Sea, an exciting adventure story about Maia, a young orphan who travels from England to the Amazon rainforest to live with distant relatives. As Maia discovers the beauty of the rainforest and uncovers family secrets, she embarks on a journey filled with friendship, courage and self-discovery.
Through the novel, we developed our VIPERS skills by making predictions, exploring new vocabulary, retrieving key information and using evidence from the text to support our answers. The rich descriptions and engaging characters also helped us deepen our understanding of inference and the author's use of language.
World Book Day:
To celebrate World Book Day, we transformed our classroom into “Starbooks” and spent the afternoon exploring books and genres that we might not usually choose. This exciting activity encouraged pupils to step outside their comfort zones, discover new authors and develop a wider appreciation of reading.
It was a fantastic opportunity to share recommendations, spark curiosity and celebrate the joy of reading together.
Maths:
We have taken multiplication and division by storm this half term. The children have shown great progress with these operations – we are so proud of them. Our next topics include fractions and decimals. 
Elm class are working really hard in maths and are showing determination and resilience with such tricky concepts. Times table fluency is crucial to supporting the fluency of many concepts. Therefore, I have asked the children to continue to practice their timetables at home as well as at school.
Wider curriculum:
Science
Pupils investigated how forces affect movement through a range of practical activities and developed their understanding of our Solar System and beyond.
One of the highlights was designing, building and launching our own rockets, putting our scientific knowledge into practice in a fun and memorable way. We also took part in orienteering activities, applying teamwork, problem-solving and navigation skills outdoors.
From rocket launches to outdoor challenges, our young scientists have shown great curiosity, enthusiasm and a love of discovery throughout their learning.
Please find more photographs from our Physics exploration in Elm Class Photographs.
DT
Our budding engineers put their design and problem-solving skills to the test by creating bridges using a variety of materials, including spaghetti, card and other everyday resources. 
Once built, the bridges were carefully tested to see how much weight they could hold, encouraging pupils to think about strength, structure and design.
Please find more photographs from our Bridges topic in Elm Class Photographs.
Sports festival
We were brought together with local primary schools to compete, collaborate and have fun, celebrating the importance of diversity, inclusion and respect in a sports festival at Prince Henrys Grammar School! We are proud of how our pupils embraced the opportunity and demonstrated that sport is at its best when everyone is given the chance to participate and succeed.
Please find more photographs from the Sports Festival in Elm Class Photographs.
Leeds art gallery
We enjoyed a fantastic trip to Leeds Art Gallery, organised by the Collaborative Learning Trust. Alongside pupils from other primary schools, we explored a range of artworks and took part in activities designed to develop both our artistic skills and our oracy.
The visit encouraged us to discuss, interpret and share our ideas confidently, helping us to become thoughtful communicators while appreciating different perspectives. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn, collaborate and be inspired by art.
Please find more photographs from our visit to the gallery in Elm Class Photographs.
Our PE days are Monday and Thursday