Welcome to Year 5! It's been wonderful to get to know all the pupils in the last couple of weeks and to see how much their confidence and learning behaviour has improved. All pupils are now set up with new DoodleMath logins (which have been taken home) and are encouraged to do 10 minutes per day to stay in the green. Did you know, doing 10 minutes a day (in addition to school Maths) can result in 18 extra months of progress for your child.

We have been studying Space and our Solar System in both Science and English, alongside our new class text 'Curiosity'. It's certainly got the students interested in Mars and other planets. In our writing, we have been focused on the close editing of our writing to ensure correct capitalisation and creating interesting pieces of text from our notes. 

Our Global Goal this half-term is Quality Education. Pupils have been exploring the different barriers to children accessing school around the world, with a particular focus on rural Africa. In History, we're also exploring how education has changed and compare with the Victorians, Mayans, Egyptians and Ancient Greeks. In Art, pupils are beginning to design their storyboards for a day in the life of an African and UK school child, which will eventually become a natural collage. Your children may start coming home to raid your spices cupboard, but please refrain them – more directions and deadlines for materials will come next week. 

In Math, pupils have been working hard building their understanding of decimal fractions. We're moving on from tenths to hundredths next week. In our arithmetic sessions, we're focused on column subtraction with exchanges, mathematical vocabulary (factor, product, dividend, divisor and quotient) – see if they can explain them to you.

Everyone is working hard and trying their best – it's great to see. 

If any parent has experience with working in/building schools in Africa or a career in the space industry, please get in touch as it would be fantastic if we could share your experiences with the children to enrich their learning.   

Please note: Milligan's school's photos will be Monday and Wordsworth's are Tuesday. PE will be Tuesday and Wednesday next week.