Y5 children made t-shirts during D & T week using a variety of dying techniques as well as sewing on embellishments. The children designed their own t-shirts and used their preferred dying technique and sewed on embellishments to create their own carnival t-shirt.
Look how fantastic they look.

On Wednesday 12th June, Year 5 attended the ‘Inspire’ event at Lichfield Cathedral.
This year’s theme was about spirituality, well-being, and courageous advocacy. They also explored the beautiful Cathedral. As the children visited each interactive station, they learned what these things mean for people of faith and how they can understand them in their own lives.

To allow the children to make connections between the Christian belief in Jesus’ death as a sacrifice and how Christians celebrate Holy Communion/Holy Supper, on Monday 18th March, Year 5 visited Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hanley and were met by Father Eamonn. He gave the children a talk about the Church and explained why there were purple coverings on all the statues and crosses. After, they explored the Church observing the Stations of the Cross, confessionals and other important areas. Father Eamonn explained the importance of the sanctuary and the objects in there focusing on the altar and tabernacle.

During the afternoon session, the children of Year 5 took part in the Prime VR Polar Regions workshop. This transported the children to Antarctica and the Arctic Circle where they were be able to learn about the landscape, weather conditions and the animals that live there.

The children worked in pairs, using the VR headset to explore the Polar Worlds.

Following a short journey by boat, to the ice floes of the Antarctic, PrimeVR were able to bring the children face to face with Gentoo penguins, a lynx, a polar bear, an arctic fox and even the Aurora Borealis.

Throughout the day, the children took part in a series of activities that enabled them to begin their understanding of Viking History and Culture. During the morning, with Mr. Jones, the children became a scribe, using the Old Futhark Alphabet to translate key messages and questions from Old Nordic to Modern English.

They also became Viking Children, playing an old Nordic Game: The Fox and Geese. This game, a like that of tic-tac-toe, was used to teach Viking children that art of battle, learning to outwit and deceive the opponent to achieve victory.

With Mrs. Bradbury, the children explored some Viking Artefacts, discussed what each object was, what it may have been used for and why the Vikings needed it. The children were encouraged to think about each object and how it may have fit into the Viking lifestyle.

During the afternoon session, the children began by investigating the History of the Vikings through Textual Analysis – using a summary pyramid to help them collate the key information the needed. This helped them to begin to answer the key topic question: Were the Vikings always vicious and victorious? (We have glued this into our workbooks.)

To conclude the day, the children focused on a Key Year 5 skill – to recite poetry which has been learned by heart. To support this, the children were given the poem: The Viking Tale and were given the challenge to Be the bard. The classroom tables were removed, and the children sat in the round, listening to each other retell the story of the Vikings through the narrative poem.

The children discussed the many reasons people chose to build cities next a river. A key reason that was discussed was: ‘It gave people water to drink.’

Mr Jones, showed the children a collection of water, taken from the River Trent, which runs through Stoke.

After looking at the samples, the children identified and discussed what they believe would be in the water. This included: duck poo, dog poo, ‘the souls of dead fish’, twigs, soil, and rocks. Following this, they then considered the key question: ‘Would you drink the water from the River Trent?’

The children then created a ‘Filtration in a bottle’.

To kick-start Black History Month, on Tuesday 3rd October 2023, Year 5 worked with the Stoke City Community Trust as they explored the topic of anti-discrimination. This work built upon the children’s PSHE learning into ‘What does it mean to be a community?’.

Within the workshop, the children shared their understand of what discrimination is, and why people might discriminate against each other. Through reading about the story of Hamza Choudhury, they shared their thoughts about how being discriminated against may affect a person, their thoughts, their emotions and the mental health. With Stoke City’s eye on football, they shared how all 96 clubs of the English football league chose to make a stance against racism and discrimination through silencing the voices of hate and prejudice as they took the knee before each game. This simple act had a powerful impact on those who thought discrimination was OK.

During our DT week, the children worked in groups of four to design and build a prototype hydraulic bridge.

For the first task, each group were given only twelve paper straws, and a roll of sellotape. Using what they had learned from their exploration on ‘Construct-a-Bridge’, the children were challenged to use triangulation to increase the strength of the bridge. These bridges were then used for group testing

Later in the week, the children were given the opportunity to develop a series of woodworking skills to build their hydraulic bridge. These included: measuring, using a junior hacksaw to cut, using a set square to create a 90 degree angle and using hot glue to create their design. The children continued to work in groups of four, sharing the skillset and equipment to develop their design, following their step-by-step instructions they had created from their prototypes.