Our Learning

Year 5 English

Approach

In English lessons, children are taught speaking, listening, reading and writing skills through studying a variety of styles of writing (genres).  Teachers follow the Teaching Sequence for Writing, which means that children will firstly be taught to read and understand the text, then practise the skills of the style of writing (including grammar) and apply into their own writing.

The Primary National Curriculum statements will be taught through the modules below.

Y5 English Coverage

The year 5 English curriculum consists of the following modules:

Curriculum Content:

Speaking and Listening

Children will be taught to discuss their learning and to develop speaking skills. They will become more familiar with and confident in, using language in a variety of situations, for a range of audiences and purposes. They will, for example:

• Develop their understanding of a subject through discussions, learning to give their opinions and listen to other viewpoints.
• Speak clearly and in different ways for drama, formal presentations and debate.
• Reading

This part of the curriculum is broken down into ‘word reading’ and ‘comprehension’.

In year 5, pupils will be reading aloud a wider range of poetry and books written at an age-appropriate interest level with accuracy and at a reasonable speaking pace.  Children will be expected to read frequently, outside as well as in school, for pleasure and information.  They will have the opportunity to listen frequently to stories, poems, non-fiction and other writing. At this stage, word reading will not be directly taught, except where individuals need support.  Instead  the focus will be on the teaching of comprehension skills.

They will, for example:

• Retrieve, record and present information from a text
• Summarise the main ideas of a text eg ‘loneliness’ or ‘friendship’
• Predict what may happen based on evidence and clues given
• Discuss and evaluate the text and justify their views
• Use clues from the text to work out characters’ feeling, actions or motives
• Distinguish between fact and opinion
• Identify how language, structure and presentation add to the meaning
• Compare  different texts

We are able to provide you with lists of age appropriate texts to support the learning:

Traditional Tales – legends

• Beowulf – K. Crossley-Holland
• The Story of Robin Hood – R. Leeson
• Athur, High King of Britain – Michael Morpurgo
• The Tale of Tales – Tony Mitton
• Myths and Legends – Anthony Horrowitz
• Arion and the Dolphin – Vikram Seth
• Just So Stories – Rudyard Kiplingditional
• Suspense and mystery
• Snow horse and other stories – Joan Aiken
• Snaggletooth’s mystery – Gene Kemp
• Shock forest and other stories – Margaret Mahy
• Room 13 – Robert Swindells
• The London Eye Mystery – Siobhan Dowd
• No Such Thing as Dragons – Written and illustrated by Philip Reeve
• Cosmic- Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Flood Child – Written by Emily Diamand

Fiction from our literacy heritage

• Narnia Stories – CS Lewis
• Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
• Billy The Kid – Michael Morpurgo
• Why the Whales Came – Michael Morpurgo
• Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
• Kensuke’s Kingdom – Michael Morpurgo
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
• Stig of the Dump – Clive King
• Snow Spider – Jenny Nimmo
• Macbeth for Kids – Louis Burdett
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Joan Aiken
• Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie
• A Christmas Carol (Eyewitness classics) – Charles Dickens
• The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (adapted by Chris Mould)
• The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
• The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
• Mary Poppins – P.L. Travers
• Stories from Dickens (ed. Blishen)
• Stories from Shakespeare (ed. Geraldine McCaughrean)

Writing

Writing is developed through teaching the following:

Spelling

Children should learn to spell new words correctly and have opportunities to practise spelling skills.  They will be taught spelling patterns and conventions, and draw on their knowledge of word families and roots to help them spell new words correctly.  They will practise and use the words included in Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum for years 5 & 6. Children will be expected to use a dictionary and thesaurus.

Handwriting

Pupils will continue to be taught handwriting in order to increase speed, fluency and legibility.

Composition (structure): This includes vocabulary, grammar and punctuation. To develop their composition skills, the children will be taught to:

• plan, draft, compose, edit and evaluate their writing
• use a wide variety of punctuation and grammar features
• select the appropriate grammar and vocabulary to develop the effectiveness of their writing
• use a range of techniques to build detail into their writing and link ideas within and between paragraphs
• adapt writing for a range of purposes and audiences as part of their work across the curriculum. In year 5 this will include (cross curricular example, schools to insert their own)

Grammar will be taught throughout the writing process and teachers will follow the terms and concepts of Appendix 2 of the National Curriculum.
Should you wish for a more detailed explanation, please follow this link to the Primary National Curriculum document.

Year 5 Maths

Working mathematically

By the end of year 5, children will apply their mathematical experiences to explore ideas and raise relevant questions, constructing complex explanations and reasoned arguments. They will be able to solve a wide variety of complex problems which require sustained concentration and demand efficient written and mental methods of calculations. These will include problems relating to fractions, scaling (times as many), converting between units of measure and employ all four operations (+, -, x, ÷).

Number

Counting and understanding numbers

Children extend and apply their knowledge of place value for numbers up to one million, rounding, estimating and comparing them (including decimals and negative numbers) in a variety of situations. They are introduced to powers of ten and are able to count forwards or backwards from any number (for example, -50, -5… 5, 50, 500, 5000…). Through investigations, they will discover special numbers including factors, primes, square and cube numbers.

Calculating

Children will be fluent in a wide range of mental calculation strategies for all operations and will select the most appropriate method dependent on the calculation. They apply their knowledge of place value fluently to multiply and divide numbers (including decimals) by 10, 100 and 1000. When mental methods are not appropriate, they use formal written methods of addition and subtraction accurately. They continue to develop their understanding of the formal methods through hands-on resources and use their known facts within long multiplication (up to 4 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers e.g. 2345 x 68) and short division (up to 4 digit numbers by 1 digit number e.g. 2345 ÷ 7) which may result in remainders. They solve multi-step problems in meaningful contexts and decide which operations to use.

Fractions including decimals and percentages

Children secure their strong understanding that fractions express a proportion of amounts and quantities (such as measurements), shapes and other visual representations. Children extend their knowledge and understanding of the connections between fractions and decimals to also include percentages. They will be able to derive simple equivalences (e.g.  67% = 67/100 = 0.67) and recall percentage and decimal equivalents for ½, ¼, 1/5, 2/5, 4/5 and fractions with a denominator of a multiple of 10 or 25 (e.g. 25% = 25/100).

They order, add and subtract fractions, including mixed numbers and those whose denominators are multiples of the same number, for example + = + = = . Using apparatus, images and models, they multiply proper fractions and mixed numbers by whole numbers. Children continue to develop their understanding of fractions as numbers, measures and operators by finding fractions of numbers and quantities in real life situations.

Measurement

Through a wide variety of practical experiences and hands-on resources, children extend their understanding of measurement. They convert larger to smaller related units of measure and vice-versa including length, capacity, weight, time and money.  Children will convert between imperial (such as inches, pints, miles) and metric units (such as centimetres, litres, kilometres). Children will measure, calculate and solve problems involving perimeter of straight-sided, right-angled shapes (rectilinear) and learn to express this algebraically such as, 4 + 2b = 20. They find and measure the area of these shapes with increasing accuracy. They begin to estimate volume.

Geometry

Children will measure, identify and draw angles in degrees, developing a strong understanding of acute, obtuse, reflex and right angles. They use this knowledge to find missing angles and lengths in a variety of situations, including at a point, on a straight line and within a shape. Children will move (translate), reflect shapes and describe their new positions.  Language will be used with increasing sophistication to compare and classify shapes based on their properties and size. They will be able to visualise 3-D shapes from 2-D diagrams. They will use their understanding or shapes to solve problems.

Statistics

Children will complete, read and solve comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in graphs, charts and tables, including timetables. They begin to decide which representations of data are the most appropriate and are able to justify their reasons.