Year 5’s first Geography topic this autumn was Volcanoes, beginning with the key question ‘How were the people of Hiemaey affected and felt by the eruption of Eldfell Iceland?’’ This became a cross-curricular topic with Pompeii studied through English, the Ring of Fire through art work and drama as well as the Geography skills of plate tectonics and the structure and movement of the earth. At present, the children’s History topic is the Shang Dynasty. The year group spent an informative day at the British Museum looking at artefacts and using an APP on tablets to direct their learning. This understandably proved to be a popular and effective way. To support the science Space topic, the children had the opportunity to visit the 3D surround Planetarium when it visited the school. They experienced the night sky, the orbit of the earth and its moon as well as learning about why we have day, night and the seasons. This year group are very creative and have created original work in the style of Monet (based on local water features) and Georgia O’Keefe (very detailed poppies for WW1 week) and produced some moving and visually aesthetic paintings in the style of Jackson Pollock. 5H gave an interesting and creative assembly to the school and parents all about the Shang Dynasty-the life size art work of traditional dress were superb and the children enjoyed sharing their learning with a wider audience.

This spring term we are looking forward to a visit by St.Mary's youth worker and a Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream drama workshop. The children are finding out about how the world is being affected by climate change and will be learning about the British Empire after half term.