"Confessing our sins may be difficult for us but it brings us peace. We are sinners and we need God's forgiveness." Pope Francis

Our learning this week…

English - This week we explored the dilemma and the possible consequences that Billy from Bling! is facing and the children have planned the decision he will make. This will then be the focus of their diary writing they will do next week.

Maths - This week we’ve focused on decimal numbers up to two decimal places and have been converting these to fractions.

RE - This week we’ve been discussing the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation – a gift that Jesus has given to us which helps to deepen our relationship with him.  We recalled going to our own first confession and what happened.

Science - This week the children have been investigating thermal conductors and insulators. The children set up an investigation to find out which materials made the best thermal insulator which could be used as a lining to a new lunch box.

History - The focus of this lesson was Maya religious beliefs. They explored how the Maya worshipped and some of the rituals they practiced and have looked at some of the main gods and what they represented to the people.

Computing - The children had fun coding their own animations on the micro-bit and have been able to download their code to the device.

PSHE - The children have identified emotions and have discussed how these can link to the way we behave (sometimes negatively and sometimes positively). We’ve explored positive coping strategies and the children have begun to create their own coping plan to support them through the emotions.

Bedrock Competition

Don’t forget the Bedrock competition for a chance to win an amazing prize (see poster above). There will also be an in-class prize for the Year 5 who has the most points by the end of term.

Here is our TOP 5 on the scoreboard:

1 Eliza 98 points

2 Hallie 93 points

3 Declan 92 points

4 Laciee 83 points

5 Theo 78 points

Well done and keep it up!

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Olivia

Writing Award - Declan

Maths Award - Elliot

Year 5 Star Winner - 

Resilient moves

Thank you for sharing your resilient moves this week…

Isabella's egg head...

Please continue to send in photos of yourselves making resilient moves to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk so we can see what you’ve been up to.

Reminders:

• Monday is a Bank Holiday so school will be closed. We will reopen Tuesday 4th May.

• Year 5 finish school at 3.10pm Monday - Thursday and at 1.05pm on a Friday

• Reading books and diaries must be brought into school daily. Diaries get checked everyday so that we can reward the children for their reading. I would expect Year 5 to read at home daily for at least 20 minutes.

• Homework will need to be completed before Thursday, when I will check your results. Hope you all have a great weekend. Please see the homework page for this week’s homework. Parents will be informed if this is not complete.

• PE days continue to be on a Tuesday and Thursday. No earrings please.

• Music tuition is on a Thursday, so please ensure your instrument is in school ready to have your lesson with Miss Benson.

• As the weather starts to get warmer, please ensure your child brings in their water bottle each day with fresh water. I would also advise that coats still come into school each day as the weather can be unpredictable and we will all still go outside even on those cold/rainy days.

Well done Year 5 and we hope you all have a lovely long weekend.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

Our week...

We’ve had another busy week this week and I’m pleased and proud of how hard the children continue to work. They’ve shown resilience in the things they have found difficult and have overcome some difficult challenges which have left them feeling proud of themselves. Well done Year 5!

Our learning this week…

English - We’ve explored how the main character of Bling! has changed over the course of the story this week and have looked at how language in writing can be altered to show status. The children have also been working on creating vivid images that use description and comparison.

Maths - This week we’ve looked at how multiplying fractions and finding fractions of amounts give us the same answer and we have been solving problems involving fractions.

RE -This week the children have been discussing what sin is and how we can show that we are truly sorry for the wrong we do.

Science - Our new topic is all about properties and changes of materials. This week the children have identified the properties of different materials. They have explored the meaning of different properties and have sorted and classified materials based on their properties through testing whether they are: magnetic, transparent, flexible, permeable or hard.

History - This week the children started our unit on the Ancient Maya Civilisation. They placed events of the Maya on a timeline showing their understanding of chronological order through BC and AD and have used atlases to label the area on a map to show where in Central America the Maya used to live

Spanish - This week the children have continued to develop their speaking and listening of words and phrases that can be used when ordering food and drink in a cafe.

PE - This week the children took part in relays as part of a team, which developed their understanding of basic orienteering symbols using a map key. They worked really hard and all teams successfully completed the challenge.

Bedrock Competition

Don’t forget the Bedrock competition for a chance to win an amazing prize (see poster above). There will also be an in-class prize for the Year 5 who has the most points by the end of term.

Here is our TOP 5 scoreboard so far:

1 Isabelle 66points

2 Hallie 62 points

3 Eliza 57 points

4 Laciee 51 points

5 Declan 49 points

Well done and keep it up!

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Nathaniel

Writing Award - Theo

Maths Award - Isabelle

Year 5 Star Winner - Cianna

Congratulations also goes to Eliza who has achieved her Bronze music medal for the clarinet. Well done Eliza!

Reminders:

• Year 5 finish school at 3.10pm Monday - Thursday and at 1.05pm on a Friday

• Reading books and diaries must be brought into school daily. Diaries get checked everyday so that we can reward the children for their reading. I would expect Year 5 to read at home daily for at least 20 minutes.

• Homework will need to be completed before Thursday, when I will check your results. Hope you all have a great weekend. Please see the homework page for this week’s homework. Parents will be informed if this is not complete.

• PE days continue to be on a Tuesday and Thursday. No earrings please.

• Music tuition is on a Thursday, so please ensure your instrument is in school ready to have your lesson with Miss Benson.

• As the weather starts to get warmer, please ensure your child brings in their water bottle each day. I would also advise that coats still come into school each day as the weather can be unpredictable and we will all still go outside even on those cold/rainy days.

Another great week Year 5, well done! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him" (Parable of the Lost Son, Luke 15:20)

Welcome back after the Easter holidays. I hope you all had a wonderful Holy week and enjoyed your time together. We’ve had a lovely week back in school and the children have worked really hard…

Our learning this week…

English - This week we have begun a new unit, which is a modern retelling of a myth. We’ve looked at the similarities and differences between the stories and have been working on complex sentences with relative clause.

Maths - The focus this week has been on multiplying fractions and mixed numbers by whole numbers and finding fractions of amounts.

RE - In the parable of the Lost Son, the children have identified the important message and have explored who the Father and the Son represent and what the the story tells us about them.

Geography - This week the children have learnt about the cause of floods and its impact on people and the environment. The children have also used an atlas to locate and name the largest rivers in the world and have identified the source and the mouth of each river.

Computing - The children have had fun this week learning about a device called a Micro:bit. They explored the blocks within the code editor to create a simple animation.

Spanish - Our new unit is El cafe and we’ve started to learn new words and phrases that can be used when ordering food and drink in a cafe.

PE - This week the children used their orienteering skills to navigate around a course to find the names of Greek Gods.

Resilient moves

Thank you for sharing your resilient moves this week…

Brodie looked after a tortoise over Easter

Lisa the tortoise

Please continue to send in photos of yourselves making resilient moves to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk so we can see what you’ve been up to.

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Kayden

Writing Award - Lennon

Maths Award - Adam

Year 5 Star Winner - 

Bedrock competition

As you can see, Bedrock have launched this new prize draw competition with some fantastic prizes. You have all been entered into this competition and for a chance of winning, you just need to collect 120 or more points using Bedrock. If you go to the dashboard on your Bedrock account, you will find details of how you can collect points. Remember, you need to complete at least one Bedrock lesson for homework but to earn more points you can do more. However, please do not complete more than one lesson per day to ensure vocabulary retention. In addition to Bedrock’s competition, we will also have our own in class Bedrock competition too. The member of our class who has the most Bedrock points by the end of half term will win a prize. Good luck Year 5!

Well done Year 5, you’ve made a good start to this half term! Please see the homework page for this week’s homework. Homework will need to be completed before Thursday, when I will check your results. Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

We’ve had a lovely week thinking about Holy week. Each day we have watched Miss Haggerty’s assemblies on the Easter story and reflected on each of the special events that lead us up to the death and resurrection of Christ. We’ve also been busy making two of the fourteen Stations of the Cross ready for display in church over the Easter weekend. Each class were given two stations to make and we were challenged to make the second station, “Jesus accepts the cross”, and the ninth station, “Jesus falls for a third time”. It would be lovely if the children are able to go and see them all at mass over the weekend.

Our learning this week…

English - The children have been writing their ending to the story of Pandora’s box from the point of view of Pandora this week. They’ve really focused on using powerful words to create images in the readers minds. I’ve been impressed with their work and now look forward to reading them all the way through.

Maths - The focus of our maths this week has been adding and subtracting mixed numbers.

RE - In addition to our reflections of Holy week, we have also begun to look at the parable of the Prodigal son and what the story shows us about God’s love and forgiveness.

Year 5 Achievements

Book Lent challenge complete!

I am so delighted with all of Year 5 this week for completing their Lent challenge book. This morning each group sat together over a celebratory cake so that we could talk about the book we had read. It was really lovely to chat about the book and share our thoughts and opinions. Well done Year 5, I’m so proud of you all!

Our Reading Champions…

Well done to our reading champions this half term who all completed bookmarks (some completed 2!) for reading regularly at home. Reading continues to be a really important focus for us and I ask parents to continue to encourage your child to read regularly at home (at least 20 minutes per day) and get their diary signed.

When the children read regularly, golden tickets are given out and then we do a draw at the end of each half term. I’m so pleased to see so many children trying to collect their golden tickets. Let’s see if we can challenge ourselves to collect even more golden tickets next half term. Well done to Mia, Jacob and Nevaeh who are our golden ticket winners for this half term and have won a prize. Unfortunately, Nevaeh wasn’t in school today but her prize is waiting for her in school for when she returns.

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Onalee

Writing Award - Olivia

Maths Award - Molly

Year 5 Star Winner - Onalee

Well done Year 5, you’ve all worked incredibly hard this term and I am so proud of every one of you! It hasn’t been the easiest of terms with a mixture of home learning and then returning to school, but you’ve all taken it in your stride and you have shown such great resilience. I hope that over the Easter holiday you are all able to enjoy some down time and have a wonderful, happy and Holy Easter with your families.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

Goodbye to our ducklings

We have had the most delightful week with our ducklings this week. It has been a joy for all of us to watch our four wonderful ducklings, Puck, Titania, Demetrius and Lysander grow and play this week. Watch our video to see how much they’ve grown and how much they love water!

Year 5 have been very busy this week charting the ducklings growth for our Science work and they’ve learnt quite a bit more of their life cycle . Sadly, the ducklings have now gone to their new home on a farm where they will be able to wander freely with other ducklings. We really are going to miss them as they all have such loveable characters.

Our other learning this week…

English - This week the children have continued to work on the Greek myth Pandora’s box and are now in the process of planning their version of the story from the point of view of Pandora.

Maths - This week we’ve continued to work on adding fractions and also adding mixed numbers.

RE - This week the focus was on how Mary, our Mother, can help us untangle knots of sin.

Geography - We’ve identified how a river changes along its course and we’ve used an atlas to locate the longest rivers in the British Isles.

PE - On Tuesday the children ran the daily mile on our KS2 playground. On Thursday the children played a fast paced Easter themed game called Carrot Quest which uses attacking and defending skills.

Holy Week

Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week with Palm Sunday. Normally we would mark this very special celebration, lead by KS1, in Church and then each day each KS2 class would then lead an assembly each morning to tell the special events of the week. Instead, next week we will explore a part of the Easter story each day next week. We have also been challenged to create two Stations of the Cross which will go into Church next week. I will post photos on the blog next week when they are finished.

Lent Reading Challenge

I’ve been delighted with how Year 5 have taken on our reading challenge over the last few weeks. It’s been wonderful to see how enthused they’ve been and I’m impressed with how many children have read more than one of our challenge books. Well done Year 5!

Next week is our Book club celebration and we’re really looking forward to having a discussion and sharing our thoughts . Please encourage your child to finish their chosen challenge book if they have not already done so, so that they are able to fully join in. Thank you.

Resilient moves

Thank you for sharing your resilient moves this week…

Brodie has been learning new skills on her skateboard...

Please continue to send in photos of you making resilient moves to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk so we can see what you’ve been up to.

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Kourtney

Writing Award - Nevaeh

Maths Award - Cianna

Year 5 Star Winner -

It’s been a great week Year 5, you’ve continued to work hard and I hope you all have a great well deserved weekend.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

Our ducklings have arrived!

Our learning this week…

English - The children who weren’t involved in Bikeability this week read a lockdown story called The Cloud Swing written by Eithne Gallagher who lives in Italy. This inspired the children to plan and write their own magical lockdown story.

This week we’ve also started looking at Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer’s Night Dream. We did this to get ready for a live, online performance set in a virtual midsummer forest from the RSC that we watched on Thursday.

Maths - This week we’ve been adding and subtracting fractions, first with fractions that have the same denominators and then those with different denominators. Many of us have found this quite tricky so it is important to spend some time on this on IXL for homework.

RE - We began our unit on Reconciliation this week and started thinking about how our actions, good or bad, have consequences. We began by looking at the life of a young girl called Mary Ann Long whose kindness had a ripple effect on the lives of many people suffering from cancer. We then also explored the effects of the life of Mother Antonia whose lifestyle completely changed when she visited a violent Mexican jail with a priest friend. Please ask your child to tell you about the lives of these two wonderful people.

Today we have also celebrated the Feast of Saint Joseph by finding out more about Saint Joseph and making our own prayer card. With the Apostolic Letter “Patris corde” (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis recalled the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion, the Holy Father proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021. Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows. The Holy Father wrote Patris corde against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, he says, has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every day. In this, they resemble Saint Joseph, “the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence,” who nonetheless played “an incomparable role in the history of salvation.” In this way, let us all celebrate the ‘ordinary’ in our lives and find joy in the simple pleasure of serving God.

Geography - This week we’ve explored the features of a river and how a river changes along its course.

Art - Some children started painting their modroc sculptures inspired by Alberto Guacometti…

Ducklings

On Tuesday morning our 6 duckling eggs arrived in school and we were all very excited. Our first duckling hatched at 4pm on Wednesday and by Thursday morning three more had hatched. Two eggs remain in the incubator and we hope they will hatch soon. We will enjoy looking after the ducklings till next Friday when they go to their new home and over the course of the week, we will observe them as part of our Science work.

Watch our video to see some photos and videos of our ducklings, all named after characters from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream…

Bikeability

Congratulations to the children who took part in the Bikeability training this week. The children spent Monday and Tuesday outside with the Bikeability team, first on the playground and then out on the roads around around our school, learning how to ride their bicycles safely on the road. The team were delighted with the behaviour of the children and all children were awarded their Level 1 and Level 2 badges. Well done Year 5 cyclists!

Achieving Level 1

Achieving Level 2

Our Lent book challenge

I’m delighted to see the enthusiasm within class this week for our book reading challenge for Lent. This week I was pleased to see so many of Year 5 finishing their first chosen book, taking their quiz and then challenging themselves to reading another. This is amazing Year 5, keep up the great reading!

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Elliot

Writing Award - Jack

Maths Award - Lennon

Year 5 Star Winner - Adam

Well done Year 5, we’ve had another amazing busy week and I’m so proud of you all! I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Don’t forget to continue to make those resilient moves at home, it’s important to make time to enjoy yourselves and have fun. If you take any photos, please share those with us by emailing them to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

Back together

What a lovely week it has been! It has felt really good to have the class back together and I’ve been really impressed with how the children have come back positive and ready to learn. They’ve done really well this week and it’s like they’ve never been away. Well done Year 5, we’re so proud of you!

Our learning this week…

English - This week we have begun our unit on Greek Myths and have been exploring the story of Pandora’s box.

Maths - We’ve continued to work on fractions this week. We started by recapping the work that was completed over the last two weeks of home learning and have moved onto comparing and ordering fractions greater than 1.

Geography - We’ve looked in detail at the water cycle to follow up with the work from Kingfisher education workshops last week.

Art - This week we have looked at sculptures from the artist Alberto Giacometti. Then to link in with our work on the Ancient Greeks we have started making our own 3D sculptures, in the style of Alberto Giacometti, on the theme of the Ancient Greek Olympics. The children started by sketching each other in poses of Olympic sports and then they chose one and created the pose out of dowling and masking tape. Afterwards, the children applied modroc to complete the sculpture. Next week the children will paint them.

PE - This week the children have run the daily mile out on the playground and in our second session this week the children have played a Greek themed tag game - Spartans versus Athenians.

PSHE - We began our week reflecting on the lockdown and it gave the children the opportunity to talk about their lockdown memories and how they have felt about the last few months. We also began our ‘Think Good, Feel Good’ sessions of Bounce Forward which link to the Coping and Core Self Potion of the resilient framework. Using Disney’s Inside Out film, we explored all the emotions the children might feel and reinforced that it is ok to feel different at times and that is ok to feel sad, angry etc. It’s how we cope with it that helps us to be resilient.

Resilient moves

What resilient moves will you make this week? Please email me your resilient move photos to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

Lent Reading Challenge

We have decided as a class to take on a class reading challenge for Lent. By the end of term, we - Year 5, Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly - will read one of three books (chosen by the children). In the last week before we break up, we will celebrate our reading achievement by sharing our thoughts on the book with a book club party. Please encourage your child to read their chosen book to enable them to enjoy our book club at the end of term. You never know, some children might even go the extra mile and end up reading all three (Now there’s a challenge!).

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Sam

Writing Award - Kayden

Maths Award - Evie

Year 5 Star Winner - Evie

Congratulations to Kourtney who was the overall Year 5 winner for the World Book Day 📚bookmark competition. Thank you and well done to everyone who took part.

Congratulations to Sam for achieving his Bronze Music Medal on the flute this week. He scored an amazing 100% on his exam. Well done Sam!

Well done Year 5, we hope you have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

Well done Year 5!

Thank you and well done! 👏🏻🌟

I just want to start by saying a massive thank you to all of you. Over the last few months, you have truly been incredible and have made me very proud. The resilience you have all shown and the hard work that you have put in week on week has been amazing and I thank you so much for that. I also thank your parents for the support they have given in your work and for keeping me updated not just on your work, but also for sharing photos of all the wonderful resilient moves that you made. I have loved receiving photos of your smiling faces and they have really helped keep us connected whilst we’ve been apart. I now look forward to next week when we can all come back together in the classroom once again. It might feel a little bit strange coming back to school but we’ve got some lovely things to look forward to over the next few weeks. There’s one little surprise I think you’ll all be excited about - I’ll let you in on the surprise when we get back next week! 😊

Monday 8th March

Next week, school will open to all Year groups. Drop off and pick up times for Year 5 will be the same as before - 8.40am drop off at Thornhill Close gates, and 3.15pm pick up from the same place. On Fridays, pickup will still be at 1.05pm for all of the class. Our PE days will go back to Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is important you take time to read Miss Haggerty’s blog on the School’s Main News page which includes more in-depth information about our return to school and the safety measures that will be in place.

Please remember to bring completed Bikeability forms in on Monday if you wish to take part. There are only 12 places available and we will allocate places on first come first serve basis. If more than 12 forms are handed in on Monday, then this will be done through a draw.

Year 5 will also need to bring in their World Book Day bookmarks for the competition held by the PTFA. These will be judged next week and there is a prize for the winners (one from KS1 and one from KS2). Good luck!

World Book Day 📚

I hope you all had a lovely World Book Day. Thank you to those of you who sent in photos of you dressed as your favourite book characters. Can you spot the extreme reader?

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Resilient moves

Thank you to those who shared their resilient moves this week…

Elliot started his 100 miles for WWF

Elliot is completing it with his brother and sister

Isabelle has been drawing...

Olivia has been making Rock cakes...

Jensen made playdough with his brother

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

We can walk together in Jesus' footsteps

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday, I am delighted and I am looking forward to welcoming you all back to school on Monday 8th March. It’s the news we’ve all been waiting for and it’s a sign of hope that better things are to come. The safety measures that have been in place since September will remain to ensure that we all stay safe in our own little year group bubble. If you haven’t already, please see Miss Haggerty’s post on the main news page of the website for details of the reopening. 

Our Lenten adventure begins…

Last Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent, which is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter. By observing the 40 days of Lent, or 46 if we count Sundays, we replicate Jesus Christ's sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days. It is a time to refocus on Jesus as we look ahead to his death on the Cross at Easter and rejoice over his miraculous return. It is a time for reflecting on what we could do differently or maybe what we could do more of or less of during this time. Thank you for sharing your Lenten promises with me this week. In school the children also made their Lenten promises which we have put on display. When we get back to school we will think of a Lenten challenge that we can do together as a class.

World Book Day

On Thursday it is World Book Day and we are asking children who are in school to dress as their favourite book character and if you’re at home, I would still like you to get involved and send me your photos. All the World Book Day activities, including a whole school bookmark competition, are detailed on the timetable and this will take place instead of our English work for the day.

Bikeability

You should have all received an email regarding Bikeability which will take place on Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th March. This activity is limited to 12 children who are competent riders. Forms will need to be completed and sent in on Monday 8th March. Places are first come first serve basis.

Resilient moves

Thank you to those who shared their resilient moves this week. What resilient moves will you make this week? Please email me photos of your resilient moves you make this week to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk  I look forward to receiving them.

Elliot working hard

Elliot's coding

Brodie reading to mum

Brodie sketching

Brodie's coding

Lila's coding

Jensen's coding

Isabella doing PE

Thank you once again Year 5 for the great work I’ve received this week. Next week’s home learning will be available on the home learning page later today ready for next week. As this will be our last week of home learning before we all return to school, please email work to me by 1pm on Friday 5th March so that I am able to feedback to the children before the end of the school day. Any work sent after the school day on Friday 5th March will go into your child’s lockdown portfolio of work but as we are all back at school on MONDAY 8TH MARCH I will not have time to go through it and feedback. Thank you for your continued support with this.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

Happy Half-Term Year 5!

Thank you!

Well here we are Year 5, we were challenged to home learning and we conquered it! It has been a long six weeks but that hasn’t halted the effort in your work and  I’m incredibly proud of each and every one of you, those of you working from home and those of you in school, and I applaud all your efforts. 👏🏻I continue to be amazed at how hard working and resilient you have all been and I want to say a very big thank you to you and your parents for taking on this challenge and working so hard. Next week, I hope you are all (parents included) able to take a well earned rest and use the week to recharge your batteries and just take the time to enjoy being with your family and do things that you can enjoy together. Perhaps you’d like to take part in ‘Star Count’ (see below for details) - my family and I will be taking part in this. 

Thank you to everyone who was able to ‘meet’ with us on Tuesday during our Google Meet. It was a lovely opportunity for us to come together again and it was the highlight of my week being able to see all your little faces, even if it was just through the screen. I hope you all enjoyed seeing each other too!

Thank you once again to those of you who have shared their resilient moves over the last six weeks, I really do enjoy seeing what you have all been getting up to and I know that the children who are in school have also enjoyed seeing them too. What resilient moves will you make next week during half term? Don’t forget to email them to me at year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk so we can share them after half term.

Lent

Next Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a period of six weeks (40 days not including Sundays) leading up to Easter when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ. If you would like to find out more about Lent, click the link to the BBC Bitesize website which has videos and activities to complete.

Star Count (Lockdown friendly stargazing activity) 🌟

Each year, CPRE (The countryside charity) asks the nation to help measure light pollution in their area by getting starry-eyed and counting visible stars. They’re asking people from all across the country to become citizen scientists and look up to the starry sky from home for one night. They want you to join in by choosing a clear night from now till the 14th February and look up at the constellation of Orion and let them know how many stars you can spot. For more details, take a look at their website .

Here are the photos of your ‘Super Friends’ from our Google Meet PSHE lesson we had on Tuesday and some of your finished potion poems I’ve received. Thank you!

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Coming up…

World Book Day is coming up Thursday 4th March. Obviously this will be different than other years with school being closed to some children but we will be organising an activity for this day. There will hopefully be a story reading by class teachers as well as a competition. Whether at home or at school, it would also be lovely for the children to dress as a book character (however if in school, please limit to a simple costume with as few ‘loose’ items as possible).

Bikeability - In mid March the Bikeability time will be coming in to deliver lessons on safe cycling to competent Year 5 cyclists - they must have an appropriate sized and safe bike and be able to ride their bike safely and competently (part of the training will be out on the road around school). Due to Covid restrictions, this session will only be available for 12 children and they have said that they may be able to offer an alternative date later in the school year if there are more children who wish to take part. Once we know more about school opening from the Government’s update after half term, details to parents will follow. However, in the meantime, if your child is interested in taking part then I would encourage that they get out on their bike as much as possible to ensure they are prepared for the course.

The home learning for after half term will be published next Friday. I haven’t set any work over half term but I do encourage Year 5 to keep reading for their enjoyment.📚

Have a wonderful well earned break Year 5! Enjoy!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

Letter from Blackpool Council regarding COVID financial support scheme launched to help residents with household bills.

“Keep looking up… there may be a rainbow waiting for you”

I want to start by saying a big “THANK YOU!” for all the wonderful photos that you’ve sent in to me this week to show the resilient moves you’ve made to mark Children’s Mental Health week. The theme this week was ‘Express yourself’ and I’ve really enjoyed reading all about the different goals you have been setting yourselves, the reflections you’ve made and I’ve particularly loved seeing the different things that you have got up to to express yourselves. Despite this extremely challenging time we are all facing, each and every one of you has demonstrated just how resilient you are - you really have been looking up to find that rainbow! I’m so proud of you all and I can’t thank you all enough for the continued hard work that you have put into your home learning and those of you who have been working so hard in school.

Take a look at what your friends have been up to this week (I had to make two videos this week as we had so many photos come in) …

Please continue to share the resilient moves you make (year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk). Although Children’s Mental Health week is over for another year, it is still so important to continue to set yourself goals each week and to set aside time to do things that you enjoy and to make time to learn new life skills and start new hobbies. I too will be trying to set myself some goals… I don’t usually find the time to bake but so many of you have inspired me to make some time to do a bit more of that. 

A catch up…

On Tuesday I am hoping that you will all be able to catch up with us on Google Meet. It has been a long half term since we were last all together and as next week is our last week before half term, I thought it would be lovely to have a bit of a catch up to see how everyone is getting on. We have all missed you terribly in school, so it’ll be lovely to see your smiley faces again - even if it is just through the screen! We look forward to seeing you all!

Safer Internet Day…

On Tuesday it is also Safer Internet day. We always mark this day in school each year and this year, with the increase in online use, it is even more important that we do so. On this day we will explore reliability online. The internet has an amazing range of information and opportunities online, but how do we separate fact from fiction? On the home learning timetable you will find the lesson dedicated to this and an audio video of me guiding the children through the activities.

Next week’s home learning can now be accessed from this link .This will be available each week by the end of school on a Friday .

Have a wonderful weekend and see you all next week!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

“Love is always patient and kind ... ” St Paul's letter, Corinthians 13

Well done Year 5, you’ve continued to amaze me with your hard work this week. In maths the multiplication methods got quite tricky but you’ve all worked so hard to understand them. We came to the end of the first Talk for Writing booklet in English this week and I’ve really enjoyed reading your ‘’wishing” stories that you’ve written and have been quite impressed with the language and description used to create an atmosphere. In RE we have explored what Jesus meant by love, using St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, and you were able to show how St Damien showed his love for the lepers on the island of Molokai and how his decisions were informed by his beliefs. In addition to this you’ve learnt about the most important cultural contributions of the Ancient Greeks, different methods of asexual reproduction in plants (including bulbs, runner plants and tubers) and you’ve coded a Scratch program so that the sprite can be moved around the maze avoiding the maze walls. You have all worked so hard and many of you have also managed to keep up with your two lessons of Bedrock, spelling, TTRS and Education City. This is fantastic and you, and your parents, well and truly deserve a good rest and some family time over the weekend. Thank you all, and your parents, for your continued support at this very difficult time. Together we will get through it.

Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week. It’s really important, more so at this time, to make sure you are making time to look after yourself and do things you enjoy to keep positive and be resilient. Have a look at what our class has been up to this week…

What resilient moves will you make this week? It would be lovely if everyone could email me at least one photo of you making a resilient move so we can share them here. Please email me photos of your resilient moves you make this week to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk I look forward to receiving them.

Next week’s home learning can now be accessed from this link .This will be available each week by the end of school on a Friday . Please note that it is a government expectation that work is sent in to teachers to be evidenced and feedback given where necessary. Thank you so much for all the work you are sending, I know how difficult this is whilst also trying to do your own jobs too - it’s really appreciated! Please email any outstanding work to me by 1pm on a Friday so that I am able to feedback to the children before the end of the school day. If work is not sent to me, I will need to follow this up so please keep in contact with me.

Have a lovely weekend!

Take care, miss you all!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

For your information:

Making Changes This is a free family healthy lifestyle programme for families in Blackpool.

“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me” Luke 9:23

Thank you Year 5 for another week of great work. I’ve enjoyed seeing all the wonderful work that you have been completing, both on paper and using our online websites (Bedrock, IXL, TTRS), and I’m so proud of each one of you. It’s been lovely to see how you’re all progressing with your maths, there’s certainly been some tricky concepts this week to get your heads around. In English, you’ve worked hard using dictionaries and thesauruses to explain meanings of words and have found some wonderful synonyms and antonyms for those tricky target words. I’ve also enjoyed the sentences you’ve written to create a mood by describing the atmosphere of the inside and outside. Thank you also for the membership cards you’ve made to be a follower of Jesus, I’ve added some photos of these below. You wrote some lovely rules for us, as followers of Jesus, to live by. I’ve also been really impressed with the engagement and quality of your work in history, science and computing too - I can really tell you’ve listened and understood well. Well done Year 5!

Here’s some of the children’s RE work and some photos of the children working hard at home…

Thank you to those who shared their resilient moves this week, I’ve really enjoyed seeing what you have been getting up to. What resilient moves will you make this week? It would be lovely if everyone could email me at least one photo of you making a resilient move so we can share them here. Please email me photos of your resilient moves you make this week to year5@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk I look forward to receiving them.

Next week’s home learning can now be accessed from this link https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/yr5-home-learning

Thanks again for all your hard work Year 5 (and parents). Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Mrs McVey

Thank you!

Well, it’s been a long, unexpected, week and I’m really sad that we’re not all going to be together for some time. However, I’d like to start by saying a big thank you and well done to all of you for the work that you have sent me this week. I’ve been really impressed with how hard you’ve all worked and how resilient you’ve shown yourselves to be by quickly settling into this new, but not so unfamiliar, routine. I’ve enjoyed reading your poems and I can see that you’re all striving to be your best. I am so proud of every single one of you! Thank you parents for all your support this week, it has been very much appreciated.

Please see Year 5’s Home Learning page for next week’s work. https://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/yr5-home-learning

Thank you, I hope you all have a great week!

Mrs McVey

Happy Christmas!

Well what a wonderful end to a great term! I am so proud of Year 5, it has been an unusual time for everyone but they’ve worked so hard, shown great resilience and have really shone their lights this Advent. Thank you parents for your continued support with your child’s learning.

This time of year we would normally hold our annual KS2 Christmas Carol Concert. Although we couldn’t do this in church this year, Year’s 4, 5 and 6 got together to celebrate this special time and share this with you. We hope you enjoy it as much as the children enjoyed taking part. A special thank you goes to Father Jim who very kindly put all our videos together for us - Thank you Father Jim!

Thursday afternoon the children were treated to a virtual pantomime of Cinderella and they absolutely loved it! Thank you to our wonderful PTFA for organising it and for the lovely treats that the children had whilst watching.

Year 5 Achievements

Our Reading Champions…

Well done to our reading champions this half term who all completed bookmarks (some completed 2!) for reading regularly at home. Reading is so important and I ask parents to continue to encourage your child to read regularly at home (at least 20 minutes per day) and get their diary signed.

When the children read regularly, golden tickets are given out and then we do a draw at the end of each half term. Well done to Evie and Adam who are our golden ticket winners and have won a prize.

This week Evie received her Bronze award for clarinet. Miss Benson was very proud of her and so were we. Well done Evie!

Year 5 Stars

This week’s Year 5 Star is Brodie .

Our overall Year 5 star winner for Autumn term was Elliot. Elliot regularly tops our weekly leader board for the most dojo points received and over the term has collected an amazing 727 points. Well done Elliot!

Thank you to those of you who shared your resilient moves with us this week…

This week’s resilient moves challenge, from the Resilience framework, are:

1 - Find time for your interests. (Coping)

2- When times are tough, remember tomorrow is a new day. (Coping)

Please email me any photos of resilient moves you make over the Christmas holidays (for the two above or any others!). We look forward to seeing them and sharing them in the new year.

On Wednesday was Christmas dinner day and the children were treated to festive music and Christmas crackers…

Online Safety

Access to new technology over the winter period can provide new opportunities for children and young people but also present risks. Thinkuknow have published a Parent guide which looks at how you can support your child to be safer online this season by focusing on 3 key areas: viewing, sharing, chatting and friending. Please click on the link to take a look at how you can keep your child safe online.

Christmas is a time for giving and thinking of others and I just wanted to share this photograph of Evie and her sister Charlotte who have organised a collection for the Streetlife homeless charity in Blackpool. It is the third year the girls have made hampers and this year they managed to beat last year’s target and made 22 hampers! What a fantastic example of helping and showing loving concern for others this Christmas. Congratulations girls, this is amazing!

We wish you all a wonderful happy and Holy Christmas 🎄and we hope you all stay safe and well and have a great start to the New Year. See you all in the new year!

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly 

Great team work!

We’ve had a fantastic week in Year 5, the children have really amazed me! They were set a number of challenges this week in our DT/Science lessons. In the first of these sessions, the children were split into three groups and given a different challenge. One group had to make a simple frame from wood, using tools safely. The second group had to make a a moving vehicle using tech card and their knowledge of circuits and the third group had to make a vehicle shell for a chosen planet and design it using their knowledge of that planet. Elliot and Laciee were also challenged to making their own moving chassis using a lego set that school have borrowed. All the children worked extremely well and completed their challenges successfully…

The children were then put into small groups and together as a team they were set the challenge of designing and making a moon buggy model. The children designed their buggy, deciding on the materials that they would need and set off making it. By the end of the morning the children finished their moon buggies. I am so impressed with how hard they all worked and more impressed with the maturity they all showed, working in their teams supporting each other and with good cooperation and collaboration. Their work is now on display in the entrance hall for other Year groups to have a look at. Take a look at what they achieved…

Our other learning this week:

English - This week the children have been reading non-chronological reports and have been identifying the features.

Maths - This week the children have identified and named the parts of a circle including diameter, radius and circumference. They’ve drawn circles to a given radius using a pair of compasses and have also used angle facts to solve problems related to turns.

RE - The children read the story of Exodus when Moses was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and they have explored the challenges they faced and how they responded when tested.

Art - The children have continued to experiment with the work of Hundertwasser and have begun to enlarge their own work based on his.

PE - The children have been perfecting their hand ball skills and have enjoyed some really quick and fast paced games.

Yoga - This week was our last yoga session this year. We’ve all really enjoyed these sessions each week and it’s been good to see how much the children have improved in their balance and achieving mindful body and mindful listening.

PSHE - The children have made their own strength badges this week. They named one of their strengths and how that strength can make them more resilient.

Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week…

This week’s resilient moves challenge, from the Resilience framework, are:

1 - Develop life skills (Learning)

2- Calming down and making yourself feel better (Coping)

Please email me any photos of resilient moves you make this week (for the two above or any others!). We look forward to seeing them and sharing them.

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Mia

Writing Award - Isabella

Maths Award - Lila

Year 5 Star Winner - To be done on Monday

Thank you all for taking part in Christmas jumper day, the children looked great! We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

First week of Advent

It’s feeling like Christmas in Year 5 this week and it has really lifted everyone’s spirits. We have our Christmas trees up (including one on the window made out of the children’s handprints), twinkly fairy lights are lit and our advent wreath candles and Nativity set are in place. It has been a really lovely week starting each day opening our interactive advent calendar from Cafod, sharing the Scripture of the day (read by the children) and saying our special advent prayer…

Our learning this week:

English - This week the children have been writing their adventure stories and have also been editing their work to make it better.

Maths - The focus this week has been using a protractor to measure angles accurately and they have been identifying the different angles: acute, right angles, obtuse and reflex.

RE - This week the children have explored the covenant that God made with Moses and have looked at the trust and faith that he had in God, which influenced his decision. The children used the Bible to record the key points of the conversation between God and Moses.

Science - The children have been identifying the effects of friction on different surfaces and have investigated those which have high friction and those with low friction.

Art - The children have been introduced to the work of Hundertwasser this week and have used a viewfinder to select and draw a section of one of his images. Take a look at their initial drawings…

DT - We started our DT work this week and the children were set a challenge to make a simple chassis using just card, dowling, 4 wheels and masking tape. Take a look at their efforts…

Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week…

This week’s resilient moves challenge, from the Resilience framework, are:

1 - Get some fresh air and exercise (Basics)

2- Eat a healthy diet (Basics)

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Nevaeh

Writing Award - Grace

Maths Award - Jacob

Year 5 Star Winner - Isabella

Well done to some of our instrumentalists who have achieved their bronze medal during the last couple of weeks. Miss Benson was very proud of them and so are we…

Another great week Year 5! We hope you have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing your photos of the resilient moves you make this week.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

"Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem. May we let ourselves be drawn by the light of God made man." Pope Francis

We’ve had another lovely week in Year 5 and I continue to be so proud of how hard the children continue to work. This week the children have thought carefully about how they are going to prepare themselves to meet Jesus this Christmas. They have made their advent promises and they have linked their promise to Jesus’ teachings. Please ask your child what they have promised to do this advent.

Our learning this week:

In English this week the children have begun planning their own adventure story for Mai-ling who has to defeat an ogre that is rampaging around the village of Yishan and they have been experimenting with language to build suspense and atmosphere.

In maths the children have used written methods to multiply and divide 3-digit and 4-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers. 

In RE the children have listened to the story of Abraham and Sarah, learnt about the Covenant God made with Abraham and have reflected on Abraham’s trust in God.

In Science this week the children have explored the effects of water resistance. They have discovered that objects with greater surface area move through water much slower than objects with a streamlined smaller surface area.

PSHE - During this week’s Bounce Forward lesson the children have continued to think about their strengths and have identified three of their key strengths and shared how these strengths make them more resilient.

Thank you to those of you who shared their resilient moves with us this week…

Today is Lancashire day and we were set the challenge of running the daily mile so we combined this with our resilient move of getting fresh and exercise…

This week our resilient moves, from the Resilience framework, picked out randomly from our resilience box are:

1 - Organise yourself (learning)

2- Find time for your talents (Core self)

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Brodie

Writing Award - Eliza

Maths Award - Onalee

Year 5 Star Winner - Elliot

Great work this week Year 5! Have a lovely weekend and enjoy some family time.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly

“God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us – in the dreariest and most dreaded moments – can see a possibility of hope.” Maya Angelou

Our learning this week:

In English this week the children have read and discussed how the author of the Dragon Slayer has used incredibly precise description to give an atmospheric description of the dragon asleep. They have then composed their own descriptive paragraph of an ogre who will be a character in a new episode that the children are going to write.

In maths the children have continued to focus on simplifying fractions and they are all getting really good at this. They have also used mental strategies to multiply and divide multiples of 10 and 100 and used the inverses of each other to find relationships.

In RE the children have listened to the story of Noah from the Bible and have learnt about the Covenant that God made with Noah (and us) and the significance of the rainbow.

In Science this week the children have explored the effect of air resistance and have looked at the discoveries of Galileo Galilei. The children planned and carried out an investigation into the effects of air resistance on three different parachutes.

In geography the children have created a travel itinerary based on the places in America that we have been investigating this term. For each destination they had to record: its absolute location using latitude and longitude, time zone, possible activities that the travellers could do in each area based on the travellers interests and its climate.

In Yoga, one of our favourite sessions of the week, the children have continued to work on mindful body, mindful breathing and mindful listening. This week the children have also been working on Vinyasa yoga. Vinyasa is a style of yoga where poses are strung together to form one fluid sequence of movement, using breath. Take a look at how well the children are doing…

PSHE - This week’s Bounce Forward lesson concentrated on getting the children thinking about what their strengths are. The children shared their own personal strengths and also thought about strengths they think their friends have too.

In class we now have a resilient moves box and each child has chosen a resilient move from the Resilience framework to put into the box. Each week we will choose a couple of resilient moves at random from the box and we will be challenged to make that resilient move over the course of the week. This week’s resilient moves are:

1 - To get fresh air and exercise. (Basics potion)

2- To find time for your talents. (Core self potion)

Our award winners:

Golden Award - Jensen

Writing Award - Evie

Maths Award - Theo

Year 5 Star Winner - Kayden

Notice:

In line with the Covid-19 health and safety guidance in school, we are required to keep windows open in the classroom, to ensure the room is ventilated. As the weather is getting colder, this does result in the classroom being colder that usual. With this in mind, I have mentioned to the class, on Miss Haggerty’s authority, that they may wear an extra layer of clothing (like a T shirt) under their white polo shirts, as extra insulation. Can I also advise that boys wear full length trousers and girls wear tights, when possible. Thank you.

Coming up…

• Next Friday (27th November) is Silly Sock day. Children will need to bring £1 donation for the PTFA

• Christmas jumper day 11 the December. More details to follow.

Well done Year 5, you’ve worked hard this week. We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Remember to record the resilient moves you make over the week and if you have any photographs to share, then please email them to me and we can share these resilient moves here.

Mrs McVey, Miss Evans and Mrs Connolly