Spring 2

Week 5:

Year 5 took their learning outside the classroom this week with an immersive geography field trip to Cuckmere Haven in the Seven Sisters National Park. Bathed in spring sunshine, our young geographers investigated the power of coastal erosion. By comparing historical photographs with the current coastline and sketching the iconic chalk cliffs, students gained a first-hand understanding of how our landscape shifts over time. They also engaged in primary data collection, analysing the composition, shape, and size of pebbles across different zones of the beach. A highlight for many was discovering cuttlefish bones and exploring the natural properties of the chalk. Back at school, Year 5 made their CAM toy designs a reality. Demonstrating excellent workshop safety, they used hacksaws to cut wooden dowelling to precise measurements and showed great resilience by problem-solving when their products required adjustment. This practical work was supported by our Science investigation into pulleys. Students explored how these simple machines act as force multipliers, allowing a smaller input force to lift heavy loads.

Week 4:

This week, our students demonstrated remarkable versatility across the curriculum. In Music, we transitioned from vocal performance to instrumental accompaniment, mastering the C, G, and D major chords on the keyboard to provide the backing for our rendition of the classic, “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.”

Our Physical Education sessions focused on tactical ball control; students developed advanced hockey techniques, learning to maintain possession under pressure and shield the ball effectively against opponents. Meanwhile, in Computing, the playground became a live testing environment. Students programmed BBC micro:bit devices to function as bespoke fitness trackers, iteratively debugging their code in real-time to ensure accuracy during physical activity.

Week 3:

The week kicked off with World Book Day, where we stayed cozy in our pyjamas while diving into a world of wonderful stories. However, the relaxation didn't last long, as nerves and excitement built for our big performance at the Royal Albert Hall with the Merton Music Foundation. After a morning of lessons, we travelled into London for a final rehearsal before the spectacular evening concert. We sang our hearts out, performing the world premiere of ‘Looking Up’—a piece specially commissioned for this event. It was a truly memorable and unforgettable experience for every student. Despite being tired on Wednesday, we quickly found the energy to use our permanent orienteering course to get moving while practising multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, and 1000. To wrap up the week, we continued our exploration of simple machines. We learned how gears allow us to apply a smaller force to achieve a much bigger effect. To see real science in action, we built our own sets of gears to experiment with how they move together.

Week 2:

As we get closer to our Royal Albert Hall concert, the excitement is building across year 5. Our final rehearsal with a live band, Pete Churchill (the composer) and Soo from MMF along with other Merton schools was held at St Marks Church in Wimbledon. The Year 5’s sound amazing and it promises to be a fantastic evening. Leaving the school building again, Year 5 participated in an immersive Easter Experience at St Martin’s Church in Morden. Children learnt about the story of Easter by re-enacting Holy week and understanding the events leading up to Easter Sunday. As scientists, we have investigated how changing the position of the fulcrum in a lever affects the amount of force applied. We used our scientific enquiry skills to gather and compare data and then applied our pattern-seeking skills to discover that if the fulcrum is closer to the load then you need less force to lift it. As athletes, we are developing our skills in hockey, learning how to dribble, pass and shoot the ball with accuracy. As mathematicians, we have learnt the difference between area and perimeter by using the lines in our playground to identify these before learning the strategies to calculate them.

Week 1:

Spring 2 has started in full force! Beginning the week with a P4C session, we used reasoning to discuss whether something is true or useful using pictures related to our next writing genre - fairytales. We looked at stereotypes and identified the features of a fairytale, using freeze frames to understand how Hansel and Gretel came to be abandoned in the forest alone, ready to write our own story based on the traditional tale of Hansel and Gretel. As scientists, we are continuing our understanding of forces, creating a simple lever and using our woodland area to investigate how they allow a smaller force to have a greater effect. As designers, we are learning about how a CAM enables a toy to have a moving part, investigating toys which contain CAMs to research and identify how they move.