Year 5
Welcome to Red Kites 2024/2025
Mr Chadd, Miss Sharman and Mr Murton
We will update the class page once a week. Please check regularly as we will often share key information here.
Please feel free to contact us via the class email:
redkites@watlington.oxon.sch.uk
Our PE days are Wednesday and Friday. Please come to school in your PE kit.
Athletics Wednesday
Athletics/Badminton Friday
Useful Web Links for Home Learning
Topic Web
Details of the year 5 curriculum over terms 5 and 6.
Home Learning
All children now have their logins for Spelling Shed, Atom Learning, and Times Table Rockstars (TTRS). New words are set for Spelling Shed and children should have completed these by the end of the Thursday of each school week. Please continue to update reading journals after listening to children read or discussing their reading choices with you.
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 23rd May 2025
As we wrap up a busy and productive half term, Red Kites have been working incredibly hard across the curriculum!
In Maths, we’ve been exploring coordinates, translation, symmetry, and reflection, learning how to describe and transform shapes with accuracy.
In English, we carried out research on refugees and used everything we've learned this term to write persuasive letters to the Home Secretary—a powerful and purposeful way to apply our writing skills.
In Science, we explored how plants reproduce by dissecting flowers to investigate how seeds are formed. We also looked closely at the process of pollination and how vital it is for plant life.
Our Art lessons have seen us continue with our tornado drawings, and some truly excellent pieces are beginning to take shape.
In Jigsaw (PSHE), we focused on online safety, discussing how to stay safe in chats and what information should and shouldn’t be shared online.
Well done, Red Kites, for a fantastic half term. We hope you have a restful and fun-filled break—you’ve earned it!
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 16th May 2025
This week, Red Kites have been diving deeper into key skills across the curriculum!
In English, we’ve focused on relative clauses and parenthesis, using them to add detail and clarity to our persuasive letters. We’re learning how to structure arguments with impact and precision.
In Maths, we’ve been exploring angles within shapes, particularly triangles and quadrilaterals, and how their properties help us calculate unknown angles.
In Jigsaw (PSHE), we’ve had an important discussion about screen time, learning to reflect on how much time we spend on devices and how to recognise when we might need a break.
Our Spelling focus continues to be homophones. Don’t forget—Spelling Shed homework is due by Friday morning each week, ready for our dictation test.
In Art, we began our new drawing module, creating tornado-inspired pieces. We explored shading techniques and complementary colours, producing some stunning work with dramatic visual effects.
Well done, Red Kites, for another creative and thoughtful week!
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 9th May 2025
It’s been another brilliant week in Red Kites, full of focus, creativity, and energy!
In Topic, we’ve continued exploring Extreme Earth, learning how weather patterns and geographical location create biomes, and how animals and plants adapt to survive in them.
In Science, we’ve been looking closely at life processes and reproduction in mammals, amphibians, and insects, comparing how each group develops and grows.
In RE, we’ve had thoughtful discussions about the creation story in Genesis and how it can both conflict with and complement scientific explanations of the world.
In English, we’re continuing to build our skills in persuasive letter writing, thinking carefully about the language and structure that will help convince our readers.
In Maths, it’s all about angles! We've been identifying acute, obtuse, and reflex angles, learning how to use protractors accurately, and understanding how angles relate to straight lines—precision has been our focus!
Miss Sharman has also begun training the class for Sports Day after half-term—we’re already looking fast, strong, and ready to compete!
In Music, we’ve been reflecting on how music connects to our emotions, and we’ve been practising all our ukulele chords with enthusiasm.
Our Spelling lessons continue to focus on homophones, with even more to come next week. Don’t forget, you can find all your word lists on Spelling Shed to practise at home!
Well done, Red Kites, for another fantastic week of learning!
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 2nd May 2025
It’s been a warm and busy week for the Red Kites with lots of fantastic learning taking place!
In Maths, we’ve been working with line graphs and developing our skills in reading and interpreting tables and timetables—real-world skills we can use every day.
In English, we continued with our persuasive letter writing, this week focusing on AFOREST techniques and thinking carefully about the different arguments we can use to persuade our readers.
Our Spelling lessons have focused on homophones and near homophones, such as practise and practice, and when to use each correctly in our writing. A reminder that Spelling Shed homework is expected to be completed by all children each week to help reinforce this learning.
In Geography, we continued our Extreme Earth topic by exploring different biomes, learning about the plants and animals that survive in each one and how they adapt to their environments.
In Science, we’ve been learning about the life cycles of animals, understanding how mammals, birds, amphibians, and insects each have different stages in their development and why these differences exist.
In RE, we explored the story of Genesis from the Bible, discussing what it teaches about Christian beliefs of creation and how these ideas can both conflict with and complement scientific thinking.
Our Jigsaw (PSHE) focus was on safety in online communities, particularly why age limits are in place for certain platforms in the UK.
It’s been a productive and sunshine-filled week—have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, everyone! 🌞
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 25th April 2025
Welcome back! We’ve had a fantastic first week of the summer term in Red Kites, full of new learning and exciting starts.
In English, we’ve begun writing persuasive letters and started reading our new class text, The Boy at the Back of the Class, which is already sparking lots of thoughtful discussion.
In Maths, we’ve been working on perimeter, area, compound shapes, and polygons, applying our knowledge to solve real-world problems.
Our new Topic is Extreme Earth, with a focus on geography. We kicked off by exploring some of the most powerful forces on our planet—there’s plenty more adventure to come!
In Science, we’ve been learning about night and day and understanding how the Sun appears to move across the sky.
This term in Jigsaw (PSHE), we are focusing on relationships, exploring how we connect and interact with others.
In PE, we’ve started a new unit on athletics while continuing to develop our badminton skills.
A huge well done to those who took part in the family assembly this week—you did a brilliant job representing our class!
Red Kites Class Update – STEM Week (Week Ending 4th April 2025)
What a brilliant week we’ve had in Red Kites as we celebrated STEM Week with a whole range of exciting and hands-on activities!
In Computing, we explored Microbits using block programming. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with code—so much so, many were eager to do even more!
In Science, we launched our own fizzy bottle rockets using effervescent tablets, plastic bottles, and different temperatures of water to investigate thrust. We also designed and presented our findings in posters which were proudly shared with the rest of KS2.
In Design and Technology, we explored gears and pulleys, making our own simple mechanisms and learning how force can be transferred through connected systems.
In English, we focused on re-telling well-known narratives from different characters' perspectives, ensuring each voice was clear, unique, and believable.
In Maths, we tackled percentages, decimals, and fractions, learning how to convert between them with confidence—why not keep practising at home over the Easter holidays?
A huge well done to everyone for an amazing term of learning, exploring, and creativity. Have a restful and fun-filled Easter break—you’ve earned it, Red Kites! 🐣🌟
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 28th March 2025
Welcome back from our fantastic residential at Liddington! We've had an exciting week settling back into school life and diving straight into our learning.
In Maths, we’ve continued developing our understanding of decimals and fractions, focusing on place value—working confidently with tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.
In English, we were introduced to the dramatic poem The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. We’ve been exploring how to describe characters through their emotions, building vivid and powerful descriptions.
In Science, we turned our focus to space, learning about spherical bodies and the movement of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
We’ve been building on our skills in PE, enjoying both cricket and badminton, and showing fantastic bat and racket techniques. Meanwhile, in Music, we continued working on our ukulele playing.
A group of Red Kites also proudly represented our school at the athletics finals at Wheatley Park School—well done to all involved!
In Spelling, we focused on adverbs of possibility and frequency, expanding our vocabulary for writing and speaking.
Next week is STEM Week, and we have lots of exciting activities and investigations planned—we can’t wait to get stuck in!
Year 5 Residential
Day 2 residential
We all slept pretty well, and are all fuelled up with big cooked breakfasts ready to start our days. It's lovely weather here and we have a full timetable ahead. Check out photos from yesterday by clicking on the gallery on the right hand side of this page.
Residential update!
We have arrived and are all eating lunch - all well and happy. We will start our first activities shortly.
Here is the information from the meeting after school on 27th February 2025 and the kit list for the trip.
Red Kites Class Update – Careers Week, World Book Day & More!
This week has been packed with learning, creativity, and inspiration!
In Topic, we explored what life was like for children in the Victorian workhouse, deepening our understanding of the hardships faced by many during this period. We also finished reading Street Child and used Jim Jarvis' life story as inspiration to write biographies about people who inspire us.
In Maths, we have been using fractions as operations and have now begun looking at decimal numbers, making important connections between the two concepts.
As part of our Music lessons, we have expanded our ukulele skills by learning the D minor chord. Meanwhile, in RE, we continued developing our understanding of Judaism in the UK, comparing the similarities and differences between Progressive and Orthodox synagogues.
This week also saw us taking part in Careers Week, where we were visited by a film director and a sound engineer, gaining fascinating insights into the world of film and sound production. We also had a Careers Assembly, which encouraged us to think about different career paths for the future.
On World Book Day, we celebrated by creating our own illustrations in the style of Chris Mould, bringing characters to life using his unique techniques.
Next week will be Assessment Week, so we will be focusing on showing everything we have learned so far this term.
Fantastic work as always, Red Kites!
Red Kites Class Update – Welcome Back After Half Term!
We’ve had a brilliant first week back, diving straight into new learning and exciting experiences!
In Topic, we continued exploring Victorian life, focusing on what school was like for children in the Victorian era. Comparing then and now sparked some interesting reflections from the class!
In Maths, we tackled multiplying fractions and calculating an amount of a fraction—challenging but rewarding work! Our English lessons shifted to biographies, where we began learning how to write engaging and informative life stories.
A highlight of the week was our visit to Neasden Temple in London, where we had the chance to reflect on our understanding of Hinduism and experience the beauty of this sacred space first-hand.
In PE, we started learning the skills needed for badminton, building hand-eye coordination and agility. Our Science experiments were a lot of fun, using milk and vinegar and vinegar with bicarbonate of soda to explore reversible and irreversible changes.
We also explored rhythm compositions in Music, tapping into our creativity and musicality.
It’s been a wonderful start to the half-term—well done, Red Kites!
Safer Internet Day 2025 - 11th Feb 2025
This week we joined the live Newsround lesson to learn about internet safety and how not to fall victim to scams and keep safe whilst on the web. We have also been writing our own kenning poems and safer internet day inspired some children to write their own poems.
Red Kites Class Update – Welcome Back to the New Term! 10th January 2025
We’ve had a fantastic start to the new term in Red Kites, diving into new topics and exciting challenges!
In English, we’ve begun writing our own portal stories, letting our imaginations take us on incredible adventures. In Maths, we’ve been working on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators, finding equivalents, and converting mixed numbers.
In Topic, we’ve started exploring the life of Queen Victoria and how the British Empire expanded during her reign. We also examined the trade of exports and imports that supplied Victorian factories with goods.
In Jigsaw (PSHE), we’re thinking about our dreams, goals, and potential future careers, sparking great discussions about aspirations. In Science, we’ve been investigating the properties of materials and learning about the origins of plastics and other man-made products.
Finally, in Spelling, we’ve focused on adverbs of time, building our vocabulary and improving our writing skills.
It’s been a brilliant start to the term—well done, Red Kites!
Week ending 19th December 2024
As we wrapped up the term, Red Kites have been busy with festive cheer and celebrating their hard work this term!
In Topic, we concluded our learning about the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, reflecting on the legacy they left behind.
Our Maths lessons focused on consolidating our learning about fractions, ensuring we’re ready for the challenges ahead. In Design and Technology, we put the finishing touches on our weaving projects, showcasing patience and skill. Lots of Christmas crafting on Wednesday and using our leadership and teamworking skills with the Year 2 in P.E.
The highlight of the week was our Christmas concert, where we performed beautifully, bringing festive joy to everyone who attended.
Thank you to all the students and families for their hard work and support this term. Have a wonderful holiday, and we look forward to seeing you all in the new year! 🎄
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 13th December 2024
This week, Red Kites have been busy with a mix of learning, creativity, and festive activities!
In Topic, we explored the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, understanding how this pivotal moment shaped British history. In English, we wrote our final instruction pieces on how to train or catch mythical creatures, showcasing all the skills we’ve mastered this term.
In Maths, we focused on equivalent fractions and converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers—a challenging but rewarding task! In Computing, we continued developing our videography skills, experimenting with new camera angles.
A highlight of the week was watching The Snowman accompanied by a live orchestra. We even sang along to the famous "Walking in the Air," which was a magical experience!
In Design and Technology, we continued weaving, and in preparation for the festive season, we’ve been practicing for our performance at the Christmas concert on Tuesday next week.
Another brilliant week, Red Kites—well done!
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 6th December 2024
This week has been packed with learning and new experiences for Red Kites!
In Maths, we’ve been working hard on fractions, developing our understanding step by step. In English, we’ve been innovating instructions to prepare for writing our own next week.
Our Topic lessons focused on how England became a unified country after the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons settled their disputes—a fascinating glimpse into our nation’s history. In Computing, we learned about camera angles and filming techniques, thinking about how to create effective videos.
This week marked the end of our swimming lessons, with an exciting session practicing life-saving techniques and swimming in pyjamas! As swimming is now finished, we’ll have a PE lesson next Friday (13th December), so please remember to wear PE kits.
In Jigsaw (PSHE), we discussed direct and indirect bullying, reflecting on how the way we speak and play can impact others. In Design and Technology, we worked on our weaving skills—it’s trickier than it looks, but we’re making great progress!
PE this week included muddy rugby, and we’ve been rehearsing our Christmas song, preparing for the church service at the end of term.
Well done, Red Kites, for another fantastic week!
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 29th November 2024
This week has been a busy one for Red Kites as we completed assessments in Maths, reading, and spelling. Everyone worked hard to show their progress this term—well done!
In Swimming, we enjoyed our penultimate session, with one last exciting challenge next week—don’t forget to bring your pyjamas on Tuesday!
In Topic, we explored the big question: Was Alfred really great?, diving into the legacy of King Alfred. We also began researching a famous British scientist, uncovering their contributions to the world.
We ended the week on a high note with a fabulous pantomime performance of Peter Pan, which was full of laughter and festive fun!
Red Kites Class Update – Week Ending 22nd November 2024
This week, Red Kites have been diving into exciting new topics and making great progress across all subjects!
In Maths, we’ve been exploring square and cube numbers, expanding our understanding of patterns and relationships in numbers. In English, we’ve focused on commas and adverbial phrases, learning how to make our writing more precise and engaging.
In Topic, we’ve delved into the Vikings and the Danelaw, uncovering how the Vikings shaped history in Britain. In PE, we’ve worked on spatial awareness in rugby while continuing to make a splash in our swimming lessons.
In Design and Technology, we’ve been busy making cardboard looms, preparing to start our weaving project next week, any spare wool or ribbon would be most beneficial to our efforts. Meanwhile, we’ve begun learning our Christmas song for the end-of-term concert and made further progress on the ukulele in Music.
In Science, we’ve wrapped up our work on forces and started thinking critically about the scientific method, laying the foundation for future investigations.
It’s been another brilliant week of learning—well done, Red Kites!
Red Kites Class Update: 15th November 2024
This week has been full of exciting learning opportunities!
In Maths, we've been exploring multiples and factors, while in English, we've focused on the features of writing instructions and using imperative verbs effectively. Our Topic lessons took us back to the invasion of Lindisfarne, a pivotal moment in Anglo-Saxon history.
In Reading, we’ve been honing our inferring skills to deepen our understanding of texts. PE has been a mix of making big splashes in swimming and building rugby skills, while in Music, we've added more new chords to our ukulele repertoire.
We also started an exciting weaving project in Design and Technology, which is already showcasing some wonderful creativity!
Well done, Red Kites, for another fantastic week!
Trip to Chiltern Open Air Museum
Red Kites Class Update: 26th October 2024
As we wrap up this half term, it’s been a fantastic week of accomplishments and discovery! Our swimming lessons are going strong, and everyone’s showing real effort. Remember to keep bringing those swimming caps after the break!
In History, we’ve made strides in exploring the Sutton Hoo mystery by analyzing artifacts to guess who might have been buried there. Plus, we wrapped up Bikeability with every student earning their Level 2 certificate—well done, everyone!
Have a great half-term break, Red Kites!
Red Kites Class Update: 18th October 2024
This week, we’ve been busy exploring a wide range of subjects!
In Science, we continued developing our understanding of water resistance by using junk modelling to create boats. It’s been fascinating to see how different designs affect the movement of the boats through water.
Our History lessons took an exciting turn with an Anglo-Saxon courtroom drama, where we explored crime and punishment in this ancient society.
In English, we've been writing our 'overcoming a monster' stories, crafting narratives full of creativity and courage. Meanwhile, in Maths, we’ve been using inverse calculations to check our answers and are now tackling more complex multi-step problems.
Finally, in PE, we’ve been finalising our gymnastics cannons, getting ready to display our hard work to each other at the end of the term.
Assembly, art and boat making
Red Kites Class Update: 11th October 2024
This week has been filled with exciting learning across all our subjects!
In Maths, we've been sharpening our mental maths strategies, helping us to tackle problems more efficiently. In English, we've focused on honing our inferring skills, becoming detectives in reading comprehension.
Science saw us diving into the fascinating topic of water resistance, where we started our investigations into how objects move through water. In Computing, we've been learning all about websites, and in Music, we're making great progress with our ukulele lessons, learning new chords.
Our Geography lessons took us back in time as we explored Anglo-Saxon place names, discovering the origins of familiar locations. We’ve also been working hard on our performance of the autumn poem, and it’s came together beautifully!
A big thank you to the PTA for subsidising our upcoming trip to the Chiltern Open Air Museum. We’re all very excited!
Lastly, as part of our ongoing Science investigations into water resistance, we will be using our junk modelling skills next Friday. Please set aside any useful recyclables over the coming week and bring them in to support our experiments.
We loved seeing Fig in the Nest today.
Week 4
This week, in addition to our regular timetable, Red Kites had an exciting time participating in Languages Day on Wednesday! The children explored a variety of languages, including Japanese, Filipino, and Ukrainian, and enjoyed learning about different cultures.
In English, we have been working on developing our understanding of expanded noun phrases and exploring different word classes. In maths, the focus has been on investigating and working with numbers up to one million, helping the children strengthen their number sense and understanding of place value.
Our geography lessons have taken us back in time as we studied Anglo-Saxon settlements, and in computing, the children have been refining their skills by learning how to improve their internet searches.
The coming week's Spelling Shed homework is now available, words ending '_tial'. The expectation is that this is completed by Thursday evening each week.
It has been a productive and engaging week, and we are looking forward to continuing our learning journey!
Week 3
This week we have been developing our understanding of place value and powers of 10. In science we investigated gravity and how objects impacts differ depending on the size and shape of the object. We have been exploring how systems work both involving humans and digital systems in computing, and looking at similarities and differences between growing up in different religions in R.E.
Maths, Science and P.E.
Fantastic netball skills Red Kites this week! The children learned how to stop on two feet or one foot at speed and how this helps with the rule of not moving with the ball. They also practised the shoulder pass and chest pass and put it into practise in a game situation too~well done!
Week 2
This week the children have been working with Miss Sharman on arithmetic and strengthening their number bonds as well as looking at place value to 100,000. We have started our exploration into forces in science as well as creating dragon eyes in Art.
All the children now have their logins for Atom Learning and Spelling Shed to allow home learining to take place.