National Space Centre - Trip

Year 5 are really excited about their trip to the National Space Centre in Leiciester next term, a visit they are making because of their upcoming Earth, Sun and Moon science topic. Children will have the opportunity to climb inside and explore a real rocket, learn all about the planets of our Solar System in the Centre’s Planetarium and discover lots of interesting facts about the universe.

Our trip to the National Space Centre will take place on Wednesday 19^th June, leaving school just after 9am and returning before 3:20pm. Children will require a packed lunch, should wear school uniform including appropriate footwear and are allowed to bring a maximum of £5 spending money to be spent in the National Space Centre’s gift shop.

The total cost of this trip will be £7, payable either in full or in instalments over the next seven weeks leading up to the trip. We would like to point out that the trip should have cost in excess of £10. However, your children have been working hard to balance a class budget across the course of the year as part of a whole school initiative, and have decided to spend the £90[!] that each class saved on subsidising this trip, lowering the overall cost for parents and carers.

We think that this is a fantastic opportunity that will extend and supplement the children’s scientific learning during the next half-term, and we hope that all children are able to attend.

Homework Project - Timelines

Our History topic in Year 5 this term is "The World since World War II", and the children will be looking at each decade since 1945 in-depth on a weekly basis. This topic will encompass things such as music, world events, politics and the way in which society has changed over the last sixty years.

We would like the children to research and find out how their families have grown and changed over the last sixty years. They can do this by talking to members of their family and putting together a family tree or time-line that details major events that have happened over the last six decades. These should be things that have been important to the 'life' of the family, such as births and marriages, but can also include fun pieces of information that the children do not already know - maybe they could find out about Mum and Dad's first date, or something funny that happened before they were born...?

The children can present their findings in whatever way they like... but here are some suggestions:

• A labelled time-line or family tree; include photographs!
• A PowerPoint presentation, from 1945 up to the Present Day
• A show-and-tell family history - bring in special things from home
• Draw and annotate a series of pictures showing memorable moments in your family's 'life story'

We look forward to finding out even more about the family life of the children in Year 5, but don't worry - we don't expect people to share anything too private!

Summer Term - New Opportunities

Welcome back to Year 5! We have an exciting term ahead, and two fantastic new opportunities have already been made available to the children...

Every Monday afternoon for this half-term, all of Year 5 are taking part in the Eduskate programme at the National Ice Arena. Our children get the opportunity to ice-skate with qualified and professional instructors for 45 minutes - some of these instructors have even skated at the Winter Olympics! The children can work towards their level 1 or 2 certificates in ice-skating, and are already having tremendous fun - they seem to especially like it when Mr. Shadbolt or Mrs. Nicholson fall over on the ice. As well as ice-skating, they also take part in other lessons which are linked to winter sports and the running of the ice arena.

Every Tuesday afternoon for this half-term, all of Year 5 are also taking part in the E-Racism project that has been ran in school over the last few years. This programme of study is designed to inform the children about different forms of racism, the effects that it can have on individuals and what we can do as a society to try and limit the incidences of racism that occur in the world. The programme is being led by Mr. Hussain, a well-respected employee of the city council who has over fifteen years experience in teaching this area of the curriculum. We are very lucky to have such as informative and interesting tutor who can deal with such an emotional topic in a calm and considered way.

There will be a E-Racism graduation later in the term that parents and carers will be invited to, and more information about this will be sent home nearer the time.