Our Learning

Welcome to Year 5 – a year full of exciting challenges where we face more complex concepts in preparation for our final year in primary school and begin to look towards secondary school.

We start the autumn term with one of the most incredible topics ever – the Victorians! We imagine what life would have been like in the dreaded workhouses. We discover the bizarre and often disgusting jobs children were expected to carry out and learn all about Queen Victoria and her reign. This term, we visit the Ragged School Museum where we are transformed into Victorian school children and meet a slightly terrifying school mistress! We absolutely love sharing our fantastic learning journey – performing our class assembly all about the Victorians – something we are very proud of! As scientists, we learn all about the Sun, Earth and Moon. We discover why we have 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year and why we experience four seasons. We investigate why it appears that the sun moves across the sky. We love exploring some fascinating aspects of our solar system, including all the planets.

During the spring term, we become experts on one of the most fascinating civilizations – Ancient Greece. We learn all about ancient Greeks and how this civilisation still has an impact on our society today. We learn about the ancient Greek gods and goddesses, the foundation of democracy as well as the Olympic Games. We absolutely love reading and discussing a collection of Greek myths as well as creating our own mythological narratives. In Art, we use colour washes, layering techniques and pattern making to design our own Greek urns.  Visiting Into University, where we discover what it is like to be a university student, is another exciting learning experience. As scientists, we focus on ancient Greek inventions and discoveries, especially in the areas of astronomy, geography, and mathematics. We are amazed to find out that – even after 3,000 years – we are still using a lot of ancient Greek ideas in maths, science and art!

Summer term takes us as far as the Arctic and the Antarctic! In our Geography lessons, we learn about the similarities and differences between the North and South Poles and we discover how polar bears and penguins have adapted to living in these harsh conditions. We research some famous Antarctic explorers, including Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and we investigate the role today`s scientists play in the polar desert. Inspired by David Attenborough`s Frozen Planet documentary, we bring the Antarctic landscape to life with the power of our pens, writing beautiful descriptions of this remarkable biome. We have a fantastic time designing and building our own volcanoes, not to mention the spectacular eruptions that follow!

Year 5 is an incredibly important year. It is a special time when we grow in maturity. We gain a greater independence and confidence from being given more responsibility in our learning. At Springfield, we believe that the ‘growth mindset’ is absolutely vital to enable us to achieve success. We recognise that hard work and effort are the real key to success. Mistakes provide opportunities to learn and move forward and we are keen to embrace difficulties and challenges in our learning to develop a resilience that will result in success.

See how the curriculum is mapped at Springfield, follow the Topic Overview:

• Year 5 – Topic Yearly Overview