Year 5 & 6 Spring Newsletter

Welcome back!

We hope you have had a fun festive break and have also managed to get some rest! Thank you so much for the lovely Christmas gifts, thoughtful cards, and warm wishes we all received. 

A huge thank you to all our helpers who helped us to walk with us to Hazel Grove Baptist Church and Norbury Church during the last few weeks of the Autumn Term. We really appreciate your support and these events couldn’t happen without your help.

Are You Ready to Travel The World?
Last year, we had a great start to the academic year and saw the children thrive, whilst building their scientific knowledge. This term our whole school Quest focus will be linked to our history and geography objectives.

On the first day back we held a whole school assembly to introduce the new quest – Are You Ready to Travel The World? We were presented with different items of luggage containing clues as to our chosen destinations and people.

In Year 5, the children will start their career as travel agents by voyaging all the way to South America, specifically Manaus, a city in Brazil, which is right in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. We will be discovering key information about the River Amazon, the journey it takes and which countries it flows through as well as comparing this river with the largest river in Europe, the Volga and our local river, the River Mersey. We will be exploring similarities and differences between human and physical features in Manaus and Stockport as well as looking at the history of Stockport and how transport has evolved over time.

In Year 6, the children will begin their journey in Africa, where they will be enlisted as a slave. We will then travel to travelling to the Caribbean to work on a cotton farm.  After that, we will travel from the cotton farm to the UK to look at how the cotton was turned into thread and how children were used a labour; discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this. At this point we will visit Helmshore Mill in Lancashire to experience what life was like for children working in the mills and why the geography of the location helped the mill. Finally, we dive into the inspiring history of the Suffragettes, exploring their courageous "Deeds not Words" campaign and the pivotal role they played in securing the right to vote for women. This topic allows us to examine the struggle for equality, the difference between the peaceful Suffragists and the militant Suffragettes, and how these historic figures shaped the democratic society we live in today.
 
OPAL Bingo

The OPAL project is starting to take shape. The Working Party has met with our school mentor three times across this term.  We plan to introduce new areas for play after the February half term holiday.  Mrs Adnett and Miss Garrett have written to you to explain some next steps including a bingo style collection event after Christmas and a working party day where we would appreciate parental help to help us get organised for our February launch. 
​
The working party team day is Friday 23rd January, where we would appreciate any volunteers to offer help to come into school to build and prepare items for the project. The date for any donated items to be brought into school is Wednesday 28th January. Thank you again for your continued support.

P.E Spring 1

In Year 5, Miss Manfredi’s class will start their swimming lessons on a Friday Morning, whilst the other class do Gymnastics.  On Thursdays, both classes will do basketball outside.  
In Year 6, we are very fortunate to be working with Stockport County on Monday afternoons. On Fridays, both classes will do hockey outside.

Home Learning

New home learning grids will be given out the first week back and the children will continue to receive weekly maths activities. If there is something more specific you would like your child to work on at home, please get in touch with your child’s teacher and we can arrange this for you.

Thank you as always for your continued support.
 
Best wishes, 
The Year 5 and 6 Team