Y5/6 Visitor: Rt Hon Ed Miliband

On Friday morning, Years Five and Six were visited by Doncaster North’s MP, Ed Miliband. Following their learning about the civil rights movement, gender inequality and wealth inequality, the children had the chance to ask their local MP questions about his career and learn about his role in government. The children prepared questions and asked about his success and challenges; his ideas for how to help Doncaster and the country; his priorities as per his role in the current government cabinet.

Mr Miliband also took the time to learn about the children’s current expedition with Y5/6 reeling off their favourite facts from ‘Fights for your Rights’. Thank you to Ed for taking the time out of his busy diary to visit us!

Yr 5 take on the HAKA

Over the past 6 weeks, 5HJ have learnt how to perform the Maori people of New Zealand’s tradition dance The Haka which demonstrates pride, strength and unity. All children worked in small groups and preformed their own interpretation which was performed to a small audience.

Celebrating Rosa Parks

On Tuesday 5th February, Year 5 and 6 celebrated the life of Rosa Parks – a pivotal civil rights activist – who has been a huge part of our learning in our current expedition “Fight For Your Rights”. The children spent the day writing and performing their own songs about her life, creating protest posters and finally holding a March around school.

Suffragists Vs. Suffragettes

In our history case study, year 5 have been learning about how life was different in the past, particularly for women. In an activity this morning, the children were given nine issues and were asked to organise these ins. Diamond nine with the worst issue for women being placed at the top. There were a variety of diamond nine formations as a result of plenty of group discussion. After engaging with these past societal rules, 5CC empathised with women from the 1800s, agreeing that women would probably be left feeling powerless, controlled and hopeless.
After this introduction, the class began learning about the two factions which sought to empower women by winning the right to vote: the Suffragists and the Suffragettes!

ROSA PARKS DAY

On the 5th February, Years 5 and 6 celebrated Rosa Parks day, named after the iconic figure who is seen as the mother of the civil rights movement. Rosa has been a one of the key figures in our learning this term and marked the beginning of our history case study where the children learned about the civil rights movement. To mark her action, the children created protest posters, a protest chant and created their own songs fit for a protest.

Super Swimmers

Yesterday, I had the privilege of taking a team of swimmers to a Legacy Sport competition at Askern Leisure Centre. Our children were amazing, bringing home a range of gold, silver and bronze medals in breast stroke, front crawl and back stroke. The team spirt and support for each other was what makes our children so special. A huge well done to all involved!

Sea Shanty Special!

In music this term, Year 5 have been studying sea shanties where they have explored their origin, purpose and how to perform them effectively. After learning about their history, the class analysed recorded performances of well-known shanties and critique the performances. This subsequently allowed them to think how they would perform their own shanty with the class coming together to deliver their own spin of ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

Main or subordinate? You decide.

In Friday’s SPAG session, Year 5 learned to identify main clauses and subordinate clauses. After finding and classifying clauses around the room, the class used causes to make sentences before creating their own based on our expedition. With our howls target focusing on resilience and independence, each individual worked exceptionally hard and grasped the learning well. Great work, 5CC!

Reading Gym

Over the past few weeks, 5HJ have worked hard to develop reading fluency and prosody. This week, we have learnt about the differences between the suffragists and suffragettes, completing ‘reading gym’ sessions where the children read quietly to themselves for a given length of time. This has really helped develop our stamina for reading.

Light and Shadows

5HJ we’re fully immersed in their learning during hook week focussing on investigating how light travels in straight lines. The children used torches and a range of objects from string to mirrors to investigate explain that objects are seen because they give our or reflect light into the eye.