Quarry Hill Academy
5LP
Week commencing 23rd June 2025!
This week, we started watching the short film Alma and used it to describe the creepy toyshop setting — both the snowy, silent streets outside and the eerie, dusty shelves inside.
In Science, we experimented with parachutes made from different sized bin bags and wool. We tested how surface area affects air resistance and were surprised by some of the results!
Friday was PJ Day! We explored different things we can read at home (that aren’t books) and ended the day with a fun reading swap with Year 3. An amazing week in Year 5, well done everyone! 😊
Week commencing 19th May 2025!
This week, we set sail into the world of Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. Inspired by the story, we put our imaginations to the test and wrote our very own desert island adventures. From daring rescues to mysterious islands and unexpected friendships, each story was bursting with life, creativity, and detail. We were so proud of the amazing ideas and writing everyone produced!
To celebrate finishing our guided reading unit, we had a special treat – we watched the film adaptation of Kensuke’s Kingdom! It was wonderful to see the characters and island come to life on screen, and it sparked some great discussions about how the film compared to the book.
In History, we’ve been asking a big question: Were the Vikings the most successful warriors? The children did an excellent job comparing them to the Romans and Anglo-Saxons, using their prior knowledge to weigh up the strengths and strategies of each group. There were some brilliant debates and thoughtful conclusions shared!
As we head into half term, we’d like to wish all our families a restful and enjoyable break. We’re looking forward to an exciting final half term together as we wrap up an incredible Year 5 journey!
See you soon!
Week commencing 12th May 2025!
What a fantastic week we've had in Year 5!
In Science, we got our hands dirty and became young gardeners as we explored how to propagate plants. We focused on spring onions and followed each step carefully—cutting, planting, and placing them in water to watch them grow. It was exciting to learn how plants can grow from parts of themselves! Now we’re getting ready to write our very own Gardener’s Guide to Propagation next week. We’re sure it’ll be full of expert tips thanks to our new plant knowledge!
Then on Friday, we travelled back in time to 1945 as we celebrated VE Day (Victory in Europe Day). We had a wonderful time taking part in lots of fun activities. We decorated delicious VE Day biscuits, watched Winston Churchill’s famous speech, and had a joyful VE Day picnic on the pitch, joined by members of the Royal British Legion. It was great to remember such an important part of history while having fun with our friends.
Week commencing 5th May 2025!
What an exciting week we've had in Year 5 – it was full of adventure, learning, and a bit of Viking fierceness!
On Friday, we had our Viking Enrichment Day, and it truly felt like we’d travelled back in time! We kicked off the day by learning how to decipher Viking runes. It was like cracking a secret code! After practising with the rune alphabet, we even created our own secret messages for our partners to decode.
Next, it was time to test our strength and bravery, just like real Viking warriors. We filled up longboats with supplies as quickly as possible, making sure we were ready for an invasion. Then came target practice, where we trained our aim to make sure we’d be able to defend our crew in battle. We definitely have some fierce Vikings in our class!
One of the highlights of the day was building our very own Viking longships. Using our creativity and teamwork, we designed and built some fantastic models. Each one looked ready to sail the seas, with dragon heads, shields along the sides, and sails blowing in the wind.
Week commencing 24th March 2025!
Another amazing week in Year 5. We were stepping into the future, discussing about what jobs we want in the future, and the possible routes in order to achieve these. We participated in job interviews, where peers asked relevant questions based on the requirements of the jobs. Also, we learnt about how climate change affects animals in different parts of the world, including orangutans and deforestation, turtles and coral bleaching. This was completed by a ‘Match Mine’, allowing children to explore using the atlases and find where in the world they are affected. Well done, Year 5 😊
Week beginning 17th March 2025
This week in 5LP was very exciting: we had our enrichment day on Friday, which was all about climate change. We took part in junk modelling, where we recycled something old, and made something new. We also took part in some gardening, playing a role in making our school ground green, clean and safe.
Also, in English, we wrote a non-chronological report about the magical world of Pandora. We wrote all about the animals, location and the fantastic Na'vi, we had a lot of fun immersing ourselves into the world on Avatar.
Week commencing 3rd March 2025!
An eventful week in Year 5! Friday was World Book Day for QHA and all the children made a big effort in dressing up as their favourite book character, everyone looked fantastic! In addition, in English, we wrote our own war poems which were fantastic, and were so amazing, that we are creating them into a Year 5 War Poetry Book. Well done, everyone for working so hard this week.
Week commencing 24th February 2025!
Welcome back Year 5! We had a very busy week this week, we started our new English topic, ‘War Poetry’, where we looked at the people affected by the war, the soldiers who fought for our country and started brainstorming our ideas for our own piece of war poetry. Also, in Science, we are looking at life cycles of animals, and learnt about the different life expectancy and gestation periods of animals!
Week commencing 10th February 2025!
We had a great final week this week in Year 5! On Tuesday, we were lucky enough to be invited to watch ‘Sister Act’ by Grays Convent. The performance was fantastic, we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We also were able to watch the film of our Guided Reading book, ‘War Horse’, allowing the characters from 6 weeks of reading to become visual. Finally, the 2 Johns hosted an online e-safety workshop, about how to stay safe online and how to use the internet responsibly.
Week commencing 3rd February 2025!
In English this week, we started our final topic of the term, War Horse, based on our Guided Reading book. We wrote letters in the perspective of Ted Narracott, using emotive language to convey a sincere apology to his son, Albert, about the way he treated him. Additionally, in History, we learnt about the Roman gladiators, who were the types of people who became gladiators, why they became them and what their lives looked like.
Week commencing 27th January 2025!
Another amazing week in Year 5. We had our trip to Colchester Castle on Thursday, where we were able to learn more about the Romans and Boudicca, alongside our topic in History this half term. We were able to go underneath the castle to see remains that were built nearly 2000 years ago.
Also, we have been writing our own version of the Three Witches poem from Macbeth and we performed these with the other schools in our trust. How fantastic!
Week commencing 20th January 2025!
What a busy week in Year 5. In English, we started the story of Macbeth, and wrote a monologue about whether Macbeth should or should not overthrow King Duncan, including some Shakespearean language. Also, on Friday, we had World Culture Day. We took part in the traditional dance of India, made our own origami lotus flowers, and even tried some traditional jollof rice! It was fantastic.
Week commencing 13th January 2025!
This week in Maths, we have been looking at shapes and angles. We started off with using our skills to estimate the size of acute, obtuse and reflex angles. Then, we moved onto using a protractor to gain an accurate answer, and did such a great job of picking up the skill so quickly, well done!
We also had our English live lesson, whereby parents came and joined us whilst we wrote about the story of the Titanium music video!
Week commencing 6th January 2025!
Welcome back year 5, we hope you are all relaxed ready for Spring term! In English this week, we have based our learning around the music video of the song ‘Titanium’, written some dialogue between the teacher and the police officer and immersed ourselves into the perspective of the boy with supernatural powers!
Also, in History, our new topic is the Romans. We have looked at some Roman artefacts and discussed why the Romans wanted to invade Britain. Well done Year 5 for a fantastic first week of 2025!
Week commencing 16th December 2024!
We have had an enjoyable week in Year 5, with a range of exciting activities. We had our class disco on Wednesday, where children were dancing along to some of their favourite Christmas songs in their festive outfits. Santa Dash was on Thursday, with so many children running for charity, which was incredible. Many won fantastic prizes at the raffle, and they had a ton of fun at their Christmas Party. We hope all children have a lovely holiday with their loved ones, relax and be ready for an amazing first day back in 2025.
Week commencing 9th December 2024!
Another busy week in 5LP. We had Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Dinner on Wednesday, which all children really enjoyed. We also, on Friday, walked to the nearby church, where we sung some classic Christmas carols and had some fantastic readings from some of the children.
Looking forward to our last week, filled with many exciting events!
Week commencing 2nd December 2024!
We have had a great week in 5LP. In English, we wrote a letter in the perspective of the Alchemist, to his son, apologising for all the regretful choices he made when Veridian was a young boy. They were fantastic!
Also, in Art, we started creating our own surrealist painting, we are looking forward to seeing how they turn out.
Week commencing 25th November 2024!
This week in 5LP, we have been learning about ‘The Alchemist’s Letter’. We have written a recount of events in the perspective of the alchemist, rehashing all the different emotions he must have felt throughout his journey to success. Additionally, in Geography, we wrote a non-chronological report about the Rocky Mountains which run through 8 states in North America, all of them were fantastic!
Week commencing 18th November 2024!
A very exciting week for Year 5. We had a visit for Urban Strides, where they had a street dance class from one of the dancers. They all had such a great time, learning a new skill. We also had our America Enrichment Day. In groups, children created some of the most famous landmarks in North America, out of cardboard and recycled materials. They looked absolutely amazing. We also made some delicious American-style pancakes with maple syrup. Yum!
Week commencing 11th November 2024!
This week, we created our own legends, based on the story of Robin Hood. Children put themselves into the perspectives of their legend and wrote some fantastic narratives. Well done! In Art, we have been learning about surrealist art and focused on recreating one part of the ‘Persistence of Memory’ by Dali using our shading skills.
Week commencing 4th November 2024!
Welcome back, Year 5. We got stuck straight in this week with learning all about America. In Geography, we learnt about different countries in North America, where these are in relation to the Equator and the different states in the USA. Also, in English, we learnt the story of Robin Hood and wrote a diary entry from the perspective of a poor person receiving stolen money from the rich, and their thoughts and feelings towards this, looking at the positives and negatives.
Week commencing 14th October 2024!
In English this week, we emersed ourselves in the picture book ‘Island’. We wrote a narrative, using dialogue and extended speech tags to create a story from pictures.
Also, In PSHE we learnt about what it is to be a good friend, and how to be kind and respectful.
Week commencing 7th October 2024!
This week in 5LP, we were looking at The British Empire as part of our history topic. We discussed the pros and cons of the empire and wrote a balanced debate into our books.
In music we have been working with glockenspiels, learning the notes of G, A and B to play the song ‘Living on a Prayer’!
Week commencing 30th September 2024!
Our topic in History this half term is ‘The British Royal Family’, and we have been learning all about Queen Anne and Queen Victoria. This week, we wrote a piece of work comparing the two monarchs and their reigns.
Also, in Science, we created the moon phases using oreos. Check out our work!
Week commencing 23rd September 2024!
In our English this week, we have written some amazing character and setting descriptions based on the Dementor. Some of the children had previously watched, so the engagement and excitement to write about this character was so inspiring!
Week commencing 16th September 2024!
We have been busy this week in 5LP, putting ourselves in the shoes of the characters in our guided reading book, ‘There’s a boy in the girls’ bathroom’, by writing a diary entry about Bradley’s first interaction with Carla and Jeff’s first day at school.
Also, in maths, we have been looking at addition, using written formal methods, mental strategies and rounding to determine and check accuracy and I was so impressed by their knowledge. Well done, 5LP!
Week commencing 9th September 2024!
This week in 5LP we have travelled back in time to learn all about previous royal families as part of our work on the British Royal Family. We looked at the life of King John and decided our views on whether or not the Magna Carta should have been signed. See below for our ideas!
Week commencing 2nd September 2024!
5LP have had a wonderful first week back, they have all settled and have got stuck in with all the new learning! Our topic in Science this half term is ‘Earth and Space’, and all the children have impressed us with their research skills of the planets in our solar system, learning all the features of rocky and gassy planets.