Year 5 had a fantastic day visiting Malham Cove, bringing their geography learning to life by exploring the source of the River Aire. As part of their rivers topic, pupils followed the river’s journey from Malham Tarn, observing features like limestone pavements, dry valleys, and resurgence points. Seeing the landscape up close helped deepen their understanding of erosion and how rivers shape the land. The children showed real curiosity, asked thoughtful questions and completed brilliant field sketches. Their behaviour was truly outstanding — respectful, enthusiastic, and supportive of one another, especially when tackling rocky paths and stepping stones! It was wonderful to hear the children making connections between what they had studied in class and what they could see in the natural environment. The stunning views, fresh air, and sense of adventure made this a truly memorable trip. A huge thank you to the staff and volunteers who supported us, and a big well done to Year 5 for representing the school so positively. We’re proud of their learning and their brilliant attitude — a day to remember!

Following cycling training for some of our Year 5 in Summer 1, it was the remaining children’s chance to dust off their cycling skills and learn with specialist cycling instructors! The children thoroughly enjoyed.

Year 5 recently took on an exciting writing challenge, using visual prompts to inspire their own creative stories and apply the literary techniques they’ve been learning this year. One of the images showed a futuristic sci-fi city, sparking imaginative tales filled with vivid descriptions, powerful verbs, and action-packed plot twists. Pupils cleverly used expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, and direct speech to bring their stories to life, creating immersive worlds and heroic characters. The second image transported them deep into a mysterious jungle setting, where they focused on building suspense and tension. Writers experimented with sentence structure, sensory detail, and dramatic cliff hangers to grip their readers and create a sense of danger and excitement. It was wonderful to see how confidently they used their Year 5 literacy tools, and the quality of the writing was outstanding. Their creativity, focus, and flair truly shone through in every piece!

During Refugee Week, pupils across the school explored themes of home, belonging, and hope, taking inspiration from the powerful poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah. After reading and discussing his work, the children wrote their own thoughtful and heartfelt poems, reflecting on the experiences of refugees with empathy and imagination. Each class then created unique pieces of artwork to accompany their writing — from bold mixed media collages to gentle watercolours — with every display capturing a different perspective. The children carefully wrote their poems onto their artwork, creating moving and meaningful pieces. These were proudly showcased in the Dance Studio, which was transformed into a reflective gallery space. Throughout the week, pupils from different year groups were invited to drop in, read the poems, and take in the artwork. It was a truly special way to mark Refugee Week and celebrate the power of words and creativity.

Our Year 5 children have amazed us with their incredible portal stories, writing shared writing about the magical world of Shakespeare leading onto their hot writing about the mysteries of Ancient Egypt. After exploring Shakespeare’s plays together, they created their own stories where characters travelled through time using unique and carefully described portal keys. From shimmering scarab brooches to ancient scrolls hidden in dusty books, each child zoomed in on their object with brilliant detail, using powerful language to bring their ideas to life. The writing was a joy to read and celebrate—full of imagination, creativity, and high-quality work we’re all proud of!

This week, the children brought their learning to life with some amazing outdoor chalk art, all inspired by our topic this term — Ancient Egypt!

Using bright chalks and lots of imagination, the children created eye-catching drawings of sarcophagi and pharaoh masks on the playground. They worked in teams to add details like headdresses, jewellery, and hieroglyphics, showing just how much they’ve learned about Egyptian culture and symbolism.

It was a fun and creative way to explore the topic further, and the final artwork looked fantastic under the spring sunshine. Take a look at the picture below to see their brilliant efforts — a real showcase of history and creativity combined!

This week, our class had an incredible experience as we went on a virtual reality journey to Ancient Egypt with David as our guide! Using VR headsets, the children were able to explore the great pyramids up close and even venture inside a tomb — all without leaving the classroom.

The students were amazed by the towering structures and intricate hieroglyphics on the tomb walls. They learned fascinating facts about Egyptian history, architecture, and the lives of the people who lived thousands of years ago.

It was a truly immersive and exciting way to bring history to life. A huge thank you to David for guiding us on this unforgettable adventure!

On Wednesday, our STEM partners came into school to help us understand the SuDS systems that Yorkshire Water have installed. (STEM is Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics)

SuDS stands for Sustainable Drainage Systems.They slow down the flow of rain water into the drainage systems helping to prevent the drains being overwhelmed during very heavy rain events.

Our STEM partners from COWI were Oriana, Bhawna, Michaela and Mark. After introducing themselves and explaining a little bit about their roles they explained how SuDS worked and were needed to help manage water in a world of Climate Change.

We then took part in an activity to explore how different materials slow down the rate of flow of water. This video explains how:

And here are some photos of the workshop:

A huge thank you to our STEM partners for giving up their time to come and share with us.

Today, some of our Y5s attended a Drama workshop with the actors from the theatre company ‘Wrongsemble’. They are a Leeds-based company and offered us a session to explore and consolidate Macbeth. It was wonderful timing, given our performances are next week and the children loved it. The teachers also commented on how brilliant the actors were and how enthused our pupils were. We will definitely be exploring using Wrongsemble again in the future for workshops and performances in school!

Wow! What an exciting day to be in Year 5. We have been working non-stop to make our Macbeth amazing; full of our ideas and creativity. We were so thrilled with welcome Nick, an actor who has performed at the Globe in London. He helped up with tweaks, tips and exciting additions for our performance. Nick was super impressed!