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!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our letter writing unit around the correspondence between Macbeth’s character. The children’s shared writes were bursting with creativity and they felt proud sharing their work with their CUPS editing partner, when adding the finishing touches.

As part of a lengthy and enjoyable process, we finally got to the stage where we could paint our silk templates of our Antarctic inspired designs!

Year 5 has been buzzing with excitement this week! The children have thoroughly enjoyed their Macbeth rehearsals, immersing themselves in the drama and energy of Shakespeare’s classic play. It’s been wonderful to see their creativity and enthusiasm shine on stage. In Computing, we had our first lesson using Micro:bits, and it was a hit! The children learned how to code their Micro:bits to display icons and learned to include use of the buttons to instruct their minicomputer. It was fantastic to see their problem-solving skills in action as they explored the possibilities of coding. It’s been a week full of creativity and hands-on learning.