View

Spotlight on: Year 5 & Year 6

Spotlight on: Year 5 & Year 6

Our Year 5 and Year 6 teachers on their year group's activities this term

Year 5 – Miss Agata Wygnanska and Miss Edie Stewart

Year 5 has had a busy couple of weeks, shooting off to the stars and exploring space! The girls have been discovering more about the history of space exploration and have participated in some explorations themselves.

To introduce the space topic, the girls created a scale model of the Solar System out on Coe Fen. Everyone was a little shocked to discover how small many of the planets are in comparison to the sun, and how far away the gas giants are from Earth.

The girls were then excited to visit to the Institute of Astronomy, where they discovered some amazing developments in technology that have allowed us to see and study space in more detail than ever before.

At the National Space Centre later in the term, the girls took on the challenge of sending a probe to a passing comet and, in the process, learnt about the importance of team work when they had to collaborate with colleagues travelling in thousands of miles away in space.

Alongside space exploration, Year 5 also fell down the rabbit hole into ‘Wonderland’ this term. The girls have been learning about forced perspective in their Art lessons and using iPads to create photographs that showed Alice changing size in Wonderland.
 

 

Year 6 – Mrs Sarah Cliff, Ms Jane Freebairn and Mrs Susan Mackay

The girls have thoroughly enjoyed having Mrs Tessa Shercliff, STEM co-ordinator, visit on Wednesday and Friday afternoons this term to teach them more about STEM. The focal point has been designing and building bridges. The initial lesson started with the girls looking at and identifying various bridges around the globe, and thinking about what they are made of and how they are structured. Of course, the Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge is always one to inspire great discussions. The girls had a go at creating their own structures made from paper and these can currently be seen in the Year 6 classrooms for those who want to view the fantastic results.

The girls split into different teams and got to work with hacksaws, rulers, pencils and drills etc. They spent time working together in groups to create their bridges with specific measurements and the end results are looking superb. What is most astonishing is that, with the same dimensions to hand, the end products are all quite different. The task has allowed us to observe how well the girls are collaborating and to keep track of how they are using the knowledge they have learnt in practice in their designs.

This half term the girls have been looking at the Belgian artist, Magritte and it has been delightful to see them use their artistic insights to create their own paintings in his style. The girls’ Art lessons provide an opportunity for them to be thoughtful and allow them to take their time and really analyse the drawings they look at.

From fractions to percentages, area to perimeter, the girls are definitely tackling Mathematics head on.  The class has also been using computers to reinforce learning, which has been very interactive. In addition, the girls have been involved in superb mathematical discussions, using their prior knowledge to discuss and solve more challenging problems.  

As many of our pupils’ parents will already be aware, Computer Science lessons are taught by Mr Andrew Severy and there is, without doubt, a buzz from the classrooms when these lessons are taking place. Recently, the girls have been working with Excel and learning about the functions of the programme. In addition to their taught lessons, some of the Year 6 girls travelled to Ipswich to participate in the annual RoboCup robotics competition and, once again, all teams performed to a very high standard.  

As this first term comes to an end, we are excited to work with the girls during the rest of their time at the Junior School and we look forward to preparing them for their transition to Senior School.