Year 5

In our Summer 2 half term, Year 5 have explored their local heritage through our Yorkshire coal mining topic. We explored the cultural and national changes that have occurred since the beginning of the 19th Century, investigating what life used to be like for the children of the lower class families.

We have explored some of the most significant changes to the coal mining industry, such as the 1842 Mines and Collieries Act which prohibited all women and girls and boys under the age of ten from working underground. We also discovered that this led to an increase in the number of pit ponies that worked in the mines too!

Finally, we explored how the north of England was affected by the closing of over twenty mines and collieries, resulting in national strike action and the long-term impacts this set.

This has been an extremely exciting topic to study and I have been blown away by your fantastic knowledge. Keep up the good work!

To celebrate British Science Week 2024, St. Anthony's held our own Inspirational Science Week for each of our pupils. We were visited by many exciting guests and workshops!

On Monday, we were visited by Science Boffins, who showed us a Fabulous Flames workshop where we took part in fiery science practicals and formed a human circuit!

On Tuesday: Aqualease Rockpools visited our school with two workshops. We had the opportunity to observe, hold and pet some aquatic creatures such as starfish, crabs, anemone and many more, linking facts about these creatures to our Science topics. Did you know that some starfish are able to reproduce asexually?

On Wednesday, we were visited by our partnership schools, St. Joseph's Hunslet and St. Francis Morley, and took part in a fascinating investigation where we took cuttings from a parent plant in an attempt to clone it. Check back each week for updates on how are plants are (hopefully) growing!

On Thursday, we began our new chemistry topic: reversible and irreversible changes. We began by describing the changes that happen to soluble solids, such as sugar and salt, when they are stirred in a liquid. These solids dissolve, turning the liquid into a solution.

Finally, on Friday, Years 5 and 6 created our own bath fizzies using a range of household ingredients. We explored the science behind how bath fizzies work and used our scientific vocabulary from our new topic to explain the chemical reaction that occurs when an acid and an alkali react with each other!

What a fantastic week of inspirational learning - we hope you have all been fascinated by what you have seen this week!

In Science this week, we have used all the knowledge we have acquired about how plants reproduce to plan and conduct an investigation exploring the cloning of flowering plants.

Usually, flowering plants reproduce via sexual reproduction (pollination). However, by taking careful cuttings from the flowering plants and dipping them in a rooting powder, we should be able to stimulate new root growth and clone the parent plant to form identical offspring. This is a form of asexual reproduction as only one parent plant is involved.

We will measure each of our new plants to determine which type of plant cutting produces the tallest plant - check back each week for updates as we continue to monitor the growth of our plants.

On Friday the 17^th of May, Year 5 performed our Pentecost class assembly. Over the half term, we explore some of the most significant events in the Christian faith, such as Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost. The children acted brilliantly and choreographed and performed some of their new favourite songs - we hope you enjoyed watching our performance as much as we did performing it!

Over Spring 2, Year 5 have been learning about the Ancient Greeks - their history, their culture and their legacy. As part of this, we have investigated their plays, which were often inspired by Ancient Greek mythology, writing our own versions to perform for our class.

We worked in teams to bring our visions to life, re-enacting some of the most famous Greek myths, such as Theseus and the Minotaur, Perseus and Medusa and Pandora's Box.

Please have a look at our fantastic performances above!

This week, St. Anthony's celebrated world book day. Our school reading leaders visited Waterstone's to select a range of exciting books for each class to support their learning. We were very lucky to receive a detailed guide on Ancient Greece!

We then explored a range of archaic books from our literary heritage. Our class novel was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which was published almost 140 years ago! We continued our version of the famous story, created artistic masterpieces depicting our own versions of Wonderland and had a Mad Hatter's tea party!

What an exciting day, we hope you all enjoyed our celebrations!

Here are our Year 5 School Council representatives. These members have been elected by their peers, using a democratic process in line with our British Values. These children attend special meetings weekly and conduct roles around school. They represent the views of our Year 5 pupils. Congratulations on this special role during this academic year. We are very proud of you! 

In Spring 1, Year 5 celebrated the culmination of their Physics learning by celebrating our annual Space Wonder Day!

In Autumn 2, Year 5 explored the vast expanse of space and the many celestial bodies across our solar system, which was supported by our learning this half term where we studied the properties of materials. We reflected on all of our learning and designed space suits that would be appropriate for astronauts to wear in the vacuum of space.

We then practised drawing single-point perspective scenes inspired by the artwork of the renowned artist Peter Thorpe.

We had a fantastic day - it was truly out of this world!

After successfully qualifying from the South Leeds heat in October, our Y5/6 football team competed against the best teams from across the north/east/west of Leeds at the Leeds United Training Ground on Monday morning. 

The boys competed magnificently, going through to the semi finals and losing 2-0 to the eventual winners of the tournament. We are so proud of their achievements in reaching the final 4 schools from a total of over 80 schools that initially entered. 

The boys had a wonderful day which was made even sweeter when they met one or two familiar faces (Dan James, Archie Gray and Cryscensio Summerville of Leeds United took time out of their day to speak to the boys and sign shirts and memorabilia). Well done to all involved. 

This week, the Young Voices Choir visited Sheffield Arena to perform as part of a choir of over 4,000 children for the Young Voices concert. What an exciting evening! The children experienced performing in a life-size arena, to an audience of over 10,000 people! They experienced live performances of singing, music and dance performed live! There was a huge buzz and the children were absolutely awesome! Well done to our Young Voices Choir 2024!

English and History - Viking Raids and Invasions (Autumn 2)

This half term, Year 5 have been exploring the Viking age of Britain, comparing a range of sources of evidence to decide whether the Vikings came to invade or settle on British land.

Our learning journey began by using atlases to explore the lands the Vikings came from and the geographical conditions there, speculating why the Vikings may have come to settle in Britain.

We have used and analysed a range of sources to inform our research, including authentic Viking artefacts from the Barnsley Experience. It was extremely important to consider whether each source was a primary or secondary source, as well as whether each source was biased.

We ended our topic by re-enacting two of the most significant battles of the Viking age of Britain - the Battle of Stamford Bridge and the Battle of Hastings.

We then linked our Vikings knowledge from History into our English lessons where we planned, drafted and edited and published newspaper articles set in 793AD after the very first Viking raid in England. This included witty headlines, moving quotes from eyewitnesses and beautifully illustrated images and captions.

This has been an extremely exciting topic to study, which we will be sure to revisit often. Feel free to ask us any questions about the Vikings - we are sure to blow you away with our knowledge!

Robinwood Residential Experience 2023-2024 (December 2023) 

As part of our personal development curriculum, our Year 5 class took part in their three day residential experience in Wales. They participated in a range of personal challenges including the crate challenge, zip wire, pirhanna pool as well as many more. The children build resilience and were totally amazing! 

Today, we have been developing the use of dynamics in a song through listening to music, focusing on the dynamics and texture. We learnt a melodic ostinato using staff notation and performed with confidence. Year 5 really impressed Mrs Gledhill with their discussions of how the ostinato demonstrated the Starry Night images and described what it helped us to imagine. We finished by performing our ostinatos and then drawing an 'Album Cover' for what we imagined when we listened to the Soundscape. Well done Year 5!

The children learnt how to create short videos by working in pairs or small groups. They enjoyed experimenting with different camera angles - considering how different camera angles could be used for different purposes. Using a storyboard they explored a variety of filming techniques. Our storyboards described each scene, and included a script, camera angles, and filming techniques. We then used these storyboards to film the first scene of the videos.

This week, Year 5 and 6 were lucky to hear some folk music! These outstanding musicians took on a journey around the world explaining the history of folk music. We were taught about lots of different instruments, we were taught how to dance with the music as accompaniment and we were even taught how to sing some famous folk songs as a call and response. The children were outstanding and showed a real passion for a variety of music!

Year 5 have designed their stuffed toys! After conducting our research about what components a stuffed toy would need to be successful and which stitch we would need to use, we explored a range of designs. We then discussed these designs with one another to consider which design would be the most suitable. Mrs Gledhill was so impressed with how we all recognised that a blanket stitch would be a good choice for stitching in order to strengthen the edge of the material so the stuffing of the toy doesn’t come out. We labelled our designs using the key words on our Knowledge Organisers. Well done Year 5 – I can’t wait to see your designs come to life in the next phase of your learning…making!

Year 5 have had a fantastic afternoon researching the key components needed to make a successful stuffed toy. Our design brief is to make a stuffed toy for a 7 year old child who likes animals.

We considered the following questions in our research:

- How are stuffed toys made?

- How are the different pieces joined together?

- What equipment do you think you will need to make a stuffed toy?

- What appendages can you see?

Mrs Gledhill was so impressed with the facts we researched and the information we gathered. We recognised that materials need to be cut and stitched in order to make the toy. Then, they need stuffing and shaping to create the perfect shape and huggable softness. Then we considered the quality control measures which will be put in place to make sure that the toy is safe to use. Well done Year 5!

Geography and English - Save the Rainforest! (Autumn 1)

This half term, Year 5 have concluded their learning on the Amazon Rainforest by researching the threats it faces, such as deforestation. Even though we understand the dangers it poses, we investigated a range of reasons why people still support it, balancing these ideas with why people do not support deforestation. We presented our findings as a balanced argument, considering both arguments for and against the subject, before ultimately making a decision as to whether we should or should not support it.

To develop our communication and public speaking skills, we then had a class debate as to whether we should or should not support deforestation. Each pupil argued their points eloquently and with confidence - it was amazing to see how well everyone participated in the lesson and worked as a team.

Geography, English and Art - Amazon Explorers! (Autumn 1)

Across our first half term, Year 5 have thoroughly researched the Amazon Rainforest across a range of subjects. In English, we have been inspired by Deadly 60 and researched deadly animals that can be found in the Amazon Rainforest, presenting this information in the format of fact files. We have also been inspired by Henri Rousseau, a French artist who painted a series of masterpieces depicting tropical rainforests, creating collages inspired by his works with Mrs Coldman.

What an exciting topic - through independent and structured research, we have developed our knowledge of the Amazon Rainforest using a cross-curricular approach to learning. Feel free to ask us about the Amazon, we're sure to impress with our brilliant information!

As Early Reading Leader, I invited pupils in Years 4 and 5 to apply for the role of Junior Reading Leader at St Anthony's for this academic year. Each candidate filled our an application form and then completed an interview with myself. I was so blown away with the impressive candidates who all demonstrated a strong passion and love for reading, as well as excellent communication and leadership skills. 

Each of the students had unique strengths and I know that they are all ready to serve and lead others as our Junior Reading Leaders this year. Using our St Anthony's Reading Spine, along with exploring the planning of each class, our Junior Reading Leaders will be able to recommend and suggest books for each year group. These include your 'Class Favourites', 'Exciting Authors' and 'Non-Fiction Texts' for you to enjoy. You will see our Junior Reading Leaders around school with their special reading satchels. 

Each child was awarded a special certificate in Good Work Assembly in recognition for their success. 

What an exciting team we have to continue our love of reading here at St Anthony's!

Mrs Gledhill

As part of our process to appoint new Junior Reading Leaders, each applicant was invited to an interview with myself. Each child was able to confidently discuss their favourite books, authors and genres during their interview. They shared detailed descriptions of their favourite characters, settings and plot lines from a range of traditional and contemporary authors, making it clear how much they truly enjoy reading. It was wonderful to hear the recommendations each child would give to pupils within different classes, discussing key themes and challenging concepts. Their enthusiasm for reading was contagious and I am so excited to see this group in action around school!

Well done to all!

Mrs Gledhill

Music - Our Key Stage 2 Chamber Choir

Each week, Mr Leach visits our school to teach our Key Stage 2 Chamber Choir a range of delightful songs.

Our pupils begin with vocal warm-ups before moving on to the focus songs. They also practise a range of singing techniques such as singing in rounds and using a variety of dynamics in each song. Each song recounts a tale or Bible story to further our understanding of some of the messages of Christianity.

We love taking part in these sessions and cannot wait to continue!

Citizenship - The British Values

Each and every day, the pupils in Year 5 reflect on the British Values and how they are implemented in our school. This takes place in a variety of ways such as democratically electing school council representatives to support our understanding of Democracy. We also establish class rules and routines at the start of the year to reinforce our knowledge of The Rule of Law.

Our pupils are very keen to further develop their knowledge of this vital topic and we will continue to explore these through the year.

Celebrating Christianity - Our First Holy Communion

A huge congratulations to Kara in Year 5 for completing her First Holy Communion! As a school and a community, we are immensely proud of the hard work and effort you have put in to achieve this. 

May God bless you and your family as you continue along your journey of faith!

For our final session this half term, Year 5 completed their topic on The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. We explored the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel, developing our movements inspired by the pair. We continued to support our Music learning by investigating a greater range of vocabulary expected of an Upper Key Stage 2 class and explaining how that terminology influences the atmosphere of a performance.

We have loved our sessions with Northern Ballet so far and we are extremely excited to resume after half term!

RE - Year 5 and 6's Trip to Leeds Grand Mosque (Autumn 1)

Today, Year 5 and 6 visited Leeds Grand Mosque to support our understanding of other cultures and faiths. As part of our RE learning, we were introduced to the Mosque and how it is used, including some of it's customs and traditions such as taking our shoes off and washing our hands before we enter.

We were then taught about Islam and some of the similarities the faith shares with Christianity and Judaism. What an enlightening opportunity for our school, we have thoroughly enjoyed our visit!

Year 5 have continued their learning as part of the RISE project with Northern Ballet. In our third session, we explored the relationships between characters in Peter Pan and how different characters felt during certain scenes from the ballet. We then explored how professional ballet artists would express the feelings of characters through their movements in a performance, linking this understanding closely to our Feelings Thermometer.

In our fourth session, Year 5 began exploring a new ballet: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The class were engaged and mature whilst exploring the serious themes of the performances. We developed our understanding of how ballet artists express emotion through their movements by exploring the characters of Bruno and Shmuel, discussing why their movements were vastly different.

Our partnership with Northern Ballet through the RISE project has also supported our Music learning this half term, introducing and reinforcing a range of vocabulary expected to be used in Upper Key Stage 2 lessons and exploring the messages music conveys through its tone and how it is played.

We are so thrilled to have taken part in these engaging sessions - we cannot wait for more!

Geography - Roundhay Park and Tropical World (Autumn 1)

On Monday the 16^th October 2023, Year 5 visited Roundhay Park and Tropical World to support our Geography learning from this half term. We took part in a rainforest workshop in Roundhay Park where we calculated the age of trees based on their height and the circumference of their trunks before identifying which levels of the Amazon Rainforest a variety of animals can be found on.

We then took part in a self-led tour around the Tropical World zoo and aquarium where we learnt many interesting facts about the animals that inhabit the rainforests of the world. Have a look below to see our exciting day!

Geography - Sam's Safari Rainforest Workshop (Autumn 1)

To support our Science and Geography learning this half term, Year 5 have engaged in a fantastic Rainforest Animals workshop provided by Sam's Safari. We learnt about the different types of rainforests (tropical and temperate) and interacted with some of the many animals that live there. We also explored how some of those animals have adapted to survive in the extreme conditions of the Amazon and how they are different to their counterparts from around the world!

What an exciting morning!

This half term, Year 5 have began their exciting partnership with Northern Ballet, taking part in their RISE project. In our first two sessions, we have explored the Feelings Thermometer, learning to express ourselves and our emotions through the medium of dance. To develop this, we also listened and responded to piano accompaniments used in our ballet activities, discussing the emotions the music conveys and how. This has involved a discussion of tempo and dynamics, as well as an exploration of the key features and vocabulary of music, such as crescendos, diminuendos and time signatures. 

We have also explored our first Northern Ballet performance - Peter Pan. This has linked closely with our PSHE lessons on mental health where we have explored the feelings associated with growing up and why we think the Lost Boys may stay in Neverland.

Above is a clip from our first session with Northern Ballet. Our pupils learnt a series of basic movements before performing them to a piano accompaniment. We also had the opportunity to explore simple time signatures in music, such as 4/4 and 8/8 timings.

We cannot wait to continue with the RISE project!

Science - Forces and Motion (Autumn 1)

This half term, Year 5 have explored the forces that affect us in our daily lives, with a particular focus on gravity, friction and air resistance. To consolidate this learning, Year 5 planned, conducted and reflected a practical measuring how air resistance affects the speed at which objects fall, based on surface area. These results were recorded in a table and discussed as a class, comparing the results with our hypotheses.

Computing - Systems and Searching (Autumn 1)

This week, Year 5 have begun our first Computing topic of the year - Systems and Searching - with Mrs Shelton. This has included exploring what is meant by a 'system' and identifying the processes that are involved in how systems work.

We also explored how larger computer systems work in real life, and began using search engines to find information before refining our results. We cannot wait to continue our Computing learning this half term!

History, Geography and Science - Mount St. Mary's Taster Afternoon (Autumn 1)

This week, Years 5 and 6 visited Mount St Mary's Catholic High School where we took part in a range of exciting high school lessons in History, Geography and Science.

In History, we investigated and analysed sources and evidence to solve a mystery. In Geography, we studied the food supply chain, exploring who is involved in producing the food we can buy from our supermarkets. We also considered how much each participant should be paid for the work they put into our foods and whether their pay was fair or not.

In Science, we created indicators using the juice from red cabbage. By carefully adding this liquid to our test tubes using pipettes, we could see whether the mystery liquids were acids, alkalis or neutral materials based on the colour they changed with the indicator.

What an exciting day, we cannot wait to visit again next year!

English - Blackout and Acrostic Poetry (Autumn 1)

In our English lessons this half term, Year 5 have been exploring the poetry and spells from The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. We have created blackout poetry using hidden spells, and found lost words of our own along our journey of writing.

Year 5 have responded to the spells found, and used these to produce our own poetry inspired by The Lost Words. What words will you seek, find and speak?

Welcome to Year 5!

Hello all, and welcome to a new school year at St. Anthony's! We are so excited to share where you will be learning this school year and hope you are as excited to return as we are.

We have many exciting topics, events and activities planned for this year, which we cannot wait to share with you! We are looking forwards to working with each and every one of you, helping you to learn and grow. I am sure we will make this a memorable school year!

As part of our 'Keeping Healthy' theme for the half term, Year 5 have examined, designed and followed a set of instructions to bake healthy vegetable samosas. These were packed full of robust and nutritious ingredients and substituted unhealthy ingredients or methods for more healthy ones.

We had so much fun making these and can't wait to see what other healthy foods we can make ourselves!

This week, as part of our PSHE topics, we were visited by both Catholic Care and d:side who shared with us some very important ways of staying safe. With Catholic Care, we explored keeping secrets and the importance of sharing information with adults if we feel it is important. With d:side, we continued what we learnt in our drug and substance awareness sessions, exploring the potential hazards of using electronic cigarettes.

We learnt much about staying safe and sharing important information with adults - what an informative day!

This half term, we have been visited by Madame Foster, a teacher of Modern Foreign Languages from Mount St. Mary's Catholic High School. We continued our learning of languages, developing our skills and conversations in French. We also learnt about the fantastic work the pupils at Mount St. Mary's complete as part of their MFL lessons. We cannot wait for our next visit!

As part of our cross-curricular approach to learning in Year 5, we have analysed, planned and drafted plays inspired by Greek mythology. This included working collaboratively to plan and draft our scripts, then acting out scenes and choreographing sequences.

We ended the series of learning by performing our plays for each other, then responding to them with polite and constructive feedback. Have a look at our pictures and see how enthusiastic we were about our performances!

In science this half-term, Year 5 have been examining everyday materials and their functions. We have been identifying and classifying materials based on their properties - deciding which materials would be most suited to a specific purpose.

As part of this, we have also been investigating reversible and irreversible reactions that may occur between materials. Today, we investigated the solubility of a range of solutes to determine which would dissolve in liquids and which would not. We had to identify the independent and dependent variables and the control measure necessary to make the investigation a fair test. We predicted which materials would dissolve in water and noted detailed observations of the solvent after it reacted with the solutes.

Have a look at our scientific investigation - could you predict which of these solutes will dissolve in water?

In geography, we have been exploring six of the Earth's biomes. These are areas across the planet that have similar landscapes, climates, flora and fauna. We researched the conditions of each biome and designed a survival guide that people should use if they were to visit.

We presented our findings on trioramas, accompanied by detailed illustrations to show what the biome looks like. Have a read - you never know when you might need these!

To conclude our balanced arguments topic in English, Year 5 had a debate of their own! We discussed whether the UK should continue to fund space exploration programmes or not. As part of this, two groups had to argue both in support and against this decision. We used brilliant communication in our groups to decide on our arguments, and respectful listening and responding to the arguments put forth.

Have a read of our balanced arguments, which inspired our debate session. Year 5 have impressed with their brilliant use of tier 2 vocabulary and well-structured arguments.

We had a brilliant afternoon - everyone was so articulate and put their arguments across with respect and consideration. Well done to all!

This half term, we have been responding to different pieces of space-themed music, including The Planets by Gusav Holst, using a range of subject-specific vocabulary such as dynamics, forte, piano, crescendo, and diminuendo to name a few! We have also performed ostinatos from Music of the starry night using chime bars and had a go at rapping the verses of Sun Blast, changing the dynamics by including more or fewer voices.

Today, Year 5 celebrated the solar system in our Space Wonder Day! We were visited by the WonderDome Planetarium which showed us the stars of our solar system, and even those beyond! We celebrated an afternoon of creativity in our art lessons with Mrs McGuire where we used a range of skills to create single-point perspective drawings.

What an out-of-this-world day!

In Art this half term, we have been focussing on our drawing skills. First, we analysed and responded to Peter Thorpe's (our focus artist's) rocket paintings, then we developed our understanding of drawing from a one point perspective and improving our shading skills to create different tones. After sketching ideas for our space inspired drawings, we created our final pieces using oil pastels against black backgrounds. Take a look at our creative, original masterpieces! Our final task will be to explain some of the decisions behind our drawings and evaluate them.

English: Tales of the Unexpected...

In English, Year 5 have been creating their own stories designed to build suspense. We began by reading a story that builds suspense, analysing the features they have used to create a tense atmosphere, such as the use of figurative language and descriptions of setting.

Have a read of some of our spine-chilling stories below.

During Spring we had a wonderful day constructing our own spaghetti truss bridges. The purpose of the bridge was to enable a child's toy car to move from point A to point B (across the bridge). Therefore, being strong and stable enough to hold the weight of the toy car was an essential element of the design criteria we agreed upon. After building them, we tested each bridge and I am delighted to report that all the bridges held the weight of the car and many exceeded 1kg. In fact, the strongest bridge buckled at 3.55kg! I was so proud at the perseverance and problem solving skills all children showed throughout the day, as well as the excellent team work. Our final task will be to evaluate our bridges and suggest possible improvements. Well done, Year 5! Mrs McGuire.

Science: Exploring Forces in Year 5

During Spring 1 2023, Year 5 have been learning about the different forces they can see in their day-to-day lives! They first began by investigating buoyancy in paper boats - testing a range of boat shapes to see which could hold the most weight before sinking. They compared the effects of buoyancy and gravity. Later, Year 5 constructed parachutes using plastic cups, string and bin bags, changing the size of the bin bag parachute each time. This allowed the children to compare the relationship between the surface area of an object and the impact air resistance has on it. Year 5  have loved our forces topic will be keen investigate where they can see forces around them!

During our Spring 1 Design and Technology topic, we have been exploring how to reinforce structures to make them stronger, looking initially at simple beam bridges and arch bridges. We then moved our learning on further and began investigating how to reinforce beam bridges by folding card in different ways, creating corrugated horizontal beams, using lamination (adding extra layers) and some of us even decided to experiment with additional vertical supports. We recorded are results and were amazed at the weight some of our structures could hold. Stay tuned for next week when we move on to truss bridges!

HISTORY: VIKINGS

On Wednesday 18th January 2023, our Year 5 class were immersed in a Wonder Day of first hand learning linked to their ongoing curriculum for History. A visiting drama group brought the topic alive by allowing the children to re-enact Viking times and handle a range of replica sources of evidence from the era. Our children were so excited and could remember more and retained more key knowledge from our bespoke History curriculum as a result. We are so proud of you Year 5!

Design and Technology - Rainforest Stuffed Toys (January 2023)

In design and technology, we have designed, prepared and created stuffed toys inspired by rainforest animals. We learnt a range of new techniques, such as using a blanket stitch to assemble and cleverly stuffing small objects with filling, to create our amazing toys! We first began by designing our toys, then creating the components needed to assemble them. After, we added detail and evaluated our final products. Have a look at what we have made!

English and History - Meet the Maya!

In our History lessons, we have learned about the day-to-day lives of the Maya. We explored the areas they lived in, what their empires were like and how they lived everyday! We then applied this knowledge in our English lessons to write a diary entry from the perspective of a Mayan child. We hope you learn as much as we did!

English and Geography - Save the Rainforest!

In English, we have been exploring the use of formal letters to persuade. We began by exploring some key features of formal letters to persuade, then linking our new knowledge to our Geography lessons, where we discussed ways in which we can prevent deforestation. This helped to show us the ways we can save our planet - all while becoming brilliant writers too!

Robinwood 2023 - Mountain Group

Before Christmas, Year 5 visited the new Robinwood site in Wrexham for our class residential. We had such a fun experience and would love to share our journey with you!

The Mountain group, which was courageously led by Mr Whittle, took part in a range of extremely exciting activities. Some of our favourites from the trip were the high-ropes challenge, the climbing wall, trapeze and we were lucky enough to go kayaking while it was warm enough!

What a fantastic experience!

Keep your eyes posted for the photos of the Crag and Ridge groups - as well as a photostory showing our experience as a whole class!

Robinwood 2023 - Crag Group

Before Christmas, Year 5 visited a new Robinwood site in Wrexham. We didn't know what the new site would be like, but it was even better than we could have imagined!

Here is Crag group, bravely led by Mr Cook, who took part in a range of challenging and exciting activities. Some of our favourites were archery, the high-ropes challenge and the crate stack - but we had fun on every activity and tried our best!

Keep your eyes posted for pictures of Mountain and Crag group, as well as a brilliant Photostory that will show how much fun we had as a whole class!

Robinwood 2023 - Ridge Group

Before Christmas, our Year 5 class went on an exciting journey to Robinwood in Wrexham! This was our first time visiting this site and we were so amazed with how much fun everything was!

Here is Ridge group, fearlessly led by Mrs Caley, who took part in ziplining, caving, archery and so much more! Keep your eyes posted for the slideshows of Crag and Mountain groups' hard work and achievements as well!

Our maths work this half-term

This half-term, Year 5 have been learning all about fractions. This has been an extremely challenging topic, but everyone has tried their hardest and persevered!

Have a look at our updated working wall and some of our pupils' fantastic work!

On Tuesday 8th November 2022, our Year 5 school council members were very lucky to be invited to represent the voice of children within Leeds at the Leeds Summit at Leeds Civic Hall in the presence of all the Leeds Councillors. They had the opportunity to share their views, interests, ideas and speak with decision makers in the city. I was so proud of all our children. 

Year 5 have been inspired by their class novel, 'The Explorer' by Katherine Rundell and have written their own recounts from the rainforest. Using Tier 2 vocabulary taken from their novel, they have all written some fantastic pieces. Take a look at some of the ones which are proudly displayed in their classroom. Well done Year 5!

Our Spectacular Sam's Safari Visit!

Today, our Year 5 class were visited by Sam's Safari, who brought in many exciting and fascinating animals who live in rainforests! This was a fantastic opportunity to see our geography and science learning in person with a range of insects, amphibians and reptiles visiting - what a fantastic morning of exploration, enquiry and questioning! Well done to everyone for taking part and for being especially brave - there were some even I couldn't touch! Ask us what we have learnt from our visit!

Our St Anthony's Cross Country Team made their first appearance at the first run of the season at Middleton Park on Saturday 1st October 2022. The weather was a little unpredictable, however it did not stop our Year 5 team running their hearts out! There were some very impressive running performances and we look forward to more races later in the season. Mr Kearney, Miss Staunton-Sykes and Mr Easton (Chair of Governors) were all there to watch, along with our dedicated Year 5 parents. Thank you everyone who attended. 

Our Year 5 pupils are part of our well renowned St Anthony's Chamber Choir. This is a highly talented group of individuals who sing in unison and perform at school and across our Diocese. We were invited to perform for Bishop Marcus at the Annual Headteacher's Mass at Leeds Cathedral on Thursday 15th September 2022. The headteachers in the congregation noted our exceptional singing and we were praised by Bishop Marcus. We sung a range of secular songs to link to the mass for the day. I am so proud of our chamber choir members. Well done St Anthony's. 

Welcome to a new school year at St. Anthony's!

We are so excited to welcome your children to a new step in their learning journey in year 5 - we have an extremely exciting year planned filled with brilliant opportunities for learning. Among these will be educational trips to support class learning, weekly visits to promote new experiences and, perhaps most exciting, our Year 5 residential trip.

Year 5's learning will be supported by several members of staff who are all excited to enrich your child's education, but will be primarily supported every day by myself (Mr. Cook) and Mrs. Caley. If you ever wish to speak about your child's time in year 5, please feel free to ask! You can also see our fantastic classroom that the pupils learn in, we hope to add their outstanding work to our display boards.

Year 5 have made a fantastic start to the year and I cannot wait to see how far they will come!

Our Year 5 class have been sporting superstars today in their annual Sport's Day. What a beautiful day, shared by our parents. Watch us taking part in lots of sporting activities. Huge congratulations to Year 5 Green Team who were worthy winners of the competition. 

Well done to our Year 5 and Year 6 Netball Team! Today (21.6.22) they played in their first ever tournament and won EVERY SINGLE match - returning to school as the CHAMPIONS! We are so proud of all you have achieved and the excellent way in which you represented St. Anthony's - you are all super stars! Thank you and well done to Miss Staunton Sykes who has coached them excellently!

Computing with Junior Jam

This half term, Year 5 are receiving computing sessions from Junior Jam. So far, we have learnt about how fingerprint technology can solve crimes and what an Evofit is and how databases can help with big searches. We have learnt about the different types of fingerprint a person has, how fingerprints can be lifted from a crime scene and even printed and lifted our own fingerprints using a magnetic powder!

We have also created Evofit images of people and learned about how these Evofit images are made into pictures to help solve crimes. Take a look at some of our fantastic learning!

Year 5 - Following a recipe to make vegetable samosas 

To start our topic on 'Food Glorious Food' topic Year 5 followed a recipe to make baked vegetable samosas. They chose whether to follow a recipe based on its intended audience (adults or children) and discussed which recipe was easier to follow and why. 

The children followed all the steps carefully and made some fantastic savoury treats. Well Done Year 5!