WELCOME TO YEAR 5 MAPLE CLASS
On this page, you can read about the staff working with your children, find out what topics are being covered and find useful information for supporting your child at home. These pages will be updated regularly. You will also find photographs of your children at work!
September 2025
Welcome to your new class- we hope you had a lovely break and we are looking forward to a great first term with you all.
Term 1
Narrative Writing
For the 1st 3 weeks of the term, we will be focusing on "The Ridge" which is a film clip based on Danny MacAskill who is a mountain biker. We will be using the clip to support us with writing a narrative with a focus on setting descriptions and showing emotions rather than telling the reader. We will be particularly focusing on using a thesaurus to improve vocabulary and to create expanded noun phrases as well as recapping work on fronted adverbials.
Discussion and Debate
We will then move onto learning about discussion texts which will help us to answer our Geography big question of the term "Do humans improve an environment?". Within this unit, we will be learning about words and phrases which can help with cohesion as well as how to use subordinate clauses effectively.
Term 1
Place Value, Addition & Subtraction
Term 1 starts with the children learning place value of numbers up to one million. By the end of the Term, they will be able to read, write, order and compare numbers to at least a million and determine the value of each digit. Also included in this unit, we will be rounding any whole number up to 1 million to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, 10000 and 100000.
As the term continues, we will be moving onto addition and subtraction. In this unit, the children will be retrieving their knowledge of formal written methods of addition and subtraction, and combining this with their understanding of place value. They will be continuing to refine the skill of adding and subtracting mentally, using rounding to check answers and focusing on multi-step problems.
Term 1 - cloud busting
We will be starting the year reading "Cloud Busting" by Malorie Blackman. This is a story about friendship which is told in 1st person through Verse.
A fantastic story which also promotes our school value of resilience.
If you enjoy this style of writing, here is a link to other books you might enjoy.
Enquiry 1 - Forces
During Term 1, and into Term 2, we will be answering the two big questions,
What is a force? How do they help us?
To help us answer these questions, we will need to build on our knowledge from Year 3, when we learnt about forces (Friction) and magnets.
Term 1 - MOUNTains
In Term 1 we will be focusing on Physical and Human Geography to help us answer the following questions:
where in the world?
We will be learning about the counties of the UK and using this to make comparisons. We will then learn about the locations of mountains in both the UK and around the world.
What are the physical features of mountains?
We will learn to describe the different features of mountains using Geographical vocabulary.
Do humans improve an environment?
Initially we will be answering this question following fieldwork in our local area. We will then be considering the impact that tourism has had on mountain environments.