Year 5 Weekly Blog 11.04.25- 'You shall be with me in paradise'

What an amazing yet emotional week it has been in school. Each and every year, the children make holy week even more memorable and this week is certainly one to remember. Watching all of the younger children portray their chapter of the Easter story was moving as this led up to Year 5’s performance of the Crucifixion. Regardless of the nerves, the children lived within their roles and performed with such emotion and meaning.

In addition to this special week, the Our Lady of Lourdes statue had arrived at our school as she continues on her pilgrimage around the diocese. We all came together in worship on Wednesday to celebrate this, along with St Peter’s school who had kindly passed on the statue from their pilgrimage.

In between all of our holy week preparations, we have been finishing off our maths and English units. In English, we have been writing our second newspaper article, with the first being about Jesus’ crucifixion, we now turn to his resurrections two days later.

In Maths, it has been all things shape this week with us focusing on calculating area of shape. We have been looking at combination of shapes such as rectilinear shapes (practice again saying this out loud) and using our area formula calculate bigger shapes.

We finished our week with fun and celebrations. Our second group got to have their first experience of forest school out in the shining sun whilst the rest of the class completed a class Easter hunt! There were plenty of chocolates to go around, especially in the Easter raffle, along with some other class prizes.

Conversation starters

  • RE- One of the big learning points from Jesus’ journey to death was sacrifice. Has there been a time in your life that you have sacrificed something for the greater good?

  • English- We have just finished our class novel of the Windrush Child. In the final chapter of the book, it focuses on the injustices around equal rights throughout history and how we aim to solve these issues. If you were the Prime Minister, what would you do to make the world a better place?

Let’s Celebrate

As it is the end of term, the certificate and virtue star have been voted by the children for whom they think has displayed those characteristics throughout the whole term.

Learning Certificate Winner of the Term goes to Matilda

Virtue Star of the Term goes to Louis

Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog to keep on track of your child’s SPAG, multiplication and division practice and also their reading.

  • Forest School- This will be starting on Friday 4th April. You will be sent a text the previous night to make aware who is doing this on which day as the class are split into groups. The children will just need to bring in a change spare of clothes- ones suitable for outdoor activities and working within a forest environment. Long clothing will be needed (no shorts).

    The groups are;

    Group 1- Daisy, Grace, Isioma, Jacob, Lilly, Logan, Matilda, Seth, Teddy, Toby

    Group 2- Amelia, Beth, Finley, Hudson, Hugo, John-Paul, Joseph, Poppy, Sean

    Group 3- Charlotte, Ciaran, Gus, Josh, Lorenzo, Louis, Rory, Rose, Tommy, William

    Each group will have four sessions of forest school spread out across the rest of the year.

  • School will reopen on Tuesday 22nd April

Year 5 Weekly Blog 28.03.25- ' When we have been hurt, we cannot recover until we forgive'

What a glorious week it has been. The sun is shining, learning is flowing, Easter preparations are continuing and the children are in high spirits. This week was the first time we have practiced in the hall as we learn stage directions and adding that extra dramatic effect to our holy worship of Easter.

In RE, We have had some warmly discussions about the importance of forgiveness. We shared experiences of when there have been times when it has been hard to forgive and we have found it within ourselves to do so. We also talked about the consequences of lying and how that can impact both trust and forgiveness in the future.

This week, we have been learning…

  • Maths- The children have been smashing short division this week, now tackling 4 digit by 1 digit numbers including lots of carrying and overall remainders.

  • Science- we have been experimenting with water resistance and discussed how this impacts even our fun play in the water such as ways to jump into a swimming pool. We analaysed how the factors affecting water resistance change the outcome of three different types of jumps. We then replicated this on a smaller scale, using objects to act as these shapes.

  • Geography- We have continued to use map grid references to precisely and have made this even more precise by introducing 6 figure gird references as opposed to 4 figures.

  • PE- It was all about patience, carefulness and team strategy in the team games this week as we used our balancing and hand eye coordination techniques to complete team relays just using a tennis racket and bean bag.

Let’s Celebrate

Learning Certificate- Sean for being a focused and cooperative learner. Staying focused and determined throughout independent tasks can be tricky, especially in Year 5. However, you have no issues with this at all. You manage your distractions really well and you get your head down and are super focused on your work. You also work really well alongside your learning partners and you use this time wisely to share your thinking and reasoning skills.

Virtue Star of the Week- Our star of the week goes to Rose. You are such a generous person Rose, especially with our younger children. It really does bring a smile to my face when I see you saying hello and goodbye to our Year 1 and Reception children at break times. It just shows the bond you have created with them and how grateful they are to have you as a role model.


Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog to keep on track of your child’s SPAG, multiplication and division practice and also their reading.

  • Wednesday 2nd April- School Photo Day. Children are to come into school in their school uniform. Any child who plays for the school netball and football teams, please bring your kit as well. There will be no PE on this day.

  • Forest School- This will be starting on Friday 4th April. You will be sent a text the previous night to make aware who is doing this on which day as the class are split into groups. The children will just need to bring in a change spare of clothes- ones suitable for outdoor activities and working within a forest environment.

  • Friday 4th April Reconciliation- Our Year 5 and 6 children will be given the opportunity for reconciliation by having confessions with our Father Peter in the lead to up to our lent preparations. This is usually done in high school but yourIf you would not like your child to participate then please let Mr Cornwell, Mrs Gregan or the school office know.

    If your child is likely to attend St Bedes High School. They are given the opportunity to make their sacrament of confirmation. We have been given the opportunity to do this when the children get to Year 6. Please complete the form below to choose which option you would like for your child.

  • Thursday 10th April Crucifixion Assembly- This will be held at school at 9:15am

Year 5 Weekly Blog 21.03.25- ‘Every choice has a consequence. Once you make that choice, you must accept responsibility’


Another week has flown by as we approach the halfway point in our Lenten journey- I hope you have been earning those pennies in your Lenten boxes. In preparations for Easter week, the children have been given their scripts for the Easter assembly with all children knowing their roles and their lines.

Is it important that during this holy yet stressful period of the year, we remember that all of our actions have consequences. Everything we say and do and how we do it has an impact on someone else- both positive and negative. This has been our focus in RE this week, known as the ‘Ripple Effect’. These teachings allow us to reflect more on our choices, knowing what impact these have on those around us and then everyone else indirectly.


This week, we have been learning…

  • Maths- The children have been smashing short division this week, now tackling 4 digit by 1 digit numbers including lots of carrying and overall remainders.

  • Science- we have been experimenting with water resistance and discussed how this impacts even our fun play in the water such as ways to jump into a swimming pool. We analaysed how the factors affecting water resistance change the outcome of three different types of jumps. We then replicated this on a smaller scale, using objects to act as these shapes.

  • Geography- We have continued to use map grid references to precisely and have made this even more precise by introducing 6 figure gird references as opposed to 4 figures.

  • French- We have been applying our geography knowledge into our French by looking at which countries around the world that speak French as their first language- also making a historical link as to why with some countries.

  • PE- It was all about patience, carefulness and team strategy in the team games this week as we used our balancing and hand eye coordination techniques to complete team relays just using a tennis racket and bean bag.

    Photos have been taken out the week to capture these moments of learning. We have had some difficulty with uploading these. These photos will be uploaded on Monday.

Let’s Celebrate

Learning Certificate- Joseph for being a focused and determined learner. You have had a super week Joseph. You have been so calm and focused in all of your lessons and this has paid off. This has given you more time to get stuck into your work and I have seen the determination to complete your tasks- Keep it up!

Virtue Star of the Week- Our star of the week goes to Tilly. You are such a generous girl Tilly and not the mention grateful. Your kind and compassionate nature is just a joy to have in the classroom. You treat all of your classmates and staff members with the upmost love and generosity. Thankyou so much!

Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog to keep on track of your child’s SPAG, multiplication and division practice and also their reading.

  • Wednesday 19th March Schoolastic Book Fair- From this date until the following Wednesday, the hall will be open at the end of the day for the chance to buy a book at our annual book fair sale.

  • Wednesday 2nd April- School Photo Day

  • Friday 4th April Reconciliation- Our Year 5 and 6 children will be given the opportunity for reconciliation by having confessions with our Father Peter in the lead to up to our lent preparations. This is usually done in high school but yourIf you would not like your child to participate then please let Mr Cornwell, Mrs Gregan or the school office know.

    If your child is likely to attend St Bedes High School. They are given the opportunity to make their sacrament of confirmation. We have been given the opportunity to do this when the children get to Year 6. Please complete the form below to choose which option you would like for your child.

  • Thursday 10th April Crucifixion Assembly- This will be held at school around 9:10am

Year 5 Weekly Blog 14.03.25- 'To live within the beatitudes is to follow in Jesus' footsteps'

Journey to the Cross

This week, we have began our easter assembly preparations by looking into the Stations of the Cross in our RE lessons. The children were able to retrieve most of the fourteen stations before we even started our discussions. We then placed these in order and matched these with their correct illustration.

We also finished creating our beatitudes and we have been blown away by the children’s beautiful choice of words and ways of wanting to live. Big shoutout to Mrs Tierney for bringing this to life in one of our school boards.



This week, we have been learning…

  • Maths- We have been back onto the children’s favourite method of ‘the bus stop’ in our division topic. The children are feeling so much more confident with this and have been taking extra care with their presentation to help make their jotting clearer.

  • Science- we have been experimenting with air resistance by analysing how this force applies to a parachute. We broke into teams and designed our own parachute and dropped these to test the timing and safety of them- don’t worry, no child was used in any parachute attempt.

  • Geography- We have began our new geography unit of different figure map referencing. We have been able to apply our previous knowledge from our world’s countries and continents topic to our world map to precisely plot locations.

  • French- We have been applying our geography knowledge into our French by looking at French directions and using these to hunt for treasure.

Conversation starters

My Happy Mind- We have been discussing what our top strength is and sharing how often we show this strength. Tell your family members when and where you used this strength. Can they think of any other examples of when you have used this strength recently?

Geography- We have been using grid references to locate specific locations within some rural towns in England. We looked at towns that belong in different counties of England. There are 48 counties in England, how many can you and your family name?


Let’s Celebrate

Learning Certificate- Gus for being a enthusiastic and determined learner. You have taken to the bus stop method like a duck to water Gus. It is clear to see that you have put in the work at home prior to us starting this unit and it is paying off! No matter how hard of a question I throw at you, you have been able to over come it.

Virtue Star of the Week- Our star of the week goes to Matilda. You are so grateful Matilda- Even for the smallest of opportunities. Your manners are impeccable and you are so generous towards everyone in our class- children and teachers included. We are so grateful for this!




Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog to keep on track of your child’s SPAG, multiplication and division practice and also their reading.


  • Wednesday 19th March Schoolastic Book Fair- From this date until the following Wednesday, the hall will be open at the end of the day for the chance to buy a book at our annual book fair sale.

  • Friday 21st March ‘People We Love Planters’- Our forest school leaders are hosting, in association with ‘Leafy Lytham’, a planting session where the children can take these home. If your child would like to take part, please complete the payment on ParentPay.

  • Friday 21st March Easter Egg donation- Own clothes day and bring an Easter egg for our raffle.


  • Wednesday 2nd April- School Photo Day


  • Friday 4th April Reconciliation- Our Year 5 and 6 children will be given the opportunity for reconciliation by having confessions with our Father Peter in the lead to up to our lent preparations. This is usually done in high school but yourIf you would not like your child to participate then please let Mr Cornwell, Mrs Gregan or the school office know.


    If your child is likely to attend St Bedes High School. They are given the opportunity to make their sacrament of confirmation. We have been given the opportunity to do this when the children get to Year 6. Please complete the form below to choose which option you would like for your child.


  • Thursday 10th April Crucifixion Assembly- This will be held at school around 9:10am

  • Monday 28th April- We will be taking a visit to The Grand in Blackpool to watch our wonderful Year 4 children in their Shakespeare production of ‘The Tempest’- travel costs have been uploaded to ParentPay.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 07.03.25- ‘Lent is a call to renew our commitment in life to God’

What a busy yet exciting week it has been in Year 5 this week. Our focus in RE this week has been preparing for Lent. We discussed the ways of how Catholics can prepare for lent and the deeper meaning behind this. The following day, we celebrated the beginning of Lent together as a community in mass as we received the hly ash to mark this special six week journey. To mark this, we also swapped our lenten boxes with our Year 1 buddies. They were kind enough to invite us into their classroom for this and also allow us to partake in their choosing time- which the older children absolutely loved!

The highlight of the week was certainly on Thursday which was World Book Day. It was amazing to see so many wonderful and creative ideas and hard work that went into the costumes. It was certainly a world book day themed day as we kicked off the week with a live world book day quiz, hosted by the Premier League Primary All Stars, in a ‘footy and booky’ themed quiz. The rest of the day was spent with some creative writing with the children creating their ‘Ultimate Character Champion’ by using their world book day outfits to help them out.

This week, we have been learning…

  • Maths- We have breached into 3 digit numbers in our mastery of number topic and calculating multiples of 4 by using our multiplication facts around the number 4. We have also been using number lines in our negative numbers topic to breach between positive and negative numbers to calculate the difference.

  • Science- we have been experimenting with rolling friction by rolling a tennis ball along different surfaces and seeing how far the ball rolls.

  • PE- Teamwork makes the dreamwork has been the focus in our PE units by playing teambonding games to help boost cohesion and teamwork.

  • RHE- ‘Under Pressure’ was our focus for this week as we discussed what this means and we have analysed what this looks like in different social settings. One of the main talking points from our dicscussions was that pressure can be good as well as bad (depending on the scenario). The children then were given a team work drama based task to perform different types of pressure.

Let’s Celebrate

Learning Certificate-Lorenzo for being a reflective and co-operative learner. Doing things that we don’t want to do is hard, especially when it is something that you love. Sometimes, we have to look at the bigger picture and assess what the right thing is to do and you have done that recently. This has helped you become a better team player and has also given you more of a positive mindset. I’m proud of you!

Virtue Star of the Week- Our star of the week goes to Isioma. Mixing, mingling and looking after our younger children is not an easy task. Some people shy way from it and some people thrive in this and you have certainly been thriving in this. You take such good care of our Year 1 buddies and you treat them with such kindness- this is a joy to see!




Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog to keep on track of your child’s SPAG, multiplication and division practice and also their reading.




  • Wednesday 19th March Schoolastic Book Fair- From this date until the following Wednesday, the hall will be open at the end of the day for the chance to buy a book at our annual book fair sale.




  • Wednesday 2nd April- School Photo Day




  • Thursday 10th April Crucifixion Assembly- This will be held at school around 9:10am

Year 5 Weekly Blog 28.02.25- 'Blessed are the pure in heart as they will be with God in heaven'

What a first week back it has been! The children have jumped straight back into their learning after half term and have shown such enthusiasm and determination throughout their learning.

Our focus in our RE lessons this week has been the beatitudes. We have been discussing these in detail and linking these to inspirational people in our lives and throughout history. I can’t wait until the children get to create their own beatitudes and to express the values in which they wish to live by.

In Maths, we have began our huge topic of division and have been looking at larger calcuations which cannot be done mentally. With this, the children were introduced to the famous ‘bus stop method’ in which they took to like a duck to water- so much enthusiasm towards this and pride in using a new method to tackle some harder calculations.

The highlight of our week was right at the very end with our trip to Manchester Science and Industry museum. In order to grasp some inspiration for our upcoming writing topic and also to apply our new forces topic in science, the children got very practical with sensory workshops, experiment galleries and historical talks.

Notices

  • Homework- Please check the weekly homework blog to keep on top of your child’s home learning, along with any limited tasks.

  • World Book Day Thursday 6th March- Please check Mrs Gregan’s weekly newsletter for more information regarding ideas on this years World Book Day.

Trip to Manchester Science and Industry Museum- Friday 28th February

This Friday, we will be going to the Manchester Science and Industry Museum to help prepare and inspire in two of our upcoming work units this half term.

We will be leaving at 8:45am so all children need to be in school at 8:30am.

We will be setting off around 2pm so estimated arrival back at school will be between 3:15-3:45 depending on traffic. Mrs Nel will send a text out to all parents when we have got back onto the M55.

Normal school uniform is to be worn.

Children are to bring a coat and a pack lunch (see the form below)

Reading books can be brought to read on the coach but no games, colouring or fidgets toys are to be used on the coach journey.

Please fill in the form below in regards to lunch options for the trip.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 13.02.25- ‘ The love that flows through your heart will purify your spirit’- St Valentine

What an end to our first half term of 2025. With our religious theme being the ‘Pilgrimage of Hope’, as a school, we went on our own pilgrimage to Church to celebrate this and to officially bring in the new year with Father Peter. To spread hope, love and kindness consistently throughout your life can be tricky and to live within all the beatitudes is even harder. Our focus this week in our RE lessons has been Pier Giorgio, known as ‘the boy of the beatitudes’, and evaluating his life into why he later became a saint.

This week, we also celebrated ‘Online Safety Day’. We were lucky enough to take part in BBC’s live lesson which included some interactive tasks along with some very important information. This years theme was ‘Too good to be true’ with us looking into how to spot potential scams online.

Our third enrichment session of the year took place with Year 5 grafting hard outside in a painting/gardening session with Mrs Hotchkiss and Mrs Mather.

This week we have also been learning…

  • English- Writing our independent sci-fi story based on the plot of E.T

  • Maths- using our mastery of number skills to apply these to bigger square number questions and recapping factors and primes.

  • Science- Putting our space knowledge to the test in an end of unit Kahoot quiz.

  • Music- Blending colours with music by listening to the instrumental versions of popular songs and associating these with particular colours.

Conversation starters

My Happy Mind: Now we have finished our ‘apricate’ module in My Happy Mind, is there anything or anyone who you are more grateful for now then 6 weeks ago?

Class Novel: Our class novel takes place in 1950’s Britain in which the children have started to realise that certain rules/laws were different back then. Are there any big rule/law changes that your parents or grandparents have lived through. If so, what do they think of these changes? Have they worked out for better or worse?

Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog and keep helping your child with any work that they are struggling with- especially our spellings. It is important to make sure we are reading for at least 15 minutes a day at home to keep broadening our vocabulary, description and sentence structure.



  • Class Library- After a huge clear-out and revamp of our school library, we have started to rebuild our own class library in Year 5. Book series seem to be really popular and we have discussed some of the children’s favourites. If have any old series of books that you would recommend to read , then we would hugely appreciate any donations. Please ask your parents before bringing any books in to donate.



  • PE Days- Our PE days have changed slightly with our outdoor session being on Mondays and our indoor session on Wednesdays.



  • Fidget Toys- If this has not been discussed with your class teacher, then any sort of fidget toys are not to be brought into school. Please can bags be checked incase these have been left in from the weekend. Trading cards and chewing gum should also be kept at home.



  • Half Term- School will then reopen Tuesday 25th February.



  • Trip to Manchester Friday 28th February- This will take place during the first week after half term. Details regarding payment are live on parent pay. Children will in their normal school uniform and will have to be in school around 8:30am. Depending on traffic, we should be back at school between 3:30-4:00. A text will go out to parents as soon as we get back on the M55 when travelling back to school.



  • Trip to The Grand- During the next half term, we will be going to watch Year 4’s performance of their Shakespeare production at the Grand in Blackpool. We will be using public transport for this trip so the cost of the ticket has been uploaded to Parent Pay.



  • Lenten Boxes- Please check the homework blog in regards to lenten boxes for our Year 1 buddies.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 07.02.25- ' To be a follower of Christ, you must stop thinking about yourself'

How can we be like Jesus? that is the question that we all wish to know and in order to do so, we must follow in his footsteps. To know what it means to be a follower, you must relfect upon yourself and analyse your own actions and how they impact others. We have been looking at how the beatitudes are a guide for us from Jesus in how to be his follower and reflecting on how we can live within these.

What a week it has been! It has truly been a week of representing Our Lady’s and giving back to the community. This started on Tuesday as we took a short trip down to St Annes library to rejoice in National Storytelling Week. It was amazing to see the layout and presentation of the library as we have just recently restructured our own school and class library.

On Wednesday, we carried out our biggest eco job of the year as we walked down to the pier and helped plant Christmas trees on the dunes to help protect and preserve the future environment. We were blessed with such beautiful weather and the children worked tirelessly and excellently with each other throughout the afternoon.

We have really been stepping up our mastery of number this week by looking at large multiples of four and how we can partition this in order to work out the missing factor. his will help massively as we begin working with ratios.

In English, all of our mini story writing and creative descriptive lessons have been coming together as we have started planning our final sci story of this half term- basing our plot on ‘E.T’.

Conversation starters

My Happy Mind: To finish off our appreciate module, the children have been drawing their ‘gratitude frames’ in which they have created a picture collage of all the things they are grateful for in life. Tell your household what was in your gratitude frame and what would be in theirs if they were to draw one?

Class Novel: In our class novel, we have just reached the part in our book where Leonard has arrived in England to reunite with his Dad and has noticed the significant difference from moving to a small town into a big city. Have your Mum or Dad ever lived in a big city? If so, where did they live? What was it like? How does it compare to living in Lytham St Annes?

Let’s Celebrate!

  • Toby for being an creative and focused learner: As you know from myself and Mrs Gregan, we admire beautiful book presentation and you Toby have this in abundance. I can tell instantly just how focused you are in lessons because you take such care of your work and how this is presented. To go with this, your creative writing has been outstanding, using your rainbow writing practice and imagination to create some fantastic pieces of work. I cannot wait to read your final story.

  • Virtue Star of the Week: This week, our virtue star goes to Josh. During our eco trip, we have seen another side to you Josh. You were so enthusiastic throughout the whole afternoon and you got stuck in straight away and worked your socks off. This showed that you care for our environment and you are hopeful of making our area a better place.


Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Rory

Marvelous Manners- Josseph

Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog and keep helping your child with any work that they are struggling with- especially our spellings. It is important to make sure we are reading for at least 15 minutes a day at home to keep broadening our vocabulary, description and sentence structure.

  • Class Library- After a huge clear-out and revamp of our school library, we have started to rebuild our own class library in Year 5. Book series seem to be really popular and we have discussed some of the children’s favourites. If have any old series of books that you would recommend to read , then we would hugely appreciate any donations. Please ask your parents before bringing any books in to donate.

  • PE Days- Our PE days have changed slightly with our outdoor session being on Mondays and our indoor session on Wednesdays.

  • Fidget Toys- If this has not been discussed with your class teacher, then any sort of fidget toys are not to be brought into school. Please can bags be checked incase these have been left in from the weekend. Trading cards and chewing gum should also be kept at home.

  • Half Term- School will close on Thursday 13th February at normal closing time. School will then reopen Tuesday 25th February.

  • Trip to Manchester Friday 28th February- This will take place during the first week after half term. Details regarding payment are live on parent pay. Children will in their normal school uniform and will have to be in school around 8:30am. Depending on traffic, we should be back at school between 3:30-4:00. A text will go out to parents as soon as we get back on the M55 when travelling back to school.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 24.01.25- 'If you want to see the rainbow, you have to get through the storm'

This week has definitely been a week filled with lots of hard work and learning opportunities. Whether it’s been starting new topics, continuing with big units or large independent tasks, the children have applied themselves really well into all of our pieces of work. It has been brilliant to see the children take on the advice given from the Year 5 staff about becoming independent learners and preparing them not just for Year 6 but even for high school! It was certainly a stormy end to the week with lots of indoor play taking place. We pray that all of you have a safe and secure weekend as the winds continue into next week.

In RE, we have finished our topic of covenants and have started our new topic ‘Inspirational People’. We started by discussing what the word inspire means and how different people portray it. The children loved sharing who their inspirations were and how they inspire them (and yes mums and dads were mentioned in this). We then linked this to how Jesus was inspirational and what qualities/characteristics he has.

In English, we have continued to bring our writing to life by blending our amazing extended noun phrases and using these to create mini sci-fi stories. We will then be expanding on this even more when we add some personification!

In Maths, we have continued with our factors and multiples unit and have been doing lots of deep thinking this week, with the children using their multiplication knowledge to apply these to problem solving and reasoning questions. We have also been looking at the importance of the word ‘common’ and how this applies to our factors and multiples undersranding.

In PE, now the athletics competition is over, our focus turned to our new topics. We started hockey in our outdoor PE lessons, with the children understanding the safety and technic of using proper hockey equipment. The children then applied these skills into some passing and controlling drills. In our indoor PE lessons, we have continued with our dance topic of ‘heroes and villains’, in which we linked our new RE topic to relate our inspirational and heroic icons.

Conversation starters

My Happy Mind: This week we have been reflecting on what we are grateful for and looking around the classroom to say why we are grateful for each and every one of us. Tell every member of your household why you love them and why you are grateful to have them in your lives.

Class Novel: In our class novel, we have been talking cuisines from different countries, particularly the Caribbean, as mentioned in our class novel. What is your favourite foreign cuisine that you have tried. Do you like spicy food? (unlike Mr Cornwell).

Let’s Celebrate!

  • Poppy for being a brave and resilient learner: You have had a lot thrown at you this week Poppy. You have been working so hard during your sessions with Mrs Tierney and Mrs Hennessy, and yet you always come back into the classroom and work to the best of your ability. All of this effort will pay off- you just have to believe in yourself


    Virtue Star of the Week: This week, our virtue star goes to Tommy. You are such a lovely lad Tommy. Without a doubt, you will always ask myself if there’s anything you can help with which is such a kind offer to give, especially every single day. You are a real motivator as well Tommy, always encouraging other children when they face a challenge and you are always engaging in our whole class discussions. Thank you so much for this and for just being you.


Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Josh

Marvelous Manners- Jacob

Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog and keep helping your child with any work that they are struggling with- especially our spellings. It is important to make sure we are reading for at least 15 minutes a day at home to keep broadening our vocabulary, description and sentence structure.

  • Eco Trip Wednesday 5th February- We will be going down to the Sand Dunes to plant Christmas Trees, ready to be grown for Christmas 2025! The children will need to bring clothes/shoes that they don’t mind getting dirty along with a waterproof coat. We are still needing a volunteer if anyone is interested.

  • PE Days- Our PE days have changed slightly with our outdoor session being on Mondays and our indoor session on Wednesdays.

  • Fidget Toys- If this has not been discussed with your class teacher, then any sort of fidget toys are not to be brought into school. Please can bags be checked incase these have been left in from the weekend. Trading cards and chewing gum should also be kept at home.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 17.01.25- ' Hard work beats talent when talents fails to work hard’




Yet another week has flown by as we are approaching the half way point of this half term! Regardless of the very cold and icy weather conditions, the children have soldiered on and cracked on with their learning as usual.

In English, we have been using our sci-fi nouns to produce extended noun phrases. The children have also been able to link their science knowledge of the solar system into their sci-fi writing to discuss planets, outer space and other outer world objects. In Maths, we have continued with our factors topic with many factor bugs being drawn to find all of our factor pairs. Recently, we have been linking this to multiples and analysing common multiples between different numbers.

We started our new History topic this week as we look into faiths of the world- in particular Islam. We have been discussing the origins of each of the ‘Big 5’ religions and where in the world these religions arose from.

The children’s favourite lesson of the week I’m sure would of been science this week as we looked at the phases of the moon. Knowing the full cycle of the moon along with the specific names of the phases can be difficult so we used a particular diagram (with famous connections with the moon) to help remember this.

It was a big week for Our Lady sports as many members of the class got to represent the school in the Fylde Athletics Competition at Blackpool Sports Centre. The children ran their socks off on the track and gave it their all in the field events to get Our Lady’s to our highest finish in years. Special shoutout to Daisy, Matilda, Rose and Beth for winning the opening race of the day in the obstacle relay and also John-Paul and Lorenzo for winning the highly anticipated 6 lap paarluf race. The rest of the class spent the afternoon with Mrs Harrison and Mrs Webster up in Year 6, in which their focus was the Pilgrims of Hope with some religious themed crafts activities. Both Year 6 teachers were full of praise in regards to the children’s behaviour, attitude and work ethic. A quick collaboration video of this event is available on Mrs Gregan’s blog.


Conversation starters

My Happy Mind: This week we have been reflecting on what we are grateful for and looking around the classroom to say why we are grateful for each and every one of us. Tell every member of your household why you love them and why you are grateful to have them in your lives.

Class Novel: In our class novel, we have been talking of different types of dialogue and how accents and languages are different from each other. Is there anyone in your family or do your parents know anyone with any distinctive accents.

Let’s Celebrate!

  • John-Paul for being a focused and co-operative learner: Such a trustworthy, passionate and kind friend. Your focus in class is impeccable. You just get your head down and get on with whatever task you have-your progress is all down to your hard work. This paid off massively in your athletics competition as you helped your team to victory in the toughest race of the event- You deserve it!


    Virtue Star of the Week: This week, our virtue star goes to William. You are such a caring and considerate friend William. You treat your fellow classmates which the love, respect and kindness that you wish you to be treated with- a true follower of our class slogan. The class are very lucky to have a classmate like yourself and I hope you understand that- your love and kindness does not go unnoticed.


Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Ciaran

Marvelous Manners- Hudson


Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog and keep helping your child with any work that they are struggling with- especially our spellings. It is important to make sure we are reading for at least 15 minutes a day at home to keep broadening our vocabulary, description and sentence structure.

  • Eco Trip Wednesday 5th February- We will be going down to the Sand Dunes to plant Christmas Trees, ready to be grown for Christmas 2025! The children will need to bring clothes/shoes that they don’t mind getting dirty along with a waterproof coat.

  • PE Days- Our PE days have changed slightly with our outdoor session being on Mondays and our indoor session on Wednesdays.

  • Fidget Toys- If this has not been discussed with your class teacher, then any sort of fidget toys are not to be brought into school. Please can bags be checked incase these have been left in from the weekend. Trading cards and chewing gum should also be kept at home.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 10.01.25- 'Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right'


A Happy New Year to you all and it has been a brilliant first school week of 2025. Learning has begun straight from the first minute and has not stopped all week. The children have settled back in really well and have picked the school routines back up very quickly. The new year in school was also greeted with a white welcome of snow and ice in which the children put their snow building skills to the test.

We kicked the week off with all things timed tables in maths as we prepare for our new unit of factors, multiples and primes. I have been so impressed with the children’s retention of these table facts and the speediness of their multiplication facts.

On Tuesday, we began our eagerly anticipated space topic in Science. We discussed what we already knew about space and any curious questions that we want to find out. This was helped by the inflatable planets up in our classroom- which was the focus for lesson as we discussed the planets that make up our solar system and learning the correct order of these.

On Wednesday, we started our new writing topic of Sci-Fi, where we looking at all the different components of sci fi and reenacted a specific sci-fi story. We then looked at how we could improve the writing of this story and how we could add more description.




The focus for PE this week was to prepare for the upcoming athletics tournament next week. The children had a go at attempting all of the events in the competition and there scores were recorded in order for them to try and beat their best score.

We finished the week off by starting our new class novel- ‘The Windrush Child’. This book is based on the true story of many children a part of the Windrush generation. The book focuses on the struggles of foreign families living abroad and how racism has impacted their lives.




Let’s Celebrate

  • Charlotte for being a reflective and co-operative learner: All of the Year 5 team have seen a big change from you in the new year. I can see you have reflected over the winter break about how to react to certain situations and the attitude you wish to portray throughout your day and this has been amazing to see. I hope you feel as proud of yourself as your teachers do.




  • Virtue Butterflies: Our new virtues for the half term are eloquent and truthful. Our butterfly this week goes to Jacob. You have been so helpful this week and always offering to help all of your teachers in any job being done. This has not gone unoticed and your teachers can not speak highly of your attitude since coming back to school. Excellent work.






    Lunchtime Certificates




    Role Model of the Week- Lilly

    Marvelous Manners- Logan

Notices

  • Indoor Athletics Competition- All children taking part have been informed and information regarding this is available on the sports page. This will take place on Wednesday 15th January.

  • Eco Trip Wednesday 5th February- We will be going down to the Sand Dunes to plant Christmas Trees, ready to be grown for Christmas 2025! The children will need to bring clothes/shoes that they don’t mind getting dirty along with a waterproof coat.




Year 5 Weekly Blog 13.12.24- 'Pilgrimage is a journey with the purpose of finding something that matters deeply'

7 down, 1 to go! We are finally coming to the end of our longest (yet favourite) half term of the year. In a rush to get our final English and Maths units completed before we enter Christmas memory week, we have been working hard with planning/writing our legend story and drawing/measuring angles in Maths. We ended our week with lots of Christmas spirit with our second ever Christmas Bake Off along with our nativity pilgrimages. The morning was a sugar filled morning with lots of fantastic bakes and cakes on show- we can’t thank you enough for all of the effort and love you have put into these. With lots of judging and tasting, we can say that Matilda won the Year 5 Bake Off with John- Paul coming second in both the Year 5 Bake Off and the family bake- well done you two!

In the afternoon, we took our Year 1 buddies on our nativity pilgrimage around the school to gather together in prayer and worship to reflect on the story of the nativity and to share this together.

On Wednesday, Mrs Tierney and Mrs Carter took the class outside for the afternoon for all things forest school. The children got to use their bulb planting skills from our previous eco trip to help spring our garden ready for the new year. The children also got to combine forest school with the festive spirit by making willow stars as a memento to take home.

Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Teddy

Marvelous Manners- Amelia

Notices

  • Homework: Make sure to check the homework blog and make sure homework is handed in on time.

  • Coats: Now the weather is starting to drop and we edge closer towards winter, can all children have a coat with them to make sure they are protected when out at break times.

  • Travelling Nativity: Please enjoy the wonderful story of the nativity with your child when you receive this. This needs to be brought back into school the following day to allow another child to share this joy. You can take a picture of your child with the nativity and send me this via email.

  • Christmas Cards: To keep inline with our eco responsibilities and to remain sustainable, could we ask not to bring whole class Christmas cards and instead the children make 1 card which is for the whole class. These cards will then go onto our advent worship table.

  • KS2 Christmas Concert: This will take place at Church on Monday 16th December. The children will perform the concert twice at 2pm and 6pm.

  • KS2 Christmas Party Day: Wednesday 18th December. We will also be having a film afternoon on this day so the children can bring in a drink and a small bar of chocolate.

  • Half Term: School will close at 2pm on Friday 20th December for half term. School will reopen on Monday 6th January.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 29.11.24- ' Advent is the time to welcome the Lord and to verifying our longing to God'

With what usually tends to be a slow month, November has flown by as we enter the first week of Advent. A month of celebration and togetherness but we start week by week with ‘Hope’. It was wonderful for our children to start our advent preparations with a beautiful liturgy this week, with some wonderful scripture and song choice. Moving forward, we made our advent promises on a nativity star in which we thought about how we can be hopeful this year and intentional towards God.

In English, we have been analysing our main character, Prince Llewelyn, in our legend story and looking how his emotions change throughout the story. We have then applied this to writing a diary entry as the prince himself.

In Geography, we have continued with looking into biomes and have used a map to compare these across continents of the world.

This week, we have also finished our last hall practice session for our KS2 Christmas concert as we have practiced all of our songs in our booklet. Now it is about transferring this onto the altar and getting off script with our songs. We will be walking down to church weekly now for our weekly practices so it is vital that the children have coats and gloves during these very chilly conditions. Two groups of children have also been battling conditions this week and have been putting in the hard yards during some woodchip manual work, in order to get our forest school up and ready. Both Mrs Tierney and Mrs Lavelle could not praise the children more on how hard they worked and how much weight of woodchip collectively they managed to get through.

Conversation starters

  • My Happy Mind: We put our memories to the test by trying to memorize all 24 character strengths and placing them into their virtues. How many of the 24 strengths can you remember?

  • Geography: We have looked at biomes and climates to compare different environments of the world. If you could live in any part of the world, where would you live and why?

Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star of the Week: Our virtue star this week goes to Tommy. You have such a sweet heart Tommy. You are such a valued member of the class and this week you have been so active around the classroom, always offering to help out with any of the adults’ tasks which has been so lovely of you. Your helping hand will be very much appreciated during this busy period of the year.

Daisy for being a determined learner: When it comes to independent writing tasks, you are a woman on a mission Daisy. You are so determined to make sure your work is of the highest quality and you take pride in your work. This has been seen this week as you have started your second book and we compared the changes in your handwriting since September. It was pleasing for me to see this and even more so for yourself. Well done!

Seth for being a enthusiastic learner: Both myself and Mrs Barker have seen a big improvement from you this week Seth. Your hand has been shooting up which shows your eagerness to contribute towards our learning. This has also been seen in your independent work as you have been working on managing your distractions. Keep this up!

My Happy Mind Champion of the Week- Poppy

Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Beth

Marvelous Manners- Seth

Notices

  • Homework: Make sure to check the homework blog and make sure homework is handed in on time.

  • Coats: Now the weather is starting to drop and we edge closer towards winter, can all children have a coat with them to make sure they are protected when out at break times.

  • Travelling Nativity: Please enjoy the wonderful story of the nativity with your child when you receive this. This needs to be brought back into school the following day to allow another child to share this joy. You can take a picture of your child with the nativity and send me this via email.

  • Christmas Cards: To keep inline with our eco responsibilities and to remain sustainable, could we ask not to bring whole class Christmas cards and instead the children make 1 card which is for the whole class. These cards will then go onto our advent worship table.

  • Own Clothes Day: To celebrate the arrival of December and the festive period, then children can wear their own clothes and also donate a bar of chocolate for the Christmas Raffle. This will take place on Friday 29th November.

    This will be the same on Friday 6th December but it will be bring a bottle. This can be a bottle of anything that could go into our hampers and considered a prize such as alcohol, bubble baths, sweets in a jar etc.

  • KS2 Christmas Film Night: If you would like to watch a Christmas film after school, with your friends, with popcorn, hotdogs and hot chocolates, then head over to Mrs Gregan’s blog to book this.

  • Christmas Bake Off: Last year went so well, we just had to do it again! All things Christmas with cakes, bakes and jumpers on Friday 13th December.

  • KS2 Christmas Concert: This will take place at Church on Monday 16th December. The children will perform the concert twice at 2pm and 6pm.

  • KS2 Christmas Party Day: Wednesday 18th December

  • Half Term: School will close at 2pm on Friday 20th December for half term. School will reopen on Monday 6th January.

Year 5 Weekly Blog 15.11.24- ' Everything is better in pyjamas’

The week has certainly flown by this week as the countdown to Christmas has begun! Lots of learning has been taking place, even when dressed in the comfiest pyjamas at the end of the week. Regardless of all of the excitement of teddies, onesies and oodies, the children’s focus and attitude towards their learning was still as expected- which is a big sign of maturity as upper juniors. This was seen during our English and spelling lessons today with the children thinking deeply into different pairs of homophones and how they differ and also when it was time to get active during our ‘legends carousel’ in English. Can the members of your household complete the ‘Pronunciation Poem’ ?

In Maths, it has been all things money this week, with us comparing the value of the different coins/notes we use and how we can combine these to reach total amounts. We have looked at different methods that we can use when calculating with money to make things simplier for ourselves- such as adjusting.

In Geography ,we have continued with looking into the world map and the countries within it- this week it has been all about capital cities. We shared what we already know about them and how many capital cities do they already know around the world. We then used our investigating skills to locate the biggest cities in the UK and where they are located on a map.

We also started our Computing lessons this week and deep dived into the world of coding. The children were able to apply their previously learned skills and their creativity to complete certain tasks.

Conversation starters

  • Can you remember which character strength you chose that you need to work on in My Happy Mind. Share this with your parents and discuss how they could help you strive to improving this strength.

  • Geography: We have looked at capital cities of the world. Compete with your family members to see who can name more capital cities of the world.

Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star of the Week: Our virtue star of the week goes to Hudson. You have such a kind and caring nature Hudson and you are so prophetic in your actions- especially out on the playground. Your aim is always to have fun and to look after others and this is just a joy to see.

Joseph for being a determined and reflective learner: What a week you have had Joseph! I have seen a big shift in your maturity levels this past few weeks and how reflective you have been in your choices. I can see how determined you are in making sure your making more right choices and this has been noticed by all of your staff members. Keep this up!

Amelia for being a determined and enthusiastic learner: You are like a woman on a mission when it comes to your learning Amelia. You are so determined to get through your work, also making sure it is of a high standard- and you do this with such enthusiasm. Excellent work.

My Happy Mind Champion of the Week-

Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Tommy

Marvelous Manners- Charlotte

Notices

  • Homework: Make sure to check the homework blog and make sure homework is handed in on time.

  • Coats: Now the weather is starting to drop and we edge closer towards winter, can all children have a coat with them to make sure they are protected when out at break times.

  • Travelling Nativity: Please enjoy the wonderful story of the nativity with your child when you receive this. This needs to be brought back into school the following day to allow another child to share this joy. You can take a picture of your child with the nativity and send me this via email.

  • Own Clothes Day: To celebrate the arrival of December and the festive period, then children can wear their own clothes and also donate a bar of chocolate for the Christmas Raffle. This will take place on Friday 29th November.

  • Christmas Bake Off: Last year went so well, we just had to do it again! All things Christmas with cakes, bakes and jumpers on Friday 13th December.

  • KS2 Christmas Concert: This will take place at Church on Monday 16th December. The children will perform the concert twice at 2pm and 6pm.