This is a response to learning about the Montgomery bus boycott, as part of our ACE Historian unit. The themes explored in the lesson are around racial segregation, inequality, discrimination, non-violent protests and hostility.

After learning, the children were tasked to represent what they have learnt through abstract art: colour, movement and shapes. These are some examples of the responses:

This half term we have been exploring Space and beyond! Within this, we have learnt about the orbit and rotation of the Earth around the Sun. In addition to this, we have explored the role of the Moon, as well as the orbital periods of the other planets in our Solar System. We set up a fair test investigation, theorising how we can prove that the Earth rotates on its axis 24 hours a day, through measuring and using compasses to mark the direction of shadows throughout one day, hour-by-hour. This week, we will conduct our investigation and use the results to analyse whether we can prove or disprove our hypotheses. Hopefully we get a sunny day!

On Wednesday, our STEM partners came into school to help us understand the SuDS systems that Yorkshire Water have installed. (STEM is Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics)

SuDS stands for Sustainable Drainage Systems.They slow down the flow of rain water into the drainage systems helping to prevent the drains being overwhelmed during very heavy rain events.

Our STEM partners from COWI were Oriana, Bhawna, Michaela and Mark. After introducing themselves and explaining a little bit about their roles they explained how SuDS worked and were needed to help manage water in a world of Climate Change.

We then took part in an activity to explore how different materials slow down the rate of flow of water. This video explains how:

And here are some photos of the workshop:

A huge thank you to our STEM partners for giving up their time to come and share with us.

Wow, well.. what can I say! Macbeth is officially over and what an amazing experience we had. Last week, performing at the Carriageworks, was such a special time for everybody. The awe and wonder on 5H’s faces when they entered the auditorium for the first time is something that I wish I could’ve captured. Their professionalism, enthusiasm and teamwork during the day was outstanding. I couldn’t be prouder of them! We are awaiting the photography from the night but, in the meantime, here is a video of one of our dress rehearsals.

Today, some of our Y5s attended a Drama workshop with the actors from the theatre company ‘Wrongsemble’. They are a Leeds-based company and offered us a session to explore and consolidate Macbeth. It was wonderful timing, given our performances are next week and the children loved it. The teachers also commented on how brilliant the actors were and how enthused our pupils were. We will definitely be exploring using Wrongsemble again in the future for workshops and performances in school!

What a blast we’ve had rehearsing for Macbeth. It’s been an amazing experience for everybody, including me. What an honour to be able to work with a group of such talented, creative children who care deeply about what they’re doing. Here are some action shots from today’s practise.

Last week, we explored acrylic portrait painting. This is a really challenging skill and 5H shone, listening so carefully to the step-by-step breakdown of where to start. We really built on y4 knowledge, considering the positioning of facial features, the shading to use and how where the sunlight hits the face affects the overall final composition. We mixed, created tonal washes and reflected, going again on them the following day to really make the portraits pop! We have a little bit of finishing to do but we hope you like them so far. We will be using them as surprise props in our final Macbeth performance at the Carriageworks.

What an explosively creative week we’ve had in 5H! I am blown away by the talent of 5H and what we have achieved together over the space of one week. We’ve discussed plot points; character development; stage directions; props and makeup; and our voice, volume and body when acting. Wow! It’s been so much fun. See you in Week 2 for more drama!

Our unit of Art this half term is silk painting. Today, we explored how to create an Antarctic landscape whilst thinking about the gutta we will use to separate the eventual paint we use from bleeding from one colour into another. To demo this, we used handwriting pens and really thought about the clarity and mood of the art we were creating.

Year 5 were treated to a very exciting, hands-on afternoon today coordinated by Mr Magnall our sustainability lead and Aqua Consultants (engineers) as part of our 18-month Royal Society biodiversity project. The children worked on 4 projects across the afternoon: building hedgehog houses, bird boxes, insect hotels and composting. There was plenty of opportunity to get involved with the power drills, hammers and saws and the children were fantastic at following instructions and working collaboratively. Who knew there was so much Maths in building… from measuring, angles, shape, depth we discussed so much throughout the afternoon.