Year 5

Friday, 21st March, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer has been courageously exploring various sentence types with great enthusiasm. Well done and congratulations!

Well done to our Reading Award Winner!

Congratulations for receiving your well-deserved certificate!

Congratulations to MK for participating in Round 2 of Hornbill’s Got Talent 2025!
He sang Royalty by Egzod. Well done!

Space Expo 2025

Year 5 went on a Space Mission (our theme for term 2) at the beginning of this term and came out the other end being more informed and independent in subjects across the board. They used all of our school’s eight learning powers – communication, courage, creativity, curiosity, exploration, energy, resilience and reflection – throughout their journey, learning and gaining knowledge with each passing day.

Thank you to all the parents for coming to the exhibition yesterday to celebrate our children’s hard work and their achievements from this term. We hope you enjoyed the exhibition as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you!

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

Set 2 of Remembering the Doubles

Aggressive
Apparent
Community
Embarrass
Harass
Interrupt
Marvellous
Occupy
Occur

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on SUMMARISING the text.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – Shapes

LO5: I can draw lines and angles accurately.

LO6: I can calculate angles around a point.

LO7: I can calculate angles on a straight line.

LO8: I can explore different strategies for calculating missing angles and lengths in shape.

LO9: I can explore regular and irregular polygons.

LO10: I can explore 3-D shapes.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Geography – The children completed their models of the water cycle. We then looked at the impacts of climate change on the water cycle.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 7th April

English – Poetry with a structure

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

Sound – /s/

Spelling – /c/

Century
Cemetery
Criticise
Existence
Hindrance
Medicine
Notice
Prejudice
Pronunciation
Sincere

VIPERS – We will be reading Winter of The Wolves by Tony Bradman and try to focus on RETRIEVING questions.

Maths – Position and Direction

Science – Living Things and Their Habitats

Geography – My region and the Western United States

DT – Sewing (textiles)

PE – Swimming

Computing – Spreadsheets

Art – Artworks inspired by The Anglo Saxons

PSHE – Relationships

RE – What does it mean to be a Muslim?

Happy Easter!
Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Hornbill House Team Points – Term 2

Friday, 14th March, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

YL is a resilient learner, who never gives up and always strives to be a better version of himself. DS has been making leaps and bounds of progress across the board as she is conscientious and highly reflective. Congratulations to both children, keep up the good work!

Well done to our Reading Award Winner!

Reminder
Science Expo on Thursday, the 20^th of March, from 0815 hrs to 0915 hrs!

Congratulations to our first two participants of Hornbill’s Got Talent 2025!
The duo sang Shakira’s Try Everything beautifully. Well done!

English – The children finished publishing their non-chronological reports on various space themed topics, ready for display in our Science Expo on Thursday, the 20^th of March.

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

Set 2 of Remembering the Doubles

Aggressive
Apparent
Community
Embarrass
Harass
Interrupt
Marvellous
Occupy
Occur

LO1: I can understand and use degrees.

LO2: I can classify angles.

LO3: I can estimate angles.

LO4: I can measure angles up to 180 degrees.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Geography – We discussed the Water Cycle in detail and the children have begun making their models of the cycle, which will be completed next week.

Science – A new topic to commence in term 3

DT – After having made a 3D framework for their cam toys by accurately measuring, marking out, cutting and shaping materials last week, the children completed making their models by applying a range of finishing techniques, including those from art and design.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

RE – We explored Jesus’ example of ‘Justice and Fairness’ and how this applies to life today.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 17th March

English – Reflection on various topics completed so far.

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

Set 2 of Remembering the Doubles

Aggressive
Apparent
Community
Embarrass
Harass
Interrupt
Marvellous
Occupy
Occur

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and try to focus on RETRIEVING questions.

Maths – Shapes

Science – A new topic to commence in term 3

Geography – My region and the Western United States/ The Water Cycle

DT – A new topic to commence in term 3

PE – Swimming

Computing – A new topic to commence in term 3

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Healthy Me

RE – What would Jesus do? Can we live by the values of Jesus in the 21^st century?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

PE Blog – Racquet Club

Friday, 7th March, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our high flyer from this week is a curious mathematician, always eager to explore questions that challenge him the most. Congratulations! Keep working hard!

Well done to our Reading Award Winner!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

World Book Dress Up Day!

Hornbill School celebrated the World Book Dress Up Day on Thursday, the 6^th of March, with much enthusiasm and fanfare. Children and staff from across the school dressed up as their favourite book characters and each year group showed great excitement during their walk along the ramp, showing off their creativity in style. Below are some pictures of our wonderful pupils from Year 5, the first two being that of the winners for the best costumes (SG for focusing on the theme – The Dot – and JB for her creativity with the props).

English – Phase 3 of Non-Chronological Report writing on Space based topics.

LO10: I can plan a non-chronological report independently.

LO11: I can write a non-chronological report independently.

LO12: I can write a non-chronological report independently.

LO13: I can edit my work.

LO14: I can publish my report using my best handwriting.

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

Remembering the Doubles

Accompany
According
Committee
Communicate
Embarrass
Immediate
Immediately
Necessary

LO2: I can read and interpret line graphs.

LO3: I can read and interpret tables.

LO4: I can read and interpret two-way tables.

LO5: I can read and interpret timetables.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Geography – We have begun looking into the similarities and differences of the different regions that make up the USA, focusing on the use of key vocabulary.

Science – A new topic to commence in term 3

DT – The children made, reinforced and strengthened a 3D framework for their cam toys by accurately measuring, marking out, cutting and shaping materials and compounds. They will be accurately applying a range of finishing techniques, including those from art and design next week.

Computing – Using 2investigate, the children created their own databases.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

RE – We explored Jesus’ example of ‘forgiveness’ and how this applies to life today.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 10th March

English – Poetry With A Structure

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

Set 2 of Remembering the Doubles

Aggressive
Apparent
Community
Embarrass
Harass
Interrupt
Marvellous
Occupy
Occur

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and try to focus on RETRIEVING questions.

Maths – Shapes

Science – A new topic to commence in term 3

Geography – My region and the Western United States

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Swimming

Computing – Data Bases

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Healthy Me

RE – What would Jesus do? Can we live by the values of Jesus in the 21^st century?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 28th February, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our high flyer from this week is a conscientious learner who constantly reflects and learns from her mistakes. Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

Purple Day!

Our Random Acts of Kindness Week culminated today with Purple Day when the school was flooded with different shades of purple and other bright colours. Besides donating $1 each for Purple Day, Year 5 managed to collect a jar full of loose change this week. They made a smiley face with the coins collected, which will be donated to two chosen charities: The Little Princess Trust and Love Paws Sanctuary.

Well done to our Reading Award Winner!

Congratulations on receiving your well-deserved certificates!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

English – Non-Chronological Report writing on Space based topics.

LO4: I can use quantifying determiners.

LO5: I can use third person and understand facts and opinions.

LO6: I can use non-fiction -ed and -ing sentences.

LO7: I can apply the features of a non-chronological report.

LO8: I can retrieve facts and information from non-fiction texts.

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

Remembering the Doubles

Accompany
According
Committee
Communicate
Embarrass
Immediate
Immediately
Necessary

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on SUMMARISING the text.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads are worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We completed Perimeter and Area and have started Statistics.

Perimeter and Area:

LO4: I can calculate the area of rectangles.

LO5: I can calculate the area of compound shapes.

LO6: I can estimate the area of different shapes.

Statistics:

LO1: I can draw line graphs.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Geography – Using atlases, the children identified the four regions that make up North America, located the USA on a map and did some research to find out about different states and their capital cities.

Science – Today was our last science lesson for this term. This hour will be used for geography from next week until the beginning of term 3.

Computing – Using 2investigate, the children created their own databases.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

RE – We explored Jesus’ example of ‘love’ and how this applies to life today.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 3rd March

English – Non-Chronological Report (Space) – independent writing

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

Remembering the Doubles

Accompany
According
Committee
Communicate
Embarrass
Immediate
Immediately
Necessary

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and try to focus on SUMMARISING questions.

Maths – Statistics

Science – A new topic to commence in term 3

Geography – My region and the Western United States

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Swimming

Computing – Data Bases

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Healthy Me

RE – What would Jesus do? Can we live by the values of Jesus in the 21^st century?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 21st February, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer from this week is a curious learner with an amazing sense of responsibility. Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

Well done to our Reading Award Winners!

English – Non-Chronological Report writing on Space based topics.

LO1: I can ask questions to improve my understanding of the topic.

LO2: I can explain the purpose of a non-chronological report features.

LO3: I can retrieve facts and information from non-fiction texts.

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

Sound : /shun/
Spelling : /tion/, /sion/ and /ssion/

competition
explanation
mention
occasion
position
possession
profession
pronunciation
question

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on RETRIEVING and EXPLAINING the text.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – Perimeter and Area:

LO1: I can calculate the perimeter of rectangles.

LO2: I can calculate the perimeter of rectilinear shapes.

LO3: I can calculate the perimeter of polygons.

LO4: I can calculate the area of rectangles.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Geography – Using atlases, the children identified the four regions that make up North America, located the USA on a map and did a bit of research to find its different states and their capital cities.

Computing – We started our new topic, Databases, this week by trying our hands on the sort and find functions using the 2investigate software.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

RE – We explored the inspiration provided to Christians by the events of the life of Jesus.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 24th February

English – Non-Chronological Report (Space)

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

Remembering the Doubles

Accompany
According
Committee
Communicate
Embarrass
Immediate
Immediately
Necessary

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and try to focus on SUMMARISING questions.

Maths – Perimeter and Area followed by Statistics

Science – Earth and Space

Geography – My region and the Western United States

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Swimming

Computing – Data Bases

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Healthy Me

RE – What would Jesus do? Can we live by the values of Jesus in the 21^st century?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

KIRFs Term 2.2

Things to try

Practice times tables up to 12 using some of the following websites:
https://mathsframe.co.uk
https://ttrockstars.com
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
Rapid fire to check times tables knowledge.
Practice instant recall of squared and cubed numbers using the websites mentioned below.

Websites to support learning

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articl e s/z2ndsrd#znn7ywx
https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/lessons/square-and-cube-numbers-6hjp8t
https://uk.ixl.com/maths/year-5/understand-square-and-cube-numbers

Thursday, 13th February, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

This week, we are celebrating SRM for being a fantastic citizen and a resilient learner. Well done and congratulations!

Well done to our Reading Award Winners!

CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING YOUR WELL-DESERVED CERTIFICATES!

English – We have accomplished our goal set three weeks ago to write a Sci-Fi narrative.

LO9: I can apply the features of a sci-fi narrative in my planning.

LO10: I can write the opening of a sci-fi narrative using DAD.

LO11: I can write subsequent paragraphs of a sci-fi narrative using DAD, adverbials of place and time and expanded noun phrases.

LO12: I can write subsequent paragraphs of a sci-fi narrative using various sentence structures.

LO13: I can edit and improve my writing.

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

Sound : /shun/
Spelling : /tion/, /sion/ and /ssion/

competition
explanation
mention
occasion
position
possession
profession
pronunciation
question

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on RETRIEVING and EXPLAINING the text.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths –Decimals and Percentages:

LO14: I can calculate percentages as decimals.

LO15: I can calculate equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages.

LO16: Assessment

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Science – Phases of the moon.

Geography – We compared the physical and natural features of the countries of the United Kingdom and Brunei in Borneo.

Computing – The children were able to finish making their games using 2DIY and have a go with playing their peers’ games, giving them feedback. We will start a new topic after the long weekend.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

RE – We visited the temple to learn more about Hinduism from our revered punditji.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 17th February

English – Non-Chronological Report (Space)

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

Sound : /shun/
Spelling : /tion/, /sion/ and /ssion/

competition
explanation
mention
occasion
position
possession
profession
pronunciation
question

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and try to focus on RETRIEVAL and INFERENCE questions.

Maths – Perimeter and Area

Science – Earth and Space

Geography – My region and the Western United States

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Swimming

Computing – Data Bases

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Healthy Me

RE – What would Jesus do? Can we live by the values of Jesus in the 21^st century?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 7th February, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our high flyer from this week is an amazing writer, who uses his imagination and creativity to generate captivating stories at every given opportunity. Well done and congratulations!

BP also completed 350 reads this week!

Lion Dance at Medicina Lines
Years 5 and 6 got a wonderful opportunity to watch the Lion Dance Show, performed to mark the Chinese New Year, at Medicina Lines this morning. They were all beautifully dressed in various shades of red, gold and other bright colours, which the Chinese consider auspicious. Some of the children were pleased to get hold of the oranges thrown by the performers whilst everybody else enjoyed being in the audience, mesmerised by their brilliant execution.

English – This week, we focussed on generating interest in the Sci-Fi genre we began last week through the exploration of videos, short narratives and beautiful pictures of futuristic settings. Below are the objectives covered:

LO4: I can create expanded noun phrases, building from a single noun related to a science fiction stimulus.

LO5: I can use knowledge of prefixes to understand meanings of words.

LO6: I can develop futuristic setting.

LO7: I can develop characterisation through description, action and dialogue (DAD).

LO8: I can develop the plot for my sci-fi narrative.

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words – /ee/ sound spelt with an /e/

decide
describe
determined
develop
equip
equipment
equipped
frequently
recent
remember

LO9: I can order and compare any decimals with up to 3 decimal places.

LO10: I can round to the nearest whole number.

LO11: I can round to 1 decimal place.

LO12: I can understand how percentages work.

LO13: I can calculate percentages as fractions.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Science – We learned into the different movements of the Earth (rotation and revolution – orbiting) and its Moon in relation to the Sun.

Geography – We started our new topic, My Region and the Western World, in geography this week by looking at the physical and natural features of the United Kingdom to begin with.

DT – In the run up to designing and making cam toys in the next few weeks, we completed the following learning objective this week to trial and test our skills: LO4 – I can accurately measure, mark out, cut and shape materials and components.

PE – Tee-ball (Mr Sherwin) and Dance (Mrs Rai)

Computing – Most of the children were able to finish making their games using 2DIY and some had a go with playing their peers’ games and giving them feedback.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

RE – We had some lovely discussions on various statements and questions about places of worship to foster development of individual thoughts and opinions in our safe classroom environment this week.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.se on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 10th February

English – Sci-fi fiction narrative writing (independent)

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

Sound : /shun/
Spelling : /tion/, /sion/ and /ssion/

competition
explanation
mention
occasion
position
possession
profession
pronunciation
question

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and try to focus on PREDICTION and INFERENCE questions.

Maths – Decimals and Percentages

Science – Earth and Space

Geography – My region and the Western United States

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Tee-ball and Dance

Computing – Game Creator

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Dreams and Goals

RE – If God is everywhere, why go to a place of worship?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 31st January, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

SG has been our high flyer this week for being extremely creative in her narrative writing. Congratulations, keep up the good work!

English – This week, we embarked on an imaginative journey to the world of science fiction with the aim of producing a captivating narrative in three weeks. The following objectives have been met so far:

LO1: I can discuss science fiction features and express ideas clearly and audibly.

LO2: I can use adverbials of time to retell a story.

LO3: I can compare texts, identify similarities and differences, state preferences and support with reasons.

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words – /ee/ sound spelt with an /e/

decide
describe
determined
develop
equip
equipment
equipped
frequently
recent
remember

LO6: I can explain thousandths as decimals.

LO7: I can calculate thousandths on a place value chart.

LO8: I can order and compare decimals with the same number of decimal places.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Science – The children were able to measure the lengths of their shadows at different times of the day, draw line graphs and compare their conclusions with their predictions.

Geography – The children were provided with a set of data to analyse the depth of a river: they drew bar graphs based on the data and made various conclusions based on their graphs.

PE – Tee-ball (Mr Sherwin) and Dance (Mrs Rai)

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 3rd February

English – Sci-fi fiction narrative writing

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words – /ee/ sound spelt with an /e/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

decide
describe
determined
develop
equip
equipment
equipped
frequently
recent
remember

BJSL Cross Country

Friday, 24th January, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer from this week has been highly reflective, making progress in all areas of learning. Well done and congratulations! Keep up the good work!

Interschool cross-country
races were held at the Garrison Sports Centre yesterday, the 23rd of
January, and we are proud to announce that BP from our class bagged a bronze
medal. Well done and congratulations, BP!

English – Following their plans and using the materials they put together after research, the children completed writing and publishing their booklets this week. Their cover pages look brilliant too! A few finishing touches here and there will make the booklets ready to be showcased at the expo which is to be held at the end of this term.

LO8: I can write introductory and subsequent paragraphs using a variety of effective sentence structures.

LO9: I can write subsequent paragraphs focusing on commas and brackets for parenthesis.

LO10: I can build cohesion in my writing.

LO11: I can edit and improve my writing.

LO12: I can publish my information booklet.(2-3 days)

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Individual
Lightning
Neighbour
Relevant
Shoulder
Symbol
Temperature
Vegetable
Twelfth

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on PREDICTION and RETRIEVAL questions.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths –Decimals and Percentages:

LO2: I can explain equivalent fractions and decimals when working with tenths.

LO3: I can explain equivalent fractions and decimals when working with hundredths.

LO4: I can explain equivalent fractions and decimals.

LO5: I can explain thousandths as fractions.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Science – We looked at the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the Sun in the solar system with our key vocabulary being orbit, rotation, revolution, year, day and night.

Geography – We looked at the role of a geographer and discussed how geographical fieldwork could be a fun way to learn.

DT – This week the children did a bit of research on how gears work and were able to explain and make illustrations of the simple machine.

PE – Tee-ball (Mr Sherwin) and Dance (Mrs Rai)

Computing – Using their plan from last week, most of the children were able to design their own games using the 2DIY 3-D software.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

RE – We discussed places of worship that aren’t buildings and how they came to be.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 27th January

English – Sci-fi fiction

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words – /ee/ sound spelt with an /e/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

decide
describe
determined
develop
equip
equipment
equipped
frequently
recent
remember

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and focus on PREDICTION AND INFERENCE questions.

Maths – Decimals and Percentages

Science – Earth and Space

Geography – Rivers

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Tee-ball and Dance

Computing – Game Creator

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Dreams and Goals

RE – If God is everywhere, why go to a place of worship?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Mrs Rai

Friday, 17th January, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

SR is a positively engaged, reflective learner, who always strives to be the best version of herself. Well done for engaging in positive learning behaviours, SR!

Well done on receiving your well-deserved certificates:

English – After completing research work on various topics of their choice, the children have put together a writing plan, which they will be using to produce a Science Booklets next week.

LO5: I can use a range of research skills to gather information to answer questions. I can take notes effectively. (3 days)

LO6: I can use similar writing models to write a plan on an information booklet taking account of the audience and purpose.

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Individual
Lightning
Neighbour
Relevant
Shoulder
Symbol
Temperature
Vegetable
Twelfth

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on RETRIEVAL and INFERENCE questions.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We finished Fractions and have started our new topic, Decimals and Percentages.

Fractions:

LO6: I can find the whole.

LO7: I can use fractions as operators.

Decimals and Percentages:

LO1: I can represent decimals up to 2 decimal places.

LO2: I can explain equivalent fractions and decimals when working with tenths.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Science – Using key vocabulary like shadow, horizon, constellations, celestial bodies, eclipse and Aristotle, children were able to discuss and describe the evidences for the Earth being a spherical object.

Geography – The children explored the features of a river creatively by spending a couple of hours designing and making models of rivers with the features wonderfully labelled.

DT – Year 5 worked in pairs to make pulleys using recycled materials. They were given 50 minutes to plan and finish their pulleys and they did a brilliant job! Well done to all of them!

PE – Tee-ball (Mr Sherwin) and Dance (Mrs Rai)

Computing – Using their plan from last week, most of the children were able to design their own games using the 2DIY 3-D software.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – We discussed how our children are privileged to be able to receive free education while children from most other parts of the world aren’t able to go to school as their parents are unable to pay their tuition fees. We then looked at the difference between a job and a profession and how a profession can turn into a career.

RE – If God is everywhere, why go to a place of worship?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Please see the attached STA Parent information leaflets, for your information:
Phonics Screening Check for parents
Multiplication Tables Check for parents
Key stage 2 National Curriculum tests

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 27th January

English – Create a Science Booklet using their planning from last week.

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Individual
Lightning
Neighbour
Relevant
Shoulder
Symbol
Temperature
Vegetable
Twelfth

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and focus on INFERENCE questions.

Maths – Decimals and Percentages

Science – Earth and Space

Geography – Rivers

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Tee-ball and Dance

Computing – Game Creator

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Dreams and Goals

RE – If God is everywhere, why go to a place of worship?

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 10th January, 2025

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer this week has been highly explorative, using varied sentence structures in his recent narrative. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Welcome to a Term 2!

With Space Mission being our overarching theme for this term, the children have not only begun their learning journey with various topics about space across the curriculum, but they have also just entered a competition to design the simplest, yet most sophisticated, model of the Solar System using cam mechanisms for DT. Here’s wishing and hoping that this will be another exciting term for both the children and I!

English – We began our new genre, Science Booklet, this week by covering the following objectives:

LO1: I can distinguish between different text types within a booklet, stating the purpose and audience of each text.

LO2: I can identify and collect examples of where brackets have been used for parenthesis. I can identify and use brackets to indicate parenthesis.

LO3: I can distinguish between statements of fact or opinion within a text.

LO4: I can identify the focus questions for research.

LO5: I can use a range of research skills to gather information to answer the questions. I can take notes effectively. (3 days)

We shall continue with the 5^th LO next week too.

Spelling – Week 1: Common Exception Words

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Accommodation
Achieve
Appreciate
Communicate
Criticise
Exaggerate
Guide
Persuade
Recognise
Sacrifice

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on VOCABULARY and RETRIEVAL.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – This week, we started the next set of Fractions.

Fractions B:

What I am learning:

LO1: I can multiply a unit fraction by an integer.

LO2: I can multiply a non-unit fraction by an integer.

LO3: I can multiply a mixed number by an integer.

LO4: I can calculate a fraction of a quantity.

LO5: I can calculate a fraction of an amount.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Science – Our new topic in science is Earth and Space! It was amazing to learn that most of the children remembered the names of the planets of our Solar System from Year 2. After a brief prior knowledge check, they worked in pairs to research about different planets in our Solar System. Following are some of the areas of research:

Distance from the Earth
Distance from the Sun
Composition (What are they made up of?)
Temperature
Time of rotation (Day and night)
Time of revolution (One full movement around the Sun – a year)
Number and names of moons
Other interesting facts

Geography – We started our first geography lesson, Rivers, this week. We looked at the different features of a river. We are hoping to plan a fieldtrip to one of the rivers in Brunei later on in the school year to complement our learning.

DT – Year 5 has just entered a competition to design the simplest, yet most sophisticated model of the Solar System using cam mechanisms this week. This week, we looked at how levers could be used to create movements, using our body for example. They managed to make a moving skeleton using this mechanism.

PE – Tee-ball (Mr Sherwin) and Dance (Mrs Rai)

Computing – In our first lesson under the new topic, Game Creator, children were able to analyse few games and plan their own.

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Our new topic is Dreams and Goals and we looked at the importance of money in fulfilling certain dreams. The children were able to discuss their aspirations with some good reasonings.

RE – We explored places of worship for different religions and their key features.

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 13th January

English – Complete research work on a chosen topic in Space and start planning for the Science Booklet.

Spelling – Week 2: Common Exception Words

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Accommodation
Achieve
Appreciate
Communicate
Criticise
Exaggerate
Guide
Persuade
Recognise
Sacrifice

VIPERS – We shall continue to read Cosmic thoroughly and focus on RETRIEVAL questions.

Maths – Fractions B and Decimals

Science – Earth and Space

Geography – Rivers

DT – Cam Toys

PE – Tee-ball and Dance

Computing – Game Creator

Art – Artworks inspired by Rocket and Space (varied media options according to independent designs).

PSHE – Celebrating Differences

RE – Place of worship

Music – Space themed music, including listening to and describing its effect and use on musical dimensions.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

KIRFs Introduction

What are KIRFs?
They are specific to each year group, building on your child’s prior learning whilst linking to the national curriculum. To support your child’s fluency and mental maths skills, we are introducing KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) throughout school from FS2 to Y6. KIRFS are a way of helping your child to learn by heart, key facts and information which they need to have instant recall of. They contain number facts such as number bonds and times tables that need constant practise and rehearsal, so children can recall them quickly and accurately.

Instant recall of facts helps enormously with mental agility and flexibility in maths lessons. When children move onto written calculations, knowing these key facts is very beneficial. For your child to become more efficient in recalling them easily, they need to be practised frequently and for short periods of time.

How can we access the KIRFs at home?
Each half term, children will focus on a Key Instant Recall Fact (KIRF) to practise and learn at home for the half term. They will be available on our school website, on the class blog. At the end of each half term there will be a fluency champion chosen from each class and they will be given a badge for maths. Children will be rewarded for their commitment to their learning and the progress they have made with their KIRFs that term.

How do we practise the KIRFs?
They are not designed to be a time-consuming task and can be practised anywhere – in the car, walking to school, etc. Regular practice – little and often – helps children to retain these facts and keep their skills sharp. The KIRFs include key vocabulary and examples of the key skills, as well as practical ideas to assist your child in grasping the key facts. Each KIRF also contains helpful suggestions of ways in which you could make this learning interesting.

How are the KIRFs developed in school?
Throughout the half term, the KIRFs will also be practised regularly and in short bursts in school. Over their time at primary school, we believe that – if the KIRFs are developed fully – children will be more confident when working with number, understand its relevance, and be able to access the curriculum much more easily.

Websites to support learning

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zfq7hyc/articles/z2q26fr
Math Eggs: Prime Numbers | Play Math Eggs: Prime Numbers on PrimaryGames
How to find prime numbers and factors | Oxford Owl – YouTube

Friday, 13th December, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer this week has been solving division problems with great energy. Well done and keep up the good work!

We’ve wrapped up this term with amazing test results in maths and science, great discussions in RE, beautifully published narratives in English and enjoyed ‘Home Alone’ (abridged version 😊) for a Christmas Movie. The children also created lovely Christmas Cards among others. I’m extremely proud of each and every member of our class, and wish them a very ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!’ I hope that you all enjoy your holidays.

It is also a sad moment for us as we are having to say good bye to one of our Rhinos, who received his Black and Values badges today. Well done! RM has been an amazing member of our class and we will miss him a lot. We wish him good luck in his new school.

WELL DONE ON RECEIVING YOUR
WELL-DESERVED CERTIFICATES!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN ADVANCE! ENJOY YOUR DAY WHEN IT COMES!

I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!
Mrs Rai

Hornbill House Point Trophy Term 1.2

Friday, 6th December, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer this week is an amazing citizen and a conscientious learner, always reflecting on her work and actions to make continuous improvement. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hornbill School welcomed Santa and his elves with much enthusiasm and fanfare yesterday and to every child’s delight, each received a present too. Rhinos loved theirs! Thank you, Santa!

English – The children have proudly completed their third phase of narrative writing (Stories as A Theme) and I am looking forward to reading their brilliant short stories.

Phase 3: Independent writing:

LO11: I can use similar writing models to plan a narrative independently.

LO12: I can write a setting and build up independently, using correct tenses throughout.

LO13: I can write a dilemma, resolution and ending independently.

LO14: I can edit and redraft a narrative.

LO15: I can publish a narrative.

Spelling – Week 1: Words ending in -ancy…

Sound – /unsy/
Spelling – /ancy/

The set, which will be for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Accountancy
Consultancy
Elegance
Hesitancy
Infancy
Inhabitancy
Expectancy
Occupancy
Reluctancy
Relevancy
Vacancy
Vibrancy

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on READING with INTONATION.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths –Long Multiplication and Short Division:

What I am learning:

LO2: I can multiply a 2-digit number by a 2-digit number (area model).

LO3: I can multiply a 2-digit number by a 2-digit number.

LO4: I can multiply a 3-digit number by a 2-digit number.

LO5: I can multiply a 4-digit number by a 2-digit number.

LO6: I can carry out short division.

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – Simple machines – pulleys, levers, gears, inclined surface, hole puncher, etc.

History – As we have completed our history topic for this term, we used the hour to complete our science investigations.

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and it will now be used to cover lost lessons until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – Tennis (Mr Sherwin) and Gymnastics (Mrs Rai)

Computing – The children explored 2Code Gibbon on their own, trying to apply various functions they were introduced in this unit.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – We have now completed the unit ‘Celebrating Differences’. In our last session this week, we discussed the importance of respecting their own and other’s cultures.

RE – We explored Islam and Sikhism this week.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 9th December

English – Poetry with figurative language.

Spelling – Week 2: Words ending in -ancy…

Sound – /unsy/
Spelling – /ancy/

The set, which will be for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Accountancy
Consultancy
Elegance
Hesitancy
Infancy
Inhabitancy
Expectancy
Occupancy
Reluctancy
Relevancy
Vacancy
Vibrancy

VIPERS – We shall continue to read The Explorer thoroughly and focus on EXPLAINING and SUMMARISING the text.

Maths – Long Multiplication and Short Division

Science – Forces

History – Completed for this term

DT – DT will resume in Term 2.

PE – Tennis and Gymnastics

Computing – Game Creator

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Dreams and Goals

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 29th November, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer this week has proven to be a reflective learner who constantly works to be the best version of herself. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

We have had the RAF Team visit our class this week with an array of activities encouraging critical thinking and creativity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). The Rhinos took part in the engaging activities enthusiastically and three among them were awarded with a labelled picture of the Puma Helicopter, which is 54 years old.

English – We are due to complete the second phase of our narrative writing (Stories as A Theme).

Phase 2: Guided writing:

LO6: I can explore complex sentences and identify the different clauses. I can explain the purpose of subordinating conjunctions.

LO7: I can plan a shared narrative and outline the key grammatical features to include in the narrative.

LO8: I can write a shared opening with the setting described, using expanded nouns phrases and fronted adverbials of time, place and manner.

LO9: I can write a shared build up using speech marks correctly.

Spelling – Week 2: Words ending in -ance…

Sound – /uns/
Spelling – /ance/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distance
Fragrance
Hesitance
Observance
Performance
Assistance
Inhabitance
Abundance
Dominance
Elegance
Attendance

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on READING with INTONATION.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We completed Fractions and have begun with Long Multiplication and Short Division:

Fractions:

LO16: I can subtract from a mixed number – breaking the whole.

LO17: I can subtract two mixed numbers.

LO18: Assessment

Long Multiplication and Short Division:

LO1: I can multiply up to a 4-digit number by a 1-digit number.

LO2: I can multiply a 2-digit number by a 2-digit number (area model).

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – We explored air and water resistance this week.

History – As we have completed our history topic for this term, we used the hour to complete our science investigations.

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and this time will now be used for other subject areas until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – Tennis (Mr Sherwin) and Gymnastics (Mrs Rai)

Computing – The children are learning to use functions in their code to make their programming more efficient.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – Is money important for happiness?

RE – We explored the difference between Judaism and Christianity.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 2nd December

English – Complete Phase 2 and begin Phase 3 of Narrative Writing (Stories with a theme).

Spelling – Week 1: Words ending in -ancy…

Sound – /unsy/
Spelling – /ancy/

The set, which will be for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Accountancy
Consultancy
Elegance
Hesitancy
Infancy
Inhabitancy
Expectancy
Occupancy
Reluctancy
Relevancy
Vacancy
Vibrancy

VIPERS – We shall continue to read The Explorer thoroughly and focus on EXPLAINING and SUMMARISING the text.

Maths – Long Multiplication and Short Division

Science – Forces

History – Completed for this term

DT – DT will resume in Term 2.

PE – Tennis and Gymnastics

Computing – Coding

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Celebrating Differences

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Year 5 PE – Tennis

Friday, 22nd November, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

RL was chosen as our High Flyer for this week for her enthusiastic approach to learning. She manifests our learning power, energy, in her daily practice. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

We’ve had another exciting week of teaching and enthusiastic learning at Rhino Class!

It was wonderful to see so many parents come to our class for the shared learning experience this morning. Thank you for attending the session and participating in the activities with your children!

English – We completed our first phase of narrative writing (Stories as A Theme).

Phase 1: Exploration:

LO1: I can watch the opening sequence of ‘The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawn’, summarise the key points and analyse the plot structure.

LO2: I can use active reading strategies (KWL grid) to understand ‘The Explorer’ further.

LO3: I can use drama techniques to explore characters from ‘The Explorer’.

LO4: I can use active reading strategies to draw the setting.

LO5: I can explore new vocabulary and noun phrases to describe the setting.

Spelling – Week 1: Children have been introduced to the words below (words ending in -ance) and we shall be exploring them next week.

Words ending in -ance…

Sound – /uns/
Spelling – /ance/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distance
Fragrance
Hesitance
Observance
Performance
Assistance
Inhabitance
Abundance
Dominance
Elegance
Attendance
Brilliance

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on VOCABULARY and EXPLANATION.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – Fractions:

LO12: I can add to a mixed number.

LO13: I can add two mixed numbers.

LO14: I can subtract fractions.

LO15: I can subtract from a mixed number.

LO16: I can subtract from a mixed number – breaking the whole.

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – We discussed the different types of forces experienced by objects on land and in air: gravity, friction, drag and thrust. Then the children planned, predicted and investigated the hypothesis ‘Which surfaces create the most friction?’ and wrote a conclusion using their records table. They were able to write a conclusion using their records table and check if they had made the correct predictions.

History – We looked at how the abandonment of the southern Maya lowlands helped the northern city states to thrive.

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and it will now be used to cover lost lessons until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – Tennis (Mr Sherwin) and Gymnastics (Mrs Rai)

Computing – The children tried to use functions in their code to make their programming more efficient.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – We discussed and tried to identify direct and indirect forms of bullying.

RE – We explored the difference between Judaism and Christianity.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 25th of November

English – Phase 2 of Narrative Writing (Stories with a theme)

Spelling – Week 2: Words ending in -ance…

Sound – /uns/
Spelling – /ance/

The set, which will be for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distance
Fragrance
Hesitance
Observance
Performance
Assistance
Inhabitance
Abundance
Dominance
Elegance
Attendance

VIPERS – We shall continue to read The Explorer thoroughly and focus on EXPLAINING and SUMMARISING the text.

Maths – Fractions followed by Long Multiplication and Short Division

Science – Forces

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT – DT will resume in Term 2.

PE – Tennis and Gymnastics

Computing – Coding

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Celebrating Differences

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 15th November, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer from this week is a brilliant citizen with an excellent attitude to learning. She is always striving to be the best version of herself by reflecting on everything she does. Congratulations and well done!

Rhino Class has had a very exciting week, with a majority of the pupils participating at the Brunei Junior School League (BJSL) Tournament along with Year 6 on Wednesday. The tournament was hosted by Jerudong International School (JIS) and we came fourth. Really proud of our resilient participants! Well done!

We would like to invite all parents in Rhino Class for a shared learning experience on Friday, the 22^st of November from 0800 hrs – 0900 hrs. Please make your way to the reception at 0800 hrs to sign in and a member of staff will bring you to Rhino Class.

English – The children completed the third phase of recount (newspaper) writing. They were unable to publish their work as most of the pupils went for the BJSL Tournament.

Phase 3: Independent write:

LO10: I can use similar writing models to plan a newspaper article independently.

LO11: I can write introductory and subsequent paragraphs using fronted adverbials or time, place and manner.

LO12: I can write subsequent paragraphs using complex sentences which focusing on the organization of the text.

LO13: I can finish off my recount with a conclusion that summarises the entire report.

LO14: I can edit my recount and make it ready for publishing.

Spelling – Week 2: We have tried to learn the spellings of the words below (words ending in -ant) by discussing their etymologies, meanings, antonyms and synonyms.

Sound – /unt/
Spelling – /ant/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distant
Fragrant
Hesitant
Observant
Expectant
Assistant
Inhabitant
Abundant
Dominant
Elegant
Vacant
Brilliant

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on READING with INTONATION.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – Fractions:

LO8: I can compare and order fractions greater than 1.

LO9: I can add and subtract fractions with the same denominator.

LO10: I can add fractions within 1.

LO11: I can add fractions with a total greater than 1.

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – The children planned, predicted and investigated the hypothesis ‘Do all objects respond to gravity in the same way?’ and wrote a conclusion using their records table. They were able to write a conclusion using their records table and check if they had made the correct predictions.

History – Comparison between The Maya and The Anglo-Saxon leaders.

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and it will now be used to cover lost lessons until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – Tennis (Mr Sherwin) and Gymnastics (Mrs Rai)

Computing – As most of the children went to JIS for the BJSL tournament, we did not have computing this week.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – Children came to school wearing odd socks this week to mark the anti-bullying week. We discussed why spreading rumours and name-calling are classed as bullying and how these forms of bullying can have a negative impact on an individual. We also emphasised the importance of garnering the culture of RESPECT within and outside of the school.

RE – As most of the children went to JIS for the BJSL tournament, we did not have RE this week.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 18th of November

English – Phase 1 of Narrative Writing (Stories with a theme)

Spelling – Week 1: Words ending in -ance…

Sound – /uns/
Spelling – /ance/

The set, which will be for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distance
Fragrance
Hesitance
Observance
Performance
Assistance
Inhabitance
Abundance
Dominance
Elegance
Attendance
Brilliance

VIPERS – We shall continue to read The Explorer thoroughly and focus on EXPLAINING and SUMMARISING the text.

Maths – Fractions

Science – Forces

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT – DT will resume in Term 2.

PE – Tennis and Gymnastics

Computing – Coding

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Celebrating Differences

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

BJSL Outdoor Athletics

Friday, 8th November, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

RM has been chosen as the Hornbill High Flyer from Rhino Class this week for his extended exploration of problems in maths. Congratulations and well done! We are all proud of you!

Sadly, we’ve had to bid farewell to one of our beloved pupils today. Mr Walters presented him with his gold and values badges along with a beautiful card full of wonderful messages from his peers this afternoon! We will miss him a lot and we wish him good luck in his new school, where we’re sure that he’ll make many friends.

English – We finished the second phase of our exploration of the second genre – recount (newspaper) – by writing a shared/ guided report on the Halloween Disco that took place at our school on Thursday last week (Spooktacular Fun: Hornbill School Hosts Thrilling Halloween Disco).

Phase 2: Shared/ guided write:

LO5: I can use drama to develop ideas and create a shared plan.

LO6: I can investigate and decide on an appropriate headline, and write shared introductory paragraph focusing on the 5Ws and 1H.

LO7: I can organize ideas and write shared subsequent paragraphs using inverted commas.

LO8: I can write shared subsequent paragraphs focusing on the organization of the text.

LO9: I can write a shared conclusion which focuses on summarizing the text.

Spelling – Week 1: We have tried to learn the spellings of the words below (words ending in -ant) by discussing their etymologies, meanings, antonyms and synonyms.

Sound – /unt/
Spelling – /ant/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distant
Fragrant
Hesitant
Observant
Expectant
Assistant
Inhabitant
Abundant
Dominant
Elegant
Vacant
Brilliant

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on EXPLANATION and EVIDENCE.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – Fractions:

LO3: I can recognise equivalent fractions.

LO4: I can convert improper fractions to mixed numbers.

LO5: I can convert mixed numbers to improper fractions.

LO6: I can compare fractions less than 1.

LO7: I can order fractions less than 1.

Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!

Science – We began our second topic – Forces – by discussing the different types of forces, both contact and non-contact.

History – Different features of the Maya City States and the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and it will now be used to cover lost lessons until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – Tennis (Mr Sherwin) and Gymnastics (Mrs Rai)

Computing – The children explored the software, 2Code, and tried their hands on programming a simulation using the programme.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – We discussed what racism is, exploring the importance attitudes towards people from different races, cultures and ethnicities. We also talked about the impact racism can have on individuals.

RE – We explored examples of how belief in God affects the way people live their lives in both valuable and challenging ways.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 11th of November

English – Phase 3 on Recount

Spelling – Week 2: Words ending in -ant…

Sound – /unt/
Spelling – /ant/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distant
Fragrant
Hesitant
Observant
Expectant
Assistant
Inhabitant
Abundant
Dominant
Elegant
Vacant
Brilliant

VIPERS – We shall continue to read The Explorer thoroughly and focus SUMMARISING the text.

Maths – Fractions.

Science – Forces

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT – DT will resume in Term 2.

PE – Tennis and Gymnastics

Computing – Coding

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Celebrating Differences

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Halloween Discos Thanks

Hornbill House Point Trophy Term 1.1

Please find below the total number of house points received by each house team during the first half term this year. House points are awarded in recognition of each child’s hard work, particularly focussing on the school’s learning powers of: Reflection, Communication, Creativity, Courage, Curiosity, Exploration, Energy and Resilience.

Congratulations to every child for their contribution towards these totals!

Friday, 1st November, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our high flyer from this week has been working with great enthusiasm and energy in subjects across the board. Congratulations and well done! We are super proud of you!

10 this week! Yay! Happy Birthday!

It was wonderful meeting all the parents this week to discuss and celebrate our children from Rhino Class, who are all brilliant in a myriad of ways. Thank you for coming to the parents teacher meeting!

English – The children proudly published their non-chronological reports, which are now on display in our classroom.

This was followed by the first phase of our exploration of the new genre – recount (newspaper).

Phase 1: Exploration of the genre:

LO1: I can identify that information is presented via a news report and evaluate the reading of the text by listening to the reader, paying attention to intonation, tone and volume. I can read using intonation and expression.

LO2: I can read, discuss and retrieve information from a newspaper article, and generate true and false statements using the text.

LO3: I can use my fastest finger first to scan for dates, names and numbers in a newspaper article, and analyse the structure of a newspaper report (recount).

LO4: I can explore, identify, collect and use pronouns and noun phrases appropriate for newspaper articles.

Spelling – Week 2: We have begun to learn the spellings of the words below (words ending in /cial/ which make the sound /shul/) by discussing their etymologies, meanings, antonyms and synonyms.

Adding the suffix /cial/ to words to make adjectives…

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /tial/

Words list:

Facial
Beneficial
Commercial
Official
Financial
Social
Glacial
Special
Crucial
Judicial
Artificial
Superficial

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on EXPLANATION and EVIDENCE.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We completed our unit on Multiplication and Division with the following to topics:

Dividing by 10, 100 and 1,000
Multiples of 10, 100 and 1,000

We then started our new unit – fractions:

Fractions equivalent to a unit fraction
Fractions equivalent to a non-unit fraction

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – Following on from our exploration of various mixtures and separation techniques from our previous lessons, we discussed the difference between reversible and irreversible changes this week. The children also produced a double spread poster on the entire topic!

History – How was Anglo-Saxon England ruled?

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and it will now be used to cover lost lessons until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – Tennis (Mr Sherwin) and Gymnastics (Mrs Rai)

Computing – We started our new topic – Coding – this week by exploring the key vocabulary that will be used throughout. The children then tried changing commands for similar effect.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – We discussed our different cultural backgrounds and tried to understand how cultural difference can sometimes cause conflict.

RE – Debate on the existence of god.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 4th of November

English – Phase 2 on Recount

Spelling – Week 1: Words ending in -ant…

Sound – /unt/
Spelling – /ant/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Distant
Fragrant
Hesitant
Observant
Expectant
Assistant
Inhabitant
Abundant
Dominant
Elegant
Vacant
Brilliant

VIPERS – We shall continue to read The Explorer thoroughly and focus on using the text to EXPLAIN and provide EVIDENCE for the answer.

Maths – Fractions.

Science – Properties and Changes of Materials

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT – DT will resume in Term 2.

PE – Tennis and Gymnastics

Computing – Coding

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Celebrating Differences

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Friday, 18th October, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our high flyer from this week has been energetically exploring the use of complex sentences in his writing, particularly his non-chronological report, for which he should be proud. Congratulations and well done!

Rhino Class Student Council Representatives: Our amazing three have been voted to represent Year 5 as members of the Student Council this year. Best wishes, girls! I am sure you will be amazing!

I cannot believe we have finished the first half term of the year – time seems to have whizzed past again! It has been a pleasure teaching and learning from the wonderful pupils of Rhino Class, and I hope they’ve enjoyed this half term as much as I have.

We ended our half term exploring and discussing Mars missions with our visitor, Annmarie, a spacecraft engineer from the European Space Agency (ESA) this afternoon. It was a wonderful experience for the children, who learnt a huge amount about her work at the ESA.

English – This week, we completed the third phase of our writing sessions – the students planned, wrote and edited their non-chronological reports independently about their own choice of topic about The Maya Civilisation. They shall publish their work after the holidays.

Phase 1: Gathering factual information using various reliable resources – books, internet and videos.

Phase 2: Shared planning and writing, which incorporated varied sentence structures and a wide range of punctuation marks.

Phase 3: Independent planning, writing, editing and publishing.

Spelling – Week 2: We have been learning the spellings of the words below (words ending in /cial/ which make the sound /shul/) by discussing their etymologies, meanings, antonyms and synonyms.

Adding the suffix /cial/ to words to make adjectives…

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /tial/

Words list:

Facial
Beneficial
Commercial
Official
Financial
Social
Glacial
Special
Crucial
Judicial
Artificial
Superficial

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on EXPLANATION and INFERENCE.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We looked at:

Common factors
Prime Numbers
Square Numbers
Cube Numbers
Multiplying numbers by 10, 100 and 1,000

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – We discussed different separation techniques: evaporation, filtration, sieving and magnetism. The children then made predictions on how to separate the different mixtures that were provided to them and carried out the investigation to put their predictions to test. Most of their predictions were correct. Hurrah!

History – How were the Mayans ruled?

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and it will now be used to cover lost lessons until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – We have now completed our first two topics: football (with Mr Sherwin) and athletics (with me).

Computing – The children wrote a report using story mode based on the Visual Concept Maps they constructed last week. Although they couldn’t complete the report due to lack of time, I was highly impressed with the way they mobilised their concept maps.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – We completed our first topic, Me and My World, this week by sharing our thoughts and ideas on how we could respond to various scenarios as good citizens.

RE – We have begun our debate on the existence of god.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 28^th of October

English – Non-chronological report – independent write. The children will work on this – their first assessment – independently.

Spelling – First week on:

Adding the suffix /cial/ to words to make adjectives…

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /cial/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Facial
Beneficial
Commercial
Official
Financial
Social
Glacial
Special
Crucial
Judicial
Artificial
Superficial

VIPERS – We shall continue to read ‘The Explorer’ thoroughly and look at different VOCABULARY and focus on EXPLANATION and SUMMARY questions.

Maths – Multiplication and Division

Science – Properties and Changes of Materials

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT – DT will resume in Term 2.

PE – Football and Athletics

Computing – Concept Maps

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Being me In My World

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Hornbill School Council 2024-2025

We would like to thank all of the children who participated in our elections, particularly the children who presented to their class and put their names forward as potential candidates. We were incredibly impressed with the way you presented your ideas to your classmates. You all showed great courage, enthusiasm, communication skills and resilience.

Votes have now been counted and we are delighted to announce our Hornbill School Council for 2024-2025. I am sure that they are going to be a fantastic team and we are looking forward to working with them over the next year.

Well done everyone!

Football Fun Day

Thursday, 10th October, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

I have been highly impressed with our high flyer for applying his enhanced arithmetic skills to solve addition and subtraction problems in class. He has been doing this with great vigour and amazing resilience! Well done and keep up the good work!

We have also been celebrating the fantastic achievements of the below readers:

English – It has been amazing to see how our work from last week has developed as we ventured into our shared write this week. The factual information we gathered using various reliable resources – books, internet and videos – helped us to formulate a shared plan for our first non-chronological report about The Mighty Maya Gods. This was followed by a shared write which was a result of our discussion based on the plan. We have incorporated varied sentence structures and a wide range of punctuation marks in this write up.

Spelling – Week 2: We have tried to learn the spellings of the words below (words ending in /tial/ which make the sound /shul/) by discussing their etymologies, meanings, antonyms and synonyms.

Adding the suffix /tial/ to words to make adjectives’…

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /tial/

Words:

Spatial
Residential
Influential
Confidential
Palatial
Sequential
Essential
Torrential
Partial
Impartial
Initial
Potential

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we focussed on VOCABULARY and RETRIEVAL.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We looked at:

Multiples
Common Multiples
Factors

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – The children carried out an investigation to find out solids that dissolved in water and we all agreed on the fact that salt formed a solution known as salt solution when mixed with water. 😊

We discussed the meanings of the following key vocabulary: solute, solvent, solution, dissolve, soluble and insoluble.

We also learnt that evaporation is the process that separates soluble solids (salt, sugar) from the solvent (water).

History – No history this week due to long weekend!

DT – We have finished our DT session for term 1 and it will now be used to cover lost lessons until we begin our next DT topic in term 2.

PE – Mr Sherwin is teaching football and I am covering athletics for PE this term.

Computing – The children prepared Visual Concept Maps on the topics of their choice and I was highly impressed with their work. It was very similar to our Physical Concept Map from last week.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – We delved into the meaning of the word democracy and it fit in well with our Student Council Election today. The students used their democratic power to vote. How amazing it that!

RE – We discussed and shared our ideas and thoughts on what god is like.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

And finally, wishing a happy Dashain to all of our beloved parents!

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 14^th of October

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /cial/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Facial
Beneficial
Commercial
Official
Financial
Social
Glacial
Special
Crucial
Judicial
Artificial
Superficial

Hornbill School House Team Football

Friday, 4th October, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our high flyer has been working on her spellings energetically and with great resilience. Congratulations and well done!

Team Year 5 have been working with vigour and zeal to reach their potential and I am super proud of each and everyone of them! This week’s highlight has been our DT session where we made Mayan tortillas and spicy hot chocolate.

English – Tying in with our theme for this term, The Maya Civilisation, we have begun with our non-chronological report writing on Maya Gods. We explored various reliable resources such as protected websites, books and videos to gather factual information on Maya Gods; looked at the different features of report writing; explored and discussed technical vocabulary and checked our understanding so far by making and hosting Kahoot Quizzes on the topic.

Spelling – We have tried to learn the spellings of the words below (words ending in /tial/ which make the sound /shul/) by discussing their etymologies, meanings, antonyms and synonyms. The children have also tried creating sentences using them. They are getting familiar with our new scheme and they seem to enjoy dictation as well.

Adding the suffix /tial/ to words to make adjectives’…

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /tial/

Words:

Spatial
Residential
Influential
Confidential
Palatial
Sequential
Essential
Torrential
Partial
Impartial
Initial
Potential

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various approaches that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, we have focussed on VOCABULARY.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas in your child’s Reading Diary as a starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We looked at:

Inverse operations – addition and subtraction
Solving multi-step addition and subtraction problems
Comparing calculations
Finding missing numbers

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – The children not only carried out an experiment to identify magnetic materials, but they were extremely curious during our discussion on the difference between magnets and magnetic materials. Most of the children can now confidently explain what magnetic materials are and how they behave in the presence of magnets.

History – We watched a video on How the Mayas were ruled and the children were able to identify the hierarchy system that was prevalent during The Maya Civilisation.

DT – Having explored various food items and recipes from The Ancient Maya Period, we tried our hands on making The Mayan Style Tortillas and Spicy Hot Chocolate (slightly modified, of course) and it was amazing to see how well the children behaved during the lesson. The children were sent home with their tortillas and some even took home their hot chocolate, lukewarm. It was an interesting and a fun lesson!

PE – Mr Sherwin is teaching football and I am covering athletics for PE this term. This week, we participated in The Mile-a-thon Charity run for our PE session. The Rhinos were highly enthusiastic and managed to contribute 41,400 metres towards the charity.

Computing – We started our new topic, Concept Maps, this week by making a physical concept map using a rope. We will see how effective the analogy has been next week when the children will explore and make their own Visual Concept Maps.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – We couldn’t do PSHE this week as we had to add this hour to our cooking session.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 7^th of October

English – Non-chronological report – shared write (we will work on this as a class).

Spelling – Second week on:

Adding the suffix /tial/ to words to make adjectives…

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /tial/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Spatial
Residential
Influential
Confidential
Palatial
Sequential
Essential
Torrential
Partial
Impartial
Initial
Potential

VIPERS – We shall continue to read ‘The Explorer’ thoroughly and look at different VOCABULARY and focus on EXPLANATION and SUMMARY questions.

Maths – Multiplication and Division

Science – Properties and Changes of Materials

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT – Evaluate a product/ food using a set criteria.

PE – Football and Athletics

Computing – Concept Maps

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Being me In My World

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Mile-A-Thon

BJSL Football Tournament

Friday, 27th September, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our high flyer has been working with excellent pace in maths and shows great energy when it comes to solving reasoning questions that challenge him further, these are fantastic learning skills! Congratulations and well done!

Last Week’s High Flyer!

As I was off sick last week, I would like to mention our high flyer from then: she has marvellous communication skills and is an amazing citizen who always has her peers’ best interests at heart. Super proud of you and your brilliant attitude!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

English – Year 5 have been showing great curiosity and resilience while learning about Subject and Verb this week – our exploration of Compound and Dummy Subjects and their agreement with the associated Verbs have not been easy, but as the children bear the right attitude to learning, we have had a smooth sailing.

Spelling – We have tried to learn the spellings of the words below (words ending in /tious/ which make the sound /shus/) by discussing their meanings, antonyms and synonyms. The children have also tried creating sentences using them. They are getting familiar with our new scheme and they seem to enjoy dictation as well:

Ambitious
Caution
Contentious
Expeditious
Gumptious
Infectious
Nutritious
Repetitious
Superstitious
Vexatious
Scrumptious
Conscientious

VIPERS (reading) – VIPERS is an acronym for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation (with Evidence), Retrieval and Summary. These are the various measures that allow us to check reading with understanding and we have been focussing on either one or two of these aspects every week during our VIPERS sessions.

This week, our focus was on EXPLANATION and SUMMARY.

Reading is the key to enhancing our knowledge on anything and everything around us, so I encourage you to please make sure to read with your children at home, if possible, daily. It’s not about how much you read but how well you comprehend the content, so please read with a focus on quality over quantity by discussing VIPERS with your children (you will find some ideas at the front of your child’s Reading Diary as a great starting point).

Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads is worth a house point and every 50 reads an award!

Maths – We looked at:

Mental strategies for addition and subtraction
Adding whole numbers with more than four digits.
Subtracting whole numbers with more than four digits.
Using rounding to check addition and subtraction problems.

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – After the children planned an investigation to compare thermal insulation in pairs, we wrote the various steps needed for an investigation as a class, and then carried it out to check whether or not their predictions were correct. Most of them seemed to have made the correct predictions. Yay! They love putting on the scientist’s hat!

History – We looked at various success stories of the Mayan Civilisation by exploring their ingenuity in using natural resources: irrigation, farming and building among others.

DT – The children did some research on Mayan recipes and adapted them by removing and adding some ingredients of their choice, ready to be explored in our DT kitchen next week. Excited!

(We will need rolling pins for this session, which will take place on Thursday, the 3^rd of October. If you have one at home then please do send it with your child next week. We will make sure to return them after the lesson. Thank you in advance!)

PE – Mr Sherwin is teaching football and I am covering athletics for PE this term. In athletics, we looked at the best postures in throwing and receiving balls this week.

Computing – We discussed and explored different means of online communication and the possible threats associated with them.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans.

PSHE – In PSHE, our focus shall remain on our children’s overall wellbeing and this term, we will be looking into how ‘we fit in this world’ under the topic ‘Being me In My World’. This week, we looked at the roles and responsibilities of a good citizen.

RE – We discussed about various facts, opinions and beliefs of theists, atheists and agnostics.

Music – Composition – creating sound with special effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 30^th of September

English – Non-chronological report.

Spelling – Adding the suffix /tial/ to words to make adjectives.

Sound – /shul/
Spelling – /tial/

The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Spatial
Residential
Influential
Confidential
Palatial
Sequential
Essential
Torrential
Partial
Impartial
Initial
Potential

VIPERS – We shall continue to read ‘The Explorer’ thoroughly and look at different VOCABULARY and focus on EXPLANATION and SUMMARY questions.

Maths – Addition and Subtraction

Science –Properties and Changes of Materials

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT –Cooking

PE – Football and Athletics

Computing – Concept Maps

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – Being me In My World

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Mrs Rai

Hornbill School Council 2024-2025

I am delighted to announce that we are looking for a new Hornbill School Council team for this academic year. Last year, our School Council worked incredibly hard to share some great ideas, organise events and make improvements across the school.

I have already spoken to the children in assembly about the responsibilities around becoming a member of our School Council Team. We are looking for 2 representatives from each year in Years 2- 5. Year 6 will have 3 representatives as we will need a Chairperson, a Treasurer and a Secretary.

We are planning to hold elections on Thursday 10^th of October, which will take place in the Gill Theatre during the school day. If your child is interested in becoming a school council member they will be asked to share a short presentation with their class during the week leading up to the elections (Monday 30^th September – Friday 4^th October). They will need to explain to their class why they would be a great member of our Hornbill School Council. We are looking for children who are keen to listen to the ideas of their classmates and to share these in regular school council meetings.

If your child is interested in this opportunity, please support them in preparing for a talk for their class. If you have any further questions, please speak to yourclass teacher or Mrs Cunningham.

Thank you for your support.

Thursday, 12th September, 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer for this week has showcased a brilliant sense of time management and unwavering resilience. Congratulations and well done!

We have had another amazing week in Rhino Class!

English – This week, we looked at difference types of verbs – action, regular, irregular, modal, ‘to be’ and ‘to have’. Most of the children should be able to identify all of these and some should be able to state the plural and singular forms of the ‘to be’ and ‘to have’ verbs.

Spelling – We tried to learn the spellings of the words below (ending in /cious/ which make the sound /shus/) by discussing their meanings, antonyms and synonyms. The children also created sentences using them.

Malicious
Gracious
Tenacious
Vivacious
Precious
Spacious
Atrocious
Ferocious
Suspicious
Luscious
Conscious
Delicious

VIPERS (reading) – This week, we focused on RETRIEVAL and EXPLANATION questions.

Maths – We looked at:

Writing numbers in numerals and words
Explaining powers of 10
Comparing and ordering numbers up to 1, 000, 000
Partitioning numbers to 1, 000, 000
Representing numbers up to 1, 000, 000 on a number line

(Times Tables – Please encourage your children to practice the times tables at home, as it is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – We held a demonstration on the melting of chocolate to emphasise on the need to mention temperature while discussing change of state. We then discussed the difference in meanings of the words, items, goods, materials, properties and characteristics. The children were able to list out various properties of materials and state why different materials are used for making different commodities.

History – The children made a timeline of the Mayan Civilisation and answered various questions based on the different time periods of the civilisation.

DT – The seven different food groups – carbohydrates, protein, fibre, fat, vitamins, minerals and water – and the nutritional requirements for children in various age groups were discussed in class this week. The children then carried out research and made a poster about a ‘Balanced Diet for 9–10-year-olds’.

PE – Mr Sherwin will be teaching football and I will be covering athletics for PE this term.

Computing – We discussed the importance of having a ‘strong’ password and children designed a Comic Book on ‘The SMART Rules To Keep Safe Online’.

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE – In PSHE, our focus shall remain on our children’s overall wellbeing and this term, we will be looking into how ‘we fit in this world’ under the topic ‘Being me In My World’. This week, we discussed our goals and aspirations for the end of the year.

Reading – Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads will be worth a house point.

RE – We discussed the meanings of the words theism, atheism and agnosticism and the children shared their opinions on why some people are theists, some atheists while others agnostics.

Music – Mrs Bonner started the year by looking at various sounds that create effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 16^th of September

English – We will be learning about SUBJECTS and OBJECTS and then explore SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT.

Spelling – Children will be introduced to words that end with the suffix /tious/. In all of these words, the root word ending in -tion (example: ambition) will be replaced by the suffix /tious/ to convert the nouns into adjectives. The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below:

Ambitious
Cautious
Contentious
Expeditious
Gumptious
Infectious
Nutritious
Repetitious
Superstitious
Vexatious
Scrumptious
Conscientious

VIPERS – We shall continue to read ‘The Explorer’ thoroughly and look at different VOCABULARY and focus on RETRIEVAL and EXPLANATION questions.

Maths – Place Values

Science –Properties and Changes of Materials

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT –Cooking

PE – Football and Athletics

Computing –Online Safety

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE –Being me In My World

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,

Mrs Rai

Thursday, 5th September 2024

This Week
High Flyer of the Week!

Our High Flyer of the Week has started the year on a positive note by being energetic during various activities in his first week. Well done!

I am privileged to have my Year 4 pupils come up with me to Year 5, and I look forward to another year full of learning and fun with them! The children have settled in well and lessons have begun as timetabled (please note that our timetables were sent home on Monday).

English – We have enjoyed discussing and playing games while revisiting NOUNS and building on it further this week; children should be able to identify the different types of nouns including collective, partitive and abstract nouns.

Spelling – Our first set of spellings (words that end with the suffix /cious/ but make the sound /shus/) were introduced on Monday this week, when we started our Supersonic Spelling Journey. The list, along with the activities to complete at home, were also sent home with the children on Monday. We have begun by looking into the definitions and etymologies of the words. The set, which is for a fortnight, has been listed below for your information:

Malicious
Gracious
Tenacious
Vivacious
Precious
Spacious
Atrocious
Ferocious
Suspicious
Luscious
Conscious
Delicious

VIPERS – We read and discussed the first few pages of our core text, ‘The Explorer’ and the children were able to create a semantic map of various VOCABULARY and share their work with others to consolidate their understanding.

Maths – Children have been working diligently to add another layer to their existing knowledge on Place Value. (Times Tables – Please encourage your children to regularly practice the times tables at home, up to 12 x 12, as this is a vital skill needed to make progress in maths!)

Science – We started our first topic ‘Properties and Changes of Materials’ this week. The children had an amazing time making models of particle representations of solids, liquids and gases using junk materials.

History – With our theme being ‘We are Explorers’ and our core text ‘The Explorer’, our history coverage will rightfully focus on The Mayan Civilisation. We hit the ground running this week by looking into its origins and timeline in history.

DT – We will be doing Cooking for DT this term with the focus being on Mayan Food. Our first lesson entailed a thorough research on the various food items that the Mayans introduced to the world.

PE – Mr Sherwin will be teaching football and I will be covering athletics for PE this term.

Computing – We discussed the SMART Rules to stay safe online in our first unit, ‘Online Safety’, this week.

Art – Message from Mr Brown: Year 5 artists will be exploring artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans. We will work towards a piece of abstract art made up of Mayan symbols. Following this, the carvings on Ancient Mayan temples will form the basis of a printing focus. We will then move on to designing and creating a clay face masks in the style of the masks worn by Mayans.

PSHE – In PSHE, our focus shall remain on our children’s overall wellbeing and this term, we will be looking into how ‘we fit in this world’ under the topic ‘Being me In My World’. This week, we discussed our goals and aspirations for the end of the year.

Reading – Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries. Every five reads will be worth a house point.

RE – We looked at the percentage of various religions in the world, the UK, Brunei and Nepal and discussed why some people believe in God while others don’t.

Music – Mrs Bonner started the year by looking at various sounds that create effect.

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 9^th of September

English – We will be moving onto VERBS and SUBJECTS before exploring SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT.

Spelling – Second week on words that end with the suffix /cious/ but make the sound /shus/.

Malicious
Gracious
Tenacious
Vivacious
Precious
Spacious
Atrocious
Ferocious
Suspicious
Luscious
Conscious
Delicious

I hope the children will not just be able to spell the words correctly, but discuss their meanings too by the end of this week.

VIPERS – We shall continue to read ‘The Explorer’ thoroughly and look at different VOCABULARY. We will also be focussing on RETRIEVAL questions this week.

Maths – Place Values

Science –Properties and Changes of Materials

History – The Mayan Civilisation

DT –Cooking

PE – Football and Athletics

Computing –Online Safety

Art – Artworks inspired by the Ancient Mayans

PSHE –Being me In My World

RE – Why do some people believe that God exists while others don’t?

Many thanks and kind regards,

Mrs Rai

Year 5 PE

A Warm Welcome to all the Rhinos!

I am super excited to embark on yet another journey with you all this year and I look forward to making it a success for us all. Welcome to Year 5!

Our theme for this term has rightly been named as ‘We Are Explorers’ and we had some great discussions during the sneak peek into the book (The Quest For Z) that inspired our core text, ‘The Explorer’, in class today.

English – We shall be focusing on The Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar in English for the first couple of weeks starting Monday, the 2nd of September. For spelling, we are now moving on to Super Sonic Spellings.

Maths – We will be doing our first maths lesson tomorrow with the focus being on place value; this unit will last for about 3 weeks and I shall keep you posted on the topics we will be covering each week on Friday afternoons.

PE – PE has been scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday to start with. Thursday’s PE lesson will eventually become swimming lessons. We will inform you about the start of swimming lessons for Year 5 later in the year.

Reading – Readers become leaders, so please read every day and sign on the Reading Record diaries!

Many thanks,
Mrs Rai

Posted March 21st, 2025 by Michelle Yong.

Friday, 21st March, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 7th April

Hornbill House Team Points – Term 2

Friday, 14th March, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 17th March

PE Blog – Racquet Club

Friday, 7th March, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 10th March

Friday, 28th February, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 3rd March

Friday, 21st February, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 24th February

KIRFs Term 2.2

Things to try

Websites to support learning

Thursday, 13th February, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 17th February

Friday, 7th February, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 10th February

Friday, 31st January, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 3rd February

BJSL Cross Country

Friday, 24th January, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 27th January

Friday, 17th January, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 27th January

Friday, 10th January, 2025

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 13th January

KIRFs Introduction

Websites to support learning

Friday, 13th December, 2024

Hornbill House Point Trophy Term 1.2

Friday, 6th December, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 9th December

Friday, 29th November, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 2nd December

Year 5 PE – Tennis

Friday, 22nd November, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 25th of November

Friday, 15th November, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 18th of November

BJSL Outdoor Athletics

Friday, 8th November, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 11th of November

Halloween Discos Thanks

Hornbill House Point Trophy Term 1.1

Friday, 1st November, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 4th of November

Friday, 18th October, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 28th of October

Hornbill School Council 2024-2025

Football Fun Day

Thursday, 10th October, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 14th of October

Hornbill School House Team Football

Friday, 4th October, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 7th of October

Mile-A-Thon

BJSL Football Tournament

Friday, 27th September, 2024

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 30th of September

Hornbill School Council 2024-2025

Thursday, 12th September, 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 16th of September

Thursday, 5th September 2024

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 9th of September

Year 5 PE

A Warm Welcome to all the Rhinos!

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 28^th of October

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 14^th of October

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 7^th of October

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 30^th of September

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 16^th of September

Forecast for The Week Beginning on the 9^th of September