Birkbeck Primary School

Hornbeam Class

Welcome to Hornbeam Class 2023/24.

See the presentation below to find out all the interesting topics the children will be learning about in Summer 2024.

summer term curriculum presentation.pdf

 

 

September Review

Welcome to Hornbeam Class September Class blog.

It has been a great pleasure seeing the children settle so well in their new class and alongside their hard work their individual personalities have really shone through.

 

Maths

In maths we have been working on refining our knowledge of number and place value to provide us with a solid foundation of learning as we start to move onto addition and subtraction this autumn. 

 

English

In our reading and writing lessons, we have been looking at our core text for this term – Hidden Figures. The children have really engaged with the text and have demonstrated a growing appreciation of the amazing achievements of these women and their role in sending man to the moon. The children are now publishing their own biographies of Katherine Johnson, using all of the interesting and engaging vocabulary they have been developing.

 

 

Humanities

Our Geography topic this term is looking at rivers and the environment. So far we have looked at the development of settlements on the Thames and the Nile. We are now exploring the Amazon and will be looking at the devastating effects the deforestation is having; an issue the children have  already shown great interest in.

 

Science

Our science topic this term is lifecycles of plants and animals. The children have learnt about the lifecycles of different animals and have explored the process of metamorphosis.  

We have also been lucky this term to have a weekly taught session led by Charlton Athletic football club. This has focussed on how the children can live healthily including through their diet and exercise. Excitingly, the children then have the opportunity to learn some new games and their competitive side is certainly beginning to show.

 

 

October Review

Welcome to Hornbeam October Class blog.

The class has been enthusiastically continuing with their work and have shown just how well they have settled into our weekly routine. I am so pleased with everyone’s development and have been so impressed with the children’s writing not just in English but across the curriculum.

 

English

We have started the book, The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman. The children have really engaged with this fantastic picture book, and it is bringing out the best of their creative writing.

 

Assessments

In the last week before Half Term the children undertook assessments in Reading and Mathematics. The assessments cover the whole year’s curriculum and so there are many areas which the children have not learnt yet. Despite this, the class has done really well, and I was very pleased by how they approached the assessments and their continued hard work across the week. They very much deserved their Friday Inset day off.

 

Trip to Hall Place

The children went on the first school trip of 2023/24 to Hall Place in Bexley. The children were excited from the moment we went to get the bus, and stayed engaged despite the constant wet weather. We had a wonderful taught session looking at butterflies and moths, which fits in with our science topic of lifecycles, including a chance to explore the fantastic historical collection of preserved insects. We then had the opportunity to explore the Hall Place site, looking at nature, and racing around the grass maze.

 

Art

This term we have looked at a variety of art including Bansky style graffiti, Warhol’s Rorschach pictures, pottery shapes and even telling stories using Emoji’s. The children have really enjoyed the opportunity to explore art in a different way and then create their own pieces. See a selection of the great work from the children below.

 

 

November Review

 Welcome to the Hornbeam November review. As the days become shorter, it is be so nice to see the class work as a community, with some excellent examples seen of students going above and beyond to help others. 

Trip to Tower Bridge

November began with a fantastic trip to Tower Bridge. We had a Bridge Builders workshop where we learnt about the structure of bridges and had a go at building our own strong structure that would allow a boat to travel underneath.

                                                        

We also had the amazing opportunity to take a tour of the bridge and engine rooms. We walked along the top of the bridge - over a glass floor! The children were incredibly brave and thoroughly enjoyed looking down and the river and traffic below! We learnt so many facts about this amazing structure in London to help with our DT topic 'Bridges' this half term.

 

Writing

The children have been working incredibly hard to produce fantastic narratives based on our core text Wolves in the Walls. They did an amazing job to include eerie vocabulary to give their writing a dark tone, and showed great imagination and creative flair.  I have really enjoyed reading Meerkats in the Mailbox, Panthers in the Paintings and many other wonderful stories.

 

Science

We finished off our science topic of 'Living things and their Habitats' by carrying out a plant dissection. The children identified and labelled the different parts of the plant with a particular focus on the parts used for reproduction in flowers. 

 

 

 

December Review

As our Autumn Term comes to a close, I have been reflecting on how the class has grown and developed through the term.  The work has been challenging but I hope also interesting, and  all the children started to really show some of their amazing and abilities and talents.

Writing

Over this half term,  our core text in English has been Shackleton's Journey. This text outlines the true story of how Ernest Shackleton (an Antarctic explorer)  and his companions endured the hardships they faced, and ultimately managed to survive their perilous adventure across the Antarctic. The children wrote diary entries in the role of Shackleton, describing each key part of the crew's journey inluding the thoughts and feelings of Shackleton himself. We used video footage of the expedition and quotes from Shackleton to immerse ourselves into his shoes. 

                         

 

Mathematics

In mathematics, we have moved onto fractions. Children started by using physical and pictoral representations of fractions to help them learn about equivalence. We have then looked deeper into adding fractions and, in particular, finding the all important common denominator! This module has really highlighted the importance of setting out the work so you can follow all the steps in a methodological fashion. Below are just a few examples of the well presented work from the class.

DT

Linked to our fantastic trip to Tower Bridge, the children have worked individually and together to design brilliant bridges to fit a given design brief. The children has demonstrated excellent teamwork, and a real passion for engineering while building their structures. Despite a few burns from the hot glue guns, the kids had an amazing time building ther bridges, and just as much fun seeing them tested! Here a just a few examples of the amazing bridges we built.

                                           

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

We hope you have a fantastic break over Christmas and we look forward to welcoming the children back in the new year!

 

February Review

The Start of 2024 in Year 5

 The children came back after Christmas well rested and had a fantastic first half term of 2024. We began our topic on The Ancient Kingdom of Benin, explored the properties of materials, created some fantastic artwork on London monuments and more! 

The second half of the half term began with our assessment week so the children can show off what they have learnt so far this year. We are also creeping ever so close to our residential which I'm sure the children are incredibly excited about - if you have any questions regarding this please don't hesitate to get in touch or speak to us at the end of the day!

Art and DT

 In Art this half term, we looked at London Monuments - the meaning behind them and the planning and design that goes into these iconic pieces of architecture.  To help with the process we have been practising drawing in 3D, and learning how to use floor plans. We should be finishing our monuments in February and will also explore some monuments in person on our upcomimg trip.

 

Writing

 During this half term Year 5 worked hard on non-fiction writing on The River Niger and The River Thames. They did an amazing job to not only include interesting facts but to squeeze in some excellent grammar and punctuation too. Everyone did an amazing job, and I hope to put them all on display in the classroom. In the meantime here is a selection of the the work.

 

Science

In science we have been exploring the properties of materials. We have been able to investigate what things are soluble, explore reversible and irreversible changes, and experiment with which materials are good thermal insulators. Some of the excellent graphs charting the change in temperature over time of hot water in different containers.

 

March Review

The short Spring Term is nearly over, but we have managed to pack in so much during the little time. The children have really progressed well, and the assessments results demonstrate all the hard work they have put in. However, it is not been just hard work; instead we have managed to pack in a trip to the British Museum, and had an amazing 3 days on the Year 5 Residential.

If you would like to see more pictures of the residential please use the following link (contact Mr Ryan for the password)

 https://www.birkbeck.bexley.sch.uk/Year-5-Residential-Trip/ 

History and Geography

We have been busy this term learing all about Africa, and in particular the amazing Kingdom of Benin. As part of the learning we took the children to the British Museum where we saw some of the stunning "Benin Bronzes". We also explored the wider African galleries, as well as explore just a small selection of the wonderful objects the museum holds.

English

This term we have been reading Tom's Midnight Garden and the children have been enjoying slowly exploring the mysteries of the garden alongside the titular character.

In writing we have just finished our independent writing based on the short film Zahra. Despite being less than 2 minutes long, the children have generated some amazing figurative language, and were then able to apply the ideas to their own stories about saving their precious animals.  Please have a read of your child's story at parent's evening.

Science

This half term we have been looking at Forces. The children have learnt about gravity and were amazed to see how two objects of different masses could fall at the same rate. We are beginning to explore mechanisms that help us use the forces for our benefit. We have made pulleys (of which some great examples are shown below) and will be exploring levers soon, before finally designing and testing a range of parachutes!