This term our learning is centred around how the Ancient civilisations left their mark on Wiltshire. We will be exploring life from the Stone age through to the Iron Age and discovering some of the major changes which took place across several thousand years. We will be discovering the life and death of a key figure during the Bronze Age and finding evidence of who he was. 

Our English this term is based on the fabulous book, Goodnight Mister Tom, the tale of evacuee William Beech, who comes to stay with grumpy Thomas Oakley. As well as exploring the complex character development throughout the story, we will be looking into writing newspaper reports on events and setting descriptions of the contrasting settings in the book. 

In our science learning we will be exploring the changes in humans from birth to old age.

Weekly Summary

Week 5

During this week, we have finished our Stone Age to Iron Age topic. We have concluded our learning by finding out about the mysterious Amesbury Archer who dates back to around 23000BC. His remains were found in 2002 buried three miles from Stonehenge! The children have even looked into the Archer's dental records to discover how he lived in the past. We concluded the topic by creating our own cave paintings. In English, we began writing our newspaper reports based on the first night of the Blitz during World War 2. We are looking forward to reading the final reports! In ICT we have been continuing to look at Excel and how to use different formulas to make quick changes to data collected.

Week 4

We have had another busy (and cold!) week in Year 5/6. This week we have been looking at historical Stone Age sites that are still around today. We have been speculating about what the remains of these sites tells us about how the people of this era lived. The children's discussions about Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and West Kennett Long Barrow have been very interesting, filled with lots of good reasoning. In English, we have been continuing to look at Newspaper reports and learn about the key components within them: an orientation, a main body, quotes and reactions and a tail. We will be writing our own newspaper reports next week. In Art, we have been looking at the Family Portrait by Richard Brakenburg. We have been discussing symbolism in art and having a go at drawing our own pictures of people to prepare us for our own Richard Brakenburg inspired piece of art later this term.

Week 3

This week, we have had the pleasure of welcoming Iris into school to speak about the Jewish faith and traditions. We learnt a lot about different symbols and objects which are important to the faith and heard first hand what it means to her to be part of the Jewish community. We were really impressed with the level of questioning from the children and how well they listened. In English, we have continued to explore the stylistic features of a newspaper report and started to think about the role of a reporter by gaining quotes. In our topic learning we have started to think about the significance of some of Wiltshire's ancient landmarks and how they got there. We even explored some possible techniques that may have been used to move and create these structures. 

Week2

We have truly got back into the swing of things this week in Year 5/6. In English, we have been beginning our unit of writing based around Newspaper reports and we have written our own newspaper reports about the evacuation of children during World War 2. In our Topic learning, we have been looking at artefacts from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age and comparing the differences between the three time periods. We even had a go at making our own Stone Age weapons out of soap! On our RE morning, we learnt about Judaism and the importance of the Passover meal to Jews.  Maybe your child could tell you about what they learnt. We are looking forward to having our visitor, Iris Segall, to tell us more about Judaism and her beliefs next week. In PE, we have been looking at dance through the ages and trying to replicate some of those moves. The Charleston was harder than it looks!  

Week 1

We have had a very busy half week back in year 5/6. We have been getting stuck in to our new topic on The Stone Age through to the Iron Age and have been trying to get our heads around just how long ago these people existed. We have used a toilet roll to make a timeline which has helped us compare different periods of time in regards to how long they were around for and the order in which people ruled. We have also made a start on our new book, Goodnight Mister Tom and have been using evidence in the text to find out more about the main characters. We have had a very busy half week back in year 5/6. We have been getting stuck in to our new topic on The Stone Age through to the Iron Age and have been trying to get our heads around just how long ago these people existed. We have used a toilet roll to make a timeline which has helped us compare different periods of time in regards to how long they were around for and the order in which people ruled. We have also made a start on our new book, Goodnight Mister Tom and have been using evidence in the text to find out more about the main characters.

• What was life like in the Bronze Age
  Find out all about the Amesbury Archer

• Take a virtual tour of Stonehenge