Cycling Skills
Year 5 had a fantastic cycling experience this week. They have learned road awareness and how to be safe on their bikes when cycling out and about during the holidays. Knowledge about how to check that their bikes were roadworthy and safe was also part of the week. So much progress was made on the first day that they were able to move on to more advanced skills and games.
Many thanks to Marcus from Cycling Generation who led the sessions and helped all of the children to improve and become more confident.
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Art in Year 5
We are really proud of our work in Spruce Class – we have many talented artists. I think you will agree that a lot of skill and imagination have gone in to these creative observational drawings using a selection of media.
Science Technology Engineering Maths
Twelve Year 5 girls enjoyed a fascinating day exploring and investigating as part of a STEM day @ Westfield School.
Year 5 visit Bowes Museum
Year 5 have been studying Marvellous Monarch this term and to find out more, visited Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle this week. As they explored the museum, the children were fascinated by the various artworks and artefacts in the collection. They found out more about the Bowes family and created monoprints of John and Josphine Bowes.
The afternoon ended by watching the amazing Silver Swan in action. It was only 32 seconds but the children were captivated by the clockwork’s brilliant movements to show the swan catching fish.
Spring Assembly
Year 5 held their Spring Assembly for parents this week, giving a flavour of the work in their theme this term of ‘Earth and Beyond’. They shared fascinating facts about the Solar System and how we have seasons, and night and day. Singing, artwork and drama were all part of the afternoon.









Enterprise Afternoon at Joseph Swan
Year 5 children were invited to Joseph Swan for an Enterprise Afternoon. They became entrepreneurs for the afternoon, designing the next innovative ‘must-have’ product which could change the way we see the world, and make them a fortune!













Spruce class worked with their drama practitioner Lisa on their class topic ‘Space’. It was so lovely to see parents come and watch our performance at the end of the day. Thank you!
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Keeping Fit at Joseph Swan Academy










Play in a Day
Larch class worked with drama practitioner Lisa, for the day. The children worked on drama and confidence building games and activities during their first session and then set about learning their play based on our topic, Space. The play was performed at the end of the school day and it was lovely to see so many parents and carers there to watch their children.
Yard training
As Year 5 students are buddies in the yard, we felt it was important for them to know how to use the new games markings on our yard correctly. Our trainer, Neil, worked with all of the Year 5 children, demonstrating and explaining how the games could be played with children of all ages. Hopefully our Year 5 buddies will take this new knowledge and use it during break and lunch times with our other pupils.
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Spelling Bee
Some of our Year 5 students went along to Joseph Swan Academy to take part in a Spelling Bee competition with other local primary schools. All of our entrants performed brilliantly and had a great time.
Scooters, Science & Sculpture
Year 5 have had a such a busy week!
On Monday, we showed off our scooter skills and Marcus taught us how to scoot safely.


















Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy
We have also been amazing scientists this week with visits to both Lord Lawson of Beamish School and Joseph Swan Academy. At Lord Lawson, we were exploring irreversible changes and making hydrogen! We became firework-makers at Joseph Swan by watching the colourful effects of burning different materials.










































Joseph Swan Academy























Soap Sculptures
We made sculptures by carving soap into the faces of the Ancient Greek thinkers like Archimedes, Plato and Aristotle. It wasn’t easy!
Year 5 Art on show in the Shipley Art Gallery













Spruce Class visit Shipley Art Gallery
As part of the centenary celebrations, Spruce Class made a visit to the Shipley Art Gallery on Wednesday. As well as exploring the gallery and the artwork within it, the children had the opportunity to work with a ceramic artist, exploring clay and textures. Christine will also be coming into school to continue the ceramic work when we will design and make ceramic pieces for part of a sculpture to go on display at the gallery in October.
Investigating the Past
The children became historians for the morning, choosing an aspect of our Ancient Greek topic that they would like to investigate further. They were given time to research their chosen topic before presenting their findings to the class.
Basketball roadshow
We were visited by the Newcastle Eagles this week. During our session the children found out about aspects of keeping healthy, the importance of exercise, and of course, played some basketball!
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Using the internet to find facts.
Hockey Skills
Year 5 games this term is developing our hockey skills. We have enjoyed practising dribbling, control, passing and goal scoring.
Home Learning
Over the last 3 weeks in science, we have been finding out about materials. Lara was inspired by her science work and was curious to find out more about the properties of some foam that was in her garage. She decided to design and make a boat with the foam at the weekend. She discovered that it floated really well! What an amazing piece of home learning. Well done Lara.



Spruce Class visit Shipley Art Gallery
As part of the centenary celebrations, Spruce Class made a visit to the Shipley Art Gallery on Wednesday. As well as exploring the gallery and the artwork within it, the children had the opportunity to work with a ceramic artist, exploring clay and textures. Christine will also be coming into school to continue the ceramic work when we will design and make ceramic pieces for part of a sculpture to go on display at the gallery in October.
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