Friday 17th October

Although it was a short week, it was certainly packed with learning and excitement! A huge well done to Max and Ethan S, who proudly represented our school at the Barnet Schools Cross Country Competition. Out of around 40 boys, Max came 9th and Ethan came 19th — a fantastic achievement from both of them. We are very proud!

Much of our time was spent diving into our new English and history topic: Ancient Greece. We were introduced to our new English text The Adventures of Odysseus — a child-friendly retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, set just after the Trojan War as Odysseus journeys home to Ithaca. To better understand the context, we began by learning the story of the Trojan War. The children were fascinated by Helen “the most beautiful woman in the world,” and the princes of Troy — Paris and Hektor. They also met the great Greek heroes Odysseus and Achilles. Some children even wrote their own descriptions of Helen, coming up with beautiful lines such as “her voice was like bird song, floating through the air.”

In history, we continued our exploration of Ancient Greece by learning about the gods and goddesses. As this week’s Parasha is Bereishit, we compared the Torah’s creation story with Greek mythology. The children were captivated by tales of Gaia and Ouranos, the Titans and monsters, and the rise of the Olympian gods — Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter and Hestia — and the dramatic battle against Kronos. They are now working in groups to turn this mythology into comic strips, showing their excellent understanding of the story. They also enjoyed examining Playmobil depictions of the gods, decoding their symbols and even reading their names written in ancient Greek!

In maths, we focused on checking our answers using estimation and rounding. After revisiting how to round large numbers — including the important role of zero as a placeholder — we applied this to equations such as 6,789 + 2,870. First, we solved it using column addition, then rounded each number to the nearest thousand to form 7,000 + 3,000. Understanding that the rounded answer should be close to the original gave us a quick and reliable checking method — a vital skill for future exams. We also completed a mental maths assessment this week.

Reminders:

• Please ensure your child wears tzitzit every day to school.
• Assessments next week: English comprehension, spelling, grammar, maths reasoning and problem solving, and VR.

Friday 10th October

We’ve had a couple of exciting and busy weeks since the last blog!

A real highlight was our visit to the Sweetlands’ succah last Friday. The children enjoyed walking there and sitting inside the succah, where they made brachot over food and fulfilled the mitzvah of the festival. We are already looking forward to our next visit — to the Grants’ succah on Monday! It has been wonderful to see how much the children have embraced the mitzvot of Sukkot. Many brought in their arba minim to use during our Hallel services in morning tefillah, proudly making the brachot on the lulav and etrog and sharing this special experience with friends and family. As Mrs Myer and I often say, the love the children have for Judaism is heartwarming and we are so lucky to be able to do this with them. 

In English, we have been focusing on grammar, particularly single- and multi-clause sentences, expanded noun phrases, verbs, and tenses. The children learnt how to turn simple sentences into more complex ones by adding coordinating or subordinating conjunctions — for example, changing The boy ran into The boy ran although he had no energy. We also revisited how to build expanded noun phrases step by step: starting with a determiner and noun (a goldfish), adding adjectives (a small goldfish), and then extending with a prepositional phrase (the small goldfish in the round fishbowl). Even though this was revision, the recap really helped to strengthen their confidence.

In maths, we have been tackling two-step addition and subtraction problems. These can be challenging because they require identifying and completing more than one calculation to find the answer. The children practised breaking down questions carefully — underlining key information and identifying exactly what the question was asking — before writing and solving the equations. This approach really helped build understanding and accuracy, and it was wonderful to see their reasoning skills develop.

In history, we began our new topic on Ancient Greece. The children started by sharing what they already knew about Greece before exploring the concept of chronology — a tricky but important skill. We learnt that the Ancient Greek era began around 800 BCE, following the fall of the Mycenaean civilisation. We also discussed the terms BCE and CE (and how they relate to BC and AD). The children then completed a timeline activity, plotting key events such as Homer writing The Odyssey, the first Olympic Games, and the rise of Greek theatre. Finally, they had the opportunity to research one of these events in more depth using books and physical resources to support their learning. It is amazing to see how interested the children are in history and such a joy for me to be able to teach such curious learners. 

Our computing learning has been focused on coding. We are working on gaining the skills to create our own games, learning about variables and conditionals. Variables store data which can be changed during the running of the programme. In our learning, the children used variables to determine the score. We also learnt about conditionals - a chunk of code that only runs IF the condition is true. An example of this is, if the avatar touches the wall, a point is gained. This helped us understand the game mechanics, defining how a game worked and what determined the success or failure in a game. The children looked at three older arcade games - Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros and Frogger - and discussed the game mechanics, taking care to work out which character was the player and what the objective was. They will use their knowledge and learning to create their own game soon. 

Please ensure your child is wearing tzitzit each day for school. 

Have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat shalom,

Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman and the Year 5 team.

Friday 19th September

It has been a fantastic week, with the definite highlight being the amazing Rosh Hashana concert on Wednesday night. Much of our music learning this week, and even elements of other lessons, were focused on preparing for the performance. For those of you who were able to watch, I am sure you will agree how wonderful the children were. They sang beautifully and were a real credit to our school—we are incredibly proud of them all.

All of the children will come home today with their copy of the Kerem Challenge book. As mentioned at Meet the Teacher, this book will accompany them throughout their journey at Kerem, giving them age-appropriate challenges to complete in different areas. I would love to see photos of completed challenges so that we can share them in class. An email with more information has also been sent out today.

Normal lessons were not forgotten! In maths, we continued our work on place value. The children practised partitioning numbers up to 1,000,000 both in the standard way (421,867 = 400,000 + 20,000 + 1,000 + 800 + 60 + 7) and through flexible partitioning (421,867 = 20,800 + 300,060 + 101,007). They then compared and ordered numbers before rounding them to the nearest 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000.

In English, the children explored figurative language, focusing on similes and metaphors. They learnt that while both compare one thing to another, similes use “like” or “as” whereas metaphors describe something as if it is something else. Using a picture prompt, they created their own examples. A few memorable ones included: “the boy sat like a cat, watching the forest wisely” and “the trees were fairies, flying through the trees.”

In science, we investigated balanced and unbalanced forces. The children learnt that when forces acting on an object are balanced, it will not move, but when they are unbalanced, the stronger force will cause movement. To see this in action, they created paper helicopters and timed how long each one took to reach the ground.

In art, the children were introduced to the great Japanese artist Hokusai and his most famous work, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. We discussed what we could see in the picture and what it might represent before the children had a go at sketching it themselves. Some even began adding colour with watercolours.

In geography, we studied the features of rivers, including meanders, oxbow lakes and deltas. Although this was quite a technical lesson, the children listened carefully and absorbed a lot of information. Working in groups, they matched features to different parts of a river and then labelled a river diagram independently.

We began Verbal Reasoning. The children practised finding words with similar meanings and filling in missing letters. They were encouraged to use dictionaries to look up unfamiliar words—a key skill that will serve them well as their vocabulary continues to expand.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat shalom and Shana Tova.
Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman, Mrs Lenz and the Year 5 team

Friday 12th September

It is the end of the first full week of Year 5, and what a good one it has been! It was lovely to see so many of you at Meet the Teacher on Tuesday. I hope you all feel confident about the year ahead—I know I am! You should all have received a copy of the slides from the evening, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me.

This week we settled into lessons properly, and the children worked very hard, focused well, and learnt a lot.

In maths, we began our place value unit by looking at the columns of ten thousand, hundred thousand and million. The children discussed how to properly read and write numbers up to 1 million, where to put commas, and when to use the word and. We also practised adding and subtracting multiples of 10 to different numbers, paying close attention to when more than one digit has to change because of an exchange. Alongside this, we did some arithmetic practice to sharpen up our mental maths skills and improve speed and accuracy.

In English, our focus this half term is grammar. The children were reacquainted with multi-clause sentences, this time looking at subordinating conjunctions—joining words that mean one clause doesn’t make sense by itself. For example: I needed to bring my umbrella with me because it was raining. The children created their own subordinate clauses to build sentences, and were mostly very successful.

We also began Non-Verbal Reasoning this week. Like Verbal Reasoning, it’s about being able to understand, analyse and solve problems, but instead of using words, the questions involve shapes, diagrams and patterns. We started with nets of cubes—a common NVR style question—and the children used physical cubes to help them solve the problems. We’ll be continuing with both VR and NVR as the year progresses.

This week in music we have been preparing for our concert next week. I am so impressed with how they have learnt a new song in such a short space of time. We are really looking forward to the concert next Wednesday. Please continue to encourage them to listen to the songs that are on Google classroom and practise the words. We also did a fun interactive boom whacker activity where the children collectively played a simple tune. I am really looking forward to a wonderful year with your children.

In geography, the children threw themselves into our new unit all about rivers. Using atlases, they located and labelled rivers in the UK, looking both at where they start and the sea into which they flow. They then moved on to rivers in Europe, working out which countries the rivers pass through. This was tricky, as it involved checking two maps at once, but they worked hard and produced some great results.

Our science unit of forces is not completely new, as the children studied it in Year 3. However, in Year 5 we go into greater depth. The first lesson explored familiar forces such as friction and gravity, alongside new ones like water resistance and buoyancy.

In art, we started our unit on Hokusai, which will eventually culminate in copies of his famous Great Wave. This week, the children practised different watercolour techniques, including washing, lifting off, and wet-on-wet brushing. They enjoyed experimenting and are excited to build towards their final piece.

Reminders and Notices

• Please ensure that all items, including water bottles, snack boxes and school sweatshirts/ cardigans, are labelled. This makes it possible for staff and pupils to return any lost items to children.
• Boys must wear tzitzit at all times. 
• Wednesday 17th September, HGSS pre-Rosh Hashanah concert.

Have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat shalom.
Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman, Mrs Lenz and the Year 5 team

Friday 5th September

It has been a joy seeing the children and having them back at school this week! They have grown so much over the summer and I have enjoyed catching up with them, and Mrs Sharman and Mrs Goldman have enjoyed getting to know them. Despite some nervous faces on the first day of school, the children settled in well and have made a brilliant start to Year 5.

This week, lessons have involved settling in and helping the children understand expectations for behaviour and presentation. The children have enjoyed seeing their teachers and getting to know our new classroom, which is already beginning to feel like home. In addition to this, the children have recapped their prior learning about Roman Numerals, visited the library and discussed the importance of online safety. 

At Forest School the children discussed Forever Green’s motto:

Knowing Me

Connecting with my Community

Caring for Our Earth 

They enjoyed a story about how different trees were created, and spent some time exploring the forest area; tying ropes to make a swing, digging up clay and finding rocks. 

Reminders and Notices

• Please ensure that all items, including water bottles, snack boxes and school sweatshirts/ cardigans, are labelled. This makes it possible for staff and pupils to return any lost items to children.
• Boys must wear tzitzit even when in PE kit. 
• Upcoming dates to note: Tuesday 9th September, Meet the Teacher, 18:45.

Wednesday 17th September, HGSS pre-Rosh Hashanah concert.

We are looking forward to next week and wish you all a fantastic weekend.

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman and the Year 5 team