Friday 5th December

What a week it has been!

One of the standout moments was our Ancient Greek Day, which the children absolutely threw themselves into from the moment they walked through the door. Spirits were high, costumes were brilliant, and the enthusiasm was infectious.

We began by creating banners for two of Ancient Greece’s most famous city-states: Athens and Sparta. Once the children had been sorted into their cities, they prepared for a lively debate on which was the better place to live. Using their prior knowledge - and picking up new facts along the way - they argued passionately. Team Athens highlighted the city’s luxury, naval power and flourishing philosophy, while Team Sparta focused on its military strength, equal education for boys and girls, and its approach of defending rather than expanding. The children put forward their points with real confidence and maturity.

Our next activity was Greek theatre. Earlier this term, the children wrote short plays in pairs or small groups based on Odysseus’s encounter with the Cyclops, Polyphemos. On Ancient Greek Day, they performed these plays using traditional-style masks to distinguish characters. The performances were brilliant - funny, expressive and very enjoyable for the whole audience.

Then came our Greek banquet. The class discussed what they had learned about ancient Greek food, recalling pita and other breads, olives, dates, finger-foods, and the practice of dipping bread into wine. The children tried pita dipped in red wine vinegar, honey cake, feta cheese and olives. They also remembered that octopus was a popular Greek dish—so we served octopus-shaped sweets as a fun (and much more child-friendly!) alternative.

Finally, we watched an episode of Horrible Histories all about the ancient Greeks. The children were thrilled to see the Trojan War retold on screen, recognising so much of what they had learned in English. They especially loved spotting the parts of the Odyssey that they have come to know so well over the term.

It was a fantastic day, full of hands-on learning, creativity and memorable experiences. Hopefully it’s one they’ll remember for years to come.

Another highlight of the week was our DT afternoon. The whole afternoon was dedicated to building the bridges the children had planned earlier in the week. They measured wood carefully, used hand saws safely (complete with gloves), and glued their pieces together using hot glue guns. There were challenges - glue guns cooling down, wood cut the wrong length - but the children showed resilience and problem-solving skills throughout. Every group finished with a completed bridge; some exactly as planned, others redesigned along the way. The teamwork on display was outstanding, and the final products were truly impressive.

Of course, English and maths were also very productive.

In English, the children finished their newspaper reports. They spent time editing their drafts: adding detail, trimming unnecessary information, reorganising paragraphs and improving sentence structures to make their writing as clear as possible. Once this was complete, they used Canva to format their reports like real newspaper pages, complete with headlines, bylines, pictures and captions. They worked incredibly hard, and their finished pieces will be displayed in the new year.

In maths, our focus was on adding fractions. The children learnt how to add fractions with different denominators, building a strong conceptual understanding of why we need a common denominator before we can add them. They also practised adding mixed numbers, strengthening their fluency and accuracy.

Finally, we’ve continued rehearsing for the end-of-term show. The children have been practising their lines, songs and instrument parts, and it’s all coming together beautifully.

Another wonderful week in Year 5.

Friday 28th November

It has been another excellent and very busy week.

It was wonderful to see so many of you at parents’ evening on Thursday. These meetings are such a valuable opportunity to share successes, discuss progress and look ahead to next steps together. I am very much looking forward to seeing the remaining parents on Tuesday and continuing these important conversations.

In maths, we continued our work on comparing and ordering fractions. The children used their knowledge of equivalent fractions to tackle more challenging comparisons, particularly when working with different denominators. This required them to convert fractions before making fair comparisons, and they approached this with confidence and growing independence. We also went through the Primary Maths Challenge papers that the children completed a few weeks ago. As Mrs Sharman proudly shared, this Year 5 group achieved the highest set of results she has ever seen, which is a huge achievement and a real testament to their hard work and positive attitude. Alongside this, the children completed arithmetic practice, focusing on their KIRFs and developing speed, accuracy and fluency in their calculations.

In English, the children continued developing their newspaper reports based on the events of Odysseus and the suitors. This week we focused specifically on the lead and body of the report. For the lead, the children used the 5Ws – who, what, when, where and why – to ensure the reader fully understands the main event straight away. We had some excellent class discussions, particularly around the tricky concept of “when”. In the body of the report, the children worked hard to include key features such as formal language, clear sentence structure, past tense and both direct and reported speech. We will continue this work next week by completing and editing the full reports.

In history, we explored the ancient Greek Olympics in detail. The children learnt about the range of events that took place, such as boxing, discus, javelin and equestrian competitions, and understood that the Games were not only sporting but also deeply religious and social occasions. We discussed sacrifices to Zeus, performances by poets and philosophers, and the gathering of people from across Greece to celebrate and connect. To bring this learning to life, the children took part in our own mini Olympics, including a variety of athletic activities as well as creative and performance-based elements. This hands-on approach made the lesson both highly engaging and memorable.

In computing, the children completed their games using the coding skills they have been developing throughout the term. They demonstrated excellent problem-solving and resilience, especially when debugging tricky issues. Once finished, the classroom transformed into an arcade, where children used fake 50p coins to pay to play each other’s games. This was a fantastic opportunity for them to showcase their work, celebrate one another’s creativity and reflect on the process of game design.

In music, the children continued practising their performance pieces. They worked on combining chime bars, boomwhackers and percussion while singing Lean On Me with increasing confidence and musicality. We also rehearsed Ocho Kandelikas, continuing to prepare for our upcoming show.

Shabbat shalom,

Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman, Mrs Lenz and the Year 5 team

Friday 21st November

It has been another busy and rewarding week in Year 5.

On Friday, we celebrated Mitzvah Day with a range of meaningful activities. Representatives from the charities we are supporting – HIAS JCORE, Hammerson House and JW3’s food bank – joined us in morning assembly to speak about their vital work. Following the idea that Mitzvah Day is about donating our time rather than money, each year group took part in an activity to support others. Alongside Year 6, we created “winter warmer” packages for HIAS JCORE, filling them with items such as mugs, socks and other essentials, as well as writing thoughtful letters for the recipients. The children approached this with kindness and care, and it was lovely to see them so engaged in helping others.

The rest of the week continued as normal, with plenty of learning taking place. In maths, we began our new unit on fractions. Building on last year’s knowledge, the children explored equivalent fractions, learning how to identify them using common factors and multiples, and how to simplify them. We discussed why this is an important skill, particularly when adding and subtracting fractions. We also learnt how to convert mixed numbers into improper fractions and vice versa, considering when and why this might be necessary. The children worked incredibly hard and demonstrated strong understanding throughout. They also sat the Primary Maths Challenge this week. Despite the paper being designed for Year 6, they performed exceptionally well, achieving the highest set of marks Mrs Sharman has ever seen from a Year 5 class!

In English, the children wrote poetry inspired by a chapter of our text, The Sound of the Spheres, in which Odysseus hears the Sirens’ song. We listened to orchestral music inspired by nature, including Earth and excerpts from the Planet Earth II suite by Hans Zimmer, and discussed the imagery it evoked. Ideas ranged from animals sheltering their young to rain falling in the rainforest and vast stampedes across open plains. We explored the emotions linked to these images, such as calm, serenity and safety, and used them to write some truly beautiful poetry. We then began looking at newspaper reports, with the children examining real newspapers to identify key features such as headlines, bold text, bylines, images and captions. This has laid a strong foundation for writing their own reports next week.

In computing, the children took part in the Bebras Challenge, a test of logical and computational thinking which we complete annually. They showed great determination and perseverance, rising to the challenge of each problem with enthusiasm.

In DT, we continued our work on bridges, learning about truss bridges and why triangles are such an important structural shape. The children then began their practical work, learning how to measure, saw and sand the wood they will eventually use to construct their own bridges. We discussed the importance of “measure twice, cut once”, and the children quickly understood why accuracy is so crucial when working with materials.

In music, we continued rehearsing for our forthcoming show, practising Ocho Candelicas and working on playing Lean On Me using chime bars. It was wonderful to see the children collaborating so well, combining chime bars and percussion while I accompanied them on the ukulele. The piece is really starting to come together beautifully.

We wish you a lovely weekend.

Shabbat shalom,

Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman, Mrs Lenz and the Year 5 team

Friday 14th November

It has been a busy and exciting week. 

Well done to the whole class for competing in the football matches against King Alfred School on Wednesday. All the children played hard and collaborated brilliantly, producing three fantastic wins and one very close loss.

This week was Anti-Bullying Week, and the children took part in a range of activities to mark it. The theme this year was Power for Good, and the children created superhero images of themselves, imagining how they could use their powers for good. On Monday, they also wore odd socks to celebrate diversity and reflect that everyone is different and should be respected at all times.

In maths, we worked on prime numbers, square numbers, and cube numbers. The children discovered that prime numbers have only two factors — one and themselves — and enjoyed investigating whether all odd numbers are prime. A particularly lively discussion arose around whether 1 is a prime number! The children also practised identifying square and cube numbers and applied this knowledge to solve problems. Additionally, we recapped multiplying and dividing by powers of 10 and multiples of 10, understanding, for example, that 36 × 20 is the same as 36 × 2 × 10.

In English, we focused on the key skill of show, not tell. The children discussed physical reactions that accompany different emotions — such as smiling and a spring in your step when happy, or pacing and wringing hands when anxious. This linked to their diary entries written in role as Odysseus, after discovering his mother in the Land of the Dead. They explored his emotional reactions and included vivid descriptions of the Land of the Dead in their writing, drawing inspiration from high-quality examples.

In history, we explored children and childhood in ancient Greece. The children reflected on their own lives before stepping into the role of a Greek child, which helped them understand the differences between life then and now. They also researched various aspects of ancient Greek life — education, food, clothing, and toys — and compared these to their own experiences.

In DT, we began our unit on bridges. The children learnt about beam bridges, the simplest type of bridge, and investigated which shapes are stronger — squares or triangles. They discovered that triangles are more stable under pressure, whereas squares are more likely to warp or bend.

This week in music, we continued learning the Chanukah song Ocho Candelikas. We then continued learning the song Lean on Me. The children were given chime bars and as a class we learnt to accompany the first verse. 

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Shabbat shalom,

Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman, Mrs Lenz and the Year 5 team

Friday 7th November 

It was the first week back after half term, and we really hit the ground running!

We were lucky to have two different presentations from children this week. First, Rafael shared his award with the class that he received over the half term at the House of Lords! He explained that he had been given an honour for raising a huge amount of money for Camp Simcha and Chai Cancer. We are all so proud of him! Not only that, AJ brought in his sketchbooks and canvases to share with the class and we excitedly looked through them at the amazing artworks he had created! If anyone else wants to share things with the class, please email me and we will find time to do it. It is so amazing to see the children so proud of themselves and helps them work on their confidence speaking in front of groups. 

The children all looked fantastic on Thursday as they dressed up for their Ivrit fashion show. It was such a fun and creative way for them to showcase their Ivrit speaking skills, and they put on a brilliant show for everyone. Special mention goes to Sammy, who confidently wore a swimsuit and hat.

In maths this week, we focused on multiplication and division. The children learnt all about multiples and how to identify whether a number is a multiple of another. For example, a number is a multiple of three if the sum of its digits is a multiple of three, and a number is a multiple of four if half of it is even. We also explored common multiples - numbers that are multiples of more than one number such as 15, which is a common multiple of 3 and 5.
From there, we turned our attention to factors, the opposite of multiples, and found common factors between numbers. We revisited factor pairs (for example, 15 has the factor pair 3 and 5) and went further by identifying shared factors between two numbers such as 5 being a common factor of 15 and 20. We also discussed why understanding factors is useful, especially when simplifying fractions. The children practised this by simplifying 18/60, discovering that it could be written in its simplest form as 3/10.

In English, the children have been busy becoming playwrights! We studied a dramatic chapter from The Adventures of Odysseus, where Odysseus and his men encounter a cyclops on an island. Odysseus cleverly tricks the cyclops by telling him his name is “Nobody”, blinds him, and then escapes. The children worked in groups to turn extracts from this chapter into a play script, complete with stage directions, setting descriptions, and dialogue. They learnt to use the key features of playwriting and really enjoyed seeing their ideas come to life.

Our World Religions lesson this week continued our exploration of Christianity. We built on our previous discussions by comparing and contrasting aspects of Judaism and Christianity, including the countries of origin (Israel for both), key religious leaders (the Pope and the Chief Rabbi), and religious ceremonies (Bar/Bat Mitzvahs compared to Confirmations). The children showed a wonderful depth of understanding about our own faith and found it fascinating to see both the similarities and differences between the two religions.

In history, we turned our attention to ancient Greece once again, this time comparing the two great city-states of Athens and Sparta. The children learnt about the lives of the people in each city, from education to daily routines, before planning a debate on which city was the better place to live. We will be doing the actual debate later in the term.

In Music, we learnt to sing Lean on Me by Bill Withers and discovered that it can be beautifully layered with Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu. We also started learning our new song for the Winter Show.

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

Shabbat Shalom,

Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman, Mrs Lenz and the Year 5 team

Friday 24th October

We have reached the end of our first half term in Year 5, and what a busy one it has been! Although the chagim filled much of our time, we still managed to fit in plenty of learning and exciting activities. The children have settled well into Year 5 and are really engaging with the topics we’re exploring across all subjects. That said, we’re all ready for a well-earned half term break!

It was lovely to see so many of you at the SEED event on Tuesday. The escape room kept everyone gripped and it was very exciting to work out the clues and solve the problems. 

In maths this week, we focused on time. The children began by converting units of time — for example, learning that 3 hours is the same as 180 minutes. Once they were confident with this, they applied their skills to more complex worded problems. We then moved on to reading and interpreting different types of timetables, including travel timetables, school schedules, and TV guides. The children answered a variety of questions, such as “How many minutes of JS do we have in a week?” Finally, they applied everything they’d learned to exam-style time questions, which required careful reading and logical thinking. These were challenging, but everyone worked hard and produced excellent results.

In English, alongside completing assessments in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and comprehension, we began reading our new book — The Adventures of Odysseus. This abridged version of Homer’s Odyssey has already captured the children’s imagination. I brought in my copy of the (translated) full poem so they could see just how long the original epic is! Thankfully, our version is far shorter. In the first chapter, we met Odysseus, his wife Penelope, and his son Telemachus. The children wrote thoughtful character descriptions of Odysseus, which are now proudly displayed on our working wall. We then discussed Penelope’s perspective — left behind in Ithaca for nineteen years while her husband is at war and lost at sea. The children wrote touching letters in role as Odysseus as he prepared to leave for the Trojan War, expressing what he might have wanted to say to his wife and newborn son, and the emotions he would have felt as he faced the unknown. These were fantastic and have gone up on our working wall.

We also finished our Greek Creation Story comics this week. The children worked incredibly hard to illustrate the birth of Gaia, the great battle between the Titans and the Olympians, and the rise of Zeus as king of the gods. The results are absolutely fantastic and are now proudly on display in the corridor outside our classroom.

In our world religions lesson, we learned more about Christianity. The children began by jotting down everything they already knew, and even those who thought they knew very little managed to contribute something. We then watched a video about a young Christian girl living in Jerusalem, which gave the class a fascinating look at life in Israel from a different perspective. Afterwards, we compared aspects of Christianity and Judaism — such as holy books, places of origin, and key leaders and prophets. The children were fascinated by the many similarities between the two religions. 

This week in Music, the children learnt how to lein the first passuk of this weeks Parasha, Noach. which they performed to the school during Kabbalat Shabbat today. We also looked at the song Happy by Pharrell Williams. We discussed the style of music, what instruments they could hear and began to discuss the structure of the song.

Not only that, on Friday the children finished their Great Wave paintings inspired by Hokusai. They worked hard to use the watercolours to get the same effect that this great painter managed, developing their understanding of this media and producing good work. 

Reminders:

• We will continue to have Forest School after half term. Please remember to send your children to school with the appropriate clothing on Thursday as, if they do not have the right items, they will not be able to attend Forest School.

We hope you all have a lovely half term holiday. 

Shabbat shalom,

Miss Simon, Mrs Goldman, Mrs Lenz and the Year 5 team

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