Last Friday, Fairland's Year 5 boys were invited to a Tag Rugby tournament hosted at Giles school. We had an excellent, if not very hot afternoon, and the team played excellently. They showed superb determination and teamwork, and the coaches in charge commented on how much they improved throughout the afternon.

It was fantastic to see their attitudes develop too - realising that it is very important to keep positive and support each other. They even played against some Year 6 teams and held their own too!

In Year 5, our new topic this term is Captain Caveman. We are learning all about pre-historic times. Today, we explored the different types of homes that people during different historical periods would have lived in. We drew and labelled pictures in groups and talked about the differences in our homes today.

Last week, a selection of children in Year 5 who are taking part in the Brilliant Club had the opportunity to visit Oxford University for the day. We spoke to student ambassadors and found out what university life is like, discovered the huge range of subjects on offer at university and took a tour around Oriel College. We even saw the halls of residence of the famous writer Lewis Carroll and saw the actual tree which inspired part his well-known poem The Jabberwocky. We had a great day and left feeling thoroughly inspired!

We had a fab day today, celebrating all things science. The children investigated finger prints, made science competition posters and demonstrated an array of wonderful experiments that they had brought in from home. Poplar class is full of scientists in the making! 

Today, year 5 had their last visit by the wonderful PCSO team.  They brought some toys to play with too - very loud toys!  The children got to participate in a bleep test; part of the requirement for becoming a police officer, and even got to sit inside a police car and van.  Some were even "fortunate" enough to be locked in the on-board cells!

They have all been given a certificate for participating in this 6-week long programme.  They have learned all about anti-social behaviour, road safety, racism and homophobia as well as many other community-related topics.

Our topic this half term is Raging Rivers. This afternoon, we used iPads to research different rivers around the world to increase our knowledge. We found out about each river's source, where its mouth is, the countries on its course and its length.

Last week, each Year 5 class entered a team to the HFL Hertfordshire Year 5 Maths tournament. This is an annual event designed to test even the best mathematicians across schools in Hertfordshire. There were four rounds including a memory round, estimation and some very, very difficult general Maths questions!

All three teams did very well and scored higher than the average, which is a testament to how hard they worked in their teams. I am also delighted to say how Spruce team (Kyan, Ploy, Skye and Lucas) even managed to qualify for the finals, which will occur later in the month. Well done and Good luck!!

Last Monday, Year 5 were lucky enough to have a Nurse come in and teach us all about some VERY important life skills. We learnt about how we could safely help someone who was unconscious or even had stopped breathing. The children were very sensible in learning what to do in various different situations, how to use CPR, put people in the recovery position and also how to use a defibrillatord. It was mentioned in The Comet newspaper at the link : https://www.thecomet.net/news/23350811.stevenage-schoolchildren-learn-cpr-help-dipps-charity/ .

Last week, Year 5 celebrated their learning from this term’s topic of ‘Shooting for the Stars’ by taking part in the very exciting Borrow the Moon Project!

We began our day by learning the history behind the race to land on the moon. We learnt about the key events, including the race between the USSR and the USA, which eventually led to astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first people to set foot on the moon.

Our next task was to discover how the moon orbits around the Earth and rotates on its axis. We also learnt about the phases of the moon and how the perceived shape of the moon changes throughout the month due to the shadow cast by Earth onto the moon.

In the afternoon, we became meteor scientists as we observed REAL meteorites and sorted them according to their properties. We were then able to identify what type of meteorites they were, some of them were even magnetic. We felt so lucky to be able to hold something from space in the palm of our hands!

At the end of the day, we had an amazing opportunity to see lunar samples, these are rocks that have been brought to Earth from the moon! We all had a fantastic day and learnt so much too!

We have started our Modroc planets project in Year 5 this week. We had to plan our planet - thinking of the textures on the surfaces and how we would replicate this with our model. I love how different they are all going to look. Then they had to dampen the Modroc and layer a balloon that most were able to blow up. 

Sorry if any of the children came home with some of the modrock on themselves. I assure you we took every measure possible to avoid this! It is lots of fun and a satisfying Art skill to learn.

I know you look forward to seeing the finishes designs!