Birkby Junior School

Welcome to Year 5!

Summer Term 2025

Welcome back to the summer term!

We hope you have had a fantastic holiday and are refreshed and revitalised, ready to take on the challenges of the Summer Term.

You are now in your third and final term of Year 5, which will continue to be exciting and challenging. Keep persevering towards your learning, showing us a mature and independent approach, so that you can be ready for Year 6.

What will we be learning?

In our English lessons, we will start the term focusing on an exciting text – Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. This is a fiction text all about a young girl’s journey to the Amazon and her experiences. This will be used as a basis for different styles of writing, such as: writing in role, writing a biography and creating an audio guide using figurative language. We will also make comparisons between this text and other texts we have read so far this year.

After half term, we will be focusing on stories from different cultures with the text Seasons of Splendour. This is a rich and dazzling collection of mythological tales drawn from India. Cracking Comprehension sessions will continue to reinforce important comprehension strategies.

Our maths learning will begin with developing our understanding of geometry—first angles and then shapes. We will learn to estimate, compare, draw and measure angles accurately. Facts learnt about angles will support our reasoning around calculating angles on a straight line and around a point. We will apply knowledge of angles to the properties of 2D and 3D shapes.

After this, we will be describing and representing the positions of shapes after a reflection or translation, using the appropriate language. We will be developing our decimals understanding from earlier in the year, by calculating with decimals and then learning how to convert between different units of metric measure and between units of time. Finally, we will learn about volume.

All children are expected to know their times tables by the end of Year 4; we will continue to practise these. You must make this a personal target if you cannot recall them quickly. If you can, you need to extend this to knowing the related division facts. Knowing your times tables facts will help you in all your maths work. Keep learning them! Spending time playing on TT Rock Stars will help with your speed and accuracy.

For our history work, we will be moving onto learning about Victorian Huddersfield. We will have the opportunity to explore both Victorian and modern maps of Huddersfield, thinking about change and continuity. We will also learn about how Victorian children lived and compare this to our own life experiences. During this unit, we will learn about Victorian workhouses and the impact the 1870 Education Act had on both children’s lives and our local area. In addition, we will be looking at the importance of the railway in Huddersfield and how this led to an increase in leisure opportunities.

Following this, in our geography work, we will learn about the location and countries that make up North America. We will find out about its famous human and physical geographical features, as well as study its economy (imports and exports). We will learn about the Grand Canyon and the Ring of Fire, building on our knowledge of volcanoes.

In our Design Technology lessons, we will be learning about the structure of different types of bridges. Using this knowledge, we will design and create our own structures. In Summer 2, we have another exciting Art Week, focusing on portraits. We will also be learning about healthy snack preparation during our Health and Fitness Day.

Also, to keep our bodies as fit and active as our minds, we’ll have the opportunity to develop a range of skills individually and in teams. This term our P.E. sessions will cover athletics skills.

Classes who aren’t swimming will be developing their skills in dance in summer 1. In the invasion games unit in summer 2, we will be focusing on developing attacking and defending skills, as well as communication and teamwork skills.

You will be informed by your class teacher when you have P.E. lessons. You will need to come to school in your P.E. kit on your P.E. days - please make sure you have suitable footwear too.

5B and 5H will continue to go swimming at North Huddersfield Trust School every Wednesday until July. Please remember to bring your correct swimming kit every Wednesday.

Please see the curriculum information booklet for more detail about other aspects of our learning.

What will I need to bring to school?

You need to remember to bring your homework diary into school every day. Your teacher will check your diary regularly and an adult at home will need to aswell. You also need to remember to return your home reading book and your library book regularly, so that you have the opportunity to read and enjoy as many books at home as possible.

What work will I need to do at home?

Every Wednesday, you will be given Maths and English homework. This must be returned to school by the following Monday.