This week in Year 5 we've begun to draft our rationing pamphlet, written to persuade the public that WWII rationing was a great idea. It's challenging children to use persuasive language, to identify and solve problems the public may be concerned about and deliver it in a formal tone with technical vocabulary that's akin to what the Government may have used for propaganda. Year 5 have embraced the challenge and did so well today. In Geography, Miss Phelphs taught them where their food comes from when imported and they calculated food miles using an atlas, utilising their measurement conversion skills. 

Next week, we will be building clay vessels with some very ambitious designs! The aprons we have in school are too small for many KS2 so, whilst I'll do my best to mitigate the mess, I implore you to send in an old shirt for them to protect their uniforms as they will otherwise not leave unscathed. 

In PE this week, they've been practising athletics with Mr Geary and, in Math, we've been multiplying mixed number fractions. It's been tricky, but many cracked it today (to keep the confidence going, please encourage them to practise the skills on DoodleMath). 

Pupils are very engaged in our WWII topic and have many fascinating and insightful questions. They've been directed to parents and grandparents for details about concentration camps, Hitler and the darkest side of WWII. To our surprise, many already had an understanding and we encourage curiosity but guided by parents. In Year 5, we'll be looking at life in Britain (Blitz, rationing and evacuees) with a brief overview of the causes, allies and axies. For PSHE, we had a wonderful lesson focused on their relationships with themselves and their self-esteem – they had such wonderful ways to describe themselves and many were very self-aware. We'll be building on our lessons about empathy, self-esteem and relationships as we move into online safety in the next few weeks. 

Have a great weekend. 

Mrs S