Year 5

Welcome to Year 5! Mr Wharrier is delighted to be the class teacher this year, supported by Miss James and Mrs Elliot. Together, they are very much looking forward to working in partnership with families to ensure every child has a happy, successful, and rewarding year. The Year 5 classroom is built on a caring, respectful, and inclusive ethos where all pupils feel valued and encouraged to achieve their very best. The team promotes curiosity, resilience, and independence, supporting children to grow both academically and personally while developing the confidence to embrace new challenges. They are excited for the year ahead and to share in each child’s learning journey.

Mr Wharrier has just started his first year in St Joseph’s and his 4th year as a professional teacher and he is super excited to be a part of this amazing school community. He loves teaching Year 5, particularly RE and history. Mrs Elliot is an experienced HLTA who leads interventions during the school day, and Miss James is our other class TA, helping to support all pupils during lessons. All staff in the class find it a privilege to watch each child grow academically, spiritually and emotionally throughout the school year and find it a pleasure to teach Year 5. They have great relationships with each child which helps them know what each child needs to reach their full potential.

Year 5 are building on everything they have learned in primary school so far. In English, they use stories and texts to create their own version; such as news reports, adventure tales and character descriptions! Year 5 is home to some fantastic writers! In maths, Year 5 will delve deeper into learning about multiplication and division, addition and subtraction, fractions, measurement and geometry. In science, the children are learning about properties of materials, forces, Earth and space and animals including humans. Being a catholic school, all classes have a strong focus on RE to provide the best understanding of and love of religion. Our topics include DT, history, computing and geography which has some amazing topics such as building bridges, Tudors and climate change. These subjects give pupils many opportunities to link knowledge across the curriculum and go on school trips offering learning-rich experience to the children. Year 5 have already been to the centre for life to learn about Earth and Space, Newcastle cathedral to learn about the history of the church in Newcastle and Discovery Museum which links with their bridge's topic and forces in science.

Lego league is part of Year 5’s computing curriculum. This involves pupils programming robots and creating presentations about their progress during their work. It involves real-world problem-solving through coding, engineering, and research. Selected pupils will attend the LEGO league competition on March 12th where they will compete against other children to complete missions and present findings on their research.