“As
Year Five Curriculum NewsletterSummer 2026
Joy Excellence Service
soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”
Luke 21:30-31
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
During the Summer term, Year 5 will study the Sacrament of Confirmation, understanding its links with scripture from the words of the prophets through to the Acts. The Sacrament of Confirmation is one of the three sacraments of initiation of the Church. It recalls the Holy Spirit descending on the disciples at Pentecost. The word ‘confirmation’ comes from the Latin ‘firmare’, meaning to strengthen. The children will be given opportunities to lead class worship and they will continue to explore different ways to pray, for example The Examen.
RSHE
Our RSHE continues to build upon the work Year 5 have already done about healthy relationships and positive physical and mental health. They will look at positive relationships and how to look out for abusive behaviour. They will gain an understanding of what it is to be healthy, including the effects of drugs and alcohol. The children will increase their understanding of the Holy Trinity using scripture activities and prayer. They will also look at the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and caring for others around them.
ENGLISH
This term, Year 5 will begin their new book, ‘Journey to the River Sea’ by Eva Ibbotson. The children will be focusing on producing newspaper reports, descriptive writing, a narrative and writing a recount. Within each genre of writing, the class will look at the stylistic and organisational features needed, and will work out how to include these in their own writing. They will continue to work on editing skills after each piece of extended writing. Throughout their work, they will focus on grammar and punctuation features such as relative clauses, adverbials and modal verbs.
MATHS
During the Summer term, Year 5 will learn how to classify and measure angles. They will go onto read and plot co-ordinates, translate shapes and recognise lines of symmetry. They will then move on to adding and subtracting decimals followed by understanding negative numbers. Finally, Year 5 will practise converting between different units of measure, including from imperial to metric and learning how to compare and measure volume and capacity.
SCIENCE
Year 5's next topic in Science is Living things and their Habitats. This will include looking at the life cycles of different types of animals, grouping and classifying animals, including insects, mammals, birds and amphibians. They will also be looking at reproduction in plants, dissecting flowers and learning about different ways plants grow. After this, the topic will be Animals Including Humans, which focuses on how humans change from babies, through adulthood and into old age. Throughout the topics, they will be using scientific skills, such as setting up experiments, understanding fair tests, concluding and researching. They will look at the impact that scientists such as David Attenborough and Jane Goodall have had in their fields and will see what they can learn from them.
HISTORY
During the Summer term, the children will look at Britain from 410 - 1066 AD. This will include the Anglo-Saxons and Scots, thinking about how they invaded and settled in Britain, their culture, art and religion and what legacy they have left behind. After half term, Year 5 will look at the Viking and Anglo Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England up until the time of Edward the Confessor. They will look at what life was like during this period of history , including laws and justice, comparing these to our current legal systems. They will think about the impact that the Vikings have had on our society and think about what has changed.
ART/DT
This term, Year 5 will be focussing on the skill of still life painting in their art lessons. They will be looking at the work of Frida Kahlo, critiquing and finding inspiration from her paintings. The class will look at the key ideas that this artist tried to show in her work such as her Mexican identity. ln their own work, the children will create a still life which will be sketched first and then painted, considering where light is coming from and the shadows this creates.
ln DT Year 5 will be focusing on ‘Cooking and Nutrition’ by making different types of bread. The children will select an appropriate variety of ingredients and use a wide range of techniques to combine them.
MUSIC
Our next topic within music will be inspired by the sound of Motown. The children will be listening to music from this genre, appraising the content of the songs and finding common themes. They will look at rhythm and timing and how important this is to music. The children will be learning songs - both vocally and on instruments, finding riffs and rhythms and learning to improvise. They will compose their own songs and perform these for the rest of the class. They will look at the history of the label and find inspiration from some of the artists it covered.
MFL
ln their Spanish lessons this summer, Year 5 will be working on the ‘My Town’ unit of work. They will learn the vocabulary for seven key places in a town. Pupils will have the opportunity to also learn a key phrase for each location in the foreign language. Each lesson will be accompanied by a song that pupils will be encouraged to actively participate in. We will then go onto look at the ‘Seasons’ unit of work. The children will learn the four seasons of the year, highlighting a key feature for each season in the foreign language. By the end of the unit, pupils will have the skills and knowledge to say which is their favourite season.
P.E.
Year 5 will be doing a range of topics in PE over the summer term.
Indoor PE will focus on both dynamic and static balances and dance.
ln their outdoor PE, Year 5 will look at the athletics skills needed for sports day. They will also be learning key skills for basketball and netball thinking about positions for attacking and defending and developing their tennis skills.
COMPUTING
During the first half of the Summer term, Year 5 will be studying blogging and vlogging and how to safely create their own. After half term, we will be learning about spreadsheets and their many uses.
As always, online safety is of great importance and we will continue to learn and discuss how to stay safe while online.
