Year 5

This week, Year 5 have fully immersed themselves into the wonderful, imaginative world of Shaun Tan’s ‘The Lost Thing’ in our English lessons, where they created their own totally unique and creative lost things out of recycled materials. We were very impressed by their creativity and resourcefulness! We have been discussing the deeper meaning of the book, which explores finding your people and the themes of community and belonging. Building on this, the children have begun planning their own care guides for their ‘lost things’, carefully selecting and considering detailed instructions. Last week, the children proudly published their descriptive settings based on Quest by Aaron Becker. We were very impressed by the advanced vocabulary, which the children had used!

We have enjoyed using place value counters in maths to order numbers up to 1,000,000 and rounding numbers to the nearest multiple of 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000. The children have continued to demonstrate their ability to develop their maths skills with confidence and a growth mindset. 

In science, the children have been inspired by the colder weather! Our latest investigation has involved observing the effectiveness of different thermal insulators. Together, we observed how well different materials could insulate a hot drink over time. 

In art, we practised our drawing skills to effectively create 3D drawings of fruit, using various shading techniques and shadows to draw from observation.

The reading records are looking really positive, please continue to read 5 times a week with your child and leave a valuable comment. It’s been another brilliant week, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what the next few weeks will bring!

  

   

w/b 29/09/25      

Words with the long vowel sound /i/ spelt with y

apply 

supply 

identify 

occupy 

multiply 

rhyme 

cycle 

python 

hygiene 

Hyphen

Key words: 

Imperative verb, bullet point, second person, multiple of, integer, rounding, thermal, insulator, cross hatch, contour, stippling, long shot, close up

 

w/b 06/10/25

Homophones & near homophones

past 

passed 

proceed 

precede 

aisle 

isle 

aloud 

allowed 

affect 

effect

Key words: 

equipment, brackets, parenthesis, time adverbial, estimate, approximate, exchange population, migration, evaluation

 

Key Messages: 

• Please return your Juniper Hall consent forms by 3rd October.

• Thank you for all of the junk modelling resources that have been brought in.

• Here is an interesting video about the impact of smart phones on children:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xsw9HdM_MZw&feature=youtu.be 

 

Key dates:

• Monday 29th September - NSPCC workshop for children
• Wednesday 1st October - Launch The Vineyard Vision - 7pm online
• Thursday 2nd October - Mental Health/Young Carers coffee morning - 9am
• Monday & Tuesday 6th & 7th October - Individual photos

 

Year 6

As we enter the fourth and fifth week of Year 6, the children have truly settled into the rhythm of their final year at The Vineyard. A real buzz of excitement surrounds the launch of the Vineyard Award, and many pupils are eager to put themselves forward for a variety of roles across the school. We are looking forward to seeing how they grow in independence and take ownership of these responsibilities.

In mathematics, our focus has shifted to calculation. The children have been revisiting long multiplication, ensuring they feel confident with this important skill, while also beginning to tackle long division. Alongside this, they have explored factors in more depth and are learning to recognise when calculations will lead to whole numbers or when remainders are required.

English lessons have taken on a very personal theme. The children delighted in sharing anecdotes from their early years, sparking lively discussions and plenty of laughter. Building on this, they have begun planning their own autobiographies, carefully selecting their favourite memories and thinking about how to structure them into engaging life stories.

Science, meanwhile, has been both fascinating and a little revolting! Our latest investigation has involved observing mould growth in different environments. Together, we are exploring questions such as: where does mould grow best—the cupboard, the fridge, the freezer, by the window, or even outdoors? The children have been captivated by the process and are making thoughtful predictions.

In art, creativity has flourished. Pupils were given complete freedom to experiment with layering mixed media to create textured landscape collages. Their imaginative use of colour and materials has led to some truly inventive pieces of work.

Year 6 is off to a fantastic start, and we can’t wait to see what the next few weeks bring!

    

w/b 29/09/25

Adjectives ending in -ant into nouns ending in -ance/ -ancy

observant

observance

expectant

expectancy

hesitant

hesitancy

tolerant

tolerance

relevant

relevance

Key words: 

multiplicand, multiplier, product, autobiography, fronted adverbial, anecdote, indigenous, tribe, mould, fungi, layering, composition

 

w/b 06/10/25

Adjectives ending in -ent into nouns ending in -ence/ -ency

innocent

innocence

decent

decency

excellent

excellence

confident

confidence

existent

existence

Key words: 

dividend, divisor, quotient, remainder, parentheses, first person, past tense, deforestation, cause, effect, vertebrates, invertebrates,

 

Key Messages: 

• If your child has had their homework reset, please spend the time to go through it with them at home.

• Thank you for all of the collage resources that have been brought in.

• Here is an interesting video about the impact of smart phones on children:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xsw9HdM_MZw&feature=youtu.be 

• Next week, we will be doing our first set of mock SATs. The past papers that we will be using for our mock SATs throughout the year are 2025, 2018 and 2024. Please avoid using these as practice at home, as this may skew our mock data. 

 

Key dates:

• Monday 29th September - NSPCC workshop for children
• Wednesday 1st October - Launch The Vineyard Vision - 7pm online
• Thursday 2nd October - Mental Health/Young Carers coffee morning - 9am