🦢 Welcome to Swan Class! 🦢

Year 5 is taught by Mrs Musgrave with Mrs Green, Mrs Streetin and Mrs Williams working in class as the Learning Support Assistant.

Other staff working with the children include: Miss Roberts for Music every Wednesday and Mr Bourne for PE each Friday. Below, you will find an overview of our learning throughout the year. Further updates can be accessed on the school's Twitter page. 

AI Workshops

As part of Internet Safety Day, we had an exciting workshop with Beth from AI for Schools. During this session, children explored how to tell whether something is created by AI or not, took part in interactive games, and discovered different technologies powered by artificial intelligence. They then had the opportunity to create their own AI coding bot, teaching it to identify whether messages were friendly or unfriendly. It was a fun and engaging workshop. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning more about AI.

Pupil Chaplaincy Team

We are delighted that a group of Year 5 pupils have joined Rev. Sarah as part of our Pupil Chaplaincy team. The children are taking on this special role to help support and care for others at Kingfisher school. During their meetings, they have been discussing the importance of treating everyone with kindness, compassion and respect. 

Dog Safety with PCSOs

We were pleased to welcome Yeovil PCSOs to school for an informative and engaging workshop on dog safety. The officers spoke to the children about how to stay safe around dogs, including how to spot different behaviours and understand what a dog may be feeling. Children learnt the correct way to approach and interact with dogs, as well as what to do in situations they may feel unsure or unsafe.

SCARF Workshop

This week the children took part in an engaging SCARF workshop, focusing on friendship and personal wellbeing. They explore the qualities of positive and negative friendships, discussed peer pressure, and considered the risks and consequences of different choices, including the use of vapes and their impact. A special visit from Harold, helped bring the session to life. The children were highly engaged throughout, making thoughtful contributions to discussions.

 

Visit from the DVSA

We enjoyed an exciting and informative visit from the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency). Mr Fage and his colleagues shared a presentation explaining their job role and how they help keep roads safe. The children then explored a range of specialist equipment, including a portable office on wheels, used to carry out vehicle checks. They even had the chance to complete a hazard perception test, watch a car being weighed, see a retrieval vehicle up close and observe a device used to inspect underneath vehicles. It was a fascinating, hands-on experience that brought learning to life.

Creating Paper Data Bases

As part of their first computing lesson of the year, the children explored what a database is and how it works. They created animal records using a range of different fields, then practised sorting their records into different categories within their databases. To make it even more exciting, and to appreciate the speed of online databases, they timed how quickly they could organise and retrieve their information. 

Rock Up & Read!

We were joined by parents to hear their children read this afternoon. Children loved hearing each other read and talking about the stories they love with others.

Creative Collage Art

We have created a stunning collection of collage artwork inspired by contemporary artist Hollie Chastain. Using a vibrant mix of colours and techniques, the children explored layering, ripping, overlapping and even paper weaving to build imaginative, eye-catching creations. 

Visit from Bishop Michael 

We were delighted to welcome Bishop Micheal of Bath and Wells Diocese, who visited to share a meaningful Christmas message with Year 5. The children asked thoughtful, reflective questions and gained a deeper understanding of the Bishop's role within the church and the wider community. 

Road Safety

We enjoyed an informative session with a Somerset Council Road Safety volunteer. We learnt the importance of being seen when out and about, especially during darker mornings and evenings. We discussed why wearing a proper fitted helmet is essential for cycling safety. A valuable visit that reinforces how small actions can help keep everyone safe.

Children in Need

We had an exciting day in Swans for Children in Need! We wore our brightest yellow clothes, sporty gear and even some brilliant spots to show our support. Our theme revolved around the number 25, and we embraced the challenge with enthusiasm. 

We coloured in Pudsey Bear, ensuring he had exactly 25 spots. We also tackled mental arithmetic questions, cracking codes that revealed fun words for a thrilling word search.

Interfaith Week

This week, we celebrated Interfaith Week with a fantastic group webinar. We listened to the story, Have you filled a Bucket Today?, which teaches the art of treating others with kindness and respect. After the story, we were privileged to hear from speakers representing various faiths, including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity and Humanism. They shared insights on how their beliefs guide them to show compassion and understanding towards one another. It was an enlightening experience that enriched our appreciation for diversity and reinforced the importance of treating others how we wish to be treated, in our daily lives.

Anti-bullying Week

We discussed the theme of "Power for Good" for Anti-Bullying Week. By working as a team, we created colourful paper chains, showing our commitment to stand up against bullying and support one another. 

Many of the class wore odd socks throughout the week to show how we should value each other's differences. We had the challenge of matching odd socks, featuring words of respect and kindness with their definitions. 

High Sheriff of Somerset Visit

We were delighted to welcome the High Sheriff of Somerset to our school this week! During her visit, she led an interesting workshop with Swan class, explaining her role and the meaning behind the symbols on the official High Sheriff emblems. We learnt about the crown representing royal authority, the leeks representing the Welsh heritage, the pair of swords representing mercy and justice, and the Tudor rose representing England. The children asked thoughtful questions and thoroughly enjoyed discovering more about the history and traditions of this important role.

Family Learning

Our recent family learning workshop was a wonderful opportunity for pupils and their families to dive into comprehension skills, with a focus on inference and predicting. Using the opening chapters of The Explorer by Katherine Rundelll as our inspiration, families became inference detectives, piecing clues together from the text to uncover hidden meanings and emotions. 

Working together, everyone made fab predictions about what might happen next in the story – using evidence from the text and their own imaginative thinking. The workshop was filled with lively discussions, teamwork and a shared love of reading.

Amazing Artists!

We have been exploring the dramatic style of artist Robert Longo, creating striking charcoal animal portraits inspired by his work. The children learnt how to use tone, layering and smudging techniques to add depth and texture, bringing their drawings to life. The finished pieces showcased incredible focus, creativity and skill. 

STEM Visit

We were delighted to welcome aircraft engineers into school to deepen the children's understanding of rerversible reactions, this was apart of Morson Talent. The visitors, woh work with a range of materials to repair and maintain helicopters, brought along fascinating examples of carbon fibre, glass fibre and other composite materials for the children to explore. To see reversibility in action, the children also conducted a fun (and delicious) chooclate melting and freezing experiment. It was a fantastic hands-on learning experience that brought science to life! Thank you, Morson Talent.

Maginificent Miniature Playgrounds

In DT, we have been busy designing and building out own mini playgrounds! After researching different types of play equipment, they planned their designs carefully before bringing them to life using recycled matrials. Ther results were imaginative and creative, showing off a wonderful range of ideas. It was fantastic to see their creativity and problem-solving skills in action!

Careers Morning 

On Friday 17th October, we were incredibly lucky to welcome a range of visitors into out class to talk about their careers. The children enoyed discovering many difference jobs and the various paths to achieving these. They discovered accounting with NTR, sports coaching with SASP, consulting with Old Mill, air traffic control with the Navy, lifesaving with the RNLI and software engineering with BAE Systems. It was great to see the children so engaged, asking thoughtful questions and developing their curiosity about the world of work. Thanks Miss Kitto for organising and fab morning.

Chance to Shine Cricket

The children have been enjoying fantastic cricket coaching sessions with Shaun from Somerset Cricket's Chance to Shine programme. Through fun, active lessons, they have developed their understanding of the game while learning key skills such as batting, bowling and fielding. It's been wonderful to see their confidence grow and their enthusiasm for cricket shine!

Black History Month

This month, we celebrated Black History Month by learning about inspiring individuals from Black and Asian communities who stood up for justice and equality. The children reflected on the importance for courage and standing up for what is right. After watching a short clip of Amanda Gorman performing her poem "The Hill We Climb", the children created powerful poems that shared their own voices and beliefs. As a class, we collaborated on a beautiful Quilt of Pride - each pupil contributed a square featuring a symbol, pattern or drawing representing strength and unity. 

Poet Visit 

We welcomed poet Shelia Hopkins to our school for a special poetry workshop on remembrance. The children explored themes of memory, reflection, gratitude and drawing inspiration of the past. With Shelia's guidance, they craftes their own heartfelt remembrance poems, which will be shared as part of our Remembrance Day commemorations. 

Handball Tournament

Mr Bourne arranged a briliant handball tournament for all children. Year 5 and 6 were placed in their house teams and worked hard together. There were fantastic skills and sportspersonship shown throughout. Well done!

Interesting Incarnation

The children explore the Christian belief that God was incarnated as Jesus. Through storytelling and role-play, they acted out moments from Jesus' life that showed how he was both fully human and fully God. From sharing kindness and compassion to performing miracles, the children reflected on that it means for God to live among us and to understand human experiences.

Exploring Spain

We celebrated International Languages Day as a whole school and in Swan class we focused on Spanish. We spent the morning exploring the Spanish language, learning simple greetings and discovering how many countries across the world speak Spanish. We then tasted some paella and helped Little Kingfisher decorate biscuits the colours of the Spanish flag. 

Dot Day!

We loved creating on Dot Day. Each child designed an "Identity Dot" which was based around their likes, interests and personalities. Some children chose to use colours to represent this and others chose to draw their favourite things to represent them. The children create some brilliant dots, all unique to them!

Collaboration Challenge!

In our first PSHE lesson, Swans were challenged to build the tallest tower from 6 sheets of paper and tape. They worked superbly in their teams, using super cooperation and listening skills to build different designs. This was our first lesson in our "Me and My Relationships" topic.