In many respects, Year 5 is a period of transition for the children. Greater independence in work and preparation for the school day is emphasised and children attend their first residential excursion. This all helps to gently pave the way for their entry into the Secondary School in Year 7.
King Richard III College is one of the best British International Schools in Mallorca (Majorca), Spain. The atmosphere in our school is one that reflects the happiness of our pupils and staff and their respect for themselves and each other, and is at the heart of everything we do. Our Primary School pupils are nurtured and encouraged to achieve their potential in their learning journey with us.
We make the most of our opportunities in implementing the English National Curriculum in Year 5 by exploring, experimenting and trying many new things. In English, the children explore and use many different forms of writing, including: report writing, letter writing, note taking, designing persuasive posters, poetry writing and appreciation, story writing and book reviews. Emphasis is placed upon the children writing clearly, neatly and correctly, following the outline of our English policy for the Primary School. The children learn set lists of spellings and develop their own personal dictionaries.
In Mathematics we focus on sharpening arithmetic skills using the four operations, learning times tables thoroughly, laying work out neatly and the pupils are constantly reminded of the importance of reading questions carefully and checking their answers. Amongst other things, the children discover how to use protractors, draw bar charts and line graphs, explore volume using Unifix cubes, use mirrors and tracing paper for symmetry and rotation, use individual clocks to learn 12 hour and 24 hour time and develop their calculator skills.
We explore many new themes in Science. Our topics are: Keeping Healthy and the Heart; Life Cycles; The Human Life Cycle, Gases; Properties and Changes of Materials, Sound. The children learn how to write up the experiments they perform using a formal structure similar to that used in the Secondary School. We discuss how to recognise and implement fair testing and put it into practise when designing our own investigations. The children are guided to use relevant scientific language when discussing and communicating their ideas.
As a British International School with children from many different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, we take delight in being able to learn from one another and our different experiences of the World. This also enters our work in Literacy, History, Art & Design and Geography. We have two very exciting History topics for Year Five, “The Egyptians” and “The Anglo-Saxons and The Vikings”. A major focus in Geography is to familiarise the children with the names and locations of the principle capital cities of the World. We also look at the way rivers are formed and how they are adapted by man, seasons, transport and shops. Aside from this the children have classes in Spanish, French and German.
Year 5 Computing includes designing and writing programmes, using the internet and learning about e-safety.
We try our hand at many different artistic media in Year Five, including: sketching, watercolour painting, acrylic painting, pastels, papier mâché helmets, model-making, building three dimensional shapes using cardboard nets – to name but a few.
Year 5 students team-up with Year 6 in a two year programme of school excursions which help to enhance and bring their learning experience into the real world. Previous excursions have included: La Reserva Nature Park, The Palma Aquarium, The Planetarium and Historic Palma. Following the final exams, the year culminates in a most rewarding and exciting event, the five day residential excursion to the Pyrenees or one of the PGL centres in France or the UK. Some children are obviously apprehensive at what may be their first time sleeping away from their families, but each year they return full of the joys of having developed their friendships whilst experiencing exciting adventure activities conducted to high standards of safety. And so Year 5 ends with a real sense of achievement and an obvious maturity.