Welcome to the Saturn Class page!

Saturn class is a mix of year 5 and year 6 children.

Ms Smith is our class teacher but Mrs Tickle takes us for Forest School sessions and Mrs Griffiths teaches us on Friday mornings. We are also supported by Miss Preston and Mrs Wiseman (TAs).

The ethos of our class is to develop confident and independent individuals who are ready to tackle the challenges of school life and be active citizens in the wider world. Through high expectations and adaptive teaching to meet individual needs, we nurture personal and academic progress for children.

On this page, you can find updates about our learning and special activities that we take part in.

Saturn Class 2023.2024

Summer Term

Week ending 28/06/24

Saturn class have been busy rehearsing for our end-of-year show, as well as making props and helping to put up the stage. Our English lessons have also centred around the Mission Implausible playscript, with children having a go at writing their own scenes and song lyrics.

On Monday, whilst the year six children were completing activities for transition to secondary school, the years fives enjoyed a science session led by one of the science teachers from Longsands. Alongside the year fives from KPA, they used red cabbage indicator to determine whether liquids were acids or alkalis. The children followed all instructions carefully and thoroughly impressed the visiting teacher. 

Week ending 19/04/24

What a productive first week back this has been!

The children consolidated their maths learning relating to angles on a straight line and around a point. The year fives have also revisited properties of 2D and 3D shapes, whilst the year sixes practised converting between metric units of measure and solving calculations relating to this. The children also enjoyed a fluency afternoon, whereby we focused on times tables facts and applying them to problem solving scenarios, as well as Times Table Rock Star battles. We currently have a TTRS class competition running against Jupiter - the winning class will be announced next week!

In English, we have spent some time revisiting word classes and have been applying this to our explanation text writing. Next week, we'll be moving on to writing about dragons!

The year sixes have also been getting stuck in to their SATs preparations in school, with children having extra 1:1 and small group sessions to ensure that they're as prepared as they can be.

Spring Term

Week ending 22/03/24

Saturn class have had lots of fun with science the past two weeks. In British science week, the children designed and completed their own investigations relating to biscuits - some experimented with their suitability as building materials, whilst others tested to see which was the most resistant to dunking. This week, we used fruit and sports equipment to create a scale-model of the solar system on the playground. 

In maths, we have been continuing to use formulas to calculate the areas of shapes, and the year six children have also been practising finding the volume of cuboids.

In English, we have been writing about an object that is special to us, as part of our work on 'The Viewer'. 

Week ending 08/03/24

We've had a busy week of assessments, finishing our newspaper reports about the death of Macbeth, swimming and exciting writing. For PSHE, many of the class enjoyed writing recipes for creating loving relationships. 

The highlight of this week has been World Book Day. The children all looked fabulous in their costumes and I especially love their decorated spoons. We shared 'The Black Book of Colours' and then began creating our own book of tastes. The children experienced a range of interesting foods (including lemons, sherbet, extra mature cheddar and anchovies) and then thought of creative ways to describe them. We hope you enjoy the photos!

Next week, we will look through the completed assessment papers together so the children can see their progress and areas for development. 

Week ending 16/02/24

This week, to finish our work on Macbeth, we have become journalists, reporting on the Battle of Dunsinane. We have explored using quotations, passive voice and relative clauses. The children have thoroughly enjoyed our work on Shakespeare. After half term, we will be writing explanation texts - we will be exploiting links to topic for this by explaining the water cycle.

In maths, we have been focusing on statistics - reading information from line graphs, bar charts and timetables. We've found that it's a lot harder to present information than it is to read it!

We have also been finding out about biomes in our topic work, thinking about persuasive design to finish our Safer Internet Day work, and the year 5s have been learning about taxes.

Have a lovely half-term break!

Week ending 26/01/24

This week in maths, the year 6 children have been resilient in their work on algebra. Many of them entered the classroom with preconceived notions of algebra being terrifying, but that was a myth that we quickly dispelled. They learnt about how unknown values can be expressed in equations and how both sides of equations must stay balanced. The year 5s continued to work with fractions, specifically looking at different methods to find fractions of amounts. They worked together on problem solving activities and used reasoning to justify their mathematical thinking.

We had another successful week in the swimming pool - the children are continuing to show us their very best. They have been listening to feedback and we're already seeing progress. It was also lovely to see the class enjoying gymnastics in the hall today with Mrs Griffiths. They were moving around stations, practising a range of rolls. 

In English, we've utilised drama to explore emotions before writing a persuasive argument as either the 'devil' or 'angel' on Macbeth's shoulder, to encourage him to make a choice about his actions. We wonder what actions Macbeth will take next.

Week ending 19/01/24

What a busy week for Saturn class!

Year 6 started the week with their first SATs booster session. We enjoyed being able to work in small groups to target specific areas of learning that the children needed more practise on. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm looking forward to more of the fantastic attitudes to learning that the year 6 children came to this week's session with.

On Tuesday, Saturn class had their first swimming lesson of the term. The children behaved beautifully, followed instructions, worked really hard and had fun. 

In maths, the year 5 children have been working on written methods for multiplication and division, whilst the year 6s learnt about ratios and their relationships to fractions. Macbeth continued to be the focus for our English lessons, with the children characterising speech between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as well as using the text to make inferences about characters.

The majority of year 6 visited the O2 arena on Thursday and took part in the Young Voices concert. By all accounts, it was a fantastic day and the children thoroughly enjoyed an amazing experience.

Obviously, Friday was an interesting end to the week, with children and staff being at KPA for the day. Those that made it in joined Rowan class for the day, including for their PE lesson with Mrs Griffiths. Let's hope that all's back to normal on Monday!

Week ending 12/01/24

This week, Saturn class continued with their learning about fractions - the year fives were looking at adding and subtracting fractions, whilst the year sixes progressed to multiplying and dividing fractions. Next week, we are revisiting multiplication and division with the year fives, and moving on to ratio with the year sixes.

In English, we began exploring Macbeth. Initially, we focused on writing complex sentences to describe the witches before using these to write a narrative of the first scene in which they met Macbeth and Banquo. 

Our excited (yet nervous) year sixes spent time preparing and rehearsing for next week's visit to the O2 - they are sounding great. They have another afternoon of preparations next week before the big event. We are also looking forward to starting our swimming lessons next week. 

Autumn Term

Week ending 24/11/23

What a busy week of assessments, fruit tasting, science investigations and stop-motion animation this was!

• The children finished their investigations relating to reflection, which were focused on the relationship between rays of incidence and rays of reflections.

• They tasted exotic fruits for our English work, which was inspired by 'The Boy at the Back of the Class', whereby the narrator tasted pomegranate for the first time. The children will be using their experiences to write their own description about the fruit they tasted.

• The children's first attempts at using technology to create stop-motion animations can be found in the art gallery. Watch this space for their final projects!

Week ending 10/11/23

CAREERS WEEK!

Saturn class have had an informative and exciting week. We