Ratcliffian 2016 (LOWRES)

PREPARATORY SCHOOL
YEAR 5
In September, both current and new Ratcliffians soon settled into
their Year 5 classes. As part of our new Creative Curriculum, the
first half of the autumn term was packed with fun and exciting
learning opportunities.
This included the children designing a new
household invention and presenting it to
the teachers and class in the Dragons’ Den
during our Cool Stuff theme, learning how to
play drums in a West African style in Music
and, in Computing lessons, developing their
programming skills to design computer games,
as well as reading and writing their own fantasy stories.
Then in our new Movie Magic theme as we designed and built
life-size shelters in our Design Technology lessons, compared
Hollywood and Bollywood as locations for the film industry
in Geography, and visited the Curve Theatre to listen to a
real-life poet reading some of his poems. One particular
highlight was our visit to Warner Studios to experience firsthand
the world of Harry Potter. This led to the children
writing biographies of the famous actors and actresses
involved and planning their own creative stories in the
style of J.K. Rowling.
Spring term began with our
residential experience in Stratford,
where the children thoroughly
enjoyed visiting the Mad Museum,
being shown around the city by
William Shakespeare himself (!) and
watching an enthralling version of
Peter Pan at the RSC. It was wonderful to see the children’s
maturity and politeness during our stay, particularly when
all of us descended on a local restaurant for a pre-theatre
meal! Returning to school, the classes enthusiastically
continued their learning by
finding out more about the
Tudors and writing drama
playscripts, as well as performing
their class assemblies on the
theme of All the World’s a Stage.
A descriptive extract written after a visit to
Harry Potter World by William Pearce
Harry entered Diagon
Alley for the first time
and started looking in
amazement at all of the
owls, bats and hustle
and bustle all around
him, while children
gazed open-mouthed at
the Nimbus 2000, the
fastest broomstick yet
and Gringotts bank stood in front of him.
“How do I get all of this magic stuff?” said Harry.
“Here you are,” said Hagrid, “Gringotts Bank.
This is how you get your money.”
“What are those things?” asked Harry.
“They’re goblins,” said Hagrid.
They went on a cart to a unit and there was shining,
glimmering gold in one big heap. As Harry went in
open-mouthed, Hagrid told him it was from his parents.
Extracts taken from an account of a
visit to the National Space Centre
by Sophie Leighton
On Thursday 12 th May, I woke early to find
that all of Year 5 were going on an exciting
school trip to the National Space Centre in
Leicester, to learn about space as part of our
topic “Lost in Space.”
We lined up to go into
a big dome. Everybody
was puzzling over what we
were going to do. It was a
planetarium. We went down
a small, black corridor and
were faced with a room filled
with screens. Then, it started!
There was a bit inside the
astronaut’s body and it felt
like we were moving. Then,
we were out of the astronaut’s
body, I thought it was the end
… but it was just the intro!
PREPARATORY SCHOOL
In March, our Year 5 classes were keen participants in
our Science Week on the theme of Space as, in our whole
school competition, they designed a future home on other
planets or amongst the stars, took part in the week’s special
quiz and visited the Birmingham Think Tank Museum to
experience a variety of experiments on the theme of solids,
liquids and gases.
As we began our summer term, Year 5 were excited by the
announcement that they would be participating in a real life
science experiment in partnership with the UK astronaut, Tim
Peake, on board the International Space Station at the time,
the Royal Horticultural Society and the UK Space Agency.
The children had to plant seeds, some of which had been
on the ISS with Tim, to see how they germinated and grew
before sending our results to the relevant bodies. As well
as Science, this meant children in Year 5 extending their
mathematical knowledge and understanding through
using percentages, measurement and data analysis in a
practical, meaningful context. During June, the children
were immersed in Ancient Greece as they made their own
model Greek temples with accompanying explanatory
leaflets, sampled Mediterranean cuisine and dressed up in
traditional costume.
Mrs L Wetton, Mr D Kent and Mrs L Watson
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