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Year 5/6 Curriculum

The aim of our curriculum in the Primary Years at King’s Oak is to help children understand themselves, the world we live in, our place in it and the connections that join us.  We also celebrate the diversity of our community, learning about and from the mix of cultures and traditions we are part of in multi-cultural Britain today.

States of Being

During the Primary Years at King’s Oak, we recognise the various curriculum areas as ‘States of Being’: ‘I am an Author‘, ‘I am a Geographer‘, ‘I am a Designer‘ and ‘I am a Mathematician‘ are just a few examples.

Key Questions and meaningful experiences and opportunities drive our children’s enquiries into our States of Being.  Through key questions, school adults challenge our learners to seek answers to questions that intuitively create opportunities to refine knowledge and skills in different states of being.  This active learning ensures greater involvement and creates links with prior and future learning. Through planning meaningful experiences and opportunities, our curriculum is enriched and supports our children in making links between their learning now and into the wider world.

Reading

In Years 5 and 6, we teach reading skills in daily Whole Class Reading sessions.  Texts are selected for purpose: sometimes, these texts are those that we will be using within Authors units and sometimes they link to our current state of being.  We use a range of fiction and non-fiction texts as we support our learners in developing fluency and understanding.

For children who have gaps in prior learning, we run Phonics, Reading Speed and Inference groups.  Teachers carefully select which children need what support; this changes throughout the year.

Writing

In Years 5 and 6, we teach writing skills in daily English lessons.  Each term, there is a three-week fiction focus and two-week non-fiction focus, inspired by and taught through a high-quality, carefully selected text.  Teachers also plan opportunities for children to apply their writing skills in short-bursts across the curriculum.  In Years 5 and 6, handwriting is taught within English and States-of-Being lessons; spelling is taught discretely and is applied in all other lessons.

Maths

Maths is taught on a daily basis in Years 5 and 6.  Our main focus in Maths lessons is on reasoning and our children have many opportunities to develop their oracy skills through these lessons, discussing, exploring and explaining.  Maths in Years 5 and 6 includes a range of opportunities to use manipulatives to develop, demonstrate and make links across their learning.  In Years 5 and 6. we also continue to develop fluency in multiplication and in the various written methods.

Subject-specialist sessions

The Year 5 and 6 Curriculum is enriched with weekly access to specialist classrooms classroom and subject-expert teachers for Computing, PE, Art and Design and Technology.  This enrichment is designed to enable our Year 5 and 6s to foster relationships with a wider range of teachers, who will guide them through the next steps in their education; this also allows our children entering the younger years of Middle School to begin to explore a little more of the site, while still being supported with the usual class teacher support in place, as appropriate for primary-aged learners.

Year 5

Welcome to Year 5 at KOA, where we support our children to Work Hard and Be Kind. In our classrooms (both inside and out), we consistently use our gem powers to encourage our children to focus well and gain new knowledge and skills.  Learning across the curriculum is taught through the use of Key Questions (called ‘Enquiry’); our reading and writing is taught through our exciting texts then is applied and embedded within our states of being. As well as academic learning, we also ensure that our children are supported in developing personal, social and emotional skills.

Year 5/6 Curriculum

Here are some of our curriculum highlights you can look forward to in Year 5:

  • Through PSHE and neuroscience, we learn how we can make our brains bigger and stronger and how our decisions can make us even more awesome.
  • When we are authors, we explore the world through books and learn skills which help us to be better authors ourselves.
  • Through our Science units, we discover how atoms and particles make up every single thing in our universe. We study our circulatory and respiratory systems – and even make our own fake heart, lungs and blood – to understand how oxygen travels around our bodies to keep us alive.
  • As Historians, we learn more about the mighty Romans and learn of the amazing inventions they conjured which impacted not only their lives but ours too!
  • Being artists means we immerse ourselves into the creative world of Kris Trappiers and other artists to create our own pieces of art using different drawing styles and techniques.
  • As Geographers, we study our location in the world and the differences between cities, counties, countries and continents. We do this by using geological resources such as maps, atlases, globes and digital mapping.
  • We are also sport stars! We learn how to be team players and practise positive attitudes as well develop our physical skills such as balance and coordination.

Some exciting events we look forward to in Year 5

  • Forest School during Term 2 
  • Egyptian Day 
  • Visit to Bristol MET to see The School of Rock performance 
  • Enterprise Week 

Year 6

Welcome to Year 6 at KOA, where we support our children to Work Hard and Be Kind. In our classrooms (both inside and out), we consistently use our gem powers to encourage our children to focus well and gain new knowledge and skills.  Learning across the curriculum is taught through the use of Key Questions (called ‘Enquiry’); our reading and writing is taught through our exciting texts then is applied and embedded within our states of being. As well as academic learning, we also ensure that our children are supported in developing personal, social and emotional skills.

Year 5/6 Curriculum

Here are some of our curriculum highlights you can look forward to in Year 6:

  • We are Authors – We don’t want to give anything away as we want the books that we have chosen to be a surprise for our children!  All we will say, is … get ready for an adventure through a library; a journey through time and to be locked in!
  • We are Scientists (Botanists, specifically!) – We learn all about the internal workings, organs and structure of plants.  This includes examining xylem and phloem, exploring photosynthesis and understanding the pollination process and how it affects us (and we, it)!
  • We are Artists unit based on the illusion-artist: Escher. His art is inspirational and captivating.
  • We are Historians unit based on the Ancient Egyptians – but not just about pharaohs and mummies!  We go all the way back to the beginning – to the formation of the Nile, to the settlement of the people of this area and to the architectural brilliance of the times!
  • We are Geographers – Volcanoes, Earthquakes and travelling through the layers of the Earth – get ready for a wild ride!
  • SATs week – some of us love it; all of us are determined to do well!

Some exciting events we look forward to in Year 6:

  • Life Skills trip
  • Y6 Residential Camp / Base Camp
  • A possible trip to somewhere beginning with L … watch this space!
  • Enterprise Week
  • Transition visits to Secondary schools (or to Year 7 if remaining at KOA!)