Religion
We have had some brilliant units in Religion that really speak to the heart of the Christian values we follow and promote here at St Mary’s. Last term we looked at the liturgical seasons of the church and specific religious holidays. We also recreated the last supper, adapting the bible passage into a script and filming using props. This term we are competing a unit on “Faith in Action”. During mission week we discovered that the motto for this year is “Hearts on Fire, Feet on the Move” which is a perfect translation of the concept of Faith in Action - so we decided to adopt that instead. We took part in mission day celebrations, completed a focused research project on Timor-Leste and made beautiful heart collages, whose internal colours represent the island nation of Timor-Leste, and who’s external colours represent the fire, passion and drive to help those in need.

It has been an absolute pleasure to watch this beautiful group grow together, demonstrating the values we strive to promote here at St Mary’s. This has been particularly evident in the fantastic co-operation and support they have given each other during group activities, no matter what groups they are in. 

English
Spelling mastery continues to be a huge success at St Mary’s and provides a wonderfully structured, high impact start to the day. Expectations and routines were established very early on and we are now seeing the benefit of the high impact explicit instruction right across the stage. 

Year 5/6 have been lucky enough to have some brilliant novels as the focus of our Novel studies over the last two terms. Last term we finished reading Catch A Falling Star by Meg McKinlay which focused on some really important themes like friendship, responsibility, death, spirituality and scepticism. This term we are reading Can You See Me by Rebecca Westcott  and Libby Scott. This fantastic novel is partially written by Libby who is an eleven year old autistic girl. It deals with the themes of fear, acceptance, disability, understanding and friendship.

We have maintained a strong focus on sentence level writing, incorporating vocabulary from our class novels and using similes to find the best fit word for our sentences. We have also spent time practising our cursive writing as students in Year 6 prepare high school and students in Year 5 assume their roles as school leaders.

Maths
Connecting Maths Concepts was introduced last term and continues to build momentum as students reach mastery level of key concepts. We are nearly thirty lessons down and already we are seeing the concept of “connecting” basic concepts together to tackle more complex mathematical problems.

Maths Pathways continues to be an excellent way for students to continue learning in key focused areas that are specific to their level of understanding. The online connectivity has all proved to be a brilliant way for students to supplement their learning from home. 

Science
Since our last newsletter update there has been a lot going on in science across stage 3. Last term Year 5 completed a unit on Earth and Space Science focusing specifically on the Earth’s place in the solar system. This term, Year 5 are well and truly underway in our unit on Physics and examining the properties of light, understanding that light can come from sources very close to us and very, very far away. Year 6 completed an Earth and Space unit focusing on how the Earth’s surface and weather are affected by geological factors. The conducted an independent research project on volcanoes as well as examined the flow rate of different viscosities of the same materials.