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DE LA POLE CLASS

Welcome to De La Pole class!

De La Pole class are taught by Mr. Codd, with 1:1 support from Mrs. Osborne and Mrs. Lawrence.

Tom Codd

Year 5/6 Teacher

Susan Osborne

1:1 Teaching Assistant

Our classroom is situated within the original school building and is over 600 years old! In fact, it is the oldest classroom in the whole of the UK which is still in use! We are really fortunate to have a large, open work space as well as a mezzanine library and quiet area which we also enjoy working in!

This term, our topic is Ancient Greece and Democracy! We are learning all about this fascinating historic era, with a focus on chronology. We are going to be gaining an overview of significant people, places and events from Ancient Greece; contrasting daily life in Ancient Greece with modern day lifestyles; considering the expansion of the Ancient Greek empire and its lasting legacy whilst familiarising ourselves with historical sources, debates and accurate vocabulary relating to Ancient Greece!

Our English units this term link to The Greeks. We are going to be reading and re-telling a 30-second version of ‘The Labours of Heracles’ before writing our own, lengthier versions including our own Greek heroes. Additionally, we are going to use our whole-class text to inspire some high-quality writing.

Later in the term, we will be applying our knowledge of Greece to produce persuasive holiday leaflets and to write balanced arguments comparing the quality of life in Athens and Sparta during Ancient times.

In Guided Reading, we are reading ‘Who Let the Gods Out’ by Maz Evans, which links to our Ancient Greek topic. We are using this text to support our reading comprehension, including our inference, prediction and summarising skills.

In Maths, we are working hard to consolidate previous learning of Fractions and Decimals whilst also learning new skills in this area. We will also be introduced to Percentages and will apply this new learning to previous maths learning.

Our Science unit this term is Materials, specifically Mixtures and Reactions! We are consolidating previous learning about properties of materials and exploring and investigating dissolvability, evaporation and separating solids from liquids. We’ll also be observing investigations involving fire!

In DT, we are focusing on Construction. We are going to be investigating the strength of Ancient Greek columns and identifying why they are still a popular architectural feature nowadays. We will also be designing and constructing our own Ancient Greek-themed entrances for a new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum!

In PE, we are currently developing our Cross Country running skills with Mr. Codd on Mondays and composing our own dances based on Greek myths with Mrs. Seymour on Wednesdays.

In other subjects, we are learning…

  • To play the ukulele in Music (with Mrs. Watts)
  • How to create complex spreadsheets in Computing
  • How clothing rules can express belief and give people a sense of identity in RE (with Mr. Ottaway)
  • About living in the wider world, focusing on diversity, stereotypes and social media in PSHE (with Mr. Ottaway)
  • Other topics this year include ‘The Victorians’ and ‘War and Peace’.

The children in De La Pole have homework books which need to be handed in every Thursday. New homework (a maths task, a SPaG task and weekly spellings – or a special topic-based project) is then handed out every Friday.