Year Five Teaching Team

5A – Matilda
5B – Ari (PLT Facilitator)
5C – Jina
5D – Molly
5E – Natalie
L-R: Molly, Natalie, Matilda, Ari, Jina
Year 5 Overview 2025
Maths
This year, in Mathematics, students begin the year exploring the Number topics of whole number and Decimal Place Value, Addition and Subtraction. Students will work on developing a deeper understanding of numbers through manipulating and renaming numbers with two or more decimal places. Students will use strategies such as estimation to support mental computation and the accuracy and fluency of basic number facts. Students will explore fractions and links to decimals and percentages, including solving fraction number sentences using all four operations. We will continue to look at Number and Algebra in real world financial contexts. In Measurement, students will be developing their understanding of 12- and 24-hour time systems and use this to help solve problems. Students will choose appropriate metric units and convert between them to solve problems of mass, capacity and temperature. We will also focus on angles, using protractors to measure and name different angles. In Statistics, students will learn about different types of data variables and calculations (such as mode), interpret line graphs and conduct statistical investigations. In Space, we will look at 3D objects and their nets. We will analyse shapes and focus on a variety of transformations including rotation, reflection and translation. We will construct grid coordinate systems and use coordinates to describe location.
Throughout the year, there will be a great emphasis on developing our students’ growth mindset towards mathematics. Students will continually engage in complex, challenging problem solving tasks that require them to think deeply about mathematical concepts. These tasks encourage students to get out of their comfort zone, challenge themselves and make mistakes, where they will learn to identify the most efficient strategies for the given context.
Reading
Year Five reading begins by focusing on learning to learn reading strategies to grow their stamina and expectations in lessons. Throughout the year, students will be participating in literacy circles to engage in a ‘book club’ style group. In these circles students discuss events, characters and settings in fiction texts, and explain their responses to them. The roles cover a range of comprehension strategies to further their thinking around a text. Students will predict, summarise the text, make connections, ask literal and inferential questions, become vocabulary detectives, and infer literary devices within their text. Students will focus on advancing their reading comprehension strategies early in the year by supporting their thinking with specific evidence from the text, to enable them a deeper engagement. To support Year Five students transition into literacy circles, they will be advancing their reading comprehension strategies which will be deployed during the literacy circles. Students will learn to analyse and justify the literal and inferred meanings of texts, and present a concise, organised summary of main ideas in a text. Students will also learn to analyse text features and language to understand the purpose and meaning of text, practicing these skills with rich mentor texts.
Students will also be participating in weekly Word Study sessions. These sessions will focus on developing knowledge of English morphology and orthography, and honing strategies to decode and spell words of increasing complexity. We will also be investigating the etymological backgrounds of different words and word groups, building and spelling new words from previous word knowledge. Students will be learning about complex sentence structure, identifying independent and dependent clauses and understanding how to apply this knowledge to improve their text
Writing
In Writing, students will establish their Writer’s Notebooks, using their entries to organise and develop their ideas for writing. Throughout the year, students will take part in Writer’s Workshops, focusing on using the writing process to develop their knowledge of different genres, how they are organised and structured. Students will be able to identify a purpose, audience and message through their Writing and will focus on developing complex ideas and how to refine them to create interesting, entertaining pieces of writing. Through the use of word choice and structuring complex sentences to purposefully and meaningfully develop emotions or certain thinking in our audience. Students will develop independent strategies to revise and edit their work so they can produce high quality texts. Students will explore print and digital publishing to compliment their Writing purpose and fit their audience’s needs.
Humanities
In Humanities for Term One and Two, students will be investigating Australian History, from pre-colonisation to the current day. They will be exploring the cause and effects of why people came to Australia and how they have shaped Australia. Students will research and develop a project based on a variety of multimedia resources and experiences provided by the teaching team.
In Term Three, students will learn about geographical data and information, developing skills to collect, record and interpret diagrams, large-scale and small-scale maps as they explore the impacts of bushfires and floods on the environment and communities. They will be undertaking a technology design challenge to enhance their understanding of the recent floods that have occurred across Victoria and Melbourne Area, where they will use the 3D modelling software Maker’s Empire. Using this software, they will work through the design process to answer the question “How could we use technology to prevent, stop or recover from a flood at NMPS?”.
In Term Four, students will have the opportunity to run for 2026 NMPS school leaders and house captains. As part of their Civics and Citizenship, they learn what it means to be a good global citizen as they develop their speeches to highlight their leadership capabilities, and understand the Australian electoral process as they vote for their future leaders. Also in Term Four, students will be undertaking a Business & Economics unit of inquiry. In this learning sequence, students will be able to identify and describe the differences between wants and needs, and the economical and sustainable impact that consumer choices have on themselves, as well as in a local and global context. Students will also be investigating what it takes to create and run a business, where they will need to market research about their local context, think of a unique business opportunity and develop a business plan.
Wellbeing
In Wellbeing, students will be learning about our school values (RISE) and expectations as part of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) that focuses on teaching everyone at NMPS the agreed expected behaviours, to create a safer and more effective school environment. Students will also be conducting morning circles with their classroom teacher to establish a positive classroom environment. Students will also have weekly wellbeing lessons that are targeted towards the Year 5 cohorts social and emotional learning needs.
NAPLAN
As you know, this term students will be completing NAPLAN. The test window is from Wednesday 12th March to Friday 14th March. Please make sure your child’s iPad is charged and that they bring headphones compatible with their device. If you have further questions, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.
Homework expectations
After settling back into a school routine, students will be introduced to the homework expectations for the year. Tasks will include a combination of Literacy and Numeracy activities to be submitted weekly. The tasks will be an extension of work being conducted at school and will generally not exceed one hour per week. Students’ homework routines should include at least 20 minutes of daily independent reading. To support and check on their reading, we recommend that your child fills in this google form with supervision – https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mEx2XBzRm0rQolqKU5HHDkTFk3_UFVs9OWpNcbX47oQ/edit – Homework details will be communicated further via compass and in class.
To further support your child’s learning at home, here are some things you can do:
- Encourage reading every night – including short periods of read-aloud. We cannot stress how important reading every day is. A student who reads less than a minute per day outside of school reads only 8,000 to 21,000 words per year. However, a student reading 20 minutes daily outside of school reads almost 2 million words yearly!
- Use real-life opportunities such as shopping and cooking to discuss money, addition and other mathematical concepts.
- Write at home – it can be about anything. The more short pieces your child can write, the better writer they will become.
- 1. Encourage Regular Writing: Make writing a regular activity at home. This could be through maintaining a journal, writing stories, or even writing emails to family members.
- 2. Provide Feedback: Review their work and provide constructive feedback. Focus on what they are saying. Worry less about handwriting, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. Writing is about communicating ideas. Highlight their strengths and discuss areas for improvement. Remember, the goal is to make them feel supported and encouraged, not criticized.
- 3. Model Good Writing Practices and Discuss Real-life applications: Show them how you use writing in your everyday life. Whether it’s drafting an email for work or creating a shopping list, explain to them how you plan, organize, and revise your writing. Help them understand how good writing skills can be beneficial in various real-life situations.
- 4. Praise Their Effort: Recognize their hard work and improvements, no matter how small. Praise for effort rather than ability can motivate your child to continue practicing and improving their writing skills.
- Encourage random acts of kindness. This could be anything from using manners to writing a card to a grandparent.
Kind Regards,
Ari, Matilda, Jina, Molly & Natalie
The Year 5 Teaching Team