Year 5 have had an extremely busy week. We are so proud of all the children for showing fantastic determination, perseverance and focus during their assessments. Everyone worked so hard and gave it their best effort. 

Alongside this, Year 5 has had a week packed full of creativity and collaboration. Year 5 enjoyed Coten End's first Come and Play session, Year 6 Junior Apprentice, as well as working together on their Viking stop-motion animations. Moreover, they have had lots of fun using clean recycle materials to build their very own Viking longboats!

On Friday, Coten End celebrated Francophone Art Day as part of Francophone Week. Did you know that French is spoken in 29 countries and that there are 220 million French speakers around the world? How amazing!

Each year group learned about a different French-speaking country – Year 5 explored Rwanda. Year 5 began by watching two fascinating videos to discover the sights and sounds of Rwanda. As the children watched, they wrote down all the nouns (like gorilla, lake, volcano) in English, then used bilingual dictionaries to translate them into French, making sure to use the correct definite article (le/la). Year 5 turned these words into a creative list poem called Le Rwanda and decorated it beautifully with watercolour art.

Year 5 also explored the artwork of Kenneth Nkusi, a Rwandan artist and architect who creates incredible paintings using coffee grounds mixed with acrylic paint. Inspired by his work, Year 5 created their own pieces using coffee, watercolours and acrylics – some children made abstract landscapes, while others painted beautiful Rwandan trees.

As if that wasn’t enough art for one week, we also learned about the famous French artist, Henri Matisse, who created colourful collage art using scissors and paper. He called it ‘painting with scissors’. Year 5 had a go at making their own layered, vibrant art pieces inspired by his style.

What a week of learning, creativity and fun! Well done Year 5!