5CM yearbook: 2015-16

Flattery goes to the head quicker than alcohol and is generally to be avoided!

But we can perhaps risk saying just one nice thing about 5CM.

Every one of you has worked very hard this year and every one of you has been an absolute pleasure to teach.

Keep it up and you will go on to great things.

Before then you will be insufferable teenagers.

Growth mindset

There’s a saying that “80% of success is showing up”.

It’s a version of the “growth mindset” that we’ve talked about.

If we play safe, and want to get everything right and have a book full of ticks, and if we worry and fret about things that we can’t yet do, and never take risks, then we put a limit on what we can achieve.

None of us – young or old – has fixed abilities. The harder we work, and the more we’re prepared to persevere, and show determination at moments of difficulty, and see challenges and failures as an opportunity to learn, the better we will do and the more opportunities life will offer.  

Earlier in the year, when we were discussing the question ‘What is history?’. Thomas wrote that it is only about the future that our knowledge is zero, because we don’t know what’s going to happen.

Exactly! And that’s what makes the future – all the opportunities that we have in front of us – so exciting! Just be sure to turn up!

A world in a classroom

There’s something a little special about 5CM - and all Rosendale classes. (More flattery! What’s going on? Mr M. and Mr C. haven’t been able to follow their own advice for even one page you must be thinking!)

OK! But what is that special something?

Let’s look at the ingredients - the 30 of you.

At a time when there’s so much concern about people moving around the world, the diversity in a classroom like 5CM’s – with family links to countries literally all over the world - is extraordinary and wonderful. What a great thing it would be if the world could find a way, one day, to enable free movement of people everywhere.

5CM has family links to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, Eritrea, France, Germany, Ghana, Guyana, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Martinique, Mauritius, Pakistan, Poland, Scotland, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, United States, Wales, Zambia.

Celebrating Giovanni's winning rocket flight at the sleepover

Did you know that a quarter of 5CM is already bilingual? Jean and Giovanni are Spanish speaking of course. Nicole speaks fluent Polish, Luna fluent Portugese, Georgina Swahili and Nadia Mauritian creole. Cyrus speaks some Urdu, and Christian some Twi (a Ghanaian language). Ms Nanda and Ms Patel between them speak fluent Hindi, Gujurati, Punjabi and Swahili!

And when we asked about your family histories, here’s some of what you told us:

Distinguished war correspondent International badminton referee Headteacher of the most prestigious school in Ghana

(attended by the former President) A 96-year-old great grandmother who swims in the

North Sea every day off the coast of Sweden A grandma who is playing Grandma Georgina in

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory A Baroness who wrote a report that helped shape

modern primary education in our country An ex-President of Zambia and a Dean of Medicine of

Lusaka University Soldiers who won medals for heroism A relative who ran away with the circus Doctor to the King of Saudi Arabia A music-hall pianist A great grandfather who broke out of jail in Baghdad

and escaped across the Iraqi desert to Jordan on a camel [this story may have improved in the telling….]

A great grandmother who was put in prison (and didn’t escape)

Ancestors who lived to 100 years of age A worker in the old Billingsgate fish market Native Indians from the Amazon rainforest in Brazil

How could you not get a great and talented class out of all this? Perhaps your family histories will shape your destiny just like Stanley Yelnat’s did!

Ancient Egypt

The mummified bodies of the Pharaoh, his cat and the Royal Bottom Wiper are rowed down the Nile to the great pyramid

Enough death masks for a whole dynasty!

Saying goodbye to Florence and Reuben

Their Royal Highnesses Princess Beatrice, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I

We are very sad to say goodbye to Florence and Reuben.

These are the words you used to describe Florence. It’s interesting that every single word could be said, equally well, about Reuben.

The Unforgotten Coat

One world

Just as alarmism builds on the recognition of a real problem and then magnifies it (the world’s going to melt!), complacency may also start off from a reasonable belief about the climate (it has always changed, so what’s new?) and fail to see how things may now be different.

Climate change has been a big theme for the year.

You know that the world is complacent about climate change. And you know that something is going to have to be done, in your lifetimes, to slow climate change down. Orla saw this for herself, in different ways, in India and New Zealand and on the Pacific Islands.

You wrote that we need to look after our planet. But there’s that little word “we” - who, exactly, do we mean? Ellie came up with a brilliant new proverb: The rich, polluting countries are responsible for taking action to slow climate change, she said, because those who do the graffiti must clean the wall.

Emily compared the situation to an unfolding story: “If we want to slow climate change down we’ve all got to work together. It’s kind of like a story. Everyone has a part to write, so if I don’t do it, there will be a missing piece.”

Ella’s grandfather, who is a climate change expert, gave you some important advice. “Young people like to have a good time,” he said, “but just below the surface they are deeply serious. Try to hang on to your youthful zeal.” It’s worth going to the blog and re-reading his words.

Art with Josey Scullard

Spin art

Glimpses of the year

Sports Day

Year 5 Olympics

BooksIt gives us much pleasure that you’re becoming such great readers. Reading gives you words and ideas to understand the world.

How far do you think you can get through the Rosendale Book Club 100 books by the end of Year 6?

Don’t forget our great class books this year (four of which are in the 100):

The Iron Man, Ted Hughes

The Unforgotten Coat, Frank Cottrell Boyce

The London Eye Mystery, Siobhan Dowd

Boy, Roald Dahl

Grimm’s Fairy Tales, The Brothers Grimm

Holes, Louis Sachar

The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling

Reading Buddies with 2RU

Local history

Do you remember our local history walk with Robert? He asked us to image Herne Hill 200 years ago, covered in fields and woods, with the River Effra flowing through it, dotted with estates of wealthy families travelling into the city by horse and carriage, and with market gardens growing fruit and vegetables for sale at Covent Garden Market.

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The once-and-once-only Great Year 5 sleepover

For the survivors among us, the next morning, there was a wonderful cooked breakfast and animal show!

This page is for doodling a Year 5 memory

This page is for getting signatures from your classmates