Welcome to Year 6

Welcome to our Year Six page.  We have two classes in Year 6: 6F with Miss Frankland and 6R with Mrs Reynolds.  Miss Copping is our Teaching Assistant and she works across both classes.

We are really looking forward to sharing your child's last year of primary school with them and you! 

Our Curriculum

Autumn Term

In history, we will study the Victorians and what it was like to live in that era.  The children will become equipped with knowledge of famous people, who lived in Victorian times such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Dr Thomas Banardo, and learn about the impact they had on Britain.  To enhance their learning further, children will be encouraged to dress up and take part in a Victorian day where they will experience what life was like in a classroom of that time! 

After the October half-term, the children will travel back in time to the period of the Mayans and study their forward-thinking and progressive civilization. Together, we will explore the temples and pyramids of the Mayan people and will use our geographical map skills to identify the different areas of South America which they inhabited. 

Our English work will be linked to our history with a study of the life of Charles Dickens. This will begin with a series of lessons, including short-burst writing about Great Expectations. We will explore Dickens' childhood and adult life, including his literary achievements and the profound impact he had on society. In guided reading, the children will be diving into Oliver Twist, and they will follow this with an informal letter from him to his mother. In addition to this, the children look forward to weekly opportunities to write for pleasure, creating pieces of work from their choice of genre. 

As we progress to the Mayans, the traditional story of the Rain Player will be our literary focus with some very interesting vocabulary to explore. The game of Pok-a-Tok will be our focus for an exciting and informative newspaper report.

In maths, we will continue to develop the children’s knowledge of place value, number and calculation whilst also tackling fractions, decimals and percentages and making concrete connections between them. Translation, reflection and co-ordinates will feature along with a first taste of algebra.

In science, the children will conduct experiments related to floating and sinking before researching the 1912 Titanic catastrophe. Following on from floating and sinking, we will study electricity with the children exploring a variety of electrical components, including bulbs, buzzers and motors, to create their own working electrical circuits. The children will learn how to draw the circuits using electrical component symbols.

Our Design and Technology will link directly to the children’s history and they will use their woodwork skills; designing, creating and evaluating an automata toy! They will explore how cams and followers work and make a toy for the Victorian toy shop.

In RE, the children will use their understanding of what religion looks like around the world and the place it has in the world today to answer 'big questions' with greater complexity. These lessons will be designed to prompt deep reflection and encourage them to consider their beliefs and the beliefs of others. 

Spring Term

 

Natural Disasters is our geography topic and the children will learn about the cause of earthquakes and tsunamis, including the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, and how volcanos are formed; they will also explore the impact that natural disasters have on the physical and human features of our world. After half-term, we maintain a geographical focus whilst we study France; finding similarities and differences between our country and France thinking about climate, landscape and economy.

We will connect our English with our geography topic with the first half-term focusing on “The Impossible”; a film based on the Boxing Day Tsunami. We will use the trailer and clips from the film to ignite the children’s imaginations and encourage them to write creatively before moving on to the exciting and thrilling book by Michael Morpurgo, Running Wild – a story of a young boy caught in the Indonesian tsunami with only an elephant, called Oona, for company. 

In Maths, we will build on the concrete knowledge we have of all four calculations and incorporate contexts such as measures and time. Ratio and proportion will be explored along with geometry and statistics including line graphs and pie charts. 

Light is our science focus, for the first half-term, and we will be studying how it travels, conducting our own fun experiments around shadows. Evolution is our next topic which provides a perfect opportunity for a debate about the beginnings of our world. We will study the evolution of humans and Darwin’s theory whilst also exploring the work of Mary Anning.   

Within art, children will be exploring photography as a means of producing a landscape piece.  Using ICT software, children will learn to edit and enhance the features of photographs of live art. 

Summer Term

 

The first half of the summer term will focus on rivers. We will study the river as it is born at the source and follow its path to the estuary and out into the sea. One of our main foci will be the importance of rivers to the towns and villages that have developed on their banks. By looking at the features of rivers, and the natural and human ways that rivers change over time, we will explore the life stories of rivers and be able to locate and name ones in our country and around the world. 

In English, they will visit the local park, take photographs and gather information to produce a persuasive leaflet to encourage more visitors to the area. By linking their writing to science, they will create an explanation text on the life-cycle of a moth. They will be stepping back in time and revisiting their old friend, the Gruffalo, where they will be writing a thrilling description of his character followed by a prequel to the original story.

In science, we will be enhancing our skills of classification and learning about the impact of having a healthy body – Joe Wicks workouts may be helping us with this! We will be exploring the benefits of exercise to our body but also the positive effects it can have on our mental health.

Parents get ready… It is time for “Come Dine with Me” in DT and the children will be exploring your kitchens and cupboards as they prepare to make and create their own three-course meal.

Homework

Children will receive reading, Guided reading, Times-tables Rockstars, Bug Club and spellings for homework. These are the non-negotiables for year 6. On occasion, we may set further homework and this will be communicated via seesaw.  

Spellings

There will be a spelling test every Thursday.  Spellings for the term will be sent home as paper copies, with the date at the top of the list being the date on which the test will be. Children will be expected to learn their spellings at home and scores will be collected. The spellings given will be appropriate to the ability of the child and relate to the spelling pattern being taught in school.

Times Tables

In Year 6, it is an expectation that the children know their times tables to 12x12. Children will be expected to practice regularly on Times-tables Rockstars where there will be weekly tournaments. In school, there will be a test each week and scores will be collected. 

Reading

Reading is so important to help children develop their vocabulary and also their knowledge and sentence structure. Authors write in many different ways and we encourage the children to read a wide range of authors and genres. 

We expect the children to be reading 4-5 times per week on top of the reading they are completing in school. The children will all been allocated books via our online Reading Scheme - Active Learn. They will also have access to books from the library and the reading spine.  

There are some great websites for reading. On the website below you will find some super books aimed at 9-11 year olds.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/?view=image&query=&type=book&age_group=Age+9-11&level=&level_select=&book_type=&series=#

In the words of Dr Seuss.... The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

Children will also bring home photocopied pages from our Guided Read scheme which will prepare them for the learning that is coming in the following week. This will be handed out on Friday and expected back in school by Wednesday morning.  

Maths/GPS

After Christmas, we will be giving the children maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling homework. This will help to consolidate their learning from in class but also start to prepare them for the volume of homework they will receive at secondary school. More information will be given when it is handed out, again via Seesaw, and the children will be expected to complete it to the best of their ability and on time.  

PE days

In the Autumn term, 6F will be swimming before the holidays, and 6R after the half term break.

Both classes will have PE on a Monday and Friday during the terms they are not swimming. 

Children need to make sure their PE kit is in school on these days. 

PE kit - white or pale blue T shirt, navy/black joggers/leggings, navy/black shorts, navy/black hoody or school jumper. Please ensure kit is as plain as possible.