Term 4

Welcome to Term 4! We have some exciting learning planned this term. In English, Children will learn the story of Ada and her Recycled Orchestra who took the world by storm. Ada grew up with her family in Cateura and through her passion for music, and her supporting community, she managed to created her very own orchestra. This fiction booked based on true events will inspire the children to write their own persuasive speech about recycling. Later in the term, they will write their own alternative story of Cinderella using the story Cinderella of the Nile for inspiration. 

At the beginning of this term, we will be celebrating World Book Day and are excited to see all of the children dressed as their favourite characters. We are fortunate enough to have M&M Productions visit our school this term to perform The Secret Garden. The opportunity to be exposed to some classic literature will be such a memorable experience for our children and we are so excited to watch the show. 

Your child will come home with a new revision timetable this term in preparation for their upcoming SATS. We will endeavour to provide children with the opportunity to fill these out in school using their February mock tests to explore areas to focus on. Please continue to support your child with this - it has proven to be very successful so far!

Our PE days will remain the same (Monday and Wednesday) 

Teaching of Reading

In Teaching of Reading, Year 6 will be following character Zoe on her journey from the island of Norwich. With the sea levels rising, Zoe has no choice but to leave Norwich in an adventure to find her parents, but she ends up on Eels Island which is run by the formidable character Dooby. Will she escape Eels Island and find her parents? What secrets will she unfold on her journey? Written by award winning Marcus Sedgwick, Floodland is guaranteed to be a novel your children will want to tell you all about!

Science brings us an exciting new topic - Energy: Circuits, Batteries and Switches. Year 6 will have the opportunity to build their own circuits, develop an understanding of the importance of each component and explore how changing/adjusting these can affect the circuit. We will be teaching the children to represent the components through symbols and how to draw these in a circuit.

In Maths this term, Year 6 will continue learning about fractions bringing the focus to subtracting, dividing and multiplying. They will use their prior learning to tackle challenge reasoning problems in relation to fractions too. Later in the term, we will be teaching the children how to calculate using a mixture of all four operations. Alongside their every day math lessons, the children will be completing lots of preparation work for their upcoming SATS.

Term 3

Key dates:

Parent Consultations

This term, we have already had a successful day of parent consultations. All of the children have been busy working on their timetables, cross-referencing with their key areas to focus on. This key preparation ahead of their SATs will support their learning by building upon, and embedding further, the skills they have already developed in school. 

Teaching of Reading

In Teaching of Reading Year 6 will be reading the book Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo. The tale is of Beowulf, a fearless warrior who battles three evils so powerful that there terrorise the entire kingdom of Denmark. Will he meet his deathly match in the end? Throughout the term, children will develop their fluency skills as well as answering SAT style questions based on the book. Children will explore authors intent, the use of language, characterisation and themes and conventions. 

English

In English this term children will be writing a set of instructions taking inspiration from the book How to Cook Children. This gruesome book consists of several recipes written by witches! They will design their own witch, create their own recipe and then write their instructions based on this. In the later part of the term, Year 6 will be writing a story based on the short film Francis. Francis is about a teen who disappears from her boat on a lake. Something keeps knocking on the bottom of her boat - who or what could it be? The children will write it from an alternative perspective: the perspective of the creature under the boat. The creature might be unhappy because Francis has invaded its waters, or perhaps it's hungry - the children will explore ideas and use their creativity to write their own story.​​​​​​​

Maths

In Maths this term, children in year 6 will be studying Geometry: Position and Direction and Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. We will also be supporting them with some arithmetic and reasoning practise within school on a weekly basis. This is to provide them with an added opportunity to practise some vital skills and to keep revisiting previous taught skills.

Geography

In Geography this term, we are going to looking at our world. Children will be learning about their county, country, continent and their world. Year 6 will be making comparisons of the UK against two countries they have previously studied: Chile and Finland. This provides them with an opportunity to revisit prior learning and deepen their knowledge. After researching and investigating different places across our globe, children will answer the big question considering how is the world a home for everyone?

Science

In Science this term, Year 6 will be learning about Evolution and Inheritance. They will investigate fossils that have been found throughout time, and explore what this tells us about living things. Did you know, these can give us evidence of what was alive over a million years ago! following on from this, children will be looking at characterisations that have been passed down to living thing's offspring as well as adaptations that have needed to be made to suit their environment. They will then identify the reasons that these adaptations need to be made and how it can impact them. To conclude this topic, Year 6 will answer the question 'What is evolution?'

Term 2

Key Dates:

Welcome to our Year 6 webpage. This is a place where you can find up-to-date information about what the children in Falcons and Merlins have been up to, and key details of upcoming events. We look forward to another year at St Barts!

Meet the Teacher

Thank you to those that were able to attend our Meet the Teacher meeting this term. It was lovely to see so many of our wonderful parents attend. Please find the slides from this below which also include some key information about the Year 6 residential. 

We have had a fantastic first term in Year 6! The children greatly enjoyed learning about classification in Science, where they used the Linnaean system to classify different organisms. The entry point, where they grouped sweets according to their characteristics, was particularly popular! Pupils also loved reading the book Holes by Louis Sachar because it was exciting, had an element of mystery and they were always guessing what might happen next. 

On Legacy Day, Year 6 learned about Nelson Mandela. Pupils were inspired by his commitment to achieving equal rights for all. Later in the day, the children got into character and imagined they were giving Nelson Mandela's inauguration speech. It was wonderful to hear their hopes for the world's future! Year 6 are very much looking forward to learning about this term's legacy figure: Bridget Riley. 

We will be visiting the library every Friday afternoon where your child can change their book if they wish to. Please remind your child to bring their yellow reading log and book into school every day as there will be a reading session daily. Children are expected to read at home a minimum of 3 x per week. 

PE days:

Monday and Wednesday

Below you will find an overview of some of our key learning for this term. Where there are knowledge organisers, these will detail the key vocabulary and learning in that subject.

In Maths this term, Year 6 will be recapping and extending their knowledge of long division and multiplication. This is highlighted on the road map below. 

In Science, our new topic is Energy: Light and Reflection. Pupils will be answering our big question - How do we see? Building up to this, students will learn about how light travels, how shadows are formed, the process of reflection and the different parts of the human eye. 

In History, our big question is 'What are the Maya remembered for?' The children will learn about where the Maya settled and how they built their houses and places of worship. They will also study the number and calendar system that the Maya created and how it was used to successfully grow crops. In addition, pupils will look at the structure of society and how this impacted people's lives. All of this learning will support children to answer the big question!