Welcome to Year 6

Welcome to Year 6!

We are incredibly excited to be teaching our wonderful Year 6 cohort this year. Although Year 6 is a very busy and important year, including preparing them for their transition to Secondary School, the children have lots of exciting topics, trips and activities to look forward to. At the end of the year, the children can look relax and enjoy a 'Hawaiian' themed fun day to round off and celebrate their hard-work and learning journey.

Our topics this year are as follows:

Autumn:  Avengers Assemble,  

                South American Carnival 

Spring:   Walk Like an Egyptian 

Summer: We’ll meet again! (WWII) 

Science themes to be covered: Evolution & Inheritance, Electricity, Light and Animals including humans. 

PE days:

We will continue to ask the children to come to school in their P.E kits (black trousers, leggings or shorts; white t-shirt and black tracksuit top or hooded jacket) on their designated days.  

This will eliminate the need to share changing rooms.  

• Year 6 P.E days: Monday and Friday 
• Please ensure that your child comes appropriately dressed in warm clothing when the weather begins to change – tracksuit and hooded jacket.

Homework:

English and Maths Homework is set on alternate weeks on a Friday. This needs to be returned to school on the following Friday and will be placed inside each child’s homework folder which will remain in school. 

Children are expected to read 5 times per week at home – and logged in their BLUE reading journal which will be signed weekly in class and logged as evidence for SATs. A signature will be required weekly to acknowledge that your child has completed independent reading.  

Autumn Term

Get ready, get steady, it's time to delve into the best franchise around - MARVEL!

Year 6 will be studying and researching superheroes and villains galore combined with exciting writing tasks including high level descriptions, comic strips, script work, persuasive letters, anatomical art sketching as well as superhero boot camp. Can you rise to the challenge Year 6?

#Avengers assemble!

Computing

During our coding topic, the children have shown real perseverance and problem solving abilities. They have used Purple Mash to plan and code simple games (using tabs to organise their code); discovered what functions are, how they are used and then had a go at creating some and have also considered how flowcharts can be used to plan, create and debug programs.

To support Year 6's coding topic, they undertook Micro:bit training.This training involved them creating codes that allowed them to use the devices for both fun and health purposes. Firstly, teams coded an algorithm that turned their devices in to a game called rocket / asteroid / black hole (a little like rock / paper /scissors), before challenging their classmates to duals. After lots of fun with this activity, they then considered how they could use the devices for fitness gains. After sharing lots of great ideas, they went on to create algorithms that turned their Micro:bits in to step counters and other fitness measuring devices. 

Later in the week, they had some amazing Amazon professionals zoom in to their classrooms. During these sessions, they found out about technology and engineering careers prospects and how they could become the next Amazon superstars.

Science

This half term, children have been considering how life today came to be by learning about inheritance, adaptation, environments, habitats, fossil records and evolution. They are currently hard at work completing some amazing double page spreads that will tell you all about Charles Darwin and Mary Anning, including why their work was so important to this branch of science.

Design Technology 

In DT, the children have worked in  pairs to design and make an Egyptian  themed automata toy. To do this, they  had to measure, saw and construct  wooden rods into a sturdy frame,  capable of housing the mechanisms  that would make their creations  functional.  

Year 6 SATs

SATs are national tests that children take twice during their primary school life. Firstly, at the end of Key Stage 1 (KS1) in Year 2, and then secondly, at the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2) in Year 6. These standardised tests are actually known as End of Key Stage Tests and Assessments, but most people know them as SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) .  

SATs are an indicator of the progress your child has made at school so far. They are not a measure of whether your child is passing or failing; they simply show what level your child is currently working to. Pupils sit their second set of SATs at KS2 level in Year 6. These tests are more formal than those taken in KS1 and have set exam days as well as external marking in the majority of schools. Children will take exams in English reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation, spelling, mathematical reasoning, and arithmetic.

Once the KS2 SATs are complete, they will be sent away for external marking and children should receive their results towards the end of the summer term in July of Year 6. You will receive a report stating your child’s:

• Raw score – simply, the actual number of marks they received in their SATs
• Scaled score – a conversion score that allows results to be compared year-on-year
• Expected standard – whether or not they have achieved the national standard

KS2 Reading

The reading test is a single paper with questions based on three passages of text. Your child will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test.
There will be a selection of question types, including:

• Ranking/ordering, e.g. ‘Number the events below to show the order in which they happen in the story’
• Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title of the story’
• Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that suggests what the weather is like in the story’
• Short constructed response, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’
• Open-ended response, e.g. ‘Look at the sentence that begins Once upon a time. How does the writer increase the tension throughout this paragraph? Explain fully, referring to the text in your answer.’

KS2 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (SPaG)

The grammar, punctuation and spelling test consists of two parts: a grammar and punctuation paper requiring short answers, lasting 45 minutes, and an aural spelling test of 20 words, lasting around 15 minutes.

The grammar and punctuation test will include two sub-types of questions:

• Selected response, e.g. ‘Identify the modal verbs/ determiners in the sentence below’
• Constructed response, e.g. ‘Correct/complete/rewrite the sentence below,’ or, ‘The sentence below has an apostrophe missing. Explain why it needs an apostrophe.’ Explain in detail how the comma changes the meaning of the sentence.
• Tick to show ether the sentence is written in the Active or Passive voice.

KS2 Maths

Children sit three papers in maths:

• Paper 1: arithmetic, 30 minutes
• Papers 2 and 3: reasoning, 40 minutes per paper

Paper 1 will consist of fixed response questions, where children have to give the correct answer to calculations, including long multiplication and division. Papers 2 and 3 will involve a number of question types, including:

• Multiple choice
• True or false
• Constrained questions, e.g. giving the answer to a calculation, drawing a shape or completing a table or chart
• Less constrained questions, where children will have to explain their approach for solving a problem.

In order to achieve ‘Expected’ in Writing for SATS, Year 6 must achieve a particular level of continuous cursive handwriting in order to be awarded this standard. Children will be awarded a pen licence when they have shown that they can continuously meet this expectation. They are then permitted to write with a black 'frixion' pen in English and Theme work.  

Arithmetic Practice Tests:

You can access a terrific website called: 'My Mini Maths' which provides fantastic practice tests for arithmetic.

See the link to the website below.