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, Living things & their habitats, Animals including humans. 

PE days:

We will continue to ask the children to come to school in their P.E kits on their designated days.  

This will eliminate the need to share changing rooms.  

• Year 6 P.E days: Monday and Wednesday 
• Please ensure that your child comes appropriately dresses 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 Thursday and will be placed inside each child’s homework folder which will remain in school. 

Children are expected to read x5 times per week at home – and logged in their RED journal which will 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!

Whole Class Reading

Our Whole Class Reading Texts so Far....

Year 6 have been thoroughly enjoying delving deep into a range of texts during whole class reading. 

So far we have read:

• The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie 
• The Dot by Peter H Reynolds
• Fantastically Great Women who changed the world by Kate Pankhurst
• Amari and the night brothers by B.B Alston 

We have used a range of guided reading tasks related to our reading dogs such as: Retrieval Rex, Vocabulary Victor, Prediction Pip, Summarising Sheba and Inference Iggy. 

Additionally, The children have been applying test skills to their class work in preparation for their SATs tests next May.

Year 6 were launched into their new class text with an exciting 'Survivor Challenge' in the main hall where they soon learnt that their new class text was about 4 children surviving in the Amazon Jungle after an unexpected plane crash. 

The children worked in pairs to select and rank (in order of priority) 10 items that they felt would be essential for their survival. This list was swiftly reduced to 5 which made communication and compromise even more important. their decisions where very interesting!

During English, children have produced a Blackout Poem, Diary Entry as a main character, Non-chronological report and a story ending as well as re-enacting Chapter 1 in a drama lesson.

In Art, we are designing and making our own Amazonian clay tiles. We have been looking at colour wheels, contrasting and complimentary colours, 3D effects with clay and mark making. We are so excited to see the finished results! 

Whilst researching South America, Year 6 have looked and Physical and Human geography as well as carrying out independent research on a range of locations such as: Lake Maracaibo, Amazon Rainforest, Lake Titicaca and the Andes Mountains. Children then presented their research in the form of an information poster and gave a formal presentation to the rest of the class to share their findings. This enabled the children to learn about 12 different locations in South America.

Science

This term we have already learned about 'Evolution and Inheritance'. The children considered how living things have changed over time and discussed various theories as to why these changes have occurred. Following their research of Charles Darwin and Mary Anning, they produced some fantastic double page spreads.

We have now moved on to our 'Light' topic which will see children investigate clues in order to solve a crime. They had great fun passing their 'entry exam' and I can confirm, they are all now fully qualified and ready to crack the crime of the century.

Remembrance

In honour of those who have devoted and lost their lives during times of war, Year 6 penned some incredibly powerful cinquain poems. The children used war related nouns such as: soldiers, poppies, war, D-Day, trenches and veterans to form the themes of their poignant poetry. Once their words were complete, they finished their work with some beautiful artwork.

Well done Year 6 - we will remember them.

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.

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.  

There is a link to our weekly spellings at the bottom of our class page. 

This document has lots of different fun ways to practise spellings. Lots of these we have already tried in classes, and lots are new! Please try to practise spellings, or the Year 6 'Common Exception Words' daily.