Year 6 2022-23

Year 6 Team 2022-23

Monet Class Teacher: Miss Coker

Johnstone Class Teacher: Mr Paice

Holbein Class Teacher: Mr Longland

Welcome to Year 6!

Spring 2023

Welcome to our Year 6 class page! We hope you enjoyed the Christmas break and you are ready for the Spring Term!

This term, our PE day will be a MONDAY.  Please make sure appropriate PE kit is in school every day (this is useful if additional events/opportunities arise where a PE kit is needed).

We are looking forward to all the learning we get to share together this school year as responsible, determined and successful Year 6 learners. Below is some information on the learning we will be carrying out this half term: 

In English, we be will be focusing out writing around the text 'Coraline' By Neil Gaiman

In Maths, we will be exploring a range of strategies used to solve calculations and problems involving the four operations; addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We will be applying these skills to reasoning questions.

In Science, we will be studying Animals including Humans, with a focus on the inherited trains and adaptation of genes.

In History, we will be exploring Anglo-Saxon settlements in Britain.

In Geography, we will be exploring the compass points

In Art we will be exploring sketching techniques and the use of multimedia to produce images.

We have lots of exciting learning together this half term and we are looking forward to updating this page weekly with examples of the learning we will be doing together.

Key dates - Autumn 1:

Thursday 6/Friday 7th January 2023: INSET days

Monday 9th January: Return to school

Monday 6th and Wednesday 8th February - Parents evenings with setting teacher

Thursday 9th and Friday 10th February - Maths Cross-curricular days

Monday 13th February: HALF TERM

W/B 20th March 2023 - Making chicken soup (DT)

This week we pulled together all of our DT learning to make our Jewish Chicken Soup. We used our best cutting, peeling and chopping skills to prepare the vegetables.  Once we cooked the soup, we wrote out the recipe including the ingredients and method. Once the soup was ready we sampled it and wrote our evaluations in our DT books.

"Best soup I've ever made!" remarked one child!

W/B 13th March 2023 - Making periscopes (Science)

This week in science we used our learning about how we see to help create periscopes. Periscopes have been used for over a hundred years to help people. Light reflects off the object into the mirror. The image is then reflected down at a 45 degree angle to the second mirror which is then reflected into our eyes. We followed the instructions to make the periscopes and used them to look around the classroom.

Week beginning 6th March 2023 - English - Pig Heart Boy

We have really enjoyed reading pig heart boy so far. This week, as we have been reading, we have been focusing on viewpoints.  We began looking for the pros and cons on xenotransplantation - this is the transplanting of animal organs into humans. There were many compelling for and against arguments in the text. We then look at what the story told us about how mum and dad are feeling. We focused not only on what was said but what their actions told us.

We took this information and wrote a diary entry form their point of view as if it were the night before Cameron was going into hospital for his pig heart transplant. 

Week beginning 27th February 2023 - Computer aided design

This term our computing unit is about computer aided design and scale drawing. We have been using different computer programmes to draw our ideal bedrooms and comparing them. This week we used Google draw to create 3D drawings of our bedrooms. 

We have also been working on our typing fluency. We have used the website Learn Touch Typing Free - TypingClub to help us!

Week beginning 24th February 2023 - Storms

This week in Geography the children were researching the impact of storms. The children used  multiple sources to find out key information about their chosen storm. They considered the environmental and human destruction storms can cause. 

Week beginning 6th February 2023 - Rock star day!

This week the children were involved in math cross-curricular days. The first day focused around Maths reasoning and learning was based on the book 365 Penguins. We began investigating the maths from the book. This included exploring triangle and square numbers as well as their relationships.  We then posed a challenge linked to area and perimeter to ensure the Penguins had enough space to live.

The following day was Rock Star day. Children (and teachers!) came into school dressed as Rock-stars and celebrated all things timetables! The highlight of the day was the Year group battles which pitted Year 5 against Year 6. Children were supportive of each other and enjoyed celebrating the success of all participants. They looked amazing in their outfits too!

Week beginning 30th January 2023 - Coraline story writing

This week in English we have been completing our stories based on the book Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. The children chose to write either a prequal or sequel based on clues from the original text. The children planned and developed their ideas before writing their story over a number of days.  The children were encouraged to use: varied sentence structures to add impact on the reader; ambitious vocabulary choices; links to the story.

The children really enjoyed their writing during this unit.

Week beginning 23rd January 2023 - wellbeing assembly

This term our wellbeing assemblies have have a focus on preparation for secondary school.  We focused on self-help and how to tie a tie.

This week Mr Paice brought in his extensive tie collection for the children to have a practice a putting on a tie. This is because most secondary schools require children to wear a tie and we wanted to provide children the time and opportunity to have a go at this themselves. 

Why not keep trying this at home with the children. 

Week beginning 16th January 2023 - Spell it out!

This week the children have been getting to grips with our new spelling scheme. They have enjoyed the investigations and using their reasoning skills to uncover spelling rules and patterns in words. They have also begun using the new spell it out walls. These have 15 words that change every two weeks. The words are form the year 5/6 common exception words list. Each word is given a grapheme focus and the children have the opportunity to add words that share the same grapheme focus from the week.

Talk to your children at home about the words - see if you can spot any extra words with them they can add to the wall!

Week Beginning 9th January 2023

This week, Year 6 began their new science topic all about scientific inheritance and genes. After exploring the key vocabulary, we played a game. The children had to match members of staff to photos of their parents.  The children were encouraged to use their observation skills to look for the inherited traits shared.  They then had to justify their choices, explaining what traits they identified to support the match.

Week Beginning Monday 12th December 2022 Snow Day! 

Good morning everyone. Here are activities for Year 6's learning while the school is closed. In English, the students can write a descriptive passage about the snow using figurative language. Their success criteria is to include simile, metaphor and personification. 

For maths, the children can research the different temperatures in the major cities of the UK and add them to a graph. They can compare their temperatures to the average for this time of the year. Use google sheets, input the correct cell references and equations. This is a cross-curricular link to what Year 6 have been learning in computing this term.

Additionally, there are some maths activities attached for coordinates and translation which is a consolidation of their recent maths learning.

Explain your  scientific thinking in full sentences and post your replies on Google Classroom. 

Week Beginning Monday 5th December 2022

This week, Year 6 enjoyed a Virtual Reality experience in order to learn about how volcanoes are formed for their Geography topic next term. The children studied different types of volcanoes including: cinder cone, composite and shield and where these were located around the globe. They also learnt about the earth's layers and how build up of magma and the shifting of tectonic plates causes volcanoes to erupt. 

The students also really enjoyed seeing Fr Christmas on Friday and receiving a gift for all their hard work this year!

Week Beginning Monday 28th November 2022

This week, Year 6 had the privilege of meeting members of the local police force to discuss the topic, "Lives not Knives." This helped the students discuss the steps they can take to protect their own and other's physical and mental wellbeing. They could discuss how to prevent social and well-being problems within the community regarding knife crime. Year 6 wrote their own letters persuading their fellow students against Knife Crime and its repercussions. 

Week Beginning Monday 21st November 2022

This week, Year 6 continued to investigate WW2 in English through exploring and analysing extracts from our class novel, Goodnight Mr Tom.  The students then applied their knowledge of WW2 child evacuees to write a diary entry, using their writing skills including adverbials, figurative language and year 6 punctuation including possessive apostrophes, colons, inverted commas for direct speech and commas to introduce relative clauses and adverbials. We also used our summarising, retrieval and inference skills to read factual information regarding VE and VJ day.

Week Beginning Monday 14th November 2022

This week, Year 6 studied Anglo-Saxon art in history. They had great fun investigating secondary sources and replicating the Anglo-Saxon ornaments into their own designs using string, paper plates and paint. 

Year 6 then enjoyed their science experiment this week investigating the strength of battery voltage. This helped them to associate the brightness of a lamp with the number and voltage of the cells used in a circuit. 

Week Beginning Monday 7th November 2022

This week, our students did incredibly well in taking their first mock SAT's papers this year in SPaG, reading and maths. They showed energy, resilience and determination in their efforts, well done Year 6!

In D&T, the students practised their sewing skills by learning different types of joining techniques: the blanket stich, the running stitch and the back stitch. Year 6 carefully considered which stitch will make their product strong as well as aesthetic. They enjoyed improving on their stitching skills and commented that they found it very relaxing and therapeutic. 

Week Beginning Monday 31st October 2022

We have continued our learning in History about the life of an Anglo-Saxon. We were surprised that Anglo-Saxon children were classed as adults by the age of ten! Children wouldn't have learnt to read or write unless they were very rich and enjoyed playing games with dice and counters. The children then wrote detailed diary entries using historical accuracy gained through secondary historical sources from the internet, explaining the activities an Anglo-Saxon participated in and their feelings towards this.

Week Beginning Monday 17th October 2022

We have extended our learning in English about WW2 with some artefacts that our very own Harry has brought in. Thank you Harry!

We have been learning about air raids and the impact that had on the people of Britain during The Blitz. We have studied a variety of explanation texts and how they are structured. We will then be implementing these in our own writing.

Week Beginning Monday 10th October 2022

This week in English, we have focussed our learning around the text of 'Goodnight Mr Tom' by Michelle Magorian. Although we will be using this as a key text, we will be referencing other texts with a focus on World War 2. We will be learning about different types of air raid shelters and how they were used during the Blitz to keep Londoners safe.

Week Beginning Monday 3rd October 2022

Over the course of this half term, during our Wednesday assembly time, we have been learning about First Aid from St. John's Ambulance service. We have learnt how to deal with: burns and scalds and severe bleeding. We now feel more confident in how we would deal with casualties with these injuries.

Week Beginning Monday 26th September 2022

This week in Geography we have been identifying, labelling and defining key features found on a globe. These included: Equator, Northern hemisphere, Southern hemisphere, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Arctic circle, Antarctic circle and the Greenwich Meridian Line. We discussed lines of longitude and latitude and how we can remember them. "Lat goes FLAT".

Week Beginning Monday 19th September 2022

This week our Year 6's travelled to PGL for a week full of challenges and adventures. We took part in a variety of activities including: archery, abseiling, rock climbing, fencing, canoeing, the giant swing and many more. Please watch our video below which shows some of our highlights of our week away.

Week Beginning Monday 12th September 2022

This week in Year 6 we have been locating and mapping cities around the UK. We have discussed how the criteria for becoming a city has changed and we have learned about some of our local cities including London and St Albans. We used our new maps on our playground to support our learning. Thank you Mrs Taylor, they look incredible!

Week Beginning Monday 5th September 2022

Welcome back! The Year 6 team have been very impressed with the attitude of the children this week. They have consistently shown our PRIDE learning behaviours that have led to successful outcomes across the curriculum. As being a member of Year 6 opens up doors to additional responsibilities, some children have applied to be our House Captains for the year. Keep an eye out next week to see which applicants have been chosen. Peer mentors will also be appointed next week as I have had many requests from the children who would like to continue their role. Well done on a fantastic first week back Year 6!

Week Beginning Monday 18th July 2022

This week has been full of celebrations for Year Six, including the performance of the Amazing Adventures of Superstan, their Leavers’ Assembly and disco. We are so proud of the enthusiasm and dedication children have shown towards these. It’s been great to celebrate with them this week and we wish all the children every luck and happiness as they transition to secondary school after the summer 🌟 Have a fun, safe and happy summer break! Miss Murphy and Mr Longland 

Week Beginning Monday 11th July 2022

This week, we created moving fairground rides. We looked at pulley and gear mechanism and then made and evaluate our rides for their effectiveness. 

Week Beginning Monday 4th July 2022
In English this week, we have been looking at writing instructions on how to wash a tree frog, based on the book “How to Wash Wooly Mammoth” and based on our learning of the Whites Tree frog from cross-curricular days. We focused on the presentational and language features of this text type to provide details of the instructions.

Week Beginning Monday 27th June 2022
 

This week, we had 2 cross-curricular days based on animals. We had the opportunity to see and handle a range of animals such as a slink, hamster, African land snail and whites tree frog. We then researched the whites tree frog further and will use this as the basis of our writing for the next couple of weeks. 

Week Beginning Monday 20th June 2022

This week in history, we finished our study of the Anglo Saxons and Vikings by looking at who took the throne at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The previous lesson, we looked at who took the throne after Edward the Confessor died and then how William the Conquerer planned to take the throne back during the Battle of Hastings. We chronologically ordered the events and thought about the key people and places involved. 
 

Week Beginning Monday 13th June 2022
 

This week in art, children developed their skills of manipulating materials by creating a Viking longship sculpture from Modroc. The children will now finish this unit but comparing Viking longships with ships we have today. 

Week Beginning Monday 6th June 2022

For Geography Fieldwork Week, Year 6 created a sketch map of human features in the local area and collected data on different types of houses. We will use this data on the types of houses back in class to create pie charts to present our results.

Week Beginning Monday 23rd May 2022

On Thursday, we celebrated the Jubilee! We spent the morning learning about national and international events during the Queen's reign for the decade we were given - 2013-22. In the afternoon, we created a collage using pictures of the queen. We also learnt 'Sing' as we found out it was one of the Queen's favourite songs. You can see our performance of it below. 

Week Beginning Monday 16th May 2022

Year 6 had a fantastic day celebrating all of their hard work and determination at Chessington on Monday 🎢

They enjoyed a range of rides and activities and behaved fantastically as they represented the school around the park. Well done Year 6! 🌟

Week Beginning Monday 9th May 2022

This week, Year 6 sat their SATs tests. They all showed our school values of responsible, determined and successful brilliantly and we are feeling so proud of the children. To celebrate on Thursday, we spent some time either playing team sport games or team board games together on Thursday ♟ ⚽️ Well done Year 6 🌟 

On Friday, we started a new RHSE unit called Positive Minds which develops our understanding and ability to promote positive mental health. One of our activities was a human bingo where we got to find out more information and connect with lots of different people in our class. 

Week Beginning Monday 2nd May 2022

In computing, we have been learning about how computers read and interpret information using binary code. Last week, we learnt how to represent letters in binary and, this week, we used the binary base two number system to represent different numbers in binary. It was a challenge to begin with but once we practised the structure together, the children were able to use the digits 0 and 1 to represent lots of different numbers 0️⃣1️⃣

Week Beginning Monday 25th April 2022
 

Each week, each Year 6 class takes it in turns for a music session with Mrs Thomas while the other class are taught music by their class teacher 🎵 This week with Mrs Thomas, Johnstone recapped the skill of musical notation. We then applied this when learning songs that we performed for the rest of the school during singing assembly. 

Week Beginning Monday 18th April 2022

On Friday, Miss Murphy’s English group enjoyed some SPaG revision through a relay race. They were given a topic linked to SPaG, such as punctuation or phrases and clauses. They first worked in groups to revise everything they knew about it and then completed questions on each topic as a relay team. As you can see from the video, we really enjoyed this active learning experience! 

Spring 2 Maths Learning Look Video

Week Beginning Monday 21st March 2022
 

As part of our learning in Geography, we have been learning about storms. We focused our research on storm Eunice. We discovered how the impact of the storm varied across the UK. We have also challenged ourselves to find out more about other extreme types of weather. Some of us chose to develop our knowledge about a tornado, hurricane or tsunami. 

Week Beginning Monday 14th March 2022
 

On Friday afternoon, we took part in an RD talent show. Across year 6, we had some fantastic talent such as playing musician instruments, singing and dancing. The winner from each class then got to play in front of a panel of judges, including Mrs Phillips and the Stevenage Borough mascot. It was great to see the talent from the children and the support from their peers while watching. 

Week Beginning Monday 7th March 2022
 

On Thursday, Johnstone class learnt how to play “Once an old man fell into a well.” on the glockenspiels. The previous lesson, we learnt the song and explored the pitch, rhythm and phrases. We then learnt the song, ensuring the tempo of our instrument matched the lyrics. We then practised performing the song in groups and parts. 

Week Beginning Monday 28th February 2022
 

📚 On Thursday 3rd March 2022, it was World Book Day! 📚

We got to enjoy lots of book related activities such as a talk by author Holly Ryan, a talk by Mrs Hooper, a published author who works at RD, finding out the teachers behind our masked reader and book tasting - exploring lots of wonderful books accompanied by yummy snacks! It was a great day to celebrate the wonder of books 📚

Wednesday 23rd  February 2022 - Well-being Wednesday

Today, we have been focusing our learning on well-being and the theme of 5 Ways to Wellbeing: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give.

Our day began with a 'Keep Learning' activity. We used Chrome Music Lab to create our own pieces of music using a variety of instruments. We were able to edit the tempo and pitch of the melody. Some of us decided to created a piece of music with our partner. For 'Connect', we drew around our hands and created patterns that we thought represented us. We then added our core values to show what we look for in someone we connect with. During the afternoon, we began our 'Active' session. We were given the opportunity to be active in sports that we haven't learnt in school before. This included ultimate frisbee and lacrosse. Finally, we ended our day with 'Take Notice' with some mindfulness activities. As a school this week, we have been donating food to our local food bank for our 5th way to wellbeing of 'Give'.

Spring 1 Art Learning Journey - Drawing Viking Portraits
 

This half term in art, we have been focusing on developing our drawing technique using pencil. We have looked at the artistic drawing techniques used by different artists and how to achieve tone and texture using different shading techniques. We then chose an image of an important figure during the Viking period and planned which pencil types we would use, as well as the different techniques to achieve tone and texture. After we had planned the pictures, we used our plans to draw our final piece. Below are some videos and pictures to show some of our art learning journey. 

Wednesday 9th February 2022 - Mathematical Reasoning

Today, Miss Murphy’s maths group used their mathematical thinking and reasoning skills to problem solve. They had to see how many 24 leg potions they could use (to turn their math’s teacher into a frog! 🐸) using only spiders with 8 legs, lizards with 4 legs and bats with 2 legs. We had to use a systematic approach to ensure we got all the possible combinations and could follow a process so we didn’t miss any out. Below are some videos talking about their learning. 

Week Beginning Monday 7th February 2022

This half term, we have been learning about evolution and inheritance. We have specifically looked at Darwin's Theory of Evolution and his study of birds that lived on a variety of the Galapagos Islands. He proposed that the finch species all originated from one common ancestor and that the shape and size of their beak had changed based on their environment.

We conducted an experiment to challenge his theory. We chose two different types of beaks (match sticks and plastic spoons) and a variety of food to collect (satsumas, pumpkin seeds and grapes) to see how easy it was to pick up the food with each type of beak. We concluded that larger beaks were more efficient at collecting a variety of food types and smaller beaks were useful for collecting smaller types of food.

Week beginning Monday 31st January 2022
 

This morning, Year 6 experienced a Viking Warrior workshop run by St Albans Cathedral. We got to experience an educational talk which featured a Viking Warrior. The Viking Warrior talked to us about what life would have been like during the Viking period, such as the daily life, battles, and key objects.  We were able to ask questions and even asked a question to extend our learning from last week on the invasion of Lindisfarne. We asked about the supplies they would have needed to take, and we were told they would have taken food on their longships such as hard bread and salted meat. It was a great experience which helped us to consolidate and extend our history knowledge and vocabulary.

We saw the artefact of a necklace. It had a symbol which represented Thor - Jaiden

Their shield is made from wood and leather - Amreen

To get water, they collected it from the sea or rainwater - Isla

The dragon that is on longships and shields are a sign of strength - Saffron

I learnt that the Vikings filed their teeth to look menacing. I now know that there are different types of axes and it was really interesting - Rylen

I enjoyed that although we didn't go on a school trip, we could still have the same learning online - Liam

I enjoyed how they had a Viking to ask questions to - Farren

Week Beginning Monday 24th January 2022

The text we have been learning about in English is Coraline by Neil Gaiman. We have looked at a range of themes that have arisen from the book and we have dived deep into some hidden meanings within the text. Some of the activities we have completed about the book have included role-play, writing diary entries, finding inferences within the text and rewriting some of the story using correctly punctuated speech.

Week Beginning Monday 17th January 2022

This half term, we have been learning about Ordnance Survey (OS) maps in Geography. We have been comparing maps from the early 1900's to the present day from a variety of towns and cities around the world. We have been accurately locating significant places using 6 figure grid references and the 8 compass points to describe the direction between them. Next week, we will be combining all of our learning together to create our map using OS symbols on our map.

Week Beginning Monday 10th January 2022

This half term, we are starting a new topic in science called Evolution and Inheritance. This week, we learned the difference between inherited and acquired characteristics and how you inherit characteristics from both your parents via chromosomes. To help us understand the concept, we got the opportunity to look at pictures of teachers and their parents and match them up! We found this quite a challenge (and very fun!) but we were able to make our decisions based on key inherited characteristics to give us a secure understanding of which characteristics are learned and which are inherited. 

Week Beginning Monday 3rd January 2022

🎆Happy New Year! 🎆

The first two days back this half term were cross-curricular days based on life skills. We took part in a variety of activities that developed everyday life skills such as British Sign Language, budgeting, first aid and preparation for secondary school. We had a company called ABC Life Support come in to teach the children first aid skills such as what to do in an emergency and how to deal with burns, choking and nosebleeds. The children were fantastically engaged during this and took part in the activities with great enthusiasm. We also took the time to develop some key skills for secondary school. We learned how to tie a tie and how to read a timetable and pack a bag for secondary school. 

Week Beginning Monday 20th December 2021

This week, we looked at Christmas poetry together. We looked at the poem 'Another Night Before Christmas' by Carol Ann Duffy and turned this into performance poetry in groups. We then took a section of this poem and wrote and perfectly presented our own versions, focusing on the structure and themes of the original poem.

We hope you all have a happy and safe  holiday and we will look forward to seeing you again in the new year!

Week beginning Monday 13th December 2021

This week, Year 6 recoded two Christmas performances for you to enjoy. We have been practising these with Ms Thomas during our Thursday music lesson. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed performing!

Week Beginning Monday 6th December 2021

This week in DT, we used our plans to create our functional product that included a fastening. We focused on attaching our fastening and other designs using stitches we had practised such as blanket stitch, over stitch and backstitch. We will now go on to evaluate our products to include their successes and areas for development. 

Week Beginning Monday 29th November 2021

Below you can see a video clip of our daily story time in Monet and Johnstone. We share a story each day to promote the love, enjoyment and importance of reading 📚 

Week Beginning 22nd November 2021

This week, Year 6 started their product to create a decoration in DT. The aim is to create a product which includes a fastening, including stitches such as backstitch, over stitch and running stitch. They used their plans to create a paper template, and then used this to cut out their felt. They will then begin to stitch and add their decorations to create and evaluate their final product. 

Week Beginning Monday 15th November 2021 

This week in science, Johnstone class looked at the impact of voltage on a circuit. We made predictions about what we thought would happen to a bulb as we increased the voltage in a circuit and then tested our predictions using electrical equipment. We concluded that the more volts within a circuit, the brighter the bulb as voltage is the force that pushes current around a circuit. We then made next step suggestions for future experiments, such as testing different electrical components and monitoring the mood of light with light sensor.  

Week Beginning Monday 8th November 2021

This week in Geography we have been learning about using a map and compass. We have split our compass to make 16 specific directions. We have found this a very useful skill to learn and we have been giving directions to move around a map. Our learning also developed into a conversation about how technology has evolved and how apps like "What 3 words" are now used to aid us.

Week Beginning Monday 1st November 2021

This week, we took part in a cross-curricular day linked to Parliament week. We spent the morning learning about the difference between government and parliament: their organisation, purpose and impact. We then looked at debating skills and took part in a class debate on the motion “Computers are better than books.” The children came up with brilliant ideas and evidence to support their side of the argument. They then applied this to a written outcome in the form of a persuasive argument. 

Week Beginning Monday 18th October 2021

This week, we consolidated our knowledge on the life of the Anglo-Saxons by looking at the villages in which they lived. We explored different sources of evidence and looked at why the villages were placed where they were. We learnt that Anglo-Saxon villages were always placed near a water source for drinking and fishing and that in the middle of the village was a larger house that the chief lived in. We also saw evidence of where people worked, such as blacksmiths and weavers, which linked to learning in our previous lesson. We will use this knowledge next half term to compare the lives of Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. 

Week Beginning Monday 11th October 2021

In computing, we have been looking at logos. We explored logos that we know and what makes that impactful. We explored the fact that logos that are memorable are simple because they are eye catching and easy to remember. We then created our own logos using features such as auto shapes, texts and the masked image tool. Once created, we evaluated the logos for their success and areas for development and used these to improve our logos. See some of our logos on display below. 

Week Beginning Monday 4th October 2021
 

After reading the text Skellig, by David Almond, we have been writing our own prequel or sequel based on the story. We used key parts of the original text to link with our stories and planned each section of our story to link with the original book. We then practised the skills of using impactful vocabulary and dialogue before applying this to our stories. Editing to improve is a key part of our writing learning journey and the children have worked brilliantly to edit and improve their learning with the help of them peers.  

Week Beginning Monday 27th September 2021

This week in art, we looked at different artistic styles: abstract (Picasso), impressionism (Renoir) and pointillism (Seurat). We looked at how colour, line and shape are used in each of these images and then painted an image in two of these styles to compare the artistic styles between them. This will then help inform the colour, line and shape that we will need to make decision about when painting a Viking battle scene over the next few weeks.

Week Beginning Monday 20th September 2021

In Johnstone maths group this week, we have been looking at rounding. We focused on applying our skills of place value to know which digit to round to and applied the rules to know whether we round a digit up or keep it the same. After recapping these skills on Monday, we then applied them to rounding games on Tuesday. The children showed fantastic team work and all groups progressed their understanding and practised rounding to different places values from 10 up to 100,000!

Week Beginning Monday 13th September 2021

This week was a slightly different week for Year 6! A group of children went to PGL where they took part in a series of team-building and practical activities, including a range of climbing activities, canoeing, rifle shooting and archery (to name a few!). The children stayed away from home for 5 days and challenged themselves both physically and emotionally through the day and evening activities. It was great to see the children having so much fun outside of the school environment and building deeper relationships with staff and children, and making new frienships with the instructors and group leaders they had throughout the week. Their behaviour was fantastic throughout and they represented Round Diamond brilliantly. 

A group of children also stayed at school and took part in activities linked to mindfulness throughout the week. In the mornings, they discussed the skill of staying mindful. They made a one-shot film and walked around the school taking photos of things at Round Diamond that help us stay mindful. In the afternoon, they took part in a project where they created their own island, which had many cross-curricular links. They considered it's physical and human geography, the laws needed on the island and created species that lived there using their knowledge of classification. On Thursday afternoon, they also created art in the style of Charlie Mackesy and his book The Boy, the Mole the Fox and the Horse (see video below). They created artwork and quotes in his style using our school values.

Week Beginning Monday 6th September 2021

This half term, we are learning about the circulatory system in science. This week, we looked at understanding blood flow through the heart and throughout the body. We carried out a heart dissection on a lamb heart, because it is a close match to a human heart. We were able to see the different chambers and valves and understand the direction of deoxygenated blood through the heart to the lungs, before oxygenated blood comes back to the heart to be pumped around the rest of the body. We could see how the left side of the heart was thicker because it is this side that pumps blood to the rest of the body. Red and blue straws were used to show where oxygenated and deoxygenated blood travels. We then applied this understanding and vocabulary to a task where we described the direction of blood flow through the heart.

Week Beginning Monday 30th August 2021

It was great to welcome the children back from Thursday 2nd September. We spent the first two days in our home classes getting to know each other, our new classroom and our new learning. Both classes carried out some learning on their new class artists. Monet created fact files about Claude Monet and Johnstone created paintings in the style of their artist, Terry Johnstone. We watched Goodnight Mr Tom to give us an understanding of the story in preparation for studying the novel by Michelle Magorian during English this term. We also started our afternoon learning in art, RE, science and geography.

Over the summer, some children completed some of our home learning tasks which were given to them on Move Up day. It was fantastic to see the dedication and pride that these children put into their learning and to watch them discussing their learning with the class, using key vocabulary and new facts that they had learnt. It was great to see how some children went out for the day during the summer holiday to places which helped them to learn new information about our topics. For example, two children went to the British Museum and learnt about the life of Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. This learning will now be proudly presented on our learning walls for us all to learn from and refer to. You can see some pictures from the children sharing their learning below. 

2020-21

Year 6 Staff Team

Johnstone Class: Miss Murphy

Monet Class: Mr Sullivan-Pond

Teaching Assistant: Mr Taylor

Summer 2 Learning

This term, our PE day is TUESDAY. Please have your appropriate PE kit in school on this day.

Here are some of the learning experiences we will have this half term:

This term in English, we will be developing our fictional skills using the book The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

 In maths, we will continue developing our arithmetic and problem-solving skills in a range of topics like fractions, decimals and percentages, shape and measurements.

In History, we will be studying the impact of the Roman Legacy on later periods in British history, including the present day.

In Geography, we will be looking at sketch maps, farming around the world and following a route on an OS map. 

Within science, we will be studying light looking at how light travels, shadows, reflection and refraction.

In DT this half term, we will be creating a moving fairground ride.

We are looking forward to updating this page weekly to show all the fantastic learning that you will be doing over the term!

Happy Summer!

We can’t believe we have reached the end of the academic year. We’ve have a great year together and we hope you have enjoyed our Leavers’ Celebrations, including our videos and disco.

We wish you all lots of luck and happiness as you transition to you new schools. Stay in touch - we love to hear how you are getting on. Have a wonderful summer and take care!

Miss Murphy and Mr SP

Week Beginning Monday 19th July 2021

This week, we planned, built and evaluated a fairground ride powered by an electrical circuit. We explored how motors can power the ride and how cams can be used to control the speed. With the materials available, we had to problem solve and design a structure that was stable. There was lots of discussion and adaption to plans based on tests we did of our product, such as reducing the size of the Ferris wheel to make the ride move better. See some of our creations below 🎡 

Week beginning Monday 12th July 2021

This term, due to missed learning last year, we have had weekly cornet lessons. We have focused on learning about different parts of the orchestra as well as learning how to play songs on the cornet such as Hot Cross Buns and Merrily We Roll Along. We have learnt how to use the instrument appropriately and how to play different notes. We are very grateful to our teacher, Mr Robinson, for our fun lessons. See a song we have learnt below.

Week Beginning Monday 5th July 2021 
 

This week, we had a secondary school transition week. This involved teachers throughout the school teaching us secondary school subjects such as Citizenship, German and secondary school curriculum English, maths and science. This was a great experience that helped us to learn what it’s like to have different teachers for different subjects and to learn some new knowledge and skills for secondary school. 

Week beginning Monday 28th June 2021

This week, some of Year 6 took part in the PGL experience. We took part in a whole range of activities including climbing, canoeing, abseiling, zip wire and problem solving. Throughout the week, we developed our team work, problem solving, communication and listening skills. We had very long and busy days with both daily and evening activities and we are proud of the children for their enthusiasm and engagement within the activities. We all thoroughly enjoyed the week away!

Week beginning Monday 21st June 2021

In science this week, we explored refraction. We learnt that refraction is the bending of lights as it passes through different mediums, such as air, glass and water. We carried out an activity using an image underneath a cup and we found the image disappeared when water was added because the refraction of light meant the light no longer passed out the side of the class. We then carried out an experiment with an arrow behind a glass and saw that the arrow appeared to flip when water was added due to refraction. 
 

Week Beginning Monday 14th June 2021

On Monday and Tuesday this week, the children had two Cross-Curricular Days focused around healthy lifestyles and the Olympics. We learnt about the country of Brazil where the Olympics were held in 2016, the long-term effects of an unhealthy lifestyle on the heart and how to apply bandages. We also had a Year 6 Olympics with a range or activities on the All-Weather Pitch and tried out the Japanese exercise “Radio Tasio.” See a video of us trying it out ourselves below!

Week Beginning Monday 7th June 2021

This week during computing, the children used a 3D room planner to designed their ideal room. They used their computing skills to search up different objects for their bedroom and problem solved ways of adding windows and doors. We then compared using a 3D room planner to create bedrooms to the bird’s eye view drawings we created on Word and Google Drawings in previous weeks. Children felt this 3D room planner was much more beneficial to create realistic looking rooms but would have liked the opportunity to be able to resize objects, instead of only rotate objects, in the room.

Week Beginning Monday 24th May 2021
 

In English the last two weeks, we have been studying a Take One Book called Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival. The book is all about accepting and celebrating your differences. For our learning this week, we wrote our own stories, blurbs and designed our own front covers. I was very impressed with how clearly the children wrote about a challenging theme and linked their story clearly to their front cover. You can see some  of front covers below. 

Week Beginning Monday 17th May 2021

This week, children have started to create their Viking ship sculptures in art. They drew their model to scale and created it using cardboard and Modmesh. This week, we worked in groups to begin using Modroc to create our sculptures. Once these are finished, they will be solid sculptures that we will be able to design and paint in the style of a Viking ship before evaluating our sculptures. 

Week Beginning Monday 10th May 2021

In science this week, we went out into our school environment to see which plants and animals we could identify. We noted these down and then classified these into the difference plant and animal groups ready for creating a field guide next week. 

Week Beginning Monday 3rd May 2021

Year 6 were very lucky to have an online quiz delivered to them all about road safety on Friday. We learnt lots of interesting and useful safety information, such as car stopping distances and where to look when crossing the road.

Week beginning Monday 26th May 2021

During art in Year 6, we have been developing the skills to create a Viking longship. We have produced scaled drawings of longships and practised using Modroc to create a sculpture. We will now use these skills to create our longships next week. 

Week Beginning 19th April 2021

This week, Year 6 have been looking at decimal place value. We have been using our knowledge of decimal place value to order and compare numbers. To practise these skills, we went outside and worked in groups and put ourselves in ascending order based on the decimal value place number card we had been given. 

Week beginning 12th April 2021

It has been great to welcome the children back after the Easter break to begin our learning for the summer term. This half term in art, the children will be creating a model of a Viking longship using Modroc. In order to help us with our designs, this week we learnt about the history behind Viking longships, their design and purpose. We will then use this to create scale drawings for the models that we will be making.

Week Beginning Monday 22nd March 2021
 

This week in science, we set up an experiment to look at what conditions the fungus mould needs to grow on bread. We set up different fair test investigations with mould in the following conditions: warm and cold, light and dark and wet and dry. We took observations over time and found that mould grew the most on the wet piece of bread. 

Week Beginning Monday 15th March 2021
 

In English, we have been exploring a new class text called There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom by Louis Sachar. To help us explore the characters further, we did some drama improvisation into how the main characters, Bradley and Jeff, were feeling in one of the chapters. We then used this to help us write diary entries from each of the characters. You can see a video of one of our improvisations below. 

Week Beginning Monday 8th March 2021
 

We were so excited to welcome all of the children back to school this week! 
In geography, we used research that we completed last week on Storm Ciara to write a weather report. We included rainfall, wind speed, damage and disruption caused by the storm.

You can watch a video where we got some of our research for our reports from below. 

Week Beginning Monday 1st March 2021
 

This week was World Book Day, where the children were able to celebrate the joy of reading 📚 The children were able to watch a video from a real author, James Campbell, who spoke about his books and the challenges he had to overcome to become an author. From this, the children wrote motivating speeches on how you need to persevere to achieve your goals. I was very impressed with the powerful quotes the children included in their writing. The children also took part in Round Diamond’s Masked Reader, where they had to guess which teacher was reading the book behind the disguise. Did you guess Miss Murphy correctly? I’ve added my video below alongside some children’s motivating speeches!

Week Beginning Monday 22nd February - DT Food Research

This half term in DT, the children will be creating a Viking Stew, linked to our topic of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. This week in DT we begun our research into the meats and vegetables that Viking would have had available and how these were cooked and stored. 

Week beginning Monday 8th February 2021

This week, relating to their learning on evolution, Year 6 took part in their own science investigations at home. The task was to investigate the success of different beak shapes and sizes with different sized food items. The children were very sensible and organised their investigations well, using a variety of tools such as spoons, chopsticks, tweezers and clothes pegs to replicate birds’ beaks. They then interpreted their results to make a conclusion on the best type of beak. 
 

We would like to say well done to all children in Year 6, both in school and online, for their hard work throughout this very different half term. Have a well-earned rest over half term. 

Week Beginning Monday 1st February 2021

This week, Year 6 have been learning about how the Vikings first arrived in Britain. They used their computing skills to complete this learning in Google Classroom, labelling and colour coding maps to show the names of areas in Britain at the time, as well as the Vikings’ route from their homelands of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. 

Week beginning Monday 25th January 2021

Over the last few weeks, Year 6 have been refining their shading skills and learning how to accurately draw a portrait. This week, they combined these skills with their history learning on the Vikings to produce some very impressive king portraits. 

Week beginning Monday 18th January 2021

This week on Google Classrooms, Year 6 have enjoyed making their own Pong games on Scratch. Have a look at the example below to see one in action!

Home Learning

Well done to Amaya in Monet Class for taking part in the Humanities and Arts Home Learning Project! Amaya used the Google Arts and Culture app to explore the Eiffel Tower in Paris and has created this great PowerPoint presentation on what she learnt. 

Week Beginning Monday 11th January 2021

In art this week, we looked at putting the pencil, shading and texture techniques we learnt the week before into practice by drawing self-portraits. We followed instructions to draw them to ensure our facial features were correctly positioned and sized. It was fantastic to have children take pictures of their drawings and upload them to our Google Classroom for us to see. Have a look at some of the outcomes below!

Week Beginning Monday 4th January 2021

Welcome back! We hope you all had an enjoyable and safe Christmas break.

This half term Year 6 are putting their skills learning online on Google Classrooms back into action.

In English this week, we have started reading the novel Coraline by Neil Gaiman. The children are really enjoying getting to know the adventurous and courageous character of Coraline and some of the strange occurrences that she comes across living in her new house. Well...she did wish for a more exciting life!

We have started to explore the authorial techniques used to make this an engaging book, such as the balance of speech, action and description in the text, that you can see evidence of us highlighting below.

Over the next few weeks, we will finish reading the book and exploring the writing skills before writing our own short stories based on the text. We will look forward to sharing our finish pieces soon!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great last day of term today! We started by having our end of year assembly where we also got to watch the staff Christmas video that has been made. We then played party games together before watching a film, having our video from Santa and lots of lovely snacks and drinks thanks to FORDS.

We hope that you all have a wonderful, safe and happy Christmas and we will look forward to seeing you again in 2021!

Week Beginning Monday 14th December 2020 - The Gift

In English, to finish our Take One Book called the Gift by Carol Ann Duffy, we perfectly presented the poems we had written together and decorated them with the elements of the setting from the story. To create the poems, we needed to use our knowledge of the story and organise it into different verses of the poem. We used figurative language and impactful description to describe the different parts of the story. We also focused on the use of syllables and rhyme to give our poems rhyme and rhythm. 

Week Beginning Monday 7th December 2020 - Whole-School RE Afternoon

On Thursday 10th December 2020,  we took part in a whole-school RE afternoon to deepen our understanding and real-life experience of our RE learning. Our afternoon was focused around Bodhi Day - a Buddhist celebration to celebrate the day the Buddha reached Englightenment. We learnt how Buddhists celebrate this day by decorating a Bodhi Tree and by worshipping statues of the Buddha. For our learning experience, we made our own statues of the Buddha out of clay and decorated leaves for a Bodhi Tree with the ways you can reach enlightenment. 

Week Beginning Monday 30th November 2020 

Miss Murphy’s English group created our own sequel stories on PowerPoint using the book Tuesday by David Wiesner. We then used this to inspired our writing on police investigation reports.

Week beginning 23rd November

This week, we have taken part in our termly cross-curricular days. This time, all of our learning was centred around 'The Wizard of Oz'. We started our learning by watching the film in order to understand the story and characters. We then applied our skills in a range of subject areas, drawing on our knowledge from the story. 

In maths, we compared data on the size and strength of different tornadoes and presented this information in bar and pie charts. In science, we looked at investigations which seemed to be 'magic' such as dancing raisins and rainbow celery. In English, we wrote character descriptions of the witch and in geography we learned what to do to keep ourselves safe in the event of a tornado. We finished the week by looking at the artistic style of surrealism and drew a dream we had experienced in this style. 

Week beginning 16th November

In history this week, Year 6 have been looking at some Anglo-Saxon artefacts. When trying to find out what they were, they answered questions such as:

Who used this object?

What was it used for?

Where do you think it was found?

What clues does it give us about what Anglo-Saxon life was like?

The children then reflected on this learning to decide what skills they thought archaeologists would need in order to give us clear pictures about what life was like in different time periods. 

Week beginning 9th November

As part of their DT learning this half term, Year 6 are designing and making their own felt Christmas decorations. To prepare for this, they practised their stitching this week and learned how to do stitches including; running stitch, back stitch, over stitch and blanket stitch. 

w/b Monday 2nd November 2020

This week, Year 6 spent the week learning on Google Classrooms at home. We got to experience live teaching on Google Meet from our teachers before applying our computing skills to completing and submitting tasks for different subjects online. All Y6 staff were very impressed with the maturity and dedication of the children during this time - well done Year 6!

w/b 19th October 2020

This week in RE, we learnt about how different religions use art to express meaning. We then used tissue paper to make our own stained-glass windows to convery a meaning of our choice.

w/b 5th October 2020 - Peer Editing 

Now we have finished writing our Skellig stories, Year 6 have been developing their editing skills. Children evaluated their own and others’ writing for elements such as grammar, spelling and sentence construction and looked at ways they could edit their writing to improve it. The results showed some great writing improvements! 

w/b 28th September 2020 - Maths
 

Johnstone maths group have been playing times table games during fluency this week. We played times table bingo and a game where you randomly choose a times table fact and have to race your partner to the correct answer. The children showed energised learning for both games and are seeing an improvement in how quickly they’re able to recall their times table facts. 

w/b 29th September - Sports Crew 

The Year 6 Sports Crew set up games for Year 6 to play on the playground this week. It was brilliant to see the leadership skills they showed when organising the games and the enthusiasm and enjoyment of the other children joining in. Well done Sports Crew! 

Science learning w/b 21.09.20

In science this week, Year 6 tested their knowledge on the circulatory system by creating their own quiz questions. They then put their peers’ knowledge to the test by asking each other their questions to earn points and prove their expertise. 

A hello from your new teachers! 

Please email any questions you may have about next year to faqs@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk

 2019/2020

21st July 2020

Year 6 have had a lovely last two days at Round Diamond. Yesterday, they enjoyed a video call and virtual quiz between the bubbles in school and the children at home - it was lovely to see those who haven’t been in school since March! 
Today, they enjoyed some music and games in their bubbles on the all weather pitch. As always, they really impressed us with their excellent behaviour and it was lovely to see them all having fun together. 
We hope you all have a restful and safe summer break and wish all of the children every success and happiness in their journey on to secondary school. 

Year 6 Leavers’ Videos!

Goodbye and Good Luck from Round Diamond

Today, Year 6  had the opportunity to view their leavers’ videos during our farewell video call. Below you can find the links to the two Year 6 leavers’ videos created to mark the end of primary school for a wonderful cohort. All of our staff wish them every luck and happiness for the future as they begin their exciting new journey at secondary school in September.

The videos are available using the following links:

Year 6 Leavers 2020 - Pictures throughout the years:

https://youtu.be/_35-hM42TVk

Year 6 Leavers’ Messages: 

https://youtu.be/bwndtO-eOGU

Class Teachers:

Johnstone Class Teacher: Miss Murphy 

Monet Class Teacher: Mrs Downie

Holbein Class Teacher: Mr Pallant

Teaching Assistant:

 Ms Landau

Our PE day is now on a Wednesday. Please ensure that children have the correct school PE kit in school with them each day. As we move into the winter months, please ensure that children have an appropriate school PE jumper and jogging  bottoms to keep them warm during outside PE lessons.

Welcome to Year 6!

Welcome to the class page for Monet and Johnstone Class.

Join us this term and see our exciting learning journey, along with  other celebrations we take part in.

We have a lot to share and can't wait for you to be able to take a sneak peek into our learning in our final year at Round Diamond.

2019-2020

Friday 3rd July 2020

This week in Year 6, we have spent a lot of time outside, despite the unpredictable weather! In science, we explored our school grounds and made a record of the species of plants and animals we could see in their habitats. We have also continued to play a range of socially distanced games during our break times and taken part in some different activities in our PE sessions. 

Friday 26th June 2020

In Year 6 this week, we collected the results of our investigation on mould growth. We found that mould grew much more quickly on the bread that was left in damp conditions. We also created some fantastic portraits of famous Viking Kings, using a range of sketching pencils and shading techniques. 6M and 6D bubbles finished the week with some socially distanced problem solving games in the sun on the all weather pitch, while 6T had a great time learning songs from The Lion King. 

Friday 19th June 2020

This week in Year 6, we have been practising our debating skills in our English lessons. We discussed the quote “To Live Forever is Not to Live At All” and came up with for and against arguments. In science, we have prepared an investigation into which conditions mould will grow most effectively on bread and will be checking for results next week. 

Week Beginning Monday 15th June 2020

Thursday 11th June 2020

We’ve had another fantastic week in our Year 6 bubbles. In English, we have been learning about the sinking of the Titanic and have written discussion texts on who was responsible for the disaster. In maths, we have been solving a range of problems relating to area of 2D shapes and volume of 3D shapes. This afternoon, we put our art skills to the test by using a range of sketching pencils to create some impressive self portraits. Some of us even finished the afternoon with some socially distanced PE! 

Week Beginning Monday 8th June 2020

Thursday 4th June

It has been lovely to see lots of our Year 6 children back in school this week! We have been very impressed by the way they have adapted so well to our ‘new normal’ and have really enjoyed teaching them in our ‘bubbles’. The children have engaged fully in their learning in class and have enjoyed playing different games together during break times. Well done Year 6 - what a fantastic start to the new term! 

Week Beginning Monday 2nd June 2020

Monday 1st June 2020 is an INSET day, therefore there is no learning for this day.