Year 6 2024-2025

Year 6 Team
 

Johnstone Class Teacher - Mr Taylor

Monet Class Teacher - Miss Tebbutt

Holbein Class Teacher - Mrs Causton

Year 6 support staff - Mr Donkin and Mrs Jull

Welcome back to the Autumn Term and to Year 6. We are very excited to start our Year 6 journey this term. 

Important Information:

PE will be taught every Wednesday afternoon. As the weather begins to get colder, please can children remember to wear appropriate clothing and bring a water bottle to school. They should, however, also bring a waterproof coat in with them each day.

Curriculum Coverage:

In English we will be exploring biographies and autobiographies. We will use these texts to create a range of fictional writing pieces to develop style, imagination and grammatical accuracy.

In Maths we will be revising all maths content domains taught and will be applying these skills to a range of problem solving and reasoning scenarios in real-life contexts.

This term we will enjoy learning about electricity in Science, volcanoes and mountains in Geography and World War Two in history.

See our curriculum maps below for more information about our curriculum this term. 

Check back in with our class page for weekly updates!

The Year 6 Team.

WB 2nd December 2024

This week, we invited in a Vicar from a local church and a Humanist to help us to understand 'sacred and secular' Christmas traditions. The children learnt lots about both religions, and were surprised to find out that the Church has different colours to signify different times of year in the Christian calendar. At this time of year it is purple, so you might find purple table cloths or a vicar will wear a purple sash over their robe.

WB 25th November 2024

We have been lucky enough to have our school dog, Paddington, in class with some of us this week. He helps us to create a calm learning environment, and he has even helped us with some of our fractions learning, too     

WB 18th November 2024

Last week was Anti-Bullying Week, which we explored within our Personal Development lesson. The theme this year is 'Choose Respect'. We discussed what respect means, why it is important and how we can manage situations that might be disrespectful, such as how to defuse and choose respectful conflict

. Year 6 then delivered an assembly to the whole school on Monday 18th November based on 'Choose Respect'. Click on the link below to see a video clip we watched! 

Anti-Bullying Week 2024: Choose Respect

WB 11th November 2024

We have been learning about Fractions in Maths, including: adding fractions with the same denominator, adding fractions with a different denominator, subtracting fractions with the same denominator, subtracting fractions with a different denominator, adding and subtracting mixed numbers. We explored this using concrete resources and built up towards pictorial and abstract (pictures and equations). 

WB 4th November 2024

We have started a new unit in Music, where we are focussing on a piece of music called 'Hey, Mr Miller' from the swing genre. We listened to the music and looked at the music score. We identified arpeggios, bar and section numbers and the time signature.

WB 21st October 2024

We have been learning about the circulatory system in Science, including: the role of the blood, parts of blood, arteries and veins and the areas of the heart. On Tuesday 22nd October, we were lucky enough to dissect a cow heart! It was huge! Mr Taylor dissected it under the class visualiser and we explored to find the different areas of the heart, such as the left and right atrium, left and right ventricle, aorta and valves.

WB 14th October 2024

This week we visited North Herts Crucial Crew, the personal health and safety event, where local emergency services provide interactive ways to engage the children in keeping safe on their journey of life! We had members of the local police talk to use about 'Lives not Knives', safety near railway lines and how to stay safe online, the paramedics showed us basic CPR; the Safeguarding lead from the Hertfordshire FA discussed with us what we can do if we don't feel safe from someone; and we looked at common dangers around the home such as using a laptop on your bed, charging you phone under your pillow, using tealights without something to protect underneath, plugging in multiple plugs to multiple gang sockets and using metal in a toaster. The children were particularly affected by a video shown from the transport police about staying safe near the railway lines, which you can find here.

WB 7th October 2024

This week we have been completing previous SATs tests to get us ready for May so that we can show our best abilities! We completed all of the KS2 SATs assessments: Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (Paper 1 and Paper 2), Reading and Maths (Arithmetic, Reasoning 1 and Reasoning 2). We marked them together and talked about how we can achieve our best in each assessment. We will be using these to form targets for our learning.

WB 30th September 2024

In Year 6, we have been building up to writing our own discursive speech. We have learnt about active and passive voice to create a formal tone, using rhetorical questions to hook the reader and punctuation to demonstrate prosody of speech.

WB 23rd September 2024

No rest for us - it was straight back into our learning on our return from PGL, except now with more memories to share. In English this week, we have been editing our autobiographies focussing on including: adverbs of time, relative clauses, prepositions, parenthesis and cohesion. We enjoyed writing up our pieces in neat, which we call our 'Perfectly Present'. Our handwriting pens and our most beautiful handwriting came out to shine! We even got to listen to some Disney piano music whilst writing (perhaps Miss Tebbutt's choice rather than the children's). In Science, we tested our hypotheses using simple circuits. We wanted to test the consequences of changing components in a circuit, such as adding another bulb, another motor, using different length wires or more batteries. 

WB 16th September 2024

It was PGL week for Year 6! We really challenged ourselves this week in so many aspects: heights, staying away from home, water, trying new foods, making new friends, finding our way around a new place and so much more. We are so proud of our year 6s!

WB 9th September 2024

We managed to pack in a lot this week! In English, we have got into the thick of writing our autobiographies about ourselves and in Maths we finished our Place Value unit with an assessment. In RE, we researched the Humanist celebrations and created posters based on who, what, where, when and how they celebrate. In French, we practised how to say subjects and give our opinions. We really enjoyed Science where we drew series circuits using the correct symbols to represent the different components.

WB 2nd September 2024

We returned after the Summer holidays this week and got into our routines quickly. We have been focussing on Place Value in Maths; partitioning numbers into their values, drawing number lines and writing numbers up to 8-digits into words. In English, we have started to plan to write our own autobiography! We have been brushing up on our grammar, trying to include adverbs, prepositions and relative clauses to make our writing more interesting and detailed. 

In RE we researched Buddhist celebrations and create a poster about their beliefs ad feelings. We enjoyed making an electrical circuit in Science to test whether a ball of salt or sugar dough would conduct electricity (see picture below)! In French, we learnt 10 school subjects.

Next week, we are excited to start our class novel, Rooftoppers, by Katherine Rundell.

Year 6 2023-24

Year 6 Team
 

Johnstone Class Teacher - Mr Taylor

Monet Class Teacher - Miss Causton

Holbein Class Teacher - Miss Murphy

Year 6 support staff - Mrs Lavery and Mrs Jull

Welcome back to the Summer Term and to Year 6. We are very excited to continue our Year 6 journey this term. 

Important Information:

PE will be taught every Wednesday afternoon. As the weather begins to get warmer, please can children remember to wear suncream and bring a water bottle to school. They should, however, also bring a waterproof coat in with them each day.

Curriculum Coverage:

In English we will be exploring third person narrative adventure stories and news reports. We will use these texts to create a range of fictional writing pieces to develop style, imagination and grammatical accuracy.

In Maths we will be revising all maths content domains taught and will be applying these skills to a range of problem solving and reasoning scenarios in real-life contexts.

This term we will enjoy learning about classification in Science, comparing a region of the UK (Lake District), Europe (Poland) and North America (Jamaica) in Geography and the Battle of Britain in history.

See our curriculum maps below for more information about our curriculum this term. 

Check back in with our class page for weekly updates!

The Year 6 Team.

Termly Overviews

Termly Overview

Week Beginning Monday 15th July 2024
 

On Monday, Year 6 performed their show: Jill and Fred’s Most Hysterical Historical Adventure.
It was a great performance that the children had put a lot of effort and enthusiasm into.
Thank you to our brilliant performers, our audience and adults at home who helped to source costumes and the staff for their time in putting the performance together.

Week beginning Monday 8th July

This week the children have been researching famous bridges in their DT lesson. The have been researching whether the bridge moves, how it maintains its strength and what materials the bridge is made out of. The children will use this research to design and create their own bridge.

Week Beginning 1st July 2024

This week Johnstone were visited by FitKidz, who offered the opportunity to use rowing machines as part of their healthy life style activities. The children were able to use the rowing machines to play a game involving fish before spending 1 minute in a sprint challenge. 

Week Beginning 24.06.2024

This week, during our mini-police session, we re-capped the importance of road safety. After this, we explored the impacts of a range of bullying scenarios and how these can be avoided and reported.  

WB. Monday 17th June 2024

In Art this week, the children painted their theatrical Modroc masks. They referred to their designs and research when selecting colours and creating patterns. The children are very excited to be able to wear them... perhaps they will put on a show for you!

Week Beginning Monday 10th June 2024 
 

On Tuesday morning, Year 6 visited Stevenage Football Stadium for their Crucial Crew experience. They engaged in a range of practical activities linked to health and safety, such as: water safety, first aid, fire safety and online safety. These workshops were led by professionals from the ambulance, police and fire service. All children engaged brilliantly and the staff at the event commented positively on the children’s behaviour and attitudes throughout the morning.

Week Beginning 3rd June 2024

In Science this week, we revisited our mould experiment. We checked the different pieces of bread that have been places in various conditions around the classroom, making observations on the amount of mould that had formed. After this, we discussed why different conditions are better suited to mould growth and formed a written evaluation. 

_{Week Beginning Monday 20th May 2024} 

On Tuesday, our year 6s were introduced to PCSO Saphron who held their Mini Police welcome session. They learnt that the Mini Police aim to bridge the gap between young people and the police as well as help to support young offenders. Over the next 6 weeks they will be able engaging with the Mini Police program and even achieve their own certificates. Thank you Saphron for such an engaging first session.

Week Beginning Monday 13th May 2024

This week, Year 6 have taken part in their SATs, which has included test papers on grammar and spelling, reading, arithmetic and reasoning. We are very proud of the responsible and determined approach that all children have taken towards the papers. On Monday, our Chair of Governors, John Maylnn came to visit to watch the procedures we had in place for undertaking the papers and on Wednesday morning, we also had an unplanned inspection of our procedures from a member of staff at HfL. The inspector looked at our access arrangements folder, observed us administering a paper to the children, as well as packaging and locking away our papers after the test. We received positive feedback from this, showing that we had all the correct procedures in place and were administering the tests in line with DfE guidance. As a celebration, children had a great day at Chessington on Friday! 
 

Week Beginning 6th May 2024

In RHSE this week we explored the laws surrounding alcohol in the UK. As a group we discussed why these laws exist and then evaluated the effectiveness of the current laws. 

Week beginning 29th April 2024

In French this week we have been learning how to ask for and give directions to key places and buildings we have previously learned.

Week Beginning 22nd April 2024

This week in Computing we have been learning what Binary Code is. We have used the key to write our names and secret messages. Can you translate this?

Week Beginning Monday 15th April 2024

On Tuesday 16th April 2024, Hertfordshire Police delivered a session to year 6 children on criminal exploitation. The learning outcomes for this educational session were to raise awareness around the reality of criminal exploitation, gangs, county lines, and knife crime. All children have been educated on who to ask and where to go for more support after the session - if they are worried, they will be listened to and supported by all staff at Round Diamond.

Week Beginning 18/03/2024

In DT this week we used our plans and recipes to create our religious dish. We used a range of skills including: cutting, kneading, baking, egg-washing and seasoning. 

Week Beginning Monday 11th March 2024

In English this week, we have been exploring the purpose and features used within an autobiography. We looked at how we can use relative clauses, conjunctions and adverbs to express both fact and opinion on people's lives. We will be writing an autobiography about someone who came to Britain on board The Empire Windrush, so we looked at how we can add opinions, thoughts and feelings to facts related to this event.

Week Beginning Monday 4th March 2024

This week in RE we have been learning about how most Christians connect to prayer, faith and scared spaces. We then used this learning to identify the similarities and differences between Christians and Humanists.

Week Beginning Monday 26th February 2024

This week in History the children consolidated their learning on Anglo-Saxon and Viking battles. They explored a reflection point question and used the learning from this half term to create an extended outcome to answer this question.

Week Beginning Monday 12th February 2024

In computing this week, we have been looking at real life databases. We have learned how to use filters to find information quickly. We used filters to search a flight database and filtered the following pieces of information: airline, flight duration and cost.

Week Beginning Monday 5th February 2024

In French, we have been learning how to give more details about where we live. We have learned that 'Je parle' means 'I speak' and 'Il ya' means 'there is'.

Week Beginning Monday 29th January 2024

In English this week, we have been planning and writing stories about natural disasters.

Week Beginning Monday 22nd January 2024

In music this week, we have continued to practise the song 'Stand By Me' by Ben E King. We split into two groups and practised singing in rounds. We had to work together as a team to ensure we matched each other's pitch and came in at the right time.

Week Beginning 15th January 2024

This week in History we explored the Viking invasion within the context of wider history. We placed the these events chronologically on a timeline and discussed their importance.  

Week Beginning Monday 8th January 2024

In our reading lessons this week, we have been reading the book: 'All Aboard the Empire Windrush'. The children have enjoyed learning about the facts, alongside a child's recount of the events. The children have applied their learning to activities which have focused on developing their retrieval and summary skills.

Week Beginning Monday 18th December 2023

This half term in DT, children have been designing creating and evaluating a Christmas decoration with a functional fastening. They have used their skills of sewing using different stitches and learnt how to incorporate a fastening into their design. They finished the topic by evaluating their product against the success criteria.

Week Beginning Monday 11th December 2023

In science this half term, children have been studying electricity. As an awe and wonder activity, children made light up Christmas cards using their skills of circuits and components.

Week Beginning Monday 4th December 2023

In English, our core text has been The Gift by Carol Ann Duffy. After reading the story and creating pieces of writing inspired by the text, such as descriptive narratives, the children worked collaboratively to create a book review including images, opinions and a summary of the text. 

Week Beginning Monday 27th November 2023

In DT, we used our plans to make templates which we then transferred onto felt to create the outline of our Christmas decoration that we will sew from next week. We will be using a range of stitched such as running stitch, backstitch, overstitch and blanket stitch.

Week Beginning Monday 20th November 2023

In Computing, we have been learning about spreadsheets and data. In our learning this week, we collected class data regarding birthdays. We put this data into a table which we used to create a bar graph and pie chart.

Week Beginning Monday 13th November 2023

In French, we have been learning how to read the time and explain what activities we like to do at the weekend. In our learning this week, we recapped our previous learning and completed a speaking and listening activity. We had to match the correct picture to the French words.

Week Beginning Monday 6th November 2023

In Music we revisited ‘Once  Man Fell in a Well’. Within the lesson, we sang the song, both in class groups and within smaller groups. Both times we used the actions that we had learnt with the lyrics to show the changes in tempo and pitch.

After this we used Glockenspiels to play the tune of the song (using the notes that we covered in the previous lesson), before combining both the tune and lyrics together in our groups.

Week Beginning Monday 30th October 2023

This week, Year 6 begun their new science topic on Electricity. They learnt about the history of electricity, including ancient electricity, famous scientists linked to electricity, modern appliances and the use of electricity. The children used secondary sources to find out this information and wrote the information under different subheadings. 

Week Beginning Monday 16th October 2023

In RE this week, we explored the importance of stained glass windows within the Christian faith. After this, we used our knowledge of important Christian symbols to create our own stained glass windows. 

Week Beginning Monday 9th October 2023

During our reading lesson this week, the children worked together to infer and retrieve from an extract and image. They discussed the vocabulary and how this can be used to find clues on mood, action and characters. After, they explored hidden clues within the images and produced inferences from these, using aspects of the images as evidence.

Week Beginning Monday 2nd October 2023

This half term, Year 6 have been looking at Skellig as their core text. After reading and understanding the text through our VIPERS skills, we have then planned our own sequel to the story. The children have planned the structure and vocabulary choices and this week begun writing the opening, build up and dilemma to their story and will finish the story next week. The children have recalled and used the events of Skellig well to inform a linked sequel.

Week Beginning Monday 25th September 2023

This week, we had two cross-curricular days based around the circus. We got to watch a circus performance and take part in a circus skills workshop. Our learning was also based around the circus. In maths, we practised the skill of measuring angles of different circus artists during different circus acts. We looked at using protractors to measure and accurately record the angles.

Week Beginning Monday 18th September 2023

This week, some children spent the week at PGL in Caythorpe Court, participating in a range of personal and group challenges including climbing, zip-lining and kayaking. The children showed independence and dedication in their week away from home and were energised throughout activities.

Children at school participated in a project to create a mindfulness film, rock painting, making apple doughnuts and designing their own island. The children showed a responsible and energised attitude throughout and created some fantastic learning experiences. 

Week Beginning Monday 12th September 2023
As part of their Awe and Wonder experience in science, the children had the opportunity to watch a lamb heart dissection, linked to their science learning on the circulatory system. A lamb heart was chosen as it’s the closest to a human heart. Children were able to see and name different parts of the heart to consolidate the learning they had already done on the structure of the heart.

Week Beginning Monday 5th September 2023
 

To begin the school year in their new class, the children created artwork based on their class artists: Monet or Johnstone. They learnt about their artistic style and replicated their learning in the style of one of their pieces. 
 

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!

Summer 2023

Welcome to our Year 6 class page! We hope you enjoyed the Easter break and you are ready for your final term at Round Diamond!

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 will be exploring a short film 'Alma'.

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

W/B 3rd July 2023

Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed looking calculating scaled maps and their real distances between different countries in Europe. We then looked at google earth to look at some of these places in reality and compare the UK to other places in the world.

The students also took part and contributed really valuable questions and thoughts in their RSE lessons this week gaining important and accurate information about how our bodies grow and change as we get older as well as how babies grow from conception to birth during pregnancy.

W/B 25th June 2023

Round Diamond thoroughly enjoyed their Sport's Day this week and year 6 are extremely proud of themselves after competing in their sports activities: hockey, speed-bounces, races javelin throwing and dribbling. I am particularly proud of their energy, determination and resilience as well as the encouragement they showed towards their friends in every activity. 

Furthermore, year 6 have been working on building moving bridges in D&T and have finished their initial structures before adding their motors to power their gears.

W/B 19th June 2023

This week, Year 6 have worked on comparing Digi-maps of Stevenage from 1890, 1950 and 2023 in Geography. We learnt some very  interesting things including how Stevenage was one of eight "new towns" created after WW2 when people needed re-homing after their own homes had been bombed. They were subsequently re-houses in towns like Stevenage, Hatfield and Milton-Keynes. We also learnt how Great Ashby is a very new area having not existed as far back as 1950. Moreover, we analysed how the population growth in Stevenage has lead to much more developed residential areas but the surrounding parks and farms on the outskirts of Stevenage have stayed the same over the years. 

W/B 12th June 2023

Year 6 have been working really hard on their story-writing for the short film, Alma. Year 6 have used their imagination to create horror or thriller pieces based around the subject of dolls. They have used descriptive vocabulary, a range of sentence types, dialogue and action to fully engage the reader.

W/B 7th June 2023 - 

Year 6 had an incredibly exciting start to this final half term. Round Diamond had the pleasure of meeting Paul Sturgess, Britain's tallest man who inspired the school whilst telling us of his stories of his life as an extremely talented professional basketball player and an actor. He showed our students the importance of embracing being different and using it to your advantage.

Furthermore, we met Darren Loughty, a disabled ex-mountaineer who has never let anything be an obstacle to his dreams. He showed the Round Diamond pupils how you can conquer marathons in seven continents, climb mountains and canoe the entire UK after failing and failing again. He showed Round Diamond how our key values of determination and resilience can be put into action throughout your life. 

Year 6 produced excellent writing this week, writing letters to their role models and writing a biography about Malala, another inspiring motivated person who fought for girls' education over life and death. 

The people who came in to inspire the pupils of Round Diamond this week will be remembered by everyone involved for a long time. 

W/B 22nd May 2023 - Positive Minds

Positive Minds; Education is a 10-week wellbeing programme combining classroom and practical based activities to engage Year 6 students in the topic of mental health. Year 6 is a time of transition, during which young people are more likely to experience and develop mental health issues. Our programme has been developed to support students ahead of this change, to help them increase their knowledge, and instil key tools to improve and support their wellbeing.

The aim of the programme is for students to be able to:

• Understand what mental health is and what it means to them.

• Identify at least 3 healthy coping strategies that are specific to them as individuals.

• Identify their support network and some local mental health support services.

W/B 15th May 2023 - LEGOLAND

Year 6 represented the school impeccably during our trip to Legoland. The weather was on our side and the children were thrilled to see a quiet park and empty queues. Well done for all of your hard work building up to SATs, we hope this reward made you feel proud of all of your achievements. 

W/B 8th May 2023 - SATs

We hope you all thoroughly enjoyed the long weekend celebrating the King's coronation. We are incredibly proud of you all for showing all of our PRIDE learning behaviours throughout the course of your time at Round Diamond so far and you now have a week to show off what you can do. Remember that as long as you have tried your best, everyone will be happy. Well done Year 6!

W/B 1st May 2023 - SATs Preparation

This is the final week before SATs. The children have been putting in maximum effort to ensure they are as well prepared as they possibly can be. Our top tips for this final week are: make sure you are getting the right amount of sleep, balance your spare time with revision and having fun, eat a healthy diet and enjoy regular exercise where you can. Good luck Year 6!

W/B 24th April 2023 - Binary Code (Computing)

This week we had a STEM visitor explain to us all about binary code. Imagine trying to use words to describe every scene in a film, every note in a song, or every street in your town. Now imagine trying to do it using only the numbers 1 and 0. Every time you use the Internet to watch a movie, listen to music, or check directions, that’s exactly what your device is doing, using the language of binary code.

W/B 17th April 2023 - Maths

This week we have been preparing our children for their SATs paper that will take place in a few weeks time. We have focused on the core arithmetic skills needed for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Maths boosters will remain until SATs.

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.