Johnstone Class: Miss Murphy
Monet Class: Mrs Downie
Year 6 Setting (Holbein): Mr Pallant
Teaching Assistant: Mr Taylor
Week beginning 18.01.21
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.
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!
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!
This term, our PE day is TUESDAY. Please have your appropriate PE kit in school on this day, including a jumper and jogging bottoms for the colder months that are now experiencing.
Here are some of the learning experiences we will have this half term:
This term in English, we will develop our understanding of key narrative techniques using Coraline by Neil Gaiman. We will then explore persuasive devices and techniques using Varmints by Helen Ward.
In maths, we will continue developing our arithmetic and problem-solving skills in a range of topics like fractions, decimals and percentages, algebra and ratio and proportion.
In History, we will be continuing our historical journey to look at the period of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, by looking at Viking invasions and Kings.
In Geography, we will be exploring storms, writing weather reports and drawing a variety of thematic maps.
Within science, we will be studying evolution and inheritance by exploring the Theory of Evolution, adaptive traits and looking at how humans have evolved over time.
In Art this half term we will be looking at the effects of pencils, pastels and charcoal and understanding the successful use of artistic techniques within our learning.
We are looking forward to updating this page weekly to show all the fantastic learning that you will be doing over the year!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
RE 23.10.20
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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:
Year 6 Leavers’ Messages:
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 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.
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.
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!
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!
Monday 1st June 2020 is an INSET day, therefore there is no learning for this day.
Today is the day that we officially break up for the Easter holidays for 2 weeks!
Well done to adjusting to a new way of learning at home for couple of weeks and it is now time to relax and enjoy the break. Although this holiday will be different to other school breaks, we hope that you make the most of spending time with your family, doing activities that you enjoy and that you keep yourself active while staying at home. Below we will place a link with some fun ideas to have a go at during this time.
Further learning updates will be posted to this page after the Easter holidays.
We hope that you stay safe, well and have an enjoyable break,
Miss Murphy, Mrs Downie, Mr Pallant and Ms Landau
Link to fun activities that can be completed at home:
https://www.scouts.org.uk/the-great-indoors/
Hello all,
As we come towards the end of the first week of a different way of learning, we wanted to send a message to say that we hope that you're all keeping safe and well.
We hope that you have managed to find a routine of completing some English, maths and afternoon subject learning each day as well as completing home activities that you and your family enjoy. It is very important for your physical and mental health that you complete some daily exercise to help keep yourself active while at home. Both at school and at home, we have been finding the daily PE with Joe Wicks workouts (live from 9am every weekday morning and can be accessed on Youtube at Body Coach TV - these can be done live at 9am or at any time after) brilliant to get ourselves moving and to release all those feel-good hormones that come with exercise.
Below we have also attached some links to additional learning opportunities that you can access to keep yourself learning and feeling good.
Keep visiting this page regularly for your learning and updates. Adults can email: lmurphy@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk if you have any questions during this time.
Stay safe and keep smiling,
Miss Murphy and Mrs Downie
Additional learning links:
Attached below are a range of home learning opportunities for children to complete during this period of school closure. This learning covers the 2 weeks of teaching before the Easter break. MyMaths and Bug Club have also been set and children have been given their passwords for these. Any children without access to the internet will be given a printed pack.
We recommend that children stay in a regular routine of completing English, Maths and afternoon subject learning daily to ensure a sense of stability, routine and allow them to progress with their learning.
Twinkl, an educational resource website which is used at school, has also given parents a free-month access code to use during this period of school closure. The free access code is: PARENTSTWINKLHELPS and can be used at www.twinkl.co.uk/offer
They have a range of high-quality resources and explanatory PowerPoints across year groups and all subjects that will be extremely useful for additional learning or to focus on specific learning areas.
If you have any questions regarding this learning please email: lmurphy@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk
We would like to thank you for your continued support at this time.
The Year 6 Team
Below are a range of writing tasks on fiction and non-fiction topics. Please use the differentiated writing mats and sentence starter document for ideas, support and to recap skills we have been working on throughout the year. Some tasks may also require you to do some research using the internet to gather ideas.
The English Faculty have been considering ways in which to make effective changes to our home learning expectations at Round Diamond. As part of this process, we have looked at opportunities to promote the enjoyment of high quality texts, both in school and at home.
To support this, each year group has created a ‘Summer Term Recommended Reading List’. The list has been put together by class teachers and has been designed to give children the opportunity to explore a range of texts at home, over the course of year.
Alongside this list are some question prompts which can be used to start discussions about what has been read. The questions are in line with our weekly VIPERS teaching, that focuses on individual skills within reading – Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise.
Please note that this home learning is not compulsory. We hope that you will be able to enjoy some (or all!) of the recommendations by buying the texts if you wish. Equally, the question prompts can be used with any book you choose to enjoy with your child.
As part of our history learning, we learnt about the Anglo-Saxon King Ethelred the Unready and how he used Dangeld to pay the Vikings to try and stop them from attacking during his reign...and how this didn't stop them because the Vikings learnt that they could keep coming back for more money!! Using this learning, we created a poem on Ethelred the Unready in the style of the one attached below.
This week in PSHE, we reiterated the importance of thorough hand washing to keep ourselves healthy. We watched videos on how to wash our hands thoroughly and then created posters to advertise the useful steps. Find the video was used at the link below.
This week in science, the children created periscopes using cereal boxes that were kindly donated. We used these to help understand how light is reflected to help us see. We explored the angles of incidence and reflection to help us understand how we see our reflection in some objects and not in others.
To help us with our discussion writing this week, we researched the use of animals for human benefit to explore more about the themes raised in our class text: Pig Heart Boy. Each group took and different view and a different area to research including use of food, drug testing and xenotransplantation. We then presented our findings to the class to help us make our own opinion on the topic.
Year 6 begun their new Science topic of Light this half term by exploring how light enables us to see. We learnt the science behind it before creating group presentations to demonstrate how light travels in a straight line from a light source, bounces off an object before travelling in a straight line to our eyes.
13.02.20 - The Day the Chairs Quit!
In English, we have been reading 'The Day the Crayons Quit' as part of our learning on persuasive writing. Today, the chairs in all Year 6 classrooms decided they would quit after being mistreated by not being tucked in and being swung on constantly! Our job was to write a letter to the chairs to persuade them to come back. Luckily, most of us had earned our chairs back by break time!
03.02.20 - Geography - Grid References
This week in Geography, we learnt how to read four and six-figure grid references to give exact locations of places. We will be putting this learning together, alongside this half term's learning on compass directions, reading maps and OS Map Symbols to create our own map using these skills next week.
House afternoon - Rule of Law - 30.01.20
This afternoon, we had a house event where children in the same house from Years 1-6 came together to discuss the importance of the British Value - Rule of Law. We then worked together to come up with the laws we would make if we were Prime Minister. Children came up with some really thoughtful laws such as ways to reduce plastic and provide more money to the NHS.
It was great to see many of the Year 6 children acting as leaders to their younger peers, with our House Captains helping to direct children to the correct classes and children supporting younger ones during the task and then sharing their learning in our sharing assembly.
We have been developing our map reading and directional skills during geography. To build on our knowledge of locating places on a map and our knowledge of longitude and latitiude, we learnt about the 8 points on a compass and how a compass works by taking some outside and trying them for ourselves. We then used this knowledge to locate countries on a map. We will use this knowledge again next week when we explore OS maps of Stevenage.
To begin this half term's science topic on Evolution and Inheritance, the children had an awe and wonder session to explore inheritance. They were given pictures of members of staff and their parents, who they then had to match up based on similar inherited characteristics. I think the children will agree that it was quite a challenge, but really helped us to understand the difference between inherited and acquired charactertistics in a fun and practical way!
Spring Term
The Year 6 team all hope that you have enjoyed a wonderful and relaxing break! We are very excited to welcome you back to a new term.
This term, we are embarking on a new learning journey in our history and geography learning. In History, we will be exploring the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England, looking at the range of battles and raids that occurred in this era and what that meant for our country.
In geography, we will be learning the skill of reading 6 figure grid references and applying this to develop our understanding of major UK cities and places in the wider world, particularly through a comparison between our hometown of Stevenage and Boston, USA.
Within English this term, we will be developing our skills of fiction writing by creating short stories before moving onto applying non-fiction writing skills to persuasion texts. We will be progressing our reading skills by using a range of texts to develop comprehension skills in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We are starting the term finishing off the book 'We Were Warriors' by Emma Carroll which is a sequel to the popular 'Letters from the Lighthouse' that the children enjoyed during Autumn 1. Reading for pleasure is still something we are promoting and this term we will begin to enjoy some of the stories that children voted to read last term, including Floodland, Bubble Boy and the London Eye Mystery.
In maths, we will be exploring a range of mathematical topics to continue to develop our fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills, with an increased focused on applying our developed arithmetic skills to reasoning tasks.
Our first study in science is called 'Evolution and Inheritance' and will involve exploring scientific theories behind how species have evolved and how variation occurs through inheritance. In Spring Term 2, we will be studying the topic of 'Light'.
As you can see, we have a jam-packed term filled with lots of new and exciting learning opportunities. We hope that you are looking forward to it as much as we are!
17.12.19
In Year 6 this week, we have been sharing our Home Learning projects. The task was to make a World War 2 shelter, with the option of also researching different ways in which people protected themselves during air raids. We saw a wide range of impressive designs; some complete with real soil, lifting roofs and bunk beds! Some children accompanied their projects with impressive PowerPoint presentations and it was obvious that everybody had put in a great amount of effort. Well done to everyone who produced a project - what a great way to end our World War 2 topic!
This week, we finished our class book of Letters from the Lighthouse which we have been reading this half term and focusing our writing and guided reading lessons on. The children absolutely loved the book and were kept hooked throughout by the fantastic action, vocabulary and engaging characters. We finished our unit by writing our own book reviews on our experience of the book. Luckily for us, we will be starting the sequel: When We Were Warriors, after Christmas!
6.12.19
On Wednesday afternoon, we read through some extracts of books from our Year 6 Reading List. We then voted for our favourites in order to choose our new class texts. The winner was 'Floodland' which we will start reading after Christmas. The runners up were 'Bubble Boy' and 'The London Eye Mystery' - we will read these texts later in the year. We really enjoyed having the opportunity to read extracts from the books and are looking forward tp starting to read them in class!
06.12.19
Year 6 were visited by Herts County Council on Tuesday. They showed us the dangers of using a mobile phone near the road and talked to us about the safest places to use a mobile phone when out in public. We did some activities which showed us how using a mobile phone affects your concentration. We then designed posters to advertise the dangers of being distracted when walking or cycling near roads.
This week in English, we learned about Kindertransport, a non-fiction topic linked to our fiction class text of Letters from the Lighthouse which is linked to our World War II topic. We watched a video (that is linked below) to learn about real-life experiences of Kindertransport and then answered some comprehension questions on it. This learning helped us to understand more about the experiences of the character Esther, from our class book, who has experienced this.
22.11.19
This week, we have been enjoying our Cross-Curricular Days. On Monday, we had a visit from Stevenage Museum, who launched our days with an assembly about the Romans. In class, we then researched Roman Gods and Goddesses, wrote charachter descriptions about Jupiter and Juno and did some drama activities in order to get into character. We also learned how to make and use a sundial, created leaflets about the Roman Baths and made mosaics similiar to the ones that Romans would have used to decorate their homes.
This week, we celebrated Remembrance Day, which is a very important day every year, but even more significant as we have been studying World War II throughout this term. This week in topic, we learnt about the difference types of shelters that people used to protect themselves during air raids. From this, the children have been set a home learning challenge to create and research their own air raid shelter.
Welcome back after half term! This week, we started a new science topic on Electricity. We started our topic by completing a comprehension activity to find out some facts about the history of electricity that led to the electricity we are lucky enough to have today.
23.10.19
In Science this week, we carried out an investigation into how our heart rate changes. First, we took our resting heart rate and recorded it. We then took part in some moderate and vigorous exercises and recorded our heart rates afterwards to see how much they had changed. We repeated this three times, then worked out our average heart rates for moderate and vigorous intensity exercises.
This week, the children have been showing some fantastic dedication and resilience towards our SATs Practice week by carrying out past reading, SPaG and maths SATs papers. The children have shown brilliant focus throughout this and have been excited to find out their achievements and learn about their next steps. During maths on Thursday and Friday, we learned and applied our knowledge of fractions, decimals and percentage equivalents.
This week in English, we have started a Take One Book linked to our World War 2 Topic. Rose Blanche tells a story of WW2 from a German child's perspective. We will finish our unit by writing our own short stories based on the book.
Linked to our WW2 topic, Year 6 had a go at baking a wartime treat, linked to our learning on rationing. We begun by learning about which foods and items were rationed during WW2 and researched some WW2 recipes. We then created an Eggless Sponge which we then tasted and evaluated. Although they were slightly different to cakes today due to the ingredients, they were popular amongst the children! Lots of children showed great enthusiasm in the topic and we have therefore encouraged them to research some of their own WW2 recipes that they could make at home. If you do, please send us a picture, or even better, bring us some in to try!
To immerse ourselves within our new WW2 topic, we carried out a carousel of activities for the afternoon. We started by mind-mapping what we already knew about WW2. We then carried out activities related to how the war started, rationing, morse code and evacuation. We were also very lucky to have Mrs Umney share some real WW2 artefacts with us that were given by a family member. These included a war helmet, gas mask and box and a shell. We then added our new learning to our mind maps to use for future lessons.
On Monday afternoon, Year 6 attended Crucial Crew. They took part in a carousel of activities to learn about water safety, e-safety, street safety, electrical safety, fire safety, first aid and feelings and emotions. The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were really engaged and involved throughout the activities. We were very proud to have their brilliant behaviour praised by the volunteers running the event. Well done Year 6!
06.09.19
We have had a great frst week back in Johnstone and Monet classes. We have started some fantastic learning on Anne Frank's Diary in English and Place Value in Maths. We have also created some beautiful paintings, inspired by our class artists. Take a look at our artwork below!
Miss Bacon (Monet)
Miss Murphy (Johnstone)
Mr Pallant (Y6 Setting)
Mr Haig (Y6 Teaching Assistant)
Mr Taylor (HLTA cover)
Miss Buchen (Cover teacher)
Our PE day is THURSDAY. Please make sure children have their appropriate school PE kit in school on this day.
Year 6 have started a new science topic on light. On Monday, we learnt the science behind how we see and put it into practice as you can see from the following photos and video.
Holbein English
This week in English, we have been looking at a narrative poem- “The Singing Mermaid.”
We have looked at performing the poem and here is our attempt at it.
Linked to our topic learning on Africa, Johnstone Class created Ndebele mud huts. We looked at the traditional paintings by the Ndebele bride and replicated the geometric patterns and bright colours when making our own mini huts! Take a look at our creations below.
7th January 2019
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
We are excited to be back and ready to continue our learning journey.
The children have spent the day immersed in activities linked to our WW2 topic. We decide to use our design and technology skills and follow instructions to measure and assemble gas masks and gas mask boxes that were used in WW2. We even perfectly presented the real gas mask instructions onto our box. You can see some pictures from our creations below.
15/11/2018 Basketball
Year 6 children represented the school in basketball matches against the Giles school.
The first team team continued their preparations for the County Final by beating Giles School 28-22. The second team then played their first match as a team and competed well but lost 20-30 in a well fought contest with the Giles School.
Round Diamond 1st team 28 Giles School 22
Matas, Andreas, Jackson, Justin, Tayah, Casey and Artemis.
Round Diamond 2nd team 20 Giles School 30
Aaron, Ciaran, Rhys, Billy, Isobel, Amy.