Welcome to Year 6!

In year 6 this year, our teachers are Mrs Curtis, Miss Saunders and Miss Read.

Mrs Aldous, Mrs Jewers and Miss Williams are our teaching assistants and Mrs Barker is our HLTA.

Children may also be invited to work with Mr Cole within a small group.

Our topic for this term is 'The Moving Earth'. 

This topic has a big focus on geography learning where will look at the formation of mountains and the features of earthquakes and volcanoes while identifying these around the world on different maps.

During our English lessons, we will be reading Louis Sachar's 'Holes' which is an action-packed story with lots of themes. Where possible, our learning will link to our Moving Earth topic and our class book, including problem solving questions in maths, evolution and the world around us in science and pop art translated into melodies in music. 

Time to Talk

This term your child will also be completing their own Time to Talk. This means they will need to plan and deliver a presentation to the rest of their class based on any aspect of WW2. We expect the presentation to last around 3-5 minutes and is a great way for children to practice their speaking and listening skills as well as learning more about their exciting topic. Children can present their information in any way they wish, from bringing props to using PowerPoint. 

If they have any documents to share on the computer, please ensure their USB sticks are clearly named or you can email documents to the office by 9am on the day they are presenting (these will always be on a Tuesday). Your child will not be expected to complete any other home learning the week they are presenting. A letter and a sticker with the date that your child will be presenting went home at the beginning of the term. Please contact your child's class teacher if you or your child are unsure when this is. 

Photographs will be taken during their presentation and uploaded to the website (see below) for grown ups to be able to see. 

Spellings

For this half term there will be no formal spelling test on a Friday, however we still expect that children practise the common exception words for KS2. Throughout the term we will be recapping key spelling rules and informally testing these words. Please use the sheet below with both sets of common exception word lists to help your child practise at home. Your child may wish to use any of their strategies to help them such as: rainbow writing, silly sentences, pyramid writing and look, cover, write and check. 

To help you practise your spellings, you can use the Spelling Shed online games through your EdShed login. Your login details will be the same as last year but if you have forgotten them then please speak to your class teacher. Find the login page here:

https://www.edshed.com/en-gb 

Home Learning

The home learning grid has been sent home to pick one activity to do per week. Paper copies of each resource are also available in a resource box found in both year 6 classrooms, along with lined, squared or plain paper. Home learning is due every Friday and will be monitored each week by your child's class teacher. Please make sure your child's home learning has their name on it and is put in the home learning tray each week. 

 Home learning club is on a Tuesday lunch time in Miss Edwards' classroom if children would like to complete it in school or are struggling to complete it at home and need some help. As always, if your child is struggling with completing their home learning or they have any questions, they should not hesitate to speak to their class teacher. 

Times Tables Rockstars

Times tables are the foundation for a lot of maths topics that we cover in Year 6. The quicker we are at knowing our times tables and the easier we find them, the easier we will find some of our new Year 6 maths learning. Please try and have a go on Times Tables Rockstars at home when you can and look out for some year group and phase competitions! 

If you need to know your login or password for Times Tables Rockstars check the front of your yellow log book or ask your class teacher.

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural understanding in Year 6

• Our topic 'Moving Earth' allows us lots of opportunity to discuss natural disaster and the impact they had on the people living there at the time and the continuing impact is has on our lives now.
• Our class book 'Holes', has a big emphasis on friendship, justice and prejudice by looking back in time as well as considering the lives of the people at Camp Green Lake.
• We will have weekly Jigsaw PSHE lessons focusing on the themes of 'Relationships' and 'Changing me' thinking about looking after our mental health and the changes to our bodies as we grow up. 
• We will continue to have fortnightly class council meetings for us all to share our ideas and our school council and rights respecting schools representatives will lead this discussion and feedback to SLT.
• In Year 6, some of us have the extra responsibility of being head boy, head girl, a prefect or a house captain. These require great leadership skills and for us to be role models for the rest of the school.
• Our Sports Leaders and Sports Ambassadors, will also be busy ensuring physical activity is regularly happening in our class and choosing who will take home the class PE bag based on the sports values they have observed in PE lessons 
• Our School Council and Rights Respecting Schools representatives will continue to look out for children displaying and noticing the rights of children around school and in our classrooms and will award them with the UNICEF stickers.
• Lots of us will have the opportunity to be great role models by working with the younger children in the school either as a reading buddy (listening to and helping the younger children to read) or as a play leader (running active lunch time clubs for the younger children). These roles allow us to have a high level of responsibility and develop a range of leadership skills. 

This year due to the pandemic we have decided to keep our JRSOs from last year, they will be taking part in our half termly meetings to assist our new JRSOs in the role. This will also enable them to help promote road safety awareness around our school, in the local community and give them the experience that they missed out on last year.