Christ Church C.E. Primary School

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Our Year 6 Class

A very warm welcome to our Year 6 class page.  Year 6 is a hard year, but a memorable one. The children are our oldest pupils and they are therefore expected to be role models to the rest of the school. It is our intention that the children's experiences will stay with them and they will be able to look back at their time at Christ Church with fond, happy and special memories. 

Our Year 6 Class 2023-2024

Class Information

 

Who's Who?

Mr Hudson- Year 6 teacher

Mrs Kirkman- Part-time Teacher

Mrs Waqar -Teaching Assistant

Miss Blei- 1:1 Teaching Assistant

 

Homework

Homework will be set on a Friday and should be handed in on a Wednesday. There will generally be Literacy, Numeracy, Handwriting and, on occasions, topic work. In addition, they will also have spelling homework from their spelling work in class and written work. Children are encouraged to ensure that their homework is completed to a high standard and we ask parents to support us with this.

    

Reading

Whilst most children now are independent readers, reading at home is still crucial. Children should read for 15 minutes each night - this could be their home reader, Reading Plus or a book of their own choice. This will be more productive if it is carried out in a calm, quiet environment.  Parents/ carers are encouraged to comment in Seesaw under the picture of the reading books to acknowledge this please. There are plenty of incentives to encourage regular reading including gaining prizes from our Reading Shop. 

    

P.E.

P.E. lessons take place on a Monday (indoor) and Friday (outdoor). All children are expected to take part in a full P.E. kit and trainers. Earrings can be worn at school but, for health and safety reasons, they are not allowed during P.E.

 

This half term.... Spring Term 2 (February-March 2024)

     

The main focus of the next half term is to prepare the children for their SATs assessments and to address gaps in any learning that they may have. The timetable will reflect this, but there will be plenty of opportunity to cover other topics as the year progresses. 

In the next half term, continuing to use the short film ‘The Piano’ as our stimulus, we will be embarking on some letter-writing. Imagining we are the grandfather figure, we will be writing to our grandson, exploring different aspects of our Writing Rainbow such as adverbs, adverbial openers and sentence structures. The children will also be encouraged to prioritise other writing strands and will showcase their skills in a final, edited piece of writing. Newspaper article writing and scripts will be taught too, using the video 'Birthday Boy' as inspiration.  In addition, we will use the Christian festival of Easter to inspire us with our writing, we will write from a character's point of view and really try to recreate the events and feelings of Good Friday. We will be continuing with our weekly Grammar lessons, but we do have a lot to cover and will be looking in depth at word classes, hyphenated compound words ,ambiguity and not to mention those pesky 'Kirkman Killers'. Reading lessons will focus on the key skills addressed in the reading paper namely: retrieval, vocabulary, inference, predicting and explaining and summarising. These will be taught across a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, including poetry. It is vital that your child is building their reading stamina and reading a range of genres. Please do discuss your child's reading with them and don't forget that we all still love having a book read to us occasionally! Spellings are put online in preparation for our weekly spelling test and the children can practise their spellings on the Spelling Shed app. Please do also focus on the Y5/6 spelling lists that have been sent home and ensure that you work on them regularly; in our experience, little and often is the best! 

    

In Mathematics we will aim to carry out revision SATs tests every week and review them. The children are coping well with the Arithmetic test, but it is imperative that the written methods are kept up to speed. The reasoning papers are proving to be more of a challenge; please find time to discuss these papers with your child. We shall complete our topic on fractions, decimals and percentages and will look at equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages before looking a finding percentages of amounts and applying these to problem solving situations. Topics also to be covered this term are:  Perimeter, Area and Volume - Recognise when it is possible to use formulae for area and volume of shapes, Calculate the area of parallelograms and triangles, estimate and compare volume of cubes and cuboids using standard units, including cm3, m3 and extending to other units. 

All of the areas that we study can be reviewed in the CGP revision books. These books are really handy and all the required content is covered too. We make no excuses for mentioning TTRockstars and Hit the Button again this term - recall of times tables and their related facts are a key life skill and a non-negotiable for us at Christ Church. If you are experiencing problems with the internet, paper copies can be requested from school.

   

RE - Our topic is centered around the Easter story and is entitled 'Who was Jesus? Who is Jesus?' The children will be challenged to think in depth about these questions and their relationship with Jesus and why Easter is such an important time of the year for us as Christians.

     

Music - Ride of the Valkyries

The children will listen to and appraise Ride Of The Valkyries. They will learn about Richard Wagner and his Ring Cycle. They will understand that the music comes from an opera and about the characters invloved. They will learn to recognise the leitmotif linked to the Valkyries. The children will learn the structure of a rondo and use Wagner's leitmotifs to create a rondo.

Musical knowledge and skills in this topic:

  • Learning about Wagner and his ring cycle.
  • Listening to and appraising Ride Of The Valkyries.
  • Recognising leitmotifs for the Valkyries.
  • Composing  a rondo and working in a group to include Wagner's leitmotifs.

  
Heartsmart - 'Don't rub it in, rub it out!'  

This unit focuses on Forgiveness and learning how to process negative emotions, disappointment and hurt.

Don't rub it in, rub it out is about choosing to forgive, leaving the pointing finger in our pocket and accepting that we too need grace just as much as we give it away. Everyone makes mistakes. Don't demand perfection, instead celebrate progress, that's what loves does.

Visit the website www.heartsmartprimary.com for more information on what Heartsmart is all about.

 

PATHS 

We will be finishing off unit 1 which focuses on people who suffer from stress in their lives. The sessions include aspects of peer pressures and examines the need to make good decisions. We will also be discussing who children can talk to or go to when they are feeling stressed. Unit 2 is based on the development of good study skills and the themes of listening, concentrating and being organised - very useful for our lovely lot! The unit finishes with a project aimed at improving an aspect of their school life/community.

 

In PE our topic is gymnastics. throughout our lessons we will learn:

To develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance in the context of creating shapes through rhythmic gymnastics by:

  • linking shapes and movement using rhythmic gymnastics 
  • Creating one, two, three and four-point balances
  • combining a range of body shapes and balances with a partner
  • Combining shapes and balances to make a group formation
  • Linking shape, movement and balance to plan a group sequence 

 

Our Computing unit for this half term is - Creating Media - a History of Computers. The children will learn the following over the course of this unit: 

  • Explain how to record sounds and add in sound effects over the top.
  • Produce a simple radio play with some special effects and simple edits which demonstrate an understanding of how to use the software.
  • Create a document that includes correct date information and facts about the computers and how they made a difference.
  • Demonstrate a clear understanding of their device and how it affected modern computers, including well-researched information with an understanding of the reliability of their sources.
  • Describe all of the features that we’d expect a computer to have including RAM, ROM, hard drive and processor, but of a higher specification than currently available. 
      

Our Science topic for this term is Living Things - the children will learn the following: 

  • describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro–organisms, plants and animals
  • give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics.

 

There will be lots of opportunity to practise our Working Scientifically skills too over the course of these lessons.  

Spring Term 1 NEWS!

There goes another really busy half term - where does the time go?

The children have been working really hard since they came back from Christmas, with the timetable changing slightly and the focus being on getting the children ready for their SATs. We are whizzing through our maths work, with a big focus being on not only working our way through the Year 6 curriculum, but squeezing in time to address gaps in learning - this has proved particularly challenging! This will also continue into the second spring term, and it's important that children keep practising the methods for the four operations of maths at home, as well as other topics that have been covered. We learnt lots during our unit on decimals and are now able to use that knowledge in order to help us to work out those difficult reasoning and problem solving questions.   

The children have generally responded well to the challenge in preparing for their SATs, with many of the class already doing extra 'bits' at home. Arithmetic tests are under way: scores and times are improving, but there's still a way to go. Revision books have been handed out to all children and we hope that you find them useful. We have started to look at past papers; these are a shock to some children. Please do talk to your child about these and encourage them in whatever way that you can. If you have any concerns, please do pop in to see us. 

There was an awful lot that was covered over the first half of the Spring Term, here are just a few highlights:

We've loved our Monday and Thursday PE sessions and we have certainly got better as the weeks have progressed, with a range of skills on display. In our Monday dance sessions we have learnt to create dance sequences, showing good synchronicity, as well as performing in front of others. We particularly enjoyed this genre of dance 'urban freestyle' and the resulting work was really pleasing. Thursday sessions were the highlight of the week though, when we got to play a number of competitive games against each other, which really helped to bring out those School Games Values that we promote in our school.

Computing continues to prove a big hit with the class and we really enjoyed getting to grips with Microsoft Excell, the children were able to create formula, refine and filter results and then use these skills to solve everyday problems.

We really enjoyed our Science topic on the circulatory system and the children learnt an awful lot about the importance of looking after not just our heart, but the rest of our bodies. There was plenty of opportunity to use our Working Scientifically skills and we finished will a really informative session focusing on drugs and alcohol.

It's always nice to break the week up with something a little different, and our well-being HeartSmart and PATHS sessions do exactly that. We've been taking part in a number of activities based on things like: Growing Up, Tackling Bullying, Thinking Before You React and Being Adaptable. We also really enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with our buddies on the last afternoon before we broke up, it's been lovely to see the nurturing and caring nature of the children in the class and there are some lovely relationships that have been formed.

We are looking forward to what the new half term brings, there are high expectations but we will be ready for the challenges that lie ahead! 

 

Spring Term 1 (January - February 2024)

Firstly, What a brilliant end to the year! The children worked really hard and showed exactly what they are capable of. Be sure to look at our pictures which show you exactly what we have been doing!

This term we will be focusing on making sure we are ready and prepared for SATs and the future transition to high school. We will use this term as an opportunity to focus on and address any gaps in key learning. We will still be learning about new topics and we are particularly excited about our PE lessons and our Science sessions, but we understand that we may have to prioritise other key subjects and content this term.

In writing, we will start the term by focusing on creating our own verb poem. The purpose of this writing will be to entertain. We will then shift our attentions to a different writing topic - flashback narratives and letter writing. We will be using 'The Piano' by Aiden Gibbon as a stimulus for writing and this is always a very popular unit. Hooks for the writing will include books from our class library and clips from Literacy Shed. As with all our writing, the children will be encouraged to use a range of high level and ambitious vocabulary and develop their skills as editors through the use of editing stations and other editing techniques. The children will also be encouraged to use formal and informal language and a range of sentence types for effect - sometimes less is more!

As always, we will be utilising the benefits of Reading Plus in order to work on our reading skills and there will be regular VIPERS sessions planned in order for the children to improve their reading. 

We will develop these reading skills:

  • Research & note-taking
  • Exploring the meaning of new vocabulary
  • Making inferences from the text
  • Retrieving, recording & presenting information from different sources
  • Asking questions to improve understanding
  • Summarising key ideas from what we have read 
  • Comparing sources of information

The children will continue to receive their weekly SPAG sessions. Spelling will be taught using 'Spelling Shed' and will focus on suffixes and the 'sh' sound (spelt ti, ci, si, ssi) and words containing silent letters. We will also be making sure that we are regularly working on words taken from the Y5/6 statutory spelling list.

 

In Mathematics we will be starting to prepare for our upcoming SATs tests.  It is crucial that all children continue to be competent and confident in using formal written methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. These will be practised on a daily basis in 'Number Ninjas'. During lesson time, we will continue with our topic of fractions, decimals and percentages, focusing on:

  • Recognising equivalent fractions and equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages e.g. 1/5 = 0.2
  • Comparing and ordering fractions (with different denominators) and a mixture of fractions, decimals and percentages
  • Finding fractions and percentages of amounts in real-life contexts
  • Adding and subtracting fractions (with different denominators)
  • Multiplying and dividing fractions
  • understanding the place value of decimals and making connections with fractions and percentages

In all of the above, reasoning and problem solving will be a key focus. For example: Sam has eaten 1/5 of the pizza, John has eaten 25% of the pizza. Who has eaten the most and how much is left? Explain your answer.

Towards the end of the term the children will look at decimals and percentages. The focus will be on:

  • Multiplying and dividing by 10,100 and 1000
  • Multiplying and dividing decimals
  • Decimals as fractions
  • Fractions to percentages
  • Percentages of amount

 

In Science our topic is the Circularity System. Throughout the course of this topic the children will carry out a number of different scientific investigations and cover the following objectives:

  • Identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood.
  • Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function.
  • Describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.

 

RE - Our topic is 'Ideas about God'. We will make links between Bible stories and beliefs and ask questions about God, encouraging the children to reflect on their own beliefs. We will also look at who God is to other faiths. They key questions are:

What words would you use to describe God?

What is the nature and character of God? What images do you have of God?

How is it possible for God to be visible and yet invisible?

Where is God?  

What is God’s name? What makes God happy? What makes God sad?

What does God do all day?

Does God really know everything?

         

Music- Film Music

This term the children will listen to and appraise a wide range of film music.  They will learn about prominent film composers such as John Williams and Hans Zimmer.  They will learn about the story and characters for each piece of film music and identify any leitmotifs that the composer has used for characters or scenes.  They will then note how certain orchestral instruments are used for effects.

 

In our indoor PE sessions we will be learning about 'Urban Freestyle'  - I'm sure this is going to prove a big hit! Throughout this unit the children will be learning the following skills:

  • To be able to perform basic movements to music, and to build a simple themed dance focusing on Urban Dance.
  • Create and develop new movements to include: travelling, turning, jumping, balance, levels and using different planes of movement within a specific
    style including dance styles from different times, places and cultures
  • Combine skills to consistently demonstrate flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance.
  • Create and express imaginative ideas in a specific style.

 

Our Computing unit this term is titled - Big Data

Throughout the course of this unit the children will acquire the following skills:

  • Understand why barcodes and QR codes were created.
  • Create (and scan) their own QR code using a QR code generator website.
  • Explain how infrared can be used to transmit a Boolean type signal.
  • Explain how RFID works, recall a use of RFID chips, and type formulas into spreadsheets.
  • Take real-time data and enter it effectively into a spreadsheet.
  • Presenting the data collected as an answer to a question.
  • Recognising the value of analysing real-time data.
  • Analyse and evaluate transport data and consider how this provides a useful service to commuters

 

HeartSmart - Too Much Selfie Isn't Healthy

This interesting topic covers work and discussion based on the following:

  • How to communicate different opinions with respect.
  • Learning that there are ways that are different and the same.
  • Learning to be a good listener.
  • How to be a good friend.
  • The benefits and dangers of social media
  • To reflect on how to show love for others.

Autumn Term 2 NEWS!

During Autumn Term 2 the children have continued to grow and mature in their attitude and outlook. There has already been plenty of difficult work to carry out, but they have raised to the task admirably. We loved spending time with each other during the build up to Christmas and enjoyed doing lots of Christmas crafts. We were so proud of how responsible and caring they were with their Reception partners on our visit to the cinema, and we had a whale of a time at our Christmas party, with some very dodgy dancing! 

A lot of hard work has taken place in Maths and English as we work towards Year 6 expectations and the sheer volume of work that needs to be completed. All the children have now completed all the written methods for calculation and regular practice of these takes place every morning during 'Number Ninjas'. We have also dived right in to our fraction topic and the children are beginning to have a good feel for the sense of number with fractions when comparing and ordering them.  Reasoning and problem solving skills linked to these topics is developing, but there is still a lot of work to be done in deciphering what some of the trickier questions are actually asking them to do. We have seen some super progress in writing; children have really taken on board the importance of careful and thorough editing and the results have been encouraging to see! The children, as did we, thoroughly enjoyed Who Let the Gods out, our class novel, and are looking forward to picking a new class reader.

The work Science work on electricity was really fun and informative. The children really enjoyed getting to grips with this topic and enjoyed finding out as much information as possible. We have already completed a number of investigations into electrical circuits and are able to understand the different scientific symbols linked to these. It's been nice to build on their knowledge of this topic from their time in Year 4.

In RE, we have learned about pilgrimage and made links between a Christian pilgrimage and a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Our research pulled up some very interesting points, did you know that...

  • It is held in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.
  • More than 3 million Muslims take part in the Hajj.
  • The Hajj is one of the most celebrated events in the Islamic calendar.   

We also enjoyed learning about how Christians prepare for Christmas and were proud to play a big part in the school advent service in church. Work on this topic will continue after the break but already so far the children have been able to:

  • delve deeper into the themes of the season of Advent
  • understand the Christian belief that Jesus will return (the second coming).

The Design Technology unit for the second half of Autumn Term certainly kept Year 6 busy on a Thursday afternoon! As part of a textiles unit, the children designed and made an Ancient Greek sandal for a Greek man/woman. Initially they conducted research into the styles of sandals they would have worn in Ancient Greece and learned about the materials they would have been made from as well as their construction, shape, distinguishing features, comfort and function. With this in mind, the children thought about what a designer would have to consider back in those times before deciding upon a final design for their sandal. On the design journey, as part of product research, the children were encouraged to evaluate a range of modern sandals and compare them to the Ancient Greek sandals. They learned about paper patterns and making prototypes, seam allowances, joining techniques and joining different materials. The final results – sandals which are fully functional and robust – should be sensational once we have finished them!

Our topic work on South America was really interesting and the geography work that was produced was of a very high standard. We loved the use of the Oddizzi website, especially the quiz pages. We learnt the names of countries in this continent, the different geographical features, how to use longitude and latitude, different time zones and compared features with our own country. We also created an Amazon fact-file.

Computing work has been tough but very rewarding and we learnt lots as the topic progressed (adults included!). Over the course of the sessions the children were able to display a number of skills including:

  • Decomposing a program into an algorithm.
  • Writing increasingly complex algorithms for a purpose.
  • Debugging quickly and effectively to make a program more efficient.
  • Remixing existing code to explore a problem.
  • Using and adapting nested loops.
  • Programming using the language Python.
  • Changing a program to personalise it.
  • Evaluating code to understand its purpose.
  • Using logical thinking to explore software independently, iterating ideas and testing continuously.

Autumn Term 1 NEWS!

It's been an absolutely brilliant start to the new school year and the children have really stepped up to the mark and shown that they are ready for their final year at our school. Kicking off the year at Robinwood was a fabulous opportunity for the children to really show what they are capable of, with many of the class coming out of their comfort zones and taking part in a range of different activities designed to really test their character. They were an absolute credit to our school and it's fair to say that we all made memories to cherish. From a personal point of view, it was a lovely way to get to know the class and the wonderful characters we have.

We’ve been working hard on our Literacy and Numeracy skills, but there is still a way to go given the requirements and demands of the Year 6 curriculum. Written methods are coming along nicely and these will stand the children in good stead for the Arithmetic test and problem solving. Place value work and addition, subtraction and multiplication skills are pleasing and the children's resilience to problem solving is getting better. However, we have found that some children still aren't confident in their times table knowledge and this will be a huge focus in the next term. In Literacy, the children used David Guetta's video 'Titanium' as a writing stimulus to complete a number of different written activities: report writing, setting descriptions and diary entries. The resulting work that was produced was truly deserving of Year 6 status. We've really enjoyed reading 'Who let the Gods out', a story which has fitted in nicely with our topic work on Ancient Greece, and allowed us to further develop our VIPERS reading skills. We will continue to read this book after half term. 

Writing has shown promise, especially the diary entries, and the children all have targets to work on. As always, we're trying to master the non-negotiables, but we do still see missing full stops and capital letters, and there will be a real push with spelling: we are already planning a 'Spelling Bee' competition when we return to school! Reading Plus, our online reading program, is in full swing and it is pleasing to see children unlocking new levels. It is vital that this is constantly being accessed at home too - little and often is the key!

The children have loved the Light topic in Science, planning and carrying out investigations related to reflection and refraction. The children have been able to understand that light travels in straight lines from light sources to our eyes and been able to investigate what happens to the size and shape of a shadow when an object is moved from the light source.

As always, computing lessons have been enjoyed and lots of new learning has taken place. We kicked off the unit of work by discussing the importance of being safe using social media platforms and the importance of thinking about what we post, specifically pictures that are shared. We then learnt a number of new skills related to coding. We looked a range of different types of code, which then led on to work using 'Brute Force' hacking. We completed the unit by looking at key individuals that have proved to be pivotal in some way linked to computer science.

PE lessons have been a hit, as usual, with children enjoying their indoor unit on gymnastics and their outdoor unit on Tennis. We learnt lots of new skills along the way and particular highlights were the sessions covering cartwheels and round-offs and our unit finale in Tennis as we enjoyed taking part in an intra-class competition. 

HeartSmart sessions have been enjoyed and we’ve enjoyed Wellbeing sessions, which have shown just how empathetic and compassionate we can be with our responses. Towards the end of term, we learned all about what to expect as we approach puberty with a visit from HH Kids team. As ever, the children listened intently, with a few giggles and 'oohs' along the way!  

So, all in all, a very busy first half term - there's more hard work on the way, but we'll definitely rise to the challenge!