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

This half term.... Summer Term 2 (June-July 2024)

The next half term is a very exciting one as we prepare for transition to high school and celebrate leaving Christ Church! There are visits to Manchester Cathedral, Leaver's services in church, visits to the park, transition days at High Schools, precious time spent with our buddies and not forgetting our Big Day Out! 

We will continue to build our writing skills in preparation for the demands of High School. We have a really entertaining biography unit, documenting the life of Heinz beans enthusiast Jeff Jones. The children will be refining their skills and thinking carefully about levels of formality, cohesion across paragraphs and punctuation for parenthesis. 
   

In Maths we will continue to revisit arithmetic ensuring that the children are confident in all the written methods with whole numbers, decimals and fractions in order to send them to high school confident in calculation. We will also carry out challenges to keep the children up to speed on their problem solving. This term also gives us an opportunity to cover previous topics that we found particularly difficult. We will also continue our project work which centers around the children researching jobs, looking at salary and budgeting. The project covers a number of key mathematical skills and I'm sure the children will find it really useful knowledge for the future. We will also be working closely with high schools to consolidate previous learning that will need to be securely in place in preparation for Year 7 

   
In Science we will be revising all the topics that are covered at Key Stage 2, but our designated topic is 'Evolution and Inheritance'. This is always a really interesting topic and results in some really rich discussion. Amongst other learning, the key objectives that will be covered are as follows:

In RE our topic will be entitled 'Why do some people believe in God and some not?

. Key questions will be:

• : Belief in God: what patterns can we see in our local area, our country and our world?
•  What do we mean by agnostic, atheist or theist? Introducing the lens of philosophy
• : How can psychology help us understand what people mean when they think about the idea of God?
•  What can we learn from theology about the idea of God?
• Why do some people believe that God does not exist?
• Why do some people believe in God and some people not? Where do I stand?

Topic work continues with our History topic on World War 2. The following key questions will be investigated:

• Why did Britain have to go to war in 1939?
• Why was is necessary for children to be evacuated and what was life like for evacuees?
• How was Britain able to stand firm against the German threat?
• How did people manage to carry on with normal life during the war?
• Why was it so difficult to be sure what life really like on the Home Front?
• What was VE Day really like?
• How were individual families on the Home Front affected by the war?

Heartsmart-  No way through isn't true. HeartSmart is about love. Our hearts are made healthy by love, love is what makes our heart smart. Hope is the fruit of a healthy heart, believing that there's always a way
through. ‘No Way Through’ isn’t True shows that we love ourselves enough to never give up, to keep hoping and believe always. It also shows that we love others enough to look for the potential lying dormant within them.

PATHS - 'Respect' - The unit is based around the idea of respect, respect for oneself, respects for one's family and respect for others. Through this theme children will explore the similarities and differences that make us who we are as people, as communities and as countries.

This term in our Computing unit of work the focus will be on Inventing a product. Over the course of the unit the following objectives will be covered:

Lesson 1 - To design an electronic product

Lesson 2 - To code and debug a program

Lesson 3 - To use CAD to design a product

Lesson 4 - Create a website

lesson 5 - Create and edit a video

Lesson 6 - To understand the techniques used in advertising a product.

In our P.E. lessons this term we will be preparing for our annual Sports Day by practising some of the activities that we we be taking part in. We will be talking about technique in these sporting activities and be holding a class competition too. Events covered will be:

• The Shot Putt
• Javelin
• Sprinting and relay
• Sack Race
• Target Throw 
• Egg and Spoon race
• Obstacle race

We are also hoping to use the facilities at Leigh Cricket Club to prepare for an upcoming Cricket competition, and hopefully we can have a go at playing a few games of rounders too in the sun!

Summer Term 1 NEWS!

Well, what an action packed start to Year 6's final term in our school!

SATs are finally over with, and the children really pulled out all the stops. They worked so, so hard in preparation for the assessments and they have all done us proud. We can now really start to look forward to all the fun events and activities coming our way. We have lots planned and maybe even a few surprises on the way! We have the honour of taking part in the Leavers Service at Manchester Cathedral, which we are already preparing and excitement is already building for our end of year trip! We do know however, that there are still important units of work that need to be covered so we are prepared for High School.

The children continue to work really hard in their Maths and English sessions and the work that they have produced has shown that this is a class that is definitely ready for the next chapter in their school journey, and we will continue to do our very best to prepare them for the challenges and opportunities that High School offers. 

The children have continued to work really hard in their Maths sessions and they have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to test their problem solving skills through our project work. We continue to dedicate time for brushing up on our arithmetic skills too and the children have been enjoying the opportunity to work in their target groups too.

There has been some spectacular pieces of writing that have been created over the half term, plenty that have been truly worthy of any Year 6 class. In particular, the creative writing which the children really enjoyed using AI was brilliantly completed, and the results of which can be found on the English curriculum page.

Our Science lessons on 'Animals including humans - Living Things' has been fascinating with lots of deep scientific discussion taken place. We'll finish this unit off at the beginning of the next term before moving on to our next topic .The standard of Science work this term has been really high, and we are looking forward to lots more opportunities to work on our investigation skills next term, and there's lots to catch up on!

We've enjoyed all our curriculum topics this half term, and our computing lessons on Big Data was incredibly interesting and raised a few eyebrows too! We've loved finally getting to grips with our sessions on WW2 as well and the children were fascinated to learn about the lives of evacuees and true tales of children no older than themselves!

We approach the next half term with excitement, but also a twinge of sadness as it will be our last in school before starting High School. There are lots of transition activities and days to prospective High Schools planned whilst we also have lots of exciting activities in the pipeline and we are determined to really go out with a bang - watch this space!

This half term.... Summer Term 1 (April - May 2024)

The main focus for our lovely year 6 class this half term is to make sure we are 100% prepared for our SATS tests. The children have been working so hard and they will be here before we know it, so just a little bit more of a push is needed! We are already seeing a much more mature attitude towards work and a raised awareness of self-responsibility, essential too in preparation for high school. Booster clubs before and after school have continued to be really well attended and lots of children are doing that little bit extra, with some even creating their own revision timetables - very impressive!

Once SATS are done and dusted then we can really focus on giving this wonderful Year 6 class the best possible send off - don't worry, we have lots planned! 

The children have already found out which High Schools they'll be attending and there will be plenty of opportunities to visit, with lots of transition activities planned. There is so much to look forward to over the summer term: The annual year 6 Leavers Service in Manchester, WW2 themed days, trips to Pennington Park and Leigh Cricket Club, the Leavers Prom and of course the year 6 'Big Day Out' being just a few events that we will be sure to enjoy.    

In Literacy, there we will focus on letters, journalistic and persuasive texts. The purpose of the writing will be to inform, reassure and persuade. Hooks for the writing will include our class novel 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. 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 usual, we will be fine tuning this writing using targets from our Writing Rainbow.

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

Spelling work will be set weekly and practised regularly following the Spelling Shed Scheme of Work, as well as the Y5/6 key spelling list. Children will also be developing their reading skills by accessing the Reading Plus intervention scheme throughout the week in school.

In Mathematics we will start the term by covering key Year 6 objectives. 

We will then move our learning on to covering a unit of Statistics. The small steps that will be our focus in this unit are:

• Line graphs
• Dual bar charts
• Read an interpret pie charts
• Draw pie charts
• The mean

Later on in the half term we will turn our attentions to a potentially tricky topic - Geometry, some of the small steps for this particular topic are as follows:

• Calculating angles
• Angles in triangles
• Angles in quadrilaterals
• Circles
• Drawing shapes accurately
• Nets of 3-D shapes

As usual, the children will continue to work on their skills of arithmetic and will have the opportunity to work in their target groups with the very talented Mrs Waqar! Skills in reasoning will also be a big focus in preparation for the demands of the SATS papers, and this is something that we have found particularly difficult to master and we will be pushing this as much as possible. We will also aim to re-cover previous maths topics already covered just to rejog our memories and it's going to be a particularly maths heavy start to the half term!

RE - Our topic is 'Ascension and Pentecost'. Following the introduction, children will be asked to think about how it feels personally to be inspired, and their sources of inspiration. They will also explore briefly the lives of Christians today who have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. other key questions include:

• Why are these two events so important?
• What is the impact of these events then and now?
• In what ways do these events and beliefs make Christianity distinctive?
• What do Christians believe about the nature and character of the Holy Spirit?

HEARTSMART- 'No Way Through' isn't True

HeartSmart is about love. Our hearts are made healthy by love, love is what makes our heart smart. Hope is the fruit of a healthy heart, believing that there's always a way through. ‘No Way Through’ isn’t True shows that we love ourselves enough to never give up, to keep hoping and believe always. It also shows that we love others enough to look for the potential lying dormant within them.

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

PATHS sessions - The focus for this half term is 'Conflict Resolution'.

The specific objectives for this unit of work are as follows:

• To understand that conflict is a natural part of living
• To understand three different ways of conflicting; okay conflict, negative conflict and violent conflict
• To understand the concepts of escalation and de-escalation conflict
• To become aware of their own conflicts and the conflicts around them and discern whether these conflicts are okay, negative or violent.

Computing - Programming - Big Data 2

This topic follows on from the work earlier on in the year when we completed the Big Data 1 unit. There's lots to get through! Children will learn the following: 

• Recognise that data can become corrupted within a network and that data sent in packets is more robust, as well as identify the need to update devices and software.
• Recognise differences between mobile data and WiFi and use a spreadsheet to compare and identify high-use data activities and low-use data activities.
• Make links between the Internet of Things and Big Data and give a basic example of how data analysis/analytics can lead to improvement in town planning.
• Explain ways that Big Data or IoT principles could be used to solve a problem or improve efficiency within the school and prepare a presentation about their idea, considering the privacy of some data.
• Present their ideas about how Big Data/IoT can improve the school and provide feedback to others on their presentations

     
Music - Our class are incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Mel on Thursday afternoons. This half term they will be getting the ukuleles out! The children will be reminded of the basics of ukulele playing that they have already covered. The following targets will also be delivered: 

• Using ukulele chords the children will learn how to play 12-bar Blues. 
• The children will learn about the history of Blues music and the structure of the 12-bar Blues. 
• Children will also play these chords on other suitable instruments.  
• Children to be given the opportunity to improvise over the Blues structure, given a selection of notes to choose from.

In Science we will be finishing off our unit of work on classification of living things before moving on to a unit on Evolution and inheritance. This is a fascinating subject and lots of really rich scientific discussion takes place. Over the course of the unit a number of objectives are covered:

• Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago.
• Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents
• Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation 

In Geography we will be learning all about our local area and regions. Children begin by exploring the area’s location and its links to the wider world, before using road maps to investigate key features within a fifty-mile radius of the school. They then go on to use maps and fieldwork data to investigate how this place meets people’s needs. Working in groups, they present their findings in the form of a pull-put feature from a newspaper, incorporating an annotated Ordnance Survey map. 

Spring Term 2 NEWS!

During Spring Term 2 the children have all worked incredibly hard. Once again they have written some amazing pieces of writing and showcase pieces would be: The Piano letter and their Easter writing about the events of Good Friday particularly impressive. We've been really pleased with the progress that has been made this half term, and it's great to see lots of the children really raising their game.

In Maths, the children are becoming more confident in problem solving and recalling their number facts. we have been working really hard to plug the gaps that have needed addressing due to a number of factors. Weekly arithmetic tests have continued with lots of children progressing nicely, and we have plenty of children in the full marks club! I think it's fair to say that in general, the children have all risen to the challenge of assessment and have quite enjoyed finding out their scores on their tests! Reasoning and problem solving skills will be a huge focus this term, as we really look to display a deeper understanding of key mathematical knowledge.

Our class novel, Goodnight Mr Tom has been a truly gripping read. It's an old favourite of mine, but it is a new book for many of the children and it's definitely proven to be a huge hit. There are many highly emotive topics covered and the children have shown just how mature they can be in their responses. We are really looking forward to finishing it next term and we'll definitely be watching the film too!

The term ended with our Easter Worship in church. It was so nice to be back together again as a whole school and it was a lovely service with the Year 6 readers doing us proud - as always! On the last day of the term we also really enjoyed the opportunity to visit the Lowry Theatre watching The Boy At the Back of the Class, a real favourite from Year 5!

I think it's fair to say that some of the children are a little nervous but excited about the prospect of next term being their last with their Christ Church family. With SATs on the horizon it's really time to pull out all the stops and show what they are capable of. The children have been really focused, but they also know that no matter how they do in their tests, their results don't define them, they are all truly unique and talented in so many ways and we are incredibly proud of them.

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!