Welcome to Year 6

Welcome to Year 6! During Year 6, the children are guided and supported through their final year of the primary curriculum. Throughout the year we develop the children’s confidence, allowing them to fulfil their potential as they become ready for the challenges of the Key Stage 3 curriculum at their chosen secondary school. The Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Test (SATs), taken in May, are part of Year 6 and this experience supports the pupils’ development of resilience, independent learning and maturity.

Our curriculum is enriched with a residential trip to Bryntysilio Outdoor Education Centre in Llangollen, Wales, which helps build the children’s resilience, their confidence in their abilities and how to work collaboratively as a team with a range of problem-solving skills. Other wonderful adventures in Year 6 always includes a trip to the theatre at Christmas time and horse riding in Woodgate Valley in the summer. We also have exciting visitors to Year 6 such as The Loudmouth Theatre Company who deliver their ‘Bully 4 U’, ‘Helping Hands’ and ‘My Mate Fancies You’ PSHE drama workshops (always a favourite) throughout the year and a World War II gentleman who helps the children learn about the war from the British and German perspectives. Other favourites include our Ancient Greek workshop day, building our own ‘Buzzwire’ game and designing our own hoodies with F2D! Our Leavers’ Assembly at the end of the school year is written and performed by Year 6, too!

In Year 6 our Topics will be:

Reading Opportunities

Year 6 children are always provided with the opportunity to read for pleasure every day which why it is so important that they have their reading books in school every day. Children are rewarded with MME badges every day so you know if they have come to school prepared. Adults in school also listen to the children read every day.

Year 6 children are expected to read at home every night for 30 minutes and respond in their reading diary with the page numbers they have read and a short summary about what they read. They must read to an adult for at least part of that time to help practise their expression when reading and to work out tricky words. Reading journals are monitored. Children receive a MME badge for every three entries.

In the classroom, we follow the VIPERS reading curriculum where we have focused weeks studying certain types of reading questions. VIPERS stands for Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval, and Summary. Children learn how to answer these question types for the reading SAT, but also as part of learning to read for pleasure as we talk about what we are reading. It’s always fun to talk about a good book or character!

We have started the year reading Marcus Rashford’s new book The Breakfast Club Investigators, which has proven to be a huge hit! Other texts that we enjoy reading as a class are: Alex Rider Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, Who Let the Gods Out by Maz Evans plus anything the children request!

Writing Opportunities

Our writing focus for the first half term of the autumn term is based on the short story ‘The Papaya that Spoke’. This is our first Talk4Writing unit. We also will be writing biographies. We will use non-fiction skills to help gather information and write biographies about the famous British author Charles Dickens; we will read biographies about the first men to successfully scale Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay; and we will write the biography of Marcus Rashford MBE, for Black History month. In the second half of the term, we will read an abridged version of The Hobbit called ‘Bilbo and his Pocket watch’. Using this story as a stimulus, the children create and write their own hobbit adventure story.

Creative Opportunities

We love art projects in Year 6! Our first project involves studying the modern artist Doug Hyde and creating our own oil pastel picture using his art as inspiration. We will also use clay to create our own Doug Hyde inspired sculpture!

STEM Opportunities

LEGO Robotics day was a huge hit last year! We are looking forward to another fantastic day of programming LEGO robots in the classroom.

Parent’s Corner

Uniform (PE days/Swimming/Weather)

PE is every MONDAY afternoon. The children come to school wearing their PE kit.

Children need to wear to school on PE days:

plain white top
plain black shorts, joggers or leggings
trainers

The school jumper is to be worn with PE kit.

We will be swimming in the spring term.

Homework

Homework goes home every FRIDAY and is due back on TUESDAY.

Homework will include spellings, a piece of English and a piece of maths.

Spelling tests are Tuesday mornings. MME badges are given for good effort.

MME badge is sent home if homework is completed and handed in on time.

Inspire Workshops

Reading Inspire – Tuesday, 17th October 2023 at 9am in the hall

Maths Inspire – Tuesday, 16th January 2024 at 9am in the hall

Writing Inspire – Tuesday, 16th April 2024 at 9am in the hall

Before/After School Clubs

Please see the PE section of the website to find out about clubs on offer.

Please check Arbour for all clubs. We sign up for clubs using the Arbour system now.

I will be opening up the year 6 classroom at 8am on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for computer use (accessing our school platforms). This is by invite only.

Assemblies

Year 6 will write and perform their leavers’ assembly on Friday, 19th July 2024 at 9am.

Communication

Communication to parents is done via Marvellous Me. Make sure you are signed up!

Parents’ evening is Wednesday, 25th October 2023 from 3:20pm – 6pm.

Please make an appointment with the office if you need to see the class teacher at any point in the year. Parents can always email Mrs Collier for a quick response (see email address above).

Attendance/Punctuality

Year 6 attendance and punctuality is extremely important. The gates open at 8:30am. The children come straight to the classroom and set up their learning right away.

Our first lesson STARTS at 8:50am!