Week ending Friday 24th November 2023

Year 6 have had a fantastic week of learning. 

In Maths, we have been learning how to change improper fractions into mixed numbers and how to add and subtract fractions. We have needed to use their times table knowledge to support their learning. It would be great for you to keep practicing your times tables to support your maths learning in Year 6. 

In English, we have used the John Lewis advert that features Edgar the Dragon, as a stimulus and planned an apology letter from Edgar to the towns people for ruining their festivities. We focused on the purpose and audience of the letters, used a variety of features of writing and therefore produced some fantastic letters.  

In Science, we have continued our work on shadows by running an investigation on how the distance from the light source affects shadow size. They created their own puppets to carry on their experiment. The children have recorded their results and are now ready to complete their write up of the investigation. 

6S had another fantastic outdoor learning lesson with Mrs Kyte and Mr Manning. It was commented on how the children were incredible role models to the Year 2 children and showed exemplary behaviour expectations. The children particularly enjoyed toasting marshmallows.

Week ending 10th November 2023

We have had a busy but wonderful week in Year 6 this week.

In English, the children have continued to study the text ‘The Children of the Benin Kingdom’. We read the beginning of chapter 5 and then the children wrote the end of the chapter. They focused on building suspense, using effective vocabulary and sentence lengths to build this suspense.

At the end of the week, we focused on Remembrance Day. The children focused on some moving pictures from the war and the children wrote some emotive poems using the first person. They focused on high quality emotive language. We began by writing a class poem and then on Friday, we wrote our own individual poems.

In History, we have begun our topic ‘The Benin Kingdom’. The children experienced an immersive lesson where they were able to visit ‘Aksum’ in the continent of Africa, the place we were learning about. The children learnt how the red sea had a great impact on the trade of the country, learning about the spices that flowed into Aksum from Asia and the children were able to experience the smells and colours of the spices. The children were able to take notes from the immersive experience and created a poster about Aksum.

6S had a fantastic morning on Thursday where they took part in their very first outdoor learning session. The children played lots of games such as hide and seek and the floor is lava. Our first session was with Year 2. The teachers were particularly impressed how the children looked out for the younger children and were incredible role models. Some children really embraced the outdoors and even got stuck in the mud!

Week ending Friday 3rd November 2023

What a brilliant week back for our Year 6 children. The children have settled straight back in and have completed some fantastic learning. 

In Maths this week, we have been looking and order of operations. We have learnt about BODMAS (brackets, order/other, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction) which will help them solve problems with more than one operation in it. On Thursday, we had a BODMAS treasure hunt and we had to answer the problems which led us to our next one, spelling out a word. I wonder if you can remember what it spelt! 

In English this week, we have started our new book called 'The Children of the Benin Kingdom' which is a fast paced adventure story set in one of Africa's most fascinating civilisations the Edo Kingdom of Benin, which links to our History and Geography topic this term. 

In Science, we learnt the vocabulary 'translucent, transparent and opaque'. We sorted materials based on whether the torch light (our light source) passed through the material. We had many great exploratory questions throughout our lesson!

Week ending Friday 20th October 2023

What a busy but fantastic term we have! We have settled into Year 6 very well. 

In English, we completed our term with publishing our non-chronological reports and writing them into a leaflet format. We shared these with our Year 1 buddies and they shared their learning from the week with us too! 

In Art, our artist of the term was Jill Pelto, who is an artist who portrays the messages of climate change through her art work. We looked at some of her work and other artists to inspire us for our final piece. We designed our final composition and focused on different aspects of climate change. Some of us chose deforestation, pollution and forest fires. One of our artists in 6S had the idea of what the eye could see but is surrounded by a polluted, grey world. 

Next term our History and Geography topics will be 'The Kingdom of Benin' and 'Ethiopia'. 

Week ending Friday 13th October

In English, we have been writing a non-chronological report about climate change. We learnt about the features of a non-chronological report and how we can incorporate them into our final piece. We will edit our writing from this week and then publish our work, ready to share with our Year 1 buddy. 

In Maths, we have been focusing on division. The children have learnt how to divide using short and long division. The children will continue with long division over the next week. 

In Science, we answered the question 'does light travel in straight lines?'. We decided what method would be best to test this and then our teachers proved it using a method. We learnt that light does travel in straight lines. 

Reminder: Please ensure your child's Heatree deposit money is in by next Friday. We have had many in already but are still waiting on quite a few payments. 

Week ending Friday 6th October

In Year 6, our topic 'changing worlds' has had a focus on climate change and environmental issues.

In English, the children have really enjoyed our text choice ‘The Varmints’ which is based upon environmental issues. Alongside this, we have watched the short film version which has enabled the children to gain more insight into the impact of climate change. Over the last couple of weeks, the children have written for a range of genres including blogs, posters and letters. Currently, the children are retelling the story of ‘The Varmints’ and they have adapted the ending. Throughout this unit of work, the children have focused on many different aspects of grammar and punctuation and we’ve particularly had an emphasis on the improvement in vocabulary choice. Year 6 have produced some incredible narratives which we’ll definitely be sharing once completed.

In Maths this week, we have focused on multiplication. The children have learnt about square and cube numbers, prime numbers and now working on solving multiplication problems using formal written methods.

In Art, we have focused on drawing and painting skills. Our focus artist for this unit is ‘Jill Pelto’ who is a climate change artist, communicating science through art. The children have been inspired by some of her art work and have devised their own climate change pictures. They have planned their work and are now in the process of completing their composition.

On Wednesday, Year 5 and 6 ventured out of school and had an amazing trip to Tonbridge School. They participated in a variety of sports including hockey, cricket and rugby. The children learnt many different skills and were able to put these into practice in a games setting. Our hosts at Tonbridge were very generous, providing us with gooey chocolate brownies and soft drinks in our break time (balanced evenly with some fruit as well, of course). All the staff commented on the team work and communication skills that the children displayed.

In the afternoon, Year 6 participated in science experiments. The children looked the part in their safety goggles and lab coats and worked well together to complete a science experiment. After our practical work, we were fortunate enough to watch a science show put on by the Tonbridge boys. The science show was fantastic and we heard lots of gasps of amazement during the show. The Year 6 team were particularly impressed with how the year group represented the school and Tonbridge School had commented on the positive behavior that the children had shown throughout the day.

Week ending Friday 29th September 2023

Year 6 have worked incredibly hard this week. We have continued to study the book 'The Varmints' and watch the short film that is based on the book. We have heard from Lord Bleakstone, the leader of the varmints, he sent a voice recording to explain that he needed the varmints to continue to destroy nature. In role of the varmints, we had to decide whether we wanted to continue to support Lord Bleakstone or deviate from his plans. Many of the children decided to deviate from his plans and wrote a formal letter back to him using persuasive writing techniques.

In Maths, we have been focusing on common factors and multiples and divisibility rules. The children really enjoyed learning about the different divisibility rules and how we can tell if a number can be divided equally between each number. For example if it can be divided by 9, all the digits in the number will add up to 9... 108 - 1 + 0 + 8 = 9 so it can be divided equally between 9. 

In RE this term, we have focused on the question 'Christianity and Science - complementary or conflicting?' This week, we looked at two different accounts of creation; 'Big Bang' and 'Evolution' and looked at these along with the creation story passage from Genesis, in the Bible. 

Please remember that next Wednesday, we are going to Tonbridge School and your child will need a packed lunch. 

Week ending Friday 22nd September 2023

In Year 6, we have started to read the book ‘The Varmints’ by Helen Ward, which has been developed into a short film. The children began the week by writing some fantastic setting descriptions using high quality language and the use of relative clauses. We then found out that the Varmints were going to invade and ruin the tranquility, we wrote some fantastic breaking news reports using modal verbs. The children have thought carefully about language choice and writing for purpose. 

In Maths, we have finished our place value unit and looked at rounding to the nearest 10,100,1000 and negative numbers. We will now be beginning our addition and subtraction unit where we will use the column method. 
 

In RHE this week, we spoke about how we use social media appropriately and kindly. Our homework relates to this. 

Week ending Friday 15th September

We have had an incredibly busy week with lots of assessments in Maths and English. We have worked very hard and shown one of our monthly value 'growth mindset' throughout this whole week. We have persevered and kept going even when we've found the assessments tricky. 

In PE this week, we were learning how to do different leaps and jumps within our gymnastics unit. We learnt how to do a cat leap and a stag leap, learning how to begin the leap and how to land. The children demonstrated to their peers and got advice from a GB gymnast, Mrs Clarke!!

In Science, we have started to think about what we already know about light and what we would like to find out throughout this topic. The children have written some fantastic questions for our working wall. 

Maths Homework this week is based on Purple Mash, completing some times tables practice.

Week Ending Friday 8th September

What an exciting week, welcoming our first ever Year 6 back after the summer holidays. We have had a fantastic week settling into our new classes. We have spoken about expectations and responsibilities in Year 6 and created a class charter which explains that when we have signed the agreement, we must follow the expectations. 

In Maths, we have been focusing on place value and have been working with numbers to 1,000,000. We have been learning how to read and write numbers, the place value and understand how powers of 10 changes the numbers. 

In English, we have been writing letters. We have written letters to our new Year one buddies and then a letter to ourselves, ready to read at the end of Year Six. We shared their buddy letter on Friday afternoon.

Next week is our school's assessment week.