SPRING 2

Year 6, have had an extremely busy half term and have thought about our future aspirations. We discovered that there are a variety of aspiring scientists, doctors, authors, journalists, footballers and veterinarians in our year group, and have used this to drive us through this term. The children reflected on their current state (how they are currently learning), their desired state (what they would like to achieve) and what they need to do in order to achieve their goals. It was an eye-opening task for all and we hope the children use this as we move into the summer term.  

This half term we have also delved further into our PBL ‘WE ARE WWII Correspondents’. In this moving, history led project we became top researchers and discovered some of the main causes of WWII. Using our research, we became journalists and wrote an exciting article on an event of our choice from WWII. Not only did this allow us to become experts in this chosen area, but also it developed our skills on how to write and layout a newspaper article, and gave us an insight into how the media was used as propaganda. 

We also looked into how WWII had an impact on British citizens and both German and Jewish citizens in Germany; this was done through though-provoking texts such as ‘Friend or Foe’- where we were able to imagine what it would have been like to be a British child during WWII and having to evacuate from London to the countryside for safety through the use of diary entries and re-writing the story as a play script. In ‘Rose Blanche’- a book inspired by a group of young Germans who protested against the war, we saw the war from an innocent German child’s perspective who discovers the horrors that the German army are carrying out on Jewish captives and wrote an impactful additional scene for the book using ‘show don’t tell’ to convey the characters’ feelings. 

This half term in Maths we have had ‘Money Week’- where we had interesting discussions on money such as why do we pay tax and VAT? and how the current cost of living crisis is affecting many families around us and what we can do to support them. We also had ‘Number Week’ where we jumped head first into many exciting challenges involving multi-step word problems, problem solving and number challenges that required thinking outside of the box. It was challenging at first, but with determination and perseverance, we succeeded! This half term we have worked on mastering finding percentages and fractions of amounts, and converting between fractions, decimals and percentages, as well as solving real life multi-step word problems. 

SPRING 1

OMG! It has been another extremely busy term for us in Y6. We began the term with our snow delayed Climate Conference. It was amazing; children presented their learning in variety of different ways. Some used power point presentation to present the devastating effects of climate change, while others gave passionate speeches in front of a live audience of 50 delegates. Some children even presented their learning through interpretive dance of how wildfires are destroying our planet.

We then moved onto learning about World War 2 using books, artefacts and actual WW2 war equipment. This was followed by lessons exploring aspects of WW2, such as the causes, evacuation, and the impact of the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign on diet, the Blitz, Anderson shelters and aircrafts. Part of this process involved a debate on who the most effective world leader was at the time; the children drew on their oracy skills to support them to develop their ideas and justify their responses. The children were able to look past the concepts of ‘good and bad’ leaders, and looked instead at their leadership qualities.

During English this half term, the children have been super busy applying their knowledge to write a diary. They also explored informal letter writing and character studies through our powerful, thought-provoking text, ‘Rose Blanche’. In Maths, we have studied data handling and statistics, co-ordinates as well as algebra and explored how these are used in real life.

AUTUMN 2

WOW! What a busy term it has been? We covered a lot in Reading, Writing, and Maths and in project.

'Men Wanted: for hazardous journey.' This was the advert sent out by Ernest Shackleton before his expedition in 1914. More than 5,000 people responded with a willingness to join him on his dangerous journey to the ice continent. Year 6 have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about Shackleton adventure while developing their reading skills such as retrieval, predicting, summarising etc. In writing, we have used ‘Floodland’ as an inspiration to write high quality emotive entries, semi-informal letters and have spent time developing their language choice and writing style.

In PBL (project based learning), we became Climate Activist and have been learning about the climate crisis that is affecting human, animals and the planet as a whole. We have done extensive research on the issue and created PPP, placards, videos, wrote poems and dance in order to present it in our own Climate Conference. In the New Year, we will hold our climate conference where children will give passionate speeches, which they wrote themselves. Prepare to be AMAZED!

The children have continued to engage in all other aspect of the curriculum including maths where we have done lots of Geometry learning. We are very proud of the progress they are making across the curriculum and are certain that this will continue in the New Year.  

AUTUMN 1 

What a busy and fun half term we have had! Maths lessons have been successful due to the children’s hard work and determination. We have learnt a lot of new skills and strategies, particularly with fractions, as well as developing our Reasoning skills! The children have used their growth mind sets to rise to the challenge .

 In addition, we have had lots of fun with our book in Whole Class Reading- ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom’. It has been extremely humorous, but also touches on some current and relevant issues.  

In our PBL project ‘WE ARE Forensic Scientists’, we have learned all about evolution and natural selection and how this has affected not only humans but the animals around us. In particular we focussed on how urban animals have adapted and evolved over time in order to survive. 

We can’t wait to see the children develop into even more independent, determined and persistent learners next term! ​​