Autumn 2 – Space

What a busy half term we’ve had! Not only did we have our Year 6 residential to Avon Tyrrell in November but we have also been working incredibly hard in the classroom with a particular focus on our topic – Space. The children have been captivated by our Solar System and it has been wonderful to see so many of them intrigued to find out even more in their own time too.

Within our English sessions, the children created their own, beautifully presented and informative non-chronological reports about the mythical moon Pandora. We also wrote an emotive letter to an inhabitant of the Moon, which was inspired by the John Lewis’ 2015 Christmas advert, and a short description of Earth’s appearance from Space using the famous H. G. Wells’ ‘The First Men in the Moon’ text. Throughout these pieces, we revised our knowledge of different sentence structures, definitions of different clauses and word classes too.

During our Maths lessons, the children have revised their knowledge of fractions and calculated a variety of missing angles. We have also been refining our mental arithmetic skills and have had a real focus on building our quick mental strategies to enhance our efficiency and accuracy as mathematicians. Being able to confidently recite our times tables remains a real focus so please be sure to encourage the children to continue practising these daily.

Within our Art sessions, we were inspired by an incredible cosmonaut turned artist called Alexei Leonov. His work allowed us to explore different shading techniques and carefully consider how light can be represented on the page in order to create a more 3D effect; we used this technique when sketching our own astronauts.

We also enjoyed exploring Volcanoes in Geography including identifying what’s known as Earth’s Ring of Fire. We focused on the country of Indonesia and learnt about the active volcano Anak Krakatoa, which only recently erupted in 2022. Once we had learnt more about volcanoes themselves, we considered how safe we would be on our school grounds if there were to be an eruption in close proximity of Great Binfields (purely hypothetical of course!). We conducted a field study around the school to consider the safest location depending on a number of factors. Why not ask your child about where they considered to be the safest location should an eruption occur?!

Finally, Year 6 also managed to squeeze in learning about the Magi during the true meaning of Christmas day! We truly hope the children have enjoyed this busy half term as much as the adults have!

Looking ahead to January, we will be starting our New Year learning about the Tudors. We will be looking at the trials and tribulations of Henry VIII’s reign during the Tudor period and will be eagerly anticipating our Hampton Court visit. In the second full week back, the children will also be involved in gaining their cycling proficiency with the Hampshire Bikeability team.

We look forward to welcoming the children back in the New Year as we have lots more fun and learning up our sleeves. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas break!

The Year 6 Team
 

Autumn 1 - World War II

We have reached the end of our first half term in Year 6 and what a jam packed time we’ve had! The children have made a fantastic start to their Year 6 journey and have shown great curiosity and interest in our topic – World War Two. We have been blown away by the level of in-depth discussion from the children and how well they have empathised with different viewpoints during the war. They have raised some incredibly insightful viewpoints surrounding the moral conflicts the country would have experienced in the face of such adversity and enjoyed participating in a balanced argument answering the question ‘should we always do as we are told?’.

During our History sessions, the children have learnt about: the key dates and important facts from World War Two, some of the famous faces involved in the war and how the events impacted British History. All of the children thoroughly enjoyed our World War Two themed day where they were invited to wear evacuee style clothing and took part in a range of war time activities such as: an Anderson Shelter experience, sewing and a Treehouse Theatre drama workshop. In the afternoon, the children performed a ‘play-in-a-day’ which reflected the key events throughout Britain during the war. Furthermore, a local veteran delivered an informative presentation about his experiences of being a soldier and living through the post-war years.

In English, we have been writing own outbreak of war diary entry, war themed poem and a letter from the perspective of a World War Two soldier. The children worked hard to up-level their language choices and sentence structures to evoke emotion in their reader. In Maths lessons we have focused on consolidating our place value knowledge, revising the column methods necessary for solving calculations using the formal operations and we explored finding the area and perimeter of compound shapes.

During our Art sessions, we were inspired by the work of Roy Lichtenstein. He created a number of pieces which reflected his time in the military. Using his work as a model, we designed our own WWII themed, pop art creations. The children also produced their own propaganda posters to help persuade civilians back at home to help with the war on the Homefront. They used their knowledge of blocking and mixing colours to create an eye-catching piece. 

We have been so impressed with the children's efforts this half term and have loved watching them embrace challenges and demonstrate real passion towards our topic.

 We're very much looking forward to next half term where we will be delving into the mystery of outer space. 

Welcome to Oak and Maple Class (Year 6) 2024-2025

Wow, what a start to Year 6 we have had! It has been fantastic to welcome the children back after a long summer break and hear all about their adventures over the holidays. The children have all settled in brilliantly and have shown great resilience to adapt to their new classes. They have certainly impressed us with their focus and determination to succeed in lessons so far and have been able to enjoy the perks of the exclusive Year 6 common area. All of the children have certainly adjusted to Year 6 life incredibly well!

Just to inform you, Year 6 PE will be on a Monday (Indoor) and Friday (Outdoor) this year. The children will need to wear their PE kit into school to be worn for the duration of the day. 

Please feel free to drop us an email or call via the office if you have any queries or concerns, we are always willing to help where we can. 

Our current Year 6 staff team.

Left to right: Mrs Taylor (LSA), Mrs Wallace (LSA), Mrs Osborne (Oak Class teacher), Mrs James (Maple Class Teacher), Mrs Byrne (Oak and Maple Class cover teacher), Mrs Mardell (LSA).