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 2024-2025

Class Information

This half term.... Spring Term 2 (February- April 2025)

The main focus of the next half term is to prepare the children for their SATs assessments and to address gaps in any learning that they may have. The timetable will reflect this, but there will be plenty of opportunity to cover other topics as the year progresses. 

In the next half term, continuing to use the short film ‘The Piano’ as our stimulus, we will be embarking on some letter-writing. Imagining we are the grandfather figure, we will be writing to our grandson, exploring different aspects of our Writing Rainbow such as adverbs, adverbial openers and sentence structures. The children will also be encouraged to prioritise other writing strands and will showcase their skills in a final, edited piece of writing. We will also be carrying out some writing based on our class novel of Goodnight Mr Tom as a stimulus. Newspaper article writing and scripts will be taught too, using the video 'Birthday Boy' as inspiration.  In addition, we will use the Christian festival of Easter to inspire us with our writing, we will write from a character's point of view and really try to recreate the events and feelings of Good Friday. We will be continuing with our weekly Grammar lessons, but we do have a lot to cover and will be looking in depth at word classes, hyphenated compound words ,ambiguity and not to mention those pesky 'Kirkman Killers'. Reading lessons will focus on the key skills addressed in the reading paper namely: retrieval, vocabulary, inference, predicting and explaining and summarising. These will be taught across a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, including poetry. It is vital that your child is building their reading stamina and reading a range of genres. Please do discuss your child's reading with them and don't forget that we all still love having a book read to us occasionally! Spellings are put online in preparation for our weekly spelling test and the children can practise their spellings on the Spelling Shed app. Please do also focus on the Y5/6 spelling lists that have been sent home and ensure that you work on them regularly; in our experience, little and often is the best! 

In Mathematics we will aim to carry out revision SATs tests every week and review them. The children are coping well with the arithmetic test, but it is imperative that the written methods are kept up to speed. The reasoning papers are proving to be more of a challenge; please find time to discuss these papers with your child. We shall complete our topic on fractions, decimals and percentages and will look at equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages before looking a finding percentages of amounts and applying these to problem solving situations. Topics also to be covered in depth this term are:  Perimeter, Area and Volume - Recognise when it is possible to use formulae for area and volume of shapes, Calculate the area of parallelograms and triangles, estimate and compare volume of cubes and cuboids using standard units, including cm3, m3 and extending to other units. Finally we will look at Statistics - Children will read and interpret a range of different chars and graphs, they will then plot and draw their own before finding the 'mean' of results.

All of the areas that we study can be reviewed in the CGP revision books. These books are really handy and all the required content is covered too. We make no excuses for mentioning TTRockstars again this term - recall of times tables and their related facts are a key life skill and a non-negotiable for us at Christ Church. If you are experiencing problems with the internet, paper copies can be requested from school.

RE - Out topic is titled 'What difference does the resurrection make to Christians?' Within this unit, pupils will study the ‘big story’ of the Bible, explaining the place of incarnation and salvation. They will study accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection comparing their thoughts with the different ways that Christians may interpret these texts. We will spend time researching the connections between Luke 24 and the Christian concepts of sacrifice, resurrection, salvation, incarnation and hope. Children will carefully consider how worship on Good Friday and Easter Sunday may vary, thinking about how Christians put their beliefs into practice in different ways. We will also make links between the resurrection and forgiveness. Finally, we will also learn about Christian funerals and how these link to the promise of eternal life because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

  
Heartsmart - 'Don't hold on to what is wrong'  

Lesson 1: Don’t Hold on to What’s Wrong Introduction to the 3rd HeartSmart principle

Lesson 2: Deep Impact -  Considering the impact of bullying 

Lesson 3: Bit by Bit -  Discussing how to build trust between friends

Lesson 4: Reflection - What we have learned about 

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

Our computing unit for this half term is - Computing Systems and networks: Exploring AI. The children will learn the following over the course of this unit: 

• To explore the basics of AI.
• To recognise how AI processes and responds to text prompts.
• To recognise how AI can be used to explore and generate images.
• To apply AI-generated HTML code to the website Trinket.
• To debate the ethical implications of AI.

Our Science topic for this term is Living Things - the children will learn the following: 

• describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro–organisms, plants and animals
• give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics. 

There will be lots of opportunity to practise our Working Scientifically skills too over the course of these lessons.  

In PE our topic is gymnastics. There are few lessons left to finish off before starting a new unit. Outstanding objectives covered are as follows:

• To develop jumps and explore the effect of height.
• To explore jump sequence work with consideration of performance tools.
• To develop inverted movements with control. 

We will then move on to a unit on Outdoor and Adventurous Activity (OAA). Over the course of the unit a number of objectives will be covered:

• To build communication and trust whilst showing an awareness of safety.
• To collaborate as a team to solve problems
• To develop tactical planning and problem solving
• To work as a team and use critical thinking to determine the best approach
• To develop navigational skills and map reading
• To use a key to identify objects and locations

Our Whole School Games Value for this half term is ‘Respect’

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.   

As mentioned, we have started the 'SATs revision' process and the children have generally responded well to the challenge.  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 indoor and outdoor PE sessions and we have  we have certainly got better as the weeks have progressed, with a range of skills on display. In our gymnastics sessions we have really enjoyed working together to create our own sequences of work that included a range of different rolls, balances, movement and jumps. There are a couple more lessons that need to be covered so we will be finishing this unit after the break. In our tennis sessions the children enjoyed getting to grips with the the basics of the game, including forehand, backhand and volley strokes. Children also enjoyed the opportunity to play a mini-tournament to put their newly developed skills into practise too.

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.

PATHS lessons continue to prove a big hit with the class and it's been nice to do something a little different to break up the week. The session this half term have been really interesting and we have been learning about the importance of being organised and prepared, skills that will come in really handy when we get to high school!

We also really enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with our allocated buddies on a number of occasions throughout the half term and particularly enjoyed joining  them for their Friday dance sessions! It's been lovely to see the nurturing and caring nature of the children in our 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! 

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 really enjoyed learning more about what Bible says about Jesus being the Messiah. Children could explain who the prophets were and what they said about Jesus being the Messiah. Children could also explain what other people say about Jesus being the Messiah and how this impacts on celebrations of Christmas. 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. 

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.

As always, the children have enjoyed their PE lessons this term, and were able to show off their Handball skills. The children learnt how to develop agility and quickness, develop and refine throwing and catching skills, combine the skills of moving and passing in handball and take part in a intra-class competition. In their Dodgeball sessions the children enjoyed their Friday sessions, especially the opportunity to take part in a competition - we have some very competitive children! ;)

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.

We recognise that after Christmas the expectations will be heightened again, but I'm sure we're ready for the challenge and as always - work hard, play hard!

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 of the year at Scotman's Flash was a fabulous opportunity for the children to really show what thy are capable of, with many of the class coming out of their comfort zones and taking part in a range of different water based 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: Mrs Kirkman is already planning for a 'Spelling Bee' competition when we return to school and has plenty of 'Kirkman Killers' up her sleeve! 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 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 dance and their outdoor unit on basketball. We learnt lots of new skills along the way and particular highlights were the sessions where the children got to showcase their dance routines and our unit finale in basketball as we enjoyed taking part in a intra-class competition. 

We've loved our PATHS sessions and the children have shown just how empathetic and compassionate we can be with our responses. We have had lots of discussion around dealing appropriately in difficult situations and how we can better manage a range of different problems. 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!