Year 6
May 2023
During the second half of the Spring term, Year 6 have been at their diligent and resilient best!
In Maths, the children tackled a number of key Year 6 objectives, notably volume, algebra and converting between units of measurement. The children were also given many regular opportunities to reason their mathematical understanding, and to apply their mathematical fluency to solve multi-step maths problems. In preparation for their SAT tests in May, the children have been taking greater ownership of their learning, identifying areas of the curriculum that they need to consolidate and deepen their understanding. It has been incredible to see how mature and motivated they have been! In English, our focus shifted to Shakespeare’s classic tale of greed and betrayal, Macbeth. The children have been writing descriptive settings of the Scottish heath where Macbeth and Banquo, upon returning from battle, met the three witches whom prophesised Macbeth’s rise to the throne. After this, they worked hard to take on the role as Macbeth’s scheming wife, Lady Macbeth and improved their persuasive writing skills when convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan the King. The children have continued to take risks with their word choices and sentence structures, and are conjuring up vivid imagery, hooking the reader into their original compositions.
In the middle of the Spring 2 half term was our exciting Book Week. During this week, children were exploring the book ‘Tales of Outer Suburbia’ by Shaun Tan. They were enthralled by his hundreds of miniature doodles that scattered the pages and created their own imaginative story based on them. These were then sent to Shaun Tan himself! Throughout the rest of the week the children analysed his poem ‘Distant rain’ presented in a unique way as lots of tiny scraps of paper written in all sorts of different ways. The children created their own version of this poem and spent time presenting their work in the most unique way they could – children used a wide range of tools and methods to write different parts of their poem including ink pens, newspapers, typed fonts and an old fashions type writer! We enjoyed, for the second time, our Mid-Week Big Read where the children had the opportunity to read with other children around the school and with volunteer parents. This Big Read was also accompanied by our new reading mascot, the Oakley Owl. The whole school gathered together for our brilliant book quiz and everyone got stuck in to dress up day.
Our topic during the last half term has been Ancient Greece. We started our topic with a Greek Day. The children (and teachers) dressed as someone from the Ancient Greek times. A fantastic day was had by all. We made pitta breads and kebabs – this tested a variety of the children’s skills including: measuring, kneading, cutting, mixing and team work. In the afternoon, the children were given the opportunity to cook their pitta breads and kebabs and enjoyed feasting on them! Throughout the day, there was a focus on safety and how to prepare raw foods in the correct way to avoid contamination. As well as cooking, the children dramatised some Aesop fables.
Meanwhile, in R.E, the children reflected on the importance to Christians around the world of Jesus’ resurrection. In P.E, the children were building up their stamina and working on improving their skills in circuit training as well as developing their team work skills in tag rugby (when the weather was kind to them and not raining!) Also, over the course of another exceptionally busy half term, the children had their final swimming lessons and were tested to see their incredible progress in swimming!
Finally, the children were part of the incredible ‘iSingPop’ workshops where children learnt 7 fantastic songs and even had the opportunity to attend a performance of the songs in the church. It was so wonderful to see the children come together and sing songs with powerful, important messages within them. We know how much the children enjoyed learning the songs and the dance moves to go with them!
Throughout the Summer term, spellings will still be set on a Friday and tested the following Friday. Spellings can be viewed on the Home Learning Platform oakleyhomeschool.co.uk and we are continuing to encourage children to use spellingframe.co.uk to practise their spellings.
Maths, reading and SPAG homework will also continue to be set on a Friday and will be due in on the following Friday. In addition to this homework, we will continue to encourage children to be proactive and complete revision and/or past paper practise on yearsix.co.uk (also called SATs bootcamp). Please speak to us if you need a copy of your child’s log in details.
Also, with the new handwriting policy introduced in the Summer term, we are encouraging children to make a conscious effort to improve their presentation and ability to write neatly and joined.
Rapid recall of times tables, and associated division facts, remain an essential part of maths in Year 6 – especially with the bias toward fraction/decimal and percentage centred learning objectives in the Year 6 curriculum. Please support your child to retain this skill. The children have a weekly opportunity to log on to the Times Table Rock Stars website to perfect these rapid recall skills, and additional exposure at home will only go to advance these essential maths skills.
As always, should you have any questions, please speak to us, either at the door or by emailing the school office.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Mrs Garside and Mrs Semple
