Welcome to Year 6!

Meet the team: 

6L - Mr Lloyd and Mr Kerslake

6N - Miss Nangle, Mrs Reynolds and Mr Kerslake

Parent information meeting September 

English 

Autumn

This term the children will read the book 'Letters from the Lighthouse' by Emma Caroll. This is a story about a group of children who have been evacuated from London to Devon during the Blitz. A story of mystery and intrigue including secret codes and captured German pilots. The children will have the opportunity to step into the role of the main characters as they were being evacuated from the cinema during an air raid. Through hot seating and freeze framing, the children will be able to empathise with children from this era.

They will write a diary entry through the perspective of one of the characters using emotive and descriptive language and will apply the appropriate grammar and punctuation.

Spring

This term we are reading the text 'Skellig' by  David Almond. This book is about a strange creature who is discovered by the main character, Michael, in the back of his derelict garage at his new house. 

The children are working on improving their fluency and intonation whilst reading aloud to the class and have more in-depth analysis of characters and authors use of of language and grammar for effect. We will be writing detailed character and setting descriptions, as well as understanding how an author uses dialogue to advance the story. The children will also explore blackout poetry and creating their own.

Maths

Autumn term

This term, the children will secure their knowledge of place value and the four operations. The children will be using visual and practical manipulatives before moving onto concrete methods to embed fluency. Within each lesson, we continue to stretch the children's understanding through applying and reasoning questions, as well as investigations and discussion. 

Each week, the children will also be completing their Terrific Times Tables to support their understanding and development of the 1-12 times tables. As each level increases in difficulty, the number of questions may raise, the questions may also include squared numbers, division and square roots.

Spring term

This term, the children are developing their understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages. They have been solving reasoning problems as well as securing their fluency skills. The children will then move on to an introduction of  algebra, ratio and proportion before looking at converting units of measure. The children also complete weekly arithmetic papers as well as terrific times tables to secure their multiplication knowledge.

Humanities 

Autumn term

This term, Year 6 are exploring WW2. We  will begin the topic by investigating primary and secondary sources of historical information and asking questions about  how the artefact could help understand what life was like in the war and its reliability. The children will have the opportunity to take part in an evacuation drill where they will be asked to sit underneath the table to take cover during an air raid. We will analyse Hitler's rise to power, Chamberlain's appeasement strategy and debated as a class as to whether it was the right policy to follow.

They will investigate the government's evacuation policy and will discover first hand experiences of evacuees. The children will investigate whether the Battle of Britain was a turning point in the war. They have been encouraged to look into their own family's experiences of the war and have found out so many stories!  

Spring term

In Geography, our topic is North America and natural disasters. We have identified Human and Physical Geography and have explored six of the main biomes found in this continent. We will be looking at the reasons of population distribution and density across the United States as well as investigating the challenges faced by farmers due to the geographical location and climate. The children will then investigate our violent Earth and discover how mountains, earthquakes and volcanoes are formed. This will then link to a local study of the Chiltern Hills and the surrounding areas.

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Science

Autumn term

This term, the children in Year 6 begin the year by learning about electricity and light. They will participate in a practical lesson where they will need to demonstrate collaboration and resilience to produce a circuit. They will use a range of equipment, such as, batteries, buzzers, lightbulbs, motors, wires and switches. All children participated and were success in creating a working circuit. They will work collaboratively to investigate the changing volume of buzzers and brightness of lightbulbs. 

Spring term

This term, the children will be learning about Evolution and Inheritance. They have explored how fossils are formed and have been introduced to Mary Anning and her importance to paleontology. The children will learn about variation and adaptation, they will explore how Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution and examine the scientific evidence from plants and animals that have been gathered to support this theory. They will also identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment and how this leads to evolution. 

Religious Education

Each term, the children explore a new question related to the topic that they are learning about. 

Autumn term 

We will be exploring the question: Why do our ideas of right and wrong come from? 

Spring term 

We have been exploring the key question: What makes life so important?

The children have identified key rites of passage throughout a humans life. They have explored their own life journey, for example, welcoming a child into a religion and looking at the importance of the celebration across religions. They have also investigated how religions mark the rite of passage when children become adults. They will then share their views on religious and non-religious ceremonies.

Art

Autumn Term

In art, the children will be learning the techniques using oil pastels and will compose a 'Blitz' scene from World War 2. The techniques they will learn are: scumbling and stippling. The children will also blend a variety of colours together to create a 'fire based' scene. The techniques they will have learnt will be explored further when they learn to sketch in the Autumn term.

Spring Term

We have started the spring term by practising sketching and exploring artistic pencils to identify the various shades and tones. The children then created a variety of pictures of classroom objects using their knowledge of sketching the techniques previously used in oil pastel work. In DT the children are manipulating materials to create a wire sculpture based on North America.

PSHE

Autumn Term

The children will be discussing why we have rules and how we develop our value codes. We will have conversations surrounding legal, illegal and prescription drugs and medicines and the effect they may have on us. The children will act out various scenarios with a dilemma of peer pressure and will identify strategies on how to respond. 

Spring Term

This term the children have really enjoyed practising some different breathing exercises. They are able to identify what confidentially is and when it is appropriate to break it. We have discussed positive and healthy relationships and identifying skills to create them. They have also explored whether physical contact is acceptable and unacceptable and where the boundary lies with personal space.  The children also identified the four zones of regulation: red zone, yellow zone, blue zone and green zone. We explored what emotions we may feel whilst being in each zone and some strategies to guide us through the zones.

PE

Autumn term 

The children will be continuing with orienteering which will be developing into a cross-curricular subject over the year. They will use their prior knowledge to identify keys and symbols of maps and discover how to orientate a map - while getting fit! They will also be learning hockey skills and will be taking part in inter-year group matches. This will develop teamwork and sportsmanship whilst developing skills in hockey. 

Spring term

This term we are looking at dance and gymnastics. The children have been thinking about moves and movements to recreate the titanic, including an Irish jig for the working class that were on the ship at the time. They have explored the different social classes of people who were on the ship at the time. In gymnastics they have been focussing on quality in their skills and learning a range of balances and movements to create a sequence. They have also used the equipment in the hall to extend their skill range.

Music 

Autumn 

Year 6 have been very fortunate and were given the opportunity to learn how to play the 'djembe drums'. Each week Year 6 took part in a whole class music lesson, taught by Bucks Music Trust. The children learnt how to play various tones on the drums and they learnt some rhythms and songs too. 

Whilst learning how to play the drums, the children were also developing sight reading skills through reading pieces of music. They identified: crotchets, quavers, minims, semibreve and a semi quaver. 

They have really enjoyed playing the drums and learning the various techniques and hand movements needed.  

Spring

This term the children have been learning about 'Aaron Copland' the American composer. The children have been identifying 8 beats in a bar and have choreographed a small dance to fit in with the 8 beats of the song. We are focussing on the 'Rodeo Hoedown', as this links with the Geography topic of 'North America'. The children have been researching into the life of Aaron Copland and have found facts as to why he became so successful as a composer. The end point of this unit, is for the children to use a range of instruments to create their own 'hoedown' inspired piece of music. 

French 

Autumn term

The children will explore World War 2 in French which links to their topic in History. They will really enjoy this topic as it was relevant to History and they were able to understand it from a different point of view. The children will learn some key vocabulary and will write some short sentences about facts they have learnt relating to World War 2. The children will be focussing on all four areas of learning a language: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Spring term 

The children have been learning regular and irregular verbs. They have identified the various personal pronouns in French and the correct endings for '-er' '-ir' and '-'re' verbs. The children have also studied the topic 'me in the world'. The children were identifying where in the World speaks French apart from France to expand their cultural capital. 

Computing 

Autumn Term

This term, the children have been using the platform 'scratch' to create and implement codes into games. They have focussed on coding for this term and the other platforms which have been used are: code for life and 2code on purple mash. 

The children have created games - using the codes which they create - for their friends to play. 

Spring Term  

This term, the children have been exploring Microsoft Excel and spreadsheets. They have been identifying how to input data into the sheet and they have used Excel to plan a day trip out. The children have to use the spreadsheet to keep track of all of the costs for the trip, the transport costs, the cost of the day and many more factors.