Category: Year 6 – St Paul

It is always good to wlecome the children safely back to school following the half-term break and as we begin the second half of the term, we also begin new topics across our curriculum.

Our English work for this half-term follows the theme of evolution and inheritence and we begin sharing the books, The Promise by Nicola Davies and Beetle Boy by M G Leonard. In maths, we are applying our arithmetic skills to fractions. In RE, we learn what it means to show commitment and especially the vocation of the priesthood. Science brings us to the study of living things and their habitats, whilst in Geography, we are learning about the challenges of the world’s growing population. We begin our design and technology for the year, employing our sewing and textile skills to make our own hanging Christmas decoration. Our learning in computing gives us the chance to combine our love of books and our web design skills to author our own websites using Google Sites. In music, we are looking forward to Christmas performances and to learning about jazz, whilst in PE, we hone our football and gymnastic skills.

We have a busy time ahead and I am looking forward to sharing our learning across the term with you.

Year 6 have had a busy start to the new school year and I have been proud of everyone who has put themselves forward to serve our school community through the many roles and responsibilities that Year 6 undertake.

It has also been great to celebrate the children’s learning through our classroom displays.

Welcome back, Year 6 – in both senses. It has been lovely to welcome our Year 6 children back to school for the start of a new school year and it has also been really lovely to see how the children have grown since I taught them in Year 4.

It was also great to see lots of parents in school again for our ‘Meet the teacher’ meeting. You can see a copy of my slides below. In this meeting, I shared some of the expectations and ‘house keeping’ for the year, along with information about our curriculum and home learning. You can download a copy of the information leaflet for parents using the link below. A further copy, along with our Home learning Grid is available for the children in the Google Classroom.

It has been a momentous start to the term: a new year, a new classroom (and new carpet!) along with more significant changes for our country, with a new Prime Minister and then a new King. As we prepare for the bank holiday to mark the day of the funeral, the children have worked together to write a prayer for the late Queen.

Prayer for Her Majesty the Queen

King of Kings,
Thank you for the life of Her Majesty the Queen.
Thank you for the Queen’s commitment to our country and the service she has given us.
We thank you for being by the Queen’s side and guiding her during her long reign.
We ask you to guide King Charles III in following his mother’s footsteps and to help the Royal family at this difficult time.
Help us to be like the Queen in her example of service to each another.
Grant to the Queen eternal rest.
We make our prayer through Jesus, your Son,
Amen

All the rehearsals finally paid off as the Year 6 children gave the performance of their lives, firstly to the school in their dress rehearsal but then to their parents on Wednesday evening.

There was a last minute stand in for the part of King John and he really stole the show.

The jokes made the audience laugh and the singing brought a tear to many of the parents’ eyes.

It was a truly memorable occasion.

Our thanks go to the parents for helping with the costumes, to Mr Hayes for the lighting and to Mr Greg Sallis for the sound and drama workshops.

Well done children- you were all Super-Stars!

This week has been a week of fitness and reflections.

Firstly, the sponsored bounce, which was organised by the PTA, was great fun. It also involved working as a team with stealth and strategy to enable successful outcomes.

All the hard work which we have done throughout the year was celebrated at the open evening, with past DT, art and science work being on display as well as some of the children’s newspaper reports. It is incredible just how much we have done since September 2021. 

Our final St Adrian’s Sports Day on Thursday was a highlight of the week. The children cheered and worked hard for their teams. The results were very close but eventually St Matthew were the clear winners. 

The hard work and fun doesn’t end there. Next week, Year 6 will show their production of Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies to the rest of the school on Tuesday12th July and then to their parents on Wednesday 13th July at 7pm. We look forward to another memorable week.

During this term, the children have learned about nets in maths and electricity in science. This week, they designed an electrical steady hand game which relied on having a complete electrical series circuit, placed within a box made from their net with a wire obstacle protruding from the box.

After designing and decorating the nets, an electrical circuit was constructed and attached to malleable wire which would act as an obstacle for their metallic hook to manoeuvre around. If the hand and hook is unsteady, a light bulb will flash.

The whole process was complicated and relied on there being cooperative teamwork, careful listening to instructions and at times some adaptations if at first it didn’t work as expected.  Nevertheless, for the bold and attentive, this was no problem and some successful electrical games were assembled. 

These will be on display at our open evening next week.

We began a new RE topic this week called Common Good, where we will be learning more about CAFOD and the work they do to support injustice around the world. To initiate the topic, we played a game where the children were in groups which represented different continents around the world. They then learned what percentage of the world’s population each have and then how the world’s wealth, educational, health and food resources are distributed around the world.  

The results were shocking and it was clear there is an enormous divide between the richer and power countries of the world.

We will learn how God expects justice for all and how we can do our bit to stand up against injustice.

As a whole school, we have been learning about the Jewish faith In particular, Year 6 have learned about Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year)  and Yom Kippur ( The Day of Atonement).

As well as learning about these special and significant Jewish days in class, we took part in a workshop with Ruth, a Jewish teacher who used artefacts and told us of her experiences as Jewish person who celebrates these days.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, which will be celebrated this year on 25th September. It is an opportunity for a fresh start. Before Jewish people ce;ebrate their new year, they ensure that anyone the yave wronged through the year, they apologise to so that when they start the new year they can have a completely new beginning without dragging past wrongs with them.

The day is spent in a celebratory manner with prayer and family time enjoying sweet foods such as apples dipped in honey. This is a symbol to remind us that God’s love is sweet and He provides for us. Pomegranates are used as the seeds represent all the good things we can do for others and to serve God.

The children enjoyed sharing the pomegranate seeds and sharing bread and apples dipped in honey together. 

Yom Kippur is ten days after Rosh Hashanah. It is a more solemn day, spent in prayer and fasting for 25 days. The prayers ask God to forgive our sins and to remember the rules He wants us to follow.

A celebratory assembly on Friday, allowed Year 6 to show the school what we had learned. Some children even used the shofar (a ram’s horn) to demonstrate how one of the world’s oldest instruments is used to signal God, the King, is approaching. The shofar is in fact blown 100 times each day of Rosh Hashanah.

Learning about Judaism, a faith in which our own faith is so deeply connected is fascinating. The children were very respectful and interested in knowing more about this religion and culture.

This week, we have made preparations to celebrate our fathers and male role models in our families. 

The children have made some lovely Father’s Day cards.

In addition, after a week of practising a song with actions called Thank you Dad, Year 6 enjoyed taking part in the whole school Father’s Day assembly.

Year 6 completed their science topic of electricity by  planning and conducting an experiment to discover if the length or number of wires would affect the brightness of a lightbulb in a series circuit. The children worked well together with a partner and showed independence and scientific thinking in their work.

We have begun to work on the summer concert so watch out for that in the coming weeks.

Returning to school this week has meant the children are beginning to realise that they need to make each day count as they are preparing for their transition to secondary school.

We have begun to read our new class book called A Beautiful Lie by Ifran Master which is based on the partition of India in 1947. 

This is new learning so the children watched a video and discussed what it must have been like to be a child in India at that time. If you want to know more about Partition, please click on this picture.

The children have begun to become more familiar with newspaper articles in Guided Reading. The children read an article about the Queen’s encounter with Paddington Bear last weekend.

They then used some of the techniques to write their own newspaper article about the miracle of Jesus healing Bartimaeus, the blind man in their RE lesson. We have much to learn to perfect newspaper writing but we have made a good start.

Finally, the children analysed evidence to answer the historical investigation about why so many lives were lost in the Titanic disaster. The children had to choose what they believed were the main causes from the many possible reasons which added to the causes for the perilous accident. The children argued their beliefs with passion and used the evidence after careful analysis. 

Auditions for the summer concert have got underway- it has been lovely to see the children grow in confidence and give it their all in both their singing and acting endeavours. I am sure this year’s concert will be memorable.