Category: Year 6 – St Francis of Assisi

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.

The bank holiday meant we enjoyed a four day school week this week. The week began with a whole school celebration of the crowning of Mary, the Blessed Mother of Jesus. The assembly focused on the many facets of Mary.  Year 6 made a beautiful display of pictures celebrating the many facets of Mary Mary the Mother of the Most Holy Rosary. The children who are in the Chaplaincy Team helped Mrs Porter ensure the celebration ran smoothly and reverently.

This week has been mainly focused on revision of maths, grammar, spelling and reading as we get ready to show off all the children know in their SATs next week. We know the children have worked so hard and are going to do themselves proud. We are very proud of them. 

Each Year 6 child has many different gifts and talents which are not measured by tests and all of the combined make the class a very special community to belong to.

Let’s pray for them through the weekend and over the next week and ask God to bless the children with His peace, courage and strength so they can be determined, resilient and maintain their self-belief that they can reach their full potentials.

You’ve got this Year 6!

Amidst a hard working week, we had some light relief with a visit from Kate Grey, a Paralympic swimmer, who is now retired. She currently presents disability sport for the BBC.

Kate gave an inspirational assembly about her life in sport, overcoming her barriers and how she has used them to make her stronger. She then called up and praised the Sports Ambassadors to thank them for the contributions they make to the sport in our school. Mr Creaton also had a special mention as our school’s PE Subject Leader.

To begin with, Kate did a warm up with the whole school in the hall and then we all did the daily mile, followed by a photo opportunity with her. 

Kate’s key messages were about resilience and being the best we can be. This is such an important message for Year 6 as they are currently working so hard on their SATs preparation. They are learning to learn and rise from their mistakes and to use them to make them stronger.

However, it is important for the children to remember that they have so many talents which are not measured but make them the wonderful young people they are.

So, we will learn from Kate’s example: if we have our eyes set on our goals, put in the hard work and ‘Go for It’ we will achieve our dreams!

The children have come back to school with a positive attitude for making the most of their final term at St Adrian’s. As well as working hard on their SATS preparations the children have had some lighter moments.

St George’s Day

In honour of the Patron Saint of England, St George, the children came to school in their finest red and white clothes.

Earth Day 2022

The class had a great discussion about the impact of our carbon footprint. We analysed all of the activities which we did this morning from when we woke up until we arrived at school: from the electric alarm, electric toast, the cereal packaging, the journey of the milk and production of the cereals and bread for out breakfasts and then our journeys to school. We soon realised that a lot of what we do and eat can have a negative impact on our carbon footprint.

To rectify this, we then thought about positive steps we could take to reduce our impact and be more kind to our beautiful planet. So, we will aim to walk more, use manual toothbrushes,  to buy locally sourced food and maybe even have our own chickens for our eggs!

The children in the Chaplaincy Team this week have been run off their feet! Not only did they have the Stations of the Cross to prepare and perform in but a RE art competition to judge and an Easter parade to organise!

The Stations of the Cross was a beautifully reflective liturgy where the music, singing and performance of each of the station helped the children, staff and parents remember the significance of what Jesus, God’s Son went through on our behalf.

Thankfully, the story of Jesus didn’t end with the events of Good Friday. Three days later He rose again which is why we celebrate Easter and His promise to us for New Life. We experienced the wonderment of new life this week, when we visited the chicks in the Nursery. With careful handling of such small creatures, Year 6 enjoyed the opportunity to see the the new chicks.

The RE artwork that came into school across the school was wonderful and demonstrated the time and effort the children put into this project.

Here are just a few examples, including the winning entry by Dylan O’Leary from our class.

Finally, after weeks of doing maths, English and then more maths and English in preparation for our SATs, we got creative with our DT Project: Designing and Making Playground Structures. After researching some playground equipment the children would enjoy themselves, they then worked in partners to design a playground to the specific design brief:

• It had to be safe
• It had to be fun
• Have something to climb up
• Have something to hide in

Some children added a few other apparatus such as swings, which are of course fun to play on. The best thing about a project like this is to witness the children’s team spirit and creative energy.

As it is the end of term, I would like to thank the children and their parents for all their hard work with their homework, classwork, their willingness to help, their polite manners and their ‘I will give it a try’ attitude.

I wish you all a very Happy Easter and a well deserved break.

Mother’s Day preparation and amazing miracles

This week has been Mocks week, which was a practice run for SATs week in May. The children coped remarkably well with the changes to routine and we are very proud of them all.

However, we found time to prepare for Mothers Day- after all we recognise the amazing impact all our Mums have on our lives. We each made 3d Mother’s Day cards in art and another one in French.

We have also been practicing for our performance at the Mother’s Day assembly. The children worked together to write their own lyrics for their own version of Mamma Mia. We think our Mums will be pleased with the result when they see us perform it at Friday’s assembly.

In RE, we read and analysed the amazing miracle Jesus performed when he raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. We looked at how the Holy Spirit helped Jesus and what it must have been like for witnesses to this spectacular event. Some members of the class imagined they were characters from the story and we interviewed them by putting them in the Hot Seat. 

Ultimately, we realised that Jesus, and only He, could have performed such a miracle. Through this miracle we learn about God’s power over death and His promise of eternal life for us. Jesus said, “ I am the resurrection, He who believes in me will live.” 

So despite all our hard work, we have much to celebrate: our successes, our mothers and our faith.