Year 6

Friday 26th April 2024

Scientific phenomena have provided us with a great deal of entertainment and interest this week as we explored the way in which we all perceive colour. It was superb to see the intense expressions on children’s faces and to hear their lively discussions and probing questions as they worked to understand the concept of reflected and absorbed light. The investigation we carried out is available below in case family members want to have a go.

Creating a balanced argument is the focus of our current writing project and ideas for this are taking shape. In maths, we have added finding the mean to our range of skills.

Maypole dancing takes place next Thursday afternoon, so Y6 has begun to learn the steps and the moves that will delight us all. Preliminary rehearsals have been somewhat chaotic, but we fully expect to have ironed out the kinks and be ready to impress our visitors in a week’s time! (Fingers tightly crossed.)

Homework

English:

On Monday, you will write the introduction to your balanced argument.  Over the weekend, I would like you to discuss with your family the question that you are posing for your balanced argument.  If you need to do more research about your topic, please do so over the weekend and bring in any facts with you on Monday. Remember, you need to consider both sides to the argument and you cannot express your own opinion.

GPS for WEDNESDAY: 

Please complete the verb or noun activity that we handed out in class today.  It is attached here too in case it didn't make it home! 

Spellings - Thursday

Words that are nouns and verbs
produce, present, reason, silence, support, transport, surprise, scratch, freeze, balance

Maths - Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) - Averages from graphs and worded problems

If you are asked to find the mean, the mode or the median and you don't know or can't remember how to do this, make sure you take a look at the explanations and videos provided before attempting the question. 

Friday 19th April, 2024

Welcome back to Term 5, the penultimate term at Chiddingstone for Year 6. 

We have had a busy start to the term. On Tuesday, we had an inspiring visit from author Tom Mitchell, who wrote 'How to Stop the End of the World?' Mrs Hester will be discussing this book further at book club.  We hope that many Year 6 will join her on Thursday 16th May.

In maths, we have started work on a new chapter; 'Position & Movement.' Pupils can now describe positions and draw shapes on a full co-ordinate grid using all four quadrants and negative numbers. In English, we continue to read Pig Heart Boy - the story is keeping us on our toes. Today, Year 6 explored turning part of the narrative into a playscript. In grammar lessons, we have been revising the timeline of tenses that create our English language from the past through to the future. These include the past perfect, the past progressive, the present perfect, the present progressive, and the present. 

This week, we have started our new Science topic 'Light Theory'.  Pupils have created mind-maps to show their knowledge about light.  They also used scientific equipment to set up an investigation to prove that light travels in straight lines.

Homework

GPS

I would like you to spend some time working through a selection of the games on the links that we looked at in class.  You can choose to focus on one area or perhaps several.  I would suggest spending a minimum of 20 minutes.  If you come across something that is unfamiliar, let me know. Please copy and paste this (very long) link into your browser. 

https://rollama.com/docs/CGP%20SAT%20Buster%20Links.html?fbclid=IwAR3H2n_qq3vE38leAfA76ac9gfLWdXwjRM1cYa_xtUr5d9NCxMeJ27df8cQ_aem_AR4eI378DbvnJUbFb6tHLwUeuFC25rzEoA1JIR0lsThrn8BTYRmPdKf3aPWNR9ugY8A

Spellings

These are a change from the set we went through in class - they are words that can be more widely used.

Words that are nouns and verbs
challenge, damage, broadcast, benefit, charge, function, influence, interest, object, protest

Maths

Atom Learning (https://app.atomlearning.com/): Transformations, Position, Quadrilaterals, Triangles, Angles, Polygons and Circles.

Deadline - by Thursday morning.

Most children can be relied upon to complete their homework tasks by the deadline set, but this is still not true of everyone. Let's have 100% compliance this week please.

Friday 29th March 2024

It may have been a four day week, but it hasn’t been short on activity. Children have learned to recognise and draw nets of 3D shapes and identify the shape of faces in pyramids and prisms. They have also applied logic and reasoning to solve seemingly impossible geometric problems. Y6 has continued to brush up on the rules of grammar and produced two excellent pieces of writing - a letter and a newspaper report complete with headline, by-line, photograph and caption. We completed the moving story of Skyhawk and will continue our similarly emotive tale, Pig Heart Boy, next term.

On top of this, the class did further work on coding an animated beating heart, reflected on their individual learning at family consultations, sang beautifully at our Easter service and showcased their creativity at the slightly chaotic indoor Bonnet and Boots Parade.

Next term, our topic is Light Theory when we will be experimenting with shadow, prisms, mirrors and lasers. If you have bright torches and laser pointers, we may be asking to borrow them. If you think you might be able to help - with lasers in particular - please let the office know to assist our lesson planning.

Wishing you all an enjoyable Easter break.

Mrs Wright and Ms Glover

Homework

Spellings

Statutory Spelling Challenge Words
foreign, apparent, appreciate, persuade, individual, language, sufficient, determined, explanation, pronunciation

Maths

There is no Atom homework for the holiday (except for those of you who did not complete last week's work).

Instead, children recently brought a maths booklet home with them and we would like you to do a few questions each day and try to have a go at all of the pages.

As well as problems to solve, there are also several pages of reminders and tips. Please read these carefully and spend time learning any facts which you do not yet know - such as the names and properties of shapes for example.

The booklet (and your knowledge) should be brought back to school on the first day of text term. For anyone who cannot find their copy, there is a PDF version attached below.

In the copy we have uploaded here, a few pages haven’t scanned fully and some of the questions may be out of order, but there is plenty to be getting on with.

Friday 22nd March 2024

This week, we have made very good progress with our latest class book 'Pig Heart Boy'.  The book has stirred some thought provoking discussions and it has been good to hear the children voice their opinions controversial topics. We have used the book as an opportunity to write both an informal and a formal letter, examining the difference between the two.

In maths, we continue with geometry. Pupils can now use a protractor to accurately measure an acute, obtuse or reflex angle.  They have also been busy drawing triangles and quadrilaterals with required angles.

Ed Miles visited the class on Tuesday for this term's coding lesson.  Pupils used Scratch to programme a beating heart.  Little did they know, that later in the week they would be dissecting a real heart.  In science, on Thursday, pupils dissected a sheep's heart to understand its structure and function.  Children were challenged to identify the external features, including the major blood vessels, such as the aorta and vena cava. They then sliced the heart carefully to reveal the internal features, including the atria, ventricles, valves and the cordlike chordae tendineae (known as heart strings). In groups, pupils worked out how blood flows through the heart by pouring coloured liquid into the vessels, one at a time, and noting which vessel the coloured liquid appears out of.  Lots of fun had by the majority of the class while some pupils admired the dissection from the periphery of the classroom!

HOMEWORK

Spellings

Word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning.
accommodate, accompany, access, accuse, accost, accrue, accuracy, accomplish, accumulate, accentuate

GPS - due in after Easter on Wednesday 17th April

GL GPS book: C3 pages 48 - 51 & C4 pages 52 - 56. 

Maths - due Thursday 28th March 

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) 
Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Circles, Ratio, Scale Factor, Sequences

Friday 15th March 2024

Stepping out confidently to a powerful tune from The Greatest Showman musical, Y6 this week took part in the Love to Dance competition at the Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks. Children have been rehearsing hard for several weeks, led by their talented choreographer, Mrs Golds. Not all of us were lucky enough to be able to get tickets for the show, but we have been treated to several performances at school. It was an undeniably rousing spectacle and everyone who took part should feel very proud of their efforts.

In maths, we have continued to get to grips with calculating angles in polygons and solving simple problems relating to the dimensions of circles. Our newspaper report writing task is now close to completion and we have also been practising giving thorough and evidence-based responses to reading comprehension questions. Children furthered their understanding of the circulatory system by finding out about different types of blood vessels. They learned about the functions of arteries, capillaries and veins and discovered how the structure of each contributes to the job that it does. 

We would be grateful if you could check that your child has a named blue handwriting pen (or two) in school. We are working hard to make sure that everyone's handwriting is legible, joined and neat and that the standard of presentation in school books is something in which children can take pride. If pupils do not have the appropriate writing implement, this is simply not possible. 

Thank you as always for your support.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Maths:

1. Atom Learning: https://atomlearning.com/
   Polygons and Circles, Quadrilaterals, Triangles, Angles, Area, Length and Perimeter
    
2. Children have today logged into their Times Tables Rock Stars accounts and explored some of the games and challenges. There was an enthusiastic response from everyone and we hope they will want to visit the site several times in the coming week to have fun and practise recall of their multiplication facts. Log-in details have been redistributed and the office can issue a reminder if necessary.
    
3. We have given maths revision booklets to all Y6 pupils and asked that they work at their own pace to complete and return them by the first day of Term 5 (Monday 15th April). The stronger these skills are, the easier the transition to the KS3 curriculum will be.

English:

Spellings

The /i/ sound spelled y other than at the end of words

typical, gym, myth, mystery, symbol, synonym, system, sympathy, pyramid, syrup

Please read Skyhawk by Gill Lewis to page 207.

In class, we have read to page 199, but some of you may need to read a little more in order to catch up.

Reading comprehension homework in GL book 

Set A: Test 5 - An adaptation of 'The Sea' by Barry Cornwall - pages 14-16

Friday 8th March 2024

As always, children threw themselves wholeheartedly into the spirit of World Book Day and the costumes were utterly fantastic. So too were the ‘book in a jar’ entries which were judged by Mrs Haysom and Mrs Hester. Such was the high standard of the Y6 entries that three winners were selected from our class. Congratulations to Jemima, Ella and Annabel.

Year 6 pupils have worked hard throughout this week. In English, they have been working on two separate pieces of writing. With Ms Wright, pupils have been writing a newspaper article about the launch of the Titanic in 1911. With Mrs Glover, pupils have written a narrative titled The Secret. Both genres have required a complete set of different writing skills and children should be proud of the work they have produced. 

In maths, we have been learning about volume and how to work out the volume of a cuboid by multiplying length by width by base. We have also started a new chapter in Maths No Problem: geometry. Pupils have investigated rules to help them work out opposite angles.

In Science, we have investigated further into the circulatory system by looking at its role, the function of blood and the structure and function of blood vessels. Children had great fun making their own blood samples to help them identify that blood is made up of plasma, platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells.

We hope you all have a good weekend.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

English reading: (GL 10 minute test book)

All children should have their books at home.  We did ask everyone to let us know by today (8th March) if they couldn't find theirs as we haven't used them recently. 

Please complete:  B5 pages 34 -36  Is social media really a problem?

Spellings:

Word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning.

signature, assign, design, designate, significant, resignation, resign, insignificant, assignment, signal

Maths: 

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) - geometry and data.

Friday 1st March 2024

Due to popular demand, we are now trialling Times Tables Rock Stars - a learning platform which claims to boost the speed with which children recall multiplication facts. Hopefully, this will be an enjoyable way for those of you who can’t always remember times tables facts to brush up your technique. For those of you who already know your times tables, it should be a fun way to keep them up to date.

The site can be accessed at https://ttrockstars.com/

Children have been given log-in details on a piece of paper and we ask that you explore some of the different games and features over the next few days and let us know what you think. At present, we only have access to the resources until Monday 25^th March. Should you misplace the password, please contact the school office. A parent guide is attached below.

As the culmination of our Frozen Kingdoms topic, we turned our thoughts to the perennially fascinating story of that vast, luxury, ocean-going liner, the Titanic. In English, we begun a journalistic report capturing the confidence and excitement of the start of its maiden voyage and, in science, we carried out an experiment to discover how water temperature or agitation affects the rate at which ice melts in salt water.

As one topic ends, another begins and the human circulatory system is where we next focus our interest. Y6 learned that different systems support the seven life processes and discovered that our organs are protected by the skeletal system; movement is provided by the skeletal muscular system; the endocrine system allows growth; the nervous system controls our bodies; the digestive system is responsible for the absorption of nutrients; the reproductive system provides for the continuation of our species; the respiratory system means we are able to take in oxygen and the circulatory system transports what we need to where we need it. What complex and wonderful creatures we are!

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

English:

Following our chat on Friday, please have a think about 'a secret' that you could use in our narrative lesson next week.  We will discuss further on Monday but it would be useful to have a couple of ideas and get your creative juices flowing. 

Spellings:

Words with a ‘soft c’ spelled /ce/
cemetery, certificate, celebrate, necessary, deceased, December, sacrifice, hindrance, nuisance, prejudice

Maths:

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) - Written Multiplication, BIDMAS, fractions, decimals, percent

Taskmaster Club

There were some strong contenders for the most impressive natural thing and three teams ended up with equal points by presenting this Taskmaster with an enormous conch shell, a bronze cast of Buddha's head and a bouquet of blooms in my favourite colour. A photograph of a Venus Fly Trap came a close second.

The main task was to create the best portrait of the original Taskmaster, Greg Davies, using only leaves. The winning entry, submitted by the 'Marshmallow Destroyers,' will be emailed to Taskmaster Education to compete against entries from other schools.

Next Friday, we will meet for the final time and the Take Home Task is to bring in the best... bendy thing!

Friday 23rd February 2024

Well done Year 6 for completing your swimming marathon this week - ending with lifeguarding skills today. Lots of energy has been required to get through the week.

Earlier in the week, we had a visit from Ed Miles. The class finished off a coding project by coding a micro byte to read the outside air temperature. In maths, the class has been studying the area and perimeter of shapes.  We have really focused on rectangles, triangles and parallelograms.  

Year 6 has been looking into Inuit art and design this week. Many thanks for all the bars of soap - these have now been carved into polar animals. We had a super afternoon looking at Inuit stenciling. Pupils made their own stencils and used these to create some super prints.

In Science this week, pupils studied plant adaptations. We focused on the holly tree and went outside to observe how lower-down leaves are more prickly. The higher leaves often have no prickles at all. This is all due to the way that holly has adapted to protect itself. Pupils were flabbergasted at this and went on to collect data and produce graphs to show their findings.

Homework

Spellings

Words with endings which sound like /shuhl/ after a consonant letter
partial, confidential, essential, substantial, torrential, sequential, potential, spatial, martial, influential

GPS

No workbook this week.  As discussed, I would like you to spend some time working through a selection of the games on the links that we looked at in class.  You can choose to focus on one area or perhaps several.  I would suggest spending a minimum of 10 minutes.  If you come across something that is unfamiliar, let me know. Please copy and paste this (very long) link into your browser. 

https://rollama.com/docs/CGP%20SAT%20Buster%20Links.html?fbclid=IwAR3H2n_qq3vE38leAfA76ac9gfLWdXwjRM1cYa_xtUr5d9NCxMeJ27df8cQ_aem_AR4eI378DbvnJUbFb6tHLwUeuFC25rzEoA1JIR0lsThrn8BTYRmPdKf3aPWNR9ugY8A

Maths

Atom learning - https://atomlearning.com/

This week we are consolidating our understanding of area, length and perimeter as well as practising some key arithmetic and word problems. Do spend plenty of time on the word problems and have a pencil and paper to hand.

Please note that, unless you activate the Parent Portal, your child will be unable to access their homework outside of school hours. This is simply part of the company's internet safety policy. When you click on the blue button, you will be asked to enter your name, your email address and to confirm that you are the child's parent. No payment is required. If you have any objection to doing this, please contact the school.

Taskmaster Club – Enjoyable, Remarkable, Unbelievable Football

Having shown off their goal celebrations, children took it in turns to try and knock over a glue stick with a ball. The first team to miss was eliminated and the distance was increased for the remaining players. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, but hugely enjoyable nonetheless.

The next challenge was to keep a ball moving for as long as possible without the team touching it. Several groups thought it would be clever to enlist the help of adults in the room, but in the end chasing the ball around the playground with a broom proved to be the most effective method and twirling a ball round on a piece of string came a close second!

Next week, we have asked children to bring in the most impressive natural thing.

Each group will also need a bagful of leaves.

Friday 9th February 2024

Thank you to you all for joining us in Year 6 today.  It was an absolute pleasure to see so many of you and we hope you enjoyed the opportunity to look at the hard work by your children.

On Monday, the class took part in an Internet Safety briefing led by the Breck Foundation.  A letter sent out by the office earlier in the week had more details and links about the session. The class also discussed keeping safe on line during their PSHE lesson with Mrs Major.

This week, children have continued to research Darwin.  In English, we have been enjoying a week of poetry relating to Darwin.  We have read a variety of poems about the Galapagos Islands.  The children then wrote their own poem about the islands - they are simply excellent and on display in a class book. In Science, pupils explored adaption and survival of the fittest by comparing beaks of birds.  They used a variety of tongs, chopsticks, pegs and tweezers to simulate beaks and found that some are better at doing certain tasks than others.  

In maths, we have been working on the tricky area of ratio.  Children have really started to make the connections  with their times tables.  Today, using height and eye colour, Year 6 pupils have plotted graphs considering continuous and discontinuous data. 

We hope you all have an enjoyable and restful half term.  We look forward to seeing you at the start of Term 4.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Spellings:

Words with endings which sound like /shuhl/ after a vowel letter.
official, special, artificial, social, racial, crucial, facial, beneficial, superficial, antisocial

Maths:

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/). Deadline Thursday 22nd February 2024.

Sequences, time, metric measurements, money and division.

Taskmaster Club – This Doesn’t Quite Add Up

The last Taskmaster Club of term featured a Take Home Task that required children to bring in the most pleasing square thing. Many entries were in fact cubes, but as these feature squares – six of them to be precise – there could be no complaint. As always, there were lots of imaginative ideas and even more creative and persuasive explanations – but there could only ever be one winner. Look at the photos and take a guess!

Before the main task (in which children were given shopping bags which they had to make as heavy as possible and hang up for ten seconds without breaking), teams had to find the heaviest unique, blue thing. Mrs Edwards gamely draped herself in a shawl and allowed herself to be entered. Another team had a similar idea however and, under the rules of the game, if one team chose the same item as another group, they were both disqualified. Ouch! The winning heaviest unique, blue thing was therefore a bin full of bibles.

Next time’s Take Home Task is to perform the ultimate goal celebration.

Last Wednesday Year 6 had a very interesting day in London. After a brisk walk through Regent’s Park we arrived at the very impressive London Central Mosque and were met by our excellent guide for the morning, Muhammad. He was very engaging and taught us many facts about his religion and answered the children’s thoughtful questions. We did a tour of the mosque and were privileged to observe the midday call to prayer in the main prayer room. After lunch we went to St Martin in the Fields church. Here we had another excellent tour guide who told us many interesting things about this beautiful church, including why it does’t have stained glass windows or plaques inside - quite different from St Mary’s, Chiddingstone. We were fortunate enough to hear a rehearsal for the evensong with a top London choir. It was a great, if tiring day, but I hope that the children will have gained a deeper insight into Islam and Christianity. The class were very well behaved and engaged. Both tour guides commented to me on how great the children were, with one emailing me later to say,

'It was a pleasure to meet you and your wonderful children - articulate quick observant and questioning. Super kids!!’

Thank you to my parent helpers, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Mrs Cheshire, RE lead

Friday 2nd February 2024

Y6 has been learning how to express proportions as ratio this week. In order to clarify and explain their understanding, children used objects to create arrays before transferring their learning to illustrations, diagrams and bar models. This gave them the confidence to visualise problems and allowed them to begin to work in more abstract and efficient ways.

In English, we've worked with partners to improve our proofreading skills.

Under the expert guidance of Mr Miles, Y6 also learned how to use microbits to measure external temperature and take readings from indoors. The class was posed a range of conundrums and challenged to use what they now knew to reach an answer. 

The work of Charles Darwin was the subject of our science lesson. Children learned how painstaking observations of different species eventually led to the ground-breaking theory of evolution and they reproduced notes and sketches in the style of Darwin's renowned notebooks. 

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Spellings:

Statutory Challenge Words
attached, available, average, competition, conscience, controversy, correspond, embarrass, especially, exaggerate

English:

GPS: Set C test 2 (pages 44 - 47)

Comprehension: Set C, Test 1 The Lion and the Hare (pages 42 - 44)

Maths:

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) Ratio and proportion, percentages, order of operations and sequences. Due Thursday 8th February.

Taskmaster Club - A Beginning, a Middle and an End

Can you write a ten word story with a beginning, a middle and an end while hopping, jumping, twirling and occasionally walking backwards on command? Not easy. But our game club members gave it a go.

Having warmed up their imaginations (and counting skills), the next challenge was to write a dramatic 50 word story involving Little Alex Horne, a rubber duck and a caravan. The results all contained an element of horror, but the tale of an upside down raffle ticket gave the best listening experience and was therefore voted the winner. Limerick writing was the If-You-Have-Time task. Here is a particularly successful one which shows tremendous knowledge of the Taskmaster!

There once was a club at our school

The Taskmaster was terribly cool

She drinks lots of tea

Has a wobbly left knee

And is good at following the rules!

Next week's Take Home Task is to enter the most pleasing square thing! Good luck.

Friday 26th January 2024

Y6 has got to grips with percentages this week. Children are now much more confident about their use and are beginning to be able to associate percentages with fractions and decimals. In English, they have had further opportunities to hone both their creative and non-fictional writing by composing a traditional tale and compiling a fact sheet about ospreys. 

We have begun a new topic - Evolution and Inheritance - in which we learned about the classification of living things and why this is useful. We explored the so-called five kingdoms and used details about structure, food, movement, habitat and reproduction to identify whether a life form was an animal, plant, fungus, protist or moneran. In addition, we learned about micro-organisms and viruses. We later turned our attention to the formation of fossils and tried closely to observe their features in order to classify the different types. If any children would like to show us fossils they have at home, we would be delighted to see them - but only if they have your permission to do so, if they are in a named container and if they are not too precious or delicate. Please bring them in on Thursday.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Spellings:

Word families based on common words showing how words are related in form and meaning.
interrupt, interfere, intercept, interject, intertwine, interim, internal, intersperse, interloper, interest

Comprehension: B3 The flight of Daedalus and Icarus pages 28 - 30

GPS:  C1 pages 40 - 43

Maths:

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) - percentages, equivalent fractions, ordering fractions, improper fractions.

Deadline Thursday.

Taskmaster Club - Take Home Task

In Week 3, the task was a simple one - impress the Taskmaster. Attempts included card tricks, flattery, maths wizardry, gymnastics, a fluffy ball (in my favourite colour), tap dancing, dog obedience, an impossibly long paperchain and ownership of a chunk of the moon. Was I impressed? Indeed I was!

Over the next seven days, the challenge is to locate or create a picture that would inspire the best story.

Friday 19^th January 2024

Y6 has recently been experimenting with story structure and children have this week used their understanding to produce some impressive pieces of writing in which the action triggers a reminder of previous events and characters relate details of their memories.

We have considered how an author creates humour, action and conflict in the reading our class text, Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis and are making progress with our fact files on this once endangered bird of prey.

Word problems have been the focus of our maths lessons and we have used illustrations and diagrams to help us fathom how to tackle deceptively difficult multistep questions.

In geography lessons, children have learned about natural resources – in particular those that are available in the Arctic region.

Homework

Spellings

Word families based on common words showing how words are related in form and meaning.

commit, committee, transmit, submit, commitment, emit, permit, intermittent, omit, unremitting

Maths

Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) – fractions revision and word problems .

Almost everyone submitted this week’s homework on time this week. We look forward to this being a regular event.

English

GPS – SET B test 4, pages 33 to 36 (either side of the spelling test transcripts in the middle of the book).

Comprehension SET C test 5, pages 54 to 56

Taskmaster Club - Take Home Task

This week's Take Home Task was to present the most surprisingly edible thing. The competition was fierce with spiced cactus, a monstera deliciosa (corn-on-the-cob fruit), yogurt dyed to resemble shoe polish, tongue, a shiny piggy-bank cake and paper snowflakes among the offerings. 

Having proved adept at hiding a wooden spoon on their person as a warm up task, teams were challenged to create an appealing looking meal out of things you can't eat. Somehow, they managed to construct stunning pasta dishes, fast food feasts, fruity milkshakes and a hot chocolate with whipped cream topping.

For next week, club members have been asked to bring, do, show or tell us about the most impressive thing they can think of. 

Friday 12th January 2024

In Geography, pupils have been exploring the polar day and night.  They now have an understanding of the terms 'midnight sun' and polar night' and when these may both occur. The class also looked at polar oceans and explored the depths and temperatures of the Arctic and Southern Ocean. Finally, we have been considering a range of polar landscapes - not just icebergs and glaciers but also ice fields, tundras and boreal forests.  This week, as part of learning about the polar regions, Year 6 has been finding out about indigenous groups of people in the Arctic and how they are able to survive in such extreme temperatures. We were fascinated to learn that there are at least seven different groups of indigenous people who live around the Arctic Circle. 

Homework

GPS: Set B Test 3 page 29 - 32  due Wednesday 17th January

Spellings:

On Thursday, children will be tested on a selection of words from BOTH of the lists below.

Words with the long /e/ sound spelt ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ after c (and exceptions)

1) deceive, conceive, receive, perceive, ceiling, receipt, protein, caffeine, seize, neither

2) siege, niece, grief, chief, fiend, shriek, believe, achieve, convenience, mischievous
 

Maths: Atom Learning (https://atomlearning.com/) Units of measurement and word problems. This is due on Thursday 18th January.

A number of children have not completed their maths homework again this week. Those children who repeatedly fail to do the work set will next week remain indoors at break time. If you have a legitimate reason for not doing the task, please email the school.

Taskmaster Club - Take Home Task

This week’s Take-home Task is to come up with the most surprisingly edible thing! It might be something that looks unpleasant but is actually edible, it could be a strangely edible thing (like stinging nettles) or it could be something that doesn’t look like food at all but actually is.

Children can bring an item in or they may prefer simply to tell us about it.

We look forward to hearing about five surprisingly edible things.

Friday 5th January 2024

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you all had a good break over Christmas and are ready for the term ahead. Many thanks for your generous gifts to all the staff in Year 6 - very gratefully received and enjoyed by us all. 

We are already busy in the classroom and have started studying our new class text, Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis. If anyone has a copy of this book at home, please bring it to class. 

This term, we will develop our geography skills through the topic 'Frozen Kingdom.' The children will study the characteristics and features of polar regions, including the North and South Poles, and a detailed exploration of the environmental factors that shape and influence them, including climate change. Through a separate science topic, 'Evolution and Inheritance,' children will learn how living things on Earth have changed over time. We will be looking at how characteristics are passed from parents to their offspring and how variation in offspring can affect their survival, with adaptations possibly leading to the evolution of a species. As always, if there are any parents, relatives, or friends of the family who have any experience of the Arctic or knowledge that links to our Science this term, please let us know.  

In maths, we have started working on measurement.  Children are converting mm, cm, m and km and next week we will compare these metric measurements to imperial units. 

Just a reminder that Taskmaster Club begins next Friday. Based on the hit Channel 4 TV show, it is a great way for the children to get creative, take on new challenges and work as a team. The club runs for eight sessions at a cost of £5 per session and it will take place in the Y6 classroom for an hour from 3:45pm on Fridays (except Friday 16^th February). The club is open to children in Y5 and Y6 and a few places are still available. To register your child for Taskmaster Club, please visit https://taskmastereducation.com/clubs, scroll down to ‘Find a Club’ and use the following information:  

• Unique School Number B7A0M
• School Name: Chiddingstone CofE Primary School  

Have a good weekend.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Spellings: 

Words with a long /e/ sound spelt ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ after c (and exceptions)

siege, niece, grief, chief, fiend, shriek, believe, achieve, convenience, mischievous

Maths:

Revision of rounding, division and calculating with fractions.

Visit the Atom Learning website: https://atomlearning.com/   

Log in and click on your To Do list.

Friday 15th December 2023

It has been a frantically busy week as we tried to find time to complete a variety of activities ahead of the Christmas break. We have enjoyed several chapters of Emma Carroll's Letters from the Lighthouse as we race to discover how this exciting storyline ends. Some ambitious mathematical Christmas crafting took a while to perfect and our 'Make Do and Mend' sewing projects needed one or two finishing touches before they were ready to be paraded in front of the school in a mini fashion show. On top of all this, children have had writing to proofread and edit along with singing practices and rehearsals for Monday's Carol Service. What fun it was today to reach the end of the week and celebrate with Christmas jumpers and a delicious turkey lunch.

Next week, there is very little time in school and Y6 can look forward to giving and receiving their Secret Santa gifts, opening the rest of their advent calendar and finding out if Olive will be reunited with Sukie. 

We look forward to seeing you all on Monday evening for moving poetry and a good old singsong. Thank you for the gifts and cards we have received. We know that you too are busy and appreciate the effort you go to on our behalf.

Wishing you a pleasant and peaceful Christmas.

See you in the new year.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Spellings

Adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to words ending in -fer

referring, referred, referral, reference, referee, preferring, preferred, preference, transferring, transference

Friday 8th December 2023

We are now in full December swing and eight doors have been opened on the class advent calendar.  

In maths, we are working our way through decimals. We have learned how to turn any fraction into a decimal, order decimals, multiply decimals AND divide decimals. The children have completed mastery work in their journals to show their understanding and I can safely say they are 'decimaled' out! 

In English, we have been looking at speeches and the class enjoyed listening to the historical speech that Princess Elizabeth delivered to wartime children in 1940. Year 6 wrote their own version of the speech which were then delivered by another member of the class. Lots of hilarity using the same annunciation as Princess Elizabeth. 

The children have all made smashing progress during Make, Do and Mend this week. We have been impressed with their determination and tenacity with everyone managing to refashion a garment using the correct choice of stitch. In order to properly display our garments next week, could each child please bring in a coat-hanger. Many thanks.

Year 6 will be performing a short drama of The Christmas Truce during the Carol Service on Monday 18th December. Ideally, we would like the children to wear simple costumes of dark colours to replicate World War 1 soldiers. We are hoping that everyone could wear a heavy coat and scarf which is either brown, green or grey. I would be very grateful if you could have a look to see if you have anything suitable at home - it might be time to raid dad's/grandad's wardrobe! They can of course wear school trousers or black trousers with school shoes. We are just trying to steer away from any modern-day clothing or colours. If you have suitable garments, please could your child bring in their costume in a named plastic bag next week.

Bag for life request - we have several books to send home with the children. Please could they bring in a bag to carry these home. Thank you.

Homework:

Maths: Log in to Atom Learning as usual to tackle this week's homework which will allow you to revise all your decimal know-how. Deadline is Thursday 14th December.

Everyone should practise their times tables this week too - the ones you don't know, rather than those you do.

Spellings: 

Creating diminutives using prefixes micro or mini-

minibus, miniskirt, minicam, minibeast, minicab, minimum, microscope, microchip, microphone, microwave

NO GPS OR COMPREHENSION - instead, please learn your lines for The Christmas Truce and our carol words.

Reading: You should read for 15 minutes every day.

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Friday 1st December 2023

The first window on our advent calendar is open and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! On Wednesday, years 5 and 6 travelled to London to see The Lion King. The trip went smoothly by all accounts and the spectacle will live long in children's memories. 

Back in the classroom, we tackled some tricky grammatical and mathematical concepts including how to use a colon correctly and how to calculate decimal fraction equivalents for a simple fraction. Our 'Make Do and Mend' topic has generated tremendous enthusiasm and children made good progress with their projects this week. Jumpers have become hats, tops have become skirts, trouser legs have been transformed into sleeves and tshirts have been reinvented as bags. 

Today, we had a visit from the Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat, Minister of State and MP for Tonbridge and Malling. He came to award certificates for his Christmas card competition and a runners-up prize to our very own Leo Heath. A proud moment. In a Q&A session, we learned that meeting people is the part of his job that he enjoys most and, if we want a good bus service, we must make sure that we use the buses. 

Hope to see you all at the PTA Christmas Fair tomorrow.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Spellings

Word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning

suggest,  digest,  congestion,  gesture,  gestation,  lightning,  daylight,  enlighten,  twilight,  limelight

GPS: Set B, Test 2 - pages 25 - 28

Maths: Visit https://atomlearning.com/ and log in with your individual details. Homework can be found in your 'To Do' list. If you did not do last week's homework (or did not spend long enough on it) there will be more than one task. We expect each activity to take around 20 minutes - some children are working far too quickly and their results are suffering. You are unable to go back and revisit any questions, so take your time and have a piece of paper and a pencil nearby so that you can do some workings. Remember, you do not have to finish all the questions in one sitting. The deadline is Thursday, but you will not be able to access the work after midnight on Wednesday.

Friday 24th November 2023 

Lots of good things to report from Year 6 this week.  

In history, the class has been learning about evacuation during WW2 - the largest migration of people in history. Year 6 were fascinated to hear a first hand account of evacuation from Mrs Pearson's mum.  She was evacuated to Devon at the age of 5 with her two brothers. However, they were not placed in the same home together.  This very moving account encouraged the children with their research into evacuation and they used this to produce a information leaflet about evacuation.  Using formal and persuasive language, the children had to write the content as if they were the government, issuing information and instructions to parents to evacuate their children.  The leaflets are very convincing and are up on display in our classroom.  We have other props in our classroom to help the children with their learning including an authentic suitcase, used by an evacuee in WW2.  

In our 'Make, Do & Mend' topic, Year 6 has made excellent progress with their sewing this week.  Many thanks to Mrs Streatfeild who gave up her time to help the children. If you can spare any time on Thursday next week, more volunteers would be very welcome.

In maths, we continue with fractions and have been exploring both multiplication and division of fractions.  Thank you to everyone who completed their homework online last week via Atom.  We hope this supported the learning from the classroom and there weren't any technical glitches.  Please do let us know if you have any feedback.

This week, the children had a coding lesson with Mr Miles.  To mirror the learning about evacuation, the children created a piece of coding using 'Scratch', which allowed them to move a train from the city into the countryside.

On Tuesday, Year 6 children were thrilled to visit the nursery children at Chiddingstone Castle.  Year 6 read to the children and enjoyed playing games and craft.  It was a real trip down memory lane for many,

Finally, it's time to mention the 'Christmas' word!  We are looking for any year 6 pupils who would like to audition to sing the first verse of Once in Royal David's City.  This will be performed at the carol service on Monday 18th December.  Auditions will take place next Tuesday 28th November. They will be able to use words for their audition. 

Next Wednesday, we will be heading to London to see 'The Lion King' at The Lyceum Theatre. Please remember to come to school with a packed lunch, a warm coat and your red school cap.

Homework:

We still have a number of pupils who are not completing their homework.  We are asking for your support with this as it will not be tolerated at secondary school. Equally importantly, we cannot use it as a teaching tool if not everybody has tackled the tasks set.  Please can you ensure that homework is completed on time every week.

English

Comprehension: Set A, Test 3 pages 8-10

GPS : Set B, Test 1 pages 21- 24

Spellings

Word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning.

temperature,  temper,  temperament,  tempered,  variety,  vary,  variation,  varied,  variable,  variance

Maths 

Visit https://atomlearning.com/ and log in with your individual details. Go to your 'To Do' list and begin. We expect that the activity to take 20-30 minutes. You are unable to go back and revisit any questions so your first attempt must be a good one. You can, however, log off and rejoin later, so you do not have to finish all the questions in one sitting. Deadline is Thursday.

Book list

Please find attached a recommend book list for year 6.  We hope that pupils will find it useful.

Have a good weekend.

Mrs Glover and Ms Wright

Friday 17th November 2023

The budding authors in Y6 have been practising their skills in earnest this week, writing an descriptive piece about a bomb site and a tension-packed story based loosely on some of the details we have learned about Anne Frank's time in hiding. We have continued reading our class text - Emma Carroll's Letters from the Lighthouse - and shared and discussed some extracts from Anne Frank's diary. In maths, we have added, subtracted and simplified fractions and mixed numbers and explored several techniques for each.

Children tackled sewing in our Make Do and Mend topic and learned to do running stitch, whip stitch and blanket stitch. They then applied their skills by attempting to darn holes in socks - and made a jolly good job of it! At the end of next week, we hope to begin repurposing some of the unwanted clothing that you kindly supplied. A few extra pairs of hands would be very helpful, so if anyone is able to spare an hour on Thursday or Friday, please contact the office.

Homework

Spellings

Words ending in -ably

adorably,  valuably,  believably,  considerably,  tolerably,  changeably,  noticeably,  dependably, comfortably, reasonably

Maths

This week's maths homework can be found by visiting https://atomlearning.com/ and logging in with the individual usernames and passwords distributed this week. Children have been asked to take care of this information, but if they cannot locate their log in details, please contact the school office. Once your child has logged in, they should go to their 'To Do' list and begin the fractions work that has been set. There are fifteen questions, no time limit and plenty of hints and explanations available. Difficulty levels should adapt to each child's personal settings, but if you feel they are too difficult or too easy overall, then do let us know. 

English

Comprehension Set A Test 2  Making Rainbows pages 5-7 due Wednesday

From next week there will also be grammar and punctuation homework.

Friday 10th November 2023

Welcome back to Term 2.  It has been a pleasure to welcome the children back to class, looking well-rested and ready for the term ahead. 

In maths, we have started looking at fractions.  Generally, everyone appears to be happy at simplifying fractions. Pupils can compare both proper and improper fractions by finding a common denominator.  

This week in English, we have started our new class text: 'Letters from the Lighthouse' by Emma Carroll. We have been exploring the characters and the early stages of the plot.  Pupils wrote a character analysis, using formal language, in the form of a missing person report.  Thank you to those who have managed to get a copy of the text - hugely appreciated. In class today we started to read extracts from Anne Frank's Diary.  We have used these extracts to start planning our own suspense story. 

We have now moved on in History to study World War II.  Pupils have been studying the causes of the Second World War, which sparked an interesting discussion.  I would be pleased if you could ask your child how the war started.  Perhaps they might tell you the reasons and discuss the Allied and Axis powers. 

Homework:

Maths: Set A, Test 5  pages 13 -15

Comprehension: Set A, Test 1 pages 2 - 4 (A walk in the park)

Please look at the marking and notice what went well and what didn't. 

With the comprehension homework, children should have a go at everything and give evidence for the inference (3 mark questions).

Spellings:

Words ending in -able

adorable,  valuable,  advisable,  believable,  desirable,  excitable,  knowledgeable,  likeable,  changeable, noticeable

Have a super weekend.

Mrs Glover and Ms Wright

Friday 20th October 2023

This week brings us to the end of a busy first term in Year 6.  We are pleased with all the children who have worked so hard over the last seven weeks.

In class this week, the children have been exploring some of the most famous pieces of poetry from World War 1, including works by Wilfred Owen and Seigfreed Sassoon.  Many of the poems we read in class were narratives, telling stories from the trenches. Pupils enjoyed reading the poems and exploring the language. They then recited their poems emotively to their classmates.  Our maths lessons have involved further exploration into rounding numbers because many pupils have identified this as a difficulty and have set it as an area to work on in Term 2.  We have also been working through some more challenging multi-step word problems.

Next term's topic takes us from one World War to the next and, on Friday, Y6 was given a taste of our companion project, Make Do and Mend. We learned a little about clothes rationing and the national campaign to reuse and recycle clothing. Looking ahead, we would like everyone to bring in an item(s) of clothing that is no longer worn or loved. We would welcome clean trousers, shirts, skirts, blouses, dresses and jackets that can be cut up. I am aware that there will be a Bag2School collection in late November, but please think of us first! Any clothes we do not use, we will donate. Could everyone also bring in a clean sock? (The more holes, the better!) Please bring your things in by Wednesday 8th November.

Homework

Powerpoint presentation

Over the half term break, we would like pupils to produce a PowerPoint presentation which they will use to support our conversations at the consultation meetings in November.  Each presentation should consist of three slides: maths, English and other school interests. Children should consider their strengths and their targets and record their thoughts in detail on each slide. We expect them to express themselves in more than a single sentence. We would like these presentations to be emailed into the school office by Wednesday, 8th November. If you are unable to use PowerPoint, hand-written sheets can be brought in instead.

Design a Book Cover - Art Competition

Details have been emailed in this week's newsletter.

Maths

Set A Test 4 pages 10-12

For those of you who accidentally completed this last week, please work on Set A Test 3. Hopefully, we will then all be on the same page!

Increasingly often, some children are failing to meet homework deadlines, or mixing them up. Please make every effort to have work in the right place at the right time. We cannot mark assignments efficiently or use them as teaching tools if they aren't all submitted when we need them. Remember, good personal organisation will be vital in secondary school.

Spellings

applicable, tolerable, operable, considerable, dependable, comfortable, reasonable, perishable, breakable, fashionable

Please also take a look at the statutory spelling lists for years 3-4 and 5-6 (see below) and practise any that are unfamiliar. Don't forget to find out meanings and to show off your new learning in sentences or silly short stories. Housepoints will be awarded to those who bring these in for Ms W to see. 

Friday 13th October 2023

Following our visit to Bore Place last week, we have begun to build arguments for a debate to settle whether or not processed foods have a place in a healthy diet. Common factors and prime numbers have been the focus of our mathematical learning while, in science, we investigated the effect that increased voltage had on the brightness of a lamp. This involved setting up series circuits in dark spaces beneath our desks and measuring light using some (rather temperamental) iPad apps.

To acknowledge the importance of Black History month, Year 6 has been studying Walter Tull, an English footballer and a British Army officer, who lost his life during battle in WW1. Pupils then used their formal writing skills to write a biography of his life which have been fascinating to read. We have also read about Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden – four remarkable African-American women who were key to America’s success in the ‘space race’ and learned a little about racial segregation in America.

Lastly, we bid adieu to Aidan today with a special act of worship in the church and with cake and dinosaur sketches in the classroom. We wish him happiness and success at his new school and were delighted to hear that he has already made a friend there.

Homework

Please ensure homework is returned to school on time.  A number of pupils are starting to forget / not do their

homework which disrupts the class plans. We would also be grateful if pupils could work only on the questions set each week and not to continue further ahead in the book than stated. 

Thank you for your support. 

GPS - Set A Test 4 pages 14 - 17 for Wednesday

Maths - Set A Test 3  pages 7 - 9 for Thursday (Those who have already completed this should work on the separate sheet provided.)

Spellings

Hyphens: To join compound adjectives to avoid ambiguity.

man-eating,  little-used,  rock-bottom,  wide-eyed,  pig-headed,  tight-fisted,  cold-hearted,  stone-faced, green-eyed,  short-tempered

Friday 6th October 2023

The term seems to be flying by and pupils in Year 6 really are applying themselves to new routines and managing workloads well.

In maths, Year 6 has been studying and using the bar model to solve complex word problems.  Some of you may remember a demonstration of the bar model during our maths evening earlier in the year.  Once mastered, it really can help make sense of a word problem very quickly and go on to solve further questions within the problem with ease.  Many of the class are yet to be convinced but there is still time. We have also been working on multiples and using this knowledge to solve challenging word problems.

This week, the class has researched what it was like to be a soldier in the WW1 trenches.  They used historical facts to support a piece of fictional writing; a postcard home from the trenches.  The children wrote with consideration and purpose and it has been a pleasure to read their work.  We have also been learning about The Christmas Truce December 1914 - a fascinating story from WW1.  Please do question your child about this historical event over the weekend and see if they can retell the story.   

Earlier in the week, the class continued to impress Mrs Glover during their second coding lesson of the term with Mr Miles.  Pupils used Scratch to programme a micro:bit with Morse code (link to WW1) and send messages to a friend in the classroom.  Coding really is the language of the younger generation! 

In science, we learned about voltage and the importance of using the correct battery for each appliance. We then used multimeters to test the actual voltage of domestic cells and also the voltage across components in a series circuit. 

On Friday, the class headed to Bore Place where we furthered our understanding of healthy eating by considering the difference between natural, processed and ultra-processed foods. Having read the lists of ingredients printed on food packaging, we were surprised to learn that some products we considered wholesome, were significantly less nutritious than ones we assumed were bad for us. We picked up some tips for organic gardening and found out a great deal about milk production. We got up-close and personal with some week-old calves and also churned our own butter from their mothers' milk which we added to oats, sugar, Bore Place honey and home-grown pumpkin purée to make flapjacks. 

A final request: If you have any picnic blankets or fleece throws or similar that we could borrow to block light in small areas of our classroom next Thursday (12th October), please send them into school in a named carrier bag. They can be returned the same day - or the following day at the latest. Thank you.

Homework

Reminder

GPS to be returned by Wednesday  - SET A test 3 pages 10-13

Maths to be returned by Thursday - SET A test 2 pages 4-6

Spellings: 

Hyphens: To join a prefix ending in a vowel to a root word beginning with a vowel.

co-operate, co-ordinate, co-own, co-author, re-enter, re-educate, re-examine, re-evaluate, re-energise, re-elect

Friday 29^th September 2023

It was a pleasure to see so many of you at our Harvest Festival this week and also at our curriculum meeting later that day. For those of you who were unable to attend our online get-together, I invite you to take a look at our school website for comprehensive information about curriculum coverage in Y6.

Each element of the Curriculum drop-down menu contains clearly signposted details of the learning your children will engage in each term, including the Y6 scheme of work for maths and the National Curriculum Programme of Study for English. For RE, you will also find the Kent Agreed Syllabus and, under PSHE, there is an overview of the termly subjects along with a progression map outlining the specifics. Mrs Glover explained that much of her French teaching is based on Y7 work so that children will be extremely well prepared for entry into secondary school. PE lessons will focus (in order) on football, netball, dance, gymnastics, tag rugby, hockey, swimming, athletics, cricket, rounders and also tennis. Foundation subjects and science are taught through our topics which are set out under the heading Cornerstones Creative Curriculum Overview. We requested that children read daily and discuss their reading with someone at home on a more regular basis. The reading suggestions supplied on this website may prove useful: https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/ Please encourage your child to use joined up handwriting with immediate effect.

Classroom time this week has been spent learning to divide by a two-digit number and to give remainders as fractions and decimals. We have practised using speech to give an indication of character and enjoyed reading, writing and drama activities centred on George’s Marvellous Medicine on Roald Dahl Day.

Homework:

Maths:

CGP book:Set A Arithmetic Test pages 16-17  (both groups)

English GPS:

CGP book Set A Test 2 pages 6-9

Spellings:

innocent, innocence, decent, decency, excellent, excellence, confident, confidence, existent, existence

Friday 22nd September 

This brings us to the end of another productive week.  Year 6 did an excellent job presenting their speeches to the whole school on Tuesday.  They spoke about themselves in a very mature way and articulated their thoughts clearly.  We are very pleased that every member of the class now has a position of responsibility and we look forward to everyone getting involved and cracking on with their roles from next week.

In other news, in maths, pupils have continued their understanding of BIDMAS and order of operation.  We then moved on to  multiplication and made great progress multiplying 4 digit numbers by a multiple of 10. The children created comprehensive pages in their maths journals to demonstrate their learning and the mastery involved in solving a problem. It was a buzzing lesson in Year 6 with some really good discussion on the best way to solve a particular problem. 

In English reading lessons, the class has been working on inference skills, learning to ask questions and how to summarise a paragraph. We have started reading a new class book called 'One Boy's War' by Lynn Hunnins-Cooper.  The opening pages of the book inspired the children to write an informal letter.  They had to imagine that were the protagonist, Sydney, writing to his mother to explain his reasons for enlisting in the army. The letters were impressive - both emotive and informative, written in the style of that era. I was very impressed with Year 6 writing.

In History, we have been learning about life in the trenches and exploring weaponry from WW1.  Children had to decide on the best form of defensive weaponry.  Next week, the class will use their knowledge of the trenches for a piece of writing. 

Homework

Spellings: observant, observance, tolerant, tolerance, hesitant, hesitancy, expectant, expectancy, relevant, relevance

Rule: If the word ends in 'ant,' it is an adjective.  Words usually change into nouns when they end in 'ance' or 'ancy'

GPS book: Test 1 to be returned by Wednesday  - any problems please let Mrs G know

Maths: Test 1 to be returned by Thursday - any problems please let Ms W know

Friday 15th September 2023

Y6 has made excellent progress during the first full week in the classroom. Children are extremely confident in their knowledge of place value to seven digits and can round numbers to different multiples of ten. The task of finding the full range of numbers that round to a particular target proved more challenging, but most pupils are pleasingly willing to explore different methods of working. They are also grasped the rules relating to the order of operations in calculations.

For their first piece of writing, children composed recounts about last week's visit to the Imperial War Museum and worked with partners to proofread and make corrections. We studied the use of language in a First World War poem and began to read our class text, Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. 

In topic work, we investigated why men volunteered to join the army in 1914 by considering the impact of different propaganda posters and recapped our understanding of electrical circuits and their components. We also held a useful session reminding everyone about the importance of responsible online behaviour.

On Thursday 28th September we are celebrating Roald Dahl day with a workshop and other activities. If anyone can spare a 15 minutes or so to come into class and read an excerpt of a favourite story or a poem or an interesting newspaper article or similar, we would be absolutely delighted to welcome you.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Head student speeches must be completed and emailed or brought into school by 9am on Monday morning.

All children must complete a short composition explaining their interests and strengths and they will present them to the school on Tuesday and Wednesday. If anyone is hesitant about speaking, we will of course support them. Children who have not managed to write their speeches before Monday will be expected to remain in at break time in order to do so. 

Those children who have some summer homework outstanding are expected to submit this on Monday too.

Spellings

Please spend time practising and learning the following words. There will be a spelling dictation test on Friday.

Homophones and near homophones. Nouns that end in ce/cy and verbs that end in se/sy

advice, advise, device, devise, licence, license, practice, practise, prophecy, prophesy

The final (patriotic) verse goes like this:

England's garden's rich with food - apples, plums and pears,

Food from ev'ry corner of the world.

If we work together, we can lend a helping hand.

Food is precious, gathered from the land.

Friday 8th September 2023

A very warm welcome to Year 6.  It has been an absolute pleasure to welcome the children this week and they have all settled very quickly, getting used to the new routines.  We feel rather smug, with the unexpected heatwave, to have the privilege of air conditioning in our classroom.  It really has been a blessing this week. 

In maths this week, pupils have started working with seven digit numbers in place value.  They have been writing numbers in words, ordering and comparing numbers as well as writing and explaining their findings in their maths journals. 

We have started our new topic 'Britain at War' which has already stirred many questions and conversations.  We can see that it is going to be a very exciting topic ahead.  On Friday, we look forward to our trip to The Imperial War Museum.

Date for the diary: Curriculum Meeting 27th September 1.30pm via Zoom where we will be able to talk to you about life in Year 6, the curriculum, homework, trips etc.

Just to let you know, Mrs Glover won't be in school next week as she will be on jury service.  Mrs Frederick and Ms Wright will be covering her.

We look forward to seeing many of you over the next few weeks.

Ms Wright and Mrs Glover

Homework

Head pupil elections will take place on Tuesday 19^th and Wednesday 20^th September. For homework, we ask that you ALL compose a short speech to present to the school stating why you are a good candidate for the role.

We are setting the task now so that you have plenty of opportunity to think about it, discuss it with your family, plan it and then write it. The deadline is Monday 18^th September, but you may submit it earlier if you prefer. Work can either be typed or handwritten. It should not be a PowerPoint presentation or require any technology to deliver it. We would like you each to speak for around one minute. When you have completed your piece, do practise reading it aloud several times to someone at home.

In the past, we have heard wild promises that can never be kept, so this year we would like you to think about the type of person you are and what qualities you have that would be desirable in a head pupil. Perhaps you are confident and able to communicate well or it could be that you are fun-loving and enthusiastic. Are you excellent at getting things organised? Maybe you are a deep thinker who has good ideas or someone who is sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others and makes everyone feel included.

A head pupil is required to speak to people of all ages, including those of us from the school and visitors. You will need to represent the school on special occasions, be respectful and set a good example for others to follow. You will have to demonstrate leadership skills and might need to help out with events.

You all have something to offer so don’t be shy – tell us how special you are!