Cedar Class: Year 6
Here you will be able to find our Year 6 curriculum overview and our termly newsletters.
I have also included the 50 books to read in Year 6 list and I strongly recommend that the children have a go at trying some of these titles.
Secondary School Open Evenings
The Autumn Term is a busy one for Year 6 parents as the application window for secondary school places opens at the start of September and closes at the end of October.
We will list the dates here of open evenings at the local secondary schools as and when we get them. We would recommend parents take their child to look around at the schools to give you an idea of what each school can offer your child.
You will find the link to West Sussex County Council's key dates for secondary school places webpage below.
Tuesday 20th September 2022 - The Regis School Open Evening
Tuesday 27th September 2022 - Felpham Community College Open Evening
Key dates:
Wednesday 1st March 2023 - Offer day - this is the day you will be informed of your child's offered place at secondary school.
End of KS2 Assessments (SATS)
Key Dates:
Wednesday 25th January 2023 - SATS information meeting for Year 6 parents.
Tuesday 9th May 2023 - Friday 12th May 2023 - SATS week
Cedar Class - Year 6 Key information
PE
Our PE days are Mondays and Thursdays and children are expected to take part in all PE lessons. They should come to school in the correct PE kit on these days.
Water Bottles
Please ensure that your child comes to school with a named water bottle every day.
Homework
Homework will be set via Seesaw at the weekend and unless specified, will be due in the following weekend. Your child should upload their homework to Seesaw by the due date. It is essential for children to get into the habit of completing this regularly on time in preparation for their transition to secondary school.
Additionally, Children are expected to read either to an adult at home or to themselves for at least 15 minutes a day. If your child reads competently to themselves, ask them some questions about the book so that you can see if they have understood what they have read. Discussing different texts with your children will help them to develop their own love of reading.
Logins for Seesaw, MyMaths and TTRockstars can be found inside your child's yellow reading book.
Spelling:
We will be looking at rules around different spelling patterns each week and this page will be updated to show our current spelling pattern.
WB: 9.1.23 - words containing the letter string 'ough'
WB: 16.1.23 - words containing silent letters
You can find more words that fit this spelling pattern and some games to practise them here: https://www.spellzone.com/unit22/page2.cfm
Additionally, children should know how to spell all the KS2 common exception words. These can be found here:
Year 3/4 https://cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/08/29/13/54/08/76f1443d-9b6d-4030-be0d-25fcfef01438/SpellingWordList_Y3-4.pdf
Year 5/6 https://cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/08/29/13/56/09/5a42eb6a-f57f-4dc4-a66e-bd4c5e27e4b7/SpellingWordList_Y5-6.pdf
You can test your children on these regularly by choosing a few words (up to 5) and asking them to say, cover, write, check their words. Any that they get wrong they can then practice over a few days before trying again.
Enrichment Week 2023 - STEM
This year's enrichment week had a STEM focus and Year 6 spent the week developing their understanding of the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Their learning was enhanced through a motorsport and rocket science themed project.
Throughout the week, the children demonstrated a wide range of STEM skills - including a fantastic engineering approach towards solving problems on their model cars.
Our week finished with a visit to The Regis School, where the children had a look around the Product Design rooms and worked with some of the Green Power children to launch model rockets. This was a fantastic opportunity for the children to see how STEM is delivered at secondary school.
Poetry Inspired By Rose Blanche
Year 6 have had a brilliant start to their World War Two topic by immersing themselves in the story of Rose Blanche.
We took part in some drama activities to really try to understand how people could have been feeling during different parts of the story. At the end of the week, we wrote and recorded poetry inspired by a picture from the book. I was so impressed with the purposeful choice of language the children demonstrated. The end result was some highly emotive and powerful poems.
There are a selection of the children's recordings below.
Well done to Maicey and Dave for receiving a book token for the vending machine for their outstanding writing.
Active Maths Day 2023
For Active Maths Day, Year 6 enjoyed exploring and investigating ratio and proportion.
They began by completing the activity 'Percentage Bugs', where they had to work out simply percentages and then use these facts to find more complicated percentages.
Next, they used their reasoning skills to solve some ratio problems. These were tricky because they had to work out what information they already had and how they could use this to find the answers.
They finished off the day with some more ratio work, creating their own ratios using beanbags and then writing their own problems for the rest of the class to solve.
It was a great day and a brilliant way to revise this tricky topic.
Residential 2023
Residential is one of the biggest and most exciting weeks in Year 6. The children had a brilliant time and took part in some very adventurous activities. We were so proud of the whole class; their behaviour was outstanding and their attitude towards the staff and each other throughout the week was a true reflection of our Team Bartons values.
Creative Arts Day 2023
On Friday 17th March, the whole school took part in creative arts day. Each class had a different artist or artistic style to focus on.
In Year 6 we took inspiration from Cubism. The children learnt about some famous artists from the Cubist art movement and then created their own Cubist style picture of every day objects - focusing on position, proportion, bold sharp lines and block colours.
They really enjoyed learning more about this style of art and the results were fantastic.
Book Week 2023 - Magical Creatures
For Book Week, Year 5 & 6 explored the fantastic book 'Skellig' by David Almond. The children absolutely loved getting to know the story and the characters, and they showed a brilliant understanding of the language the author chose to use as well as the impact it had on the reader.
They took part in several cross-curricular activities, including:
Computing - creating podcasts in role as Skellig and Michael
Geography - exploring and creating their own Skellig Michael Island
Art - using fantastic creative skills, they created beautiful silhouette style art of Skellig.
English - the children created poems, explored instructional writing, wrote balanced arguments and did some creative writing.
The week also included the return of the ever popular 'Masked Reader', we took part in some shared reading with Elm Class and finally the children strutted down the runway in their amazing masks, hats and other creations inspired by Skellig.
Science Week 2023
The first week of the Spring Term was science week across the whole of Bartons. Year 6's focus was 'The Circulatory System'.
Across the week, the children learnt:
- The main parts of the circulatory system and their functions
- The chambers of the heart and what they do
- The make up of blood, including - red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, plasma and their jobs
- The impact of diet and exercise on heart health
The children took part in a range of activities and investigations to embed their understanding and knowledge, including making a pumping 'heart', making a 'blood' smoothie, travelling around a heart and investigating blocked arteries.
At the end of the week the children were able to show off all their learning at our science fair.
I was really impressed with how well the children engaged with their learning during this week and I can definitely see some future scientists amongst the class.
Mission Survive
Over the second half of the Autumn Term, Cedar Class have been learning about some real life survival stories. They have reflected on how brave the people in the stories were and how much resilience they had to show. We learnt about some extreme natural disasters that made lead to people having to use their survival skills and wrote our own survival stories.
The term ended with us having our very own survival night in school, where the children had to show great bravery by spending a night away from home, sleeping in the school. The children were amazing, we played hide and seek in the dark, empty classrooms, had hot chocolate and marshmallows, turned the hall into our own cinema, shared a bedtime story and spent the night sleeping in the classrooms. In the morning, the children shared a sleepy breakfast before heading out into the cold, crisp day for a walk in the fresh air. We then spent the day using our DT skills to design and make survival bars.
Science Day 2022
For Science Day, Year 6 investigated all things 'Light'.
We began by learning about how light travels and how our eyes see light. The children then investigated shadows to see how they could manipulate the shadow to be bigger, smaller or if they could make the shadow appear in a different place.
Finally, Cedar Class looked at ways to use reflective surfaces to change the direction the light travelled in, to see if they could light up different surfaces.
Anti-Bullying Week 2022
Every year, the children at Bartons take part in the UK's annual Anti-Bullying Week. This national event aims to raise awareness of bullying and provides children with ways to prevent it.
This year's theme was 'Reach Out' and the children in Year 6 worked together to come up with 5 different ways they can show other people that they are there to support them. They then created posters to put in our class window to share their suggestions with other children.
In addition, on 'Friendship Friday', Cedar Class looked at how to be a good friend - with a focus on recognising and respecting others personal space. We shared some books about personal space and the children made their own video to teach others about the importance of not invading others personal space.
Maths Week 2022
For Maths Week, Year 6 investigated properties of 2d and 3d shape by planning, designing and building their own Geocity.
There was some fantastic teamwork, and I was impressed with their brilliant use of mathematical vocabulary when describing the properties (including angles) of different shapes.
The trickiest part was building the nets, however they persevered, and the finished cities were incredible.
Maths Investigation Day - September 2022
Today the children all across the school took part in a variety of maths investigations. In Year 6, we focused on developing our problem solving skills by looking at lots of different investigations throughout the day.
It was fantastic to hear the children thinking about number relationships and making links with all areas of their maths understanding - providing me with some great explanations about why a solution will or won't work.
Problem solving and reasoning skills are so important in developing a mastery skill with maths, particularly in Year 6. I have attached a PDF of some of the investigations we looked at today incase you would like to have a go at some of these at home.
Below you will find pictures of some of the work the children completed today as well as some maths investigations we completed during the first week of term.
Outdoor Learning
We are really lucky at Bartons Primary School to have a beautiful, newly built, outdoor classroom and learning area. This week Year 6 were excited to have a quiet reading session in the new oasis.
Working With Others
During our first week back at school we revisited our working with others skills and had a go at some activities where we had to use good team work and communication as well as respect. We particularly enjoyed the challenge of 'Save Fred The Snake'. Luckily we did manage to find some solutions to save Fred from the pond. See below for some pictures of us completing this task - the concentration on our faces shows just how challenging this was.
Welcome To Year 6
It was lovely to welcome the children back to school this week as we begin our Year 6 journey together. I was really proud to see how much enthusiasm the children showed towards their return to school and it was great to catch up with them about all the fun things they have done over the Summer.
This week we have developed our Year 6 class charter - focusing on 3 core skills that will ensure we all grow and develop as learners in preparation for the transition to secondary school.
Our 3 focus skills are:
Independence - we will take responsibility and ownership of our learning, trying our hardest with every task.
Positivity - we will show a growth mindset towards our learning by having a positive attitude towards all opportunities.
Respect - we will be respectful of all those around us, treating everyone with kindness.
Year 6 is definitely a year that is full of fun and adventure as well as challenge and it is great to see the children already excited for all that is to come.