Year 6 2024 - 2025

Hello and welcome to our Year 6 class page! This page will provide you with the information you need about what your child is currently learning in school. 

My name is Miss Moore, and I will be your child’s teacher this year; we will also have key adults in class and around school to help us along on our Year 6 journey.  

Topic

Our topic for Autumn term is ‘Life in World War II'. We will be building our historical skills whilst we research and learn about the key figures and events in World War II and how they affected our local area. We will also discuss the roles of women in World War II and take part in an engaging visit to Liverpool to see the Western Approaches and examine real-life artefacts from World War II. We will have many cross-curricular experiences, too, such as learning about LS Lowry and his artwork and building our own Anderson shelters in Forest School.

English

In English, we will be using two main texts to enhance the features of our writing, and they are: ‘Manfish’ and 'Star of Fear, Star of Hope'. We will also study sea-themed poetry by James Reeves.

Our whole-class novel, ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ links perfectly to our World War II topic. We will also use a variety of videos, pieces of music and images to enrich our writing and reading, particularly in the build-up to our SATs in May. 

The features of writing that we will mostly focus on are: 

- Identify the audience for and purpose of writing

- Use organisational and presentational devices

- Propose changes to vocabulary, grammar and punctuation to enhance effects and clarify meaning

- Use expanded noun phrases (building on skills from Year 5)

- Use passive verbs (The ball was thrown by the boy)

- Using a wider range of cohesive devices (fronted adverbials, correct punctuation, variety of fronted adverbials)

- Using dialogue to convey character and advance the action (exploring a speech sandwich)

Maths

As we do every Autumn term, we will begin by focusing on basic skills in mathematics.  We will be exploring the place value of numbers up to, and beyond, ten million as well as rounding to powers of 10 (10, 100, 1,000 etc.).  Once we are secure with this skill, we will move on to develop our understanding of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division before exploring fractions, decimals and percentages. The pace of working in Year 6 can be fast at times, but rest assured we will regularly check the understanding of each topic with assessments and give guidance and support to any child who is struggling with gaps in their knowledge.

Religious Education

In RE this term, we will start the year by learning about the meaning of our school Mission Statement - Love Jesus, Love Learning, Love Life - alongside developing our understanding of 'The Kingdom of God'.  We will then move onto the topic of 'Justice', which will involve exploring what justice is and why Christians are called to act for justice around the world. We will explore the parable of Sheep and Goats as well as learning about Elijah and John the Baptist who spoke out about injustice. 

Homework

At home, there are many different ways in which you can support your child with their learning this year. Each week, we will use Atom Learning for our homework, just as the children used in Year 5. There are also the Spelling Shed and Times Table Rockstars apps that the children are warmly invited to use as regularly as possible.

Children should also continue to read every night and to have their reading logged in their reading record each time.  It is imperative that pupils read aloud regardless of their book band level.  From time to time, you may find a note in your child's planner from either myself or a member of support staff if there is a particular area of need where your child may require some more work. Planners will also note when your child has read in school with an adult.

All parents and carers are asked to sign page 4 in your child's planner which sets out our homework expectations for the year.

Children will have weekly spellings which are pertinent to their spelling needs and these will be written in their planners every Friday.  Children will have a week of learning their spellings in school and at home before a spelling assessment the following Friday.

PE Days

Tuesday afternoon: Outdoor PE - invasion

Thursday afternoon: Athletics and indoor games 

Please make sure that your child comes to school with the correct equipment on these days.

Forest School

12th September - World War II focus

7th November - Remembrance Day focus

16th January - The Maya focus

6th March - World Book Day focus

22nd May - First Aid focus

Please ensure that your child comes to school on these days dressed accordingly to the weather forecast in old clothes which you don’t mind getting dirty.  During the winter months, it will be imperative that the children are wrapped up with multiple layers.

Open invitation

I am always open to discussions about how best to support and guide the children, and I welcome you to the door or to make an appointment to speak with me whenever you feel is necessary so that we can best help the wonderful children in our class.