Autumn Term 2007

                                                   Year 6

 

Dear Parents,

It is with great pleasure that I write this introduction to your first Curriculum Newsletter of the academic year.

The children have settled well in most cases, and are eager to learn.

I have witnessed good teaching and learning already this term. HMI made an inspection of the Science provision on Thursday and has confirmed that department to be good with many strengths. We also passed our ?attendance? test for which we are grateful for your contributions.

A full programme of extra curricular activities is being devised.

I look forward to meeting you during the school year. If there is anything you wish to discuss with the school concerning the welfare and progress of your child, please contact the school for an appointment.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

David Watson.

 

 

English

In Year 6 we, first of all, follow some basic revision from Year 5 before beginning a two week unit looking at poems by two well established poets: Walter de la Mare and R.L. Stevenson.  Both poets were writing at the time of the author of our class novel which, for this term, will be ?The Railway Children? by Edith Nesbit.  All of this term?s work has some link, sometimes quite small, with the novel.  Hence, we shall:  look at autobiography and biography by including Robert Louis Stevenson; be involved in research from books and the Internet by finding information to provide a background to our novel (late Victorian and Edwardian era), particularly in the areas of toys, pastimes, dress, the railway and religion.  As well as ongoing spelling, grammar, handwriting and presentation, an introduction to Shakespeare will be provided through ?The Tempest? in the form of fun activities.  In addition, non-fiction such as letters and reports will be studied.

Maths

The National Numeracy Strategy is now a well-established part of our curriculum. The children will be familiar with the format and will rapidly settle into the Year 6 course.

An outline of the autumn term mathematics topics is given below.

First half term:

·         Place value, ordering and rounding, using a calculator.

·         Understanding multiplication and division, mental and pencil and paper strategies with multiplication and division.

·         Money and real life problems.

·         Checking results.

·         Fractions, decimals, percentage, ratio and proportion.

·         Handling data.

Second half term:

·         Shape and space, properties of quadrilaterals, reasoning about shape.

·         Co-ordinates.

·         Measures and problem solving.

·         Mental and pencil and paper strategies for addition and subtraction.

·         Money and real life problems.

·         Properties of number, number sequences, reasoning about number.

Homework will be given most weeks and may include SATs questions to help build pupils? skills at answering this type of problem.

Science

Year 6 will be studying topics based on Ginn Star Science and Exploring Science. 

We will begin by studying Changes. This topic deals with chemical and physical changes and involves a lot of lab work. We will be looking at the processes of evaporation, condensation, freezing, and melting, and the separation techniques of sieving, filtering, distillation and evaporation. We will be recapping on the water cycle.

We will then go on to study Electricity and have lots of hands-on experience making and testing circuits thanks to the generosity of the PTA funding our refurbishment of equipment.

History

This term we will be studying the Aztecs and the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. We will begin our topic by researching Aztec everyday life, culture and beliefs, using ICT, videos, drama, class texts and reference books. Past experience has shown that this topic has particular appeal to our more bloodthirsty pupils! We will record our findings in topic groups and report these to the whole class.

Pupils then go on to consider why the Aztecs may have been unpopular with other Mexican tribes and discuss possible motives for Spanish expansion into the Aztec lands.

We conclude our topic by researching the consequences of the Spanish invasion, debating the possible advantages and disadvantages for the Aztec people.

Geography

he first unit this term is Map skills ? a unit designed to build up an understanding of geographical skills, to help pupils investigate and make connections within Geography. Later in the term the focus is Environmental issues. Initially in this unit, pupils learn about the tropical rainforest ecosystem and identify its location, characteristics and threats. The final part of the unit continues into next term.

Art and Design

This term we will be looking at the use of materials to create texture through the production of texture mobiles. We will look at the way in which picture surfaces can be built up and we will examine the work of a range of artists who have used collage and printing techniques to create Art work.

Life skills

In Life skills pupils study units of work covering material from Religious Education, Personal and Social Education, Citizenship and, in KS2, Information and Communications Technology.

During the year, pupils will cover six units of work. These will cover subjects such as relationships, rights and responsibilities, bullying and environmental issues as well as looking at aspects of Christianity and introducing other faiths such as Hinduism to prepare children to live in a multi ? cultural society.

This term in Life skills, pupils will be looking at rules, rights and responsibilities. We start by talking about class and school rules and responsibilities, including moral issues raised by responses to peer pressure, and then move on to rules and responsibilities within the home.  We look at the Ten Commandments and discuss what they mean and how they relate to the rules that we have already examined.

French

This term pupils will learn to talk about themselves in some detail.  They will learn to say where they live and learn words for various European countries.  They will also learn to talk about their brothers and sisters and their pets.  The activities related to this work will be varied ? to include oral and group activities, games, songs and raps designed to stimulate and maintain pupils? interest and to promote self-confidence in language learning skills. 

Food technology

The emphasis on Year 6 is food. Pupils will learn the basic procedures of safety and hygiene in a food environment and how to select and use the appropriate tools and develop basic culinary skills. They will learn how fruit and vegetables can be nutritious. The pupils will have the opportunity to design and create a variety of dishes including fruit crumble, pasta salad and pizza. They will plan and evaluate the outcomes of their practical work.

Technology

All pupils will design and make a jitterbug creature, which will move around in a similar motion to a ?Furby?. Simple circuits will be designed and constructed using a cell, switch, motor and possibly LEDs. Injection moulding techniques will be incorporated into the legs to make them sturdy for the task. Other joining techniques using nuts, bolts/screws and the glue gun will also be made available for the project.

Music

Year 6 begin the year with a project entitled ?Building Bricks?. In this project pupils consolidate their understanding of the elements of music; i.e. pitch, tempo, dynamics, duration etc. The project involves composition, performance, listening activities and includes a large-scale class composition/performance entitled ?Bumps and Crashes?, which is not as noisy as it seems.

Towards the end of the term we take a look at instruments of the orchestra and listen to Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten.

Throughout the term pupils sing Victorian songs and as Christmas approaches pupils perform some instrumental arrangements of well-known carols.

ICT

This term pupils will be learning to create a multimedia presentation using text, images and sounds. They will be taught to create links between pages and how to address their presentation to the audience.

Physical Education

All pupils follow blocks of work in the following activities; football, netball, rugby and hockey. All classes are taught in mixed groups and cover skills such as sending, receiving and scoring, developing their understanding of basic rules. The skills are taught individually or in small groups and the pupils play small-sided team games to develop their awareness of team or group tactics.

Homework

In Year 6 pupils will receive homework once a week based on English and Mathematics. Science will be set more irregularly as dictated by the topic being studied. French will be set once a fortnight. Homework may also be set from time to time in other subject areas as and when it is felt appropriate.

Pupils will be given two or three days to complete homework tasks and the day on which they are due will be noted in the Home-School planner.

The amount of time spent on homework will vary from pupil to pupil but should generally be no longer than 40 minutes. Pupils are encouraged to read at home on a regular basis for at least 30 minutes per week.