A good week of learning ended on a high with the whole of Year 6 taking a closer look at the country of Brazil. Having identified similarities and differences between Southsea and Waterlooville (there are quite a few!), children moved on to do the same with Waterlooville and Rocinha (in Brazil). We also located Brazil within the world, creating ‘clue’maps to identify where the country sits. This will help develop the children’s prior knowledge of Brazil which is one of our topics for the Summer Term.

We are now well into writing monologues and letters from the viewpoint of Ernest Shackleton; we have been impressed with the children’s ability to empathise with his situation and communicate a certain ‘feeling’ towards the reader.

We are looking forward to taking part in ‘Stations of the Cross’ which will be held in the chapel at Oaklands next Wednesday afternoon.

The Year 6 Team

What another busy week! The children of year 6 have been exploring and applying their knowledge of area and perimeter within a real-life context in the form of our new Unity Building here at St Peter’s. Within this, some of the children have also been embedding their knowledge of ratio and scale when they were asked to compare the Unity Building with that of an ‘imaginary’ building at Oaklands.

In English, children have deepened and widened their understanding of one of Britain’s great explorers, Sir Ernest Shackleton. We think they are beginning to enjoy the unit more, now that they have a greater understanding – through the use of a DVD – of his Endurance Expedition and the challenges that they faced as a crew. Their understanding and enjoyment should only increase as we have his ‘South’ diary (in the shape of a book) to explore and read. This will really develop their language and vocabulary choices that they have at their fingertips! Full steam ahead!

The children competed in a round-robin hockey competition this week, where they were able to apply their skills in to a game situation. They worked on ‘holding their shape’ as a team, so they would not ‘bunch’ as a group, which meant that players were able to pass around the pitch more easily and they were able to use the full width and depth. This will hold them in good stead for our later invasion games that we will undertake during the summer term. We hope they are looking forward to starting tennis next week with the Year 6 teachers – Mr Land and Mr McEnroe!

Have a good weekend.

The Year 6 team.

This week we have spent much of our math’s time learning how to read and interpret data presented in line graphs. The children showed real creativity in conjuring up stories to match the journey of lines across a range of graphs, and this experience helped them when faced with the real thing. We finished up with conversion graphs which challenged the pupils to identify equivalent values for pounds, dollars, euros and even Polish zloty!

We must congratulate Alicia Lea, Ernie Purkis and Freya Bijumon who were worthy representatives for Year 6 in today’s ‘Off-By=Heart’ Poetry Competition. Having been selected from a pool of 64, each child put tremendous efforts in to bring their chosen poem to life, entertaining the entire school and visitors with their renditions. In fact, the whole show was a rousing success, illustrating that it is possible to master something when we put our minds to it.

Thank you to those parents who attended this week’s parent’s evenings; we value the opportunity to meet face-to-face, sharing successes and next steps. If you didn’t manage to make an appointment, you may still contact the school and arrange to meet teachers at a mutually convenient time.

Don’t forget – check out Mr Land’s, Mr Pratley’s and Mrs Moore’s bedtime stories in the KS2 section of the blogs!

Have a good weekend.

The Year 6 Team

What a wonderful week of weather we have enjoyed, welcoming the pupils back to school after a well-deserved week off. We hope you enjoyed a restful break – the pupils certainly seem ready to get back on with their learning!

In English, we have been looking at how writers use dialogue in their stories to move the action on. Children played around with this technique using some scenes from Stormbreaker; we aim to write an additional chapter in the next few days.

Our maths lessons have focused on using and applying understanding of co-ordinates relating to the position of shapes on axis. We are now much more confident in translating shapes, completing shapes with missing sides and identifying missing co-ordinates on blank grids.

If you would like to find out more information about the teachings of the ten gurus in Sihkism, please ask a Year 6 child. Having researched facts surrounding this interesting religion, pupils were given a choice of form to present their information: non-chronological report, leaflet or poster. The resultant pieces have been well though out and creatively produced; it is going to be a challenge to pick some for the KS2 Spirituality Book.

Many thanks for your continued support and we look forward to meeting with parents and carers at the upcoming parents’ evenings.

The Year 6 Team.