Well what a week it has been! Our Ofsted visit proved a positive experience in year 6. The children were amazing and showed the inspectors all the learning and progress they have already achieved in English and Maths and it’s only week four!  Their engagement and manners were fantastic and are a credit to St Peter’s and their previous teachers – a wonderful year group.

English saw the end of the Whale unit with a wonderfully descriptive and atmospheric piece of writing to describe an encounter with the whale. We then allowed the children to write an extension piece of a diary, letter or journalistic article from a different point of view to not only apply their writing skills but to enhance their creativity.

In Maths, we have been looking at deepening and mastering of addition and subtraction problems. We are challenging the children to find ‘unknowns’ in these problems by using various strategies, asking them to explain their reasoning and then encouraging them to prove their answers with drawings and written evidence. Year 6 has some able mathematicians who have be particularly relishing in these challenges.

RE saw the conclusion of our Creation unit where the children generated some great discussions on the theme of ‘sacrifice’ and how we can deal with conflicts in our lives by deepening our relationship with God through the story of Cain and Able.  Very thought provoking and mature discussions.

Thank you to all the parents who attended the welcome meeting. It was lovely to see so many of you. Please can we remind you to return the consent/medical forms for Stubbington as soon as possible and if you have missed any paperwork then please pop in after school with any member of the Year 6 team and we can give you the relevant documentation.

Have a wonderful weekend.

The Year 6 Team

Welcome

Despite the fact that we have only been in school for nine days, Year 6 pupils have already impressed us with their superb attitude to learning and the quality of work they are producing. A fantastic start to the year for all!

This week we began our science topic ‘Evolution and Inheritance’, which involved learning the difference between the tricky concepts of adaptation and evolution. Children explored how environmental conditions have at certain times favoured the light or darker versions of the peppered moth, explaining which moth would be most prevalent in 2017 and why.

In our RE topic of Creation, children have considered the sacrifices made by Moses as he led God’s people out of Egypt towards the Promised Land. Next week will see us move on to learning about the Ten Commandments and the sacrifices made by the Israelites.

We have continued to develop and apply our understanding of place value and rounding in maths, with all children showing fantastic collaboration and reasoning when solving challenges in small teams. Arithmetic is practised every day and we would like to encourage all pupils to continue to learn their times tables facts every day to support this.

‘Whale Boy’ has captured our imaginations to an even greater extent this week with its rich description. After analysing how the author used this to create changes in atmosphere, pupils have begun to craft their own paragraphs with the same aim in mind. Spellings are a key element in achieving age related expectations for Year 6 pupils  – please encourage and help your child with theirs when you can.

Finally, we have received a last minute invitation to attend a special science day at Purbrook Park School next Thursday. This will be a day of exciting hands-on activities and investigations to inspire our children in this area. Transport to and from the school will be provided by St Peter’s. We will send out further details before the day.

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 6 Team

Welcome,

It’s been a great start to the new term.

The children have settled well into their new routines and have shown great positivity towards their learning.

In English, we have been immersing ourselves in descriptive narrative through fiction texts which centre on enigmatic nature of whales. The children have been spellbound listening to ‘Whale Boy’ by Nicola Davies and linking this text to the picture book ‘The Whale’ by Vita Murrow to start to create atmospheric descriptions of an encounter with a whale.

In Maths, we begin the term with place value and looking at the value of individual digits in numbers as well as writing these numbers in words. We have also been applying these number skills to problems to show how the children can use their knowledge of number to demonstrate their reasoning skills.

In RE, through scripture and the school mission statement, we have considered how Jesus’s teachings teaches us to live our lives as Christians. We will begin our Creation unit next week.

Children have been given their Home Learning diary this week. Could they please read the first few pages and last few pages to orientate themselves with the diary and complete any activities that are relevant to home learning.  Please record daily reading, maths activities and any other learning that takes place in the weekly diary and this will be reviewed and signed next week.

Daily Reminders  – individual water bottles to be brought in, homework diaries, break time snacks and a waterproof coat.

Walking home permission letters should be sent in to the class teacher to re-affirm your permission that your child is allowed to leave the school premises alone. This is so we are in agreement, for this new school year, regarding the arrangements for the end of the day.

If you would like to say hello or there is anything you would like to ask about this new year, please speak any member of the year 6 team and will be happy to help.

Enjoy your weekend,

The Year 6 Team

It’s that time of year when we say goodbye and good luck to the year 6 children who are moving on to the next stage of their education. The last two days saw the children go out on a high after two fantastic performances of High School Musical. It has been lovely to see the year group rise to this challenge in such a short time and to see such creative sides to the children’s personalities.

A few tears were shed on Tuesday at the Leaver’s Assembly as emotions of the last day rose to the surface. A fitting tribute to all children and staff that move on to new adventures elsewhere. Year 6 enjoyed a day of shirt and book signings around the school as well as a lunch party on the field before the final goodbyes to end the day with more tears. It was a testiment to their time at St Peter’s and the friendships made over the last seven years.

All the Year 6 team wish the chidren all the very best for Year 7 and to everyone, a fabulous, relaxing summer holiday.

Goodbye.

X

This week has been devoted to our production practice. We experienced the stage at Oaklands for the first time on Monday and again on Tuesday. Next Monday we will be there again, learning about the lights and sound. Our technical support team has been very busy preparing props while other rehearsals are taking place. As requested last week, please continue to help your children learn their lines and cues. We are now ‘off book’ so no-one has a script available to them any more. We had our first undirected run-through yesterday and it’s going well. We hope you have booked your tickets!

Could you please make sure children have their costumes at school on Thursday. We are going to make this our official dress rehearsal. If you have any problems acquiring costumes, please let us know and we’ll see what we can do.

We raised a further £42 from a raffle this week and fund-raising continues. We have more sponsorship available if your child would like to undertake a personal challenge.

Everyone is looking forward to treat day next week – a morning on the field with a bouncy castle, lunch provided by the Friends and an afternoon disco. Another busy, busy week.

Have a great weekend,

The Year Six team.

Dear all,

Another busy week with Production practise and it is progressing well. It is a huge project but it is coming together so please encourage your child to practise the songs especially ‘Counting on You’. These songs are available online.  Hopefully, you have received the costume letter but if you haven’t please speak to a member of the Year 6 team.

Our ‘Fun Afternoon’ was very successful and lots of fun was had by all year groups especially by those children who paid to throw sponges at some year 6 children. We will continue to raise more money with ‘Guess how many Sweets in the Jar’ over the next week. If you have any sweets you would like to contribute to the jar then please send them in with your child.  A very kind member of the office team has offer to count the money so far raised so a final total will be available next week.  We have sent sponsorship forms home for the children to undertake any personal challenges if they so wish. Thank you as always for your support.

Transistion morning today saw the Year 6’s completing their science work on classification and taking samples of leaves from the field, making scientific drawings of them and beginning to classify according to Linnaeus’s biological classification system. They will continue this on Monday afternoon when the school has an internal transition afternoon.

Next week’s key events:

Tuesday 11th July –  1.30pm Leavers Mass & Cream Tea

Thursday 13th July –  Year 6 Reports and SATs results sent home

Friday 14th July – Year 6 Oaklands Transition Day (any children not attending Oaklands will be undertaking an activity in school)

Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 6 Team

We hope you are enjoying your rare three-day weekend. A good opportunity for a rest before the final push – still lots of work to do.

The children had an excellent morning on Sports day. It was lovely to see them being so supportive of the younger members of their team, and they worked hard to help with the clearing up afterwards, too. I hope it will be one of the good memories they take with them when they leave St. Peter’s.

In R.E. we have been learning more about St. Peter, and sixteen children from 6S and 6T performed a short play about his martyrdom during Mass on Thursday. On the subject of drama, our Streetspeare participants will be performing at Butser on Saturday at 11 a.m. Fingers crossed for good weather, and do go and support them if you can.

In Science we have continued our unit on classification, and enjoyed making a key using a variety of sweets yesterday. As far as I’m aware, only one sweet was eaten, which showed admirable restraint. We’ll be testing the system using leaves in our next Science activity.

The week ended with a very successful cake sale. Thank you for once again providing such a wonderful and generous selection of delicious and beautiful cakes. We sold most of them yesterday, and the remainder have been bought today by staff attending INSET. Sadly, I couldn’t sample them all, but to whoever made the lemon drizzle cake – it was perfect. The money will be counted next week.

Another fundraiser on Tuesday afternoon, this time a games hour. I am sure your children will be asking for your help with resources and building.

We hope you have a lovely weekend,

The Year Six team.

Dear all,

This week in English saw the children completing their suspense writing, editing and then publishing it. Next week, we are linking RE and English by producing non-chronological reports about Islam. The children also chose a novel to read for their book study – texts include: Holes by Louis Sachar, Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman, A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E by Malorie Blackman and Arthur, High King of Britain by Michael Morpurgo.  Over the next few weeks, the children will undertake an independent study, completing different activities chosen by them, to make a presentation of the book in front of an audience. Our initial lesson saw the children engrossed in their chosen book and forming little ‘Book Club’ groups to discuss their reading as they read. It was so wonderful to see the children so enthusiastic for new literature and working collaboratively to share their thoughts and views so maturely.

Maths this week has focused on problem solving with ratio/proportion and its relationship with fractions and percentages. Next week, we will be looking to consolidate and extend our learning in algebra.

RE learning sees then end of Pentecost and the children will have next week to explore Islam. The Year 5/6 Mass is on Tuesday at Sacred Heart at 10.20am and we would welcome any volunteers to walk with the children to the church. It will be a morning event – leaving at 9am and returning for 12.15pm. Please let the office know if you are available.

Mrs Luter will be attending the Good Shepherd Mass at Portsmouth Cathedral on Wednesday 21st June with a selection of Year 6 children.

We seem to have accumulated a large number of lost property items over the last few weeks – jumpers, cardigans, PE kit, and water bottles, which are not named. If you are missing any items, please look in the lost property area.  Also, a large number of lunch boxes are not being collected each day. We do remind the children daily about lunch boxes and water bottles.

As we are heading towards the end of term, over the next two weeks Mrs D will be collecting in all library books borrowed by Year 6 to ensure that any outstanding loans returned and missing books are located before children depart the school.

As this fabulous is set to continue next week, please ensure that a named water bottle is in school and sun cream and hats are provided if you wish your child to be protected against the sun.

Enjoy the weekend.

The Year 6 Team

This week we have started finalising roles for our production so next week all children should know whether they are a Jock, Brainiac, Thespian, Cheerleader or Skater Dude! We will also give some advice about costumes required, which should be the sort of clothes children already have. We have started on some of the songs, one of which will be presented at tonight’s Fest. Children have a song folder and should learn lyrics and practise songs as part of their homework. The two performances of High School Musical will take place on Monday, 24th July, times to be confirmed.

Our recent English lessons have had a sporting theme, learning to create suspense in writing by looking at Tom Daley and Usain Bolt during their Olympics campaigns. Children will continue to develop this next week and publish their finished pieces.

We have had a whole school focus on British values and Year 6 have discussed the meaning and implications of democracy and the right to vote – very topical. Hopefully, they will watch some appropriate news coverage of the election results and continue to develop their understanding of the voting system.

I’m sure we will see a lot of you at school this evening.

Finally, have a lovely weekend,

The Year 6 team.

Dear all,

Here we are at the end of another half term! It has, as always, been incredibly busy.  The children have worked hard up until, during and after their SATs week, especially in their writing.  We have seen incredible commitment and perseverance from many children to achieve the best of themselves. It is always lovely to see them mature in this way.

This week saw the children complete their twisted fairy tales which will provide for some very exciting reading for the team over the holidays. More reasoning challenges and investigation also continued this week in Maths.

After half-term, we will be beginning Pentecost and Mission  in RE and the prayer bag is being sent home every Thursday to share a worship and to write a prayer for the class worship on the following Tuesday.

Following auditions over the last two weeks, speaking and singing parts have been allocated today and children have brought home scripts to begin to learn over half-term. All children will play a significant part in the production, as the production is an ensemble piece. Children have chosen whether they wish to be an actor/singer, dancer/cheerleeder or basket ball player and some have chosen to take a technical/stage role to support with backstage activities.

If your child does bring a script home, please encourage them to begin to practise their line and songs (accompanying music on Youtube or Vevo) as rehearsals begin in earnest next term.

Term commences Monday 5th June and with this warm weather upon us, ensure your child has a named water bottle in school.

Have a lovely half term.

The Year 6 Team