Coinciding with the spring summit season on Mount Everest, this week saw the Year 6 pupils begin their latest English topic – survival. We immersed ourselves in the world of mountaineering by watching scenes from the film ‘Everest’ and reading excerpts from the book  ‘Into Thin Air’ – the real life recount on which it was based. One of the most dangerous parts of any expedition up the south-west face is having to cross the Khumbu Icefalls, a slowly moving ‘river’ of ice, riddled with crevasses and hanging ice cliffs waiting for their next victims – an ideal setting for the children to write an extended story full of tension. We are very pleased with the results of their efforts over the week; they have all managed to convey character and capture the setting through their use of dialogue, action and description.

To tie in with the physical demands of survival situations, we have begun a new science topic this week, focused on human responses to exercise. Having analysed Mr Land’s heart rate over the course of a 10km run, the children are looking forward to comparing their own responses to running with and without the burden of a parachute on their backs. Should be fun!

The D-Day celebrations were another focus this week, and we were fortunate to have Kris share his Dad’s first-hand experience of the events that took place on Southsea Common. We enjoyed reading the programme and brochures which taught us more about the preparations made and huge numbers of brave soldiers that left the south coast for various Normandy beaches.

A little reminder that we would welcome parents and relatives to join us at Sacred Heart Church at 10:30am  Tuesday 11th June to celebrate the Year 5 and 6 Mass.

Have a good weekend,

The Year 6 Team

After a short but demanding term, we are all looking forward to enjoying a week of rest and recovery. Sadly, Friday was the last day at St Peter’s for Josh, so we decided to hand over the blog to him. Here is what he wrote…

This week turned out to be a farewell week for me as I will be leaving after half-term. For most of the week we had the pleasure of learning about similarities and differences between the poison dart frog and the UK frog. After we had taken some very useful notes, we had to write a non-chronological report about these amazing amphibians. We were given the choice of either writing it up on publisher or decorating it in our books.  My final week at St.Peter’s culminate with a celebratory football game on Friday. Also this week, the whole school voted for their favourite Year 6 art habitat on Wednesday. Working in groups, we designed rainforest scenes to tie-in with our work on evolution and adaptation in science. We (well I won’t be there!) are looking forward to learning the results after half-term.

We wish Josh well at his new school and thank him for his contributions to St Peter’s, particularly his efforts in cross country which saw him represent Havant at the Hampshire Championships!

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.

The Year 6 Team

All staff at St Peter’s are extremely proud of the way each and every member of Year 6 conducted themselves for the duration of SATs this week – they really ‘stepped-up to the plate’ and gave the best of themselves. Every child applied themself in a mature and focused manner, an attribute which will serve them well in the future.

Although the week was centred around SATs, the children have also enjoyed some well-deserved ‘release time’ where they have had P.E and read through the script for our forthcoming production – Joseph. Auditions are being carried out next Tuesday; pupils have a page of the script to learn prior to this.

Once again, a big ‘WELL DONE!’ The adults of Year 6 are all very proud of you.

Enjoy a well-earned, restful weekend.

The Year 6 Team

After a motivational speech yesterday from Mr Cunningham, the children are in a primed position for the week ahead. They have really peaked and are mentally ready; we can all be proud of the efforts they have put in.

Just a reminder that your child can be dropped off from 8am Monday to Thursday to enjoy a breakfast of toast and juice with their peers in Year 6.

Many thanks for your continued support. Have a restful weekend.

The Year 6 Team

What makes a great speech? As the final part of our expedition draws to a close, the children have been rehearsing and crafting ideas for a motivational speech. They are imagining that they are Ernest Shackleton, having had to rally the crew following the dramatic sinking of their ship – Endurance.

In other areas, pupils have started to hone their racket skills, where they played against each other in a series of tennis matches. We are looking forward to getting our hands on the new rackets that await us in the PE store, and we will use these to develop our ‘Murray’ forehands!

Maths has taken the shape of fine-tuning our arithmetic fluency and seeing and applying these within a range of problem-solving contexts.

Enjoy your long weekend!

The Year 6 Team

After the well needed break that Easter provides it often takes a few days for staff and pupils to get back up to speed in applying their knowledge and understanding. We have therefore spent a good proportion of time revisiting skills learnt in reading, writing and maths and applying these in real world contexts.

Pupils have been able to identify areas of personal need and staff have supported them in being confident in these. In-between, there has been a real emphasis on pupils working independently when solving maths and comprehension challenges – which we would expect in the summer term – and we have been extremely impressed with the confidence, determination and focus shown by all.

Many thanks to parents and carers for their support with half-term homework –  we have had an impressive return.

The Year 6 Team

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.