Whilst production preparations are in full swing and it’s coming together nicely, we have also been continuing our learning in other areas this week.

Our RE studies are now centred on The Sacraments, so we spent lessons reminding ourselves of the seven sacrements, their meaning and how they are grouped. We then went on to explain the importance and meaning of the stages involved in Baptism and Confirmation and pupils found some very creative ways to communicate this in their books.

Both classes are enjoying the specialist basketball sessions on Monday afternoons which is developing their skills nicely. Children were excited to find out that Oaklands has its own basketball team during our transition chats with the future Head and Deputy Head of Year 7. Of course they also had many questions answered which will hopefully settle any nerves they have about moving on from primary education.

Year 5 and 6 enjoyed a wonderful Mass at Sacred Heart Church on Tuesday. We are now looking forward to celebrating St Peter and St Paul’s Day Mass as a whole school on Friday 30th June. On the same day we have St Peter’s Fest to look forward to also. Many thanks to all parents who have volunteered their time to assist with the ‘Hook a Duck’ stall. Year 6 are looking forward to entertaining the crowd with their beach themed song.

Bikeability starts from Monday through to Friday with children working in small groups over the week. Bikes can be brought in and locked at school while this training is ongoing. As it looks like warm weather it would be advisable to provide sunscreen and waterbottles for those involved.

Enjoy the sun,

The Year 6 Team

The first week back after a half-term break can sometimes be a shock to the system for both pupils and teachers (parents too!)

Fortunately, we have been so busy in Year 6 in the past week that the holiday is but a distant memory for most!

Firstly, Annie! rehearsals have begun in earnest with many children impressing in the way they have learnt and delivered their lines. Our ‘orphans’ managed to learn their main song so well that they were able to perform it to a very select audience – Year R! With only four short weeks available before the big night we would encourage all children with speaking parts to learn these by heart as soon as possible, allowing us to focus on the stage directions.

As the Football World Cup is just around the corner, maths this week challenged pupils to calculate statistics about players from the England squad and pick their top 5 players to follow. They also had a budget of £100 to buy a fantasy set of 8 teams- 1 from each group – which proved quite tricky when all the top teams cost £25! When the competition starts on Thursday we are looking forward to analysing the match reports to collect statistics which we can use to create pie and bar charts for analysis.

Our English lessons have focused on identifying technical language for spy gadgets and the range of phrases used to write a linked explanation. We are looking forward to reading how pupils’ own gadget creations work by the end of the week.

In RE we applied our knowledge of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the work of a range of CAFOD volunteers across the world. Pupils were able to identify the injustices that many communities face and how the volunteers were putting their Faith into Action.

We are now looking forward to our trip to the Houses of Parliament on Thursday 14th June. Please remember that the coach will leave at 8:10 am so it is important for pupils to be dropped off at 8 am at the latest – please refer to the recent letter home for further details. The workshop will focus on how UK laws are made, linking nicely to our work on the plastic problem and democracy.

Best wishes

The Year 6 Team

Well it’s all over – SATs week has come and gone!

There are many reasons why people work in education but the over-whelming one is the children and this week has been no exception.  We can not express how proud we have been of their committment to revision at home, revision in class and the way in which they have conducted themselves this week. Their positive and calm approach has shown their maturity and respect of this whole process and the atmosphere this week has been focused and confident. It has made all the preperation for these tests worthwhile for the children to feel that they had the skills and knowledge to approach the tests confidently. We have loved sharing this week’s smiles and comments such as “Yes, I felt really good about that paper” and “I’m so proud and I tried my best” with them all.  A real priviledge with such lovely children.

We enjoyed some down time with a film and ‘cinema treats’ courtesy of Mr Cunningham as well as chocolate muffins courtesy of the kitchen. Also, the children enjoyed a day of art today creating their bunting for the World Record attempt and completing ‘The Cows of Cowplain’. This was all rounded off with an ice lolly and free time on the field. A fabulous end to a great week.

Now on with our production, Annie. We watched the film to understand the story and inspire the children to audition for a part. Scripts will go home on Monday for those children who wish to have a speaking and/or singing part. Auditions will take place on Thursday/Friday afternoon.

We will be beginning a new English unit next week based on the children’s book ‘Stormbreaker’. We would like to show the children the film so a permission letter will be sent out next week as the film is rated PG.

RE will see us begin our Pentacost and Mission unit.

Have a wonderful weekend, free from SATs revision.

The Year 6 Team

We have been very impressed and proud of a number of pupils from both Year 6 classes who took time at home to write to the Prime Minister in order to outline their concerns with regard to plastics in the environment. All the children involved have received personalised, written responses from the communications office at 10 Downing Street, praising them for their initiatives and promising to forward their letters on to DEFRA!

We were all very excited to learn that Blake had received the first response. It is great for the children to see that their voice will be listened to and can make a difference. As you can see from the letter, Blake received a very comprehensive reply! The pupils are relishing the opportunity to raise their concerns further with Alan Mak – our local MP – when he visits the school on Friday 18th May.

Many thanks to all parents who have completed their reply slips for the upcoming trip to the Houses of Parliament. If you have yet to inform school if your child will be taking part, please could you let the office know as soon as you are able? Many thanks.

We are working with great focus in the run up to the SATs and have been super impressed with the positive attitudes and can-do mindset that pupils are bringing into school on a daily basis. Thank you to all who are giving extra encouragement and support with reading, maths and grammar – it really is making a difference!

Following a vote, we are pleased to announce that the Year 6 end-of-year production for 2018 will be……..Annie! The script has been ordered and we hope to have auditions completed and parts allocated before the summer half-term to allow children to get to grips with their lines! There are many parts to fill and we are looking forward to putting on a great show for your enjoyment.

Thankfully the sun has returned. Unfortunately the Year 6 classrooms can become very warm as a result so we would be grateful if you can ensure your child has a water bottle in school to keep them as cool as possible. Many thanks.

The Year 6 Team

As the final week of Spring term draws to an end, the children have written their balanced argument in answer to the question: ‘Should all plastics be banned?’ In the form of a National Geographic for Kids article – the children presented facts and evidence to support ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments and drew their own conclusions in a final summary. Many have been very inspired by this environmental unit and have developed a more critical thinking approach to their learning as well as becoming more politically aware.

Maths saw us completing our statistics problem solving and having a day on Roman numerals. 99 caused a bit of controversy with XCIX rather than IC! The children have brought a maths revision booklet home to continue their work over the Easter holidays. We are aware that this is family time and a chance for enjoying holidays away from the normal routine. However, if you could encourage your child to ‘keep in contact’ with their learning and spend some time consolidating focus areas in Maths, reading, spelling and grammar so they can maintain their confidence when they return to school in two weeks.

The week ended with the Stations of the Cross, which was slightly hampered logistically by the rain but not spiritually.  The children, as always, reflected beautifully at each station as our Lenten period builds to the Easter weekend. When we return to school after the holiday, we will reflect on the Lenten promises the children made.

Until then, let us enjoy time together with friends and family and pray for clement weather.

Have a wonderful holiday,

The Year 6 Team

Having published our letters, this week we moved on to explore the arguments in favour of plastic. We watched a promotional video from OPEC which certainly opened our eyes to how widely plastic is used in our modern world – especially within the medical and healthcare industries. Without it, how would blood be stored or syringes made? It certainly got us thinking. We are certain the children will use their new knowledge well in writing a balanced argument for the Children’s National Geographic magazine.

We have been very impressed with the progress all pupils have made in their reading practice SATS. Daily guided reading sessions, booster groups and home study are definitely paying off. Please encourage your child to keep their great efforts up throughout the Easter break as it is having a real impact on their ability to make sense of texts quickly and efficiently.

In maths this week we took a closer look at line graphs. The children enjoyed writing their own stories to describe a line on a graph. Many said it was like an English lesson which was quite true, as you need to be able to read a graph to use it! We are now into full revision mode in maths too; over the coming weeks we will be revisiting the areas that particular children need to secure (which can be quite wide ranging) using all the staff and resources at our disposal to build confidence and skills for all our pupils.

Finally, as we draw closer to the Easter celebrations, pupils wrote a letter to their future selves reminding them of the significance of this time and giving tips on how they could reflect. They also had many questions for their future selves. We will endeavour to produce a copy of their letters for them to take home and hopefully open in 10/20/30 years time!

That’s all for now.

The Year 6 Team

In English this week we have been writing, editing and improving our final letters to enable the children to write persuasively on the issue of excess plastic waste in our oceans. The children have devised passionate and eloquent arguments to support their viewpoints as to why the Prime Minister, President Trump and global organisations such as Pepsi and Amazon should take global responsibility for ensuring that one-use plastic is reduced and more recyclable plastics are developed. We have been in awe at how the children have developed their stewardship voice and are becoming more politically aware of national and global issues concerning this matter. Once the letters are published, we will send them to their addressees.
Our trip to the House of Parliament in June will enrich their understanding of how laws are debated and created and hopefully inspire some future political voices to emerge.

In Maths, we have completed our last round of practise papers to inform us of what needs the children will be focusing on in the run up to our May assessments. We have been very impressed at the children’s focus and resilience in these tests – a fantastic learning attitude helps to reap the reward of progress.

RE saw the children ‘examine their conscience’ about forgiveness and through their Lenten promises have thought about how they will ‘reflect’ on their actions during this lent period. We also used scripture to examine the beatitudes and the children created their own versions for modern day life.

Creative tasks have been sent home for the children’s consideration and homework diaries are checked weekly on Monday to see what Maths, Reading and Spelling home learning has been completed. Please ensure that these diaries are in weekly.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Year 6 Team

Welcome back to the beginning of a new term which will take us right up to Good Friday!

This week in English we began to discover the worrying facts and figures regarding the global problem of plastic pollution. Did you know that eight thousand millions tonnes of plastic enter the environment each year, or that there is enough plastic to fill fifteen plastic bags per metre of coastline – the whole way around the Earth?! With all this information and more, pupils have formed campaign teams with a particular objective in mind. Next week we will gather facts to support their cases and develop strategies to help bring about the change they want. MP’s and global companies should be prepared to hear from us!

In maths we discovered the usefulness of ratio in scaling up quantities to suit our needs. We were then able to apply ratio when investigating the relationship between
radius, diameter and circumference of circles – this came out as 1:2 for radius and diameter, and roughly 1:3 for diameter and circumference (pi = 3.142)

RE saw the beginning of our Lent unit. We started by watching a film adaptation of the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus and then read the scripture. This led to a discussion around whether it is possible to be rich and good which culminated with an analysis of the philanthropic works of Bill Gates and others. Children identified how they could do more good to make the lives of others in the world better.

Have a cosy weekend

The Year 6 Team

Our final week of the half term saw the children completing their ‘spooky’ short stories for the Year 4 children to read at their camping night in the summer term. After editing and improving initial drafts, the children began to publish their final versions. We will complete publishing these stories after half term before starting our next English unit concerning the current environmental issue of plastic waste affecting our planet. The children have already been considering their ‘plastic footprint’ and making a promise to reduce their use of plastic to help the environment.

Thank you for your support in helping the children practise their performance poetry. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons saw their fantastic final performances and we were amazed at how the children were able to recite quite long poems with expression, humour and actions. Even though some children found performing in front of others quite daunting, they showed great resilience and effort. This will have a positive impact on their growing confidence and will be remembered as a personal achievement. Three children have been picked to represent Year 6 in the Grand Final on Friday 9th March- Well done to Joanna Lopez De Sousa, Saoirse Lehane and Tom Gozukucuk.

Lent begins in earnest on our return to school and the children have been given Lent passports to sign at church. Thank you for supporting them in this important time.

Friday afternoon saw the Year 6  children partnering up with the Reception children to complete their painting contribution to the whole school art project that Mrs Pearson is organising. Great fun was had by all and the Year 6 children really enjoy the responsibility of helping the younger children.

Friday also saw the children saying goodbye to Miss Burch who has been in Year 6 since the Autumn term. She has been a valued addition to the Year 6 team and we wish her well in the next stage of her teaching career.

Wishing you a happy half term holiday and we look forward to seeing the children again on Monday 19th February.

Year 6 Team

Another busy week in Year 6 finished with our second S.T.E.M. day – The Confetti Challenge! Pupils were asked to apply their knowledge of circuits to design and build a device that would ‘hoover-up’ all of the confetti left over after an end of term party. Using only a left over plastic bottle, a motor, batteries, wires and card, many ingenious contraptions were developed along the lines of a reversed hair dryer design. We learnt that the most successful models had fan blades that pulled the air through the bottle; three groups managed to lift confetti off the carpet! All children showed real enthusiasm and a great deal of resilience during the day. Their evaluation of what went well and how they can improve will definately benefit them when S.T.E.M. comes around again!

Talking of resilience and enthusiasm, we were extremely impressed with the way the Year 6 pupils approached their maths assessments this week. The hard work we have been putting in to arithmetic strategies is definately paying off with the majority of children achieving their best scores yet!

Many thanks to all parents who attended the recent SATs information evening; we hope you found it useful. Your child should have brought home their login for the strangely named but brilliantly useful ‘Compare4Kids’ website which will enable them to practise their arithmetic, grammar and spelling through daily ‘bootcamps’.

If you were unable to attend the information evening, the Powerpoint presentation is here: