Dear Parents,

Today we said farewell to Mrs Pearson, who has taught and supported a lot of your children for more than a term. Happily, she has promised to join us for our end of year performance so we will all see her again for a final goodbye.

After a very busy week of preparation and revision, SATs are upon us. Your children came home with a letter today outlining the timetable. The most important thing to note is that they can arrive at school at 8.15 from Monday to Thursday, if they wish, and have a gentle start to the morning with their friends.  Otherwise we are as ready as we can be, and, as Mr Cunningham advised today, a bit of revision of things that are still a bit worrying, combined with a lot of rest and relaxation, will be the best start to the week ahead.

We hope you have a great weekend,

The Year Six team.

Welcome back to all! We hope that the Easter holidays provided some well-deserved relaxation for families.

This week has been a busy return to work. We began our persuasive writing unit with a shocking announcement from Mr Cunningham with regards proposed plans for the school field. As per the Headteacher’s weekly blog, it was all a ruse but created a passionate furore to provide a fantastic stimulus for our letter writing over the next two weeks.

SATs preperation continues well in Maths and we continue to focus on consolidating and deepening the children’s learning needs to ensure they feel confident in these assessments. Fractions, decimals and percentages remains a key focus area.

R.E. lessons continue to look at Easter and focus on the scripture accounts of the Resurrection of Christ from differing viewpoints. The children began to engage in discussion and critical analysis of these accounts, as well as the depiction in art of ‘Douting Thomas’.

The class prayer bag will continue to be sent home weekly. Details of how to share this with your child are in the accompanying note book in the bag.

Enjoy your extended weekend with your families.  School resumes on Tuesday 2nd May.

The Year 6 Team

This week is Year 6 has been varied and busy as usual.

Year 6 enjoyed a morning of Greek cookery at Oaklands on Monday and made some delicious food for lunch. Each child experienced a flatbread filled with Greek salad and lamb Koftas. Reviews of the food were excellent and many children tried food they hadn’t experienced before and enjoyed it. The teachers in the school’s Food Technology department were very complimentary about the behaviour of the children and how enthusiastic they were during the activity. (Due to downloading difficulties , photos will follow next week)

Tuesday saw all Key Stage 2 children take part in the Penitential Service. During this period of Lent, the children were asked to think about what they needed to say sorry for and place a prayer stone on the altar to signify their forgiving of themselves and others. This theme has been reflected in class worships and RE lessons this week the children have been looking at the Penitential Rite and creating their own examination of conscience.

Please find attached this week’s RE newsletter:

SP2 WK5

In English, we have been continuing to investigate language features of non-chronological reports and today began the children began to plan a report based on their own mythical creature in order to write next week.  In Maths, we have been continuing with revision on key areas identified by the children and teachers to ensure that the children feel more able to confidently approach challenging multi-step problems. Please continue to support your child in areas such as arithmetic, times tables and reasoning problems using fractions and decimals.

Children are given the opportunity to share their home learning during the week as there is an expectation that all children are undertaking daily activities including reading, maths activities/revision and the topic pyramid. It is important that they value and commit to these tasks to consolidate and deepen their learning as well as develop their learning habits for home learning in Year 7. Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Next Tuesday sees the children taking part in the ‘Stations of The Cross’ event during the day to mark Holy Week and also, after school on Tuesday is an informal parent drop-in session where you are able to view the work that your child(ren) have been undertaking this term. We look forward to welcoming you into Year 6.

Have a lovely weekend enjoying the sun!

The Year 6 Team

Dear all,

Big thank you to all your support for our recent CAFOD appeal. The office staff are in the process of counting the money that was donated so a final total is on the way. If you still have any spare change that you would like to donate please either send in with your child or give in to the office directly.

Another big thank you to the families that have already recieved the prayer bags this week and have sent in prayers for us to share in class collective worship. The children are incredibly motivated to take part and the presentation and effort in the prayer book has been of an excellent standard so thank you for your support.  We will continue to send home the prayer bag on a Friday to be returned on the following Tuesday. This week’s RE newsletter is below.

SP2 WK4

In Maths, we have been focusing on problem solving through shapes and angles. Next week we will be looking at problem solving and investigation through measures. English sees the start of a new unit: Non-chronological reports based on mythical creatures. The children have really engaged so far so we are looking forward to creating our own creatures.

On Monday, Year 6 will be going to Oaklands to cook a Greek menu and then eat together at lunch. Groups will prepare and cook Lamb Kofkas, flatbreads and Greek salad. On Tuesday, Key Stage Two will take part in a Penitential service in the hall and  from Thursday the Travelling Book Fair will be selling books in the school foyer.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy Mother’s Day.

The Year 6 Team

Dear Parents,

Another busy week in year 6.

We have been continuing in English to look at The Highwayman and, in groups, the children have been working hard on developing more interesting and varied sentences. We will be writing a newspaper report next week as our final piece on this text before moving onto non-chronological reports. Please encourage your chidren to read daily at home as we are seeing a really positive impact on their reading comprehension as well as their writing.

In Maths, we have been continuing to work on solving multi-step problems using statistics and data and finding missing numbers and quantities using algebraic formulas. Next week the children will be focusing on angles and shape. Please continue to support your children with consolidating their knowledge on fractions and decimals as well as their target areas. Homework has been set on Abacus and MyMaths.

We continue with our focus on Lent in RE and the children have been reflecting on the importance of alms and the Beatitudes, through Matthew 5: 1-12, and how they are relevant to modern day life. If your child has brought home their class prayer bag today then they can share with you a worship and you can create a prayer together for them to share in class worship on Tuesday. Please find the week 3 newsletter below.

SP2 WK3

This week, Year 6 took delivery of a Greek history box and the children will be doing activities on Monday and Tuesday afternoon to develop their understanding of Ancient Greece and comparing how this ancient civilisation affected our modern day lives. Please encourage your child to do at least one activity a week from the home learning pyramid.  We have seen some lovely examples today which have already been completed.

Also, a letter went home today about a Greek cookery project for DT that the children will be undertaking at Oaklands on the morning of the Monday 27th March. We will discuss this further with the children next week and assign cookery groups.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 6 Team

Our week has seen some great fundraising for the Big Fish CAFOD project. Year 6 children purchased little fish for 10p each and stuck them into a fishing net. We will count the money next week to find an exact total. If any other change can come in on Monday then that will be gratefully appreciated.  Please share the weekly prayer below with your family and continue to collect the jigsaw pieces at Mass.

SP2 WK2

Thank you for all parents that attended parents evening this week for 6S. 6T parents evening is rescheduled for next week.

It is a great opportunity to continue to support the school/home link which is so important for the children. Parental support is invaluable and has a great effect, not only on your child’s self esteem but their progress too. This joint, consistent approach to supporting learning has produced all-round positive results for children.

Thank you again for your continued support with preparing children for their SATs. If you identify any ‘sticking points’ in your child’s understanding, then please note in their home learning diary and we can address these in lessons. We have continued to share test papers results with the children this week so they feel that the assessments they are completing have value to progress their learning. It has been lovely to see the children proud of their achievements as well as being invested in wanting to improve their learning.

A new home learning pyramid has gone home with the children today. Our half-termly topic is The Greeks and we will be exploring ancient and modern-day Greece in English and Topic as well as cooking Greek food in DT. Our weekly expectation for home learning is that the children complete one task from the pyramid, read daily for at least 20-25 minutes and complete a maths activity daily including times tables practise, if appropriate.

Wishing you have lovely weekend with family and friends,

The Year 6 Team

Welcome back. We hope you have had a good half term break. The second half of our Spring term has started in its usual busy fashion.

We began the week with a CAFOD Big Fish assembly (full details on Mr Cunningham’s Blog) to help raise money to help families in Zambia. Children will have brought the money boxes home this week for any loose change your family and friends may have and we shall be collecting money through a year 6 fundraising activity. Details to follow early next week.

Monday also saw the start of our Mock SAT’s week. The children have worked so hard this week and we have definitely seen a more positive and resilient attitude in their approach to these tests. As I am sure you are aware, the ARE expectation of the new curriculum is aimed at a much higher standard than in previous years, therefore we would encourage parents/carers to continue to support your child in their preperation for these tests.

Wednesday saw the start of Lent and children took part in an Ash Wednesday service with Father Jeremy and Father Vitalis. The children have also been reflecting on their Lenten promises. Please find attached our weekly lent newsletter.

SP2 WK1 Newsletter

On Thursday, World Book Day saw some fabulous costumes from the children and a welcome respite from the busy start to the week. Every child was issued with a book voucher and mini books were given out aswell.

Today ended with a visit from two authors – The Two Steves.  http://the2steves.net/

Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore have written around 200 books including many popular fiction series like Action Dogs, Challenger, iHero, iHorror, Mad Myths, Vernon Bright and The Dark Forest.

Year 6 children really enjoyed a noisy afternoon, wearing embarrassing costumes with lots of audience participation. It is well worth looking at their books as the children became very involved with the plots.

A great way to end our first week back!

Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 6 Team

Our last week of this half term has been busy as usual.  Although we having been moving towards half term, some great learning has taken place in Maths and English.

In Maths, we have been working hard on fractions, decimals and percentages and exloring the relationship between these concepts across different areas of Maths. The children have also been calculating fractions and applying this learning to solve fraction multi-step word problems. They have been working so hard to improve this area of Maths and it has been so lovely to see how proud the children are feeling because of all their effort.

Today we concluded our English unit on Shaun Tan’s ‘The Arrival’ with some stunning diary writing. We have been focusing on developing sentence structure in our descriptive writing. The children have been working hard to write from the point of view of the main protagonist using a variety of sentences for effect. As a year 6 team, we are very proud of what the children wrote in terms of both quality and quantity. A great way to end our half term in English.

In our library session today, Mrs D introduced the Year 6 children to a new reading incentive they will be taking part in from next half term. Ask your child to explain it to you. More details to follow after half term.

Thank you to all of those parents who attended the SATs meeting on Wednesday. If you didn’t, the children will be bringing home today a letter about the SATs arrangements in May, a memory stick with study information on, a SPAG mat for revision, a list of suggested revision websites, Year 5/6 spellings and finally, a copy of a SATs arithmetic paper.

Can we remind you that Mock SATs will take place from Monday 27th February – Friday 3rd March. We are aware that a half term holiday is a chance for you to enjoy time as a family having fun, however we have set Maths homework online and reading on Bug Club if you feel your child would welcome an opportunity to keep their learning momentum up for their return to school. If you feel you would like to help prepare your child for the Mock SATs, then thank you in advance.

We wish you all a very happy half term.

Year 6 Team

During this week in English we have been continuing our writing around Shaun Tan’s ‘The Arrival’ and the children have been using drama to inspire writing from a first person account about immigration and refugees. The emotive language used in their writing was incredibly empathatic and thoughtful. We will explore this further next week with diary writing.

In Maths,  we have been continuing to look at key skills and strategies to solve multi-step problems as well as focus on recall of times table knowledge. Further practise sheets will come home on Monday for key times tables that the children have identified for target practise. Next week we will be focusing on the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages through measures.

A big thank you for the four year 6 children who, along with year 5 children, attended the Primary Maths Challenge event at Oaklands this week. The team reported that they had enjoyed the challenges and had to work harder for some of them!! They represented St Peter’s beautifully.

Reminder: Wednesday 15th February at 5pm – SATs meeting for Year 6

Have a lovley weekend.

Year 6 Team

Dear all,

This week we have been sharing the results of the recent mock – SATs with the children. We felt this was an important process for the children and in many cases were asked by the children to see what they had personally achieved. We looked at the three maths papers, the reading paper, the punctuation and grammar paper and the spelling paper. The children had the opportunity to review their work, attempt corrections and analyse which areas needed development in order to set personal learning targets. These targets will be worked on in the coming weeks to consolidate any remaining misconceptions.

Please ask your children to share their analysis with you and encourage them to practise at home to consolidate their learning.

Key areas for consideration:

• Daily reading – reading a range of non-fiction, fiction and poetry to develop vocabulary and sentence structure as well as creative thinking.
• Practising challenging key maths areas  – Formal written methods in addition, subtraction, division, multiplication (times tables upto 12×12), fractions, measures, time and multi-step problems.
• Written work – editing for correct punctuation, effective language choices and correct spelling (key words as well as Year 5 and 6 words). Using a variety of sentence structures to include subordinate and relative clauses.

A SATs meeting will take place on Wednesday 15th February at 5pm for you to ask any further questions you may have at this time.  A letter will be sent out early next week with specific details.

Could we also do a repeated plea for any empty shoe boxes, as soon as possible, for our upcoming science project.

As you were made aware yesterday by letter, Mrs Turner suffered the unexpected and tragic loss of her husband on Wednesday. All of the St Peter’s community have sent prayers, love and good wishes to her. The children each made personal cards for her today which were delivered to her this afternoon. She, her husband and their family have been remembered in our prayers at St Peter’s and I am sure will also be remembered in yours.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Year 6 Team