Year 6 pupils have had a very thoughtful and reflective week this week, as you would expect at this time of year.

In addition to their wonderful poems and artwork for the Remembrance Service at Cowplain Shopping Centre, the children have also been learning about the issue of homelessness within our local community. This is in preparation for a visit from Two Saints – a charity focused on assisting rough sleepers in rebuilding their lives.

See below for excellent thinking around this topic from Johan John.

Have a wonderful weekend

The Year 6 Team

What a busy week! The children have not stopped and have worked hard to adjust back into school life and behaviours following a two-week hiatus from the classroom…

We hope the children really prospered from their week at Fairthorne and it is without doubt that the adults witnessed every child grow within that time – it was a pleasure to be with them outside of the school environment and they really did show their own qualities and personalities.

Weaving the experience of Fairthorne into the school curriculum has meant that children have drawn upon their own experiences and conclusions of activities they enjoyed the most. This will culminate next week when they pen a report to Year 5 parents about the value the trip represents and the benefits to the real world for the children.

Year 6 were very grateful to have been asked to create a collection of poems relating to Remembrance Day and World War One. The chosen children drilled in on the real life experiences of Harry Patch, who served at Passchendaele, in the Third Battle of Ypres. They were able to connect emotively to what he was saying and from this, the children portrayed the horrors of war through the form of a poem. The remaining Year 6 pupils created numerous poppies for display in the Prayer Garden and for the Co-operative Funeral Parlour in Cowplain, which is where children will go next week to read and distribute their poems to the public.

In other work, Year 6 have made a start on their Homelessness Project, which will culminate in them fundraising for the Two Saints Charity by collectively walking or jogging, as a Year Group, one thousand kilometres in one morning! More to follow on this soon…

The Year 6 Team

Well – we were certainly blessed with the weather today! It wasn’t looking good overnight but thankfully we woke up to blue skies full of excitement for the day ahead. The day culminated with joke telling and a good sing-song around the campfire. Some photos below:

The children have enjoyed a fun-filled day of activities and continue to surprise us with the enthusiasm and energy they put into each new pursuit! As I write this they are busting their moves on the dancefloor, well fueled by a delicious dinner and tuck-shop treats! Some photos of the day are below – more to follow when we return home.

A fantastic day of challenging themselves and making memories has been had by all. The children have arrived at the team building challenges and are impressing all with their co-operation and communication skills. They are also enjoying the food – don’t take it personally! Some photos of the day can be found below:

Until tomorrow!

The Year 6 Team

Just a quick blog this evening to assure parents that we have arrived and settled in well to our new surroundings. As I type this, the corridors are eerily quiet – the children have packed a great deal into the afternoon and evening and seem more than ready for a lie down and sleep…

The Year 6 children have put in some extra effort this week, safe in the knowledge that next week we shall all be enjoying the outdoor environment at Fairthorne Manor!

They all worked well to incorporate the writing skills we have been working on in a detailed description of Lucy finding the wardrobe that would lead her to Narnia. In maths they applied their addition and subtraction skills to solve problems involving perimeter in a range of contexts. We completed our science investigation into lung capacity, drawing conclusions from our results and suggesting next steps, while in RE we learnt how hard it is to bring about harmony in places in the world where there is disharmony, looking at the work of CAFOD and other agencies.

So a busy week! But we are now all looking forward to Fairthorne Manor. Please read below for some last minute reminders which have also been communicated via Parentmail:

We are very excited to be leaving for Fairthorne Manor on Monday and are sure the children are too. We thought you might welcome some last minute information as you prepare over the weekend.

Drop-off and pick-up timings

Monday 18^th October Drop-off

– Please drop-off in the normal fashion from 8:30am at the north gate. Children will then place their bags in the Unity Building and wait in the playground. Wear outdoor clothing suitable for the prevailing weather conditions.

Friday 22^nd October Collection

We will return to school between 2:00 and 2:30pm and would appreciate it if arrangements can be made for the children to be collected ASAP upon arrival.

KIT LIST REMINDERS

• ROLL-ON DEODORANT ONLY PLEASE! Spray deodorants will set off the smoke alarms in the rooms.
• AT LEAST TWO-PAIRS OF SHOES. Preferably 2 pairs (1 for wet activities) AND a pair of wellies.
• A ‘WATERPROOF’ COAT IS ESSENTIAL. The weather is looking changeable and children will have a great time if they can remain dry. Waterproof trousers are useful too.
• You do not need to provide a wetsuit!
• A pair of water shoes (like you may use down the beach) can be brought.
• HAIRDRYERS – We will provide a room with hairdryers for those children who may need them.
• NO MOBILE PHONES
• BRING A TORCH as we will be outdoors in the evenings
• NO SWEETS TO BE TAKEN. Children can have £5 of tuck shop money (in change please) that they can learn to ration across the week.

ALL PACKED IN A BAG THAT YOUR CHILD CAN MANAGE ON THEIR OWN.

Many thanks

The Year 6 Team

Another week has flown by with the Year 6 children enjoying a varied and challenging set of learning opportunities.

Our maths has focused on finding efficient and accurate ways of adding numbers, through rounding and adjusting, redistribution of one number to another or through most people’s favourite – the column method. We have been impressed with the lateral thinking that took place in class and the explanations and reasoning children were able to give to support their choices of method. Maybe you can ask your child if they can add up your shopping bill mentally as you make your way around the shops this weekend?!

English has seen the children continue to develop their ideas and sentence structures for their upcoming retelling of how Lucy found the wardrobe in C S Lewis’ ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’. They are all making good progress in combining action, description, thoughts and feelings into their work.

We are continuing with running in our weekly class PE sessions, and are glad to be able to confirm that the children are doing well, running further and for longer. This practice will stand them in good stead when we are having to move between activities at Fairthorne Manor.

Many thanks to all for returning your meal choice forms. We hope you are managing to find items that are required on the kit list. If you are finding it difficult to secure any items, do let us know as we may well be able to find what you need from within the school community.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

The Year 6 Team

If you were not at Monday’s presentation, the slide show is here

Fairthorne 2021

If you have any questions, do get in touch via the admin office email.

Kind regards

The Year 6 Team

Good afternoon! Another busy week has been had by all and this means we are one week closer to our Fairthorne Manor residential…The children have been returning their meal choice list and excitement is starting to bubble! Please, do not forget the Fairthorne Virtual Meeting which is to be held this Monday, 27^th September at 5:00pm – a Microsoft Teams request has been sent to parents and carers. The year 6 team look forward to unveiling more information about the week and to clarify specific details that will make your child’s stay and experience all the richer and fulfilling.

The children have undertaken their homework duties extremely well over the last week, and it has been brilliant to see all homework handed in and completed – great resilience from the children!!! Other learning has seen the children dive into some rounding of number in maths so if you are out at the weekend carrying out your weekly shop, have your child round up or down the items on your shopping receipt to the nearest ten pence and to the nearest pound. This will help cement their rounding knowledge within a real-life context, and you can talk to them about why rounding money can be beneficial when dealing with money and weekly budgets.

Other learning has seen the children commence their thinking around our Science investigation for Circulation, and what type of investigation we might be able to carry out in relation to ‘Lung Capacity’ and the children in the class. There were some interesting ideas for experiments and plenty of discussion about how those ideas for experiments would or would not work in the classroom. Talk around feasibility, what it would look like and how reliable the results would be were also had. Watch this space for developments!!!

We hope you all have a good weekend.

The Year 6 team.