Year 6
Rights Respecting Articles in Child Friendly Language
If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.
- Maya Angelou
Transition for secondary school slides 2024
This is an important year for your child as we aim to develop their confidence, resilience and independence so they feel ready to move on to secondary school. Of course, we do have a few tests (Wandsworth tests and the SATs) but the year is so much more than that: we want to instil inquisition, creativity and a love of learning which all children can take with them into their new schools. We encourage children to realise that there’s a purpose to their learning and that they can use their skills to make a difference in this world.
Important dates:
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KS2 SATS week – Monday 13th May – Thursday 16th May
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Isle of Wight trip – Thursday 6th June (group 1) & Thursday 13th June (group 2)
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Year 6 show – Monday 8th July @ 5:30pm (Cast 1) & Thursday 11th July @ 5:30pm (Cast 2)
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Year 6 Graduation – Wednesday 17th July (6H – 9:15, 6L – 10:15, 6J – 11:15)
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Year 6 Leavers’ Party – Wednesday 17th July @ 4:30 – 7:00pm
Meet the team
Miss Lewis (6LK) - Year Leader
Mrs Khalfey (6LK) - Class Teacher
Mrs Hitch (6H) - Class Teacher
Mr Hayward (6H) - Class Teacher
Support Staff - Miss Pink, Mrs Hayden, Mrs Ahmed Mr Gash and Miss Titre
What we do and when
KS2 SATS week – Monday 13th May – Thursday 16th May
Isle of Wight trip – Thursday 6th June (group 1) & Thursday 13th June (group 2)
Year 6 show – Monday 8th July @ 5:30pm (Cast 1) & Thursday 11th July @ 5:30pm (Cast 2)
Year 6 Graduation – Wednesday 17th July (6H – 9:15, 6L – 10:15, 6J – 11:15)
Year 6 Leavers’ Party – Wednesday 17th July @ 4:30 – 7:00pm
Our learning
Spring
In English, Year 6 loved becoming journalists during Book Week! We learnt about all the different roles that make up journalism, including editors, interviewers, camera and sound technicians, reporters, writers and presenters. We also learnt about bias in the news and the importance of reading multiple news sources to find a balanced point of view. We were so lucky to have special visitors who taught us more about the skills and qualities needed to pursue journalism
As artists, we enjoyed a visit from the famous war artists George Butler. He taught us how to use negative space in our artwork. We felt so honoured that George visited our school. He helped us think about the impact of war on humanity and the stories of those whose lives have been forced to change because of conflict, both past and present. We practised skills using watercolour, charcoal and collage, including mixed media and were truly inspired by George who gave us some great top tips for our final piece.
In English, one of our writing projects this half term has been ‘Stories that Scare!’ We loved using drama techniques to explore the different ways to create suspense. We also used technology to plot graphs to show how the ‘red flags’ help to keep the reader on the edge of their seat! We recorded our stories as audio books which will soon be available to listen to here!
To end our history topic ‘The World at War’, we experienced what life was like in the local area with our own WWII day. We discovered what it was like to be evacuated through studying artefacts, including a diary written by someone who lived opposite our school! We also discussed rationing and made carrot cookies using rations.
Autumn
As performers, we all enjoyed welcoming parents in to school to see our class assemblies. This term, we enjoyed inviting the parents in for our class assemblies. We showed off our script writing skills by creating our own script based around the idea ‘The Battle of the Subjects’. The parents had to vote for their favourite act and the winners were then crowned…. Geography (with some persuasion from Mr Hayward) and PE!
As mathematicians, we have loved using our maths skills in lots of other subjects. Maths is a subject used in 96% of jobs - actually we think it is more like 100% - and maths is EVERYWHERE! We don’t just learn about maths in our Maths lessons - we have used maths a lot this term in other subjects.
In DT, we used maths to measure precisely in mm. We used our conversion between cm and mm knowledge when we had to cut wood and measure how long it was so we got the perfect length for our boxes. We also had to make sure our box joins were at perfect right angles. 
In geography, we linked coordinates in maths with a 4-grid square reference map to find locations in the UK - we used terms like East and North instead of x and y axis. And of course we also looked at scaling! In Maths, we scaled shape and explored what happened to the area and perimeter of scaled shapes, while in geography we could use scale to understand the distance between locations and the size of places.
In English, we have also been writing our own discussion texts. Some of the questions we chose to write about were:
Should mobile phones be allowed in secondary schools?
Should different genders have different clothing options?
Does the treatment to people suffering with mental health issues stretch far enough?
Should robots in AI be allowed to take people’s jobs?
Wars - are they ever justified?
Should Christmas trees be banned?
Should you be able to follow two religions at the same time?
Should you have to learn Maths until you’re 18?
Is it fair to have an age limit on social media?
Should water be free for all?
Should advertising on social media be banned?
Should NHS staff get a pay rise?
What do you think? Please come and have a read of our writing which we have published into books which are available in our class libraries.
Previously...
We are creative! We enjoyed starting the year by showing our self-expression through self-portraits in art.
As readers, we explored how and why we read using our school book ‘All the Wonderful Ways to Read’. We worked together to create our own class poems about all the different ways, places and things we like to read.
Last year...
To mark ‘Refugee Week’, we created a virtual exhibition of our artwork from our ‘World at War’ topic from the spring term. Please click here to watch it.
To help us with transition to Year 7, we enjoyed our Geography, Textiles and Philosophy workshops from our local secondary school. It was really helpful having the Year 7 children visit us too; they showed us their planners, taught us how to put on ties and helped calm our nerves.
For Arts Week, we were lucky enough to: take part in a rap workshop, an African dance tutorial, Sounds Steps performance, play the steel pans and learn how to print using lino. What an incredible week!
As scientists, we learnt the impact drugs have on the body. We explored the dangers of smoking and vaping and recreated a set of healthy, working lungs so see how each body part involved worked to help us breathe. We were then challenged to edit and change our experiment to show how smoking affects the efficiency of the lungs.
A trip to Chessington after our hardwork during SATs week was really worth it! We showed courage and collaboration since worked as a team throughout the day. Lots of us had never been to a theme park before so this was a new experience for us – it is one we will never forget!
We loved our visit to ‘The London Central Mosque located’ in Baker Street, as part of our RE learning about Islam. We were able to explore the grounds of the mosque, the main prayer hall, the Mosque library and some exhibitions.
For World Book Day, we enjoyed dressing up as our favourite book characters and reading with children in Reception.
In English, we used ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ as inspiration for writing our own fantasy playscripts. We were even lucky enough to ‘virtually’ meet and ask questions to Gordon Millar who currently plays the part of Scorpius in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
In DT, we learnt about the history of empanadas before designing and making our own vegetarian ones using seasonal produce – they were delicious!
In art, we felt so honoured that George Butler visited our school. He helped us think about the human impact of war and the stories of those whose lives have been forced to change because of conflict, both past and present. His visit has really helped us think about what message we want to create in our own artwork.
In DT and Science, we designed and made our own wire loop games. We love how they buzz and light up when the handle touches the wire maze to make a complete circuit!
We had an exciting trip to the French Institute in South Kensington where we took part in language activities, explored the institute and its French library, and even watched a French film – ‘Azur et Asmar’ - at the Cine Lumière
We loved using our new VR headsets in Geography where we were transported to the tundra!
In Wellbeing, we had a visit from TFL who taught us how to travel safely and confidently on public transport.
In P.E, we enjoyed taking part in our annual rugby festival at Tooting Common with Wandsworth School Games and AFCW Foundation.
We were busy in our Wellbeing Garden managed to harvest some delicious autumn produce – look at our giant pumpkin!
We were lucky to start off the year with a visit from Loudmouth Education. They performed a play about how to have healthy and safe relationships both online and offline.
As part of our history topic, Year 6 had the pleasure of visiting Hampton Court Palace! We deepened our understanding of Tudor life and the rule of King Henry VIII.
We wrote letters to the author Banji Alexander after he came to visit it at school at the beginning of the term. He even tweeted to say thank you!
How can you help at home?
- Daily reading for a minimum of 20 minutes is an expectation in Year 6. Children need to bring their reading record and book into school every day. It is still really important to listen to your child read at least 3 x a week - please record any reading at home in your child’s reading diary.
- Visit Mathletics: http://uk.mathletics.com Children have their own log-ins for Mathletics where they will be set weekly tasks to complete.
- In order to complete mental and written calculations quickly and confidently, children should already be fluent in their times tables (1 - 12) by the time they reach Year 6. Please support your child with this to ensure they feel ready.
Useful websites:
- LGfL and Scholastic resources
- Parent information - Mathletics
- Recommended Reading lists: School Reading lists or Book trust
- Free online SATS practice
- Free online Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning practice
- Verbal reasoning practice (free)
- Non-Verbal reasoning practice (free)
- More Non-Verbal and Verbal practice
- Oxford Owl
- Epic Reading
- TTRS
Transition to Secondary School resources:
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Preparing for secondary school (Penwortham checklist)
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Supporting children's transition to secondary school
Join our community
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If so, please sign up to the Penwortham community!
Thank you