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Year 6 2023-2024

Welcome to Year 6!

2023-24

In Year 6, our teachers are Miss Cryer, Mrs Oswald, Mr Davison and Miss King. We are also supported by our dedicated Learning Support Assistant (LSA): Mrs Bridgeman. 

If you have any questions, please speak with your child's class teacher. You can speak to your child’s class teacher by phoning the school and requesting an appointment if they are not around at pick-up.

Keep referring back to this page for regular updates about the children's learning. 

Curriculum Newsletters

Updated - Friday 5th July 2024

Science 

Year six started to look at their newest unit - evolution. We started to look at how fossils are formed and had a recap on our favourite scientist, Charles Darwin. 

Maths 

Year six put their secret maths skills into action, creating a secret lair for a superhero. The children had to design a layout and choose what items they wanted. Of course, all these items came at a cost, and it turns out that £4,000,000 doesn't go that far. 

Updated - Friday 28th June 2024

Many of the year six children had their secondary transition, visiting their new school home for a few days. The children have come back loving their experiences and made many new friends after spending time with their new classmates. 

The children have been learning all about Big Data, the act of sharing lots of data through wireless technologies. Year sixes learned all about smart cities like Glasgow, and from here, they started to design their very own smart city, many inspired by areas like Singapore.

Update - Friday 21st June 2024

Year six delved into the start of World War 2. Many of us were extremely excited to learn about it. We looked into the causes of it and some of the reasons it may have started. From here, we ranked what we thought the most likely causes were. Many of us were surprised when we changed our minds from our initial views to feel that the Treaty of Versailles played a very big role.

In PSHE, we consolidated our understanding of relationships and the actions within them. As a class, we understood what actions are acceptable or not and how this may change over time. We discussed the important aspects of a relationship and decided that it is most important to be happy. 

Updated - Friday 14th June 2024

The fire service visited Year Six this week to teach us all about fire safety. We learned what they do, and they helped us identify fire hazards and create an escape route from our own homes. To top it all off, we tried on a real-life outfit and became heroes. 

In our history work, we looked into the end of WW1 and how the war impacted life moving forward. From here, we learned about the Treaty of Versailles and how this affected Germany. As a class, we took part in a debate where we argued whether the sanctions of the treaty were too much, not enough, or just right. 

Update - Friday 7th June 2024

RE

Year six started their new RE unit looking at  Sewa: this is a Shiek religion looking at service. As classes, we looked at how people serve others across different religions and in every day life. We each wrote about a particular service provider and how they offer people help. 

History

In history, we took a look into life in WW1 trenches. We found that conditions we exceptionally challenging and day to day life brought boredom, fear and uncertainty. From here, reenacted how this might look, showing the potential dangers we face from here. 

Update - Friday 20th May 2024

Year six put in some hard work this week and produced some lovely writing. Throughout the week, we wrote a suspenseful, action WW1 story, a letter, and a speech, and they wrote a report about an area of their own interests. Some outstanding pieces of work were produced.

Update - Friday 13th May 2024

After weeks of preparation and hard work, Year Six finally had the SATs. During this time, the entire year group worked incredibly hard on some difficult tests. In the end, we came through and managed to answer all the questions as well as we could. Great effort, Year Six. 

Update - Friday 10th May 2024

For this week's learning, year six took a look at our world-renowned school production. To kick off the process, we read through the script of our pantomime adaptation of Aladin. We assigned some roles and started working on our acting skills, uncovering some budding actors. 

Maths

Year six have managed to complete all their new learning for year six maths, so we spent the week practising our skills in a range of different contexts, showing that we have the potential to become outstanding mathematicians. 

Update - Friday 3rd May 2024

English 

Year six has fully been absorbed into the story 'Once', and this week, we fully dived into the characters and the emotions. We looked at Felix's and Mother Minka's feelings during difficult times and how they contrasted. We made Venn diagrams from here and put together a hot heat seat interview. We answered the questions as if we were these characters, understanding their pains. 

History 

In History, we are looking at WWI. Previously, we looked at the numerous causes and consequences. Now, we are looking at the very start of the war and how Britain got people to volunteer to fight. 

Update - Friday 26th April 2024

Art

This week, year six continued their outstanding observational drawings. Again, these were all nature-related, and we showed our remarkable skill at copying such advanced drawings. 

Update - Friday 19th April 2024

History 

We kicked off our week in year six by looking at our next unit in History: Britain At War. To start the unit, we looked at some key phrases used in war and understood what war actually is. To complement this, we started reading Once, a book based on WW2 and will be attempting to write some WW2 letters. 

Art 

In art, we also started looking at our new unit, Bees, Beetles, and Butterflies. To start this unit, we have looked at artist Lucy Arnold and started to create a sketch book of her vibrant art.

Update - Thursday 28th March 2024

PSHE 

This week, we discussed different situations that cause us stress and delved into that feeling and what that involves. We then looked at physical and mental strategies that would be useful to help manage stress. We come up with the solution of creating our very own 'pick me up' boxes. We decorated the box to promote positive mental and then wrote a list of items that we wanted to fill our box with. 

Geography 

The children had been 'asked' to write a magazine article for 'Pole to Polar', a company specialising in Arctic Circle cruises. They used all their knowledge of the polar region and further online research to ensure that their article is interesting and informative! 

Update - Friday 22nd March 2024

Design and Technology 

Using all of the knowledge that we have learned about bridges, in small groups, we designed our very own bridges to build the strongest one out of the materials we were given. We were very successful and worked brilliantly as a team to create such sturdy structures. We used our knowledge from the previous lesson where we learnt that triangles were a really strong shape as they ensured that the forces at play were balanced. 

English 

We are writing a newspaper report about one of Sir Ernest Shackleton's expeditions, during which he rescued all of his crew members. We have focused on tenses and learned when to write in the progressive test if the action is still continuing into the future or past if it has already happened and doesn't happen anymore. We have also looked more deeply into passive and active voice and when to use them in the correct context. 

Update - Friday 15th March 2024

Art 

We started the lesson by watching the ocean plastics video. We discussed the issues raised and linked these to our geographical knowledge of oceans and climate change. We then focused on the artwork and looked at the different types of materials they used to create their pieces. They were then asked: What could you do to raise awareness of ocean plastics? 

Many children created a collage made entirely from recycled plastic bags to create a picture of an ocean animal. 

English 

We have moved on to our last English writing unit of this term, which is focused on Shackelton! We will use the knowledge we learned from our geography unit and merge it with our English to create the best newspaper article about one of Shackleton's failed exhibitions! 

Update - Friday 8th March 2024

Art 

In Art, we have researched a variety of environmental artists. This week, we have used this inspiration to create our artwork made out of the junk we bought from home! The children loved getting stuck in and being creative to make whatever they liked out of the rubbish they had, and we were very impressed by their creativity and teamwork! 

Production 

In preparation for our production at the Haymarket Theatre, we have been practising the songs from the musical, so we are ready for our best show ever! We have also been doing vocal warm-ups to ensure our voices are ready! 

English 

We have finished our Dream Giver unit and are practising writing to advance action! The children have experimented with writing multi-clause sentences and punctuating them correctly to create more suspense and get our readers to read it faster. It has also been World Book Day this week, and it has been incredible seeing the children bring the classics to life and perform small extracts from Oliver Twist! 

Update - Friday 1st March 2024

Science 

Investigation 1: Lava Lamps

In this investigation, we made our very own lava lamps! We noticed that the water and the oil molecules do not mix. We then added an Alka-Seltzer tablet to the solution. This reaction produces carbon dioxide gas bubbles which stuck to the water droplets. The water/gas combination is less dense than the vegetable oil, so they rise to the top. The gas bubbles then break and are released into the air, and water sinks back down to the bottom to start over again!

Investigation 2: Rainbow skittles
In this investigation, we placed skittles around the edge of the plate and then carefully added warm water to the skittles which resulted in all of the colours merging!

Investigation 3: The Egg Drop
We were given materials to design a way of preventing the egg from breaking when dropped from the castle. We discussed how gravity is the force pulling the egg towards the ground. The egg dropped on the floor stopped very quickly, and the contents inside the egg were still moving, which means the force on the egg was large, so it broke. Also, the arch structure at either end of the egg is stronger than its sides. Pressure is distributed down (or up) the arches so that less pressure acts on any one point. Orientating the arch downwards will increase the egg’s survival.

Reading 

In reading, we have found an incredible plot twist in our shared book, Nevermoor! Lots of discussion was had around how we think the story will end. In preparation for our SATs assessments, which are approaching soon, we have had lots of mini reading comprehensions to boost our confidence and ensure we're reading often and widely! 

Update - Friday 23rd February 2024

English 

In English, we have started our new topic called the 'Dream Giver.' It is inspired by the following clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k1gUaJvK-4. We have experimented with writing multi-clause sentences and discussing when to use them, for example, during an action part of the story, as we want our reader to speed up when reading to create more tension! We were then given a zone of relevance where we discussed the type of story, generating lots of useful conversation. 

PSHE

In PSHE, we have started our new topic, 'Healthy Me.' We have learnt a lot about what 'being healthy' means and what we can do to ensure we're healthy. We had a go at being an agony aunt and offered advice to people struggling to choose healthy paths. 

Maths 

In Maths, we are preparing hard for our SAT assessments and got stuck into many word problems. We're learning to read the question carefully, highlight key information and then think about what to do next. 

Update - Friday 9th February 2024

This week has been assessment week - the children have worked incredibly hard and we could not be prouder of them. Every child has made exceptional progress and we're looking forward to seeing what more they can do! 

Science 

Linked to our frozen kingdom unit in geography, we focussed on polar animals and how to classify them. First, we discussed the 5 key groups of vertebrates and explored key similarities and differences between them. Then, in table groups, we mapped out our classification key to identify various polar animals. 

Reading 

In reading, we're continuing to read Nevermoor! The book has gotten even more exciting as we have just endured the chase trial - we were all on the edges of our seats hoping that Morrigan would pass and be allowed onto the next trial so she could become a part of the wondrous society! 

Update - Friday 2nd February 2024

Art 

We looked at different images of print-making by the artist Kenojuak Ashevak. We discussed our favourites and why and then created small thumbnail drawings as a starting point for our stencil. Then, we used a combination of ideas from printed examples and images of real animals to create our own stencil and print. We experimented to see how some colours blend together and which colour combinations look best! 

Reading 

We are absolutely loving reading Nevermoor! It is a fantastic, mystical book that tells the story of Morrigan Crow, a young girl who is cursed, and whenever she is around, something is always doomed to go wrong! She is currently undergoing tricky trials to try and get into the Wondrous Society, but will she be successful? 

Update - Friday 26th January 2024

English 

We have started our new unit, focussed around a true story - 'The Girl Who Fell from the Sky.' It tells the story of Julianne, who was on her way to Peru when the plane she was in was engulfed by flames and ended up crashing in the middle of a jungle. We then learn that she had to battle with insect bites, starvation as well as the loss of her family. Unbelievably, she survived and was rescued by three local forestry workers. This week, the children have been role-playing as Julianne, feeling what she would have felt and then writing a beautiful setting description using a range of figurative language to paint the image in our readers' minds and evoke emotion. 

Art

In art, we experimented with different brush strokes and found that if we carefully painted different colours of poster paint on our big paintbrush and dragged this across our page, it gave a beautiful effect! This skill will go towards our final piece for next week, where we will make a stencil, print it, and add the finishing touches. 

Science 

This week, we were introduced to the concept of voltage. We were given a range of cells to explore and measure the voltage using a multimeter. We discovered that the voltage labelled on the cells was not always the same as their actual voltage and discussed why this might be, for example, the cells being used. 

Update - Friday 19th January 2024

Art 

In art, we have been busy learning a lot about how the Inuit make different types of art. We focussed on carving and stencilling and created our own Inuit-inspired carving made from soap! Then, we had a practice ahead of our final piece at stencilling, where we carefully cut out, painted and printed to create our own animal picture! 

English 

In English, we have been writing our final piece! We have been hard at work perfecting using present perfect and imperative verbs to ensure that our audience knows exactly how to look after these wacky, creative, mystical beasts! 

PSHE 

In PSHE, we have discussed and understood our dreams for the world. This week, we looked at different images from conflicts worldwide and wrote our vision for the world. Next week, in groups, we will start planning a charity project to help make our dream a reality. 

Update- Friday 11th January 2024

Geography 

In geography, we started our Frozen Kingdom unit with the memorable experience of visiting the Arctic and Antarctic! We used VR software so the children could experience and see what life would be like had we visited in real life. The children spotted many human and physical features and noticed many more physical features than humans. We also looked at how polar nights and days work by noticing that because the Earth is tilted on its axis, at particular times of the year, it results in the Arctic and Antarctic being in near-constant daylight or darkness. 

Art 

We have started our new project, focussing on art inspired by Inuit communities. We researched this wonderful community and observed how their artwork was primarily inspired by their surroundings and featured several different animals local to them. Next, we created mood boards to show and discuss similarities and differences between artists' work. 

Update - Friday 6th January 2024

In Math, we have moved on to fractions! The children have been learning all about simplifying, equivalence and comparing fractions and have worked incredibly hard in preparation for their next set of assessments. 

In English, we are super excited to be creating our mythical creatures inspired by the book 'Nevermoor' by Jessica Townsend. The outcome will be a how-to guide on looking after our enchanted beasts to win a bid for our creature to be taken home! In the coming weeks, we will be honing in on our cohesive skills to make this piece of writing the best one yet. 

In DT, we have begun our new 'Engineer' unit. So far, we have learnt about different bridges around the world and what their purpose is. We discovered that to build a successful bridge, we must balance both forces - compression and tension. They researched a bridge of their choice with their partners to find out more information and discover why that bridge is a spectacle.  

Update - Friday 8th December 2023

Geography 

In geography, we have turned our attention to focusing on the settlement of our local area and investigated the reasons why the population increased rapidly. We compared the local area to what it was like a hundred years ago and discovered that Oakridge used to be mostly farmland! 

Maths 

In maths, we're coming to the end of our four operations units and have impressed our teachers with our progress in such a short period! After Christmas, we will move on to Fractions, Ratio and Algebra to prepare for the SATs. 

English 

We are working hard in our poetry unit and finalising our performance, ready to share with our adults on Friday the 15th. This week, we have come together as a whole year group to practise the chorus and ensure it's the best performance yet! 

Update - Friday 1st December 2023

English 

We have worked incredibly hard in finishing our final pieces for our Autism project! We have been working hard to write them up in our best handwriting and present them in a way that captures our reader's minds to create more awareness surrounding the topic. We have also just started our new topic for our Christmas poetry unit! We discovered it will be about a Christmas Pudding and are working hard to make it the best performance yet! 

Art 

In art, we have been designing and creating innovative pieces of artwork. We were tasked with creating brand-new art pieces inspired by previous trailblazers. Our teachers were blown away by our attention to detail and how we grasped the concept of creating an art piece to inspire change.

Geography 

In geography, we are focussing on settlements. We discussed key vocabulary, considered what type of settlement our local area is, and explored different reasons for changes. All children were super engaged and were able to confidently describe key differences in compact and dispersed settlements. Next week, we will be looking to apply our new knowledge to a new area. 

Update - Friday 24th November 2023

Science 

In Science, we continued developing our knowledge of the circulatory system and finished our experiment. This week, we wrote conclusions informed by observations and plotted our results on a scatter graph to identify key trends. 

Geography 

In geography, we have been learning a lot about road safety and how to keep ourselves and others safe. We then looked at our local area, specifically Oakridge Road. We all went out and gathered data to see what dangers were around. We tallied how many cars, pedestrians, and dangers we spotted and were shocked by our findings! We then wrote a letter to the council proposing suggestions on what needs to be improved to increase safety. 

Computing 

In computing, we are halfway through our Python unit. We have coped brilliantly with the increasing difficulty and this week managed to create nested loops successfully and now have begun to write an algorithm to draw a house.

Update - Friday 17th November 2023

Science

With their science hats on, year six expertly designed their experiments to measure heart rate recovery. We studied how variables like height, amount of exercise, hydration and type of exercise may impact our body's ability to recover. We collected all the data to see if any of the changes had an effect. 

History

After weeks of studying slavery, year six finally reached the section where it was abolished. We found that it was not an easy process, and it took over 60 years from the first call for it to be banned to 1833 for it to happen finally. Many events happened for the abolishment to come together - wars, rebellions, religious views changing and new politics. We put these events onto a timeline. 

Update - Friday 10th November 2023

Geography -
 For  Geography this week, we have been deeply diving into the truths behind climate change. We have found that not only has the Earth been slowly warming, but it has mainly been caused by humans. We have studied the impacts of climate change, both within biomes and countries. We looked at the Global Climate Risk Index to see which countries have been hardest hit. 

Maths - 

Within our White Rose Lessons, year six has been studying four different 4 operation methods. We have solved some especially difficult multiplication and fraction questions and are slowly becoming masters of the methods. 

Update - Friday 3rd November 2023

English - This week, we started to look at our new English unit, Autism. We interviewed children and adults and discovered they didn't have enough knowledge for something such a huge part of people's lives. We studied how language can be misused and hurt autistic people and decided we needed to inform the school of our knowledge with a leaflet. 

Science 

For the continuation of studying the circulatory system, we looked into drugs and discovered that there were many different types. From this, we found how they can affect the body in several ways and change how it works. From here, we discussed negative life choices and determined why a drug which impacts our circulatory system (most of them) is incredibly dangerous. 

Update - Friday 20th October 2023

The children who were at school this week took part in a range of fun activities while their peers were at PGL. These included biscuit decorating, disco, team building and salt dough decorations. 

They also worked hard as a team to put together an informative and entertaining whole school assembly on Black History Month. 

Update - Friday 13th October 2023

English 

Year six produced their final speeches to show the injustices of slavery in Maafa. We were wrong and the wrongs and stated what needed to be done. After this, we then emotionally and powerfully performed our speeches to the class and in front of the school. 

Computing - 

In computing, year six took a deep look into The Enigma and Bletchley Park. From here, we then looked at the other important people from generation in the technology world and the differences they made to our lives today. 

Update: Friday 6th October 

We have had lots of fun this week doing more cooking in DT. We made pasta sauces using blenders, slow cookers and a whole lot of veggies! We really enjoyed tasting our creations and hope you did too. 

In maths we have moved onto the 4 operations, which has involved finding common factors in order to solve reasoning problems. We encourage the children to keep practising their times tables as this skill will support their progress in maths enormously, particularly in the type of number work we will be doing for the next few weeks. 

In English, we having been learning how to use semi colons to link main clauses for dramatic effect. We are hoping the children will put this technique to good use in their final pieces next week: we will be writing speeches to oppose the transatlantic slave trade. 

In science we have had lots of fun exploring whether there is correlation between our resting heart rate and our fitness levels. This involved much start jumping and some interesting discussions around anomalous results. 

We can’t believe there’s only one more week of school before PGL; where did that time go? 

Update: Wednesday 27th September 

Another brilliant week. We are so proud of the children’s maturity as we have been learning about the African slave trade, or ‘Maafa’, which we now know to be the Swahili term for ‘great disaster’ or ‘great tragedy.’ 

We have started a new book called ‘Freedom 1783’, which is a fictional story about a boy’s experience of slavery in Britain at the end of the 18th century. Similarly, in English we have started to think about our next final piece, which is going to be a speech about the abolition of slavery. We are planning to present our speeches at one of the assemblies during Black History Month. It’s been really rewarding to see the children making links with one of the picture books we looked at in our last unit called ‘Henry’s Freedom Box.’

In geography, the children have been learning about different types of map: small scale maps show us larger expanses of land and large scale maps enable us to see the human and physical features of a place in greater detail. 

In PSHE we have been creating our own class charters and thinking about our rights and responsibilities in the classroom, and the rewards and consequences these might lead to. With this in mind, we have set our goals for the year and considered the obstacles that might get in the way and how our class charter can help us get past them. Class 10 really enjoyed doing this lesson over in the hobbit hut where we could sit in a circle to share our ideas. 

In other news, we would like to give a huge shout out to the creative brain that is Elizabeth Benson! She brought in a crochet bag that she made by hand and we were SO impressed with her handiwork! Well done, Elizabeth; it’s absolutely beautiful! 

Update: Friday 22nd September 

This week we have worked hard to complete our place value unit in maths. 

We have been using rounding numbers to 10,000,000 as well as using solving problems involving negative numbers. 

In English we completed our first final piece: a book review on our class book, ‘Cloud Busting’, by Malorie Blackman. It is clear from the reviews that the verdict was unanimous: Cloud Busting is definitely a book that should be a staple in every classroom library. 

In art, we have been learning watercolour techniques to create landscape paintings and very excitingly, we made bread in DT! Miss Cryer sampled some after school and can confirm we have a cohort of accomplished bakers on our hands! 

In PSHE, we learnt about Maslow’s pyramid of needs. We thought about our own wants and needs and how these are met. Next we compared this to the wants and needs of a child living in Ghana. We learnt that many children living in Ghana have to work on cocoa plantations from a young age instead of going to school to help earn money for their family.  The teachers are feeling very proud of how reflective the children have been in these lessons. 

Update - Wednesday 13th September 2023

We have all been incredibly impressed with how well all of the children have settled back into school. They have made a fantastic first impression! We're confident this will continue and the year will be an amazing one! 

In English, we have started our unit on 'Superheroes' which focuses on the Black Lives Matter movement. We have been busy reading lots of books written by Malorie Blackman as well as listening to the music video 'Superheroes' by Stormzy. Some great discussions have been had and the children have been incredibly engaged with the topic. 

In Art, we are looking at tints, tones, and shades and have been learning how to effectively mix water colours to create a desired effect. We discussed and experimented using grey, black, and white to change the tint, tone, and shade of a colour.

In Maths, we are learning all about place value. The children have been working their socks off to successfully complete all the work to a good standard. All children have been engaged and trying their absolute best and are putting their best foot forward. 

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