A big welcome back to all of our Year 6 children!
In R.E we will be looking at the Kingdom of God; focusing on the parables of Jesus and how we use them as a guide to be good people and do the right thing in our daily lives. We will be looking at what justice is and those people in life who have stood up for people where a great injustice is taking place. We focus on historical figures such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Ruby Bridges. We also study religious figures such as John The Baptist; the recently beatified Oscar Romero and Father Maximillian Kolbe.
As a class, we complete prayer time together and think about different topics. We have discussed our namesake St James the Great and his contribution to christianity. We have created our own prayers on our return to school; prayers of contrition, adoration, thanksgiving and praise. We have developed our own prayer time focus in groups that we can then carry out together as a class focusing on friendship, peace, joy, love and forgiveness.
In year six, we love opportunities to write. We are following the Pathways to write scheme. Our book focuses this term tie in well with our History topic as they are based on WW2. Both of our books, ‘Star of fear, Star of Hope’ and ‘Erika’s Story’, are historical fiction, based on experiences of people during WW2. We complete a variety of different genres: non-chronological reports, reports, newspaper reports, persuasion, persuasive letters, balanced arguments, explanation texts, information texts, fiction are just some of the ways in which we express ourselves. We look at improving writing with a whole host of different punctuation and sentence structures to keep our audience hooked. As well as improving our writing by making it more interesting, we also really focus on grammar structures and learn about how, when and why they are used.
Maths No Problem has been a real revelation at St James’. Historically, we found that children were learning how to do something, but not always understanding why we did it in that way. This meant that when it came to using and applying maths, children were reluctant to try to solve problems, often the fear of failure weighed heavily. The introduction of Maths No Problem, a mastery programme, has given our children that problem solving mentality as each maths lesson is based around everyday issues. I am certainly seeing a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts in our children.
In Science during our Autumn term, we will be focusing on evolution and inheritance. We will look at how things have evolved over time and how they have adapted to their environment and surroundings in the ever changing world. We will also focus on the classification of all living things.
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In our Autumn Term, we learn all about World War 2 and the impact it had on people who lived through it, particularly children. We look at The Battle of Britain- the war fought in the sky and the Blitz bombing campaigns in many of the main cities both in this country and other European countries. We focus on how people protected themselves with Morrison shelters, Anderson shelters and the communal shelters. We study, the effect of being an island and the fact that for that reason, food was scarce, unless it was home grown. That leads us to rationing and ordinary people being encouraged to ‘Dig for Victory’. We use literature to help us to bring many of these themes alive- Goodnight Mr Tom is an amazing way to encompass all in the world that was different during that time. We also look at what happened during the holocaust, again using fiction such as Erika’s Story and Rose Blanche. We also focus on the life of an ordinary German Girl called Anne; whose family moved to Amsterdam to escape the holocaust. Her life becomes far from ordinary when they must hide in a secret annexe in her father’s warehouse.
Just a reminder of a few things:
Homework
Weekly
Spellings uploaded onto spelling shed (those without internet access will be given a paper copy)
(Spellings and times tables are set each Friday and then tested the following Friday)
Daily
Reading at least 10 minutes per night – Children are reading daily in school however we would like them to be reading at home where possible too. If you do not have any books then please visit www.lovereading4kids.co.uk where you can access lot of book extracts. You will need to sign up and create an account which is quick, easy and most importantly free!
Times tables at least 10 minutes per night (All children have TT rock stars logins)
Spelling practice at least 10 minutes per night (All children have spelling shed logins or will have a paper copy of spellings)
We cannot stress enough how important daily reading is, even for competent readers, as it helps to build reading stamina.
P.E
On Tuesdays and Fridays, we have PE. Children are allowed to come into school in their PE kits and stay in them for the day.
Music
On Friday afternoons, we have music. Please do not forget your instruments.