Year 6 Weekly Blog 20.01.23 ' A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies' George R R Martin

It has been another great week in class, with so much focused learning. The week goes by so fast, I can hardly keep up!

This week our focus has been heavily on our writing, where each day we have written a paragraph on our class biography of Henry VIII. Over the last few weeks we have collected lots of biographical vocabulary, ideas and cohesive devices, so it was great using them in our own writing. We each had our own marking key to work off to, which we used to ensure we had all the necessary elements within each paragraph. Each day the children have come back to their feedback, so therefore know what they have to work on. We just have one, final paragraph to write on Monday. This writing stage has been very much guided and modelled to them, we have worked together to bounce off ideas and help one another. Next week, they will write their own biographies where they have the opportunity to use these skills independently. They have a research task as part of their homework that they will need to help them with this next week- please check the homework as this is to be handed in slightly earlier.

Homework is such a crucial part of Year 6, where children reinforce their learning, revisit new concepts and retrieve information from their class learning, which in turn has more chance sticking in their long term memory, finding it easier and quicker to retrieve pieces of information when needed in the future. Also, children who reinforce their learning, do find it easier to make links to other areas and apply the same strategies they have learnt to unfamiliar areas. Every week, there are children, often the same children, who do not complete all areas of their homework or do not bring back their book. In Year 6 our mission is to prepare them for their next stage in life, and organising their home learning and ensuring they have completed work on time is a crucial part of this. Please help your child and make sure they have completed all the necessary homework on time.

Sporting News

The Athletics team had a great afternoon on Tuesday at Stanley Park. Although we didn’t come first place (this time), we were so proud of the way they all worked as one big team and celebrated one another beautifully!


Where has our learning taken us this week?

Wow the learning in Year 6 has really started to pick up pace and Year 6 are rising to all of the challenges- we are all so proud of them. We are managing to fit in so much learning and they are even becoming much more organised in the mornings, getting all of their equipment and books ready for the lessons ahead.

  • English - As well as biography writing each day, we have have revised our knowledge of main and subordinate clauses and making compound and complex sentences.

  • Maths - This week we have been converting metric measures, we found this quite challenging at the start of the week, but we are starting to master this now! With more practice and revisiting, both in class and this week’s homework, we will nail it!

  • RE- We have been discussing what happens when we go to church and collecting some of the vocabulary that we hear when we go to mass that we are not familiar with.

  • PE - in Hockey we have been dribbling the ball, making sure we keep good control!

Leading Learners

Well done to Steph and Lena this week.

Steph, thank you for reflecting so deeply on your writing targets and responding to any feedback given. You take advice and comments on board and apply this to your writing, I love picking up your book and seeing just how much progress you have made! 

Lena, I have been so impressed with your resilience this week in Maths. You have found conversion challenging, made mistakes, however you have embraced this, by reflecting, editing and never losing focus, which has led to great success! Well done- keep that steely determination!

Learned and Wise butterflies

This half term we will be on the lookout for all the children that are learned in their actions, finding God in all things. Those who are wise, who use their learning for the common good. These children are the role models of the school, who drive their own learning and who have the wisdom to know when and how to apply one’s learning. This week we thank Olivia for always working for the common good of our classroom.

Helpers in the morning

This week we have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:

Jacob M Amber Jess Mason

Notices

  • Homework is due to be returned on Thursday. However, this week one aspect of it needs to be in on Tuesday. Please check the homework page for more information.

  • Please do continue to keep up to date with your child’s homework (particularly spelling). The vocabulary that the children are being asked to spell are getting more complex and they will need your support to figure out the best strategy to use. Learning them over time, rather than bulking them the night before, always seems like the best route to use.

  • Football and Netball training- Will be returning next week with the times being the same. Football training will be on Monday at 8am and netball starting at 3:30pm on Thursday. This information is also available on the sports timetable on the website (engage-> sport).

  • Accelerated Reader- All children were given letters regarding accelerated reader. These letters are for parents in order for you to access your childs reading progress.