Elder Tree- Year 6 2023 - 2024

Welcome to Year 6 Elder Tree Class!  

We hope you have all had a lovely summer break and are ready for an exciting year ahead - your last year at Great Sankey Primary!

To begin our school year, the whole school transition topic will be ‘Together we Learn and Grow’ and we will be using Tom Blofeld’s ‘Bewilderwood’ series of books as a stimulus for our creative writing and artwork to help us settle back into school. Our whole school visit to Bewilderwood at the end of the first half term promises to be very exciting and we are looking forward to other excelent learning experiences across the year. 

Once again, it is important we continue to work in partnership this year and if you have any queries or concerns, then please don't hesitate to contact me. 

Kind regards,

Mr Ellis

  Homework

As in previous years, homework will contiue to be set on Google Classroom each week and this will primarily be completed in the 'Dactyl' homework books that are sent home with the children or on the SATs Bootcamp website that children have been given logins for. It is important these are looked after as these stay with the children across the year. The dates and times that homework are set will be the same each week where possible and further details will be added to the Google Classroom. Spellings are also set and tested weekly and this is all done through 'Spelling Frame', another resource that the children are used to using. It is important that spellings are practiced weekly so that any misonceptions can be picked up and discussed in class. 

There is an expectation that children are reading regularly at home in addition to their daily whole class reading session in school and we ask that they aim to fill in their planners at least 3 x weekly with a signature and / or comment from parents each week to share how children are getting on at home. Teachers will also comment / sign the pupil planners.

SATs 

I may 2024, children in Y6 will complete their statutory end of key stage assessments known as SATs. The children will be tested in Reading, Maths and Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling with Writing being teacher assessed in school. The tests will take place the week beginning 13th May 2023 so we ask that any holidays or time off is not taken during this month. An information for parents giving further details was held last term and a timetable will be sent out to you in the first week of the Summer term to confirm arrangements. SATs Booster sessions will also continue to take place up until SATs. 

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Curriculum Information:

Maths

Our Maths topics for this autumn term will focus heavily on number, place value and the four written calculations and it is imperative that children are supplementing this work with basic skills practise at home. Please encourage the children to use their log in for Times Table Rockstars regularly at home to ensure they know all the multiplication and division facts accurately and rapidly as this knowledge and recall will be hugely beneficial this year. 

English

We will continue to develop our writing skills through the study of various texts this term, first with Helen Ward’s beautifully illustrated and thought-provoking book called ‘Varmints’ which looks at colonization and industrialization. Then we will be looking at William Grill's fascinating, detailed book about Ernest Shackleton's Journey across the Antarctic. We will analyse the author’s use of language and the impact it has upon the reader and then use them to stimulate a variety of different forms of writing. We will explore using a variety of sentence structures, thoughtful well-chosen vocabulary and a wide range of punctuation and grammar. We will be completing daily whole class reading sessions to develop the children’s reading stamina, pace, understanding of vocabulary and comprehension skills alongside individual reading sessions where each child will be heard to read by an adult weekly. Alongside everything we do in school, it is incredibly important that children are reading a variety of texts both fiction and non-fiction regularly at home and recording their comments in the planners. The planners need to be in school daily and to be signed at by an adult regularly. Finally, the children will need to focus on using spelling strategies and rules consistently to ensure they spell a variety of common and uncommon words accurately. They need to be practising their spellings regularly at home. Please see the spelling strategies document to support your child learning their weekly word lists at home. 

Science               

In our weekly Science sessions, we have a Physics focus to begin with and will be learning all about Electricity Children begin with revision of simple circuits with lots of hands on experience with symbols, diagrams and incomplete circuits. Children will then compare series and parallel circuits and face some difficult challenges! Next, we have some biology! The children will then explore the structure of the heart and lungs; looking at the double circulation system and all about blood! They will then investigate why exercise is good for us and what can harm the heart and lungs. The children will be encouraged to work and think like scientists and explore these natural phenomena using their research skills, asking relevant questions to investigate.

Geography                              

Our Geography enquiry question ‘Is Warrington a good place to settle? In this topic, the children will study why the location, transport links, proximity to cities, trade and industry all make Warrington a good place to live. Through use of digital and paper maps, children will investigate land use in different sized settlements and the ways in which settlements are linked together.  They will also look at how Warrington has changed over time.                             

History                 

This year we will be studying both history and geography throughout the year to ensure we cover all curriculum objectives before the children leave us for High School. Our History enquiry question is ‘What can we learn from Ancient Civilisations? During this topic, the children will focus on the early ancient civilisations; Ancient Sumer, Ancient Mayans, Ancient, Indus Valley and Shang Dynasty.  They will learn about significant events from the time and order these events chronologically on a timeline of early world history. 

PE:

For this term,Indoor PE (Health and Fitness) is on a Wednesday and Outdoor PE (Rugby) will be on Friday.  Once again, the children can come into school in their school PE kits on these days - a T-Shirt in their house colour and black shorts / joggers / leggings and trainers - with all hair tied back and jewellery removed. Please make sure these PE uniform guidelines are adhered to as last year we started to notice a few football shirts etc starting to creep in. It is important the children look as smart in their PE kits as they do in their uniforms. Thanks for your support with this.