Welcome to Year 6!

Welcome to Year 6 - otherwise known as Owl Class. Thank you for visiting our class page. On this page you will find key information about our curriculum and our classroom. We will also be sharing some of our learning with you so please come back to visit to see what is new! 

Year 6 is an important year; it provides new opportunities for the children including our three-day residential visit to Burwell House. Owl Class also introduces new roles of responsibility (including house captains for those elected). In addition, we will be preparing for national tests (SATs) in May 2024 and transition to secondary school. I will expect the oldest pupils in the school to exhibit exemplary behaviour at all times, to adopt a positive, active approach to their own learning and to work very hard with me to raise their achievement by the end of KS2. We do, however, have lots of fun along the way - it's not all about SATs!

Please ensure that you are signed into Class Dojo and refer to this for regular news and updates regarding Year 6, including homework details.

Staff in Year 6

Our class teacher is Mrs Barrow.

Mrs Hodson, a qualified HLTA (Higher Level Teaching Assistant) is in the classroom on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. She is also with us as an HLTA to provide teaching cover for Mrs Barrow on both a Tuesday and a Thursday afternoon. Mrs Mullins is with us every day, except for Wednesday mornings.

Owl Class has two weekly sessions of PE taught: on a Wednesday with Premier Sport and on a Thursday we will have swimming lessons at SVC. Please ensure full PE kits/swimming kits are brought in to school on these days.

Curriculum

In Autumn 1, our history unit will focus on The Maya. In geography, we will be learning about energy, the greenhouse effect and global warming. We will continue to look at Islam in RE. In science, we will be learning about light. 

You can find the curriculum overview for the autumn term under the 'useful documents' section below.

Some important dates for your diary

11.09 – Y6 meet the teacher, 5pm

25.09 – School photographs

12.10 – Owls class café

30.10-1.11 – Y6 Burwell House trip

9.11 – Owl class assembly

10.11 – Remembrance assembly

14.11 and 16.11 – Parents evening

15.12 – Christmas assembly and Christmas lunch

18.12 – KS2 nativity at St Mary’s Church

Key Weekly Information

PE:

This year, children are to come to school on PE days in their school uniform and will change into their PE kits in school. Please ensure that your child has a full, named P.E kit in line with school guidelines, including a warm jumper/sweatshirt, a pair of outdoor P.E shoes, preferably trainers, and a pair of sports trousers/joggers. 

Homework:

Reading:

Pupils in Year 6 are currently expected to read an appropriate book from home or school - at least four days per week and the equivalent of at least ten pages per day is recommended. Reading should cover a variety of fiction and non-fiction, from novels to recipe books, by different authors. Please continue to hear your child read as often as possible; even if your child is a fluent reader, it is vitally important to comprehension that they are questioned about what they read. You are also strongly encouraged to read to your child regularly, particularly in order to expose him/her to vocabulary and sentence structures found in higher-level texts that children may not yet be able to read easily for themselves; discussion about the content of such texts is invaluable in developing children's understanding of more sophisticated material and can also have a very positive impact on their writing ability. Our suggestion would be a minimum of 20 minutes of reading on a minimum of 5 days over each week, sometimes with you reading to your child for 10 minutes and him/her reading to you for the other 10 minutes. The children have their reading leaves and are asked to record the date, book title and author (when he/she begins a new book) and page numbers read every time they read at home. When he/she has completed 10 sessions of reading at home, under your supervision, they will be able to put their leaf on the classroom reading tree and select a leaf of the next rainbow colour. We have a wide range of quality books in the school library which all children are very welcome to borrow. We will record the book they pick so that we can monitor which books are out in loan and then returned to school.

Spelling:

Daily practice of spellings from the year 5/6 spelling list (communicated via Class Dojo), as well practising spelling rules learnt in school is the expectation. The weekly spellings will be tested on a Friday and a personalised list of the words that still need to be learnt will be sent home at the end of each half term.

Number facts:

Please make a point of checking that your child can recall addition and subtraction facts up to 20 at some speed (without having to count) e.g. 8 + 6; 13 - 7 etc. These facts should have been learnt off by heart in earlier years and Year 6 children need them 'at their fingertips'. Times table facts up to 12 x 12 and related division facts should have been learnt by the end of Year 4. If your child cannot recall all of these facts without resorting to counting, it is vital to practise any unknown facts at home. During the autumn term, a weekly practice sheet will be sent home to support practising tables three times during the week - this sheet will show you the facts your child is currently working on, but please note that children who do not yet know all of the tables should still be practising daily. They may enjoy practising facts using 'Times Table Rockstars' which children can access online using usernames and passwords provided for each child by the school. The expectation is that all tables will be learnt no later than Christmas.

Maths revision

Each Friday, children will bring home a worksheet of questions covering learning from previous terms and years. These should be completed and returned to Miss Masters by the following Thursday. 

Please note that all of the above is ongoing and should be happening continually, whether or not children bring home specific lists or activities at the end of each week.

Additional tasks:

If your child finds it challenging to write at length and/or to use punctuation accurately, practising some writing at home - about anything of interest - would support learning in school. Please do not hesitate to contact Miss Masters if you feel that your child would benefit from additional work in particular areas of learning e.g. maths concepts, as she will be happy to advise you on supporting learning at home. Alternatively, many Year 6 practice books for maths, English and science are available from any of the larger bookshops and many websites provide online practice of key skills in preparation for SATs.

Optional activities:

Occasionally, the class may be asked to carry out additional activities e.g. fact-finding tasks relating to the class topic, activities to consolidate learning in a particular area such as maths, or later on in the year, practice activities relating to SATs. These tasks are designed to support your child's progress with learning in school but are usually optional. 

Please refer to Class Dojo for weekly updates regarding homework.