Welcome to Kingfisher's class: Year 6: 2024/2025

Mrs Cooper, Mrs Ferreira and Mr Jackson are so excited to welcome to the new Kingfishers into Year 6!

The Curriculum: Spring 1

English

During Spring 1, we will continue to use the novel Holes by Louis Sachar as a stimulus for discussion of character, plot and setting and this exploration will lead to the main long writes of a formal letter and a non-chronological report. Specific themes of interest in the novel are those of: Justice; Friendship; Man vs Nature; Power; Money; Cruelty vs Kindess; Fate and Destiny. It is a fabulous, thought-provoking book that we are really excited to delve into with the children.

Literacy Skills:

• SPAG is intergrated into English lessons, but we will also focus on one specific grammatical device per week, so that we are gradually building a bank of knowledge across this area.
• Spellings are set and tested every week and pupils will be provided time to practise in class, whilst also being expected to work on them at home.
• A handwriting group will be lead by Mrs Ferreira and a Reading Fluency Group will be lead by both Mrs C and Mrs F across the week. 
• Kingfishers are expected to read to an adult at home at least three times per week and this will be monitored in class; pupils working towards completing reward cards that lead to a prize awarded by Mr Lewis.
• After- school Reading Comprehension BOOSTERS are also going to be offered to a select few pupils, beginning this half-term, in order to offer further support to those deemed in need.

Maths

This half- term, the following units will be covered: Converting Units, Ratio and Algebra. We will also be completing arithmetic tasks every morning  and short assessment will be completed in class regularly, in order to ensure that we are refining our mathematics skills. Arithmetic intervention groups will be lead by Mrs Ferreira and pupils will also be removed for short afternoon sessions, on an ad-hoc basis, if it is felt that they require further explanation/ revision of topics covered in the morning Maths lessons. After-school Boosters, for a small select group, will begin this half-term and letters will be sent to parents whose children are being invited to attend.

Science 

On Thursdays, Kingfishers will be investigating the topic of Living things and their Habitats: Discovering Experts Unit with Mr Jackson.

Geography

This half-term, we will be exploring a unit of work called Where does our energy come from? This unit covers sources of energy/ renewable energy and more. Fieldwork on the school grounds takes place at the end of the unit.

PE

with Sinclair Sports will take place on: Wednesdays and Fridays

This half-term pupils will be SWIMMING on Wednesdays, so they will need to come prepared with their SWIM KIT on this day. On Fridays, they will be doing gymnastics.

Children in Kingfishers class need to come to school dressed in their P.E. kit on these days.

You will need: blue t-shirt, black shorts/leggings/jogging bottoms and sensible, outside trainers.  Please ensure your child takes their earrings out on PE days.

Remember, the values you develop in sport will carry across into your academic work and all that you do in school and outside school.

Strive to be your very best!

We encourage Kingfishers class to think about this question on a daily basis:

How do you demonstrate these values whilst being physically active, when playing competitive sport, during PE lessons and, most importantly of all, in your everyday life?

Art, Design and Technology

This half-term in Art, pupils will finish off the unit of Painting and Mixing Media: Artist Study, concluding with a self-portrait in the style of Frida Kahlo.

In DT, they will be studying cushions, their history and different uses. They will then design their own cushion and begin the process of choosing, cutting and sewing their material in order to create a beautiful cushion to take home at the end of the school year.

Spanish 

Takes place every once every week with Miss. Lara. Pupils will be activiely engaged in speaking, listening and writing activities which will develop their skills of communication in this beautiful language.

This Half-Term, the main focus will be: In the City and they will conclude the topic by creating a tourist leaflet.

PSHE

In PSHE, we will continue to work from the One Decision schemes of work, which encourage children to look at the pros and cons of specific behaviours and make their own decisions about what is the right way to behave based upon this. We then discuss their choices focusing on the risks of specific actions. This half-term, the focus is on: Being Responsible: Stealing

RE: 

Finishing last term's topic: Why do Hindu’s want to be good? 

Beginning a new topic: What difference does the resurrection make to Christians?

MUSIC: 

Charanga Scheme: A New Year Carol

COMPUTING:

Spreadsheets

Homework will be set weekly on a Friday and will be due every Friday. This will consist of CGP Revision Guides, alongside spellings and Doodle Maths. It is expected that Year 6 pupils are reading at home on at least 3 separate occasions every week, although it does not have to be for long periods of time, it is vital that this is done regularly. Rewards are given in class for pupils showing evidence of this in their homework diaries.

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SATS?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBVHlF1SvNk&t=81s

Maths and English Practice

IXL have separate pages of skills linked to individual Year group.  The Y6 page has links to practise both English and Maths skills.  Pages are then split into skills of which has a practise question for the children to think about.

https://uk.ixl.com/promo?partner=google&campaign=1187&adGroup=Key+Stage+2&gclid=CPPa8teS_8kCFQbnwgodgOIB6A

BBC Education have produced a whole host of materials for KS2.  Follow the KS2 link and then select either Maths or English.   Each area usually has an information section for reading, plus an activity and then quiz which is marked online.  Some aspects require a subscription.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education

A site with both Maths and English based quizzes which are marked as you go along.

http://www.educationquizzes.com/ks2/maths/

A site with a range of information and questions – great for revision purposes!

http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/children_sats.htm

A revision site based upon the old Key Stage 2 Tests but still contains lots of useful information for both Maths and English.

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/

A site with links to  old style Key Stage 2 Maths Papers, Maths Tutorials as well as Maths Games.  Some of these games are linked to Memory and would therefore help pupils to retain key information.

http://www.online-maths-tutor.com/

A site with links to Maths and English revision materials, including worksheets to look at online or to print off and practise with.

http://sats.highamstjohns.com/

These are “old style” Key Stage 2 test papers but are still useful for practise, and in particular, creating discussion around questions and strategies to answer.  View on screen or print off for free.  Best used

http://www.emaths.co.uk/index.php/student-resources/past-papers/key-stage-2-ks2-sat-past-papers

Click on “For Kids” to access some fun games to practise speed of recall of times tables.

http://www.mad4maths.com/

This site has loads of Maths games which help to practise a range of skills.

http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html

Loads of Maths games on a range of Mathematical concepts.

https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm

A range of English games and activities.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html

Activities to reinforce and practise a range of spelling rules.

http://www.keystage2literacy.co.uk/spellings-menu.html

A range of activities and games to practise a range of spelling rules and patterns.

http://www.spellzone.com/games/index.cfm?wordlist=2255