A Parent Guide to Year 6

Mrs Dunbobbin is teaching Sydney

Miss Willington, Mrs Watson and Mr Lewis are teaching Melbourne

Our teaching assistants in Year 6 are Mr Farrall, Mr Raiswell and Mrs Simpson

New Life

This spring term our learning focus is entitled ‘New Life.' During this term we will study the many meanings of New Life, with a focus on evolution, inheritance, Frankenstein and the religious theme running through our first book, The Selfish Giant. We will look at scientific and philosophical questions to delve deeper into science and classic literature.

English - Writing

Our main book to support our writing for the first part of this term is The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde.

Our developing vocabulary and our Mastery Keys are below:

During the second half term we will be looking at Island: A Story of the Galapagos By Jason Chin.

Our writing pathways expectations are below.

 

During the second half term we will also be looking at a child-friendly version of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. During this unit we will be consolidating all the Mastery Keys covered during this term and starting to dip into the final keys for summer.

English - Reading

Our reading book for the first half term will be The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde,

The skills we will be looking at are:

During the second half term we will be reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley using the same keys as the previous unit.

Maths

In maths this half term we will be looking at:    

  • Algebra
  • Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
  • Area and Perimeter
  • Statistics
  • Shape

Useful Websites:

To help you along the way we have found some websites which they may find useful.   Many of these are interactive and use brief tutorials or engage the children to use their knowledge through the playing of games. 

Other areas of the Curriculum

Science: Evolution and Inheritance; Electricity

PSHE: Dreams and Goals; Healthy Me

PE: High 5 Netball; Fair, Share, Dare; American Football (Flag); Teamwork = Dreamwork

Geography:  (place knowledge) - Compare a region in UK with a region in S. America with significant differences and similarities. Including locational knowledge and human and physical geography.

RE: Why is better to be there in person?

Art: Activism – making freedom quilts.

Computing: Spreadsheets; Blogging

Long Term Plan

/files/documents/classes/Year_6_Long_Term_Plan_2024-2025.docx

This term the Year 6 children will have PE on a Tuesday and Thursday with WCLA staff

On these days we ask that children come to school in their PE clothes rather than their school uniform.

Weather dependant they can wear their shorts and school coloured PE T- shirt and House PE sweatshirt. If the weather is cold, then tracksuit bottoms/leggings would be more suitable. Trainers are preferable to pumps as it is possible the children may be outdoors for some lessons.

Please ask at the office if you are unsure on the expectations of PE kits as they have recently sent out an email detailing appropriate school PE kit.

Year 6 Weekly spellings. 

The Y6 spellings will be put onto the website each week.  At the moment you will find them on the weekly learning poster. 

To encourage the children to use an online system for homework (as they will at high school) and to promote sustainability in school, please note that these spellings will not be given out on paper. Children will be expected to access the website at home to learn their spellings.

Year 6 Homework

Homework is always set on a Friday and is completed by 8am on the following Wednesday. Children will be asked to find their homework online. If a child is off on a Friday, the expectation is that the child will ask a friend/teacher or use the website for the homework before the Wednesday deadline. 

Y6 homework in a nutshell:

  • Spellings (test every Weds)
  • Reading (3 times a week)
  • Planner signed every week
  • 15mins of TTRS a week

Reading

Children in Year 6 are expected to read with an adult once a week to ensure comprehension and decoding skills are in-line with the books they are reading. A signature in the planner will let us know that this has been done.

Spellings

Spellings are given out on a Wednesday and the children are tested the following Wednesday. The spellings we use are mapped in the school spelling curriculum and we may revisit some of them over the year to embed them.

Completing homework

To prepare the children for the demands of high school, homework is monitored by the class teachers each week.

To reward children for completing homework and learning spellings, there are lots of positive reinforcements in place to encourage them to make positive choices.

We will also let you know if your child has not completed their homework so that you are kept in the loop.

Thank you for your support.

The KS2 SATs are scheduled for Monday 12 May to Thursday 15 May. Please do not book any holidays during this time.

Monday
English GPS Paper 1: questions
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling

Tuesday
English reading

Wednesday
Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic
Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning

Thursday 
Mathematics Paper 3: reasoning

The papers are both set and marked externally. Your child’s marks will be used in conjunction with teacher assessment to give high schools a broader picture of their attainment.

Reading paper

The reading test is a single paper with questions based on three passages of text. Your child will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test.

There will be a selection of question types, including:

  • Ranking/ordering, e.g. ‘Number the events below to show the order in which they happen in the story’
  • Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title of the story’
  • Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that suggests what the weather is like in the story’
  • Short constructed response, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’
  • Open-ended response, e.g. ‘Look at the sentence that begins Once upon a time. How does the writer increase the tension throughout this paragraph? Explain fully, referring to the text in your answer.’

GPS and spelling

Usually, the GPS test consists of two parts: a grammar and punctuation paper requiring short answers, lasting 45 minutes, and an aural spelling test of 20 words, lasting around 15 minutes.

The GPS test includes two sub-types of questions:

  • Selected response, e.g. ‘Identify the adjectives in the sentence below’
  • Constructed response, e.g. ‘Correct/complete/rewrite the sentence below,’ or, ‘The sentence below has an apostrophe missing. Explain why it needs an apostrophe.’

Maths

Children sit three papers in maths:

  • Paper 1: arithmetic, 30 minutes
  • Papers 2 and 3: reasoning, 40 minutes per paper

Paper 1 will consist of fixed response questions, where children have to give the correct answer to calculations, including long multiplication and division. Papers 2 and 3 will involve a number of question types, including:
 

  • Multiple choice
  • True or false
  • Constrained questions, e.g. giving the answer to a calculation, drawing a shape or completing a table or chart
  • Less constrained questions, where children will have to explain their approach for solving a problem

Results

After SATs, each child will receive a scaled score for each subject (reading, maths and GPS) and whether they have reached the expected standard set by the Department for Education.

The range of scaled scores available for each KS2 test is:

  • 80 (the lowest scaled score that can be awarded)
  • 120 (the highest scaled score)

The expected standard for each test is a scaled score of 100 or more. If a child is awarded a scaled score of 99 or less they won't have achieved the expected standard in the test.