A huge welcome to my new Year 6 class! This week I have spent time getting to know my lovely new class and hopefully the class now know me a lot better too! Although we have spent time getting to know the Year 6 routine and expectations, we have also hit the ground running, and made a good start to our learning.
I know Year 6 is a big year, not just for the children, but also for you parents too! Your (not so little) baby is getting ready to make that transition to high school next year and this is their last year of Primary school! With this is mind, I want to make sure that this is a successful and positive year for all. As a Year 6 team, we will work collaboratively with parents and children to ensure all of the class achieve their full potential and we will support you in any way we can. Yes, Year 6 is a challenging year, but it is also such an exciting year full of opportunity and responsibility. I look forward to starting this journey together.
Here is what we have been up to this week…
In Maths we started back with our ‘Fluent in 5’ from day one and I must say, I have been really impressed with the arithmetic skills in this class so far! In our Power Maths, our focus has been on place value up to 10,000,000. The class have done incredibly well with place value so far and we have looked at some challenging problems as a class too.
In English we made a start on our new unit focusing on the book ‘Rose Blanche’. We explored some key vocabulary and created descriptive sentences of scenes in the book using expanded noun phrases.. We also started with our ‘Grammar Warm-ups’ and reading comprehension, alongside our ‘Get Spelling’ activities.
In RE we have introduced our first topic, ‘The Kingdom of God’. We have explored and discussed some of the key values of the Kingdom of God and have written explanations as to why we think certain values are so important. We also used bible references to support our reasons. This week we also took part in daily class worships, and on Wednesday we had the chance to plan our own shared worships, ready to deliver to the class in future weeks.
In History we had an introductory lesson to our new topic, ‘The Battle of Britain.’ We looked at some key vocabulary and made links where we could and we have started to look at some key events of WW2, ordering them chronologically on a timeline…
🌟 AWARD WINNERS! 🌟
The Golden Award went to the whole of year 6 for making a fantastic start to the new school year.
The Writing Award went to James for stunning descriptive work. Well done!
The Maths award went to Grace for an impressive start to her maths.
Notices:
PE days- Wednesdays this half term.
Water bottles-these need to be filled and brought in each day and taken home to be cleaned at the end of each day. Each child in the class was provided with a school water bottle-please can you ensure these are the bottles that are brought in daily and not their own water bottle from home.
Spellings- I gave the class a spelling test this week and they will come home with their spelling lists to practice next week. New spellings will be given on a Friday and they will be tested on them the following Friday.
Reading books - we have not yet completed a STAR Reading test, so the children do not have their new ZPDs yet. As soon as they are complete, the class will come home with their reading book and record. This will need to be signed by an adult each time they read at home. However, the children have continued to take a reading book under their year 5 ZPD whilst we are waiting for the computer system to renew the data.
Homework- I have not set any homework this week. From next week, homework will be set on a Friday and due for the following Wednesday (I check work has been complete on a Thursday morning). In terms of expectations, I will set Maths & English units on IXL , ask for at least one Bedrock lesson to be completed and spellings and times tables will be set too. Spellings and times tables tests will always be on a Friday.
Head Boy & Girl - All those who have shown interest in being Head Boy or Girl this year will need to prepare a speech to deliver to teachers & KS2. I have asked that those interested write their speech at home and bring them in next week. I am happy to proof read any speeches and/or give tips/prompts!
Other roles & responsibilities- In Year 6 every child in the class will have a responsibility. All of the class will be prefects and we also have roles such as librarians, dining hall monitors, assembly/prayer leaders, assembly set-up team…. I think it is really important for all the children to take on more responsibility as they enter Year 6; this is also good preparation for high school!
Contact information- if you need to contact me for any reason, please email using year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk. I do apologise as I have not got access to this email address yet, but this is being sorted. I will hopefully have full access by early next week.
Water Park- Year 6 will visit Water Park is in June. I will organise a parent meeting regarding cost, requirements etc before the end of this half term.
Thank you, Year 6, for a lovely first week back! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs Ormerod and Mrs Owen
