Year 6

Year 6 is a very busy but extremely enjoyable year. The children will be encouraged to take on more responsibility around school and are expected to take a greater control of their own learning. I believe that children should be stretched this year, without being stressed, to achieve their own personal potential.

Please Click HERE for more information on what will be taught throughout the year.

The children will also have the opportunity to take on additional responsibility around school including becoming a house captain, a prefect or even Head or Deputy Head girl or boy, as well as helping in the infants during rainy playtimes and assisting in nursery and reception at lunch times.

Entrance Exams

In year 6 we have two sets of exams. The first come in January when the children sit the King David High School entrance exam along with any independent school exams that you choose. These are generally in English and Maths with some schools having an additional science and/or verbal or non verbal reasoning paper. The children will have lots of support in school for these exams and if there is any additional help you need, please just come and ask. Please go through any corrections with your child – it is not only completing papers that will help your child move forward but correcting mistakes and understanding common errors.

SATS & End of Year Assessments

There are SATS tests in English and Maths. The statutory SATS take place in Year 2 and Year 6 and these results are reported to the government. In Year 3 – 5 the children complete the optional SATS and these results, along with teacher assessments throughout the year inform the final judgement. In Year 1, the children complete a statutory phonics screening test in June and are assessed in Reading, Writing and Maths through teacher assessment.

Transition Curriculum

In the final half term of school, year 6 begin our wonderful transition curriculum. This curriculum includes:

Cycling proficiency
Visit on the metro to a recycling plant
Out and about crossing roads on the way to the park
Streetwise visits exploring emotions and situations associated with their move to high school
Writing and performing ‘Speech Day’ where they recall memories of their time in school
A Spanish lesson
Designing and making a roller coaster
End of year production
Year book
School newspaper

Homework

As you can see, we have a packed curriculum. In order to meet all the requirements of the National Curriculum and the preparation for the entrance exams, homework plays a vital part in our year. The children will need a quiet place to complete their work, away from distractions. As a rule, they will have between 30minutes and an hour every night. All homework will be written down in their ‘monkey’ homework diaries.

If the children need support with their homework it is important that we all support them with it. The children should ALWAYS attempt homework by themselves but should they be struggling or becoming confused please do help them with it – particularly when they are completing past papers. Once again, if there are any problems, please let me know.

Usual Weekly Homework –

Monday

– Spellings for the following Monday
– Handwriting for Tuesday
– Spellaway for Tuesday
– Tables for the following Monday
– Reading

Tuesday

– Mental Arithmetic for Thursday
– Reading

Wednesday

– Mental Arithmetic for Thursday
– Reading

Thursday

– Piece of English, Maths or Science
– Reading

Friday

– Two pieces of work linked to the weeks work, usually English, Maths and Science
– Reading

Equipment

It is really important that children have all the required equipment in school all the time and that all uniform and PE kit is clearly labelled. It is also important that kit is checked each term to ensure that it still fits and is still suitable for PE lessons.

PE Kit

Outdoor – Navy blue tracksuit, white t-shirt and trainers
Indoor – Navy blue shorts, white t-shirt and black pumps

Other Equipment – Once again please label all equipment and replace it when required.

– Clear plastic water bottle
– Homework folder
– Blue or black pens with which your child can write neatly
– H.B. Pencils (at least 2)
– Rubber
– Pencil sharpener
– Set of coloured pencils
– Set of felt tip pens
– 2 small glue sticks
– Small roll of sellotape
– 30 cm ruler, which measures in both cm. and mm.
– Dictionary – Collins new compact dictionary or Collins compact – English dictionary or Oxford colour dictionary – with thesaurus
– Collins maths dictionary – Kay Gardner ISBN: 0 – 00 – 720783 – 2
– The first aid in English by Angus Mclver – Published by Robert Gibson – ISBN: 0 – 340 – 88287 – 5

Reading

At BWJPS, reading for pleasure is extremely important. To encourage this, we have a reading for pleasure slot every day where we encourage children to read a variety of books. If you wish to help us provide these by generously donating a book to our Y6 classroom, you will find our Amazon Wishlist here.

Please remember that if there is anything you need, do come and see me – lets work together to make your child’s final year in primary school a very happy, rewarding and successful one!

Mrs Kobak

Latest from Year 6

Mindfulness Sessions

Date: 26/04/2021

Years 5 and 6 are very lucky as our trainee teacher, Miss Moss, has set up a lunchtime mindfulness club. During these sessions, years 5 and 6 have explored mindfulness eating and ways to feel happy or keep calm. Last week they started to make dreamweavers, which they really enjoyed, as you can see below.

Letters to the Queen

Date: 20/04/2021

Year 6 wrote letters of condolence to the Queen last week to let her know that their thoughts are with her.

Learning about volume

Date: 23/03/2021

Year 6 have been exploring volume using a range of practical resources.

Y5/6 Writing Session

Date: 17/12/2020

Following on from our author zoom with Sufiya Ahmed, we decided to try writing our own war/ spy stories. To do this, years 5 and 6 paired up and worked together to write our stories before reading them aloud to one another. This was a great activity and a wonderful opportunity for children to learn from one another. We had a great time!

Author Zoom

Date: 11/12/2020

Years 5 and 6 were very lucky to have a zoom meeting with Sufiya Ahmed on Wednesday. Sufiya, author of Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan, worked in the Houses of Parliament as a researcher and writer before becoming a full-time author. She now has 3 books published, two of which focus on human rights. Sufiya spoke to us about her previous career and how she became an author; she also shared some tips with the classes on how to become authors themselves. The children really enjoyed the session; being able to ask her questions and listening to a chapter from her recently published book about Noor Khan. She has also kindly agreed to sell SIGNED copies of the book to school for a discounted price of £6.50 so let Miss Pereira or Mrs Kobak know if you would like one.

Tik Tok

Date: 29/11/2020

Tik Tok is a social media app where users share videos. This app is for users of 13 years or over but many of our children do have the app. Please visit the link to find tips and advice on how to keep your child safe on the app:

Tik Tok carers guide

Our new display

Date: 03/11/2020

We wanted to share our new class display with you!

Art Day

Date: 14/10/2020

Year 6 have been deepening their knowledge of artists by looking at the work of Alfred Wallis and creating pieces based on his work. They explored the use of pen to draw careful patterns on fish and oil pastel to produce detailed shells.

Exam prep has started!

Date: 28/09/2020

In maths basic skills, the children have started to look at the type of questions they will see on the arithmetic maths papers in the entrance exams. Their knowledge and attitude to learning was VERY impressive!