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Year 6

Welcome to Year 6

Spring Term 2024

Areas of study for Year 6

English

Kicking off the spring term, the children’s writing will be cross-curricular with their Victorians history unit. Their writing will include diary entries on the Titanic disaster and a information leaflet about life in the workhouse. The children will also be looking at the short story Alma and writing a narrative using tension and suspense techniques. The children will also be writing biographies about a famous Victorian.  

Throughout the Spring term, Year 6 will be exploring a variety of different writing genres such as biographies, non-chronological reports, diary entries and poetry. They will continue to practice spellings and focus on specific grammar activities, for example: the use of parenthesis, semi-colons, relative clauses, etc.


Mathematics

During maths lessons this term, the children will be continuing to use their existing knowledge to support them with each new activity and skill. Using their knowledge of decimals, the children will explore multiplying and dividing decimals by integers, looking at converting fractions to decimals and recognising the significance of a decimal in relation to place value. Following on from this, they will study percentages looking at the link between fractions, decimals and percentages. They will also learn how to find percentages of amounts and ordering fractions decimals and percentages. After this, the children will be introduced to Algebra and will look at forming expressions before moving on to solving more complex equations. They will one and two-step algebraic equations to build on their understanding. After half term, the children will look at converting metric and imperial units with a focus on miles and kilometres. Following this, the children will study perimeter, area and volume with a focus on parallelograms and triangles. Finally, the children will be introduced to ratio. They will learn how to represent ratio pictorially using bar models and numerically. Over the course of this term, children will continue to practise reasoning and problem-solving activities to consolidate their learning and to apply what they have learnt as well as weekly arithmetic lessons to ensure they practice the four operations regularly.  

Reading

This term, Year 6 will be reading ‘Street Child’ By Berlie Doherty as their class novel. Using this text in English and Guided reading lessons, the children will explore the language used. This will include discussions, as a class, about the author’s choice of vocabulary. The children will also have the opportunity to develop a range of reading skills by using the new whole school approach ‘VIPERS’ (vocabulary, inference, predict, explain, retrieve and summarise. 

MFL

Le weekend is the topic for the first half term of French. The children will learn how to ask and tell the time in French before progressing to phrases to describe leisure activities. Finally, they will practise creating phrases in which they described, for example, at what times they might do different activities and for how long. 

The second half of the spring term, the pupils will learn ‘manger et bouger’ (the verbs: to eat and to move). Pupils will study the key vocabulary for healthy food and drink and will progress to being able to add connectives to expand their sentences and consolidate their learning.  Furthermore, pupils will improve their range of vocabulary by learning key phrases for activities that would keep them fit and healthy.

PSHE/RSHE


The spring term topics provides an excellent opportunity for class discussion.  Pupils will begin the term by learning to recognise stereotypes in different contexts, and the influence they have on attitudes (and understanding of different groups) within society. This leads onto the wider topic of prejudice and discrimination and ways that people can positively challenge negative behaviour.  Furthermore, pupils will also study the impact and risks associated with ‘media literacy’ and ‘digital intelligence’: covering the wider topic of ‘internet safety’.

The second half-term offers explores the dangers of social media and being able to identify healthy and unhealthy relationships online.  The latter part of the spring term will cover the topic of money and work.  Pupils will consider the role that money plays in people’s lives; attitudes towards it and what may influence decisions about money.

RE

During this term, the children will be considering the question How do religious leaders and sacred texts contribute to believer’s understanding of their faith? The children will be exploring the significance of religious leaders in shaping their religion and how the followers of the religion respond to their teachings. Through the study of religious texts, the children will increase their understanding of the contents of individual books; how the followers of the religions use them to inform their daily lives; how books are treated as part of a person’s worship; and how stories contained within them can teach lessons of morality.

PE

During the first half of the term, children will develop their stamina and fitness levels as they participate in a range of activities, including HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), Zumba, Yoga and Pound. They will learn co-ordination skills, moving in time to the music and how to look after their bodies. 

After half term, the children will be completing a unit on dance – performing the Charleston, Lambeth Walk and the Lindy Hop, all of which link to our history units this term. Children will be dancing individually to learn the steps, then in pairs before finally performing their new dances in groups. Each child will learn how to dance the Charleston step by step and will have the chance to add their own moves as well. 

Geography

During Spring Term, both of our Humanities topics are history-based; however, during these topics, we will be looking at how the UK changed in terms of new transport (trains) and how the country was prepared for war. 

History

This term, the children will be learning about two very exciting topics during history. Before half term, we will be learning about the Victorian Era. The children will consider: what type of Queen was Victoria; how was school different to modern times; the conditions in work factories; the differences between classes and how the invention and building of the railways impacted Britain past and present. During this topic, the children will have the opportunity to create many different pieces of work, including a fact file about the Victorian era writing about life in a Victorian factory.

Science

In the first half term, the topic is inheritance and evolution. The children will learn how living things have changed over time and will consider how fossils provide scientists with evidence of this. They will go on to learn about inherited characteristics and about how natural selection drives evolution. They will consider the ways in which variation and adaptation affect how living things interact with their environment. 

After half term, we will be learning about habitats. In particular, the children will learn about how living things of different species are classified and the reasons for this before going on to consider what characteristics make particular species suited to the habitat in which they are found.

Music

Starting after half term, the children will be studying the history of music, including medieval, renaissance, classical and blues. They will have the opportunity to critique music from different periods, learn about famous composers, create collages and identify the different instruments used and how these have changed over time. By studying each period in turn, the children can identify the similarities between them and how they draw on one another to create new music.

Computing

For the first half term, the children will be learning how to use Excel, inputting data, using simple formulae to add, subtract, multiply, divide and to find totals from data. Once secure, the children will be using their learning from the Victorians topic to research the number of children in workhouses so that they can create tables, pie charts and bar graphs. 

After half term, the children will have the opportunity to collaborate on a document based on the First World War. Using GoogleDocs, they will use a cloud-based word-processor to write, edit and actively amend a document in real-time. 

Art, Design & Technology

This term in art the children will be creating collages using a variety of different materials to produce an image based on our World War One history unit. They will look at Kurt Schwitters, a German artist who specialises in collages. The children are recreating images from the trenches using either a realistic or abstract collage design.
After our study of electricity in science, children will develop their understanding of alarm systems and how these are operated using switches. They will build and test a range of electrical circuits and components in order to evaluate which can be best incorporated into their scarecrow designs. During this process, they will plan, design, make and evaluate the effectiveness of their design, considering what they could have done to further improve it. 
 

*If you require additional information relating to our school curriculum, please ask at the school office or the class teacher.