Autumn Term Highlights from Year 6

Over this Autumn term, we have been taking part in activities and topics which the children have all enjoyed and shown great resilience, commitment, and excitement for their learning.

In English, we studied MacBeth and all the gory details of what happened to him and his wife! From this the children wrote a narrative with mystical creatures; we even did some acting related to the story. Recently we have been creating a balanced argument about whether the Christmas Holidays should be longer. There were lots of different opinions on this topic. As we are named after William Shakespeare, we needed to do some research into his life and create a biography.

In Reading, we have read MacBeth and are now reading Street Child, which links in well with our history topic about Reading, as it is about a boy called Jim who finds himself in a workhouse and interestingly The Oracle used to be a workhouse during the Victorian Period. We have carried out hot seating, drama and answering questions to really understand how characters emotions change throughout a book.

With Maths, we have covered all the basic methods for calculation e.g., addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication which has involved larger numbers (up to one million) and using the booklets, the children are able to work independently on questions and extend themselves. The children have enjoyed being challenged mathematically. We are now on fractions until Christmas (always tricky those fractions!)

With the other curriculum subjects, we have studied a range of different topics and themes all with exciting activities and learning opportunities for Year 6 to deepen their knowledge of the wider world. For example, in History we have been looking at Reading and how this has changed over the years and about the diverse community with links to the Caribbean during the Windrush activity. The children were keen to find out about their town. In Science we have been exploring circuits and trying to affect the voltage to light up a bulb and a buzzer at the same time! We decided we needed to add more batteries. Another interesting science topic was learning about viruses, bacteria, and fungi. It was fascinating watching how some moulds were in cheese and okay to eat, while others were harmful. We watched bread go mouldy over time through a video. Earlier in the term we studied North America and learnt all the 52 states that make up and how different their habitats and vegetation were. The children were amazed by how vast a country it was and that each state had its own rules and laws.

Year 6 have also been having swimming lessons and the improvements made by all the children have been amazing and they all enjoyed learning to swim. There was also a football festival, and Year 6 enjoyed this and performed very well showing great Ranikhet Values. Some children took part in Bikeability where confidence in riding a bike was instilled, useful when going to secondary school.

Overall, it has been an interesting, busy and tiring term and I am extremely proud of how Year 6 has risen to the challenges and continues to produce an amazing standard of work. Looking forward to all the fun things we will be learning about and doing.

Happy Christmas.