Spring Term Highlights from Year 6

This term in Year 6 has been busy and packed with exciting learning, covering a range of topics as well as adventures. All the children have enjoyed their learning and produced excellent standards of work throughout this term, and here are some of the highlights.

In Reading, we have studied two books – Kensuke’s Kingdom and Holes. Both are contrasting adventure stories, demonstrating fantastic descriptions of characters and settings. From these two books, we drew predictions, made drawings, and gained a better understanding of the characters and vocabulary, as well as empathizing with the main characters. Kensuke’s Kingdom was particularly moving at the end, and the children were excited for the ending.

In Writing, we used an erupting volcano setting for our adventure story, and from this, we worked on engaging with the reader through the use of adventurous vocabulary and cohesion to allow the story to flow. Some of these stories were turned into books using AI technology. Our Geography topic was Extreme Weather, and making links with the writing, we produced a double-page spread about tsunamis, using techniques that linked to a non-chronological style of writing and presentation. Finally, we wrote a newspaper report using our understanding of the book Holes, focusing on the main character Stanley, who was arrested for stealing some shoes! Some lovely headlines using alliteration were produced.

In Maths, we have continued to follow the White Rose scheme and have covered a range of mathematical concepts, including fractions, conversions, division, multiplication, and reasoning problems. The children have enjoyed the areas covered and have developed a better understanding of solving more complex problems. Additionally, we have been focusing on arithmetic, and each week children have been recording even better scores when tested, which shows that the basic skills within maths required later in life have been secured.

With our other subjects, a wealth of knowledge and skills have been learned, and within these, some great pieces of work have been achieved. For instance, in Geography, we learned about how weather can be dangerous and destructive, and that different parts of the world are more prone to extreme weather. The children were able to use their prior knowledge about volcanoes and their locations to understand how tsunamis can appear. We looked at videos of the destruction caused by earthquakes and used this to design a building that would withstand one if it occurred, for example, in Japan (where many earthquakes of high magnitude occur). In Science, we learned all about light and how we see images, as well as periscopes and investigating shadows. Now, we are looking at the circulatory system and how blood flows around the body, and that the heart is a pump! Acting out this motion with different colored balls to show oxygenated and deoxygenated blood was fun!

Art involved printing, and we looked at Pop Art and Andy Warhol with his iconic printed images. The children were set the challenge of choosing an icon from this century to turn into a work of art – these included the Apple icon, Prime, PlayStation, mobile phones, TikTok, and some famous people. The children enjoyed designing and creating their polystyrene tiles ready to print in the style of Pop Art. We are looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

Being a designer was the objective for our DT, looking at how different apparels (hats) were designed and produced, especially some of the weirder designs that some royalty and famous people choose to wear for that grand occasion. The task for the children was to design a sun hat. All the children were extremely creative with the material choices and designs.

A mixed football team took part in a match against St. Michaels, and although we didn’t win, all the children showed resilience, skill, determination, and represented Ranikhet Academy with pride. It was also great to see some of the parents show up to support; hopefully, more games of football to come. SuperSport’s happened again, where the house captains in Year 6 supported the other year groups when they were carrying out the challenge of a range of exercises each time. Lots of encouragement from these captains helped to keep the children going.

And with all the preparation for SATs that has been happening over this term, I would just like to say that I am extremely proud of everyone in my class for giving them 110% throughout and continuing to be the best versions of themselves.

Oh, and before I forget, there was the small matter of a trip to France linked with our 11before11 Reach2 project entitled 'Crossing Borders'. We were very lucky to be involved with this amazing opportunity for the children to visit Rue in France and explore the French culture, especially immersing themselves in the WW1 remembrance cemeteries and museums linked to the Somme and Ypres wars. The château we stayed in was very grand and in lovely surroundings where the children had the freedom to explore, play, and have fun.

We were well-fed, and the hosts entertained the children with a range of activities, including a disco, scavenger hunt, Olympics (where we came 2nd, but from what I was told by the children, we should have come 1st). Medals were awarded, and sportsmanship was shown with the other three schools that were taking part and staying there as well. We met some French pupils, and although it was a bit tricky to start off with, after a game of quick cricket, there was no stopping the chatting in both basic French and English. Overall, all the children and adults had an amazing time, and due to the preparations for SATs and continued learning, it was a great break for them to be themselves and just enjoy the trip. For those that stayed behind, the week was a gentle mix of supporting younger children around the building in different year groups and finding out about life in the trenches, writing letters home from the front line, and creating watercolour paintings of their choice. So, they too had a week of enjoying the less franticness of the week.

Overall, in this short term, great pieces of work have been produced in a range of subjects, and continued learning has been achieved. It has been a busy and compacted term, but the children, as always in Year 6, rise to everything that they are given and demonstrate the Ranikhet Values to be the Best Versions of themselves.