The majority of Year 6 returned yesterday from an action-packed week at Thurston on Coniston Water in the Lake District. The children took part in a variety of activities including ghyll-scrambling, mountain climbing, canoeing, rock climbing and walking through disused slate mines. All pushed themselves out of their comfort zone and new challenges were met with enthusiasm and a touch of bravery from some.

All thoroughly enjoyed themselves and did not stop for a single moment from the second their eyes opened at 7.15 until they fell asleep around 10.30 pm. As well as the physical activities, the children loved socialising with old friends from Bede Burn and new friends from Hedworthfield. Barn time where the children could play pool, table football and Connect 4 and generally socialise was a big hit. Meal times were a popular part of the day and the children wolfed down bangers and mash, chicken curry, pasta bolognese and a roast dinner.

A fantastic trip was had by all and all children were a credit to you. I took hundreds of photographs and will upload them to the website as soon as possible – watch this space!

Mrs Todd

Look what we received this morning!

Welcome back to school in a brand new year – 2016! Thank you very much for all presents and cards that I received from the children for Christmas and I hope you all had a fun and restful break.

The Spring term looks like it is going to be very busy. Most of the class and I are off to Thurston Outdoor Education Centre on February 1st – I hope the rain stops by then! We are also going to be working towards the ever-looming SATs. This term will require a lot of hard work and dedication from all children and I am sure that they will work to the best of their ability.

In English our studies will be focused on the book ‘Stormbreaker’ by Anthony Horowitz about the adventures of Alex Rider who is recruited to join MI6 while only a teenager. Through our study of this text we will hone our inference and deduction skills as well as showing of our writing talents in many genres e.g. explanation and persuasion. In maths, the first half of this term will be focused on fractions, ratio and proportion and measures.

Our topic this half term is ‘Scandinavia’ a geography based unit that is focused on the human and physical geography of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. We will research a Scandinavian country and write non-chronological reports about them before going on to write persuasively to encourage others to visit this unspoilt part of the world. Hopefully we will create some beautiful pastel art work of the Northern Lights and be able to write an explanation text to explain this natural phenomena.

In ICT we will be programming using Kodu and we will be studying Bon Jovi’s ‘Living On A Prayer’ in our music lessons.

Year 6, Mrs Todd, Mr Arthur and Mrs Parkes had a soggy yet great day at Bamburgh and Holy Island yesterday. Sadly, the rain poured down all day and we returned home drenched.

That did not stop us having a walk to the top of the hill at Bamburgh Castle to look out for any invading Vikings – luckily, we didn’t see any! After a spot of lunch in Bamburgh Cricket Pavillion we made our way to an even soggier Holy Island. Our visit captured the bleak and isolated life the monks must have led at Lindisfarne and gave us a great insight into the shock the Viking raid must have been!

Huge well done to all of the children who behaved beautifully and only moaned about the weather a few times!

Mrs Todd

On Monday, Year 6 walked across to Hebburn Comprehensive School to watch a science show by Professor Brainstorm. What a show! Everyone, including Miss Smith who came with us, learnt something new. Do you know what happens when an inflated balloon is immersed in liquid nitrogen and then removed from it? We didn’t. Did you know you can use a banana to hammer in a nail? We didn’t!

Professor Brainstorm also showed us how to make a ‘spud gun’ of epic proportions using just a piece of copper pipe, a wooden stick and a ‘spud’! We were all learning science without even knowing it.

Many thanks to Hebburn Comprehensive for inviting us along!

Mrs Todd

September 2015

Dear Parents and Children,

Welcome to a Year 6! I am very much looking forward to teaching this class again, and, as I know the children so well already, we are in a perfect position to launch straight into the new curriculum and get a head start.

Year 6 is a little different to every other year in primary school. We will be working towards the SATs in May so there will be a little more of an emphasis on English (reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar) and Maths. We will, of course, still be continuing our topic work, science, music, PE and French etc. lessons throughout the year.

Our English lessons this term will be centered around two very different texts. We will be starting with ‘There’s A Boy In The Girl’s Bathroom’ by Louis Sachar which should hopefully inspire lots of writing from the point of view of a very confused fifth-grader called Bradley Chalkers. After that, we will link together our Topic work with our English and make a study of a narrative version of the longest epic poem written in Old English, ‘Beowulf’. The version we will study is by Michael Morpurgo with excellent illustrations by Michael Foreman.

To complement Y6’s text studies we will be working hard on revising and learning new punctuation, grammar and spelling rules and conventions. These are a prominent part of the New Curriculum and it is essential that we spend the time getting to grips with these!

Topic and English will be intertwined over the course of this term; our trip to Lindisfarne, the site of the first Viking raid on our country in 793, should provide a real incentive to write both fiction and non-fiction.

Other aspects of Viking life we will look at will be where they came from and where they raided and settled. We will also look closely at the struggle for power in England between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons and the eventual unification of our country. In DT we will endeavor to look closely at the design on a Viking longship, evaluate it for its effectiveness and try to make our own!

PE will be taken by an external coach on Monday afternoons and by Mrs. Arthur on Friday afternoons – she is well known for her fast-paced, dynamic, competitive PE lessons so this should prove to be fun for all!

Science this term will be focused on the circulatory system i.e. the function of the heart, lungs, veins, arteries and capillaries and on keeping healthy by looking at the effects of alcohol, drugs and lack of exercise on the body.

Weekly homework will be sent home every Wednesday – this could be English, Maths or a combination of both. Children will receive a homework book which should be used to record all homework and should be treated just like an exercise book in school i.e. neat handwriting in blue pen, dated and underlined etc. Homework books should be returned every Monday. Spelling books will also be sent home on Wednesdays to be completed and returned by the following Monday. All children should have a reading book at all times – this book should be a book that interests and challenges you / your child. It is entirely the children’s responsibility to change these as needed. Reading diaries should be written in regularly by both the children themselves and parents.

The door to Y6 will be opened every morning at 8.30, children are very welcome to come in to our classroom at that time to get themselves sorted for the day and to make an early start on work.

All children should have a water bottle, clearly named, in school at all times which should be taken home regularly to wash!

If you need any further information or have any questions or concerns at any time, the Y6 door will be open from 8.30 every morning and at 3.15 every evening – feel free to catch me then,

Thank you

Mrs. M Todd