Dear Parents,

Welcome to Year 6 – I am sure it will turn out to be a challenging yet rewarding final year at Bede Burn.

English

Our first focus text this term will be a short story by Michael Morpurgo called ‘The Giant’s Necklace’. Through it, I hope the children will showcase their writing skills to me through a diary entry in role as the main character and a newspaper report of a significant event. ‘Viking Boy’ by Tony Bradman will be the next text we use to link fiction with our topic this term, which is the Vikings. We will also be revising grammar and punctuation rules from KS2 before we start on the new Y6 criteria.

Maths

This term our focus will be on securing place value knowledge and revising and consolidating all four number operations before we move on to look at fractions. This year we will be ensuring all children are fluent in all aspects of maths as well as incorporating reasoning and problem solving tasks.

Topic

The Vikings will be the subject of our topic work this term – we will be looking at where the Vikings came from, where they first landed in England and the struggle they had with the Anglo Saxons until their demise! Children will be making Viking longships and, hopefully, making a visit to Lindisfarne this term.

Science

Mr Haikney will be taking Y6 for Science and he will be focusing on ‘Animals including Humans’ looking at the circulatory and respiratory system.

PE

This term will be a mixture of team games e.g. rounders, kwik cricket while the weather holds and then we will have a go at circuit training indoors where children will compete against themselves to better their score in a variety of skills.

ICT

We will be looking at the program ‘Scratch’ to decompose a times tables games in order for the children to then program their own ‘Scratch’ file to make an interactive times tables game for younger children in our school.

As you know, in May 2017 your children will be sitting the SATs. These comprise of a reading test, grammar, punctuation and spelling test and a series of maths tests (one arithmetic and two reasoning papers). We shall, of course, be preparing the children for the SATs over the course of the year so that they can reach their full potential. I would be grateful if you could encourage your child to complete homework to the best of their ability. If there are any problems with homework (or any other aspect of Y6), please get in touch with me so I can help as soon as possible. My door will be open from 8.30 every morning and I will be available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays after school – feel free to pop your head around the door!

Last year, a few children found it helpful to have some study guides at home to help them with the trickier aspects of grammar and punctuation in particular. This book is by no means essential but I would recommend Oxford School Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Dictionary (2014 – it has a purple/blue cover).

However, Y6 is not solely focused on the SATs. Y6 children have the responsibility of buddies in Reception this year – something I know they will enjoy and relish. We also have the annual Y6 trip to Thurston to look forward to. Our slot this year is in June. It is a brilliant trip, which is enjoyed by everyone who attends. More information will follow regarding specific dates and prices etc.

Year 6 will receive weekly homework; it will be set on a Wednesday to be completed by the following Monday. Seesaw will play a large role in homework this year – I know from Mrs Faulkner how well you all – children and parents – took to using it and I look forward to seeing the different styles of presenting homework. Please ensure homework is completed every week – feel free to help your child and please let me know if your child is struggling.

Reading is still very important in Y6; this should not just be listening to your child read but questioning them about what they have read, asking them to predict what might happen or to tell you about the main character for example. Reading journals should be written in regularly by both children and parents.

PE will take place on Thursdays and Fridays – please make sure that kit is in school on these days. (Kit consists of a red logoed Bede Burn t-shirt, black shorts and black plimsolls or trainers).

I am looking forward to working with you and the children to ensure everyone makes the most of this last year at Bede Burn and that the children leave with happy memories of their time here,

Yours sincerely,

Mrs M Todd