Autumn 1
Year 6 have had a fantastic start to the year – we can’t believe how much we have managed to fit in! Our learning theme has been Land of the Free – North America. Within our geography lessons, the children first learnt about the human features of North America and then moved on to looking at settlement types. They focused on Telford as a town settlement before moving on to comparing the capital city settlements of London and Washington DC. To link with our geography curriculum driver, and to make links to Black History Month, the children studied two very important Americans in literacy: Rosa Parks and Barack Obama. They wrote some super biographies of these influencers, making use of various literary techniques. Our first art block this year – Artists in America – has enabled the children to develop their drawing skills whilst familiarising themselves with the work of accomplished artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Peter Max. In order to prepare for our topic of War after half-term, we have been reading the book ‘Once’ by Morris Gleitzman during our guided reading lessons. This is a really powerful children’s novel about the Holocaust in which a young, Jewish boy is determined to escape the orphanage he lives in, in order to save his Jewish parents from the Nazis in the occupied Poland of the Second World War. In our maths lessons, the children have deepened and extended their understanding of place value and calculations – the children enjoyed working systematically to solve complex problems. During their science lessons with Mrs Cartwright, the children have been learning about light and even had a go at making their own periscopes. In music, the children have had opportunities to develop their composition skills through body percussion and the playing of musical instruments such as glockenspiels. During our PSHCE lessons, the children have learnt about responsibilities and consequences, democracy and immigration as well as thinking about their own wants, needs, dreams and goals. In addition, they have explored gender stereotyping and online reporting within sessions dedicated to online safety. Also, they took part in the STAR programme which is a drugs education course led by a serving police officer. In computing, the children have learnt about search engines, how results are selected and ranked, web crawlers and data centres. We have been learning about the Five Pillars of Islam in RE and linking this new learning to our understanding of Christianity. In PE lessons, the children have been developing their skills in gymnastics and basketball. Most of the children also attended our residential visit to Outward Bound: an outdoor education centre in Aberdovey, Wales where they completed a plethora of exciting and adventurous activities such as rock climbing, mountain walks, canoeing, jetty jumping and canoe sliding!