Welcome to Y6

1. Welcome to Y6 Teaching Staff - Miss Hampton, Miss Hale, Mrs Tomlinson Learning Support Assistants - Mrs Cox, Miss Moore + Miss Slater

2. Welcome to Y6 • We are very lucky to be able to split 3 ways this year for Maths and English. • We will be around if anyone has any questions.

3. Days to remember • Y6 have PE on a Wednesday and a Friday, - please make sure children have the correct PE kit in school each week. We will send PE kits home for a freshen up once per half-term. • Reading books can be changed when the children have Individual Reading time during Guided Reading sessions. • Year 6 have a library visit on Thursday afternoons. Children will choose/change their library book. • Spelling homework will be sent out on a Monday to be returned on the Friday. • Homework is given out on a Friday and is expected back in the following Monday. • Celebration assembly for Upper Key Stage 2 will take place on a Friday afternoon at 2.25pm.

4. english • In Y6 we teach English everyday. The children will work through a range of objectives and activities taken from the old English curriculum. • The new curriculum does not apply to Year 6 until next year. • Children are taught discrete sessions of spelling, punctuation and grammar in preparation for the national SPaG test at the end of the year. • There will be Autumn Term Parent Workshops available for English and Maths…watch this space!

5. Reading • Your child should be aiming to read for at least 20 minutes each night, sometimes, but not all the time with an adult. • Their school reading record book (green one) should be completed by your child with a reflective comment about the book and signed by an adult to say they have read and feedback any difficulties or concerns within the week. They are allowed and encouraged to read other books (as well as their library book) of their own at home and these may also be noted in their reading record. • The wider the variety of reading material they experience, the better.

6. Reading • Some children are now working at a level that means they have read all of our school reading scheme and are now on home readers. These can include books they have at home or books from our school library. • Guided reading happens everyday, each child will read with an adult twice per week. • Other activities during guided reading will include follow up activities linked to a book/piece of text they have read with an adult in school, comprehension tasks and individual reading.

7. spellings • Every Monday, your child will bring home a list of spellings to learn. These are to be practised at home, ready for a spelling test on the Friday of that week. • They will probably require some adult help with this, to check they understand the meaning of the word as well as the spelling. An older brother or sister could maybe help here.

8. Mathematics • We will have one slot of mathematics each day in Y6, this session will teach objectives taken from the old curriculum. • Topics will be taught in a practical and fun way and time will be given for children to apply their knowledge independently through follow up problem solving activities later in the week. • Separate sessions will be dedicated to mental maths and the times table challenge. • Children continue to have use of Mathletics. This is still accessible at home with the children using their log-in details from school. • Certificates are awarded in celebration assembly for using Mathletics.

9. Times tables • We must stress the importance of times table knowledge as this underpins a lot of the learning that will take place in Y6. We recommend that children spend 15 minutes each night practising their mental recall of times tables facts. • Once your child can confidently recall the multiplication fact of a chosen times table they should move on to practising another times table. • Once your child can confidently recall facts up to 12 x 12, they should begin to learn the corresponding division facts to each times table e.g. If 12 x 12 = 144, 144 ÷ 12 = 12.

10. Learning walls • Learning walls will be used as part of English and Mathematics to display helpful learning hooks for the children. • Learning walls allow children to refer back to what they need to include in their work.

11. Computing • Computing (previously known as ICT!) will be taught on a Tuesday afternoon as a discrete lesson. Children will be taught from the new ICT curriculum that encompasses computing elements such as programming. • Children will have the opportunity to use the new ICT suite and facilities, laptops and iPads as part of their weekly timetable.

12. Learning challenge curriculum • In previous years the children have accessed foundation subjects such as history, geography and art as part of PLT (personalised learning time). This will now be called the ‘learning challenge curriculum’. • Each topic will be introduced with a ‘WOW moment’ that will inspire and engage the children’s interests to learn more. • Here are the topics we will be learning about in Y6:

13. Y6 Learning challenge topics

14. Art + Design Technology • The children will be taught art + DT as part of the learning challenge curriculum and will focus on one art skill across the whole school each half term. • We appreciate any old newspapers to help keep our tables and classrooms clean and tidy!

15. Finally We appreciate all the help you can give. I hope we can work together to make Year 6 a successful and enjoyable experience for your child. Teachers will be around on their classroom door each morning for any short messages that you want to pass on. If you wish to make an appointment after school to speak to your child’s class teacher please do so via the office, we are always happy to discuss any of your concerns or queries that you may have. Year 6 staff team