Our Previous Learning this year

Autumn 1

In Autumn Term 1 in Year 6 our geographical inquiry question was "How and why is the landscape of the UK changing over time?", we discovered some of the many ways in which the world around them has changed. From coastal erosion to political changes, there were many factors at work. Year 6 learned about the structure of the United Kingdom and how its shape and geography have changed over thousands of years.  We also predicted the future and looked at what might change again in our lifetimes.

Our key text was 'Survivors' by David Long which tells 23 true stories of survival in the wildest situations.  We used this as inspiration to create poems, narratives, inner monologues, a survival guide, and a formal letter.  In Reading, we looked at a range of switched fairytales where although the stories might have seemed familiar there was something unusual about them.  The class reading text this half term was 'Dreamsnatcher' which is the first in a very exciting trilogy by Abi Elphinstone.

Our maths this half term covered Place Value and four Functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), and we began to look at Fractions.

In French, the children focused on naming other countries and a variety of sports.  Our artwork was based on 'Making our voices heard', the class looked at ways in which artists expressed themselves including the likes of Diego Rivera who used his culture as his main inspiration.

PE days in Year 6 are on Wednesday and Friday, Autumn 1 saw the children taking part in Tag Rugby and Netball.

In Science our focus area was Electricity.  We created and fixed circuits looking at what happened when we varied the components involved and looked at sustainable energy.  Computing was based on coding, using instructional software, and creating loops.

In PSHE we explored friendships: their importance, what being a good friend means, and how to keep friendships positive and healthy.  RE we thought about what values are, which values are important to us, and then applied this thinking to a range of religions, finally looking at how this links to Sikhism and the commitment they show to their religion.

Autumn 2

Our History topic this term was based around our local area when we looked at the impact of the Industrial Revolution on Todmorden and the surround towns and villages.  We learnt how tricky life was at this time and the difficulties faced by working class people.  Our English text linked closesly with this as we wrote diary entries, character descriptions and non choronolgical reports around the book "Street Child" by Berlie Doherty, this story told us the struggles of the main character 'JimJarvis' and how meeting Dr Barnado improved his chances in life.

In Maths we followed Power Maths scheme mainly focusing on fractions, learning how to add, subtract, multiply and divide them as well as finding fractions of amounts.  Evolution was our area of learning in Science finding out how we came to exist as the humans we are today, we also thought about natural selection and inheritance and linked it back to our Industrial Revolution when learning about the peppered moths battle for survival.

In PE we perfected our golfing technique learning how to chip the ball and perfected our swing to achieve a hole-in-one.

In French we learned how to use our sporting terminology from the previous half term and applied this when speaking about football and footballers.  Art focus was LS Lowry and his depictions of an industrial landscape.  In DT we made our own waistcoats, cutting the fabric, pinning them and sewing them before eventually adding details such as pockets, buttons and embroidery.

In our computing we used Scratch to create code breakers and learned how to decipher a range of codes throughout history, thinking about the Bletchley Park codebreakers.

Spring 1

In Spring term 1 our focus shifted back to Geography when we investigated the key question "From Giant Cities to remote communities - what is it like to live in South America" focusing specifically on the country Brazil!  We used our geography skills to compare regions, identify physical and human features, create climate graphs, and found out about the indigenous people of the region.

In Maths we continued to follow Power Maths and learnt a range of maths topics from coordinates, reflection & translation to decimals and percentages.  Science we learned all about light and how we see, how light travels, and how shadows are created.  

Our English was be centred around a video text - Pandora - the mythical world from the film Avatar.  We used this to inspire us to write setting descriptions, persuasive brochures, scientific reports, and narratives.

In RE we began to look at the Easter story, asking what Christians believe about the stories of Jesus' death and resurrection.  In Music we looked at links between Pop Art and Music, we created our own pieces as part of an orchestra.  In French we learned how to describe different areas of our houses.  Learning new vocabulary about locations and positions.  In Art we foucsed on how to draw realistic facial features using a range of different graded art pencils to shade before finally creating monochromatic portraits.

In PE we monitored our own fitness over a sustained time and are kept a check of this in our own fitness booklet.  We were also excited to be taking part in weekly Bushcraft skills sessions when we got to show our adventurous sides down in the wild garden.

Spring 2

We began our WW2 Topic, this half term we have focused on the uprising of Hitler and how he came to be in power.  We also used a range of historical sources (primary and secondary sources) to investigate why the Second World War began.

Our English work was linked to our History Topic and the children really enjoyed our class text "Letters from the Lighthouse".  we used this story of evacuees in World War 2 to write diary entries, Character descriptions, Postcards home and a non-chronological text about Kindertransport.

In Maths our Power Maths scheme saw us learning algebra and Percentages.  We found how to use formulae, find percentages of amounts and how to apply this new learning to a range of reasoning and problem-solving questions.

In PE we got to showcase our dance skills on a Friday with Mr. Richardson and also took part in Dodgeball, using a range of fun and challenging games to develop our skills for this game.  In the build-up to the Easter holiday we completed our RE topic which focused on the Christian beliefs of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In Science our key scientist was Carolus Linnaeus as we investigated the use of classification keys, thinking about why these might be used, what their purpose is, and how they were created. 

In Music we identified different eras of music and then focused on War-time songs and sang these as a class, in French we thought about items we would need to pack to go on a French holiday, we planned these out and learned how to say what we would take with us.

We continued our bushcraft skills sessions in our Outdoor and Adventurous curriculum.

Meet the staff...

Miss McDaid (Class Teacher)

Mrs. Davies (Teaching Assistant)

Mrs A Morrison (Support Assistant)