Somerset

This week in Somerset 6

Week beginning Monday 18th September

Well, what a couple of weeks it has been for the children taking part in Bikeability! The weather has been less than kind to them and has, from week to week, gone from one extreme to the other. The first week was something of an Indian summer: the children had to contend with some extreme temperatures, but probably came back slightly drier than the children who took part the following week. Here, the children showed true resilience and pedaled through the wind and torrential rain – some of them spent the entire day out there, but all came in happy and full of the joys of cycling. They learnt the intricacies and minute differences between left and right turns onto major roads, they learnt how to properly control their bicycles and one or two even learnt how to carry out emergency repairs on their bicycles: broken chains, punctures and brake failures were not going to stop our Year 6 from reaching their goal and ensuring they would hold the infamous Bikeability certificate in their hands at the end of the week. Of course, there were difficulties and of course there were struggles, but all of the children gave their best and did brilliantly, and we are very proud of them. 

Year 6 were fortunate enough to visit the LifeSpace this week. Building on previous years and thinking about the next few crucial years in the children’s lives, this session focused on Decisions. Decisions about life, exercise and friendships were all discussed, as well as some of the more challenging topics such as alcohol and drugs. What made these sessions so special was the fact that they were perfectly relevant to the children: you could sense how engaged they all were.

In our English lessons, we have begun to look at what makes a great narrative. We focused on description and have crafted some wonderful narratives which clearly describe the characters, setting and atmosphere that we are trying to create for the reader. Our stories centred on a new and foreign land for the characters – we took inspiration from this term’s book, ‘The Journey’.  

The circulatory system continued to be explored this week in science. The children found out how to measure their pulse and the best places in the body to do this. They could practise doing this at home over the weekend as some were not able to find their pulse but are quite definitely alive. We will be continuing to measure heart rate in science as we move to exploring the differences between resting heart rate and heart rate after exercise next week. 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mr Lucas and Miss Osborne.

STEM Ambassador Application Form

Please click the link below to apply to become a STEM Ambassador. You will need to think about why STEM is important in school, what you could do to improve it and what skills you think you would bring to the role. These are the types of questions you might expect to see in job interviews and they require you to be critically reflective about the subject and yourself. Good luck!

Home Learning

Home learning will be set each week on a Thursday and will be due in the following Tuesday. 

Maths Fluency, Grammar and Reading Comprehension

Spelling: 

In Year 6, the children are in different spelling groups. If your child is unsure who their spelling teacher is, please ask.  Please practise your spelling words as part of your home learning. Our spelling test will be on a Wednesday.

In addition, please find some information to support your child at home with their spellings: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/english/primary-spelling/

Also attached is the 100 most common words that your child is expected to know by the end of Year 6 (please see below). 

Reading

Children should be reading every night at home. ​​This should be recorded on Boom Reader at least once a week by a parent or carer.​​ Instructions on how to log on to Boom Reader have been sent home in your child's bag. Boom Reader can also be downloaded as an app. Please ask if you have any questions.

https//boomreader.co.uk

Multiplication Tables

In Year 6, we are rehearsing our multiplication tables to ensure that we can recall all the number facts quickly. The children have identified the multiplication tables that they would like to practise and should focus on these. Below is a link to a website that they can use to help them practise:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Music Knowledge Organiser

Below is the music knowledge organiser for this term's music topic. To help with their in-class learning, please can the children read over this each week.