This week, we shall be trying something different. QE2 class will have RE lessons in our foundation subjects and Tower Bridge will have Music. Next week, the classes will swap and do the other subject.

What are we learning this week?

Maths – 

• To adjusting both the minuend and subtrahend by the same amount affects the difference
• To using the ‘same difference’ rule can make mental calculation easier
• To use the ‘same difference’ rule to balance equations
• To solve subtraction reasoning calculations by using known facts
• To explain how adjusting the subtrahend affects the difference

English – 

This half term, our English lessons shall be centred around the core text Goodnight Mister Tom. Our weekly objectives include:

• I can compare and contrast written and audiobook versions of Goodnight Mister Tom.
• I can identify and evaluate the key features of a diary entry.
• I can edit and up-level a diary entry.
• I can plan a diary entry.

Our class reading book is Carrie’s War, by Nina Bawden. Throughout the week, we shall be encouraging children to make connections across the two texts, as well as completing additional comprehension-based activities.

Science –

• To create an investigation to test the conductivity of different materials
• To be able to associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.​

Music (Tower) – 

• To listen to music with focus and analysing its composition using musical vocabulary.
• To relate sound sequences to images .

RE (QE2) –

This week, we shall be looking at Authority and Worship within the Buddhism religion. Our learning objectives are:

• What does the word Buddha mean?
• Why is the Buddha special to Buddhists?
• Who was Siddhartha Gautama?
• What caused him to seek enlightenment?
• How did the #Buddha become enlightened?

PE – 

Our PE days are as follows:

QE2 – Tuesday and Thursday

Tower – Tuesday and Friday

Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their full PE kit.

Key Dates

31st October – Deadline for secondary school applications

Many thanks to all those who were able to attend our Meet The Teacher Zoom session last week! If you were unable to join us, the recorded meeting (and slides) are available to access via your child’s Google Classroom.

What are we learning this week?

Maths – 

• To know how adjusting both addends affects the sum (decimal fractions)
• To be able to using the ‘same difference’ rule can make mental calculation easier
• To be able to use the ‘same difference’ rule to balance equations
• To know how increasing or decreasing the minuend affects the difference
• To solve calculations with missing addends
• To calculate the value of a missing part

English – 

This half term, our English lessons shall be centred around the core text Goodnight Mister Tom. Our weekly objectives include:

• I can use drama to help empathise with characters.
• I can write in role.
• I can build character profiles and empathise with supporting characters.
• I can engage in Book Talk.

Our class reading book is Carrie’s War, by Nina Bawden. Throughout the week, we shall be encouraging children to make connections across the two texts, as well as completing additional comprehension-based activities.

Science –

• To create an investigation to see if materials are conductors/insulators
• To record information in different forms.​

History – 

This week is our second History week, how exciting! We shall be continuing to learn about the Kingdom of Benin. This week’s lessons will include us learning more about:

• Life in Benin
• Story of Eweka
• Religion

PE – 

Our PE days are as follows:

QE2 – Tuesday and Thursday

Tower – Tuesday and Friday

Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their full PE kit.

Key Dates

31st October – Deadline for secondary school applications

Week three already! Wow! The pupils have all settled in nicely and we are looking forward to a fun week of learning.

What are we learning this week?

Maths – 

We shall also be completing some initial Maths assessments this week.

• To interpret and represent a part-whole problem with 3 addends using a model
• To explain how adjusting both addends affects the sum
• To solve calculations with missing addends
• To ​explain how using the ‘same difference’ rule can make mental calculation easier
• To use the ‘same difference’ rule to balance equations

English – 

This half term, our English lessons shall be centred around the core text Goodnight Mister Tom. We shall also be completing some initial Reading assessments this week. Our weekly objectives include:

• I can create a propaganda poster.
• I can retell the key events using a story map.
• I can use drama to help empathise with characters.
• I can write in role.

Our class reading book is Carrie’s War, by Nina Bawden. Throughout the week, we shall be encouraging children to make connections across the two texts, as well as completing additional comprehension-based activities.

Science –

• To compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches
• To be able to plan a fair-test by recognising the control variables
• To be able to use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram

History – 

This week is History week, how exciting! We shall be starting our new topic all about the ancient kingdom of Benin.

• To develop chronological understanding about Benin.
• To build an overview of world history.
• To investigate and interpret the past.

PE – 

Our PE days are as follows:

QE2 – Tuesday and Thursday

Tower – Tuesday and Friday

Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their full PE kit.

What are we learning this week?

Maths – 

• To correctly represent an equation in a part-whole model
• To use their knowledge of additive structures to solve problems
• To calculate the value of a missing parts
• To solve addition calculations mentally by using known
• To create stories to correctly match a structure presented in a model

English – 

This half term, our English lessons shall be centred around the core text Goodnight Mister Tom. Our weekly objectives include:

• I can build character profiles.
• I can use drama to explore and compare the emotions of various characters.
• I can compare and contrast settings.
• I can write in role.
• I can use a range of sources to explore and broaden my topic-based vocabulary range.

Our class reading book is Carrie’s War, by Nina Bawden. Throughout the week, we shall be encouraging children to make connections across the two texts, as well as completing additional comprehension-based activities.

Science –

• To investigate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit
• To compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches

Computing – 

Our focus for this week is all about Online Safety. We shall be learning how to de-escalate digital drama, how to identify and report cyberbullying and, finally, learning to find your media balance.

PE – 

Our PE days are as follows:

QE2 – Tuesday and Thursday

Tower – Tuesday and Friday

Please make sure your child comes to school wearing their full PE kit.

We hope that you have all had a relaxing and enjoyable summer holiday. Throughout the course of the first week back, children will be given key information, such as PE and Homework days. Year 6 are to arrive promptly at 8.45am and will be dismissed promptly at 3.20pm. All staggered entry locations have been detailed in the back to school letter emailed to parents last week.

This week our learning will be as follows;

• In Mathematics we we look at Place Value.
• In English we will begin our unit based on our text, Goodnight Mister Tom.

This term we will be blocking our teaching of the Foundation subjects so that we will do several lessons in one subject each week before moving onto another subject. This week we will be focussing on Geography, specifically map skills.

This children will continue to learn Spanish each Tuesday with Mrs Grundey.

We can’t wait to meet you!

Useful links:

Books for Year 6 pupils aged 10-11 in KS2 | School Reading List

What are we learning this week?

Maths – This week, we shall be going through our recent assessment papers.

English – This week, as part of our unit on Shackleton’s Journey, we shall be: identifying and evaluating the key features of a motivational speech and planning, writing and editing our own speech to read aloud to motivate our crew members when things get a little tricky.

Class read – This week, we shall be focusing on character development in our text, Can you see me?

History – 

Learning objectives: 

• To investigate and interpret the past.
• To build an overview of world history.

 Key Questions:

• How important was Eweka’s story?
• What religious beliefs were held by the people of the Benin Kingdom?

PE – This week, our children will receive Sports Leaders training from the Croydon Schools Partnership to help them learn how to plan, and run, events for KS1 Sports Day.

RE – We shall be continuing our Spirited Arts Competition project. This year, our theme is ‘Inspiring’.

Year 6 love to share their recommended reads. With the summer holidays soon approaching, we thought that we would remind you of some fantastic book list websites that promote a widening range of recommended reads for children in Year 6 (and adults too)!

Best Books for Year 6 | Ages 10-11 Recommended Reads | BooksForTopics

Year 6 (age 10-11) | LoveReading4Schools

Books for Year 6 pupils aged 10-11 in KS2 | School Reading List

As our children move forward to secondary school, we think the link below would be a fantastic place to start to continue the love for reading they have harvested this year. Check it out!

Year 7 books for pupils aged 11-12 in KS3 – our suggested reads (schoolreadinglist.co.uk)

This week is assessment week. Throughout the week, the children will be given opportunities for assessment in reading, writing and maths. These results of these tests will only act as part of the ongoing assessment of our Year 6 children.

What are we learning in our foundation subjects?

History – Our learning objective for the next couple of lessons is:

• To investigate and interpret the past.

Our Key Questions are:

• What can we learn about Benin society from images and artefacts that have survived?
• What was life like in The Benin Kingdom hundreds of years ago?

PE – This week, our children will receive Sports Leaders training from the Croydon Schools Partnership to help them learn how to plan, and run, events for KS1 Sports Day.

RE – We shall be continuing our Spirited Arts Competition project. This year, our theme is ‘Inspiring’.

Key dates – 

29th June – Spanish Day

What are we learning this week?

English – We shall be writing in role, creating good luck charms, taking part in role play as our ship sets sail.

Maths – We shall be looking at the volume of cuboids and nets.

Science – We shall be looking at inheritance, specifically which features offspring may inherit from their parents.

History – We shall be investigating and interpreting the past. In addition, our learning questions is: What can we learn about Benin society from images and artefacts that have survived?

RE – We shall be continuing to take part in the Spiritual Arts competition. Our theme, which we have chosen, is ‘inspiring’.

PE – Tower will have PE on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. QE2 will have PE on Tuesday and Thursday.

What is our class read?

Excitingly, we will be starting our new class read this week! It is called ‘Can you see me?’ by Libby Scott. Here is the blurb:

With diary entries written by 11-year-old Libby Scott, based on her own experiences of autism, this pioneering book, written in collaboration with esteemed author Rebecca Westcott, has been widely praised for its realistic portrayal of autism.

Tally is 11 years old, and she’s just like her friends. Well, sometimes she is. If she tries really hard to be. Because there’s something that makes Tally not the same as her friends. Something she can’t cover up, no matter how hard she tries: Tally is autistic.

Tally’s autism means there are things that bother her even though she wishes they didn’t. It means that some people misunderstand her and feel frustrated by her.

People think that because Tally’s autistic, she doesn’t realise what they’re thinking, but Tally sees and hears – and notices – all of it. And, honestly? That’s not the easiest thing to live with. 

Endearing, insightful and warmly uplifting, Can You See Me? is a story of autism, empathy and kindness that will touch listeners of all ages.

Should children wish to buy a copy to read alongside us, here is a link to the book on Amazon (Can You See Me?: A powerful story of autism, empathy and kindness: Amazon.co.uk: Scott, Libby, Westcott, Rebecca: 9781407195674: Books)

Virtual author visit

To wrap up our previous class text, the lovely author – Tina Athaide- will be answering some of our questions that have been written by the Year 6 children.

Key dates

Provisional – 16th July – Year 6 Leavers Disco (More information will be sent out in due course).