Curriculum letter Year 6 Autumn Term 2009

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Welcome to Year Six!

It doesn’t seem two minutes since the children were starting in reception and here they are embarking on their final year at primary School.  Year six is a challenging year; the best way to describe it is like a roller coaster ride – lots of highs and a few lows! In year six we have the dreaded SATs and we work really hard to ensure that all the children have the best opportunity possible to achieve their full potential. However, we also try to ensure that we have fun along the way and provide the children with some lovely lasting memories.

We, as a school, want to ensure that your child reaches his/her full potential, emotionally, socially and academically and we feel that this is best achieved when we work alongside parents. I have put together some information that will hopefully answer many of your questions and give you a clear overview as to what your children will be doing in school. We ask that you support us by ensuring that all homework is completed and that children have good attendance throughout their time in year 6.

 Term activity summary

Subject	Autumn	Spring	Summer
		In this term the revision programme will commence all foundation subjects will be blocked and taught after the SAT’s
R.E.	The way the truth and the life programme	The way the truth and the life programme	The way the truth and the life programme
History	Victorians / locality	Revision	Britain from 1950WW2
Geography	Local Traffic	Revision	Mountain environments
Art	Drawing / 3D Mouldable William Morris	Textiles / printing/ collage	Painting / drawing
Music	Exploring sound sources and rhythm and pulse.	Exploring rounds.Musical process.	Song writer
P.E.	Games, Gym, Dance	Games, Gym, Dance	Athletics / Games   swimming
Science	Earth and space, ourselves Electricity and forces Plants Materials Sound
Design and Technology		Eggsravaganza(Skill progression)	Slippers
ICT	Text graphics  Power point	Research large   Spreadsheets data base	Multimedia               Control &monitorPresentation

 Presentations

 Children are asked as part of their Literacy speaking and listening curriculum to complete two presentations in year six. One, in the Autumn Term and one in the Spring Term.  I have sent out a separate letter regarding this explaining it in more detail. The second presentation is a numeracy focus and this has proved to be a very useful revision tool in previous years.

 KS2 SATs – Guidance for parents

 Towards the end of Key Stage 2, Year 6 children take the KS2 SATs. (Statutory Assessment Tests)
The children are assessed during the middle of May for a whole week.
Unlike Key Stage 1 tests, which do not have strict time limits, the Key Stage 2 tests are strictly timed. Nearer the time a timetable will be sent into school and we will give you the information as and when this is organised letting you know which tests will be on which day.

It is crucial that you avoid where possible taking holidays in term time during year six as you child will miss revision.

 National tests and teacher assessment for children aged 7and 11

 

	7–year–olds	11–year–olds
What will the tests cover?	Reading, writing (including handwriting), spelling and maths	Reading, writing (including handwriting), spelling, maths, mental arithmetic
How long are the tests?	Less than three hours altogether	Five and a half to six hours altogether
When are the tests?	The tests can be taken at any point up to the end of May.	The tests are on set days in the middle of May.
What will the teacher assessment cover?	English, maths and science	English and maths
How will I get my child’s results?	The school will send you a report telling you what National Curriculum levels your child has reached.
What National Curriculum levels should most children achieve?	At least level 2	At least level 4

 What do the National Curriculum levels mean?

There are eight levels in the National Curriculum. Children are expected to work their way through one level every two years. At the end of Year 2 children are expected to achieve level 2. At the end of Year 6 children are expected to achieve level 4.

How can I help my child?

Here are 7 ways you can help your child do well at school.

ð	Make sure you know what homework is set and encourage your child to do it thoroughly.
ð	At home, encourage your child to read quietly for 20 minutes each day. Or, if your child is under 9, spend 20 minutes each day reading with them.
ð	Find opportunities for your child to use numbers in everyday situations and encourage them to work out sums in their head.
ð	Encourage your child to follow up interests and talk about them.
ð	Try to keep up to date with what your child is learning at school and talk regularly about it.
ð	Help your child to be ready to learn and not tired when they go to school.
	Make sure your child does not miss any of the tests, unless they are ill.

 Throughout the year in year 6 children will complete SATs papers from previous years under test conditions – this prepares them for the real tests – but more importantly it highlights for us and the children which areas they need extra practice on. I always send the marked papers home to give you the opportunity to work with your child on areas that they have found difficult. In previous years parents have told me that they found this very useful as they could help their children revise more effectively because they knew what their child could and couldn’t do.

 We provide revision books for your children to use throughout their time in year six (you will probably find these really useful when going through SATs papers with your child!) We ask that you ensure your children take care of them so we can use them with future children.

I hope you find this information useful, many thanks in advance for your support.

Mrs Clayton and Mrs Hogarth

Posted in School news |

Presentation Literacy Year 6

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

 As part of the year 6 Literacy speaking and Listening curriculum your child will be expected to do two presentations this year.

Presentation 1 Maximum 10 mins. Power point allowed in this presentation.

This presentation will be based on a given science topic. Power point is allowed to enhance this presentation.  Your child has been shown in class a range of science Power point presentations that last years year six made – so they know what is expected of them.

Presentation 2 Maximum 10 mins. Power point allowed in this presentation.

This presentation will be based on a given numeracy topic. Power point is allowed to enhance this presentation. The idea of this presentation is to help with numeracy revision in preparation for the SATs. The children are basically given a topic and their job is to teach the rest of the class how to do that particular mathematical concept. The children have seen a range of numeracy Power points so know what is expected of them 

Information to help with the presentations  

• the presentation should last no more than 10 min.
• Visual aids such as photographs, certificates, pictures etc can be used and the children can demonstrate; – for example in science they could show how to dissolve etc.  They can also include games and quizzes etc.
• Children can use prompt cards – but they should not just stand at the front and read from a piece of paper.
• The main part of the presentation should give the detail; this is where visual aids and interaction with the rest of the group could be used.
• Audience interaction must be carefully planned
• The presentation must have a clear ending
• Please make sure that the children write the presentation in their own words as reading downloaded pages from the internet is not appropriate or beneficial

 Other children in the class will ask questions after the presentations.

Presentation 1

• Week beginning 28^th Sept – Olivia , Patrick

Teeth, Healthy eating & Micro organisms

• Week beginning 5th Oct– Jack , Daniel  

Human Body- organs, Heart, skeleton, muscles

• Week beginning 12^th Oct- James , Kyle

Plants- flowers, leaves, stems, fertilisation, germination, pollination, seed production, seed dispersal

• Week beginning 19^th Oct – Callum,  Jordan 

Adaptations, Habitats and life cycles                   

• Week beginning 2^nd Nov- Caitlin J

Comparing materials, insulators & conductors of heat & electricity

• Week beginning 9^th Nov

Rocks & soils

      Victoria

      Electrical Circuits

     Samuel

• Week beginning 16^th Nov – Robbie,  Connor

Solids liquids & gases, changes of state

• Week beginning 23^rd Nov- Petrina,  Dylan

Water cycle & dissolving

• Week beginning 30^th Nov

Separating solids & gases, irreversible changes

Sam

Sound

Melissa

• Week beginning 7^th Dec- Kaitlin , Bradley

 Forces, magnets friction, air resistance, gravity

• Week beginning 14^th Dec-,

Earth, sun, moon, sources of light and shadows

Charlotte , Lloyd

      Mirrors and how eyes see

     Bridget

Presentation 2

• Week beginning 11^th Jan - 

Place value, ordering numbers, pencil paper method, problem solving using addition & subtraction (using money & measures

              Kyle

            Negative numbers

          Sam

• Week beginning- 18th Jan –

  Multiplication & long division, Pencil paper methods & problem solving using multiplication & division (using money& measures)

Jordan

• Week beginning _25th Jan –

Decimals

      Charlotte  

Rounding to the nearest 10, 100, whole number e.g. rounding decimals.

Samuel

• Week beginning 1^st Feb

Using a calculator, using the memory (doing sums with brackets)

Lloyd

Fractions

Jack

• Week beginning 8th Feb

Percentages

Connor

Multiples, factors, prime numbers, square numbers & triangular numbers

Dylan

• Week beginning 22nd Feb

Number patterns & sequences

Petrina

Formulae & sequences

Kaitlin

• Week beginning 1^st March 

Angles including how to use a protractor

James

2 D Shape

Patrick

• Week beginning 8th March

Perimeter & area

       Callum 

     Symmetry including reflection, translation & rotation

      Robbie

• Week beginning 15th March

3D shapes and nets

Melissa

Co-ordinates

Bradley

• Week beginning 22nd March

Time

      Olivia

      Measures – length, volume & capacity

     Daniel

• Week beginning 29th March

Mean, mode, median & range

Victoria

Tally charts & graphs including line graphs, pie charts, bar charts & pictographs

Caitlin

• Week beginning 12^th April 

Probability, ratio & proportion

     ^Bridget

We ask that you please support your child with their presentations especially the second presentation as this forms a vital part of their numeracy SAT revision. If it is not your child’s presentation then it is important that they research questions to ask.

 Mrs Clayton & Mrs Hogarth

Posted in School news |