Year 6 - Magpie Class

Welcome to Year 6 Magpie Class​

Class Teacher: Mr Chappell

Teaching Assistants: Mrs Dwyer and Mr Dole

Welcome back to Term 5

Almost 8 months ago, I remember welcoming the class to Magpie's and saying to them how fast this time will fly. Well, here we are in the final legs of our year 6 journey.

We are now in the Summer term of year 6 and the time has come when the children and staff begin to prepare for the SATs. This term is only a short one, so every minute counts and every lesson will be critical in building on the pupils' knowledge, skills and confidence to apply these taught lessons. In week 4, the children will be sitting their final year exams, so it is vital we ensure we are attending school promptly, ready to learn and prepared for the day ahead.

I ask that parents support us in ensuring they are supporting our students at home as well.

                                                     

This term we will be revisiting many taught G.P.S skills through both discrete tasks and application in our writing. We will look at types of sentences, a variety of phrases and clauses and conjunctions. In addition to this, we will identify how particular punctuation is used and can advance our writing to make it stand out amongst the rest.

We will look back at previous writing to use the skill of editing to up-level our writing and identify personal targets to work towards in our writing now that we are familiar with the skills practised throughout the year.

We will first aim to continue our writing from last term and finish our writing information leaflet about how we can save Britain's Woodlands. Once this is completed, we will create links with our science enquiry to write a non-fiction biography on Charles Darwin, where we will demonstrate how to write formally in third person, using the appropriate tense and vocabulary.

There are always learning opportunities that can take place at home and with the family. It might be writing a recount of a weekend away, a diary entry for the everyday in the term, a creative story inspired by a photograph or a real-world experience or even a piece of poetry. All of these ideas can help support applying those learnt writing skills at home.

We will continue to read our class book, Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll to build our fluency and understanding, as well as completing a variety of activities around the text. So far, Olive and her brother have been evacuated to Devon, but her older sister Sukie is still missing from the night of the bombs. A mysterious note found in the coat of her sister suggests that Sukie was involved in something dangerous, but Olive can't make the pieces fit together. Will she solve the mystery, and will it be what she expects?

We will also be completing comprehension tasks around different texts to support us with the skills of inference, retrieval, scanning texts and vocabulary development.

We will also be completing comprehension tasks around different texts to support us with the skills of inference, retrieval, scanning texts and vocabulary development.

In maths, we will continue to split the class into smaller groups, working with either Mrs Pursey, Mr Minton and Mr Chappell or Mrs Llong, on different areas of arithmetic and reasoning. We will continue to further develop and consolidate our skills using the four operations and demonstrate our understanding of reasoning problems. Our focus now will be to prepare the children for the Maths SAT's papers.

In the afternoons, the class will come back together for an additional maths session, where we will focus on exploring statistics, analysing data and graphs.

Alongside this, we will continue to build in regular opportunities to practise our timetables, strengthening fluency, speed, accuracy and overall number confidence.

 

We continue our last term enquiry on Living Things: Classifying Big and Small before eventually moving onto Evolution and Inheritance. We will be exploring variation and inheritance in different living things and how observations and fossil evidence have led to the theory of evolution.  Pupils will be learning to understand that living things show differences, which come from both genes and the environment. They will learn that offspring are similar to their parents but not exactly the same, and how features are passed on through families. Pupils will also learn what adaptations are and how they help organisms survive. They will explore how variation affects survival through natural selection, understand the idea of evolution over time, and learn how scientists use evidence to study and explain evolutionary change.

Forest School and PE Days

              

This term it's Magpies' turn to enjoy the forest school sessions. These will take place on a Monday afternoon. Please see the Class Dojo page to check which group your child is in and the dates they will be attending forest school. They will need to come to school with a change of clothes and footwear (wellies or outdoor boots) in order to attend.

PE is an important part of our weekly routine, and we ask that children come to school prepared and ready for their sports lessons each week. On PE days, the children must attend wearing their PE kits.

Our PE day this term is Tuesday (Outdoors).

This term we will be learning the skills and game of cricket. As this is outdoors, the children will be required to wear trainers. If footwear is not suitable, they will not be able to take part in these sessions. Please ensure they are arriving wearing their full PE kits on the day.

Reminders for PE days:

• Earrings must be removed/covered for health and safety.

• Long hair should be tied back.

• Children may bring deodorant or body spray for personal hygiene (roll-on only).

Home Learning and Reading

All children have access to their TTRockstars accounts to practise timetables regularly. We’ve also introduced a new platform called Twinkl Learner, which can be accessed both at school and at home. It’s packed with learning games, challenges, and opportunities to practise weekly spellings and maths skills in a fun and engaging way. A TTRockstars challenge has been set up to run every weekend where the Magpies can compete with the Woodpeckers for the title of TTRockstars Champions.

Please support us by encouraging your child to use these accounts at home to reinforce their learning. If you’re unsure of any login details or need help accessing the platform, just let me know and I’ll be happy to assist.

Every child will have a home reading record and is expected to read frequently throughout the week. Reading records should be in school every day, so adults can check progress and listen to children read during the week.

We’ve updated how we use Dojo points and Merits to celebrate positive behaviour and learning achievements.

Dojo Points

Each pupil will begin the term with 0 dojo points and aim to reach 30. Once they hit this target, they’ll earn a prize from the class prize box — then their points will reset, ready for the next challenge!

Merits and Golden Coins

Children can earn merits for:

• Demonstrating school values

• Exceptional work in class

• Receiving the weekly Star Award

• Other learning achievements

Once they collect 12 merits, they can trade them in for a gold coin to use in the school book vending machine — a brilliant way to reward reading and effort.

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You’re welcome to speak with me or a member of the class team — we’re always happy to help. We’re available before and after school, or you can message me via Class Dojo to arrange a meeting.

We’re looking forward to continuing this amazing Year 6 journey with you and your child — full of growth, curiosity, and memorable moments.

The Year 6 Magpie Class Team

The Term 5 vocabulary sheet below will help you to know more about what your child will be learning this term. 

Teachers can be contacted via Class Dojo if you have any questions or queries regarding home learning. 

Please click here to access extra phonics, reading and spelling resources.

Please click here to access links to other useful home learning resources published online.

If you are unsure of any log-in details, please contact the teacher through Class Dojo or email office@pilgrims-way.kent.sch.uk