Year 6

Welcome to Year 6

Year 6 Autumn 1_2024

Dear parents,

Welcome back after the summer break.  We hope you are all well and have had a restful break with your children and that they are ready for their final year at Brookhouse. 

We will continue to remind children about our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty.  We will use our reward system 'Brookhouse Monster's University' to recognise good behaviour and attitudes.  If your child is in the winning University team, they will be given a reward at the end of the term, as well as aiming for their individual reward of silver, gold and platinum awards.  PSHE will also play a key role, this will take place through class and assembly sessions.  The topic for autumn 1 is called 'Mental Health & Wellbeing with learning about 'Being Kind'.  Each week they will continue to focus on an attribute which might be linked to our school values, British Values or their PSHE topic.  The autumn 1 term topic is called 'Survival'.

English

This half term, we will be covering a non-fiction unit called Biographies and a fiction unit called Novel as a Theme.  We will do this through the use of the ‘Talk for Writing’ strategy of imitate, innovate and invent.  As well as this, we will be focusing on the skills needed to invent our own piece of writing and look at writing through other subject areas.  Whole class reading will continue to take place every day, through which we encourage children to focus on new vocabulary in the text and the comprehension of the text.

To further support your child's skills in reading comprehension, the school has purchased a subscription with an online reading resource called Reading Plus, which improves pupil's reading age but it does rely on the children using this resource on a regular basis.  So please make sure they are using it at home. Please support your children in their reading of school books, at home for ten minutes every day.  We will continue to encourage children to improve their Oracy skills through participating in the project Voice 21.

Mathematics 

We will begin the year by covering the the topics; number and place value (numbers to 10 million), calculations (four operations on whole numbers) and fractions. The children will also be improving their arithmetic skills, linked to the topics we have mentioned already.  This will all be taught through using concrete, pictorial and abstract mathematical models in every lesson, where appropriate.

Science

This half term we will covering biology: evolution and inheritance.  This is a topic which looks at how scientists through history have learnt about humans and animals and how they have changed and developed though history.  We will be finding out how we know about evolution and the key part key scientists have played in sharing this scientific knowledge.  Please encourage your child to learn their knowledge organiser as we try to review prior learning every week.

Physical Education

In Year 6, P.E will take place every Thursday, so please make sure your children come to school in their full P.E kit: Yellow P.E shirt with the school's logo, black joggers, shorts or leggings, trainers and their school green sweatshirt. In their P.E, pupils will be covering gymnastic skills of different balances and creating sequences with partners, using apparatus.

Music

This term pupils will continue to play their instruments; flutes and clarinets.  Their music teacher Emily will continue to develop their skills and they should be ready for performance in December which we will inform you about nearer the time.  As well as learning how to play their instruments we will also cover our music topic called 'Happy'.  Through this topic we will be listening to a range of music, singing and composing some of our own.

Computing

In our computing this half term pupils will continue to learn about how to keep themselves safe online.  They will learn about: secure sites by looking for privacy seals of approval, the benefits and risks of giving personal information, to review the meaning of a digital footprint and understand how information online can persist, to have a clear idea of appropriate online behaviour, to understand the importance of balancing game screen time with other parts of their lives, identify the positive and negative influences of technology on health and the environment. Please continue to talk to your children at home when they are online.

Geography

Through their topic this half term children will develop and utilise place knowledge with human and physical geography.  Pupils will identify and contrast the human and physical geographical features of Greece with those of Chile.

History

Our history topic is called 'World Wars' which we will learn about over the autumn term.  Pupils will be increasing their  knowledge and understanding of local, national and international history by gaining a historical perspective, placing their growing knowledge into different contexts between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history. They will describe the nature and extent of diversity, change and continuity and suggest relationship between the causes of both world wars.  

Attendance and punctuality will be vital this year as we are preparing your children for their SATS in May 2025.  With school starting earlier by ten minutes in September - it will be important that bed time routines are in place as quickly as possible.  This is so they are able to be successful in their learning in school.  To be the best you can be!

There will be an opportunity for you to meet me on the 11th September at 8:35 in the school library. Year 6 will be doing their class assembly on the 10th of October 2024, all about World Mental Health Day at 8:40 am.  There will be a Parents Evening on the 16th October, starting at 3:05 pm, you will be notified nearer the time about booking an appointment.

Any queries feel free to talk to us in the morning or at the end of the day or arrange an appointment through the school office.

Thank you in advance for your continued support, it is much appreciated.

Mrs S Hussain (Year 6 Teacher and Upper School Leader)

Mrs F Patel (HLTA)

Mrs R Esmail (TA)

Mrs J Read(SSA)