St. Urban's Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy

Year 6 Class Page

High Adventure September 2023 - Thursday

What a great final full day! In the end, after the rain that has fallen, High Adventure made the decision that we would go caving on site, using their new artificial cave rather than journeying out to Ribblehead. All three groups took on the challenges and achieved so much. Everyone had another go at Archery and this evening we enjoyed time around the Camp Fire and practising Circus Skills.

High Adventure September 2023 - Wednesday

After some rain this morning, the sun came out this afternoon!

Group A were our first group Climbing and then Abseiling this morning while the other two groups had Bouldering and the Labyrinth during the day. Other activities going on were Orienteering, Archery, Sumo Wrestling, High Ropes and Zip Wire

High Adventure September 2023 - Tuesday

Although the weather has not been kind(!), we have had a brilliant day and all the activities were picked as someone's favourite during our end of day review. Everyone has now been canoeing and two groups have been on the Zip Wire and High Ropes. Group B have completed Team Building and Low Ropes and Group C have had our first experience of Orienteering, Archery and Sumo.

High Adventure September 2023 - Monday

Everyone is settled in and we had a great time on activities this afternoon. Groups A and C took part in Team Building and Low Ropes while Group B went canoeing. The groups are currently (7:15pm) trying to build something to protect Eggbert who will be dropped from a height in a short while.

Academic Year 2022-23

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

Welcome to Year 6, 2022-23. Check back here for photos and updates on our learning.

Mrs Englefield, Mr Stockdale and Mrs Tempest

Computing: modelling networks

As part of our work as ‘network technicians’ in Computing, we took part in a Computerless experiment in which we were the computers in small networks which then communicated other small networks, as part of a large network, like the internet.

Singing: ‘Don’t stop’ by Fleetwood Mac

PE: landing from a jump

In our next part of this Gymnastics unit, we practised landing from a height in a ‘magic chair’ position which helped to control our balance.

Macbeth: improvisations of the key scenes

As part of our work on getting to know ‘The Scottish Play’, we have been improvising what we feel to be the most important moments of the play. This will help us to create effective stage directions and write engaging character voice in our own play scripts.

Science: creating a classification key

As part of our new Science unit, ‘Living things and their habitats’, we used sweets to explore the importance of classification keys. We then used this model to explain the scientific impact of classifying living things.

History: democracy in Ancient Greece

We learned about how democracy began in Ancient Greece and the impact this had on other political systems, today- including our own, in the UK. We learned also, however, that not everyone got to be a part of the Ancient Greece democracy; some were excluded. We sorted different Ancient Greece characters into those that could and could not be involved in the democratic process.

Music: singing in a round

In our Music lessons, we have been exploring the melodies which work as a round and why certain combinations of notes sound good together. On Friday, we sang ‘Viva La Musica’ by Michael Praetorius in two groups. Next time, we will try more groups and explore which chords could be used to accompany the round.

Science: separating banana DNA

As part of our Science work on ‘Evolution and inheritance’, we extracted the DNA of a banana. Washing-up liquid broke down the banana cells and rubbing alcohol made the strands of DNA visible.

An important year

This school year sees our Year 6 children prepare for High School and we lay the foundations for this through encouragement and development of good organisational skills and by cementing good learning habits. As our St Urban’s children mature and progress, there is clearly the need for a greater degree of independence. A focus for us is to set the example to younger children by developing self-discipline and responsibility.

Curriculum

A curriculum overview is sent out on a half-termly basis so that parents know a little more about what their children will be learning about. We aim to make work enjoyable yet challenging whilst catering to the individual learner through appropriately-pitched and differentiated work.

P.E.

Children will take part in PE lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays. Please send your child to school in their P.E. kits (this may include leggings/jogging bottoms and a jumper/hoody) to avoid the need to have to change in school and store additional clothes.

Homework

We fully believe that children should be allowed to be just that: ‘children’, and that there is a balance to be struck between leisure/play time and the discipline of homework.

The regularly-reviewed Homework Policy outlines that homework is set and completed on a ‘little-and-often’ basis, serving the following purposes:

- To consolidate learning from that day or week;

- To engage the children in some independent work;

- To prepare them for the demands of homework and independent study in the years to come.

Maths homework: homework (including tables) will be set on a Friday; homework will be due the next Wednesday (with the tables test on the Friday). English homework: spellings set on Monday, tested on Friday; Grammar/punctuation short task set Tuesday, due in Thursday; writing task set Friday, due in Tuesday.

Year 6 2021 - 2022

High Adventure - Thursday

Another amazing day with our amazing pupils!

The morning was spent completing the 'round-robin' activities, so Group A had orienteering, sumo wrestling and the second 'go' at archery while Group B and Group C went bouldering and faced the challenge of the Labyrinth.

In the afternoon, we journeyed out to Ponden and went rafting in canoes before some decided that they just needed to jump in!

We rounded off the day practising some circus skills and toasting marshmallows over the camp fire.

High Adventure - Wednesday

So proud of our young people! They have faced many challenges today and have all achieved so much. They all talk so well about what they have enjoyed and they identify many different people who have impressed them for so many different reasons.

They are thankful for the opportunities they have had and everyone has been continually supportive of everyone in many ways. A number of children have said they could not have achieved what they have without the help and support of their friends,

Group C had another go at archery this morning before they got the chance to go caving.

Group B has a very busy day with orienteering, sumo wrestling and archery in the morning with climbing and abseiling in the afternoon.

Group A explored the Labyrinth and went bouldering in the morning before abseiling and climbing in the afternoon.

(We had a bit of downtime this evening!)

High Adventure - Tuesday

What a brilliant day with so many stories and so many examples of people just being amazing!

Group A enjoyed archery and caving, while Group B enjoyed caving and archery!

Group C played sumo wrestled, went orienteering and took part in archery in the morning before climbing and abseiling in the afternoon.

We all supported each other during Blindline this evening before reflecting on and saying thank you for another great day.

High Adventure - Monday!

Activities today have been Team Building, Low Ropes and Eggbert. Here are some pictures from Team Building and Low Ropes - everyone had a great time!

Platinum Jubilee Assembly: Year 6 go back to the 1980s

End-of-SATs celebration!

To mark the end of a challenging week of tests, we had a party day in Year 6. We had a game of rounders, sang some karaoke and played lots of party games. The children had some much-deserved fun and it was wonderful to see so many happy faces. Well done, Year 6, we're all so proud of your hard work!

Computing: computational thinking

In Computing lessons, we have been going 'computerless' to try to see how a computer 'thinks'. We were challenged to sort data- in this case, varying weights- using the most efficient algorithm. Some groups found it easiest to compare all weights against one, while others kept sub-dividing into smaller groups.

Our changing world: Coastal Erosion

As part of our topic on 'Our Changing World', we have been writing and performing news reports which explain the effects of coastal erosion and how this impacts people's lives directly.

Our Changing World: weathering and erosion

We have been busy investigating how weathering and erosion can change our landscape, carrying our practical investigations into chemical weathering, physical weathering, biological weathering and erosion.

Science: comparing theories of evolution

We have been busy, in Science lessons, learning about the different theories of evolution and these developed over time. We used masks to become specific theorists and explain each theory, helping us to understand and compare them.

Art: drawing The Minotaur

Following on from our work in English lessons on Greek myths, we chose the Minotaur as our art subject. We looked at how this mythical creature has been shown in art and discussed the ways in which he may have been misunderstood and frustrated. We used these emotions to show what we felt to be the true character of the Minotaur, through the use of oil pastels.

Computing: coding with Python

We have been getting to grips with Python and using this programming language to write our own adventure games. We have based our games on the work we are doing in English, Greek Myths, and are giving our audiences interactive options for them to take the story wherever they choose! This has been challenging but fun.