Term 1: 2
‘Lights, Camera, Action!’
‘Lights, Camera, Action!’ will give children the chance to investigate entertainment from throughout history. They will focus on learning about and comparing Ancient Greek and Shakespearian Theatre. They will also find out about electricity and investigate shadows and shadow theatre. For Science, the children will take a look at electricity. They will recap the components and symbols of electrical circuits from their previous learning and then conduct experiments about electrical circuits. They will also design and make an electronic Christmas card that lights up.
We will be researching entertainment from different periods in history. They will compare the sorts of things people do now for entertainment compared to people from the past such as: the Ancient Romans, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Medieval people, the Tudors and the Victorians. Year 6 will be learning and singing lots of songs for their production on 28th November – ‘Pirates of the Curry bean’. This will help us to develop our understanding of play scripts, biographies and autobiographies. Our book focus for this half term will be ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’. This will give us an insight into the life of George Melies, one of the early inventors of moving films.
We hope your children will thoroughly enjoy this exciting project and we are grateful for the support of our parents.
RE – art or charity?
As part of our RE for this term we have been discussing whether we should invest our money into art and architecture or into charitable giving. We were lucky to arrange a visit from Alison Dickinson who talked to the children about her ancient practice of drawing and painting religious icons. The children then had a go at their own piece of art. They looked stunning with their gold, embossed settings.
Around the world in 80 days
This half term Year 6 will follow in the footsteps of the fictional book character, Phileas Fogg, from Jules Verne’s classic tale ‘Around the world in 80 days’. We will be planning our own bucket list trip around the world, using our geography skills to map a route, stopping in every continent and identifying the human and physical features of each place. So far this term we have written to Phileas asking to be his travel companion, written a travel blog and arrived in France. Foods from other countries will be on the menu after half term as we rustle up an International dish.
We have been carrying out personal research on countries of our choice ready for our frozen international museum which will be open on our open day on Saturday 30th September.
As we continue to orbit the globe, we will look at famous skylines and use the techniques used by Stephen Wiltshire to create our own artist impressions. In science we will be looking at light and electricity and as we near towards Christmas we will be making electronic cards.
On top of our PGL residential trip I am sure we will be exhausted at the end of the term as we explore Christmas around the world. I hope we make it back in 80 days…
The texts that we will Our focus on for this half term will be linked to the countries that Phileas Fogg visited:
- Around the World in 80 days
- Arabian Nights (Middle East)
- Seasons of Splendour (India)
- Firework Maker’s Daughter (China)
- The Man who walked between the towers. (USA)
Our Frozen International Museum
The children were set the task of becoming an expert in one country. Their next task was to be interviewed in role by members of the public at our school open day and also in our frozen international museum, which was open to the whole school to visit. Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed learning and talking about the people and countries that they had become an expert in. Great work Year 6. Your costumes looked fab too!
Here are some of the pictures from our successful PGL last week
This term we will step back 4000 years to the Ancient Egyptian era. We have many exciting activities planned, including a school visit to Birmingham to visit the Egyptian artefacts.
Historically we will find out about the Ancient Egyptian way of life, even the gory bits! We will find out about what it was like to live during these times, investigating ancient beliefs and solving historical questions, including the mysteries around Howard Carter. This links with our Geography work where we will deepen our knowledge of the River Nile and the importance of this mighty river to the people at that time, as well as to the people living in Egypt today. Our Art and DT work will focus on the ‘Great Pyramids of Giza’ and death masks.
Our Science lessons will focus on animals and their habitats and the human circulatory system. Investigating the heart will be one part of our studies. Our natural history week will enable to look more deeply at fossils and bones and the evidence for life many years ago. During ICT we will continue with the programming curriculum alongside a huge part of our ICT this term, cyber safety. The PE sessions will be based on rounders, cricket, tennis and athletic, whilst our music focus this term will be on musical notation and musical instruments from around the world.
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Visit from Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion.
This week Ben’s mum from Year 6, Kay Forshaw came to visit us to talk about her life changing experience and how she became wheelchair bound. She talked to the children about how her accident changed her life and how she was lucky to have been part of the Athens Paralympic Games, both in the wheelchair tennis event but also being suspended 11m above the ground in a wheelchair! Kay’s message to the children was that ‘You can do anything but sometimes you have to do things differently to how you planned!’ The children were great with their questions and enjoyed listening to Kay’s story.
SATs are over
Onto writing now…
Mr Tillman, our Chair of Governors visits Year 6
This week Mr Tillman came into Year 6 to be interviewed about his role as our school Chair of Governors. The children all asked a question and they were given open and honest answers to some of the following questions:
- How has the job affected your life?
- What improvements would you like to make to the school?
- How have you improved the school since you have been a governor?
We found out that Mr. Tillman is an avid Tottenham fan, that he is proud of the children and staff at the school because of their hard work. He was impressed with the children’s lovely manners and he thought the children looked very smart. He did say that he thought that the children should wear blazers! To this, they all thought it was a great idea! He also stated that the entrance area could be improved and that we should have more laptops in school. It was a great afternoon of getting to know each other.
Congratulations to George Hooper-Rann
Well done to George for gaining a scholarship at the Elmhurst School of Dance in Birmingham .
George became interested in ballet at the age of 5 and has been an avid dancer since then. After many hours of stretching, training with his weights and practising both ballet and jazz, George grew stronger and more determined to achieve his lifetime goal. He has already performed at the Birmingham Hippodrome in a performance of the Nutcracker in 2015. Seeing professional ballet dancers inspired him to become a classical ballet dancer. It became a dream!
After a gruelling audition, an academic interview, a physiotherapy session and an hour’s ballet lesson lasting all day George was one of the 8 boys selected for a Year 7 entry at the prestigious ballet school. His mum said ‘I couldn’t be happier for George. He has finally been given his dream’.
George will start boarding at Elmhurst in September and will start his strict 5 hour -a day ballet lessons, academic studies and a special diet of nuts, pulses and meats – with no sugar. It will be tough but George is up for the challenge.
Kings and Queens
We have an array of exciting activities planned for this term in our topic ‘Kings and Queens’. With a play on words, our book focus is Michael Morpurgo’s Kensuke’s Kingdom and alongside this Anthony Brown’s ‘King Kong’ will be used to embed some of the grammar terminology. Budding thespians will find out about some of the works of our local celebrity, William Shakespeare. Historically we will step back in time and learn all about the influence of the Tudors on where we live. We will find out about what it was like to live during these times, investigating historical issues and solving historical questions. This links with our DT project where we will design and make a miniature Tudor chair and cushion. Stratford and the UK are the focus for our Geography where we will find out about the area near where we live. Tudor portraits will be the place where our artistic skills can shine. Watch this space for more details of our Tudor Day on Wednesday 22 March. Our Science topics will focus on ‘evolution and inheritance’ and ‘living things and their habitats’. We’ve had a very positive start to term 2 and look forward to developing our positive learning attitudes throughout this full on term.
Year 6 Production of Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits
Last week Year 6 performed their annual production, linking their topic of legends with their English work on play scripts. I am sure you will agree we had some budding thespians and drama kings and queens on the stage. We were all extremely proud of their efforts to learn their words, their costumes and for their outstanding performances.
Electronic Christmas cards
Using our science, art and DT skills we each created a light up electronic Christmas card. we hope you like them.
Well done to Jacob for representing our school by laying the wreath in church.
Frozen legend museum
Year 6 researched and wrote a biography of a famous legend. They then had to become this character in our ‘frozen legend museum’. Only when someone asked a question, could they answer the questions. The legends aimed to transfer all closed questions into open questions. We carried out the activity for the whole school and during our whole school open day.
We would like to thank the parents for supporting us with our home learning for this and for helping with the costumes. They looked great!
Some of the pictures from our recent residential trip to Shropshire PGL.
Head Boy (Jacob Gaunt) and Head Girl (Aliza Perrins) start their duties
Myths and legends
It’s the term they have all been waiting for…in the second week of term Year 6 will be travelling to Shropshire for their long awaited PGL residential visit. Zip wiring, fencing, kayaking and rifle shooting are just some of the activities that the children will be taking part in as their class team building exercise.
On return to school we will then travel back in time to the land of myths and legends. Our first stop will be with fictitious legends and superheroes, then moving onto real life legends. Our ‘Open Day’ on the 1st October will be a great way to showcase our frozen legend museum. Pop along and see our real life characters talking about their lives following our biography focus work. Getting messy in Art using Modroc to design and make a 3D sculpture of our frozen legend will enable us to study proportion and form. Look out for our final designs.
In English this term we will be using ‘The Girl and Ink and Stars’ as our class focus book, alongside poetry and play scripts. This will culminate in our Year 6 production of the legend of Ali Baba in November.
Science sessions will be a deepening of our understanding of light and electricity; linking our DT project into this by making an electronic light-up Christmas card.