Year 6
Welcome to Year 6!
Hello and welcome to Year 6 where your child will have fun, work hard and try their best in everything that they do. It is going to be a great year full of new adventures, discoveries and learning. Mrs O'Neill and Mrs Stewart are here to support your child, along with Miss Kirby, a School Direct trainee teacher who will be with us for the majority of the year. Within the classroom, we care about both students and parents so please let us know if you have any concerns, ideally via Seesaw. Each day your child is required to bring to school a coat, reading diary, water bottle, lunch and snack (unless they order a hot dinner or toast).
Messages between school and home
Seesaw will continue to be our main method of communication within this academic year. Please try where possible to send any message (no matter how small the worry or query!) through the inbox tool on Seesaw and we will always get an answer for you as promptly as possible. Mrs O'Neill/Mrs Stewart have a school iPad and this will be in class with them every day and where they will access your messages when time allows. Support staff based in Class 6 may also respond to you if they see a message and can provide you with an answer. Mrs O'Neill/Mrs Stewart know that messages can pop up at any time but please be aware that if a message is sent in the evening or over the weekend, it may be seen but depending on the content of the message, it may not be responded to until the following school day. Likewise, we will be mindful and give advance notice of any messages/announcements that we send too.
Behaviour and Rewards
The whole school follows three rules: kind, ready and safe. All children are encouraged to follow these rules through questioning such as ‘are being kind?’, ‘who is showing me that they are ready?’. In addition to this, we have now introduced five key learning behaviours which the children will become more familiar with over the course of the year.
- Collaborating
- Actively Listening
- Showing Curiosity
- Being Independent
- Reflecting
More information will soon become available about these.
Merits
We have merit charts for each child which will be displayed in the classroom. Children can earn merits through good behaviour, hard work and 'stand out moments' along with demonstrating the five learning behaviours. When they reach a certain amount of merits the following awards are awarded.
Bronze award- 25 merits
Silver award- 50 merits
Gold award- 75 merits
Platinum award- 100 merits
Once a child has completed an award, they will receive a certificate during celebration assembly on a Monday. We hope every child will aim for the Platinum award or beyond by the end of the year.
Homework
Homework will be uploaded onto Seesaw and will be live to complete on a Friday after school and is due to be completed by the following Wednesday. In Year 6, your child will receive one piece of homework beginning the first week we're back. The homework will alternate between Maths, SPAG or a reading based task. The homework that is set for your child will be something that they can access independently at home and will be a consolidation of the learning that has happened in class that week. Mrs O'Neill/Mrs Stewart/Miss Kirby will have a homework tracker in school to monitor this area. Please note here that homework is not to be battle or a stressful time for you as parents or for your children at home. In Year 6, 30-60 minutes is the recommend time to complete homework as independently as possible. If support is needed, please let Mrs O'Neill/Mrs Stewart/Miss Kirby know when the homework is uploaded onto Seesaw: this way, we can all work together to reach the best outcome for your child.
Reading
Reading records need to be in school every day. You are expected to comment in their Reading Record on how your child has read at least three times a week (remember it doesn't just have to be about a school book) this allows the child a chance to discuss the book, author, illustrator, its themes, features and language, all of which are important for your child's comprehension and literacy skills. Your child will receive a raffle ticket weekly if they have read three times a week, which is put into a draw and pulled out termly to win a book token worth £5. Any additional reading will be rewarded with a merit.
Mrs O'Neill/Mrs Stewart/Miss Kirby will have a tracker in class to monitor reading records coming and going throughout the year. Please note that if a reading record is lost, as the first one is given for free, there will be small charge to replace it. These details, if needed, can be found with Mrs Staveley.
Bug club
Bug Club is a literacy program designed to support the effective and engaging reading. The books are set to the child's direct book band. The children all have their own individual logins; therefore, we will be monitoring the use of Bug Club every Friday. It is a great app/website that children can enjoy reading books onscreen and completing fun quiz questions found in the eBooks. The quiz questions will help the children practise their reading skills.
Reading an eBook
Click on the book cover and see how many quiz questions there are. Read the book and click on the bug icons to open the quiz questions. Your child does not need to finish all quiz questions in one sitting. They can come back to a book later. However, the book is not marked as read until all questions are answered. Bug Club books are an additional reading resource for your child.
Reading Vipers
Year 6 will be using our 'Reading Vipers' during their guided reading whole class lessons. (Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise). The reading vipers have had a massive impact on developing language, comprehension and inference skills. Attached to the website are key questions that can be asked to the children whilst they are reading at home. This will give you the chance to see the type of questions that they are asked during lessons and assessment periods. On here you will find a link with the Reading Vipers strands with example questions that we encourage you to ask your child at home during reading sessions.
P.E
Class 6 children will have two sessions of PE a week. This term PE will take place on a Wednesday with Coach Craig and a Friday in the form of swimming. (Please see separate posts on Seesaw regarding swimming kit). We will be continuing to ask that your child comes ready for PE on their PE days. We request that the children wear a school PE kit with a logo or a plain white t-shirt with plain black shorts/bottoms for PE.
Seesaw
As you all know, Seesaw is an interactive learning journal where your child will be able to share their work. It will be used in all subjects from problem solving in Maths to Dance in PE. Homework and spelling lists will additionally be added to Seesaw every Tuesday. You will be able to like and comment on your child's work, which will add to the great sense of achievement that the children feel when using the app. Any questions about Seesaw and how it works please feel free to ask Mrs O'Neill/Mrs Stewart. This is the best way to communicate with school staff. You can send a private message via the inbox. Staff will reply to these messages but be aware that they may not be seen during the school day whilst staff are teaching. Please ring the school if you have an urgent message.
Spelling
Your child will learn a rule on a Tuesday morning and will be expected to use the rules that they have learnt in all of their written work. Every Tuesday your child will be sent a spelling list that you will find on Seesaw that practises the rule. The words on the bookmark will be directly from their words on the spelling bee card along with additional Y5/6 statutory words. Your child will be tested on the rule the following week; please be aware that we will be testing your child's knowledge of the rule not a list of words. Additional words may be added by the teacher to assess your child's understanding. Attached to the website page is a list of spelling for your child's year group that they will learn across the term. Again, please be aware this is not a comprehensive list: your child will be learning a spelling rule not a list of words.
Birthdays and Treats
We will ensure all children whose birthday it is are recognised and that their birthday is celebrated by school, however we would prefer not to distribute cakes and sweets or gifts in class as this can take up quite a bit of time at the end of the day and can put some parents under pressure to provide this treat for everyone. We are also a 'Healthy School' and should not be actively promoting sugary treats on a regular basis. Thank you for your support with this.
How to help your child
Here are some websites that you may find useful to support your child's learning.
Maths
http://www.ictgames.com: Fun and exciting maths and literacy games available.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml A BBC website with all maths topics covered.
http://www.mad4maths.com/ Fun maths games for children and advice section for parents
http://www.mathszone.co.uk/ Lots and lots of games and tools to help your child with maths at home.
http://www.teachingtables.co.uk/ Fun games to support the learning of times tables. Table Mountain is recommended and can be played in demo mode.
https://www.myminimaths.co.uk Lots of arithmetic practice for all areas of Maths
https://www.mathsframe.co.uk Maths games and
English
https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf
Reading VIPERS guidance.
https://www.pobble365.co.uk a picture a day that your child can talk or write about to let their imaginations soar.
https://www.spellingframe.co.uk Spelling rules practice for each year group.
Please always ask if you want anything to support your child at home