Year 6

CRC Article 28 – All children have the right to the best education. 

What an amazing start to the new academic year for 6T! All of the adults have been extremely impressed with how the pupils have settled in, and how Year 6 ready they are. We have completed lots of activities linked to rights and the children have shown how kind and thoughtful they are, especially of each other. So far, these are just some of the activities that we have completed: 

• Discussed and designed out new class charter 

• Recapped on behaviour in all areas of the school 

• Played games to get to know each other 

• Written a letter to our future selves that we will open on the last day of Year 6 

• Voted for new School Council members 

• Designed bookmarks for our reading books 

• Created or Rights for Respect Plan that has been sent home to be signed 

This is only the start…………….the year ahead is going to be busy and fun-filled!  

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to an education. 

CRC Article 13: All children have the right to express their opinion 
 

For the first two days back 6H have been re-visiting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as we are a Gold Rights Respecting School.  They have expressed their pupil voice numerous times to collectively decide upon the highest priority rights for our Class Charter and a theme for our display, to create a Pupil Voice Chart and to vote in new school council reps.  All pupils in our class have made a superb return to school and all the adults in 6H have been very impressed. 

CRC Article 28 – All children have the right to the best education. 

It has been poetry week in Year 6, with a focus on performance. At first, pupils were a little shy and worried about performing a poem, but as soon as they started to learn about ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ they soon became much more eager.  

During the week, we completed activities based on the poem such as visualisations based on the someone reading it aloud, analysing the whole poem and then focussing on certain vocabulary that was used when the poem was written. 

On Friday, pupils, along with the rest of their group, got up in front of the class and then performed their part of the poem. Teachers have been so impressed with the confidence levels and also the sheer determination to complete the poem even if they were extremely nervous. Such excellent attitudes towards their learning. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 
 

Year 6 have been studying how games and activities for fun have changed over the course of history.  This week, we tried to organise images of different activities into chronological order.  We then added time periods and dates to the pictures.  Through our discussion, we identified that games had become less violent and also new technologies had had an impact on new inventions. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 7: All children have the right to a name and nationality. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to an education. 

During our Music lessons this half-term, we have been learning to sing the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams. This is a very famous song from the Despicable Me movies. This week, we moved on from learning the lyrics to using musical notation to learn to play the song using glockenspiels and xylophones. During this session, we mainly used the notes A, G and B. 

CRC Article 14: All children have the right to think what they like and be whatever religion they want to be, with their parents’ guidance. 

CRC Article 30: All children have the right to practice rituals from their own culture or religion.  
 

Year 6 have been studying a unit of work on rituals that come from different religions.  So far this term, we have studied the Christian ritual of The Eucharist, the Islamic prayer ritual of Salah and this week we looked at the Jewish ritual meal of Pesach (Passover).  We identified the different foods and what religious meanings they have to some Jewish people then we tasted the different foods that make up the Seder meal plate.  Some of the tastes were very bitter or salty to represent suffering or tears, but this didn’t put the children off trying them. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

During our Science lessons this half-term, we have been recapping our knowledge on electricity and furthering our learning. We have been focussing on using the correct symbols for components when drawing series and parallel circuits.  

We have just worked together to plan an investigation to try and answer the following question: Does the length of wire affect the brightness of a bulb? 

We followed the planning process of predicting outcomes, discussing how to ensure the test stays fair, making an equipment list and writing a method so that we are sure of the process. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

During our Art lessons we have studied the art of Kathe Kollwitz, a German artist best known for exploring emotions and messages in her artwork.  Her art is often linked to poverty, hunger and war so when the children recreated work in her style they had to make the person look miserable and unhealthy.  Take a look at some of our work (inspired by her) that was created using charcoal pencils. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to an education. 

This week, we started our ne PE unit of work, which is all based around gymnastics. We have been focussing on tuck, pike and straddle and all the different variations that can be used. During the session, we worked in small groups to create a routine that involved four or five different holds with four or five different movements. At the end of the session, we had a choice of whether to perform the routine to the rest of the class. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

In our Geography lessons this week, we have begun learning about the different types of forest and how to find locations in the world using longitude and latitude references.  We learnt that there are 6 main types of forest and we had to match up the correct descriptions to the photographs.  We will begin studying the rainforests of the world as the term progresses. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

This week in Science, we have been learning how humans and animals see objects. During our lesson, we learnt how light, leaves a light source, which can be natural or man-made, and travels in a straight line until it hits an object. Once it hits the object, the reflected light then travels, in a straight line, into the eyes of a person. 

To show we understood, we modelled this process in small groups using yellow string. 

We also watched a short video on the BBC website, which taught us more about the eye. We were fascinated at how the pupil changes size depending on how much light there is. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

This half term we are working on gymnastics in PE.  We have been focussing on tuck, pike and straddle balances and all the different variations that can be used including on the floor, with a partner and this week – using the apparatus. During the session, we began by exploring the different types of pike, tuck or straddle balances we could perform using the apparatus and then worked with a partner to make a short sequence of these, including some different travelling methods.  Finally, we performed for the class and gave positive feedback on what we liked in each other’s performances. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

This week in English, we have been learning about dilemma stories. First, we learnt about what a dilemma is and looked at a range of different scenarios, which involved a dilemma. Each scenario relates to a situation that the children might be involved in as they move through secondary school. We then worked in groups, chose a dilemma and used role-play to show how we think the dilemma is sorted. We discussed how a dilemma has two choices, both of which are not that desirable.

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

In Mr Wadsworth’s maths set, we have finished off a series of lessons learning about factors, multiples, primes, square numbers and cube numbers by solving a puzzle.  The numbers from 1-10 were coded with colours and spilt into different sections.  Once we had cracked the code, we had to apply it correctly to colour in the circles for the numbers 11-20.  After that we had freedom to choose our own line of enquiry.  Take a look at the photos of our initial discussions and some of our work after we began choosing our own investigation line.  Work examples from Rose, Kyle and Declan. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to an education. 

During one of our afternoon sessions this week, while listening to Christmas songs, we had an art lesson where we were mixing paints in order to create calendars to take home. We started by creating a white moon, and slowly added a bit of purple to each time so the concentric circles became darker as they rippled out. We worked together in pairs and carefully mixed the paint together to ensure that there was only a slight colour change each time. Hopefully, the calendars will come in very handy to help with dates in 2025. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

This week, Year 6 have taken part in a workshop called ‘Travelling Tales’ with a visiting artist, Hannah.  They each created a small sketch of something that reminded them of Durham, Shildon, the local area or the environment.  They then added colour to their design before tracing their artwork onto acetate with paint pens.  The children’s work is to be combined with work from other schools to create a massive ‘storybook’ and will be lit up from behind.  The finished work will be on display at Locomotion and other locations in Durham in coming months. How exciting!

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

Year 6 are lucky enough to be working with a coach once again. During the first part of the Spring Term, we will be studying street dance, leading up to a small group performance, where we will show each other our skills. Over the weeks, we will be building skills and confidence to blend a range of moves, including the Cha Cha Slide. Children are being taught certain elements, but then the children are also given the opportunity to be creative and add their own moves. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

Is it a mammal?  Is it a mollusc?  Is it an arachnid? 

This week in Science, Year 6 have made some new scientific discoveries!  They have ‘discovered’ a new type of animal, drawn a diagram of it and described it using the observable features they have learnt different animal groups have (vertebrate and invertebrate groups).  Next week they will swap their books with a partner and see if they can classify the new creatures based on the information provided.  It won’t be easy though, as these animals have been deliberately designed with some unusual features that you wouldn’t expect to see in the usual animal groupings! 

Work by Rosie, Declan, Imogen, Rossi, Amelia, Kai and Nicky 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

Year 6 have been learning about networks and how the Internet works. We have followed the networks and cables around the school to see where the Internet moves around the school. We have learnt about servers and routers and how they help move data from one computer to another. During this lesson, we learned the difference between the internet and www. and we then got into groups to model how the internet works. In our groups, we acted as clients and asked for a photograph of a red panda. Once the request was received by the client, we cut the photo into packets and sent it back through many different routers until it once again reaches the client. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

Science: Creating classification keys 

Over the last few weeks, our focus has been on animals and their classification groups.  This time we focussed on plants and different types of tree leaves.  First, we had to study life-sized photos of leaves to identify observable features such as if the leaf was lobed, simple or compound and how its veins we laid out.  Next we got into groups and created a classification key to sort the different trees out by their leaf features. We had to make sure we used only closed questions (Yes or No answers) and thought back to the key features we had learnt leaves had. 

Check out our finished keys! 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to an education. 

Year 6 took part in a Cyber Critical Workshop, which is linked to Safer Internet Week. During this workshop, the children learned more about cyber safety and we discussed a range of scenarios that pupils of Year 6 age may come across. The pupils used freeze frames to act out the different scenarios and as a class, we came out with positive solutions to those problems. Year 6 had great fun acting in groups and we found our workshop leader, Chelsea Cheeseburger, hilarious. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

Year 6 took part in a workshop where they had to use their ideas to create a new invention. Also, as part of the workshop, we worked with Lottie, an artist who specialises in cardboard, to build a working Locomotion train.  

S&DR200 have joined with Little Inventors to bring us something called Next Stop: The Future!  which is an invention challenge to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first journey on the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). 

For more information about the S&DR200 celebration, please visit the following website https://sdr200.littleinventors.org/challenges/sdr200-next-stop-the-future  

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

CRC Article 24: All children have the right to information to stay healthy and safe. 

PHSE: Drugs 

In our first lesson on our new topic we began by naming as many drugs as we could think.  We clarified what exactly a drug is and what forms it can come in (powder, pill, liquid etc.). In groups, the children worked to try to match the possible side-effects and risks to the different drugs.  We then went through each drug and learnt the realities of its effects, how it is harmful and what the law says regarding this.  We were surprised just how serious the penalties for possessing or supplying some illegal drugs were. 

Discussions also centred on how medical drugs can be harmful if taken in the wrong quantities and how drugs can harm an unborn child if taken when pregnant.  The children asked some very sensible questions during the lesson and were curious about the topic.   

The drugs we talked about included cocaine, cannabis, cigarettes, alcohol, ecstasy, nitrous oxide, MDNA, e-cigarettes and caffeine.

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

This week in Science, we collected our bread and evaluated how much mould had grown. We compared the two pieces, which were placed under different conditions. Some pupils chose to have wet and dry bread. Some pupils chose the place one piece of bread in the dark. As a class, we have been studying the different conditions in which micro-organisms grow. As we left our bread over half term, we found that many pieces of bread had grown lots of mould. We had great fun observing our new micro-organisms. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to a good quality education. 

PE: Hockey 

We have been developing our hockey skills this half term in PE.  We have improved our passing, dribbling and tackling skills and are gradually using these in lager more complex matches.  You can see from the photos some of our dribbling practice in the warm-up and the matches we played.  Great work from Kai today – who scored 2 super goals!  The improvement from everyone in the class with how to hold the hockey stick, how to maintain control of the ball and how to keep the ball in the floor and not hit it up in the air, has been great to see. 

CRC Article 29: All children have the right to be the best that they can be. 

CRC Article 28: All children have the right to an education. 

During this session in Science, we had the opportunity to study lamb hearts. At the beginning of the session, we discussed the job of the heart and how it acts as a pump to move blood around the body. We also discussed the shape of the heart and the different parts of it.  

Then we watched a video, which showed us how blood becomes oxygenated, and then travels in and out of the heart, around the body, until it eventually reaches the heart once again. 

Before studying the hearts, we talked about how an animal has lost its life so we could investigate. We discussed how we could be respectful when working with the hearts.