Year 6

What we are learning this week:

Autumn 2, Week 2

Maths: This week, the children have been learning about: factors, multiples, prime numbers, squared and cubed numbers! We have learnt all the prime numbers up to 50 and how to find the prime factors of a number.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency! Year 6 are engaged in the Battle of the Bands in competition with the other Year 6 classes. Engaging with this will also build speed in their arithmetic processing which will really help everyone.

English: The children are really enjoying the story of Macbeth. We have begun writing a setting description, which describes the stormy heath and the three witches, using lots of powerful verbs and figurative language.

At home: Ask the children to summarise the story of Macbeth so far.

DT: In DT this half term, the children will be baking Christmas biscuits and creating their own packaging. In our DT lesson this week, the children became product testers and sampled a range of biscuits!

At home: Can you practice baking techniques such as: kneading, rolling or mixing dough?

Homework: The children are practising multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000 in Maths and are revising adverbs in English. They should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 2, Week 1

Maths: This week, the children have taken on the challenge of learning long division! They have shown lots of resilience and perseverance learning this method. We can now divide 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers using long and short division.

English: The children have published their beautiful descriptive writing about the islands that they created last half term.

We have enjoyed immersing ourselves in Shakespeare and Macbeth this week! We took part in a brilliant drama workshop acting out the story of Macbeth and have enjoyed coming up with descriptive phrases to describe the three witches.

At home: Ask the children to summarise the story of Macbeth so far.

Science: Before half term, the children set up an experiment to observe the growth of mould on slices of bread over two weeks. When we returned, the results were very interesting (and quite disgusting!). The children recorded their results and discussed how some micro-organisms can be helpful (such as yeast and antibiotics) and others are harmful.

At home: Ask your child to explain the three types of micro-organism. Can they remember examples of helpful and harmful microrganisms?

Homework: The children have multi-step problems to practice in Maths and a short piece of descriptive writing for English. They should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 8

Maths: This week, the children sat their first practise Maths SATs papers in conditions close to that of the real thing. There are 3 papers which include one arithmetic and two reasoning papers. Over the next few weeks, the children will be learning some more areas of the Year 6 Maths curriculum before having another go at the practice papers before Christmas.

English: The children have finished writing and editing their piece of descriptive writing and when we return after the half term break, these will be published.

As October is Black History Month, the children have written and published their own list poem about a fictional boy named Delbert who left the West Indies on the Windrush. The children expressed their own ideas about the many memories that Delbert might hold for his homeland. The resulting poems are simply beautiful!

At home: Ask the children to tell you about their poem.

Science: In preparation for their next Science topic (Living Things), the children set up an experiment to observe over time. The experiment involves 3 slices of bread each of which have received different conditions of exposure to bacteria. When we return from half term, the children will investigate the results.

At home: Ask your child to tell you what we will be looking for.

Homework: The children are coming home with this week’s homework which is an extract from a Maths Arithmetic paper. Please support your child in practising these. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading.

We hope you have a lovely half term break!

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 7

Maths: This week, we moved on to division and have been learning how to divide by a 2 digit number. This requires an extra step in the process of building the multiples of the divisor before we begin. The children have been doing lots of practice!

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency! Year 6 are engaged in the Battle of the Bands in competition with the other Year 6 classes.

English: After a few days of planning and acquiring some new skills, the children have begun to write their final descriptive piece. They have enjoyed using all the figurative language skills that they have been learning to describe their island, animal and plant. Next week, they will begin to edit and improve these before publishing.

At home: Ask the children to tell you what they understand by the term ‘figurative language’.

Science: The children completed an escape room task this week in which they had to use all the knowledge they have learned about evolution this half term to enable them to break the code. The children had fun working in groups to pool their knowledge.

Online Workshops: The children have been fortunate to participate in two online workshops this week to enrich their learning. The first was ‘Restart a Heart’ run by an Air Ambulance charity and the second was a LIVE author (Benjamin Dean) event organised by the Booktrust. The children enjoyed these immensely and both provoked lots of great conversations.

Homework: The children are coming home with this week’s homework which is usually a combination of Maths, English & Spellings. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading. The homework is set every Friday and is due back into school by Wednesday of the following week.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 6

Maths: This week, we have continued to practise how to multiply 2 digits by 2 digits. We have recapped our division by a one digit number before starting to learn how to divide by 2 digits.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency! Year 6 are engaged in the Battle of the Bands in competition with the other Year 6 classes.

Geography: This week, we returned to our learning about how Fairtrade supports many families and communities across the world. We then applied all that lovely knowledge by creating our own board game to illustrate the benefits of Fairtrade and pitfalls of farming life.

At home: Ask the children to tell you what they can remember about Fairtrade? Can they find any products in your kitchen cupboard?

English: The children have commenced their descriptive writing by applying all the skills they have been rehearsing over the last week. They have created their own island and evolved animal (linking to our Science unit) and written a detailed description about their animal in the style of Davide Attenborough.

At home: Ask the children to tell you what steps to success make a great piece of descriptive writing.

Art: The children have been finishing their final piece of artwork based on Art in Motion. They have chosen a sportsperson of their choice and have chosen which medium they would like to use. We are very pleased and proud of the results!

Homework: The children are coming home with this week’s homework which is a combination of Maths & Spellings. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading. The homework is set every Friday and is due back into school by Wednesday of the following week.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 5

Maths: This week, we began by recapping on multiplying four digits by 1 digits before moving on to learning how to multiply 2 digits by 2 digits. Ask your child to tell you what might by the pitfalls when completing this calculation.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency! Year 6 are engaged in the Battle of the Bands in competition with the other Year 6 classes.

Geography: This week, the children have been learning about Fairtrade and finding out how communities and families in Sierra Leone have been supported by this organisation. In the next lesson, they will be presenting their newly acquired knowledge.

At home: Ask the children to tell you what they can remember about Fairtrade? Can they find any products in your kitchen cupboard?

English: The children finished and published their biographies and have now begun to work on some descriptive writing based on Darwin’s travels.

At home: Ask the children to tell you what is meant by figurative language.

Art: The children have started to create their final piece of artwork based on Art in Motion. They have chosen a sportsperson of their choice and have chosen which medium they would like to use. We are excited to see the final products.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 4

Maths: This week, we have been continuing to recap on key skills by continuing to build fluency in our rounding. We also completed the first of our Year 6 Maths assessments. In our morning Maths we have been building fluency in our mental arithmetic practice.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency! Year 6 are engaged in the Battle of the Bands in competition with the other Year 6 classes.

Science: This week, we have been exploring fossils and learning how they are formed. The children investigated a range of fossil images and they had to decide if they originated from a plant or animal and if the animals were vertebrate or invertebrates.

At home: Ask the children to explain how a fossil is formed in their own words.

English: The children have begun to write their own biographies and will be spending a few days editing and improving these.

At home: Ask the children to tell you which of the key features of a biography they have already been able to include and what they could work on including.

RE: The children have been finding out about some significant Christians and the contribution they made to society worldwide.

At home: Ask the children to tell you who they learned about and what they can recall.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 3

Maths: This week, we have been continuing to recap on key skills by exploring place value and rounding numbers to 10, 100 and onto rounding to the nearest million. In our morning Maths we have been building fluency in our Maths & Subtraction methods using exchange.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency! Year 6 are engaged in the Battle of the Bands in competition with the other Year 6 classes.

Science: We enjoyed an online Science Workshop LIVE from the Natural History Museum about evolution. This was really engaging and the children were able to find out about ongoing exploration and research in the subject across the world.

At home: Ask the children to explain the definition of evolution in their own words.

English: The children have planned their Darwin biographies and have now begun to write these. They will be spending some time finishing these before returning to edit and improve their work.

At home: Ask the children to tell you which of the key features of a biography they have already been able to include.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 2

PSHE: Year 6 have had a positive start to the term by exploring what it means to have a growth mindset. We have discussed how we can alter our approach to new challenges by using the magical ‘yet’. The children have produced some wonderful growth mindset posters.

At home: The children continue to practise switching their mindset by using some of the following examples.

Rather than saying, “I really don’t know how to do this!”

Say, “I don’t know how to do this yet.”

Maths: This week, we have been revisiting column methods for addition and subtraction. We have recapped on exchanging and reminding ourselves of the value of each place column in a number.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency! Year 6 are engaged in the Battle of the Bands in competition with the other Year 6 classes.

Science: We are learning about evolution and how animals adapt to survive. This topic links to our English, where we are learning about Charles Darwin.

At home: Ask the children to explain some of the ways humans have adapted.

English: We are exploring biographies, investigating their purpose and audience. They will begin by writing a biography about Darwin before writing a biography off their own.

At home: Ask the children to tell you the key features of a biography. Do you have any at home that the children can explore?

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Summer 2, Week 6

Sports Day: Thursday saw our children compete in their final Sports Day at Balfour. Each house worked incredibly well as a team, cheering and supporting each other on. Thankfully, the weather held up and we had a super sunny afternoon. A big thank you to all the parents and carers who came along to show their support.

Rehearsals: This week the children have been working hard with Miss Redfern practicing the scenes with the songs. They have also been working on their stage directions and actions, ready for their productions next week!

Police Visit: A whole year group assembly was held on Tuesday with a visit from two Brighton & Hove Police Officers. They spoke to the children about the importance of online safety, anti-social behaviour, what is and isn’t illegal. The children learnt that the legal age someone can be arrest from is 10 years old.

We Will Rock You: A collection of year 7-11 students from Varndean came to visit us and showed us snippets of their school production of Ben Elton’s ‘We Will Rock You’.

PSHE: Some classes started our final PSHE topic on transitioning to secondary school. We discussed the worries that can come with such a big move and how we can learn to manage any negative thoughts and feelings.

Home learning: IMPORTANT! Please can you ensure that your children are practising their lines for their end of year production. The songs are also available on Spotify for the children to listen to and practice singing along without the words.

We hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend.

Thank you for your support

The Year 6 Team

Summer 2, Week 5

PGL: This week our year 6’s spent three days and two nights at Windmill Hill for their residential. The children were split into activity groups and accomplished a series of tasks and challenges, including: archery, big swing, raft building, abseiling, orienteering, trapeze, sensory trail and fencing! We’re so proud of how well the children behaved and engaged with everything throughout the trip!

Transition day: This week the children have been visiting their new secondary schools for the day, getting them ready for September. We can’t believe they are nearly at the end of their time at Balfour.

Home learning: IMPORTANT! Please can you ensure that your children are practising their lines for their end-of-year production. The songs are also available on Spotify for the children to listen to and practice singing along without the words.

We hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend.

Thank you for your support

The Year 6 Team

Summer 2, Week 4

Art: We looked at the work of Kandinsky, exploring the connections between art and maths within his work and used our maths skills to spot a range of angles, lines and patterns.

DT: River Jacks and Racer classes really enjoyed their DT days this week! The children were tasked with designing and building a fairground ride which included a moving part and an electrical circuit. They worked in groups to create their designs, experimented with electrical motors and used lots of creativity, resilience and problem solving.

English: Continuing on from last week, we finished our transition unit for secondary school. We created poems about things that makes us happy using the poem ‘A Good Weekend’ by Theresa Lola as our example. Most children will be continuing this unit of work when they start year 7 this September.

Maths: We took our learning out into the field and completed an ‘Escape Room’ challenge in pairs as a whole year group.

Lifesaving: A group of our year 6’s headed off to the Sea Lanes on Wednesday to learning about lifesaving with Miss Paris. They learnt about beach safety and what each of the flags mean, how to do CPR and had lifeguards teach them what various whistle signals mean and how to know when to return to the beach from the sea from a hand sign. They also went into the sea on paddleboards, learning the various parts, how to balance and general information on how to stay safe in the sun.

Home learning: The children have worked incredibly hard this year and we are so proud of each child. We are not setting any homework post-SATs, so please use this time to practice your lines in the play.

We hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend.

Thank you for your support

The Year 6 Team

Summer 2, Week 3

Art: This week the children learnt to use craft knifes to practice making their stencils in preparation for the end of unit art piece.

DT: Rattlesnakes and Red Vipers classes really enjoyed their DT days this week! The children were tasked with designing and building a fairground ride which included a moving part and an electrical circuit. They worked in groups to create their designs, experimented with electrical motors and used lots of creativity, resilience and problem solving.

English: Racers and River Jacks started their transition unit for secondary school. Focusing on the word ‘happy’ we looked at ‘A Good Weekend’ by Theresa Lola and began exploring its features. Most children will be continuing this unit of work when they start year 7 this September.

History: The children finished publishing six incredible pieces of work they did as part of their WW2 topic and were able to showcase their amazing efforts to their parents on Thursday afternoon!

We hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend.

Thank you for your support

The Year 6 Team

Summer 2, Week 2

Art: Following on from their learning about monochrome artwork, the children explored what the positive and negative space is within a piece of art work. Using card, they created their own simple, but effective duotone designs.

End of year production: We’ve began to put together the actions to go with some of our songs this week.

English: In English, the children have continued developing their persuasive writing skills by planning and producing a letter of their own, linking to our Global Week topic. The children took the time to consider carefully the point, explanation, evidence and summary to really expand their ideas.

History: We started our topic on The Mayans, exploring timelines and seeing what other civilisations existed at the same time, before and after.

PE: We continued our batting and fielding topic, with our focus on rounders. This week, we learnt how to do a safe bowl, recapping on our positioning and accuracy to develop consistency with our bowling skills.

Science: Our first session on electricity this week saw us recapping our knowledge, labelling and identifying the parts of a circuit. We also created a mini-investigation, working on our problem-solving skills whilst creating real life circuits!

We hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend.

Thank you for your support

The Year 6 Team

Summer 2, Week 1

Global Week: This week has been Global Week and we have been considering that our everyday choices have global consequences. We have been comparing the climate in the UK with a cocoa growing region in West Africa and how the climate crisis impacts these two regions

Art: We’ve started our new topic on monochrome printing. This week we discussed the artist Amos Paul Kennedy Jr and reminded ourselves about the different types of mediums used in art. We also had a go at creating our own monochrome line and texture design using pencil.

English: In English, we have been learning how to write a narrative which included tension and suspense. As part of our Global Week activities, we have also planned a persuasive letter to help support farmers against the climate crisis.

End of year production: Exciting news! The children received their scripts Friday afternoon and we had a full cast read-through, just like they do in Hollywood!

History: We started our topic on the The Mayans, exploring timelines and seeing what other civilisations existed at the same time, before and after.

We hope you have a lovely relaxing weekend.

Thank you for your support

The Year 6 Team

Summer 1, Week 6

English: In English this week, the children have continued to write and improve their balanced arguments and have started to publish these ready for their suitcases! The children have enjoyed all the pieces of writing they have done this year linked to their World War Two unit and are looking forward to sharing these with their families next term.

At home: To support their writing, the children could verbally rehearse the formal sentence openers whilst attempting to present their argument e.g. for a dinner of choice.

Science: To continue with our Light topic, this week the children have been writing their own light experiment and building a periscope. This has required the children to think like scientists as they problem solve and explain their rationale using scientific language.

At home: Ask the children to explain how a periscope works using scientific language.

Geography: As our final Geography lesson for this unit, the children have chosen two contrasting countries across North America to research and create a presentation on. In their presentation, they have been required to describe the physical features of their chosen place and explain how this impacts on the human activity.

At home: Ask the children what they can recall about North America.

Many thanks for your continued support this term.

The Year 6 Team

Summer 1, Week 3

SATs Practice: The children have had the opportunity to have a ‘dress rehearsal’ for SATs week which enabled them to familiarise themselves with their environment and for some, to get to know the adult that they would be sitting with. We ran the week as close to the real thing as possible, which included learning on which day they would sit each test. We are all so proud at how the children all did.

Maths: This week, the children have begun to look at forming algebraic expressions. We started the unit by first exploring pictorial representations so that the children can visually investigate how expressions are created. We then moved on to adding in some digits before moving on to simplifying expressions.

At home: Can you child explain what it means to simplify?

Geography: This week the children have continued with their learning about North America. They have been exploring how many different times zones there are across the world and why this are necessary. They have been revisiting lines of Latitude and Longitude and the purpose of the Greenwich Meridian Line.

At home: Can your child explain what is special about the time zones in India and China?

Homework: This week’s homework will be a short Arithmetic Paper for the children to recap on their learning and to build fluency. This will be due back in school on Wednesday.

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Summer 1, Week 2

Maths: This week, the children have been continuing their learning about calculating the angles of shape to exploring the sum of angles within polygons such as quadrilaterals, pentagons and hexagons. They have been revisiting the properties of the different shapes to help them with this.

At home: Can you child recall the properties of a range of polygons?

English: This week, the children have been writing their own independent non-chronological report based on an aspect of World War Two that particularly interest them. This will be an assessed piece of writing and so the children will have plenty of time to draft and then re-edit their final pieces that we plan to exhibit for our families to come and enjoy.

At home: Ask your child to share with you some key facts about their subject that they enjoyed writing about.

Geography: This week the children have been investigating the many different states that make up the United States of America. The children collaboratively made a class map of Central America which they will add to over the next few weeks and then attempted to extract data about the different states from a table.

At home: What key facts about the USA can your child recall? Were there any facts that they were surprised by?

Homework: Your children will have brought home a book for their homework today. We will set the children homework every Friday and this will be due back in school on Wednesday. Each week, it will contain their spellings to learn, English and Maths consolidation for the week. The teachers will mark it together with the children each week so that they are able to address any misconceptions. If they are unable to return their homework by Wednesday, they will be given an opportunity to do it during a lunchtime club.

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Summer 1, Week 1

Maths: This week, the children have been learning how to use protractors to accurately measure angles and they have been revisiting the properties of the different types of angles that they might come across.

At home: Can you child recall the names of the different angles we explored and describe their properties?

English: In English this week, the children have been learning how to write a formal non-chronological report. The learning write that they have completed, has been drawing on their knowledge of Rationing from the World War Two topic. Next week, they will be writing their own entirely independent piece, of a subject of their choice from the Second World War.

At home: For homework this week, the children have been asked to independently research their chosen topic and prepare some notes ready for their non-chronological report. This will need to be brought in by Tuesday of next week so that they can use these notes in their English lesson.

Geography: This term, the children are going to be learning about the Amazing Americas! This week, they had their first lesson in which they used the atlases to explore the countries that make up North America.

At home: Can you ask your child to see which countries they can remember that form North America?

Homework: Your children will have brought home a book for their homework today. We will set the children homework every Friday and this will be due back in school on Wednesday (with the exception of the English which will be required for Tuesday next week). Each week, it will contain their spellings to learn, English and Maths consolidation for the week. The teachers will mark it together with the children each week so that they are able to address any misconceptions. If they are unable to return their homework by Wednesday, they will be given an opportunity to do it during a lunchtime club.

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 2, Week 5

Maths: This week, the children have completed practice SATs assessments in arithmetic and problem solving. We are so pleased with how they have improved their scores from the beginning of the year!

English: In English this week, the children have continued writing their evacuee stories. We described arriving at their new home in the countryside and meeting their host families. We also completed practice SATs assessments in reading, spelling and grammar.

Well done to all Year 6 children who took part in Dance at the Dome this week – you were a credit to the school and performed brilliantly!

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 2, Week 4

Maths: This week, the children have continued learning about ratio. We have learnt about scale factor and how to enlarge shapes using different scale factors.

At home: could you draw a scaled drawing of something in your house?

English: In English this week, the children have enjoyed writing stories about a character who is being evacuated from London to escape the Blitz. We have been working hard to include lots of figurative language.

At home: Can the children summarise the story of ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ so far?

History: We finished our History topic on World War 2 by exploring ‘the Home front’. The children worked in groups to produce: ration books, propaganda posters, Anderson shelter models and World War 2 recipes.

All Year 6 classes were lucky enough to visit Downs Junior School air-raid shelter this week. We went on a guided tour of the shelter, took part in a simulation of an air-raid, and heard fascinating stories from the wonderful volunteers, who told the children about their experiences growing up in Brighton during the war. A wonderful morning, despite the rainy weather!

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 2, Week 3

Maths: This week, the children have started learning about ratio and proportion and how to use the ratio symbol to compare different amounts.

At home: Find a recipe – can you use ratio to scale the recipe up for a different amount of people?

English: In English this week, the children have revised punctuation for speech and dialogue. We have read a range of story openings about evacuee children in preparation for next week, where we will be writing our own evacuee stories.

At home: Can the children summarise the story of ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ so far?

Science: The children have been learning about the impact of diet and exercise on the human body. We also carried out an investigation to see how listening to different types of music affects our heart rate.

World Book Day: We enjoyed coming into school in our World Book Day outfits and listening to Bedtime stories after school.

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 2, Week 2

Maths: This week, the children have been learning about the equivalence between fractions, decimals and percentages. They have also learnt how to find percentages of amounts. We’ve also been practising our arithmetic skills weekly with mini practice assessments.

At home: What can the children tell you about what they have learnt about percentages?

English: In English this week, the children have been enjoying our class text ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ by Emma Carroll, which is set in 1940s London. The children then created their own character who has gone missing during an air raid and wrote missing person posters about their character.

At home: Can the children summarise the story of ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ so far?

Shared Reading: We have been really enjoying our new shared text ‘Asha and the Spirit Bird’. Miss Paris got in touch with the author, Jasbinder Bilan, who sent the children a personalised video message!

Art: The children have studied a range of famous World War 2 propaganda posters and used a variety of materials to add colour and texture to the posters. We are looking forward to planning and creating our own propaganda posters for the Summer Art exhibition.

At home: Can the children tell you about why propaganda posters were used during World War 2?

Here are some photos of the children’s fantastic writing!

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 1, Week 6

Maths: This week, the children have been applying and consolidating their learning by practicing different word problems, particularly those that include fractions. They have then used this to support themselves in their practice SATs papers.

At home: What can the children tell you about what they have learnt about fractions?

English: In English this week, the children have finished editing and published their character descriptions. We will be putting them up on display in our corridors for all to see! See some photos of examples below!

Science: This week, the children recapped their learning from last week, which was all about how the circulatory system worked. They then thought carefully about what nutrients are, why we need them, and how they get to the important parts of our bodies. They created a presentation/diagram to explain how the digestive system and the circulatory system work together.

At home: Can they tell you how this works?

PE: See some photos of our gymnastics lessons this week!

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 1, Week 5

Maths: This week, the children have been learning about fractions of amounts. They have learnt how to find a fraction of a whole e.g 1/5 of 30, but have also been learning about how to find the whole from the fraction given. For example 1/5 of ? = 30. They have also been practicing some fractions word problems to apply all of their learning about fractions so far.

At home: Can the children explain the methods for finding fractions of amounts?

English: In English this week, we have written, edited and started to publish our character descriptions. They children have thought carefully about the S2S and which paragraph to edit, and how improve it.

At home: Can the children tell you a key piece of punctuation they used in their character description?

History/Geography: This week, the children have been learning about propaganda and censorship. This linked well to our art lessons, where we have been looking at a specific WW2 propaganda poster. The children looked at a range of different posters and thought about what techniques were used, who the poster was aimed at, and how effective they think it was.

Also, this week, we went on a walk around Brighton to look at some of the places where Brighton had been bombed during WW2. We planned our route in Geography and plotted these places on a map, and then we visited these locations and did a quick sketch of what the site looks like now.

At home: Can they explain how propaganda techniques and how they were used?

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 1, Week 4

Maths: This week, the children have been learning about how to multiply and divide fractions. We have learnt that when we multiply fractions, we multiply the numerator and the denominator, and when we divide fractions by a whole number, we know this can be turned into a multiplication question. For example, 2/3 divided by 3 is the same as 2/3 x 1/3.

At home: Can the children explain the methods for multiplying and dividing fractions?

English: In English this week, we have planned and started to write a character description. We have chosen a character from one of our favourite books and planned out what we are going to write about them e.g. what they look like, their behaviour, any distinctive features about them etc.

At home: Ask your child to tell you who they have chosen and why!

History: This week, the children have been learning about the Blitz, what this was, and the significant impact it had on Britain during WW2. The children looked at different recounts from people who experienced the Blitz, and thought about how they might be feeling and what their experiences were. They then wrote a diary entry in role, as if they were someone who had experienced it themselves.

At home: Can they tell you what the Blitz was?

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 1, Week 3

Maths: This week, the children have been learning about mixed numbers. They have recapped how to turn mixed numbers into improper fractions and then the other way around. They have then learnt how to add and subtract mixed numbers, thinking about the different methods needed for addition and subtraction and why. They have applied their learning of finding a common denominator for those fractions that did not have the same denominators.

At home: Can the children explain the methods for adding and subtracting mixed numbers?

English: In English this week, we have planned, written and edited our portal stories. The children have been influenced by the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and have come up with their own portal and new world that their character goes too. They have thought about how they can apply any learning so far in Year 6, using key punctuation and different sentence types.

At home: Ask your child to explain their story to you!

History: This week, the children have done the second lesson on evacuation. We explored different evidence to show that not all children had a good experience when being evacuated during WW2. We discussed why newspapers would only show the happy and positive pictures, and children then used their knowledge from both evacuation lessons to design and improve a webpage about evacuation for the BBC. See some photos!

At home: Can they tell you a fact about evacuation?

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 1, Week 2

Maths: This week, the children have been learning about related and non-related fractions. We have thought about how to simplify these, and turn them into mixed numbers where necessary. We have also been adding and subtracting both related and non-related fractions, and comparing them, which we will continue to do next week.

At home: Can the children explain what they need to do if they are adding 2 non-related fractions?

English: In English this week, we have started to think about openings of different stories, and different techniques that authors use to hook the reader in. We have thought carefully about what an opening needs to do, including introducing the characters and settings. We have now started to plan our own portal story, after looking at The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

At home: Ask your child to explain their story to you!

History: This week, the children have done the first of two lessons about evacuation. They looked at why evacuation was needed, and how this took place. They looked at a range of sources to gather information, whilst also thinking about whether these sources are reliable or not. They then sorted these sources into primary and secondary sources. The work they have done in this lessons will support with the next lesson on evacuation.

At home: Can they tell you a fact about evacuation?

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Spring 1, Week 1

Maths: This week, the children have started their new topic of Fractions. We have looked at what a fraction is, equivalent fractions, and how to simplify fractions by finding the highest common factor (HCF).

At home: Choose 2 numbers. Can you work out what the highest common factor is? How can you make it more challenging?

English: The children have started their new book in English and Shared Reading this week, which is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S Lewis. We have read the first chapter and thought about the different characters and what they are like. We have also looked at the opening scene of the film (Lucy discovering the wardrobe and Narnia) and compared this to the book. The children have then started to write this opening scene with their partner and they will continue this next week.

At home: Ask your child to explain what has happened in the first chapter of the book!

Science: This week, the children have revised all of their previous learning about the human body that they have done over their years at Balfour. This is in preparation for our new science topic, where they will be exploring how the heart works in the first lesson.

At home: Can the children remember any of their previous learning? Ask them!

History: This week we have started our new history topic of World War 2. We have looked at why the war started, and the allies and axis countries that took part in the war. We created a word search of all of the different countries and we will be completing each other’s word searches next lesson to remind ourselves of these countries.

Homework:

Your children will have brought home a book for their homework today. We will set the children homework every Friday and this will be due back in school on Wednesday. Each week, it will contain their spellings to learn, English and Maths consolidation for the week. The teachers will mark it together with the children each week so that they are able to address any misconceptions. If they are unable to return their homework by Wednesday, they will be given an opportunity to do it during a lunchtime club.

Thank you for your support with this.

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 2, Week 7

Maths: This week, around the rehearsals for the Christmas Show, the children spent some time recapping on some fun mathematical activities. Some of these included exploring co-ordinates, reflections and translations in shapes. We have revisited the properties of shape and how we can calculate the volume of a shape.

At home: Please support the children in logging on regularly to TT Rockstars to help improve their arithmetic fluency.

English: The children have been writing their newspaper report on the death of King Duncan from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They have been working really hard to ensure that they use a range of accurately punctuated direct and reported speech.

At home: Ask the children to share with you verbally what they remembered to include in their report and about all the witnesses they ‘interviewed’.

Computing: This week the children have been finishing their adverts using iMovie to record and edit the finished product. They have really enjoyed having the autonomy to create their own film and learning how they can stay safe and adhere to copyright laws.

At home: Ask your child to explain how their advertisement was original and what the key steps to success were that they had to consider in the planning and production.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables – suggested time 10 minutes daily. The children should continue to engage with daily reading to improve their vocabulary and fluency. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 2, Week 6

Maths: This week, the children have spent some more time exploring how to respond to a word problem, applying their reasoning vocabulary. We discussed how we can ensure we understand which operation is required by reading to understand the question. The children loved being allowed to use whiteboard pens to solve the Maths on their desks!

At home: Please support the children in logging on regularly to TT Rockstars to help improve their arithmetic fluency.

English: The children have been planning their newspaper report on the death of King Duncan from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They have been rehearsing how to use indirect speech and how to accurately punctuate direct.

At home: The children could take a look at a range of newspaper articles to further explore for themselves how formal language is used in the reports.

DT: This week the children have planned and baked their own Seasonal Biscuits and designed and created packaging to wrap them in. They had a great morning of getting stuck into the weighing and measuring and the smell from the kitchen was divine!

At home: Ask your child to explain what they can recall about some of the challenges they need to consider when cutting out the biscuits for the oven.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables – suggested time 10 minutes daily. The children should continue to engage with daily reading to improve their vocabulary and fluency. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 2, Week 5

Maths: This week, the children have continued with their learning about statistics and how to interpret data (line graphs and pie charts). The children had great fun getting creative with presenting their calculations onto their tables which increased their engagement! They also recapped on prior learning of how to read Roman Numerals.

At home: Ask the children to explore different examples of Roman Numerals in the real world e.g. in the credits of a television programme or on clocks! Alternatively, the children could create a pie chart of their own, asking people around them what their favourite flavour of crisps are.

English: The children have begun a new writing unit where they will be learning to write a newspaper report. In particular, they have been learning how to use direct and indirect speech and how to accurately punctuate speech.

At home: The children could practise their learning by planning a newspaper report of their own based on an event that happened at the weekend (fiction or non-fiction). The children could think about interviewing key witnesses and how they might present the speech.

Young Enterprise: In preparation for the forthcoming Balfour Christmas Fair, the children have planned some activities for a stall and each Year 6 class are in competition which each other to see which class can raise the most profit from £30. The stalls are being completely organised and run by the Year 6 children.

At home: Please support your child in this event where possible.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables – suggested time 10 minutes daily. The children should continue to engage with daily reading to improve their vocabulary and fluency. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Autumn 2, Week 4

Maths: This week, the children have been learning how to calculate the mean of a set of data. They have been learning how to calculate the mean when all the parts are known and how to solve word problems when the one element is missing.

At home: Ask the children to tell you how to solve the following:

20 minutes is the mean time when 4 girls ran the Cross Country race. Elena ran in 17, Belinda ran in 16, Diane ran in 19. How long did it take Christine to run the race?

English: Following on from our immersion into Shakespeare’s Macbeth, this week the children have been writing an informal letter in role as, either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth to their respective spouse.

At home: The children could write a reply to their own letter from either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth thinking about using language that shows the writer’s character.

Science: This week the children have continued to look at classification and how taxonomists categorise living things and the children became the ‘owner of a zoo’ in which they were tasked with organising the zoo by order of classification.

At home: The children could create a poster of animal classification for their science books to demonstrate their learning.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables – suggested time 10 minutes daily. The children should continue to engage with daily reading to improve their vocabulary and fluency. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Autumn 2, Week 3

Maths: This week, the children have been learning about order of operations and exploring what happens when we mix up our order. They have learnt how they can use the order of operations pyramid to support them.

At home: Ask the children to draw the pyramid at home to see what they can recall about their learning this week.

English: The children have continued reading William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and written the next part of the story where the witches meet with Macbeth and Banquo up on the heath. The children have used their figurative language to describe the scene.

At home: Next week, the children will be writing a letter from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth in which he shares his news of the prophecy. Can you share any letters with your children so that they can explore for themselves the key features of informal letters.

PSHE: As part of Anti-bullying week, the children have discussed as a class what bullying is and how they switch from a bystander to an upstander safely.

At home: The children could create an anti-bullying poster that we could display at school to remind children about being kind to each other.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables – suggested time 10 minutes daily. The children should continue to engage with daily reading to improve their vocabulary and fluency. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Autumn 2, Week 2

Maths: This week, the children have been exploring multiples, factors, prime numbers and squared numbers. The children have learnt that they can multiply the prime factors of a number together in any order to create the original product.

At home: Ask the children to find as many different ways to create a prime factor tree from the same number.

English: The children have continued to explore William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. They have begun to use their new vocabulary to write a descriptive setting of the opening scene upon the heath. Next week they will return to these pieces to spend some time editing.

At home: Ask your child to use some figurative language to describe the current weather!

Geography: This week the children spent time investigating Ordnance Survey maps. They learnt about lots of common OS symbols before creating a map of their own.

At home: The children could create an OS map of their own local area and see what symbols they can remember to use.

Assembly: On Monday, the children attended an assembly held by the Dogs Trust. This was then followed by an interactive workshop in which the children learnt lots about understanding the behaviour and psychology of dogs including how to keep themselves safe.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables – suggested time 10 minutes daily. The children should continue to engage with daily reading to improve their vocabulary and fluency. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Autumn 2, Week 1

Maths: This week, the children have been learning long division and exploring how to use this method to solve dividing 3 and 4 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers. The children compared this method alongside short division investigated the similarities and differences.

At home: Where the opportunity arises, encourage the children to use long division to solve real world calculations e.g. during a shopping trip.

English: The children have had a busy week which began by creating some beautiful descriptive Windrush poetry as part of Black History Month. We have also begun our new English unit based on Macbeth. We started by finding out who William Shakespeare was before attending a fantastic online workshop produced by the Young Shakespeare Company.

At home: Ask your child to tell you what they remember about the story of Macbeth. We will begin our writing around Macbeth next week.

Science: This week the children returned to their ‘mouldy bread’ experiment to consider their conclusions. We returned to our original predictions to explore whether the bacteria from their hands impacted on the time it took for each slice of bread to mould. We also spent some time learning about the different types of microbes and their properties; bacteria, virus and fungi.

At home: Ask the children to explain what they discovered!

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Autumn 1, Week 7

Maths: This week, the children have experienced their first practise SATs papers. This was a great opportunity for the children to see the papers for the first time in an attempt to overcome the fear factor. Alongside this, the children have continued to develop their maths skills by problem solving multi-step reasoning questions.

At home: Where the opportunity arises, please encourage your child to solve real life mathematical problems e.g. at the shops or when calculating how much materials or ingredients to purchase to enable them to view the relevance of maths in their world.

English: The children have continued their descriptive writing this week, pooling all their descriptive skills that they have been learning over the last week. They have been using similes, metaphors and personification to describe the island that they have created, using their imagination.

At home: Ask your child to describe three things from their island using figurative language.

Science: This week the children set up a fair test to observe over time how the bacteria on your hands may impact on the time it takes for bread to become mouldy. The children will be monitoring this daily and recording the results.

At home: Ask the children what they have learnt this week about bacteria around the home.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Autumn 1, Week 6

Maths: This week, the children have been learning how to use the short division method to solve 6 digit by 2 digit numbers. The children have learnt that they first need to calculate the multiples of the divisor to help them solve the calculation.

At home: Please encourage the children to engage with the TT Rockstars at home as this will support their division calculations in class.

English: The children have begun to develop their descriptive writing skills by creating their own island and using rich vocabulary to describe the place, an animal and a plant. They have been challenging themselves to use a range of figurative language.

At home: Ask your child to describe the world around them by including similes, metaphors and personification.

RE: This week the children welcomed a visitor into class talk about the work that the Salvation Army do. Our visitor gave out objects, that the children had to work out their link to the Charity. For example, a birthday card represented the gifts that the Salvation Army distribute to families who don’t have enough money to buy presents at special times.

At home: Ask us about the other objects and what they represented.

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Autumn 1, Week 5

Maths: This week, the children have been building on their knowledge of multiplication by learning how to use long multiplication to solve 3 and 4 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers.

At home: Please encourage the children to engage with the TT Rockstars at home as this will support their multiplication calculations in class.

English: The children have been writing their own biographies based on a person of their choice. They began last week by researching someone of interest to them and put the information into a plan. Next week, they will begin to publish these ready for our families to come and see!

At home: Ask your child to tell you three facts about their chosen person that they have used in their biography.

Science: This week the children continued with their learning about the theory of evolution by exploring adaptation. They investigated how adaptation may have occurred by finding out how some animals were better equipped to reach food in certain places and those that perhaps were unable to thrive. To do this, they had to become either a wriggler, a kneeler, a tall walker or move on all fours!

At home: Can your child explain their findings by using scientific language?

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 4

Maths: This week, the children have been consolidating their place value and addition & subtraction knowledge by applying these to a range of word problems. We have also been continuing to raise the profile of our Times Table Rockstars which will help build speed and fluency in their calculations.

At home: Please encourage the children to engage with the TT Rockstars at home so that their class can be Top of the Pops next week!

English: The children have started to plan the biography of a person of their choice. They have spent some time researching their chosen person and gathered all the information they need into a detailed writing plan of their own.

At home: Ask your child to tell you three facts about their chosen person that they intend to put into their writing.

Geography: This week the children were surprised to learn about the length of the transportation footprint of a mobile phone as we explored how materials come together across the world to make a product through import and export.

At home: Could your child investigate for themselves one household product from home to explore where all the different parts are made?

Homework: This week’s spellings have been sent via Weduc and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading. There has also been some optional extra Maths & English homework sent out via Weduc.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Autumn 1, Week 3

Maths: This week, the children have revisited rounding and extended their understanding by exploring a larger range of numbers up to a million. They have explored rounding the same number to 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 and 100,000.

At home: Please ask the children to round a series of ‘real life’ numbers to enable them to rehearse this skill.

English: The children have begun writing their biography about Charles Darwin. They spent time researching his life and work before going on to creating a plan of their writing. In Year 6, we focus on building cohesive within and across paragraphs.

At home: Take a look around to see if you can find any biographies of famous people that you could examine. What do they all have in common? What could you magpie for your own writing?

Geography: This week we have continued our topic about World Trade by exploring the trade links that exist between different countries across the world. We started to look at patterns that exist between the countries that export and import the most.

At home: Look at the packaging from a range of products that you have at home to investigate the different countries that they are imported from.

Homework: This week’s spellings will be uploaded to Google Classroom and the children will be tested on these spellings next Wednesday. The words will be a combination of some spelling ‘rules’ and some statutory spellings. The children should also log on to TT Rockstars to practice their Times Tables and continue engaging with regular reading.

Some parents have requested extra work that they can use to support their child at home. From this week, we will send out additional consolidation of the week’s English and maths, so we will also send this out with the spellings. This is additional and not compulsory, so will not be marked by the class teacher, although we will give out additional house points as incentives for those children who do complete it.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Year 6 Team

Autumn 1, Week 2

Maths: This week, we have been continuing our revision of formal methods for addition and subtraction, looking at word problems, extracting the key information and calculating.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency!

English: We have been writing in role as Charles Darwin. Take a look at some of our fabulous diary entries. We have also linked our shared reading, retrieving information about the fascinating man so that we can write a biography about him.

At home: Ask us what we have found out about Charles Darwin and help us to find out more interesting facts about him.

Science: This week we were lucky enough to attend an online Science Workshop hosted by the Natural History Museum in London. We took part in a range of activities to support out learning about Darwin and his theory of evolution.

At home: Ask the children about their workshop and if they can explain these key words: Evolution and adaptation.

Autumn 1, Week 1

At home: The children continue to practise switching their mindset by using some of the following examples.

Rather than saying, “I really don’t know how to do this!”

Say, “I don’t know how to do this yet.”

Maths: This week, we have been revisiting column methods for addition – using bar models to interpret word problems with 3 addends – and also re-capped subtraction. We explained common misconceptions to each other: you cannot subtract from 0 and we need to line up in our correct place value columns.

At home: Play TT Rockstars – we ALL need to work on our times table fluency!

Science: We are learning about evolution and how animals adapt to survive. This topic links to our English, where we are learning about Charles Darwin.

At home: Ask the children to explain some of the ways humans have adapted.

Year 6

What we are learning this week:

Autumn 2, Week 2

Autumn 2, Week 1

Autumn 1, Week 8

Autumn 1, Week 7

Autumn 1, Week 6

Autumn 1, Week 5

Autumn 1, Week 4

Autumn 1, Week 3

Autumn 1, Week 2

Summer 2, Week 6

Summer 2, Week 5

Summer 2, Week 4

Summer 2, Week 3

Summer 2, Week 2

Summer 2, Week 1

Summer 1, Week 6

Summer 1, Week 3

Summer 1, Week 2

Summer 1, Week 1

Spring 2, Week 5

Spring 2, Week 4

Spring 2, Week 3

Spring 2, Week 2

Spring 1, Week 6

Spring 1, Week 5

Spring 1, Week 4

Spring 1, Week 3

Spring 1, Week 2

Spring 1, Week 1

Autumn 2, Week 7

Autumn 2, Week 6

Autumn 2, Week 5

Autumn 2, Week 4

Autumn 2, Week 3

Autumn 2, Week 2

Autumn 2, Week 1

Autumn 1, Week 7

Autumn 1, Week 6

Autumn 1, Week 5

Autumn 1, Week 4

Autumn 1, Week 3

Autumn 1, Week 2

Autumn 1, Week 1

Cookie Policy