Year 6 – 6M | Collingwood Primary School

Welcome to the year 6!

This is the final year of Key Stage 2 It is an important year with many exciting challenges and learning opportunities. As well as preparing the children for the SATs in May 2020, it is an important year in terms of helping them to prepare for the transition in to secondary education. The positions of responsibility and the requirement to develop independence and organisational skills are a crucial part of the Year 6 experience. Year 6 are now considered to be the best role models in the school, representing the school at many key events.

Children in Key Stage Two are required to be in lessons for longer and therefore do not have a daily afternoon playtime but will continue to take part in The Daily Mile with adults and other children. All of the children will also be involved in the leaver’s Assembly, a class lunch and at least one performance during the academic year.

Key Stage 2 Tests

Key Stage 2 tests are part of Year 6. The children are prepared for these tests with the work they carry out as they progress through Key Stage 2. Targets will be discussed throughout the year, as well as work, which could be revised at home.

Tests will commence on the week beginning the 11th May 2020.
English, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar Test. (Test 1 – short questions and Test 2 – spelling test)
English Reading Test
Mathematics Test (Paper 1: Arithmetic, Paper 2: Reasoning and Paper 3: Reasoning)

The Curriculum

See the Curriculum page on this website (on the Learning and Teaching tab) for more information on Collingwood’s Curriculum and for a breakdown of what children in each year group will learn about in each National Curriculum Subject.

During Year Six, English and Mathematics skills need to be refined and extended. Excellent working and study habits are expected at all times as pupils growing independence, rapid recall and mastery of skills allows them to take more control of their own learning.

English

See Key word lists in your child’s homework folder and spelling books and the end of year “age related expectations” statements for reading in your child’s communication book for more information.

Daily whole class lessons take place in English, including reading, writing, speaking and listening. Throughout the year we will be reading, analysing and writing a range of different genres and types of literature including longer fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Joined, legible handwriting should be the “norm” in Year 6 when the majority of children achieve their “pen Licence”. Please encourage this at home.

Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation continue to be very important and are tested in a separate national paper at the end of Year 6. Vocabulary still has a very high priority, which some children will find challenging, including giving definitions; exploring all key grammatical terms, uses and effectiveness; sentence construction and complex punctuation skills Children are required to demonstrate knowledge on sentence types and their differing punctuation in SATs.

Daily phonic work will continue for those children who need it, in small, similar ability groups by a range of adults. Your child’s spellings, and Key Words, which relate to national age related expectations, can be found in their homework folders and spelling books, will inform you, throughout the year, what your child needs to work on at home.

Each child in Year Six will be heard read as part of a Guided Reading Group but will also take part in weekly Whole Class reading sessions where a text is analysed in greater depth for a longer period of time with the aim of fine tuning comprehension skills. Children will also be heard read in school individually and may participate in paired reading with other children. Most children are “Free Readers” before Year 6 but an ability to read and understand the texts at a given number of words per minute is still monitored and recorded. Reading at home is just as essential at Year 6 as it is for younger children. During Year 6 children are still required to read daily at home but most choose to read to themselves. Please continue to ask questions about the story, characters etc afterwards to check understanding, define words etc – all vital comprehension skills which is a focus throughout Key Stage Two. Please continue to make comments on the age related statements in your child’s communication book. You can support your child by ensuring that you encourage “wider Reading” to include harder texts such as classic fiction or non-fiction designed for adults eg newspapers.

Maths

All children will continue to participate in daily maths lessons and those who need to will continue to participate in daily FAST Maths sessions aimed at rapid recall of multiplication and division facts to 12 x 12. An important school focus continues to be that of problem solving and reasoning, (explaining how and why using mathematical terminology.) Areas where you can support your child at home include:

Fractions – add and subtract fractions with different denominators.
Use and know decimal and fraction equivalence in problem solving.
To read, write, order and solve problems involving numbers to 100,000, 000
Add and subtract and multiply numbers and decimals and fractions using formal written methods
Find area and perimeter of irregular shapes
Find % of measures and compare these.
Find Co-ordinates on grids and solve problems using scale factor.
Continue to convert, estimate and use measures – estimating and measuring mm/cm/m/km, g/kg, seconds/mins/hrs/days/weeks/months ml/l/kl etc
Data – compare and read information represented in timetables and as line graphs.

Topic work

Details of work to be covered this term in National Curriculum subjects other than English and maths can be found by clicking on the Topic Web link below.

Homework

Homework is a method of strengthening and consolidating children’s skills and knowledge, often allowing opportunities for personal investigation and study. All homework should be completed to a high standard with good presentation, joined legible handwriting and the same, punctuation and spelling that is required of children in class. Please support your child in meeting this expectation. Weekly homework will be set each Friday and will need to be in school by the following Thursday so that it can be marked and returned. This will have an English Maths or topic focus.

For more information, please refer to the ‘meet the teacher’ document below along with the supporting documents for information regarding; homework, PE days, expectations and reminders.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further information in supporting your child at home.

Mrs Macartney

Useful Documents:

6M_Topic Web A little bit of blood and gore Spring 2019